Bannerman the Enforcer 7

by Kirk Hamilton

  The outlaw holstered his Colt, moved across to the man the Enforcer had shot but saw at a glance he was dead. Then, mouth grim, he stumbled back to Cato, stooped and lifted the small man, throwing him over his left shoulder and walking around the base of the butte towards the hidden entrance of the canyon where Jud Landon waited, gray-faced with pain and anxiety.

  “Hell!” he breathed. “Glad you got him, Luke!”

  Meeker gave Landon a hard look, shoved him roughly aside. “See how glad you are when Burdin learns you led this hombre right back here!”

  Landon swallowed and looked sicker than ever, pressing his kerchief against the bullet graze in his side.

  ~*~

  Burdin’s first urge was to shoot Landon on the spot, but Luke Meeker put out his hand and grabbed the rebel leader’s wrist as he made to draw his gun. Burdin glanced at him dangerously.

  “Hold on a spell, Sam. He might be of some use to us.”

  Burdin scowled. “Only use he is to me is for target practice!”

  Landon looked sick and backed off a little. He ran his tongue over his lips and looked from Meeker to Burdin to Yancey still bound in his corner of the shack. Cato was lying unconscious and bleeding at his feet.

  “He might be able to do us some good, Sam,” Meeker went on. He jerked a thumb at Yancey. “He reckoned the gal is well-guarded and I know for a fact that’s right. So you got to get her outside of that Capitol Hill place, right?”

  “Get the hell on with it!” snapped Burdin, glaring bleakly at Landon. “I know that.”

  “But d’you know how to do it?” Meeker asked.

  “I’ll find a way,” Burdin growled.

  “No need. There’s your way, right there.” Meeker indicated the bleeding Cato lying full length on the dirt floor.

  Yancey frowned, as puzzled as Landon and Burdin. Then Matt Steed appeared in the doorway of the cabin and they looked at him questioningly.

  “Far as I can tell there ain’t anyone else followin’ him,” he reported to Burdin. “Found Darren’s body in the ghost town. Looked like he’d been shot and fell from the saloon roof.”

  “That’s what happened,” Landon confirmed. “That damn Cato! Like a devil with a gun in his hand! Winged me, too.”

  Burdin snarled as he turned to Landon. “Too bad he didn’t blow your head off! But I aim to fix that!”

  “Wait up, Sam!” Meeker said swiftly as the impatient rebel leader started to lift his Colt. “Landon ain’t generally known to be in with us. Far as anybody knows he’s just a Ranger who quit. We can use him. And he’ll bring us Kate Dukes on a platter if we play it right.”

  Burdin moved his cold eyes from Meeker’s face to Landon’s pale features. “He damn well better or it’ll be his head on the platter! Now, what do you have in mind, Luke? And make it good. Damn good!”

  “It’ll be good,” Meeker assured him and he nudged the unconscious Cato with a boot-toe. “We got this hombre to use as a decoy. All nicely covered in blood!”

  He paused to see if he had the others’ attention. He need not have worried: they were all tensed, waiting for him to continue. Meeker cleared his throat and told them his plan.

  Nine – Target

  Kate Dukes moved quickly down the long corridor, belting her robe around her, brushing her hair back out of her eyes as she moved. She saw the Ranger guard outside her father’s office and nodded to him as he held open the door for her. She went in and hurried towards the men in the center of the room.

  Dr. Boles was bending over Cato who had been laid out on the couch, his chest bloody, face swollen, a cut and a lump over his right eye. Beside him stood the pale and drawn Jud Landon, covered in trail dust, blood staining the right side of his shirt. He had his hat in his hand and nodded to Kate, but she moved to stand beside the doctor.

  “How badly is he hurt, Doctor?”

  Boles sighed wearily, straightened his half-moon glasses on his nose. “I’ll have to dig to get that lead out of his chest. Don’t think it’s hit anything vital but he’s lost a lot of blood. Fact is, I’d better get on with it before he loses anymore.” He paused as Kate called for the guard to get a couple of men to lend a hand. “You didn’t tell your father.”

  Kate shook her head.

  “Good. No point in giving him a shock in the middle of the night like this,” Boles said. “It’ll all be over in the morning and we’ll be able to break it more gently to him.”

  Kate put a hand on his arm as two men came in and lifted Cato between them. He looked very small as they carried him out.

  “To the infirmary rooms,” Boles said and turned to look at the girl quizzically.

  “Will Johnny pull through?” she asked.

  He looked at her directly. “I think so. But I won’t know for sure until I get that bullet out and I can’t waste any more time, Kate.”

  “Of course not, Doctor.” She watched him hurry out and the guard closed the door, standing on the inside, arms folded across his chest, rock-hard eyes watching the nervous Landon. Kate turned to the man. “You don’t seem to be badly hurt. What happened? Last time I saw you, you were riding out of town with Yancey and a couple of outlaws.”

  Landon frowned. “Well, ma’am, I didn’t know that at the time. I was—well, I was still riled at Bannerman for not selectin’ me for the Enforcer Unit and for beatin’ me in that fight. When these hombres came to me and offered me twenty bucks to take them to Bannerman’s room, I thought, why the hell not?”

  Kate showed her disgust and the Ranger on the door curled a lip. Landon flushed and glared at the guard.

  “I could talk better without him around, ma’am.”

  The Ranger straightened, shaking his head.

  “I can tell you about Bannerman, ma’am,” Landon added quietly. “But not with him here.”

  Kate frowned deeper, her teeth tugging at her lower lip. Then she nodded to the Ranger. “Wait just outside the door, Jim. I’ll call if you’re needed.”

  The Ranger hesitated but Kate gave him a reassuring smile and he tossed one final warning look at Landon, then stepped outside the room, closing the door after him. Kate turned to Landon. “Well?”

  “We camped in that old ghost town last night,” the man told her. “These fellers reckoned they had a job for me and I—well, I was glad to see Bannerman gettin’ the rough end of things for a change so I went along with ’em. But, when they was talkin’, I found out that they were takin’ Bannerman to Sam Burdin.” Kate tensed, her face reflecting the alarm she felt. Landon nodded grimly. “Yeah, just how I felt, ma’am! Burdin, I thought! Hell, I might’ve quit the Rangers but I sure wouldn’t work for a snake like that. And I knew we were in real trouble. I was tryin’ to figure a way out when Cato showed up at daybreak today, in the ghost town. Guess he trailed us: I think Bannerman left some sort of pointer. Anyways, Cato came in with guns smokin’ and there was one hell of a shootout. One of the men, Lee Darren, he put a bullet into Bannerman right off ...”

  Kate gasped. “He what?”

  Landon lifted a hand. “Be back to that in a minute, ma’am.”

  “To hell with a minute!” snapped Kate shakily. “You get right back to Yancey now! Was he killed?”

  “Ma’am let me tell this my way, please. There was a shootout, and I tried to do what I could, but they’d taken my gun. Anyway, Cato got hit but he’d downed one of them, Darren. While the other one was lookin’ to see how bad Cato was hit, I managed to get Darren’s gun and I finished off the other feller.”

  Kate looked hard at him and Landon met and held her gaze.

  “I took a look at Bannerman and he was hit pretty bad, bleedin’ a lot, but he was conscious. He’d seen it all and he told me to get Cato back here to the governor’s sawbones and to tell you what had happened. He didn’t want to come with me. Couldn’t anyway, ’cause I could only catch two horses. I seen Cato was pretty bad too, but I figured he could stand the movin’ better than Bannerman. So I got him on a horse and roped in the saddle. The
n I got Bannerman comfortable as I could in that old ghost town shack and left him with a couple of guns.”

  Kate was as white as her robe now. “You mean Yancey’s still out there? In that ghost town?”

  “Yes, ma’am, far as I know. Told you, he wanted me to get Cato back for the medic to look at.” He moved his hat around in his hands. “Guess he sort of mebbe figured he ... well, he knew how bad he was hit.”

  The girl put the back of her hand to her mouth. “You—you think he might be—dead?”

  Landon moved his feet awkwardly, looking down at the floor. “I’m sorry, ma’am.”

  “But you can’t know for sure! I mean, he was alive when you left ...”

  “Yes, ma’am, he was, and I guess he’s a mighty tough hombre, but ... Well, he was bleedin’ bad.”

  “You could find the place again?”

  “Oh, sure.” He frowned. “You goin’ out to him, ma’am? I mean, now?”

  “As soon as I get changed.” She frowned at his bloody shirt. “I’m sorry. What about your own wound?”

  “Not much more than a graze, Miss Dukes. I’ll be okay. Be glad to take you back to Bannerman if you want. But better be just the two of us. I mean, if Burdin’s pards were around and seen a big dust cloud liftin’ ... Well, anyway, I reckon we could travel faster, just the two of us.”

  Kate hesitated. “I certainly couldn’t drag Dr. Boles away from Johnny right now, anyway. I’ll get some medical supplies.”

  “I’d sort of hurry, ma’am,” Landon said as she made for the door. “I mean, he was pretty bad. And could I have a drink or somethin’ to eat, if you don’t mind? I been ridin’ all day and I’m plumb tuckered.”

  Kate felt contrite. “Of course. I’m sorry. I’ll send something in.” In her concern for Yancey, she had already forgotten, her suspicions about Landon, and the fact that Cato had been brought in, wounded and bloody, gave added authenticity to the ex-Ranger’s story.

  Kate hurried out and Landon breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed to be working, he thought. He hoped like hell it did work, because if it didn’t, he was a dead man. Burdin would see to that.

  ~*~

  Cato recognized the infirmary rooms when he came round. The sunlight flooded in through the windows and there was Dr. Boles’ special nurse arranging something on the small worktable. He coughed and caught her attention. He gave her a weak smile but the expression on her face didn’t change. He had never seen it change in all the time he had known her. She came over and pushed him back on the bed as he tried, weakly, to sit up. Then she hurried out of the room.

  When she returned, not only was Boles with her, but Governor Dukes, too. The governor looked gray, his face etched with deep lines, and Cato knew his angina was troubling him again. He stood by, watching, as Boles examined the Enforcer’s chest wound.

  “Draining nicely, nurse,” Boles said, then glanced at Cato. “How d’you feel, John?”

  “Weak as a kitten,” Cato said hoarsely. “How the hell did I get here? Last I recollect, I was in some sort of shack with Yancey. He was tied up hand and foot.”

  Dukes pushed forward, alarm showing on his face. “Tied up? You mean, he was a prisoner?”

  Cato frowned. “Yeah. I trailed him to a ghost town, shot it out with Landon and Darren, nailed Darren. Landon was hit and he ran so I let him go, trailed him to a hidden canyon, but they jumped me. Was Luke Meeker, I think, who laid me out.”

  He glanced from Boles’ face to that of the governor, seeing their bewilderment.

  “I can see that’s not what you expected to hear,” Cato said, still hoarse, his voice weak. “But I came round when they were plannin’ somethin’ ... Wait, I’ll get it in a minute. Yeah! Landon was to bring me back here, say that Yancey was hurt, too, and use that yarn to get Kate to go with him.” He started to sit up, fell back weakly, breath quickening. “Judas! Has she gone with him?”

  Dukes nodded. “Last night. But she had the sense to take a Ranger along, so maybe it’ll be all right. What was the idea, Johnny? They wanted to abduct Kate?”

  Cato nodded slowly. “Near as I could figure. I didn’t let on I was conscious. They’re gonna use Kate as pressure to make Yancey assassinate you, Governor.”

  “Good God almighty!” Dukes breathed. “What have I done? Looks like I’ve gotten both Yancey and Kate in one hell of a lot of trouble!”

  “You better send someone after ’em,” Cato suggested. Dukes nodded, holding his left shoulder and rubbing at it.

  Boles was concerned. He sat the governor down in a chair.

  “Nurse, get the governor a double dose of digitalis, and see he drinks every drop.” He pushed Dukes down as the man tried to rise. “Damn it, stay there! I’ve worked around you long enough now to know what has to be done! Take your medicine and I’ll arrange for a patrol to get after Kate and Landon and that Ranger, pronto.” He turned to Cato. “You think it could endanger Yancey if Kate doesn’t get to Burdin?”

  Cato shrugged, winced at the pain in his chest. “Yancey’s already in about as bad a position as he can get.”

  “Right,” said Boles crisply and hurried from the room as the nurse handed the governor his glass of digitalis tincture.

  ~*~

  The patrol returned in just over an hour. They had found the body of the Ranger who had accompanied Kate and Landon beside the trail. He had been shot in the back of the head and, though some of them were still searching for tracks, they didn’t figure on finding any; the trail had been covered too well.

  Cato was too weak to move from bed and, even if he had been able to ride, he wasn’t sure he could find the canyon entrance again. He lay in the infirmary bed, ignoring the pain from his wound, staring at the despondent governor. One Enforcer shot, the other a prisoner, his daughter also. There was nowhere the governor could turn now, except to the Rangers and it wasn’t likely they could do anything before the Texas Day Parade through San Antonio that was to take place in less than twenty-four hours.

  There was one chance, Cato thought.

  “Governor,” he croaked and saw Dukes turn his head slowly, face tortured. “You’re forgettin’. You got a whole new unit of Enforcers you ain’t used yet.”

  Dukes frowned. “But they’re inexperienced, John!”

  “Inexperienced, hell! They came from the Rangers. They’ve had the best trainin’ Yance and I could give ’em! Turn ’em loose, Governor. Prove that you ain’t wasted the money. Turn ’em loose and see what they can do.”

  Dukes slowly straightened. Cato wasn’t sure, but he thought he saw a little hope glinting in the governor’s eyes.

  ~*~

  The place of ambush had been chosen well. The main crowd had gathered around the Plaza del Sol in San Antonio to watch the parade as it made its progress from the railroad depot, down Saber Road and into the plaza. It was to pass anticlockwise around the plaza and then exit via Alamo Way and continue out of town to the ruins of the old mission where a commemorative ceremony was to take place.

  Burdin had set up the ambush in a room above a feed store, facing onto Saber Road, directly across the plaza. As Dukes appeared, leading the procession, he would be shot and all the rest of the parade would be behind him, in the narrow street. The anticipated chaos would fill the plaza, effectively blocking pursuit while Burdin and his crew made good their escape from the far side, out into open country.

  That was the plan and Sam Burdin set Yancey up in the room over the feed store with its musty smells of dust and old sacks and grain. He had been brought to San Antonio the day before and he was desperate for news of Kate Dukes and Cato. He knew of Burdin’s plan, of course, to use Cato as a decoy to get Kate out of the mansion on Capitol Hill, but the rebel leader, in typical perverse fashion, had refused to discuss the matter anymore afterwards. His men, too, had been instructed, not to say anything to Yancey. It was another subtle form of torture used by Burdin and Yancey’s imagination ran away with him so that he thought the worst. Maybe Kate had resisted and been inj
ured. Or worse, he hadn’t seen Landon around, so maybe the man had been spotted, and put up a fight, using Kate as a shield.

  Or maybe Cato had died. There were too many rnaybes, so he thrust them from his mind. It was the only way; he had to work on the assumption that Kate was all right and Cato, too.

  Burdin had thrown him into this room before daylight, still bound hand and foot. He had been released an hour ago and Luke Meeker had stood on guard at the door while Burdin himself had come in and set up the rifle on a box at the window. There were a series of clamps designed to hold the rifle so that it could point only out of the room, with enough movement for a short traverse and a downward motion. But it could not be turned back into the room without either tearing out the clamps or lifting the whole massive, empty crate.

  “One shot,” Burdin told Yancey, holding up a shining brass cartridge. “That’s all you get. Cato ain’t the only one who knows about ballistics, Bannerman. I loaded this one myself and I cast the bullet. Kinda personal touch, you know? When the parade starts down Saber yonder, you’ll be given this cartridge in time to get it into the breech and take your sight.” His voice hardened. “And you’d better plant it dead center in Dukes’ chest.”

  “Or ...?” asked Yancey, hoping he could now provoke some news of Kate.

  Burdin smiled, put the cartridge away in his shirt pocket and nodded to Meeker. The outlaw opened the door and Kate Dukes was thrust roughly into the room, followed by Jud Landon. She was disheveled, her clothes a little dusty, but otherwise she looked well enough. Burdin and the others watched, blank-faced, as Yancey moved to her and took her in his arms. They made no move to stop the girl and the Enforcer embracing. Yancey thrust the girl back so that he could look down into her pale face. She blinked and forced a smile.