Chapter 7

Jed said, "I thing we've found the rustlers and the missing cattle. Let's take a careful ride along the stream and see if we can find some of the rustled cattle. I've got a list of the brands we're looking for, so identification will be no problem if we find some."

They rode upstream, carefully bypassing the potentially hostile camp, and found a few cattle not long afterwards. Tom said, "I see Flying W and Lazy S, both brands were hit by rustlers in the past few weeks. Do we need to keep looking?"

Jed said, "No need to look farther. Al, you are the older of the two of us, and you look more responsible. We need you to ride to Hell's Gate and find the sheriff of Butte County. Have him gather as big a posse as he can in a short time and bring them with you. When you get back, we'll try to arrest this bunch, but we all know there'll be a fight as soon as we do. Meanwhile, Tom and I will try to keep these galoots occupied if they try to leave before you get back. Ride as fast as you can, but be safe! Now, please go!"

"OK, fellers, I'll git back as quick as I kin." Al left, determined to return as soon as he could with a posse at his back. If he couldn't find the sheriff, he'd return with his own posse.

Jed said to Tom, "About all we can do for now is just keep an eye on the rustlers. Let's go back to their camp and see what we can learn while we wait for Al and the posse."

They returned to the camp and hid in the brush along the low ridge that Jed had found. There was coming and going of men, but they appeared to be taking their turn at watching the cattle. A few men lolled around the camp, sleeping or playing cards. At one point, there was an argument over the cards that might have resulted in gun play, but another man came over and calmed everything down. Over all, it was a pretty boring stake out that Jed and Tom were on; they couldn't be sure, but they really didn't expect Al until sometime late the next day.

Tom made a camp and cooked some supper before dark so that they would not show a campfire after dark. There was a steady breeze blowing away from the rustlers' camp which meant that there was little danger of their smoke being detected. They ate supper and took their coffee pot back with them as they resumed their watch over the outlaw camp. Again, it was boring almost beyond their ability to tolerate it, but the two men stayed with their task as they swapped off watching and sleeping during the night.

When daylight came, Tom fixed breakfast and more coffee for them to use during their watch over the camp. It was with great relief as Jed and Tom welcomed Al and his posse; the sheriff had never been found, so Al had raised his own troopers. Al had 25 men, counting himself in his posse, so they had plenty of men to surround the camp while leaving 7 men to ambush any herd guards who showed up.

Jed put everyone into position and shouted into the camp, "THIS IS THE TEXAS RANGERS! YOU MEN ARE UNDER ARREST FOR RUSTLING! SURRENDER NOW AND NOBODY WILL BE HURT!" Of course, all of the rustlers knew that they would be hanged for rustling if they were taken in, so there was no real likelihood that anyone would surrender.

Several of the men in the camp started shooting their pistols as soon as Jed finished speaking. None of the posse was hit in that first volley, and the posse returned the fire with a blast from their rifles. Several of the rustlers fell in that first exchange of fire: one was killed and four were wounded too seriously to continue fighting. From that point on, the gunfire was erratic as a man on either side shot when he thought he had a chance of hitting someone on the other side.

Somewhat desultory shooting went on for about half an hour with nobody on either side being hit. Neither side had much real protection from incoming bullets, but no man on either side was anxious to pick up a bullet wound as a result of his own carelessness. Therefore, both sides kept down so that they made difficult targets. Al said to Jed, "We ain't gittin' nowhere with this fight. It looks like I need to dig out my secret weapon."

"What's that?"

"I gots a few sticks of dynamite, an' I guarantee them rustlers ain't gonna sit still fer dynamite dropping in on their heads."

"Sure, go ahead. We sure as hell need something to break up this stand off. I'll warn our men. PAY ATTENTION, BOYS! WE HAVE A SECRET WEAPON THAT MAKES A HELL OF A LOT OF NOISE, SO BE READY!"

It only took Al a couple of minutes to get ready, then he lobbed a short stick of dynamite into the middle of the camp. BANG! The dynamite had a very short fuse and went off before it hit the ground. The explosion was deafening and several outlaws were injured when the dynamite went off. A few of the rustlers jumped to their feet in surprise, exposing themselves to the gunfire of the posse. Almost everyone of the standees was hit by one or more bullets before he could drop back to the ground.

Al lobbed another stick of dynamite at the camp with pretty much the same result. This time, the stick landed on the ground before it went off. BANG! This time there were screams of pain as three men lost limbs from the explosion. Blood flew here and there and served to unnerve many of the men in the camp.

Al lobbed a third stick of dynamite into the camp and killed a couple of men this time. This BANG was the end of the fight. The outlaws began to scream that they surrendered and begged them to stop throwing the dynamite at the camp. Al held off, and Jed called to the posse to stop shooting for now.

Jed shouted, "DO YOU SURRENDER? WE ARE RANGERS HERE TO ARREST YOU, NOT HANG YOU! IF YOU SURRENDER, YOU WILL NOT BE HARMED! IF YOU DON'T SURRENDER, WE WILL THROW MORE DYNAMITE AND NOT STOP UNTIL YOU ARE ALL DEAD OR WOUNDED!"

The threat of more dynamite was sufficient to tip the balance toward surrender. They gave up, though, in one case, it was only after one man was pounded by three of his companions. Jed and his friends wound up with 14 prisoners, the rest of the rustlers were dead. Several of the prisoners were badly wounded and needed to see a doctor as soon as possible. Some of the wounded would not live the two days it might take to get them to the nearest town. Five travois were built to carry the wounded, and they set off just after mid-afternoon.

They left the majority of the posse to bring in the cattle; four men rode with Al, Jed, and Tom to take the surviving rustlers to jail. The unwounded rustlers were forced to ride with their feet tied under the horses belly and not in the stirrups. Their hands were tied to the saddle horn. The wounded were dragged on their travois. There was nearly a full moon that night and no clouds, so Jed decided to travel through the night in hope of getting the wounded to a doctor before they all died.

They rode into Harvey just before noon and went directly to the jail. The marshal was in his office, so Jed was able to turn the prisoners over to him while they tried to save as many of the wounded as they could. Three of the five were saved, but an arm and a leg were lost in the process. Two days later, a wagon was found to transport the wounded to the nearest train station, and they all left for Laredo.

The jail at Laredo was extra large, because it was also used routinely by the Rangers, and the rustlers were all stashed there until the trial could be arranged. The trial was set for Laredo, and this was convenient for Jed and Al, since they would not have to travel away from home to testify in court. Furthermore, the circuit judge made his home in Laredo, so they were able to have a speedy trial. Because there were so many defendants, the trial was unusually long—it lasted four days. All of the rustlers were found guilty and hanged a week later.

Jed and Al were present for the trial, of course, but they missed the hanging because of a case that called them away from home. Train robberies were becoming fashionable, but there was a spate of attacks on trains that were more than just robberies. Usually it was freight trains that were attacked and everyone aboard the train was killed. That just did not fit with the modus operandi of the average bandit. For one thing, there was not enough of value on the trains to make them worth robbing. Something odd was going on, and it was up to Jed and Al to figure out what it was.