The Red River Ring

by Randy D. Smith

  She nodded, understanding that he intended to make a fight of it.

  As Reese stepped through the door, he grabbed the Winchester from the corner and turned toward Bartello.

  Bartello’s gun barked loudly, splinters flew from the edge of the doorway and smoke filled the room.

  Reese fired a round into the ceiling as he fell back against the hall wall, blood flowing from the center of his chest.

  “Get them!” Bartello yelled as he waved his men up the stairs and kicked the Winchester across the hall floor.

  Segundo left Mary sitting on the chair.

  Mary jumped from her chair and forced her way by Bartello to see about Reese. She knelt by Reese and held up his head so he could breath easier.

  Reese opened his eyes and gasped. “Sorry, Mom. I just wasn’t quick enough.”

  “Don’t talk,” she said through her tears. “Save your strength.”

  “That was a very foolish thing to do,” Bartello said as he helped her adjust Reese to an upright sitting position.

  The girls could be heard screaming amid Sarah’s pleadings to leave them alone. Reese rolled his eyes toward the stairs and tensed.

  “They are going with me and there is nothing you can do about it, amigo. Rest, be quiet, and maybe you will live until someone can help you.”

  “You can’t leave him here alone,” Mary said.

  “Better here than with us, senora. If he comes with us he will surely die. We have a long ride.”

  “Please, you can’t leave him.”

  Bartello took her arm and forced her to her feet. “I can do nothing else, senora. You must come with me or I will put another bullet in him.”

  She nodded hysterically. “I’ll go. Don’t hurt him, anymore.”

  “There are horses for you to ride. Dress yourself quickly and do not resist my men. I will wait for you here with him. If you try anything, I will kill him.”

  “You gonna finish me off now?” Reese asked after she left.

  “You are already finished,” Bartello smiled as the pointed to the chest wound. “I did not want to say for her to hear. I give you these last few moments to make peace with the saints.”

  The women and girls were rushed down the stairs and out the back door. Sarah tried to get to Reese when she saw him sitting on the floor in the hall but Segundo forced her to follow the others.

  As they left the house Reese tried to straighten himself against the wall so he could breathe better. He could tell that his left shoulder was broken. Blood was running down his chest and his left arm. He felt a movement down his left arm and opened his hand as a flattened .45 caliber slug rolled from his cuff.

  Mary and Angie were placed on one horse, Sarah and Martha on another. Segundo and Valdez led the horses. Bartello took the lead. They rode hard across the flats north to the Palo Duro then turned east toward the rising sun. The canyon floor was an aggregate of hard rock floor and scattered debris from the cliff walls. The horses had to be slowed to carefully negotiate the chaotic mass of rocks and boulders without injury. By mid morning they turned north into a narrow canyon less than twenty feet wide with shear cliffs sixty feet tall. The narrow winding channel opened up into a narrow valley with a line shack positioned at the western end next to another shear cliff. The women were dismounted and forced into the cabin, a simple adobe and stick affair with one open front window and doorway with only a cow hide hanging for a barrier. Bartello followed the women into the dark, musky room and left a canteen on a simple table in the center.

  “You will remain here until I come for you. My men will be outside so be very careful. They have been told to kill you if you try to run.”

  “Who sent you and want do you want?” Mary asked.

  Bartello smiled. “You will know very shortly. I ride for him now.”

  After Bartello left, the women took stock of their surroundings. Although it was crude, the cabin had been used often. There were fresh supplies and tracks throughout.

  “This is how they’ve been doing it,” Mary said.

  “What?” Sarah asked as she settled the girls onto cots.

  “This is how the Ring has been able to make raids upon the ranches and not be caught as their riders crossed the plateau to the Red River. While our men have tried to cut them off, they hid here and waited. None of the ranches use this part of the canyon so the raiders could play a free hand, hitting us at will and retreating back into this hideout in the darkness.”

  “What about their tracks?”

  “On those rocks they would leave very few. Only an expert tracker could locate this place.”

  “We’re pitifully short of those these days,” Sarah said with a sigh.

  Mary went to the window and stared out into the narrow, barren canyon surrounded on all sides by red sandstone cliffs. “There’s one man out there who can do it. If he’s alive.”

  Chapter XIX

  Black Tom Bent stepped down from his mount, handed the reins to Al McPherson and crept to the canyon rim. Nab Colredge followed with a Winchester in his hands. Twenty riders dismounted and quietly waited for instructions.

  Pine Canyon was peaceful in spite of the herd of cattle milling and lounging throughout the floor. The lone campfire of the cook’s wagon could be plainly made out in the mesquite. It was impossible to see any riders in the dark from such a distance in spite of the three-quarter moon.

  “How do we handle this?” Colredge asked.

  “There are riflemen along these cliffs somewhere. If we ride in there they’ll cut us to pieces. The McMurphys picked a good place to hold up and gather their herd.”

  “We wait for daylight?”

  “No, I want to hit them just before dawn. I figure we can work this canyon against them if we play our cards right. Take eight men with you and work your way around the canyon to the north entrance. Al will take another eight and work to the south. I’ll take four men and crawl down this wall to the floor of the canyon. We’ll stampede the herd right over the top of that line camp. When the cowboys follow the cattle out the opening, I want McPherson’s men and yours to open up on them in a crossfire.”

  “I wish Meadows and Blake were here. We could use them right now.”

  “Whatever held them up is out of our control. We can’t wait. Come on, I want to talk to the men.”

  They slipped back from the rim and returned to the horses.

  “Listen carefully,” Bent said as the men gathered for orders. “I want four men to go with me. We’re going to crawl down this slope and stampede the herd. The rest of you divide up behind McPherson and Colredge. I want the best shots to go with them. When the McMurphy crew follows the herd out of the canyon, I want you to gun down every last one of them, especially Pommel McMurphy. He’s a big man, over six feet, in his fifties. I’ll pay forty extra in gold to the man who can show me his body when this is over.”

  “What about the cattle?” a rider asked.

  “Don’t worry about the cattle. We can round them up at our leisure when things cool down. I want those men dead, especially Temple, Reese and Pommel McMurphy. I plan to destroy them tonight and take over the Palo Duro for good. There’s a ten dollar bonus for each of you for every man you kill.”

  “How do we keep from shooting each other?”

  “Every man is to cover his face with a bandanna. Any man without a mask is fair game. Remember that when you start shooting. I’ll give you an hour to get in position before we start down. Wait until the cattle break the mouth of the canyon before you start shooting.”

  As the men mounted and rode away, Bent went back to the rim and began another search of the canyon walls.

  “Tie those horses good,” he told his waiting men. “If this doesn’t work we’ll need them to make a getaway.”

  Champ Riggs shook Pommel awake from a sound sleep. “Major, there’s trouble brewing.”

  McMurphy woke quickly. “What kind of trouble?”

  “When Libby relieved me from night guard, I decided to
walk out to the edge of the mouth of the canyon. There were at least ten riders setting up in a patch of rocks just outside the canyon.”

  “How did you see them?”

  “I was just lucky. I caught a movement and watched it closer. Before long I could make out men dismounting and hiding in the rocks.”

  “Wake Temple and Sam but do it quietly. Act like nothing unusual is going on,” Pommel ordered. “Tell Cap to get the coffee hot.”

  Within minutes Temple and Sam were joining Champ and Pommel at the fire.

  “What do you think is going on?” Temple asked as he accepted a cup from Pommel.

  “Men assembling at the mouth of the canyon can only mean one thing. They plan to ambush us.”

  “When?”

  “Any minute, I’m thinking. If they were after the cattle they would stay mounted. I’ll bet they’re on both sides.”

  “How will they get us out?”

  “I figure they’ll try to stampede the herd right down over the top of us and then pick us off in the dawn light as we follow the cattle out of the canyon.”

  “It will be dawn in an hour or so,” Sam Ketchum said.

  “What do we do?” Temple asked.

  “We do just the opposite of what they expect. As quietly as possible wake up the men and get those horses clear of the picket line. Move the men to the sides of the canyon and let the cattle run free. When we don’t come out after them, I figure they’ll move in to try to find out what we’re doing. Then we open up on them.”

  “But the cattle…” Temple protested.

  “If you try to stop that herd you’ll be a sitting duck. The Ring figures we’ll go after them. When we don’t follow that’s going to shake them up. I’m betting they’ll do something stupid. We can get the cattle later. Right now I worried about us staying alive.”

  Temple nodded and pulled his revolver to insert a sixth bullet.

  “Use your rifle,” Pommel ordered.

  “I plan to but I want six up in this thing too.”

  “What about the guards on the ridge?” Sam asked.

  “We ain’t got time to warn them. Besides, for all we know, they may already be dead. Let’s just worry about the gents down here. Let’s go.”

  The men came out of their bedrolls quickly and moved toward their horses. Within minutes the mounts were saddled and being led toward the outside walls of the canyon. Temple took most of his riders to the south face while Pommel led the rest to the north. Only Cap Morgan remained, going about his cook duties.

  Gunfire and wild whooping yells erupted to the west. Within seconds a roaring of stampeding cattle hooves sounded down the canyon. The Three Circles crew had to scurry to get clear of the herd as it forged past the camp toward the open valley below.

  After the main herd passed, Pommel ordered his men to mount and they moved quickly down the edge of the canyon following the herd. At the mouth of the canyon, he held his men up and watched for the raiders. Suddenly a shot sounded from above the rim as Libby Reeves signaled the location of men mounting to make a retreat. Moments later the south group of raiders broke across the flats to make for the north side. Temple’s men opened fire and broke their horses into pursuit.

  The north raiders came into the open to join the south.

  “What are they doing?” Sam asked as he drew up his horse next to Pommel.

  “They’re going to go after Temple and his men from the charge. They plan on a showdown. This is no rustling. It’s a murder raid,” Pommel said as he pulled his Winchester from the saddle.

  “I count twenty raiders,” Nate Cloud said. “I don’t see no more and Libby’s coming down the hill. I thinks that’s all of them.”

  “Do we join our boys, Major?”

  “No, let them charge in a line toward Temple. We’ll sweep in from the side and flank them into a crossfire. Let’s ride men!” Pommel yelled as he spurred his sorrel forward.

  Temple held up his five men when he realized that twenty riders were assembling against him. He ordered them to dismount and take positions in the mesquite. As the raiders charged, a hail of bullets ripped through the air, breaking mesquite limbs, knocking one man from his feet, ricocheting off rocks and the ground, causing the horses to break free from the cowboys.

  “Hunker down, boys, and pick your shots!” Temple yelled as he drew a bead on the lead rider.

  Temple and his men were able to generate enough fire that the raiders broke to either side. Seconds later the north group ran into another hail of bullets as Pommel’s crew opened up.

  Black Tom Bent stood on the top of the ridge and watched the shoot out at the base of the canyon. “What the hell are they doing? The McMurphys are eating them alive,” he cursed in frustration. “Mount up you sons-a-bitches. Let’s get the hell out of here. There ain’t nothing we can do for them.”

  The raiders swung their horses to the north again, this time to make an escape to the Red. As they fled across the canyon, the Three Circles riders broke into pursuit. As the raiders topped the ridge there were nine left. Nine men lay dead or dying in the canyon below. The McMurphys had one man wounded and one with a horse shot from under him.

  Pommel rode up on Temple who was standing over the body of a raider in an oil cloth slicker.

  “You all right?” Pommel asked as he drew up his mount.

  “Take a look at this,” Temple said pointing to the body. “That’s Al McPherson. He’s a partner with Colredge and Bent.”

  Pommel swung his mount for a closer look. “Don’t know him. What about the others?”

  “He’s the only one I recognize. Damn, we chewed them up pretty good.”

  Pommel slipped his rifle into the scabbard and wiped sweat from his hatband. “We were lucky. Had things gone just a little differently, it would have been our crew scattered all over this valley. Thank God, Champ decided to check out the mouth of the canyon before turning in.”

  “No, it wasn’t luck, Dad. You had those guards on that ridge for a reason and you led us out of this trap. It was you.”

  Pommel looked to the ground and smiled. It was the first time either of the boys had called him Dad since he arrived. “It was all of us,” he said.

  “What now?” Temple asked.

  “We go after them. I figure we can run them down before they reach the Red.”

  “Let’s go,” Temple yelled as he mounted and waved his hat in the air. “Let’s end this once and for all.”

  The Three Circles cowboys assembled and broke their horses into a dead run after the raiders. For the next ten miles a running gun battle erupted south of the Palo Duro. The raiders swung their horses through the mesquite and choyas trying to break free from the others. But the pressure was on and all most of them could do was ride hard and throw a few shots at their pursuers. Three more raiders were shot from their horses before they were able to break free and split up. From that point on it was every man for himself. Two more were killed in Fire Canyon. By noon there was no sign of the remaining four. As the searchers assembled, Alsy Grimes brought in the body of Bill Wiley draped over a horse.

  “Is that Bill?” Sam asked as Alsy led in the horse.

  “He was still alive when I found him,” Alsy said. “The Major isn’t going to like what he told me.”

  “What did he tell you?” Pommel asked as he and Temple joined them.

  “He said he followed Pac to a camp in Fire Canyon where a gent caught him. Pac was with them and they beat Bill bad before Pac turned on them. He figured everyone was shot up real bad. He saw Pac go down with a wound in the head. He thought they took Pac to the east.”

  “Pac shot it out with them?” Temple asked.

  “I guess so, anyways, that’s all I got out of Bill before he died. He was in real bad shape when I found him.”

  “Where is this camp?” Pommel asked.

  “Up the canyon about a half mile,” Alsy said.

  Pommel turned to Temple. “Let’s go see what we can tell from the sign,” he said. �
�Sam, wait for the others here. I’ll let you know what we want to do then.”

  As Pommel and Temple rode for the camp, Sam helped Alsy lift Bill from his horse. “So, this is the end of Nigger Bill Wiley,” he said. “He was a good man and a fine friend.”

  “Yes, sir. We’ll miss this one,” Champ Riggs said as he swung down from his horse to help the others.

  “Lordy, look how they beat his face before they killed him,” Alsy said.

  “You know he went out standing tall and facing forward, otherwise they wouldn’t have shot him,” Champ said.

  “A course he did,” Sam Ketchum smiled. “He rode for the Gas House Gang didn’t he?”

  Chapter XX

  Tom Bent snarled as he saw Meadows and Blake sitting in the shade of the rock overhang near the Roost cabin. “Where have you been? What the hell are you doing here?”

  “Your dandy little boy shot hell out of us,” Blake answered without making an effort to move.

  “What happened?”

  “One of Pommel’s niggers followed him to Fire Canyon. We were roughing him up a bit when the kid lost it. He killed Gamble and shot us.”

  “Is he hurt?”

  “He’s in the cabin with the women. He’s been unconscious since I bounced a .45 slug off his skull.”

  “Did you get Sulky?”

  “It was all we could do to get in here. Bartello sent Valdez after her.”

  Bent dismounted and motioned the other riders to follow.

  “How did the raid go?” Meadows asked.

  Bent smiled and shook his head. “Boys, I got a feeling that the Red River Ring is no more. You best heal up fast. I think we’re going to be riding for Arizona once I clear up some business.”

  “What happened?”

  “McMurphy’s boys shot us to pieces. Nothing went right.”

  “Bartello said that he killed Reese. We’ve got Pac and the women. The only ones left are Temple and Pommel.”

  “Shit!” Bent cursed. “Temple and Pommel have been the worry all along. If we ain’t got them, we’ve got nothing.”

  “What do we do with the women?” Blake asked.

  “Get those boys some grub and get them into that canyon to stand guard. For all I know, the McMurphys could come riding in here any minute. I’ll talk to her, myself.”