Die with the Outlaws

by William W. Johnstone; J. A. Johnstone

  “I’m sure we can find someone if we look hard enough,” DuPont said.

  “Well, I sure got no idea where to start,” Walter Toone said.

  “Jim Andrews ’n that whore that’s livin’ with him would be a good place to start,” DuPont said.

  “You think they’re rustlin’ cattle?” Carter asked.

  “We can make sure that they are,” DuPont said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Use your head, Carter,” Greene said. “How hard would it be to find some rustled cows over at the Circle Dot?”

  Carter smiled, finally getting the point. “It won’t be hard at all, iffen we was to put some of ’em there.”

  “Now you’re getting smart,” said DuPont.

  “Where are we goin’ to get the cows that we put there?” Greene asked.

  “If the rustled cows that you found there happened to belong to the Straight Arrow Ranch it would prove that Andrews has been rustlin’ and it would serve a purpose for Kennedy and O’Neil,” DuPont said.

  “Yes, I see what you mean, now,” Greene said.

  “Carter, you’ll be in charge.” DuPont took in the others with a small wave of his hand. “Moe, you, Walter, John, ’n Lem will be going along as well.”

  “All right.” Carter looked at the others. “They don’t none of you have no problem with me bein’ in charge, do you?”

  “I ain’t got no problem with it,” Greene said.

  There was a general assent from the others to following Carter.

  “Oh, and Carter?” DuPont continued. “It isn’t just a matter of finding stolen cows on the Circle Dot. Finding them there is only a means of justifyin’ what you’re going to do about it.”

  “Do about it?” Carter replied, not understanding what DuPont was suggesting.

  “Yes, do about it. Andrews and the whore need to pay for stealing Straight Arrow cows.”

  “Pay? What is it you’re a-wantin’ ’em to pay?”

  “They . . . need . . . to . . . pay . . . for . . . it,” DuPont repeated, setting the words apart and giving them a very ominous tone.

  “Both of ’em? The woman, too?” Carter asked.

  “Yes, both of them,” DuPont said.

  * * *

  Isaac Newton had not been a part of the discussion among DuPont, Carter, and the others, but he had been close enough to overhear every word spoken. His proximity to the meeting was unnoticed because he had been standing just around the corner of the building to avoid being seen. The portentous tone of the meeting gave Isaac pause.

  What had DuPont meant when he’d said that both of them must pay, including the woman?

  Isaac had not been asked by DuPont to be a part of the meeting, and he was certain that it wasn’t just an oversight. On more than one occasion, Isaac had put forth a cautionary comment when he thought DuPont might be pushing the Regulators into a position that was more vulnerable. Isaac wasn’t sure what DuPont had in mind, but he didn’t like what he had heard, and though he not been one of those selected to carry out the task DuPont had in mind, he planned to go with them. Actually, he wouldn’t be with them, as he intended to make certain that neither Carter nor any of the others were aware that he was following.

  * * *

  When Jim returned home, Mary Ella stepped out onto the porch to greet him. “Did you have lunch?”

  “Yes, I ate at the Palace Café with Hugh and some of the others.”

  “But, did you have chocolate cake?”

  Jim smiled broadly at Mary Ella’s question. “By asking me that, am I to assume that you have baked a cake?”

  “For you, I have baked a cake and I have made some buttermilk.”

  Jim stepped over to wrap his arms around her. “You know what? If you weren’t already married, I would ask you to marry me,” he teased.

  “Oh, my, if I had known that all it would take to get you to marry me was to bake a cake and make some buttermilk, I would have done that long ago.”

  Over the chocolate cake and buttermilk, Jim began sharing with Mary Ella some of the details of the meeting of the Sweetwater Ranchers’ Association. “DuPont and his group are no longer deputies.”

  “That’s good. I never felt that good about all those men running around as deputies anyway,” Mary Ella replied. “As far as I’m concerned, they never were anything but a bunch of crooks wearing badges. I’m glad they’re gone.”

  “Yes, that would be good if they were really gone. But they aren’t gone. Now they are passing themselves off as railroad detectives.”

  “Railroad detectives? How can that be? We’re at least a hundred miles from the nearest railroad.”

  “Yes, well, DuPont explained it by saying that the railroads need us to use them for shipping our stock.”

  “That’s a pretty far-fetched justification for being a railroad detective, if you ask me.”

  “Oh, I don’t think there was anyone present at that meeting who wouldn’t agree with you.”

  Jim poured himself another glass of buttermilk. “The Undertaker was there.”

  “Mr. Prufrock? What was he doing at a stock meeting?”

  “Not Prufrock, Merlin Boggs,” Jim said as he took another drink of his buttermilk. He wiped the white residue from his upper lip before continuing. “He’s a gunfighter who has killed so many men that they call him the Undertaker.”

  Mary Ella shuddered. “Good heavens. Why is he here?”

  “He has come to kill Matt Jensen.”

  “What?”

  “But not to worry. I’m pretty sure that if and when they meet, Matt Jensen will come out on top.”

  Mary Ella was quiet for a long moment before she spoke. “Jim, what are we doing here?”

  “What? What do you mean, what are we doing here?”

  “We don’t have to be here, you know. We could leave. Jim, why don’t we just leave here?” Mary Ella asked.

  “Leave here and go where?”

  “I don’t know. We could go anywhere, California maybe.”

  “We don’t have enough money to start over.”

  “We could sell the Circle Dot.”

  “No, the only people with enough money to buy it would be Kennedy and O’Neil, and if they got wind that we wanted to sell, why they wouldn’t give us a plug nickel for the place.”

  Their conversation was interrupted by the sound of approaching horses.

  “What is that?” Mary Ella asked, showing some concern. “Who do you think would be coming here?”

  “I don’t know. It could maybe be Conway, Fawcett, Edmonston, and some of the boys. Maybe Jensen has something in mind that he needs some men for.” Jim started toward the front door.

  “Jim, no. Don’t go. Don’t go out there.” There was a sense of urgency in Mary Ella’s voice.

  “What do you mean? If they’ve come all the way over here, the least we can do is see who it is and what they want.”

  “I . . . I just don’t have a good feeling about it.”

  Chapter Twenty-four

  When Jim stepped out onto the front porch, Mary Ella went out with him. Jim, too felt a sense of apprehension. These weren’t his fellow small ranchers. These men were Regulators, five of them—Asa Carter, Moe Greene, Walter Toone, John and Lem Mason. Greene, Toone, and the Mason brothers were on horseback. Carter was driving a tandem seated surrey. Oddly enough, they had four cows with them.

  “What do you men want?” Jim asked. He had not brought his gun out with him.

  “You recognize these here cows, Andrews?” Carter asked.

  “How am I supposed to recognize cows unless I can see the brand?”

  “Your brand is a circle with a dot in the middle, right?”

  “Yes, that’s why it’s called the Circle Dot. What’s this all about, Carter?”

  “Let me describe the brand on these cows to you. It’s two straight up-and-down lines with an arrowhead on top. You have any idea what brand that would be?”

  “Of course I know. It�
�s the Straight Arrow brand. Would you mind explaining to me what cows belonging to Kennedy and O’Neil are doing here?”

  “Now it’s just real funny that you ask that question, Andrews, seein’ as that’s just what we’re wantin’ to ask you,” Carter said. “What are they a-doin’ over here? It ain’t likely that they wandered this far away ’n just happened to turn up here, is it?”

  “I wouldn’t think so. But if you’ve brought them here to show me that they aren’t my cows, I can see that they aren’t, so go ahead and take them back to Kennedy and O’Neil. You’ll get no squawk from me.”

  “Uh-uh. You ain’t a-goin’ to get off that easy. You can’t just take another man’s property ’n when you get caught give ’em back ’n think that will be the end of it,” Carter said.

  “Take another man’s property? Wait a minute. Are you saying I stole those cows?”

  “No, it ain’t hardly likely that you stoled’ ’em. What’s more ’n likely is that your woman is still whorin’ ’n she was willin’ to spread ’er legs for whoever it was that actual stoled ’em, ’n she was paid for her whorin’ by these here cows. ’N the law’s pretty clear that if you take stoled property, why it’s the same as if you stoled it yourself.”

  “Get off our property,” Mary Ella said angrily.

  “You heard what my wife said.” Jim’s words were just as angry. “Get off our property, now.”

  “Ha. That’s just real funny, you a-claimin’ that that whore is your wife, when ever’body knows that you two ain’t really married. You can’t be married on account of she’s got a husband already, only he’s in prison.”

  “I’m telling you for the last time to get off our property!” Jim said, shouting the words this time.

  Carter looked over at two of his men. “Get ’em in the surrey.”

  Lem and John Mason rode right up to the porch, and it wasn’t until then that Jim noticed each of the two brothers were holding an open-looped lariat. Even as he was wondering what that was for, the two loops were dropped simultaneously over him and over Mary Ella.

  “Here, what is—” Jim started, but his protest was ended abruptly when Lem and John backed their horses up quickly.

  The effect was to jerk both Jim and Mary Ella off the porch so abruptly that both fell to the ground. Then, as if tying up roped calves, both Jim and Mary Ella were secured by looping the ropes around them a few times. Once secured, they were put in the back of the surrey.

  “What’s going on?” Jim asked.

  “We have a warrant for your arrest,” Carter said. “We are taking you to jail.”

  “Where is your warrant?” Jim asked.

  “Moe, show ’em our warrant,” Carter said.

  Moe held up his pistol. “This here is our warrant.”

  * * *

  From his concealed position behind the barn, Isaac Newton saw the abduction, and though he stayed back far enough not to be noticed, he followed them when they left. He saw the surrey with Carter driving, and with Andrews and the Wilson woman riding in the back seat. Moe, Walter, John, and Lem were riding alongside as they departed from the Circle Dot Ranch.

  For a moment Isaac had the idea that he should tell someone about this, perhaps the sheriff or even Matt Jensen. But what would he tell them? Where did Carter intend to take them? Isaac knew that he would have to know where the two were being held before he could tell someone where to go to rescue them.

  He was left with no choice but to follow them.

  Not too long after leaving the Circle Dot Ranch, the surrey left the road and began bouncing out across the sagebrush. Here the vegetation thinned out so that there were spots of bare land as big as a washtub between the clumps of grass. Arroyos and coulees spread out like fingers, and though there were no trees, Isaac was able to use rock outcroppings for concealment as he continued to follow. He didn’t know for sure what Carter had in mind, but he didn’t feel good about it.

  When they reached Sawmill Creek, they drove right across it.

  * * *

  “Where are you taking us?” Jim demanded. “What the hell is going on here?”

  “If you don’t shut up, we’ll drown the both of you in the crick,” Carter said.

  “That isn’t likely, since there is insufficient water in this creek for a person to have a decent bath,” Mary Ella said. “I don’t know what you have in mind, but if you are trying to frighten us into leaving, it isn’t going to work.”

  “We’ll just see about that,” Carter said as the surrey left the creek and climbed up the bank on the opposite side.

  The surrey continued on across the desert ground with neither Carter nor any of the other riders saying anything.

  “Jim, what’s going to happen to us?” Mary Ella asked quietly. “What do you think they intend to do?” Neither of them had been secured and she was able to put her hand in his.

  He squeezed it, hoping to comfort her. “I expect they’re just goin’ to carry us on a few more miles out into the desert then turn us loose and make us walk back.”

  “But why? Why would they do something like that?”

  “It’s like you said earlier, they just want to frighten us. I’m sure Kennedy and O’Neil are behind this, wanting to buy our ranch. I guess they figure that if they can frighten us enough, we’ll be more in the mood to sell.”

  “No,” Mary Ella said. “No, we won’t sell to him. Promise me that no matter what they do, that we won’t sell to them.”

  Despite their situation, Jim was able to laugh. “I thought you said you wanted to sell out and go to California.”

  “Only if it’s our idea.”

  Jim squeezed her hand. “I love you, Mary Ella.”

  “I love you too, Jim,” Mary Ella said, returning the hand squeeze.

  * * *

  After riding and bouncing across the sagebrush for at least an hour longer, they stopped near a copse of trees. The four riders dismounted, and two of them stepped up to Jim’s side of the wagon while the other two stepped up to Mary Ella’s side.

  “Get out,” Carter said as he, too, stepped down.

  “Thank you, but we’re both fine right here,” Jim said.

  Carter nodded at Greene, and he and Toone reached up to grab Jim and jerk him roughly out of the surrey. At the same time, Lem and John jerked Mary Ella down, and she let out a little cry of pain and fear as she hit the ground hard.

  “Is this where you’re turning us loose to walk home?” Jim asked. “Because if it is, I would appreciate it if you would point the way. You made so many twists and turns that I’m not sure where we are.”

  “You won’t be walkin’ out of here,” Carter said.

  The four men then half dragged and half shoved Jim and Mary Ella toward the nearby trees, and in particular toward one that was no taller than twenty feet, but had a long, protruding limb.

  “Yeah,” Carter said with an evil grin. “This ’un will do.”

  * * *

  During the trek across the desert, Isaac had been following them, feeling more and more uneasy. At first he had thought they might just be taking them somewhere to hold them prisoner, but when he saw them stop he didn’t see any structure that could be used for that purpose.

  About five hundred yards behind them, he dismounted, tied his horse off, and began to approach on foot. Still using rocks and boulders for concealment, he got close enough to hear what they were saying.

  “Are you trying to make us think you’re going to hang us?” he heard Jim ask. “Well, I have no intention of selling my ranch to Kennedy and O’Neil for any price, and you can just tell them that.”

  Though Jim had tried to put some bravado in his voice, Isaac could tell that the rancher was actually quite frightened.

  Isaac managed to advance to a boulder no more than fifty yards away, and when he took a look, he saw that Greene and Toone had already put nooses over the necks of the man and the woman and were tossing the loose ends of their ropes over the extended limb.

&nbs
p; “Why are you doing this? We didn’t rustle any cattle!” Mary Ella said. Her voice was on the edge of panic.

  “Ain’t you figured out by now that it don’t matter none to us whether you done it or not?” Carter said.

  “There is no arrest warrant, is there? You had no intention of taking us to the sheriff,” Mara Ella said.

  “Well now, you’re pretty smart for a whore.”

  To the degree it was possible, Jim was struggling with the two men that were holding him. His struggles were in vain, though, and he was pushed up onto a boulder. Any further struggle could result in him hanging himself, so he was forced to stop fighting.

  “What are you bein’ such a coward for?” Carter asked. “Why don’t you just take it like a man?”

  Mary Ella was lifted up onto the boulder to stand so close to Jim that they were touching. “If you are going to do this, will you at least give me a moment so I can say a prayer?” she asked.

  “Ain’t no need for you to be sayin’ no prayer now,” Carter said with a little chuckle. “In a couple more minutes, you can just deliver it in person.”

  The others laughed at his cruel joke.

  Good Lord, what had he gotten himself into? Isaac wondered. Stealing a few horses or rustling some cattle was one thing, but killing was another. And this wasn’t just killing, this was murder! They were actually going to lynch these two people, and one of them was a woman.

  Isaac could take no more of it, so he pulled his pistol and began shooting toward the five men in a desperate hope to stop it.

  “What the hell? Who is it that’s a-shootin’ at us?” Greene asked.

  “Start shootin’ back,” Carter demanded.

  Jim and Mary Ella stood there with nooses around their necks, unable to move for fear of falling off the rock they were standing on. The exchange of gunfire continued.

  Isaac was too far away for his shooting to be effective, but he continued to shoot until the cylinder rotated all the way around and the hammer fell on an already expended cartridge. He was out of ammunition, which left him no choice but to get away before they came after him.

  “Who do you think that was?” Toone asked, after the shooting stopped.