Read Online Bloody Trail by Ford Fargo - Free Book Online

without fightin’
amongst ourselves. Joe, soon as you get your air back, get on your
horse and catch up to us. Bill, you hold your temper. Rest of you,
get mounted. Every minute we stand around is another minute between
us and the Danby bunch.”
    ****
    Bill’s thoughts raced faster than the powerful
horse galloping underneath him as the posse raced hell-bent for
leather across the rolling Kansas plains. When he’d left Texas,
he’d vowed to never again wear a badge or touch a weapon. Yet,
despite that vow, here he was deputized, and in pursuit of one of
the most vicious outlaw gangs plaguing the southern
Plains.
    As one of the considerable minority of Texans
who opposed secession from the Union at the start of the War, Bill
had refused to join the Confederate army. As far as he, and a lot
of others, were concerned, the war had been started to support a
bunch of wealthy plantation owners in the South and rich Yankees in
the North. He’d never bought the argument advanced by many
Southerners that the whole reason for secession was states’ rights.
Bill’s opinion was that claim was so much horse manure. If the
plantation owners hadn’t wanted to keep their free labor, the war
would never have been fought.
    However, while Bill held no truck with the
Confederacy, he was still loyal to Texas. Once the Comanches
realized much of the male population of the state had gone off to
fight, they intensified their raiding, hoping to take back some of
the land they’d lost. When volunteer companies of Texas Rangers
were once again organized, Bill answered the call. Before long, he
rose to the rank of sergeant.
    By the time the war neared its end, the
Rangers found themselves dealing with white renegades as much as
Indians. Deserters from both armies, mainly the South, and outlaws
in general flocked to Texas. The wide-open spaces and lack of law
provided plenty of opportunity, and places to disappear. The people
of Texas soon found out many of those white renegades were far more
trouble than any Comanches.
    It was during a confrontation with one of
those bands of deserters when Bill had his first encounter with Wes
Hammond. He and five men from his Ranger company had been searching
for the band which included Hammond for several weeks. They finally
caught up to them at a trading post some miles west of Bandera,
where they’d already killed the proprietor and his family and were
looting the place. When the Rangers arrived, the outlaws holed up
inside the building. A two-hour gun battle ensued, during which one
of Bill’s men was killed, and another badly wounded. The standoff
finally ended when a Ranger was able to get close enough to the
trading post to set it on fire. Forced to flee the structure or
burn to death, the outlaws raced into a hail of lead, which cut
down all but one. Wes Hammond managed to escape being hit, and made
it to his horse. Bill caught up to Hammond just as he was climbing
into the saddle. He ordered Hammond to surrender, but Hammond
whirled, saber in hand, and slashed Bill across the belly. Bill
staggered back, and managed to fire one shot before Hammond could
strike again. His bullet took Hammond in the upper right arm,
causing him to drop the saber. Bill collapsed, while Hammond,
leaving him for dead, pulled himself onto his horse and disappeared
through the smoke and haze. Bill survived, but took several weeks
to recuperate. Months later, he heard Hammond had left Texas and
joined back up with his old guerrilla outfit, led by a man named
Jim Danby.
    After the war’s end, with the Rangers
effectively disbanded and replaced by the despised State Police,
Bill took the town marshal’s job in Blanco. He liked law work, and
the citizens of Blanco, for the most part, liked Bill. He
envisioned remaining as Blanco’s marshal indefinitely, until the
day Harold Perdue came home to find his wife, Georgia, in bed with
Pete Channing. Harold was the mayor of Blanco, while Pete just
happened to be Bill’s closest