The Western Justice Trilogy

by Gilbert, Morris

  Sabrina was interested in the workings of the man’s face. She saw at once that he was interested and said quickly, “I’ll also be willing to pay you to help me. My father has means, and we can pay almost any fee.”

  Waco was quiet, and finally Crawford said, “What’s the matter? Don’t you like the deal?”

  “Not that. I just can’t believe it.”

  Silas spoke up. “It’s true enough, son. You’ve had some jolts along the way, but this woman’s the real goods. We checked into her family. You do what Judge Parker and Warden Crawford ask you to do, and you can get a new start.”

  “Well,” Waco said, sighing deeply, “I can use a new start. Sure, I’ll do it, Miss Warren. Can’t guarantee anything, you understand. LeBeau’s a tough hairpin.”

  “Well, one man doesn’t seem like enough,” Sabrina said.

  “It won’t be one man. You’re gonna have three men,” Silas spoke up. “I’m going along and so is that Indian that saved your life, Gray Wolf. He can track a buzzard over the desert floor. I swan he can. We’ll be going along so that’ll give us three guns. Maybe pick up some more.”

  “The odds are still against us. He’s got a rough bunch, Miss Warren,” Waco said. “I’ve met most of ’em, all killers, and they might not be as nice to you as the Denver brothers. Might not be enough to just rob you.”

  “I’m going along, Waco, so don’t argue with me.”

  “Just sayin’.” Waco closed his mouth and nodded. “I’ll take the deal, Marshal.”

  “Good. I’m releasing you right now. Go get changed into some decent clothes.”

  “I don’t have any.”

  “Well, we’ll find you some. You can’t go looking like a tramp.”

  “Thank you, Warden.”

  Sabrina smiled, went over to the warden, and offered her hand, which Crawford rose hastily and took. “I wish the good Lord to help you.”

  “That’s kind of you. I’ll thank Judge Parker when I see him.”

  “We brought a buggy, so I guess we’ll take him back.”

  “Might be best.”

  CHAPTER 15

  “You think you’ll be able to get along with that woman, Waco?” Silas asked. He had come to the general store and found Waco buying supplies.

  The tall man turned to him and grinned suddenly, which made him look much younger. “No, I don’t reckon I can—and I don’t reckon anybody else can.”

  Silas could not contain his smile. “Well, you read her about like I do. She’s had her own way pretty much. Comes from a rich family. Her parents probably spoiled her to death. I been tryin’ to talk her out of this fool notion she’s got of traipsin’ around the Territory.”

  “So have I, but she’s stubborn as a blue-nosed mule, Silas.” Waco shook his head and looked up at the ceiling for a moment. His face was relaxed, and he was silent, staring at a hornet’s nest that was built in the ceiling. “We had a hornet’s nest in Grandpa’s house where I grew up. I offered to get rid of it for Grandma. She said, ‘No, let ’em alone. They catch flies.’ I never did get to feeling easy around hornets though.” Taking a deep breath, he said, “I’m gonna have one more try at talking some sense into her, but don’t hold your breath.”

  “Well, we need more men. Just me and Gray Wolf ain’t gonna be enough, even with you along.”

  “I talked to Judge Parker about that. He’s pretty stubborn. He said he won’t have any more men for at least six months. Not enough to send a band out to get LeBeau.”

  Silas studied the tall man carefully. “You ever meet LeBeau?”

  Something crossed Waco’s face. It brought a tension, and his eyelids half dropped as if he were staring at a specimen that he didn’t particularly care for. He reached up and ran his hand through his black hair and said briefly, “I’ve met him.”

  “You didn’t take to him, I guess.”

  “No, I didn’t. I owe Mr. LeBeau something. It wasn’t only to help Miss Warren get her sister back. I’ve been promising myself when I got out of prison to pay LeBeau a visit. I figure he owes me something. I’m gonna take it out of his hide.”

  “Men have tried that before and didn’t make it. He’s quick with a gun. Quick as a snake they say, and no more feelings in him than a snake either. He’d be a good one to decorate Judge Parker’s gallows. Let Maledon have a hand at him. He could break his neck with one of them big knots of his.”

  “That’d suit me fine,” Waco said flatly. “Here. Finish getting this list together, but watch it. I figure we’d take a light wagon. Don’t know how long we’ll be gone. Won’t have time to run down to buy groceries every day.”

  Silas took the list and shrugged. “Well, go have a shot at it, boy. Maybe you’ll have luck.”

  Waco left the general store and walked down the main street of Fort Smith. It was a busy day. The streets were crowded with wagons of all sizes, buggies, horsemen, and mule trains. The sounds of voices filled the air, some acrimonious and angry and others laughing. Getting to the hotel, he turned in and went to the desk. “I need to see Miss Warren.”

  “Well, she’s upstairs.”

  Waco got the room number and walked up the stairs. When he got to the door with the number he was seeking, he knocked, perhaps harder than he had intended.

  The door opened, and Sabrina Warren stood facing him. “What is it, Waco?”

  “Can I talk to you?”

  “I don’t see any point in it, but come on in if you must.”

  Waco came in, took his hat off, and turned to face her. “I am gonna make one more try to talk you out of going on this hunt, Miss Warren. It’s not like you think it’ll be.”

  “I’m a good rider. I’ve been riding since I was twelve years old.”

  “I’m sure that’s true, and I admire that in a woman, but there are other things besides riding a horse. It’s gonna be a hard trip, and when the marshals go out it wears them down, and they’re about the toughest men on earth.”

  Sabrina shook her head. “I’m not going to argue about this. We’ve settled on a price. I’m going, and you can just move on out now and let me get some sleep.”

  Waco, for a moment, seemed inclined to argue, but he saw the hopelessness of it. He stood for a moment staring at her, wondering what it would take to break her spirit down. He knew that there was a pride in this woman that could sweep her violently and set off a blaze in her eyes. He had already seen it more than once. He, more or less, admired the fire in Sabrina. It brought out the rich, headlong qualities of a spirit otherwise hidden behind the cool reserve of her lips. She had an enormous certainty in her, a positive will, and if things had been different, Waco felt he could have been drawn to her. But he had a job to do and he was not interested.

  “We’ll be leaving early.” He turned without waiting for a word, stepped outside, and shut the door. He put his hat on, walked downstairs, and crossed down the street until he found Silas making the last purchases. “Well, that ought to be enough, Silas,” Waco said. “It looks like we’re going on a vacation instead of a manhunt.”

  “Never know how these things will turn out. We might be out there two months just huntin’ for LeBeau. He’s harder to find than a flea on a long-haired dog.”

  “You got that right. All right. We’ll pull out real early.”

  “Gray Wolf is movin’ around town here. I’ll see if I can find him. We’ll be ready when you say, Waco.”

  A voice broke into Sabrina’s sleep, and at first she did not know where she was and thought perhaps she was home again with her father speaking to her.

  And then the voice spoke again. “Time to get up, Miss Warren.”

  Instantly Sabrina sat up, all ideas of sleep gone. Moonlight filtered through the window, and she saw the tall form of Waco Smith standing beside her bed.

  “What are you doing in my room?”

  “You told me to get you up when it was time to leave.”

  “Can’t be time to leave. I haven’t slept more than a couple of hours.”<
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  “Well, we’re leavin’. If you want to stay and sleep, that would probably be a good idea.”

  “You get out of my room!”

  “Are you goin’?”

  “I’ll be there. Give me time to get dressed, and don’t you ever come in my room again!” Sabrina waited until the door closed behind Waco, and then she leaped out of bed and began dressing. She was angry that he had intruded her privacy. “He’s a beast! No more manners than a grizzly bear!” she muttered. She dressed, got her personal things in a small canvas bag, and went downstairs. She was hungry but knew that the restaurant would not be open.

  The three men were standing beside the wagon, three horses tied to the back. “Well, you ready to go this nice, cheerful morning?” Silas asked.

  Sabrina still felt the gritty sensation in her eyes that came from a sleep interrupted. “Why are we leaving at this ungodly hour? What time is it?”

  Waco answered her. “It’s about two o’clock, I reckon. I got a lead on LeBeau and his bunch. We’re gonna go check it out. May be a false alarm. You could just stay in town here, and when we find out if it’s true or not we’ll come back for you.”

  “No, I’m going, and I don’t want to hear anything else about it.”

  “Well, all right. Get on board then.” He climbed up into the driver’s seat of the light wagon.

  Sabrina scrambled to get into place, tossing her bag in the back. She saw the wagon was filled with supplies, including extra rifles.

  “Be mighty nice if you stay here and rest up,” Waco suggested.

  She did not answer him. She knew he was trying to discourage her, but she was determined not to complain.

  The trip was harder than Sabrina had planned. She wished she had brought a pillow or a pad, for the hard seat paddled her rear. She was sore before they had ridden for an hour. The road was nonexistent, nothing but potholes and ruts throwing her from one side to the other. Once she was thrown over against Waco.

  He grinned and put his arm out. “Maybe I’d better hold you in before you get thrown out, boss.”

  “Take your hands off me!”

  “Just tryin’ to be a help,” Waco said.

  Turning, she looked back and saw that Silas was practically asleep in the saddle. “It’s cruel of you to make an old man like that keep a schedule like this.”

  “I didn’t invite him, boss. I told him it would be rough, and he said he’d been on rough hunts before. Tell you what. I could let Gray Wolf take you and him back, and then he could come back and meet me. We could go on this hunt then. You two can wait, and I’d come and get you in time for you to watch me kill LeBeau.”

  “Kill him?” Sabrina bounced in the seat and grabbed to hold on. When she turned to face him, her eyes were large with shock. “What do you mean kill him?”

  Waco turned and looked at her with surprise. “Why, I thought you knew that. He won’t be taken, Miss Warren. He’d rather take a bullet than hang.” He saw the truth sinking in and realized that this was the first time that she had thought that far ahead. “What did you think would happen when we caught him? What was your plan to take care of him?”

  “Why, to capture him and take him into Fort Smith. He could go to trial in Judge Parker’s court. He’d pay for kidnapping.”

  “He’s got a lot more than kidnapping to pay for,” Waco said. “He’s killed four men that I know of. Two of them in a robbery where he’s been identified. There’s been a paper out on him a couple of years now. None of the marshals have been able to catch him.”

  “All I want to do is get my sister back.”

  “You think all you have to do is face Trey LeBeau and say, ‘Mr. LeBeau, would you please give me my sister back?’ Nothing like that is going to happen.”

  “He might. I’ll offer him money.”

  “You could offer it if he gave you a chance to talk. But when he sees me he might start shooting.”

  “Why would he do that?”

  “Because we didn’t part on the best of terms. I owe Mr. LeBeau something.”

  “You’re not hired for that. I would just ask him to give me my sister back.”

  “You might as well ask a hungry wolf to give up his dinner.” He slapped the lines on the team and they sped up.

  Sabrina noticed that his eyes were never still. He looked from point to point and each side constantly. She had seen Gray Wolf do the same thing and even Silas. They were men on edge. She realized she was in a world that she had never imagined.

  Finally Waco said, “These men are killers, boss. They’d think no more of killing a human being than killing a deer.”

  The day wore on, and finally, when it was just before dark, they pulled up beside a small stream that Gray Wolf knew about. It was all Sabrina could do to climb out of the wagon. She felt like she had been beaten with a flat board, her muscles were so sore. She had missed practically an entire night’s sleep and now she was so groggy she staggered when she hit the ground.

  She leaned up against the wagon and watched the men quickly and efficiently go to work. Gray Wolf gathered up some sticks and built the fire, adding dry wood to it that he found from a fallen tree. Silas was busy with the supplies, getting out some food to be cooked.

  It was only half an hour later that she was offered a pancake in a tin plate. “I make the best pancakes in Fort Smith. Better than the restaurants,” Silas said. “Try these, missy.”

  All of them had pancakes, and Silas suddenly said, “I reckon we’d better ask a blessing on this food.”

  Sabrina was watching Waco and saw a smile turn his lips upward. “My cellmate at the prison in Yuma always said thanks over the meals. Personally, I didn’t think some of ’em were worth thankin’ anybody for, but he was real faithful.”

  “Well, he was a child of God, I take it,” Silas said.

  “That’s what he said.”

  “Did he try to make one out of you?” Sabrina asked.

  “He tried, but it was a hopeless task.”

  “Let’s eat these pancakes. I brought some sorghum molasses to make ’em sweet.”

  They all sat around eating pancakes and eating the bacon that Gray Wolf had fried, and when they were through, they washed their tin plates in the small stream that was fed by a spring.

  “I’m gonna hit the sack. I’m plumb played out,” Silas said. He got up and limped over to the wagon, pulled a blanket out, moved away, and rolled up in it. He seemed to go to sleep almost instantly.

  Gray Wolf watched him and said, “He is one tired man.”

  Silence reigned for a time, until Waco looked to Gray Wolf, who stood peering out in the night, and said, “Why’d you leave your tribe, Gray Wolf? You never told me.”

  The Indian turned and gazed down at the two of them, who were still seated on a log. “I was too pretty. The squaws wouldn’t leave me alone.”

  Waco suddenly grinned and winked at Sabrina. “Well, I’ve had that problem myself.”

  Suddenly Gray Wolf turned and loped out into the darkness. He was soon hidden, and Waco said, “That’s an Indian for you. That’s what they like. Prowling around looking for something to shoot or skin or scalp.”

  “But he’s a Christian Indian.”

  “Well, that may be so. Gray Wolf’s a Christian, I think, but he’d kill his enemies quick enough. Mission school can’t take that out of him.”

  Overhead the stars began to come out in a magnificent fashion. Sabrina noticed that Waco was looking up at them and asked, “What did you do to get yourself put in prison, Waco?”

  He turned to face her, and a serious expression swept across his face. “A woman put me there, boss. I guess that’s why I don’t put too much stock in the breed. They always get a man in trouble.”

  Sabrina stared at him. “Did you—did you kill her?”

  “No, I didn’t kill her. I might have, but I didn’t have a chance.”

  “Well, how did she get you put in prison?”

  “I had a friend… or at least a man I
thought was my friend. I left town for a while. When I came back, my friend and my woman were gone. Took everything I had. Left me with nothing. A thing like that takes the strength out of a man. I didn’t care what I did, so I got into trouble. Got in with a bad bunch. I was charged with train robbery. Lucky I didn’t get charged with murder. Came near to gettin’ killed.”

  “One woman hurt you, and now you hate all women?”

  “Tells the story completely,” he said, allowing admiration to shade his tone. Then he asked, “You married?”

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  “That’s none of your business.”

  Waco leaned back and stared at her. “Might be.” The solid moon was bright, and the flaws on it were obvious. “Why boss, we might fall in love just like in the romance books. You’ve read them stories. Rich, beautiful city girl falls in love with a handsome outlaw; then she makes a man out of him. Then they get married and live happily ever after.”

  “That’s something in a book. That’ll never happen, especially not with you and me.”

  “Just a minute.” He got up, walked over to where she had put her blanket down on the ground, picked it up, and shook it.

  “Why’d you do that?” Sabrina demanded.

  “Well, to get rid of scorpions or rattlesnakes.”

  His words sobered Sabrina, and she looked fearfully at the blanket. “Do—do they get into a bed?”

  “Pretty often. Some fellows believe if you put a rope in a circle around a campfire, snakes won’t cross it.”

  “Does that work, Waco?”

  “Nope.” His answer did not cheer her up. He came over and handed her the blanket, and as she reached her hand out to take it, he held on to it. “You should be scared right now, boss.”

  “Why?”

  “Snakes and scorpions aren’t as dangerous to you as a man like me.”

  Instantly Sabrina grew angry. “I’m not afraid of you!”

  Waco stepped a little closer, still holding the blanket. He could see the fear in her eyes and said so. “Yes, you are, boss. I can see it in your eyes.” He reached out with his free hand and held her by the forearm. “You need to learn to be afraid of things, Sabrina Warren.”