Ten Guns from Texas Read online

“You want to buy us a drink?”

  “Aye.”

  “Why?”

  “Have you ever heard the expression, Keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer?”

  “Nah, ain’t never heard nothin’ like that,” the bearded man said as he and his companion joined Duff at his table.

  “Well, ’tis an old Chinese proverb. To that end, would you be for tellin’ me your names?

  “I’m Tremble,” the larger of the two men said. “He’s Harrison.”

  “Mr. Tremble, Mr. Harrison, why did you want to kill me?”

  The two men looked at each other for a second, then Harrison spoke. “We didn’t want to kill you. There ain’t neither one of us ever even heard of you before today. It was Pollard that wanted to kill you. He seen you when you was down at the depot, ’n he said he’d give us twenty dollars apiece if we’d come along with him.”

  “Oh, that’s most disheartening to think that my life would be worth no more than forty dollars.”

  “Yeah, well, here’s the thing,” Tremble said. “We wasn’t supposed to have to do anythin’ but just be standin’ there ’n sort of back him up. Pollard said he’d be able to kill you all by his ownself.”

  “And why is that? Why did he want to kill me, I mean.”

  “He said you kilt his brother.”

  Duff shook his head. “He was mistaken. I have nae killed anyone named Pollard.”

  The sheriff and his deputy had arrived, and after interviewing several eyewitnesses, informed Duff that the killing of Pollard was justifiable homicide, and that he needn’t be present for the official inquiry.

  “What about these two?” Duff asked, indicating Tremble and Harrison. “Can we charge them with attempted murder?”

  “I’m not sure that we can,” the sheriff replied. “As I understand it, neither of them actually even drew their guns. I think it would be hard to make a case against them.”

  “That’s right, Sheriff. We just happened to be standin’ there when it all happened.”

  “Uh-huh,” the sheriff replied, showing his disbelief. “I’ll say this for you. You are a couple very lucky men.”

  “You mean ’cause you can’t charge us with nothin’?” Tremble asked.

  “No. I mean you are lucky that you didn’t actually take part in the shooting. I know you didn’t, because if you had been a part of, it you would both be dead now.”

  “What makes you think that?” Tremble charged. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, we wasn’t a part of it, but if we hada been, there woulda been three of us to his one. More ’n likely, MacCallister would be the one that would be dead now.”

  The sheriff chuckled cynically. “Of course he would be,” he said, sarcastically. “Now, I want you two to get out of my town before I change my mind.”

  “You got no right to run us out of town,” Harrison said.

  “I don’t have to run you out of town. I can put you in jail.”

  “How are you goin’ to put us in jail? We ain’t neither one of us done nothin’. You ain’t got no reason.”

  “I’ll keep you in jail till I think of a reason,” the sheriff replied.

  “No need for that,” Tremble said. “We’re leavin’.

  * * *

  “Hey, Tremble,” Harrison said as the two men rode out of town. “Why don’t me ’n you wait here, ’n when MacCallister rides by, we’ll shoot ’im.”

  “What would be the advantage of that?” Tremble replied. “Pollard’s dead. We wouldn’t make any money from it.”

  “Yeah, well, maybe not. But we could get some satisfaction out of it.”

  “How about getting satisfaction and a lot of money?” Tremble suggested.

  “What do you mean? Do you have an idea?”

  “Yeah.”

  Chapter Four

  Blowout

  Carl Peabody pushed through the swinging batwing doors of the Four Kings Saloon. “We cut fence where Jim Crockett was pennin’ in some of his cows, ’n we got fifty Herefords,” he said as he approached the table near the back of the room where Dirk Kincaid was sitting.

  Kincaid was playing solitaire. He held a card, studying the board for a play. “Any trouble?”

  “No, trouble. We took ’em to the Double D, ’n he said you’ll owe him two hunnert ’n fifty dollars for parkin’ the cattle there.”

  “It’s worth it,” Kendrick said as turned up the queen of hearts. “Ah, good. I’ve been looking for that one.”

  “Are you sure it’s worth it? Seems to me like we’re payin’ an awful lot of money just to park our cattle there. I mean, at five dollars a head, for as many as we’ve got there, it’s beginnin’ to add up.”

  “Tell me, Peabody, do you think we could buy cattle for five dollars a head?”

  “What? No, you know we couldn’t do that.”

  “Then look at it as if we are acquiring a rather sizeable herd at an exceptional bargain. In addition, we have a place for them to graze, as well as a place to hide them out. The Double D is one of the most respected ranches in the whole area. Nobody is ever goin’ to think to look for stolen cattle there.”

  “Yeah,” Peabody said. “Yeah, I reckon I can see that.”

  “Now go away and let me finish this game,” Kendrick said. “Tell Weasel to give you a drink on me.”

  “Thanks.” Peabody headed toward the bar.

  Northern Colorado

  The snowcapped peaks of the Rocky Mountains were white against the night sky. Four men waited in the darkness, gathered in a shallow depression behind a water tower. Before them twin rails gleamed in the moonlight.

  “It’ll be easier than eatin’ a piece of apple pie. All we got to do is wait for the train to stop for water, then we’ll take it over.”

  “You know the cattle will be on this train?” Abner Grant asked.

  “Yeah, when I was in Wheatland, I seen him get twenty cars. Twenty cars with twenty-five head on each one of ’em is five hunnert head. And oncet we take the train, the cows will belong to us.”

  “I hope you’re right. If you are, this’ll sure be easier ’n rustlin’ them,” Moe Sutton said.

  “Tremble’s right. I was in Wheatland, too. Me ’n him both seen MacCallister orderin’ the cars,” Harrison said.

  They heard a distant whistle.

  “There it is, boys,” Tremble said with a wide smile. “We’re about to be rich.”

  * * *

  Cephus Prouty, the engineer, was leaning out of the cab, looking ahead at the long beam of light cast by the mirrored headlamp just forward of the smokestack. He held his eyes squinted against the eighteen-mile-per-hour wind being generated by the speed of the train. Behind him was the tender, twenty stock cars filled with cattle, a car that was carrying three horses, a private passenger car, and a caboose.

  “I always get nervous during this part of the run,” the fireman said. “They got this water tank just about as far from the last one as you can possibly go before the tank runs plumb dry. And if that happens, we sure as hell can’t get out and push.”

  Cephus laughed. “You worry too much, Doodle. It’s only a couple more miles.” He checked the gauge. “Pressure is holdin’ up pretty good. We could damn nigh coast from here on in.”

  Doodle laughed. “Yeah? Well ever’ time we get to this part of the road, I get to thinkin’ we may need to. And one of these days, if the tank ain’t that good ’n full from the last time we took on water, we damn near may have to coast.”

  * * *

  Back in the private car, each in their own bedroom compartment, Duff, Elmer, and Wang were sound asleep. When the train began slowing, the change in the motion awakened Duff, and he sat up to have a look out his window. They were coming to a stop, and at first he wondered why, then he realized they must be approaching a water tank.

  He lay there for a few minutes, then decided to take advantage of the stop to check on Sky and the other horses. Pulling on his boots, he hopped down, then walked up to the car that was just
forward of the private car. Looking ahead, he saw that the spout had been brought down from the tank. The fireman was standing on top of the tender taking on water.

  Satisfied that nothing was amiss, Duff peered in through the slats on the side of the car and saw the three horses standing calmly, no doubt asleep. He was about to return to his car when he heard someone speaking.

  “That’s it, Mr. Fireman. You just keep on pumpin’ in that water till you got the tank good ’n full,” someone said. “We’ll be a-needin’ that.

  Startled not only by the voice, but by the fact the voice was familiar, Duff looked toward the front of the train, where he saw four men silhouetted against the glare of the headlamp. With drawn pistols, they were advancing toward the engine.

  Train robbers? But what would they be robbing? The train has neither express car, nor passengers, so what do they want? As soon as he thought the question, the answer came to him. They weren’t robbing the train . . . they intended to steal the train and the cattle.

  Duff hurried back to the private car. “Elmer! Wang! Wake up!”

  “What is it?” Elmer asked, sticking his head through the door to his room.

  “The train is being robbed!”

  “Robbed? What do you mean, robbed? What are they stealin’?”

  “They’re stealing the whole train,” Duff said.

  Even as he was talking, Duff was strapping on his pistol. It took but a moment for Elmer and Wang to join him.

  The train was still stopped, still in the process of taking on water, when the three men left the car.

  “How do we want to do this?” Elmer asked.

  “I’ll advance up the right-hand side of the train, Elmer, you go up the left side.”

  “I will go on top,” Wang said.

  “Aye, ’twas hoping you might suggest that.”

  “Wang, if this train gets started a-fore me ’n Duff get up there, it’s up to you to get it stopped. Elsewise, we’re likely to get stranded, and it’ll be a mighty long walk into the next town,” Elmer said.

  Wang nodded his understanding, then the three men, each in their respective positions, started forward. Duff and Elmer were carrying pistols, but Wang, who was leaping adroitly from car to car, was without a weapon.

  When Duff reached the front of the train, he saw two men standing there, both directing their attention toward the engine. He wondered where the other two had gone but couldn’t worry about that. He had these two to contend with.

  He recognized one of the men and realized at once why he had found the voice familiar. “Hello, Mr. Harrison. I dinnae think I’d be seeing you again. I’d be obliged if you and your friend would drop your guns.”

  “What the hell? How does he know your name?” the other man asked in alarm, startled by Duff’s unexpected appearance.

  “Oh, Mr. Harrison and I are old friends, aren’t we? Where is Tremble?”

  “I’m right here, MacCallister, holdin’ a gun on you,” a voice said from the top of the tender. “Drop your—” That was as far as Tremble got before he let out a cry of alarm and pitched headfirst from the top of the car.

  Wang stepped up to the edge of the car and nodded toward Duff.

  Duff’s attention had been directed toward the top of the car, giving the two men he had accosted an opportunity to fire. Wide flame from the muzzle flash lit up the night. They shot first, but their shots were hurried and inaccurate. Duff returned fire, and both his shots found their target, as the two train robbers went down.

  Duff heard another shot from the other side of the train.

  “I got the one in the cab, Duff!” Elmer shouted.

  “Cephus, are you and Doodle all right?” Duff yelled into the cab.

  “We’re both fine, Mr. MacCallister,” Cephus replied, stepping to the edge of the cab and looking down toward Duff.

  Elmer appeared beside the engineer. “This ’n up here’s dead.”

  Duff examined the three that lay on the ground before him. It took but a moment to ascertain that Tremble had broken his neck in the fall and was as dead as Harrison and the other man he had shot. “So are the three down here.”

  “That makes four,” the engineer said. “And four was all we saw.”

  “All right. Let’s get the bodies loaded,” Duff said. “We can dump them off at the next station.”

  Pierce, Colorado

  The sun was well up when the train arrived in town. Although it would have normally passed on through the station without stopping, Doodle jumped down and turned the switch plate so that the train was taken off the through line and switched over to a sidetrack.

  By the time the train had rumbled to a stop, the stationmaster was coming across the track toward them. “Here, what are you doing takin’ a sidetrack? No need for that. I’ve got you cleared to pass right on through.”

  Duff hopped down to meet the depot manager. “We have some bodies that we must off-load here, and I expect by the time the sheriff is through with us, it’ll be too late for us to pass on through.”

  “I expect you’re right. You have bodies, you say? Whose bodies? Was there an accident somewhere? How did you come by them?”

  “We’ll explain it later. For now I would like to borrow one of your baggage carts, so we can get them off my train.”

  Five minutes later, the four bodies were laid out on the depot platform. Each one had his arms folded across his chest. Three of them had their eyes open. The one exception was Harrison, whose eyes were closed, the result of having had his lid muscles destroyed by the bullet that hit him right between the eyes. Soon, there were more than three dozen people who had been drawn to gawk at the grisly scene, including the sheriff.

  “And you say they was tryin’ to rob the train?” the sheriff asked.

  “Yes,” Duff replied.

  “Well now, that don’t make no sense atall, does it? I mean, how are you goin’ to rob a freight train?”

  “Obviously, Constable, their intent was to steal what the train is carrying,” Duff replied.

  “And that was?”

  “Five hundred head of purebred Angus.”

  “How were they agoin’ to do that?”

  “I believe they was plannin’ on takin’ the whole train,” Cephus said. “Leastwise, that’s what the man that climbed into the cab told me.”

  “Yeah, that’s what he said, all right,” Doodle added.

  “That still don’t make no sense to me,” the sheriff said. “Just where is it that they planned to take the train? I mean, you can’t take it nowhere, where you ain’t got track.”

  “No, but by the time you get to LaSalle, there is track going east,” Cephus said.

  “Aye, and it wouldn’t be hard to take the cattle to Kansas City and sell them to a broker there,” Duff said.

  The sheriff studied Duff for a long moment. “These here is your cows, are they?”

  “Not entirely mine.”

  “What do you mean, not entirely yours?”

  “Mr. Gleason,” Duff said, nodding toward Elmer, “and a lady named Megan Parker back in Chugwater are partners with me in the cattle. We have them sold to a rancher down in Texas.”

  “But you are the one who killed these men?” the sheriff asked.

  “Aye.”

  “That ain’t entirely true, Sheriff,” Elmer said. “Duff only kilt two of ’em. I kilt one of ’em myself.”

  “That only accounts for three.”

  “I killed one of the men,” Wang said.

  “You? How’d you do that? You ain’t wearin’ no gun.”

  “Mr. Wang does not require a gun,” Duff said.

  “All right, Gleason here owns part of the cattle, so I can see how he mighta had some reason to kill one of ’em.” He looked at Wang. “You don’t own any of the cattle, do you?”

  “No.”

  “Then why did you kill one of ’em? ’N with your bare hands, too?”

  “He was pointing a gun at MacCallister Xian shen.”

 
“He was pointing a gun at what?”

  “At me,” Duff said.

  “Yeah, I caught that part of it. I just don’t know what else it was that he said, the zing zang thing.

  “Xian Shen,” Duff repeated. “It’s like using mister, only it conveys a little more respect.”

  “Respect, huh? You demand a lot of respect, do you?”

  “Only when it is due. Constable, I can’t help but get the impression that you are somewhat hostile toward my friends and me.”

  “Hostile? Yeah, you might say that. As far as I’m concerned, there’s somethin’ fishy ’bout this whole thing.”

  “Do you intend to present a bill of charges to the solicitor?”

  “Do I what?”

  “Do you intend to prosecute us for murder or manslaughter, or any similar charge?” Duff clarified.

  “No, I don’t plan to do nothin’ about it, on account of, for one thing, it wasn’t even in my jurisdiction where it happened. But I’m tellin’ you right now that I don’t believe anyone would actual try and steal an entire train. Besides which, I know two of these men. That’s Abner Grant and that’s Moe Sutton. I’ve known both of ’em for a long time, ’n there ain’t neither one of ’em ever really give me too much trouble before. Oh, they get a little rambunctious ever now ’n then, but it’s hard for me to believe they’d ever do somethin’ so foolish as to rob a train. I don’t have no idea who them other two are.”

  “The big fellow with the beard is Tremble. The one with the handlebar mustache is Harrison.”

  “I see. Friends of yours, are they?”

  “I only know their names, and just their last names at that,” Duff said. “And they are nae friends.”

  “Well if they aren’t friends, that means they are enemies. Would you say they are enemies enough, that you might want to kill them?” the sheriff asked, somewhat triumphantly.

  “Of, for heaven’s sake, Sheriff Weldon. What is it you are getting at? You got me ’n Doodle, and C.G. the brakeman, as well as these three gentlemen here, ’n all six of us is tellin’ you the same thing,” Cephus said. “These four men was tryin’ to steal the train. Now, if you know these here two fellers like you say you do, then you know we’re tellin’ the truth.”