Chapter 102

When they arrived in Durant, the sun had been up a few hours and Eli herded them to the hotel. The fireman and engineer went with them as the local railroad workers filled the reservoirs with water and oiled the locomotive for them.

This was the first chance Eli had for more than a few words with his Bucks since they’d boarded the caboose in Abilene. Eli and Moses sat across the table from them in the dining room and looked at each of them as they talked to their brothers and their girls.

He was proud that the Blasingames saw fit to let their daughters come back with the Bucks. This would keep them away from the bitterness that was sure to come when the Texas town woke up to find their marshal, two of his sons and four of his deputies dead in the street.

Eli was wondering how the county sheriff was going to handle all the questions about the release of the boys from Oklahoma Territory and the murder of four members of the law enforcement community in Abilene on the same night.

Whatever happened now was their problem. He had his Bucks and they had their girls with them. That was all that mattered, though he was still mad enough to go back and kill again as he looked at his four battered and bandaged Young Bucks.

Little Eli was sitting between Ezra and Pike as they ate, talking about the fight that took place.

He nudged Ezra and grinned, “Brother, you sure do look a mess. I just wish I had been there with you to get my hands on some of that bunch.”

“Eli, as bad as it hurts right now just holding this fork and breathing, it was still the most fun we’ve ever had without you!” Ezra said, bringing a round of laughter from all the Bucks, Moses, Eli, the Blasingame girls and the train crew who heard what he told his brother.

Samantha was sitting on the other side of Ezra. She leaned past him to talk to Little Eli.

“Eli, I wish you could’ve been there just to see them whipping asses all over that loading dock. When they were taken away by that asshole town marshal and the dead and cripples were carried away, there was blood from one side of that place to the other. I know our Bucks spilled some of that blood, but they busted them young men up so bad they were bleeding from their feet to their ears.

“As scared as we were while the fight was going on, we were so damned proud of our Bucks. Not just us, but our mommas and daddies too,” she told him, tears in her eyes as she spoke loud enough for all the others to hear.

Cecily was sitting on the other side of Pike and she spoke up next.

“Eli, you should have seen Pike, Micah, and Caleb. At times they were fighting hand and fist with five or six of them. I just knew they had killed Pike when one of them snuck up behind him and hit him with that club. He went down to his hands and knees, and blood was all over his face,” she recalled. “Before I could even clean the blood from his eyes to see how bad he was hurt, he was pushing me out of the way to stand back to back with Caleb and Micah again.”

“Yeah, and that was when Ezra took a club to his back that staggered him to his knees, but then he took that club away from the man and killed him with it,” Abigail told them, then continued with the story...

“They had managed to get him out away from the others and when he was hit across his back, we just knew Ezra wasn’t going to be able to stand and fight again. I was crying and screaming and so was Samantha when we saw one of them holding Caleb while two more beat him with their fists. When Ezra turned to look toward us, he saw the man holding Caleb. Ezra was staggering and almost fell as he made his way over to swing the club at the man’s head. He hit him so hard that blood went everywhere and the man’s eyeballs popped out of his head,” she finished with a stifled sob as Caleb put his arm around her.

Ezra spoke up again after looking around at his dad, Moses, the girls and the other Bucks.

“Micah, Caleb and Pike took on way more of them than I did. They did have me out away from the others for a while, but every time I managed to look up, my brothers were standing back to back, taking on three or four at a time and still laying them out as fast as they came at them. I never in all my life was so proud to be a Crow and a Young Buck, as I was during that fight. We’ve had a few scuffles with others in the past, but this time we had to use everything Moses taught us about how to maim or kill a man with our fists, not just fight him.

“They were out to either kill us or leave us crippled for life, but they messed with the wrong damn bunch when they picked on the Young Bucks out of Crow Ridge,” Ezra told them with tears in his eyes.

Eli and Moses sat across from their sons and listened to them and the Blasingame girls recount the brutal attack, then tell of the beating their sons put on the young men who called themselves Abilene’s Finest. They too had tears in their eyes — tears of anger at what had happened and tears of pride in their Young Bucks.

Before they left the train station at Durant, Little Eli sent a telegraph message to Tulsa. His dad had asked him to send it to Duncan and told him how to word it.

U S Marshal Duncan stop

Coming home stop

Six Bucks four Texas girls stop

Dad and Moses stop

Tulsa by four stop
Tulsa, Indian Territory
Monday, July 29, 1889

Duncan and Joe were sitting on the front porch, talking about Eli and the others going to Texas, wishing they had gotten to go. They hated that they weren’t able to fight and shoot like they once could.

“Duncan, here comes the messenger boy. Damn it all, I hope he’s got good news about Eli and them down in Abilene,” Joe said as he saw the boy ride his pony hard across the wagon bridge, then cut across to ride up the slope to the big house.

“I hope he does too, Joe. I’m scared as hell they may have had trouble down there and we weren’t there to help.”

“You can damn well bet on one thing — Eli Crow thinned out the population of Abilene while he was down there,” Joe said, making Duncan laugh as he thought back on the times he’d seen Eli get riled up during the years they had ridden together.

“Mr. Duncan, I got a message here for you, sent from down in Durant. Want me to read it for you?” The messenger boy said as he rode right up to the tall porch and leaned over to hand it to Duncan.

“Hell no! I got my reading glass and I can read it my ownself,” Duncan said, snatching the paper and pulling it back to put it under his handheld magnifying glass Doc had gotten him.

Joe handed the boy a half dollar as Duncan began to read.

“Would you just listen to this, Joe? They sent it to U.S. Marshal Duncan. That had to be Eli who done that. That man will never give up the fact that I’m not a marshal anymore,” Duncan said with a big smile.

“Well, are you gonna read it to me or am I gonna have to guess what it says?” Joe scolded him.

“Gimme time!

“Damn, just listen to this, Joe,

U S Marshal Duncan

Coming home

Six Bucks four Texas girls

Dad and Moses

Tulsa by four”

“It says Dad and Moses, that means Little Eli sent it. I swear that boy is just like his daddy. He still calls me Marshal at times too,” Duncan said as he handed Joe the telegraph message and wiped his eyes on his shirt sleeve.

“Better show it to the womenfolk too, Joe, and let’s get a couple of wagons hitched up. They’ll be here in a few hours,” Duncan said, pulling his pocket watch out to hold it under his reading glass.

Tulsa, Indian Territory
Monday, July 29, 1889

Kit drove one wagon with Ruby and their four guests they’d brought back with them from Kansas. There was no way they could wait any longer to see the Bucks and the others come home safely.

Joe drove the other wagon with Duncan sitting beside him. They were at the station nearly an hour before they heard the train whistle in the distance, still a mile or more from Tulsa as the engineer pulled the rope and kept blowing the steam whistle until they rolled up beside the station, stopping with the caboose at the loading dock.

Emotions ran high as Eli stepped off onto the dock to see Sam Connor and Marshal Dal Hopkins standing there, smiling at him with all the girls and boys who surrounded him.

Ruby and Kit ran across the loading dock, nearly knocking Isaac and Little Eli down as they grabbed them. Both sisters were sobbing and heaving deep breaths as they kissed and welcomed them home.

Behind them, wearing buckskins and moccasins with their red hair in braids, stood McKenna and McKenzie McInnis, smiling and already reaching out for a hug from Little Eli and Isaac as Ruby and Kit backed up.

Little Eli had sent his dad a telegraph message from Boone’s Crossing before they left Kansas, telling him that he was bringing his Grandpa and Marshal Dal Hopkins home with them with two friends that Kit and Ruby had made on the trip.

Sam had made a deal to sell Connor’s Store to the Youngs, who owned the store down the street from his. He agreed to finance it and they were to pay a note by mail each month in the name of Eli Crow Junior.

Earlier that day, their first full day in Tulsa, the McInnis sisters were taken to the leather shop to be fitted with breast corsets, buckskins and moccasins. The four redheads were already conniving to come up with a way to make their stay even longer.

“Mr. Connor, I’m proud to welcome you to Tulsa, and to Crow Ridge. This is your home now, just as it is ours,” Eli told Sam Connor as he pulled him close for a long emotional hug and handshake.

“Eli, Dal and me had talked about this a few times before Little Eli, Isaac, Ruby and Kit came up there to visit, but we never really let ourselves get serious about it. When we saw the four redheads together and how happy they were just to be with Little Eli and Isaac, it didn’t take a lot to convince us. Especially when Eli told me he wanted to bring his grandma with us,” Sam Connor had tears in his eyes as he talked, then reached out to grab Little Eli and pull him close.

“Grandpa, I’m sorry about jumping on that train and leaving all of you like I did as soon as we got here, but I’m sure you know what it was all about by now,” Little Eli said as he hugged his grandpa.

“Eli, for a while there, Dal and me were looking around to see what had happened to you. Then Kit told us and we knew you and your dad were on your way to rescue your brothers.”

Dal Hopkins was standing next to Sam and reached out to hug Little Eli too. “Eli, Sam and me want to hear all about it now that you’re back here safe with your brothers and their Texas girls you told us about. We want to know all the good parts too, not just a skipped-over story like someone else we know tells a story,” Dal told him, then laughed as Eli reached for him.

“Marshal, I’m glad that Eli could do what I couldn’t when I was up there and bring you and Sam home with him. It’s good to see you both here and I expect you to make yourselves at home just like family now that you’re here,” Eli told him.

“Eli, I already feel like I just got home. You’ll have to run Sam and me off now.”

“Then you’ll never leave, Marshal.

“Let me get over here and meet these new girls who look just like Kit and Ruby with that flaming red hair. When Eli sent me the telegraph that all of you were coming, I had no idea what he was talking about in that short message,” Eli said as he stepped over to meet McKenzie and McKenna.

Kit stepped up to hug Eli, then waved for the two McInnis sisters to come closer.

“Dad, meet McKenzie and McKenna,” Kit told him, grinning at her new friends as they smiled up at Eli.

“I’m still not sure which one is which, but both of you are welcome here for as long as you like. I have a feeling about you and these Halloran sisters and I expect you’ll spend most of your time over at their place in the valley.”

“Marshal Crow, we’ve heard so much about you and now we finally get to meet you. From what we’ve been told in the short time we’ve been here, you’re a very busy man. But McKenzie and I want to draw you just like you are now with your buckskins, your hat, and wearing your gun, if you’ll give us the time. You are everything they told us you were, and even more,” McKenna told Eli, then hugged his neck as she stood on her toes and reached up with her arms around his neck to hold him just as Kit had done.

“So you and your sister are artists? We have another artist in the family already. Maybe I can take time when we get caught up and get my picture drawn by you girls. I’d like that.”