The Western Justice Trilogy

by Gilbert, Morris

  Mexican Jack had black hair and eyes and a mustache. Fritz Holder was the biggest man there, six-two. He had a scarred face, had lost most of his hair, and had a deadly look about him. The other man was Long Tom Slaughter, very tall with yellow hair. He was a killer to the core.

  The men were cursing and playing poker, and Slaughter, who was the best poker player, had won most of their money.

  “I think you’re cheatin’,” Grat Dalton said. He was short and tough, lantern jawed with hazel eyes.

  He glared across at Slaughter, who merely laughed at him, saying, “It’s all skill, Grat.”

  “No it ain’t. It’s just luck.”

  “All skill.” Slaughter grinned. “Well, let’s play another hand.”

  Johnny threw down his cards. He had lost all of his money, and he said, “I’m bored out of my skull. We need to get out of here and do something.”

  “We can’t do nothin’ until Garth comes back.” Grat Dalton grunted. He spoke of Johnny’s brother, the leader of the band, who was tall, strong, and fast with a gun. He had pale hazel eyes and ruled his band of outlaws with a firm hand.

  Johnny got up and walked around the room. He picked up a whiskey bottle, poured himself a tumbler half full, and drank it down. “Garth might not come back for another week or two. We need to be doin’ something.”

  “We’re not doin’ anything until Garth gets back. He’s the boss,” Long Tom Slaughter said. “We’ll wait on Garth.”

  Johnny shot him a hard look, but though he tried to appear tough like the rest of the outlaws, he had been kept from all sorts of danger by his brother. The bond between the two men was obvious. Garth was old enough to be a big brother, which he was. If Garth Taylor cared about anything, it was his brother, Johnny. He protected him, and well he did, for the other men would have beat him to a pulp for his dandy ways.

  Johnny finally threw himself into a chair and said suddenly and abruptly, “Garth might not come back for a month. You know how he is, but I know how we can pick up some easy money.”

  Fritz Holder grinned. “Where are you proposin’ we get all this easy money, Johnny?”

  “Why, it’s that ranch that new fellow started. The name is Jordan. He’s got more cattle than he can even count. We can go down there, take some of them, and go sell ’em across the border to Lowell Gearson. He’ll take all the stolen cattle he can get.”

  Bob Dalton laughed. “So you want us to become cattle rustlers.”

  “Sure,” Johnny said eagerly. He sat up straight, and his eyes were gleaming. “We could just go down there and take a hundred of those cattle and sell ’em, and by the time Garth gets back we’ll have plenty of money.”

  All of the outlaws shook their heads, and it was Mexican Jack who said, “You know Garth. He’s just liable to shoot us if we left without him.”

  “He wouldn’t shoot me.” Johnny swaggered. “Especially if we make a lot of money. We’ll give him part of it.”

  “Well,” Fritz Holder said, “I’m bored like you are, but you know how your brother is. We’ll have to wait until he gets back.”

  “Yeah, your idea sounds good.” Bob Dalton nodded. “But Garth will have to say.”

  Suddenly Johnny’s eyes blinked as an idea struck him. “Why, he’s already said.”

  “What are you talkin’ about?” Grat Dalton said. “Said what?”

  “He told me the day he left that if he didn’t come back in a week we could go get some of that cattle.”

  “He didn’t say anything to me about it,” Grat said.

  “He was on his way out. We just got to talkin’ about it. He said it would be the easiest money we ever got.”

  “Well, I didn’t know Garth said that,” Grat Dalton said. “He usually tells me what he’s got planned.”

  “Why, he said it’d be so easy we could get as many cattle as we need.”

  “Well, there’s bound to be somebody guardin’ those steers,” Mexican Jack said. “They’re not just runnin’ wild.”

  “Aw, they just got a couple of hands. They won’t be no trouble,” Johnny said.

  The idea caught on, and Johnny kept it going. Finally Grat Dalton, who was, more or less, the first lieutenant of Garth Taylor, said, “Well, all right. If Garth says it’s okay, we’ll do it.”

  “I don’t know,” his brother, Bob, said, scratching his chin. “We’d better wait for Garth.”

  But in the end, Johnny convinced them, and they all agreed. They were bored and broke except for Long Tom Slaughter, who had won their money.

  When they rode out, Johnny was excited. He said once to Bob, “Now I’m going to show my brother what I can do.”

  The grass close to the home ranch had been pretty well eaten down by the grazing steers, and only Harry Littleton and Nelly Fox were keeping them. It was really too big a herd for two men, and they were scattered pretty wildly. Many of them were gathered down by the small stream, drinking their fill. Both men looked up when they saw Ash driving his horse at a fast run as he loved to do.

  “He’s going to kill that horse,” Nelly said.

  “Well, he’s killed others,” Harry said. Harry was a small man with tow hair and blue eyes. He wasn’t at all a hardened man, but he was good with cattle.

  Ash pulled his horse up, and the two men saw that it was lathered. “You’re going to ruin that horse.”

  “It’s my horse, not yours,” Ash said. “I come out to tell you to try to keep these steers close together, Pa said.”

  Nelly Fox lifted his head. His hearing was acute. Some said he could hear a cricket chirp a mile away. “Sounds like horses coming.”

  Ash looked over in the direction that Harry was pointing. “Strangers, ain’t they.”

  Nelly said, “They may be coming to get the cattle. Paul said there would be cattle thieves around here.”

  “Okay. Scatter out here. If you see ’em take any cattle, shoot ’em down.”

  “Wait a minute. We’re not supposed to shoot people unless they actually steal something,” Harry said.

  “You do what I tell you. If they give us any trouble, I’ll kill the first one.”

  The outlaws had made the trip taking care their horses were not exhausted. Suddenly Grat said, “There’s the cattle.”

  “There’s a bunch of ’em,” Johnny said excitedly. “I don’t see nobody guardin’ ’em. Spread out. We’ll take about a hundred of ’em. Doesn’t look like there’s going to be any trouble.”

  The band spread out, but when they got close enough, suddenly they heard a yell, and a shot rang out.

  “Watch out,” Grat yelled. “There’s three men guardin’ ’em!”

  The outlaws pulled their guns and began shooting. It was too far for any accurate shooting, and all they succeeded in doing was frightening the cattle so they started milling around while some ran away.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Grat yelled. “We don’t know how many there are.”

  “No,” Johnny said. “There’s only two or three of ’em.” He rode forward, but before his horse could cover ten yards, one of the shots hit him.

  Johnny heard somebody yell out, “You got him, Ash!”

  Grat said, “Are you hurt bad, Johnny?”

  “They shot me,” Johnny said, surprised as he looked down at his bloody chest. “I didn’t think they’d shoot me.”

  “We’ve got to get him back so we can take care of him,” Slaughter said. He shook his head and said, “Garth’s liable to shoot all of us for getting his kid brother shot.”

  Garth Taylor did not look the part of an outlaw. He was a handsome man with light hair and strange hazel-colored eyes. He had come out of the house, and when he saw Johnny being held in the saddle by a man on each side, he cursed and said, “Where have you been?”

  Grat said, “Johnny told us you said it’d be all right to steal the cattle.”

  Even as he spoke, Johnny slumped, and Long Tom Slaughter grabbed him. “Get him into the house.”

  They carried
the wounded man into the house, put him in a bed, and stripped his shirt off. When Garth saw the wound, he knew there was no hope. He glared around. “I ought to kill all of you.”

  “Wait a minute, Garth. Johnny told us you said it’d be all right,” Bob said.

  “You know I wouldn’t have told you to do a thing like that.” He leaned over and saw that the blood was bubbling from the wound in Johnny’s chest. He had lost too much blood. Garth knew there was no hope.

  Suddenly Johnny opened his eyes. He whispered, “I just wanted to be like you, Garth—-tough like you.” He did not speak anymore.

  Garth was stricken. He looked down at the dead body of his brother and asked harshly, “Who shot him?”

  Grat said, “Somebody named Ash. I reckon he’s one of the owners of the ranch. And they captured Fritz.”

  Garth stood up and looked down. He gritted his teeth and said, “It’s not gonna be safe for anybody who works for that ranch. What do they call it?”

  “The Running J.”

  Mexican Jack said, “We are gonna hunt down that fella that shot Johnny. Ash is as good as dead already.”

  Garth straightened up and turned his eye away from his brother. “No, not just him. I’m gonna see him dead, but I’m gonna see the rest of them cowpunchers dead, too.”

  CHAPTER 15

  Leoma Jordan bent over a bolt of material in Max’s General Store. She had looked at every selection that existed but finally sighed and said, “Well, I guess I’ll just have to make do with this.”

  Ty Kincaid entered the store. When he heard Leoma muttering to herself, he sauntered over. “So, you’re talking to yourself.”

  “I suppose so, Ty. I guess the next step is the insane asylum.”

  “Oh, it’s not that bad. That’s a pretty piece of cloth there. You thinking about making me a shirt out of it?”

  “Well, it would look better on you than it would me. It’s not my color.”

  The two talked, and finally Ty asked her, “How long you been in town?”

  “Oh, I’ve been here three days. I get so bored out on the ranch. Somebody had to come in and buy some supplies.”

  “Is all this yours?” He waved at the stack of groceries and supplies that she shoved to one part of the counter.

  “Yes, it is.”

  “Well, I’ll hang around and help you take it to your wagon.”

  “I’m ready to go now.” She called Max Thornton over and said, “I want to take all this with me, Mr. Thornton.”

  “Sure thing, Miss Jordan. Let me add it up for you.” After a few minutes he said, “That’ll be twenty-seven dollars and fifty cents, Miss Leoma.”

  Leoma shook her head. “Things are sure high these days.” She paid the bill, and Thornton put the material in cardboard boxes.

  Ty carried them out and stacked them in the wagon. “Have you eaten?” he asked.

  “Not much.”

  “Well, let me buy you a bowl of soup or something.”

  “That would be nice.”

  The two of them started down the street, but Leoma stopped abruptly. “Look,” she said, “there’s my father and my mother. What are they doing in town?”

  “Looks like somebody ran into trouble,” Ty said.

  He saw that the men looked angry, and they pulled their horses up sharply.

  Ty and Leoma went out to meet them. She asked, “What’s wrong, Pa?”

  “We had some trouble. Ty, a bunch of outlaws tried to run our cattle off.”

  “Any of our men hurt?” Leoma asked quickly.

  “No, but we got two of them. That’s one of them tied on the horse. You’ll recognize him, Ty. He was one of the men you faced down at our ranch when we first arrived. The other one was able to ride off.”

  Ty walked down and pulled the head of the man on the horse up and looked at him. “Yeah, that’s Fritz Holder.”

  Heck Thomas had approached and said, “Let me take a look.” He pulled the head up and said, “Well, Holder, you got caught this time.” He turned to Ty and Aaron. “He runs with Garth Taylor’s bunch. What about the other one you saw, Mr. Jordan?”

  “I wasn’t there. You saw it, Ash. Tell him.”

  “There was a pretty big bunch of ’em and only three of us. When they started to run the cattle off, we opened up on ’em, and I guess they didn’t know how many of us there was, so they took off runnin’. I hit one of ’em I think pretty bad, but they managed to get away with him.”

  Aaron said, “Can you arrest that bunch, Marshal?”

  “Well, I don’t know, Mr. Jordan. Can you identify any of them?”

  “No, we couldn’t see that well. It was dusty, and they was a pretty long way away,” Ash said. “But I know one of them got hit that didn’t fall to the ground.”

  “Well, you said this was part of a wild bunch, didn’t you?”

  “Yes, but those fellows move around, Mr. Jordan. They don’t stay with one band long. When there’s a big job going, they swap members, but I’ll send a man out.” He glanced at Ty and said, “Kincaid, you go out with Mr. Jordan. See what you can find.”

  “Sure will, Marshal.”

  “I might as well go back to the ranch with you, Pa,” Leoma said. “I’ve got all the supplies.”

  “All right. We’ll have to go slow. These horses are pretty tired.”

  Ty got his horse, tied him to the back of the wagon, and sat down on the seat to drive.

  Leoma said, “I hate to hear about things like this. Men getting killed over cattle.”

  “Well, I’ve seen men killed over less than that, like a two-dollar bet on a poker game.” Ty sighed. “That’s the way men are. I think it’s gonna be dark by the time we get in. I hope we don’t run into that bunch.”

  “I don’t see how you ever catch anybody in such a big space. The range is big,” Leoma noted.

  “Yes, it is. It’s hard to catch ’em. They’re pretty slick.”

  “Do you like being a marshal, Ty?”

  “Not all that much.”

  “Why do you do it then?”

  “I have to make a living some way, Leoma. I’ve done worse.”

  “I wish you could find a better way.”

  “So do I. I’d take it in a minute if I could find it.”

  By the time they reached the ranch, they were all tired. The sun had gone down, and the stars were coming out. “Look, there’s just one star in the sky,” Leoma said.

  “Yes, that’s Hesperus. People call it Venus. The evening star.”

  “It looks lonely up there.”

  He laughed and said, “I don’t know if stars get lonely or not, but I know I do.”

  “Do you, Ty? You’ve never been married.”

  “No, haven’t had that good fortune.”

  “Well, you will have.”

  “Maybe. Never know about things like that.”

  The two pulled up at the house, and Ty and the men unloaded the groceries. As Ty took the last bag in, Aaron came over to him and said, “Do you really think you can find something?”

  “Well, tomorrow morning early I’d like one of the men that was there to take me out where the shooting took place. You never can tell. Might find some kind of clue that’d lead us to one of them, and then we could get the others.”

  When the supplies were in, Leoma said, “Come in. I’m sure Ma is fixing something to eat.”

  “Sounds pretty good.” Ty followed Leoma into the parlor. “We’ll relax in here until the food is ready.”

  They sat for a while in silence until Leoma turned and said, “Why are you looking at me?”

  Ty smiled. “I always like to look at good-looking women.”

  “Don’t you try to get next to me, Ty. I know you men,” she said playfully.

  “Well, some men are pretty bad, but I was always good myself. When I was a kid I went to church every Sunday and helped old ladies cross the street.”

  “I’ll just bet. You were a good-looking young man, and I’ll bet women hid the
ir daughters when you came around.”

  “No, nothing like that.” He stretched and said, “I don’t know where I’m going really, Leoma. Sometimes I feel like a man who’s in the middle of a bridge and I’ve forgotten both ends of it. I’m just standing there looking down at a river not knowing which way to go.”

  “That’s sad. Have you felt like that long?”

  “Long enough. You know, Leoma, a woman should be better than a man.”

  “I don’t know why you’d say that.”

  “Well, men are squirming around. They just fight and do most every ungodly thing that comes into their minds. Well, a woman should be better than that. Something a man could look up to.”

  “You’ve got high standards for women. Maybe women have them for men, too.”

  “I just don’t know. I wonder sometimes if there’s any sense to life, but I look around and I see God made everything that works, and there has to be more to it than just men and women wandering around.”

  They talked for a while, and he said, “You know, we’re just like a married couple talking over things.”

  “I guess we are.”

  “Well, I’m looking forward to that supper.”

  “Could I go with you tomorrow?”

  “No, it’s liable to be dangerous, Leoma. I wouldn’t want anything to happen to you.”

  When Lottie called everyone to supper, all the men came in, and everyone wanted to talk about the raid.

  “It’s those sheepherders, that’s who it is,” Ash said.

  “I doubt that,” Ty said.

  Ash looked at Ty. “Why would you doubt it? They killed our cattle.”

  “Well, for one thing, they were all on horseback. Sheepherders don’t have horses.”

  “How do they get around?” Leoma asked.

  “They just walk. You know, one sheepherder can keep up with as many as two thousand sheep. Think how many riders it would take to do that,” Ty said.

  “I don’t have any idea,” Aaron said. “But that’s the only enemy we’ve got around here. You’ve got some funny thoughts there, Ty,” Aaron said.