The Devil's Posse

by Charles G. West

  “That oughta be good enough,” Logan insisted, and tried to get to his feet while ignoring the pounding in his head. “I’m all right now.”

  Daisy wasn’t so sure, but she tied a knot in the bandage and stood back to let him get to his feet. “That’s what I thought,” she said when he staggered sideways, trying to keep from falling. Ox quickly stepped up to support him. “Take him in the house, big boy,” Daisy said to Ox, “and set him down on that sofa in the parlor.”

  Still protesting, Logan was helped into the house. Daisy followed right behind with the repentant Sam Taylor lagging after her. As soon as they got Logan settled on the sofa, Daisy ordered him to stay there while she went to get some clean cloths.

  “Keep him there, Ox,” she said, and turned, almost colliding with Sam. “Damn it, Sam, I’m gonna run you over if you don’t get out from behind me. Go on and say what you wanna say to Logan, then get outta the way.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” he said, and stepped up cautiously by the sofa. Logan looked at him, still in a slight daze. “I know I done the wrong thing,” Sam started. “But I’m hopin’ you’ll understand we was all fooled by that Quincy Smith, or whatever his name is, and I thought I was doin’ the right thing. I’m just as sorry as I can be.”

  At this point, Logan blamed himself for his carelessness more than he blamed Sam, and his only concern was to clear his head so he could get on Quincy’s trail.

  “Just take care of my horses and we’ll be square,” he said.

  * * *

  While Logan was being restrained in the Three Widows, Quincy and Lonnie were over two miles away, following a trail beside Spearfish Creek. Pressing their horses hard for speed on the snow-covered track, they followed the creek into Spearfish Canyon, hoping their lead would be too much to overcome.

  After another mile in the rugged canyon, they were forced to let up on the horses for fear of breaking a leg on the icy trail. Quincy, leading the way, pulled up to a stop when he reached a small clearing protected from pursuit by several large boulders. When Lonnie came up beside him, he stepped down and reached for Hannah.

  “Come ’ere, darlin’, I know you been wishin’ you were ridin’ with me.”

  She tried to fight him, but Lonnie pushed her off the horse and she landed on the ground. Frightened for her life, she scrambled up, slipping awkwardly in the snow, but managed to keep her feet and started to run back the way they had just come.

  “No, you don’t,” Quincy yelled, and ran after her, only to find that the blow he had received from Logan’s boot still caused him too much agony to chase her.

  “Damned if he didn’t pretty much geld you, didn’t he, cousin?” Lonnie sneered when he saw how Quincy was favoring his injury. He had no patience for Quincy’s lusty notions at a time like this. Having already taken control of their escape while Quincy was incapacitated, he did not intend to endanger it now. He wheeled his horse and easily overtook the terrified woman within a couple of dozen yards, pulling the horse around to bump her backward onto the snowy ground. Taking his time, he casually stepped down and dumped her on her backside again when she tried to get up. He stood over her and pointed a threatening finger in her face.

  “You get up from there and behave yourself. I’ll tell you when you can go.” He reached down, grabbed her wrist, and roughly helped her to her feet. Then he herded her back to the clearing, where Quincy immediately grabbed her and pulled her tightly against him.

  “We ain’t got time to play no more of your little games,” Quincy told her while she struggled to free herself from his embrace. “You’ve been wantin’ to be with me ever since we came to town.”

  “Let me go!” she pleaded, terrified. “You told them you’d let me go!”

  Quincy laughed scornfully. “I’ve told a lot of people a lot of things.”

  “We damn sure ain’t got time for you to fool around with that woman while we’ve got a posse to worry about,” Lonnie said. “Hell, you couldn’t cut the mustard right now anyway. We’ll take a minute or two to make sure that bunch ain’t ridin’ hot on our heels. Then we’ll let her go, just like I said we would.”

  “When in hell did you start givin’ the orders, cousin?” Quincy demanded, still clutching Hannah. It had always been understood that he was the boss, and he didn’t like the notion that Lonnie evidently had decided he could tell him what to do.

  “When you started sniffin’ around that damn woman like you was a hound dog, and she was in heat,” Lonnie told him, “at a time when it might cause me to get my ass shot.”

  “Well, suppose you get your ass up on that rock and take a look down that trail to see if they’re comin’ after us or not?” Quincy said, taking command again.

  Lonnie, who had already been in the process of climbing up on the rock, didn’t bother to answer as he scrambled up on top, and stood looking down the canyon behind them.

  “There ain’t nobody in sight for as far as I can see,” he reported. “So I reckon we can let the woman go, and we’ll make tracks away from that damn town.”

  But now that he had his hands on her, Quincy was reluctant to let her get away. “I think maybe I’ve changed my mind,” he said. “I think I’ll take her with us. You’d like that, wouldn’t you, honey?” he teased, and tried to kiss her.

  She fought him with all her strength, determined to resist his advances, moving her head from side to side, until he became so frustrated that he struck her with his fist. Staggered by the blow on the side of her face, she sagged, dazed, and would have fallen had he not been holding her with his other arm.

  “That’s better,” he said, gloating. “Now I’ll have that kiss.”

  “Damn it, Quincy!” Lonnie railed. “We ain’t got time for that. We’ve got to get goin’ while we’ve still got a head start. Let the bitch go and they won’t have no reason to come after us.”

  “Well, what about Jake?” Quincy demanded. “Are you sayin’ we just ride off and forget about what that son of a bitch did to Jake? He’s the only reason we rode up to this damn canyon. I ain’t lettin’ nobody get away with killin’ my brother.”

  “I ain’t sayin’ we’ll forget about Jake,” Lonnie replied quickly, alert to the possibility of one of Quincy’s fits of anger. “I’m just sayin’ the time ain’t right now. Too much has gone against us. We had half a dozen men when we came out here. Hell, that was before we picked up Lacey. Now there ain’t but the two of us. On top of that, we got the whole town of Spearfish after us now.” It would be better to come back for Logan Cross when all this cooled down a little.

  I ain’t about to lose those two sacks of gold dust we left under the bed back in that boardin’house, either, he thought. That’s too much to leave behind, but we have to wait till things cool down.

  Quincy was still reluctant to let her go, but he knew Lonnie was talking sense. “All right, damn it!” he replied angrily. “I’m lettin’ her go.” He pawed over her body for a few moments but finally let her drop to the ground. “Maybe I’ll come back to see you sometime,” he said to her, then left her there and went to his horse.

  * * *

  Hannah walked for half an hour before seeing Jace Evans round a bend in the creek with half a dozen men behind him. Thankful to see her walking toward them, Jace pulled up to her and dismounted.

  “You’re hurt!” Jace exclaimed, concerned by the obvious evidence of Quincy’s blow to her face.

  Faint with relief upon seeing the riders, Hannah said, “That’ll be all right. I’m so glad to see you. I’m more worried about freezing to death.”

  Three of the town men started shucking their coats immediately, but Jace was the first to drape his heavy woolen coat around her shoulders. “We brought an extra horse for you to ride,” he said.

  Jim Bledsoe rode around the others and brought a saddled horse up front. “She’s a right gentle little mare,” he said to Hannah as Jace helped her
up into the saddle. “I don’t think she’ll give you any trouble.” He remained there with Jace and Bob Whitley while Fred Ramsey led Hannah and the others back down the trail to Spearfish. They watched the men from town escort Hannah away, and then Jim asked the question on all three of the Triple-T riders’ minds. “You thinkin’ about goin’ after those two skunks?”

  “I’ve been thinkin’ about it,” Jace replied after a moment’s hesitation. “There’s no doubt they need somethin’ done about ’em, but I’m halfway thinkin’ we ain’t got the time to chase after ’em, when we’ve got our own work to tend to. I told Mr. Towson we’d be right back after we told the people in Spearfish the truth about Quincy Morgan.”

  “Well, we made a bargain, even if it was with a couple of outlaws,” Bob said, “and it looks like they’re keepin’ their end of it. They let her go.”

  “Even if they did whomp that poor lady on the jaw,” Jim said. “I reckon it’s enough for the town that the two of ’em are gone from here.”

  “I reckon,” Jace agreed. “Let’s get on back to town.”

  * * *

  After following the creek for about five miles, the two outlaws came to an old game trail leading up between two mountains on the eastern side of Spearfish Canyon. They were not sure where it would lead them, but they decided it might at least take them in the direction they wanted to go, hoping to eventually find their way to Deadwood.

  They had decided that Deadwood would most likely be the best place to wait out the winter for several reasons. They were not ready to abandon the gold that they had left in the room at the Three Widows. And the towns in Deadwood Gulch were bound to offer many opportunities for two ruthless outlaws to prey upon the efforts of the hundreds of placer miners who might have struck solid color.

  In spite of that, they could never be assured of striking a payday to equal the gold they had already found and had hidden in the Three Widows. At the heart of these reasons, however, was Quincy’s unrelenting passion that would not be satisfied until Logan Cross was dead. It was a near-constant obsession in Quincy Morgan’s mind, and an irritating failure that needed fixing in Lonnie’s. There was a firm commitment in the minds of both men that sooner or later Logan Cross would die by their hands.

  “Damn that son of a bitch,” Lonnie swore when he thought about it. “We’ve got to get back there before somebody stumbles on those sacks under that bed.”

  “There ain’t much chance of it,” Quincy said, although every bit as concerned as Lonnie. They had loosened the nails in a couple of floorboards under the bed in guest room number one, Quincy’s bedroom. Lifting the boards just enough to stuff the gold sacks underneath, they had carefully replaced them. “Somebody would have to know that dust was hid in that room somewhere, and be lookin’ real hard for it. We’ll just let the town cool down. Then we’ll go back and get it.”

  “That might not be so easy,” Lonnie said. “We’ll liable to get shot on sight the minute we show up in that town now.”

  Chapter 15

  “You got banged on the head pretty good,” Mae Davis said when Logan got to his feet and had to grab the wall to keep from swaying. “Sam busted the stock on that Henry rifle of his.”

  “It sounded so loud,” Daisy commented, “I wasn’t sure if it was the rifle stock or your head that cracked.” She stepped forward and placed her hand on his arm. “Why don’t you sit back down on that sofa? You don’t need to be in a hurry to go anywhere till your brains calm down.”

  “I need to get after that pair before I lose their trail,” Logan insisted. “I’ll be all right as soon as my head stops spinnin’.”

  “Shoot,” Daisy scoffed. “You’d fall offa your horse.” She poked him in the chest with her finger, causing him to have to sit down again on the sofa. “You might as well quit arguin’. You ain’t goin’ nowhere tonight. It’s already too late to be tryin’ to follow anybody up that canyon anyway. If you just can’t stand it till somebody’s shootin’ at you, you can go out after those two bastards in the mornin’. Maybe you’ll be over that swimmy-headed spell by then.”

  “You can stay here tonight,” Mae suggested. “It just so happens that I’ve got two rooms come vacant today, and they’re paid for, too.”

  “That’s right,” Daisy chimed in. “And they’re in pretty good shape right now. They didn’t have time to mess ’em up before they checked out.”

  Logan didn’t argue the point any further. He had realized when he tried to stand that he was going to have to let his head settle down before he could rely on his body to do his bidding. When he had no longer insisted on leaving, the two women left him for a while to tend to other chores left in the wake of the confrontation in their dining room.

  It was difficult to put their minds to the mundane work of clearing away all the uneaten food left on the tables when they were anxious to hear news of Hannah’s fate. Fully aware now of the deceitful practices of Quincy and Lonnie Morgan, and the extent of their evil intentions, they feared they might never see Hannah again.

  “They were damn fools to let that pair ride away with Hannah,” Daisy said.

  “What else could they do?” Mae asked. “He had a gun under her chin. He woulda killed her.”

  “Somebody coulda got a shot at him when they rode outta the stable,” Daisy insisted. “If I’da had a rifle, I’da shot the son of a bitch.”

  Mae knew the cynical young woman was just talking, because she had felt helpless to do anything to prevent Hannah’s abduction.

  “Well,” Mae sighed, “there ain’t nothing we can do but wait and see. So we might as well clean up this mess they left on the tables.” She walked over to look at the tables turned over in the back corner. “Leastways, this is the last mess we’ll have to clean up after Marshal Smith and his hounds.”

  “Amen to that,” Daisy said, and started collecting dishes.

  The two women worked away in the dining room, with Daisy periodically looking in the parlor to make sure Logan was still propped up on the sofa. When they were almost finished with the cleanup, they heard the sound of horses’s hooves in the front yard, causing them both to run through the parlor to the front door. Logan was already on the porch when Jace Evans and his rescue party pulled up before the hitching rail. They breathed great sighs of relief when they saw Hannah perched atop the little mare that Sam had saddled for her ride home.

  With Hannah safely back, the second most important thing on Logan’s mind was the two outlaws who had abducted her.

  “What about the Morgans?” he asked Jace. “Did you catch up to them?”

  “No,” Jace answered. “We met Hannah on her way back, after they let her go.” He paused, waiting for Logan’s response. When there was none, other than a pensive look of concern, he said, “We thought about some of us goin’ on to try to catch up with them, but it didn’t make much sense. It was already gettin’ dark in that canyon, and I didn’t wanna lose anybody in an ambush.”

  “I reckon not,” Logan said.

  Jace evidently felt he should have to make an excuse for not going after Quincy and Lonnie, but Logan knew that the task was his alone. He turned to greet Hannah as Mae and Daisy led the shivering woman up the steps to the porch.

  “I’m sorry you got caught up in this,” he said to her. There was no time to say anything more, as Mae and Daisy hurried her into the house to change out of her wet skirt. She smiled at him before she was whisked away.

  With Hannah in good hands, Jace turned to Logan to find out what he had in mind. “You look like you’re still a little shaky,” he said, noticing that Logan was holding on to the rail for support. “Whaddaya got on your mind? You ready to go on back to the Triple-T and get to work?” He asked the question with a fair idea what the answer might be.

  “I don’t know, Jace,” Logan replied after a long pause. “I kinda feel like there’s a job that ain’t finished, one that needs fini
shin’.”

  “Kinda thought you’d say somethin’ like that,” Jace said. “Tell you what, why don’t we go inside and see if Mae wouldn’t mind buildin’ us a pot of coffee, and we’ll talk about this job that needs finishin’? That all right with you?”

  Logan shrugged. He knew he wasn’t going to start anywhere until morning anyway.

  Jace turned to Bob Whitley. “Bob, why don’t you and the boys go on over to the saloon and have a drink while Logan and I have a little talk? Tell Cecil I’ll buy one round. I’ll be over to pay him in a little bit.”

  “Yes, sir,” Bob replied, and turned to get on his horse. The other men, having heard Jace’s suggestion, were already mounting up as well.

  “And, Bob,” Jace called after him, “I said one round. Anything after that, you’re liable for yourself.” He looped his reins over the hitching rail and stepped up onto the porch as his posse loped toward the Gateway Saloon. “I don’t think a drink of liquor would do much good for that head of yours right now,” he said to Logan. “Let’s go inside.”

  Although the women were in the midst of cleaning up the dining room, they were glad to oblige Jace’s request for coffee. All three of them felt that they owed Logan Cross a whole lot of making up for the low regard they had credited him with. Mae interrupted her cleanup to put a fresh pot of coffee on the stove while Hannah sat Logan and Jace down at a table at the side of the room.

  “You might give ’em some of those biscuits you’re so proud of, too,” Daisy suggested to Hannah. She paused, hands on hips, while she took another look at Hannah. “Maybe you oughta set yourself down with ’em. The side of your face has got a good-sized knot on it now. You sure you’re feelin’ all right?”

  “I’m all right,” Hannah insisted. “It’s just a little tender to the touch. I think that long, cold ride back here mighta helped it.”