Return of the Mountain Man Read online

  Smoke tied the note to a stick, slipped down the ridge to within throwing distance, and tossed the message onto the main street.

  Then Smoke, Sam, and the mountain men sat back and waited for the fun to begin.

  Deputy Rogers had retrieved the stick. Since he couldn’t read, he had no idea what was going on. He took the stick to Sheriff Reese. Reese read the message and took off at a run for Stratton and Potter.

  “It’s a trick!” Stratton said, his fat jowls quivering.

  “I don’t think so,” Potter said. “You know perfectly well that by now all the ranchers know the road is blocked. There isn’t a day goes by a dozen or more cowboys don’t come into town to raise hell. Janey makes her grand appearance in town every day, weather permitting. No, I think we’ve been tossed to the lions.

  Goddamn Richards!”

  “What are we gonna do?” Reese asked.

  “I don’t know. Give me time to think.”

  “If they try to send someone out of town, let them,” Smoke said. Turning to Sam, he said, “And the one person they’re going to meet will be you.”

  “I don’t follow you,” the puncher said.

  “Your being fired was just a sham. A trick to get you on my side and see who I really was. You make them believe you’re still working for Richards. Tell whoever they send out that Richards isn’t going to interfere with me—he wants me to destroy the town, and everybody in it. Think you can pull that off?”

  Sam grinned in the twilight. “You just watch me.”

  Sam rode out toward the north, reining up several miles from town. The mountain men built campfires to the south, the west, and the east of Bury. They deliberately left the north dark.

  “That damned Jensen is so sure of himself he’s not even guarding the north road,” Reese said. He cursed under his breath.

  “We got to be sure,” Potter said. “Reese, send one of your men out to the ranch. Or as close to it as he can get. I’ve been thinking about something else, too.” He looked at Reese. “Who gave the orders to fire Sam?”

  “Richards said Mr. Stratton did.”

  “I never gave any such orders! You’re sure Richards said it was my idea?” Stratton demanded.

  “Well, yes, sir. But maybe he just used your name and forgot to tell you about it?”

  “Why would he do that?”

  “Because Sam worked for you, kinda.”

  But the seeds of suspicion had already been planted and were taking root. “Bull!” Stratton said.

  “Looks bad, Keith,” Potter said. “I’m beginning to think that just maybe Richards may have sent for Smoke.”

  “Yeah,” his partner replied. “That would fit. That no good—” He bit back the profanity.

  “Reese, you go snoop around town while your man is riding out. Go.”

  “Hold up!” Sam called from the darkness.

  Deputy Rogers reined up and tried to peer through the gloom. “Sam? That you, Sam?”

  “Yeah. Don’t let none of them other riders catch you out here. They’ll shoot you on sight.”

  “What other riders?” Rogers pulled in close to Sam.

  “Crooked Snake, Triangle, Double Bar B—and any of Mr. Richards’s gunhawks.”

  Rogers sighed. “Then it’s true, Sam?”

  “It’s true.” An idea began to form in Sam’s head. He thought Smoke would like it. “I’m ridin’ between town and the ranch, carryin’ messages back and forth.”

  “Well, heck!” Rogers took off his hat and scratched his head. “I ain’t got no messages to give you. Sorry.”

  “That’s all right.” You big dummy! Sam thought. “I got one for you to carry to Potter and Richards.”

  “They figured it out, Sam.”

  “Figured what out?”

  “That you was all the time not fired and really workin’ for Richards.”

  Sam breathed a bit easier. “I figured they would.”

  “And Mr. Richards sent for that there Smoke Jensen, didn’t he?”

  “I think so.” This was gettin’ better and better, Sam thought. But, he reminded himself, don’t drop your guard. Rogers was big and stupid, but still a cold-blooded killer and cat quick.

  “What’s your message for them in town?”

  Sam thought hard. “They’re comin’ in at noon, tomorrow.”

  “Well, then, I got a message for you. You tell ’em we’ll be a-waitin’.”

  “No, we won’t be waiting!” Stratton said.

  “Huh?” Rogers was getting confused.

  “Damn right!” Potter said.

  “How we gonna get past Smoke and them mountain men?” Reese asked.

  “Go holler up the hill,” Stratton said. “Tell Smoke I wanna talk to him.”

  “What do you want?” Smoke called out of the high darkness.

  “It was Richards that ordered your brother killed!” Potter yelled. “Me and Stratton didn’t have nothing to do with it.”

  Smoke knew the man was lying. Knew it because of the dying confession of a TC hand a few years back. Smoke knew Potter had shot his brother. But since Sam had hightailed it back and told them all what he’d done, Smoke had agreed it was a fine idea. He’d play along.

  “All right. I never knew who it was. But you was part of it,” Smoke returned the darkness-shrouded shout.

  “I won’t deny that.” Stratton’s voice. “Neither of us. But what’s done is done. I still have nightmares about it, though. If that makes any difference to you.”

  “That lyin’ poke of buffalo chips!” Preacher said. “Only nightmares he ever has is someone stealin’ his money.”

  “Yeah, I know,” Smoke told his mentor. Raising his voice, he called, “What’d you want to talk to me about?”

  “Ain’t no call for us to be fightin’ each other, Jensen. We know that Josh sent for you, probably payin’ you good money, but whatever he’s payin’ you, we’ll triple it. How about it? You’re a hired gun. What difference does it make who pays you?”

  “He’s payin’ me what’s on that dodger. All in gold. You want to triple that, I’ll take it in greenbacks or double eagles. Send MacGregor up here with the money. Let all the women leave the Pink House. Send them up here with Mac.”

  “And you’ll do what?”

  “I’ll stand aside and let you three fight it out among you. Deal?”

  “Who is Sam working for?” Potter called.

  “Richards. But I know where he is, so I can get word to him.”

  “All right. It’ll take us about an hour to get that much money together. We’ll have to open the bank.”

  “I’ll be here. In the meantime, you let those women go free. Deal?”

  “It’s a deal, Jensen.”

  “Sally?” Smoke called. “You hearin’ all this?”

  “Yes!” Sally’s voice rose faintly from the edge of town.

  “Then get some clothes and blankets together and come up here. You won’t be harmed.”

  “We’re on our way. And Mister Potter and Mister Stratton?” she yelled.

  “We’re right here, Miss Sally.”

  “We’ll all be armed!”

  No one could hear Stratton or Potter’s muttered response. Probably just as well.

  19

  “Thank Sam for this,” Smoke told Sally, as the women scampered up the hill and over the crest of the ridge. “He come up with this idea.”

  “Came up with,” Sally corrected.

  “Yes, ma’am,” Smoke said.

  “Lord have mercy!” Preacher muttered. “Rest of you boys look out now, ’cause them two gonna git to sparkin’ and a-moonin’ and a-carryin’ on like who’d-a-thunk-it.”

  “Shut up, Preacher,” Smoke told him.

  “Most unrespectful young’un I ever hepped raise,” Preacher said.

  “Disrespectful,” Sally corrected automatically.

  “Lord, give this old man strength,” Preacher mumbled, walking away.

  About forty minutes after the women arri
ved, MacGregor called up the hill. “Do you actually expect one aging bookkeeper to behave as a pack animal and carry all this money up this mountain?”

  “Comin’ down,” Smoke called.

  “Any trouble?” Smoke asked, facing Mac on the hillside.

  “Not a bit. Come on, let’s walk.” He tossed his suitcase to Sam and split the sacks of money between Smoke and him self. When they were out of normal earshot, Mac said, “I told Stratton and Potter I was no gunhand. I wanted out. They dismissed me without a second thought. Tell you the truth, I was relieved to get out. What in the world is going on, Mr. Jensen?”

  “Let them destroy each other,” Smoke said. “I’ll clean up what’s left.”

  “Very good thinking, young man. But what if one side or the other discovers your ruse?”

  “My what?”

  “Your trickery?”

  “I’ll worry about that if and when it happens.”

  “I think I would not like you for an enemy, young man,” Mac said.

  “When this is over, Mac, you’ll probably never see me again. I intend to drop out of sight, change my name, hopefully get married, and settle down.”

  “I wish you luck, Kirby Jensen.”

  “Thank you, Mr. MacGregor.”

  With much good-natured grumbling among the mountain men, the ladies were settled in for the night. Guards were posted on the ridges, although none believed they were really necessary. The lights in the town of Bury blazed long into the night as the men prepared for war. Around midnight, very late for a western town, the lanterns and candles began to go out and the town was a dark shape in a velvet pocket.

  The town was stirring before the first silver fingers of dawn began creeping over the mountains, touching the valleys and lighting the new day.

  On the ridges, the men and women watched the citizens of Bury saddle horses and check out equipment.

  “Mines is shut down tight,” Dupre told Smoke. The Frenchman had just completed a night-long tour of the country.

  “The miners?”

  “They around, but they keepin’ their heads down and their butts outta sight. They know all hell’s about to break loose around here.”

  “You see any PSR riders?”

  “Several. They watchin’ the town. Been there all night. I allow as to how they know ’bout the deal you made with Potter and Stratton. Seen one haul his ashes back towards the spread, hell bent for leather.

  Smoke’s grin was visible on the rim of the tin cup full of scalding black coffee. “Going to be a very interesting day,” he said.

  “So Wiley and Keith sold out to Smoke Jensen,” Josh mused aloud. “Interesting. Thank you for that news.” He waved the cowhand away and concentrated on his breakfast, conscious of the eyes on him as he ate.

  Marshall and Lansing and Brown sat at the long table in the dining room. Marshall finally said, “They got us outnumbered just a tad.”

  “Not enough to cause us any concern,” Josh replied. “As soon as they start pulling out, my riders will come fogging with the news and we’ll have time to get ready. Besides, they’re shopkeepers and store owners, not gunfighters.”

  Brown dashed cold water on that remark. “Josh, there ain’t a man among them ain’t a veteran of either the Civil War or a dozen Injun fights. They may be scoundrels and the like, but they ain’t pilgrims.”

  Josh laid his knife and fork aside. He patted his mouth with a napkin. “Yes, you’re right. They aren’t going to just roll over and give up.” He was thoughtful for a moment. He picked up a tiny silver bell and rattled it, bringing the houseman to the dining room. The other ranchers hid their amusement at that. “Thomas,” Josh said to the black houseman, “tell Wilson and McNeil I wish to see them. Now!”

  “Boss,” Wilson said, uncomfortable in the lushly appointed dining room with carpet and heavy drapes and expensive chandelier. McNeil stood by his partner’s side. The men held their hats in their hands.

  “Pick a half-dozen boys from each ranch and take a dozen of our men. Ambush the men from town. To get to here, they’ve got to come through Levi Pass. Hit them there. Draw enough ammo and food for several days in the field. And, Wilson…” He met the man’s eyes. “If you fail, don’t bother coming back.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Smoke stood on the ridge overlooking the now-deserted town of Bury. His eyes were bleak. Savage-looking. Sally stood by his side, gazing up at him.

  “What are you thinking, Smoke?” she asked.

  “Take a good look at Bury, Sally.”

  “I see it. What about it?”

  “’Cause this is the last time you’ll be able to see it.”

  “Are we pulling out?”

  “No. Not yet.”

  “Then…?”

  “I’m going to burn it to the ground.” He checked both his Colts and picked up his Henry repeating rifle. He slowly walked down the hill, Matt, Preacher, Tenneysee, and Greybull following him.

  Sally stood on the crest of the ridge, Audie by her side—standing on a large rock. Little Ben joined them, rubbing sleep from his eyes.

  “What are your feelings toward and for that young man?” Audie asked.

  “I love him,” Sally said quietly.

  “It bloomed very quickly between you two. Are you certain of your feelings?”

  “Yes.”

  “When this is over,” Audie said, “I believe the burning hate within him will vanish. It’s been an all-consuming thing with him for a long time. But hear me out, young woman. No matter where you two go…”

  “Three,” Sally said, putting her arm around Ben’s shoulders.

  Audie smiled. “No matter where the three of you go, Smoke’s reputation will follow. No matter how hard he tries, he will never be able to completely shake it. This is wild and savage country, and it will be so for many years to come. If you settle somewhere to ranch, there will be outlaws who will try to take what is yours, and Smoke will stand up to them. Word will get around, and tinhorns and would-be gunhands will follow, the only thing in their minds being the desire to be the man who killed the fastest gun in the west. Then you will have to leave and settle elsewhere, for Smoke is not the type of man to back down. He desperately wants to settle down, live a so-called normal life, but it is going to be extremely difficult. You’re going to have to be very strong.”

  “Yes,” Sally said, not taking her eyes from her young man. And she knew he was hers. “I am aware of that. Mr. Audie…”

  “Just Audie. My last name is no longer important.”

  “Audie. I am a woman of some means. I recently came into quite a large sum of money. Perhaps Smoke will consent to go back east and live.”

  Audie smiled. “What would he do, Sally? Can you imagine him in some office, with a tie and starched collar?”

  She laughed softly. She could not imagine that.

  “He is a man of the west, of the frontier. This is his land. He would not be happy anywhere else.”

  And I would not be happy anywhere without him, she thought. Odd that I have known him for so brief a time and yet am so certain of my feelings. But I am certain.

  Only a few people remained in town, and those looked very suspiciously at Smoke and the mountain men. Their suspicion soon turned to hard reality.

  “Pack up and clear out,” Smoke informed them. “Get your gear together, and move out!”

  “You can’t just come in here and force us out!” a man protested.

  Smoke looked at the man, open contempt in his eyes. “You did what before you came here?”

  The man shuffled his feet and refused to reply. He dropped his eyes.

  Smoke looked at the small group left behind in the town. “You all knew you were working for crud and crap. And you didn’t care. All you cared about was money. And it didn’t make a damn to any of you where that money came from, or how you earned it. I have no sympathy for any of you. Get your gear together and get out of here.”

  They got.

  “Round up
all the pack animals you can find,” Smoke asked the mountain men. He waved all but four of the men down from the ridge, leaving those as guards. “We’re gonna give some of these homesteaders in this area a second chance. Food, clothes, boots, guns, equipment. We’ll pass it out later. Let’s get to work.”

  What couldn’t be packed out on horses and mules was passed up the hill like a bucket brigade. Soon the stores were emptied. The town was strangely silent and ghostlike. Audie summed it up.

  “This town had no heart,” the little man said. “One cannot feel sorry for destroying something that never lived.”

  Smoke tossed the first torch into a building. The dry wood was soon blazing, spreading to the adjoining building. Black greasy smoke began pouring into the sky in spiraling waves. The dry pine began popping like sixguns. Soon the heat was so intense it forced the men back to the coolness of the ridge.

  “Soon as them people see this smoke, they’ll get the message,” Preacher said.

  “Those that are left alive,” Smoke said softly.

  20

  Levi Pass lay sullen under the heat of the sun. Bodies littered the pass; men and animals sprawled in soon-to-be bloated death. The first contingent of men, led by Deputy Payton, had been knocked from their saddles in a hard burst of rifle fire from the rocks above the pass. Among the first to die were Rosten, the stable manager; Simmons, who ran the general store; and Deputy Payton. A sheriff back in Iowa would never learn that he could destroy the murder warrant he held for Payton.

  Among the gunhands in the rocks, McNeil and a rider from the Crooked Snake and Triangle lay dead. The moaning of the wounded, on both sides, softly drifted out of and above the dust and gunsmoke of the pass.

  Then the men saw the smoke belching into the skies.

  “What the hell?” Wilson muttered from behind his shoulder on the ridge.

  “That bastard Jensen has torched the town!” Potter said.

  “Oh, my God!” Stratton said, his face dusty and his elegant clothing torn and dirty. “All our records.”

  Wilson laughed. “Looks like your boy done turned on you!” he called down into the pass.