WE MEET DOUBTFUL CHARACTERS
One day, on stopping at a store to buy some feed, just before reaching
the crossing of a timbered creek, we noticed two saddled horses
hitched to the fence and on entering the store found two well-armed,
rough-looking fellows lounging about, one of whom seemed to be half
tipsy. The store was also a post-office and presided over by a very old
man.
While Tom and the storekeeper retired to a back room to measure out
some grain, the two ruffians began to manifest considerable interest
in our affairs, asking many questions, to all of which Jack and I, who
had left the team standing in the road and walked up to the store, gave
rather curt answers.
Apparently not satisfied with our replies, the drunken fellow staggered
out toward our team, remarking to his more sober companion:
"Joe, let's take a look at their outfit."
We paid little apparent attention to them but quietly watched every
movement they made, for we began to suspect that these were some of the
robbers we had heard of.
Each of the men carried a pair of revolvers hung to his belt. The most
drunken one was a large, swearing, swaggering ruffian who was addressed
by the other as "Cap." The one named "Joe" was smaller and apparently
more sober and wore an old cavalry jacket.
As they walked around the team we heard an ominous growl from our dog,
Found. The big fellow stepped back and laid a hand on the butt of one
of his pistols, and Jack quickly grasped the handle of his own weapon
and took a step or two in the direction of the drunken ruffian, keeping
his eyes on the fellow's pistol hand. "Cap" saw the movement and turned
toward Jack, still with his hand on his pistol, and remarked with an
oath:
"Mister, ef that dog tries to bite me he dies."
"Then there'll be two dogs die," returned Jack quietly, looking the
fellow in the eye.
I kept a close watch of the motions of Joe, but he made no threatening
gestures and seemed waiting to see what his leader would do.
"What do you mean, sir?" demanded the drunken blusterer of Jack.
"I mean," replied the Irishman quietly, "that if you keep away from
that team and attend to your own business the dog'll not hurt you; but
you draw a gun to shoot him, an'--well, you heard my remark."
Instead of resenting Jack's ultimatum, the big fellow turned to his
henchman and said:
"Joe, these men don't appear to have heard of me. Tell 'em who I am,"
and then disappeared into the store.
Joe stepped up to Jack and said in a confidential way:
"Pardner, you've made a big mistake to talk so insulting to that man,
an' I'm afraid you'll have trouble about it. That's Captain Tucker, one
o' the worst men in Kansas. I reckon he's killed more men than I've got
fingers an' toes. Best thing you can do now, is to foller him into the
store an' call for the drinks, apologize, like a man, an' make it all
up with him, fur he's turrible when he's riled, specially when he's
drinkin'."
"Is that so?" exclaimed Jack. "Why, he's a bad one, ain't he? I'm right
glad to know him."
"More'n that," added Joe, "he's captain of our company, an' we're the
toughest lot that ever struck this country."
"Where's your company, and how many of you is they?" asked Jack.
"Oh, they's a whole lot of us, an' we're camped down on the crick a
couple o' miles from here," was Joe's evasive reply.
I began to get uneasy. What if Jack's rashness should bring this gang
of desperadoes down on us? Jack was game and would not back down from
the stand he had taken. I knew that Tom--who was still in the store
getting his sack of grain and knew nothing of the trouble we were about
to get into--was game, too, and would stand by the Irish-man; and if
it came to a fight I could at least handle cartridges for them. But
what could three of us do against a gang of unknown numbers of these
lawless men?
"Jack, haven't you been a little too brash? You may get us into a
scrape if he brings up his men."
"Ef there's none of 'em more dangerous than their captain there's
nothin' to fear. I've studied such fellows all my life, an' I never
made a mistake in one of his sort. He's just such another blowhard as
that 'bad man from Texas' that I swatted in Leavenworth. An' on the
principle of 'like master, like man,' you'll be apt to find that this
big company of desperadoes, if we ever meet 'em, will dwindle down to
six or eight windy ruffians like their captain. I believe the three of
us could whip twenty of 'em. Such fellers don't fight unless they can
get the drop, an' we'll see that they don't do that."
Just as we reached the store door I turned to see what had become of
Joe, and noticed him still standing where we had left him--as near
the mules as Found would let him come--intently engaged in writing or
drawing something with a pencil on a piece of paper. The paper he held
in his hand looked like a yellow envelope, and, nudging Jack, I pointed
to him.
Joe seemed to be deeply interested in his work, looking first at the
mules and then at his yellow envelope as he marked on it, and did
not notice us. I was still wondering what he could be doing when the
Irishman's quick wit comprehended the situation, and he whispered:
"He's copyin' the brands on our mules. We'll hear more of this by an'
by."
"How?" I asked.
"He'll send somebody to claim 'em, on a lost-strayed-or-stolen plea,
an' the claimer will prove ownership by showing the exact brands marked
on paper before he has been near the mules. I've known that trick
played before."
As we entered the store the old storekeeper and Tom came out of the
grain room--Tom with a sack of corn on his shoulder, making mysterious
winks at us as he moved toward the door, indicating that he desired us
to go back to the wagon.
The store man cast an inquiring glance at the decanter and then at
Captain Tucker. The latter nodded his head and said:
"Chalk it down."
On the way to the wagon we met Joe, who had probably completed
draughting our mules' brands to his satisfaction.
We told Tom of all that had occurred, and I rather expected that he
would reprimand Jack for acting so rashly, but to my surprise he
approved of the Irishman's doings.
"Perfectly right, perfectly right," said Tom. "It won't do to give back
to such fellows a particle. If we've got to have a brush with them,
right now an' here's as good a time an' place as any. We must bluff 'em
off right at the start or fight. But we mus'n't forget the old sayin',
'Never despise your enemy'; he may turn out a better fighter than you
give him credit for bein'. We must watch every move they make an' be
prepared to bluff 'em off at every trick they try. Jack was right in
suspecting that that fellow with the cavalry jacket was copying the
brands on our mules. They'll be after trying to prove 'em away from us,
ef they can't bluff us."
"Did you find out anything about them from the storekeeper?" I asked
anxiously. "You were in that back room so long I thought you must be
pumping him."
"Yes, I wasn't idle," replied Tom, "an' I found out a whole lot. At
first the old man was afraid to talk, for he's scared of these fellers,
but when I promised him that we would not get him into trouble he let
out an' told me all he knows about 'em.
"This is the gang we heard about at Burlingame and again at
A-Hundred-an'-Ten-Mile Creek," continued Tom. "They came to this
neighborhood about a week ago an' have been robbin' and plunderin',
an' everybody's afraid of 'em. The old storekeeper says that there
are so few able-bodied men left here--most all of 'em having gone off
to the war--that the few citizens left can't well make any organized
opposition to 'em. This lot is an offshoot from Cleveland's gang of
jayhawkers that we heard about at Leavenworth. It seems, the old fellow
says, that this Captain Tucker was a lieutenant under Cleveland, an'
they couldn't agree--each one wanted to be boss--so Tucker with a few
followers split off from Cleveland an' started a gang of his own."
"Well, but did you find out how many there are in this gang?" I asked.
"Yes. The old man says that they try to make people believe that there
is a big company, but from the best information he can get there are
only seven or eight."
"What did I tell you?" said Jack contemptuously. "Ef they're no better
than these two we're good for that many, easy."
"Yes," said Tom, "ef we don't let 'em get the drop on us I think we
can stand 'em off; but we may find 'em a tougher lot than we take
'em for--ef they tackle us for a fight we've just got to clean 'em
out, it's a ground-hog case. An' as to killin' 'em, I'd have no more
hesitation about it than I would to kill a hostile Injun. Ef we have
to open fire on 'em I want you men to shoot to kill, an' I'll do the
same. These jayhawkers have been declared outlaws by orders from the
commander of the department, an' the troops are turned loose to hunt
'em down, kill 'em, or break up the gangs wherever they can be found.
"The old storekeeper says they've just taken possession of his store,"
he continued, "helpin' themselves to his liquor or anything else they
want, tellin' him to 'chalk it down' an' by an' by they'll settle with
him.
"A boy from the neighborhood who had been down to their camp to sell
'em some butter told the old man that there was only seven men of 'em
an' they had a tent an' a two-horse wagon. The boy said they had lots
of good horses, an' the old man thinks they gather in all the good
horses an' mules they can find in the country an' now an' then send a
lot of 'em in to Leavenworth an' sell 'em to the contractors there who
are buyin' up horses an' mules for the government.
"Whatever happens," continued Tom, "we must be careful not to
compromise this old storekeeper an' his family, for he's very much
afraid of these jayhawkers an' cautioned me several times not to let
them get a suspicion that he had told us anything about them.
"I put an idea in his head, though, which may be the means of ridding
this neighborhood of these rascals. I told him to write a letter to
General Hunter, in command of the department at Fort Leavenworth,
tellin' him the situation out here, an' to request the general to send
out a company of cavalry to clean out this gang an' give protection to
the farmers an' people travelling the road.
"He jumped at the idea an' said he would write the letter right away
an' send it in by the mail which will go past this afternoon. I think
the general will send the troops immediately, for he is makin' war
on these bushwhackers wherever he can hear of them. If the scheme is
carried out right the soldiers will be apt to kill or capture this
whole gang. I'd like to stay an' help 'em at it, but it will take four
or five days, at least, before the soldiers can get here. Ef this gang
undertakes to make war on us we may have to teach 'em a lesson on our
own hook."
"Well, Tom," I asked, "what are your plans for meeting this emergency
if you think these fellows are going to give us trouble?"
Before he could answer me the two jayhawkers came out of the store
and, without making any hostile demonstrations, went to their horses,
mounted, and rode a little way back down the road we had come, and
then, turning across the prairie struck for the timber farther down
the creek. They eyed us in passing but said not a word. As they rode
past us we noticed that both were mounted on good-looking animals,
especially Tucker, whose mount was a splendid, large black horse of
fine proportions and good movement.