And Kill Them All

Before the next hour passes, you’ll be with your friends, and I’ll be on my way back to Devils River to take care of your badly damaged niece.”

Webb shot a hot-eyed, trapped-rat glance up at me. “Just what’n the blue-eyed hell you gonna do, Dodge?”

A second or so of charged silence hung in the air between us before I near whispered, “I’m gonna drag you outta here and hang you from a limb of that tree out in the courtyard of this house. The live oak with all those kid’s dolls dangling from it. Figure you’ll just resemble something akin to a bit bigger doll to most folks passing by in the street. ’Specially after you’ve shriveled up in the sun like a sack of beef jerky for about three or four weeks.”

“No. You don’t mean that. You can’t possibly mean that. Can’t go and string a man up without so much as a by-your-leave.”

“Oh, but I meant every word. Never joke about hanging a man. Any man. No matter how low, sorry, or worthless he might be.”

“Now, wait just a damned minute. You’re sworn to uphold the law, you son of a bitch. You’re a ranger for the love of God. I-I’m entitled to a fair trial. Fair trial by a jury of my peers. I’ve got rights, by God. Rights. That’s the law. ’S in the Constitution. ’S in the Constitution, you son of a bitch.”

“Now where in the wide, wide world would any judge find a jury of your peers? You’re the man responsible for the brutal murders of your own brother, his wife, and three of their innocent children. Members of your own family for the love of God. Kind of murders branded on your soul tend to negate any constitutional rights, or privileges, as far as I’m concerned anyway.”

“Ain’t right. Just ain’t right. Can’t just go and hang a man without a trial.”

“Wouldn’t go bettin’ the ranch on that one if I was you.”

Webb threw his head back and bounced the chair up and down several times while he made strange and indecipherable noises. “Yep, far as I can see, you’re guilty of all those sorry killings as surely as if you’d pulled the trigger yourself. Might not have been out on Devils River in person, when the bloody act occurred, but, far as I’m concerned, you’re as guilty as branded Cain.”

“Sweet Jesus, ain’t right.”

“And that’s not to mention the associated, kind of ricochet deaths, of those rank-assed bastards who escaped from prison with you and who you somehow persuaded to do the dirty deed.”

Webb jerked at his bonds and howled like a caged wolf. “Lemme go, you bastard. Lemme go. You cain’t do this. Cain’t just go and hang a man ’thout seein’ to the legalities.”

I leaned toward the man, blew smoke his direction, then added, “Almost as bad as all that, you handed your brother’s only living child over to an animal like Eagle Cutner. Lord God, man, what in the hell were you thinkin’? From what I saw of her, I’m not sure the girl will ever recover from whatever it was that snake did to her. Do you really, for a single moment, think that I’m gonna walk away from here and let you live after all that.”

For a moment Axel Webb stared at me as though he’d found some new form of poisonous scorpion crawling on his pants’ leg. Then, the man’s eyes got as big as dinner plates when he hissed, “Y-You really intend on setting me to kicking and pissing myself, don’t you?”

“Absolutely. Little more’n twenty paces from where we’re sittin’ right this moment.”

“No appeal.”

“None.”

“No mercy in your heart?”

Almost laughed when I said, “Not a single shred. Lost it all when I found Mad Dog Cutner and saw the consequences of what he’d done to your beautiful niece, Clementine.”

Webb went to struggling against the rope again. He bucked up in the chair and bounced it across the floor. Seat’s wooden feet skittered and squawked against the tiles. The thing almost toppled over a time or two. Panicked wretch was near out of breath when he huffed and puffed, “Goddammit, you can’t do this. Can’t just string a man up like a side of beef. Can’t just hang me like a common criminal.”

In spite of myself I grinned. “Oh, but I can. ’Cause, you see, Ax, that’s all you are—a run-of-the-mill, common murderer. And once you’re knockin’ on Hell’s front gate, I’ll sleep like a baby tomorrow, tonight, and for the rest of my natural life. You see, I’ll know beyond any doubt that I’ve rid the world, and Texas, of a lethal, boot-wearin’ pestilence.”

Then, with no further ado, I stood and started around behind him. A look of stunned horror flashed across the heartless bastard’s face. All the color in his bulging countenance drained into his shirt collar. His head swiveled around on its bony stalk as he tried to follow my movements.

“Wait. Wait. Wait,” he squealed. “I’ve got money, Dodge. Lots of money. Hidden money. I’ll give all of it to you. Every red cent. You can retire, live like a south Texas cattle baron till the day you die.”

I grabbed the back of the chair and leaned it onto the two rear-most legs. The heavy, wooden seat made angry, piggish, squealing sounds against the stone floor as I dragged it out onto the hacienda’s shadowy patio, and then to the live oak that spread out over one corner of the terrace like a living umbrella. As I remember it, Axel Webb howled like a tortured wolf till I got him situated under the limb I’d chosen.

Icy shafts of cold, silvery moonlight knifed through that tree’s rustling leaves overhead. The ghostly glow flickered across Webb’s upturned, panic-stricken face. He continued to struggle against his bonds as he eyeballed me and said, “Please. Please. Don’t do this, Dodge. I’ll admit I made a mistake. Made a terrible mistake.”

“Well, that’s putting it lightly.”

“Oh, God. Oh, God. Please. Listen. Please, listen to me. I know I shouldn’t have done what I done. Regret the whole mess. Honest. Honest to God. I-I’ve had a religious epiphany. Swear it. God’s done come into my heart and made me realize what terrible things I’ve done. Have mercy, man. Have mercy.”

“A religious epiphany?”

“Yeah. Oh, yes. You’ve gotta believe me, Dodge. You turn me loose, and I’ll walk the straight and narrow for as long as I live. You’ll never hear the name Axel Webb and criminal activity of any sort mentioned in the same breath again. Swear it on my dear ole mother’s sweet brow.”

“Swear it on your mother?”

“Oh, yes. Sweet merciful Jesus, yes. Just cut me loose. Let me out of this chair. I’ll live the rest of my life like a saint. Swear I will.”

I’d heard all I wanted to hear. And what I’d heard was enough to make a man sick. Stuffed my bandanna into his mouth and left him sitting there stewing in his own juices. Retrieved Grizz and led the animal into the courtyard. The big gelding’s iron-shod feet made loud clopping sounds against the patio’s stone floor.

Then I threw my second lariat over the tree limb. I draped it around Webb’s neck and pulled the noose up tight. Man’s head was about to explode. His eyes had gone wild. He bucked and snorted in the chair. Yelled, screamed, and whined into the bandanna, but it was a complete waste of effort.

I patted him on the shoulder and said, “Sure you have plenty you’d like to say right about now. Tell the righteous truth, I don’t care to hear any of it. Sure God doesn’t want to hear it, either. So, only thing I want, at this particular moment, is to watch you die.”

I moved to Grizz’s side and urged the big animal back a step or two. Webb’s squealing grunts became louder, more pronounced, more panicked. Kept the horse moving backward. Got the chair four or five feet off the ground before I stopped and patted the animal on the neck. Ole Ax struggled with all the might he possessed. The terrified son of a bitch even ripped one thick, wooden arm completely off that chair. For about thirty seconds, I thought he was on the verge of getting himself loose. But a decided lack of air soon robbed him of his remaining strength.

Still and all, it did surprise me some at how long it took that murdering skunk to give up the ghost. Have to admit, the man damn sure loved his life and put up one hell of a fight before death finally came and wrenched it away from his grasp. Guess he must have grunted and thrashed around in that heavy chair for every bit of five minutes. Maybe longer. In the final analysis, though, he didn’t do himself any good. You squeeze off a man’s ability to breathe and sooner or later, he’s gonna die. And that’s all there is to it.

When the wicked slaughterer finally stopped flopping, I led Grizz around the tree several times, just to tighten the rope’s hold and make sure the load wouldn’t slip and end up on the ground. Lashed everything off good, so the dead man dangled amongst all those dolls, just like I’d promised he would. Tell the gospel truth, it was a freakish scene I left in that place. Damned freakish. Right eerie. Kind of sight that had the power to make even the boldest man shudder. Knew when folks finally found him, the stories and legends would start coming fast and