CHAPTER V

WE MEET DOUBTFUL CHARACTERS

One day, on stopping at a store to buy some feed, just before reaching the crossing of a timbered creek, we noticed two saddled horses hitched to the fence and on entering the store found two well-armed, rough-looking fellows lounging about, one of whom seemed to be half tipsy. The store was also a post-office and presided over by a very old man.

While Tom and the storekeeper retired to a back room to measure out some grain, the two ruffians began to manifest considerable interest in our affairs, asking many questions, to all of which Jack and I, who had left the team standing in the road and walked up to the store, gave rather curt answers.

Apparently not satisfied with our replies, the drunken fellow staggered out toward our team, remarking to his more sober companion:

"Joe, let's take a look at their outfit."

We paid little apparent attention to them but quietly watched every movement they made, for we began to suspect that these were some of the robbers we had heard of.

Each of the men carried a pair of revolvers hung to his belt. The most drunken one was a large, swearing, swaggering ruffian who was addressed by the other as "Cap." The one named "Joe" was smaller and apparently more sober and wore an old cavalry jacket.

As they walked around the team we heard an ominous growl from our dog, Found. The big fellow stepped back and laid a hand on the butt of one of his pistols, and Jack quickly grasped the handle of his own weapon and took a step or two in the direction of the drunken ruffian, keeping his eyes on the fellow's pistol hand. "Cap" saw the movement and turned toward Jack, still with his hand on his pistol, and remarked with an oath:

"Mister, ef that dog tries to bite me he dies."

"Then there'll be two dogs die," returned Jack quietly, looking the fellow in the eye.

I kept a close watch of the motions of Joe, but he made no threatening gestures and seemed waiting to see what his leader would do.

"What do you mean, sir?" demanded the drunken blusterer of Jack.

"I mean," replied the Irishman quietly, "that if you keep away from that team and attend to your own business the dog'll not hurt you; but you draw a gun to shoot him, an'--well, you heard my remark."

Instead of resenting Jack's ultimatum, the big fellow turned to his henchman and said:

"Joe, these men don't appear to have heard of me. Tell 'em who I am," and then disappeared into the store.

Joe stepped up to Jack and said in a confidential way:

"Pardner, you've made a big mistake to talk so insulting to that man, an' I'm afraid you'll have trouble about it. That's Captain Tucker, one o' the worst men in Kansas. I reckon he's killed more men than I've got fingers an' toes. Best thing you can do now, is to foller him into the store an' call for the drinks, apologize, like a man, an' make it all up with him, fur he's turrible when he's riled, specially when he's drinkin'."

"Is that so?" exclaimed Jack. "Why, he's a bad one, ain't he? I'm right glad to know him."

"More'n that," added Joe, "he's captain of our company, an' we're the toughest lot that ever struck this country."

"Where's your company, and how many of you is they?" asked Jack.

"Oh, they's a whole lot of us, an' we're camped down on the crick a couple o' miles from here," was Joe's evasive reply.

I began to get uneasy. What if Jack's rashness should bring this gang of desperadoes down on us? Jack was game and would not back down from the stand he had taken. I knew that Tom--who was still in the store getting his sack of grain and knew nothing of the trouble we were about to get into--was game, too, and would stand by the Irish-man; and if it came to a fight I could at least handle cartridges for them. But what could three of us do against a gang of unknown numbers of these lawless men?

"Jack, haven't you been a little too brash? You may get us into a scrape if he brings up his men."

"Ef there's none of 'em more dangerous than their captain there's nothin' to fear. I've studied such fellows all my life, an' I never made a mistake in one of his sort. He's just such another blowhard as that 'bad man from Texas' that I swatted in Leavenworth. An' on the principle of 'like master, like man,' you'll be apt to find that this big company of desperadoes, if we ever meet 'em, will dwindle down to six or eight windy ruffians like their captain. I believe the three of us could whip twenty of 'em. Such fellers don't fight unless they can get the drop, an' we'll see that they don't do that."

Just as we reached the store door I turned to see what had become of Joe, and noticed him still standing where we had left him--as near the mules as Found would let him come--intently engaged in writing or drawing something with a pencil on a piece of paper. The paper he held in his hand looked like a yellow envelope, and, nudging Jack, I pointed to him.

Joe seemed to be deeply interested in his work, looking first at the mules and then at his yellow envelope as he marked on it, and did not notice us. I was still wondering what he could be doing when the Irishman's quick wit comprehended the situation, and he whispered:

"He's copyin' the brands on our mules. We'll hear more of this by an' by."

"How?" I asked.

"He'll send somebody to claim 'em, on a lost-strayed-or-stolen plea, an' the claimer will prove ownership by showing the exact brands marked on paper before he has been near the mules. I've known that trick played before."

As we entered the store the old storekeeper and Tom came out of the grain room--Tom with a sack of corn on his shoulder, making mysterious winks at us as he moved toward the door, indicating that he desired us to go back to the wagon.

The store man cast an inquiring glance at the decanter and then at Captain Tucker. The latter nodded his head and said:

"Chalk it down."

On the way to the wagon we met Joe, who had probably completed draughting our mules' brands to his satisfaction.

We told Tom of all that had occurred, and I rather expected that he would reprimand Jack for acting so rashly, but to my surprise he approved of the Irishman's doings.

"Perfectly right, perfectly right," said Tom. "It won't do to give back to such fellows a particle. If we've got to have a brush with them, right now an' here's as good a time an' place as any. We must bluff 'em off right at the start or fight. But we mus'n't forget the old sayin', 'Never despise your enemy'; he may turn out a better fighter than you give him credit for bein'. We must watch every move they make an' be prepared to bluff 'em off at every trick they try. Jack was right in suspecting that that fellow with the cavalry jacket was copying the brands on our mules. They'll be after trying to prove 'em away from us, ef they can't bluff us."

"Did you find out anything about them from the storekeeper?" I asked anxiously. "You were in that back room so long I thought you must be pumping him."

"Yes, I wasn't idle," replied Tom, "an' I found out a whole lot. At first the old man was afraid to talk, for he's scared of these fellers, but when I promised him that we would not get him into trouble he let out an' told me all he knows about 'em.

"This is the gang we heard about at Burlingame and again at A-Hundred-an'-Ten-Mile Creek," continued Tom. "They came to this neighborhood about a week ago an' have been robbin' and plunderin', an' everybody's afraid of 'em. The old storekeeper says that there are so few able-bodied men left here--most all of 'em having gone off to the war--that the few citizens left can't well make any organized opposition to 'em. This lot is an offshoot from Cleveland's gang of jayhawkers that we heard about at Leavenworth. It seems, the old fellow says, that this Captain Tucker was a lieutenant under Cleveland, an' they couldn't agree--each one wanted to be boss--so Tucker with a few followers split off from Cleveland an' started a gang of his own."

"Well, but did you find out how many there are in this gang?" I asked.

"Yes. The old man says that they try to make people believe that there is a big company, but from the best information he can get there are only seven or eight."

"What did I tell you?" said Jack contemptuously. "Ef they're no better than these two we're good for that many, easy."

"Yes," said Tom, "ef we don't let 'em get the drop on us I think we can stand 'em off; but we may find 'em a tougher lot than we take 'em for--ef they tackle us for a fight we've just got to clean 'em out, it's a ground-hog case. An' as to killin' 'em, I'd have no more hesitation about it than I would to kill a hostile Injun. Ef we have to open fire on 'em I want you men to shoot to kill, an' I'll do the same. These jayhawkers have been declared outlaws by orders from the commander of the department, an' the troops are turned loose to hunt 'em down, kill 'em, or break up the gangs wherever they can be found.

"The old storekeeper says they've just taken possession of his store," he continued, "helpin' themselves to his liquor or anything else they want, tellin' him to 'chalk it down' an' by an' by they'll settle with him.

"A boy from the neighborhood who had been down to their camp to sell 'em some butter told the old man that there was only seven men of 'em an' they had a tent an' a two-horse wagon. The boy said they had lots of good horses, an' the old man thinks they gather in all the good horses an' mules they can find in the country an' now an' then send a lot of 'em in to Leavenworth an' sell 'em to the contractors there who are buyin' up horses an' mules for the government.

"Whatever happens," continued Tom, "we must be careful not to compromise this old storekeeper an' his family, for he's very much afraid of these jayhawkers an' cautioned me several times not to let them get a suspicion that he had told us anything about them.

"I put an idea in his head, though, which may be the means of ridding this neighborhood of these rascals. I told him to write a letter to General Hunter, in command of the department at Fort Leavenworth, tellin' him the situation out here, an' to request the general to send out a company of cavalry to clean out this gang an' give protection to the farmers an' people travelling the road.

"He jumped at the idea an' said he would write the letter right away an' send it in by the mail which will go past this afternoon. I think the general will send the troops immediately, for he is makin' war on these bushwhackers wherever he can hear of them. If the scheme is carried out right the soldiers will be apt to kill or capture this whole gang. I'd like to stay an' help 'em at it, but it will take four or five days, at least, before the soldiers can get here. Ef this gang undertakes to make war on us we may have to teach 'em a lesson on our own hook."

"Well, Tom," I asked, "what are your plans for meeting this emergency if you think these fellows are going to give us trouble?"

Before he could answer me the two jayhawkers came out of the store and, without making any hostile demonstrations, went to their horses, mounted, and rode a little way back down the road we had come, and then, turning across the prairie struck for the timber farther down the creek. They eyed us in passing but said not a word. As they rode past us we noticed that both were mounted on good-looking animals, especially Tucker, whose mount was a splendid, large black horse of fine proportions and good movement.