Ranch War

“Just a minute, Kid!” Corey-Mae snapped, advancing across the room with bare feet making determined slaps on the floor. “Now both of you stop behaving like stupid boys and start acting like grown men! I’m ashamed of you, Cash Trinian. And you’re no better than he is, Lon Ysabel. Sit at that table, both of you!”

There was something commanding and impressive about the way the woman glared at the two abashed men. Under her cold scrutiny, they took seats facing each other across the table. Placing herself in a chair between them, she looked from her husband to the Kid.

“Men!” Corey-Mae snorted. “I guessed who Calamity was while we were making the meal. But when the same notion finally struck Cash, he wanted to charge into town for a showdown. I thought that I’d talked him into enough sense to wait until morning and go in to ask what Calamity intends to do with the ranch. One thing I know. Whatever she decides, it will be a fair decision and not based on who rode with what damned stupid outfit in the War.”

“You can count on Calam for that, ma’am,” the Kid admitted,

“If she was a man I’d not be so sure!” Corey-Mae answered, eyeing the men coldly. “Day Leckenby’s your friend, Cash. And I’d say you like him, Kid. Even if you don’t, it was because of you, and Calamity, that he was shot. But instead of deciding how the hell you can best help him, you’re both thinking of who rode in what damned color uniform.”

Looking at the Kid, Trinian found the same contrition he himself felt. They each realized that their hostility stemmed from the War rather than any actual difference at that moment.

“You’re right, ma’am,” the Kid stated. “And I’m sorry for how I behaved under your roof.”

“So you should be, making me use cuss-words that way,” Corey-Mae smiled. “And Cash is as much to blame as you. When we saw you coming with the sabino, he had the kind of idea only a man could think up. It was a sneaky play by Eastfield. You’d been sent to sell us the horses cheap, then she could bring up a charge of buying stolen property. That’s why we acted the way we did when you arrived.”

“I know Calam’s got a sneaky, shifty look about her,” the Kid grinned. “But everybody with good taste tells me I’ve got a right honest face. How about it, Cash, are you coming in with me?”

“Yeah——!” Trinian said, starting to rise.

“There you go again!” Corey-Mae sighed. “Cash’s been hard at work all day, and you look like you’ve not slept properly for longer than’s good for you, Kid. But you still think you can charge back to town and be of help.”

“Well, ma’am——” the Kid began.

“Florence Eastfield had how many men the last time you went up there, Leathers?” Corey-Mae asked.

“Eight at most,” the old-timer answered. “So, happen she’s not got more in since yesterday, that ain’t a whole heap to go up against the town.”

“If I know Doc Goldberg and those other hunting and poker-playing reprobates,” the woman said, “they’ll be around Day Leckenby’s house armed to the teeth and all set to lick creation to help him.”

“She means the town’s leading citizens,” Leathers informed the Kid. “I’m one of ’em.”

“They’re around,” the Kid confirmed. “And I reckon Mrs. Trinian called ’em right. You mean there’s only eight men at the sawmill?”

“Nary more, not since the fellers who built it for her moved out,” Leathers replied. “I’d’ve expected them to be cutting the timber afore now, but they never got started. ’Cepting that Olaf’d cut some of the stuff close to hand. Must’ve been trying out the sawmill, or something.”

“Then that’s settled,” Corey-Mae smiled. “You can grab some sleep, both of you, and ride in at sunup. Even then, you’ll be there before she can get word to the sawmill and fetch in the rest of her men.”

“If eight’s all she’s got, I don’t reckon she’ll be back,” the Kid decided. “Which, I could stand a night’s sleep.”

“Then let’s chance it,” Trinian suggested. “We’ll leave here at sunup and should be in well before they couldn’ve got word to the others at the sawmill and back.”

At about eight o’clock the next morning, refreshed by several hours of uninterrupted sleep, the Kid, Trinian and one of the younger hands, a tall, freckled-faced redhead called Staff, rode through Hollick City toward the sheriff’s house. Approaching the building, the Kid for one felt sure that something had gone wrong. Several armed townsmen stood around and Swede hurried toward the newcomers.

“Kid!” the man said worriedly. “It’s trouble. We found Harry in the stable with a bust head, and Calamity’s missing.”

“How come?” growled the Kid, and Swede wondered how he had ever thought the Texan looked young or innocent.

“She went down to the stable to see to the hosses just after sunup,” the man explained. “We never saw nor heard nothing, and just now Millie asked me to go down and tell her breakfast was waiting. That’s when I found Harry and Calam’s hat.”

“I’ve sent for hosses,” the Wells Fargo agent went on, coming forward. “We was all set to go after her.”

“Not you,” the Kid answered, silently cursing himself for remaining at the ranch. “They see so many coming, they’ll kill Calam for sure. This’s a chore for one man. Me.”

“Three of us’d be small enough to keep hid,” Trinian objected. “And I know the range better’n you. I can take you straight to the sawmill.”

“Who’s the other?” asked the Kid.

“Staff. He’s a good hand with a gun and no heavy-boot comes to quiet moving.”

“This’s not your fight,” the Kid pointed out.

“The hell it’s not!” Trinian replied. “You saw Corey-Mae in action last night. Do you reckon I dast go back there and tell her what’s happened, unless I’d helped you get that gal back safe and well?”

“Likely you dasn’t,” admitted the Kid.

“And anyways,” Trinian went on. “I don’t know what Calamity plans to do with the ranch, but I’d say our chances are a whole heap better with her than if Florence Eastfield comes to own it.”

Chapter 14 YOU’D BETTER HOPE THIS WORKS

CALAMITY COULD, AND DID, BITTERLY CURSE HERSELF for getting captured so easily. Seated on the saddle of a strange horse, covered to the waist by an empty grain sack which let in no light, her arms pinioned and feet fastened to the stirrup irons, she had muttered savage invective against her captors and her own stupidity. Yet, she told herself, as the horse and its companions on either side of her came to a halt, it was always easy to be wise after some damned fool thing had happened.

With the Kid seen on his way the previous evening, Calamity had helped Mrs. Leckenby to feed the men who had gathered to protect the sheriff. All sensible precautions had been taken, including a guard being placed in the stable. Sent to collect him, two of the men had carried Lawyer Endicott from the Clipper Saloon. He had been too far gone in a drunken stupor for Calamity to hope to discuss business with him. At first the girl had been a mite alarmed by the Kid’s failure to return. Mrs. Leckenby had guessed what was happening and insisted that Calamity go to bed. Being more tired than she cared to admit, the girl had obeyed.

Exhausted and in a safe bed, Calamity did not wake until seven o’clock. Slipping out of bed, she had donned shirt, pants and moccasins, then strapped on her gunbelt with Colt and whip, before going across to the stable to tend to the horses. Putting on her weapons had gained her nothing. As she had walked through the stable’s door, the grain sack had descended over her head and shoulders. Before she could struggle or raise the alarm, a hand had clapped over her mouth and a rope secured her arms from outside the sack. One of her assailants had disarmed her, then she had been swung on to a man’s shoulder and carried away.

Taken a short distance that way, she had been placed on a horse and lashed afork it. Then her captors, she had guessed at there being only two of them, had led her mount after their own. They had splashed through the Middle Loup River and gone on another couple of miles before coming to a halt.

The man to her right loosened the rope about the sack, but did not remove her bonds completely. Instead he jerked the sack out from under them. Half-blinded by the sudden flood of light, Calamity was unable to do anything before the rope tightened again. Shaking her head to remove the dizziness she felt, Calamity got her eyes focusing