by Ken Farmer
The well-matched pair of sorrel Standardbreds snorted and pawed the ground, glad to be here where they knew they’d be fed and allowed to rest.
Mary Lou and Loraine both rushed up to assist Fiona down.
“I’m all right. Ya’ll quit fussin’ over me,” Fiona said as she clambered down. “But, you can get my bags, though.”
“You’re goin’ to get fussed over whether you like it or not, Missus Flynn…You’re a mite pale, if you want to know,” said Mary Lou.
“Let’s get our horses tended to, give them a couple hours rest while they and we eat, and then head on to Jacksboro. It’s going to be an almost full moon, so should be easy traveling. Don’t like Padrino being there by himself…even if he is tough as shoe leather,” said Bone.
Mason took Fiona by the arm and led her through the gate. “But not you, my love.”
“I’m fine. Honest I am.”
“You are now, but, don’t need you havin’ to throw up if we’re in a contentious situation with the bad guys.”
“Well, I guess you do have a point,” she replied.
“You might as well come along, though, Bodie.” Mason glanced at him. “You’re already here.”
A big grin spread across his freckled face. “Wouldn’t have it any other way.”
JACKSBORO
SHERIFF’S OFFICE
Padrino fell forward, hitting his head on the corner of the door frame and bounced back to his butt on the boardwalk.
“Just as well wait, Harlan, that gal will have our grub here in a few minutes.”
“Yeah…What in hell?” He spun around drawing his Colt.
“What is it?”
“Heard somethin’. Didn’t you?”
“No.”
Harlan stepped out on the boardwalk and looked up and down the street. “Huh…Nothin’…Swear to God I heard two thumps.” He holstered his pistol and turned around.
“Probably just a armadillo under the buildin’…bumpin’ against the beams,” said Frank.
Harlan closed the door and didn’t hear Padrino roll over to his all fours and get shakily to his feet, rubbing the knot on his head. He shook it to clear the cobwebs as Emma Lou stepped up on the boardwalk from the street and opened the door.
She went inside with her tray of food for the Rudabaughs.
No one heard Padrino slip inside behind her and stand silently against the side wall. Newton padded over, cocked his head and sniffed.
Luckily no one paid him any attention. They were more interested in the wonderful smell coming from the tray.
“I’ll be back with the rest.” She turned and headed back out the still open door, followed by Newton on her heels. “Come on, I’ve got some scraps for you back at the kitchen.
The Border Collie glanced back over his shoulder at the wall one more time and trotted after her.
Frank lifted the towel off the tray to expose the two plates and their still steaming pan fried steaks, fresh turnip greens and creamed new potatoes, with a slice of buttermilk pie for desert on the side.
“Umm, umm. Dang this looks good.”
“Gotta agree with you there, brother.”
Even Padrino’s mouth watered at the smells. But he moved silently toward the door to the cells in the back and tried to look through the four by four inch hole at eye level to the inside. He could only see two cells on one side.
A young deputy was in the first with a tall rangy teenager and a skinny, older black man in the second.
“You know, we ought to put Dog and Rio up on top of the tallest roofs on each side of the street,” said Frank.
“Damn, that’s two good idees you had, Harlan.”
A few minutes later, the front door opened again and Emma Lou came back in with four trays, stacked one on another.
Harlan got to his feet and opened the door to the cell block for her. He swatted her butt as she passed him.
She turned and glared at the hardcase with venom in her eyes, but didn’t say anything.
He followed her inside and unlocked the first cell. She handed the top tray to Gomer and kissed at him, and then gave the other to Buster.
“Thanks, honey,” said Gomer.
Harlan locked it back and opened the next.
She handed the second tray to Slim Parker. “Shore thankee, Miss Emma Lou.”
“You’re welcome, Slim.” Emma Lou turned around to the cell across the hallway as Rudabough unlocked it after locking Slim’s back.
Lisanne got up from her bunk and took the last tray from her. “I really appreciate it, Emma Lou.
“Wish I could do more, Lisanne.”
“Watch your mouth girlie. Jest leave the grub and git out. Need to eat mine ‘fore it gits cold…Don’t need a bunch of yer gabbin’,” said Harlan as he locked the cell back.
Padrino had stepped just inside to see who was in the cells. He turned around and went back to the main room as Harlan and Emma Lou came out.
She went directly to the front door, but Rudabough grabbed her shapely rear before she could get there.
He laughed malevolently. “Got a nice butt, dearie.”
“Keep your hands off me.”
“Haw, I’ll make you like it ‘fore I’m through. You wait an’ see.”
Rudabaugh grabbed her shoulders and tried to kiss her, but she turned her head away. He laughed again as she opened the front door and turned back to his plate on the desk, but fell forward catching himself with his hand in his plate.
“Damn you bitch, you pushed me.”
“I did not. I am way over here by the door…You just tripped on your own clumsy feet.”
He growled. “Don’t know how you done it, you little whore, but I felt you push me. Yer gonna pay fer that.”
“You’ll have to kill me first.” She stepped through, leaving the door open behind her.
Padrino slipped through after her with a silent chuckle. He stopped. Thought for a second and went back inside.
With his .45 in his hand, he eased up behind the two men shoveling their food in. He first slapped Frank behind his head with the two point 4 pound semiautomatic, knocking his face down into his plate. Then he quickly whipped the pistol to the side, catching Harlan on top of his ear, splitting it and sending him to the floor, out cold.
“I hate rude men.”
He touched the stones on his bracelet, killing the light bending feature, reached over, got the keys off the peg behind the sheriff’s desk and headed toward the cells. Going through the door he stepped over to the steel doors and unlocked each one.
“How’d you get in here, mister?” asked Gomer.
“Magic,” replied Padrino.
“Huh, you sound like Bone.”
He grinned. “You don’t say?…Well, we could stay here all day and chitchat, but I think it would be prudent to di di mau out of here.”
“What’s di di mau, mister?” asked Lisanne.
“Vietnamese for ‘let’s hurry’…That door lead to an alley, Deputy?”
“Yes, sir,” replied Gomer.
“Know anyplace ya’ll can hide till tomorrow?”
“Yeah, up in Mom Tucker’s loft. She has the livery just next door,” he replied.
“Good…Grab what’s left of your food, get your guns out of the lock up, and scat…The Rudabaugh boys won’t be out that long, don’t think.”
“What’d you do to ‘em,” asked Slim as he retrieved his Sharps rifle and Remington, along with Gomer’s Colt and gunbelt from the cabinet.
“Gave them a little something of what they gave you, come on.”
“He, he, he, that just tickles me plumb to death.”
“Say, who are you?” asked Lisanne.
“Bone’s Godfather…go, go.”
“You comin’?” asked Gomer.
“Got other things to do before Bone and the Sheriff get here, son.”
“That gang is settin’ a trap for ‘em,” said Platt.
Padrino grinned. “I know…Gate swings both ways.�
�
He closed the door behind them, went back and peeked into the front office. The brothers were still napping.
Padrino stepped inside and over to the desk, he first pulled Harlan’s pistol, took out his K-Bar, cocked the Colt, and then knocked the firing pin out with the back edge of his blade and replaced it in the holster. Then he did the same to Frank’s.
“Surprise, boys.” He chuckled, glanced at the clock on the far wall, keyed his bracelet, disappeared again and headed to the door just as Frank was the first to begin to regain consciousness.
“Think I’d better hurry, time’s about up,” he mumbled.
Luke was coming down the boardwalk from Sewell‘s and passed right by a still Padrino who stuck his foot out, tripping the outlaw, making him fall on his face.
“Oops,” he said.
Luke rolled over and looked around for the voice. He saw nothing…
§§§
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
JACKSBORO
Padrino walked past the last town building and northeast on the Alvord road, back the way he had come in.
As he approached the Apache’s hiding spot on the north side of the road, he noticed the air around him starting to flutter. Oh, damn.
He ducked inside another of the numerous copses of cedar that dotted the countryside, next to the road, just as the air shimmered and the power unit of the bracelet expired.
The sun had not quite set, he made sure his sleeve was pulled up to his elbow, allowing the solar and cosmic ray collecting ruby-like gem in the center of the bracelet to get maximum exposure. The only difference was the manufactured collecting gem’s crystals are aligned in a single direction…natural crystals are random.
Should have asked Lucy how long it takes to recharge after completely draining it. Time to be a Marine.
He cut one of the low-growing bushes that grew among the prairie grasses off at the ground with his K-Bar, and watching the Apache, he waited until he looked in the direction of the creek and belly crawled toward another grove of cedars further back from the road—and then paused when he looked back to town in Padrino’s general direction.
Crawl, pause—all the time keeping the cut brush between him and the Indian—crawl, pause. He chuckled quietly. The Marines got this trick from them…thank you. Used it in ‘Nam’ a lot when I was sniping.
It took him well past sunset to get several hundred yards behind the Apache where he felt it was safe to rise up to a crouch and run from copse to copse of the evergreen trees. In this manner, he was able to circle around the Indian, and then head toward his camp.
Once at the creek, he turned back to the south inside the tree line and to the road. He crossed over the wooden bridge which was well out of sight of the Apache’s post.
It didn’t take Padrino long to cover the four hundred yards from the road to where his campsite was.
He checked on his horse and moved its picket stake to another spot with fresh graze, then walked back the ten yards to the camp. Finding a spot with a couple of large rocks on the north side, he knelt down and dug an eighteen inch wide hole, ten inches deep with his K-Bar, at the base of the biggest rock.
Gathering some deadfall, driftwood and blowdown, he stripped some bark from a large limb of cottonwood and peeled the xylem and phloem from the inside. He rubbed it between his palms until it was a brown powder and piled it on top of a six inch wide, thin, flat rock he had found and placed in the bottom of the pit to help hold and reflect the heat.
Five minutes later, after he had built his teepee of kindling over the punk and lit it—he had a fire. He was careful to lay only dry wood on top of the blaze to keep the smoke to a minimum. The overhanging branches of a large evergreen holly tree would disburse what smoke there was, plus the wind was still from the north and away from the road.
Padrino stepped down to the clear, rock-bottomed creek, filled his pot, went back to his fire and set it down on another of the flat rocks, now surrounding the pit. He grabbed a handful of ground coffee from the bag that Mary Lou had included in his supplies, and put it in the pot with the water.
He laid a slab of fatback on another rock and cut some thick slices and placed them in his small skillet close to the flames. The smell of frying bacon was enough to make his mouth water.
Padrino dug a can of pork and beans from his ruck, cut the top out with the John Wayne can opener he still had from the Corps, and set it next to the fire to warm.
“Dang, that fatback looks good…Not like in our time when they pump it full of water and chemicals to cure it,” he muttered.
He smelled the slab before he wrapped it back up in the oiled butcher paper and put it in his pack. “Hickory smoke cured, um-um.”
He glanced to the north northwest as a small, soft flash of light in the darkening skies at the horizon, caught his eye.
“Uh-oh…Cold front.”
An hour had passed, Padrino finished his supper, and was leaning back against his saddle, having another cup of coffee.
“Hope you have some more of that coffee,” came a voice from the darkness.
“Do,” Padrino replied without looking up. “About given ya’ll up for lost.”
“Had to stop several times for Loraine to drain her lilly.”
“Damn you, Bone…You had to go too.”
Padrino heard the smack of a hand on flesh followed by a giggle, and then saw the giant frame enter into the firelight leading his big, black, Friesian, Thoroughbred gelding, Hildebrandt.
“Figured you would come to this spot,” said Bone.
“Yeah, thought you’d remember we fished it a couple years back in our time…Good fishin’ hole…Don’t bring those animals into camp, unless they’re house broke. Take them to the south about ten more yards to that grassy patch where my roan is staked out.”
“Least we don’t have to haul our tack a half a mile back to camp,” said Bone.
“My momma didn’t raise a fool,” Padrino replied with a grin.
In a couple of moments, Bone and the others stepped into camp with their gear and threw it down where they wanted their beds to be.
Padrino finally got to his feet and he and Bone hugged, then he hugged Loraine and kissed her on the cheek.
“Well, I’m really glad to see ya’ll. Thought you might have gone to never-never land until St. John got through to you on your cell.”
“That was the damnedest thing…There we were at our wedding reception and I get a butt call from the future…My Captain, no less.”
Padrino grinned again and turned to Mason.
“Let me introduce Sheriff Mason Flynn and Texas Ranger Bodie Hickman,” said Bone.
“Sheriff, Ranger, happy to meet ya’ll…Coffee’s hot. Fill your cups and I’ll brew up some more…Hungry?”
“We ate before we left my sister’s, thanks…So, what’s the story?” Mason asked as he filled Loraine’s cup, Bodie’s, Bone’s, and then his.
“Ya’ll find a piece of ground to park and I’ll bring you up to date,” said Padrino.
Twenty minutes later and another pot of coffee, he finished, “That’s pretty well the long and short of it…Got your deputy, the young lady and her two hired hands out of the jail. They went next door to Mom’s and are hiding out in her loft…Got the impression the gang wanted to do something bad to the black man…like burn him.”
“Slim’s actually the one that killed the youngest. Shot him at range with his Sharps…Put a hole in him you could drive a wagon through.” Flynn took a sip of the dark trail brew.
“Should be safe in Mom’s loft,” he added as he started pacing back and forth in front of the fire. “The Rudabaugh boys and ten others…damnation. Well, least we know what we’re up against.”
“Praemonitus, praemunitus, they always say,” added Padrino.
“Which means?” asked Bodie.
“The original Latin for ‘forewarned is forearmed’.” His eye caught another flash of light to the north northwest—closer this time.
> “Think we got a front coming, better get out your slickers,” Padrino said.
“Shouldn’t be necessary. Ya’ll get your traps and follow me with the horses…Know of a cave about a hundred yards or so from here.” Mason grinned. “This is my county, after all.”
“Good idea, it is December, could be a sleet or snow storm…or both,” said Padrino.
“Joy,” said Loraine as she picked her saddle and bedroll back up. “Lead on, sir.” She looked at Mason.
Padrino kicked dirt on his hat-sized fire, slipped the ruck over his shoulders and grabbed his gear.
The other four followed Mason through the moonlit darkness, picked up the horses and took them down to the branch to let them drink. They also filled their canteens, as the night sounds of frogs, crickets, night birds, and owls cranked up, and then headed to the cave.
The limestone cave was just big enough to house the stock in the back and allow for a small fire in the front with their bedrolls. The opening faced east, so that would preclude the wind from blowing whatever was in the front, coming from the northwest, inside.
They ground-tied their horses and spread their bedrolls about. Bone and Loraine put theirs close together.
“I’ll get us a little fire goin’, may need some hot coffee in a bit…Could get right chilly, too.”
“I’ll help you gather some firewood, Bodie,” said Mason.
Padrino, Bone and Loraine built a firepit with rocks just inside the entrance.
“You haven’t said how you got here, Padrino,” commented Bone.
“Pretty much the same as ya’ll, I would imagine…We figured out the location when the Palo Pinto Sheriff’s Department found your Thing…I saw the portal symbol petroglyph on the side wall.
“So, when the moon was full two days ago…and it was a Super Blood Wolf moon, at that…I took that moldivite crystal I showed the two of you one time that I had gotten from a Navajo Shaman, went into a zen trance inside that cave when the moon came up, and then when I came out…I was here.”
He chuckled. “Then Lucy reached out when she felt me…Shook me to my core, I don’t mind tellin’ you. She already knew about me…”
