Return of the Mountain Man

this place. When they start to pull out, that’s when I take my men and wipe them out.” He grinned hugely. “Simple.”

“So you’re tossing Wiley and Keith to the wolves,” she said matter-of-factly.

“Sure,” he replied cheerfully. “Do you care?”

“Hell, no!” the woman said. “And there’s something else, too.”

“Oh?”

“You know the Army and the marshals will be in here investigating after it’s over.”

“Yeah. Sure. What about it?”

“Well, you just tell them some crap about Potter and Stratton. Tell them you found out about some illegal dealings they were involved in; you broke away from them. Tell the investigators you didn’t want any part of anything illegal. You can even tell them you and your men joined up with Smoke and the mountain men in the assault on Bury. But,” she said, holding up a warning finger, “that means that everybody has to die.”

“You’re a cold-blooded wench, Janey,” he said with a great deal of pride and admiration.

“Just like you, love.”

“Oh, I like it. I like it!” Josh began to pace the floor. He began to think aloud, talking as he paced. “I’ve got the best of the gunhands out here. Most of these men have been with me for years. They’re loyal to me, and to me alone. They’ll stand firm. I’ll put all the newer men out on the range, looking after the cattle. Put the range-cook out there with them with ten days–two weeks of supplies and tell the boys to stay put.” He grinned again, looking at Janey Jensen. “Love, we are going to rule Idaho Territory.”

“I always wanted to be a queen,” Janey said.

Josh and Janey began laughing.

To put a lid on the growing tempers in Bury, Stratton and Potter ordered free drinks at the town’s many saloons and hurdy-gurdy houses. Then one drunk cowboy suggested they kick in the doors to the Pink House and have their way with the women barricaded inside.

About fifty men, in various stages of inebriation, marched up the main street and gathered in front of the Pink House. They began hooting and hollering and making all sorts of demands to the ladies. The hooting abruptly dipped into silence when the ladies inside shoved shotguns out through the barricaded windows. The sounds of hammers being jacked back was loud in the hot, still air.

The men took one look at a dozen double-barreled express guns pointing at them and calmed down.

“We are closed!” Miss Flora’s voice came to the crowd. “You gentlemen have ten seconds to haul your ashes out of here. Aim at their privates, girls!”

A dozen shotguns were lowered, the muzzles aimed crotch-high.

The suddenly-sobered crowd hauled their ashes. Promptly.

Preacher watched it all through field glasses. He chuckled. He could not, of course, hear what was going on, but he could guess. “Them gals done read the scriptures to them ol’ boys,” he said. “I don’t think the ladies is gonna be bothered no more after this.”

One trapped PSR so-called gunhand emptied his pistol at the ridge overlooking the town. He stood in the center of the street and hurled curses at Smoke and the mountain men. Preacher reached for his Spencer and sighted the gunslick in. He emptied the tube, plowing up the ground around the man’s boots. The cowboy shrieked in terror and dropped his pistol, running and falling and crawling for cover. He took refuge in the nearest saloon.

“We havin’ fun now, Smoke,” Preacher said, reloading. “But it’s gonna turn ugly right soon.”

“I know.”

“You havin’ second thoughts ’bout this, boy?”

“Not really. But if those men down there, with the exception of Potter and Stratton, wanted to leave, I wouldn’t try to stop them.”

“I’s a-hopin’ you’d say that. Audie! Bring Smoke that there funny-lookin’ thang you built.”

Smoke took the megaphone and moved down the ridge, being careful not to expose himself. He lifted the megaphone to his lips.

“You men of Bury!” Smoke called. “Listen to me. It’s Potter and Stratton and Richards I’m after. Not you. You don’t owe them any loyalty. Any of you who wants to toss down his weapons and walk out can do so.”

There was no reply of any kind from the town.

Smoke called, “I’m giving you people a chance to save your lives. The men you work for murdered my brother. They shot him in the back and left him to die.”

“Rebel scum!” a voice called from the town.

Smoke shook his head. “The men you work for killed my pa.”

“Big deal!” another voice shouted.

“Real nice folks down there,” Audie muttered.

“The men you work for ordered out the men who raped and tortured and killed my wife, and killed my baby son,” Smoke spoke through the megaphone.

Laughter from the town drifted up to Smoke and the mountain men. The laughter was ugly and taunting. “She probably wasn’t nothin’ but a whore anyways!” a voice shouted.

“I can’t believe it,” Smoke said, looking at Preacher. “I can’t understand those types of people.”