Chapter 34

When they reached the river’s edge, Kit laid the fuses and caps on a stump. Ruby handed Kit a stick of dynamite and picked up a cap and a short fuse.

Eli and the others watched as she inserted the end of a fuse into the open end of the blasting cap, then put her fingers about an inch from the end of the brass. She stuck this short end of the exposed brass into her mouth with the extra fuse trailing down her chin. They could see her straining her jaws as she bit down on the brass, clamping it tight on the fuse. She gave the fuse a quick tug, to make sure it would stay inside the round brass tube of the blasting cap.

Ruby took a stick of dynamite from the stump and pushed the brass blasting cap into the end of it so only the fuse was was showing.

“You girls about ready?” Jeb Halloran asked.

“We’re ready, Gramps. Gimme me a match,” Kit said.

“How long will we have after you light that thing?” Duncan asked.

“We’ll have less than a half a minute from when the fuse starts burning, until it blows hell out of the water.”

“Ruby, you remember to count to five after Kit lights that fuse,” Jeb told her.

“I will, Gramps. You done showed us all about this. We’re good at it and you know it,” she reminded him.

Though Jeb Halloran couldn’t make out any of the marshal’s faces, he turned toward them and grinned at them proudly, as he listened to his granddaughters get ready to light the fuse and throw a stick of dynamite.

Ruby stood facing the river. She gripped the very end of the stick of dynamite in her right hand as she held it back over her shoulder. Kit lit the fuse and both started counting loud and slow.

When they reached five, Ruby threw the stick of dynamite in a high arc, out into the flow of the river. Just as it went beneath the surface, it exploded, blasting water twenty feet into the air and all the way to the bank.

The four lawmen had run back away from the river, not really knowing what to expect. Jeb and his granddaughters had stepped back a few feet and squatted down near the river.

“Whoooooweeee, would you just look at that?” Duncan said as the water rained back into the river.

As Eli, Duncan, Moses, and Joe walked back to the river’s edge, the Halloran sisters stripped their dresses over their heads and dove naked into the river. They were grabbing catfish and throwing them onto the bank as fast as they could.

When the two girls walked out of the water, they each had their hands in the gills of a catfish that was as half as long as a man. None of the fish were dead, they were just stunned by the explosion, and their gills were still opening and closing as they lay on the sandy bank.

“How many did you girls get that time?” Jeb asked, already laughing.

“We got one here that’ll go over fifty pounds and about a half dozen that’re between five and ten pounds,” Kit said as she and Ruby pulled their ragged dresses back over their heads, grinning at the marshals all the while.

“Marshals, what do you think of dynamite now?” Jeb asked.

“Mr. Jeb, that is some powerful stuff,” Joe told him.

“Yep, and them girls are the best you ever saw at fishing with dynamite too. Both of them can make that dynamite explode just as it goes under.”

“How did you ever figure out how to make the fuses just right to blow up as it hit water?” Eli asked.

“Like I told you, I used that stuff for years in the open coal fields where we used the steam shovels to dig it out and load coal trains. I know how long it takes to burn an inch, or a foot of fuse. These girls have learned well and both can throw a stick so it will blow up just as it hits water or the ground.”

“Looks like the fuse would go out when it hits water,” Moses said.

“If it goes under with too much fuse still burning, it will. The fuse will burn the last half inch or so, once it hits water, but that’s about all. Like I told you, these girls are as good as I’ve seen at throwing dynamite,” Jeb said and laughed.

“What is it then that makes the dynamite blow up? Is it the fuse making that blasting cap get hot?” Joe asked.

“Yep, that’s it,” Ruby said, answering for her Gramps.

“You fellers like catfish?” Jeb asked.

“We sure do. We’ll skin ‘em if Ruby and Kit can cook them,” Eli told him.

“They can cook fish as good as any grown woman. About all we got to eat now is fish. Them bastards downriver trampled down our garden and we been afraid to leave this place and go to town for the last six months. We’re about out of everything but salt and lard.”

“Marshal, we got us a skinning tree over there. We got the small limbs cut off with a sharp point so we can hang the catfish on ‘em. I’ll run get Gramp’s skinnin’ pliers while y’all hang ‘em up,” Kit told them.

Joe had never skinned a catfish, but with Eli, Moses, and Duncan showing him how, he soon learned the art of skinning catfish.

They skinned the fish, then gutted, washed and cut them up into steaks. Kit and Ruby took over and put the pieces in a clean bucket, with cornmeal and salt already mixed together. Jeb told them where the small cast iron pot was and the men quickly had a fire going with the lard melting.

When the grease started boiling, the sisters had the pieces of catfish coated with cornmeal. They took the pieces of fish and slid them down the inside slope of the pot to keep them from splashing in the hot grease.

After the girls had cooked all the catfish, they had two dish pans full. They covered one with a cloth and set the other pan on the small kitchen table. There was only one chair in the small kitchen and Jeb sat in it. The four marshals and two girls sat on the two wooden benches on either side of the table.

“Whoooweeee, this is some good eatin,” Joe said as he took his first bite of catfish.

All seven of them ate until they couldn’t hold any more, then pushed back from the table.

“Kit, you and Ruby sure do know how to cook up some catfish. That was as good as I ever ate,” Eli told them as they all sat at the table.

“Thanks, Marshal. Gramps showed us how and I reckon he’s showed us all we know, since we lost our mama and daddy back years ago,” Kit told him.

“Girls, Marshal Eli and his friends has asked us if we’d like to go back with them when they take custody of Luther. Would you two like to have a bunch of new friends to play with?” Jeb Halloran asked them, hoping they’d be happy to go.

“You mean we’d all go back, Gramps?” Ruby asked.

“Yep, all three of us. You both know my eyes are about plumb gone already. I’m afraid to even go to sleep anymore. It’s just a matter of time before something bad happens to you girls out here.”

“But Gramps, if the marshals take them buzzards back to jail, we’d be safe here then,” Kit told him.

“Kit, Honey, there’s way more bad people than Luther Halloran in these parts. Y’all have seen how men look at you both. I need to know you two are safe and have a chance to make a good life. Marshal Eli told me they have their own school teacher and she’s a pretty Indian woman. You both wanted to learn to read and write, here’s your chance to make it happen.”

“Marshal, where would we live?” Ruby asked.

“With us. We have four big houses there on our ranch and are about to build more. All our young’uns have their own horses and we have cows, goats and some big hay barns to play in,” Eli told her. He watched them look toward their gramps.

“You got some boys and girls too?” Kit asked.

“Yep. Marshal Duncan has a boy named Isaac. Deputy Moses has a boy named Pike and I got four boys named Eli Jr., Caleb, Micah, and Ezra. I got four daughters named Lee Yu, Lilly Beth, Kia, and Michi. They’re all just about your ages too, within a year or so. All ten of ‘em wear buckskins like we do.”

“Would we get to go to school?” Ruby asked and grinned at Kit.

“Yep. All our young’uns will be going to school. We’ll have some Cherokee young’uns in school too, boys and girls alike.”

“Will we get to ride horses and wear buckskins like all y’alls young’uns if we go?” Ruby asked.

“You’ll both have new buckskins to wear and we’ll give you your own horses if y’all will come home with us, we got a pasture full of ‘em.”

“Gramps, we want to go back to Tulsa with the marshals. We want to go to school and learn readin’ and writin’, and have girls and boys our age for friends. We want to ride our own horses and wear new buckskins too,” Kit said as she held her Gramps’ hand.

“Girls, you’ve made me proud tonight. We ain’t got nothin to stay here for no way except this old place and it’s fallin’ down around us.”

“Marshals, I reckon if you can stand us, we’ll make the trip back down to Tulsa with y’all, after you clean out that nest of varmints downriver, that is,” Jeb said as both his granddaughters hugged him and held on tight.

They were crying; they were happy just to have a chance to learn reading and writing. Both girls went to bed thinking of all the new friends they had yet to meet, dreaming about what it will be like down where the marshals live.

Eli and the other lawmen scattered out around the homeplace to make their beds, just in case more raiders came back in the night.

When morning came, the four lawmen were gathered outside the old dilapidated home when Kit and Ruby came out, leading their gramps.

“Mr. Jeb, we’ve decided to take you ‘n the girls with us this morning. We’ll all need to be together when we come upon that bunch down there and we can’t leave you here alone. We got your mules hitched to this old wagon,” Eli told them.

“We’re ready, Marshal. I reckon there’s nothing here to load and take with us but what few clothes we got and the girls have them in a sack.

“Kit, you and Ruby pack up that cooked catfish and take a good look at this old place so you can remember it. We won’t be coming back this way again,” Jeb Halloran told his granddaughters.

“We already looked it over, Gramps. We’ll kinda miss it a little bit I reckon, but we sure are lookin’ forward to gettin’ outta here and findin’ a better place,” Ruby told him.

“Moses, you ‘n Joe ride with the wagon and keep close watch over Mr. Jeb and the girls. Duncan and me are gonna ride on ahead and scout out the place before we all ride into another mess down there,” Eli told them as they mounted.

“Marshal Eli, y’all be watchful down there. Them’s some mean and ornery cusses, all of ‘em,” Jeb told them when he heard Eli and the others talking.

“We will, Mr. Jeb. Is there anything you know of we need to pay special attention to?”

“You’ll see the start of Luther’s spread way ‘fore you get there. There’s a little shack on the side of the road where he’s usually has a couple of men posted up. Now that y’all done took out most of his men, he’ll be holed up like an old wounded bear. I know y’all can handle ya’selves good, but Luther’s meaner than most folks. He’ll kill a man and laugh about it.”

“We’ll be double careful, Mr. Jeb,” Eli told him and they rode off ahead of the wagon.

“Duncan, I figure we’re gonna have a hell of a gun battle with this bunch before it’s over. You be watchful and don’t take no chances,” Eli said as they rode within seeing distance of the Halloran spread.

“You be careful too, Eli. Don’t be running up in the middle of these folks. We already know they’re bad all the way through. They got dynamite too, don’t forget.

“Eli, I see that shack Mr. Jeb spoke of, through them trees. There’s two horses tied behind it too.”

“I see it now, Duncan. Let’s stop here and walk in on ‘em. They’ll be lookin and listenin’ for horses.”

They tied their horses well off the trail and slipped quietly through the trees along the river bank. Without a word, the two pointed and motioned to each other, as they saw one man sitting on a stump and another man sitting in a chair inside the small shack. Both men looked to be asleep at first, then they saw the man inside the shack swatting at flies, before he leaned his chair back and pulled his hat over his face.

Eli motioned for Duncan to take that man and pointed to the one on the stump, then to himself. He made a swipe across his throat with his fingers, and Duncan pulled his knife when Eli pulled his. They both nodded and crept in closer.

Eli reached the man on the stump as his head nodded forward and he jerked back. When his head jerked back, Eli cut his throat and dragged him off the road behind the shack.

At the same time, Duncan crept up to the open doorway where the other man was asleep, with his head lolled back against the door jamb. He cut the man’s throat and dragged him around back where Eli stood.

Still not speaking, Eli motioned toward the house and barns in the distance, and they slipped quietly along the river bank toward the first barn.

“Duncan, there’s a man sittin’ in the door of the hayloft,” Eli whispered and pointed to the man sitting with his feet hanging down from the doorway.

“I see him now. How we gonna get him before he sees us?” Duncan asked as they hunkered down in the bushes along the corral fence.

“I’ll slip around this fence and come up through the inside of the barn. If you hear a ruckus, you’ll know there’s more in that barn than him. You keep watch on him and if he jumps up like he’s heard me, kill him with that rifle.”

“I got you covered, Eli. You be careful in there.”

“You be watchful out here too, Duncan, remember what happened over’n Parkinsville that time.”

“You needn’t worry none. I got eyes back there now,” Duncan said as Eli crouched down and slipped away.

Duncan was watching the man in the hayloft closely. He knew Eli was about to come upon him any minute. He had his Sharps rifle propped on a fence rail with the man’s head in the cross-hairs.

The man’s arms flung out suddenly and his feet kicked up in the air. Duncan was ready to shoot, when he saw Eli wave out the door and motion him on across the corral to the barn. He had to grin when he thought of Eli and that big knife he carried. That man loves to use that knife.

Duncan crept to the barn and inside the back door. He saw Eli at the front, looking out toward the main house and bunkhouse. Most of the barn stalls had horses in them and three more were saddled and tied in front of the barn.

That meant most, if not all of Halloran’s remaining gun hands were here somewhere.

“Eli, you see anything over there yet?” Duncan asked as he slipped over next to him and hunkered down.

“I see a rifle barrel sticking out the window of the bunkhouse and another one sticking out the window of the main house over there. I reckon they were expectin’ us to follow them yesterday. Now the men have been up all night and the whole damn bunch is asleep.”

“Well, it won’t take but one shot to wake the whole damned bunch up neither. How’re we gonna get past them two over there, if they’re awake?”

“Duncan, you just keep a sharp eye on them rifle barrels to see if they even move. I’m gonna snoop around some and try to get the lay of this place before we walk into an ambush.”

Eli slipped into the tack room and looked around. There weren’t any windows, but there was another door which he figured went outside. He opened it slowly in case someone was out on that side of the barn.

The door opened into a lean-to shed where two heavy built wagons were parked. Both had high sideboards and tarp covers over them. He slipped his knife blade under a tie-down rope and cut it. When he pulled the corner of the tarp back, he saw the whole wagon was stacked full of wooden boxes.

Eli knew as soon as he saw the boxes that this was the dynamite Jeb had spoken of.

Jamming his knife under the lid of the box nearest him, he pried it open slowly. Sure enough, the box was full of sticks of dynamite packed in fine sawdust to make them tight against each other.

He looked around for anything that may have some blasting caps stored in it, then remembered Mr. Jeb and Moses saying that they never kept the caps and dynamite close together.

There wasn’t room for him to squeeze around behind the first wagon and get over to the other one, so he crawled under it and stood up between them. He cut the tiedown on this one and it too looked to be full of the newly made wooden boxes.

Eli was already figuring on using Luther Halloran’s own dynamite to flush him out of hiding; if he could find the blasting caps and fuse.

He crawled back under the wagon and went back to check on Duncan and see if there was anyone stirring about yet.

He whispered at Duncan, so he wouldn’t scare him and make him holler. Duncan jumped at first, then grinned at Eli when he saw him.

Duncan held up four blasting caps in one hand and pointed to the other side of the barn door where there was a stack of six long, narrow wooden boxes with four big tin spools of fuse on top of the stack.

“All them boxes full of caps?” Eli asked as he grinned.

Duncan never spoke, he just grinned back and nodded.

“I found two wagons loaded with dynamite back there in a lean-to shed. You got anybody moving about yet?”