CHAPTER 22
Preacher’s cabin, July 1872
“You been hangin’ around here for two weeks now,” Preacher said, pushing open the front door. “Sittin’ out on the porch and starin’ off into the trees ain’t gonna bring Nicole and the boy back to you.”
Smoke looked toward Preacher with eyes that were more dead than alive. “I shoulda been there, Preacher. I shoulda been there when those men came.”
“Smoke, you had things to do. You was seein’ to your horses, you was takin’ care of business. A man can’t spend his whole life just sittin’ around with his woman. Life is hard, boy. You should know that more’n almost anyone.”
“I shoulda been there,” Smoke said again.
“How many was there?” Preacher asked.
“I don’t know. I killed four of them. I think Nicole must’ve killed one. And I found another one dead, not too far from the cabin. His throat was cut.”
“So, six of ’em are dead?”
“Yes.”
“How come two of ’em are still living?”
A grim smile appeared on Smoke’s face. “That’s a good question. I’ll tell you this. They won’t be living very long after I find them.”
“Do you know where to start looking for ’em?”
“I thought I’d go back to the cabin and see if I could pick up the trail.”
“No need,” Preacher said. “I know where they are.”
“You do?” For the first time in a while, animation replaced the dull lethargy that had Smoke in its grip. “How do you know where they are?”
“When I was at Schemerhorn’s yesterday, I heard an old prospector tellin’ about two men who came into a minin’ camp where he was. The tale them two was tellin’ was that they come upon some Injuns who had raped and killed a white woman and her baby. Said they fought the Injuns off, then a crazy man come and started shootin’ at them. I figure they have to be the two men you’re lookin’ for.”
“Yeah,” Smoke said. “That has to be them. Do you know where this mining camp is?”
“Yeah, I know. It’s ’bout forty miles southwest of here, on the Uncompahgre. You can’t miss it. It’s the only settlement within fifty miles in any direction.”
Smoke nodded, then got up and went inside the cabin. Fifteen minutes later, he came back outside wearing his pistol.
Preacher had watched it all from his chair on the front porch. He didn’t speak until Smoke was ready to mount. “Boy, take care of your business, but don’t come back all shot up like I was.”
Smoke’s only response was a silent nod of his head as he rode out.
Uncompahgre mining camp, Colorado Territory
A dozen men came riding in to the camp. It didn’t take but one glance to see that they weren’t hard-rock miners. They weren’t prospectors, either. All twelve were wearing pistols. One had a cross-draw rig, another was wearing a shoulder holster, a couple were wearing two pistols, and one was carrying a rifle with bullet-studded bandoliers making an X across his chest.
None of the miners recognized any of them, at least, not by name, but they knew gunmen when they saw them. What they didn’t know was why so many of them had showed up, all at the same time, and why they had come to the mining camp.
The gunmen stopped in front of the saloon, hitching their horses to every hitch rail for two tent buildings on either side. Stepping inside, they almost doubled the number of customers. All conversation stopped as everyone turned toward the men bunched together, just inside the door.
“Felter,” one of the men said, recognizing him.
“Hello, Deke.”
Smiling, Deke went over to take Felter’s hand. “We heard you needed some help.”
“Where did you hear that? And who are all these men?” The expression on Felter’s face was one of challenge.
“Same as you. We’re ridin’ for Richards, Potter, and Stratton. Richards said I should look you up and tell you that you’re in charge.”
“He did, did he?” The look of challenge was replaced by a smile.
“Yeah.This feller, Smoke Jensen is it? Word we got is that Richards sent eight after him, and he kilt six.”
“He only kilt four,” Felter said. “He didn’t have nothin’ to do with Stoner or Austin.What’s Richards payin’ you?”
“He ain’t paid us nothin’ yet, but he said he’ll give five hunnert dollars to each of us when we come back, after Jensen is dead. What is he payin’ you?”
“Same thing. Five hundred when we go back and tell ’im the job is done.” Felter made no mention of the fact that he and the others he’d started with had already been paid five hundred in advance.
“So, you’re in command, Sergeant. What do we do next? Where do we find him?” Deke had served in the army with Felter, and been dishonorably discharged, as well.
“We don’t have to find him. I’m willing to bet a dollar to a horseshoe nail that he’ll find us.” Felter grinned. “Onliest thing is, he thinks he’s only lookin’ for two of us. He don’t have no idea how many of us there is now.”
A solitary camp on the Uncompahgre, August 1872
Jake Johnson had been in Colorado almost as long as Preacher, and back in the day had made a few rendezvous with him. He knew his way around the mountains and the forests and had crossed every river in Colorado. At the moment, he was drinking coffee as he watched a spitted rabbit sizzle and brown over a campfire. Perhaps he was paying too much attention to his lunch, and that was why he didn’t hear Smoke come up on him.
“You got friends in that mining camp downriver?” Smoke asked.
The sudden appearance of another man when Jake Johnson thought he was all alone startled him so that he spilled hot coffee on his hand. “Damn!” he shouted, dropping the cup and shaking his hand. “Where the hell did you come from?”
“You got friends in that mining camp?” Smoke asked again.
“Yeah, I got friends there. Why do you ask?”
“My name is Smoke Jensen. I want you to go down and tell any friend you have there to ease on out of camp, because in one hour I’m coming down.”
“Smoke Jensen? You the one that’s Preacher’s friend?”
“Yes.”
The man smiled and extended his hand. “Well, I’m mighty glad to meet you, Smoke Jensen. I’m Jake Johnson. Me and Preacher go back a long way.”
Smoke returned the smile. “Yes, I’ve heard him tell a few stories about you.”
“Yeah, well, don’t be abelievin’ none of ’em,” Jake said, his smile broadening. “By the way, Smoke, most of the folks in that camp have heard of you, and near ’bout all of ’em is on your side. Felter and Canning come in there claimin’ it was Indians that kilt your family, but there didn’t none of us believe ’em.”
“That’s their names? Felter and Canning?”
“Yes, but, it ain’t just them.”
Smoke frowned. “What do you mean, it isn’t just them?”
“There’s twelve more that’s come down to help ’em. Word we got is that someone is payin’ ’em to kill you.”
“Yeah. That’s the word I got, too.”
The old-timer looked straight at Smoke. “You’re still goin’ down there, though, ain’t you?”
“Yeah, I’m still going. I’ve got to go.”
“I understand. I would probably do the same thing.”
“Jake, get your friends out of town. It’s not going to be safe for them.”
“All right. I’ll go down there and warn the miners. I’ve got time to eat my lunch, don’t I?”
“Sure, I never like to interrupt a man at his meal.”
“Join me,” Jake invited. “Half a rabbit makes a pretty good meal.”
“Don’t mind if I do,” Smoke said.
“By the way, I almost hate to ask you this, ’cause I’m not sure I want to hear the answer. But I was told that Preacher was bad shot up, and that he went off somewhere to die.”
Smoke pulled off some rabbit meat, stuck it in his mouth, then licked his finger before he replied, but the smile on his face eased Jake’s concern, even before he said the words. “Jake, you know Preacher well enough to know that it’s goin’ to take more than a couple bullet wounds to kill that old man. He’s still around, and still as ornery an old coot as he ever was.”
“That’s good to hear,” Jake said with a relieved smile. “That’s very good to hear.”
* * *
An hour later, Jake gathered several miners around him at one of the mining shacks. “I met a fella this mornin’, and he sent me down here to warn you. To tell you to leave town for a little while.”
“Why?” asked one.
“Because he’s comin’ into town after Felter and Canning, and when he does, all hell is going to break loose. I don’t think you want to be in the middle of it, Dugan, and neither do I.”
“What’s put the burr under this fella’s saddle?” another asked.
Jake explained. “You know the story that Felter and Canning are telling, about how Injuns killed a woman and her baby? Well that woman was the wife of the man I met this mornin’, and the baby was his, too. The story that Felter and Canning is telling is all lies. They was eight men who done the killin’ and the rapin’, and they wasn’t Injuns. They was all white. It was Felter, Canning, and six others. The other six is already dead, and now he’s comin’ to town to kill Felter and Canning, too.”
“Well, I can’t say as I blame him for wantin’ to kill Felter and Canning,” the miner called Dugan said, “but maybe he don’t know that they was twelve more men come here a couple days ago to join up with Felter and Canning.”
Jake nodded. “Oh, yeah, he knows. I told him.”
“Wait a minute,” a tall, lanky miner named Henderson said. “Are you tellin’ us that this feller knows they’s fourteen men waitin’ here for ’im, and he’s acomin’ anyway?”
Jake nodded again. “That’s what I’m atellin’ you, all right.”
“What kind of damn fool would take on fourteen men all by his ownself? What’s this feller’s name, anyhow?”
Jake smiled. “His name is Jensen. Smoke Jensen.”
“Smoke Jensen? Damn, I’ve heard of him,” Dugan said in awe.
“Yeah, me too. If there’s any one man who could take on fourteen all by hisself, it would have to be someone like Smoke Jensen.”
“I’m takin’ him at his word,” said a miner named Clyde who wore a patch over his left eye. “I believe all hell is goin’ to break loose, and I’m plannin’ on watchin’ it with this one good eye I got left.”
“Not me. I’m getting’ out of town. You should too, Clyde. Why, you’d be a fool to stay here and watch it. There’s bound to be lead flyin’ ever’where!”
“I didn’t say I was goin’ to stay here. All I said was I was goin’ to watch it.”
“How you gonna do that?”
Clyde smiled, then pointed to the rise on the northwest side of the canyon. “From up there. I’ll be able to see ever’thing that happens, and it ain’t likely I’ll get shot neither.”
“Yeah,” another said. “Yeah, that’s a damn good idea. I’m goin’ to watch it from up there as well.”
That idea was met with equal enthusiasm from all, and soon there was a mass exodus from the encampment.
It was going to be a show the likes of which that part of the country had never seen—and might not ever see again.