Jeremiah Tucker The Gunfighter - Book Two

by James Butler

  ***

  The sheriff and his deputies rushed into the boarding house. Mrs. Kirby pointed to Jeremiah and Lilly. They drew their guns and took Jeremiah’s pistols, then took them to jail. “What’s your name, mister?” asked the sheriff. He had a handful of Wanted posters he was going through.

  “My name’s Jeremiah Tucker.”

  The sheriff dropped the posters and looked up at him. “You the Jeremiah Tucker from Coffeyville?”

  “I am.”

  “Turn them loose, boys. This man’s a deputy of Sheriff Hunter in Coffeyville.”

  Jeremiah was startled. He fully expected Hunter to be coming after him.

  “And who are you, young lady?”

  “She’s with me,” said Jeremiah. “She’s the only one who can identify the men we’re tracking. One of them’s in the bath house now.”

  “That would be Ben,” said Lilly. “Dick and Charlie were holding on to me until they heard the shot, then Charlie ran away. Dick was the one you shot at when you came out of the bath house.”

  “How can we help you, Deputy Tucker?”

  “You can bury that man in the bath house and, as far as anything else, we don’t need any help other than just staying out of our way.”

  The sheriff handed Jeremiah his pistols.

  “We’d better be leaving now before their trail gets cold.” He took Lilly by the hand and they got out of there before the sheriff changed his mind.

  “What the hell just happened?” said Lilly.

  “Damned if I know, but somebody in Coffeyville is sure helping us. I don’t see it being the sheriff after I knocked him out, but I could be wrong.” They went back to the hotel and gathered up their belongings.

  “Where do you think they’re heading, Lilly?”

  “Arkansas. Dick told me they were going home after Ben killed you. What part did you take from Ben?”

  “His ear.” Lilly shuddered and then laughed. “I hated him the most.”

  “About last night. I told you I wouldn’t hurt you, but if you turn me over to your brothers, everything I said before still goes.”

  “I never told them a thing. They saw us together, that’s all. If I have to, I’ll kill the next one myself just to prove it to you.” They hurried and loaded the wagon and got out of town, headed for Arkansas.

  Chapter 9

  It was a long way from Independence, Kansas, to the Ozarks of Arkansas. It took them four days to make it to Joplin and four more until they hit the Arkansas Ozarks. They talked and got to know each other a little better along the way. Lilly did most of the talking. “I like to cook. My favorite is chicken and dumplings with tomatoes and bread afterwards as a dessert.”

  Jeremiah smiled. “My mother used to make tomatoes and bread.”

  “When we get home, I’ll fix you some.”

  Jeremiah looked at her. “We’re not going there on a peaceful visit. Don’t forget why I’m going.”

  “I’m not going to have any family left.” She hung her head and began to cry.

  “Maybe it’d be best if you just told me where to go and I let you out at the next town.”

  “No, I want to be with you when you kill them. I’m not crying about that. It’s just that I hate them all so much for treating me the way they did when I was growing up. I’m glad you’re killing them.”

  Jeremiah didn’t want to ask. He had a pretty good idea of what they did to her when she was just a child.

  “I was the youngest and Jack was next to me. He always tried to stop them, but he was just a kid, too. We always played together, but in the end, we all turned out bad. I think you would have liked Jack if you’d known him back then.” Jeremiah just nodded once in a while and let her talk and cry without interrupting her.

  “Dick was a couple of years older that Jack. The others were so much older they seemed more like fathers than brothers. My pop was killed in the war at Pea Ridge.” She stopped and dried her eyes. “I bet you had a good childhood growing up.”

  “I killed my first man when I was six years old for killing my father and raping my mother.”

  Lilly sat there looking at him. “Are you telling me for sure or just making it up?”

  “It’s for sure all right. I stuck a pitchfork through his neck while he was raping my mother. That’s why I became a gambler; I had to support my mother.”

  “You became a gambler when you were six years old?”

  “No,” Jeremiah laughed. “I was a little older than that, but I couldn’t let my mother carry the load all by herself so, when I was old enough, I started playing poker.”

  “When did you become a gunfighter?”

  “Right after I became a gambler. One just goes with the other. I shot a guy from under the table in my first game on the Mississippi. Back then, I only carried one gun. When you and Jack tried to rob me on the stagecoach, it made me realize I should be carrying two guns instead of one. Then I could use either hand. I owe you for that. If I hadn’t had two guns, your brother, Ben, would have had me back there. Being known as a gunfighter has taught me to never be without a gun, even when I’m in the tub.”

  “What did you do when the war came along?”

  “I dug a deep hole and got in the bottom of it.” He laughed. “My intention was to come out of the war in one piece, not to be a hero. I didn’t join up of my own accord. The law helped me make that decision. I didn’t join until late in ’63. Most of my time was spent as a guard at Camp Sumter at the Andersonville, Georgia, prison. Until then, I didn’t know what cruelty was.”

  “I’ve heard of Andersonville. Was it really as bad as they say?”

  “They built the prison in ’64 to hold about thirteen thousand prisoners. With four hundred arriving each day, it wasn’t long before there were twenty-six thousand and the camp had to be enlarged. Then, before we knew it, there were more. Over forty-five thousand went through Andersonville. There wasn’t enough food and medical treatment. The only water they had came from a little stream that ran through the camp called Stockade Branch. All the prisoners were starving. Some officer wrote that it took seven men to make a shadow.”

  “How did you guard all those prisoners?” She looked at Jeremiah’s stocky build. “You don’t look like you starved. You look like you got plenty to eat.”

  “I was a guard in one of the stockade towers called a ‘pigeon roost.’ We had a line drawn around the inside of the stockade walls. It was called the ‘dead line.’ If a prisoner crossed it, he got shot. When I first got there, I wouldn’t shoot any of them, but after I saw them starve to death and eat each other’s shit to stay alive, I’d call down to them and tell them to cross the line so I could put an end to it. Over thirteen thousand men died there in only fourteen months. I saw so much cruelty that I lost what little pride I had in being a Confederate soldier. I was a private when I went in and a private when I came out. As for having plenty to eat, I never lost any weight, but I gave most of it to the prisoners. Some of the soldiers would sit outside so the prisoners could see them eat, just to torture them. I hated the Civil War.”

  “How long were you at Andersonville?”

  “I was there from the very beginning in ’64 till May of ’65 when they shut it down. You could smell the death.”

  Lilly could see the expression on Jeremiah’s face change.

  “Let’s talk about something else for a while. I’m tired and the horses need to rest.” They had crossed the border into Arkansas. Jeremiah found a creek with shade trees and grass and they pulled in and stopped. He unhitched the horses from the wagon and led them down to the creek. He let them drink, then turned them onto the grass. “We might as well stay here for the night. Give us all a chance to rest up.”

  Lilly helped him unsaddle the two riding horses and turned them loose with the others.

  “How’d you stop Ben from killing you?”

  “I shot him. I shot him right between the legs.” Lilly laughed. “If you wanna stop a man without killing him, there’s no b
etter way than to blow his balls off. That’ll stop ’em every time.”

  “How’d you kill him? I only heard one shot.”

  “With his own knife.” He didn’t go into the details, but let it drop right there. He knew Lilly had been raped by her brothers. She got a kick out of hearing about Ben, but he didn’t want to stir up those thoughts in her. He never enjoyed killing. He knew what he was doing was probably wrong, but he couldn’t let Alma’s murderers go without being punished and, to his way of thinking, death was letting them off easy. He had learned more ways to kill a man slowly in Andersonville than most men knew how to die.

  Chapter 10

  Charlie and Dick were on horseback and were running for their lives. They could move a lot faster and take shortcuts through the mountains where a wagon couldn’t go. They knew Jeremiah was coming after them and that Lilly was with him. By the time Jeremiah and Lilly were crossing the border, they had already made it home.

  “Where are the rest of my boys?” asked their mother, “and where’s my Lilly?”

  “They got killed, Ma,” said Dick. “All except for Lilly and she’s helpin’ the man who killed ’em. It’s just me and Charlie now and Lilly’s bringin’ him here.”

  She sat in her rocking chair with her hand on her chest crying. “What did you boys do that made him start killin’ you?”

  “We didn’t do nothin’, Ma,” said Charlie. “He’s a gunfighter and he started in on us. Lilly took a likin’ to him and is helpin’ him run us down.”

  “Billy was always a bit fiery, but you’ens let him kill little Jack and Ben?”

  “We didn’t have nothin’ to do with it, Ma. He came after us one at a time and Lilly was helpin’ him.”

  Charlie went outside to take care of the horses, leaving Dick alone with their mother. “Charlie’s always been a liar. He never could fool me, but you’ens never lied to me, Dick. Tell your ma what really happened.”

  “They hurt this man’s wife and she died, Ma. I swear I had nothin’ to do with it. I tried to stop ’em, but they wouldn’t listen. Her husband is a gunfighter and he’s goin’ to kill us all.” He knelt down and put his head in her lap.

  “The good Lord makes us pay for our sins. Lord knows what all I did to bring this on to my family. I knew what your pa and your brothers was doin’ to that little girl, and sat and did nothin’, pretendin’ that it weren’t happenin’. Now, it’s all comin’ back on me.” She sat there and cried, holding Dick’s head in her lap. She was sixty-five years old, but the hard life she’d lived had taken its toll.

  “When he comes, you go out there and stand up to him like a man. I know Charlie will try to ambush him, but I want you to take what you got comin’. If you’re tellin’ the truth, the good Lord will protect you.”

  “I ain’t so sure as you about that, Ma. This man’s bound and determined to see us all dead. Lilly told me he takes a piece of each one he kills so’s he can take it back to his dead wife and show her what he’s done.”

  “I never heared of such a thing. He must be part Injun.”

  “When I die, Ma, I want all my parts to be buried with me. I don’t want a piece of me here and a piece of me somewhere else. Charlie said he was probably takin’ the pieces back and nailin’ them to his barn door. That scares the hell outta me just thinkin’ about it.”

  Charlie had put up the horses and was in the barn planning his ambush just like his mother said he would. He had a spot picked out in the loft where he could lay down with his rifle and shoot Jeremiah in the back when he came for them. “He’ll not be takin’ a piece of me. I’ll skin him and nail his hide to the barn door.”

  Chapter 11

  The sun shining down through the trees woke Jeremiah and he sat up in the back of the wagon where he and Lilly had slept. Lilly was already up and in the creek bathing. She pretended she didn’t know Jeremiah was watching her although she knew he was and made no attempt to cover herself. Jeremiah laid back down in the wagon for a little more sleep. He had just dozed off when he was startled awake.

  “Get away from me, you son of a bitch!” Lilly screamed. “Jeremiah, help me!”

  Jeremiah jumped up and grabbed one of his pistols. He ran toward the creek. Lilly was still in the water, but fighting with all her might as some bearded man was dragging her toward the bank. She saw Jeremiah run up to the edge of the creek.

  “Well, shoot this son of a bitch, Jeremiah! Don’t just stand there.” The man let go of Lilly and reached for his gun. Lilly fell backwards into the water and all she heard were two gun shots. She was afraid to look up for what she might see, but when she did, she saw the hillbilly floating face down in the water. She sat there in the water shaking until Jeremiah waded out and picked her up. “Everbody wants me except the one that counts.” She put her arms around Jeremiah’s neck and kissed him on the cheek as he carried her to the wagon. Jeremiah put her down, threw a blanket around her and left her at the wagon while he went back to the creek and gathered up her clothes. She stood there not dressing, looking at Jeremiah.

  “What’s the matter, Jeremiah?” she said with her hands on her hips. “You think I’m ugly or something?”

  “I never thought about it. I don’t think you’re ugly, I suppose. Not real ugly anyway.”

  Lilly covered her smile. “You know I’d make someone a good wife. We’ve been together a while now. Don’t you ever think about me that way?”

  “What way’s that?”

  “I saw you looking at me. Just before you killed that hillbilly I saw that look on your face. You have feelings for me and I know it. You know what I’m talking about.”

  “The sun was in my eyes, I didn’t see nothin’. Besides, you’re too skinny for me anyway. I like my women with a little meat on their bones.”

  “I got meat where it counts. I saw you watching and the sun wasn’t in your eyes neither.”

  “I’ve got to catch the horses so we can get outta here before some more of those hillbillies show up. Can you help me?”

  “I’ll help you, even though I’m so skinny and frail, but you got to promise not to watch. I don’t want you falling down and hurting yourself.”

  “Why would I do that?’

  “I got eyes, too, Jeremiah. After looking at me in the hotel the other night, you could hardly stand up straight.”

  Jeremiah laughed. “You’re imagining things.”

  “It’s okay, I like my men with a little meat on their bone, too.”

  “It’ll never happen, Lilly, so just quit thinking about it. Just help me catch the horses.”

  They hitched up the horses and saddled the trace horses. When they were ready to go, Lilly laid her hand on Jeremiah’s. “We’ve all had something bad happen to us in our lives. We can’t go on blaming it on others or ourselves forever. If we ever want to be happy again, we have to quit lying to ourselves and move on.”

  “It just takes time, Lilly. Sometimes, it just takes time. I didn’t really know Alma that well. We met on the same stage that you and Jack tried to rob me on. She got on when you and Jack were taken away by the sheriff. I went on to Alaska and didn’t see her for over two years. We wrote each other now and then. Her more than me, but in her last letter she said she loved me. Nobody had ever said that to me before. Then, when I came home, she’d bought my ranch from the government as a surprise for me. All and all, I’ve known you longer than her, if you count our meeting on the stagecoach. If you count the time we’ve been together tracking your brothers, we’ve almost been together longer, but that doesn’t matter. I’m not lying to myself. It just takes time. I’ve got a job to do and I can’t let my mind be distracted.”

  In the back of his mind, he couldn’t help but think Lilly was just trying to distract him to save her brothers’ lives. He knew he couldn’t stop until he had avenged Alma’s death.

  Chapter 12

  The farther they went, the more beautiful Arkansas became. There were mountains, trees, rivers and waterfalls. Jeremiah had only passed th
rough northwest Arkansas on his way to Andersonville. He’d never stopped and really took in its beauty. “Why did you ever leave this place? It’s as beautiful as Alaska only not as cold.”

  “There’s no money here. If you don’t work in a coal mine or cut off your trees for timber, then farming is the only thing left. And there’s nothing to do. Young people need things to do other than work. My pa raised corn and tomatoes for a living. After he was killed, the boys lost all interest in farming and started robbing people. Here in Arkansas, everyone they robbed was as poor as us, so we left and went to Kansas. They killed buffalo until all the Injuns was rounded up and put on reservations and then went back to robbing. You said you went through Arkansas during the war. Why didn’t you come back?”

  “My mother was killed by the Yankees while I was at Andersonville. She died trying to defend our place from the new Yankee government. I came back and had nothing, so I went to Alaska to find gold and buy our place back. I was raised there and both of my parents died and are buried there. I buried Alma right beside them under the shade tree where I tied you.” Lilly started to cry again. “I’m sorry I did that to you. I was crazy with anger, I wanted to kill everyone.”

  “I’m not crying because you were mean to me, but for what we did to you. We never gave a thought to the trouble the people we robbed had been through. We just took everything they had. We’re all in the same family and we all agreed on what we did. We deserve anything we get. All except Dick. He didn’t want to hurt your wife. He told me in Independence he tried to stop them. Please don’t kill him, Jeremiah.”

  ***

  It took them two more days of winding through the mountains when they finally broke through the trees and Jeremiah got his first look at their farm. It was down in a valley with the White River running through it. The house and barn were in the middle of the fields which were grown up with cedar and locust trees. A trail used to drag the logs out was the only path down to the valley. There was no one in sight.