Slocum and the Bad-News Brothers

by Jake Logan

  “I don’t see no one,” said Butcher.

  “They get Jeff?” Brace asked.

  “Shot him off his saddle just as he lit a dynamite,” said Hump. “I seen it clear. He fell with that lit dynamite and got hisself blowed all over the place.”

  “Damn,” said Brace. “They got Skinny, too. There’s just three of us left now.”

  “What’re we going to do, Hump?” asked Butcher.

  “We’re going to kill us a Slocum and a Tipton,” Hump said. “Ain’t nothing changed.”

  17

  Hump laid his plans carefully. He could not afford any more screw ups. He was down to two brothers. He did not want to lose another one. He found a hill beside the road that had a pretty good spot on top from which one could see the Tipton ranch house. It was much too far for a shot, but from there, one could see the comings and goings from the ranch. He figured out a schedule for himself and his two brothers so that all during the day, one of them was posted there.

  “What do we watch for?” Brace asked.

  “We watch for any time Slocum or old man Tipton goes out of there by hisself. If we see either one of them head for town without extra hands with them, the one who sees them get his ass back out here to the cabin. Then all three of us’ll ride out to get him.”

  “What if it’s Slocum and Tipton together?” Butcher asked.

  “Same thing. If it’s just the two of them, we’ll go on out and take them.”

  They had watched like that for three days with no luck, but Hump had more patience than his brothers, and he kept them at it. One of the two men he wanted to kill, one or both, would ride out sooner or later, and he meant to be ready.

  Slocum was sitting on the front porch of the Tipton ranch house smoking a cigar. He had a cup of coffee. Things had been quiet around the ranch since the dynamite attack. Nothing had been seen of any of the surviving Beamers. The blasted corner of the porch had not yet been repaired because Tipton had not yet gone into town to order the lumber his boys would need to do the work. A long pole had been used to prop the sagging roof and keep it from falling in any further. The morning after the attack, Slocum had led a few men out on the road to try to track the Beamers, but their trail had disappeared after about a mile or so. He was wondering what he should do. They seemed to have disappeared. They could have fled the country, but he did not think so. He had known their kind before. Their mother and their brothers had been killed. They would be thirsting bad for revenge. They knew that they were outclassed as gunfighters by Slocum, but that would not make any difference. They would try to set up an ambush or something. They might even be out somewhere trying to recruit some help. He certainly did not believe it was over.

  While he was mulling things over in his mind, the door opened and Myrtle and Jamie came out together. They were dressed to go riding. Slocum stood up and tipped his hat.

  “You ladies planning to go somewhere?” he asked.

  “We’ve got a bad case of cabin fever, I’m afraid,” Myrtle said. “We thought about going to town, but we don’t really need anything from town.”

  “And besides, we know,” said Jamie, “that you’d make us take along a small army, and we don’t really want that. So we decided that we’d just take a good long ride right here on the ranch.”

  “Well,” Slocum said, “that ought to be all right. I’ll just go get you some horses saddled. Any preference?”

  “We’ll just walk over to the corral with you,” Myrtle said.

  They walked to the corral where the ladies picked out their mounts. Slocum saddled the two horses, and the ladies mounted up. Then Slocum picked his own saddle off the rail and headed for his Appaloosa. Jamie turned and looked at him.

  “You don’t need to do that,” she said. “We’ll be all right as long as we stay on the ranch.”

  “I’d just like to make sure,” Slocum said.

  “Well, you can just catch up with us then,” said Jamie, and she kicked her horse in the sides and took off at a gallop. Myrtle looked back at Slocum, shrugged, and hurried after her daughter.

  “Shit,” Slocum grumbled, and he continued getting the Appaloosa ready.

  On the hilltop overlooking the Tipton ranch, Butcher Beamer was watching as the two women rode away from the corral alone. He stood up, his eyes wide. He could hardly believe his good fortune. The Beamer women were riding out alone. He watched long enough to determine the direction of their ride. Then he mounted up and rode back to the cabin as fast as he could go. Vaulting out of the saddle, he ran inside. Hump stood up when he saw Butcher’s excitement.

  “It’s them women,” Butcher said, panting. “The two of them rode off together. Nary a man along. Just the women.”

  “You sure about that?” said Hump.

  “I seen it, didn’t I? I was watching. They rode off just the two of them.”

  “Where was they headed?”

  “I guess they was just out for a ride,” said Butcher. “They headed out onto the ranch. I couldn’t see nothing they was headed for.”

  “Come on,” Hump said.

  When Slocum had saddled his stallion, he mounted up and rode after the Tipton ladies. They had a pretty good start on him, but he wasn’t in a hurry. He knew he was on the right trail, and he would ride up on them soon enough. He moved along easily, actually enjoying the ride. He sure couldn’t blame the ladies for wanting to get out like this.

  . . .

  Jamie and Myrtle had not ridden hard and fast for very long, just long enough to get beyond Slocum’s range of vision. The ranch in this area was rolling hills and patches of woods. Jamie figured that it would take Slocum a little while and a little effort to find them, but he would find them all right. She knew that. It was just a kind of game she was playing with him. They rode around a clump of trees and down the slope on the other side. Myrtle rode over to a small outcropping of boulders and stopped her horse. She dismounted and sat down on a rock. Jamie joined her there.

  “You want to wait right here for Slocum?” she asked.

  “We could,” said Myrtle. “We don’t want to give him too hard a time, do we?”

  “Oh, I guess not. He’ll have to look around some already to find us. This is a nice spot here anyway. This would be a nice place to build a house.”

  “Yes. It would.”

  “Maybe if I ever find myself a man I can stand, I’ll put my house right over there.”

  Myrtle gave her daughter a look. “What about Slocum?” she asked.

  The way she looked and the way she asked the question made Jamie wonder if her mother suspected what had been going on. “No,” she said. “He’ll never settle down. Not that one. He won’t stay here. As soon as he knows the last Beamer is dead, he’ll move along.”

  Myrtle cocked her head. “I think I hear him coming,” she said.

  “That’s more than one horse, Mother,” Jamie said.

  “Maybe he brought some of the boys along.”

  Just then Hump, Butcher, and Brace Beamer came riding around the clump of trees. “See,” said Butcher. “I told you. There they are.”

  “All by theirselfs, too,” said Brace. “This is too good.”

  “Come on, Jamie,” said Myrtle. Both women ran for their horses. Myrtle was in the saddle, and Jamie had a foot in a stirrup, when the Beamers descended on them. Myrtle was about to spur away, but she saw that Butcher had caught up with Jamie before she had gotten into the saddle. He was still mounted. He had reached out and grabbed her by the hair.

  “Let go, you son of a bitch,” Jamie said.

  Myrtle tried to go to her rescue, but Brace and Hump rode up one on each side. Hump grabbed the horse by the bit, and Brace reached for Myrtle. She fought with him, but he dragged her from the saddle. In the meantime, Butcher had fallen from his saddle in his struggle with Jamie. He bore her to the ground with him, and they rolled over and over. At last, Brace wound up on top. His weight holding her down, he pinned her arms with his hands. She continued to struggle, an
d he slapped her hard across the face.

  “Leave her alone!” Myrtle shouted.

  “You’d best worry about your own self, lady,” said Hump. He dismounted and stepped behind Myrtle, holding her arms from behind. Butcher got down off his horse and walked up to her leering. Myrtle kicked out viciously, landing a boot in Butcher’s crotch. Butcher screamed and doubled over.

  “You bitch,” said Hump, turning Myrtle around and slapping her face, knocking her to the ground. As soon as she landed, he was on top of her. She reached out with one hand and scratched his face. He shouted and got hold of her free hand, and in another moment had her pinned down the same as Brace had Jamie.

  “Ooooh, goddamnit,” moaned Butcher.

  Brace leaned down and planted a sloppy wet kiss on Jamie’s mouth. She struggled, trying to twist her mouth away from his, trying to escape his fetid breath. When at last he stopped and lifted his head, she spat in his face.

  “Damn you,” he said. He turned loose of her left arm to slap her hard three times with his right, but she took advantage of her freed left to reach up and grab a handful of hair, pulling him over on his side. His one leg was still across her body. She wriggled out from under it, got up, and started to run. Brace got to his feet and ran after her, tackling her from behind. She fell hard to the ground, and he was on her again. This time she was facedown and he was crawling on her back.

  Then, Butcher, recovered somewhat from the hard kick to his balls, stood up and walked over to where his brother was holding Myrtle down. “You got her good?” he asked.

  “She ain’t going nowhere,” said Hump.

  Butcher knelt just above her head and looked at her face. “Kick my balls, will you?” he said. He reached out and took hold of her blouse, ripping it aside. Myrtle struggled as best she could, but Hump had her down. Butcher began tearing at the undergarment, and soon he had a breast exposed.

  “You insects,” Myrtle said. “I’ll see you all dead.”

  “Hell, lady,” said Hump. “When we’re finished with you, we’re going to kill you.”

  Butcher reached for the exposed breast and squeezed it hard. Just then Slocum rode around the trees. He saw at once what was happening. He jerked the Winchester out of the saddle boot, cranked a shell into the chamber, and lifted the weapon to his shoulder. He snapped off a quick round, and Butcher screamed and jerked, his shoulder shattered.

  “It’s Slocum,” cried Hump. He got up quickly and ran for his horse. Brace left Jamie and did the same. Slocum fired a second shot that tore into Brace’s left hip. Hump managed to help Brace onto his horse, and the wounded Butcher got himself into the saddle. Slocum cranked another shell into the chamber and started to shoot again, but the women were left alone now, and he had to see about them. The three Beamers rode quickly away as Slocum hurried to the women. Myrtle sat up and was trying to straighten her blouse. Jamie got up to her feet and started walking toward her mother. Slocum dismounted about halfway between the two. He turned first to Myrtle.

  “Are you all right?” he asked her.

  “I’m not hurt, Slocum, just damn mad.”

  Slocum turned to Jamie. “I’m okay,” she said. “You got here just in time though. They meant to kill us, Slocum.”

  “After they’d finished with us, they said,” Myrtle added.

  “Go get them, Slocum,” said Jamie. “Kill them. Kill them all.”

  Slocum looked after the Beamers. He wanted to go after them. He wanted to kill them, but he did not want to leave the two women alone, not after what they had gone through. He did not want them to have to ride back to the ranch house alone.

  “I will,” he said, “but not till you’re safe back at the ranch house. I hurt two of them pretty bad.”

  “Not bad enough,” Jamie said.

  Slocum caught up the two horses, and rode with the women back to the house. They started telling Tipton what had happened, and before he could shout any orders, Slocum was already riding. He went back to the place where the Beamers had attacked the women, and he started to follow their trail. Besides the tracks left by their horses, there was a blood trail, quite a bit of blood. He thought that one or two of the Beamers might die from their wounds even before he caught up with them. He followed the trail out to the road and then turned on the road. They couldn’t get too far too fast, not losing all that blood.

  Hump led his two brothers back to the goat man’s cabin. He got them inside, but then he did not know what to do. The wounds were too bad to just bandage. He had no idea how to take care of a shattered shoulder or to deal with a bullet in the hip. Brace’s entire right leg was blood soaked, and Butcher had blood all over him from the shoulder wound. Both brothers were moaning and groaning. They had turned pale from loss of blood. Hump got them settled in the cabin, and then he paced the floor, trying to decide on a next move. His brothers were totally useless. They would die without medical attention. He knew that. And he also knew that he could not get it for them. They might as well already be dead. He thought about shooting them, but he could not quite bring himself to do it. If it was just one brother, he might have. But if he shot one of them, the other one would know it before he could do that one in. He did not want his brothers to know that it was he who was killing them. Better they die hating Slocum.

  The other problem was that Slocum would be on their trail soon, and it would be an easy trail to follow. He did not want to be caught in the cabin by Slocum with only his two dying brothers by his side. At last he made his decision.

  “You boys need a doc,” he said. “I’m going after one for you.”

  “Well, hurry it up,” said Butcher. “I’m bleeding to death here.”

  “Just hang on,” said Hump. “Both of you. I’ll be back before you know it.”

  He left the cabin, mounted his horse, and took off. He was not headed for town nor for the Tipton ranch. He was headed out. He was through. To hell with Slocum and to hell with Tipton. He was the only one left from his entire family, and he did not intend to see the family come to a dead end. From now on, he told himself, he would look out for Hump. The rest of them could all meet for a reunion in hell. He rode hard for the next county, and he wouldn’t stop even there. Hell, he might ride all the way to California. Then he might get passage on a freighter and sail to China or some other damn place like that. He didn’t want to see Slocum ever again.

  Slocum followed the blood trail to the lone cabin in the woods, and he saw the two horses out in front. He stopped and waited, watching the cabin. He wondered where the third horse might be. He recalled all the ambushes the Beamers had set up. Watching all around, he moved in a little closer, and he saw that the two horses were bloody. They were the ones ridden by the two wounded men. The third man was still healthy, but the question was where had he gone? Had he just hidden his horse, and was he inside with the others? Had he gone for help? Had he abandoned his wounded brothers? Or was he hiding somewhere along the trail? There were plenty of places to hide.

  18

  Slocum waited a while on the trail looking down at the cabin. He had no idea to whom the cabin belonged. He had never ridden down this trail before. But there was no doubt as to the ownership of the two horses out front. He wished that he knew about the third horse. Two horses out front most likely meant that there were two Beamers in the cabin, probably the two wounded ones, but he couldn’t be sure about that. The third one could be hiding in there waiting for him. He could have hidden his own horse out back just to trick Slocum, make it look like he had gone off and left his brothers. Well, Slocum had to find out somehow.

  He rode his Appaloosa a little closer, then off the trail. Tying the horse there beneath the trees, he moved through the tangle of woods until he was fairly close to the cabin. He noticed a foul odor in the air. He moved slowly toward the rear of the cabin, and the odor became almost overwhelming. He pulled the bandanna out of his back pocket and held it over his nose with his left hand, leaving his right free to go for the Colt if need be. Then he
saw the body, decomposing, picked over by something, coyotes, crows, buzzards, something. He pulled himself away from it and moved up to the side wall of the cabin. There were no windows. He eased around to the front. There was no window there either, just the one door. Slocum moved stealthily across the front of the cabin to the door.

  It was beginning to seem likely that there were only the two wounded brothers inside. Slocum had seen no horse out back. There were some goats wandering loose around the place, but nothing else was there to be disturbed. Close by the door, he reached out and gave it a slight shove. It wasn’t latched. It swung wide open, banging itself against the wall. There was no one hiding behind the door. Slocum eased out his Colt, cocked it, and stepped quickly inside. He saw the two wounded men. One was lying on a narrow bed, a cot really, the other was laid out on the table. He could not tell at first if they were alive or dead. Both men were bloody messes.

  He stepped over to the nearest, the one lying out on the table. He was wounded in the shoulder and had lost a great deal of blood. From the shoulder down, he was covered in blood. Slocum reached out and took the man’s revolver from his holster and tossed it across the room. Then he moved over to the one on the cot. His one leg was blood soaked. Slocum took his gun and tossed it. He was about to lean over to check on whether or not the man was alive, when the man’s head rolled slightly toward him.

  “Hump?” he said. “Is that you?”

  Slocum looked the man in the face then, and he saw that it was Brace, the same one who had started this whole mess by trying to shoot Tipton in the Hogneck Saloon. His face was pale and gaunt. Slocum knew that he wouldn’t last long. He turned his attention to the other one, the one spread across the table and covered with so much blood. He felt the neck for a pulse, but he couldn’t find one. He put the side of his head down close to the man’s mouth, and he could not detect any sign of breathing.