Dead Aim

by Dusty Richards

  Long laughed. “It might be that in there come morning, too.”

  An hour later at a Mexican restaurant, while eating supper, in low voices they all questioned him about the cold-shoulder treatment.

  “Tomorrow we will learn more.”

  “Is it turn the outlaws loose?”

  Long shook his head. “I won’t allow them doing that.”

  He didn’t sleep well that night, but they had breakfast at a nice sidewalk café and reached the jail before the time to meet the attorneys.

  Long walked into a heated shouting match by three men he considered must be lawyers. They were arguing with a different deskman about posting bail or seeing the judge about some of the prisoners’ release.

  “My orders are not to take any bond for the individuals on your list—it’s signed by the under-sheriff.”

  “They have not been charged. Who arrested them?”

  “You can’t hold them.”

  “Excuse me, do any of you gentlemen represent John Q. Blaine?”

  “Who in the gawdamn hell are you, cowboy?”

  “My name is Long John O’Malley, and I am the citizen who brought in, for trial, these felons you obviously want out of jail.”

  “What are the charges?”

  “Murder. They killed two of my men. Wounded three more and one or two of them may not live. They are raiders as well.”

  “You are all wrong. These men have alibis and witnesses to prove them innocent of all of that.”

  “That dog won’t bark.”

  “Wait till we confront Judge Arnold. He will allow these family men to go back to their lovely spouses and children while we prove them innocent.”

  “I really come from the old legal way. You know, most folks keep the country west of here free of culprits by way of something called Judge Rope. They don’t escape prosecution by phony lawyers like you. And tell the man who hired you, he’d better enlist someone smarter because I am going to try and see him hang, too.”

  The senior attorney told the others to shut up, gave a head toss, and they went out the door.

  Ira slapped his knee. “You got them with a red hot poker right in the gut.”

  Probably raised the bounty on him being dead by a thousand dollars or more, too.

  Two prosecutors arrived and they, Long, and Ira went back into a private office. John Hammer and Toby Goodwin were the attorneys for the State of Texas. Gatsby Fellows was their stenographer. Long would have called him their secretary.

  Hammer started off, “You have brought in a dozen men accused of murder, raiding, and making a range war?”

  “I don’t know all the legal terms, but, yes, these men are guilty of murder. Separate them and they will spill their guts not to be hung. These are the men who raided our ranch and shot Hoot our foreman. He is expected to recover. Two cowboys were killed outright and more wounded.”

  “Who planned this?” asked Goodwin.

  “We know that John Q. Blaine is the man hired them to make us quit an area he liked in western Bexar County.”

  “O’Malley, are you serious?”

  “They told us that was the deal. My men and I heard the story that Blaine was on a guided deer hunt for a huge buck and fell in love with the place. My brother and I bought a package of sections. Part still belongs to some other people, but Blaine didn’t know that and thought it was in our package. Most of that land has not been surveyed, so who knows what Blaine thought. They did raids to try to scare us off the land, but we found and caught them. Newman and Jennings must have left to go back for more money to hire more men to force us to sell, or we’d die.”

  “Blaine is a very powerful man in the community, even before we lost the war. He will be difficult to convict. But that is not to say we won’t try to. You say split the men up and don’t let them talk together?”

  “Exactly.”

  “Long, we will separate the prisoners and begin interrogating them. That was a neat way you figured out how to squeeze this out of them,” Goodwin said.

  “We can do this with your help. Were you ever in the Confederate Army?” Hammer asked.

  “No, I was a Texas Ranger.”

  “Would you wear a U.S. Marshal badge?”

  “On my shirt?”

  “Not necessary. But if we could call on you from time to time to help other lawmen in arrests and investigations?”

  Goodwin spoke again. “For instance, if you are on duty, you could hire your man here to be a posse member for a dollar a day. The U.S. Marshal office would pay him. Arrests are ten dollars alive. A dollar a day to feed prisoners. Twenty cents a mile out and back.”

  His partner intervened. “Let me tell you we need smart men like you to put down crime or we will never get out of this federal occupation. The congress says we have too much crime in Texas, and until it goes down they won’t even consider us for statehood.”

  “Like you, I want Texas free and back to being run by Texans not carpetbaggers,” Long told them.

  “I am going to undertake getting you that commission.”

  “I would take that commission if you would let me arrest Blaine when you have the evidence.”

  Goodwin added, “And if we could prove Blaine crossed a state or territory line planning this raid, we could have him arrested him on federal charges and the sentence would be tougher.”

  “That is called an interstate crime.”

  “I am liking this better.”

  “How soon could you get down here if we needed you?”

  “Two to three days. One more thing. I am suspicious of the under-sheriff. He almost didn’t accept them last night. I had to threaten to call the state police. That needs to be looked into.”

  “It does.”

  “Some lawyers were here trying to get Newman and Jennings bailed out when I first arrived here, and when I asked them if they worked for Blaine they fled the courthouse.”

  “What were their names?”

  “The desk man will know them.”

  “We will check on them.” Goodwin shook his hand. “Be careful. We wish you a safe trip home. We will try to find out about this Blaine and his involvement in all of this.”

  Long thanked them and left the room. He met up and shook the hands of the ranch hands from the home operation and gave them meal money to get home with. He and his men from the Three Star Ranch rode north and west, ate in cafés in small towns, and slept under the stars.

  On weary horses, they were home in three days. Jan ran out of the office to hug him. Yes, she still was pregnant.

  She shouted after the men that she was glad they brought him back. Then she turned back and asked him, “Did you get them?”

  “All of them but the guy who hired them. He’s in Dallas.”

  “Why not him?”

  “It’s still not over.” He told her how the under-sheriff in San Antonio, at first, wouldn’t accept the prisoners.

  “The prosecutors want to deputize some people as U.S. Marshals. They say the crime in Texas is too high to allow Texas to come back as a state. And they feel having more smart U.S. Marshals would help suppress crime.”

  She nodded and smiled. “Did you raise your right hand?”

  “I told them when a warrant to serve Blaine came up I’d take the badge and go arrest him.”

  “Do you think they will let you?”

  “Yes.”

  “The plans for the house came. I changed a few things, but I like it. He wrote back that we should start quarrying and gave me the dimensions they need. He has three contractors to bid on the house. We may have to set up tents for them. Did I do the right thing?”

  “Yes. You do not need my approval to do things.”

  “It’s better, having you home.”

  “So far so good with the baby?”

  “Oh, yes. I pray a lot.”

  “I will, too.”

  “Let’s go eat. Nothing bad happened here.”

  “Good. It is so fine to be home. I have elevated I
ra and Collie to foreman status. They were fantastic rounding up those outlaws by the big lake.”

  “Was it pretty?”

  “That’s why Blaine wanted it. I am telling Harp to buy it from that family when he comes home this fall.”

  “When they get a road in there I want to camp down there in the spring or fall.”

  “We can do that. Where are the well drillers?”

  “Carter had started wells to put in windmills and tanks for better grazing.”

  “We get that finished, and Harp will have plans to use them down there.”

  “Your bare-legged surveyor had a close brush with a diamondback but only got a scratch. He was sick for a few days and now wears leather pants.”

  “We all learn. Sam, how are you?” he asked the cook.

  “Better now you are home. This place always better when you here, boss man.”

  “Well I sure missed your cooking.”

  “I have good steak cooking for you. God bless you, Long O’Malley . . . you and lady make this best ranch in Texas to work at.”

  “Good. We’ll just keep it like that, too.”

  First sip of his coffee and he smiled at his wife. “Arbuckle’s the only brand made worth drinking.”

  “Oh, I forgot the best news. Your brother wired you he sold your five thousand head for eighty bucks a head.”

  “I know you figured it out when it came.”

  “Four hundred thousand dollars less expenses.”

  “That is a shocker. You know that.”

  “Not one man lost. Your two outfits are coming home.”

  He remembered all his concerns, worrying about them. Hire good men and you get good work. Now, over the winter, he and Harp would have to divide things up. Make those two companies. One for ranching and another cattle marketing.

  “Carter’s coming. I know he has some things to tell you.”

  “I came on the run. The men told me you caught those killers,” Carter said.

  “Have a seat . . . I don’t want everyone to hear. We arrested them in a sweep. Even Newman and Jennings and had to haul them to San Antonio ourselves. The under-sheriff tried to turn us down in taking them. And the big guy behind them had lawyers there demanding they get out on bail in twelve hours. I was preparing to lynch them, but I figured we needed to give the law the chance to handle it.”

  “What happened next?”

  “Texas prosecutors are now handling it. But I am not too sure the lynch law wouldn’t have been better. Ira and Collie were a great help. I raised them both to foremen status, so you need something, you can confide in them.”

  “Less work for me. Johnny Consuela has his crew stringing a fence from the northwest corner to the southwest corner. Now the men are back I will have them search that country west of the survey line and get all our stock back on the ranch. I am fencing some bull pasture. I have those hundred shorthorn bulls coming. Simon said to order him the steel and he can make the frames to attach the windmill guts to it. He has four men making barbed wire now.”

  “Supply keeping up with him?”

  “That is why he wants steel to make windmills, to keep his men busy.”

  “Order it.”

  “You heard what the cattle brought?” Carter asked.

  “She told me and they did not lose a man. How is the adobe housing stacking up?”

  “What for?”

  “We now have two more foremen looking for wives and will be wanting houses.”

  “I will deal with that. Oh, and the well drill man has almost completely recovered. He is not drunk anymore and is teaching those two cowboys everything he knows about drilling. He is now running that operation.”

  When Carter brought up Lance Grey, Jan nudged Long. “The sober driller wants to marry the girl who has been looking after the children. She is willing so I told him we’d buy her a wedding dress. We were waiting until you came back to set the date.”

  One of the girls brought him a tray with a large slab of prime rib on it and smiled. “Sam said you needed this to get your strength back.”

  “Gracias.”

  “Can you believe this?” Long asked, shaking his head at the size of the meat.

  “Yes. But all I care about is that my husband is home.”

  “Damn glad to be here, too. Let’s pray.”

  His wife nodded as he began, “Heavenly father, thank you for our success here on the Three Star Ranch. We’ve had a good year, and we all will have a good life in the palm of your hand. Protect our men coming home, all the ranch help, and workers. Bless this food, Lord, and be in our hearts. Amen.”

  Carter stood up. “I am going to let you eat. I’ll get on the house building right away for those new foremen. I bet I have enough adobe bricks for two, but we will need a better one for the driller and the family. Better than they have now.”

  “Carter, we get busier all the time. Do it.”

  “I tell you there were times I wondered why I stayed here with that crazy woman and Doogan, but I am glad I did. I have had more fun accomplishing things since you came than I ever had in my life.”

  Carter left and the men coming in to eat all stopped to thank him for coming back.

  “Will you have to go back?” she asked.

  “I imagine. To testify at their trials.”

  “I am just so glad you are back sound.”

  “No more than I am.”

  “The man we hired to quarry the limestone for the house is telling me he is having more expenses.”

  “He bid it to get the job. If he won’t do it for that he can hit the road. I am not paying him more than what was decided. I’ll handle it.”

  “Didn’t mean to upset you.”

  “No. This is business.”

  “The preacher thinks the church wants the mansion for a boy’s school. There are some officials coming to look at it and to see how it would work for them.”

  “Good.”

  “I bet you’re tired and your back is stiff.”

  “Yes. I need one of those back rubs you give so well.”

  “Hard to believe we’ve only been married a little over a year.”

  He agreed and stopped Sam going by. “I have eaten all that I can and not spit on it. Someone else can eat the rest.”

  “Always hands come back late. I feed to them.” Sam took the tray and left.

  Long and Jan walked hand in hand back to the office. It was nice to feel that they were still on their honeymoon. Long smiled at the thought.

  CHAPTER 38

  There was lots to check up on. To keep that year’s crop of heifers as cows they’d need more grass, so he planned to talk to the land agent about other land around him for sale.

  How much steel did a windmill require, that plus the works to make up the pump? He sat making notes on an Indian Chief tablet of the things he must do.

  Ira came by still looking tired and asked for a week off.

  “You find a girl?”

  “Well I want to see if she is still available.”

  “You need money?”

  “Half that money belt you gave me will do me for a very damn long time. We got paid well for doing that, I figure.”

  “Carter is going to build you a house if you stay.”

  “That’s good. I ain’t going nowhere else. You go somewhere, you make sure to take a good man with you while I am gone.”

  “I will. Ride easy and good luck.”

  The next day, Harry rode with him. The cowboys were hauling supplies to the fence builders plus posts from the cutters and wire from the blacksmith. The place buzzed.

  The surveyors were nearly to the southeast corner. That would mean the ranch was half fenced.

  The two men trotted their horses to town. He stopped to see Lawrence at the bank who stood up and shook his hand. “Your money from Abilene arrived this week.”

  “Four hundred thousand?”

  “Real close to that. You knew about it?”

  “Harp wired my wife it
was coming. You have any large ranches you have foreclosed on?”

  “I do. You want more?”

  He noticed that Lawrence had lowered his voice. “Yes.”

  “I have a hundred forty thousand on one place we had to foreclose on.”

  “Many cows on it?”

  “Not enough. That’s why he can’t pay me.”

  “How big?”

  “Thirty sections.”

  “Nineteen hundred acres. Is it good grass?”

  “It hasn’t been grazed. He went too far into debt buying it to get any more credit. He had a small herd he branded to get started. But to get a steer to go to market he has to be two years old. I warned him.”

  “What would it cost me if I want it?”

  “One hundred sixty-five thousand.”

  That made it around eight an acre. Less than Texas prices. “Lawrence, draw me a map and I’ll look. Hold it. Unless it is real broken-up country I will buy it.”

  “It isn’t. I will hold it. Not a word.”

  “No, not a word.”

  He stepped out in the sunshine and saw a man on horseback go for his gun, swearing, “You fence-building son of a bitch.”

  Too slow. Long had his short pistol out of his holster and shot him in the chest. He fell off his horse.

  Harry came running down the boardwalk to help him. Spooked horses at the hitch rack broke loose and traffic blocked the street. Two marshals blowing whistles were trying to get through all the folks who ran out of the stores to see what had happened. Downtown Junction was in a mess Long decided.

  Lawrence caught him by the shirt to drag him inside the bank for safety.

  “Hold up. I shot him. He ain’t hurting anyone.”

  “Well thank God you’re all right. You knew him?”

  “He’s an anti-fencer.”

  “Why?”

  “I guess he grew up hating barbed wire.”

  Harry said, “I was getting a new cinch and saw him go by. There are sure a lot of people in town today.”

  “I’m fine. I don’t think he is.”

  A man walked into the bank and right up to Long. “I’m Marshal Cline. What in the hell is going on here? It’s against the law to discharge a weapon inside the city limits.”

  “He was fixing to kill me.”

  “You know shooting with all these women and children in town today could have caused more deaths?”