Outlaw Legend Begins

by Saran Essex

  Lonzo held his blood-stained gun in his hands, and for a moment fell victim to the ruthless streak deep in his nature, one that rarely surfaced: now, for an instant, he felt an overwhelming compulsion to strike Hogan violently across the head with his gun again, and to keep hitting the foreman until his skull was smashed in and he was dead.

  He took a deep breath to calm himself and to resist this powerful urge, then he dragged Hogan off Leroy, and thrust him aside. He kicked him over on to his back and made sure that he was unconscious. He then went over to Leroy and knelt beside him, and watched quietly as Leroy lay gasping and rubbing his throat.

  Leroy was aware of Lonzo kneeling beside him and tried to smile, for even though his consciousness had been fading and his vision had been blurry, he had seen Lonzo strike Hogan across the head with his gun, and he had also seen how hard it had been for Lonzo to stop himself from smashing in Hogan’s skull – but knowing that Lonzo had been able to control his ruthless streak only increased Leroy’s regard and admiration for him.

  It was several minutes before Leroy stopped rubbing his throat and gasping. He felt groggy and his throat hurt. He looked up at Lonzo and tried to say something, but couldn’t get the words out; he coughed a few times, then tried to draw himself up into a sitting position. Lonzo helped him to sit up.

  Leroy tried to speak again, but could only manage a husky whisper. He squeezed Lonzo’s arm: it was his way of saying thanks. He then glanced anxiously through the darkness at Annie and Emmett – he could hear Annie sobbing as she knelt beside the unconscious Emmett, still trying to stem the bleeding.

  Leroy attempted to get to his feet to go over to them, but Lonzo gently pushed him back down, and said, ‘You stay there, I’ll take a look at Emmett.’

  As Lonzo stood up to check on Emmett, he first cast a glance at Deke Hogan, who lay unmoving on the ground about three feet away – but he saw no obvious sign that Hogan was regaining consciousness, and turned his back on the foreman to walk over to Emmett and Annie.

  In a flash, Hogan sprang to his feet behind Lonzo and drew his gun.

  Leroy saw him, and tried to gasp out a warning to Lonzo while reaching for his own gun – but neither were needed.

  Lonzo’s reflexes and his instinct for danger were as amazing as his speed with a gun. He had sensed the threat from Hogan, and faster than the eye could see or the mind could conceive, he swung round on the spot and his gun belched flame. The bullet tore through Hogan’s chest. The foreman grunted in shock and pain, clutched at his chest, staggered back a few inches and fell to the ground on his back.

  Lonzo stood looking down at him, saw the blood gushing from his chest wound, and knew that he was dead. He hadn’t wanted to kill him, but his reaction had been immediate and involuntary, and in the semi-darkness his reflex shot had been to the chest. For a moment, as he looked down at Hogan, Lonzo felt revulsion at what he had done; he did have a ruthless streak, but that didn’t stop him from feeling some disgust at killing someone.

  Leroy stared at Lonzo. He felt relieved that he had not been killed, and he marvelled at the man’s uncanny instincts, but he also recognized Lonzo’s feeling of revulsion at killing Hogan. He tried to talk to Lonzo – he wanted to tell him that it was not his fault that Hogan was dead – but his words came out as an inaudible croak.

  Lonzo heard Leroy trying to talk to him, but he didn’t even look at him. He was angry at himself for showing emotion, no matter how fleetingly. He turned his eyes away from Hogan and holstered his smoking gun, then started to walk away.

  Annie’s quiet sobbing could no longer be heard as she knelt beside Emmett. She was staring at Lonzo through the dim shadows as he walked away, momentarily astounded at his incredible instincts and his speed with a gun.

  As Leroy and Annie watched him, Lonzo abruptly stopped walking, and his hand closed over his gun: he had heard voices approaching. Leroy and Annie also heard the sound of shouts and running footsteps getting ever nearer to them, and along with Lonzo, they stared intently into the darkness.

  The three of them relaxed as they recognized some of the voices, and a few seconds later Caleb Baxter, Marvin Kilbey, Cain Jago and a few other ranch hands came running out of the increasing blackness towards them. Caleb immediately knelt at the dead body of Deke Hogan, some of the other men rushed over to help Annie and Emmett, while Kilbey and Jago hastened to help Leroy.

  Lonzo pushed his way through them and walked away into the night. Leroy, who was being helped to his feet by Kilbey and Jago, watched him go with worried eyes.

  Leroy and Emmett were taken into the ranch house. Emmett was still unconscious, and Caleb sent one of his ranch hands to fetch a doctor who resided in the valley.

  The doctor took a look at both Emmett and Leroy. He stitched up some of Emmett’s wounds, and he told Leroy to rest for a few days, and not to do too much talking as his throat was badly swollen. To Annie’s joy, Emmett regained consciousness a little while later.

  Leroy, Emmett and Annie were found beds for the night in Caleb’s ranch house, and although the doctor had told Leroy not to do too much talking, he insisted on giving a full account in croaky whispers to Caleb about how Hogan had brutally attacked Emmett, and about everything else that had happened afterwards.

  Leroy was careful not to mention Lonzo’s speed with a gun when telling Caleb about how Lonzo had shot Hogan.

  After hearing Leroy’s version of events, and then speaking to Annie, Caleb went outside to speak to the ranch hands who were waiting out there for news of the injured; he said ‘Well men, I’m pleased to tell you that luckily, Leroy and Emmett are going to be OK . . . and from what Leroy has told me about what happened, I know that Deke was killed in self-defence, so no action will be taken regarding his death.’

  The ranch hands mumbled something about not being bothered about Hogan, none of them had liked him. Caleb then went looking around all the ranch buildings for some sign of Lonzo, but he did not find him.

  Sometime later that night, when most people inside the ranch house were sleeping, someone knocked on the ranch-house door and had a sombre chat with Caleb.

  Leroy woke late the following morning; his throat seemed to hurt much worse than before. Caleb’s wife, Elizabeth, brought him some breakfast, but he only managed to eat a couple of mouthfuls. Elizabeth then told him to stay in bed and rest, but he wanted to try and speak to Lonzo, and after first checking on Emmett, he walked over to the bunkhouse to look for him. However, there was no sign of him there, and Leroy was about to leave the building – but then he noticed that Lonzo’s bunk had no blankets, there was only the bare mattress, nor were his clothes or any other items hanging from the hook beside the bed.

  Leroy felt a sudden chill sweep through his body: he realized at once that Lonzo must have left the ranch during the night, and for a moment, time seemed to stand still.

  He stepped over to the bunk and sat down. He felt crestfallen, and he could only guess that Lonzo must have left because he did not want to stay around to answer any questions about his speed with a gun, and because he was not ready to commit to a partnership.

  After a few minutes, Leroy looked underneath the bunk and pulled out a storage box that Lonzo had been using. He lifted the lid to look inside the box – he was hoping that Lonzo might have left him a message. But the box was empty except for a book that he assumed was from Caleb’s library.

  He heard footsteps, and looked up as Caleb entered the bunkhouse and walked over to him. Caleb stood looking at Leroy for a moment; he could see the sadness on the young man’s face, and that his usually bright eyes were moist, and he said quietly, ‘Elizabeth told me that you had refused to stay in bed and rest, and I guessed you’d come over here looking for Lonzo. . . .’

  Leroy did not say anything.

  Caleb said, ‘Lonzo came to see me last night and said that he was leaving.’

  Leroy lowered his eyes.

  Caleb said with some sympathy in his voice, ‘I know you’d gotten to like him,
I liked him too, and I did tell him that what happened with Deke was not his fault, but he still wanted to leave.’

  Leroy did not lift his eyes. Caleb squeezed his shoulder and said, ‘If it makes you feel any happier, he did ask if you were going to be OK before he left.’

  Leroy gave a sad groan. He lifted the book out of the box and handed it to Caleb, saying in a hoarse, low voice, ‘Lonzo left this book behind, I guess it’s one of yours.’ He hadn’t looked too closely at it.

  Caleb took it and had a look, and said, ‘No, it ain’t one of mine, it must belong to Lonzo.’

  Leroy suddenly felt a spark of interest at Caleb’s words, and his spirits lifted as he snatched the book out of his boss’s hands and looked at it more closely. It was small and leather-bound, and entitled From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne. It was the same book that Lonzo had been reading in the saloon in Green River when Leroy had first seen him, and the book that he had seen Lonzo reading in Caleb’s library.

  Leroy started to feel a lot more cheerful – his eyes began to glow and a happy smile appeared on his face. Lonzo had left him a message after all.

  He knew that Lonzo must have left him the book as a message. A message that told him that, sooner or later, he was destined to meet the plain-speaking and aloof Lonzo again.

  CHAPTER 11

  It would be over two years, however, before Leroy met Lonzo again.

  After leaving Caleb’s ranch, Lonzo found work at a ranch in Utah, and while working at the ranch he met up with a couple of outlaws. He was an eager listener to their stories about their bank and train robberies, and the outlaw hideout of Hole in the Wall in Wyoming. Lonzo eventually left the ranch with the two outlaws, and rode with them to the Hole in the Wall.

  Leroy and Emmett left Caleb’s ranch about three months after Lonzo. They went to work on the ranch of another friend of theirs, a man named Duke Garrison, also someone they had worked for in the past. Garrison’s ranch was also located in Browns Hole, to the south of the Green River and at the base of Diamond Mountain.

  It was widely known throughout the valley that Duke Garrison was involved with outlaws and in rustling, but unlike Bart Jarvis of the Cottonwood Ranch, Garrison did not rustle livestock from the inhabitants of Browns Hole, and because of this, he was accepted in the valley, and his lawless ways were overlooked. He allowed outlaw gangs to live in cabins on his land as long as they did not commit any crimes in Browns Hole.

  Inevitably, while working for Garrison, Leroy and Emmett were soon taking part in the rustling and other unlawful activities that Garrison, and some of the outlaws residing in the cabins, were involved in.

  As well as being a ranch owner, Duke Garrison also owned a butcher’s shop in the Wyoming town of Rock Springs, and Leroy would sometimes help out in the shop. As a result of this he acquired the nickname of ‘Butch’.

  Leroy and Emmett worked as ranch hands for Duke Garrison for a couple of months, and then they moved into one of the outlaw cabins that were on his land and became members of an outlaw gang. At first there was no actual leader of this gang, but the other members quickly noticed that Leroy was a smart thinker and that he had a natural flair for leadership – and soon Leroy became the leader of the gang, with Emmett as his second-in-command.

  Under Leroy’s leadership, the gang successfully robbed a bank and then a train in Denver, Colorado. At this point Leroy began to worry that his lawless ways might bring shame on his family, who were honest, hard-working people, and so he changed his name. Thus Robert Leroy Parker from Utah became known as Butch Cassidy the outlaw. He chose the name Butch after the nickname that he had been given while working in Garrison’s butcher’s shop, and the name Cassidy in honour of Mike Cassidy who had taught him so much about cattle, guns and horses – and it was a name he had sometimes used before.

  Leroy – alias Butch – did not forget Lonzo, and Emmett would often see him in the cabin at night reading the Jules Verne novel by the light of an oil lamp.

  Emmett did not forget Annie, either. He met up with her at the eating house in the valley as often as he could, and she would always beg him to leave the outlaw gang, and told him that she would never marry an outlaw. Her words caused Emmett to do some serious thinking, as he did not want to lose her.

  Butch and Emmett had been committing lawless acts with their outlaw gang for several weeks, when one night in their cabin as Butch sat reading the Jules Verne novel, he noticed that Emmett seemed to have something on his mind, and as Butch was about to ask what was wrong, Emmett suddenly blurted out that he was giving up his outlaw life and that he was going to marry Annie.

  Butch’s face turned sad, and Emmett said quietly, ‘I’m sorry, but I don’t want to lose Annie.’

  They both felt very emotional as they knew it meant the end of their partnership and they did not speak for several minutes. Finally, Butch cleared his throat and tried to smile as he said, ‘I’m glad you’ve found happiness with Annie.’

  Emmett felt worried about his friend’s future, and he tried to talk him into going back to Amy and settling down – but settling down and living an ordinary life was not what Butch wanted.

  The outlaw gang led by Butch split up not long after Emmett had left, and Butch soon formed another partnership with an outlaw named Matt Warden, who was from the same part of Utah that Butch was from. Butch still kept his outlaw cabin at Browns Hole, but he and Matt bought a ranch on the outskirts of the Wind River valley town of Dubois, Wyoming, and ostensibly they went into the horse-breeding business – but the horse breeding was a cover up for their real activity, which was rustling cattle and horses.

  Around five or six months later, however, Matt Warden was to cause the downfall of their rustling operation. Matt was in a saloon in Dubois one afternoon: he was drinking heavily, and he boasted loudly to a saloon girl about the rustling activities that he and Butch were really engaged in. He was overheard by a deputy who happened to be in the saloon at the time, and when Matt left the saloon later that afternoon and started riding back to the ranch, he was followed by the local sheriff and four deputies.

  The lawmen could have arrested Matt at any time, but they chose to follow him back to the ranch because they also wanted to capture Matt’s accomplice, Butch. Matt, who was still drunk from the alcohol he had consumed, did not realize he was being followed, and the sheriff and his deputies followed him for over eight miles to the ranch.

  Matt dismounted outside the ranch house. He was still quite intoxicated, and as he got down from his horse he fell over, and was trying to get to his feet when the sheriff and his deputies rode up and pointed their guns at him. Matt was quickly arrested and handcuffed, and while two deputies stayed with him, the sheriff and his other two deputies cautiously entered the small, two-room ranch house with their guns drawn. They found Butch asleep on a lower bunk bed in the back room.

  Butch was roughly awakened and hauled to his feet by the lawmen. He tried to put up a fight, but he was soon overpowered, his hands were handcuffed behind his back and he was taken outside to join Matt.

  Butch was sentenced to serve twelve months in the Wyoming Territorial prison in Laramie. Matt Wardon somehow managed to convince everyone at his trial that he had been coerced into the rustling by Butch, and he received only a six months sentence.

  On a crisp and cool morning in March, twelve months later, Butch was released from prison after serving his time. He already had a plan in mind, which was to ride back to his cabin at Browns Hole to form another outlaw gang. He purchased a horse and a gun in Laramie, and then started on his ride back to Browns Hole. The ride to the valley would take him about a week, and through the Medicine Bow mountain range. He stopped over in a few towns along the way.

  On riding into the valley of Browns Hole, Butch stopped at the general store of Jeremiah Baxter to speak to Emmett.

  Annie and Emmett had got married while Butch had been in prison, and his former partner was now working at the store. Emmett tried again to talk Butch into s
ettling down with Amy or some other girl that he might fancy; he added with a smile, ‘Maria’s been asking about you!’

  Butch said, ‘I ain’t got no intention of settling down, I’ve got other plans.’

  Emmett asked, ‘What other plans?’

  Butch grinned, ‘I’m gonn’a start getting another outlaw gang together.’ He sighed as he remembered his unfortunate partnership with Matt Wardon, ‘I hope to find another partner like you . . . I mean a partner I can really trust.’

  Emmett smiled. It was a rather odd smile, as though he was hiding a secret. ‘Well,’ he said to Butch, ‘Maybe that won’t take you as long as you think. . . .’

  Butch was feeling tired as he left Emmett and rode to the south of the valley and the outlaw cabins on Duke Garrison’s ranch land. It had been a long ride from the prison in Laramie. He rode past some of the other outlaw cabins and corrals that were partially concealed amongst tall trees and clusters of silvery-grey shrubs before riding up to his own cabin.

  He let his horse loose in the corral that was attached to the side of the cabin, and then holding his saddle-bags and other gear, he entered the small timber building. The cabin wasn’t too dusty or untidy inside, as both Duke Garrison and Emmett had been looking after it while Butch had been living on his ranch near Dubois with Matt Wardon, and serving his time in prison.

  The cabin had two rooms. One was small and was used as a bedroom. A curtain divided the two rooms.

  Butch took some cans of food and other provisions that he had purchased at the general store from out of his saddle-bags, and he also took out the book that Lonzo had left behind at Caleb Baxter’s ranch.

  Butch felt a sudden sadness as he looked at the book. He hadn’t seen Lonzo for just over two years, but during that time he had heard plenty of stories about the man now known throughout the west, and possibly far beyond, as the Sundance Kid – stories about the Kid’s speed with a gun and his tough nature, and also that he was suspected of robbing several banks and trains with an outlaw gang based at the outlaw hideout of Hole in the Wall.