by Tabor Evans
Jed Dodson was starting to feel better and he finished his smoke, ground it out on his saddle horn, and put the remains of it in his shirt pocket. Then he gathered his reins and said, “Yes, sir, this is a fine morning. Cold and clear. I sent my cattle to market last month and did pretty well on ’em.”
Addie looked over at him. “I don’t expect you put your cattle money in Stoneman’s Buffalo Falls bank.”
“Hell, no! I put half in the bank in Cheyenne and the other half I hid so nobody could find it.”
“Good idea,” Longarm said as they rode down to the ranch house.
As planned, Addie and Longarm put their horses in the barn, leaving them saddled and bridled just in case things didn’t go as expected and they needed to make a hard, fast run for it.
When they came up to the house, Jed came out of the kitchen and said, “I’m brewin’ more coffee. It’ll only be a little while. Gonna get the stove fired up because it’s chilly in here.”
“Take your time,” Longarm answered, thinking that a good fire in the stove would put smoke out the chimney and tell anyone coming that Jed was up and going about his daily chores.
“How long do you think it might be before Casey or Stoneman and his boys make an appearance?” Addie asked.
Longarm shrugged. “Could be soon, might never happen. I don’t know. But my guess is that, if they’re going to come for Jed, they’ll do it first thing this morning.”
“I hope so,” Addie nervously replied. “If we’re going to have a fight, the sooner the better.”
“My sentiments exactly,” Longarm told her. “As it is, we’ll just have to keep inside and out of sight. Jed can go outdoors, but he’ll have to keep a sharp eye out for someone with a high-powered rifle and scope. You never can tell, they might just send one man . . . someone like Casey . . . to ambush him from long distance.”
Addie turned toward the kitchen. “Did you hear that, Jed! Custis says that when you go out you’ll have to watch for an ambusher.”
“I heard him,” Jed hollered back at them. “And I expect he’s right. Rather than ride up here and maybe take a chance that I’d kill one or two, they’re such cowards that they would try to pick me off from the trees out back or maybe from that ridge we rode down off.”
Longarm yawned, and that caused Addie to do the same. She smiled and said, “We didn’t get much sleep last night.”
“No, but I hope you’re not regretting it.”
“I’m not if you’re not,” she told him. “Still and all, I wouldn’t mind sleeping awhile. I’m so tired this morningthat I’m afraid that I might not be able to shoot straight.”
“I’m a little strung out myself,” Longarm confessed. “Jed is the only one who got a good night’s sleep last night.”
“Maybe he’ll let us take a long nap while he watches over things,” Addie suggested.
She went into the kitchen where Jed was making coffee, and when she came out she said, “Jed says for us to go into his bedroom and sleep awhile.”
“Does he know that he’ll have to be very careful and keep a sharp lookout if he goes outside?”
“He does,” Addie said. “I told him again that you were concerned about an ambusher, and he agreed to be watchful for trouble and wake us up if he even suspected riders were coming from Buffalo Falls.”
“Good enough,” Longarm said. “Let’s get some shut-eye.”
“Are you sure that’s all that you want?” Addie asked with knowing smile. “I mean, can I really trust you to lie down beside me and go to sleep?”
“You can this morning,” Longarm told her, feeling his eyes burn.
So they went into the bedroom and lay down on Jed’s mattress and went to sleep.
Longarm awoke to the sound of a high-powered rifle. Maybe one of those big buffalo rifles that could shoot accurately from several hundred yards. Anyway, it wasn’t a Winchester. Longarm knew that the moment its sound rolled over the log ranch house.
“Addie!” he shouted at the woman sleeping beside him. “Wake up!”
She was slower coming out of sleep than Longarm, and he gave her such a shove that she rolled off the bed and hit the floor. “Ouch!”
Longarm had taken his boots and gunbelt off, but now he pulled them on and hurried out of the bedroom into the front room. The front door was closed and the fire in the stove was really putting out the heat. “Jed!”
No reply.
Longarm knew then that the old rancher had gone outside, probably to his barn to feed and water their saddled horses. However, when Longarm glanced out into the yard, his heart sank to his feet.
Jed had been shot. There was blood on his coat and he was lying facedown with a spilled bucket of oats in his outstretched hand. He wasn’t moving, but Longarm thought he saw one of the old man’s fingers twitch. It was impossible to tell if he was fatally wounded.
“Jed!” Addie called, stumbling out of the bedroom still half asleep but coming awake fast.
Longarm grabbed Addie and pulled her down with him on the floor. She struggled. “Custis, we’ve got to help him! Jed may be bleeding to death!”
“We can’t help him by getting ourselves ambushed like he just did,” Longarm told her.
“But what are we going to do!” Addie cried, still trying to break out of Longarm’s grasp and run outside to the old cattleman’s aid.
“We’ve got to let whoever did that come in closer,” Longarm told her. “There may be one ambusher. There may also be half a dozen gunmen and right now they’re waiting to see if anyone else is here besides Jed.”
“But—”
“Addie,” Longarm said, trying to make her understand,“if you go out into that yard, one of two things is going to happen and both will be bad. Either they’ll shoot you like they shot Jed, or they’ll hightail it out of here for town and we’ll never know just who shot Jed.”
“How long will we have to wait like this!”
Addie was nearly sobbing, and Longarm knew that she desperately wanted to go to Jed Dobson’s side and see if she could help him. And Longarm wanted that almost as much, but he knew better than to move until the ambusher and whoever he was riding with came into the yard. Then Longarm and Addie would have a chance to take their revenge.
“Steady, Addie! You’ve got to hold tight!” Longarm hissed. “Crawl over there and get your rifle. You can’t let yourself be seen through the front window. I’ll get the shotgun and when they ride into the yard to make sure that Jed is finished, that’s when we’ll open up on them with all we’ve got.”
Addie swallowed hard and bit her lip. “But what if they just ride away now and not come in close? If they did that while poor old Jed bled to death as we watched, I’d never forgive myself.”
“They won’t do that,” Longarm told her. “Trust me on this one. They’ll have to make sure the old man is dead, and they probably even know about his hidden cattle money. No, Addie, they’ll come in and when they dismount, we open fire.”
“Do you know how many?”
“I’m not sure, but I bet Casey is one of them.”
“You didn’t think it’s Wade Stoneman?”
“No,” Longarm said, “he’s too smart to do his dirty work.”
“Dammit!”
“I know,” Longarm said. “But don’t worry. We’ll get him sooner or later.”
“Let’s just try to come out of this alive and then see if I can help Jed.”
“Addie, it sure would be good to take one of them alive. I could force him to testify in Cheyenne against Wade Stoneman. Make him tell a judge that he was sent by Wade to kill old Jed. Once he confessed, I could get a warrant for Stoneman’s arrest and bring him down.”
“Does that mean you’re going to try to wing one of them?”
“No,” Longarm answered. “We’re too badly outnumbered for that. I’m going to shoot to kill. But maybe one of them will still be alive when the smoke clears.”
Longarm had the shotgun ready and he was packing two
pistols. He eased up beside the front window and raised his head just slightly to see five riders coming off the ridge. One of them was Casey. Longarm recognized the man from the way his hat was curled down on one side and up on the other.
“Addie,” he said, “there are five of them riding off the ridge. Casey is in the middle of the bunch and he’s got a big rifle resting on the fork of his saddle. I’d bet anything that he was the man who just shot Jed.”
“This is killing me not being able to go to help Jed. Custis, that poor old man may be bleeding out!”
“I know,” Longarm told her. “But he could be alive and is just playing possum. And he might even have a gun in his hand waiting for Casey and the others to ride in close.”
“I hope you’re right!”
Longarm turned and gripped Addie by the shoulders. “Listen to me,” he whispered. “Those men aren’t cowboys and they aren’t farmers. They’re hired gunmen. Professionals. We’re going to need the element of surprise plus a little good luck. So if you can’t do this, Addie, crawl back into the bedroom and be still because I can’t worry about you when the shooting starts!”
Addie took a deep breath. “I’ll be all right,” she said, nodding her head up and down and making an obvious effort to get herself under control.
“Can I count on you?” Longarm asked, loosening his grip and staring into her eyes.
“You can count on me.”
“To do as I tell you and not shoot until I do?”
“Yes!”
“All right,” Longarm said, letting her go. “Just move over to the other side of the window, but stay down low. When it’s time, I’ll go through the door with this shotgun and open up on them with both barrels. After I do that, you shoot right through the window at anyone still moving other than myself. Don’t get rattled and shoot me in the back by mistake, Addie.”
“I won’t.”
“Fair enough,” Longarm said, cocking back both hammers on the European eight-gauge shotgun and making sure that his Colt revolver was loose in its holster.
Longarm peeked over the windowsill and watched as Casey and the four gunmen rode into the yard looking mostly at the house, but also missing nothing in the yard.
When they were within fifteen yards of the prostrate Jed Dodson, Longarm moved away from the window to the door. He put his hand on the knob and turned it slowly, then opened it a crack. All five men had dismounted and were staring at Dodson, who looked dead.
Longarm distinctly heard Casey say, “Roll the old bastard over. I want to see if I got him in the heart.”
One of the gunmen stepped over to the body and reached down to turn Jed over onto his back. That’s when the old rancher yanked his gun up and shot the gunman squarely in the face. Stoneman’s hired gun reached up to cover his face and then toppled over backward. Longarm could tell that he was dead even before he struck the hard-packed dirt.
Longarm saw Casey and the other three men go for their guns, and that’s when he jumped out on the front porch and squeezed off both barrels of the shotgun. The thunder was so loud and the recoil so powerful that it knocked him a step back into the doorway. A huge cloud of smoke billowed outward, and then Addie opened fire, her bullets smashing through the front window of Jed’s log house.
Longarm dropped to one knee and drew his six-gun. The smoke was so thick from the twin blasts of the shotgun that it was a moment before he could see any targets. And when he could see, all of Wade Stoneman’s gunfighters were down, but they weren’t all dead.
Casey was alive and he was pulling his gun up to fire when Longarm fired two bullets at the man. His first bullet struck Casey in the shoulder, and his second hit the killer in the mouth, tearing off one side of his head.
Addie was still firing and she drilled one of the killers in the chest, and when he rolled, she shot him a second time just to make sure he was dead.
“Stop!” Longarm called. “Addie, hold your fire!”
Longarm jumped off the porch and ran over to Jed Dodson, who had collapsed in the dirt with fresh wounds, probably from Longarm’s shotgun.
“Addie!”
“I’m coming!”
She was beside him in a moment holding her medical kit. She felt for a pulse in Jed’s throat and, to Longarm’s surprise, found one.
“He’s alive, but barely,” she said, tears in her eyes. “Let’s get him in the house quick!”
Longarm started to grab and lift the old man, but something out of the corner of his eye caused him to twist around. One of the gunmen was still alive and he was trying to raise his pistol.
Needing a witness against Wade Stoneman, Longarm made a split-second decision and slashed his gun down on the man’s head, knocking him unconscious.
“Hurry!” Addie cried. “Jed is bleeding badly!”
Longarm scooped up Jed Dodson and carried him back into the ranch house on the run. They laid him on the table just as they’d done last night when the rancher had needed sutures in his scalp. Addie went right to work on Dodson, but she was crying.
“I don’t think he’s going to make it!”
“Try, Addie! That’s all you can do is try to save him.”
Longarm rushed back outside and checked on the downed men one by one. The big Belgian shotgun had done a hideous piece of work on all of the men save for the one that Longarm had pistol-whipped. That man was still breathing.
After making sure that he was unarmed, Longarm gathered him up and dragged him into the house, then dumped him on the floor and went back to stand beside Addie.
Jed Dodson was dying, but the old man was still conscious. “Addie,” Jed whispered, “did you and the marshal get all of them sonsabitches!”
“Yes. Don’t try to talk. Save your strength.”
“I’m finished,” Jed whispered. “Addie, don’t mourn me. I’ll soon be meetin’ your old man and we can swap lies in heaven. I know it’s my time to saddle a cloud and ride to the great beyond.”
“Jed, I’m going to try and stop this bleeding and . . .”
The rancher rolled his head back and forth on his scarred kitchen table. “Get me pen and paper, Addie. I’m going to write my will. I want you to see that my boy gets my cattle sale money. Will you do that?”
“Of course! But . . .”
“Listen to me, girl!” Jed spat up blood and struggled for breath. When it came, he whispered, “Addie, I want you to have my ranch. It borders your own. I want you to have it and never let Stoneman get his meat hooks into it! Hear me?”
Longarm could see that the old man was floating in and out of consciousness. His breath was coming in spasms. There was blood all over the table and dripping onto the floor. It was incredible that Jed Dodson was still hanging on.
“Addie, bury me beside my missus! Will you do that?”
Addie was sobbing while Longarm found writing materials. “I’ll do that,” Addie promised.
Somehow, Jed Dodson scribbled out a hasty will, and then he whispered, “Aw, Addie, I’m seein’ a sky of gold and pink and it’s prettier than a rainbow, all . . . all waitin’ for me to ride that cloud to the Promised Land. Addie!”
Before she could answer, the old cattleman was gone.
Chapter 14
“Is that young man still alive?” Addie asked after a few minutes of silence.
Longarm twisted around and looked at the gunman. “He was when I brought him in, but he’s hurt bad.”
Addie stroked Jed’s cheek for a moment, and then she took a deep breath and said, “We’d better try to save that young man even if he does work for Wade Stoneman.”
“If we can, then we’ve got a witness that will testify against Stoneman. Addie, that man could be the key to bringing Stoneman to trial. If you can save him, then do it.”
They carried Jed Dodson into the parlor and laid him out on the floor. Then Longarm lifted the man he’d badly wounded up onto the table so that Addie could attend to him.
“Help me get him undressed,” Addie ordered.
“He has been hit by scattershot from his knees up to his neck. He’s bleeding from about five places, but I won’t know if he has any chance to live until I can do a full body examination.”
Longarm used a knife to cut the man’s bloody clothing away. When he got him stripped down to his underpants, he hesitated.
“I’m a doctor,” Addie said. “He might have gotten shot in the groin. Take everything off.”
Longarm stripped the bleeding man naked and stepped back to take his measure. He was young . . . probably in his early twenties . . . and he was tall, slender, and quite handsome. He had sandy brown hair and a strong chin. Longarm noted that the badly wounded man also had a lot of scars on his back, chest, and buttocks.
“He’s been beaten relentlessly,” Addie said, asking for a wet kitchen towel so she could wipe away the blood and see exactly how bad this man was shot. “I’d guess he was savagely whipped as a boy. Probably by a father or a relative. No kid should have had to endure such a beating.”
“Doesn’t excuse him for turning into a killer,” Longarm told her.
“We don’t know if he ever killed anyone or not,” Addie countered. “He might have, but I don’t see how we can be the judge of that. All I’m saying, Custis, is that this young man has had a very cruel upbringing.”
Longarm took the bloody towel and wrung it out over the kitchen sink, then wet it again and gave it back to Addie. “How many lead pellets did he take from my eight-gauge?”
“At least five. Two in the legs, three in the body.” Addie placed her finger over a bleeding hole just to the right of the man’s belly button. “The worst is definitely this one. I’m afraid that it might have penetrated his stomach cavity, and it’ll have to come out if he has any chance to live. If it’s punctured his gut, he’s already a dead man. I won’t know until I get it out and we see how he does during the next twenty-four hours.”
“That long?”
“If he’s still alive in twenty-four hours, he has a fighting chance,” Addie said, digging into her medical bag for a pair of long-nosed forceps. “I’m just not sure that I can find the lead shot.”
