Outlaw Legend Begins

by Saran Essex

  Browns Hole had excellent grazing land and plentiful wildlife including deer, elk and wolves. Several homesteaders and ranchers had made the valley their home, and they had settled on both sides of the river.

  Shortly before midday, Leroy and Emmett trotted out of Red Creek Canyon. They then had to ride for over two miles down a steep and gravelly trail before entering the valley.

  After riding into Browns Hole, they rode for a few miles through the tall grasses and vegetation of the valley, finally pulling their horses to a halt in a clearing where a small group of log buildings was situated near to the north bank of the river. The wooden buildings stood a few feet apart and were sheltered from behind by a range of hills. They were the properties of Jeremiah Baxter, the older brother of Caleb.

  The sturdy log buildings were long and not too narrow, and constructed out of pine and spruce logs. There was a general store, an eating house, a saloon and a couple of log cabins with corrals attached. The general store and log cabins had been in the valley for a number of years, but the saloon and eating-house were fairly recent buildings. Jeremiah ran this small community with his wife, Dinah, his sons Levi, Warren and Sam, his daughter Annie, and some assistant workers.

  Leroy and Emmett stepped inside the general store to buy some supplies and were warmly welcomed by Sam and Levi Baxter, who knew the two men quite well from the several times that they had worked on the ranch of their uncle, Caleb. After buying the supplies, Leroy and Emmett went into the eating-house for a meal. They were served by Annie, the daughter of Jeremiah and Dinah.

  Annie had long, curly brown hair and hazel eyes. She was very attractive and had a sweet nature. She exchanged an affectionate smile with Emmett. Annie and Emmett had taken a strong liking to each other during the times that he had worked for Caleb, and they were pleased to see each other again.

  Leroy and Emmett finished their meal and spent a few minutes talking to Annie before getting to their feet to leave the eating-house. Annie went outside with them, and while Leroy swung up into the saddle of his horse that was tied to the hitch rail alongside Emmett’s, she stood talking quietly to Emmett. Leroy smiled as Emmett gave Annie a hesitant kiss on the cheek before mounting his horse.

  There was a happy glow on Annie’s face as she stood watching them ride away.

  Caleb Baxter’s ranch was located on the eastern border of Browns Hole in the state of Colorado, and it was late afternoon when Leroy and Emmett arrived there. It had taken them over two hours to ride through the valley to get to the ranch after leaving Annie.

  They rode into the ranch grounds and looked around them. A few yards to their right were two corrals about ten feet apart. In the first one, nearest to them, they could see several horses milling around. In the second, which was smaller, Leroy and Emmett saw only one horse. It looked like a young mustang, and it had a saddle on its back. Three men were standing by the corral fence watching the horse. They had their backs to Leroy and Emmett, and the two friends glanced only briefly at the men, but they did notice that one of them looked like the ranch foreman, Deke Hogan.

  Leroy and Emmett guessed that Hogan was probably breaking in the mustang. They knew it was one of the jobs that Hogan liked to do, but they also knew that the foreman could be brutal with the horses at times, and they felt an urge to ride over to the corral to watch how Hogan handled the young horse. However, first they would have to call in at the ranch house to let Caleb know they had arrived.

  The ranch house stood across the yard from the corrals. It was a long, timber-framed, single-storey building with five rooms: a living room, kitchen and two bedrooms, while the fifth room was used as a library. Caleb loved reading, and he had built the fifth room on to the ranch house especially for his collection of books.

  Other log buildings that stood to the right, left and rear of the ranch house were barns, stables and two bunkhouses. Rising up behind the ranch buildings was a series of low hills and mountains.

  Leroy and Emmett rode on over to the ranch house. They dismounted and tied their horses to the hitch rail on the porch.

  They had just stepped up on to the porch when they heard the loud neighing of a horse, and looked over at the corrals. Hogan was now inside the smaller corral with the mustang, and he was leading the young horse around by the reins. The mustang seemed very nervous, an indication that he must only recently have been introduced to accepting the saddle on his back and the feel of the bridle.

  Leroy and Emmett stepped down from the porch and took a few steps nearer to the corral. Leroy, who loved horses and had a way with them, stared at the young mustang admiringly. The horse was golden tan in colour, and had a muscular body.

  Hogan looked across at Leroy and Emmett with a dark scowl on his face. He wasn’t happy to see them – in fact he was quite angry about the fact that they were going to be working at the ranch again. Caleb looked on Leroy too favourably for Hogan’s liking.

  Leroy and Emmett exchanged a knowing smile with each other. In all the times they had worked at the Baxter ranch, they had never found Deke Hogan easy to deal with. Hogan was a hard worker, but he could behave in a very underhand and intimidating way – Leroy and Emmett had seen him deal roughly with some of the ranch hands in the past.

  The two ranch hands leaning against the corral fence watching Hogan noticed the foreman’s scowl, and turned round to look at Leroy and Emmett. A delighted smile sprang instantly to Leroy’s face as he and Emmett recognized one of the ranch hands as the young man who had saved their lives in Green River, the puzzling and unfriendly Lonzo.

  A flicker of recognition showed in Lonzo’s grey-blue eyes as he looked at Leroy and Emmett, but he gave them no greeting, and ignoring Leroy’s smile, turned his glance back to Hogan and the mustang. Leroy’s smile died away, and he said rather sourly to Emmett, ‘I guess now isn’t a good time to thank him for saving our lives!’

  Emmett could not help a sudden grin. Not many people could rile the easygoing Leroy Parker, but it looked as though Lonzo was going to be one of the few people who could, and he thought it would be interesting to see how things turned out between the amiable and cheerful Leroy, and the aloof Lonzo. Leroy had seen Emmett’s grin, but before he could comment on it, Caleb Baxter came hurrying out of the ranch house to greet them.

  Caleb was in his late forties, tall and sinewy in physique, with greying hair that was swept back off his forehead. He had a wife, Elizabeth, and two daughters, though both of his daughters were married and had moved away, and had little to do with their parents or the ranch. He was very firm with all his employees, but he was also a fair-minded man, and Leroy and Emmett liked him a lot.

  Caleb shook hands with his two friends. He had been expecting them, and welcomed them by saying how pleased he was to have them work for him again. At his suggestion, the three men then walked the short distance across to the corral to watch Hogan and the mustang. Caleb did not know that Leroy and Emmett had already met Lonzo, and at the corral fence, he introduced them to both Lonzo and Marvin Kilbey, the other young ranch hand. Kilbey, a tall, fair-haired young man with pleasant blue eyes, smiled hello to them, but Lonzo only gave a non-committal grunt.

  Leroy felt a rare rush of annoyance at Lonzo’s attitude, and had to stop himself from uttering a very unpleasant remark. Lonzo turned his head away, but there was a glint of amusement in his eyes. He had noticed how Leroy had suppressed his sudden flare of irritation.

  Lonzo hated to admit it to himself, but Leroy Parker intrigued him, and had done so ever since he had seen him drive his knee into Archie Burdett’s groin. Back then in the saloon in Green River, when Leroy had scrutinized him so keenly, Lonzo had sensed in Leroy an adventurous spirit and a fearlessness that matched his own.

  Lonzo, however, had no wish to get friendly with Leroy or anyone else – he did not trust people, and he did not want anyone to know or guess that he also went by the name of the Sundance Kid.

  While Caleb and the other men watched him, Hogan stopped leading the young m
ustang around the corral as he was now thinking of jumping up into the saddle to try and ride it. Before attempting to do this, he called out to Marvin Kilbey to open the corral gate – once he had got up into the saddle and had the horse under sufficient control, then he intended to ride it out of the ranch grounds and over the range land for a few miles to show it who was the boss.

  Deke Hogan was a daunting figure of a man. He was over six foot tall and burly, with well developed muscles. He had black hair, and his dark eyes always seemed to emit a menacing gleam.

  Hogan was aware that his boss, Caleb Baxter, was watching as he leapt up into the mustang’s saddle, and he wanted to make a good impression. Hogan liked to be the one at Baxter’s ranch to break in the young and spirited horses, and it infuriated him that ever since Lonzo had turned up at the ranch looking for work about six months ago, and had shown such prowess with horses, Caleb had given a lot of the horse breaking and training jobs to him. He was further angered by the fact that Leroy Parker, who also had a special way with horses, had just arrived at the ranch with his partner, Emmett Layne, to work for Baxter again.

  The instant the mustang felt Hogan in the saddle, its muscles bunched and it began to buck as it tried frantically to unseat Hogan from its back, leaping and twisting with speed around the corral, and trying to throw himself over backwards as Hogan tried desperately to keep his seat.

  Leroy watched intently along with the other men at the corral fence. Then the mustang suddenly gave a violent pitch forwards, and Hogan fell from the saddle into the dirt. The horse stood panting. Its sides were heaving, and its eyes were darting everywhere.

  Hogan had landed hard, but he was soon up on his feet. His face was red with fury as he made a grab for the horse’s bridle. He also bunched up his fist, and the men who were leaning against the corral fence watching, all believed that Hogan was going to throw a punch at the horse.

  Leroy yelled out, ‘No, Deke!’

  But Hogan didn’t get the chance to hit the horse, because it suddenly plunged into a run, the bridle was torn from Hogan’s hands, and in a flurry of hoofs it charged towards the open corral gate.

  Leroy immediately darted towards the open gate and reached it just as the mustang was galloping up to it. He leapt for its head and grabbed hold of the reins. The horse snorted wildly, and instantly started kicking out and trying to rear up, but Leroy held tight on to the reins. His breath came in gasps as he struggled to keep the animal from rearing up while avoiding the flaying hoofs.

  There was a sudden rush of movement on the other side of the horse, and out of the corner of his eye, Leroy saw to his dismay that Deke Hogan was running up to try and grab the reins on the opposite side. Someone else, however, had the same idea as Hogan, and he pushed in front of the foreman, almost sending him tumbling over.

  It was Harry Alonzo Longbaugh, the young man from Pennsylvania, who caught hold of the mustang’s reins on the opposite side to Leroy, and Leroy was glad that it was Lonzo who had hold of the reins and not the brutish Deke Hogan.

  Caleb, Emmett and Marvin Kilbey were running up close behind Lonzo. The combined strength of Leroy and Lonzo gripping the reins kept the horse from rearing up, but they struggled to keep their footing, and finally Leroy stumbled and fell. He rolled over in the dirt, then sat in the dust and watched as Lonzo grabbed hold of the saddle horn and vaulted into the mustang’s saddle.

  Having another rider on its back immediately caused the mustang to explode into renewed and frantic bucking. Dust swirled around the plunging horse and the onlookers as Lonzo was jerked up and down and from side to side in the saddle.

  Emmett went over to help Leroy to his feet. Leroy dusted himself down. He felt a bit disgruntled as he watched the struggle between Lonzo and the mustang. The horse was leaping and twisting with vigour and speed to try and unseat the man in the saddle, but by using the reins skilfully, and with little use of the spurs, Lonzo prevented the horse from getting its head up and trying to rear over backwards.

  Deke Hogan tried to hide his glower of fury. He was mindful of how close his boss stood to him, and he did not want Caleb to see his anger. All he could do was stand and watch Lonzo and the horse. He felt that not only had he been beaten by the mustang, but by Leroy and Lonzo as well. And it didn’t help his mood when Caleb remarked with a smile to no one in particular, ‘Lonzo sure has a way with horses, and a lot of guts!’

  Caleb then turned to look at Leroy who stood to one side of him with Emmett, and said, ‘In fact, he reminds me of you.’ Leroy wasn’t sure if he should consider that remark to be a compliment or not, but as he watched Lonzo being jolted around on the mustang’s back, he could not help but feel some admiration for the man. Emmett noticed the admiration in Leroy’s eyes and smiled, because even though Leroy might not have been aware of it yet, Emmett knew that his partner felt a certain kinship with Lonzo.

  The struggle between the horse and the man continued for a few more minutes, and in the glimpses that he caught of Lonzo’s eyes, Leroy saw a steel-like determination – and he got the feeling that Lonzo was not a man who liked to lose at anything. Then suddenly the horse stopped its leaping and twisting, and lunged into a run.

  Leroy, Emmett and the other men watched as the young mustang, with Lonzo still on its back, charged away from the corral, out of the ranch yard, and along the trail that led north away from the ranch. The horse tried to swerve off the trail into the trees and brush a couple of times, but Lonzo swung him back, and it was obvious to those watching that Lonzo had control of the horse.

  The two bunkhouses at the ranch slept up to six men, but could accommodate more if necessary. Cook shacks were attached to each bunkhouse. Caleb had a resident cook, but the ranch hands could do their own cooking if they wanted to. The beds were narrow and timber framed with straw mattresses, arranged in rows of three up against opposite walls. The ranch foreman, Deke Hogan, had a cabin to himself.

  Leroy and Emmett took their few belongings into the bunkhouse they would be sharing with Lonzo and Marvin Kilbey; they were sorting through their bits and pieces when Kilbey joined them and started chatting to them about the jobs that needed doing on the ranch. During the conversation, Leroy asked him what it was like to work with Lonzo.

  Kilbey thought for a moment, then said, ‘Lonzo is a good worker, but he ain’t the easiest man to get along with – he don’t believe in having a friendly chat with anyone, or in making friends.’

  Leroy sighed, ‘That’s just what I figured. . . .’

  Kilbey gave a sudden laugh, ‘I’m real glad you two will be sharing the bunkhouse with us – at least now I’ve got someone to talk to!’

  Leroy and Emmett laughed. Five minutes later, Leroy left Emmett and Kilbey talking, and went back outside. He intended to wait near to the corral for the return of Lonzo and the mustang. He saw Deke Hogan and Caleb talking together near to the empty corral and started to make his way towards them, but as he walked closer to them, they began to walk away. He smiled as he heard Caleb saying to Hogan that he did not want him to be too brutal when breaking in the horses. Caleb had evidently not approved of Hogan trying to hit the mustang.

  Leroy leaned against the corral fence and cast his eyes over the skyline for some sign of Lonzo and the horse. No matter how long he had to wait, he was determined to speak to Lonzo. He still wanted to thank him for saving his life.

  He had been waiting only about two or three minutes when Lonzo and the golden-tan mustang came into view from the north. The mustang was galloping fast and a little erratically along the trail leading to the ranch yard and buildings, but Leroy knew that Lonzo had him under control. He suddenly smiled: Lonzo had left some spirit in the horse, and he liked that.

  Lonzo slowed the horse down as he entered the ranch yard and rode towards where Leroy waited by the corral. He pulled the horse to a stop, and although he must have seen Leroy, he did not even look at him as he dismounted and led the mustang back into the corral, closing the gate behind them. Without so much as
a glance in Leroy’s direction, Lonzo started to take off the saddle and bridle from the horse. The mustang whinnied nervously, but Lonzo calmed it down by talking softly to it and gently rubbing his hand over its back.

  Leroy watched Lonzo closely. He could usually judge people quite well, and he sensed that Lonzo was not as unfriendly and unfeeling as he liked people to think he was. He called out cheerily: ‘Hey . . . you left that saloon in Green River before me and Emmett could thank you for saving our lives!’

  A minute or two passed by before Lonzo finally lifted his attention from the horse and looked at Leroy. A pair of impassive and steel-like grey-blue eyes centred on Leroy, his steady gaze seeming to penetrate into the very soul of the young man. He then turned his attention back to the horse, gently rubbing its back again, and muttered, without looking at Leroy, ‘It was nothing personal, I just ain’t got no liking for bullies and bigmouths like Archie Burdett, or uneven odds. . . .’

  His accent had not sounded southern, but it was hard for Leroy to make it out because Lonzo’s voice was so low.

  ‘I guess that’s lucky for me and Emmett,’ Leroy smiled.

  Lonzo did not say anything. He carried on rubbing the mustang’s back, and his attitude showed that he clearly wanted to be left alone.

  Leroy’s intuition was telling him that Lonzo was as outspoken as he was fearless and adventurous, and that it would be wise to leave him alone – but he wasn’t going anywhere, and instead he asked, ‘Is Lonzo your first name or your last?’

  Lonzo rubbed over the horse a couple more times, then walked over to the corral gate, opened it and stepped out. He stood a few feet away from Leroy as he closed the gate. In fact he already felt an affinity with Leroy Parker that annoyed him, one he didn’t want, and he was now further annoyed by Leroy’s obvious determination to have a conversation with him.