Bannerman the Enforcer 3

by Kirk Hamilton

  Cato straightened his back briefly and wiped a forearm across his grimy, sweating face.

  “If that happens, we’ll throw you down the damn slope, eh, Romero?”

  The Mexican looked startled and was even more surprised when Yancey laughed and dropped a huge slab of limestone deliberately close to Cato, making the smaller man leap back. Romero shook his head as Cato laughed.

  Gringos! he thought. He would never understand them and their sense of humor ...

  ~*~

  Nathan Cross frowned across his desk at the massive Lang Brodie and the skinny, beanpole of a man he knew as Reardon.

  “Blasting?” Cross demanded, frowning deeper. “Where did you say, Reardon?”

  “Up on that limestone cliff they call White Head, Mr. Cross,” Reardon told him. “Blowin’ away the cliff face, like they are makin’ a trail.”

  Cross glanced at Brodie. “What d’you make of it, Lang?”

  “Don’t seem to be any sense in makin’ a trail across that limestone,” Brodie allowed. “Fact is, that part of the country’s got a lot of cattle trails twistin’ through it …”

  “Exactly!” Cross said, slamming his fist down onto the desk hard enough to make a ledger jump. “There are trails all over the place up there but obviously, they don’t lead to where they want ’em to! So they’re making their own trail ... But to where?” He looked at Reardon. “Show me on the map just where this White Head is.” He stood up and walked over to the wall map where Reardon stood, tapping the area under discussion. “There? That’s where the old Texas Trail ran years ago, before the area was carved up by floods and landslides ... Yeah, they’re after the treasure, I’ll bet on it.” He set cold eyes on Brodie. “Likely that Mex has come up with some information they didn’t have before. Pity you didn’t use your brains instead of your fists, Lang. We might’ve had him on our side!”

  “Well, I aimed to stop him gettin’ to Bar S Bar and helpin’ ’em, is all,” Brodie said, defensively. “I reckoned it’d be the quickest way of stoppin’ him.”

  “Well, we’ve lost him now and the chance has gone. You’re a fool, Lang!”

  He glared at his big henchman, then dropped back into his desk chair and flicked his gaze to Reardon. “Get back to your vantage point and keep an eye on ’em, Reardon ... Seems to me they’re hot on the trail of that treasure. Guess we can save ourselves a heap of trouble if we just let ’em work away at it and when they get it, we move in and take it from ’em.”

  Reardon nodded uncomfortably and shuffled his boots. “Well—er—Mr. Cross …”

  “What is it?” Cross snapped impatiently.

  Reardon fidgeted. “Well, I—I might need some relief, Mr. Cross. I mean, I can’t watch ’em every second by myself …”

  “Brodie’ll arrange your relief,” Cross growled. “You just keep a close watch on Bannerman and his pards. I want to know every inch of progress they make. Now, get out.”

  Reardon nodded, jammed his hat on his head and hurried out. Brodie looked at Cross steadily.

  “What do you want me to do, Nate?”

  “I want you here in town,” Cross said. “I’ve had word about that damn riverboat that’s comin’, the Texas Queen. Seems there was a near riot down at San Augustine when it pulled in, but it’s still headin’ for here and it’s clearin’ a channel as it comes with a grab line and donkey-engine Harwood’s fitted to the foredeck. A lot of cattlemen are anxious to look into his idea of shipping beeves down the river instead of runnin’ fat off ’em along the trails on a big drive. If he gets any contracts, it’ll take money out of my pockets. I want you to ride around the ranches, take a couple of the boys with you, convince ’em that trail driving is still the best way of gettin’ their beef to market. You savvy what I mean?”

  Brodie smiled crookedly. “Sure, Nate ... No problem. Be my pleasure and I guarantee results ...”

  “Be back here Friday,” Cross said and as Brodie looked blank, he added impatiently, “That’s when the boat’s due.” His jaw hardened. “She might make it all the way upriver to Tyler’s Landing, but I aim to see she don’t go no further, north, south, east or west. Only place that riverboat’s goin’ after it docks here is to the bottom of the Sabine ... And if Dukes happens to be on board at the time, it’ll be just too bad!”

  Brodie’s smile widened. “I’ll be back Friday ... Wild horses couldn’t keep me away!”

  ~*~

  Kate Dukes was anxious to see her father again. It had been nearly three months since she left Austin and he rarely went as long as that without some sort of pain or trouble from his heart ailment. He had put nothing in his letters, of course, and Dr. Boles had assured her in his letter that the governor had never been in better health.

  Kate hoped with all her heart that this was true but she couldn’t help worrying. She was worried about Yancey, too. She had had only one letter from him in weeks and it had been brief, telling her he was missing her and looking forward to some more action so time would pass quicker. She felt guilty, too, for she had been kept busy with the State Governors’ Conference and hadn’t had time to write to him. Then, when she did finally find time, she heard later that the coach carrying the bag of mail containing her letter had been lost in a flood-swollen river. She had started to write to him again after that but it was about the time Rupe Harwood had suggested she accompany him back to Texas on board the Texas Queen and she had thought that travelling by water she would be back in Austin as soon as any letter she would write. Now she wondered about the wisdom of not having at least sent Yancey a wire. For the journey had taken longer than expected and the Sabine’s channels had had to be laboriously deepened. The simmering trouble with the trail-herders had further delayed things.

  Now, at last, the riverboat was rounding the deepwater bend and she could see the buildings of Tyler’s Landing upstream. The country was fertile here, more so than she had expected and she admired the forest-clad ranges as the boat made its ponderous way towards the town. Kate turned at a tap on her shoulder and stared in surprise at Rupe Harwood as he held out a brass-and-leather telescope towards her.

  “Take it,” he said, nodding towards the distant buildings. “You might be able to pick out your father on the dock.”

  He smiled as he put the telescope in her hands and she returned his smile as she put the glass to her eye, adjusting the lens until she had obtained the focus that suited her. The buildings seemed foreshortened somehow and misshapen as the powerful lens brought them closer. She could read some of the signs, see people and animals and vehicles in the street. Kate found the dock and adjusted the focus a little more finely, moving the ’scope slowly over the crowd gathered there.

  She took the glass from her eyes, frowned as she glanced at Harwood, who was looking through a telescope of his own. “I don’t see pa, or any official-looking party, for that matter,” she said a little apprehensively. “You did send that wire when to expect us, Rupe?”

  “I did, Katie,” he replied studying the group of men on the dock carefully, his mouth grim. He took the glass from his eye. “Those are rough-looking characters on that dock, Katie. And there’s a conspicuous absence of women and children ... Now for folks who’ve never seen a paddle-wheeler this far upriver, I find that very strange. You’ve seen how the kids come running as soon as they see our smoke or hear our whistle. They run for miles along the banks just to see us. Now there’s not a kid to be seen. Nor are there any women.” He glanced at the cloudless blue sky. “And not a sign of rain to account for ’em stayin’ indoors ... Something strange going on, Katie. Mighty strange.”

  She looked at him soberly. “More trouble over the cattle shipments, Rupe?”

  “I reckon so,” Harwood replied. “We could be in for a rather rough welcome. I see some pickaxe handles hidden among that crowd.”

  “What will you do?”

  “We’ll deepen our channel out in midstream, and I’ll send a boat ashore to get the governor and Yancey. I think it’ll be safe
r if we anchor in midstream, Katie. Much safer.”

  The girl’s teeth tugged worriedly at her bottom lip. If the temper of the town was as bad as Rupe judged, she hoped her father would be all right. For mob violence didn’t take time to differentiate between governors and sailors, or even men and women, if it got out of hand.

  Harwood walked to the edge of the bridge deck and called down to his men to prepare to lower away a boat and put ashore. Then he signaled to the engine room and as the bell clanged, the engines were put into reverse ...

  ~*~

  In his hotel room, Lester Dukes, governor of Texas, was pacing impatiently, irritably, his hands behind his back. One hand was clasped in the palm of the other and he kept clenching and unclenching them as he walked, watched by the big, hard eyed Texas Ranger standing near the door. From down in the streets came the sounds of drunken men gathering and Dukes went to the window to look out. He saw the mob forming up by the dock and he turned swiftly as there was a rapid tattoo on the door panel in the pre-arranged signal. Even so, the Ranger drew his gun before he unbolted the door and opened it to allow his sidekick to enter. The second Ranger was bigger than the first and he was sweating, breathing a little fast as he crossed the room to the slim, erect Governor Dukes.

  “Just like you figured, sir,” the man reported. “Nate Cross men, led by Lang Brodie, are stirring up the cattlemen, putting ’em against the idea of shipping their beeves downriver. The trail-herders are there, too, and they’ve spread the word that Harwood’s a Frenchman from New Orleans and has a crew of Mexicans and ... well, all kinds of hogwash, sir. Designed to turn the whole blamed town against the Texas Queen even before she docks. They’re even sayin’ you’re sellin’ out by having a hand in the deal.”

  Dukes nodded. “Guess I threw something of a scare into Nathan Cross looking closely at some of the land deals he’s been pulling off ... I’d say he aims to make sure I don’t set any official investigations going into his activities. Do you think there’ll be a riot down at the dock?”

  “Yes, sir. Leastways, the mob’s gathering there. I figure we’d better get horses and ride out to the Summers place until this all blows over.”

  The governor glared at him. “You do, eh? Well, maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea, except for one thing.”

  “Sir?”

  “My daughter’s on that boat!”

  The Ranger looked startled. He had forgotten about Kate Dukes and he glanced at his companion sideways. The man arched his eyebrows and gave his shoulders a slight shrug.

  “I wish to hell Yancey Bannerman and John Cato were here,” Governor Dukes muttered half aloud.

  The two big Special Duty Rangers did, too. It would relieve them of their responsibility, then.

  ~*~

  The final charge of dynamite went off with a thunderous roar and great chunks of limestone were hurled high in the air in a violent eruption of dirt and dust. As debris pattered down around his shelter behind the rock on the slope, Yancey lifted his head slowly, anxious to see if the limestone wall had collapsed and had pushed that big rock on down the slope.

  Billowing dust prevented him from seeing clearly right away and, his ears ringing with the explosion, he did not hear Cato and Romero get to their feet and range themselves alongside him. Then a breeze dispersed the dust and he squinted, crouching a little to see beneath the rising pall. His breath whistled out.

  “Will you look at that?” he breathed, awe-struck.

  “Great flames’” exclaimed Cato.

  “The big rock ... Cabezablanca ...” murmured Romero, dazedly. “It is ... gone! But where?”

  “To hell with where,” Yancey said starting to scramble from his cover “It’s gone, that’s the main thing ... But look what it’s left behind! A great gaping cave in the rock and from here it don’t look like it’s collapsed at all!”

  Cato and Romero followed him, clambering fast over the great rock and stumbling and clawing their way up the rubble of the steep slope to the beginning of the trail they had blasted across the face of the limestone wall. Sweating, panting, no longer taking time to make sure the ledge would support all their weight at once, they started out along the rubble-strewn trail towards the dark maw of the cave that had been revealed when the concussion of the last explosion dislodged the rock from the cave mouth. All these years it had been hanging there, jammed into the cave mouth, held in place, likely, only by a ring of limestone that acted like cement ... until the dynamite broke it loose and allowed the huge rock to fall.

  Yancey was the first to reach the cave and he stopped at the mouth, staring into the darkness, smelling the mustiness of the air, squinting against the dust that still boiled out of it. Cato and Romero stumbled up beside him.

  “Well, I’ll be ... !” Yancey began and then turned swiftly at a distant call, a woman’s voice.

  Far below they saw the small figure of Julie Summers as she raced her bay up the steep slope towards the end of the new trail they had blasted. She was waving her hat wildly.

  “I’ll go see what she wants,” Yancey said and eased back past Cato and Romero who were now looking back into the cave. As Yancey moved along the trail on the ledge he had blasted, they went warily inside the cave.

  Yancey made his way to the end of the trail and waited as he saw the girl’s bay fighting up the last few yards of the steep slope. It was blowing hard and the girl dismounted as soon as the animal got on more level ground. Yancey steadied her, seeing the excitement in her face.

  “I see you’ve finished the trail,” she said breathlessly. ‘And ... is that the cave? The one Luis spoke of with the cannon inside ... ?”

  Yancey was about to reply when he saw movement out of the corner of his eye and glanced back along the ledge. Romero and Cato were pushing a bronze cannon on its carriage out of the cave. The rusted wheels screeched as Cato strained with his hands on the spokes and Romero fought the muzzle around to point back down the ledge.

  “Just like his grandpappy said,” Cato called happily. “One cannon, couple of dozen balls and even a couple of kegs of powder.”

  “Any treasure?” Yancey called.

  “A few coins in a rotted leather pouch is all,” Cato said.

  Romero dodged back into the cave and came out holding a rusted saber in its battered scabbard. He held it high. “This is treasure enough for me, señor, señorita! My grandfather’s sword!”

  Yancey turned to the girl. “At least we know that part of the legend’s true.”

  “It’s all true, Yancey!” Julie Summers said, her eyes bright with excitement. “With the second part of Luis’ map, I checked out the landmarks against the old survey maps and I’m sure I know now where the sunken cannon are! The ones with the barrels stuffed with silver and gold!”

  Chapter Nine – The Texas Queen

  Rupe Harwood had decided to go ashore himself in the rowboat. They had dropped it over the side of the paddle-wheeler, keeping the steamer between themselves and the dockside, from which came the faint cries of the mob. It had been easy enough to take a line of drift so that the bulk of the Texas Queen hid them from the dock and the helmsman had orders just when to make his turn in towards the pier.

  The big twin-stacked boat slid through the muddy waters and turned its full length across the river, in a narrow section that was deep enough, but the paddle-wheeler’s bulk blocked much of the town’s view. And while the boat was in this position, Rupe Harwood with two men at the oars, pulled for the bank. They ran the bows up into the mud under the reeds and brush and Rupe left the men with the boat while he started for town. Most of the men were down by the dock now. The back streets were deserted as he made his way at an easy loping run.

  Harwood reached the governor’s room without incident, aware of the curious eyes of women and children peering at him from behind drapes and partly opened doors. After a brief moment of indecision, the Rangers opened up to him and, given a hurried explanation, Governor Dukes snatched up his leather valise of papers an
d with the two Rangers, accompanied Harwood back to the river.

  The Queen by now, had anchored out in midstream and when the mob realized they were being cheated out of a rough-house they started shooting wildly. While this was going on, Harwood and his men rowed Governor Dukes out to the Queen, forced to leave the two Rangers on the bank as the small boat would not hold them all.

  It soon became apparent that, once aboard, the boat’s crew would not be able to go back for the Rangers right away, and the bodyguards crouched on the bank amongst the reeds, waiting for their chance to escape.

  The governor was swiftly reunited with Kate and taken below to his cabin where the girl fussed over him in her pleasure at seeing him again ... and looking better than she had seen him looking in a long, long time.

  “Oh, Pa! It’s so good to have you back! But where’s Yancey and Johnny? Those men you left on the bank, weren’t they … ?”

  Dukes patted Kate’s hand. “Yancey and Johnny are on a job ... Oh, you needn’t look like that. They’re not far away. A few miles upstream, as a matter of fact …”

  Kate’s face broke into a smile and Dukes looked towards Harwood who was bringing brandy in balloon glasses.

  “She’s been worrying about both of you, Yancey and you, sir, ever since we left New Orleans ... And probably before that,” Harwood said, raising his glass. “To your continued good health, Uncle.”

  They drank briefly and Dukes told them both about the sunken cannon and Julie Summers.

  “Yancey sent in a report to me to say they had a Mexican fellow with ’em who had some old maps that would likely help them locate the guns,” Dukes said and drained his glass. “Good idea to have some of our past history on show, I reckon ... If we could wait a couple of days, Rupe, I think they’ll know in that time whether they can find the cannon or not. I’ve given ’em an extension of time, as they now have this extra help.”

  Rupe Harwood looked dubious. “Well, sir, I don’t know ... A couple of days with that mob on the bank ... I reckon they won’t stay there that long. They’ll put out in boats or rafts or canoes and attack us. I think we should start back downriver.”