Chapter 3

On the third day of his trip to Austin, Caleb was riding through some woods leading up to a river ford. He had stopped to let his horse drink when he heard a shotgun blast come from the other side of the river. Only a moment later, he heard a pistol fire two rounds in quick succession. Shortly thereafter, the shotgun was heard to fire again, and then there was a series of shots from one or more pistols, Caleb couldn't tell how many from just the sound. He decided that this was something that needed looking into, so he quickly rode across the ford and along the road about a hundred yards.

He came upon a man lying behind his dead horse and trying to line up a shot with his pistol at another man huddled in a ditch beside the road about 20 yards away. The man behind the horse noticed Caleb and shouted, "LOOK OUT, MISTA! THAT'S A ROAD AGENT WITH A SHOTGUN IN THAT THERE DITCH!"

Caleb wheeled around just as a shot came in his direction from a pistol wielded by the man hiding in the ditch. Caleb thought to himself, "Now that there shot was down right unneighborly. I might of stayed out of this here fight ifen that there bozo hadn't taken that there shot at me." Caleb rode back far enough around the bend in the road so that he could not be seen by the man in the ditch. Caleb dismounted and loosely hitched his horse to a bit of brush before pulling his Henry rifle from its scabbard and scurrying around behind the man in the ditch.

It took Caleb about 10 minutes to find a suitable firing position behind the man in the ditch, during which time the original two men had fired several shots at each other. When he was ready, Caleb growled at the man in the ditch, "OK, drop yer gun. I got ya covered with a Henry rifle, an' I'm a dead shot with it."

The man obviously didn't believe some part of what Caleb had said, because he whipped around and snapped off a shot in Caleb's general direction. Caleb had not been expecting such a stupid response to his order, so his shot from the Henry was somewhat reflexive. Whatever the cause for the shot, the man in the ditch was just as dead.

Caleb shouted to the man sheltered behind the dead horse, "HOLD YER FIRE, MISTA! I PLUGGED THIS HERE VARMINT!"

The man waved at Caleb and holstered his gun. Caleb met the man at the dead body and they introduced themselves. Caleb put out his hand and said, "Howdy, I'm Caleb Jackson from over near Laredo."

The other man shook Caleb's hand and said, "Much obliged fer the he'p, Mr. Jackson. My name is Hamlet Underwood from Austin. Call me Ham."

"Glad ta meet ya, Ham. What brought all this on?"

"I ain't rightly shore. I had just come around that bend in the road when that shotgun seemed ta go off in my ear an' I found myself on the ground beside my dead hoss. I s'pose it was a robbery attempt, but I ain't carrying enough money to be worth a fight. Let me look at this bastard an' maybe I'll know some more."

Ham jumped into the ditch and peered closely at the face of the dead man. "Son of a bitch! This here is a bastard I sent ta jail 'bout 7 years ago. He swore that he wuz gonna kill me fer it, but I figured that there wuz jus' hot air. I guess not. Looks like I owe ya a special thanks."

"Think nothin' of it. I'm glad ta be of help. The bastard did take a shot at me, too. Which way ya headed?"

"I wuz headed no'thwest, but now I gots ta go back ta Austin ta report this ta Judge Hughes. He's the new federal judge fer this district. I'm a federal marshal, been one fer 12 years, 'cept during the late war. Where ya goin'?"

"I'm goin' ta Austin, myself, ta try ta talk ta Judge Hughes. We need some he'p with crooked carpetbaggers and fake Army soldiers. We want him ta send us a federal marshal ta clean up our county. At least, that's what I'm gonna ask fer."

"Well, let's ride ta Austin together an' talk about it. At least, I hope I kin ride. I need a new hoss. Did ya see this here varmint's hoss in yer wanderings?"

"Yeah, it's over there in some brush. Come on, I'll show ya."

The two men rode together to Austin, and Ham took Caleb in to meet the judge. Ham introduced Caleb to the judge and explained how he had met Caleb. Judge Hughes said, "Well, Caleb, I'd like ta add my thanks ta Ham's. He's a good man, and Texas is going ta need all the good men she can git in the next few years. So, I gather that ya want sumpthin' from me; what kin I do fer ya?"

Caleb related the sequence of events leading up to his trip to Austin. He asked, "Judge, kin ya send somebody ta look over our county and straighten everythin' out? I'm shore that these so-called soldiers are deserters or impostors, but there ain't nobody locally with the authority ta challenge 'em. We need the he'p, or a whole lot more lives are gonna be ruined. Please he'p us."

"Caleb, there ain't but one way I kin he'p ya. I ain't got the manpower to see 'bout yer county on top of all the other work there is ta do. I ain't got nobody I kin send. The only way I kin he'p ya is ta appoint ya a US Marshal and assign ya the job of cleaning out the crooks in yer county. Ya'll be empowered ta hire deputies ta he'p ya, but that's all I kin do. What do ya say ta that?"

"Shore, Judge Hughes, I'll take the job ifen there ain't no other way ta do it. But I gotta tell ya that there's a warrant out fer my arrest fer murder and hoss thievin' issued by them bastards back home. Does that make any difference ta ya?"

"No problem, Marshal Jackson, we'll just predate yer appointment ta the day before ya shot that bastard what was shooting at yer friend. That way, ya kin claim ta have been an officer of my court doin' his duty. We'll chalk the hoss thievin' up ta gatherin' evidence. Now, come around the desk an' put yer hand on this here bible soz I kin swear ya in."

The next morning, Marshal Caleb Jackson rode out of Austin with his appointment papers in his pocket and his badge pinned to his shirt. He figured to push it and get home within a week.

Caleb's arrival at the hide out cabin was greeted with great joy by Susan, Jake, and Sam. Caleb related what had happened on his trip and how he had wound up a US Marshal. He asked what had happened while he was gone, and he got an earful.

The soldiers had been hunting for Caleb all over the county. They had been to nearly every one of the ranches and farms in the county looking for Caleb. A number of people had been hanged or beaten during the hunt, and the situation was getting desperate for many of the people who had been driven off their property by the new tax.

Immediate action was called for; they had to stop the soldiers. Caleb deputized Jake and Sam, but the three of them were not enough to stand up to the soldiers. They needed more men. Caleb wanted at least 12 more men, so the three of them split up and went out hunting for local men who would be willing to serve as deputy marshals for one or two days, whatever time it took to find and arrest the soldiers. The judge had authorized Caleb to pay his deputies 50 cents a day, every day they were on active duty. Caleb figured that this would be enough to draw in men who had no other source of income.

They arranged a convenient rendezvous point where they would all meet in two days to go after the marauding soldiers. While the three were recruiting deputies, they would also be gathering information on where the soldiers would probably hit next. They would need that information in two days. By that evening, the three men had deputized 7 men who had agreed to meet at the rendezvous. They had also gathered enough information to work out the pattern of movement of the soldiers, so they would know where to find the renegades when they were ready to strike.

The next day, they picked up 5 more deputies, so they should have enough men to stage a successful ambush. A total of 15 men should do the job, even if they were not all trained as cavalry.

The next day they met at the rendezvous point and organized into two squads, one led by Jake and the other led by Sam. The plan was for Caleb to confront the renegade lieutenant and arrest them all on charges of murder and rape. If they refused to surrender, which everybody expected that they would, then the deputies would shoot to kill.