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By the morning Harmon still hadn’t returned so Jim suggested that they should go in search of him. The previous evening Patrick had been subdued and he was no more responsive that morning, so he rebuffed the suggestion.
Jim accepted that as they had no idea where Harmon had gone they would probably waste their time, but as the morning wore on the thought of doing something, even if it had little chance of success, felt more appealing than doing nothing. He tried again to persuade Patrick to leave.
This time the morose man gave a resigned nod, but they were spared a potentially fruitless search when they emerged from the hollow to find that Harmon was riding into view. Harmon was leading a horse and when he came closer it became apparent that someone was splayed out over the back of the mount.
The man’s arms and legs were dangling, but he was twisting around as he tried to get free, cheering Jim as this meant Harmon had probably not yet claimed his second victim. When they reached the hollow Harmon dismounted and led both horses down into it before hauling the man down.
“He’s not much to show for a whole night watching the Jennison ranch,” Harmon said. “Hardly anyone was there and then when they did come back they arrived together, so I jumped a straggler.”
“Who is he?” Jim said.
“He’s not of the ones Gilmore reckoned were involved, but he’s just as worthless as Gilmore was.”
“So you’re saying Gilmore wasn’t actually involved in killing your father and neither was this man?”
Harmon set his hands on his hips. “That’s right, but what’s your point?”
Jim sighed, reckoning that he was likely to lose the argument over the fate of this man so his only option was to delay matters. He gestured out of the hollow.
“I was leading up to breaking the news about what we found last night.”
Harmon flinched and turned to Patrick, who gave a curt nod.
“Jim did what he promised and found our father,” he said.
Harmon sneered at his prisoner and pointed at him before hurrying away out of the hollow, but he stopped and waited for Patrick to join him. Neither man paid attention to Jim, which was fine with him as it was appropriate to let the two brothers share this solemn moment together, and it would give him a chance to work out how he could help the prisoner.
The moment the two men disappeared from view he dropped down on to his knees beside him. The man cringed away from him, but Jim spread his hands and smiled.
“I’m your best hope of getting out of this alive, but we don’t have long to do something,” he said.
The man’s eyes remained wide and frightened above the gag, and he turned his head away when Jim reached out to remove the gag. Jim still managed to pull it down and then rocked back on his heels.
“Get away from me,” the man said.
“I wasn’t trying to give you false hope. Your captor wants to kill you, but I don’t and neither does the other man.”
“I’ve met Patrick before and he was a decent man, but people say he’s changed.”
Jim had avoided providing names in the hope that the prisoner didn’t know who had captured him, but with that possibility gone he reckoned that he didn’t need to hide anything else.
“Patrick and his brother Harmon have just left to visit the grave of their father, Jeremiah Milligan, who they believe was killed by the Jennison family. If you have information about that, speak now and I’ll try to figure out how to persuade Harmon that he shouldn’t do his worst.”
“I’ve never heard of Jeremiah Milligan.”
“He was the gunslinger who was hired by the O’Reillys, but then switched sides.”
The man snorted. “I did hear about that tale, but that’s all it was.”
“What do you—?"
“It’s for the Milligans to question our prisoner, not you,” Harmon roared from the top of the hollow, having returned sooner than Jim had expected.
“If you couldn’t find the grave I can take you there,” Jim said.
“I saw enough. Now, what lies has he been telling you?”
“He doesn’t know anything about Jeremiah Milligan.”
Harmon uttered a harsh laugh as he made his way down into the hollow with Patrick at his heels.
“Gilmore said that, too. We’ll get a fire started and see if I can refresh his memory.”
Harmon moved to walk past Jim, but Jim stepped to the side to block his way. Harmon stopped and regarded Jim with a benign expression. Then he snarled and hurled a fist backhanded at Jim’s face.
With only a moment to react Jim jerked away from the intended blow, but it still caught his cheek, spinning him around. He righted himself and then moved to grapple with his assailant, but Harmon grabbed the back of his neck with one hand and his upper arm with the other, and then hurled him across the hollow.
Jim went tumbling, hitting the ground full length and then rolling over twice before he came to a halt. He shook himself and then got up on to his knees, only to find that Harmon was advancing toward him with the branding iron held high.
Jim swirled around and set off up the side of the hollow. He’d taken two paces when a thud and a cry of pain sounded behind him. He turned back and then winced as he hadn’t been Harmon’s intended target.
Harmon had dashed the brand down on his prisoner’s chest. Then he raised it up to deliver another blow. Jim set off toward him with his hands raised in the hope of getting hold of the brand before it was used again only to find that Patrick stepped in front of him.
“Don’t,” Patrick murmured, his voice barely audible.
“Get out of my way,” Jim snapped and moved to go around him.
Patrick stayed where he was and Jim managed to advance on Harmon for two paces, but Patrick scrambled after him and grabbed him around the waist. Jim still moved on for another pace before Patrick managed to stop him and then the two men struggled.
They both flailed around until a sickening thud and groan sounded, making Jim turn his head. With a groan of his own he found that this time Harmon hadn’t sought to prolong his prisoner’s suffering and had hammered the brand down on his head.
Now Harmon was struggling to drag the brand free, making Jim accept that he was too late to help the prisoner. He slumped and his lack of resistance let Patrick overpower him and throw him down on to his front.
He came to rest facing up the slope with Patrick’s shadow on the ground in front of him showing that he was standing over him and waiting for him to fight back again. Another crunch sounded, this time without an accompanying bleat of pain, confirming that he would just be wasting his time even trying.
He rose up on to his knees and crawled forward, and when Patrick didn’t follow him he sped up, now eager to get away from these people as he had clearly failed to save Patrick from throwing in his lot with Harmon. He scrambled up to the lip of the hollow and turned to note the bloody mess that had once been the prisoner along with Patrick’s slumped over posture and dead eyes.
Then he turned around and hurried away. He had scurried past the burial plot and was approaching the grave that had clearly turned Patrick’s thoughts to revenge before he realized that he’d fled without his horse. He still carried on.
––––––––
When Cassidy and Wright met up at the law office in the morning both men were in a more positive frame of mind than they had been the previous night. Cassidy had just called in on the Gallagher brothers and they hadn’t suffered any follow-up to the unpleasantness in the Golden Star, and Wright had even more encouraging news to report.
He had discovered that Harmon Milligan had ended his last sentence a year ago and several months ago he had been spotted in the nearby settlement of New Hope Town. It wasn’t clear what he had been doing, but he hadn’t gotten into trouble, which wasn’t typical for him.
“So Harmon is our most likely jailbreaker,” Cassidy said as they headed outside. “Now we just have to find him.”
“A vague sighting of the three men leaving town that’s a day old won’t be much use,” Wright said.
Cassidy agreed that they would need some luck and a better lead, and as it turned out they had yet to mount their horses when Pierre Dulaine came hurrying toward them.
“Monsieur Yates, I promised you that I am a man who can find things that other can’t,” he said. He fingered his mustache and smiled. “I am pleased to report that I have done it again.”
“You’ve found the brand?” Cassidy said, but Pierre shook his head. “Then you know where the man who took the brand is?”
“I’m afraid those details have escaped even me so far, but I have information that is far more useful. It would seem that Jim Dragon and his worthless associates have kidnapped another poor unfortunate.”
Cassidy winced. “Who is it and where did they go?”
Pierre’s smile died. “I’m afraid that I am not yet aware of that information either.”
“So what information are you aware of?”
Pierre shrugged, seemingly unsure of himself for once as Cassidy didn’t show the level of enthusiasm he had perhaps expected.
“All I have is what I said: another unfortunate victim has been kidnapped.” Pierre gestured out of town. “I was scouting around, seeking information that would help you as I promised I would when I met Monsieur Jennison, charming fellow that he is.”
“Which one?”
Pierre furrowed his brow as he thought back, seemingly again making a show of providing simple information to make it appear more hard-won than it was.
“I believe he was Martin Jennison. He told me that when his people returned from their meeting last night they found that one of their number had gone missing. He fears the worst.”
Cassidy sighed. “So your method of finding things that others can’t is to wander around until you bump into someone and they tell you what you want to know, is it?”
“It is, but I have always believed that a man makes his own luck.”
“I believe that, too.”
Cassidy tipped his hat to Pierre, but then waited to find out whether he would take advantage of his latest success to request that he be allowed to leave with his property. Pierre must have worked out that his information didn’t warrant such a decision and instead he just tipped his hat in return and walked away.
“I’m getting to think that man is good at talking and not much else,” Wright said when both lawmen had mounted up.
“I’d already decided that,” Cassidy said.
“Although I guess that at least unlike Jim Dragon he’s not kidnapping people.”
Cassidy smiled and then put his thoughts to how they would track down the escaped prisoners before their captive could suffer Gilmore’s fate. As he’d just spoken with Pierre, his thoughts turned to Pierre’s earlier success and he pointed toward the railroad tracks.
“I reckon it’s time to back a hunch,” he said.
“Now that’s the sort of plan I like.”
With that the two lawmen rode out of town and when they reached the railroad tracks Cassidy outlined his hunch. Pierre had found the branding iron and bodies near the Bar-Z ranch house, but it seemed that earlier someone had dug them up and covered them over, and that suggested they had spent some time there and they might have left clues as to their current location.
“They might even have a place to hole up there,” Cassidy said, finishing his explanation.
Wright nodded. “It would be close enough to town to let them carry on with their revenge spree.”
When they reached the ranch house they soon located a large hole the undertaker had excavated to ensure he retrieved all the bones. Then they searched for signs of other folks having been here and within minutes Wright pointed at an upright plank stuck in the ground.
On investigating it, they noted that the ground around the plank had been disturbed, as had other spots suggesting someone had been searching for something, perhaps more bodies. Ten minutes later they found another body, although this one was fresh.
A man had been battered so violently his features had almost been obliterated, although Cassidy could make out enough to work out he was a ranch hand with only a tenuous link to the events of fifteen years ago. They soon found hoofprints that led away from the scene, but they mingled in with the other prints that had been made over the last few days.
After some tracking back and forth it turned out that the easiest set of tracks to follow were footprints that set off toward the railroad and then over it. They followed these, soon finding that they headed back toward town.
“It looks as if you could be right and someone is heading back to town to continue their attacks,” Cassidy said.
“It does, but the only good thing is that at least they didn’t brand their last victim to death,” Wright said.
“There’s no comfort there. They’re getting more brutal and out of control with each attack. Worse, if they’re prepared to go after someone so far removed from the original feud, nobody is safe.”