Chapter 4

Jed ran to his friend, relieved to find Al still alive and pissed that he would have done something so stupid as to walk a patrol at night all alone. Jed shoved and kicked the fallen criminals out of the way so that he could get to his friend. Al had a broken arm, a broken leg, a broken nose, and several broken ribs. When the rescue squad of constables finally showed up, Jed sent one racing to Ranger headquarters to fetch a doctor and a wagon to use in transporting the injured man.

A few minutes later, the captain and a squad of Rangers showed up with the ambulance wagon. Capt. Jones asked Al, "What the hell happened ta ya? Ya look like ya took on a stampede an' lost."

"I ain't quite sure, Capt'n. The first thin' I knowed 'bout it was when six galoots jumped me from that alley. They wuz so anxious ta hurt me that they got in each other's way. They had me down and wuz beatin' on me with clubs and kickin' me. Suddenly, I heard pistol shots, an' they took off. Did ya cotch any?"

"Yep, yer friend Jed, here, got four of 'em, but the other two got away. One of 'em is gut-shot, an' he ain't gonna live. Jim's talkin' ta him right now, trying ta find out who hired 'em. Jim's pretty good, he might git some useful information afore the galoot dies. We called a priest fer him, but he ain't here yet. There's three others wounded, but I don't know how much we kin git from them. Depends on how scared they are of their boss. This may be related to the protection racket case y'all are workin' on. I hope so, cuz it could be the break we needed."

Jed said, "Captain, may I talk to the wounded man before the priest gets here? I may be able to obtain information that Jim misses."

"OK, but no torture. Ya saw that order what come down from Austin 'bout the way we gots ta treat prisoners."

"Oh, I won't need to torture him, at least not physically. He's probably a Catholic, so I have a pretty good idea of a way to scare him into talking if I can get to him before the priest gets here."

"Go ahead, an' I wish ya luck."

The priest still had not arrived, so Jed went over and tapped Jim on the shoulder. "Did you get anything?" Jim shook his head in the negative. "The Captain said that I could try something."

Jed kneeled down next to the wounded man. "You're a Catholic, aren't you? Well, you are going to Hell without the last rites unless you talk to me. I'm the one who shot you, and I will keep the priest away from you until you die and afterwards. That will insure that you go straight to Hell. What do you say to that?"

"No, no, senor, please don't condemn me that way. I beg of you. I can't talk or my family will be killed."

"I'll protect them if you tell me their names and how to find them. And I will let the priest in to take care of you if you tell me who hired you and your friends. If you don't do those two things, I guarantee that you will go straight to Hell!"

"Very well, senor, if you promise to protect my family, I will tell you everything I know." When Jed gave his promise, the dying man told Jed much more than Jed had expected to hear. He got the names of two petty bosses and the name of the top boss. The gang operated in Mexico, as well as in Texas, and was a major criminal organization on both sides of the border.

The priest finally showed up, and Jed waved him over. The criminal died just as the priest finished, so Jed figured that it was an even swap. Jed told the captain every thing that he had learned, and they made plans to protect the dead man's family starting right away.

Meanwhile, Al was in no danger of dying, but he was in considerable pain from all of the bruises and broken bones. The doctor set and splinted all of the broken bones that he could reach and reset Al's nose into an approximation of it original location. After binding up his ribs, the doctor dosed Al with enough laudanum to knock him out and left him to sleep as much as he could. Al was lying in one of the bunks in the Rangers' barracks, and he could expect a lot of razzing from the other Rangers, but they would also look after him and make sure that he had anything he needed. There was one thing for sure: Al would never again go alone into a dangerous situation if he had a choice in the matter.

Jed returned to the barracks to make sure that Al was taken care of, but, once it was clear that Al was going to sleep for some time, Jed left to start tracking the men who ordered the attack on Al. Jed decided to work his way up the chain of command, starting with the goon who had hired the men who made the actual hit. Jed didn't say anything to the captain for fear of being told to back off, but he intended to make every one of the guilty men suffer just as much as Al, if not more so.

He had the name of the first man he wanted to find, a certain Jose Alvarez. Alvarez was in charge of the few blocks where Al and Jed had been spending the majority of their time, lately, so Jed was not surprised that he would be directly involved. Alvarez had directly suffered in the pocket book as a result of Al and Jed's patrolling, so he could have been expected to react very strongly.

Jed had an address for Alvarez's home and office, the same address, so he was able to proceed directly there without much delay. Jed was not stupid, so he did take three other Rangers along on his trip to the first lion's den. The four men surrounded the small adobe house where Alvarez was holed up. Two of the Rangers covered the ends of the house, one went to the front door, and Jed covered the back door where they really expected Alvarez to bolt.

The Ranger banged on the front door and made a God-awful racket, demanding to see Alvarez, shouting that he was under arrest for attempted murder of a Ranger. This got Alvarez's attention pretty quickly, and he tried to run out the back door. Jed was there waiting for him as he ran out. Alvarez, of course, was carrying a gun, and this was all the excuse that Jed needed. He took very careful aim and shot Alvarez in both elbows and both knees, shattering all four joints. Even if Alvarez survived the wounds, he would never use those joints again. Probably, a surgeon would simply amputate all four limbs, since such serious wounds could not be properly treated at the time.

Alvarez was left lying in the street while a doctor was called, and Alvarez was then transferred to jail. Once the details were cleared up, the Rangers declared this to be a successful night's work and went to bed. All the other Rangers knew what had happened, so they covered for the four tired men the next day and let them sleep. When he woke up, Al was informed of the results of the first stage of the anti-gang operation.

Arturo Cruz was in charge of the Laredo operations for the gang, and was the next name on the list for Jed's attention. He did not have an address for Cruz, so some detective work was required. People were afraid to talk outright to Jed about the gang, but he asked his cantina and business contacts to put out the word that Jed was looking for Arturo Cruz. In this way, the word got around among the Mexican Americans who Jed was looking for. It took several weeks for the word to get back to Jed, and the first couple of leads were false alarms. Either Cruz had never been at the locations mentioned, or else he moved before Jed got there. However, Jed was patient, and eventually his patience paid off.

This time, Jed took 12 Rangers with him when he made this raid. Cruz was holed up in a house that was more like a fort than an ordinary dwelling. There was a four-foot high wall of stucco-covered adobe surrounding a two-storey adobe main building. There were three outbuildings inside the wall, all of adobe construction.