by Petit, C. J.
At five hundred yards he knew they were within range of the Spencer, but he wanted a sure thing. He didn’t want any of them to leave this killing ground. They were all murderers and rapists, and, in the absence of the law, he had to be the judge, jury, and executioner.
When they passed the three-hundred-yard mark, John began to feel a bit anxious. The closer they got, the more likely he could take a hit, and with those large bore Springfields, any hit would be devastating.
Joe was exuberant with the thought of money and Kate and pulled his mule to a halt and aimed his Springfield. He wanted to be the one to kill the stranger.
It was what John was waiting for. As soon as his rifle came up, John hit the dirt and grabbed his Spencer.
Just as John was dropping, Joe squeezed the trigger. At two hundred and fifty yards the .58 caliber round would take more than a half a second to reach its target. John heard the Minie ball pass over his head as he flopped to the prairie and quickly snatched his Spencer and pulled back the hammer. He marked Joe and squeezed the trigger just four seconds after Joe’s shot.
Joe mistook John’s drop for a hit and turned excitedly to Kevin to shout about his triumph, so he didn’t see John pointing the Spencer in his direction and its muzzle spewing a huge cloud of black smoke. He was looking at Kevin and pointing toward the stranger, when the .56 caliber bullet smashed into his left chest, just under the armpit. He was screaming as he hit the dirt, as blood raced from the ruptured brachial artery onto the plains.
John didn’t waste time after watching Joe fall, he quickly acquired a different target. He didn’t know it was Pat Murphy, nor did he care.
Neither Pat nor Kevin had fired yet, but Pat made the huge mistake of taking his eyes from John when he heard Joe scream and watching his brother as he flew off of his mule. By the time he looked back, he saw the cloud of smoke boiling from the Spencer’s muzzle.
He didn’t have time to do anything but die, when the massive round struck him high in the neck, just below the chin, almost taking his head off his neck. The energy of the bullet and the sudden move of the mule spooked by the roar of the rifle caused his lifeless body to do a back flip from the mule’s back and crumple to the ground.
That left Kevin. When Pat had been shot, he knew instantly that Willie had lied to him and the stranger not only had a rifle, but it was a repeater. He didn’t bother firing his rifle, he just turned and ran before the stranger could hit him. He had the mule running for all it was worth as he accelerated back toward Plum Creek to get out of range. He kept glancing behind him to make sure the man stayed put.
After a half a mile, he thought he was safe, and slowed his winded mule to a trot, intending to go and visit that lying bastard of a storekeeper.
John had seen him race away and quickly regained his feet, grabbed a rifle in each hand and began to run back to the horses.
Kate saw him returning and blew out her breath. It was over, John was safe and the last of the Murphys had run away. She knew he wouldn’t be back.
She stood and smiled as John came trotting back to the stream. She was about to tell him how happy she was that he hadn’t been shot when he jogged past, breathing heavily, slammed his rifles into his horse’s scabbards and stepped up into the saddle.
“I’ll be back.” he said between gulps of air and set his horse off at a canter after Kevin.
Kate’s mouth was agape as she wondered if John had some sort of blood lust. What was he doing? He had already won. She hated Kevin Murphy as she hated them all, but there simply wasn’t any need any longer. She was safe.
“Come back, John! It’s over!” she shouted at his rapidly receding form.
What was wrong with him? There was no need to kill Kevin. It was more important for them to get away.
John kept his focus on the distant Murphy as he kept Arrow at a canter. He knew that the mule Murphy was on had been ridden hard to catch up to them and then Murphy had him running hard again as he made his escape.
It was about six miles to Plum Creek and he knew that Arrow had the stamina to run him down long before that.
Kevin had been throwing glances behind him and was aware of the stranger’s gains and his tiring mule. He knew he’d have to stop soon and try to kill him with the rifle. It was his only chance, but then he began thinking of another way. Any man that would risk his life to save Kate would probably be one of those ‘good men’ who followed the rules. He knew he didn’t have a prayer in a gunfight, not after what he had just witnessed.
Kevin Murphy had taken one more glance at the rapidly gaining stranger, estimated the distance at less than three hundred yards, then suddenly held his Springfield out wide in his left hand and put his right hand out wide on the right. He held the heavy rifle for five seconds, then made a show of tossing it away. The Springfield rifle hit the prairie and cartwheeled twice before the muzzle rammed into the dirt, causing the rifle to hang suspended at an angle for a second before it flopped back onto the ground.
John had seen the display and took it for what it was intended, that Murphy thought he could count on John’s sense of fair play to let him just ride away.
John didn’t care about fair play with this animal. This was more like hunting. This man and the other Murphys that he had killed had done unspeakable things to Kate and Mrs. Willoughby, then murdered the innocent couple who had taken care of Kate.
Kevin glanced back, expecting to see the stranger riding away, and was shocked to see him readying his rifle.
John felt no pity for what he was about to do. He led Murphy as he rode and squeezed the trigger. He was less than a hundred yards away, and could have used the Winchester, but he wanted the extra power of the Spencer for the last Murphy.
Kevin saw the smoke bloom and felt the bullet strike him right above the left buttock, shattering his pelvis. He screamed and fell from the mule, tumbling and rolling another eight feet, each jarring revolution grinding the shattered bone and fragments of his pelvis into surrounding tissue, making the pain astronomical.
John slid his Spencer into its scabbard, kicked Arrow into a faster speed and reached Kevin Murphy in seconds.
John slowed Arrow and stepped down when he was within fifty feet. He walked slowly toward the screaming Murphy, knowing he was unarmed.
Kevin looked up at his killer and screamed, “You killed me, you cheating bastard!”
John looked at Murphy and said in a chilling voice, “You and your brother and that bastard that sired you abused a helpless woman. You murdered two innocent people, just so you could use her as your personal whore. I didn’t kill you, you worthless son of a bitch. I executed you.”
“Well, do it then! Kill me! It hurts real bad!!”
John calmly replied, “And it’ll hurt that way for some time now. Enjoy the pain, Murphy. Yours will be over in a while. Kate’s may never be over. And when that pain ends, you explain to your creator why you did what you did. Then you can join your hellish father and brothers and have much worse pain for eternity.”
John turned back to Arrow, leaving a crying and screaming Kevin Murphy.
He stepped up and moved Arrow over to the mule, took its reins and returned west to the stream, leaving the still charged Springfield in the dirt as he passed by.
Back at the stream, Kate had heard all the gunfire and didn’t understand which weapon made each sound or the significance of one being fired more than once. She only knew that her heart was pounding against her ribs in fear.
But as she fretted, she kept staring to the east and soon spotted John riding toward her about a mile away. She was relieved, and still hoped he hadn’t been shot, but why had he done it? They were safe and could keep going west without having to worry about Kevin Murphy. There was no reason to chase after him. Was there a murderer under that pleasant face?
John had to swing around twice more and pick up the other two mules, and, as before, left the Springfield rifles. He fashioned a quick trail rope while staying on Arrow’s back and soon had
all the mules trotting behind him.
He spotted Kate watching from near the stream, but didn’t wave. It was bad business what he had just done, and it would sit with him for a while. He wasn’t ashamed of what he had done. Those men would have sooner or later done the same, if not worse to other women and anyone who got in their way. But he did feel dirty for having done it.
He reached the stream, stepped down and led the animals to the stream to drink.
Kate was afraid of John again, still wondering why he had gone after Kevin. So, she stood back near her horse watching him, fearing his blood lust would revert to just plain lust. The fears she had just so recently pushed back into her mind raged into the front again. She just couldn’t associate this killing machine to the kind man who had bought her the hairbrush.
When the animals were finished drinking, he led them out of the stream and walked to Kate.
“Are you ready to go?”
Kate was about to ask why he had done what he did, but instead just said, “Okay.”
They crossed the stream and continued along the south side of the Platte River at a fast walk. Once John redistributed the load among the four mules tomorrow, they could travel faster.
As they rode, John still dwelled on what he did, and his protracted silence was having an unsettling effect on Kate as she her suspicions that John wasn’t the decent man she had begun to trust, grew until they dominated her thoughts.
They were still following the trail of thousands of wagons that had traveled the route over the past quarter of a century when John finally decided they needed to pull over and set up camp.
He found a decent spot and pointed.
“We’ll set up camp over there.”
Kate just nodded. They were the first words he had spoken in six hours and her nerves were taut, expecting the worst. John was no longer a good man, he was another monster.
John halted the mule train just short of a small gully that had a healthy stream of water running along its center. It would be silty, but most water in this area was.
He stepped down and led Arrow and the mules down into the gully and let them drink as Kate dismounted and led her horse down as well. Neither spoke as the animals quenched their thirst.
When they finished, John led them back out of the gully, ground hitched Arrow and waited for Kate to bring her horse back and ground-hitched him as well.
He began stripping all the animals of their saddles as Kate sat and watched him from thirty feet away. She felt defenseless as the pistol he had let her keep was still in the saddlebag on her horse. She put her hand into her pocket and fingered the pocket knife, but knew it would be a poor defense if it became necessary. She needed the gun.
After John had removed the five saddles, he began to unload his mule, while Kate began to drift over to the saddlebags that were ten feet behind John. John knew she was moving behind him, but thought she was going to look at the clothes.
Kate reached the saddlebag and had to rummage around for a second before she pulled out the Remington, feeling the almost soothing touch of the cold steel. She backed away, watching John.
John had heard Kate going through the saddlebags and not the bags, and glanced out of the corner of his eye as she withdrew the pistol. Was she planning on shooting him? Part of him almost didn’t care, he was so morose after what he had done earlier. But beside the confusion over why she had taken the gun was the concern over what would happen to her if she did kill him. She wouldn’t stand a chance alone in this country.
Without turning around, he asked, “Are you planning on shooting me, Kate?”
Kate was startled, not realizing that he had seen her take the pistol.
“You’re scaring me, John. Why did you go after Kevin Murphy and kill him when you didn’t have to? He was running away. We were safe. You only killed him because you wanted to, and it frightens me.”
John finally turned his face to Kate, his right arm laid across the mule’s back.
“You believe I wanted to kill him, Kate? You think I enjoyed killing any of them? I hated having to do it, especially the last one. But it had to be done and I’ll have to live with it.”
“Then why did you do it? Give me a good reason why!” she shouted, her right hand shaking as it held the pistol with its muzzle pointed down.
“Kate, I can understand how it looked to you, as it would to most truly innocent people. In your eyes, I was some deranged killer filled with blood lust, just wanting to cause more death. But it was far from that. I had decided long before they fired the first shot that none of them would return to Plum Creek.”
He paused, slid his arm from the mule, turned to fully face Kate, and slipped his thumbs into his pockets.
“During the war, I never shot an enemy soldier or an Indian that wasn’t engaged in battle. It may not sound like much of a difference, but it is. Even though we were shooting at each other, those boys in gray and the warriors wearing war paint were no less innocent than most people. They were protecting their families and their way of life, as was I. War is stupid, because so many good men are killed. But those four Murphys were soulless destroyers of anything innocent, which is why I had to stop them. Those men murdered two people, the good people who took you in and cared for you. Then they turned you into a slave, treating you horribly. For those reasons alone, they deserved to die. But if there had been some form of law enforcement here, I would have let the law handle them. But there wasn’t. What I had to do was to enforce the justice that no one else seemed to be able to carry out. But there was something else, something more important than simple justice, Kate. After the first two were dead, the last one, the one who ran, had to be stopped. I had to go and chase him down to stop him from doing it again. Men like that don’t do it once and then stop. They do it again and again, and he needed to be prevented from returning to that town and hurting someone else. How could I live with myself if I knew I was letting a man like that return, knowing he would be hurting someone’s wife, sister or daughter, or leaving a child motherless? What good is a man if he doesn’t stop that from happening? That’s why I did what I did, and I’d do it again tomorrow if need be.”
John turned his head back to the mule and continued to take off the packs and panniers, leaving Kate staring at his back in turmoil.
Kate was staring because her mind was absorbing all that John had said. It was so alien to her. She had never met anyone, man or woman, willing to risk his own safety to protect people he didn’t even know. It flew in the face of everything she had experienced after she had left her family home.
John knew he couldn’t leave things the way they were. He understood how hurt and afraid Kate was and why. She had experienced more pain than any of those wounded men he had seen lying on the killing fields at Shiloh. He just wasn’t sure how to make it better, but he had to try.
Finally, after removing the empty pack saddle from the mule and setting it down, and not having a sound from her, he turned and walked to a still shaken Kate.
When he was within six feet, he said, “Kate, please sit down.”
Kate didn’t know what John was going to do, but he hadn’t ordered her to sit down, he had asked politely, so she sat.
John sat down as well and took hold of her blue eyes with his, making sure she didn’t look away.
“Kate, I need you to understand this. Keep looking into my eyes so you’ll know that I’m telling you the truth. I never hurt innocent people, but I don’t tolerate those that do. You are an innocent person, and I will never hurt you or allow anyone else to hurt you. You need to believe that for us to continue. I don’t want you to ever be afraid of me, no matter what I have to do to ensure your safety. What happened to you before is in the past now, and I will get you to your family safely. You have my promise.”
Kate let her mind travel into John’s blue eyes and saw the truth in what he was saying. For the first time, she could see the compassion and concern behind them, felt a warm blanket of security and caring
float over her and, without a doubt in her mind, knew she was safe.
After fifteen long seconds, she said quietly, “I’m sorry, John. I just didn’t understand.”
“I know you didn’t, and that’s why I had to talk to you.”
Kate hesitated before asking the next question, unsure if she even had the right to ask it.
“Why was Kevin harder than the others?” she asked softly.
John sighed. “Because what I did was close to murder. The father was getting ready to shoot me with his shotgun. The first two brothers were shooting as well, but the last one, Kevin? He had already thrown down his rifle, and was riding away. I think I know why, too.”
“Was it empty?”
“No. He had never fired a shot. When he threw it away, he was counting on my being a good man and not firing at an unarmed man. You could see it in the way he dramatically held it straight out away from himself and dropped it, so he knew I’d see it. He was gambling his life that I would just let him go back to Plum Creek. But I had to fire. I knew that when I started after him. I wish I didn’t have to do it. It would have been much less painful for me to let him run away and come back to you and ride on, but I had made that decision before they all attacked us, that none would be going back to Plum Creek. I couldn’t let him do to another woman what he did to you. It’s why I’ll have to stop Jack when we find the families. It’ll be a lot worse because he’s my brother, but I’ll have to do it.”
Kate suddenly saw the pain in his eyes and realized she had been so wrong in ever suspecting him of anything so terrible. She also realized that she had been the cause of all his anguish. If he had just ridden past and let her be, she’d be miserable still, but he’d just be happily on his way to find his family. But he hadn’t chosen the easy way, he had stayed to save her and was now taking her home. And worst of all, now he knew he’d have to kill his own brother because of what she had said.
“I wish I’d never told you that he was the one who did it.” Kate said quietly as she stared at the ground between them.
