Showdown in Badlands

by Shorty Gunn

  ‘What about them mine men, what if they get in the way?’ Emmett questioned.

  ‘Then we take them down too so we can get a clear shot at Dickson. He’s the only one carryin’ a pistol. Four against one is my kind of odds in a dog fight,’ Ike continued. ‘Here’s how we’ll do it. Emmett an’ me will wait right across the street so we can see him when he comes out. Let ’em get all the way out on the boardwalk. Elwood, you git down the street just a few feet away up against the building. You’ll have a clear shot at his back. Virgil, you git yourself in that alley next to the Palace. You’ll have a head-on shot if he tries to run for it. After the first shot, everyone open up on him and be sure you kill him. I don’t want him runnin’ away without bleeding out. You all know what you’re supposed to do?’ All three nodded. ‘Then let’s git to it!’

  Throughout their long dinner, Dickson and the mine men discussed the Goss family and how Dickson would handle the whole bunch when the brothers returned from Fool’s Gold, if in fact they had ever left. Rolo said the old man would lie through his teeth to save his boys, and think nothing of it. He repeated that it didn’t make any sense the brothers would ride that far. He couldn’t think of any reason they would. Chambers added wherever the four were, they were always dangerous and unpredictable, driven by the iron will of their father. The three men finished dinner with one more glass of whiskey, before Chambers hailed the waiter over to pay the bill.

  ‘It’s been an interesting evening.’ Dickson got to his feet as Rolo and Edward followed. ‘I wanted as much information as I could get, and you’ve given me that. I’ll use it tomorrow when I ride back out to their ranch.’

  ‘You still plan on going alone?’ Rolo questioned.

  ‘I do. That’s how I always deal with people like that, face to face when they least expect it. Most men caught short don’t have time to react. If there’s trouble, I’ll make the first move to end it. This bunch will be no different than anyone else.’

  Rolo slowly shook his head, marvelling at Dickson’s determination. ‘Don’t be too sure about that. They’re backwoods people who have no regard for anyone else except themselves. I wouldn’t put trying to kill you past any of them, and you’ll likely be facing more than just one of them. I’m convinced that’s what they did to John Standard.’

  The three men walked out of the dining room through the busy bar, stepping out on to the boardwalk. Dickson was in the lead with Rolo and Edward right behind him. Dickson stopped a moment to flare a match, lighting a pencil-thin cigarillo. Elwood stepped away from the building drawing his pistol, but the mine men blocked his view. Across the street Ike and Emmett lifted their six-guns trying to get a clear shot at the knot of men as they talked for a moment. In the alley, Virgil peeked around the corner waiting for his brothers to shoot before he opened up. When they did not he backed away from the edge, wondering why. Elwood became more nervous and confused every second until he couldn’t wait any longer. ‘Dickson!’ he yelled, as the three men turned around to his sudden shout.

  Dickson instantly shoved Rolo and Edward out of the way and crouched, pulling his Colt. Elwood took a wild shot that missed. Dickson’s six-gun bucked in his hands spitting flame and lead, collapsing Elwood on the boardwalk with a scream of pain rolling out into the street. Ike and Emmett instantly began firing wildly from across the street.

  ‘Get down!’ Dickson yelled, pushing the pair behind a watering trough in front of the Palace. The brothers’ bullets thudded into the tank, sending sudden geysers of water into the air. Virgil stepped out of the alley levelling his pistol on Dickson, firing as fast as he could thumb the hammer. One bullet hit Dickson’s wooden leg, jerking it out from under him. He instinctively rolled over on his stomach, firing back with two fast shots. Rolo yelled out, hit in the arm by a bullet. Virgil jumped back into the alley for cover as Dickson’s bullets splintered the corner inches away. Elwood continued dragging himself across the street, moaning for someone to help him. Ike screamed at Emmett to go pull his brother out of harm’s way, while he continued shooting at the three behind the trough.

  Inside the Palace, people dove for the floor as stray bullets shattered the front window and the big mirror behind the bar came crashing down. The bartender dropped to his knees, grabbing the shotgun he kept under the bar and a handful of shotgun shells, cussing out loud while running for the front door. A quick peek outside showed his previous diners were outnumbered with Ike and Emmett firing steadily from across the street. The barman lifted the 12 gauge firing both barrels, forcing the pair to drop to the ground as pellets shattered store windows behind them.

  ‘Let’s git outta here!’ Emmett pleaded. ‘We can’t take on a scattergun too!’

  ‘Grab Elwood and let’s go!’ Ike yelled as Emmett made a run for it, dragging his brother back. Both men lifted Elwood between them, running down the boardwalk toward the alley behind, horses jittering at the hitching post from the thunderous gun fire.

  Virgil saw his brothers run for it. Instantly he realized he was on his own. Turning, he ran down the alley as fast as his legs would carry him. As suddenly as the furious gunfight began, it ended. Dickson slowly got to his feet, unsteady on just one leg. He turned to see Edward helping Rolo to his feet, a bloody bullet wound on the fleshy part of his arm. People poured out of the Palace on to the boardwalk, talking excitedly.

  ‘Someone get a doctor!’ Dickson yelled. ‘We’ve got a wounded man here.’

  ‘What about you?’ Chambers asked. ‘You’ll need one too.’

  Dickson lifted his pants leg showing the shattered bullet hole through his wooden leg, as Chambers’ eyes widened in disbelief. ‘Well I’ll be damned,’ he exclaimed. ‘I never knew you had a false leg.’

  ‘Had it for years. This is the first time it saved me from the real thing though. I’ll have to get a new one made before I ride out to the Goss ranch. That’s who tried to ambush us. There’s no doubt about that. They’ve started the war. Now I’ll finish it.’

  ‘You’re right, Ben. I heard the one you wounded calling out for Ike and Emmett. You better take some help with you before you go out to their ranch, after all this. They’ll open up on you the minute you show your face, Ben.’

  ‘I’ll take some help all right. I’ll have a little surprise with me. You use dynamite, don’t you?’

  ‘Sure we do in our hard rock mining. Why do you ask?’

  ‘I want several sticks and fuses, too.’

  ‘What for? It’s dangerous stuff to play around with.’

  ‘I don’t want to play around with it. I’ll stop by your office in the morning after I get this leg of mine fixed and pick it up.’

  ‘You ever handled dynamite before?’

  ‘I have. Used it once down in New Mexico, to smoke out some train robbers I had cornered in a cave. I might need it to smoke out the Goss boys, too.’

  Vernal Goss slumped in his chair in the dark of the front room waiting, listening for his boys’ return from town. His stomach churned as beads of perspiration broke out on his white-whiskered face. Closing his eyes for a moment he tried to overcome the nausea of fear, slowly rocking back and forth in the chair. He wasn’t about to be pushed any further by this lawman Ben Dickson, but there was always a chance his dangerous plan to ambush him could have gone wrong. The longer he waited for the boys to show up the more uncertain and agitated he became. His tremors returned, shaking him from head to toe so badly the chair vibrated on the wooden floor, sounding like a baby’s rattle.

  ‘Vernal . . . are you . . . all right?’ Hattie’s sleepy voice drifted out from the back bedroom. ‘Are the . . . boys back yet? I can’t get much sleep worrying about them.’

  He grit his teeth, trying to answer. ‘No they ain’t. I’ll let you know when. Go back to sleep and stop askin’ me dumb questions!’

  Another long hour ticked slowly away on the clock on the stone fireplace mantle, when Vernal suddenly straightened up. He thought he heard the sound of distant hoof beats coming fast. Cupping a
hand to his ear he strained to hear it again. It was getting closer. Was it his boys or not? Horses danced to a stop outside. Vernal cocked back both hammers on his double barrel shotgun, levelling it on the front door. If it wasn’t his boys but Dickson or maybe even a posse, he’d end the battle right here and now with both barrels before they took him down.

  ‘Paw, it’s us. We got Elwood and he’s hurt bad!’ Ike’s frantic voice cut through the night like a knife. ‘We’re comin’ in!’

  The brothers half dragged Elwood through the door, laying him on the couch as Ike called out for someone to light the coal oil lamp. Hattie ran in in her nightgown, hand over mouth at Ike’s desperate shouts. The lamp flickered to life as she knelt at Elwood’s side, trying to comfort him.

  ‘How bad is it, son? Let me see what happened to my boy.’ Her tiny voice quavered with emotion.

  She lifted his bloody shirt, her face twisting in revulsion at what she saw. Tears instantly welled up in her eyes.

  ‘Well, can you help him or is he gonna die right here?’ Vernal barked, twisting in the chair, trying to get a better look.

  ‘Looks like . . . the bullet went clean through . . . his side . . . maybe caught part of his stomach. All I can do is try to stop the bleeding . . . maybe sew it up some. One of you boys go to the kitchen quick and get me that bottle of whiskey so I can wash it . . . out.’

  ‘Did you kill Dickson?’ Vernal demanded.

  ‘I know I hit him, Paw. He could be bleedin’ out right now. I saw him go down!’ Virgil insisted.

  ‘What about you and Emmett, Ike? Did you get some lead in him?’

  ‘We opened up on him when that barman from the Palace ran out with a scattergun and cut loose on us with both barrels. We couldn’t take on a six-gun and a shotgun, too. We had to get Elwood out of there. All we could do is run for it.’

  ‘Run for it? You were supposed to kill him. You sure no one followed you out here?’

  ‘We didn’t see no one. We was pretty busy just tryin’ to get here ourselves.’

  The old man lowered his head in one hand, shaking it at the mess the boys had made of his plans. He had to think up something else and fast before either Dickson or a posse came riding out to take the boys in and maybe him too. He looked at Elwood twisting and moaning as Hattie swabbed his bullet wound with whiskey, then back to his sons as his mind struggled for an answer. There was only one thing he could think of to save all of them, dangerous as it seemed.

  ‘C’m’ere you three.’ He waved them over. ‘You listen to me and listen good. Sooner or later either Dickson, if he ain’t dead, or maybe more men from town are gonna come out here looking for all three of you. There’s only one way I can think of to save you. That’s for all of you to light out away from here. If you ain’t here there’s nothing anyone can do about it.’

  ‘Leave for where?’ Virgil questioned, eyes wide with fear.

  ‘On over the mountains past Fool’s Gold, the country drops down into a place they called the badlands, when I was a kid. The wagon trains still go around it because it’s so rough. It’s all chopped up with a million canyons and box canyons. No one can track you once you get in there. Even the Indians stay out of it. They think it’s full of demons ridin’ on the wind. No one here is gonna go that far lookin’ for you, either. That’s the only kinda place you’ll be safe. After all this dies down you can come back home.’

  ‘How far is it from here, and when can we come back home?’ Ike wondered out loud.

  ‘I ain’t sure. Maybe three or four months. Maybe even longer. It’s a hundred miles or so from here. You’ll have to take as much supplies as you can pack and shoot something to eat when that runs out. That’s all I can think of.’

  The brothers stared at each other, too stunned to reply for several moments until Emmett found his voice.

  ‘What about Elwood? He can’t ride shot up like he is!’

  ‘You’ll have to take him, too. If anyone finds him here with that bullet wound they’ll know fer sure it was you who tried to gun down Dickson. If you boys had done the job right you wouldn’t have to run for it. Now that’s the only chance you got left!’

  ‘But Paw, it was all we could do just getting Elwood here. There ain’t no way he could ride a hundred miles,’ Virgil challenged.

  ‘He’ll have to and so will you!’

  ‘What if he dies on the trail?’ Ike’s voice was near panic.

  ‘You got no choice. It’s the only way to save yourselves. And it’s better than all of you dyin’ at the end of a rope. Get some supplies together and fast. Your mother will try and make Elwood ready to ride. If you have to rope him in the saddle, do it!’

  Chapter Four

  The crowds in front of the Palace slowly began dispersing with everyone still talking excitedly about the wild shootout. Rolo was taken to the doctor’s office between the shoulders of Edward and a volunteer from the crowd. Dickson turned to the barman whose sudden intervention had turned the tide of the gunfight in his favour.

  ‘That double barrel of yours did good work. I’m a shotgun man myself and know those twin barrels have a way of stopping anyone dead in their tracks. Thanks for your help.’

  ‘Listen, I’m no gunman or anything like it, but after having my front window shot out and the big mirror behind the bar smashed to pieces, I had to do something. I couldn’t let that go on. One of my customers might have caught a bullet. That mirror had to be freight-hauled all the way up from Denver, and it cost plenty. All it is now is a pile of broken glass. Who’s got it in for you so bad they’d try to kill you right here out on Main Street?’

  ‘Maybe you can get the Goss brothers to pay for all the glass. They’re the ones who did the shooting.’

  ‘Those animals? Are you that sure?’

  ‘I am. There’s no doubt in my mind.’

  ‘If they show their faces here in my place again I’ll put this shotgun back on them and make them pay for all the damage they’ve done.’

  ‘They might not be around long enough to do that.’

  ‘Why’s that?’

  ‘I’m going to pay them a little visit after I get my leg fixed. You know a good carpenter in town?’

  ‘Yeah, there’s Delbert Combs, one block over from here. He has a shop out on the side of his house. When I need work done here in the Palace, I use him. He’s real good with wood. What’s that got to do with your leg?’

  Dickson lifted his pants leg, revealing the shattered bullet hole.

  ‘Ain’t that something. I would have never guessed you had a peg leg. I’ll bet Delbert is just the man to make you a new one.’

  ‘I’ll find out tomorrow soon as he opens. I’ve got to get this replaced before I settle things out at the Goss ranch. That little ride will take two good legs, not one.’

  ‘You want what?’ Delbert Combs turned from his workbench next morning as Dickson entered his shop with a quick hello, followed by a request.

  ‘I need this replaced.’ He lifted his pants leg again, revealing the splintered hole. ‘And I need it done perfectly so it fits snug in my boot, including the shape of my foot. If it isn’t done right my balance will be off and I can’t have that.’

  Combs adjusted his glasses, running a hand through thinning hair, studying the tall man then looking down at the leg. ‘I’ve done a lot of different jobs before but never anything like that. I’m not a doctor, you know.’

  ‘If you don’t think you can handle it I’ll have to find someone else,’ Dickson challenged. ‘I’m told you’re the man good with tools.’

  ‘I didn’t say I couldn’t do it. Only that it’s darned unusual. When would you need it finished?’

  ‘Today. I can’t leave here without it. I’d have to stay right here until you’re done.’

  Combs was silent a moment longer trying to figure out how much time and material he had to work with. ‘I do have a good piece of seasoned oak over in the wood rack that might work pretty well and I’d have to use your old leg for a pattern.�
�� He pulled at his chin, thinking it over. ‘All right, take it off and I’ll get started on it. You may as well find a comfortable seat. You’re going to be here a while.’

  Combs went to work measuring the leg before rough sawing the oak and heading for his pedal wheel lathe to begin turning the hardwood block down to specifications. Dickson sat quietly on a three-legged stool, watching the old craftsman diligently working at his craft when his wife Amanda came into the shop with a pot of hot black coffee.

  ‘I saw you had an early customer Del, so I made up a pot of coffee for both of you.’ She eyed Dickson curiously with his fine clothes and fancy lace-up boots. He looked so out of place in a rough mining town like Peralta, that she couldn’t take her eyes off him. She poured two cups, handing one to Dickson, but Delbert was too busy to stop.

  ‘Thank you, ma’am. That’s very perceptive of you. This should take the chill off the morning air.’ He tipped his big brimmed hat.

  ‘Yes, it is turning toward fall, and that will come . . .’ She glanced down at Dickson’s empty pants leg and boot, suddenly stopping her remarks, embarrassed for not noticing. ‘Please excuse me. I didn’t know. . . .’

  ‘That’s quite all right mam. Most people are taken back a bit at first. It’s nothing really to apologize for. Don’t think anything of it. I certainly don’t. My name is Ben Dickson. I’m staying here in town for a short while and maybe just a little bit longer until your husband finishes with my new leg,’ he kidded.

  ‘Can I assume you’re a businessman, Mr Dickson? You certainly dress like one.’

  ‘Yes, I do have a business of sorts.’

  ‘Do you mind me asking what that is?’

  ‘No, not one bit. I’m a hunter, ma’am.’

  ‘A hunter? How interesting. It must pay very well.’

  ‘Yes it does, most of the time.’

  ‘Amanda, will you stop asking questions and leave my customer alone.’ Delbert’s voice had a tinge of frustration in it, without turning toward her.