Chapter 60

“Eli, I want to know what it was that made you so jumpy on the train coming up here. You grabbed that Colt and strapped it on like you were expecting trouble out here tonight,” Dal Hopkins said when they were out on the boardwalk and headed toward the jail.

“Marshal, I’m not real sure, but I had reason to suspect three, maybe even as many as five people who were on that train at different times. They sure were behaving suspicious.”

“Did you know any of them?”

“I may have known one, maybe even two of them. I didn’t get a good look at them, but I think one of them was a man who Dad and the other marshals had a few run-ins with. It was his sons who called us Young Bucks the first time. They called us a lot of other names too that day when we sent them packing.”

“When did this happen? How old were you boys?”

“We were nine. There were four brothers and they were being disrespectful to a woman and her girls.”

“The six of you young boys whipped those four grown men’s asses, didn’t you?” Dal Hopkins asked, laughing the whole time. He already knew that was what happened by the way Eli talked.

“Yes, Sir. It was that same bunch who later burned a cross down by the river across from our houses and another one by the bunkhouses where the hired hands live. Dad went after them early that morning. It was Christmas Day.”

“He caught up with them too, didn’t he?”

“He sure did and I heard him tell Moses that two of them would never be daddies again either.”

“That sounds just like Eli Crow! Can’t say that I blame him. Hell Fire, I wish I’d have been there with him, I’d have helped him!”

“We were hoping they would let us ride with them that morning they went after them, but they didn’t.”

“After they were cut, did those men still hang around Tulsa?”

“I never saw any of them again until the train stopped at Vinita for a few minutes on the way up here and I got off to use the facilities. That’s when I thought I recognized the one Dad and the others call Turkey. His last name is Turk. I’ve never heard his first name though. He and other two men younger than him were walking beside the train cars. Then they stepped between two cattle cars and I never saw them again.”

“He was at Vinita when the train stopped?”

“He was. There were two young men a few years older than me who were already on the train from Tulsa and I first saw them being suspicious on the train before we got to Vinita.”

“What happened when the train left Vinita? Were they on board?”

“I saw one of them that I’d seen earlier onboard the train. Then there was this girl a few years older than me. She came hurrying up the street and bought a ticket as I watched through the train window. Then she came in the Pullman and sat near me, though there were only a few people in the car.

“She was making head signs with a young man in the passenger car, then she tried to get me to talk but I never did. That’s when I took my gun out of my traveling bag and put it on. Dad told me to never trust anyone.”

“When did you see them last?”

“When I switched trains at Parsons. I didn’t wait until the train I was supposed to take here switched back onto the mainline after taking on coal and water; I walked over and took a seat on the train where I could see the whole area good. I never saw them again though.

“The only thing suspicious I saw after that was someone looking into the Pullman with their hands cupped beside their face so they could see. The face was gone just as fast as it popped up there.”

“Let’s get this place locked up for the night and we’ll walk down to the depot and send a telegraph message to the law there in Vinita. Maybe he saw some of that bunch and can help us. It may be morning before we hear back, but we can send it tonight.”

Marshal Hopkins sent the telegraph message to the telegraph operator in Vinita, Indian Territory with instructions for it to be delivered to the lawman in charge. He and Eli sat with the depot agent and talked until his shift was up and the other agent came on. They explained to him about the message they were hoping for and left.

They’d left the depot and were walking back toward the hotel where Marshal Hopkins stayed, when the agent stepped out into the street and yelled at them.

“Marshal, I knew you’d want to see this.” The man said as they walked up to where he stood in the lamplight near the loading platform.

Marshal Dal Hopkins Boones Crossing Kansas stop

Two men one woman name Turk stop

Three days Hotel Vinita left abruptly by train stop

Still owe hotel due bill stop

“Who are the other men and the woman, Eli?”

“I have no idea, Marshal. I only knew Turkey and his boys when I saw them together after the scrap we had with them in Tulsa that day. I did hear Dad talking about a nephew of Turkey’s from Mississippi that he sent packing after he made him cut his uncle and cousin. Then there was the youngest son of Turkey’s, the one who lost his nuts, I’m sure he and his dad both survived that.”

“I still wonder who the woman was and what part she played. Maybe she was the wife of the one from Mississippi,” Marshal Hopkins said as he stared at the paper.

“I don’t know where she fits in, Marshal but that explains the two young men on the train. Then the three I saw when I thought one of them could be Ol’ Turkey. The young woman on the train had to be with them, the way she was making signs with the other young man in the passenger car.”

“That means there were four men and one woman altogether?”

“Yes Sir.”

“Do you think they may have been planning to try and harm your dad or one of your family members, then they saw you?”

“That would be my guess. I figure they were after revenge for what Dad and the others did to them and their family. I reckon when they saw me, they figured it would be easier to take me and get revenge on Dad that way.”

“I agree, Eli. We’ll have to watch close when the trains come through. They could’ve talked to the folks on the train and found out where you were headed.”

“I did talk quite a bit to one black porter named Sammy and I remember another porter telling me that Sammy had told him who I was and that I was headed to see my grandparents in Boones Crossing. Both of the porters called me Little Marshal when they found out I was Eli Crow’s son.”

“Eli, do you think we need to notify your dad so he can come on up here now? I’d hate for you to get hurt or maybe someone attempt a kidnapping while you’re here.”

“Marshal, we don’t even know if any of this is really true, what we’re thinking. I’d hate for Dad to come all the way up here and it be nothing to it.”

“What if there is something to it, Eli?”

“Then I reckon I’ll have to deal with it.”

“Son, I know your dad has taught you a lot of things about life and being a man, but if we count right, there’s four men and a woman. Never disregard a woman either if there’s a chance she wants to do you harm. She’s kin to them somehow and she’ll be just as hell bent to hurt you as the men are, or she wouldn’t be with them.”

“Marshal, I hate to bother Dad. We’re not even sure they were after me. They never really acted as if they were. The young woman was the only one who tried to talk to me. Maybe they just wanted to know for sure if I really was one of Eli Crow’s sons. I really don’t think they want my Dad coming after them again. He’ll track them down and kill the whole bunch of them if they try anything with me or any of the family and they know it by now.”

As they stood in the street in front of the hotel, they heard the rumble of distant thunder and saw a few flashes of lightning back in the southwest. The weather was hot and it had been dry here on the Kansas plains for a month or more. Everyone on the plains were hoping and praying for rain.

“I hope we get us a good rain out of this one, Eli. We’re sure due for one.”

“You’ll get a good one out of this, Marshal. I can feel it already in the air.”

“You sound just like your daddy, he told me that once and we got a toad strangler.”

“He still does it. I reckon I’ve picked up a lot of his feelings and premonitions, being around him all the time,” Little Eli said as they walked toward the entrance of the hotel.

“We’ve been dry back home this summer too, but we did get some good early rains and made a really good alfalfa hay crop at home and down at Pecan Ridge.”

They were standing on the boardwalk in front of the hotel, neither really wanting to part, yet knowing they needed to get some rest.

“Eli, I reckon we’ll sleep on all this other stuff tonight and see what it looks like tomorrow morning. Maybe we’ll get a good rain and we’ll both stop being so jumpy in all this heat.”

“Good night, Marshal. I’ll meet you here for breakfast, if you get up early. We can sit and talk about the rain then.”

“I’ve always gotten up early, Eli. I’ll meet you here at six, that’s when they open the kitchen.”

“I’ll be here. Have a good night.”

“You too, Eli. It sure is good to have you here. It’s like I’m talking to your dad all over again when he was young. I want to hear some more of those stories about him and the big family too.”

“We’ll have plenty of time to talk. See you in the morning, Marshal.”

After Marshal Hopkins had walked through the door of the hotel, Eli stood in the street alone.

Once more he felt the need to be more watchful as he instinctively reached up to touch his medicine chain. He’d never experienced this feeling before. He’d always been near his brothers and the rest of the family. For the first time in his life, he was alone. Thinking of his brothers, he laughed to himself as he thought of Ezra and his temper. Hell, Ezra would back him up even if it just looked like there might be any trouble.

As he walked back to Connors Store, he was even more aware of the dark buildings and the shadows cast in the dim light of the few street lamps. When he came to the store, he turned and walked down the pitch dark alley toward the back of the store.

Just as he approached the rear of the store building, a cat ran from underneath the porch, squalling as it ran out into the light of a street lamp. Eli whirled, his Colt already in his hand with the hammer back, in a split-second reflex. He came close to killing the cat before he realized what had happened.

‘I need to settle down. Hell, I’m more jumpy than I thought I was’.

He laughed to himself at his thoughts and stepped onto the porch, looking toward the sky as lightning flashed in the west. The storm was closer. He knew it would be here in a matter of hours. He could already feel it stirring the hot heavy air around him.

Just as he turned to open the door, he heard the rumble of distant thunder again, as it rolled and echoed across the flat plains; reminding him of home.

During the night, he was awakened when the back door blew open with a strong gust of wind that slammed it inward, causing the doorknob to strike the wall with a loud pop that sounded like gunfire.

Eli came up from the small cot with his Colt in his hand, his eyes wide, his mind racing. Then his mind quickly came to grips with where he was and what had happened.

Just as he swung his feet to the floor to go close the door, he heard a sound in the room behind him. Turning quickly, he saw his grandpa coming through the other door from his bedroom with a lamp.

“Eli, I heard that door slam open and knew it must have scared you half out of your wits. I need to get that thing fixed. It never does close good,” Sam Connor said as he walked over to pull the door closed against the wind.

“Looks like we’re getting a good one,” Sam commented as he stood and looked out the door before closing it. He put the back of a chair under the knob, kicking the chair legs to wedge it tight on the floor.

“I can hear the rain on the roof now. The storm must have just hit with that gust of wind. I knew it would be here soon, the way the thunder was rumbling in the west when I went to bed,” Eli answered.

“What time is it anyway, Grandpa?”

“It’s nearly four. Do you want me to make a pot of coffee? I sometimes get up this early and drink coffee, enjoying the peace and quiet.”

“Dad gets up early every day when he’s at home. My brothers and I are usually up soon after he is. That seems like the best time to catch him and have some time to talk. He’s always so busy.”