Tall Rider Read online

  Eli hesitated. Then he said, ‘Sure. Could be there tomorrow, Brad, if that’s where you really want to go.’

  ‘Why wouldn’t I want to go there?’

  ‘’Cos it’s in Hemburg County. Just a little place. Berry’s Crossing.’

  ‘Where Bart got killed?’

  ‘The very same.’

  ‘Don’t see we got much choice.’

  ‘Brad.…’

  ‘I know what you’re thinking, Eli, how I’ll look this Calthrop up, not like what I see, even the score some and then get us all into a heap of trouble. But you got no cause to worry. Most likely the guy’s moved on. Stands to reason: man like that won’t want to hang about a one-horse town when he could be having himself a lot more fun someplace else. I don’t want no trouble getting in the way of what I come all this way to do. The folks back home are depending on me and I’ll see it through. Anyway, like I said, we got to get Billy to a doc or he’s a goner. So I guess it’s all settled.’

  And that’s how I came to be, late one June afternoon, riding up the only street of Berry’s Crossing, Hemburg County.

  We’d corralled the horses in the same place where Bart had left them two years before. First thing I did was to send Pete to find the local sawbones. He came back with a man of science name of Pelling who wore a frock-coat and carried a smell of whiskey around with him. He had told Pete to buy a couple of bottles of strong waters at the store in town, to deaden the pain he would be forced to inflict on poor Billy if the wound was as bad as Pete made out. He poured just enough down Billy’s throat to make him pass out and, while he waited for this to happen, drank the rest himself.

  ‘Waste not, want not,’ he muttered.

  To be fair, it did not seem to affect him any.

  When Billy was out cold, he poked around in his shoulder and finally dug out the slug. Then he bandaged the wound and stood up.

  ‘That’ll be five dollars. Best not move him for a couple of days. If he takes bad, you know where I live. Thanks for the drink, boys. So long.’

  And off he went.

  While this doctoring was going on, Eli had paid a call on old Jebb at the livery stables to say we had something to sell that he might want to buy. Just as the doc was leaving, the old man rolled up ready to look our horses over. He took his time but in the end said he would take them all and offered us a fair price.

  ‘Be obliged if you’d deliver. I got the space for ’em back of the stables. But at the minute I’m short of hands.’

  Leaving John Calberson and Pete to keep an eye on Billy, me and Eli Hook drove the horses through town and into Jebb’s back lot. Then he took us into his office to get paid. We were feeling good. We’d been ambushed by Indians and had come out of it not only in one piece but with a profit too. Not as big as we’d been reckoning on, but at least we were still there to count it.

  Jebb had our money, as agreed, and handed it over. We shook his hand and left.

  As we stepped into the sunshine, two men came up to us, big fellows. Both carried guns. One was wearing a deputy’s star.

  ‘Hold it there, strangers,’ said the man with the badge. ‘As I hear it, you had business with old man Jebb.’

  ‘Could be you heard right, could be you heard wrong,’ I said.

  ‘Don’t get smart with me, mister,’ he said. ‘This badge may be made of tin but it means the law, and you got to do what the law, which is me, Skate Skerritt, says.’

  ‘And what has the law, which is you, Skate, got to say to a peaceable man who attends to his own business and doesn’t mind anybody else’s?’

  ‘Cut the fancy talk. Where you get them horses you just sold?’

  ‘I don’t see why I should tell you anything, but I will. I got nothing to hide. Me, Eli here and two other bocarros drove them all the way from Pardy County, Colorado. Got jumped by Indians day before yesterday. Managed to save thirty head or so. Satisfied?’

  ‘I heard tell how that number of broncos was rustled from the Bar-T ranch yesterday. Now what you got to say about that?’

  ‘What I say, Skate, is that you hear tell of a lot of things that don’t concern me. I never heard of no Bar-T and the only thing I ever rustled was a paper bag. So why don’t you go flash your tin badge at someone smaller than yourself.’

  Skate turned red in the face. A large vein stood out on his temple and throbbed.

  Maybe riling a man with a badge and a gun wasn’t a smart move. But I never liked a bully and I had done nothing that could be of any interest to the law.

  ‘He don’t mean no disrespect,’ said Eli, before the pressure got so high it blew the top off Skate’s head. ‘My pardner’s got a mouth that runs faster than his brains.’ Then, yanking my arm, he started walking us away.

  ‘Sure nice talking to you boys,’ he said.

  ‘Stop right there,’ said Skate.

  As he spoke the words, a gun appeared in his hand and it was pointing our way.

  We stopped in our tracks. It wasn’t that he’d got the drop on us, because we weren’t carrying guns. Packing a gun isn’t considered very friendly when you go calling on a man you’re going to do business with.

  ‘These boys are acting mighty suspicious,’ said his companion, who had not spoken until now. ‘You can’t let them just walk away. The boss wouldn’t like it.’

  Skate wore the star but the other guy had the brains.

  ‘What you think we should do, Nat?’ he grunted, wrinkling his forehead with the effort of thinking.

  ‘Maybe haul them in for questioning,’ said Nat. ‘But don’t ask me: what do I know? You’re the law.’

  Still holding his gun on us, Skate said without hesitating, ‘I’m taking you in. Sheriff wants to talk to you. Move it and no tricks. Keep to the middle of the street.’

  Shepherded by Skate and Nat and their guns, we were marched down the middle of Berry’s Crossing’s only street. There weren’t many folks about and those we saw sort of crept about their business as if anxious to get it over and done with as fast as possible so they could get off the street and go home again. It wasn’t a good feeling. I hadn’t noticed it when I rode in with Eli and the horses. Probably had my mind too much on what I was doing to pay attention. But now I could feel the fear in the air.

  I wondered where it came from.

  About halfway along the street was a one-storey wooden shack with SHERIFF painted in white above the door.

  Nat opened the door, and Skate herded us inside with his gun.

  As my eyes adjusted to the sudden gloom, I saw a pair of black boots, a desk on which the boots were resting, black trouser legs tucked into the boots, a gleam of red which turned into a scarlet sateen waistcoat, with a star that was silver, not tin, pinned to it, and above the star the mustachio’d face of a man of no more than thirty who was sitting at the desk on a chair tilted back as far as it would go. He was not wearing a hat. His hair was blond.

  ‘What’s all this, Skate? What you got there?’

  I glanced across as Eli. His face was white, as if he’d seen a ghost, or maybe someone from his past he’d rather not be seeing again. It set me remembering.…

  ‘Couple of strangers for you, Rube,’ said Skate.

  I’d remembered right: Reuben Calthrop hadn’t moved on from Berry’s Crossing. He’d stayed and taken it over. Now I knew why the population lived in fear. The only law in town was what Calthorp said it was and there was nothing anybody could do about it.

  ‘They was in a huddle with old man Jebb,’ Skate went on. ‘Sold him a couple of dozen broncos. I seen them counting the money.’

  ‘Men of business, eh?’ said Calthrop. ‘How much you make?’

  ‘That,’ I replied, ‘is for me to know and you to find out.’

  ‘I’ll find out all right. Skate, see what he’s got in his pockets – and don’t think of trying to stop my deputy doing his duty, mister,’ he said to me. ‘Many a man’s got himself shot while resisting the law.’

  Since he was the man who had a
ll the cards, I let Skate turn my pockets out. He counted the money.

  ‘A mite over four hundred dollars,’ he said, and put the wad on Calthrop’s desk.

  ‘Confiscated,’ said the sheriff. ‘It’s evidence.’

  ‘Evidence of what?’ I asked.

  ‘I’ll think of something. But now it’s the cells for you boys.’

  ‘They said there was more of them,’ said Nat.

  ‘How many?’ said Calthrop.

  ‘Three,’ I said. ‘One’s got a slug in his shoulder.’

  ‘Where they at?’.

  ‘Camped down by the creek.’

  ‘Let them be, Skate. We got the ringleaders and we got the money. Why would we want more? Only make more paperwork. Sounds like a good day’s work as it is. I’d say it was time we went off duty. We’ll think what’s best to do with them in the morning.’

  ‘If you’re holding us,’ said Eli, ‘you got to tell us on what charge. It’s the law.’

  ‘No it ain’t,’ said Nat. ‘But since you want to know, it’s rustling. It’s almost always rustling.’

  ‘That’s right,’ said Rube. ‘And we always give the accused man a fair trial before hanging him. Rustlers are no-good vermin. Lock ‘em up, Skate. Then we’ll go get us a bite to eat at the Prairie Dog.’

  Eli and me were unceremoniously bundled into Berry’s Crossing’s only cell. Skate took the key from its nail on the wall, locked up, then put the key back. Then he, Calthrop and Nat went out the door leaving us to ourselves.

  ‘He means it, Brad,’ said Eli. ‘I don’t give a gopher’s tail for our chances. Calthrop’s a real wild one. In the morning, if he can wait that long, we’ll be strung up with a noose round our necks and left dancing on air. I knew we shouldn’t have come.’

  ‘It’s too late to say that. But you’re right about one thing: we got a problem. We can’t stay here. Think we can bust out?’

  We both started examining our cell. Though the front office was wood-built, the cell at the back was made of three mortar and stone walls. One had a barred window in it. The fourth, facing the office, was an iron grill with an opening section which was the door in and out. The floor was stone flagged.

  ‘Looks pretty strong to me,’ I said. ‘Even if we had a pick, that wall would take some getting through.’

  ‘What about the keys?’ said Eli. ‘Any way we can get them off that hook?’

  ‘Too far. Must be thirty feet. But maybe the lock ain’t as strong as it looks. You got anything to pick it with?’

  Eli bent down, fiddled with his boot and produced a piece of fencing wire.

  ‘Thank the Lord for a busted boot,’ he grinned, ‘and my good sense in mending it with this darling little wire-end.’

  While he worked on the lock, I took a peek through the barred window. Outside was a bare patch maybe twenty yards long squared off by low wooden palings. Beyond them I could see emigrants who had pitched their tents and parked their wagons. I heaved on the bars which rattled some but were pretty solid set into the wall.

  The best of the day was done, but it would not be dark for a spell.

  I turned to check on how Eli was doing.

  ‘It’s tricky. Question of getting the wire in the right position and using the right amount of force. Damn thing slips each time I try to turn it.’

  After I while, I replaced him with the wire.

  Then he tried again. But the wire had been weakened with all the poking and twisting and snapped off.

  All this had taken some time and by now the light was fading fast. Soon it would be dark. We resigned ourselves to wait.

  Suddenly, there was a low rustle and a voice whispered, ‘That you, Brad?’

  ‘Sure is, and mighty glad to hear a friendly voice!’

  It was Pete Curtis and he had John with him.

  ‘Eli in there with you? Good. Take this rope and fix it round the bars. We got four horses here and we’re going to make a hole in the wall so you two jailbirds can fly away.’

  While I wound the rope around the bars and secured it, Pete said that when old man Jebb had seen us being walked off by Skate and Nat, he knew we were in deep trouble. He’d gone out to the camp and told him and John they’d better get us out of jail if they wanted to see us alive again. The boys had come up with this plan. They broke camp, leaving it to look as if they’d left in a hurry and weren’t coming back. The old man said he’d hold their horses for them. He’d told them about a tumbledown barn where Billy could hide up. He’d be safe there until Eli and me had been sprung. Then we could all go get him and the horses and hightail it out of Berry’s Creek. They’d waited till it was dark enough and then made their move.

  ‘Stand clear,’ said Pete, ‘the horses are taking the strain.’

  I heard John urging the horses.

  The bars began to bend outwards, but didn’t give.

  John and Pete rested the horses, then set them on again.

  This time the bars began tilting up from the bottom, slowly, gradually, and then there was a creaking and a rending and suddenly they and a sizeable chunk of wall weren’t there any more. Instead, there was a cloud of dust which filled my eyes and throat. As the air cleared, I blinked my eyes clear and began to make out stars in the night sky. I heard Eli’s voice. But he wasn’t cheering or whooping. What he said was, ‘Brad, watch your back!’

  I turned and saw three guns trained on us.

  The hands holding them belonged to Skate, Nat and Calthrop, who smiled and said, ‘Couple of minutes later and we’d have missed the party. But now the gang’s all here, we can really make things go with a bang.’

  Skate and Nat were just drunk. But Calthrop was nasty drunk.

  4

  BREAK-OUT

  Calthrop told Skate to open the cell door. There didn’t seem much sense in keeping anybody locked up in a cell that had no more backside to it than an apple-scrumping kid’s pants.

  Then he ordered Nat to go out back and find out who’d been wrecking his jail. Nat sobered up some, but he was still pretty slow in his movements.

  Skate had some difficulty fitting the key in the keyhole. He held it in one hand and waved it around so much that I was afraid the gun he had in the other would go off and kill somebody, and that somebody could have been standing on either side of the bars. When he finally inserted it into the lock, it got jammed by the end of the wire Eli had broken off inside it, and when he couldn’t get it out again he swore, lost his temper and shot the lock off anyway. Then he stumbled into the cell and lunged at Eli, grabbing him and pushing him out. He gave me the same treatment then sat down, blowing hard. He looked around vacantly. Next moment his eyes had closed and he had passed out.

  One down, two to go.

  But though the odds had improved they were still too long.

  The time Skate took hustling us out of the cell was long enough for Nat to take a look-see and come back.

  ‘All quiet out there now, Rube,’ he reported. ‘Only folks about was emigrants and they weren’t saying if they saw anything. Must be blind and deaf if they didn’t catch on to what was going on. We’ll ask again tomorrow. Get some answers then. But they certainly made a mess of the wall. Pulled most of her down.’

  ‘No need to go bothering the neighbours,’ said Calthrop turning to us, ‘when we got witnesses here who can tell us what happened. You,’ he barked at Eli, ‘what happened? Who did it? How many were there of them?’

  ‘Couldn’t rightly say,’ said Eli. ‘I’m not a tall guy and the window was too high for me to see out of. I didn’t hear anything until the bars were pulled off her.…’

  Eli was right. He wasn’t tall. But Calthrop was. Bigger too, and heavier. So when he chopped Eli with a right and followed up with a left, you could hear bone break. Eli went down and didn’t get up.

  ‘How about you, mister? You got fancy answers, or are you going to tell me who did this thing?’

  It turned out he didn’t really want to hear any answers, fancy or otherwise
. What he wanted was to get back at somebody for thinking they could put one over on him. Anybody would do, and I was there.

  I was about to tell him some yarn that would take attention away from Pete and John and give them time to get further away when he suddenly lashed out without warning and connected with a left that caught me on the ear. I was taken by surprise. I staggered back and fell over a chair. Before I could get up, he was on me, wading in with his boots.

  I felt a rib go and curled up to protect my face and chest.

  Then he changed tack and straightened me up with a good toe-kicking in my back.

  I tried scrambling away, thinking I could get on my feet. But Nat now joined in and started working on my legs.

  There was nothing I could do about it. After a while, I felt myself slipping away.

  I don’t know how long they kept it up. I reckon not too long after I passed out. They’d been going at it pretty hard for some time and they were pretty drunk to start with. So I guess they must have lost interest in me after a while, though they gave Eli a going over too. He wasn’t a big guy and they hurt him real bad.

  When they’d punched and kicked themselves out, they most likely went back to the Prairie Dog for another drink. At least I guess that’s where they went. But wherever it was, they weren’t there when I came to. I was hurting all over. The noise made when I breathed told me my nose was staved in and when I tried to sit up I knew a few more ribs had gone too. My arms and legs had taken such a pounding that the muscles were swollen and it was agony trying to move them. My left arm felt like it was broken but both legs still seemed in one piece. But that I wouldn’t know for sure until I got up and stood on them, something I thought I might manage within the next year or two, but not in the near future. That gives you an idea of the sort of job they’d done on me. But I thought I should try. I started by rolling over on one side and got hit by shooting pains in my back where they’d battered my kidneys. I was a mess.

  But not so much a mess as Eli. He was lying like a rag doll on the floor. One leg was twisted unnaturally under him and his face was an unrecognizable bloody mess. I studied him from where I was. After a while, I knew for sure he wasn’t breathing.