Triumph of the Mountain Man

18

Smoke Jensen jerked his head to one side and let the fist whistle past. Then he brought one up from the cellar that connected with the brute’s jaw. Teeth clopped shut, and the yellowish whites of his eyes showed as his pupils rolled upward. Smoke closed in and gave him two hard shots to the heart for good measure. Then he felt a sharp jolt as the second thug caught him in the gut. Smoke took a back step and braced himself.

At once, the brawler came on. Smoke let him get in close. Then he flexed his knees, fired his best right cross and put shoulder and hips into it. The outlaw’s boots left the floor. Squalling like a cinch-galled horse, he pitched face first across a nearby table. The legs broke and went four directions, as did the stacks of coins and bills. By that time, the first one to assault Smoke had recovered himself enough to launch another attack.

He came in low, intent on taking Smoke off his feet. Smoke stood his ground and, at the last instant, smartly raised his right knee. Face met knee and the face lost. Blood flew in a shower from a mashed nose. Three teeth snapped loudly, and more crimson ribbons streamed from the damaged mouth. The legs stopped churning and the eyes gradually crossed. The would-be tough dropped two feet in front of Smoke Jensen. Which left the other assailant to tend to.

Smoke turned to face him as the member of the Quinn gang put himself back on his boots. He had lost his cock-sure smirk. His eyes glazed, he took an unsteady step toward Smoke Jensen. Blindly, he tripped over the broken table and sprawled again on the green baize. One of the men, who’d had his game disrupted and his winnings scattered, boxed the outlaw’s ears. Which got him up right smartly. He spat a curse at Smoke Jensen and came on.

Smoke snapped a right-left combination to the head, then lowered his point of aim to work on the chest and gut. His elbows churned back and forth while he delivered short, punishing blows. When the ruffian’s guard disappeared entirely, Smoke took a quick back step and launched a solid left jab that rocked his opponent to the toes. He spun half left and shuddered while still erect. Then he wilted like a stalk of grass before a prairie fire and thudded on the floor. Seeing the pair so hastily dispatched, the leader and his remaining henchman went for their guns.

Smoke did not even change stance. His right arm already across his body for counterbalance, he simply grabbed at the butt of his second Colt and hauled it from the horizontal leather. He snapped back the hammer and tripped the trigger. By that time, and much to his later regret, the subordinate section leader of the gang had cleared leather. He had not, however, leveled his weapon when a hot poker jabbed him in the belly and his six-gun discharged into the floor. Beside him he heard his underling utter a boast he knew could not be fulfilled.

“I got him! I got him—got him!”

What he got was the center of the forehead of a big black bull that hung on the wall behind Smoke Jensen, as the bullet of the last mountain man smacked into his chest and burst his heart. Smoke crossed the short space between him and the dying man and kicked the Colt from his grasp. Then he turned on the gut-shot leader.

Plucking the Merwin and Hulbert from his numb fingers, Smoke observed, “You won’t survive that. So, I’ll let you go. I have a message for Paddy Quinn. Tell him to keep the hell away from town or I’ll bring down a fire storm of hurt on him.”

Gasping, the hard case observed, “You’ve got a mouth on you. Who are you?”

“Smoke Jensen.”

“Awh . . . shit, shit, shit.” With that, he passed out.

Smoke turned to the customers. “Will four of you bring those two to the jail. La carcel, ¿comprende?”

Volunteers nodded their heads eagerly. They roughly grabbed up the unconscious hard cases and dragged them from the saloon. Smoke faced the bartender. “Whatever money you find on those two, I’ll add what I get from the others to help offset damages.”

One vaquero at the bar translated. It brought a beaming smile from the worried brow. Smoke had earned his gratitude.

* * *

On a small mesa to the west of town, Whitewater Paddy Quinn listened to the sound of gunfire in Taos. All of his section leaders sat horses around him. All except Slim Vickers and three of his henchmen. From what he had learned from one of the seven who did report on time, Slim had remained behind to teach a lesson to some greasers who had poisoned some of them the previous night. Now, hearing the gunfire, Paddy Quinn beckoned to one of the hard cases who waited farther away with many of the gang. The man walked his horse up.

“What do you want, boss?”

“Baker, tell me about this poisoning, will ye?”

Baker looked embarrassed. “Awh, well, boss, it wasn’t poison for real. Jist some green beer. It was right skunkey. Bunch of us wound up squirting through the eye of a needle at ten paces. Two of the boys got sick. Threw up over everything.”

“Where did this happen?”

Baker frowned. “Some place called La Merced. Don’t know what it means.”

Paddy gave him a patronizing smile. “It means, ‘the mercy.’ Though I don’t reckon ye got much mercy from them, eh, bucko?”

“That’s right, boss.”

“Sure an’ what did Slim have in mind to do about it?”

Surprised that Quinn would take it further, Baker blinked. “Uh—well, ah, he and three of the boys was gonna go back and bust up the place. Kick some greaser butt.”

“He say anything about shootin’ them?”

That set Baker back. “Uh—no. Jist wanted to cause some damage.”

Quinn’s face went hard, his eyes narrowed and he gazed at the distant town. “Then it’s that damned Smoke Jensen doin’ the shootin’. An’ I’ve no doubt that the boys will not be comin’ back. I don’t.”

“Rider comin’,” called out one of the outlaws.

Slim Vickers came on slowly, slumped in his saddle, one arm supporting him on the neck of his horse. When he drew nearer, Quinn saw that the man’s face had turned a ghostly white. A green tinge surrounded his mouth. Then he saw the red stain on Slim’s belly.

“Awh, saints above. What’s happened to ye, darlin’ boy? Where’s the rest of the boys?”

“Two’s in jail. One’s dead. An’ Smoke Jensen has done killed me.” With that he fell off his horse and into eternity.

“Awh, damn Jensen’s black heart.” Quinn threw up his hands. “Nothin’ for it, then. We’ll be leavin’ now, we will. Spread out, boys. An’ hold back until the rest of the lads arrive. When they do, we’ll be takin’ our positions. This time it will be a regular siege,” he told them. “Ye have your assignments. Ye are to pursue them and show no quarter.”

* * *

Merchants and townsmen alike turned out to not be so hot for the prospects of standing off a siege. Feeding all of the volunteers became a problem long before Don Diego Alvarado and his vaqueros reached town. Several other ranchers had brought cowboys in to supplement the defenses. The opposition became even more vociferous when the new undersheriff strode through town with a bundle of posters, which he attached to the door of every cantina and saloon.

“What’s the meaning of this?” one unhappy saloon owner demanded. “You can’t take the opportunity away from us to make a nice profit.”

Smoke Jensen stared at him with disdain. “The last thing we need is a lot of boozed-up men with guns on their hips. We won’t have time to round up drunks when Quinn and his gang get here. The flyers mean exactly what they say. You will restrict yourselves to the sale of beer only. Any violators will have their establishments locked and spend the duration in jail. It would be a good idea to limit your customers’ intake, also. I’ve known men to get fallin’ down drunk on good, strong beer.”

Bristling, the owner offered defiance. “You ain’t no dictator. What if we refuse?”

Smoke snorted. “Are you volunteering to be the first to get locked up?”

Short and stout, with the flabby muscles of a man unaccustomed to hard work, the bar owner gauged the look in the eyes of Smoke Jensen and rightly read his expression. “Well—ah—well, no. I reckon I’ll do what you say, but I don’t have to like it.”

“No, you don’t.” Smoke moved on.

When that task had been completed, Smoke had to hurry to the town hall for a meeting he had scheduled with the women of the community and the restaurant owners. In the public meeting room, Smoke stepped to the lectern and addressed the gathering.

“Ladies, we have a good fifty outsiders in town. None of them have the facilities to feed themselves. And there will be more coming. I have been assured that the eating places in town cannot handle the increase except on a continuous operation basis. What we need to do is set up a cookhouse here at city hall. I’m asking for volunteers to cook and serve.”

Abigail Crowder, wife of the Taos fire chief, raised her hand. When Smoke recognized her, she stood to ask her question. “Where will we get the food?”

“I have spoken with Mr. Hubbard at the general store. The city will purchase all supplies from him. There will be no charge for the meals. If you give of your time, it won’t empty the city treasury, what there is of it.”

Another woman stood. “How long will this go on?”

Smoke frowned, scratched at his jaw. “Hard to say. At least two or three days. The mayor and I have sent a message to Santa Fe. We’re asking the governor to call out the militia. But, politicians move slowly. Troops under arms move even slower. We’ll be on our own for a goodly while.”

She had another question. “Will there be enough to eat?”

Smoke nodded reassurance. “I reckon so. For the volunteer fighting men, I suggest you concentrate on fixin’ what there’s the most of. Such as corn bread, biscuits, potatoes, rice and beans. Hubbard has dozens of barrels of those. Plenty of pickles, too. If you can come up with some chickens from home, it would help. Now, if you’ll step over here, Mr. Dougherty, the town clerk, will sign you up, put down the times of day you want to work.”

* * *

Small columns of outlaws streamed down off the mesa. They spread out, and those tasked to the detail made ready to close off the roads. Others waited two miles from Taos to set up roving patrols to prevent anyone from sneaking out of town from houses on the outskirts. What Paddy Quinn did not know would soon prove to have fateful consequences for his plans.

Less than ten minutes earlier, twenty-five young Tua warriors, with Santan Tossa in the lead, had ridden into Taos and assembled outside the sheriff’s office. Their faces were set, emotionless, the stereotypical Indian visage. At the direction of their tribal police chief, they filed into the office and came out with far more animated expressions. Each of them clutched a rifle or a shotgun. Faces of horror flashed through the Mexican and white residents of Taos when they saw this. Enough so that Santan Tossa went inside and spoke briefly with Smoke Jensen.

Smoke came outside and went among the troubled citizens of Taos. He spoke briefly and earnestly to small groups. “They are here to fight Quinn’s gang. They can’t do that with bows and arrows. If more of you had volunteered, it would not be necessary.”

One indignant, pudgy man in a banker’s suit protested hotly. “It’s not our fault. You can’t blame us. We’re not lawmen. It’s your job to protect us.”

Such whining complaints quickly wore thin Smoke’s sparse layer of patience. After the third such outpouring of whining self-justification, he snapped hotly. “And if you had the brains of a gnat, you’d realize that is exactly what I am doing.”

“The governor will hear of this,” a voice warned darkly. The banker had slunk back to launch another feeble barb.

Smoke laughed in the man’s face. “Not until you can get out of town, he won’t.”

* * *

Diego Alvarado, along with two of his sons, Alejandro and Miguel, at the head of thirty-eight vaqueros, thundered up the long slope from the high desert flats where Rancho de la Gloria was located. All of the cowboys had heavily armed themselves. Twin bandoliers of rifle cartridges crisscrossed their chests. Obrigon .45s rode high in holsters on their belts.

Eight of their number cast frequent, nervous glances at their saddlebags, which had been packed full of crudely made grenades. The hand-thrown bombs were made of wine and tequila bottles, tightly packed with black powder and horseshoe nails, then fused and stoppered. The prospect of using them excited some of the more reckless among the vengeance-hungry vaqueros. Ahead waited the men who had murdered their compañeros and stolen their pride when they had stolen the cattle they tended. This would be a day for El Degüello. No quarter would be given. In the heads of some of the older ones echoed the brassy refrain of the “Cutthroat Song,” which their grandfathers had played outside the defiant walls of the Alamo. That these ladrónes they rode to fight were gringos only sweetened the revenge. Five miles from Taos, Diego Alvarado signaled a halt.

“Alejandro, Miguel, here is where we will divide into three groups. Miguel, you will take ten men and ride directly down the road to town. Alejandro, take fourteen and circle a short way to the north. Not more than half a mile, mind. I will take the rest and go to the south. When Miguel and his men open fire, we will sweep down on the bandido scum and kill them all.”

Alejandro and Miguel made their selections and drew the men apart. After signaling to their father, Diego stood in his stirrups and waved a gloved hand over his head. “¡Adelante, muchachos!”

With an enthusiastic, shouted cheer of encouragement, the indomitable company of vaqueros thundered off to bring the force of destiny to the unsuspecting outlaws.

* * *

Three members of the city council came bustling into the sheriff’s office while Smoke Jensen was spooning a plateful of beans into his mouth. From the fiery flavor, Smoke judged that the women cooks had found a ready and willing source of chile peppers among the Mexican households. A florid-faced man in a brown suit and matching derby hat spoke for the politicians.

“What is this we hear that you have actually armed the Indians?”

Smoke chewed and swallowed his most recent mouthful and gestured with the spoon. “Yes, I have.”

“Why, that’s outrageous. And, it is totally unacceptable.”

Smoke shook his head. “No, it’s not. Think about it, gentlemen.”

Agitation darkening the rosy color of his face, the spokesman yapped at Smoke. “We have thought about it. We do not intend to be massacred in our beds or our own homes. We demand—”

Smoke raised a hand to silence him. “Let me acquaint you with some very real, although unpleasant facts of life. When the gang and its hangers-on get here, Paddy Quinn will have between forty-five and seventy highly capable gunfighters at his command. The Tua warriors have come here and are willing to defend your town for you. They can hardly do so against such odds with weapons out of the Stone Age. The mayor agreed with me that we should properly arm them, and that has been done.”

“Why were we not consulted about this?”

Smoke Jensen smiled coldly. “To save time. Politicians, from the White House on down, believe that they can talk troubles to death. We could be arguing over arming the Tuas until winter came.”

The councilman cut his eyes to his associates and fired his last barb. “Banker Elwell tells us that you refused to notify the governor.”

Smoke lowered his gaze a moment. “I—ah—stretched the truth a little when I spoke with the banker. In the letter requesting the militia, I informed the governor of our decision. The mayor assured me it was all right to arm the Indians for—how does the territorial constitution put it?—‘the purpose of hunting game and for the defense of the common good.’”

Defeated, and hating it, the spokesman snapped at Smoke. “For a man with so low an opinion of politicians, you can sure quote law like one.”

Grinning, Smoke affected to preen himself. “A man of many talents, wouldn’t you say?”

Shocked at this effrontery, the senior councilman’s eyes bulged. “Well, I never!”

“Nope. Reckon you haven’t.”

Smoke’s mockery sent them to the door. Heads held high in indignation, the delegation had only reached the porch when they collided with Wally Gower and three other town moppets of about his age, who surged past them, into the office. “They’re comin’, Sheriff Jensen. The Quinn gang’s closin’ in on town. It looks like there’s enough of them, they’re gonna ring the whole place.”