Hickory Jack (Ben Blue Book 1)

by Lou Bradshaw

  “No, Amos Poke.” He never even blinked at the name. “I’ve come to arrest you and Clyde Gentry for murder and robbery in at least three states.” My gun was in my hand but lowered. I opened my jacket to show my badge.

  “Now, Judge, if you’ll kindly put your hands up and walk out on the porch, I’ll have Deputy Drake fit you with some wrist shackles.” He raised his hands and started walking toward the door and past me. When he was within four or five feet of me, the back of my head caved in, and I was falling.

  I don’t know how long I was out, but for a long time I seemed to hear voices. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but they were rushing around. “We’ll have to leave that… no time… They ready?” were some of the bits and pieces I could eventually make out. My body didn’t seem to be connected to my brain. It wouldn’t do anything I wanted it to.

  Feet rushed past me going through the door. “If you morons had done your job back there in Missouri, we wouldn’t be in this spot now…. Do it!”

  I was trying to roll over so I could at least try a shot when I heard, “And this is for riding my horse!” Then there was a God awful roar and I was out again.

  The next time my eyes fluttered open, they were looking at the surprised face of Rafe Baker. He was leaning over me and he suddenly jumped back. “Oh Lordy.” He said. “I sure thought you was a goner.” He had a wet cloth and must have been trying to clean up blood because it had plenty on it.

  “Where’s Drake?”

  “Oh, he got a konk on the head, but he’s alright. He’s goin’ after the doctor.”

  “Poke and Gentry gone… er Pickering and Bristol I mean?”

  “Yeah, they lit out of here right after I heard the shot. Took the three new boys with ‘em… I came up here to see what they was shootin at. Sure didn’t expect to see you… and a wearin’ that badge too.”

  “How bad am I hit?” I asked, hoping he had some good news.

  “Well, I ain’t seen no brains oozin’ out, but you sure got a nasty gash. He must have missed you by a cat’s whisker. It sure does bleed though.”

  I told him to get a piece of cloth and fold it up nice and thick. Then wrap another around it to hold in place. He was back in a minute with what I’d asked for. As he was ripping the cloth, he chuckled and said, “This used to be Pickering’s best shirt… the fat little bastard.”

  After he had my head wrapped up, I tried to get up. That didn’t seem to work out too well. So I tried not to get up, and I did a better job of that. My head hurt something awful and my ears were ringing. I couldn’t seem to keep my eyes focused for more than a few seconds. I couldn’t seem to keep them open for more than a few minutes. Waves of blackness swept over me and I was in and out. But each time I came out of the dark, a new adventure in pain greeted me.

  I heard the pounding of hooves long before I knew what it was. Then there was the sound of feet on the porch mixed with the blowing and farting of horses having just slid to a stop. My eyes were closed against the pain of the light, but my ears were working fine except for the ringing. The footsteps I heard didn’t belong to any man.

  “Ben! Ben! Are you okay? Is he gonna die, Rafe?…Did you shoot him?…. Charlie, give me your gun.”

  “Patty! Pat no…don’t… don’t shoot Rafe, he’s trying to help… Bristol shot me.

  Then she was kneeling on the floor beside me, caressing my head and creating more pain than comfort. Charlie came around and took her hands from my face and said, “Easy, girl. Don’t go addling his brains. We don’t know what kind of hurt he’s got.” She just sat there holding my hand and sobbed, while I went back into the dark.

  The next time my eyes opened, I was stretched out on a couch, and the doc was putting things into his bag. “Well howdy there, Bright Eyes. Glad to see you decided to join us. You’re goin to have a mighty big head for a few days. You might have a little memory loss and confusion, but that should clear up soon enough. When I was your age, I was confused about a lot of things.” Then he laughed at his own joke. I didn’t try to laugh, I just smiled a little.

  “Don’t try to do too much for the next couple weeks. You’ve had a pretty serious concussion, and there’s just too much we don’t know about the brain… You came to within the thickness of a playing card from having your brains splattered all over this room… I’ll send the bill to the US Marshal’s office in Santa Fe.”

  “I’ll take care of it, Doc, and thanks.” I managed to say.

  When the doctor had gone, Patty came and sat beside me in a chair. “Doc Withers said you shouldn’t try to do too much and get lots and lots of rest. So we’re taking you back to the Esses till you’re up and around.”

  “I can’t just lay around for a couple of days. I’ve got too much to do… I’ve got cattle to take care of, and I’ve got to get after Poke and Gentry.”

  “Your cattle will take care of themselves quite well without your help. They seem to have a knack for it. They’ve been doing it for thousands of years. And as for those killers, maybe you better wait for the sheriff to get some men together and go after them.”

  “I can’t wait for a posse. They’ll get away. I can’t start all over again… I just don’t think I can do it again… I’ve got a home now, and I’ve ….”

  Sam came through the door and said, “We’re all set, Patty.” Charlie and Rafe came in and got me to my feet and supported me out to the buckboard, which had been fitted with a pretty nice mattress.

  Rafe Baker laughed and said, “We took that mattress off a old Pickering’s own bed. He’d sure throw a fit if he knew. I’ll be over to see ya, Red, before I light out of here.”

  Once I laid down on that mattress, I didn’t wake up till mid morning… the next day. I woke up in a nice big bed in a room that I’d never seen before. The curtains were closed and it was darkish with just little cracks of light coming around the window. It was enough light for me to know that I shouldn’t be abed in broad daylight. I looked around the room as best I could in the gloom looking for my pants. Finally, I spotted my boots in a corner and figured my pants couldn’t be too far away from ‘em.

  My head was filled with a dull ache, but that was a whole lot better than it had been before I got into that buckboard. Pulling the covers back, I rolled over and put a foot on the floor then the other one. Next I pushed myself into a sitting position. That wasn’t the smartest thing I’d ever done, but it did rank up there with one of the stupidest. Oh Lord… that hurt!

  I sat there for at least a couple of minutes, trying to decide if there was any reason that I really needed to get up, and I decided that even though there were plenty of reasons to get up none of them half compared to my reason to stay in that bed.

  Finding my pocket watch on the night table, I determined that it was after ten o’clock, and unless that was a monster moon it would be morning. Not being able to get out of bed, and not sure I had anything but boots and a pocket watch to wear if I did; I stayed where I was.

  A few minutes later, the door opened, a figure slid in and went to a chair, placed something on the chair, and then stealthily moved to the bed side and stared at me. I said, “Good morning ma’am.” and Patty jumped straight up and gave out with a little yelp.

  “Ben! You scared me out of a year’s growth, and I can’t afford to lose any. If you weren’t in such bad shape, I’d whack you good.”

  “Sorry, Patty.” I said. “I didn’t think. I was just so glad to see you. When do you think I can get up?”

  “You scare me again, and you may never get up, you big overgrown heathen… Doc Withers came by this morning, and said if you felt like it, you could get up tomorrow for a little bit. But you have to stay off a horse for a couple more days.”

  “You hungry? Rosa’s just dyin to pamper you a little bit. She’s made you some nice soup.”

  “Has it got any meat in it?”

  “Of course, it has meat in it. This is a cattle ranch, you big boob. We put beef in everything except apple pie.”


  “Tell Rosa to throw in a couple of chili peppers and we got a deal.”

  About ten minutes later, she returned with a big bowl of soup on a tray. There were a couple of real biscuits, which means they weren’t anything like the ones I made. I got myself propped up on some pillows with a minimum of pain and lightheadedness. While I was eating, Patty pulled a chair up next to the bed and sat down.

  She picked up my deputy badge and asked, “Ben, I had no idea you were a Deputy US Marshal.” She rubbed it and picked at something on the surface, “Blood.” She said, and looked up at me.

  “I’m a special deputy… I probably won’t even get paid for it… My only job is to get Poke and Gentry. When that’s done, then I give Jasper his badge back. Every marshal has the right to appoint special onetime deputies, but few ever do.”

  “Jasper?” she asked.

  “Marshal Stewart.” I told her.

  “Ben, every day I find out something new about you. A few months ago you were, just Andy’s cute younger brother. You’re still kinda cute, but you’re not really his brother. You’ve been a man hunter, a rancher with his own valley, money in the bank, protector of banks, involved in shootouts with people trying to ambush you, hob-nobber with Spanish Dons, and now a special US Deputy Marshal who calls the Marshal by his first name. What’s the next surprise?”

  “You left out that I won a spelling bee when I was eleven. But that was before all this started… But I think you got me pretty well up to date….To be perfectly honest with you, I could do with a few less surprises. I just want to raise cows and horses, smoke some hams, and eventually get a family going with some fat redheaded babies bouncin on my knee.”

  Luckily, there was a knock on the door before I let my deliriums say something I wasn’t ready to talk about. Andy poked his head in and said, “Hey there pretty lady, you got a hard headed Irishman in here?”

  Patty startled like she had been caught drawing pictures in a Sunday school book. It took her a few seconds to gather her wits and then replied, “Yes I do, and you’re welcome to him. Just don’t let him get out of bed.”

  Patty left the room fanning herself. I felt a little warm myself.

  Andy looked over my bandaged head, while clucking like an old hen scolding her chicks, and then he sat down in the recently abandoned chair. “Ben, what the hell was Nelson thinking when he sent Cal Drake out there with you?”

  “All he had to do was stop anyone from coming up behind me… What’s his account?”

  “Say’s he was standin there on the porch when Bristol strolled up and motioned him down to the bottom step. So he just went on down, and Bristol cold cocked him with a whip stock. Damned near knocked him goofy.”

  “But he knew that Bristol was Gentry,” I said, “and that’s who we were there to arrest.”

  “Yeah, he said he remembered later, but he’d known Bristol for some time and had worked several roundups with him. He just couldn’t imagine he’d be so tricky and so vicious.”

  “He’d be better off going back to his daddy’s ranch and brand some calves.” I told him.

  “Left this morning… decided he’s more cattleman than lawman.” Andy sat there for a minute thinking.

  “How long you gonna be laid up here lollygaggin around makin the pretty little ranch girl blush?”

  “Couple more days, and I’ll be ready to set a horse. Doc said that bullet just shaved a little bit of skull bone. I was trying to roll over when he shot. I guess, if I hadn’t been movin he’d have got me dead center of the old melon… You got a plan?”

  “The way I heard it, that bullet hit your head bone and went sailin right up through the ceiling… No, I got no plan, that’s why I been draggin you around with me all these years. You’re the plannin partner.”

  “Here’s what I know.” I told him. “There’s five of them on the run. Rafe Baker said that three of the new boys took off with em. Rafe was a big help… probably kept me from bleedin to death, and he took charge of Drake and sent him after help.”

  “Go to the ranch, down in the southeast corner of the valley, there’s an old Indian named Rubio herdin sheep with his grandson. Tell him that I need the best Navajo tracker there is to find those men. I tend to think that old Apache stalker will be our man. Say I need the tracker at my house two mornings after tomorrow. You may have to draw lines in the dirt showing which day is which.”

  “What’s Nelson got to say?” I asked, “He got any kind of plan?”

  “He said that me and you are in charge, cause we know these men. Just let him know what help we need.”

  I thought about that for a minute. “Tell him, that we need two men and, and pick up provision for five men for a week…Put it on my account at the Mercantile, unless the county wants to pay for it… What day is it?” He said it was Tuesday. “Have everyone at my house on Friday morning, as close to daybreak as you can. Pick up that little sorrel in my pasture and a pack saddle from the barn. He’s a good packhorse.”

  “Boy Howdy! That’s the old Blue Boy I used to know. Once you get started you really get goin… Let’s go get them sons a bitches.”

  The door opened and Patty stuck her head in and gasped, “Andrew Moore! You go right now and wash your mouth out with soap! And when you’re finished with Ben, he’s got more visitors.”

  “Beg pardon, little Princess, but my little brother just gets me so fired up that I just can’t help myself. It’s okay, I’m all finished… You can have him, and he winked. She smacked him on the arm as he walked by. When he turned to his right outside the door, I heard him exclaim, “Oh my goodness, just look at all the prettiness out here in the hall way!” Girls giggled and spurs jingled. And I’m sure a few hearts fluttered.

  Three young sweeties trooped in at Patty’s signal. There were the Tucker girls, Linda and Maggie, and Beth whose last name I had forgotten, from the church social. But they were all bearing get well baskets full of baked goodies, and they were all fanning themselves. Andy had that effect on young ladies. I told them that Andy would have stayed, but he had to go wash his mouth out with soap for being naughty. They giggled again.

  Little Maggie must have been especially struck by Andy because she said, “Ben, it must have been hard growing up with such a handsome and charming brother.”

  I told her, “No Maggie, it wasn’t hard at all. Every time he’d start to get too good lookin I’d start a fight, and in a few minutes neither one of us was worth lookin at.” She was aghast, but soon realized that I was just foolin. I had a notion that little Maggie was feeling like an ugly duckling next to her sister. So I motioned her closer and told her that I had a secret to tell her. She cupped her ear and brought it close to my lips. I whispered, “Margaret Tucker, never you fear. You’ll soon be one of the most beautiful young women in this whole county. I know a pretty girl when I see one.” She raised up beaming then she bent over and kissed my cheek.

  The other three tried to find out what kind of secret could get that kind of reaction from sassy little Maggie. But I wasn’t talkin and neither was she.

  I spent a very pleasant half hour, with the four young ladies. Patty finally called it to an end, telling them that I had to get my rest because I had some outlaws to catch before I could settle down and nursemaid my cows. As they left she turned and gave me an impish grin.

  The next day was spent out of bed, and afoot. I was able to move about without too much pain. I walked out to the bunkhouse and barn, helped Sam braid a new rieta, I was just doing anything to keep busy. I hadn’t noticed any loss of memory, or any of the other signs Doc Withers had mentioned. My vision hadn’t been blurred nor did I see doubles of anything. All I had was a headache and a deep furrow on the left side of my head. He had stitched it up real tight, and it should heal nicely. Doc said that the worst thing to worry about was swelling of the brain, and my headache didn’t seem that bad. My head was mostly just sore. I think, being up and around out in the fresh air kept my blood circulating and that had to help.

&nb
sp; Patty came out and walked with me for a while. We walked up the lane for about a half mile and back. It was brisk, and I had a fleece lined jacket, which I put around her shoulders. My wool shirt and vest were enough to keep me comfortable. She tucked her arm in mine as we walked, and it felt natural as pie. We talked as we walked, but we were both very cautious of what we said. There was no question that we were drawn to each other and very fond of each other, but we were both still very young. It was not uncommon for people our ages to be married, but I was a long way from being ready to start a family. I didn’t want to bring a bride into a cabin, even though I called it a house; it was no more ready than I was. I had a good beginning for a fine ranch, but it was only a beginning.

  Patty also had to think about Sam. She had an obligation to him. He had practically raised her by himself. She was no more than a baby when her parents were killed, and her grandmother died before she learned her ABCs. So it had been Sam who, with the help of a few Mexican cooks, who made her the young woman she was. Sam knew that she would eventually make her own life, and that was what he wanted for her, but he would miss her. She wasn’t ready to leave him yet.

  I felt that if our feelings were genuine, they would still be there in a few more years.

  The following morning, Rafe Baker rode over to see me. He said he didn’t know what he was supposed to do, since the bosses were on the lamb and there was only himself, another hand, and the cook left on the place. I thought about that for a while and told him, “You got several options, as I see it, first, you can stay where you are until someone tells you to leave. You’ve got a place to stay and food for a while. I suspect the sheriff will try to locate the real Pickering’s heirs. If you’ve got money coming, you could run off with enough cattle to cover your pay… probably no one would make much of it. Or you could stick around and do your job, and be Johnny on the spot when the new owners show up.

  I asked about the men who went with Poke and Gentry. He gave me their names as, Buck Patton, Dave Ledge, and Hoyt Simmons. All were hardcases, and none were cattlemen. “Oh,” he said, “they know how to drive ‘em, but that’s about all they know about ‘em.”