R. Trembly - Madigan

“I’ll get you something to eat. Try not to move,” Shorty said as he stepped away and moved toward the fire-blackened cook pot full of beans. “Stir those beans up and give the wounded man some. He looks hungry,” Shorty ordered the cook.

LaRue stood back watching the whole affair as Shorty came toward him. He noticed Shorty loosen the thong from his Colt as he came closer.

“What’s up?” he asked as his friend walked over.

“It’s that wounded man. I get an uneasy feeling when I’m close to him. Maybe it’s me, but I think he’s trying to pull the wool over our eyes.”

“Why do you think he’d do that?”

Shorty looked around uneasily before speaking. “Maybe he’s got friends hid out waiting to catch us off guard. Maybe he’s a friend of the guy we had the run-in with a few days ago. I don’t know, but he just doesn’t look like he’s in as bad a shape as he’s putting on.”

LaRue shifted his weight to his left foot. “I’ll go have a chat with him. Might find out what he’s up to. Quietly spread the word for everybody to be on guard just in case.”

O’Neill watched as LaRue crossed over to where he was laying.

“This your bunch?” he asked as LaRue crouched down beside him.

“I hired them if that’s what you mean.” Pete shifted his weight to the other leg. “Where’d you get that wound, if you don’t mind me asking.”

O’Neill didn’t mind at all. In fact he was waiting for someone to ask so he could exercise the plan he had dreamed up just minutes before. If everything went the way he hoped it would, he’d have all the men he needed and at no expense to himself.

“Don’t mind at all, just lucky to be alive!”

“Who did that to you?”

O’Neill shifted around trying to get comfortable, letting out little moaning sounds as he did so.

“It’s kind of a long story. Are you sure you want to hear it?” LaRue nodded his head. “It happened about five days ago, give or take a day or two. I was riding along just minding my own business when I heard some screaming in the distance. Spurring my horse on at a fast run I came upon some men-there were about five of them-raping a couple of Injun women.”

O’Neill stopped to let what he had said sink in. By now several other men had gathered around. “I ordered them to stop. But instead of stopping they started shooting at me! I drew and shot back getting three of them before I was forced to run for cover.

“Now I ain’t an Injun lover, but what them boys was doing to those women wasn’t called for, Injun or not! So I couldn’t just leave them. I started to reload my sidearm when one of them boys rushed me and I had to fight him barehanded. It was a terrible fight. All the time I was worried that the other man might sneak up behind me and shoot me while I was unarmed.” O’Neill glanced around at the faces above him. He knew he had them hooked. “Those kind will do that, you know.”

“Do what?” Shorty inquired.

“Why sneak up and shoot you in the back, that’s what. Course, don’t expect someone like you to know that, but it’s the gospel.”

“What are you implying, ‘someone like me’?” Shorty was starting to boil and several of the men stepped back to give him room.

“Why look at you, boy! You’re not much bigger than a child. Couldn’t put up much of a fight against a real man now, could you?”

LaRue saw what was coming and put his hand on Shorty’s shoulder. “He’s half out of his head, Shorty. Doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Better you go over and have some beans while you cool off.” Shorty eyed his friend for a moment, then turned his back and ambled off.

“You shouldn’t talk to him like that. He can kill you before you can slap leather any day of the year.”

“That pip-squeak? Who says-him?” O’Neill said with a sneer.

“No, the men he killed and there have been plenty of them. So, for your own safety, keep a civil tongue in your head when you’re around him. Now tell us the rest of your story,” LaRue demanded angrily.

“I finally got the best of him and was able to grab his gun and put a couple bullets in him before the other one could get behind me. Diving for cover I was just in time to see the other one ride out. I cut the women loose and buried the men, only decent thing to do. After I was done, one of the women came up to me and gave me something.”

O’Neill reached into his pocket and retrieved a little gold figurine. The men gasped as they saw it. “She told me that her tribe had thousands of these and I could have as many as I wanted of them. Only one problem. An enemy tribe had captured her people and now held them and the gold captive. She begged me to help her, but I being only one man could do nothing against so many. I was on my way to get help when the man that got away ambushed me last night. I escaped in the dark. You know the rest of the story.”

LaRue studied the man for a moment. “Did you get a look at the man who shot you?”

“No, everything happened so fast, but I can tell you who it was!”

“If you didn’t get a look at him, how can you know who it was?” LaRue inquired.

“Easy. He had a Sharps and there’s only one man that uses one of them these days.”

“Who might that be?” LaRue was finding this conversation very interesting.

“His name’s Madigan!”

“Madigan, the army scout?” LaRue found it hard to believe that the man they called the man hunter would be any party to rape and murder.

“That’s the one. You hear of him?”

“I’ve heard people talk of him. Don’t know him myself though. How can you be sure that it’s really him? Just ‘cause a man carries a Sharps doesn’t mean he’s this Madigan.”

“Oh, it was him all right. I’d know him anywhere. You can take my word for it!”

How’s that, if he didn’t see him, LaRue wondered to himself. He was not about to take this stranger’s word for anything right now.

.“Eat up! There’s more if you want it,” LaRue said as he moved away from the man. O’Neill eyed him suspiciously.

LaRue found Shorty over by the horses. “Come with me, Shorty. I feel like a walk.” Shorty put his plate of beans down and came up beside LaRue.

“What’s up?” he asked the big man. “That stranger making you a little nervous too?”

“The stranger is a fake. You know it and I know it, but I’m afraid our men may think he’s telling the truth. That might lead to problems for us.”

“You think we should send him away? Might avoid trouble if we do.”

LaRue thought for a minute. “It’s not as easy as that. If we get rid of him now, the others will start asking questions, questions that could only lead to trouble. So you see, no matter what we do right now, we got trouble.”

“I see what you mean. Can’t do anything without stirring up a little manure. What do you suggest?”

“Don’t rightly know. Just wait for him to make his move first, I guess. Keep an eye on him if you will. Maybe if he sees we’re watching, he’ll take it on his own to pack up and leave.”

“Maybe we’ll get lucky and he’ll push me a little too hard. My friend here can end any trouble real quick.” Shorty raised his Colt slowly out in front of him, then in a flash holstered it again.

“Let’s hope we’ll not need that,” LaRue commented.

For the next two days as LaRue’s band traveled steadily westward, O’Neill gained followers. It wasn’t hard to understand why. LaRue’s group had been brought together for the purpose of finding the very gold that O’Neill now promised he could find. LaRue was losing his hold on his men again, and he knew this time he would not get it back, for the lust for gold was strong and these men that LaRue had assembled for his expedition were an illiterate bunch at best. They lived for the moment and were ready to follow anyone able to lead them the sooner to riches. Shorty agreed with LaRue that a showdown was imminent.