Chapter 2

By the time they reached Lincoln, Hank and Bill had become good friends. Things were still kind of unsettled in Lincoln County, even though the war was over. The Army had clamped a lid on the town and county, so life was quiet for a change. Billy the Kid and his bunch had left town, so there was nobody for Murphy and Dolan to fight, since John Chisum didn't want to get directly involved. There was still a reward out for some of the Regulators, but Hank wasn't sure that the reward would be paid, so he wasn't about to go up against Billy the Kid's bunch on such a chancy prospect. Hank learned long ago that you couldn't trust the Army when it came to paying rewards.

The reason Hank was in Lincoln was to see if Chisum was still offering a reward for the capture of the rustlers he was pestered with. He did, but Hank backed off when he found out that the reward was for Billy the Kid; no point in borrowing trouble!

Bill Jones asked Chisum about a job punching cattle, but he saw, after a few minutes of talking with Chisum, that their two tempers were not going to mesh; Bill figured that he wouldn't last a week.

Bill and Hank left Chisum's ranch with no prospects, so, naturally, we headed for the nearest saloon. Since Hank had the biggest poke, he paid for the beers. Damn, the price of beer had gone up! Hank hated to pay 5 cents for a mug of beer, but what's a body going to do when the price of a necessity goes up? If it ever went to a dime, Hank sure as hell was going to try to quit drinking it!

Bill and Hank talked about their employment prospects and Bill asked, "Hank, what does it take ta be a bounty hunter? Could I be one?"

"Well, I 'spose ya could, but are ya willin' ta put up with the aggravation an' uncertainty of the job? Ya seem like a quiet an' steady fellow what could make a go of the job, but ya do have ta control yer temper."

"Hank, would ya sort of let me apprentice with ya to see ifen I could handle it? It shouldn't take long fer me to know ifen I kin cut the mustard as a bounty hunter."

"OK, Bill, but ya have ta do everythin' I tells ya, cuz, ifen ya don't, ya could git us both kilt."

"I'll do what ya say, boss. Jus' tell me what ya want me ta do."

Hank stuck out his hand and said, "OK, apprentice, put 'er there!" They shook hands and that was it; Hank now had an apprentice bounty hunter dogging his coattails. They spent the time it took to drink a couple of beers talking about the bounty hunter's trade and how to find prospects.

They left for Socorro County, since it had been a while since Hank had visited there. On the way, they stopped at every saloon they could find to ask for suggestions on where to look for bounty hunter-type employment. They rode into Black Hat and found their first prospect.

The local stage line was being troubled by bandits, and the sheriff wasn't able to offer any help. The owner/manager offered $50 for every bandit they killed. Hank thought that was reasonable, and Bill's eyes got as big as saucers at the prospect of that much "easy" money. He gave the two men a sketch map of the most likely places to find the bandits. Hank didn't make any promises, but did say that they would do what they could.

When they got out of the manager's office Hank looked Bill in the eye and said, "This job looks like easy money ta ya, don't it?" Bill nodded. "Well, let me tell ya, it ain't. We don't know how many bandits we might have to fight. We don't know where to find them. We don't know if there's more 'n one gang. And that's just fer starters! So don't git yer hopes too high on this one; we might draw a blank an' not make a penny on it."

"I guess ya're right, but I couldn't he'p thinkin' that, with a couple dozen of those, I could retire ta Mexico."

"That would be OK, jus' so long as ya didn't see that "couple of dozen" all at once!"

Hank studied the sketch map and found that they could cover two of the most likely holdup sites in one day, if they took a lunch. However, this would involve some cross country travel not suitable for the buckboard, so Hank would have to forgo some of his comfort in the name of expediency. Ah, well, some sacrifice was reputed to be good for the soul.

They made the necessary arrangements and were up and away in plenty of time to make the first site before the stage arrived. Hank refused to ride a horse, instead, he was mounted on his beloved and trusted mule, Ada. He knew that he could depend on her not to do something stupid at the worst possible moment, something he always expected to happen with a horse.

They were at the first site in plenty of time to look it over and to find a good location to watch for the coach to come by. The stage passed without incident, so the two men hurried to their second projected trouble spot. Again, they had plenty of time to look the site over and pick a good spot to wait for the stage. They ate lunch and relaxed with a cigar while they waited.

This was a more productive site. They had just caught a glimpse of the dust cloud raised by the stage when three men showed up and dragged a tree limb across the road. Hank had a moment of debate with himself about whether or not to wait for the bandits to attack the stage before attacking them. He decided not to wait.

Hank had watched Bill shoot his rifle prior to accepting him as an apprentice, so knew that he was a better than average shot. Bill was directed to take out the bandit on the left while Hank shot the bandit on the right. Then, whoever first dropped his man would start shooting at the middle man. Both could shoot at the middle man, if necessary, but only after his first target was eliminated. Hank would shoot first, and that would be the signal for Bill to shoot.

Bill and Hank took their positions and Hank fired when he thought the time was right. Bill's shot was nearly simultaneous. The far right and the far left bandits fell and they both turned on the middle man. Again, the two shots sounded almost as one, and the middle man dropped. Hamk ordered, "Let's go!" Hank and Bill collected their mounts and went to the ambush site.

They arrived just as the stage came into sight and had the tree limb pulled out of the way by the time the stage arrived. They waved as the stage roared by and received acknowledgment from the driver and the guard. Hank pointed out to Bill the necessity of having reliable witnesses to their activity, in case the manager of the stage line was reluctant to pay.

They gathered up the bandits' horses and tied the bodies on for the trip back to Black Hat. As insurance against a silly blunder, Hank checked each of the bandits to be sure there was no wanted poster out for any of them. No such luck! Oh, well, they would just settle for the $150 they would get from the stage line.

Surprise! The stage line manager was overjoyed to shell out the reward for the bodies, but Hank and Bill had to pay for the funeral expenses. To hell with that! They took the bodies out of town and stripped them of anything they could sell before dumping them in a convenient arroyo. Hank and Bill managed to pocket nearly $42 each by the time they sold everything. Bill was thrilled with the $117 he earned from that day's work.

That evening, after supper, Hank and Bill visited the two saloons in Black Hat to find out if there were other possible jobs before they moved on. There was a range war going on over water rights in the next town over, and both sides were hiring guns. Hank vetoed that; bounty hunters get paid more than soldiers.

They left Black Hat the next day and stopped whenever they came to a saloon. The towns were getting farther apart, and the beer was getting worse, so they decided to head north. The weather was still warm enough to be uncomfortable in the middle of the day, so they were looking for cooler weather in the higher elevations.

They had crossed into Valencia County and had noticed a slight drop in mid-day temperatures. Hank had often been tempted to alternate between northern and southern NMT, depending upon the season, but had never settled into that routine. They rode into One Horse without any particular expectations, and headed for the saloon (it truly was a one horse town). They were surprised to hear some loud talking in the back of the saloon at one of the poker tables.

Two men were standing, glaring at each other. The rest of the poker players had bailed out, leaving a real hard case galoot staring down an uncertain looking cowboy. The hard case had his hand on his gun, but had not drawn it, yet. The cowboy looked like he wanted to go for his gun, but was not stupid enough to try to draw against a man with his hand already on his gun.

Hank looked real hard at the hard case and said to Bill, "That's the Arkansas Kid. He's worth $300. Follow my lead." Hank pulled his sawed off shotgun from his belt, but didn't make a big show of it. He signaled Bill to walk to the other side of The Kid and Hank said in a quiet voice, "Ya pull that there gun an' my shotgun will blow ya into next week! Ya're the Arkansas Kid an' my pal an' I are takin' ya in fer the reward." In a louder voice, Hank said, "THE REST OF Y'ALL STAY OUT OF THIS! ME AN' MY FRIEND WILL HANDLE IT!"

Hank turned to the cowboy at the opposite side of the table and said, "What wuz the disagreement between y'all?"

The cowboy growled, now that he was no longer in danger, "That there bastard wuz cheatin'! He took me fer two month's wages, an' I wants my money back."

Hank looked at some of the other poker players and said, "Wuz this galoot cheatin'?" There were several affirmative nods, so Hank said to the cowboy, "OK, take back what ya lost, but no more. The rest of y'all do the same." The players took back their money, and a few dollars were left on the table. Hank dropped it into his pocket and grinned, "That's the fine fer cheatin'!"