“We’d better pull up and give the horses a rest,” Jeremy Carlin called to the other riders. He hauled back on the reins and let his horse ease to a trot.
“What’s the matter with you?” Frankie the Kid complained, reluctantly slowing his mount so Jeremy could hear him. “Who knows how far that posse is behind us. We gotta makes tracks.”
“We won’t be making any tracks if these horses give out underneath us. Besides we still got this prissy Andrew fella, here as hostage.” Jeremy was slowing his mount to a walk and the others were following suit.
“I suppose you’re right,” Frankie said, bringing his horse to a halt.
There was grass here for the horses to graze and the heavy dew provided moisture for them.
They had been riding for three quarters of an hour since Matt Starr delivered the ransom money. They had given Matt back his guns, making sure they were empty and had turned Sarah Price over to him and let him take her back to the posse.
Frankie dismounted. He looked up at Andrew Wharton who was still sitting on the gray. “You stay where you are, dude. We’ll get you down.”
By now the others had dismounted and loosened cinches to let the horses blow. “Bud,” Frankie ordered. “Get the young lady off his horse.”
“Why me, all the time?” Bud said stepping up alongside the gray and reaching up to help Wharton down.
“No. Not like that, you idiot,” Frankie said with irritation. “Like this.” He stepped up, his arms snaking out and curling his hands around Andrew’s upper arms. He yanked hard, pulling the man half out of the saddle, then let go. Andrew fell into the dirt at Frankie’s feet. The gray shied and stamped around; hoofs barely missing the fallen man.
“I swear, Bud,” Frankie said walking past him. “You’re getting to be a pansy just like him.”
Bud held his temper, though he was seething inside. “The time is coming close, Francis,” he thought to himself.
“There was no need for that,” Jeremy said as he bent over to help the young lawyer to his feet.
As he bent over, Frankie whirled on his feet, turning back to him, and at the same time whipping his pistol from his holster. His arm arced upward and he brought the barrel of the gun down hard on the back of Jeremy‘s skull, crushing his hat as it skewed off the side of his head.
Jeremy slumped into a heap, face downward on dew wet grass, at Frankie’s feet. He was out cold. Frankie bent and lifted Jeremy’s pistol from his belt. To Andrew he said, “Stay where you are pretty boy. Until I tell you different.” Wharton slumped back into a sitting position and rubbed his shoulder.
“What’d ya do that for?” Bud Gorman shouted.
“See what I mean, Bud. You’re getting to be a real pansy.” There was a dark and foreboding scowl on Frankie’s face as he stared down at Jeremy.
“Yeah? I’d rather be a pansy than a coward like you.” Bud blustered.
Frankie wheeled around to face Bud. He grabbed the young man by the collar and pulled him close. He was inches from Bud’s face and his gun muzzle pressed up hard against his nose.
“Don’t you go calling me a coward,” Frankie growled through clenched teeth. His eyes were round and his cheek twitched with rage.
Bud gulped hard, “For God’s sakes. What’s happening to you?”
Frankie held the boy like that for several seconds, then finally realizing he was out of control with rage, he seemed to get a hold of himself. With a savage shove, he pushed Bud backward. Bud landed, sitting on the seat of his pants, looking up at Frankie, standing above him.
“Now, don’t forget, I’m the boss of this outfit. No one calls me names and no one questions my orders. You got that? No one.”
Bud shook his head up and down in acknowledgement without saying a word.
Frankie glanced to Pete and Garth. They both nodded and looked away.
“Now, in case you idiots still haven’t figured it out yet,” Frankie was saying as Bud picked himself up off the ground. “I clobbered this Jeremy creep because we don’t need him anymore. Besides, you can bet that when it comes time to split up the loot, he’d want a share. Hell, he might want it all. Now, we couldn’t have that, could we?”
“You’re right there, Kid,” Pete said, grinning. “A four way split is better than five. This way we each get five grand instead of four.”
“Well, that’s not quite the way it works out, anyhow,” Frankie said. He was still brandishing his gun about, but not actually pointing it at anyone or anything. “You each get three.”
“I thought you were better at ’rithmetic than that,” Pete said. His grin faded and suspicion filled his dark eyes. “Twenty thousand split four ways is five thousand.”
Frankie smiled wryly. Behind him Jeremy groaned and started to move. Frankie ignored him. “But it’s not a four way split, fellas,” Frankie said. “It’s a two way split.”
“Two way?” Garth interjected. “Hey! You’re not planning to cut two of us out like you’re doin’ to that other fella?” He pointed to Jeremy.
“Just hold your horses, there boys,” Frankie said. “I didn’t say nothing’ about cutting anyone out. It’s just that, like I said, it’s a two way split. Half for me and half for the three of you. How you want to split up your half is up to you.”
“Wait! Just a minute, there!” Pete shouted. “That’s not fair.”
“Fair?” Frankie grinned. “Of course it’s fair. I’m the boss and you guys are just a bunch of lost idiots without me.” He leveled his pistol at Pete, then glanced to Bud and Garth, “Isn’t that right boys?”
Reluctantly, they all nodded agreement. For the time being anyhow.
“Good I’m glad we’re all in agreement here. Now I think we’ve rested the horses long enough. We’d better get on our way.”
“What about those two?” Garth asked. Jeremy was now sitting up, next to Andrew, and was rubbing the back of his head.
“We’ll take the pansy with us. He could still come in handy as a hostage if we need one.” He looked down on Jeremy. “This one, we’ll leave behind. We’ll take his horse so he can’t follow us,” he chuckled and added, “If the sheriff and his posse catch up to him, they might just be distracted enough to get off our trail.”
“Peso,” Sheriff Trask said as he reined up, drawing the rest of the riders to a halt. They had ridden for about ten minutes after leaving Matt Starr, Sarah Price and the wounded deputies. They had entered the brush where they had first seen Matt Starr emerge. Once inside the trail was easily spotted. It was slow going at first but soon they had ridden out into open rangeland. The trail was not so easy to be seen, but clear enough to keep up a fairly fast pace. “It’s getting late. If you’re going to blow up that bridge at Eelpot, you’d better get going. I didn’t plan on being this short of men, Without you, there’ll only be five of us left. I can’t spare any of them, so you’ll have to ride back to Price’s ranch and get a couple of more men to help you.“
“I need to get the dynamite from the ranch anyways,” Peso said.
“Then you’d better get going. Make sure Starr doesn’t see you coming back.”
“If he does, I might as well finish him then and there.”
“Don’t be so eager, Martin. Just stick to the plan.”
Peso grimaced. “Whatever you say,” he said with a sneer. He swiveled his mount, lifted the reins, put spurs to him and rode on back the way they had come
“Jeremy can‘t be far away from here,” Kitty said. “They must have been close by for Matt to deliver the ransom so quick.”
Once out of sight of the posse, the Wildcats had pulled off to the side of the trail and had hid out in the brush. They had hoped that the sheriff would have expected them to get as far away as possible. By hiding nearby in the brush, they would wait to see if the posse would come after them in pursuit. If they did, the hope was that they would ride right on past the outlaws. Then Kitty, Cyclone and the others could ride on after Jeremy and the other young outlaws.
“But the she
riff must have gone on after Jeremy,” Cyclone said as they watched Matt Starr pass by with Sarah Price and several wounded men. “Trask ain’t with them. Neither is Peso Martin. I’d say he’s probably got at least another three or four fellas with them. That might be enough for Trask to keep on Jeremy’s trail. I figure him too much of a coward to go on with less men than that”
“He’s probably afraid to go back to Price without the ransom money.” Kitty said.
“You’re right there, girl,” Cyclone said.
“So what do we do, Cy?” Rap asked.
“Just as soon as Kitty’s love puppy law dog gets out of sight, we’re going on after Jeremy. With a posse tracking him, it should be easy to track the posse. They should be leaving a trail plain enough that even Henry can follow it.“
“Then what do we need him for?” Rap sneered.
“’Cause me greatest tracker in west,” Chief Henry said, sitting tall in the saddle, gloating with self importance.
Jeremy hugged the ground behind the roots of a fallen tree trunk. Having been left behind with no gun and no horse, he knew he could not get far on foot. If the posse were still on the trail of him and the other four boys, he knew they would not be far behind. Even given the caveat that the posse was to give the young outlaws an hour head start, Jeremy didn’t think the sheriff would adhere to it. Even if Andrew Wharton’s life was being threatened, he didn’t think Trask would hesitate to risk it. Retrieving the money would be too important.
Minutes ticked by and the morning sun was beginning to rise higher. He could feel the warmth of the growing sunlight and the damp ground beneath him was starting to dry.
He was just beginning to convince himself that the posse had given up on pursuit, when he heard the sound of horses’ hooves. No sooner had he heard them, the riders came into view. Sheriff Trask only had four other riders with him They were coming at a fast clip. Obviously the trail of six horses was easy to follow.
Without slowing their pace, they rode past Jeremy’s hiding place without any thought that he could be in the vicinity. The trail they followed was still that of six horses. As far as Trask knew, all of the outlaws were still riding together..
Surely, the lawman would not have come after them with such a small force, Jeremy thought. Perhaps the posse had split up. There could be more following behind.
He dared not leave his hiding place as he watched the five riders disappear over the horizon in pursuit of Frankie and the others. He would wait it out and see what might happen.
Chapter Twenty Seven