Chapter 23

Bat Masterson came up as the two stood there in the shade.

“Heard you two had some excitement Tom, did Charlie lock’em up?”

“Yep, he said he’d let’em go in the mornin’ after they’d slept it off.”

“That’s Charlie, he’s a fair man, but he’s gonna make sure they follow the law. Tom the talk over at the Long Branch when I got there was that you took them both with one fist to the man’s rib cage, is that right?”

“Well, he swung wide and left his whole belly open, it was easy to take his wind out.”

“Bat, that ain’t all either, Tom had his gun out with his left hand before the other man could even turn to face him. Hell I was standing just behind Tom and on his left side and I didn’t see that Colt come out.”

“That’s the same thing I heard just a few minutes ago too Cal. Tom you may have just made a reputation for your gun hand just now. Word gets around town quick of a fast gun. Folks like to tell stories of gunfights and fast draw gunslingers,” Bat told him.

“I don’t need any tall tales told on me, I was just doin my job,” Tom said as he eased off the porch into the street.

“Need them or not, you gonna get them now Injun,” Bat told him.

“I need a cool drink of water, I’ll be right back,” Tom said as he walked across to the Dodge House.

“That’s one man I’d never want to face me with his guns or his fist.” Cal told Bat.

“You think he’s really that good with his fists?”

“He ducked under that man’s left and hit him so fast, not many in there even knew what happened.”

The story about the arrest of the two cow hands in the Long Branch wasn’t long in spreading across town and across the tracks. No one really knew the new deputy’s name but it didn’t take long for that to be the next news to be rumored and whispered over the streets of Dodge.

Before the day was over, everyone that kept up with the rumors and gossips about Dodge City, knew the tall deputy was named Tom Cooper from up in the Dakotas. They also knew about the wagon ambush over near Pratt and the shootout at the livery stable in Kansas City.

Someone had overheard a conversation between two sheriff’s deputies and told their friends of another shootout up in Nebraska where two men lost their right arms in a gunfight with a tall Injun named Tom Cooper. Soon the stories of a half breed with a fast gun hand were spreading all over Dodge and even to surrounding towns as people traveled across Kansas.

Sam Wilson and his friend Bo had gone down to Arkansas City, Kansas looking for work after they’d taken care of the man responsible for the loss of their right hands. The injun that they had paid to help track down Tom Cooper had left for parts unknown after they split up in Omaha.

It had just been a stroke of luck they had ran upon him anyway. Sam and Bo were bitter as hell about their loss of their gunhands because of Tom Cooper and were asking everyone if they knew his whereabouts.

One day in St. Joe, they were talking and spouting off about being willing to pay fifty dollars to anyone that could help them hunt the man down. The injun known only as ‘Breed’ heard the story, he told them he had seen the man that they spoke of.

They hired him on the spot to track Tom down.

Breed had heard some folks talking about a Tom Cooper breeding his big stud at some local horse stables and did a little snooping around. It wasn’t long before he found someone willing to tell where he might find his friend Tom Cooper. Since the two were Injuns, it was just assumed that one was friends with the other.

The three had followed him down to Kansas City but missed him by a day when they saw the papers about a shootout in a stable between some bank robbers and a injun gunfighter. They got wind he was headed up to Atchison but didn’t know he was on a train.

They were a week behind him and didn’t know it until one day Breed was in Topeka and saw Tom and his horse get off a train with a young girl riding with him. He knew it had to be him, they had heard many descriptions of that big Palomino horse and the tall injun that rode him with no bridle.

Breed watched the injun and the girl ride out of town headed north and quickly got Sam and Bo out of the saloon. They trailed the big horse for a day and that night came upon the lake where the two had made camp.

Breed was now sitting in the back door of the tent saloon on the south side of Dodge, he was drinking from a bottle of cheap whiskey. The barkeep had given him the bottle for cleaning the place up a bit and moving all the stinking garbage father away from the back door of the tent.

Breed could hardly believe what he was hearing, these men were all talking about Tom Cooper like he was alive. He knew himself that Tom Cooper was dead, he saw Sam and Bo each stick a knife in his chest as he slept in the early light of dawn.

Despite the half bottle of rot gut he had in his belly, he was nearly sober by the time he had all the details.

Breed slipped out of the tent and hid his bottle under some garbage. He walked across the tracks, staying behind all the buildings along Front Street until he came to the livery stable.

Breed walked through the stable looking at all the horses when he came to a stall and saw something that made his blood run cold. There stood the big Palomino stud that belonged to Tom Cooper. It had to be true then, Tom Cooper was alive and here in Dodge City.

Breed slipped out the back of the livery stable and ran behind the buildings again to where he had stashed his bottle. He drank half of what was left, then ran to his horse and left town headed south and east.

He didn’t know where Sam and Bo were, but he did remember them saying something about heading over to Arkansas City, Kansas down near Indian Territory.

Tom got his drink of water at the Dodge House and walked down to the livery stable to check on his horse. The big horse smelled him even before he came to the stall and was tossing his head and stomping his front feet as Tom walked up and opened the door to the stall.

He stayed with him for a while, then patted his neck and walked back over to the sheriff’s office to see where Cal and Bat were. He never saw the half breed slip from the stable just as he walked in to check on his horse.

Cal was sitting in the sheriff’s office talking with Charlie Bassett when Tom walked in.

“Sure took you a long time to get a drink, did you go all the way down to the Arkansas River?” Charlie laughed.

“I walked down and checked on my horse, he don’t like being away from me for long at a time.”

“Charlie, you should see those two sometime, I’m telling you they’re a team. Tom can talk to that horse and he’ll listen just like he knows what Tom’s saying.”

“He does,” Tom smiled at them.

Tom and Cal were walking back to the south side of Dodge just before dark.

“Tom, have you ever seen a woman without clothes on?”

“Yep, why would you ask a question like that?”

“Well I haven’t and I’ll be eighteen in a few days. I just got to thinking too, here I am almost eighteen, done killed two men with a shotgun, wearing a badge as a lawman and walking the hard side of Dodge City, Kansas. I sure hope I live long enough to see a woman without her clothes on. Hell while I’m hoping, I hope I live long enough to marry some woman and have a house full of kids.”

“You will Cal and I’m gonna see that it happens. Stop all that worrying about things that’ll happen when the time comes. We got things going on that’ll need your full attention.”

They were standing next to a hitching rail in front of the tent that once housed the original saloon in Dodge. The sign had been painted over, but the paint was dried and cracked. Hoover’s could be made out under the paint. There was only an hour of daylight left and business was picking up on the south side. Tom nodded toward the tent and the two lawmen walked through the doorway where the tent flaps had been tied back to make a square opening.

They stood one to each side of the opening and looked over the crowd. There were coal oil lamps burning overhead and along the makeshift bar. Card games were going on at two tables. Cow hands were drinking warm beer or sipping whiskey. There was garbage and spit puddles all over the dirt floor.

Tom saw the shadow of a man slip out the back of the tent and he felt the hair on his neck bur up. He slipped out the front and down the side of the tent being careful of the tent stakes. There at the back standing in the dim light was an Indian. He was drinking from a bottle of whiskey and didn’t see Tom as he came up behind him. Tom eased the barrel of his .44 into the man’s ribs.

“Hold real still and you won’t die.”

The Indian lowered the bottle from his lips and turned real slow to look in the face of Tom Cooper. The near empty whiskey bottle slipped from his hands as he felt the hard barrel of the Colt between his ribs.

“I hear tell that you may be looking for me injun, is that true?” Tom asked as he pushed the barrel deeper between his ribs.

“I not know you, I am called ‘Breed’ and I come here only to get whiskey.”

“Walk out here with me Breed, if you try anything I’ll kill you and take your scalp,” Tom whispered.

Breed was scared. For the first time in his life he was scared of another man. Something in this man’s voice sent his skin crawling, the hair on his neck and his arms stood up. He felt cold and alone.

Tom made him walk back between the tents, he kept the Colt nudging him as he walked.

Cal stood looking back between the tents where Tom had gone, then he saw the two come out into the dim light of the few lamps on the street.

“What you got there Tom, is this the injun you were looking for?”

“Cal, get your gun on this snake while I check him for a knife, kill him if he even moves.”

When Tom had checked his legs and under arms for a knife, the three walked back across the tracks and up to the sheriff’s office. Charlie and Bat were there with their feet propped up on the desk when Tom and Cal brought the injun in the office.

“What you got there Tom, is this the injun you been looking for?” Charlie asked.

“I got a good reason to think it is Charlie, figured I better bring him up here to ask a few questions.”

“Put some irons on him Cal and let’s all just have a sit down talk with this injun,” Charlie said.

Cal cuffed his hands behind him and then took a pair of cuffs and latched him to the cell door.

“Breed is his name, so he says,” Tom said.

“Breed what you doing in these parts of Kansas?” Charlie asked.

Breed looked at the four men and didn’t speak.

“We can do this in a friendly sort of way, or we can do this in a way that won’t seem so friendly, the choice is yours,” Tom said, as he looked at Breed.

“I reckon you best tell the sheriff what he wants to know,” Tom added.

“I come here for whiskey,” he answered.

“Where are your friends Sam and Bo?” Bat asked.

This caught the half breed off guard and he looked from one to the other of the four lawmen.

“I don’t know the names.”

“Yes you do Breed and you better tell us now what you know, or you’ll be the one that hangs for the murder of that girl back south of Omaha,” Charlie said.

“He’s right Breed, Sam and Bo have already told us they paid you to kill Tom here and you killed that girl by mistake,” Bat said.

“Sam and Bo killed Tom Cooper, I only took them to his camp, I know nothing of a girl,” Breed blurted out.

“No one killed Tom Cooper, he’s standing here before you Breed,” Charlie said.

Breed looked at Tom, he knew when he felt the gun in his side back at that tent, that there was something about this man. How could a man have two knives in his chest and live.

“Did you see Sam and Bo stab Tom Cooper’s bedroll that morning?” Sheriff Charlie Bassett asked.

“I did, they pay me fifty dollars and I left.”

“Where are they now Breed?” Tom asked.

“They camp south of Dodge by the river, they come here tomorrow,” Breed said.

“Lock him up Cal, I’ve heard enough,” Charlie said.

“Tom I reckon your hunches were right about the ones that killed the girl, we’ll be waiting for them when they get here,” Charlie added.

“Thanks to all of you, I feel some better now but will never rest ‘til Sam and Bo are tended to,” Tom said.

The next day a little before noon, Bat, Tom and Cal were all leaning against a hitchin’ rail at the south end of Dodge when they saw a man ride up and slip from his horse. His right arm was stumped off at the elbow.

Tom slipped in between the horses and laid the barrel of his Colt under the man’s jawbone as he tied his horse to the rail with his one hand.

“Move and you’re a dead man,” Tom jerked the hand gun from Bo’s holster on the right side with the butt of the gun sticking out for a left hand draw.

“Where’s Sam, Bo?” Tom asked.

“Don’t know no Sam, what’s this all about?”

“You’re under arrest for the murder of a girl named Sally Mae, the girl you killed by mistake when you thought you were stabbing me in that bedroll.”

“I don’t know nothin about a girl or you either,” Bo denied what he heard.

Cal and Bat were beside Tom now.

“That’s not what Breed said, he’s waiting on you up at the jail now Bo,” Bat told him.

“Where’s Sam,” Tom asked again.

“I don’t know, he had to shit back there behind the first tents, I came on in to get a drink,” Bo spoke with his head down in defeat.

“It was all Sam’s plan to get back at you, he told me he was gonna kill me if I didn’t help him and Breed. I didn’t want to be there.”

Sam Wilson had walked down behind the tents to shit, he squatted all hunkered down with his gun belt hooked over the stump of his right arm. He looked up over the pile of rubble and garbage to see two lawmen walking around the tents. They were looking over the dumps of garbage with their hand guns drawn.

Sam fell forward, his breeches still down around his boots. He lay on the ground and pulled his breeches up, his gunbelt still hooked over the stump of his right wrist. He fell forward and the stump of his wrist pushed into the dirt, making a shallow hole.

Sam crawled through the garbage and rotting stench until he was hidden from the lawmen. He ran to his horse and pulled himself into the saddle with his left hand and rode south out of town at a slow trot.

Cal and Tom searched all through the piles of stinking garbage but didn’t see Sam.

“Tom look at this,” Cal said as he stood between two piles of trash.

Tom walked over and saw a fresh pile of shit and what looked like where someone had crawled from there over between two tents. He had a good notion of who it was. Bo had told them Sam had to shit. Looked like maybe Sam had dragged his foot through his own shit as he crawled away. Tom saw the shallow hole where something had been pushed into the dirt. The same as he had seen back where Sally Mae had been killed. Tom felt a cold chill, he knew now what it was. This was made with Sam’s stumped off wrist.

“I figure he’s gone, but we’ll still look in all the tents and shacks just in case,” Tom said.

When the judge came through and held trial, the jury of twelve men took only an hour to bring the verdict back on both men. After hearing the lawmen tell about the confessions of Bo and Breed and the story Tom told of the events and evidence at the murder scene, the two men pleaded for mercy of the court.

Bo was convicted of murder and was sentenced to ten years. Breed was convicted of abetting in the act of a murder and sentenced to four years. Both men were taken to the state penitentiary to serve their sentences.

Tom still didn’t feel that Sally Mae’s death had been avenged, he had one more man to settle up with before he could let it rest.

“Tom what do you and Cal have planned now that two of the men have faced the judge? Are y’all gonna ride on out or stay on a while?” Bat asked them a couple of days after the trial.