Slocum and the Town Killers

by Jake Logan

  “A parley,” Magee said to himself. “It’s still possible. I can tell the commander that Kimbrell was only the leading element, the first strike, a feeler to gauge the resolve of those inside. How can he have any reserve, either in manpower or supplies? Yes, yes, a parley. Then I’ll make sure Louisa and Sarah Beth are safe.”

  He swung back to his map and came to an abrupt halt. A blond woman stood where he had been planning his own assault on the fort. She held a six-gun trained on his midriff. For a giddy moment, Magee thought it was Sarah Beth. Then he saw it was another young woman, somewhat taller but of the same age and coloring.

  “Don’t move a muscle,” the woman said. She held the three-pound pistol with both hands. The six-shooter did not waver a fraction of an inch.

  “Who are you?”

  “I’m the woman who’s got your daughter prisoner. I swear by all that’s holy, I will kill her if you don’t give me what I want.”

  “Sarah Beth? Where is she? You kidnapped her and my wife?”

  “She’s where you’ll never get her. If anything happens to me, she’s dead.”

  “You’re the one I’ve been chasing across Indian Territory ? You took my family?”

  Catherine Duggan laughed harshly.

  “That’s a pipe dream you conjured up in your own head, Major, but I’ve got Sarah Beth now and that’s all that matters.”

  “I’ll give you whatever you want in return for my daughter.”

  “Damned right you will. Here’s what you’ll give me.” She began telling him what she wanted.

  26

  “I will kill her.”

  The words came to Slocum’s ears faint and distant. He shifted direction and made a guess where he had to go to find the speaker. He had tromped through the woods for an hour on foot to avoid Magee’s men milling about, following the hoofprints of the horses from the spot where he was sure Sarah Beth and her captor had mounted. The hoofprints veered in an unexpected direction from the direction he now headed, but Slocum felt an urgency about the threat that made him abandon the trail.

  He moved silently until he came upon the tableau. Catherine Duggan held a six-shooter on Magee. The major and the woman were separated by a map spread on the ground and nothing more. Slocum wanted to call out to her that she stood too close. Guns were not close-in weapons. Even belly guns were best used before the foe got too close. Such a philosophy would be lost on the woman, however. She spoke in angry, staccato bursts.

  “Tell me what I want to know, or I will kill your daughter.”

  “Who are you?” Clayton Magee moved a little closer. The man might be a lunatic, but he still had a strong survival instinct. Or was it simply that Catherine dangled his daughter’s life like a carrot on a stick in front of a mule? Slocum moved around to get a better view as he drew his six-shooter. He wasn’t sure who he would shoot.

  Killing Magee would end the rampage across Oklahoma, but Catherine had a wild-eyed look about her as crazy as Magee’s. Either was capable of killing and hardly noticing. More than this, Slocum wanted to know just what the hell was going on. He edged closer until he came to a rotting tree limb that afforded him some cover. The two were so intent on one another that they did not notice him.

  “You don’t know me? You don’t know me!”

  “You’re the woman with a six-gun trained on me,” Magee said, his voice totally lacking in any inflection. “You claim to have my daughter. Where is she?”

  “I’ll tell you when I find out about my pa.”

  “Your pa?” Magee looked as confused as Slocum felt.

  “Harrison Duggan,” Catherine said. “Lieutenant Harrison Duggan. You don’t remember him?”

  Magee shook his head slowly.

  “I swear, I will kill Sarah Beth. She will die if you don’t give it all to me.”

  “Give what? Release my daughter, and we can talk.” Magee’s mood was changing again, this time becoming that of the analytical tactician who won battles. Catherine was too engrossed with her demands to notice the shift. But Slocum did. He pointed his six-shooter at the major now.

  “You ruined him. At Stone River. You accused him of cowardice in the face of the enemy and court-martialed him. He was innocent!”

  “I . . . I seem to remember something of that.”

  “Stone River. He was cut off from his men by Rebel fire.”

  “And his entire company was killed. If he had been with them, they would not only have lived but turned the tide of battle in our favor.”

  “He couldn’t help it. He’s innocent. You know that he is. You hid evidence of how he was too injured to command. I want it.”

  “I hid nothing,” Magee said.

  “Liar! You hated him because he was a better commander than you were. He should have been given a medal, but you gave false testimony. You lied. I want to hear you say it. He was an honorable man and not responsible for what happened to his company!”

  “Eighty-two men died because of Lieutenant Duggan,” the major said. He edged to his left. From Slocum’s vantage point, he could not tell what was going on, but Catherine turned to follow him with her pistol. This blocked Slocum’s view of her face and he had no way to determine how likely she was to pull the trigger.

  A thousand things rushed through Slocum’s head, but it was as if he was mired deep in mud and could not get free. If he shot Magee, Catherine might never tell where Sarah Beth was because she had been thwarted in proving her father was innocent of desertion charges. If he shot Catherine, he might never find Sarah Beth because the girl’s hiding place would die with her, a secret. Slocum knew he might follow the hoofprints and locate Sarah Beth, but Magee’s men made any protracted hunt risky.

  “I’ve got her tied up so she’ll hang herself if I don’t get back soon. Tell me now, Major Magee. Tell me all the evidence you suppressed at my father’s trail!”

  “There was none. He was guilty.”

  “You wouldn’t say that if he were here today!” Catherine’s voice rose shrilly. She was losing control. “I’ll let Sarah Beth die.”

  “The crime is on your head then. You’re as much a coward as your father. It runs in the family.”

  “I’m no coward.”

  “He turned tail and ran. He abandoned his men because he was afraid. You’ve kidnapped Sarah Beth rather than face me without that bargaining lever because you’re a coward, too.”

  Slocum saw that Catherine was reaching the point where Magee’s death would be just fine with her. She could always search through the major’s effects for whatever evidence she sought. If it wasn’t there, she was in such a state that she could lie to herself and actually believe she had found everything to prove her pa’s innocence.

  No matter what, Sarah Beth had to be found quickly. Slocum doubted Catherine would ever let the girl go free, even if Clayton Magee surrendered the evidence she demanded. The chances of him having it with him were worse than drawing to an inside straight. As Slocum decided what to do, he rose from behind the felled tree limb and aimed—and heard someone behind him.

  Slocum threw himself to the side, brought his Colt around, and almost fired into Isaiah Langmuir’s chest.

  “What the hell are you doing here?” Slocum demanded in a harsh whisper.

  “Sarah Beth. I followed the tracks like you did, Slocum. There, with Magee. That’s the woman who warned me of Magee and his horde. What—?”

  “Shut up.” Slocum pulled the captain down and hastily explained what had happened.

  “She knows where Sarah Beth is? I’ll make her talk!”

  Slocum yanked hard on Langmuir’s arm and dragged him down again.

  “You’re a damned fool. You abandoned your men. You left your command during battle. You can spend the next twenty years in the Detroit Federal prison for that.”

  “I love her!”

  “I suspect Sarah Beth loves you, too, but you’re going to get her killed if you barge in.”

  “I have to do something.”

&
nbsp; “Shut your pie hole.” Slocum rolled back and peered over at Catherine and Magee. The major had edged around another two feet. Slocum saw a rifle leaning against a stump. For whatever reason, Magee was going for it. If he made a mad grab, Catherine could not miss hitting him. His lunacy must cause him to think he was invincible.

  “I will not give you anything to exonerate the lieutenant. He deserved the firing squad.”

  “He died in disgrace. It’s you who’s a disgrace. You ride around killing hundreds of people and all because those two whores left you. They left you!”

  “You are the one who kidnapped Louisa and Sarah Beth,” Magee said. His eyes grew wide and his face became a mask of rage.

  Slocum saw how the delusions were fitting together like a key into a lock and he did not like it.

  “We’ve got to stop—” Langmuir never finished his sentence.

  Magee jerked toward the rifle against the stump. Catherine swung in that direction with her pistol, but Magee was already moving the other way. From under his uniform jacket he drew a small pistol and fired four times. Slocum thought that might be as many rounds as the hideout pistol carried.

  “I’ll get him,” Langmuir said, standing. Slocum tried to pull the man back down, but this time the captain jerked free.

  “His men! The shots are bringing his men!” Slocum stayed low behind the limb, yet not only Magee but four of his henchmen spotted Langmuir.

  “I’ll decoy them away. Find Sarah Beth and get her back to the fort. Hurry, Slocum, I’m begging you! Save her!” With that, Langmuir aimed his six-shooter at Magee and began firing. He was seconds too late. The major had rolled back toward the stump and grabbed his rifle. He added several bullets to the air around Langmuir’s head even as he was screeching for his men to rally to him and kill the assassins.

  Langmuir ducked and ran toward the fort, then cut away and dived into a ditch with Magee’s men hot on his trail. Slocum could not fight so many men, but considered a killing shot for the Magee. Cut off the snake’s head and the whole body dies. Whether by accident or design, four of the major’s men crowded too close to him for Slocum to get a clean shot. Leaving behind the human shield, Slocum slipped back the way he had come knowing he could only do what Langmuir had asked—and what he had stayed away from the fort to do.

  Sarah Beth had to be somewhere near. Catherine Duggan had approached Magee on foot. Finding cover, Slocum hurried back to the point where he had chosen to follow Catherine’s voice rather than her trail. More than once he had to duck and take cover however he could. The shooting had stirred up Magee’s men like pouring boiling water down an anthill. They had been anxious and ready to attack before, confused at Kimbrell’s actions, and a little frightened after the cannon blew up. Now they were trigger-happy and shooting at breeze-caressed shrubs.

  He found the hoofprints and veered sharply, following them. They were plain enough in the burgeoning light that a blind man could see them. Rather than going to Catherine, he should have pursued Sarah Beth, but he had not known. Slocum hoped he was not too late. There had been a ring of truth in Catherine’s threat that she had left Sarah Beth tied up in such a way that she would hang herself unless freed. What worried Slocum even more than Sarah Beth accidentally ending her own life was that Catherine had murdered her before confronting Clayton Magee. In her state, Catherine would have thought it fitting justice if she could have gotten the evidence exonerating her father and then told Magee where to find his dead daughter.

  Slocum almost missed her. He was jogging along, watching the trail, when he heard a choked sound and a scraping noise. He spun and saw a flash of blond hair through the trees. He pushed aside shrubs and burst into a spot directly under an oak tree. Catherine had tossed a rope over the limb and then secured it to a gnarled root popping up from the base. The other end was slipped around Sarah Beth’s throat. She had been standing on top of a smooth rock. But now she had slipped off the rock and was strangling slowly.

  And this was what had temporarily saved her.

  The scraping sound Slocum had heard was Sarah Beth’s foot going out from under her. A drop from a gallows would have killed her outright. Now he had seconds to keep her alive. He rushed to her and threw his arms around her thighs and lifted.

  “Get the rope off your neck,” he told her. He got only choking noises as a response. With her hands tied securely behind her back, Sarah Beth could not free herself. Since he was holding her up to take the weight off the noose, Slocum could not loosen the rope either.

  He tried to get her feet back to the top of the smooth rock where she had been standing, but it was too slippery. Slocum couldn’t say a word about how it had gotten that way. In her fear, Sarah Beth had pissed herself and made the rock too slick to maintain her balance.

  “I’m going to lower you again.”

  Frantic sounds told how frightened she was of being choked again.

  “Only for an instant. I have to get my knife out.” He lowered her and tried to hold her upright with one arm, but the slippery rock betrayed her again. Her feet went flying. Slocum moved like a striking snake, though, got his knife from the top of his boot, and slashed furiously in the air above her head.

  Sarah Beth crashed to the ground, gasping for breath and sobbing.

  “You’re safe now,” Slocum said.

  “I peed in my pants,” the woman sobbed out. “I haven’t done that since I was a little girl.”

  “Nobody will ever find out. I promise.”

  “You promise?”

  “We have to get back to the fort.”

  “Not like this. Please, John, not like this!”

  He cut the ropes on her wrists and let her rub the circulation back. But noises in the woods warned of Magee’s men getting closer by the minute.

  “We have to go, unless you want your pa to catch you.”

  “No!”

  He took her hand and yanked her to her feet.

  “Where’re the horses you rode from the fort?”

  “Th-there,” Sarah Beth said, pointing.

  “Stay here.” Slocum kicked through the undergrowth, making as much noise as he could. He grabbed the rifle thrust into a saddle scabbard, then swatted the horses on the rumps and yelled as loud as he could.

  “They’re after us! Ride fast!”

  Then he ducked back toward Sarah Beth.

  “Y-you chased off our horses,” she said. “How will we get back?”

  “The same way I got here. On foot. They’ll chase the horses for a mile or two. By the time they find we’re not on them, it’ll be too late. Both of us will be all safe and sound inside the fort.”

  Slocum hoped it would work that way because he had to rely more on luck now than skill to keep them both alive.

  27

  “John, help him! He’ll never get away!” Sarah Beth started toward the open area leading to the Fort Supply gate. Slocum grabbed her and pulled her down to the ground where she would not be seen by the men chasing Isaiah Langmuir.

  “He’s decoying them away so you can get into the fort safely,” Slocum said.

  “I don’t care. What’s the use of me being safe if Isaiah is dead?”

  Slocum grabbed her again to keep her from bolting and running. Langmuir was on foot and dodging frantically to keep away from Magee’s gang, many of them on horseback. They worked the cavalry captain like a steer to be branded. Always, they let him start toward the gate and then cut him off. This tactic tired Langmuir since it always forced him to run farther than if he simply turned from the fort and tried to find a spot to make his stand.

  From the way the captain waved his pistol around, Slocum guessed he might be out of ammunition. Slocum considered firing a few rounds at the outlaws to throw some confusion into their rank, but the distance was too great.

  “Don’t make his sacrifice for nothing.” Slocum grabbed her arm until he felt his fingers cutting into her reluctant flesh. He knew he bruised her and did not care. If the pain caused her to move, he
had accomplished all he had set out to do.

  “I won’t leave him like this. Without him, my life is nothing!”

  Slocum gauged distances and how mad he was getting. Using this as a goad, he turned, scooped Sarah Beth up, and tossed her over his shoulder. She kicked and screamed and he ran. Langmuir had done a good job leading the outlaws away from the fort, and that gave Slocum a chance to run along as fast as he could carrying the struggling woman until he got to the sundered gate.

  Panting harshly, he dropped her to the ground. She sat heavily in the dirt, leaned back on her hands, and glared at him for perpetrating such an indignity on her.

  “Get her inside,” he told the soldier who had poked his head past the gate to see what was going on.

  “No, no!”

  “There! They’re comin’! I see the pennant! It’s two whole companies from Fort Gibson!” The lookout high on the wall jumped up and down in his excitement, pointing eastward.

  Slocum looked into the rising sun and saw the dust before he saw the soldiers. They were saved.

  “If the outlaws see the cavalry on the way, they’ll let Langmuir go and hightail it,” he told Sarah Beth.

  She started to say something, then clamped her mouth shut. Tears ran down her cheeks.

  “What’s wrong? Captain Langmuir’s likely to get back here at any minute.”

  “Papa,” she said in a low, weak voice. “The cavalry will never take him alive. Can you do anything to save him, John?”

  “What do you care? He would have beaten you, imprisoned you like he did your ma, maybe done even worse to you.”

  “He’s my father. What can I say? He needs help.”

  Slocum held his tongue. What Clayton Magee needed was a slug through the brain. Even that might not cure his craziness.