When Lucky Ned Pepper and I gained the rock ledge Chaney jumped up and made for me. “I will wring your scrawny neck!” he exclaimed. Lucky Ned Pepper pushed him aside and said, “No, I won’t have it. Let that doctoring go and get the horses saddled. Lend him a hand, Farrell.”
He pushed me down by the fire and said, “Sit there and be still.” When he had caught his breath he took a spyglass from his coat and searched the rocky dome to the west. He saw nothing and took a seat by the fire and drank coffee from a can and ate some bacon from a skillet with his hands. There was plenty of meat and several cans of water in the fire, some with plain water and some with coffee already brewed. I concluded the bandits had been at their breakfast when they were alarmed by the gunshot down below.
I said, “Can I have some of that bacon?”
Lucky Ned Pepper said, “Help yourself. Have some coffee.”
“I don’t drink coffee. Where is the bread?”
“We lost it. Tell me what you are doing here.”
I took a piece of bacon and chewed on it. “I will be glad to tell you,” said I. “You will see I am in the right. Tom Chaney there shot my father to death in Fort Smith and robbed him of two gold pieces and stole his mare. Her name is Judy but I do not see her here. I was informed Rooster Cogburn had grit and I hired him out to find the murderer. A few minutes ago I came upon Chaney down there watering horses. He would not be taken in charge and I shot him. If I had killed him I would not now be in this fix. My revolver misfired twice.”
“They will do it,” said Lucky Ned Pepper. “It will embarrass you every time.” Then he laughed. He said, “Most girls like play pretties, but you like guns, don’t you?”
“I don’t care a thing in the world about guns. If I did I would have one that worked.”
Chaney was carrying a load of bedding from the cave. He said, “I was shot from ambush, Ned. The horses was blowing and making noise. It was one of them officers that got me.”
I said, “How can you stand there and tell such a big story?”
Chaney picked up a stick and pitched it into a big crack in the ledge. He said, “There is a ball of rattlesnakes down there in that pit and I am going to throw you in it. How do you like that?”
“No, you won’t,” said I. “This man will not let you have your way. He is your boss and you must do as he tells you.”
Lucky Ned Pepper again took his glass and looked across at the ridge.
Chaney said, “Five minutes is well up.”
“I will give them a little more time,” said the bandit chieftain.
“How much more?” said Chaney.
“Till I think they have had enough.”
Greaser Bob called up from below saying, “They are gone, Ned! I can hear nothing! We had best make a move!”
Lucky Ned Pepper replied, “Hold fast for a while!”
Then he returned to his breakfast. He said, “Was that Rooster and Potter that waylaid us last night?”
I said, “The man’s name is not Potter, it is LaBoeuf. He is an officer from Texas. He is looking for Chaney too, though he calls him by another name.”
“Is he the one with the buffalo gun?”
“He calls it a Sharps rifle. His arm was hurt in the fight.”
“He shot my horse. A man from Texas has no authority to fire at me.”
“I know nothing about that. I have a good lawyer at home.”
“Did they take Quincy and Moon?”
“They are both dead. It was a terrible thing to see. I was in the very middle of it. Do you need a good lawyer?”
“I need a good judge. What about Haze? An old fellow.”
“Yes, he and the young man were both killed.”
“I saw Billy was dead when he was struck. I thought Haze might have made it. He was tough as boot leather. I am sorry for him.”
“Are you not sorry for the boy Billy?”
“He should never have been there. There was nothing I could do for him.”
“How did you know he was dead?”
“I could tell. I advised him against coming, and then give in to him against what I knowed was best. Where did you take them?”
“To McAlester’s store.”
“I will tell you what he did at Wagoner’s Switch.”
“My lawyer has political influence.”
“This will amuse you. I posted him with the horses out of danger and told him to fire a string of shots with his rifle now and then. You must have shooting for the way it keeps the passengers in their seats. Well, he started out all right and then as the job went along I noticed the shots had stopped. I figured Billy Boy had run for home and a plate of mother’s soup. Bob went to see about him and he found the boy standing out there in the dark shucking good shells out of his guns. He thought he was shooting but he was so scared he could not remember to pull the trigger. That was how green he was, green as a July persimmon.”
I said, “You do not show much kindly feeling for a young man who saved your life.”
“I am happy he done it,” said Lucky Ned Pepper. “I don’t say he wan’t game, I say he was green. All kids is game, but a man will keep his head and look out for his own self. Look at old Haze. Well, he is dead now but he should have been dead ten times afore now. Yes, and your good friend Rooster. That goes for him as well.”
“He is not my friend.”
Farrell Permalee made a whooping noise like that of his brother and said, “There they be!”
I looked over to the northwest and saw two riders approaching the top of the ridge. Little Blackie, riderless, was tied behind them. Lucky Ned Pepper brought his glass into play but I could see them well enough without such aid. When they reached the crest they paused and turned our way and Rooster fired a pistol in the air. I saw the smoke before the noise reached us. Lucky Ned Pepper pulled his revolver and fired an answering shot. Then Rooster and LaBoeuf disappeared over the hill. The last thing I saw was Little Blackie.
I think it did not come home to me until that moment what my situation was. I had not thought Rooster or LaBoeuf would give in to the bandits so easily. It was in my mind that they would slip up through the brush and attack the bandits while they were disorganized, or employ some clever ruse known only by detectives to bring the bandits to heel. Now they were gone! The officers had left me! I was utterly cast down and for the first time I feared for my life. My mind was filled with anxiety.
Who was to blame? Deputy Marshal Rooster Cogburn! The gabbing drunken fool had made a mistake of four miles and led us directly into the robbers’ lair. A keen detective! Yes, and in an earlier state of drunkenness he had placed faulty caps in my revolver, causing it to fail me in a time of need. That was not enough; now he had abandoned me in this howling wilderness to a gang of cutthroats who cared not a rap for the blood of their own companions, and how much less for that of a helpless and unwanted youngster! Was this what they called grit in Fort Smith? We called it something else in Yell County!
Lucky Ned Pepper shouted out for The Original Greaser and Harold Permalee to leave their watch post and come to the camp. The four horses were saddled and in readiness. Lucky Ned Pepper looked over the mounts, then at the spare saddle that lay on the ground. It was an old saddle but a handsome one, decorated with fixtures of beaten silver.