Sins of the Father (8 page)

RANK
R
EEDY AND THE THREE
deputies rode into town about an hour after the Doctor had finished up working on the sheriff and Tex. The Doctor walked over to the livery to give the news to Reedy.

“Marshal, something terrible has happened.” “What happened?”
“Someone ambushed the sheriff and Tex. They

both were shot twice. Tex is going to make it, but I’m a little worried about the sheriff.”
“Who did the shooting?”

“We don’t know; someone started a fire in a little shack at the end of the street, and everyone was distracted by it, and that’s when it happened.”

Reedy turned to his two deputies. “You two saddle up again and find a few other men who will volunteer for a posse. I’m going over to see Steele for a minute and then we will go after those bastards who ambushed the sheriff and his deputy.”

“I want to go too,” added Buck.
“Don’t you think you should stay in town?” “Normally, I would agree with you, but I want to

“All right, if you feel that strongly about coming with us. I will tell you though, that there will be no hanging. If we catch them, we bring them into town and lock them up, legally, understand?”

“I suppose you’re right. Let’s go see the sheriff and Tex.”
Reedy and Buck walked into the doctor’s office to find two motionless bodies, Doctor Hammond and one sobbing woman. Pattie Nate looked up at the marshal. “I want you to get the men who did this, Marshal.”
“I’ll do my best, Pattie, you can be sure of that. Mark Steele was not only a fellow lawman to me, he was a personal friend,” replied Reedy. “I have a posse waiting and I have to go now. You take good care of my friend, Doctor.”
Doctor Hammond nodded affirmatively. Frank Reedy walked back to the livery and met up with his two deputies and three other men who volunteered to join the posse.
“Anybody find their tracks yet?” Reedy asked.
“I found them,” said Banks, “they headed south and by the looks of the tracks, they both have an extra horse and it’s been a couple of hours since the shooting. I don’t know if we can catch up with them, especially at night. It will be slow going following the tracks.”
“Well, we’ll damn sure try anyway. At least we can get a start,” replied Reedy, as he mounted his horse. “Let’s go men. Hal, you’re the best tracker so you take the lead.”
All six men headed south. The three men who had volunteered for the posse were Roland Johnston, Al Calahan and Marsh Carsen. It was painfully slow going with Hal having to dismount and light a match to see the hoof prints. Twice they had to double back to find the tracks again after losing them. Reedy finally decided that they should make camp and wait until morning to follow.
They headed out at daybreak riding as fast as they could with Hal in the lead, tracking. The tracks led them around a large hill that opened up to a large flat area that had to be ten or fifteen miles across. Reedy reined his horse up at the edge of the clearing and the rest on the men followed suit.
Reedy took off his hat and wiped his forehead. “Damn it, the tracks go straight across that flat land and that gives them a hell of a lead. I guess we’ll have to ride a little harder.”
“Hell, my horse is plumb tuckered out already,” replied Roland, “he’ll be damn near dead once we get to the other side.”
“We have to give it a try anyway. Any of you three men who volunteered can drop out if you want. The rest of us are still going after them,” replied Reedy.
They all looked at one another. Roland Johnston was the first to speak. “I guess I might as well find out how far this old horse can go.”
“I’m in too, Marshal,” added Al Calahan.
“Don’t leave me out,” said Marsh Carsen.
“All right,” replied Reedy, “let’s ride,” he said as he spurred his horse.
They rode at a pretty fast pace straight across the open land. They slowed the pace the last few miles as the horses started showing the stress they were under. By the time they got to the end of the open stretch they were at a walk. The tracks led them to a heavily wooded area. They got off their horses, letting them rest for a few minutes.
“Marshal, we’ve got to find some water for these horses,” said Banks.
“Yeah, they won’t get much farther without some.”
“I don’t think you will have to worry about water for too long, Marshal,” said Carsen, as he pointed to the sky. “Those clouds are full of water and it looks like they are going to dump it right on us any minute now.
Frank Reedy looked up. The storm clouds were coming at them from the same direction that the tracks went, which meant that the men they were tracking were probably already in the rain. “What do you think Hal?” asked Reedy.
“I could follow their tracks just fine through the woods even with the rain. I can spot broken branches and trampled weeds and brush. The problem will be once they get out into a clearing again. The rain will wash the tracks enough that we will most likely lose their trail.”
“Damn it! I hate to give it up, but I reckon you’re right.”
The rain started slowly and picked up speed quickly. Within a minute, it was pouring down in buckets. They all took their hats off and let the clean water rinse the dust off their faces. Then they all used their hats to gather water and made sure each horse had enough water to drink.
“Men, mount up and let’s head back to Timber. We’ll have to put this off until later, but make damn sure that we are going to find out who those two are and put them on our wanted list,” Reedy said.

attie had not left Sheriff Steele’s side for the last twelve hours since he had been shot. He was still unconscious, but Tex had woken in severe pain along with a severe appetite. Doctor Hammond sent for some food and propped Tex up so that he could eat. He was watching Pattie as he ate some soup. She smiled at him but didn’t say anything. She kept staring at Steele as if he was going to open his eyes any minute.

“Pattie,” said Tex, “go on and get some sleep. I’m awake now and I’ll watch over him. The doctor will send for you as soon and he wakes up, I promise.”

“Do you promise?”
“I promise.”
“The second he wakes up?”
“Yes, the second he wakes up, I promise, now go

get some sleep. Besides, we’ve got to get Jed out of that kitchen,” Tex said, as he put his half-eaten bowl of soup down.

“Go on and get some rest and go cook something eatable over there, ‘cause I’m going to be mighty hungry later on.”

“I guess you’re right. Jed never did learn to cook much. I’ll get a few winks and go back to the kitchen. Don’t you forget to call me, I mean it.”

“I promised I would and I always keep my promise,” said Tex.
Pattie walked out and headed for her room, which was upstairs over Jed’s Saloon. Jed had given her the room in order to keep her working there. She washed up and put her face in her hands, shaking her head. She got into her bed, placing her face on the very soft pillow. She thought about Mark Steele as she slowly fell off to sleep, but just before she fell into darkness, she thought of another man. She was thinking about Jess Williams and what she might have to do.

he explosion from the large bundle of dynamite was deafening. Seconds after the smoke cleared, thousands of gallons of water came rushing out of Henry Thornton’s last retention pond and down the river. Rance Madden had an evil smile on his face as he watched the water head down the river, going exactly where he wanted it to go. Into his four water storage basins, which were almost empty. This would be enough water to completely fill his four basins. He had brought out ten of his men with him. Not because it took ten men to dynamite the basin, but because he knew that Thornton’s men

would be close by and would come running to the explosion site and that’s exactly what he wanted. It didn’t take long.

Four of Henry Thornton’s men came riding their horses as fast as they could. As soon as they reined up their horses to examine the damage from the explosion, Rance Madden’s men, who had been hiding in the brush, opened fire with their Winchesters, knocking all four men out of their saddles. They never had a chance to draw their weapons. Three more of Thornton’s men came over a slight rise and rode straight into the gunfire, firing Winchesters as they rode. They were able to pick off two of Madden’s men before all three of them took slugs and hit the ground, their horses circling off, back towards the ranch.

Madden looked over the carnage and the damage he had just caused and he smiled with an evil satisfaction. He had gotten the water he needed and killed seven of Thornton’s men in the process. That left him with more men than Thornton and that gave him the edge, for now. He had taken Sheriff Steele out of the equation and Marshal Reedy was on the trail of Quentin Unger and Gregory Timmons. On top of all that, Madden had sent for at least six more hired guns that would be arriving over the next few weeks. He had a plan and he was going to carry it out, and it didn’t matter to him how many men had to die before he accomplished it.

Madden gathered up the eight men he had left and headed for Timber to execute the next part of his plan. As they rode into town, his men were firing off rounds into the air, whooping, and hollering. Doctor Hammond came out to the front of his office and one of Madden’s men shot out the window to his left and Hammond went back into his office. The bullet went right over Tex’s head.

“Doc, get my gun over there and help me off this table,” demanded Tex.
“Are you out of your mind? If you get off that table, you’ll bleed to death in five minutes when those wounds open up.”
“Yeah, but I’ll get a few of them before that happens.”
“I won’t do it; you just lay still and let’s see what happens. Maybe they’ll get drunk and leave.”
“That’s Madden’s bunch and they ain’t just going to get drunk and leave, I can promise you that.”
“It doesn’t really matter; you can’t get off that table. If you do, you will die for sure.”
Madden’s men reined up in front of Jed’s Saloon and tied up their horses. Madden took two of his best men with him as he walked over to the Doctor’s office. Murphy Monroe and Taylor Stowe were hard men with honed pistol skills. Madden walked into Doctor Hammond’s office and found Hammond sitting sheepishly behind his desk. Steele was still unconscious but Madden looked at Tex who was sneering at Madden in defiance.
“Madden, you get your men out of town right now, before I have you all arrested and locked up,” Tex exclaimed.
Madden laughed and his men smiled. “I don’t think you or your boss is in any position to give orders anymore. I have control of this town now and I’m giving the orders. Would you like to know what my first order is?”
“You kiss my ass Madden. You ain’t in control of anything.”
“We’ll see about that,” replied Madden, as he nodded at Monroe and Stowe. “Men, take Tex and go lock him up in the jail.
“You can’t do that,” pleaded Doctor Hammond, who had now stood up. “If you move him you will open up his wounds and he will bleed to death.”
“I don’t give a shit if he bleeds to death or not. If you want, I can have him shot right now and save you all the worry, Doctor.”
Hammond shut his mouth and Monroe and Stowe grabbed Tex and pulled him off the table. They began to drag him over to the jail cell. Pattie Nate intercepted them and stopped them in the middle of the street.
“What in the hell are you two men doing? You can’t move him, he’ll bleed to death.”
Monroe took the back of his hand and hit Pattie so hard that she fell into the street, almost unconscious. Then the two men went over to the jail cell, threw Tex into a cell, and locked it. Tex was bleeding pretty badly now and he fell unconscious from the weakness and loss of blood.
Rance Madden was standing over Steele, who was still in an unconscious state. “What about the sheriff, Doc? Is he going to come around or not?”
“He’s in bad shape. He’s lost a lot of blood and he is so weak that he won’t be a problem to you even if he does wake up. Just leave him with me,” pleaded Hammond.
“All right, but if he gets off that table, I’ll not only kill him, I’ll kill you too, you hear me?”
“I hear you.”
Pattie Nate came rushing in, blood running down her cheek from her right eye. “Rance Madden, you get away from him!” she screamed.
Madden grabbed Pattie by the neck and pushed her down into a chair. “You shut your mouth, woman. If I have any more trouble from you, I just might decide to let a few of my men have a private moment alone with you, if you get my drift. Remember what I said, Doc,” added Madden as he walked out and headed for the saloon. A minute later, one of Madden’s men walked into the Doctor’s office and stood guard with a rifle. He smiled at Pattie as if he had known what Madden had said to her.
Madden walked into the saloon and had a drink with his men. They were all drinking whiskey and had already shot the place up pretty bad. Madden walked behind the bar and grabbed the best bottle of whiskey he could find and he nodded for Murphy Monroe and Taylor Stowe to join him at a table. The three of them sat down and Madden poured them all a drink.
“Monroe, I want you to go out to the ranch and bring back four more men. Stowe, I want you to pick out four good men, go out of town, and figure out where that damn marshal will come into town. I want you and your men to ambush them and either kill them or capture them, I don’t care.”
Both men finished up their drinks and went about their assigned duties. They were loyal to Madden and they were paid well for their work. Madden sat there sipping the fine whiskey and feeling pretty satisfied with his accomplishments today. He had Steele and Tex out of commission, Frank Reedy on the trail of the ambushers and about to be ambushed himself, and he had total control of the town. That along with killing seven of Henry Thornton’s men and draining his water basins was pretty satisfying to him indeed. Yes, he had finally gotten what he had wished for, or so he thought.

ESS GOT AN EARLY START FROM
Abilene. He tipped his hat as he went past Bad ‘Axe’ McCoy who was sitting in his rocker with a hot cup of coffee. Jess could see the steam coming from the cup, caused by the cool morning air. He decided that he might as well stop in Black Creek on his way to St. Louis, since it wasn’t really that far out of the way. He would only stay one night and then head back out in the morning; just enough time to have a meal with Jim and Sara and see Tony and Andy. It took him a day and a half to get to Black Creek. He reined up in front of Tony’s Livery and Tony came out from inside to greet him.