Chapter 8

Jed and Al got off the H&T freight train in Hadleyville and stopped off at the managers office to fill him in on that day's events. They also reminded him that he had to hire another guard to replace the one who was killed that morning. Once they were through talking to the manager, they ate supper and started making the rounds of the saloons looking for Jim Baker.

The bartender in the third saloon they visited said, "Yeah, Jim spent a lot of time in my place, but I ain't seen 'im lately. In fact, fer the past month, he ain't been around much, no more than two or three times in the last four weeks. I don't rightly know where ya kin find 'im, but I wish ya luck."

The bartender in the last saloon in town said approximately the same thing that the first two bartenders had said, "I ain't seen Jim Baker in a coon's age. That bastard owes me a bar tab, too. Ifen ya see 'im, tell 'im I said he wuz ta pay up."

"Well, it looks like we drew a blank here, Al. Do you have any suggestions?"

"I don't rightly know. It don't seem right that he ain't hangin' out in Hadleyville, since the attacks have all been near here. Do ya 'spose he's tryin' ta play us fer fools?"

"It could be. Let's ask around in Templeton when we get there the day after tomorrow."

Al and Jed rode the freight to Templeton on Wednesday and had no trouble with raiders. Could they have been scared away? They visited all of the saloons in Templeton before they returned to Hadleyville and did not get any farther in finding Jim Baker. The man had simply disappeared.

The H&T ran back and forth to and from Templeton for nearly three weeks before it was hit by another raid. Jed and Al were getting pretty damned tired of the boredom of riding the train back and forth over the same territory, so they were actually glad for the distraction of the first raid in over two weeks.

This raid was a little bit different. Instead of being hit at a water stop, the raiders had toppled a tree across the tracks and started shooting from fixed positions when the train came to a halt. As soon as the train stopped, another tree was dragged behind the caboose, effectively locking the train in position. Jed and Al were both in the caboose for this run; a regular guard had taken Al's place in the engine cab.

This time, the raiders were shooting from the tree line on either side of the track. They were hidden back among the trees and did not make the tempting targets that they had been when they were riding around on their horses. After about 15 minutes of shooting, Al remarked, "Hell, Jed, it looks ta me like we're stuck here ifen we don't do sumpthin' to break up this mess."

"Yeah, I agree. Maybe, we should try to carry the fight to the galoots in the trees. What do you think of us ducking out of the caboose and making for the trees on the north side of the tracks. It looks to me like there aren't as many men on that side. If we can clean out that side first, the south side might break and run."

"Looks good ta me. Ya wanna lead, or do ya want me to?"

"Let's go out together. You cut to the right of the platform and I'll go left. We can jump to the ground at the same time and run for that tree at the rear of the train. Once we're there, the tree leaves will hide us some, and we can run for the tree line from there."

"OK, ya kin tell the conductor what we're doin' soz he don't think that we're runnin' out on him."

Jed passed the word to the conductor and joined Al at the door. The door was a little narrow, so they couldn't both get out together, but they were close enough. They followed the rest of the plan and made it safely to the trees on the north side of the train. The raiders probably figured that they were running away, since they did not pay them any more attention once the two Rangers had reached the trees. They stopped to rest and catch their breath; running in cowboy boots is hard work!

They decided to stay together, since they didn't want to chance shooting each other. They headed toward the sound of the nearest gunfire and found two men hunkered down together behind a fallen tree. They had decided before they left the caboose that they would not fool around; they would simply kill any raiders they found, anything else would be too dangerous.

Al took the one on the left, and Jed took the one on the right. The lined up their aim carefully and Jed breathed, "Now!" The two rifles barked and two raiders died; a good marksman doesn't miss with a rifle at the range of 25 feet. There were single raiders at the next two positions, and the two Rangers each took one.

The guards and train crew were still shooting at the raiders in the trees, but they couldn't see anything, so they were just shooting at likely places for a man to be. This meant that the two Rangers had to be careful, or they could be hit by friendly fire without the shooter even knowing that it had happened. Jed and Al made their way down the line without getting hit by their own side, but a couple of times the bullets came too close for comfort.

By the time the Rangers had reached the end of the line on their side, they had eliminated nine raiders. Now it was time to cross over to the other tree line, and the question was how to do that without being shot at by both sides. It looked like the safest plan was to continue down the track a couple of hundred yards and cross over, then come back inside the tree line on the south side.

They had not gone far in their walk back to the train when they came upon a bunch of horses tied to trees. Al said, "Well, it looks like we found the galoots' hosses. Long as we stay between 'em and their hosses, they can't escape us. Let's see ifen we kin take some prisoners, this time."

"OK, but, in that case, we better switch to hand guns."

They drew their pistols and cautiously worked their way through the brush and the few scattered trees. The raiders were scattered far enough apart that they could not see what was happening to the man nearest them, so that Jed and Al were presented with few problems as they captured their opponents one at a time. Their biggest danger, again, was from the bullets flying in from their friends on the train. The guards and crew had concentrated their fire on the south side, since there was no more shooting coming from the north side of the train.

As a general rule, Jed and Al let a raider shoot his rifle and then captured him before he had a chance to reload. The result was, when caught with an empty weapon, the captured man's first reaction when hearing the quiet challenge from the Rangers was to piss in his pants. As it was, they only had to shoot one of the raiders rather than capturing him alive. They quickly ran out of handcuffs, so they were forced to use sleeves torn from the captive's shirt as binding material. They were able to insure that the captives would stay quiet without gags by threatening them with having to ride to jail through town without their pants; the potential embarrassment was enough to keep these very macho men quiet while their companions were being captured.

Jim Baker was one of those men captured in this phase of the fiasco, so that part of their plan was successful. He refused to talk when he was questioned about who he was working for; it was obvious that he was just an employee since he had nothing to gain from the way the attacks were being carried out. However, the threat of riding to jail without his pants turned his bravado into jelly, and he talked the proverbial blue streak. Baker claimed that he was working for the division manager of the TGRR. He had no idea what was the underlying reason for the attacks; all he knew was that his job was to drive the H&TRR into bankruptcy.

Silas Harrington was Baker's employer, and he seemed to have all of the money he needed to bankroll the operation to destroy the financial viability of the H&T. Harrington worked out of his office in Jubal, a town about 15 miles north of Hadleyville. Baker had moved to Jubal to be closer to his employer, that was why he was so rarely seen in Hadleyville lately.