by Jake Logan
“Hump didn’t break jail,” said Tipton.
“He aided in it,” said the judge.
“Oh. Well, I guess that’s right.”
“I just wish we had a witness to the killing of Lige and of Ace,” Lennon said.
“Whichever one of them did both of those killings,” said Slocum, “we’ll get them. We’ll get them all.”
“Sit down and have a drink with us, Aubrey,” said Tipton. “We might just as well finish off this bottle before we head back.”
“Don’t mind if I do,” said the judge, and he pulled out a chair to sit down. Tipton called out to Goosey, “Bring another glass around.”
Goosey brought the glass, and Tipton poured it full.
“Thanks, Carl,” said the judge. He lifted the glass and took a drink. “So now that we have these dodgers out,” he said, “what do you plan to do?”
Tipton looked at Slocum for an answer to that one.
“Well,” Slocum said, “I guess we’ll just ride on over to the Beamer’s place in force and ask them to kindly hand over these two.”
“Ha,” snorted Tipton. “That’ll never happen.”
“That’s the point, ain’t it?”
Out at Arnie Tipton’s ranch, Arnie was out back of the house with a rifle. He had carefully placed bottles along a fence rail some yards distant. Lifting the rifle to his shoulder, he took careful aim and fired. One bottle shattered. He fired a second shot and missed.
“Damn,” he said.
He cranked another shell into the chamber, aimed again and fired, shattering another bottle. Then another and another. Soon all of the bottles were broken. He lowered the rifle and sighed long and loud. Then he turned and walked back into his house.
12
Slocum rode at the head of a large group of Tipton’s cowhands right onto the Beamer spread and up to the house. Maw Beamer came out onto the porch with her shotgun in her hands as the riders came to a halt.
“What do you want here?” she demanded.
“We came for Hump and Brace,” said Slocum. He produced one of the bills the judge had given him. “They’re both wanted by the law.”
“They ain’t here,” Maw said. “Now get off my property.”
“I don’t think we can take your word for that,” Slocum said. “We’d better have a look through your house.”
“The first one of you that gets off his horse is going to get a bellyful of shot,” Maw said. “Get out of here.”
Randy Self was riding next to Slocum. Looking at Maw, he spoke low to Slocum.
“What are we going to do?” he said. “We can’t shoot a woman, and I think she means business with that scat tergun.”
“Let’s ride off,” said Slocum. Then he raised his voice to Maw. “We’ll be back for them,” he said. “They’re going to face the music.”
“Just what are they wanted for?” Maw said.
“Brace was already convicted,” said Slocum. “You know that. You were at the trial. Then Hump went and broke him out of jail and shot the sheriff.”
“What makes you think Hump done that?”
“The sheriff ain’t dead,” said Slocum. “He finally came around, and he named Hump as the one that shot him. I think you’d best turn them over.”
“To hell with what you think and to hell with you,” Maw said. She pointed the shotgun menacingly at Slocum. “Now get out of here.”
Slocum turned his big Appaloosa and started riding away from the house. The other riders followed him. He judged when he was beyond the range of the shotgun. Then he stopped and turned back to face the house again. Then he pulled the Winchester out of the boot and cranked a shell into the chamber. The other cowhands did the same. Maw saw what they were doing.
“Brace,” she called out. “Get your guns.”
She went into the house and slammed the door. Almost instantly a front window was smashed from inside the house and a rifle barrel appeared.
“Take cover, boys,” Slocum shouted. “They’re in there.”
Slocum and the Tipton hands all dismounted and searched out cover. There was a clump of trees nearby, and some of them went there. There was trash all over the yard in front of the house: a broken-down wagon, some barrels, and some old crates. Men ducked behind all of them. Slocum and Randy found cover behind the wagon. The rifle at the window had started firing, and Slocum and the Tipton hands returned fire.
Inside the house, Maw and four of her boys had grabbed rifles and were jockeying for positions at the windows. Brace was firing from the broken window. Hiram had opened the door a crack and was firing from there. Oscar went to the other window in the front of the house and smashed it.
“Henley,” Maw said, “take that side window. You can see them from there.”
Henley moved quickly to the side window and smashed it out, poking his rifle barrel out and firing from there. Maw went out the back door with her rifle and edged up to a corner of the house to peer around. She caught sight of a cowboy lurking behind a barrel. Raising the rifle to her shoulder, she took aim and fired. The cowboy yelped and fell to the ground.
“Behind the house,” Slocum shouted, and he and Randy both aimed their rifles and fired a barrage of shots. Maw shrieked, hit in the shoulder. She dropped the rifle, and another shot hit her in the chest. Before her body could fall to the ground, she was hit three more times.
Inside the house, at the side window, Henley took a bullet through the side of his head. He dropped to the floor. About that same time, Hiram was hit by a half dozen shots. He staggered back, jerking convulsively, then fell hard in the middle of the floor. Brace, terrified, looked over at Oscar, who was still firing.
“Oscar,” he shouted. “We got to get out of here. They’re killing us.”
Oscar stepped aside from the window and looked around. He saw Hiram and Henley both on the floor. “Where’s Maw?” he said.
“Hell,” said Brace. “I don’t know. Let’s get out of here.”
Brace ran to the back door with Oscar on his heels. He reached for the door handle, and Oscar said, “Careful, Brace. There might be some of them back there.”
“I don’t think so,” Brace said. He opened the door and eased out cautiously. Looking around, he saw no one. No shots came at them, although shots were still being fired at the house from out front.
“Come on,” he said.
Oscar followed him out. Holding their guns ready, they looked around in all directions. Then Oscar noticed something at the far corner of the house.
“Brace,” he said. “Looky there.”
Brace looked and saw what appeared to be part of Maw’s dress. He ran over and looked around the corner. He jumped back quickly, a look of horror on his face. Oscar noted the look. “What is it?” he said.
“It’s Maw,” said Brace. “She’s dead.”
“Let’s get out of here,” said Oscar.
They ran into the woods behind the house, moving into deep underbrush. Out front, Slocum called out for the Tipton riders to cease firing. It took several calls, but they finally stopped. Everything was quiet. They waited a moment. Then Randy spoke up.
“You think we got them all?” he said.
“They’ve stopped shooting,” said Slocum. “They’re either dead or of out of bullets. Let’s find out.”
Slocum stood up behind the wagon and started walking toward the house. A cowboy to his far right got up and started moving in, and another on his far left did the same. They approached the house slowly and cautiously, holding their rifles ready. No shots were fired. When Slocum reached the front door, he toed it open. Stepping inside quickly, he saws the bodies of Hiram and Henley. There was no one else. The other two cowboys stepped in behind him.
“Just two?” said one of the hands.
“There was more than that,” Slocum said, and he looked at the open back door. Walking across the room, he stepped out, still ready for anything, but nothing happened. He walked out a bit farther and looked around. By then the rest
of the Tipton crew had come up to the house. Randy Self had walked around the house on the outside.
“Hey, Slocum,” Randy said.
“What is it?”
“Over here.”
Slocum walked toward the corner of the house where Randy waited, and he saw the body of the old woman.
“Damn,” he said.
“I guess we killed her,” said Randy.
“Not before she killed one of our boys,” Slocum said. “It’s pretty clear where these Beamers got their dispositions.”
“Yeah,” Randy said. “I guess you’re right about that.”
“Randy,” said Slocum, “I know there were more of them in the house when they started shooting, but I’m damned if I can see any sign back here of where they might have gone.”
“Well, they couldn’t have made it to the corral,” said Randy. “We could see that from out front.”
“That means that they’re on foot,” Slocum said. “They had to make it into these woods back here.”
“We could surround the woods,” Randy said.
“We’d be spread out pretty thin,” said Charlie Hope, who had just walked out the back door and had been listening to the conversation.
“Yeah,” said Slocum.
“So what do we do?” Randy said. “Just let them get away?”
“Not hardly,” Slocum said. “Let’s all go back to the horses. Load up that boy that got killed. Then about half of you mount up and head on back to the ranch. The rest of us’ll hide our horses out there and stick around. If anyone’s watching, they might think that we all left.”
“You think they’ll come back to the house?”
“I think they’ll come back for their horses meaning to light out,” Slocum said.
They all moved back to their original locations in front of the house. A couple of the hands picked up the body of their fallen comrade and loaded it onto his horse. As they made ready to leave, Slocum and some of the others moved their horses in behind the trees. In a few minutes, the rest mounted up and headed out. Randy, Slocum, and some more of the Tipton men were hiding in the trees.
“How long are we going to wait here?” Randy said.
“Just as long as it takes,” Slocum said.
“You pretty sure they’ll show up?”
“What would you do if you were on foot out there?”
“I guess I’d come sneaking back for my horse.”
“Exactly.”
Out in the woods behind the house, Oscar and Brace sat down on the ground to lean back against tree trunks. Oscar was sniffling. “Brace,” he said. “What’re we going to do?”
“I ain’t sure,” Brace said. “I got to think about it.”
“Maw’s dead,” said Oscar. “Maw and Hiram and Henley. Hell, Brace, our family’s been cut to pieces.”
“You think I don’t know that? I know that. Hump and them’s out somewhere around. We need to find them and join up with them. We can’t fight them bastards just the two of us.”
“We need horses.”
“That bunch won’t hang around our house forever,” Brace said. “They’ll get tired and go on home. Then we can sneak back down there and get our horses.”
“And then go looking for Hump and them? How will we know where to look?”
“Maw sent them out to see what meanness they could do to Tipton,” Brace said. “They’d ought to be somewhere between here and Tipton’s spread. We’ll find them all right.”
They sat still and silent for a while longer, the only sounds were Oscar’s sniffling and the chattering of birds and squirrels. A light breeze was blowing that occasionally rustled the leaves overhead. At last, Brace stood up.
“Let’s ease ourselves on back down to the house,” he said. “I reckon we’ve waited long enough.”
Hump and the rest of the Beamer gang were on Tipton’s ranch. They weren’t far from the spot where they had killed Ace and rustled the cattle a few days before. The fence had been repaired, and they had cut it again. They had been looking for another batch of cows with another couple of cowhands watching over it, but they had not had much luck.
“Maybe we ought to ride on in closer to the ranch house, Hump?” Jefferson Davis Beamer said.
“It’s too dangerous,” said Hump. “Hell, they got a whole army of hands and that damned gunfighter in close to the ranch house watching for trouble.”
“We sure ain’t having no luck out there.”
“Maw ain’t going to like it if we don’t do something,” said Butcher.
“Shit, I know that,” Hump said. “But I ain’t intending to go commit suicide just to make Maw happy.”
“Well, what’ll we do?”
Hump sucked a finger of his right hand and then held it up. “There ain’t much breeze,” he said, “but there’s a little.”
“So what?” Butcher said.
“So if we set this grass on fire in about a half a dozed places, we can at least cause ole Tipton some damned headaches.”
Butcher grinned. “You’re right,” he said. “Let’s do it.”
“Let’s spread ourselves out real wide,” Hump said. “Everyone got some matches?”
“Yeah,” they all said.
“When we get well spread out, I’ll wave my hat,” said Hump. “Then all of us get down at once and light the grass on fire. You get your fire going, mount up again and head for that hole in the fence.”
The five riders moved apart staying in line. They all dismounted and looked toward Hump. Checking the line and the distance between the men, Hump, still sitting in his saddle, took off his hat and waved it in the air. Then he dismounted, knelt, took a match out of his pocket, and carefully set fire to the grass. The others were doing the same thing. In another moment, they were all mounted up again and riding for the place they had cut the fence. When they had all arrived together, Hump stopped riding and turned in the saddle to look back at the result of their deviltry. The flames were growing. He grinned.
“That’ll raise some hell with them,” he said.
“It might even reach the ranch house,” said Butcher.
“Good for them,” Hump said. “Let’s get on back to the house and tell Maw and the others what we done out here.”
“Maw’ll be just tickled,” Butcher said.
Hump led the way, and they started riding. They had gone some distance before Hump slowed them down. He didn’t want to run their horses into the ground. He stopped and reached in his pocket for the makings.
“Hey, Hump,” said Butcher.
“What?” said Hump. “What is it?”
“Has the wind shifted?”
Butcher was sticking his wetted finger in the air. Hump sucked his own finger and stuck it up again.
“Damn,” he said. “It has.”
He turned around in the saddle to look back behind them. Smoke was billowing on the range. He squinted his eyes and watched for a moment, and the black smoke seemed to be coming closer to them. He kicked his horse in the sides and started to ride fast toward home.
“Come on, boys,” he said. “That’s headed straight for our house.”
13
Brace and Oscar eased themselves out of the edge of the woods just behind the house and peered around. The saw no sign of life. “I reckon they’re gone all right,” Oscar said.
“Hold on just a minute,” said Brace. “We got to be sure.”
“Well, I can’t see no one. How’re we going to be sure?”
“Well, now, you could just stroll on over there to the corral and start saddling up your horse and see if anyone shoots you. How’d that be?”
“It might be better than just standing here all damn day,” Oscar said. He was tired of being treated like a baby brother.
“Wait a minute,” said Brace. “Let’s just ease on up to the back of the house. If there’s still anyone out there, they won’t see us.”
The two Beamers sneaked out of the woods and crept to the back of the house. Both of them
avoided looking in the direction of their dead mother. Their two brothers were in the house, so that wasn’t a problem.
“What now?” said Oscar, pressed against the back wall.
Hidden in the clump of trees out front, Slocum noticed the dark wall of smoke building up in the sky. “Randy,” he said, “it looks like Tipton’s range is on fire back there.”
“Yeah,” said Randy. “It looks like it’s pretty damn close to the Beamers’ place. I think we ought to get out of here.”
“Let’s hold off a little,” said Slocum.
“Whatever you say, but a fire like that can spread awful fast. I seen them before.”
“I know, but we’ve got a little time. If there’s Beamers out there behind the house, they’ve got less. That fire will drive them out in a hurry.”
“Yeah,” said Randy.
Behind the house, Oscar was getting more nervous. “Brace, that fire’s getting closer. We got to do something fast.”
“There ain’t no place we can run to,” said Brace. “The only chance we got is to go for the corral.”
“Maybe there ain’t no one out there.”
“Maybe. Hell, let’s go for it.”
“All right. Hell, they can only kill us once.”
“Come on,” said Brace, and crouching low, he ran for the corral. Oscar ran right behind him.
Slocum was watching the smoke. When he noticed the Beamers making for the corral, they were already almost there. Once they got to the corral, they would have a little cover before they had to come out again. He jerked up his rifle and fired off a shot, too quick. His shot nicked at Oscar’s shirttail. The Beamers made it to the corral. Oscar went for a saddle.
“There ain’t no time for that,” Brace said. “Just grab a hackamore.”
“Ride bareback?” said Oscar.
“We got to get going, boy,” said Brace. He just about had the hackamore snugged down on his horse. Oscar grabbed another one and started fumbling with it. “Here,” said Brace. “Give me that. You take this other horse.”