The Floating Outfit 27

by J. T. Edson

  ‘You’d best run that on by me again, Solly,’ the small Texan instructed quietly. Like his amigos, he was startled by what he had heard. What was more, he shared their summation that—although possessed of a far more droll sense of humor than was suggested by his somber attire and demeanor—Cole would never make such a remark as a joke. ‘It passed so fast I couldn’t even see, much less, read its brand.’

  ‘I don’t know much about it myself,’ the deputy admitted, removing his hat and accepting the chair indicated to him. ‘But, from what I heard, Senator Foulkes came hurrying in to see the boss like his butt was on fire just afore sundown yesterday. Reckoned’s how he’d got word Freddie was wanted for murdering two men in England and he’d been asked to have her held for extradition. I’m damned if I’ve ever knowed him so all-fired eager to help the law.’

  ‘He’s not known for it,’ Dusty conceded, aware that the man in question was of a similar political persuasion to Bruce Milian and the late Sir Michael Dinglepied.

  ‘Anyways,’ Cole went on, wondering why he was getting so little reaction from the small Texan and having the feeling that the most important part of the information he had given was already known. ‘The boss asked if Foulkes was sure of what he was saying and he hauled out an affidavit signed by some English jasper with a hook to his name saying it was so. Which being, he said for me to drift along on this morning’s train ’n’ fetch her back.’

  The deputy marshal was correct in his assumption! Despite their increasingly closer relationship, Dusty knew only that Freddie had left England for a very serious reason which made it unlikely she could return in the foreseeable future, if at all. However, even before being summoned to the Railroad House Hotel by Walter Braithwaite’s message on the night the survivor of the men who tried to abduct her was killed by the Kid, he had learned enough for him to suspect Dinglepied wished to bring about her extradition. He had heard from Waco what had taken their amigo to see the baronet and the reason for Shaun Ushermale being brought to the jail. Questioning the young Englishman, he had discovered nothing of an incriminating nature. The small Texan had suspected that, having had time to think, Ushermale had concluded the only hope of avoiding the consequences of the negotiations he had conducted with Hugo ‘Camb’ Camberwell was to deny all knowledge of them and rely upon Dinglepied being so afraid of what he could say that his liberation would be procured to prevent him from doing so.

  After having arranged for the bodies to be removed to the undertaker’s on arriving at the hotel, hoping to obtain confirmation of his suppositions, Dusty had conducted an inquiry into the incident. Once again, he discovered that he was starting too late. Despite still showing he was suffering from the effects caused by having seen the way in which the two hardcases died, Dinglepied had recovered his wits sufficiently to appreciate the danger he was facing. Possessing the courage of a cornered rat and realizing his career as a politician—if nothing worse—hung in the balance, he had stuck to the story he told to the Kid and Sir John Uglow Ramage. Nor had the pretence by the small Texan that Ushermale had supplied a different version shaken him. Knowing his confidential secretary, he had guessed this was not the case.

  Concluding there was no chance of obtaining the truth at that time and equally conscious of the wish Freddie had expressed to avoid anything which might endanger the negotiations with the British Railroad Commission, Dusty had not pressed the issue. Instead, conveying the impression that he was satisfied with Dinglepied’s explanation, he had stated his intention of returning to the jail.

  However, when unobserved by the others, the small Texan had asked Ramage to accompany him to a different destination. Going to the Fair Lady Saloon, they had acquainted Freddie with the events of the evening and he had been given the basic facts concerning her decision to leave England and live under an assumed name in the United States. While he knew that the reason her abductors had used to entice her was correct, he also knew that the town marshal of Brownton would have been only too willing to hold her in order to settle a personal grudge. He had considered that the death of Dinglepied and Ushermale had removed the threat to her, so he had not anticipated the development which had arisen with the arrival of Cole.

  ‘Said jasper wouldn’t be called “Sir Michael Dinglepied’’, would he?’ Dusty inquired.

  ‘The boss didn’t let me see the name,’ the deputy marshal replied, ‘I just caught a glimpse of the “Sir” on it. Look, amigo. You know Matt. He isn’t no happier than we are ’bout this.’

  ‘That’s bueno,’ Waco put in. ‘Because you don’t reckon as how we’d let you take her, do you?’

  ‘I know there’s nobody in this world could make you fellers do anything unless you was so minded; ’cepting maybe General Hardin hisself,’ Cole replied, meeting the blond youngster’s hostile glare without animosity. He was equally aware the Kid and even his cousin were looking at him far from the friendly way in which they had greeted his arrival. ‘Only trouble being, I’ve been given orders and, day I took this badge, 1 swore on my oath’s I’d do my duty so long as 1 wore it. Which means, seeing’s how I’ve been sent to arrest Freddie, I’m going to have to do my level best to try no matter who aims to stop me.’

  If the small Texan had needed further information of how badly his visitor felt about the situation, even before the declaration of intent, one thing more any other would have supplied it. Normally, Cole would have sprinkled his conversation with his own variations of real biblical quotations, or been making up some which appeared to be genuine, albeit revised. The omission was convincing proof of his sentiments. What was more, regardless of the timbre of regret in his voice, he was in deadly earnest when he said he would do his duty. Being the kind of men they were, while they were all determined to save Freddie if possible, none of the members of Ole Devil Hardin’s floating outfit thought any the worse of him for his attitude.

  ‘I’d sort of figured that already,’ Dusty drawled, having grown to like the deputy marshal, and the same applied to the gigantic peace officer who was his visitor’s immediate superior. 69 ‘And I reckon that’s why Matt picked you to send.’

  ‘There was at least two more he could’ve sent,’ Cole admitted. Then, showing he had devoted considerable thought to the course he was about to propose, he continued, ‘One of you’d best go tell Freddie to light a shuck while I take off my badge and go get me a real long lasting meal someplace.’

  ‘That’s not the answer, amigo,’ Dusty pointed out gently, showing his gratitude for the suggestion, which he knew had not come easily to a man with such a strong sense of duty as was possessed by the United States’ deputy marshal. He also suspected that after such a dereliction Cole would feel honor bound to resign. In spite of that, he continued, ‘But you going to take that meal sounds like a mighty sensible notion to me.’

  ‘Where—and for how long?’

  ‘Buffalo Kate serves up some mighty tasty victuals, but’s kind of slow. I’d reckon you’d need an hour to get through there.’

  ‘An hour it is then,’ Cole assented, wondering what the small Texan had in mind. ‘Will you come and join me, Cousin Mark?’

  ‘I’ll take a rain check on it, Cousin Solly,’ the blond giant refused, but in a more friendly fashion than he had been showing. ‘Right now, I’d sooner stay with Dusty.’

  ‘There’s one slight detail wrong with what you’ve heard,’ Freddie Woods stated, looking at each Texan in turn as they stood with worried and where Mark Counter, the Ysabel Kid and Waco were concerned—for them—close to sheepish expressions, in the sitting-room of her living accommodation. ‘I didn’t kill those two men, although I can’t deny I meant to if necessary.’

  ‘They need killing?’ the Kid inquired, his manner indicating he believed this must have been the case.

  ‘They deserved it,’ Freddie stated. ‘And you’d all better sit down.’

  ‘Why’d you figure they needed taking out, ma’am?’ Waco asked, after he and his companions were seated, with Dusty
alongside Freddie on the settee.

  The fact that the blond youngster applied the word, ‘ma’am’ instead of the usual, ‘Freddie’ was a clear indication of how strongly he felt about the matter under discussion. What was more, his manner implied his belief that the reason must have been completely justified.

  ‘It all started with me trying to act like Belle Boyd, who I’d met while she was visiting London during the War,’ the beautiful Englishwoman explained. ‘In Britain, we have what we call “Civil Servants”. They’re Government employees permanently appointed to handle continuing routine issues which politicians liable to be in and then out of office couldn’t cope with satisfactorily. Some are the very finest kind of men, dedicated to their work, loyal to their country and who do their duty conscientiously regardless of whether it is the Tories or the Liberals currently forming the Government. Unfortunately, there have always been—and probably always will be—others who, being completely disloyal and untrustworthy, seek only to feather their own nests, or to use their positions of trust to try to bring discredit to whichever political party they do not support.’

  ‘I’ve heard tell we’ve got some of that kind who’re just as ready to sell their saddles,’70 71 the Kid commented.

  ‘I suppose most countries have,’ Freddie admitted. ‘Anyway, I picked up a rumor that three of the kind fairly high up were betraying their trust and country by selling military and other information to Russia and salving their consciences by giving some of the money to various radical groups. 72 As it is practically impossible to have their kind discharged from office for any but the most serious offence, I decided I would try to obtain the proof to have them removed.’

  ‘And you got it?’ Waco stated rather than asked.

  ‘I did,’ Freddie confirmed. ‘Unfortunately, when I told daddy, he said it would create too much of a scandal and could do irreparable damage to the Civil Service as a whole if what they had done was made public. But I was determined they wouldn’t get away scot free. So I went to pay them a call at the house they shared, meaning to tell them of my proof and pretend I would hand it over to the appropriate authorities unless they resigned and left England.’

  ‘Only it didn’t work out that way?’ Mark guessed.

  ‘It didn’t,’ Freddie agreed. ‘Knowing their kind wouldn’t hesitate to try to silence a lone woman, I had my Webley Bulldog with me. What I didn’t know was that somebody else had an even more serious reason that I had for dealing with them.’

  ‘More serious than selling out their country?’ Waco queried.

  ‘Much more. It seems that a sergeant in the Rifle Brigade, with whom I was acquainted by the kind of coincidence you’d never believe if you read it in a book, had a son who was working as a page-boy at the home of one of their friends. They—well, I suppose raped is the only way to put it—the lad while they were paying a visit. He committed suicide from the shame, but before he died, his father had the truth from him. Having learned of their perversion, although not about the unfortunate lad, I’d arranged for them to believe some boys would be calling, so that there was only the three of them on the premises when I arrived. I was standing covering them with my gun when the sergeant burst into the room. Before I could stop him, he’d snatched it from my hand and shot two of them dead. The other escaped by throwing himself through a window and fled the country.’

  ‘Then, as it was the sergeant who did it and with damned good cause, I’d say,’ Waco put in, as Freddie paused for a breath. ‘How come you had to light a shuck?’

  ‘The flight of the third man attracted attention and people were coming to investigate. Although the sergeant and I managed to escape, it was reported to the police that a woman and man were seen running way. The sergeant wanted to give himself up and clear my name, but daddy and I wouldn’t let him. With the kind of friends the pair had, especially as he was a soldier who had received awards for valor in the field, they would do all they could to make sure he wouldn’t receive a fair trial. So, as his battalion were leaving for India shortly, we suggested he kept quiet and went with it. He refused because he claimed I might be implicated and would only agree to go if I too put myself beyond the reach of the law. He swore he would come back to clear me if I should be arrested. Daddy agreed with the first part and we couldn’t sway the sergeant from his determination to do the second, so here I am. I thought I would be safe, but clearly Dinglepied suspected I was implicated and tried to have me taken home to face trial for the killings.’

  ‘And, going by what Cousin Solly said,’ Mark commented. ‘It looks like he’d fixed things for getting it done before he was made wolf bait.’

  ‘Or Millan did it to get even with us for busting up whatever game he’d got going with the Metis,’ Waco estimated. ‘We should oughta go see Mister Millan wherever he’s at and tell him what we told his sir-ship just afore he was cut down.’

  ‘You’ll do no such thing!’ Freddie denied emphatically. ‘That would only bring the whole business even more into the open.’

  ‘As you want it, ma’am,’ the youngster assented without hesitation, albeit displaying obvious reluctance. ‘Which being. How’re we going to get you away from here?’

  ‘Get me away?’ the beautiful Englishwoman queried.

  ‘We are sure as shitting aren’t going to let anybody take you in to be sent back to England,’ Waco declared vehemently and the fact that he employed such a term in Freddie’s presence without making an apology was testimony to the strength of his emotion. ‘Even if it means going up against Solly Cole, Matt Dillon and the whole god-damned Federal Government to stop it.’

  ‘You took an oath with that badge, Waco!’ the black haired beauty reminded, but her tone was kindly and indicative of the gratitude she felt for the motives which impelled the youngster.

  ‘Then it’s easy tossed in the discards ’long of this tin star!’ Waco announced, reaching upwards.

  ‘You too, Dusty?’ Freddie asked, watching the other Texans duplicating Waco’s action by removing their badges of office. ‘Damn it! I’m not having you all breaking the law on my account!’

  ‘I’m not fixing for us to break the law, honey,’ the small Texan replied. ‘Happen you boys’ll wait outside for a few minutes, I’ll be fetching Freddie along.’

  ‘Have a good meal, Cousin Solly? Mark Counter asked, when the United States’ deputy marshal returned without wearing his badge after an absence of an hour and, as previously, found all the local peace officers were present.

  ‘Tolerable fine,’ Cole replied, glancing from one to another of the Texans and Frank Derringer in an attempt to discover why they were there. None of them looked as if they were concerned over the possible fate of a woman he knew they respected and greatly admired. ‘The steak was just a teensy mite over cooked, though.’

  ‘I hope you haven’t eaten too much,’ Dusty Fog remarked, gesturing to an apparently blank sheet of thick and somehow official looking paper lying on the desk in front of him. ‘By the way, about you arresting Freddie and holding her for extradition—!’

  ‘Yeah?’ Cole inquired, sensing there was a development of a kind he could not envisage which might save him—and his superior—from having to carry out a duty they both found abhorrent.

  ‘Now I’m only a half-smart small town John Law,’ Dusty claimed. ‘But I reckon I’ve heard a person can’t be extradited from their own country.’

  ‘That’s the legal law all through the world,’ Cole admitted, but he could not see how the information—which he felt sure was already known by Dusty—could affect the situation. ‘Only Freddie’s English and they’re figuring on having her extradited from over here back to her home country.’

  ‘Freddie was English,’ Dusty corrected and the grins on the faces of his companions grew even broader.

  ‘Was?’ Cole queried.

  ‘Was,’ the small Texan confirmed, picking up and displaying the hitherto concealed side of the sheet of paper. It was most definitely an official document
, although not one Cole would ever have expected to see in such a context. ‘While you were eating over at Buffalo Kate’s, I went to the Fair Lady and proposed on bended knee to Freddie. She said, “Yes, please” and now she’s Mrs. Dusty Fog. This’s our wedding certificate, all signed and notarized legal and proper.’

  ‘Which makes her an American citizen and not eligible for extradition,’ Cole continued and, as he took out and pinned on his badge, his normally solemn expression changed to one of delight.

  ‘I’ll take your word for that,’ Dusty grinned. ‘Although the Judge agreed same was the case when we asked him to come to the Fair Lady for a wedding feed. After you’ve telegraphed to tell Matt what’s happened and asked him to come up to join us, Mrs. Fog, American citizen, and I’ll be expecting you along as well.’ 73

  Appendix One

  Following his enrolment in the Army of the Confederate States, 74 by the time he reached the age of seventeen, Dustine Edward Marsden ‘Dusty’ Fog had won promotion in the field to the rank of captain and was put in command of Company ‘C Texas Light Cavalry. 75 At the head of them throughout the campaign in Arkansas, he had earned the reputation for being an exceptional military raider and worthy contemporary of Turner Ashby and John Singleton ‘the Gray Ghost’ Mosby, the South’s other leading exponents of what would later become known as ‘commando’ raids. 76 In addition to averting a scheme by a Union general to employ a virulent version of what was to be given the name, ‘mustard gas’ following its use by Germans in World War l 77 and preventing a pair of pro-Northern fanatics from starting an Indian uprising which would have decimated much of Texas, 78 he had supported Belle ‘the Rebel Spy’ Boyd on two of her most dangerous assignments. 79 80

  At the conclusion of the War Between the States, Dusty became the segundo of the great OD Connected ranch—its brand being a letter O to which was attached a D—in Rio Hondo County, Texas. Its owner and his maternal uncle, General Jackson Baines ‘Ole Devil’ Hardin, C.S.A., had been crippled in a riding accident and was confined to a wheelchair. 81 82 This placed much responsibility, including the need to handle an important mission—with the future relationship, between the United States and Mexico at stake—upon his young shoulders. 83 While carrying out the assignment, he met Mark Counter and the Ysabel Kid. Not only did they do much to bring it to a successful conclusion, they became his closest friends and leading lights of the ranch’s floating outfit . 84 After helping to gather horses to replenish the ranch’s depleted remuda, 85 he was sent to assist Colonel Charles Goodnight 86 87 88 on the trail drive to Fort Sumner, New Mexico, which did much to help Texas recover from the impoverished conditions left by the War. 89 With that achieved, he had been equally successful in helping Goodnight convince other ranchers it would be possible to drive large herds of longhorn cattle to the railroad in Kansas. 90