JOSH LOGAN’S REVENGE
A WESTERN ADVENTURE
CHIMP ROBERTSON
Copyright © 2018 by Dusty Saddle Publishing
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
OTHER RECENT WESTERNS FROM
CHIMP ROBERTSON
Six Gun Redemption
FOREWORD FROM M. ALLEN
Having followed the writing of the ‘mighty’ Chimp Robertson for so long… It’s a thrill for me to introduce his new book “Josh Logan’s Revenge.” This might be his best one yet. Robertson has a talent for bringing the West to life in front of your eyes. His locations are Western. His characters are Western… his whole being is the West and you’ll notice this from the very first page of this brand-new bestseller.
M. Allen – Bestselling author of “A Sheriff To Kill For” and several other bestsellers.
DEDICATION
Dedicated to the memory of my dad, Alton Robertson (1911-1980)
Texas Cowboy and WW II combat Veteran, 27th. Infantry, Okinawa
And my mother, Ruby Alice Melissa (White) Robertson, who wrote stories on bits and scraps of paper with an old lead pencil under the light of a kerosene lamp, whiling away the days as a young Cowboy’s wife in a run-down, one-room camp shack, without the benefits of running water or electricity, and always managed to keep a radiant smile and a heart filled with kindness.
And to my sons, Bryan and Gary, as it seems it was just yesterday that they were young and almost every night I’d make up Cowboy stories for them.
PREFACE
This is a story about Josh Logan, a young cowboy who chased down and killed the three outlaws who murdered his entire family while he was on the trail from Texas to Montana with a herd of steers.
Jealous Deputy Sheriff Tom Burch, an outlaw in disguise, wanted Josh out of the way so he could steal his sweetheart Ana, so he had him framed and sent to prison. Upon Josh’s release, Deputy Burch drummed up a murder charge against him, posting a two thousand dollar reward and telling the men in his gang not to try and capture him, but to shoot him on sight.
Josh vowed to get revenge on Tom Burch and his Wolf Gang, the outlaws who chased him over a big part of Texas, trying to kill him for the reward.
Edited by Barbara Reynolds Alkofer
CHAPTER ONE
Texas 1885
“Deputy Burch, you seem awfully determined to see Josh Logan hang,” District Judge Amos Reed said. “I’ve been on the bench twenty years and have never heard such a rant against a prisoner.”
“Judge Reed,” Deputy Burch said. “His lawyer is tryin’ to keep him from gettin’ strung up by sayin’ he had good reason for killin’ the three men who murdered his family. But,” he added, “we can’t have people killin’ someone just because they been wronged.”
Deputy Tom Burch, about thirty, with coarse, receding, coal black hair, and a small, pointed beard, resembling that of a goat, was bull-necked and barrel-chested, and has and wants, only a few close friends. He was a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
While acting as Sheriff Ed Jarnigan’s deputy, Burch had secretly assembled a gang of outlaws, Bud Unruh, Emery Reeves, Slim Tabor, Lem Olson, Miguel Nunez, Duke Barrett, Paul Beacham, Pedro Aguilar, Henry Bates, adding Berto Sousa, Will Jensen, and Jude Clay a while later. They robbed stage coaches and trains at every opportunity, often based on information obtained by Burch.
Unruh, Reeves, Tabor, and Olson stayed in Victoria, while Nunez and the rest of the bunch stayed at the hideout on the Guadalupe River. They called themselves the Wolf Gang, and there was a thousand dollar reward out for each one of them. They wore masks, but always told their victims they were the Wolf Gang, so their reputation spread like wildfire.
Their hideout was in a box canyon south of Victoria on the Guadalupe River where they kept extra horses. After robbing a bank or a stage coach, they’d go back to the hideout and stash their loot, change to their regular horses, then separate and ride casually back to town, or go off in different directions until notified to meet up again.
“Lots of others also think Logan had good reason,” Judge Reed said. “But you’re right about not allowing people to take the law in their own hands. So why isn’t Sheriff Jarnigan here today?”
“He’s out of town,” Burch said. “He told me to take charge ‘till he got back.”
“Don’t you think we should wait until he returns?” Judge Reed said.
“No, because he told me to do whatever I thought was right, and I think holdin’ court today is right.”
“Alright then, I’ll proceed,” Judge Reed said. “In this situation, instead of the gallows, I believe ten years behind bars is punishment enough.”
“One more thing, Judge,” Burch said. “If Crazy Chester don’t stop cussin’ me out and pointin’ his damn wooden gun at me, I’ll arrest him, too.”
“My suggestion would be to leave Crazy Chester alone,” Judge Reed said. “He points his wooden gun at everybody.”
“Yeah, but I’m the only one he cusses, and I’m gettin’ tired of it,” Burch said.
“Like I suggested, Deputy Burch, just leave Crazy Chester alone,” Judge Reed said, as he rapped his gavel on the desk. “And as far as the Josh Logan case goes … ten years … case closed.”
Crazy Chester was a loner named Chester Collingsworth, according to a letter he carried. He was a beefy man, standing about six feet tall and weighing at least two hundred pounds. Hair sprouted from his ears and he was brawny, thick-chested, and as big as a draft horse.
He’d been booted off a wagon train for the way he acted, and left by the side of the road. No one knew where he came from, or anything else about him so Sheriff Jarnigan took up for him when he first drifted into town. The sheriff had even talked the city into allowing Crazy Chester to live in an old vacant building behind the bank.
Almost every day Crazy Chester would stand around on the sidewalk with the long-barreled wooden pistol, carved out for him by Sheriff Jarnigan, crammed in his belt. Residents of the town didn’t pick on him, or make fun of him, but they did humor him by asking if everything was alright and if he had things under control.
He’d always say, “Yeah,” and pull out his wooden pistol.
Bert McDonald, owner of the diner, saw Chester standing on the sidewalk and motioned for him to come around to the back.
“Chester,” he said. “I throw away a lot of good food every day. Would you like to have it?”
“Yeah,” Chester said.
“Alright then, I’ll save up enough to last you two days,” McDonald said. “Can you come back right before dark every other day and pick it up?”
“Yeah,” Chester said.
“Alright then,” McDonald said. “I’ll save it for you.”
The next evening when McDonald opened the back door to the diner, Chester was standing there with a big grin on his face.
“Well, hello, Chester,” he said. “I meant for you to come back every two days, not every day. Did you eat everything I gave you at one time?”
“Yeah,” Chester said.
Well, don’t eat it up all in one day,” McDonald said. “I’ll give you enough to last you for at least two days. Is that alright?”
“Yeah,” Chester said. But he kept showing up behind the diner every evening. McDonald eyed the innocent expression on Chester’s face so he started giving him the leftovers every day instead of every other day.
Sher
iff Jarnigan heard about McDonald giving Chester free food so he called him over to the jail.
“Chester, I need some help at the jail, so would you be interested?”
“Yeah,” Chester said.
“All you’d have to do is keep the place clean. And once a day go over to the diner and get meals for the prisoners, if we got any prisoners in here. I’d even let you stay for free in one of the empty cells if you wanted to. At least you’d have a cot and blankets instead of sleepin’ on the floor like you do in that old empty building.”
“I will do that job,” Crazy Chester said.
“Alright, then,” Sheriff Jarnigan said. “You can start right now.”
Josh Logan was a loner, just like Crazy Chester. And he had been ever since outlaws killed his whole family, including his two younger brothers, and stole his dad’s entire cow herd. Only Josh escaped because he was off helping trail a herd to Montana.
Twenty years old at the time of the trial, Josh was tall and slim, with broad shoulders a narrow waist, and curly blond hair that fell below a weather-beaten hat. He was a seasoned cowhand recognizable by his dusty, brush-scarred chaps, silver spurs, and a gun belt holding the holster hanging on his right hip. When he met pretty Mariana Nicoleta Yarnell, who went by the name of Ana, he began to have a different outlook on life and had even asked her to marry him.
A few years earlier, when Josh heard the news about his family being murdered, he came back to Texas where he hunted down and killed the entire gang, one at a time. He was awarded a five thousand dollar reward for the outlaws, so he paid off the mortgage on his dad’s little ranch about five miles north of town and moved in. He didn’t get to live on the ranch but a short while before Deputy Burch arrested him for what he called murder in cold blood.
Deputy Tom Burch was an angry man who secretly coveted the sheriff’s job and planned to run against him in the next election. He had lost his sweetheart to Josh’s father back when they were both young cowboys working on a ranch up near Abilene. He’d held a grudge all this time. When he finally got the chance to do something about it, he took his anger out on the son.
Josh had served almost eight years when William Reese, a Houston lawyer and old family friend, won him a pardon. Reese was glad to repay an old debt, because Josh’s dad had saved him from being scalped by the Comanches several years earlier.
The first thing Josh did upon his release was head back to Victoria to his dad’s old place north of town. He’d received several letters from Ana asking him to come back.
Their good friend Willie Sneed, an old crippled up cowhand who ran the livery stable, had agreed to take care of Josh’s good black horse Macho while he was gone. He was anxious to get back in the saddle.
And even more, he looked forward to marrying Ana and living out their lives on his dad’s old place. Ana, like so many of the folks looking for a new life in the west, had not had an easy time. Her father, Will Yarnell, had abandoned her and her mother back in Missouri and went west to try and seek a fortune, but never returned.
When Ana was about nineteen, her mother, Rosalinda, who was homesick for her own family down in Mexico, booked them passage on a supply train bound for Chihuahua in exchange for cooking for the crew. But Rosalinda caught a fever and died about the time the wagon train reached Victoria.
The wagon master, not knowing what else to do with an orphaned girl, left Ana with Sheriff Jarnigan and his wife Esther. A few months later, Ana found work in the Silver Saddle Saloon and rented a small room on a side street behind the mercantile.
People stared at Ana everywhere she went. Named after her grandmother Mariana Esmeralda, whom she’d never even seen, Ana was an absolute beauty. With thick black hair and dark, almost black eyes, she was alert, determined, and witty. She loved horses, and kept a beautiful palomino she called Dinero in the livery stable.
Caretaker Willie Sneed took care of Dinero for her. Sneed was usually a silent, rather sullen man, tall and thin, but with broad shoulders and narrow hips. He had some age on him, but he had an athletic look about him, with the quick movements of a leopard and he’d been in on his share of gun fights in his younger days.
Deputy Burch was also sweet on Ana, and that was another reason he had it in for Josh. He figured with Josh out of the way he’d have a better chance at winning the hand of pretty little Mariana Nicoleta Yarnell.
Sheriff Jarnigan noticed Deputy Burch coming out of the saloon and motioned for him to come over to his office.
“Burch, Josh Logan has paid his dues,” he said. “Eight years in jail is a long time, and now that he’s back in town, I want you to leave him alone. And leave Ana alone, too. It’ll just cause trouble if you don’t. She’s Josh’s girl.”
Deputy Burch wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Well, I like her, too,” he said. “And besides that, I been likin’ her ever since she came to Victoria.”
“Hell, Burch,” Sheriff Jarnigan said. “She’s twenty years younger than you are.”
“That don’t matter,” Burch said. “I aim to get her and there’s nothin’ you can do about it.”
“Yeah, there is,” Sheriff Jarnigan said. “I’ll fire you if you cause any trouble.”
Tom Burch crossed the room and said, “Hell, Sheriff, you don’t have to fire me.” He took off his deputy badge and tossed it down on the desk. “Since I don’t like bein’ a deputy anyway, I think I’ll just take your job.”
“That’ll be the day,” Sheriff Jarnigan said, reaching over to pick up the badge.
Something changed in Burch’s eyes, a quick switch of repressed anger, perhaps. Though he moved not a muscle, he seemed more rigid, while his ebony eyes remained steady upon Sheriff Jarnigan. He stood so close Jarnigan caught the smell of whiskey on Burch’s breath.
“With all due respect Sheriff, this is the day,” Burch said as he pulled a pearl-handled revolver from his belt and stripped the hammer back and fired, knocking Jarnigan out of his chair.
Then, firing two more shots up through the ceiling, he placed the barrel of his revolver close to his left shoulder and pulled the trigger. He pinned the deputy badge back on his shirt and staggered out the door and flopped down on the sidewalk.
Men all up and down the street heard the shots and came running toward the sheriff’s office with their six-guns drawn.
Burch rose up on one knee with his gun in his hand and blood on his shirt. “It’s Josh Logan,” he yelled. “He shot Sheriff Jarnigan and escaped out the back door. Somebody go get Doc Turner.”
Two of Burch’s men, Bud Unruh and Emery Reeves, helped him to his feet.
“You hit bad, Tom?” Bud said.
“No, I ain’t,” Burch said. “It’s just a shoulder wound. Let’s go over to the saloon and have a drink. We need to form a posse and go after Logan.”
He figured this was his best chance to find Josh and shoot him, then claim he tried to escape.
“Doc Turner needs to take a look at your shoulder,” Bud said.
“Alright, but after we get that drink,” Burch said, with a crooked smile. “Emery, you take Bud and Slim with you and go out there and start a petition. If you can get me elected sheriff, I’ll make all of you boys my deputies, and maybe you can make a little honest money for a change.”
Ana stood behind the bar listening as Burch and his men made plans to go out to Josh’s cabin and shoot him. The saloon was crowded and loud so she slipped out the back door and hurried down to the livery stable. Willie Sneed saw her coming and stepped out to meet her.
“What’s all the shootin’ about, Ana?”
“Deputy Burch told everyone that Josh shot Sheriff Jarnigan,” Ana said. “He’s getting together a posse right now to go out there and kill him and say he tried to escape. But Josh didn’t shoot the sheriff,” she added. “I know, because I just came back from his cabin and he wasn’t even in town when it happened.”
“Alright then,” Willie said. “What do we need to do?”
“While I saddle my
horse, you turn all those other horses out in the pasture so Burch and his men will have to round them up. That’ll give me time to get out to Josh’s place and warn him.”
It was about five miles out to Josh’s cabin. Ana rode out there as fast as her horse could go. Josh was down at the corral and noticed his good black horse Macho looking back toward the south. When he realized it was Ana coming at full speed, he figured something was wrong. He climbed over the fence and started toward her.
She slid her palomino to a stop, jumped off, and ran to meet him.
“What’s the matter?” Josh said.
“Deputy Burch told everyone you killed Sheriff Jarnigan,” Ana said. “He’s getting a posse together to come out here and arrest you.”
“Arrest me?” Josh said. “Hell, I ain’t done nothin’ to be arrested for, so let ‘em come.”
“But, of course, there is a bad side to the situation,” she said. “He said they’d shoot you and then go back to town and tell everyone he tried to arrest you, but that you fired at them and tried to escape.”
“Damn, I just got home a few days ago,” Josh said. “Looks like I’m leavin’ whether I want to or not,” he added, as he hurried back to the barn and saddled Macho.
“You will come back, won’t you?” Ana said with tears in her eyes.
He tried to console her. “As soon as I can,” he said. “Ride your horse into the corral here, then turn around and race out of there as hard as you can go, and head for the river crossing. Turn southwest and ride hard for about a half a mile before slowin’ down. Hopefully, they’ll lose your tracks and you can double back and head for home. All we can do is hope they follow your tracks out of the corral, thinkin’ I’ve headed for Mexico.”
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