Sins of the Father (11 page)

Madden washed his mouthful of food down with some coffee. “Well, by the look on your face, Treat, I take it the attack went well?”

“It was perfect. We took out three of Thornton’s men and all without a scratch on any of our men. The way I count it, Thornton should have only about seven or eight men left about now, unless he’s gotten some more men that we don’t know about.”

“I doubt it since some of them would have come through town to get to his ranch and we haven’t seen anyone come through. I’d say that Thornton is finished. Even if he does hire some more men, by then, we’ll have burned down his place and killed Thornton and the rest of his men. I say we let him worry himself sick for a few days and then go out and finish him off.”

Pattie Nate, who had been listening to all of this, came out of the kitchen with a new pot of coffee and slammed it down on Madden’s table. “You won’t stop until you kill everyone you don’t like, won’t you?” Pattie asked, tears welling up in her eyes.

“This ain’t none of your damn business, woman, now get your ass back in that kitchen and start cooking up some more grub for these men.”

Pattie walked back into the kitchen feeling helpless, and she didn’t like it one bit, but she did cook up some more food for Madden’s men. There was nothing else she could do. At least Madden had let her go and sit with Steele a few times each day. Steele had not regained consciousness yet and Pattie was worried sick. Doctor Hammond had told her that the longer he stayed in a coma, the less likely he would come out of it alive. At least Tex had regained some strength and was now sitting up in the jail cell and Madden had allowed her to take some soup to him. As for Frank Reedy and the other three deputies, it was still bread and water only. Things were not good, to say the least.

oby Hewitt had taken the long way into town, staying along the edge of the woods as much as possible. He knew that if he was caught, he would be shot on sight. He left his horse about a half mile outside of town and slowly and painstakingly made his way to the edge of town. He crawled most of the way to keep out of sight. He had made his way behind the first few buildings and had to dart between them a few times when anyone was around. Madden had so many men in town that he couldn’t trust anyone. He figured he might try the Doctor’s office

and when he finally made it there, one peek in the back window showed him an armed guard and Sheriff Steele, badly wounded and lying very still on a table. He was sitting on the ground trying to think about what he might do next. He wondered about Steele’s deputies, Buck and Tex, and about Marshal Reedy and his two deputies. Just when he decided to try to make it to the jail and see what he could find out, he heard a woman’s voice in the Doctor’s office.

Pattie Nate had finished feeding Madden’s men and Madden had allowed her to go and see Steele before she went to her little room above the Saloon that Jed had let her use. She walked in and past the man sitting in the chair with a rifle across his lap and sat on a chair next to Steele and held his hand. Doctor Hammond was sitting behind his desk reading some medical books.

Pattie asked, new tears forming in her eyes.
“I won’t lie to you Pattie; it doesn’t look good for
him. He hasn’t moved a muscle yet. If he doesn’t
come out of that coma in the next few days or so, I
don’t think he ever will. He needs nourishment badly
and he’s getting weaker by the hour. The bleeding has stopped but he has lost a lot of blood. I’m afraid
all we can do now is to pray for a miracle.”
Pattie sobbed quietly and kissed Mark Steele on
his hand. “Please open your eyes, Mark, please,” she
begged quietly. There was no response. After about
twenty minutes, she got up to leave and thanked the
Doctor again. She slowly walked over to the saloon
and climbed the stairway that was on the side of the
saloon, and opened the door to her little room. It
wasn’t much, only a ten by ten room with a single
bed and one dresser with a small mirror on the wall.
She didn’t need much more than that. Of course, she
had dreamed of having her own house one day, with
Mark Steele.
Toby Hewitt had watched her and followed along
the backs of the buildings slowly until he reached the
bottom of the stairway leading up to Pattie’s room.
He quickly climbed the stairs as quietly as he could.
There was a small window in the door and it was
covered with a simple white piece of cotton cloth. He
couldn’t see inside and he didn’t know if she was in
there alone, but he needed to do something before
someone spotted him at the top of the stairs. He
decided to tap lightly on the window. A few seconds
later, the cloth covering the window moved aside and
Pattie’s face appeared. Pattie was startled and a little
scared. She figured maybe Rance Madden sent this
man to carry out his threat of having his men teach
her a lesson. Pattie started to say something and Toby put his finger on his lips, signifying for her to be
silent.
He talked as quietly as he could through the glass
pane. “Ma’am, I work for Henry Thornton. I need to
speak with you about Madden. Please let me come in
before one of Madden’s men spot me up here.” Pattie closed the cloth and placed her back
against the door, her heart thumping with fear. The
man didn’t look familiar to Pattie. She hadn’t seen
him around Madden or any of the other men, but then
again, Madden had men arriving at different times so
maybe this was a new hired gun. If this was one of
Thornton’s men though, he would be shot on sight if
any of Madden’s men spotted him, and they would
surely take it out on her for having one of Thornton’s
men at her door. She had to let him in. She unlocked
the door and let him come in.
“Thank you, ma’am. I was getting worried you
weren’t going to let me in. I was an open target out
there. My name is Toby Hewitt.”
“My name is Pattie Nate, you can call me Pattie.” Toby noticed a small chair by the dresser.
“Ma’am, do you mind if I sit and talk to you about
what has happened in town the last few days?” Pattie motioned for him to sit and she sat down
on the edge of her bed. “How about you tell me what
you are doing here first? You said you work for
Thornton and he’s not completely innocent in all of
this.”
“Well, he’s sure not as guilty as Madden. The
marshal came to visit Thornton at the ranch and
warned Thornton to let the law take care of the
problem. That’s exactly what Thornton was doing.
Then, Madden sent men out to the Thornton ranch at
daybreak and they opened fire on us with rifles while
we was half asleep. They killed three of our men.
Madden blew our water basins the other day with
dynamite and killed seven more of our men in the
process. That leaves us with only seven men left,
including me. Now I come into town and find the
sheriff lying almost dead over at Doc Hammond’s
and no sign of the marshal or any deputies.” “I can tell you where the marshal and the
deputies are,” interjected Pattie. “Madden has them
all locked up over at the jail.”
Toby lowered his head. “Damn, this is not good.
That means we got no law left in town. Tell me
everything that happened.”
Pattie took in a deep breath. “Sheriff Steele and
Tex were doing rounds after Marshal Reedy took his
two deputies and Buck out to talk to Henry Thornton.
Two men set fire to a small shack out at the end of
town and during all the commotion, some men
ambushed the sheriff and Tex. They shot them down
in the street and took off out of town like cowards.
Tex is conscious now, but the sheriff is still in a
coma. When Marshal Reedy came back later that
night and found out what had happened, he got a
small posse together and headed out of town to try to catch them. When they came back, Madden had a trap set for them and he locked them up in the jail. I heard them planning to blow the water basins but I didn’t know about the attack this morning. Now, Madden has the town under his rule and he has sent for several more hired guns. He will have more than twenty men when the rest arrive. You won’t have a chance against that many men and I don’t see any law coming to town, and if they do, Madden will have them shot on sight. I’m telling you, the man has
gone absolutely crazy with greed and hatred.” “That’s the way it is with men like Madden.
They’re like mad dogs. Once they get a taste of greed
and power, they need more and more and never seem
to get enough of either. He won’t stop until he gets
everything, Thornton’s spread and the town
included.”
“Well, Mr. Hewitt, I suggest that you stay here
until late tonight and leave once some of Madden’s
men are asleep. You’ll have a better chance of getting
out of town alive that way. Once you get out of here,
I suggest you tell your boss to get out while he can or
send for help, and lots of it.”
“Thank you, Pattie. That’s exactly what I intend
to do. How’d you get those bruises around your
neck?” asked Hewitt, pointing to her neck.
“That’s Madden’s work. He grabbed me by the
neck and shoved me. I got a knot on my head from
one of his men who pushed me so hard I fell down
and hit my head. I got bruises on other places that you can’t see from his men pushing me around. He’s threatened to send some of his men to have their way with me. I thought you might have been one of his men coming to carry out the threat. That’s why I was
so afraid to open the door.”
Hewitt looked apologetic. “I’m right sorry,
Pattie. I don’t like to see women get slapped or
pushed around by men. It just ain’t right.”
“Rance Madden is not a man, he’s an animal,”
said Pattie, with anger in her voice.
“I can’t argue with you on that fact.”
The two of them sat there for another two hours
before they decided it was probably safe for Hewitt to
leave. “I guess it’s a good time to leave,” said Pattie. “I agree. Madden will still have a few men on
guard but I figure most of them would be asleep by
now. Thanks again, Pattie. Let’s pray we live long
enough to get to speak to one another again.” Pattie thought about it for a minute but then
decided that she would tell Hewitt. “Well, we might
have one chance left, maybe.”
“What are you talking about? What chance could
we have against Madden’s army of hired guns? “Before Madden took control of the town, I was
able to send off a message from the telegraph office.” “Who did you send the message to?”
“A young man by the name of Jess Williams.” “With all due respect, Pattie, we’re in a war with
a man who has an army of hired guns and you sent for
one
man? Pattie, you should have sent for the
Calvary instead.”
Pattie looked at Hewitt with a strange smile.
“Why, Mr. Hewitt, you may not realize it but that is
exactly what I
did
do.”

OBY
H
EWITT MADE HIS WAY
back out of town and to his horse. He again stayed off the main trail and traveled along the edge of the woods as much as he could. He made it back to the Thornton ranch just as the sun was trying to light up the sky with a soft orange glow. He handed the reins of his horse to the man who was standing guard on the front porch and headed inside to inform Henry Thornton of everything that he had learned from his trip into town and his discussion with Pattie Nate. Thornton sat there sipping hot coffee while Hewitt explained everything from Sheriff Steele and Tex being shot to

Thornton put his cup down and looked into the cup, deep in thought. Stumpy Watson, who did most of the cooking for Thornton, refilled the two coffee cups in front of Hewitt and Thornton. Stumpy had a bushy beard that was a salt and pepper color and a full round face. Then he went back to making up a mess of flapjacks.

Thornton had a serious and worried look on his face. “We are in a whole heap of trouble, Toby. It looks like Madden’s got the upper hand and there isn’t anything we can do to change it.”

“This is one time I hate to agree with you, boss. All we can do now is send for help and hunker down and try to survive until help arrives. That might be a few days or even a few weeks. We can send for help to the U.S. marshal’s office and tell them that one of their marshals has been ambushed and jailed. Maybe that will put a burr under their asses and make them send someone right away.”

“Well, that might work, but how many can they send? Madden’s already got a small army and sending for more. They’ll have to bring thirty men with them or call out the Calvary to help.”

The word Calvary made Hewitt remember what else Pattie had said. “Boss, I forgot about one thing that Pattie Nate told me when I was holed up in her room.”

“She told me that before Madden took control of the town, she sent for help.”
“You don’t sound too pleased about it. Who did she send for?”
“Well, that’s the part I’m not pleased about. She said she sent for only one man. A young man by the name of Jess Williams.”
“Do you mean to tell me that she only sent for
one
man?” asked Thornton, a look of concern on his face.
“That’s exactly what I’m telling you, boss. She only sent for one man. I know, I can’t believe it either, but I suppose she was just trying to help.”
“What in the hell does she think one man will be able to do in this situation? Does she think he’s just going to ride straight into town and ask Madden to surrender and give up? Madden will have him shot before he gets halfway down the street. Damn woman probably just got that young man a certain death.”
Stumpy, who had been listening to the entire conversation, had stopped what he was doing and turned around to face Hewitt and Thornton at the mention of Jess Williams. “Maybe not, boss,” said Stumpy.
Thornton and Hewitt both looked up at Stumpy Watson. “What the hell do you mean?” Thornton asked. “Do you know about this young man, Jess Williams?”
“Yep, I sure suppose I do, Boss. I saw him shoot Curley Simms over in Baxter. That boy snaked his pistol out of his holster quicker than the eye can see. It was a strange thing to witness. One second, he was bracing old Curley and then, in a blink of an eye, his pistol was out and smoke was coming from the end of the barrel. I talked to some of the other men later on and they said he was a bounty hunter and a damn good one at that. He has a strange looking pistol like I’ve not seen before. They told me that he’s killed more men than any other bounty hunter alive.”
Thornton wanted to believe that this was good news, but he just couldn’t see what any one man could do, no matter how good or how deadly the man was. “Well, maybe he might get a few of Madden’s men, but that won’t solve the problem.”
“Maybe,” replied Stumpy, “but they told me something else about this Williams kid.”
“And what was that?” Thornton asked.
“That he doesn’t usually do things…well,
usual
.”
Thornton and Hewitt looked at one another and a glimpse of hope came and vanished as they looked at one another. Both of them knew the dire predicament that they were in and they both knew that one man wouldn’t change the outcome.
“Stumpy,” said Thornton, “as soon as you finish up with feeding the men, I want you to ride over to Baxter and use their telegraph office. I will write a message that I want you to send to the marshal’s office and another message I want you to send to some more hired guns. While you are in Baxter, let every man who can shoot straight know that I’m paying twenty-five dollars per day per man along with a fifty dollar bonus the minute they show up.”
“Okay, boss, I’ll ride out as soon as I can, but that’s a lot of money for regular men though.”
“We don’t have time to think about money. If we don’t get help soon, money won’t be necessary. We’ll all be planted out back with the others before long.”
Stumpy went back to flipping flapjacks and frying up salt pork. The other men came into the house and ate their fill in shifts so as to keep at least two men on watch at all times. About an hour later, Stumpy saddled up his horse and rode out towards Baxter. He figured it would take him most of the day to get there if he pushed his horse hard.