It was long after dark by the time Kitty, Cyclone, Rap, and Chief arrived at Kip Dalton’s place. Jeremy and the others had arrived earlier on time and uneventfully. The wagon load of counterfeit silver had been stored in Kip’s barn as planned. The only stumbling block so far was, what to do with Willis Beattie.
Kip had held off revealing what, if anything, he may have learned in Thimble Creek until Kitty and the others returned.
Everyone had gathered around him in the kitchen. It had become quite cramped with the addition of the four young men and the captive Beattie brother.
“First of all, I want to tell you that you can forget about those bounty hunters in town. I heard about what happened yesterday and how you fellows sent them packing back to town. I guess you put the fear of God, or should I say Wildcats, into them. They told Price to keep his bounty money. They packed up and hightailed it out of town as fast as they could ride.”
“We coulda handled them anyhow,” Rap boasted.
“Maybe so, Rap. But, it’s just as well they’re gone. One less thing we have to worry about.”
“Mebbe so, mebbe no,” Cyclone groused. “Is that all you got to tell us? We purty near already knowed that.”
“Actually,” Kip announced rather proudly, “I did manage to learn quite a lot during my visit to town.”
Kitty waited with expectant apprehension. Her arms were crossed against her chest and she glared at Kip Dalton with suspicion.
“And, no,” he said emphatically, addressing Kitty directly, “I did not have to sleep with Miss Baxter to get that information. I got a room all to myself for a few days if the need occurred.”
Kitty tossed her head. “Miss Baxter,” she repeated with disgust.
“Fortunately, she merely needs to be plied with alcohol,” Kip said, opening his arms in display; palms up.
“Just get on with it,” Kitty urged with annoyance.
“It seems that Simon Price has done this scheme before and he intends to do it again. The United States Government is buying silver from Mexico. Once a month a loaded freight wagon of silver bullion is delivered from the mines in Juarez, Mexico to the border of Arizona. A cavalry detachment picks it up and escorts it most of the way across Arizona. They meet another detachment at a place called Twin Peaks Cutoff. This detachment escorts the shipment the rest of the way to the Denver Mint in Colorado.
“Price’s mine in Colorado is played out. The one here is almost played out, but there is some silver still there. That’s why Price brought his son back here to work it. It’s not worth working though, so what he’s doing is plating what silver he has to the outside of lead bricks.”
“We already know that, Sherlock,” Kitty scoffed.
Kip tried to ignore her and continued. “Price’s scheme is to replace the real silver shipment with the counterfeit silver. That’s why he wanted the wagon back.”
“I don’t get it,” Jeremy said. “How does he do that?”
“That’s where it gets tricky,” Kip said with a knowing smile. And I have to hand it to the sly devil. It is an ingenious scheme.”
“Well, let’s stop beatin’ about the bush, son,” Cyclone piped up impatiently. “Get on with it.”
“There’s a lot of mountains close enough together that could look like they could be called twin peaks, aren’t there?”
“So what?” Cyclone was really getting irritated.
Kitty just waited skeptically.
“Price finds a place farther down the trail from Twin Peaks Cutoff, puts up a sign on another trail near some other mountains and calls it Twin Peaks Cutoff. The cavalry detachment comes along and thinks they reached the transfer point. Price has his own men dressed in Cavalry uniforms meet them. They do the transfer paperwork and receive the load of silver. The real cavalry turns around and goes home.”
“And Price’s men just take off with the silver, then?” Kitty said. “That still doesn’t explain what he wants with the counterfeit stuff.”
“That’s the genius of it,” Kip said. “Price’s men have it with them hidden nearby when they pick up the real stuff, Once the cavalry is gone, they switch loads. They fill the army wagon with the fake stuff and drive away with the real stuff. Meanwhile, they continue on to the real Twin Peaks Cutoff as if they are the original cavalry detachment. They make the transfer and the shipment goes off to the mint and isn’t discovered until months or even years later when it is pulled out to be minted into coin. In the meantime, they never know they’ve been robbed.”
“So, I guess we ruined it for them by stealing that wagon load of fake silver,” Rap chuckled.
“Fake silver?” Willis Beattie exclaimed. “You mean my brothers risked my life for nothin’.”
“Oh, it’s worth something, Willis,” Kitty said. “Not much, but something. Certainly not as much as you are.”
“Nice of you to say that, Kitty. But I guess I’m just not worth a plugged nickel. And, I’m sorry about those things I thought about you. It was just the things my brothers were saying and then I saw you. With him.” He nodded toward Kip.
Kip was still in conversation with the others, “No Rap, I don’t think we ruined it for them, but I do think we made it damned inconvenient for them.”
“But if we got the wagon.....?” Rap put in.
“They could always fix up another one,” Kip said, “That is, if they’ve got enough silver to make up another batch. My guess is they’ll do their darndest to come up with it. The real shipment is worth three hundred thousand dollars and the next one is due a week from Thursday. That’s a week from yesterday. They’re going to have to hustle if they are going to get another fake load ready. I doubt if that mine has much silver left in it.”
“I didn’t see much while we were working in the mine, Frankie said.
“With what’s at it stake, I’m sure Price will come up with enough silver to do the job somehow, even if he has to go elsewhere for it.”
“I still don’t see what we’re gonna do with that stuff we got and what we’re gonna do about Price’s scheme,” Cyclone said.
Kip smiled broadly, like the cat that just swallowed the canary. “I think we can beat the old devil at his own game,” he announced proudly, standing tall and erect, throwing his broad shoulders back. His eyes met Kitty’s with a twinkle. She seemed to relax and smiled back. Willis frowned and faded back into the crowd.
“We can do the same thing,” Kip stated.
“Do what?” Rap asked dumbly.
“Yeah. Do what?” Cyclone repeated.
“Easy,” Kip said. “We just beat Price’s men to the shipment transfer.”
“And just how do we do that?” Cyclone was skeptical.
“We get ourselves some cavalry uniforms. Then we find another place down the trail near different mountains, put up a sign saying Twin Peaks Cut Off. We meet the cavalry detachment, do the transfer, take the shipment, switch the real silver for our fake silver, take the fake silver on to Price’s fake transfer point, and let them take our fake shipment. They’ll think they’ve got the real stuff and they’ll send their fake stuff on to Denver. Who knows how long it will take Simon Price to figure out he’s been duped. And he’ll have no idea how it happened. All he’ll know is, he got fake silver. He won’t know you got away with it. But, I’ll bet he’ll blame you anyway. And there’ll be nothing he can do about it.”
“It won’t work,” Kitty said emphatically.
“Why not?” Kip said. “It’s foolproof.”
“For one thing,” Kitty said. “We don’t have a full wagon load. Remember? Some of the cases were damaged. Some lost. We didn’t recover all the bars.”
“We’ll empty some of the real silver cases, fill them with what we got. Fill some more with whatever and seal them up. It’ll look like a full load.”
Kitty mulled it over. She still wasn’t convinced. “Still won’t work,” she said. “We can’t waylay the cavalry?”
“Why not?” Kip was starting to get impatient with her.
“We will. I’ll get uniforms.”
“You can do that?”
“Of course I can do that. I’ve got contacts at the fort. I’ve already thought of that. I’ll get uniforms and McClelland saddles, just in case you were going to ask about that too.”
“No. No, I wasn’t,” Kitty said meekly. “What’s a McClelland saddle?”
“Never mind. Trust me. I’ll take care of everything.”
“Still won’t work,” Kitty said with a pout.
“Now what?” Kip could no longer hide his irritation.
“They don’t let girls in the cavalry,” she said.
“You’re not going to be in the cavalry. You’re not meeting the real cavalry. You’ll be hiding somewhere out of sight where they can’t see you.”
“Oh, I can see where that might work,” Kitty said.
“Good,” Kip said enthusiastically. “I’m glad you finally agree.”
The others had been looking on, taking in the repartee with amusement.
“I guess she really had you going there, Kip,” Cyclone laughed.
Kip looked at Cyclone and was a bit taken back that the old man referred to him so casually by his first name. He was genuinely moved and humbled in a way he had never felt before. He laughed in return, only to be interrupted when Kitty said, “But, it still won’t work.”
Kip’s laugh cut short and he took a deep sigh, “And why not, milady?” Somehow ‘milady’ didn’t take on its usual affectionate connotation.
“It may work transferring the real silver because the real cavalry doesn’t know us from anyone else, but transferring the fake silver to Price’s men won’t be that easy. Some of his men are bound to recognize some or all of us. They may even recognize you too, Kip.” Kitty said, admittedly to herself. She had been playing a bit with Kip, but now she was dead serious. Her face was dark with concern.
“You’re absolutely right, Kitty,” Kip said. His demeanor also changed to deep concern. He gazed deep into Kitty’s eyes and suddenly she wished they weren’t here plotting dangerous games. If only they could be in a normal world of blue skies, green grass and peaceful days.
“I’ve given that a great deal of thought. We’re going to need more men to help us with that leg of the heist. How about your young friends here?”
“‘Fraid not,” Cyclone said “You’re forgettin’ it was Simon Price that put those boys in jail. His men will know them too.”
“Then we’re just going to have to find some men someplace,” Kip said.
“I think I know how that can be arranged,” Cyclone said with a wry smile, looking at Willis Beattie.
“Looks mighty quiet down there,” Jonas Beattie said.
The three Beattie brothers were sitting on their horses on the ridge behind Kip’s ranch house. That afternoon after being driven off by Sam Bell the three Beattie brothers had cautiously returned to the scene where they had left their guns. Luck was with them. There were no signs of the bounty hunter, Cyclone or any of his companions. They found their guns where they had left them
Being sure that the wagon load of silver would eventually show up at he abandoned ranch house, where they had followed the Wildcats to earlier. They headed back to check it out.
Now as they sat there on the ridge watching, they were quite sure that someone was in the ranch house. There were several horses in the corral that had not been there before. All was dark down below. There was no light showing through the windows; a good indicator that all had turned in for the night. There was no one moving around the outside property. Apparently, no one had seen any necessity to post a guard.
The night sky was extremely dark for mid night. Cloud cover was heavy and no moon or stars were visible, leaving only the blackness of night. As close as the brothers were to each other, they were only moving shapes with voices.
“Of course it’s quiet down there,” Red said. “They’ve probably, all gone to bed. Pipe down and be quiet, your ownself, or they might not be quiet much longer.”
“I wish we’d gone to bed,” Kirby said. “It’s gettin’ cold out here .”
“Just keep thinkin’ of that silver,” Red said. “You’ll have plenty of time for bed and you’ll be able to keep warm all the time when we get it.”
“You sure it’s in the barn, Red?” Kirby asked.
“Where else would it be? Of course it’s in the barn.”
“How we gonna get it out?”
“We’ll just hitch up some horses and drive it off. We just gotta keep quiet.” Red said.
“What if there ain’t no horses?” Kirby asked.
“Of course there’s horses. How do you think they got it here?”
“Uh... I dunno.”
“C’mon,” Red said with irritation as he gigged his mount forward down the hill toward the barn.
Once they negotiated the foot of the hill and entered the barnyard, Red motioned to the others to remain silent and dismount.
All three of them led their horses silently across the yard, approaching the barn. Pulling his horse to the right out of the way of the right half of the big double hung doors and motioning to Jonas and Kirby to do the same, Red reached for the cross bar that was cradled across both doors latching it shut,
He lifted it carefully, silently and fastened it out of the way with a looped wire that was attached to it for that purpose.
He signaled to his two brothers. They moved forward and put their fingers around the edge of the door. Red did the same with his door. In unison they pulled the doors open silently and walked them back, opening them to the complete width of the opening. They stepped into the center of the open doorway It was black as pitch inside. Red snapped a match and in its glowing flame the three men saw before them the wagon they thought held their fortunes in silver.
Sitting on the wagon were four young men with guns leveled at them. “Welcome, gentlemen,” Frankie the Kid said. “We’ve been waiting all night for you. Now maybe we can get some sleep.”
Chapter Seventeen
The Return of Wildcat Kitty and the Cyclone Kid Page 23