Chapter 10

This was a damned cold winter, at least for those of us used to spending time in Texas. It didn't bother me as much as it did the rest of the family, but even I got tired of it real damned fast. I couldn't understand how it was that the prospectors could stay out in that kind of weather. Of course, not many of them did, and most of those that didn't, spent their time either in the saloons or in the brothels. Every night was like Saturday night, especially when they started to get bad cases of cabin fever!

We had a lot of fights to break up, both in the saloons and in the brothels. Jimmy and I made a new rule: neither one of us was going anywhere alone! These guys had gotten mean enough to put a knife or bullet in your back anytime you didn't keep an eye on them. One of the brothel owners admitted to me that a marshal working alone had never lasted through the winter.

After an especially nasty episode in a saloon when we tried to break up a gunfight among seven men, Sally and Jane insisted that we leave town as soon as the weather warmed up enough. Jimmy and I agreed—this life just was not a attractive as we had expected. We decided to head back to Texas as soon as the weather warmed up to 40° during the daytime.

Before it was over, Jimmy and I had wound up shooting a total of 11 men before they could shoot or knife us. I really didn't want to leave the mayor in the lurch, so I did tell him our decision to leave when spring came. He wasn't happy about it, but he could see our point of view. At least, he now had the notice to start hunting some other fool to take this god-awful job!

The mayor still hadn't found our replacements when spring came, but we left, even when he offered to raise my pay to $100 per month and Jimmy's to $85 per month. That was unheard of pay for the time, but we were tired of watching our backs every waking moment. Sally was pregnant by now, but that was even further incentive for us to move, as far as she was concerned.

We loaded up our two wagons and headed out on May 1^st, 1879. That way we got paid for a full month on the job, and the weather was warm enough for us to stand it, even if we didn't enjoy it. We all agreed that, for somebody who liked warm weather, Colorado was a nice place to visit, but we didn't want to live there!

We headed in the general direction of Amarillo just because of the good road leading in that direction. Our intention was not to stop until we got as far south as we could manage before we had to stop because of Sally's pregnancy. None of us had any real idea when that would be, but Sally had calculated her delivery date as the middle of October. That should give us plenty of time to find a place we liked that was warm enough, so we were in a good mood when we set out.

We managed to get almost to the Canadian River, north of Amarillo, before we ran into any serious trouble that was not travel related. We had not been pushing our travel, so it was nearly the middle of July when it happened. We were riding along, minding our own business as usual, when four men rode up to me and demanded to know where we were headed. I didn't like their attitude, but I kept my temper in check when I said, "Look here, we're just passing through on our way south of Amarillo. What's it to y'all?"

On of the men said, "We're runnin' inta trouble with sheep men, an' we don't want any more of that kind of scum in our county."

"Well, we ain't got any interest in sheep, so y'all don't need to worry about that."

One of the other men piped up with, "Hell, Joe, how do we know he's tellin' the truth? Let's just shoot 'em here an' not have ta worry 'bout it."

That was the last straw. I was not sitting still for anybody threatening my family, so I drew and started shooting. Jimmy was not far behind me, either. Those four men gained considerable weight from the amount of lead they consumed before they knew what hit them. Only one shot was fired in our direction, and that did not come close to hitting anyone.

Even Sally and Jane had drawn their Colts, but the awkward way they had to go about it made them relatively slow to be ready to shoot. They both had been after me to come up with a way that they could get to their guns more easily, and this little episode made it obvious that I needed to get my ass in gear to help them.

We checked these galoots out against the wanted posters we had, but none of them were represented in that select group, so we just took what we wanted from their bodies and left them beside the road. We did take their mounts, since we could sell them at the next town. That was my next mistake.

We had to travel nearly 12 miles before we came to a so-called town with a livery stable. I took the horses in to sell them while Jimmy stayed with the women. I was negotiating with the stable manager when he happened to look at the brand on the horses. "Mister, what the hell are ya doin' with Bar J hosses?"

I told him what happened, and the man refused to buy the horses from me. "Mister, I can't take them hosses. I'd be dead within 24 hours ifen Mr. Jessup found out that I'd bought hosses from a yahoo what had shot four of his riders. Fer ya own good, ya better git out of town as fast as ya kin move. I'll wait 'til tomorrow afore I tell him about ya, but that's the best I kin do fer ya."

Shit! It looked like we had been caught up in a range war purely by accident. None of us wanted anything to do with that sort of thing, so I took the four horses and led them back to the family. I explained what had happened and told the others that we had better get a move on. We could rest once we got out of town. We could find a place to make a defensive camp for the night.

We had just started pitching camp when trouble first showed itself. A rider came barreling up to us and demanded to see the four horses we had "stolen." That was enough for me. I pulled my gun and cocked it. I pointed the muzzle at the fool's head and ordered him out of camp before I really lost my temper. At least he was smart enough not to try to draw, since I already had the drop on him, and three other people were walking up with their own guns drawn.

As he rode away, he made one parting remark. "Y'all murderers will regret the day y'all were born when Mr. Jessup gits here with his men tomorrow mornin'."

That didn't frighten us as much as the galoot hoped that it would. We had picked a good place to camp. There was a ridge about 25 feet high behind us, and it had an overhanging lip that would keep us from being shot from that side. We arranged the wagons to act as breastworks and moved the animals with us between the wagons and the ridge. With four mules, we didn't even need to maintain a regular guard during the night. We could depend on the mules for the warning we might need.

We even had a water hole inside our camp, so we were as ready as we could be. We were confident that it would take cannon to do us any real harm if it did come to fighting. In fact, I called for a halt for a day to make damned sure that we were not caught in the open by attackers. All four of us were competent shots, both with a Winchester and a pistol, and we had plenty of ammunition, so we could afford to take a day of rest and see what transpired.