Wanted! Belle Starr! (23 page)

“
Just like I told you,
boys!” Church Steeples announced. “With that big buckskin of her’n
saddled up and a buggy hitched ready, she was figuring on pulling
out. All we had to do was wait for her to show up.”

“
You told us,” admitted
Little Steeples, tallest and youngest of the brothers, sounding
just a trifle grudging. “Only you reckoned it’d be Parson Higgert
and that hot-assed gal of his with her and these two ain’t either
of them.”

“
That makes it all the
better,” High Steeples claimed, running a lascivious gaze over
Belle, Benkers and Florence in turn. “It’ll be one a-piece now and
more fun all way ’round.”

“
All right, Starr!” Church
growled, directing a scowl at the middle sibling. Possessing
greater intelligence, he wanted to prevent the import of the
ill-advised remark being appreciated by the women, causing them to
raise a commotion before they could be taken somewhere there would
be no chance of them being heard. “Don’t give us any fuss and you
won’t get hurt. We’re taking you to the jailhouse.”

“
Like hell that’s what
you’re aiming to do!” Belle denied, wanting to ensure her
companions were alerted to the fate she felt certain awaited them
all. “There’s no legal bounty, or open warrant, on me anywhere. So
you’re after the money you’ve been told I’m toting and you don’t
need to keep me alive to collect the rest of whatever Armond
Chauvelin’s promised you. He just wants my hide nailing to the
wall.”

Watching the reaction of the brothers to her
words, the lady outlaw knew she was correct in her assumptions. Nor
had these been difficult to draw. It was unlikely that the
Frenchman would have been sufficiently trusting to have given them
enough money to go to all the trouble it must have taken to find
her. Therefore, in addition to whatever advance payment he had
made, he had offered them further inducement by convincing them she
would be carrying a large sum with her.

Under different circumstances, Belle might
have felt a certain admiration for the skill and enterprise shown
by the brothers. Having succeeded in picking up her trail, they had
had the forethought to obtain a description of the horse she was
using. Locating it and finding it saddled, they had deduced that
she was planning to leave Austin and had waited in concealment,
after the departure of Sam and his hostlers, for her to put in an
appearance. However, having succeeded in capturing her, they had no
reason to keep her alive. Nor, she was certain, would they spare
either of her companions. In fact, the only reason they had not
opened fire immediately was that they didn’t want to bring people
to investigate the shooting.

“
Keep your god-damned
yapper shut, Starr!” Church commanded. “And all of you stick your
hands out so’s Brother Hugh can fasten ’em!”

“
You’ve got me,” the lady
outlaw pointed out, without doing as ordered. “These girls have no
part in this, so leave them behind.”

“
And have them telling all
your buddies about us?” High scoffed. “Like hell we’re leaving them
to do that!”

“
So you’re taking us too,
are you?” Benkers inquired, sounding mild.

“
You can bet your
god-damned life we are,” High confirmed, oblivious of the
prohibitive glare directed at him by Church. “So get your hands
stuck out like you was told.”

“
Very well,” honey blonde
assented, showing no concern.

While speaking, Benkers swung her gaze
briefly to Florence and gave an almost imperceptible nod. Having
done so, hoping her faith in the maid and Belie would be justified,
she looked to the front and began to raise her hands.

“
Here!” Florence yelped,
starting to walk towards High. “You’ve got no call to take me,
mister. I’ve never seen these two before tonight. I thought they
was just a couple of them posh women who’re in town and liked girls
instead of blokes.”

“
Get the hell back th—!”
the middle sibling snarled, reaching with the intention of pushing
the maid away.

Grabbing the hand which was coming towards
her, Florence raised it and buried her teeth into it. Taken
completely unawares, High gave out a yell of mingled pain and anger
which produced the effect she knew her employer was seeking.
However, she hoped Belle would also be ready to make the most of
any opportunity which arose. From what she saw while hanging on to
the hand she was biting, she had achieved what she was trying to
do.

Despite being startled by the commotion, if
Church and Little had been dealing with men, they would not have
succumbed to the instinctive reaction to look around. However,
although they had noticed the gunbelts worn by Belle and Benkers,
they had discounted these as being no more than part of the
masculine attire used as a disguise.

The brothers were making a very serious
mistake!

Having seen the signal passed between her
companions, the lady outlaw was prepared for whatever might happen.
As soon as the revolver which Church was pointing at her, wavered
from its alignment, she sent her right hand flashing downwards.
Grasping the butt of the Manhattan Navy Model revolver, she began
to lift it. Thumbing back the hammer, as the six and a half inch
barrel cleared the lip of the fast draw holster, she fired at waist
level and by instinctive alignment. Such was the skill she had
acquired by much practice, she sent the .36 caliber bullet into the
center of the bounty hunter’s forehead and killed him
instantly.

Possessing complete faith in Florence’s
ability to create the desired distraction, although not quite so
fast as the lady outlaw, Benkers had been even more ready to
respond when it came. In fact, she started reaching for her Webley
Royal Irish Constabulary revolver an instant before Belle’s draw
was commenced. However, despite the advantage offered by the
shorter barrel, the shot she got off came a fraction of a second
later. The result was just as effective. Directing the lead in the
way she knew it must go, aware that the man would show no mercy to
herself and her friends, she shot to kill. Flying as was intended,
the bullet took Little in the left breast and, tearing apart his
heart, spun him in a lifeless twirl across the barn.

Satisfied she had played her part, Florence
opened her mouth and flung herself away from High. On the point of
turning his revolver upon her, he heard the shots fired by the
other women. Seeing what had happened to his brothers, he changed
his intentions. Starting to swing the weapon towards Belle and
Benkers, finding himself the object of their attentions, he did not
know which of them would pose the greater threat. Nor was he given
a chance to make the decision. Aware of the danger, both responded
to it instantly. Their revolvers spoke almost simultaneously and
either bullet would have proved fatal. Thrown backwards, the last
of the bounty hunters was dead before he joined the corpses of his
brothers on the floor.

“
Gracias, Benkers,
Florence,” the lady outlaw said quietly, a quick glance assuring
her they had nothing further to fear from the three men. Lowering
the smoking Manhattan and listening for anything to suggest the
shooting was bringing people to investigate, she went on, “I’m
sorry I got you into this!”

“
You couldn’t have guessed
they’d be here,” the honey blonde replied. “And, unless I’ve
misjudged them completely, they meant to kill us as well as
you.”

“
You hadn’t misjudged
them,” Belle claimed, holstering the revolver and taking a key from
the pocket of her jacket. “Here, Florence, start getting our gear
out of the storeroom. Help me to calm down the horses, Benkers.
There’s nobody coming yet, but the sooner we’re on our way, the
better.”

Not only was the escape from Austin effected
without further incident, the plan proposed by Belle Starr proved
equally successful.

Several factors allowed Amelia Penelope
Diana “Benkers” Benkinsop and Florence Drakefield to leave the
United States unhindered by being sought as fugitives.

Due to the disturbances at the Capitol
Building having led to a number of arrests, by the time the town
marshal of Austin learned of the escape, he had other problems
demanding his attention. When he was at liberty to give his full
attention to the matter, various aspects combined to lessen his
urge to recapture the departed prisoner. The fortuitous arrival of
two genuine operatives for the Pinkerton National Detective Agency
exposed the man responsible for the arrest as a fake and he fled to
avoid being subjected to their attentions. If the jewelry had been
taken from the safe, its owner being of some importance, the
marshal would have felt obliged to take steps to recover it. Under
the circumstances, having no liking for “Pink-Eyes” and Yankees in
general, he had felt disinclined to cause himself all the extra
work he knew would ensue from arranging extradition should he be
successful in the hunt for her. Despite concluding she had been
involved, on learning the identity of the Steeples brothers and
having an even greater aversion for bounty hunters, he had also
guessed what had happened. Considering the trio had met the fate
they deserved, he saw no reason to take action on their account.
Therefore, the problems envisaged by the lady outlaw failed to
materialize.

When satisfied it was safe to
do so, Belle accompanied Benkers and Florence from Texas. They went
their separate ways in Oklahoma Territory, after visiting her
parents. Going to Kansas, where a friend was running a prosperous
saloon in Mulrooney, the honey blonde had a further adventure
before she and her maid arrived at New York and took passage on a
boat to England.
^xxviii

Throughout the years we have been writing,
we have frequently received letters asking for various Western
terms, or incidents to which we refer, to be explained in greater
detail. While we do not have the slightest objection to receiving
such mail, we have found it saves much time-consuming repetition to
include those most often requested in each volume. We ask all our
‘old hands’ who have read them before to bear with us and remember
there are always ‘new chums’ coming along who have not.

1. Introduced in 1873, the Colt Model P
“Single Action Army” revolver with a caliber of .45 instead of the
traditional .44 became popularly known as the “Peacemaker”.
Production continued until 1941, when it was taken out of the line
to make way for the more modern firearms required in World War II.
Over three hundred and fifty thousand were manufactured in
practically every handgun caliber with the exception of the .41 and
.44 Magnums, which were not developed during the first production
period from .22 Rimfire to .476 Eley. However, the majority fired
.45 or .44-40. The latter, given the name, “Frontier Model”,
handled the same ammunition and powder charge of forty grains used
in the Winchester Model of 1873 rifle and carbine.

1a. The barrel lengths of the production
line Model P could be from three inches in the “Storekeeper” Model,
which did not have an extractor rod, to sixteen inches in the
so-called “Buntline Special”. The latter also was offered with an
attachable metal ‘skeleton’ butt stock, allowing it to be used as
an extemporized carbine. However, the main barrel lengths were:
Cavalry, seven and a half inches; Artillery, five and a half;
Civilian, four and three-quarters.

1b. Popular demand, said to have been caused
by the upsurge of action-escapism-adventure Western series on
television, brought the Peacemaker back into the production line
during 1955 and it is still being manufactured. For the first time,
a model named the “Buntline Special” albeit with a barrel only
twelve inches long allegedly due to the use of such a weapon by
actor Hugh O’Brian while starring in the WYATT EARP television
series came into being.

2. We are frequently asked why it is the
Belle Starr we describe is so much more shapely and attractive than
portrayed in photographs which appear in various books. The
researches of fictionist genealogist Philip Jose Farmer author of,
among numerous other works, the incomparable TARZAN ALIVE, A
Definitive Biography of Lord Greystoke, and DOC SAVAGE, His
Apocalyptic Life with whom we have consulted, have established that
the “Belle Starr” to whom we refer is not the same person as
another equally famous bearer of the name. However, the Counter
family have requested that we and Mr. Farmer keep her true identity
a secret and we intend to do so.

3. We strongly suspect that the trend in
film and television Westerns made since the early 1960s to portray
all cowhands as long haired, heavily bearded and filthy stems less
from the desire of the production companies to portray ‘realism’
than because there were so few actors particularly to play
supporting roles who were short haired and clean shaven. Also
because the ‘liberal’ elements who were gaining control of the mass
entertainment media seem to obtain some form of ego trip by showing
dirty habits, conditions and appearances. In our extensive
reference library, we cannot find even a dozen photographs of
actual cowhands as opposed to Army scouts, mountain men and old
time gold prospectors with long hair and bushy beards. In fact, our
reading on the subject and conversations with friends in the modern
West have led us to assume the term ‘long hair’ was one of
opprobrium in the Old West and Prohibition eras just as it still is
in cattle raising country today.

4. “Make wolf bait”; one term meaning to
kill. It derived from the practice in the Old West, when a range
was infested by stock destroying predators not necessarily just
wolves, but mountain lion, black or grizzly bears and coyotes of
slaughtering an animal and, having poisoned the carcass, leaving it
where it fell to be devoured by the carnivores.