Chapter 2

Jed and Al headed out on Jed's first assignment as a Ranger. They were traveling to Jaybird to pick up some prisoners and return them to Laredo for trial. There were six men who were charged with various crimes from murder to bank robbery. Al insisted that this was a very easy assignment that was practically a setup for Jed. Most new men got an easy assignment for their first one, and this was the one for Jed.

They showed up in Jaybird in the evening, so they spent the night in the local hotel and went by the jail to collect the prisoners. When they got there, they knew that there had been some sort of trouble. They went into the jail and found the marshal lying across his desk in a pool of blood. Both cell doors were open and there were no prisoners in sight.

Al said, "Look at that pool of blood. The marshal has been dead for at least six hours. It had ta be one or more men who broke in and killed the marshal afore they released the prisoners. There had to be a slew of horses, so we should have an easy time trailing them until they split up. Ya go get our hosses from the livery stable while I look for the tracks."

Jed left at a run to get the horses while Al started his search. Jed was back within 20 minutes and Al was patiently waiting in front of the jail. "The whole passel of 'em took off, headed north. It's my guess that we have got a long chase, so lets get some supplies afore we start trailin' 'em."

Al picked up a pack mule trained to follow without a lead line while Jed went to the general store for the supplies. Jed made sure to get some bread and cheese to use for lunch so they could keep moving during the normal noon break. It was pretty late, almost 8:00 AM, before they were finally ready to leave, but they started out at a brisk lope. They were careful not to go so fast that the mule could not keep up.

They had gone only six miles before the first rider broke away from the group. Al said that they would ignore that person for now and stay with the main body. They went another two miles and two riders left the group. Al said that there were still five men in the main group, so it must have been two men who staged the jailbreak. There had been three bank robbers in the original set of prisoners, so adding these two men must make up a gang of five bank robbers who would stick together; five was a common number of men in a gang of bank robbers.

Since this was the easiest bunch to chase and must have the marshal's murderers in it, they would stick with these men in hope of running them down. They were still easy to follow, so Al intended to stay with the chase as long as there was enough light. When it finally got too dark to follow the trail, Al and Jed would just have to camp out until there was enough light the next morning. Once they had these men captured, they would see what they could do about catching the other three escapees.

They were up and ready to travel by the time there was enough light to see the trail left by the escapees. Al was a little surprised that the trail did not run straight, but wound back and forth, as if they were trying to confuse anyone trailing them. He snorted in disgust, since this weaving about did nothing to confuse him, it just tired out the escapees' horses. His comment was, "They gots to be a bunch of amateurs!"

It was late in the afternoon when Al and Jed got their first big break. One of the horses appeared to have gone lame. Shortly thereafter, another of the horses appeared to be heavily loaded, as if two men were riding one horse. This had to slow down the escape. The question, now, was whether or not to push on to try to force the men into some serious mistake before dark, or to wait until the next day before pressing them too hard.

Al thought that they should stay on the trail and get as close as possible. You could never tell for sure what was going to happen, so it was better not to give your quarry much wiggle room. The men had to keep swapping off the horse carrying double to keep from breaking down two horses. This would surely be a fatal mistake, one to be avoided at all costs.

Just as it was getting too dark to follow the trail, they caught a glimpse of the escapees about a mile away. They were really struggling to make any headway, and looked like they would have to stop pretty damned soon; their horses were about to give out, for they were carrying provisions as well as men. Just as it got too dark to travel safely, the fleeing men stopped and set up camp, so Al and Jed did the same.

But there was a difference in the camps! The escapees were exhausted from a hard ride from being in poor physical condition from spending time in jail cells. They plopped on the ground and barely were able to get a fire built to make coffee, much less a hot meal. On the other hand, Al and Jed moved efficiently and purposefully to fix a light, but filling, supper with the usual coffee. These two were in excellent condition and were only a little tired from the same amount of riding.

Al and Jed ate their supper and lay down for a short nap. They both slept a couple of hours and then got back up. They were going to make as much mischief as they could with the escapees camp while the men were sleeping. They all were so tired that they were not able to post an effective guard, so the two lawmen were able to creep right up to the edge of camp without being observed. They looked the enemy camp over and retreated for a council of war.

Al said, "Do ya think that we kin steal their horses without wakin' 'em up? Ifen we can, we got 'em dead ta rights."

"Yeah, I think so. There's five hobbled hosses. All we gots ta do is cut the hobbles and lead the hosses away from the camp. The hosses is all wearing halters, so we got somethin' ta pull on ta make 'em move. It looks easy ta me."

"OK, let's get the hosses out of camp soz we don't have any distractions. Then we should be able ta move in and arrest 'em."

The plan was a success and they managed to make off with all five horses, which they hid in a grove of trees about 150 yards from the outlaws' camp. When the Rangers got back, the fugitives were still asleep, and were easily captured. Al ordered them, one at a time, to back up to Jed so that he could tie their hands behind their backs. Once this was done, they searched the outlaws and found a couple of derringers secreted as hide-out guns.

The men were tied to the horses in the usual fashion and taken to the jail in nearby Jimsburg. As soon as they were locked up, Al sent a telegram to the Ranger captain in Laredo explaining what they had done so far, and their plans for going after the other fugitives.

Al and Jed rode back to where the two men had rode away from the group and tried to trail them as they had done the main bunch of escapees. Al was a remarkably adept tracker, and they were able to follow the two escapees for some miles. Unfortunately, the trail merged into a road leading between two populous towns, which made it impossible to track the men because of the plethora of hoof marks on the road. They couldn't be sure which way the men went, so the Rangers decided to split up, Al going east and Jed going west.

Jed reached the town of Fairfax just after noon, so he went to the hotel restaurant for lunch. After eating, he wandered around town, hoping to get a lead on the men he was chasing. His stock question was, "I'm a Ranger an' I'm lookin' fer two escaped murderers. Have ya noticed any strangers in town in the last few days?" The stock answer was a resounding "No" until he came to the second saloon he tried.

The bartender once had a problem which the Rangers had solved for him, so he was inclined to be as helpful as he could. He had noticed one man who fit the description of a man Jed sought, but he had been gone for two days. The man had said that he was headed for Eagle Ridge, so it was possible that Jed could find him there. Jed thanked the bartender for the information and headed out of town immediately for Eagle Ridge.