Chapter 6

Jake and Sam pretended that they had no interest in, nor taken notice of, Caleb coming out of the saloon with the three other men. They continued to sit on the bench across the street from the saloon and smoke their cigars as the 4 men climbed into their saddles and rode out of town.

As soon as the 4 had cleared the line of stores along the western end of the street, Jake and Sam threw away their cigars and hurried to their horses. They mounted and also rode toward the western end of town. There was plenty of moonlight, so they could see well enough to track the other men, who didn't seem to be hiding their path, but there was also enough light that the two lawmen would be seen if they didn't take reasonable precautions.

The 6 riders progressed out of town at a gentle lope, with those behind taking care with their pursuit. Both had some experience with Indian fighting, so they knew how to be inconspicuous while they were following someone. The two lawmen were surprised that those in front did not make any effort to check for someone trailing them. It was as if they knew that they were the rulers of the Earth and they had no need to fear any one or any thing.

The three renegades were not that sloppy. One rode to either side of Caleb and one rode close behind him. Caleb would have been a dead man if he had tried to escape, and he knew it. Caleb knew that he was caught like an animal in a trap that he had no way to escape; he could only hope that his friends were aware of his situation and were preparing to help him.

They rode for about 45 minutes until they came to a trail leading to the south. The four took this trail which wound through a wetland which turned into a swamp; the mosquitoes started to become a nuisance, and the men spent a lot of time swatting mosquitoes that buzzed in for a snack. One of the men remarked, "Damn, the 'skeeters are a caution, tonight."

Sgt. Anderson said, "Ya better pay more 'tention to the trail an' less ta the 'skeeters ifen ya don't want ta wind up in quicksand."

"Yeah, Sarge, I know. I jus' hate 'skeeters."

"Don't we all, but we're comin' to a tricky place, so watch yerselves."

The two lawmen were close enough behind to hear Anderson's cautionary comment, so they, too, paid close attention to the trail. It was a good thing they did, because the trail was now running along a ridge between two very disagreeable looking pools of water covered with slime, and the slightest misstep would result in falling into one pool or the other.

Suddenly, everybody came to an abrupt halt as those 4 in front were challenged by a sentry. There was a short conversation which resulted in the 4 men being passed through the post. Sam muttered to Jake, "Shit! Now what do we do? There ain't no way ta git around that there sentry. How're we gonna handle this?"

"I don't know right off hand, but we gotta think of sumpthin'! They'll shore as hell plug Caleb ifen they finds out he's a federal marshal."

"How 'bout me walkin' up ta the sentry actin' drunk as a preacher? He's shore ta be curious 'bout how I got here. When I gits close enough, I'll stick my bowie knife in his throat."

"Shit, Sam, are ya shore ya kin do that?"

"Oh, yeah, I've pulled that trick many a time. It always works. I know I kin do it!"

"Well, OK, then. Good luck!"

Sam handed the reins to his horse to Jake, pulled out his shirt tail, and pushed his hat to one side. Softly singing, he staggered toward the sentry. The sentry spotted Sam and marveled at how someone so obviously drunk had managed to negotiate the trail without falling into the water. Sam got close, still singing, and waved to the sentry. The sentry said, "Who the hell are ya, an' what're ya doin' here?"

Sam squinted hard at the sentry and mumbled, "Do I know ya? Ya look a little bit familiar, but I can't call yer name."

The sentry cursed to himself and walked toward Sam. "How the hell did somebody drunk as ya are git so far into the swamp? Let me look at yer face."

The sentry reached up to tip Sam's hat back far enough to let the moonlight shine on it. This put him a little off balance, but it didn't make any difference to the sentry; he lived just long enough to realize that he had a large knife sticking through his windpipe and poking out the back of his neck. Sam caught the man as he fell, afraid that he might make a loud splash as he fell into the water.

Jake led the two horses up to the sentry post where he helped strip the sentry of his weapons and other valuables (waste not, want not). Sam recovered his knife and used it to cut a big gash in the dead man's belly so he wouldn't float. He cleaned and sheathed his knife, and they carefully lowered the corpse into the adjacent pool of what they hoped was quicksand.

Sam tucked his shirt tail back into his pants, adjusted his hat, and took hold of his horse. He commented, "I reckon that we better walk from here, don't ya?" Jake nodded, still in awe of his friend's recent actions, and the two approached the camp they could just barely see in the clearing past a few trees.

Most of the light in the camp was provided by the moon and a small fire which was keeping a coffee pot hot. They could see Caleb standing near a folding table and a man who was sitting on a camp stool. The man was saying, "Well, Mr. Jackson, ya certainly look capable of being who ya say ya are, but I have it on very good authority that ya're a federal marshal. Under those circumstances, there is no way I kin take a chance on ya. SGT. ANDERSON, EXECUTE THIS SPY!"

Anderson was holding Caleb's own pistol, so that was the one he pressed into Caleb's back and reached with his thumb to cock the hammer. Before he could do that, Caleb whipped around and smacked his elbow into the side of Anderson's neck, knocking Anderson to the ground. Caleb fell with him. As the two men were falling to the ground, Caleb was already scrambling to recover his pistol. He quickly got hold of it and rolled under the table.

As soon as the execution order was given, Jake and Sam pulled their pistols and started shooting at the men standing around the table with Lubbock and Caleb. Several men fell, wounded by the shots from the two lawmen. Lubbock also fell to the ground, but he was not injured, he was simply escaping the flying lead. Lubbock moved as fast as he could on hands and knees toward the safety of the trees at the edge of the camp.

As soon as Caleb heard the gunfire, he knew that his friends were there to help him. He lay as flat as he could on the ground and tried to get a shot at Lubbock. Lubbock has already reached the trees, so Caleb had only one chance to get off a shot. He snapped a shot at Lubbock and heard the man scream in pain. Caleb was not sure where he had hit Lubbock, all he knew was he had scored somewhere. However, the wound was not fatal, since Lubbock quickly disappeared among the trees.

Most of the men in Lubbock's band were obviously veterans because they ducked for cover as soon as the shooting started. There was little return fire as the three lawmen tried to break up any sign of resistance. Within 10 minutes, the three lawmen were the only ones left alive in camp. They met, and Caleb thanked the other two for the rescue.

They looked around the camp, hoping to find something useful, but here was nothing to be found. This camp appeared to be just a temporary meeting place and not where anybody stayed overnight, although there were signs that the site was used fairly often. Eventually, they used the old coffee in the pot to douse the fire and rode back to town.

They thought it was safe to spend the night in the rooms they had rented, figuring that it would take a day for the word to get around about the fiasco at the rebel camp. However, they weren't sure that they would be safe beyond this night, so they planned to hide out until they had eliminated Lubbock as a threat.

The next day, they returned home to restock their supplies and gather the items that they would need to set up a camp in the woods. They would be plagued by the mosquitoes at night, but, fortunately, neither malaria, yellow fever, nor any other such problem had yet reached this part of Texas. Caleb spent as much time as he could with Susan, and he was delighted to find that she was feeling better already. She was able to spend some time sitting up as long as she had something very soft to sit on, and she was healing both physically and mentally much faster than either he or her mother had expected.