by Jake Logan
“There! Look, Slocum, down there!”
At first Slocum didn’t see what excited the officer. Then a wagon emerged from around a bend in the road. They had found the Magee women and Marshal Vannover. Slocum was a little late riding down to meet them, too. Captain Langmuir galloped flat out, until Slocum thought the man would kill his horse under him. By the time Slocum reached the wagon, Langmuir was dismounted and talking with Louisa and Sarah Beth.
“Reckon you got to talk to me, Slocum,” the marshal said from the back of the wagon. Vannover was propped up and looking better.
“Seems like a family reunion,” Slocum said, seeing how Langmuir pressed close to the women and peppered them with questions.
“I think he’s sweet on her.”
“Do tell,” Slocum said. Slocum rode closer and looked at the marshal. “You’re about ready to get on back to your job. They need you in Charity.”
“They may need me, but they don’t want me,” Vannover said. “Never made many friends, not after I threw the mayor’s worthless kid in the clink for public drunkenness a couple times.”
“Mayor’s dead, and the ones left are hankering for someone to tell them how to stay alive.”
“Fancy that,” Vannover said. “I’d head on back since that’s where I thought we was headin’ anyway, but there’s not a spare horse. I’m pretty much stuck with bein’ a passenger.”
“Getting into Charity might be a problem without a company of soldiers at your back, too.”
“What are the chances of that?”
“Looks like we’ll find out real soon,” Slocum said.
“We’re going on to the fort right away,” Langmuir said in his best command voice. Slocum looked from Louisa to Sarah Beth, and saw that the captain was out to impress the daughter. That suited Slocum just fine, though he wished the officer had some plan to impress Major Magee with how he ought to surrender before fighting a huge battle. It wasn’t going to happen, though, and Slocum wondered what Magee’s reaction would be if he found out the captain was sweet on his daughter.
For all that, what would Magee do if he found out about his wife and Slocum and their tryst down by the river?
“You want me to watch our back trail?” Slocum asked.
Langmuir looked sharply at Slocum, then nodded.
Without another word, Slocum turned and trotted along the road, on the lookout for any sign that Magee’s men were after them. He appreciated the solitude and chance to simply stop riding for a spell. He sat beside a rock at the side of the road and listened hard, watched for anything out of the ordinary, and just thought on what had happened. After a half hour without any trace of the outlaws, Slocum mounted and trotted to catch up with the wagon.
Langmuir had set a slower pace than Louisa wanted from the way the two were arguing when Slocum rode up. The officer wanted to spend a little more time with Sarah Beth was Slocum’s guess. Louisa wanted to get the hell away from Clayton Magee.
“Nothing after us,” said Slocum. “What’s ahead?”
“I scouted the fort,” Langmuir said, shaking his head. “I couldn’t tell who’s taken charge there. The gates were closed, and I saw a guard moving about up in the watch tower.”
Slocum had worried over this possibility like a dog with a bone.
“It’s not Magee or his men in there,” Slocum said. “He is too sure Louisa and Sarah Beth are going to Charity. He’s committed all his men there.”
“What of Kimbrell?”
“Either Kimbrell’s going along with Magee or he’s hightailed it. Either way, he’s not in Fort Supply.”
“You make a sound case, Slocum, but we have to know before we risk the ladies’ lives.”
“To hell with it,” Slocum said, snapping his reins and getting his paint trotting ahead down the road. He ignored both Langmuir’s and Louisa’s cries for him to stop. When the captain didn’t come galloping out to accompany him, Slocum knew Langmuir had decided to remain and protect the women.
“Sarah Beth,” Slocum said, chuckling. He hoped that the captain’s infatuation with her did not build to match that of her father’s.
“Halt, who goes there?”
Slocum slowed and stopped a few yards from the locked gate. The palisade walls rose dark and foreboding. On the walkway above, he saw a head poking up. A rifle balanced precariously, and centered on him only when the nervous sentry trembled in the proper direction.
“Name’s Slocum. I scouted for Captain Langmuir.”
“I know you. Where’s the captain?”
“A mile back down the road. He’s got three civilians with him. Who’s in charge of the fort?”
After a long pause came an answer that made Slocum wish he had just kept riding.
“Reckon I am. Private Leary. That’s me.”
“Open up the gate. Captain Langmuir’s on his way back to assume command.”
“The captain’s still alive? Thought he was kilt.”
“Open the gate,” Slocum said. He turned his paint and galloped back to the wagon, giving a succinct report.
“You’re going to have to order the private to let us in,” Slocum told Langmuir. “I don’t think he’d let his own mother in he’s so scared.”
“Who can blame him?” Sarah Beth looked at Langmuir. “Without a decent officer in charge, why, the whole fort must be like a ship without a rudder.”
“Roll ’em,” Langmuir said. He rode ahead of Slocum. When Slocum tried to catch up, the captain rode a little faster. Slocum finally gave up on this pissing match and fell back to ride alongside the wagon so he could talk with Marshal Vannover.
“You’ll have a bunk to sleep in soon enough,” Slocum told him.
“Think I can convince the captain to send his men to Charity? I wouldn’t want to see my hometown burned down.” Vannover coughed. “The rest of it, I mean. Some folks wouldn’t care if they never saw me again, but I’ve got an obligation to the whole lot of ’em.”
“Langmuir’s got to do something about Magee,” Slocum said. “He sent couriers to the other forts. At least one must have delivered the bad news.”
“With his sweetie safe, Langmuir’s likely to risk another sortie after Magee and his gang,” Vannover said. “If I can reach Charity, might get a few citizens to take the fight to him. It’s to everyone’s benefit to get rid of Magee, and hitting him from both sides might be what it takes to finish him off once and for all.”
By the time Louisa drove the wagon to the gate, Langmuir had given orders and had it pulled wide open. As they rode into the fort’s parade ground, Slocum saw how the main gate hung precariously. It had been severely damaged and would never withstand a real assault. But it might never have to—if Magee thought Louisa and Sarah Beth were heading for Charity.
“How many men you have left?” Slocum asked the officer. Langmuir’s expression gave the sorry answer.
“Not enough. Almost ten.”
“Almost ten? How close to ten?”
“Seven made it back,” Langmuir said angrily. “I’ll see that our guests are shown to their quarters.”
“Looks like the officers’ barracks are all blowed to hell and gone,” observed Vannover. Langmuir ignored him. Slocum helped the marshal down. Although he was shaky, the lawman could walk on his own. He motioned for Slocum to give him some support. “Get me on over to the mess hall. I’m hungry enough to eat a horse.”
“Not mine,” Slocum said. “I still need it.”
“Maybe Langmuir’s then. That’d give him an excuse to stay with Sarah Beth.”
Slocum chuckled at the marshal’s observation. The captain personally escorted Louisa and Sarah Beth to the one remaining house at the end of a row of houses destroyed by cannon fire.
“That’s more truth than poetry,” Slocum agreed. He joined Vannover in the mess hall for a meal of beans and hardtack. After having his belly rub against his backbone for so long, any food set well with him. As they finished, Langmuir came in and sat across from them.
“I am going to hold Fort Supply until reinforcements arrive. There’s no way I can justify splitting seven men between maintaining the fort and attacking Magee.”
“Three or four men wouldn’t make much of a dent against a force like Magee’s,” Vannover agreed. Slocum looked at the marshal sharply as he continued talking. “So, Captain, why don’t you let me have an escort back to Charity and I’ll rouse the citizens? We can do your job for you.”
“That is uncalled for, sir.” Langmuir shot to his feet and stormed from the mess hall.
“You aren’t much for winning folks over to your side, are you?” Slocum said.
“Don’t see you going out of your way to do that either, Slocum,” the marshal said. “Why don’t you mosey on over to where the women are bivouacking and talk to them? If Louisa asked her daughter to ask Langmuir to send troops to Charity, I bet my bottom dollar he’d have his men all lined up lickety-split.”
“Nobody ever won the battle by just sitting on their thumbs,” Slocum said. “Let me have another plate of beans, and I’ll see what Louisa has to say about this.” He knew Vannover had figured out what went on between Slocum and Louisa as well as how Langmuir was sweet on Sarah Beth. He might have been laid up with a fever, but he was no fool.
Slocum finished his meal, tossed the tin plate in a bucket at the end of the table, and stepped out into the humid night. Clouds worked their way over the stars, but the waxing moon shone with enough light for him to walk confidently to the fort’s guest quarters. A lamp burned in the single window.
Slocum rapped on the door and waited. Louisa opened the door. For a moment she smiled. Then the expression died as she looked past him.
“Did anyone see you? Come in, John. Please hurry. Soldiers gossip like old women.”
Slocum ducked inside, and found his arms filled with a warm, willing woman who kissed him.
“I’ve missed you so,” she said, pressing her cheek against his chest.
“We’ve still got business to tend to,” he said.
“Clayton,” she said with a deep sigh. “He is always there like some evil dark shadow.”
“Could you talk to Sarah Beth so she’ll convince Langmuir to abandon the fort and attack Magee? Marshal Vannover is sure he can get a dozen men from Charity to join the fight.”
“She does make doe eyes at him, doesn’t she?” Louisa stepped back and smiled just a little again. “Like I do with you.” She nodded suddenly and said, “I’ll talk to her right now. She went straight to bed because I think she wanted to be up before reveille so she could see her hero out in front of his command.”
Louisa went to the door leading to the bedroom, paused, and said, “I wish we were in there. Together. All night long.” She heaved another sigh of resignation and opened the door. Louisa stood for a moment, then rushed into the room crying out for her daughter.
Slocum went to the door and drew his six-shooter. Louisa frantically searched, but Slocum saw immediately that Sarah Beth had gone out the window. He slid his pistol back into his holster.
“She’s not in any danger,” Slocum said. “Not with the captain.”
“I’ll paddle her, I swear I will! She knows better! She knows what this will do to discipline in the fort and how it will undermine the captain’s authority with his men.”
Slocum went to the window and looked outside. The earlier rain had left the ground soft and the bright silvery moonlight highlighted footprints. One set coming to the window. Two sets leaving.
He drew his six-gun and climbed through the window to follow the footprints, which went directly to a hole that had been shot in the palisade by a cannonball. Sarah Beth Magee had left the fort. And not with Isaiah Langmuir unless he wore a boot the same size as Sarah Beth.
24
“She’s gone?” Isaiah Langmuir stared at Slocum in disbelief. “This isn’t something her mother put you up to claiming, is it, Slocum?”
“Just to keep you from sniffing around? No, she left the fort. See for yourself. The tracks are plain as the nose on your face.”
“I’ll rouse the garrison.”
“Not much of one to rouse,” Slocum said, “but it might be a good idea to put up an extra lookout or two in case Magee has decided to move from Charity.”
“You make it sound as if the man has second sight.”
“He has scouts out everywhere. Might be one of them spotted the wagon coming into the fort.”
“Reinforcement are on the way. Two companies from Fort Gibson will arrive within a day or two.”
“That’s good,” Slocum said, “but it might be too little, too late. Magee has shown his men can ride like the wind and fight like devils once they get to the battlefield.”
“You make them sound like Nathan Bedford Forrest’s troopers.”
“Magee fought for the Federals,” Slocum said caustically. “You ought to appreciate his tactics and skill better than anyone around here.”
“He may have fought for the Union, but to insinuate that he and I share anything in—”
“Stuff a sock in it, Captain,” said Lester Vannover. “Arguing over the war’s not gettin’ anybody nowhere. It’s not making Charity a safer place to live or Sarah Beth safer or—”
“I get your point, sir,” Langmuir said, fighting to hold down his anger. “What are you saying?”
“Slocum’s got the right idea. If Magee’s scouts have reported to him, he’s on his way here. The only thing in that man’s demented mind is getting back his wife and child.”
“Sarah Beth is not a child. She’s a woman.”
“Captain, grab hold of your dick and tuck it away until after this fight’s done,” Vannover said. “We’ve got big problems brewin’.”
“Orderly! Throw this man in the stockade!”
Slocum drew and pointed his six-shooter at the soldier’s head when he came running into the room, ready to obey his commander.
“As you were, Private,” Slocum said. “We’re having a friendly argument, and you don’t want to get involved.”
“Throw them both in the stockade!”
“Sir,” the private said, voice quavering. “The sentry on the gate. He thinks he saw a rider along the road.”
“Sarah Beth!”
“He said it was a man. He rode up, looked at the fort, and then hightailed it.”
“Magee’s scout saw the wagon tracks,” Slocum said. “They were hunting for the wagon and know it came into the fort.”
“Too bad it didn’t rain more and wash away the tracks,” Vannover said. “You got a spare rifle and any ammo, Captain? I’d like to go down fighting when Magee attacks.”
“As you were, Private,” Langmuir said.
Slocum watched the emotions play across the officer’s face. Slocum didn’t have time for any of it.
“Private, sound assembly. Get the entire company to the walls with all the ammunition and weapons they can find,” Slocum said brusquely.
“There’s not much left, sir,” the private said, turning to Slocum.
“Get all you can. Magee will attack at dawn. We must be ready for him before that.”
“Yes, sir.” The private saluted Slocum and ran out as fast as he had come in.
“You’re not in command of this post, Slocum. I am.”
“Then act like it, Captain,” Slocum said. “There’s no time to pine over Sarah Beth. You’ve got a command to protect unless you want your reinforcements to find a burned-out husk of a fort and dead bodies stacked high.”
“Did Magee take Sarah Beth?” Langmuir looked stricken at the thought.
“Hard to say, but I don’t think so. He would have kidnapped Mrs. Magee, too.” Slocum didn’t bother telling the captain that the second set of footprints were too small to belong to any man riding with Magee. Unless Magee had recruited a young child, another woman had lured Sarah Beth from the fort. Slocum had to think Catherine Duggan was responsible.
“She’s safe?”
“As safe as an
y of us, you jackass,” snapped Vannover. “Get your men assembled, give the orders, and let’s fight!”
Langmuir glared at the marshal, then at Slocum, and hurried from the room. Vannover shook his head at such pigheadedness.
“Where do they get their officers?”
Before Slocum could answer, the ground shook with the explosion of a cannonball ripping through the mess hall. He caught himself, but Vannover was knocked from his feet. Slocum helped the lawman stand.
“Looks like we just ran out of time,” Slocum said. “You get to the armory. Somebody’s got to pass out whatever carbines are left.”
“You going up to the wall?”
A second cannonball whined overhead to land harmlessly beyond the parade ground.
“They’re homin’ in on the outhouses,” Vannover said. “That ought to be a war crime.” He slapped Slocum on the back and hobbled away as fast as he could. Slocum stepped out of the room Langmuir had used as an office and tried to guess what time it was by the stars. The storm clouds had moved in, blocking the moon. If they had to escape from the fort before it became a death trap, a heavy rain would provide good cover. Langmuir didn’t have many men left—and Magee’s force had been reduced in size also.
A third cannonball missed the fort entirely, sailing over both the front palisade and the rear to explode some distance away. Slocum knew that meant Magee was no longer doing the aiming for his artillery. If he had taken a position in the front of his gang, a sniper might end this fight in a hurry with a single shot.
Slocum had been one of the best snipers in the Army of the CSA. He rummaged through his gear stored in the stables and drew his Winchester. It wasn’t what he would have chosen for long-distance work, but it had to do. He dumped a box of cartridges into his coat pocket and climbed a ladder to the top of the wall.
“You’re the fellow who scouted for the captain,” Private Leary said as he crouched down behind a thick section of the wall. “Hope you’re as good a shot as you are a scout.”
