Day of Reckoning

by William W. Johnstone

  “Aye, I’m sure,” Duff said.

  “But won’t this warn them that you are coming for them? It seems to me like you would want to maintain the element of surprise.”

  “Would ye be for running the story as I’ve written here, or would ye prefer that I go to the Wyoming Territory Tribune?”

  “No, no, there’ll be no need for that. I’ll be glad to run the story, just as you have written it. And I thank you for giving the Defender the opportunity to do it.”

  “When will the story run?”

  “I’ll run it tomorrow, and I’ll put it on the front page, above the fold,” Denham promised.

  “Thank you,” Duff said.

  “No, Mister MacCallister. Thank you, sir. I’m sure this story will be picked up in newspapers throughout Wyoming Territory, Colorado, ’n the Dakota Territory.”

  Rock Creek, Wyoming Territory

  Callahan, Manning, Cooper, Morris, Pardeen, Bates, and Donner were in the town of Rock Creek, a small railroad town some seventy miles west of Cheyenne. They were in the Railroad Saloon, and at the moment, the seven of them made up fully half of the customers.

  The seven men had managed to take four hundred and sixty dollars in cash from the holdup of Whitworth’s store. With that money, and the money they had taken from the bank in Bordeaux, Callahan and the three who had been with him from the beginning had managed to accumulate a few dollars. Not a lot of money but enough to keep them from being destitute. The sixty-five dollars apiece that Pardeen, Bates, and Donner got as their share of the robbery constituted their entire fortune, and that money was greatly reduced now in gambling and whoring.

  “We’ve got to come up with somethin’ else to make some money,” Pardeen complained. “I ain’t got but twenty-two dollars left.”

  “That’s your own fault,” Callahan said.

  Callahan had taken a newspaper from the bar when they came in and saw a story that caught his interest. The newspaper was a special edition to the Rock Creek Gazette from the Cheyenne Defender.

  LEADING CITIZEN VOWS TO SEE JUSTICE DONE

  Captain Duff MacCallister, one of the leading citizens of Laramie County, if not, indeed, one of the leading citizens of the entire Wyoming Territory, has stated his intention to search for and bring to justice seven men. The object of his quest are the outlaws: Clay Callahan, Zeke Manning, Dooley Cooper, Pogue Morris, Emil Bates, Lucas Donner, and Gabe Pardeen.

  Our readers in Cheyenne will quickly recognize the names Clay Callahan and Zeke Manning, as those two ne’er-do-wells were but recently tried, convicted, and sentenced to hang for the vile murders they had committed but a month earlier. The scheduled hanging did not take place, however, for the villains were rescued by two of their former confederates, Dooley Cooper and Pogue Morris.

  Not content with merely escaping prison, the four despicable wastrels murdered Deputy Dinkins, as well as the noted hangman, Mordecai Luscombe. Shortly thereafter Callahan, Manning, Cooper, and Morris stopped, in the middle of the night, at the Twin Pine Ranch, belonging to Captain Edward Culpepper and his wife, Julie Ann. But a short time previous to this uninvited visit, the Culpeppers had most generously opened their home to Cooper and Morris, inviting them to sit at their table and take sup with them. And how were they repaid? They were repaid in the most brutal way possible, for both Captain and Mrs. Culpepper were killed, and their house was burned.

  Emil Bates, Lucas Donner, and Gabe Pardeen were, like Callahan and Manning, about to be hung when they, too, were broken out of jail, now known to have been orchestrated by Callahan and his gang.

  Duff MacCallister, whose ranch Sky Meadow is adjacent to the Culpepper ranch of Twin Pine, was a neighbor and good friend to the murdered rancher and his wife. He has vowed to seek out the outlaws and bring them to justice.

  “I shall ride alone,” MacCallister told this newspaper. “But I am girded with the armor of righteousness and armed with the sword of virtue. I will find these men, and justice will prevail.”

  “Son of a bitch! How do they know so much about us?” Manning asked.

  “It’s the girl,” Callahan said. “She recognized Cooper and Morris from when they were there, and you let her get away.”

  “We didn’t let her get away, she got away on her own,” Cooper said.

  “Maybe it is the girl that knows you four,” Donner said. “But how the hell did they know we’re ridin’ together now? Hell, we wasn’t even with you when you kilt Culpepper.”

  “I’ll be honest with you, I don’t know how the hell they figured that out,” Callahan said.

  “What I want to know is, who is this Duff MacCallister person?” Pardeen asked. “I mean that’s big talk for some clod-hopping rancher.”

  “He’s a lot more than some clod-hopping rancher,” Manning said. “Hell, if it warn’t for that son of a bitch, we woulda got away with the bank robbery in Archer, ’n Don ’n Dan LaFarge would still be alive. He’s the one that stopped us.”

  “Wait a minute. Are you sayin’ that one man stopped four of you?” Pardeen asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “That ain’t the first time this MacCallister feller has done somethin’ like that,” Cooper said.

  “What are you talkin’ about? Cooper, do you know this MacCallister person?” Callahan asked.

  “I don’t know him personal like,” Cooper replied. “But I sure as hell know who he is. He’s the one that took down Johnny Taylor, sometime back. Me ’n Johnny ’n his brother Emile rode together some. It was just a good thing that I wasn’t with them when Duff MacCallister found ’em, ’cause he done ’em in.”

  “Ha!” Pardeen said. “To hear you two talk, this MacCallister person is Wild Bill Hickok, Wes Hardin, ’n Tom Horn, all rolled into one.”

  “He just might be,” Cooper said.

  “Hey, Callahan, how much would it be worth to you, if someone was to kill MacCallister?” Pardeen asked.

  “How much would it be worth to me? Why are you asking that?”

  “You four are the ones he’s really a-lookin’ for. It warn’t us that kilt Culpepper. I’ll bet the three of us could ride up to his ranch ’n he wouldn’t think nothin’ about it, ’cause he wouldn’t recognize us.”

  “You mean three strangers would just show up, ’n he wouldn’t be none curious at all?” Callahan replied.

  “Not iffen we was to tell ’im that we seen this story in the paper, ’n we could tell ’im where he could find you,” Bates said, now getting into the idea.

  “Yeah,” Pardeen said quickly. “The way we would play it is, we’d tell ’im we was in it for the reward. Then, when we got him trustin’ us, we’ll kill ’im. Would that be worth a hunnert dollars apiece for each of us?”

  “You want a hundred dollars?”

  “Apiece,” Pardeen said. “You four still got some money from the bank that you robbed, but we didn’t get nothin’ at all from the stagecoach, ’n we didn’t get practically nothin’ from that store, neither, except for two hunnert dollars, which our share come to only twenty-six.”

  “Callahan, I’m willin’ to put in my share,” Cooper said. “If there’s anything we don’t need now, it’s someone like MacCallister huntin’ us ’cause of some personal revenge. I’m tellin’ you, he ain’t someone we want to be messin’ around with. And it’s enough that we have to look out for the law.”

  “Yeah,” Manning said. “You ’member back in Archer how he was just standin’ there in front of us, like he knowed he couldn’t get shot or nothin’.”

  “Yeah, I remember,” Callahan said, his voice nearly a growl. “What about you, Morris? You willin’ to come up with your share to pay these men to kill MacCallister for us?”

  “We have to come up with a hunnert dollars apiece?” Morris asked.

  “Not a hundred dollars from each of us. We have to come with a hundred dollars for each of them. That would be seventy-five dollars from each of us,” Callahan said.

  “Come on, Morris,” Cooper said. “It’ll
be worth it to get this son of a bitch off our backs. I’m tellin’ you, I know who this son of a bitch is, ’n I don’t want to run up ag’in ’im.”

  “There’s seven of us ’n one of him,” Morris said.

  “Suppose he only gets two of us before we get him. Are you willin’ to be one of those two?”

  “All right,” Morris finally agreed. “I’ll go along with it.”

  “There you go, Pardeen,” Callahan said. “The four of us will come up with a hundred dollars apiece for the three of you. But we ain’t goin’ to pay you nothin’ ’til after you’ve done kilt ’im.”

  “All right, you got yourselves a deal,” Pardeen said.

  Sky Meadow Ranch

  An arch stretched over the road with the words SKY MEADOW worked into it with wrought iron. A painted sign was on the fence post.

  SKY MEADOW

  DUFF MACCALLISTER, Proprietor

  Fine Angus Cattle

  “It’s just real nice of ’im to put the sign up here so’s that we know we got the right place,” Pardeen said. “Let’s ride on up to the house just real casual like, ’n when this MacCallister feller comes out we’ll kill ’im.”

  “It might not be all that easy,” Bates said. “Remember what Cooper told us about him killin’ Johnny Taylor ’n them that was with ’im. And Cooper said they was some pretty good boys. We’re goin’ to have to get ’im to trust us first, then when he ain’t suspectin’ nothin’, we’ll kill ’im.”

  “Would you know ’im if you seen ’im?” Donner asked.

  “No, but Callahan said that he was a big Scotsman, so it prob’ly won’t be all that hard to pick ’im out,” Bates said. “I mean if a big man starts speakin’ in Scottish to us, who else could it be?”

  “What does Scottish sound like?” Donner asked.

  “I don’t know, but I reckon we’ll know it if we hear it spoke.”

  “Well, we ain’t goin’ to get the job done just by jawin’ about it,” Pardeen said. “Let’s go.”

  The three riders started up the long road that led from the arched sign to the cluster of well-maintained buildings.

  * * *

  “Have you found what the problem is up there?” Elmer called. Elmer was standing on the ground beneath the windmill and Wang had climbed to the top. The windmill had stopped working . . . the blades still, even in a brisk wind.

  Wang examined the mechanism, then smiled as he saw that the gears had been jammed up by a piece of tree limb somewhat larger than a man’s thumb. Reaching down into the gearbox he withdrew the offending branch, then, giving the blades a turn, they caught the wind and began spinning.

  “You done it!” Elmer said. “What was the problem?”

  “This,” Wang called back down to him. He dropped the three-inch-long chunk of wood.

  “I’ll be damn,” Elmer said, picking it up for a closer examination. “We had us a pretty good wind last night. It musta blowed this right into the gears.”

  “Three men come,” Wang called down.

  “Duff?”

  “I do not know these men,” Wang said.

  “Wonder what they want,” Elmer said. “Damn, I wish I’d wore my gun. Too late now to get it.”

  Wang climbed down from the windmill and was standing beside Elmer as the three men approached.

  “I don’t know none of ’em, neither,” Elmer said. “I wonder what it is that they are a-wantin’?”

  * * *

  “That’s an old man and a Chinaman,” Donner said as the three of them rode toward the two men they saw standing before them. “You don’t reckon one of them is MacCallister, do you?”

  “I don’t know,” Bates said. “I ain’t never heard how old MacCallister is.”

  “There ain’t neither one of ’em wearin’ a gun,” Pardeen said. “Wait ’til we get real close, then when I say so, draw your guns ’n keep ’em covered. I’ll do the talkin’.”

  Elmer and Wang stood their ground watching as the three men approached them.

  “I don’t have me a good feelin’ ’bout this,” Elmer said. He waited until the men were within talking distance.

  “What can I do for you fellers?” Elmer asked.

  “Are you MacCallister?” Pardeen inquired.

  “Why do you want to know?” Elmer replied.

  “Now!” Pardeen said, drawing his gun. The other two men drew their guns as well.

  “Now, I’m goin’ to ask you again, mister. Are you MacCallister?”

  “No, I ain’t MacCallister,” Elmer replied. “What do you want ’im for?”

  “We want to kill ’im,” Pardeen replied with a little laugh.

  “I think you’ll find he ain’t goin’ to be very easy to kill,” Elmer said.

  “You, Chinaman, go get ’im. ’N tell ’im if he don’t come out here unarmed, I’m goin’ to shoot this old man.”

  “Who the hell are you callin’ an old man?” Elmer retorted.

  “I’m callin’ you an old man, you old goat,” Pardeen said. “You, Chinaman, don’t you speak English?”

  “I speak English,” Wang replied.

  “Then what for are you still standin’ there? I told you to go get MacCallister.”

  “He is not here,” Wang replied.

  “What do you mean, he ain’t here? This is his ranch, ain’t it?”

  “Yeah, this is his ranch, all right, but Wang told you the truth. MacCallister’s not here.”

  “Where is he?”

  “I don’t have no notion at all where he might be now. He’s off somewhere takin’ care of business,” Elmer said.

  “All right, Chinaman, here’s what I want you to do. I want you to go into the house ’n bring anyone that’s in there outside,” Pardeen said.

  “There is no one inside,” Wang replied.

  “You tellin’ me that on a big ranch like this, ’n there ain’t no one inside? How ’bout his wife and kids.”

  “He ain’t married,” Elmer said. “Wang’s tellin’ the truth, there ain’t nobody inside.”

  “Hey, Pardeen, I’ll bet there’s some good food inside,” Donner said. “Why don’t we go in ’n get us somethin’ to eat?”

  “I don’t believe we’ve given you any invite to go inside,” Elmer said.

  “This here is all the invite we need,” Bates said, holding up the pistol.

  “Donner’s right, we may as well go in ’n get us somethin’ to eat,” Pardeen said. “Tie them two fellers up to the windmill.”

  “How are we goin’ to tie ’em up? We ain’t got no rope,” Donner said.

  “Use this,” Pardeen said, holding up two strips of rawhide that he took from one of his saddlebags. “Tie ’em up with their thumbs.” He smiled. “I seen some injuns do that once.”

  Under gunpoint, Elmer and Wang were forced to stretch their arms behind them, one arm on either side of the upright shaft of the windmill. Then the rawhide strips were used to tie their thumbs together. The result was an effective restraint of the two.

  “Now, you fellers don’t go nowhere whilst we’re inside havin’ our meal,” Pardeen said with a triumphant grin.

  Elmer watched as the three men went into the house, the house that he, personally, had helped Duff build. Because they had been secured to the upright shaft of the windmill, and it was round, there was no edge that they could use to cut through the rawhide.

  “Damn, we’re as caught up here as a beaver in a trap,” Elmer said. “You know they’ll prob’ly shoot us when they come back outside, don’t you?”

  “We will not be tied up when they come back,” Wang said.

  “Yeah? Well there ain’t much you can do that’ll ever surprise me, but if you can cut through these here thongs on a round pump shaft, then I purely will be surprised.”

  “Hold your hands still,” Wang said.

  “What do you mean hold ’em still? Hell they’re tied up, how ’m I goin’ to hold ’em any other . . .” Elmer stopped in mid-sentence. “I’ll be damn. How the hell ar
e you doin’ that?”

  Elmer’s question was the result of feeling Wang’s fingers working on the little pieces of leather by which his thumbs were secured. His astonishment was in how he was able to do anything seeing as Wang’s thumbs were also tied.

  Within less than a minute, Elmer was free. It took him a little longer to free Wang, even though he was facing him and with the full use of both hands.

  “Now, let’s take care of them sons of bitches,” Elmer said.

  The two men hurried into the bunkhouse where Elmer retrieved his pistol and Wang a knife. So armed, they returned to the windmill, then put their arms back around the pump shaft so that, by all appearances, they were still tied up.

  A while later the three men left the house.

  “Now, that there was some good bacon,” Pardeen said.

  “The cheese was good, too,” Donner said.

  “What do you say we kill these two sons of bitches just to leave a sign for MacCallister?” Bates suggested.

  “Sounds good to me,” Pardeen said. Pulling their guns the three men walked toward the windmill.

  “Get ready, Wang,” Elmer said quietly.

  “The tiger crouches,” Wang replied.

  Elmer laughed. “I knew damn well you would come up with somethin’ like that.”

  “I don’t know what you’re laughin’ about, you old coot,” Pardeen said. “Seein’ as you and the Chinaman is both about to die.”

  “I don’t think so,” Elmer said, bringing his gun around.

  “What the hell?” Bates shouted in surprise.

  Elmer fired twice, and Pardeen and Donner went down. Bates went down as well, with a knife sticking out of his neck.

  “How did you . . . ?” Pardeen gasped as he was drawing his last breaths.

  “Maybe you can figure it out in hell,” Elmer said as he stood over the three men. Pardeen drew two more gasps, then he died, the last to do so.

  Chapter Twenty-seven