Chapter 20

"Good mornin', men. Please be seated. I've called y'all into my office to discuss a new assignment for ya up near El Paso. I trust that neither of you have ever been up there?"

Ezra answered for the both of them, "No, Sir, Maj. MacGregor. Sean nor I ain't never been to El Paso."

"That's good. That way y'all will see the place with fresh eyes. There's a problem with Comanches movin' in an' trying to drive out the Anglos an' Mexicans what have settled in southeast of El Paso. The Rangers an' the Army have been tryin' to drive 'em back to the reservation, but they have proved a tough nut to crack. Ever since that Custer fiasco, the Indians have been a lot bolder, an' the Comanches want all their land back, not just their reservation.

"The Comanches have only moved in war parties, so far. No women or children have been seen with 'em an' that's what makes it so hard to pin 'em down fer a fight. They run as soon as our people git too close with a big enough unit to defeat the Indians. I'm hopin' y'all kin come up with a way to send 'em back where they belong without too many people gittin' kilt.

"Cotch the next train to El Paso and check in at the post. I'll leave it to y'all to do what ya kin without givin' a lot of instructions. Y'all seem to work best that way."

"Yes, Sir, Major. We'll git right on it."

Sean and Ezra were on the next train for El Paso, and Ezra was doing his usual grousing, "I don't know what the Major 'spects us to do ifen the Rangers an' the Army can't do nothin'. They know the country better'n we do, so they ought to have a better chance of cotchin' them Comanches."

"Maybe, the Major thinks that they are too close to the problem. They may be lookin' in all the obvious places, but the Comanches are smart enough to hide in the not so obvious paces. We needs to go in with an open mind an' jus' see what there is to see."

"Maybe ya're right, but... Say! Don't that look like the Tucson Kid about six rows up that way."

"I swear to Goshen, he shore do! Maybe we ought to look into it to be shore. Ya go check an' I'll cover ya from here." Ezra go up and Sean drew his gun and held it in his lap.

Ezra had hardly gotten to talk to the man when he shouted, "LEAVE ME ALONE, YOU DAMNED RANGER!" and tried to draw his gun. His gun was half out of its holster when there was the crash of a gunshot ringing through the passenger car. Sean had shot the man before he could shoot Ezra.

Several guns were draw by various passengers and Ezra held up his hands and shouted, "IT'S OK, FOLKS! WE'RE TEXAS RANGERS AN' THIS HERE IS, OR WAS, THE TUCSON KID. HE'S WANTED IN TEXAS AND NEW MEXICO TERRITORY FOR BANK ROBBERY AN' MURDER! CALM DOWN AN' LET US TAKE CARE OF IT!"

"I'll go find the conductor, Ezra. You stay with the body."

"OK, an' thanks fer pluggin' this here yahoo afore he could plug me."

Sean got all the way to the baggage car before he found the conductor. "Who're ya?"

"I'm Texas Ranger Sean Murphy. We have a dead criminal in the passenger car back there. My pardner an' I want to keep his body in the baggage car 'til we gets to El Paso. That OK with ya?"

"Yeah, I guess so. I ain't happy 'bout it, but I don't know anythin' better. Go git yer man an' I'll take 'im in."

Sean went back to Ezra and the two brought The Tucson Kid to the baggage car. Word of their accomplishment had spread throughout the train, so they were applauded as they walked back to their seats. They couldn't help nodding, smiling, and waving as they went by.

They finally arrived in El Paso and went to the Ranger post to check in and fill out the damned paper work on The Tucson Kid. They got in to see Capt. Mathison before he left his office for supper. The Captain wasn't all that pleased to see them, since they represented an implied criticism of his performance, but he really had no more choice than they did. After a few minutes of conversation, they all agreed to grin and bear it.

Sean and Ezra spent the night in the barracks and checked out horses after breakfast. They rode out along the river south of El Paso. The had no particular goal in mind, they just wanted to see what the territory looked like.

"I swear to Goshen, Ezra, some of this territory looks promisin' but a lot of it, I'd just as soon give back to the Comanches!"

"Yeah, I agree. It ain't near as nice as around Laredo"

They rode along for a while without anything standing out as interesting. They were just about to take a lunch break when they heard some shooting in the distance. "Come on, Sean. We'd better check that out."

The raced toward the source of the sound of gunfire and pulled out their shotguns as they got closer. "Shit! I never expected to see that, again!"

"Me, neither, Ezra." They had come upon a group of about 10 to 12 Indians riding in a circle around three wagons "circled" in defense. Six Army dragoons were sheltered behind the wagons and shooting at the Indians. At this point, all of the easy targets among the soldiers had already been hit and the Army was not having any luck against the Indians because they were riding past too fast.

Sean and Ezra looked at each other and nodded. They raised their shotguns and charged the Indians. Firing fast, but taking time to pick targets, the two Rangers mowed down Indians right and left. The soldiers stopped shooting for fear of hitting the Rangers, so Sean and Ezra were the only ones shooting at the Indians. The shotguns took a fearful toll and the surviving Indians rode off as fast as their tired horses could carry them.

Ezra shouted, "WE'LL BE BACK!" as the two rangers rode after the fleeing Indians. With much fresher horses, the Rangers gained on the Indians. The Indians realized that the Rangers weren't going to give up and their horses couldn't run much longer, so they had to make a stand pretty soon.

They came to a stand of trees by a creek (a Texas river) and jumped off their horses. In their excitement, the Indians started shooting too soon and gave warning to the Rangers before they got into effective range. Ezra commented, "Those bozos must be young braves on their first raid; otherwise, they wouldn't of shot at us so soon. You swing to the left and I'll go to the right. That'll give 'um sumpthin' to think about."

Sean said, "Looks and sounds to me like they're usin' Spencers, so I 'spect their effective range can't be more than what we can do with our shotguns. I'll meet ya at the middle of their skirmish line."

The Indians had stopped on the wrong side of the creek, so it wasn't necessary for the Rangers to get wet. The Indians were nonplussed to see the Rangers split up and not charge at their center. At this point, the Indians should have bunched up so that they could concentrate their fire, but the inexperienced braves didn't do that.

The Rangers dismounted and began dodging from tree to tree as they worked their way toward the Indians. Ezra was the first to get close enough for a shot. He got into position leaning against a tree and threw his sombrero to his right. This caught the brave's attention and he leaned out of cover to see what was going on. Ezra fired as soon as the Indian showed himself and then levered of another shot before the Indian could pull back. The first shot wounded the brave and the second shot killed him.

The noise of the shots caused the other two Indians to look in that direction and Sean used the opportunity to run right up to the nearest brave and shoot him before he even knew of his danger. The remaining brave panicked and ran for his horse. Both the Rangers shot him; he never stood a chance.

After making sure the Indians were dead and releasing their horses, the Rangers rode back to the original site of the attack. The dragoons were just starting lunch and invited the Rangers to join them. Ezra asked how they had come to be jumped.

A sergeant answered, "They hit us not long before you showed up. Lucky for us, we had just pulled the wagons into position when the bastards started shooting. A couple of us were wounded, but they were a bunch of amateurs that didn't know how to press home an advantage. You boys shore did a good job with yer shotguns; they're a hell of a lot better for this kind of fight than our rifles. Did y'all git them last three?"