Slocum and the Bixby Battle Read online

“Yes.”

  “Call a meeting for tomorrow here for all the men that can fight. Maybe by then I can think clear enough.”

  “I will call on some women, too.”

  “The ones who helped me escape?” He realized then that the women had handled his getaway. In his groggy condition, he could not recall a man being with them.

  “Good,” she said, wiping at her tears. “Everyone said you would know what to do when you were off those drugs.”

  “Who?”

  “The women of the ranch.”

  “Did you cut that jail deputy’s balls off?” he asked her with a smile.

  “If you see him again he may talk in a high-pitched voice,” she said. “That bastard.”

  “I’m going to have to sleep awhile longer. Wake me up in time to meet with them.” He set the half-drunk cup aside and lowered himself down on the pallet. No strength, he needed to get his back.

  She covered him with a quilt.

  When he awoke, he discovered that the cave held many who’d come to fight. He sat on the pallet with some of his thinking restored. He recognized many of the men’s faces from the ranch. But the women impressed him as well; many wore bandoleers with ammunition and pistols. Several of the attractive ones had hacked their hair short.

  The part-Apache who used the buffalo gun on the cannoneers squatted a few feet from him.

  “Do they hold the señora at his ranch?” he asked the man.

  The Apache nodded, his dark face a mask of anger.

  “How many men guard her?” he asked.

  “Many pistoleros.”

  Tia rose to her feet with a rifle in her hand and joined them. “We have some of our sisters who are working as spies at his ranch now. They are looking for a chance to get the señora free. They are very watchful. Oh, Bixby is also holding a young man—we think he’s a Ranger.”

  “A Ranger?” Slocum asked. “Had they sent one?”

  “Yes, but he is only a boy.” The woman shook her head to dismiss his importance.

  “There are lots of young men serving as Rangers. We need him out of there, too. He can get us some real help.”

  “What should we do to get this done?” A tall, slender woman standing at the side asked the question. She wore ammunition belts crisscrossed over her breasts. Her dark eyes bore holes in him.

  “This woman talking to you, her name is Donna,” Tia said in his ear.

  “Donna, in the morning I will ride over and scout this place. And then we can decide.”

  “Señor.” An older man stood up to speak. “His men are already rebranding her cattle like they own them.”

  “Are there guards with these crews?”

  “Sí, señor.”

  “Are the men working those cattle vaqueros?”

  “Sí.”

  “Can we trust any of these vaqueros?”

  A tough-looking woman stood up wearing a six-gun in a holster on her hip. “Some we can, some we can’t.”

  Others nodded.

  “Then give the ones that will help us pistols to hide until we jump Bixby’s guards.”

  That satisfied many, who nodded their heads in agreement with his plan.

  “They guard even their horses now,” a woman said. “Or we would have cut their girths like you did that night.”

  “Have you tried to distract them, these guards?” he asked with a knowing smile.

  “No,” the lady pointed at him, “but we will.” Her words drew several laughs and smiles.

  He bet they would.

  “Let’s find our friends in the workers and I will look over the Bixby setup.”

  “God be with you!” someone shouted, and a chorus added the same in the cavern’s echoes.

  So he needed to be strong enough by sunup to ride a horse and perhaps outrun some of Bixby’s men. The people were leaving—many waved goodbye to him.

  “I think he plans a cattle drive soon,” the woman called Donna said, walking up.

  “He probably needs the money to pay all these workers and guards,” Slocum said. “He must have an army-size payroll.”

  “He had not paid the ranch help in two months, until the other day.”

  “What about her money at the ranch?” He recalled that Amanda kept a large sum in an old green safe in her office.

  “She took it and hid it. They never got it.”

  “Good. So it is safe?”

  “Yes, and I have a good ranch horse for you to ride,” Donna said. “I will go with you.”

  “Thanks,” he said as Tia nodded her approval.

  His head pounded with a headache. He wished it was clearer so he could think. Being doped up for the week had left him depleted and mindless—Amanda being held as a prisoner of Bixby made him angry and frustrated about his next move. They probably kept her under a strong guard, especially since the women broke him out of the county jail.

  “You should rest,” Tia said. “You will be stronger in the morning.”

  He shook his head to clear the cobwebs. She brought him some tea.

  “Drink this. You will feel better.”

  The tin cup in his hands, he considered the fire’s light casting shadows on the red rock walls of the cave. He glanced up at Tia. She stood above him with her arms folded and the serape over her shoulder against the cave’s coolness.

  A woman in her forties, the flickering reflection on her high cheekbones, the sadness in the corners of her eyes, she stared across the room. Moved by her taking charge of his fate, the jail breakout and all, he wondered what he should say to her.

  “You approve of me going to look over Bixby’s security?”

  She glanced away then turned back. “I worry for the señora. She tried so hard . . .”

  “I should never have left her.”

  “No. You were on a mission to save her and the ranch.”

  “I wish it had turned out different.” He sipped the strong tea.

  “Nothing you could have done. I tell you that this Donna is a tigre. She won’t let anything happen to you unless they kill her.”

  “Good, thanks. I’ll try to see that doesn’t happen.” He looked at the pallet underneath him. “I better get some sleep.”

  “Yes,” she said. “You need your rest. I want to check and be sure the guard is on the lookout.”

  “Thanks,” he said and lay down.

  She whipped out another blanket and covered him. “I will wake you in time.”

  He acknowledged her words and closed his eyes. The next day would bring more problems. But even in his still-drugged dumb stupor he worried abut Amanda. We are coming.

  23

  “There goes that same bastardo,” the willowy Donna said, lying belly down beside him, studying the ranch. “Twice he’s taken food in that jacal.”

  Slocum’s eye to the telescope, he agreed. “That must be where they are holding her.”

  “One fat one out in front sits in the chair with a rifle.”

  “You know him?” Slocum asked.

  “They call him Kelly.”

  “You know that boy takes the food?”

  In reply, she shook her head so hard she had to raise up to sweep the short hair from her face. She blew out a sharp breath through her pursed, full lips. “But if I could get up close, I could coax that Kelly away from his post.”

  “Too damn dangerous. After the jailbreak and castration, I bet they’ve been warned not to be tempted.”

  She squeezed her fist like she was crushing something in it. “That’s what I would do to his balls.”

  “They want us to lose our cool. We need a better plan. How much hay do they have and where?”

  “There is a stack by the corral. Why?”

  “I’ll explain. Can we get up on the house and stuff that chimney with wet sacks?”

  Her dark eyes danced with mischief when she looked over at him. “You plan to really distract them?”

  “We bring a big bunch here to fight them, they’ll throw their forces at us and may
kill her.”

  “What is first?”

  “We cut the barb wire on the horse trap and let their ponies out the back way. You smell those pigs?”

  She wrinkled her nose. “Yes.”

  “We let them out about dark. I can hear baby ones. Those sows will be pissed and mad. That will add to the confusion. We’ll stop the kitchen chimney and set the hay on fire, then you can coax Kelly off his ass and I’ll bust him over the head.”

  “What if they have guards inside the jacal, too?”

  “Cross that bridge when we get there.” He studied the house. Bixby had not shown himself. That was good, because without a commander they wouldn’t organize as fast.

  “I think I can slip up to those sheds and find the sacks,” she said.

  “How?” He frowned at the idea of her taking any unnecessary chances.

  “I can come up that canyon over there and use the cedars for cover. The guard on the shed roof won’t see me and I can have them ready for the job.”

  “Don’t take any chances.”

  She made a kiss at him with her full lips then backed away under the juniper that sheltered them. “If I can’t do it, I’ll be back.”

  “Careful,” he hissed after her.

  He watched another gunslinger come by and jaw with Kelly. He wore a gunbelt and no doubt was part of the force, but not anyone important. He did toss his head toward the room and Kelly nodded. Though he couldn’t hear them, the motion convinced Slocum that Amanda and that young Ranger were both in there.

  He scoped out the guard with the rifle on top of the barn roof, and wondered about him. Then he watched him come to the edge and talk to someone on the ground. A smile crossed Slocum’s face because he saw Donna, with her dress above her knees, using the distraction to break for the barn, going beyond the two and out of their vision.

  Good enough. She was in the barn, where she knew the whereabouts of the sacks. He studied the place, but the guard on the roof looked to be the only one visible and Slocum decided he must be the chief outlook, besides Kelly, who leaned back in his chair and kept an eye on things.

  Then Slocum saw something different. It was Donna, taking clothes that were drying off the line. Then she faded out of view toward the barn and he resumed breathing again. What the hell was she doing?

  He forced his eyes to stay open as the day warmed. He wished he’d taken some crackers or jerky along to eat. The boredom reminded his belly it was midday. A swig from the canteen and he looked at the dust boiling up.

  That meant a buggy or wagon and Bixby might be coming back. Not him—Slocum had never seen the man who got out. He spoke to a rifle-bearing guard who came off the front porch of the main house. One more that Slocum had not seen before—this show of force meant they were serious.

  He glanced back as Donna came under the low boughs on her hands and knees. A smile on her face, she carried a bundle of clothing.

  “What for?”

  “Dressed like one of their women, they won’t know I don’t belong there in the confusion that you plan.”

  He dropped back. “Someone came. Just now. You recognize them?”

  She took the telescope and looked hard. “I saw him in the sheriff’s office when we got you out.”

  “He got a name?”

  “Son of a bitch.”

  Slocum about laughed. “He’s the sheriff’s main man?”

  “I think so. Has he gone to check on the jacal? No, but he and the guard from the house talked.”

  “He coming this way?”

  “Yeah, he must be going to check on the prisoners.” She made an angry face.

  “We might better be ready for a change in plans,” Slocum said.

  “That no-good bastard.”

  “What’s he doing?” Slocum blinked to see what had upset her.

  “Going in the jacal.”

  For the next five minutes, they held their breath and watched the open doorway, but could see nothing, except Kelly’s butt as he stood in the opening, holding on to the facing. Slocum wished for a .50-caliber to give him an enema.

  At last, the man came out, spoke to Kelly and left. In minutes, he was driving off in boiling dust and they knew no more.

  “How will we do it?”

  “Twilight, we’ll sneak up. Cut the trap fences and try to get the horses out before they notice. Need to stuff the rags in the chimney next.”

  “There’s a ladder I put right by them inside the barn.”

  “Good, I’ll use it. You see the pigs?”

  She nodded.

  “You turn them loose and set the hay on fire.”

  “Then I’ll meet you beside the jacal and we’ll take out Kelly.”

  “Yes, but if there’s two of them—her and the other prisoner—can’t run or walk, we may have problems. Our horses are over a quarter mile away.”

  “There are some horses saddled by the corral. I guess in case.”

  “We’ll need them,” he said.

  “I can handle Kelly, you bring the horses.”

  “He’s a tough one.”

  “So was that one in the jail.”

  “They know we’re after them.”

  She pursed her lips and moved over to him. “Kiss me for luck.”

  “We still have a few hours.”

  “Kiss me anyway.”

  What the hell? He kissed her. Afterward, she smiled at him, then went back on her elbows. “Damn shame we’re laying in these damn sticky needles. But aye, next time we will bring a blanket.”

  “Next time, yes,” he agreed and about laughed aloud.

  Nightfall, they had cut the horse pen fence, and a few head had already stepped through the open span when they headed for the barn. Make it hard to round them up. When the guard on the roof turned his back, they hurried to the dark barn.

  Slocum picked up the ladder and sacks. She nodded and said, “Pigs next.”

  He nodded and made his way along the barn’s shadowy sides. In a hundred feet of open ground, he was beside the house. Ladder in place, he went quiet as a mouse up the rungs and eased his weight onto the roof. It gave and he hoped it was not that loud. Another step and then one more and he was beside the brick flue.

  The sacks stuffed in place, he could hear the kitchen help chattering below him and tiptoed to the edge and down the ladder. Get the horses next—he paused at the edge of the house before crossing the pearl-lit yard. Then, seeing nothing, he went to the corral where the six horses were hitched. Acting as if he were on a mission, he undid the horses and started leading them to the west side of the ranch layout.

  He passed the barn and was coming to the jacal when he heard a hiss. “Come on!”

  He rounded the building and saw three figures in the shadows. He recognized Donna and Amanda. The third one looked like a young cowboy.

  “Fire! Fire!” someone shouted behind him.

  “Who let the damn hogs out?” another yelled in the growing confusion.

  “Slocum, thank God you are alive,” Amanda said and put her face on his shirt for a second; then he boosted her into the saddle, his strength fast waning.

  “Graham, Texas Rangers,” the young man said and bounded onto his mount. Donna was on one and Slocum looked back. The problems of the fire and the loose pigs were working.

  “The damn house is on fire, too!” someone else shouted in the pandemonium.

  With effort, Slocum swung into the saddle. “Donna, get us out of here.”

  She let out a wildcat scream and, whipping her horse, headed for the dark cedars. Slocum took up the rear guard. As they drew some pistol shots, the night wrapped them in her arms and they were gone—riding the horses that they had planned to use.

  After midnight, they were at the cave, and Tia, looking like the triumphant one, served them red wine, beef, vegetables and fresh-made tortillas.

  Slocum guessed Troy Graham to be in his twenties, but the young man was wiry, and, despite his days of torture at Bixby’s hands, was ready to call in the
rest of his Ranger company.

  Amanda looked very tired, but she maintained her spirit.

  “We’ve been all split up since we left the ranch,” she said. “Donna told me what happened to poor Montez. How did you get out of jail?”

  “Tia and Donna came to my rescue.”

  “Well, what now?”

  “I need to get word to the captain,” Graham said. “He’ll be here and we can get rid of them in a few days. Once we get Bixby and McKlein, these gunhands will fade for the border like smoke on the wind.”

  “I don’t doubt that,” Slocum said. “But they have the road guarded, and they even got me on the back roads. Let’s let my plan work some. We’re getting people we can trust armed. I want a bunch of these thugs put behind bars, not just run off to Mexico.”

  “I like that thinking. You don’t want them coming back when the next guy wants to start a range war, right?” Graham said.

  “Exactly. We need them brought in and jailed.”

  “How are we getting them?”

  “Best way that I know. One at a time.”

  “But how long will that take?” Amanda asked.

  “Faster than you think.”

  “Where do we start?”

  “They’ve got a cow camp and they’re busy rebranding her cattle.”

  “That’s rustling,” the Ranger said.

  “Right, but we have some folks in that crew who will help us.”

  “Get them first?”

  “Yes, that’s my plan, then to take the outside sentries working for Bixby after that, and then get the bunch at the jail and use it to hold them while we get the rest.”

  “I’m with you, Slocum.” He and Slocum shook hands.

  “Let’s get some sleep. Morning comes early.” And he smiled at the tired Amanda. “Been a big day.”

  She agreed with a nod, and Tia put a blanket on her shoulder.

  “I knew you would come for me,” Amanda whispered when they were aside from the others.

  “Had more faith than I had. But I was coming. Did he hurt you?”

  She looked away down the cave and wet her lip. “Yes.”

  24

  “How in the hell did they get in here and do all this damage?” Bixby demanded, standing in the smoke from the hay fire.