Twelve Dead Men Read online

  Look for These Exciting Series from

  WILLIAM W. JOHNSTONE

  with J. A. Johnstone

  The Mountain Man

  Preacher: The First Mountain Man

  Matt Jensen, the Last Mountain Man

  Luke Jensen, Bounty Hunter

  Those Jensen Boys!

  The Family Jensen

  MacCallister

  Flintlock

  The Brothers O’Brien

  The Kerrigans: A Texas Dynasty

  Sixkiller, U.S. Marshal

  Hell’s Half Acre

  Texas John Slaughter

  Will Tanner, U.S. Deputy Marshal

  Eagles

  The Frontiersman

  AVAILABLE FROM PINNACLE BOOKS

  THOSE JENSEN BOYS!

  TWELVE DEAD MEN

  William W. Johnstone

  with J. A. Johnstone

  PINNACLE BOOKS

  Kensington Publishing Corp.

  www.kensingtonbooks.com

  All copyrighted material within is Attributor Protected.

  Table of Contents

  Also by

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  THE JENSEN FAMILY FIRST FAMILY OF THE AMERICAN FRONTIER

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

  CHAPTER FORTY

  CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

  CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

  CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

  Teaser chapter

  Teaser chapter

  PINNACLE BOOKS are published by

  Kensington Publishing Corp.

  119 West 40th Street

  New York, NY 10018

  Copyright © 2017 J. A. Johnstone

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

  To the extent that the image or images on the cover of this book depict a person or persons, such person or persons are merely models, and are not intended to portray any character or characters featured in the book.

  PUBLISHER’S NOTE

  Following the death of William W. Johnstone, the Johnstone family is working with a carefully selected writer to organize and complete Mr. Johnstone’s outlines and many unfinished manuscripts to create additional novels in all of his series like The Last Gunfighter, Mountain Man, and Eagles, among others. This novel was inspired by Mr. Johnstone’s superb storytelling.

  If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”

  PINNACLE BOOKS, the Pinnacle logo, and the WWJ steer head logo are Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.

  ISBN: 978-0-7860-4032-2

  First electronic edition: May 2017

  ISBN-13: 978-0-7860-4033-9

  ISBN-10: 0-7860-4033-5

  THE JENSEN FAMILY FIRST FAMILY OF THE AMERICAN FRONTIER

  Smoke Jensen—The Mountain Man

  The youngest of three children and orphaned as a young boy, Smoke Jensen is considered one of the fastest draws in the West. His quest to tame the lawless West has become the stuff of legend. Smoke owns the Sugarloaf Ranch in Colorado. Married to Sally Jensen, father to Denise (“Denny”) and Louis.

  Preacher—The First Mountain Man

  Though not a blood relative, grizzled frontiersman Preacher became a father figure to the young Smoke Jensen, teaching him how to survive in the brutal, often deadly Rocky Mountains. Fought the battles that forged his destiny. Armed with a long gun, Preacher is as fierce as the land itself.

  Matt Jensen—The Last Mountain Man

  Orphaned but taken in by Smoke Jensen, Matt Jensen has become like a younger brother to Smoke and even took the Jensen name. And like Smoke, Matt has carved out his destiny on the American frontier. He lives by the gun and surrenders to no man.

  Luke Jensen—Bounty Hunter

  Mountain Man Smoke Jensen’s long-lost brother, Luke Jensen, is scarred by war and a dead shot—the right qualities to be a bounty hunter. And he’s cunning, and fierce enough, to bring down the deadliest outlaws of his day.

  Ace Jensen and Chance Jensen—Those Jensen Boys!

  The untold story of Smoke Jensen’s long-lost nephews, Ace and Chance, a pair of young-gun twins as reckless and wild as the frontier itself . . . Their father is Luke Jensen, thought killed in the Civil War. Their uncle Smoke Jensen is one of the fiercest gunfighters the West has ever known. It’s no surprise that the inseparable Ace and Chance Jensen have a knack for taking risks—even if they have to blast their way out of them.

  CHAPTER ONE

  “Nice, peaceful-looking town,” Chance Jensen commented as he and his brother approached the settlement.

  “Think it’ll stay that way after we ride in?” Ace Jensen asked.

  “Why wouldn’t it?”

  “I’m just going by our history, that’s all. Seems like every time we show up in a place, hell starts to pop.”

  Chance made a scoffing sound. “Now you’re just being . . . what’s the word?”

  “I was thinking crazy,” Ace said.

  The brothers drew rein in front of a livery stable at the edge of town, halting Ace’s big, rangy chestnut and Chance’s cream-colored gelding in front of the open double doors.

  Not many people would have taken them for twin brothers, despite the truth of their birth. When they swung down from their saddles, Ace stood slightly taller than Chance and his shoulders spread a little wider. Dark hair peeked out from under his thumbed-back Stetson. The battered hat matched his well-worn range clothes and the plain, walnut-butted Colt .45 Peacemaker that stuck up from a holster on his right hip.

  A flat-crowned brown hat sat on Chance’s lighter, sandy-colored hair. He preferred fancier clothes than his brother, in this case a brown tweed suit and a black string tie. A .38 caliber Smith & Wesson Second Model revolver rode in a shoulder holster under the suit coat, out of sight but handy if Chance needed to use it . . . which he could, with considerable speed and accuracy.

  Both Jensen brothers possessed an uncanny ability to handle guns that had saved their lives—and the lives of numerous innocent people—in the past.

  A tall, rawboned man in late middle age ambled out of the livery stable to meet them. He wore overalls and a hat with the brim pushed up in front. Rust-colored stubble sprouted from his lean cheeks and angular jaw, and a black patch covered his left eye. “Do you gents
for somethin’?”

  “Stalls and feed for our horses,” Ace said.

  The liveryman studied the mounts for a second and nodded in approval. “Nice-lookin’ critters. Be four bits a day for the both of ’em.”

  Ace took two silver dollars from a pocket and handed them over. “That’ll cover a few days. My brother and I don’t know how long we’ll be staying here in . . . ?”

  “Lone Pine,” the liveryman said. “That’s the name o’ this place. Leastways, that’s what they call it now.”

  “Did it used to have another name?” Chance asked.

  A grin stretched across the man’s face. He chuckled and said, “When it started, they called it Buzzard’s Roost.”

  “That sounds a little sinister,” Ace said.

  “Just a wide place in the trail, back in them days. Couple saloons and a store. Owlhoots all over New Mexico Territory—hell, all over the Southwest—knew you could stop at Buzzard’s Roost for supplies and a drink and maybe a little time with an Injun whore, and nobody ’d ask any questions about where you’d been or where you planned to go. Folks who lived here would forget you’d ever set foot in the place, happen the law come lookin’ for you.”

  “So it was an outlaw town,” Chance said.

  “And now look at it,” the liveryman said with a sigh that sounded somehow disapproving. “Place is plumb respectable these days.”

  That appeared to be true. Lone Pine had a business district that stretched for several blocks, lined with establishments of all sorts. Saloons still operated, to be sure, but so did restaurants, mercantiles, apothecaries, a blacksmith shop, a saddle maker, lawyers, doctors, a newspaper—the Lone Pine Sentinel, LEE EMORY, ED. & PROP., according to the sign painted in the office’s front window—and even a shop full of ladies’ hats and dresses.

  Dozens of residences sat along the tree-lined cross streets. Lone Pine appeared to be a bustling settlement in pleasant surroundings, at the base of some foothills that rose to snowcapped peaks in the west, with green rangeland lying to the east.

  Ace spotted a marshal’s office and jail a short distance along the main street, too. With any luck, he and Chance wouldn’t see the inside of it during their stay in Lone Pine.

  He planned to hold on to that hope, anyway.

  “The way you talk about Buzzard’s Roost makes it sound like you were here during those days,” Chance said to the liveryman.

  “Oh, I was. I surely was.”

  “But you weren’t one of the owlhoots.” Chance grinned.

  “Nope. Didn’t have nothin’ but a piece of ground with a corral on it in those days, but I rented out space in it to anybody who come along, no matter which side o’ the law they found theirselves on. Had to, or risk gettin’ shot. Slowly but surely, things begun to settle down, and I made enough dinero to start buildin’ a barn.” The man jerked a knobby-knuckled thumb over his shoulder at the structure behind him.

  “It looks like you’ve done well for yourself,” Ace said. “I’m Ace Jensen, by the way. This is my brother Chance.”

  “Crackerjack Sawyer,” the liveryman introduced himself.

  “Surely Crackerjack isn’t your real name,” Chance said.

  “Castin’ doubts on a fella’s name ain’t too polite,” Sawyer said, his eyes narrowing.

  “My brother didn’t mean anything by it.” Ace cast a warning glance at Chance. “Sometimes he talks before he thinks.”

  “Well, as it happens, that ain’t the name my ma called me. ’Twas Jack. But I’m from Georgia, and when I come out here back in the fifties, some folks called me a cracker. That sorta got put together with my name, and it stuck.”

  “We’re pleased to meet you, Mr. Sawyer.”

  “Jensen . . .” the liveryman repeated slowly, frowning. “Since you was bold enough to ask me about my name, I’ll ask you boys about yours. Are you related to Smoke Jensen?”

  The brothers got that question fairly often, since just about everybody west of the Mississippi—and a good number of those east of the big river—had heard of the notorious gunfighter and adventurer Smoke Jensen. Those days, Smoke was a rancher in Colorado, but he hadn’t exactly settled down all that much, as Ace and Chance had good reason to know.

  “Don’t encourage him,” Chance said to Sawyer. “My brother thinks Smoke Jensen is some long-lost relative of ours.”

  “As a matter of fact, we’ve crossed trails with him several times, and his brothers Matt and Luke, too,” Ace said. “They’re friends of ours, but as far as we know we’re not related to them.”

  “A long time ago—must be goin’ on ten years now—Smoke come through Buzzard’s Roost. Rumor had it he was on the owlhoot then, but come to find out later the charges against him weren’t true. He already had a rep as a fast gun, though. Some other hombres who were here fancied themselves hardcases and tried to prove it by bracin’ Smoke.” Sawyer shook his head. “Almost quicker ’n you can blink, all four of ’em wound up dead in the street. Never seen the like of it, in all my borned days.”

  “That sounds like Smoke, all right,” Chance said.

  “Well, we’re not looking for any trouble like that,” Ace added. “We’re just planning on spending a little time in a nice, peaceful town before we move on.”

  Sawyer snorted. “Drifters, eh?”

  “Let’s just say we haven’t found anyplace we want to settle down in yet.”

  “Lone Pine’s peaceful enough these days . . . most of the time.”

  “Meaning some of the time it’s not?” Chance asked.

  “Bein’ respectable and law-abidin’ don’t sit well with some people. Steer clear o’ Pete McLaren and his bunch, and you’ll be fine.”

  “Where do they usually hang out . . . so we can avoid them?” Ace said.

  “Harry Muller’s Melodian Saloon.” Sawyer pointed. “Two blocks up, on the far corner.”

  “Is it the biggest and best saloon in Lone Pine?” Chance wanted to know.

  “Well . . . I reckon most folks ’d say so.”

  “But there are other saloons in town,” Ace said.

  “Yeah, three or four.”

  “If we want to wet our whistles, we won’t have any trouble finding someplace to do it. If you’ll show us the stalls where you’ll be keeping our horses, we’ll take them in and unsaddle them, Mr. Sawyer.”

  “No need to do that. I got a couple hostlers who’ll take care of it. Just get any gear you want off of ’em. We’ll take good care of the critters for you.”

  Ace and Chance took their saddlebags off the horses and draped them over their shoulders, then pulled Winchesters from sheaths strapped under the saddle fenders.

  Ace considered the state of their finances, then said, “How about a hotel? Maybe not the best in town, but decent enough to stay in.”

  “The Territorial House,” Sawyer answered without hesitation. “Next block, this side of the street.”

  “We’re obliged to you.”

  Ace and Chance walked up the street to the hotel, which turned out to be a two-story, whitewashed frame building with a balcony along the front of the second floor. They stepped up onto the boardwalk and went into a lobby with a threadbare rug on the floor and a little dust gathered in the corners. An elderly man with white hair, a bristly white mustache, and hands that trembled a little checked them in.

  “Mr. Sawyer down at the livery stable recommended your place,” Ace commented as he slid a silver dollar across the counter while Chance signed the registration book for them. It was actually cheaper for them to stay there than it was to keep their horses at the livery stable.

  “That old Reb?” the hotel man said.

  Ace didn’t know if he was the owner or just a clerk.

  “I’m surprised he sent any trade my way. I was a Union man.” He drew himself up straighter. “Colonel in the 12th Illinois infantry. Colonel Charles Howden.”

  “Mr. Sawyer said he came out here to New Mexico before the war.”

  “Yes, and then he w
ent off and fought in the Battle of Glorietta Pass for the Confederates. Forgot to mention that, didn’t he?”

  “It’s been quite a while since the war ended, Mr. Howden,” Chance pointed out.

  “Colonel Howden, if you please.”

  “Of course, Colonel,” Ace said. “If we could, uh, get the key to our room . . .”

  “Certainly.” Howden took a key from the rack and handed it to Ace. “Room Twelve, on the second floor. I hope you enjoy your stay, Mister . . .” He looked at the registration book and read their names upside down, a talent most people who worked in hotels acquired. “Jensen.”

  The name didn’t seem to mean anything to him.

  The brothers went upstairs, left their saddlebags and rifles in Room Twelve—which, like the lobby, showed signs of wear and was a little dusty—and then came back down and strolled out onto the boardwalk in front of the hotel.

  “Reckon it’s late enough in the day we could find someplace to get supper,” Ace said.

  “We could,” Chance said, “but think how much better supper would taste if we had a drink first.”

  “You weren’t thinking about that Melodian Saloon Mr. Sawyer mentioned, were you?”

  “He said it was the biggest and best in Lone Pine,” Chance replied with a smile, “and it’s right over there.” He pointed diagonally across the street toward the building on the far corner.