"I don't care what you thought," Cyclone," groaned. He was bent over the neck of his chestnut mare as she clip clopped along the trail. "The fact of the matter is, I am old. I'm a worn out old man and probably good for nothin' anymore anyhow. Red Beattie's probably right about that. And I never did do none of those things they writ about me in them dime novels "
"But, Cy, he was laughin' at you," Rap Brown protested. He was riding alongside Cyclone to the right on his big gray stallion. It was hot in the mid afternoon and the Wildcat gang had already left the mountain high county behind them. They were meandering along the trail through the foothills and had not seen fit to break out their dusters yet. Sweat was still dripping down their necks and down the back of their cotton shirts.
"Well, if he wanted to laugh, well, let him. If I shot or beat up everybody that ever laughed at me, why, I'd probably have the whole durn west piled up at my feet and I'd be gol' durn broke from buyin' catridges. Lord knows you'd have your hands fuller'n mine."
"What? I don't carry catridges in my hands." Rap said, a bit confused.
"You durn fool. I mean people laugh at you too."
"Oh they don't not. I'd shoot 'em.
"No. That's cause you're allus too drunk to notice."
"Well, then, I'm gonna stop drinkin'." Rap pulled a flask out of his saddle bag and held it up eye level and gazed at it wistfully. He arched his elbow as if ready to toss it away, then pulled it back, and still holding the reins he smiled and started to unscrew the cap. "Right after I finish this one," he said. He grinned broadly and chugged several gulps.
A half mile farther down the trail, off to the left and high above the trail behind the cover of several large rocks and beneath the shade of a stand of spindly pine trees, four men sat waiting with rifles in their hands. Their horses had been tied back under the trees.
"Sure does feel good to have our guns back again," Jonas Beattie said. He was sitting with his broad back against a large boulder and was between his brothers, Red and Kirby. The three brothers were all big men; their middles running to fat and their faces covered with beards. Kirby and Jonas both had black beards while the other brother's beard was red matching his shaggy head of hair. His name was actually Oscar, but everyone called him Red.
"Sure does," Kirby agreed. "I was gettin' tired of that lily livered place anyhow.
"Me too," Red said. "But I'm sure gonna like gettin' back at that Arapahoe Brown feller."
"What are you guys talking about and what are we waiting here for anyhow?" Willis asked. He was sitting back by the trees with the horses.
"Just never you mind, Kid," Red said with a grin. "We'll let you know when we're ready to move out. Just sit there and amuse yourself with your paper." Red chuckled and turned around to gaze off down the trail.
Willis turned his attention back to the newspaper he had found on the bench outside the Wildcat's cabin. Ordinarily, he would not have helped himself to someone else's property, but no one was around and he knew the Carlins were leaving Robin's Roost anyhow. What had drawn his attention to the paper was the picture of Kitty Carlin. He just had to have it. What it was all about, he did not know. He had never learned to read.
When his brother Red caught him with the paper, Red became very interested in what was in the paper. What Chief Henry had failed to tell Kitty was that Simon Price had put a bounty on the heads of each of the Wildcat gang. Five thousand each. Ten thousand each for Cyclone and Kitty. It was an open invitation to all bounty hunters; no questions, no rules, no law. Thimble Creek would be a waiting death trap.
This was a perfect setup for Red Beattie and his brothers and they had first crack at all that money.
"Hey, I think that's them comin' now," Red said excitedly. He shifted around onto one knee, bracing his rifle barrel on top of the boulder.
Jonas and Kirby slid around to peer over the cover of the rocks they were behind. Kirby had to stand to peer over his¸ while Jonas could remain on both knees.
They had their rifles in place and they all jacked rounds into the chambers.
Willis looked up in wonderment. "What's going on?"
"Never mind, Kid. Stay where you are," Red ordered sharply, but keeping his voice down as much as possible.
To his brothers, he said, "Here they come." He could see them clearly now. "When they're right in front of us let them have it. Make sure you get the girl and the old man. They're worth the most. I want Rap Brown for myself."
"Girl and old man?" Willis shouted. He jumped to his feet and ran toward his brothers. "You're not going to shoot Kitty are you? I won't let you."
"Shut up you fool!" Red snapped angrily rising to his feet, twisting back at the attacking youth.
Willis had already grasped Red's arms and was trying to twist the rifle from his grasp. The weapon went off, firing harmlessly into the air.
Red's anger welled up inside him with extreme viciousness. He let loose of the rifle with one hand and backhanded Willis across his face with such force the youth was lifted off his feet and thrown backward down the incline and rolled into the stand of pines where he lay still and unconscious. Blood oozed from the side of his face.
Knowing they had prematurely been given away and without losing stride after dealing with Willis, Red turned his attention back to the trail and the quarry beneath him. He levered round after round into the chamber, firing as fast as he could.
Down below on the trail, The Wildcat's had been startled by the premature rifle shot. At first instinct they pulled their mounts up short, then as realization sunk in, Kitty shouted, "Ambush! Let's get out of here!" She gigged her horse to the right off the trail, toward the hill country far away.
As the others followed suit, she pulled her pinto aside, drawing her rifle from the saddle boot. She wheeled her mount sideways behind a pine tree as the others rode past, and still holding the reins, fired rapidly at the place where the ambush fire was coming from.
Jeremy Carlin, noting his sister had dropped behind, slowed his mount, turned, and rode back; his rifle out and blazing.
He was halfway back when he met Kitty. She had stayed back just long enough for the others to be out of rifle range. When she saw Jeremy riding back, laying down a field of fire she took advantage of the cover and then rode off to meet her brother. Another minute, both she and Jeremy would be out of range too.
"That's a fine mess!" Red Beattie cursed, taking his battered hat off and slapping it to the ground. He was standing on top of the hill without cover, gazing off into the distance watching the five riders becoming tiny dark specks near the top of a far away hill. "All that money just waitin' for us and that fool kid had to go and mess it all up."
"Don't you think we oughta be lookin' at the kid, Red. To see if he's all right?" Jonas asked, looking down the slope where Willis lay.
"Who cares?" Red snorted. "Besides, I didn't hit him hard enough to kill him anyways."
"Just the same, he's bleedin'. Maybe...," Jonas continued.
"Maybe, nothin'. Let him bleed. Maybe he'll learn somethin'. Just get him on his horse and let's get out of here before the Wildcats decide to come back and fight it out."
"We just gonna just forget about the bounty then?" Kirby asked.
"Naw, we're still gonna get it."
"Oh, I get it. We're gonna set up another ambush somewhere else." Kirby grinned.
"No, I got a better idea. If we had gotten them here, they woulda been stinkin' by the time we got their bodies to Thimble Creek. Hell, we know where they're going, so we'll just go on ahead and get there ahead of them or about the same time. We'll get them then."
"What about all those other bounty hunters? What if they get them first?" Kirby said.
"They won't, because we will be helping Cyclone and his friends. They will think we are their friends. We'll fool them. Then when they least suspect, they'll be all ours." Red laughed. "It always pays to use your brains boys. Course you wouldn't know anything about that, seeing as how you didn't have the advantages I had. I was lucky
enough to go to school a while before Pa got kilt by the law." Red was always proud of his fifth grade education. He was the only one of his brothers who could read and he had used that as an advantage to be the leader of the family.
“What d'ya s'pose that was all about?" Cyclone said. They had reined up and dismounted on the top of a high hill, so they could see far off into the distance behind them.
"Think they were bandits, trying to hold us up, Grampa?" Jeremy Carlin asked.
"Well, if they was, they sure picked poor candidates. Besides, you usually pick on lone riders, not five. Five is quite a bunch if they choose to fight back. I doubt if they was just out to rob us," Cyclone said.
"I'll bet it was that damned Red Beattie and his bunch wanting to get even for us gettin' him thrown out of the roost," Rap grumbled.
"Don't be silly," Kitty said. "They wouldn't try to kill us over a thing like that. Besides, Willis wouldn't let his brothers do anything to hurt me."
"He has been mooning around you a lot, Sis," Jeremy said. "I agree with Kitty. I think we can rule the Beatties out. Besides, they should be long gone up the trail by now. Anyone else have any thoughts as to why someone might have been after us." Jeremy glanced from one to the other. His gaze landed on Chief Henry who had been silent. "What do you say Chief. You have any ideas?"
"I'm still thinking on it," he said noncommittally and remaining silent.
Kitty eyed Henry for a moment, thinking if she should bring it up. Henry tried to avoid her gaze, knowing what she was thinking and also knowing what he had hidden from her. Kitty made up her mind, then said it. "Do you think it could have been bounty hunters?"
"Bounty hunters?" Rap exclaimed. "Are there bounty hunters on our trail? I wonder how much I'm worth."
"Aw, you're not worth a hill of beans," Cy said.
Rap laughed, "Who'd come after me for a hill of beans?"
"Another durn fool, just like you, I s'pose," Cy moaned.
"Rap and I have both asked the question, now," Kitty sounded indignant this time. Her hands were on her hips and she was looking from Chief to Cyclone. "Does anybody think those could have been bounty hunters back there?"
There was no answer from either Chief nor Cyclone.
"Grampa," Kitty said emphatically, "I think there's something you and I need to talk about. Now!" She turned and walked away to stand under a scrub pine. Her back was to the rest of the gang.
"I'll deal with you later," Cyclone growled under his breath as he passed Henry to catch up with his granddaughter.
"Why didn't you tell me there was a bounty on you? I never would have pulled you into this with me if I had known." Kitty said, looking the old man straight in the eye. She was half angry and half in admiration of her grandfather's loyalty to her.
"I thought it was all over, Kitty. I haven't seen hide nor hair of that bounty hunter for so long now, I thought it was safe. So safe that I could ride with Henry again as well as with you and the others. As for the charge against me, that was dropped a long time ago. So maybe the bounty hunter gave up and quit or died or somethin'."
"How do you explain what happened today?"
"I don't know. I do know it wasn't Sam Bell. There was too many of them. Sam Bell always works alone. At least for the most part."
"That's the bounty hunter that was after you; Sam Bell."
"That's right."
"Henry said there was something personal about it," Kitty said. It was more of a question.
"Yes, it was girl. It was mighty personal and that's all I'm gonna say about it."
"Are you mad at me, Cy," Henry said. His voice was low and apologetic. He and Cyclone had moved a ways away from the campfire to sit and talk quietly so the others couldn't hear them.
"Naw, I'm never really mad at you, Henry. Sometimes, I'm a little put out and a bit aggravated at ya. But we're both too old to start gettin' in a huff at each other."
"Well, I got something else to tell you, that just might make you mad."
"Well, go ahead and get it said," Cyclone sighed resolutely.
"Simon Price has put a bounty out on all of us. It was in the newspaper and I didn't tell Kitty." Chief just blurted it out as fast as he could. He also blurted out about Kitty's mother, the money she needed to take care of her, and her desperate need to get back to Thimble Creek.
Cyclone was silent for a moment, mulling it over. Chief waited in anticipation of Cy's temper.
Cy took a deep breath. "I understand why you didn't tell her, Henry. She woulda said, none of us was to go back to Thimble Creek with her and she dad blamed sure enough woulda gone herself. Seems to me we all been keepin' too many secrets from each other. We're family, all of us. I guess I have to include Rap, the ornery old cuss, too. I reckon it's high time we all got everything out in the open. No more secrets. We all ride as one. Let's get back to the others and get all this business cleared up. We're all going on to Thimble Creek. We'll get those no good boys out of jail if that's what Kitty wants and we'll relieve Mister Price of the money Kitty needs and we'll worry about those gol durned bounty hunters when we hafta." It was with great difficulty that he pushed himself to his feet, balancing himself against the trunk of a spindly bare pine. He arched his back trying to get the kinks out. He winced a bit from the pain. "Dad burned rhumatiz," he groaned."
"Then, there's no more secrets at all, Cy?" Henry asked. He was already on his feet, brushing off the seat of his britches. Not only was he a bit leaner than Cyclone, he was also a mite more limber.
Cyclone stared him square in the eye and said flatly, "Well, maybe I'll just keep one for a just a little while longer." He shuffled off toward the campfire and the others.
Chapter Four
The Return of Wildcat Kitty and the Cyclone Kid Page 5
