There were seven of them.
Three days earlier they had ambushed a paymaster’s wagon on its way to Fort Riley, killing the four troopers riding escort and a civilian teamster, a Swede named Soderstrom. Then they headed out hard and fast across the flat empty Kansas plain, quartering south and west, keeping away from the settlements and the Army posts where the telegraph would have already chattered with the news of the robbery, moving steadily towards the Colorado border.
Now they crested a bluff about ten miles beyond Fort Dodge, skirting along its northern side down into a broad valley. Below them they could see smoke rising from the chimney of a ranch standing shaded in a grove of stunted cottonwoods. In the sturdily-built corrals, horses stood hip-shot in the flat morning sun.
‘How many miles to the border?’ the leader said.
‘’Bout forty miles to the Cimarron,’ someone answered.
‘We need fresh horses,’ the leader said.
The seven men moved down the side of the valley and came up to the ranch. They were shaggy and unkempt after three days’ hard riding, and the horses were just about finished.
A man came out of the house and stood in the yard, shading his eyes against the sunlight with his hand. He looked to be about thirty, but you couldn’t tell in this country.
‘Howdy, all,’ he said as the riders bunched up before him in the yard.
‘You boys look like you come a far piece.’
‘That we have,’ said the leader of the riders. As he dismounted it became clear that his huge shoulders, thick neck and barrel chest were oddly out of proportion with the rest of his body, for he was a short man who walked with an almost nautical roll. He slapped the dust from his clothes with his Stetson and extended a hand.
‘Cravetts is my name,’ he said. He had a good smile. ‘Me an’ the boys here are on our way back to Farmington in New Mex. just delivered us a herd in Sedalia and happy to be done with her. Can’t get back to the little woman fast enough.’
‘Know how you feel,’ the rancher said. ‘Glad to know you, Cravetts. My name’s John Gibbons. Run this place with m’wife, couple o’ hands.’
‘Nice spread,’ nodded Cravetts. ‘You run many head?’
‘Few hundred,’ Gibbons replied. ‘Mostly it’s horses. We got a good deal goin’ with the sojer boys, over at Dodge an’ Larned. Take all the animals we can give ’em.’
Cravetts exchanged a glance with his men, who had dismounted too and were standing in almost posed indolence in a half circle behind him.
‘How many horses you got here now?’ he asked.
‘Twenty, mebbe,’ Gibbons said. ‘But listen; let’s get in out of this sun. I guess you men wouldn’t say no to some coffee?’
‘That’s raht frien’ly o’ you, mister,’ said one of the men, a tall tow—haired fellow of maybe twenty-three or -four. ‘We`d sure appreciate it.’
‘You boys can take your coffee out here,’ Cravetts said. ‘We’re travelling pretty light, Mr. Gibbons, an’ as fast as we can. Don’t want the boys dirtying up your missus’ house.’
At that moment, Mrs. Gibbons came to the door, a clutch of tin cups and a coffeepot in her hands. Cravetts hastened to help her, and she smiled her thanks. She was a young woman, her blonde hair tied back with a piece of checkered gingham, and there were dimples in her cheeks.
‘You gentlemen come on up here and get your coffee,’ she said, and nodded to each one as Cravetts introduced them.
‘Lee Monsher,’ he said, as the tow-haired youngster with the Southern accent took his cup. ‘Howie Kamins, Frank Torelli, Johnnie Vister, Milt Sharp, and Denny Juba.’
‘You boys are some ways off the main trail,’ Gibbons remarked.
Monsher’s head came up at the words, but a glance from Cravetts stilled the movement, and the wary look in Monsher’s eyes was hooded quickly.
‘We’re carrying a fair piece of money, Mr. Gibbons,’ Cravetts said. ‘I figured it was best to stay off the beaten path a little.’
‘You might be right at that,’ Gibbons said. He sipped his coffee and his eyes touched the grouped men squatting drinking. Cravetts marked how the rancher ticked off the fact that all of the men were heavily armed, and he could see Gibbons trying to frame a question that would satisfy his curiosity without appearing rude or prying.
‘You run this place with just two hands,’ he said. ‘Must keep you pretty occupied.’
‘It has its moments,’ Gibbons said.
‘Your boys around?’ Cravetts asked.
‘Dave is in the barn,’ Gibbons said. ‘Frank — ’ His eyes narrowed.
Cravetts saw it and knew that in that moment Gibbons had put together all the questions he had asked and come up with the reason for them and without another thought Cravetts shot the rancher through the heart.
The rancher reeled backwards, his chest smashed in by the heavy caliber bullet, his shirt shouldering. Mrs. Gibbons screamed, whirling around so that the coffee spewed from the pot in a steaming tan arc, and her scream was still hanging in the air as a youngster came out of the barn, running with his head up and a cocked six-gun in his hand. Cravetts’ men were on their feet now and three of them fired almost simultaneously, the bullets whipping the boy off his feet and smashing him into the dirt of the yard, scattering the chickens foraging there.
‘Check it out!’ snapped Cravetts, gesturing towards the house, and Monsher and two of the others ran inside, guns drawn, as Torelli and Vister grappled with Mrs. Gibbons, who was trying to get at Cravetts, incomprehensible stutterings of outrage and agony bursting from her mouth, streaming tears reddening her empty eyes.
‘Shut her up!’ Cravetts told his men and turned as the tow-haired Monsher came out of the house shaking his head.
‘Where’s the other man?’ Cravetts said, turning to the woman, across whose mouth Torelli had clamped a grimy fist. She shook her head. Cravetts drew back his hand and hit her across the face with his open palm, flat and hard and mercilessly. Mrs. Gibbons’ head rocked to one side and a cruel red welt flamed on her cheekbone.
‘Talk, damn you!’ snarled the raider.
‘He’s not here,’ the woman sobbed. ‘Not here.’
‘Where, then?’
‘He went over to the Fort,’ she managed. Then her head came up and the fire came back into her eyes. ‘You’ll hang for this!’ she hissed.
‘That’ll be the day,’ Cravetts said. ‘Denny! Milt! Get them horses saddled up. Come on, come on, we don’t have all day!’
Three of the raiders were out in the corral, throwing bridles over the heads of the milling horses. Cravetts turned to Torelli.
‘Turn her loose,’ he said. ‘Let her look after her man.’
Torelli nodded and released his hold on Mrs. Gibbons and Vister followed suit. Without a second’s hesitation the woman went straight for Cravetts’ eyes with her hands, her whole body arched with the pent fury of her hatred. Her nails raked a set of tracks down the man’s face that went quickly red with bright blood, and Cravetts stood rigid for a moment in utter, astonished rage. Then with a growl that started somewhere deep inside him he grabbed the woman by the arms and threw her away from him. The bodice of her dress tore away in his hands as she went backwards and she fell on her back, her exposed breasts and body startlingly white in the bright sunlight. Cravetts stood for a moment above her, the bright blood staining his collar, his eyes wide with a sudden madness.
And then he fell upon her.