Law of the Mountain Man

14

After recovering from his shock, Cheyenne said, “I been in and out of here for the last fifty years, Rusty. I ain’t never heard that story.”

“Rancher up in Montana told me some five or six years ago. Sorry, boys, I just figured you knew.”

“So Clint is really Walt’s nephew,” Smoke spoke the words softly. “I wonder what surprises Doreen has in store for us?”

Rusty blushed.

“Not those surprises,. Rusty! I wonder if she’s kin to Walt and Alice?”

“Beats me. I done told you all I know.”

“You shore this rancher wasn’t just pullin’ your leg?” Cheyenne questioned.

“I don’t think so. We was sittin’ around the fire one night during roundup, passin’ a bottle around. Lemmie see if I can remember all, or most, of what was said.” He rolled another cigarette, deep in thought while he was shaping and licking and lighting the tube. “Mr. Randolph—that was the rancher I was workin’ for at the time—he said that Walt come out to this part of Idaho ’way back. The first white man to settle in this part of the territory.”

“That much jibes with what Walt told me,” Smoke confirmed.

“Mr. Randolph said that Walt had left a baby brother behind. I believe he said Ill-o-noise or O-hi-o or some of them faraway places like that. Said that Walt never really knew the kid all that good. He was in diapers when Walt left. The kid started gettin’ into trouble right off the mark. Then as the kid got older, the trouble got worser. He’s supposed to have raped and kilt a woman when he was ’bout fourteen or fifteen and had to flee, two steps ahead of the law.”

“And Walt didn’t know what was going on back home?”

“No way he could have. A thousand miles away like he was. Sure wasn’t no letters bein’ posted to this part of the territory. Mr. Randolph said that the kid turned to a life of crime—bad stuff. Robbin’ and murderin’ folks and abusin’ women. He robbed a U.S. gold shipment, hundreds of thousands of dollars and him and his gang come out this aways. Jason’s been with him from the git-go, ’way Mr. Randolph told it. That gold was what set him up in the ranchin’ business.

“Walt went to see the rancher one day, and was shook right down to his boots when Jud Vale—that’s the name he took—started talkin’ about where he was from. Walt started writin’ letters to folks he figured was still alive back to home. He started puttin’ two and two together and soon realized that Jud Vale was his baby brother.

“But he never let on to Jud. Not until about ten years ago, I reckon, maybe more than that. Mr. Randolph never did say; or if he did, I forgot. ’Way Mr. Randolph told it, Jud went into a screaming rage for some reason, and told Wall he would destroy him and take all the gold that Walt had found. Walt tried to tell his brother that there wasn’t no more gold on the Box T, that the strike had been a fluke and had played out. But Jud wasn’t havin’ none of that.”

“I wonder why Editor Argood didn’t tell me all this?” Smoke questioned, his voice soft in the night.

“Well, he probably figured you knew already. Just like I done.”

“And now you know it all,” Walt’s voice came from behind them.

The trio turned around to face the rancher.

“I wish you had told me,” Smoke said.

“Shame. It was shame that prevented me from telling you.”

Smoke swore an ugly streak. “You’re lying, Walt. You’ve lied to me right from the start and I’m telling you now: clear the damned air and level with us!”

Walt came to the corral and hung his arms over the railing. He lit his pipe and sighed. “There isn’t much else to clear. He’s my brother, boys. Our blood is the same. I had him in rifle sights once and couldn’t pull the trigger. I just couldn’t kill him. Even knowing what trash he is— what he had turned into. I just couldn’t do it. That’s why, until recently, at least, I was just letting him run all over me. Then I got mad. I sent out word that I was hiring gunfighters.” He laughed sourly. “But if I paid a hundred a month, Jud would pay two hundred. And so on. I had half a dozen. They left me and went to work for Jud. I hired some straight punchers. Jud and his men drove them off or killed them. I finally reached the point where I just didn’t know what to do. I was confused, alone with the wife and Doreen and Micky. Scared for them and for myself. I’m not a young man. There is more than twenty years’ difference between me and Jud Vale. His real name is Paul Burden. Then, Smoke, you showed up.”

For the first time since arriving at the Box T, Smoke believed the man. “Doreen is no kin to you? No blood kin?”

“No.”

“Walt, I’ve told Cheyenne that I don’t want to kill Jud. He needs killing, I’ll be the first to admit that. He’s a vile, loathsome person, for a fact. But I don’t want to be the one to pull the trigger on him. And I won’t unless he pushes me to it or gets caught up in gunfire while attacking this ranch. The man is insane. He needs to be confined in an asylum. For the rest of his life."

Walt’s laugh was bitter. “You think I haven’t tried to do that. I personally called on the territorial governor and informed him of Jud—without telling him that Jud was my brother. He sent people in to talk with Jud. Jud charmed them. He has that ability. Just like his son, Clint. And just like Clint, he can go off the beam into a raging, killing darkness at the smallest slight or word. Smoke, I don’t know what else I can do. I have reached my wit’send in this matter.”

Smoke felt an intense sorrow for the man. A grandson that wasn’t his, and a blood brother who was a raging lunatic and invariably would have to be destroyed like a rabid dog was enough to fell all but the strongest of men.

“We’ll work it out, Walt,” Smoke assured him.

After Walt had returned to the house, Cheyenne asked, “Just how do you figure we’re gonna work it out, Smoke?”

“I don’t have any idea,” Smoke admitted.

Susie slept late, it being almost noon when she walked out into the front yard. When the weather was good, the boys took their meals at a long setup table in the yard. When the weather was bad, they had to take shifts eating in the house.

Susie was amazed at the youth of the hands, and equally amazed at the ages of the old men. No one asked her to lend a hand with the cleaning up, she just fell to it as one by one the boys finished their nooning and got up, going back to work.

“Rider comin’,” Cheyenne said, squinting his eyes.

“Who is it?” Rusty asked.

“Blackjack Morgan,” Smoke told them. “You never know about Blackjack. Or Jackson, for that matter. They operate under a strange code.”

Matthew had moved over from the table, to stand by the rose bushes planted in front of the house. The hammer thong was off his Peacemaker.

“You just steady down, boy,” Smoke said. “Blackjack’s not looking for trouble.”

Blackjack reined up at the hitchrail and waited for an invite to dismount.

“Coffee’s hot, Blackjack,” Smoke told him. “You’re welcome to a cup and something to eat if you’re hungry.”

Blackjack swung out of the saddle. “Neighborly of you, Smoke. Coffee sounds good.” His eyes widened and he smiled. “Is them bear sign I spy?”

“Yes. Help yourself, Mr. . . . ah, Blackjack,” Alice said.

“Thank you kindly, ma’am.” He poured coffee and got a couple of doughnuts. He looked at Smoke. “But I got to say that this ain’t what you’d call a social visit. At least not right off, it ain’t.”

“I didn’t figure it was.” Smoke moved to the table and sat down.

Blackjack munched on a doughnut and sipped his coffee. “That editor feller is gone to Utah. Won’t be back for a month or more. And that youngster he hired to cover the news has recently got himself a bad case of jitters. Didn’t take much; just a little talkin’ to, is all. He won’t be comin’ around here no more.”

“We expected that.”

Blackjack’s eyes held a visible light of amusement as he looked around at the boys and the old men. “Damnedest outfit I ever did see. Pardon my language, ladies. These boys doin’ a man’s work. Drove that herd all the way to the railhead without a bobble. You boys is all right in my book. I brung a message from the Bar V,” he said abruptly.

Smoke took a bite from a doughnut and waited.

“Jud Vale has done declared war on anybody ridin’ for the Box T. Man, woman, or child. Thai don’t set too well for a few of us. Me and Jackson, most especially. I don’t believe in mistreatin’ women or hurtin’ no kid or dog. So, I ain’t a-gonna do it. Neither is Jackson.”

He finished his bear sign and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. He drained his coffee cup and thanked Susie as she refilled it.

“But that’s just two out of about forty-five. . . with more comin’ in shortly. The odds is too high. Smoke. You can’t win this one.”

“These folks have no place else to go, Blackjack. So we have to win it.”

“Figured you’d say that. You bein’ who you is and all that.”

Blackjack sipped his coffee. “Now I ain’t got nothin’ personal ag’in you, Smoke. But that ten thousand dollars that Jud’s done hung on your scalp is jusi too good for me to walk away from. That money would get me a right nice spread down in Texas and I can hang these guns up.”

“You ain’t never gonna hang them guns up, Blackjack,” Cheyenne told him. “You been around too long. You’re one of the old breed. There’s always gonna be some punk kid who wants to make hisself a rep.”

“Not me, Cheyenne. I’m a-gonna change my name and bury myself down near the Barrillas. Me and Lassiter. We done talked it over. So me and Lassiter will be waitin’ for you over at Preston, Smoke. That’s the way it’s got to be, and you know it.”

Smoke nodded.

Blackjack cut his eyes to Matthew. “Git shut of that gun, boy. It ain’t nothing but grief. You already got the stamp on you, but it ain’t too late to shake it off. As young as you is, you kill another man, you’re gonna be marked.”

“I plan on becoming a lawman,” Matt told him.

“Huh! That’s even worse. Puttin’ up with drunks and whoors and tin-horns and gamblers. It ain’t no life.” He smiled sadly. “O’ course, my life ain’t been all that great, neither.” He stood up and smiled at the women. “Much obliged for the coffee and bear sign, ladies.” Turning, he looked at Smoke. “Lassiter’s just over the ridge. We’re headin’ for Preston. I ’spect we’ll see you there, Smoke.”

Blackjack Morgan walked to his horse and swung into the saddle. He rode off without looking back.

“Now that is interesting!” Walt said.

“Not really.” Smoke began rolling a cigarette. “They’re setting me up, that’s all.”

“You can bet on that!” Cheyenne agreed. “Blackjack and Lassiter will prob’ly have four or five men with them. Their plan is being the only ones standin’ after the battle.”

“That’s the way I read it at first. Now I’m not so sure.”

“What do you mean, son?” Walt asked.

“Jud wants me away from the ranch, probably figuring I’ll take someone with me.”

“And he’ll hit the ranch when you’re gone,” Alice stated, a sick expression on her face.

“That’s the way I see it.”

“And if you don’t go into Preston, Blackjack and them others will spread the word that Smoke Jensen has turned yeller,” Cheyenne added that.

Smoke shrugged that off. “That kind of talk never bothered me, Cheyenne.”

“Son, you can’t face seven or eight men alone,” Walt told him.

Smoke smiled. “I faced eighteen alone one time. I did take some lead. But I put them all down. Don’t worry, Walt. I have no intention of riding into a setup. If I just stay put, that will probably make Blackjack and the others so mad they’ll do something rash.”

“Like what?” Rusty asked.

“Oh . .. like moving their ambush a lot closer than Preston. Like over to the trading post.”

“And you’d ride over there to face them?” Susie asked. “One man against seven or eight gunslingers?”

“I’d give it some serious thought,” Smoke told her, pouring another cup of coffee.

“That man said that more gunfighters would becoming in shortly,” Doreen said.

“I’m fresh out of ideas, Doreen. W hat do you wan t me to do, girl?”

“You could put the ranch up for sale. Advertise it in the paper, in papers all over the state. That would draw a lot of attention to our situation and maybe make Jud Vale back off.”

“She’s got a point, Walt,” Smoke told him.

But the old rancher shook his head. “I been out here goin’ on fifty years. Me and Alice fought Indians and outlaws, blizzards and droughts. We come close to packin’ it in several times. This ain’t one of them times. If you all was to leave—and I wouldn’t blame you none if you was to pull out—I’m stayin’.”

His wife moved to his side. “We’re staying, Walt.”

He put his arm around her waist and pulled her close.

The younger of the boys looked at each other, all thinking they had best head back to the creek as quickly as possible and gather up some more stones for their slingshots.

Matthew hitched up his gun belt.

“This here is a right good job of work,” Dolittle said. “So me and Harrison is stayin’ put. If I’m gonna die, I’d druther it be with food in my belly and some coins to jingle in my jeans.”

“I’m stayin’,” Cheyenne said.

“So are we!” the boys shouted as a unit.

Rusty shrugged his shoulders. “Count me in, too.”

“That’s settled,” Smoke said. “Let’s get back to work.”