Wes Hart — ex-soldier, ex-Texas Ranger, ex-rider with Billy the Kid. He’s tough, ruthless and slick with a .45. He’s for hire now and he isn’t cheap. In the old West, gunfighting was a trade you started early. Wes Hart killed his first man when he was still in his teens and so did John Wesley Hardin. Hardin went on to carve himself a notch in the history books, if it’s a notch you merit when you’re an outlaw with all the virtues of a renegade rattlesnake. There’s a posse of Rangers who’ve marked Hardin down for the reckoning. Riding with them is Wes Hart, the Regulator...
JOHN WESLEY HARDIN
HART THE REGULATOR 8
By John B. Harvey
First published by Pan Books in 1982
Copyright © 1982, 2015 by John B. Harvey
First Smashwords Edition: June 2015
Names, characters and incidents in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons living or dead is purely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information or storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the author, except where permitted by law.
Cover image © 2015 by Edward Martin
This is a Piccadilly Publishing Book
Series Editor: Mike Stotter ~*~ Text © Piccadilly Publishing
Published by Arrangement with the Author’s Agent.
For Cathy:
for keeping cool when it was needed most
Chapter One
High summer 1865
The sound of the riders preceded them like thunder low on the wind. There were twelve of them, white and black, spurring their horses across the swirl of Texas plain. Light filtered off the rim of eastern horizon, illuminating the motes of dust which flew like sparks above their heads.
They rode in a rough column of threes, their ragged military formation accentuated by the fact that several of the riders wore remnants of army uniform. A pair of patched blue pants with a yellow stripe down the outside of the legs; a private’s service dress jacket with only one yellow epaulette remaining, and that hanging by mere threads and flapping wildly; the green-collared and -cuffed jacket of the Irish Brigade, presently worn by a fierce-looking black with a shaven head and thick beard; three faded kepis, one of which had lost part of its peak - none of these compared to the dress of the man at the front and center of the column.
Tall and broad, he wore a black felt Hardee hat with the crown punched up so that it sloped to a point. The brim rose up steeply at one side and was held in place by a shield and eagle brass badge, the rest sagging downwards. A stunted black plume was attached to one side of the hatband, fastened inside a yellow hat cord. At the front, the crossed sabers and insignia sloped steeply to the right.
The face beneath the hat was florid and mustached, a diagonal scar running from in front of the left ear almost to the edge of the full-lipped mouth. The man’s stomach swelled out against a darned and sweat-stained red vest, over which he was wearing a dark green frock coat that had once belonged to a sergeant in G company of the First Regiment of Sharpshooters.
A civilian-issue gun belt was buckled tight round a pair of light blue pants, pushed down into high leather boots. Two holsters were attached to the belt, each containing a .36 caliber Colt Navy revolver.
A smile drifted over his face like a cloud as he saw in the middle distance the blurred outlines of the farmhouse taking shape through the shimmer of heat haze ahead.
The rider alongside, a stubble-chinned man in buckskin pants and jacket, hauled his mount close and called. ‘That her, R.G.?’
R.G. Archibald nodded his head and tasted the backbite of bile at the roof of his mouth. Sure, that was the home of that Reb bastard who’d called him a coward and a nigger-lover and reckoned he was going to get away with it on account of him being six-handed at the time and R.G. on his own. That was where the bastard lived. R.G. looked quickly over his shoulder at the line of riders. Only this time strength was all on his side.
‘Yeah,’ he yelled back, his voice barely audible above the driving sound of the horses, ‘that’s her right enough.’
~*~
Vinnie was squatting in the yard, back of the family wagon, engaged in what was almost his favorite occupation. After going hunting with his pa at first light, the two dogs running on ahead of them like ghosts through the misted grass; after watching his ma in the kitchen when she made cakes, biting down softly into her bottom lip the way she did when she was concentrating, him knowing that when she was done he’d be allowed to wipe the end of his finger round the inside of the mixing bowl; after skinny-dipping in the creek along with his sister - except that now she was growing apace, she always scolded him not to look until she was covered by the water. If he’d been asked, Vinnie would likely have said those were the things he liked doing best. And after them came keeping silent and still as he could, watching the cat stalk birds.
The cat was a small tabby his father had brought back from town when it was still small enough to sleep in his shoe. Several months old now and sleek, it was growing into a handsome animal, with white forepaws and a white smudge close to the end of its tail. In the daytime, it would sleep in the shade of the barn, rush in front of anyone who set foot outside the house and roll on to its back in order that its belly could be stroked, try to climb into the milking bucket, chase anything from straw and its own tail to Vinnie’s shadow - and do its stealthy best to catch birds.
Which was what it was doing now.
Pad, pad, pause, pad - body elongated and the button nose stretched out towards the young blackbird less than a dozen yards away.
Vinnie held his breath.
Pad, pause, pad.
A quick, silent scurry and the bird’s head ducked up, yellow beak shining, but its wings stayed down.
Vinnie tried to ignore the tightening pain in the muscles at the backs of his legs.
Pad, pad, pad.
Quicker than the boy’s eyes could clearly follow, the cat launched itself forward. There was a swirl of feathers, a piping call of alarm, a scattering cloud of dust. For a few moments it looked as though the bird might struggle free from the cat’s mouth, one black wing flapped and fanned and the cat shook its prey like a dog. Vinnie moved into a crouch, rubbing away the cramp from the back of his thigh.
The bird still shrilly piping, the cat began to trot with it towards the front door of the house.
‘Ma! The cat’s got …’
But Vinnie’s mother no longer needed telling. She was in the doorway, aproned and armed with a rolling pin.
‘Damn you for a cruel specimen!’
‘Aw, Ma!’
His mother ignored his protest and advanced slowly on the cat, showing him enough of the rolling pin to make the animal back off, its belly trailing the dust, the wing flapping less and less energetically in its face.
‘What in the Lord’s name …?’
Vinnie took a few moments to realize that his mother was no longer talking about the cat; she wasn’t even looking at it anymore, but there, back past the picket fence, out on to the plain.
‘Vinnie!’
The boy froze at the pitch of her voice.
‘Vinnie, run off an’ fetch your pa!’
He stared at her, unmoving.
‘Go on now. Do like I say!’
Vinnie stuttered into motion, his bare feet skidding on the dirt, arms flailing wide as he skittered across the yard. Startled, the cat jumped aside and the blackbird flew out of his mouth, straight into the branches of the skimpy tree past the barn end. Amazed and open-mouthed, the cat stared after it. Vinnie’s feet took him aroun
d the side of the house, clambering over the corral fence, between three horses penned inside, over the fence at the far side and past the pile of drying dung towards where his father had been working at the vegetable patch.
The man looked up as he heard his son running, straightened his back with a groan and arched it across the fingers of his right hand. He wiped the sweat from his eyes with his bare arm, smearing himself with dirt.
‘Pa!’
Vinnie’s father lifted the fork one-handed and stuck it half-tine deep in the hard earth. He could see the dust now, hear the rumble of hoofs low to the ground; he no longer needed the boy’s breathless words of warning. With haste he moved towards his son, clasping the back of his head with a caring firmness and turning him, hurrying him to the back door of the house.
Inside, he saw to his satisfaction that his wife had already bolted and barred the front door and that she was ordering their daughter, March, to close and bolt the window shutters while she saw to loading the two rifles - a long-barreled Sharps and a muzzle-loading Springfield musket - and readying the Dance Brothers copy of a .44 Colt Army that her husband had carried through the War Between the States.
For a second the eyes of husband and wife met across the low-ceilinged room, met, locked and passed on.
‘Pa!’
The man nudged his son aside, hurrying to fasten the back door. He collided with him again on his way towards the table and by this time the boy was crying, his arms by his sides, air being gulped nervously into his mouth as he stood stupidly frightened and not understanding why.
His father pulled out the wooden peg behind one of half a dozen movable slats just wide enough to allow a rifle barrel to push through and permit an eye to sight along the top. His mother went to the opposite side of the front door and did the same. Vinnie hesitated, began to run towards his elder sister, finally bit down on his lower lip, wiped at his face with his shirt tail and said as boldly as he could, ‘Who is it, Pa?’
His father didn’t move his head, didn’t answer.
‘Pa?’
‘Vinnie!’ called his mother angrily. ‘Hush up!’
The boy turned on his heels, smarting, trying to keep back the tears that were again prickling at the backs of his eyes. March went quietly to him and put an arm round his shoulder but he shrugged her off and stood defiantly away.
The man had recognized the leader of the riders by now; he had him in the sights of the Sharps, the red vest between the flapping sides of his green uniform coat. His finger grazed the trigger. One shot would, should, drop him from the saddle dead. If they were lucky they might deal with three more before the remainder, enraged, tore the place apart.
Without turning his head, he thought about his children. He thought about the scum outside, Northern trash riding with niggers, despoiling all of Texas if they could.
Reconstruction!
The word caught inside his brain like a burr.
He’d reconstruct the sons of bitches...
‘Henry,’ said his wife, her voice unnaturally husky, ‘I don’t reckon they want anything more than to cuss and fire off a few shots. Maybe run off the horses.’
‘You sayin’ we should let ’em?’
The woman glanced at her children and the man knew what she was thinking, his finger continued to hesitate on the trigger and the back of his throat went dry as drought.
‘Get out of there, you Rebel bastard!’
‘Stop hidin’ behind your woman’s skirts!’
‘Face us like a man, why don’t you?’
‘Hell, that’s easy. What we got here ain’t no man, it’s just Southern trash wearin’ pants as don’t fit.’
Guffaws of laughter swept from man to man. The black in the Irish Brigade jacket pulled a bottle of whiskey from one of his saddle bags, jerked the cork with his teeth and swallowed mouthful upon mouthful until he was gasping for breath and the liquor was running down both sides of his mouth and into the dark wire-wool of his beard.
‘Pass it here!’ called R.G. and caught the bottle with a swaggering laugh when the Negro hurled it through the air.
The plumed hat dipped back as the bottle was raised, swept down again as R.G. shouted and tossed the whiskey to another hand. So it went until the last drop had been drained and then a Mexican half-breed in a kepi lifted the empty bottle high above his head and hurled it against the thick wood of the door.
At the sound of smashing glass Vinnie cried out and turned towards his sister, who grabbed him close and shushed him against her chest.
‘Get out here, yeller-belly!’ called R.G. and a shout of impatience went up from the men with him, some of their mounts turning about and then about again.
‘I could make a hole in his head big enough to run my hand clear through,’ the father said ruefully, speaking more to himself than anybody else.
As if in answer several of the men outside pulled their pistols and fired them in the direction of the house. Shots ricocheted away from the timber harmlessly, accompanied by a holler of approval.
R. G. Archibald flicked the reins of the big chestnut and came a further ten yards forward so that he was at the entrance to the yard. He leaned back in the saddle and pointed his gloved hand towards the house.
‘Ain’t so full of sass an’ vinegar now, Mister Johnny Reb, are you? Ain’t so quick to go shootin’ off at the mouth when you ain’t got a dozen men backin’ you up. No! You’re sneakin’ around in there, pokin’ that rifle of yours through peep-holes and makin’ damn sure you don’t risk hide nor hair gettin’ hurt.’
The gloved index finger pointed towards the barrel end of the Sharps. ‘Hidin’ back of your woman’s skirts like the coward you are. Stinkin’ yeller like a cringin’ dog an’ you ain’t got the balls to come out and face me like a man. If I were you I’d be so shamed right now I wouldn’t have the guts to look any son of mine in the face.’
Several of the men back of him yelled their approval and another couple of shots were fired harmlessly into the air. From somewhere, more whiskey had appeared and was going from hand to hand, mouth to mouth.
‘Pa,’ said Vinnie, not looking directly at his father, ‘don’t let him talk to you like that.’
‘Hush your mouth, child!’ snapped his mother. And to her husband she said, ‘Henry, pay that braggart no mind.’
But the man had already heard the pain in his son’s voice and now he saw his face; his pride stung him to the quick. He pulled the barrel of the Sharps through the slit and slammed the wood back into place.
‘Henry, don’t! Don’t pay them no heed!’
She tried to block his way, but he eased her aside, lifting the thick plank from the back of the door and reaching over to slide back the bolt.
‘Henry!’
But he didn’t hear her; all he could hear was Archibald’s taunting. Stinkin’ yeller... wouldn’t have the guts to look any son of mine in the face. Without looking back, he stepped through into the yard. The strength of light made him blink. Someone ranged off to the left called a remark which he failed to hear clearly. He saw Archibald’s mouth open wide, the dark red that was the inside of his mouth, the hollering laughter.
‘Well, I’ll be damned, Reb, if you ain’t got a mite of spunk in you after all!’
Archibald shook his head, lifted the black felt hat clear and whooped it through the air. He pulled one of his pistols from his belt and shot Henry low in the chest.
The ball drove between the ribs, crashing Henry back against the door and sending it into the cabin with a vicious swing. One of Henry’s arms struck the door jamb and he bounced awkwardly out towards the yard, blood already seeping through his shirt and the top of his workpants. As he reeled uncertainly four or five other shots sank into his body, most of the men with their guns drawn now and firing indiscriminately.
Vinnie ran from the back of the cabin, his moment of frozen terror broken by the fusillade of shots. His sister lunged at him and caught only air. At the last moment his mother’s fingers
caught his shirt collar and clung fast.
‘March!’ screamed the woman. ‘The door! The door!’
But the girl’s response was too slow, too late. The mother succeeded in dragging her son back into the room, finally pushing him against the table and only then turning away, trying to bring level the musket towards the door.
A boot lashed forward and kicked the door hard against the girl, splitting her left cheek like a beak breaking just-ripe fruit. The wooden bar clattered from her hands. Almost simultaneously, the musket was knocked upwards and then wrenched from the woman’s hands. She turned and leaped at the table in one final effort to reach the handgun which lay there. Already seeing her daughter in the corner of her eye, needing to know where in the room she was so that the single shot she would have time to fire would not be wasted. Already asking her daughter’s forgiveness...
An out flung leg sent her sprawling, knuckles cracking against the floor, the breath driven out of her by the speed and force of the fall. She tried to roll over and crawl but her head spun and somewhere at its center was the scream of either a daughter or a son. Something bulked into her side, close by her kidneys and in spite of herself she was vomiting, tears blinding her eyes.
Everything was swallowed inside R.G. Archibald’s laughter, the dark red roar of his mouth: everything but the first faint smell of burning.
~*~
They saw the grey spiral of smoke, slow against the flat sky, long before the stench of burning penetrated their nostrils. Hardin reined in his mount and stood tall in the stirrups, his mouth working soundlessly. Close by him, John Wesley watched his father’s reactions, the chewing of the mouth that he recognized so clearly, the tautness of his father’s muscular body beneath the shiny black of his preacher’s suit. On their way back from the monthly circuit meeting in the sweaty, crowded tent, they had made a detour out to visit with their kin, John Wesley’s aunt and uncle and his cousins, Vinnie and March.
Now John Wesley waited, watched, already tall for his twelve years, tall and beginning to thicken out. Already, quick-tempered and as like to end an argument with a blow as not. Like the time the year before when Pat Duggan had been teasing him back of the school building about Linda. The knife had been out of his pocket and into his hand before Duggan had the sense or the time to realize he’d gone too far. John Wesley’s father had insisted on paying for the boy’s medical expenses, had wielded the strap that hung behind the scullery door until his son’s buttocks had been smeared with blood. Then he had stood over him and read from his leather-bound Bible while his wife bathed John Wesley’s behind and listened to her husband’s sonorous voice.
Hart the Regulator 8 Page 1
