Hell on the Prairie (20 page)

Apollo’s ears pricked up. He lifted his head and
bared his teeth, sniffing the air. The other three mules did the
same.

“
I think the mules smell their brothers.” The
mules and I followed Zeb and Hank to the hiding spot he’d pointed
to. When we got there, I said, “That cinches it. We’ve found our
men. Now to take them to the marshal.”

“
It ain’t that easy, Elsie. We don’t know
where they are –in the house or the barn –and we don’t know if
they’re holding the farmer and maybe his family if he has one –Hank
and I haven’t been to the house before. We rode by so we know it’s
the right one, but we don’t know if the family who lives there is
partial to Danby, or is being held by Maggert and Dickey.
Or...”

His voice trailed off. I knew what the “or” meant.
Dead bodies.

Zeb squinted. “Don’t see any horses so they must be
in the barn. I’d say the farmer has a wife because there’s a flower
garden to the side of the house. Don’t see no toys, but there still
could be young’uns.”

His tone made me think that it was their normal way
of doing things –taking whatever they wanted from anyone handy, and
not worrying much about the dead they left behind.

“
There’s two outlaws and three of
us.”

Hank stepped beside me, holding his horse’s reins.
“There’s three of us all right, but only two fighters, and there
could be five of them. We was to meet up with the others here.
Danby planned to shut down the town and rob the bank. We’re the
second wave through.”

I hated to think of what he meant by shutting down
the town. As for fighting, I wasn’t too keen on the idea, but if it
came to that, I’d be in the fray.

“
So first thing we need is to know how many
and where they are.”

“
Yep,” agreed Zeb. “And that’s my job. Been
doing it for seven years. Learned from an Indian
tracker.”

“
All right, but we ain’t killing anybody, so
get that through your head. We’re taking them in. They’ll swing
legal-like.”

They didn’t go along with that, I could tell by
Hank’s smirk and the way Zeb clenched his jaw.

“
You two have done enough killing and rabble
rousing.”

My brother adjusted his gun belt and loaded his
revolver. Watching him brought home to me that he wasn’t a fun boy
anymore, but a man used to handling weapons and not averse to using
them. It made me sad. He fetched some things out of his saddlebags
but I couldn’t see what. “I’ll be taking a look now,” he said.
“Hank, keep her quiet.”

That last remark made my hairline sizzle but I let
it slide. He skulked around the knoll, using the prairie grass for
cover, and I could tell he was skilled. He didn’t know that I’d
spent a year on the mountain, just me and the mules, and I had to
fend for myself.

A body’s hungry belly is a powerful teacher when it
comes to trapping. You have to be quiet and patient. Neither comes
natural to me but I learned them, along with how to skin anything
from a porcupine to a deer –whatever I caught.

Pa’d given me the Henry but told me not to use it
for fear the rifle report would bring unwanted guests –and anyone
except him was unwanted. That meant I had to catch my supper in a
quiet way. It also meant I became downright handy with the bowie
knife.

“
Hank,” I whispered. “I got an idea. We ain’t
got a chance in a gunfight, and you two need to stop killing,
anyway, so we’re gonna trap those yayhoos –real
quiet-like.”

He tilted his chin down and studied me. Those brown
eyes of his could lull a body into thinking he’s agreeable, but I
could see he had his own plans, which likely meant a couple more
dead folks to haul to the undertaker.

He hunkered down on his belly and crawled to the
knoll crest. I told the mules to stay put and crawled up there with
him.

“
You see any of your friends yet?”

“
They ain’t my friends. Zeb is, but the rest
are all mean as three-legged badgers.”

“
Tell me about them.”

“
The leader is Maggert. You met him already.
The fellow with him, his lapdog, is Dickey. There could be three
more –can’t tell because I can’t see the inside of the barn so I
don’t know which horses are there.”

“
It’s awful quiet.” That made me even more
uneasy. “Who are the other three and why weren’t they with
you?”

“
Bird, Yancy, and Cross. They had business in
Wichita and said they’d meet up with us east of Wolf Creek. Could
be here. Bird’s good with a blade, Yancy’s a sharpshooter, and
Cross is Yancy’s man.”

I hated to ask the next question, but I needed to
know. “If they’re all there, what do you suppose is going on?”

“
Hard to say. Might be cooking supper.
Could’ve killed the man of the house, maybe any young’uns, and
saving the woman for later.”

My heart went out to the family even though we
didn’t even know for sure there was one. I well knew the fear of
seeing your kin killed and your farm burned.

“
I guess we’ll find out when Zeb gets
back.”

Hank pointed, and I saw Zeb crouched behind the
barn. Even though my brother had been riding with a bunch of bad
apples, I hoped he’d take care. I just got him back and didn’t want
to lose him again.

The mules were restless and I had to shush them a
time or two. You can’t fool a mule –they always know when
something’s amiss. The sun beat down on us and our patience wore
thin fast, but we’d have enough action to suit us all real
soon.

Finally, Zeb came back. I handed him the canteen and
waited for him to take a long pull. He wiped his mouth on his
sleeve and squatted. With a stick, he drew a map of the
farmstead.

“
Bird, Yancy, and Cross are here. Their horses
are still wet so they can’t have been here for but half an hour or
less. Right now they’re in the house with Maggert and Dickey,
reporting on the bank in Wichita.” He jabbed the corner of the
sketch of the house. “That’s our next job if Danby doesn’t take us
to Indian Territory after the Wolf Creek job.”

“
Which he will.” Hank had a wrinkle in his
brow that told me he didn’t like something Zeb had either said or
not said. “Did you hear them talking?”

Zeb nodded. “They’re waiting for us, but plan to
leave as soon as the horses are rested, with us or without. They
don’t seem to pay no mind about us.”

“
Which ain’t true.” Hank smirked. “We know the
only ones who leave the Danby gang are dead.”

That news didn’t exactly perk up my day. “Which is
the one who killed Pa?”

“
It’d be either Maggert or Dickey.”

“
The older one.”

“
That’s Dickey, but mind you he don’t do a
thing unless Maggert tells him to, so Maggert pulled the trigger
just as sure as the other’n.”

Same as he told Dickey to cut the harnesses. A man
like that had no feelings for right or wrong. “Then we’ll bring
them both to justice.”

“
Maybe.” Hank drew a square in the dirt. “Or
we’ll have to kill all five before they kill all three of us.” He
handed the stick to Zeb. “Show me the layout of the barn and what’s
where.”

“
There’s more ways to solve a problem than
killing people,” I reminded Zeb and Hank. “We’re bringing them to
the law.” Zeb petted me on the head as if I was ignorant of the
ways of the world. Maybe I was, but their time for killing was
over.

Hank went on like I hadn’t said a word. “You take
the back window and I’ll draw them out front.”

“
There’s more,” Zeb said, drawing a circle
around the corner of the sketched farmhouse. “The farmer’s there on
the floor –don’t know if he’s dead or not. His wife is cooking.
Didn’t see any young’uns but that don’t mean there ain’t
any.”

I had to speak up. “That woman deserves better, and
killing will only make it worse for her. No, we’re gonna trap those
varmints. I have an idea.” I laid out my notion of how things ought
to go. It took some convincing but I’m used to working with mules
and eventually they agreed.

“
Pa will have to wait for us here.” I told Zeb
to lift the body down, and then I took the saddle off
Plato.

“
I don’t think he’s going anywhere,” Zeb said.
“Just the same, we won’t take long if this hare-brain scheme works
out.”

The farmstead lay on the south side of the road,
with the house closest to the knoll where we were. It was about
fifty yards from a good-size barn, twice as big as the house. The
yard in between was hard-packed dirt with a well in the middle, and
the privy was behind the house. I saw a wagon to the north side of
the barn, and two big corrals on the south side –one with my mules
in it and the other with a pony and four Jersey cows. Not a single
tree grew anywhere. How these people lived without trees was beyond
me.

All three of us stayed in the prairie grass, circled
around the farmstead, and entered the barn from the back. The mules
in the corral whinny-brayed and I knew they’d seen me so I motioned
for them to stay.

Hank opened the back barn door taking care not to
make any noise. I plastered myself against the wall right beside
the door while Zeb opened the stall gates and led the horses out
–four on one side and one on the other.

Zeb sneaked up to the house window as if he was half
mountain lion and motioned for Hank, who ran and crouched behind
the wagon. I climbed up the ladder to the hayloft, armed with a
rope, my Henry, and my bowie knife.

When Zeb waved, I hooted. The mules had played
hide-and-seek with me when we were stuck on the mountain. I’d hide
and hoot, then the mules would come looking for me. We hadn’t
played the game in a while, but I counted on them remembering. When
they didn’t come, I admit to getting a might worried, so I hooted
again, a little louder. Then I heard the welcome thumping of hooves
and I knew the mules were jumping the fence.

Hephaestus and Hermes came first. I held my hand up
motioning for them to stay still, which they did. When Zeus and
Poseidon trotted up, I said, “Chase!” They jumped around like
little puppies, then charged the horses, nipping them on the
backside until they ran out the front. Hank shooed them to the side
of the house and the mules took over.

“
Run!” I yelled. The horses and mules pounded
the ground –I could even feel it in the hayloft. Four men came out
of the house and Zeb went in. I wished him luck –he’d be taking
down Maggert, he reckoned, and it looked like he was right. I hoped
the woman had enough sense to stay out of the way.

Hank had run behind the well, and when the four men
ran out, he tripped Dickey, and while the scoundrel was eating
dirt, Hank disarmed him. I threw the rope down and he hogtied
Dickey in record time.

I let out a whistle and the other four mules came at
a gallop. “Kick!” I yelled, pointing out to the field where the
other animals were. The three men lagged behind, probably realizing
they needed to go back for ropes. With luck, they wouldn’t get that
chance.

What worried me was whether those men would start
shooting at my mules. Somehow, I needed to get the horses between
them, figuring they wouldn’t shoot their own mounts.

Hank ran into the house where I heard all manner of
crashing and carrying on. I ran to the tied-up man and checked to
make sure he couldn’t get away.

“
Ain’t such a tough man now, are you?” I said.
I wanted to spit on him in the worst way but didn’t. He’d get what
was coming to him from the law.

He chuckled –the low, evil kind. “Is the old man
dead yet?”

“
You know the answer, and you know you’re
gonna hang.” I left him there in the dirt. If the horses and mules
came back by, he might get stepped on a little. Would be a
shame.

A bullet whistled by and lodged in the barn wood. I
hit the ground and belly-crawled to the barn as fast as I could,
then climbed the ladder to the hayloft and knelt beside the mow
door. Zeb had made me promise not to get myself in a situation
where I put them and the woman in even more risk. I got that.

Dickey hollered and one of the outlaws ran toward
him. The mules chased the others, biting and kicking. I wouldn’t
want to be those men. Problem is, those blamed mules were sending
them my way. But I couldn’t let that other man free Dickey. I
cocked the Henry and aimed for his foot.

Just as I was about to squeeze the trigger, someone
grabbed the back of my shirt. I scooped up my bowie knife and held
it tight to my leg. He turned me around and held my arms to my
sides. I’d dropped the Henry but still had the knife.

“
Looking for trouble, girlie?” It was Maggert.
Zeb and Hank was supposed to have took care of him. I figured that
Zeb couldn’t hold him and Hank didn’t get there in time.

I heard stomping and whinnying, and braying in the
yard but couldn’t tell what happened. Gunfire and cursing. But I
was looking into the face of my pa’s murderer.

“
I’m taking you to justice,
Maggert.”

“
You and that turncoat brother of
yours?”

“
How’d you know that?”

“
You both look like your pa. That’s why I left
him and Lockhart out there with you. Reckoned you’d talk him into
gunning for me.”

“
Smart feller.” The longer I kept him talking,
the more time I had to think. “What if that weren’t so?”

“
If not, they’d follow orders.”

I saw a frying pan over his head and heard a clunk
when it hit. Maggert turned around to see what the annoyance was,
and I poked the bowie knife tip into his back. A tall, thin
dark-haired woman stood there ready to swing the skillet again.