Venom of the Mountain Man

by William W. Johnstone

  Frightened that there might be someone close by waiting specifically for him, Whitman dismounted and led his horse off the road and into the trees. He snaked the Winchester out of the saddle sheath, jacked a round into the chamber, then lay down behind the rock in such a way as to afford him a view of the road in both directions.

  If someone was coming after him, he would be ready for them.

  * * *

  When Smoke and the children came into town about two hours later, Smoke was leading the horse, and Wee was sitting in the saddle, holding on to the saddle horn. All the others were walking.

  Bill Lewis was sweeping the porch in front of his drugstore when he saw the entourage coming into town. Not sure what he was seeing, he held the broom for a moment and stared at them.

  “Hello, Mr. Lewis!” Wee called. “Do you see me riding this horse?”

  “I’ll be damned! It’s the children,” Lewis said. At first, he spoke the words quietly, then realizing the significance of it, he shouted the news at the top of his voice. “It’s the children! The kidnapped children have been returned!”

  The entrance of the little entourage raised quite a commotion in town, and word spread quickly The first of the parents to react were Richard and Millicent Blackwell, whose Emporium was right next to the Lewis Apothecary. Both came running out to meet their child

  “Wee!” Mrs. Blackwell shouted.

  “Mama!” Wee let go of the saddle horn and stretched his arms out toward his mother. The sudden action caused him to lose his balance, and he fell.

  “Wee!” Mrs. Blackwell shouted again, but in alarm.

  Thad, who was standing close by, caught the boy as he tumbled from the saddle.

  By the time the children reached the middle of town, Sara Sue and Thad had made a happy reunion, as had Lorena and her mother Sandra.

  “Thad saved us, Mama,” Lorena said proudly. “He saved all of us.”

  “Thad did?” Sara Sue asked in surprise.

  “That’s right,” Smoke said. “By the time I got there, they were already free. I found them walking along the side of a creek.”

  “Thad! You’re wearing a pistol!” Sara Sue said, noticing it for the first time.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Thad replied. Taking the gun belt off, he handed it to Smoke. “I don’t suppose I’ll be needing this again.”

  Lorena noticed that her mother was standing next to Thad’s mother. “Mama, do you know Thad’s mother?”

  “Oh, sweetheart, Sara Sue Condon and I are great friends,” Sandra replied.

  “Lorena likes Thad,” Wee said.

  * * *

  “They’re dead. All three of them are dead,” Whitman was reporting. “First thing, I found Reece dead in the house, then I found Keefer ’n Sanders lying dead out on the creek ’bout halfway into town. ’N here’s the thing . . . Reece was half-naked, he was. Half-naked with a bullet hole in his chest.”

  “Why weren’t you there with them?”

  “We was out of whiskey, ’n I went inter town to get it. It warn’t my fault. I mean it was just a bunch of kids, ’n they was locked up in a cabin. Who woulda thought that three men couldn’t look after six kids?”

  “Half-naked you say? There’s no doubt in my mind, but that Reece was going after one of the little girls and managed to lose control of the situation. The son of a bitch never could keep his pecker in his pants.”

  “His pecker was still in his pants,” Whitman said.

  “This has cost us fifty thousand dollars, fifteen thousand dollars for the boy, and another thirty-five for the rest of them. All because you went into town to get whiskey, and Reece couldn’t keep his pecker in his pants.”

  “His pecker was in his pants,” Whitman repeated.

  “The kids are all back safe, now. With Keefer, Sanders, and Reece dead, there’s no way to connect us to the kidnapping.”

  “Except for me. The kids seen me lots of times.”

  “That’s right, isn’t it? My suggestion is that you get out of town and stay out of sight.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  As all the children began to reconnect with their parents, Smoke stepped into the marshal’s office, where he found Bodine sitting behind his desk, playing a game of solitaire. “I’m a little surprised to see you setting in here, with all the kids returned.”

  “It is as you said. All the children have been returned. What purpose would it serve me to be out in the middle of it? After all, you are the White Knight himself, arriving on a prancing steed after having rescued the princess in distress,” Bodine said sarcastically. “I wouldn’t want to steal any of your glory.”

  Smoke chuckled, overlooking the sarcasm. “Wrong on both accounts, Bodine. I wasn’t riding a prancing steed, I was walking. And I didn’t rescue the children. They escaped by themselves.”

  “How did they manage that?”

  “By taking advantage of the opportunity when it presented itself. I found them on the bank of French Creek, heading into town. Had I not seen them, they would have made it into town on their own.”

  “Apparently the kidnappers were unaware of the courage and ingenuity of the young people in their charge,” Bodine said.

  “Apparently so,” Smoke replied.

  “Why are you here, Jensen? Did you come to tell me that the children were freed? Obviously I already know that. Everyone in town is aware of that bit of information.”

  “No, I came to tell you there are two bodies lying on the bank of French Creek.”

  “Yes, I know that as well. That would be Fred Keefer and Clyde Sanders. Did you kill them?”

  “Yes.”

  “I thought you said you had nothing to do with the children’s escape.”

  “I didn’t.”

  “Then why did you kill them?”

  “Because they were trying to kill me. I happened onto them as I was going to the cabin where the children were being held.”

  “Wait a minute. You knew where the children were being held, and you didn’t tell me?”

  “It was my understanding, Bodine, that you knew as well. Delilah did tell you where the children were, didn’t she?”

  “Did you kill Elmer Reece as well?” Bodine asked, pointedly avoiding Smoke’s question.

  “Reece? No. Who is Reece, and why do you ask if I killed him?”

  “He was found dead in the house where the kidnapped children were being held.”

  Smoke thought of Thad, and remembered that he had been wearing a pistol belt when they met on the creek bank. Had Thad killed the man Bodine was talking about? If so, he had said nothing about it. And Smoke was glad Thad hadn’t spoken of it. Someone with less moral fiber would have, no doubt, bragged about it.

  “How did you get that information so fast?” Smoke asked. “We just got into town. And how did you know the names of the two men I killed?”

  “A good citizen found all three of the bodies and made the report,” Bodine said. “I’ve already got some of my deputies out to recover the bodies.”

  “What about Plappert and Slago? They were a couple of your deputies, weren’t they?”

  “Were is the operative word,” The Professor said. “I sent them out on a routine scouting mission, and both of them returned draped over their horses. You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”

  “Apparently they were trying to collect on that five-thousand-dollar reward that someone, as yet unknown, has put out on me. That is, I think it is still a person unknown. Do you have any idea who it might be?”

  “No idea at all,” Bodine replied.

  “Too bad. I would like to know what that reward is all about.”

  “Will there be anything else, Mr. Jensen?” Bodine asked, picking up the deck of cards, expressing his interest in continuing the game.

  “No,” Smoke replied. “There will be nothing else.”

  When Smoke stepped back out into the street, the rescued children, all now reunited with their parents, were the center of attention o
f a large and still growing crowd of people celebrating the return. Joining the gathering of the children, parents, and citizens, was the mayor of Mule Gap.

  Kennedy held up his arms in a call for attention. “Ladies and gentleman, may I have your attention, please? I’d like to say a few words.”

  “Leave it to a politician to give a speech at the drop of a hat,” Gil Rafferty said jokingly.

  “Well, Gil, if you had been more of a speechifier, why, mayhaps you would be the mayor now,” someone said. His comment was met with laughter, including that from both Rafferty and Kennedy.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, in honor of our children being returned to us, I, Mayor Warren Kennedy, mayor of the great city of Mule Gap, do hereby declare this to be an official Welcome Home Day.”

  The crowd cheered.

  “That’s real good, Mayor, but what does that mean?” someone asked.

  “Well, for one thing, it means that to celebrate the event I will provide one free drink to anyone who comes into Kennedy’s Saloon during the next two hours.”

  Several cheered, but one of the women pointed out the obvious.

  “Mr. Mayor, if we are celebrating the children, do you really think that giving away free drinks is the appropriate thing to do?”

  “We all know that you are a prohibitionist, Miz Ragsdale,” someone said. “If it was up to you, there wouldn’t never be no drinks served nowhere, no time.”

  “No, Mr. Turner, Mrs. Ragsdale is right,” Kennedy said, responding to the one who had challenged Mrs. Ragsdale. “Children have no business being in a saloon, so for the next hour there will be free candy at the Rafferty and Kennedy store for all the children.”

  “Is that for all the children, or just the ones that was captured?” a boy asked.

  “Young man, that is for all the children,” Kennedy said.

  All the children present cheered.

  “And Blackwell’s Emporium will provide free ribbon for all the ladies,” Richard Blackwell offered.

  “I say we give three cheers for Smoke Jensen for bringing our children back to us,” someone said.

  But before the cheers could be organized, Smoke held up his hand. “No! I had nothing to do with the rescue. These children escaped of their own initiative. If cheers are to be given, they should be given to the children.”

  “It was Thad!” Lorena shouted. “Thad is the one who saved us!”

  “Then three cheers for Thad and the children,” someone said, and as the cheers were given, Smoke noticed that Lorena was looking with adoration toward Thad.

  Wee saw it as well. “Mama, Lorena likes Thad.”

  “Yes, dear, I think the whole town likes Thad,” Mrs. Blackwell replied.

  * * *

  After the celebration, Smoke and Pearlie went into Kennedy’s Saloon and took their free beer to a table.

  “Are you ready to go back home?” Smoke asked.

  “Well, yeah, I am, but how are we goin’ to get there, you bein’ without a horse?” Pearlie asked. “On account of, I’ve got an idea how we can do it.”

  “You’re not going to tell me that we’ll go all the way to Sugarloaf, riding double on your horse,” Smoke said.

  Pearlie laughed. “I wasn’t thinkin’ that, ’n I don’t think Dandy would like it much, either. No, sir, I was thinkin’ about goin’ down to Sugarloaf, getting New Seven, and bringing him back up here for you.”

  “No, that is, for sure, too much riding for you right now. You could break that wound open again. If you did that, and started bleeding out on the trail, what would you do?”

  “I’d stick a piece of dirty shirt in the bullet hole,” Pearlie teased. “It worked the last time.”

  “You could do that, I suppose,” Smoke replied. “Or I could rent a coach to take all four of us, Sara Sue, Thad, you and me, back home. You can tie your horse on behind the coach.”

  “Damn, a private coach, huh? Yeah, that will be nice. Will it be big enough to take Sandra and Lorena back with us?”

  “Sandra and Lorena?” Smoke asked, curious about the additional people.

  “Yeah, I think Sandra and her daughter would more ’n likely be more comfortable back in Big Rock than they would be if they had to stay here.”

  “Why is that?”

  “Well, it’s just something that . . . I mean, I couldn’t come up with anything else that quick, and I didn’t think about how it would look. Anyhow, I just think that Sandra would be more comfortable living in Big Rock than if she stayed here.”

  “Pearlie, why do I think there is more to this story?”

  “Well, there is more to it, but Miz Condon was there when it happened, and she can tell you that nothin’ happened.”

  Smoke laughed. “Sara Sue was there when it happened, but she can tell me that nothing happened? Pearlie, you aren’t making one lick of sense.”

  Pearlie told Smoke about the two deputies Boots Zimmerman and Angus Delmer coming by Sandra Coy’s apartment, and how he fooled them by making them think something was going on between him and Sandra. “Talk like that could get all over town. I wouldn’t feel good about leaving her here with all that.”

  Smoke chuckled. “All right. I see what you are talking about now. If you want my opinion, you did a good job of looking out for her and I think what you did was clever. But yes, we can take them. Finish your beer. We’ll go see Sara Sue and Thad.”

  * * *

  “Yes?” Sara Sue called, responding to the knock on her door.

  “Western Union, ma’am,” a voice called from the other side.

  “Oh, it must be from your father,” Sara Sue said to Thad as she hurried to the door. She was taking the telegram from the delivery boy, just as Smoke and Pearlie were arriving.

  “Smoke, Pearlie,” Sara Sue said. “Come in, come in. It looks as if I have just gotten a telegram from Sam.”

  “No problem, I hope,” Smoke said.

  “I sent him a telegram telling him that Thad was safely back. He may just be responding to it, though I don’t know how he could have done so, so quickly.” She gave the boy a nickel, and with a touch to the tip of his hat, the boy left.

  “Let’s see what he has to say.” With a big smile, she pulled the telegram from the envelope. As soon as she began reading, the smile faded, and her face was twisted into an expression of great concern. “Oh, no!”

  “What is it? Ma, has something happened to Pa?”

  “No, dear. This telegram is for Smoke.”

  “The telegram is for me?” Smoke asked, his voice laced with curiosity and concern.

  “Here.” Sara Sue handed him the telegram. “You had better read it.”

  SALLY MISSING STOP AM WORKING WITH POLICE TO FIND HER STOP POLICE BELIEVE SHE IS NOT HARMED AS THEY HAVE NO INFORMATION ANY WOMAN HURT STOP WILL CONTINUE TO LOOK FOR HER AND KEEP YOU INFORMED STOP REACH ME AT FIFTH AVENUE HOTEL STOP CAL

  Smoke hurried from the hotel to the telegraph office. “When did you get this telegram from New York?” Smoke showed the telegrapher the telegram he had just read.

  “Oh, about half an hour ago . . . but it didn’t come from New York. It came from Big Rock, Colorado.”

  “Ah, yes, that makes sense. Cal has no way of knowing that I’m here, so of course he would have sent it to me there. Well, I want to send a telegram to him in New York.”

  “Yes sir, would that be in care of Ian Gallagher?”

  “Ian Gallagher? No, why would it be? Who is Gallagher, and why would you think I would want to send a telegram to him?”

  “Isn’t Mrs. Jensen a guest of Mr. Gallagher while she is in New York?”

  “Mister, what are you talking about?” Smoke asked.

  “Just a minute, and I will show you.” The telegrapher stepped back to a cabinet, opened a drawer, and shuffled through some papers until he found the one he was looking for. “Ah, here it is.”

  Returning to the front counter, he showed the telegram to Smoke. “I sent this message one week ago.”

  MRS K
IRBY JENSEN ARRIVING GRAND CENTRAL DEPOT ON BOARD TRANSCONTINENTAL TRAIN HUMMER TWO PM THIS DAY STOP ARRANGE FOR HER TO BE YOUR GUEST UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE STOP YOU WILL BE WELL COMPENSATED FOR HER STAY WITH YOU STOP

  Smoke read the message, then shook his head. “I don’t know anything about this. What does it mean? Who sent it?”

  “Well, I assumed he was doing it for you, you know, making arrangements for your wife to have accommodations while she was in New York? I thought he was doing it as a favor, since the two of you seem to be such good friends.”

  “Who sent the message?” Smoke asked again, more forcibly than before.

  “Why, it was His Honor, Mayor Kennedy, forcefully who sent the message,” the telegrapher said.

  “That son of a bitch!” Smoke said angrily. He turned and left the telegraph office.

  His first thought was to go directly to Kennedy’s office, but he returned to the hotel instead. “It was Kennedy,” he told Pearlie, Sara Sue, and Thad. “He is the one who had Sally kidnapped. The question is why did he do it?”

  “Are you going after him?” Pearlie asked.

  “Yes. I need to find out where Sally is, and right now he’s the only one who can tell me.”

  “I’ll come with you,” Pearlie offered. He smiled. “If you have to beat it out of him, I want to watch.”

  * * *

  “Do I have a telegram?” Marshal Bodine asked the Western Union telegrapher when he stepped into the office.

  “No, sir.”

  “Then what is it? What are you doing here?”

  “Marshal, I think there’s going to be trouble between Mr. Jensen and the mayor.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Mr. Jensen received a telegram saying his wife is missing. Then he found out that, about a week ago, the mayor had sent a telegram to New York about his wife. I’m not sure what this is all about, Marshal, but when Mr. Jensen left to see the mayor, he was very mad. I’m afraid there might be some trouble between them.”

  “You were right to come to me,” the marshal said.

  * * *

  “Wait, sir, you can’t just go into the mayor’s office without being announced!” the clerk out front said.