Violence of the Mountain Man

by Johnstone, William W.

  “You should have seen her, Mr. Jensen,” Lucy said. “She poked some cloth into the jail cell door, then managed to get it open. Your wife is wonderful.”

  “You’ll get no argument from me on that,” Smoke said. “Sally, why don’t you take Lucy on home?” Smoke said. “We’ll take care of Van Arndt.”

  “I’m not leaving,” Sally said. “Smoke, I watched that son of a bitch kill Carlos and Maria, right in front of my eyes. I intend to be there when he pays the price.”

  “All right, I know you better than to try and argue you out of something once your mind is made up. Pearlie, it looks like you are going to have to take Lucy home.”

  “Smoke, I—” Pearlie started to protest, but Laney interrupted him.

  “If you trust me to do it, I’ll take her home,” Laney said. “I couldn’t stand by and let you folks be murdered, but this ain’t my fight, so I don’t intend to take part in it.”

  “You don’t have to take part in it,” Smoke said. “Like I said, I appreciate you bringing us word. Lucy, why don’t you go along with the deputy?”

  “I’m not going anywhere,” Lucy said. “I’m staying right here with the rest of you.”

  “No, I don’t think so, Lucy,” Pearlie said. “Smoke is right. You need to get out of here.”

  “No,” Lucy said.

  “Miss, if it’s because you don’t trust me, I can understand that,” Laney said. “But I swear to you, I mean only to help.”

  “It isn’t that,” Lucy said.

  “Then what is it?” Pearlie asked.

  “Pearlie, would you want to be married to someone who is such a coward that she would run out on her friends?”

  “What?” Pearlie asked. “What did you say?”

  “They are my friends, aren’t they? Sally, Smoke, and Cal? Would you really want me to run out on them?”

  “No,” Pearlie said. “I’m not talking about that part. I’m talking about the married part.”

  Lucy smiled. “Well, would you want to marry such a person?”

  “Are you saying—Lucy—are you saying you would marry me?” Pearlie asked.

  “Well, I don’t know. I haven’t been asked yet,” Lucy replied.

  “Yes, yes,” Pearlie said. “Uh—that is, I mean—well, I hadn’t planned on asking you in front of everybody like this but—will you marry me?”

  “I’ll marry you on one condition,” Lucy said.

  “What is that?”

  “That you don’t make me run out on my friends. After all, I have a personal bone to pick with him.”

  Pearlie looked at Smoke.

  “What should I do, Smoke?”

  Smoke laughed. “Don’t ask me,” he said. “You saw how much success I had in telling Sally she couldn’t stay.”

  “Yeah, I saw that,” Pearlie said. He looked back at Lucy. “All right, you can stay,” he said. “But you do exactly as I tell you to do, do you hear me? Exactly what I tell you to do.”

  “Yes, dear,” Lucy said.

  Smoke looked up at Laney. “Well, Deputy, it looks like we won’t be needing you after all. I expect you’d better be getting on now, while the getting is good.”

  Laney nodded. “I expect you are right,” he said. “I wish you folks good luck.”

  “Thanks.”

  Behind Smoke, the horizon showed a thin line of gray. In half an hour, it would be light enough to see. During the night, they had heard the sounds of several horses and men, so they knew that Van Arndt and his men had arrived and were setting up an ambush. Now, by the gray light of early morning, they could see that Van Arndt, Craig, Keno, and at least seven more men were in position in the rocks on each side of the pass. They would have been ideally situated to spring an ambush when Smoke came through had Laney not warned Smoke of the possibility.

  But Smoke and the others were ready for Van Arndt. They were just inside the pass, in covered positions ready to commence the operation when the time was right. Sally, who was also armed, was right beside Smoke. Looking to his left, he saw that Lucy, who was not armed, was with Pearlie, but well down behind the rock so as to be out of any line of fire. Cal was just beyond Pearlie.

  Smoke heard Van Arndt’s voice floating up from below.

  “Coleman, Miller, you boys get over there,” Van Arndt called out. “When they come through the pass, wait until I give the word. Then, start blasting away. I want Jensen and everyone with him killed.”

  “He might have them two women with him,” someone called back. “What do we do about them?”

  “Didn’t you hear what I said? I don’t care who he has with them, I want ’em all killed,” Van Arndt said.

  “Craig, you didn’t say nothin’ ’bout killin’ no women. That don’t seem right to me.”

  “Would an extra fifty dollars make it seem right to you?” Van Arndt asked.

  “An extra fifty? Yeah, hell, yeah. For an extra fifty dollars I’d kill my own sister.”

  “Hell, your sister don’t count none, Coleman, she’s a whore,” someone else said.

  “Don’t make no never mind, whore or not, she’s still my sister, and I’d still kill her for fifty dollars,” Coleman said.

  The others laughed.

  “You people keep quiet,” Van Arndt shouted. “And keep your eyes peeled.”

  Smoke saw Van Arndt come down to stand just at the edge of the little rocky ridge that marked the end of the pass. He stood there for a moment, staring in the direction from which he believed Smoke and the others would come.

  Quietly, Smoke jacked a round into the chamber of his rifle, then drew a bead on Van Arndt’s chest. He could drop him from this distance, and Van Arndt would never know what hit him.

  Smoke lowered his rifle.

  “Why didn’t you shoot?” Sally asked.

  “It’s not a very sporting way to kill a man,” Smoke replied.

  “If you won’t do it, I will,” Sally said. “How sporting is it for a man to shoot a nine-year-old girl in the head from one foot away? Remember, I saw that son of a bitch do that very thing.”

  Smoked nodded, and sighed. “You’re right,” he said. He raised his rifle again, but when he looked back, the target of opportunity was gone. Van Arndt had stepped back behind the saddle of rocks.

  “I’m sorry,” Smoke said. “But I promise you, he will not get out of here alive.”

  Sally reached over and gave Smoke’s arm an affectionate squeeze. “Bless Maria’s little heart,” Sally said. “I’ve been too furious with Van Arndt to even grieve properly. But I will grieve when all this is over. I have promised myself that.”

  Nearby, Cal tried to change positions and when he did, he dislodged a rock and lost his footing. As a result, he began to slide down the side of the little hill, managing to stop himself before he actually fell to the floor below.

  Cal stopped his fall, but he was now in full sight, and he started scrambling, trying to climb back up to the relative safety of the rocks.

  “What the hell was that?” a voice asked, drifting up from the area where Van Arndt had set up his ambush.

  “Up there!” someone shouted. “There’s someone trying to crawl up the side of the hill.”

  “That’s Cal!” Keno’s voice shouted. “He’s one of Jensen’s men. Shoot him! Shoot the son of a bitch!”

  Several of Van Arndt’s men opened fire then and the bullets started snapping by, hitting rocks and singing as they ricocheted through the narrow confines of the pass. Many of them kicked up dirt and sand all around Cal, but he managed to get back behind the rocks before any of them hit him.

  Although the position Smoke and the others had chosen had been well selected to engage Van Arndt’s men if they had entered the pass, it was not particularly well situated for what was happening now. Smoke’s position had been detected, and whereas Van Arndt’s men had a broad plain upon which they could maneuver, Smoke and the others had no such opportunity. As a result, the advantage fell quickly to Van Arndt.

  Had eith
er Van Arndt or Craig the slightest experience with military tactics, they would have realized the superiority of their position and stayed put, all the while maintaining a steady volume of fire designed to keep Smoke at a disadvantage. But tactics was not a strong point of either brother, and growing anxious, they started trying to improve their position.

  “Miller, move up on the left!” Van Arndt ordered. “Billings, you go up the right side! The rest of you boys, cover them! Keep firing!”

  Miller was first one to move out and, firing a couple of shots from his pistol, he darted from one rock to another, thus moving closer. Billings moved up on the right side.

  “Ha! It was easy!” Miller shouted. “Coleman, Deekus, Agnew, come on up!”

  When the other three committed themselves, Smoke shouted to Pearlie and Cal.

  “Now!” he said.

  Smoke, Sally, Pearlie, and Cal opened fire and, with the first broadside, Coleman, Deekus, and Agnew went down.

  “Damn,” Pearlie said. “I wonder which one of them we shot twice.”

  Cal laughed.

  Smoke began shooting at the rock where he saw Miller take cover. He knew he couldn’t hit him from where he was, but he could get close enough to make Miller very uncomfortable.

  “Ahh!” Miller shouted. “Craig, get us out of here!”

  “Stay where you are!” Craig called up to him.

  For the next few minutes, all was quiet. Then, somehow, Billings managed to improve his position so he could take a shot. His bullet came so close to Smoke that it kicked sand into his face. Smoke moved around to return fire, but it wasn’t necessary because Cal brought Billings down with one shot.

  “Harlan,” Van Arndt said. “How well do you know this pass?”

  “I’ve come through it a lot of times,” Craig said.

  Van Arndt pointed. “You think we could get above them if we went up that way?”

  Craig smiled, and nodded. “Yeah,” he said. “Yeah, we could. But we’ll need to keep someone down here to keep them busy.”

  “I’ll stay,” Boswell said.

  “Good enough,” Van Arndt said. He looked at the others. “Let’s go.”

  Boswell watched the four of them leave. Then he started shooting up toward Jensen.

  “Hey, Miller!” Boswell called. “Miller, you still alive?”

  “Yeah,” Miller called back down.

  “Then start shootin’!” Boswell shouted. “I ain’t doin’ this alone.”

  Boswell punctuated his shout with another shot from his rifle, and Miller started shooting as well.

  For the next few minutes, the shooting continued. Then Smoke saw someone raise up to improve his position and when he did, Smoke snapped off a quick shot. He saw a little spray of blood fly out from the top of his target’s head; then the man fell forward.

  “That one is Boswell,” Sally said.

  At that moment, Miller stood up and raised his hands. “Don’t shoot, don’t shoot no more!” he shouted. “I give up!”

  Pearlie raised his rifle.

  “No,” Lucy said, putting her hand on Pearlie’s shoulder. “He wasn’t one of them.”

  “Don’t shoot, don’t shoot!” Miller shouted again.

  “Get out of here then,” Pearlie yelled. “Go on, get!”

  Miller turned to run.

  “Leave your rifle and drop your gunbelt!” Smoke called.

  Miller did as ordered, then ran down the hill from where he had taken position, and on out through the end of the pass.

  “Smoke, where are the others, do you see them?” Cal called.

  At that moment, Van Arndt, Craig, Jeeter, and Keno stood up on a rock above and behind them. The four men were less than one hundred feet away, and had put themselves in perfect position to shoot Smoke and the others in the back. No doubt they would have done so, had Sally not seen the barest flicker of a shadow and turned, just as the four were raising their rifles.

  “Smoke, behind us!” Sally shouted.

  Smoke, Pearlie, and Cal spun around, even as the four men above them began shooting.

  For the next ten seconds, the narrow pass echoed and reechoed with the sound of gunfire as guns blazed and bullets flew. Craig and Jeeter were the first two to go down; then two bullets hit Van Arndt in his forehead, fired from the pistols of Smoke and Sally. For just a moment, the blood was bright red on the white skin; then Van Arndt fell forward and slid the rest of the way down.

  Amazingly, Keno had not been hit, and he suddenly dropped his gun and threw up his hands.

  “No!” he shouted. “No, don’t shoot, don’t shoot!”

  Smoke, Sally, Pearlie, and Cal held their fire.

  “Keno, I hope you know this isn’t buying you anything,” Smoke said. “We’re taking you back to hang.”

  “I didn’t kill nobody. It was Van Arndt that done it,” Keno said.

  “I don’t care whether you killed anyone or not, you’re going to hang,” Smoke said. “Come on down here.”

  “I’m comin’, I’m comin’,” Keno said, still holding his hands in the air. He started climbing down, then had to turn around and lean forward to grab onto a rock in order to be able to come down from a high ledge.

  “Is anyone left down there?” Pearlie asked.

  “I don’t think so,” Cal replied as he and Pearlie both looked back down the trail to make certain everyone was accounted for.

  As it happened, Lucy was the only one who saw the gun. When Keno reached down to improve his hold, the pistol Van Arndt had dropped was right there in front of him. Keno grabbed the pistol, then spun around.

  “No!” Lucy shouted, and she jumped in front of Pearlie just as Keno fired. The bullet struck her in the chest.

  “No!” Pearlie screamed, the guttural shout a cross between an anguished cry and a roar of rage.

  Pearlie’s first shot hit Keno in the arm, causing him to drop his gun. Then Pearlie shot Keno in the other arm, then in both knees. Keno went down, screaming in agony.

  Pearlie shot off each of his ears, then pointed the pistol at Keno’s face and fired, putting a hole right between Keno’s eyes. Pearlie pulled the trigger three more times, but the hammer fell on empty cartridges.

  It didn’t matter.

  Keno was dead.

  Pearlie spun around then, and dropped to the ground beside Lucy. With each breath Lucy drew, blood frothed at her mouth. The bullet had hit her in the lungs and she was dying right before Pearlie’s eyes.

  “Lucy, Lucy, why did you jump out like that?” Pearlie asked.

  “He would have killed you,” Lucy said. “I couldn’t let him kill you.”

  “Lucy, oh, my God, Lucy,” Pearlie said. Sitting on the ground beside her, he cradled her head in his lap.

  “I only wish that we could have been married,” Lucy said.

  “You can be,” Sally said. “Smoke, marry them.”

  “I don’t have a Bible, I don’t have a book, I don’t—” Smoke started to say.

  “For God’s sake, Smoke, just do it!” Sally said. “You’ve been married twice now, you know what to say.”

  “Lucy?” Smoke said. “Do you want me to do this?”

  “Yes, please,” Lucy said, taking Pearlie’s hand in hers and squeezing it hard. “Please marry us.”

  “All right,” Smoke said. “Pearlie, do you take this woman, Lucy, to be your lawfully wedded wife, to love, hold, and honor, as long—” Smoke paused, and when he spoke again, his voice broke. “As long as you both shall live?”

  “I do,” Pearlie said.

  “Lucy, do you take Pearlie to be your lawfully wedded husband, to love, obey, and honor, as long as you both shall live?”

  “I do,” Lucy said, the words so weak that they could barely be heard.

  “By the power vested in me by the state of Colorado, I pronounce you man and wife.”

  “We are married,” Lucy said. She smiled through her pain. “Pearlie, you are my husband.”

  “Yes,” Pearlie said. “And you
are my wife.”

  “Kiss me, Pearlie. Kiss me quickly.”

  “Lucy?” Pearlie asked, his voice breaking.

  “Kiss her, Pearlie,” Sally said. “Kiss her before it is too late.”

  Pearlie leaned over and kissed her, holding it for a long moment before, suddenly, he stiffened, then raised up. He looked into Lucy’s face, which, despite her death agony, wore an expression of rapture. The joy of her marriage was her last conscious thought, because Lucy was dead.

  When Pearlie looked up, tears were streaming down his face. Stepping over to him, Sally knelt beside him, then held him as he wept.

  One month later

  As Pearlie tightened the cinches on his saddle, Sally came out to see him, carrying a cloth bag. “I baked a few things for you,” she said.

  “Shucks, you didn’t have to do that.”

  “I know I didn’t. But I wanted to.”

  “I appreciate it,” Pearlie said, tying the bag to his saddle horn. He looked back toward the bunkhouse. “I thought Cal would come tell me good-bye.”

  “Cal’s having a hard time with the fact that you are leaving,” Sally said. “So am I. So is Smoke.”

  “Yeah,” Pearlie said. He ran his hand through his hair. “Truth is, I’m having a hard time leaving.”

  Running his hand through his hair messed it up a bit, and Sally licked her fingers, then reached up to smooth it out.

  “It’s just that, well, with what happened to Lucy and all, I need myself some time alone.” Pearlie held his hand up. “This is no knock on you and Smoke and Cal,” he said. “Lord, there can’t no man anywhere in the world have any better friends. It’s just that—” He paused.

  “I know what you mean, Pearlie,” Sally said. “And I understand your need to get away. I just hope it isn’t permanent.”

  “Pearlie!” Cal called, coming from the bunkhouse then.

  Pearlie turned toward his young friend and smiled broadly. “Well, I’m glad you came out to see me. I was beginning to think I might have to leave without saying good-bye.”

  “I want you to have this,” Cal said. He held out his silver hatband. “You can see that I have it all polished up for you. You have to keep it polished, otherwise it gets a little tarnished.”

  “Cal, I can’t take this,” Pearlie said, pushing it back.