Chapter 54

Crow Ridge Indian Territory June 21, 1885

While Eli was on his trip back east and the other men were busy with Jon David and the drilling crews ... the Young Bucks took it upon themselves to keep a lookout along the river and all around the rail loading facilities. They rode from daylight to dusk, taking plenty of time to practice with their pistols and rifles daily.

They were out early again this morning, patrolling the river in front of the houses. When they stopped to water their horses, Isaac looked up to see a rider crossing the river, headed right toward them.

“Who’s this coming across the river, Eli?” Isaac asked as the Bucks stood on the riverbank letting their horses drink.

“Never saw him before. Any of you know who he is?”

“Nope, I’ve never seen him before either,” Ezra spoke as they dropped their reins and walked over to spread out, standing right where the rider was about to guide his horse out of the water. The man was young, just a few years older than the Bucks. He was dressed like a dude, with a tall black hat, wearing black pants stuffed down in his red boots, and oversize, bright red chaps with black fringe up the sides. He wore his two shiny Colts high on his waist. He had big curly mustache that he kept touching with his thumb and forefinger on his left hand, as if smoothing it out.

“I see three more about his age over on the other side, dressed about like this one. Do you reckon they’re together?” Isaac asked.

“Must be, he rode right from where they’re sitting on their horses,” Pike said.

“What can we do for you, Mister?” Eli spoke loudly, when the young man was still a good twenty feet out from the riverbank.

The six Young Bucks now stood right at the water’s edge in front of him.

“Well boy, they call me The Waco Kid, back where I come from and I’m here looking for a Half-Breed United States Marshal who goes by the name of Eli Crow. Do any of you boys know the whereabouts of such a man?”

“We know Marshal Crow. What’s the nature of your business with him?” Eli asked, as they closed together and stood right where the young man was about to ride out on the riverbank.

“Boy, you needn’t be worryin’ yourself about another man’s business like that. You could get yourself in a mess of trouble askin’ questions when it’s none of your concern.”

The young man spoke with an exaggerated drawl and flicked his long curly mustache again with the forefinger and thumb on his left hand.

“Mister, we don’t know you and not a one of us here gives a damn about that fancy name you go by. You come here dressed like a dude, looking for Marshal Crow and for your own good, you best hope you never run upon the man.

“Now if that horse of yours makes one hoof print on Crow Lands, it immediately becomes our personal business. You got three choices to choose from as you sit there on your horse. Two of them will keep you alive,” Eli spoke with a soft growl in his young voice as he and the Bucks spread out to arms reach from each other, still standing at the water’s edge of the Arkansas.

“You fellers are kinda young to be struttin’ up and down that riverbank like tom turkeys out here. You best step aside and let a real man get on with his business at hand,” he drawled as he looked them over more carefully.

“Mister, my brother has spoken for all of us. If that horse steps out on Crow Land without you stating your business with Marshal Crow, they’ll drag your ass out a few miles downriver when the catfish and turtles have finished gnawing on it,” Ezra spoke with a growl as the man scowled at them with a scornful look.

“I reckon I’ll just save my truck for when I meet Marshal Crow. He’s the one I rode all the up from Waco, Texas to meet personal. Now you young’uns just step aside before I get down from this horse and dust the seat of them buckskin britches for the six of you!” The young man said, again using an exaggerated drawl as he turned his horse to face the six Bucks.

He flicked his mustache with his left hand once more, as if a show of finality to his statement. He then let his right hand drop down to rest at the bottom of his right pistol holster.

“Mister, you make a move for your pistol and you’ll die in your saddle,” Caleb spoke in a loud, even voice.

“What’re you’re cocky-ass boys’ names, anyway?” The man drawled, looking the boys over, taking in their well-worn Colt Peacemakers strapped on their right legs.

The Bucks watched intently as the young man’s right hand slowly slid down to rest on his leg, well below his pistol holster.

“Crow, is the only name that seems to concern you, Mister, and Crow just happens to be our last name,” Micah spoke up.

“If you Crow young’uns will let me step out on dry ground, we can get this ironed out without any of you gettin’ shot. You’re gonna keep on with your hassling, and rile me past the point of my patience, I’m here to tell you.” The young man spoke, shaking his reins, nudging his horse forward with his heels, even as he talked.

His horse hadn’t taken a full step before the six Young Bucks pulled their Colts in less time than it took the man to blink his eyes. When their Colts cleared leather, their left hands fanned the hammers back before the barrel was even pointed at him. Each of them had a finger on their trigger, left hands poised to begin fanning the hammers.

The man suddenly pulled his reins back, quickly jerking his horse around sideways in front of them.

“A feller gave me a newspaper from up here that he’d found on a train and I read about you Crow young’uns all the way down there in our part of Texas. Said in there that you called yourselves The Young Bucks. I reckon what they told about all of you bein’ faster’n hell’s lightning was true to the fact. Just be damned careful the next time you pull them pistols on me though. I’ll likely kill every last one of you, before you get up enough the guts to fire a shot.

“Then I’ll hunt down the man they told was even faster’n all of you, and have my way with his dirty Indian ass, badge or no badge.” The young man drawled, eyeing the six young boys more cautiously.

He rode his horse back out in the river a ways before turning south with the flow of the water. He rode close to a hundred yards, all the while watching as the six Bucks walked along the bank, keeping abreast of him.

“Let me tell you Young Buck Indian Bastards something that might just save your lives one day,” he spoke to them loudly from where he’d again stopped his horse.

“You pull them pistols on me again, or likely on any other grown man with a gun, and you’re all apt to die. You may be fast as hell with your gun hand but it takes a real man to kill another man face to face. Ain’t none of you boys got the balls to kill a man even if you was to beat his draw. I reckon your Indian Marshal daddy forgot to teach you that when he taught you to fast-draw and target shoot.

“If any one of you, or even all six of you, ever pull a gun on me like that again, I’ll kill the six of you before you can get your nerve up to pull the trigger. Just you remember them words, cause I will be back.”

“You’ll die too, Mister, if you step foot on this land again. Eli Crow Junior, here. If you think you got the balls to ever draw down on me or any one of my brothers, or even all six of us at once; then get ready to spill them stinking guts of yours and be left in this river to rot,” Eli told the young man.

They stood with legs spread, their pistols still pointed at him, hammers backed, as they looked at the young man glaring at them with his eyes pulled down to tight slits. Without another word, he jerked his reins harshly, turning his horse to ride back across the wide, shallow river, directly to where the other three riders were waiting. When he rode up beside them, the four of them turned their horses to face back across the river as they sat and talked, their horses still knee deep in the river.

The Bucks walked upriver to where their horses were and mounted. They turned their horses to face the riders across the river, directly in front of them. For close to half an hour, they silently faced off across the river, before the four riders finally turned their horses and rode back up toward the little town of Tulsa.

“Reckon what that was all about?” Pike asked as they sat looking across to where the three riders had disappeared behind a line of trees.

“He said his name was ‘The Waco Kid’,” Caleb said

“Yep, it would be my guess that he’s just some fool who wants to build a reputation with his gun. We’ve all read stories about the fast-gun lawmen in Kansas and how they attracted young men from all over, wanting to be known as the man who beat the man with the fastest gun,” Ezra said.

“I came close to killing him, when he called us Indian Bastards. I reckon that would be about the only difference in me and Marshal Eli Crow. Dad would have either waded out there and pulled him off his horse and drowned him after taking his hair, or shot both his eyes out where he sat on his horse,” Eli told them, his voice breaking, he was so mad. He cleared his throat loudly and spat on the ground.

“He won’t get away with calling any of us bastards ever again. No matter if he brings twenty men with him! He’ll die as soon as he breathes that word,” Ezra spoke with a growl, his young voice just above a whisper.

“Eli, if he had gone for his gun, would you have killed him?” Pike asked.

“I remember Dad telling us that if we ever had to pull a gun on a man, be ready to kill him and make the first shot good, it may be the only one we get. I had already decided I was going to shoot him right between his eyes if he even looked like he was about to move his gun hand. I’m mad as hell at myself now, cause I let him talk his big talk, then ride away!” Eli told his brothers.

“I’ve often wondered what I’d do if it ever happened like this. When he said what he did and talked with his smart mouth, calling us Indian Bastards and young’uns and ‘boys’, I could have shot his damned eyes out and never had second thoughts about it,” Ezra told them.

“I felt the same way, Ezra. I’m still so mad now, I’m shaking!” Micah told him.

“Let’s ride up to the loading pens and watch the oil trains load and leave out. We need to settle our asses down some, I reckon,” Eli told them.

“I reckon we do need to settle ourselves down before we go back to the house. My heart was pumping like hell back there. But all the while, I was hoping he would pull that Colt. Did all of you feel that way, or was it just me?” Pike asked.

“I felt the same way, Pike. It was like I was hoping he would pull that gun. I remember thinking how calm I was as I thought of what Dad told us about killing a man the first time,” Caleb said as they rode their horses up the slope six abreast.