Chapter 13

"I'm gittin' tired of riddin' this train back and forth. I shore wish supmthin' would happen. An' the noise is really startin' to bother me!"

"I swear to goshen, Ezra, ya're gonna complain 'bout heaven cuz nothin' never happens! It wuz jus' three days ago that we had that there holdup. Wuzn't that enough happenin' this week to keep ya happy?"

"Well, shit, pardner, I jus' hate to sit around."

"I know ya do! Ya can't imagine how much I know ya do! At least, we ain't listenin' to political campaign speeches. Now there's sumpthin' to git tired of!"

"Shit fire! Lookit that! The trestle up there is on fire!" Ezra started to jump up, but the engineer picked that time to hit the brakes and Ezra pitched right over on his head.

"Ezra! Ezra! Ya OK? I swear to goshen, Ezra, talk to me!"

"Ohhh! I'm goin' to have a hell of a headache! I really cracked my noggin on that there seat back."

"Let's see what's goin' on. Kin ya walk OK?"

"Yeah, I'm OK. Let's go."

The two Rangers walked toward the front end of the passenger car. They stepped out on the platform and heard gunshots coming from the direction of the engine. Then they saw the riders racing up and down the length if the train, seemingly firing their pistols at random into the passenger cars. "Lookit those bastards! They don't care who they kill. This is a job fer our shotguns!" Ezra started running toward the baggage car and Sean was right behind him.

They got to the baggage car and banged on the door. "Hey Sam! Sam! It Ezra! Let us in! We need our shotguns!" The door opened and they knocked the conductor on his ass as they rushed for their shotguns. They grabbed their shotguns and spare ammunition and were back out the door before the conductor could move off the floor.

"Ezra, ya take that side an' I'll take thisun." They knelt on the platform and began shooting at the riders still racing up and down the length of the train. Their fire joined that fired from the passenger cars by most of the male and a few of the female passengers. Neither side was having much effect with their shooting until Sean and Ezra joined in. The shotguns were the ideal weapon for this kind of fight, as the US Army had found out during the recent war.

The shotguns began to take a toll of the riders and they quickly rode off. Two of the attackers were dead, but one was badly wounded, but not dead, yet. The two Rangers ran to him and asked him what was going on. "Fuck y'all, nigger lovers! I ain't tellin' y'all nothin'."

"Fuck ya, too! I ain't gonna he'p anybody what calls me names. Ya kin bleed to death fer all I care!" Sean forcefully announced, as he stood up and turned away. He winked at Ezra as he did so.

"After a moment, Ezra caught on and said, "Oh, come on, Sean. I can't he'p this feller all by myself."

"Nah, I ain't he'pin' any yahoo what calls ME a nigger lover. He kin go to hell without my he'p!"

"Ifen ya ain't a nigger lover, why wuz ya workin' fer this fuckin' railroad, what hires niggers when there's White men needin' a job?"

"I don't work fer the railroad. Y'all were shootin' at me so I shot back."

"Oh, hell, man. I'm sorry fer what I said to ya. I thought y'all was workin' fer the railroad when I called y'all nigger lovers. I take it back. Now, will ya he'p yer friend to look after my wounds. They hurt powerful bad."

"Sure, man, I'll do what I kin. But, why were y'all shootin' at us. We didn't do nothin' to ya."

"We wuz trying to ruin the railroad so some decent White folks kin take it over an' chase out the niggers. That's all. Oh... It do hurt sumpthin' fierce!"

"He's done passed out. I swear to goshen, he ain't gonna last more than a couple more hours at most, the way he's bleedin' inside."

"Yeah, I think ya're right. What'll we do?"

"Ya stay with 'im an' I'll go see what the conductor has to say 'bout things."

Sean walked toward the engine where the conductor was standing, talking to the engine crew. He said to Sean, "These here boys think that there fire was more show than anythin' else. They say that we kin git across ifen we don't try to go too fast, so we're goin' to the next station where I kin telegraph fer instructions."

"That's fine with me. He'p me git the dead and wounded on board the baggage car an' we'll be ready to go."

They crept across the trestle and then resumed normal speed as they made their way to the next station. The conductor sent a telegram to Austin asking for instructions. He was told that a crew would be sent out to repair the bridge and he should get his train back on schedule. The conductor humphed a little bit when he read the reply, but he did get the train running again and they managed to make up most of the lost time getting into Eagle Pass.

The wounded attacker was dead by the time they got to Eagle Pass, so the Rangers turned three corpses over to the marshal for disposal. They had already searched the bodies and had not found anything useful, except that the wounded man did have that crazy tattoo on his left hand. They sent a telegram to Ranger headquarters in Austin telling of the tattoo they had found.

Their next run took them back to Austin and they were called into Col. Jordan's office. They saluted and sat in the indicated chairs. Col Jordan said, "You men have done an exemplary job on this assignment, but you are too valuable to waste on simple guard duty. I'm pulling you off the train assignment and assigning you full time to finding the leaders of this bunch of crazies that call themselves The Brotherhood. Somebody else can guard the train."

Ezra said, "Yes, Sir, Colonel. Any idee where we should start?"

"Tomorrow morning at 8:00 o'clock, come to Maj. MacGregor's office. He'll have as much information as we have gathered for you men to use. Good luck. Dismissed."

Ezra and Sean saluted and marched out of the office. "Hell, Ezra, I swear to goshen, I don't know when we come to be detectives. I think the Colonel has put us on the spot."

"Yeah, I'm afeared ya're right!"

The next morning at 8:00 o'clock, they presented themselves to the majors secretary. Ezra said, "Col. Jordan said fer us to report to Maj. MacGregor 'bout a new assignment."

"Yes, the Major's expecting y'all. Jus' knock on the door and go in."

With some trepidation, that's what they did. They marched up to the Major's desk, snapped to attention, and saluted. Ezra said, "The Colonel said we wuz to report to ya this mornin', Major MacGregor."

"Yes, gentlemen. Please sit down. There's an organization y'all have met previously called 'The Brotherhood.' They're the ones with the burning cross tattoo. They're an extreme sect of the KKK that's out to bring the Confederate States back to life. They can't win, but they're too fanatical to admit that. They think that they can git what they want by causin' a whole lot of trouble. So far, all they've done is git a lot of good folks kilt. In my opinion, they're jus' plain crazy. Too far along to reason with. We've managed to kill off a lot of the lower level people, but the bigwigs have survived. Your job is to find and stop them any way you can."

"Is there any solid information ya kin give us, sir?"

"The only solid information we have is that tattoo they use fer identification. Y'all will need to use every trick ya kin think of to cotch them. We think their headquarters is in Austin so they kin be near the gov'ment, but we ain't sure. I'm sorry, men, but that's all we got. Y'all are really on yer own with this. I'll be as much he'p as I kin, but, mostly, it's up to y'all. The colonel has a lot of faith in y'all, and so do I. Give it yer best shot! Let me know ifen there's anythin' I kin do to he'p"

Sean asked, "Kin ya git the railroad to haul us an' our hosses out to the trestle? We might learn sumpthin' ifen we kin look around there. But we need to move quick. Any sign may already be gone."

"I'll write ya a note fer the railroad tellin' them to do whatever ya ask. Ifen they give y'all any trouble, jus' let me know! Keep the note, y'all may need to use it again, later."