CHAPTER 12
It was well into the wee hours of the morning when the weary trio rode down the deserted main street of Glory, Texas, on their way to the marshal’s office and jail. When they came to the barbershop, Buster said, if he wasn’t needed for anything else, he thought he would get some sleep and see them later on. Clayton thanked him for his participation in the retrieval of the missing prisoner and Bannack told him it could not have been done without his help. Bannack and Clayton continued on to the jail where they found a lamp still burning in the office. They dismounted and Bannack went to unlock the door. When he opened it, he paused for a few moments before walking quietly over to the desk and moving the shotgun out of the sleeping Daryl’s reach. “Daryl,” he said softly a couple of times, not wishing to alarm the young man, until he finally jerked back in the chair, his hand automatically closing on the shotgun that was no longer there.
“Marshal Cochran!” Daryl exclaimed when he was finally awake. “Boy, am I glad to see you! Did you find Virgil?”
“Yep, we found him,” Bannack replied. “He’s right outside. Did you have any problems?” he asked, wondering why he had been sitting there with a shotgun on the desk.
“No, sir,” Daryl said. “Deputy Priest is sleeping in the first cell. Do you want me to wake him up?”
“No, let him sleep. We’ll put Virgil in the second cell, then I think Deputy Clayton will probably use the other cot in the first cell. Then maybe you and I can catch a few hours in the third cell, unless you’d rather go home now.”
“No, sir,” Daryl said. “I’d rather stay here.”
“All right, then,” Bannack said, “open up cell two and three. I’ll go out and help Clayton get Virgil off his horse.”
When he went back outside, he found Deputy Clayton standing watch beside Virgil’s horse, but having made no move to get him off the horse. “Cut me loose!” Virgil squawked. “My head’s about to explode and this jackass won’t cut me loose.”
“I was waiting for you,” Clayton said to Bannack. “I wasn’t gonna take a chance on losing him again. I don’t care if his head falls off.”
“It’s a lot easier when two of us get you off that horse, anyway,” Bannack said sarcastically. “That way we can be more careful to see that you don’t have any discomfort.” He looked at Clayton and suggested, “I tell you what, why don’t you just let me get him off and you take your six-gun out and if he tries anything, put a bullet in his head. If anybody has any questions about it, I’ll verify that he was shot while trying to escape.”
“You almost busted my head, you big ape,” Virgil said. “They take me to court and the judge is gonna say you ain’t got no jurisdiction to arrest me outside this town.”
“Listen to that, Deputy,” Bannack commented. “Virgil has been doin’ a lot of thinkin’ while he was ridin’ upside down. Must have gotten some blood to his brain. I don’t know, Virgil, maybe that’s the way you should have always rode on a horse. But I wasn’t trying to arrest you. I was just helpin’ you dismount. Deputy Clayton arrested you. Now, we’re gonna get you off that horse and put you back in your cage. Deputy, keep your six-gun on him while I cut him loose.”
“I’ll be glad to,” Clayton replied, “and I hope he tries something. I’d be more than happy to shoot the son of a bitch.”
Bannack untied the rope around Virgil’s boots and threw the loose end back under his horse’s belly. Then he grabbed his belt and pulled him off the horse. Virgil would have fallen on the ground from riding so long with his head hanging down, but Bannack spun him around and threw him over his shoulder. He stepped up on the porch then and carried him in the door like a sack of fertilizer. Daryl was standing there holding the cell room door open for him, so he carried Virgil on in to the second cell before putting him down and untying his hands. The bandage wrapped around his head was soaked red on the side of his face, a result of the blow from Bannack’s rifle that knocked him off his horse. “We’ll take a look at that in the morning and see if the doctor needs to look at it.” Once Virgil was locked in his cell, Bannack and Clayton took the horses to the watering trough in front of the general merchandise store. Then they led them around behind the jail and tied them there, because Clem Shaw wouldn’t open the stable until five o’clock. Since there was nothing else they could do until morning, they all tried to get a few hours’ sleep.
With the coming of daybreak, Deputy Clayton was anxious to get to the telegraph office as soon as it opened, so he could report to his boss that he and town marshal, John Cochran, had recaptured their prisoner. He had already reported the loss of their horses and the fact that Deputy Priest was wounded. Sammy Peters found Bannack and the deputies eating breakfast and delivered a return wire instructing Clayton and Priest to stay there and that two deputies and a jail wagon would be there the next day. “Damn,” Clayton exhaled after he read it, “we’re done for. Me and Conrad are gonna be servin’ subpoenas, summonses, and warrants for the rest of our lives. Might notta been so bad, if we hadn’t lost our horses and everything.” His lament caused a spark in Bannack’s mind that continued to burn after breakfast when the two deputies went to reserve another room for the night in the hotel. He told them he had some business to attend to and he would see them for dinner. He was not sure enough of a possibility that had occurred to him to even suggest it, but it interested him enough to explore it, himself. So when he got back to the jail, he told Daryl he would be gone for a while and told him to remember the prisoner’s dinner. Then he left before Daryl started to ask questions.
He hurried up to the stable then and saddled his horse, telling Clem there was something he had to check on, again leaving without giving details. Once again on the road to Jacksboro, he said to the buckskin, “I hope you’re rested enough because we’ve got to make another quick trip.” His mind was still working on the fact that the only way to tie the Dawson men to the ambush of the two deputies was if they had possession of the three missing horses. It had been too dark the night just past to identify the three horses, even if they had been in Dawson’s corral with the other horses. It was not out of the question to assume that Henry Dawson was smart enough to have let the deputies’ horses go free. So when he left the camping spot, he might have had to discourage the three horses from following him and possibly leading the law to his farm. Bannack couldn’t resist checking on the possibility that what he thought possible may have really happened. Left alone, it would not have been that unusual for the horses to wander back to the campsite.
When he arrived at the creek where Clayton and Priest had stopped to rest their horses, there was no sign of the three missing horses. He rode into the little clearing where the two lawmen had built a fire. Maybe that means Dawson didn’t release the horses after all and now they might be used as evidence against him. Verifying that Dawson had possession of the horses still might be difficult to prove. I had to take a look, even though what I don’t see doesn’t prove anything, one way or the other, he thought. Suddenly, the buckskin whinnied and was immediately answered by another horse farther down the creek. Bannack immediately followed the sound and rode down the creek about thirty yards where he met the three horses coming to meet him, two of them saddled and one still carrying a packsaddle. Bannack almost laughed. They wouldn’t testify to Dawson’s part in the holdup hoax, which Bannack was now sure of, but Priest and Clayton would be mighty glad to see them. Planning to make good time back to Glory by trading off on the horses, he tied them on a lead rope, climbed up into the saddle on Clayton’s horse, and started back to Glory.
It was well into the dinner hour by the time he got back to the stable with the horses. Clem found it a miracle that he had recovered them. He told Bannack he would take care of the horses and for him to hurry to get something to eat while Sawyer’s was still serving dinner. “Sawyer told the two deputies to come there for dinner and he wouldn’t charge them, since all their money was stolen.”
“’Preciate it, Clem,” Bannack said and hurried down to the café.
“Speak of the devil,” Clayton cracked when he walked in, “here he is now. We were wonderin’ when you were gonna show up again.”
“Is that right?” Bannack replied, then asked Louella, who was standing beside their table, “Am I too late to get dinner?”
“Marshal Cochran, you’re never too late to get dinner,” she said. “If Mama’s already thrown it to the hogs, I’ll cook you something, myself.” She pulled a chair out for him. “Set yourself down and I’ll get you some coffee.”
“Thank you, ma’am,” Bannack said and sat down.
“Your whole town has been mighty generous to us,” Deputy Priest said. “Mr. Porter over at the hotel told us there was no charge for our rooms for the extra night tonight. And you know the doctor wouldn’t charge anything for taking that bullet out of my shoulder.”
Bannack smiled and replied, “I remember.”
“They sure think a lot of you,” Clayton commented.
“You think so?” Bannack responded. “I haven’t been on the job but a short time. I don’t think I’ve met enough of the people for them to decide if they like me or not. I think the man I replaced was so bad that anybody would have done better.”
“I don’t know, John,” Clayton said. “You must be doin’ something to impress them. Even the mayor, himself, was in here a little while ago lookin’ for you.”
“What did he want?” Bannack asked. “He mighta wanted to remind me that I don’t have any jurisdiction outside the town limits. I hope you told him you were keepin’ an eye on things till I got back.”
“No, he wanted to tell you that you did a good job, putting Virgil Dawson back in jail after we let him get away. I shoulda told him that we have the authority to deputize you to make arrests out in the county. Where were you, anyway? That young fellow in your office, what’s his name? He didn’t even know where you were. We took Virgil to the doctor so he could take a look at his head, so he’s got a new bandage on it.”
“I went to get your horses,” Bannack said so casually that they didn’t understand what he meant.
“How’s that again?” Clayton asked.
“Your horses,” Bannack repeated. “I rode up to that creek to get your horses. I figured you might want ’em back.” He immediately had their attention.
“You got ’em?” Conrad Priest demanded. “You got our horses back? Where are they?”
“I took ’em to the stable,” Bannack answered. “Clem’s takin’ care of ’em.” He paused then to let Louella set a plate of food in front of him. “Thank you, ma’am.” Back to the two deputies who were exchanging looks of disbelief, he said. “’Course, that makes it kind of hard to prove that Virgil’s pappy and brothers were the four men that stole the horses.”
“You got our horses,” Conrad said again, this time not a question but a statement of amazement.
Bannack went on to tell them that it was a matter of curiosity that prompted him to see if their horses were set free and, if so, would they return to the creek they were taken from. “I gotta give my horse the credit for findin’ ’em, though. I was about ready to turn around and come back, but my horse knew they were there, and he announced it. They answered him. So maybe you want to call your boss again and tell him they don’t need to send extra horses.”
Neither one of the deputies spoke again for a few brief moments as they both thought about that recent turn of events. Finally, Clayton spoke. “It depends on how Priest feels, since he’s the one who’s shot, but I’m thinking about wiring the boss and tellin’ him to forget about sendin’ anybody with a jail wagon. And me and Conrad will bring the prisoner back, ourselves, just like we were assigned to do.” He looked at his partner. “What do you think, Conrad? Are you up to it?”
“Well, he shot me in my right shoulder,” Priest answered. “I reckon he didn’t notice I’m left handed and I still got my gun hand. I ain’t feelin’ too bad right now, but I’m afraid you’d have to do most of the work. It might be too much for you to keep track of and do all the work, too.”
“Yeah, it might be a little too much, if we’re ambushed again,” Clayton allowed. ’Course, that would really be bad luck to get ambushed again. If we weren’t, it wouldn’t be that much of a problem. You could watch the prisoner while I make the camp. It would make it a lot easier if we had one more man with us. Then let ’em try that again and we’d be ready for ’em.”
It was rather obvious what they were hinting at, but Bannack didn’t take the bait. “If you need an extra man, I reckon the county would pay him the same mileage rate there and back it pays a deputy marshal, right?”
“Oh, yes, sir,” Clayton quickly agreed. “He’d be paid the same as we’re paid.”
“Well, that would help a little,” Bannack said. “I’ll ask Daryl if he’d like to pick up some extra money. He might be interested because Lord knows he doesn’t make much workin’ for me.” When both Clayton and Priest started rapidly shaking their heads, Bannack spoke again. “No? Well, you could check with Buster. For a barber, he’s a pretty good volunteer for anything risky.”
“All right,” Clayton said. “You know damn well who we’re interested in, so whadda you say? I don’t expect to see that bunch that attacked us again, but if you were with us, I wouldn’t care if we did. And that’s the fact of the matter. Right, Conrad?” Priest nodded to confirm it.
“I’ll tell you the truth,” Bannack told them. “I wouldn’t mind takin’ a ride up to Jacksboro with you, since you’re shorthanded. But I’ve got a job here as the town marshal. And that job is to keep this town safe. I’ll remind you that I just got this job, so I don’t know what the men on the town council who hired me would think about me leaving the town without a marshal for a whole day. So what I’m tellin’ you is you’re askin’ the wrong person. I work for the mayor and his council. Ask him, and if he says yes, I’d be happy to go with you. If he says no, then I expect I’d best keep my job and wish you boys the best of luck.”
“We’ll go talk to Mr. Glory right now while you’re eatin’,” Clayton said. “Come on, Conrad. It’ll help for him to see you’re wounded.” He got up from the table. “Thank you, kind ladies for that wonderful dinner.” He and Priest thanked Russell Sawyer on their way out the door, then hurried down the street to talk to Walter Glory at Glory General Merchandise.
Bannack finished his dinner and prepared to pay Russell, but Sawyer said it wasn’t fair to charge him for his meal when they let the two deputies eat free. Bannack insisted on paying, however. “I didn’t have all my money stolen,” he said. “There ain’t no reason to let me eat free.”
“I got three women in here that think I oughta let you eat free anytime you come in here,” Sawyer said, “and I find it hard to disagree with ’em. I’ll tell you what, I’ll give you a special charge of half-price anytime you eat here. Is that fair enough?”
“That’s mighty generous of you, Mr. Sawyer. I thank you very much.” He paid half-price for his dinner and left to go to the jail.
He paused outside the café to let a lady and her daughter pass by him on the boardwalk. The lady looked up at him with a warm smile and said, “Good afternoon, Marshal Cochran.”
Her greeting caught him by surprise. He wasn’t expecting it. Most often, a woman and her young daughter would have a tendency to shrink back against the building to give him plenty of space. He was well aware of the impression he made when first met by strangers. “Good afternoon,” he returned as friendly as he could make it sound. It was a brief encounter, but he found that he liked it. Maybe being a marshal in a small town wasn’t a bad way to make a living. As he walked across the street toward the marshal’s office, he looked down the street to see if Clayton and Priest might be on their way back. There was no sign of them, so he figured they didn’t get a quick answer from Walter Glory.
When he walked into his office, Daryl jumped up to greet him. “I’m glad to see you back,” he exclaimed.
“Why?” Bannack asked. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” Daryl answered. “There was just a lot going on and I didn’t know where you went and people would ask me. Deputies Clayton and Priest didn’t even know where you were. They had to go get Dr. Taylor to take a look at Virgil’s head.”
“Well, they should have,” Bannack said, “he’s their prisoner. Did you get him fed?” Daryl said he did. “Did you get dinner?”
“Yes, sir, and they went to Sawyer’s for dinner, but I don’t know where they are now.” He looked as if he was about to wring his fingers in frustration.
“Everything’s all right,” Bannack said. “You did your job. I saw Clayton and Priest over at Sawyer’s, and they went up to Glory’s store. They’ll most likely be back here pretty soon. He went on then to tell him where he had been all morning and that the deputies had recovered their horses. “So they might be at the telegraph office now, wiring Jacksboro not to bring any horses down here tomorrow.”
He was in the cell room taking a quick check on Virgil when the two deputies came back to the jail, so he went back to the office to hear how their request to Walter Glory had fared. “He didn’t think much of the idea,” Clayton said. “He took us to the bank to talk to Mr. Prentis to see what he thought about you leaving for one whole day. Prentis was dead set against it. They said they finally had a marshal they could count on to protect the town and that meant every day.” Clayton shook his head then. “I’ve gotta wire my boss about the horses, and I can’t decide to tell him to send a wagon or not.”
“You got any objections about ridin’ at night?” Bannack asked him. Clayton didn’t answer right away. He looked at Priest instead to see his reaction. Bannack didn’t wait for an answer. “It seems to me that’s the easiest way to get around this whole problem. If you want to do that, I’ll go with you. We’ll just wait till the town’s all closed down for the night. Then we’ll load Virgil up on his horse and head for Jacksboro. We can ride as far as you like before stoppin’ to rest the horses. Stop at the same place you got robbed, if you want to. We ain’t likely to run into anybody in the middle of the night. Then when we move on from there, and get a little closer to town, I don’t see any need for me to go all the way into Jacksboro with you. I don’t know if Henry Dawson is crazy enough to try to rescue his son again or not. But if he is, he’s gonna figure you’re gonna leave in the mornin’ after breakfast, just like before. And when he and his boys leave the cabin to go to the ambush spot, you’ll already be in Jacksboro.”
“I’m a hundred percent in favor of that plan,” Clayton responded. “How ’bout you, Conrad?” Priest just grinned and nodded his head. “Whadda you reckon your mayor will say about that?” Clayton thought aloud.
“I doubt he’ll think about it at all, if we don’t tell him,” Bannack replied. “Like I said, I’ll close up the town for the night, just like I always do. I just won’t go to bed. I’ll be back when the town’s wakin’ up again. We’ll just have to gamble on the chance there won’t be a fire or bank robbery in the middle of the night, and it seems to me that’s worth gambling on.”
“I swear, John Cochran, you’re one helluva town marshal,” Clayton said. “I’ve worked with a few, and Conrad will tell you this, there ain’t none of ’em that’ll stick their neck out to help like you have.”
“I just ain’t got much use for Virgil and the rest of his family, I reckon,” Bannack said. “I don’t wanna see him miss out on his chance to stand trial.”
“I’m sure I speak for Conrad as well as myself when I say thank you for all your help, everything you’ve done, to put two ol’ deputy marshals back in business. I’m going back to the telegraph office and send the wire to tell headquarters we’ll be droppin’ off our prisoner early tomorrow mornin’ at the county jail.”
“I’ll go talk to Clem to let him know we’re going to be comin’ for our horses just before he closes tonight,” Bannack said. “I’ll tell him to keep it quiet, we don’t want anybody in town to know we’re leavin’ tonight. I didn’t check your packhorse to see what was left in your packs, if anything was. I know you don’t have any money to buy any coffee or bacon or something to get you through the night. I’ll see what I’ve got in my packs. We’ve got some coffee here in the office, but that’s about all we’ve got. Clem stays there at the stable pretty late, so we’ll just leave the horses behind the jail after we pick ’em up.”
* * *
“Well, ain’t he got a lotta nerve?” The words dropped out of his mouth before he realized he was saying them out loud.
“Ain’t who got a lotta nerve?” Smut Smith asked as he poured Buster Bridges another shot of whiskey.
“Henry Dawson, that’s who,” Buster said. “Settin’ back there at that table like a judge or something. Ain’t that the same table that sorry son of his was settin’ at when he pulled out his pistol and shot that cowhand in the face?”
“The one next to it,” Smut said. “I heard this mornin’ that Virgil Dawson is back in the Glory jail.”
“That’s a fact,” Buster said. He wanted to tell Smut how he knew it was a fact, but John Cochran had sworn him to secrecy.
“I can’t figure how they got him arrested again so quick after that gang ambushed those two lawmen and stole their horses,” Smut said. “I’d like to hear that story.”
“Yep, that’s mighty peculiar, all right,” Buster remarked while feeling like he was going to bust if he didn’t get to tell it soon. But Bannack had told him he had to keep shut about it until Virgil was safely in the county jail in Jacksboro. He continued to stare at Henry Dawson and suddenly another thought struck him. Maybe Henry doesn’t know if his son is in the jail or not! All he probably knows is that Virgil is missing. He never showed up last night. He’s in town for no other reason than to find out if it was the law who kidnapped his son right out of his own backyard. He couldn’t help chuckling over the thought of it.
“What’s so funny?” Smut asked.
“Some days, everything is,” Buster replied. “You just gotta see the humor in it.” He placed some coins on the bar for his whiskey. “I better get back to my shop. Somebody might be waiting for a haircut.” He started for the door but paused, unable to resist the urge, so he turned around and walked back to the table where Dawson was sitting. “He’s in the jail, if that’s what’s eatin’ you.” Then he turned around and walked out of the saloon.
“Why, you sawed off little . . .” Henry started to get up and go after him but decided this was not the time to call attention to himself. If Virgil was, in fact, back in that jail, then there was no attempt to rustle his cattle. And he was in no mood to appreciate the irony of a fake cattle rustle to recapture Virgil after his fake robbery to free him. Of one other thing he was also certain, the deputy marshals might have been involved in the snatching of his son last night, but the man who actually did the deed had to be Marshal John Cochran. It just seemed to be his style. Buster Bridges was probably right when he said Virgil was back in jail, but Dawson had to be sure of it, so he could decide what to do about it. One way to find out was to go to the jail and ask to see his son. There was no reason why he couldn’t. No one had approached him to question him and his other sons about the fake holdup and without anyone who could identify the robbers, Cochran had nothing to go on. When he thought about it, he decided that was what an innocent father would do. He got up from the table and with the bottle of whiskey he had just bought in hand, he walked out the door and headed for the jail.