Ralph Compton - Bullet for a Bad Man

‘‘What did you do to get him so riled?’’

‘‘I tried to stop them from taking Sassy.’’

Boone turned to the palomino, gripped the saddle horn and swung up. He raised the reins and went to jab his spurs.

‘‘Ride like the wind, pard. If the Apaches don’t get me, maybe I will see you again someday.’’

‘‘Hell.’’ Boone frowned, and lowered the reins. Bending, he offered his arm. ‘‘Climb on behind me.’’

Eagerly obeying, Drub added his considerable bulk to the palomino’s burden. ‘‘I am sorry to slow you up. I know you want to go after them. But they won’t hurt her. Pa won’t let them. He said she is worth money.’’

Boone hesitated. North would take them toward the Circle V. East would take them toward Ranson, or what was left of it. He reined to the east and jabbed his heels. ‘‘Tell me everything from the moment I saw you last.’’

‘‘That is a lot. And my head always hurts if I try to remember too much at once.’’

‘‘Try anyway. For me.’’

‘‘For you I would do anything, pard. For you and Sassy.’’ Drub paused. ‘‘Well, let’s see. You told me to take Sassy to camp. So we got our horses and started back. She was mighty upset, let me tell you. Blistered my ears something awful. And the more she talked, the madder she got. Finally she said she was turning back, and I could go to hell.’’

‘‘What did you do?’’

‘‘The only thing I could. I grabbed her reins out of her hand and led her horse back here.’’

‘‘You did what I asked. For that I thank you.’’

‘‘Maybe it would have been better for her if I didn’t.’’

‘‘Keep going,’’ Boone coaxed.

‘‘Well, I asked her why you had acted the way you did and she told me all about you and your brother. How he killed your ma and your pa. How she was worried you would go after him and kill a lot of people yourself, and maybe get killed.’’

‘‘It is him or me. But don’t stop.’’

‘‘We made it to camp and sat down to have coffee. But we weren’t hardly there five minutes and Pa and the rest came back. They had someone new with them, a man I never met before.’’

Boone glanced over his shoulder. ‘‘This man had to have a name.’’

‘‘Let’s see. Pa told me what it was.’’ Drub fell quiet, his forehead furrowed. Suddenly he snapped his fingers. ‘‘Now I remember! It was Hanks. Blin Hanks. He works for your brother.’’

‘‘Go on.’’

‘‘Your brother sent Hanks to talk to my pa about those horses we stole down to Mexico. Pa is to take them somewhere and wait, and your brother will come and pay him.’’

‘‘Where, Drub? It is important you remember.’’

‘‘It was a funny-sounding place. One I never heard of. Let me think on it awhile and it will come to me. I am slow but I remember things if I think on them long enough.’’

‘‘While you are thinking tell me about Sassy.’’

‘‘Oh.’’

‘‘I am waiting.’’

‘‘It was my fault, pard. When Pa mentioned how that man Hanks was sent by your brother to buy our horses, I told Pa what your brother had done to your folks. I figured Pa would want to know how mean your brother is. But then that man, Hanks, he said how your brother will be real interested to learn you are back in his neck of the woods. And how your brother would pay good money for bait he could use to lure you in.’’ Drub smiled proudly. ‘‘I am using his very own words, pard.’’

‘‘What was that about bait?’’

‘‘He meant Sassy. This Blin Hanks said he couldn’t make any promises but it wouldn’t surprise him if your brother paid my pa five hundred dollars or more to get his hands on her.’’

‘‘And your pa agreed?’’

‘‘You know how he is about money. Hanks said they should leave before you showed up, so they threw on their saddles and lit a shuck, taking the rustled horses and Sassy with them.’’

‘‘You missed the part about them tying you up.’’

‘‘Oh. I told Pa it wasn’t right. I told him you are my friend and Sassy is my friend and I wouldn’t let them take her. Pa told me to let it be, that he knew best. But when a couple of them grabbed her, I hit them so hard I knocked them right off their feet.’’

‘‘I bet your pa didn’t like that.’’

‘‘Not one bit, no. He yelled at me, called me all sorts of names, and while he was yelling my brother snuck up behind me and hit me over the head with a rock. The next I knew, I was tied and gagged and they were about to leave. Vance was standing over me, grinning, and crowed about what he’d done. Then he patted me on the head and said he hoped the Apaches found me and spared him the bother of having to kill me one day.’’ Drub shook his head. ‘‘My own brother said that to me.’’

Boone rode grimly on.

‘‘Why can’t people be nice, pard? Why do they have to be so mean all the time?’’

‘‘It is just the way the world is.’’

‘‘A stupid way, if you ask me. All I ever wanted was for folks to stop teasing me and calling me dumb.’’

‘‘Did they hurt Sassy?’’

‘‘No. Oh, they roughed her up some because she fought like a wildcat. But they got her on her horse and settled her down. Pa said if she didn’t behave, he would whip me with his rope.’’

‘‘God,’’ Boone said.

‘‘What?’’

‘‘Nothing. Don’t stop.’’

‘‘There isn’t much more. She told them she would do what they wanted, but they tied her on her horse anyway so she couldn’t scratch or kick. Otherwise, she was fine.’’

‘‘Damn them to hell.’’

‘‘I don’t think Skelman liked what they were doing. He didn’t help, and Pa mentioned as how he never thought he would live to see the day that Skelman got soft on someone. What did Pa mean?’’

Boone admitted he didn’t know.

Drub lapsed into silence until the eastern horizon lit with an artificial sun.

‘‘Look yonder, pard! Ranson is on fire!’’

They were over a mile away, yet it looked as if most of the town was burning. Thick columns of coiling smoke, pierced by tongues of red and orange, rose to the benighted sky.

‘‘How could that happen?’’ Drub wondered. ‘‘When Sassy and I left, it was fine.’’

The remark prompted Boone to draw rein. ‘‘Climb down. We are close enough that you can make it on foot without having to worry too much about Apaches.

Get a horse and head north for the Circle V Ranch. That is where you will find me if I am still alive.’’

‘‘Why wouldn’t you be?’’ Drub asked, and when Boone did not answer, he said, ‘‘Your brother will try to kill you again, won’t he?’’

‘‘This time he will have cause. I will be out to kill him.’’

‘‘Will you kill my pa too?’’

‘‘Not if I don’t have to. He has treated me decent. But now he has taken the woman I care for, and if anything happens to her, there will be a reckoning.’’ Boone wheeled the palomino and applied his spurs.

‘‘Sorry about my pa taking Sassy!’’ Drub shouted after him. ‘‘Good luck, pard!’’

Boone concentrated on riding. At night it was always a tricky proposition except on the open prairie, and even there, prairie dog burrows and any other hole or rain-worn rut might bring a horse down. Most people tended to forget that stepping into the stirrups was not the same as stepping onto a wagon. The perils on horseback were greater than on a buckboard.

After a while Boone slowed to a walk. He was letting his worry get the better of him. It would not do to ride the palomino into the ground.

The night was exceptionally still. Not so much as a coyote broke the quiet. Boone told himself it was normal, but it didn’t help his frayed nerves any. He couldn’t stop thinking about Sassy, couldn’t stop worrying about her. He reminded himself it would take the rustlers days to reach the Circle V. By then he was bound to catch up.