Blood Bond 16: A Hundred Ways to Die by William W. Johnstone & J. A. Johnstone

Author:William W. Johnstone & J. A. Johnstone [Johnstone, William W. & Johnstone, J. A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 0786028130
Publisher: Pinnacle Books
Published: 2012-11-06T00:00:00+00:00

FOURTEEN

Black Angus Jones and his gang were taking the seven young female captives from the Bear Paw wagon train to Pago in Sonora, Mexico. With them were five other girls they’d abducted along the way. The females were being transported by wagon—wagons looted from the sack of the Bear Paw caravan.

The gang moved out from Yellow Snake Canyon the morning of the raid, heading south. Angus Jones was unhappy—to put it mildly—with Linda Gordon’s escape from Dorado and Quirt Fane. He sent Felder, Slim, and Bardo to Tombstone to silence her.

Meanwhile, he and the gang kept pushing south to Mexico.

Felder and the others were supposed to meet Jones in the town of Fronteras across the border in Mexico. Jones had some business to take care of there. He was not staying overnight, but would only be in Fronteras for a few hours before resuming the trek. If Felder and his sidemen missed Jones in Fronteras, they would catch up with him in Pago.

Pago was about sixty miles south of the border, located in the Sierra Espinazo del Diablo, the mountain range known as “the Devil’s Spine.” The isolated mountain town was a safe zone for outlaws, Mexican or American, as long as they were connected to the slave trade.

Don Carlos de la Vega was a power in that part of Sonora. Pago and its surrounding area was his own. A private army of gunmen enforced his will and law.

He was in cahoots with Captain Bravo, commanding officer of a body of troops garrisoned in Pago.

Bravo’s men patrolled the outlying roads and trails, providing some protection against Victorio and his outlaws, who had taken refuge in Sonora’s Sierra Madre mountains, of which the Espinazo was a small part.

This much and more Matt Bodine and Sam Two Wolves learned from Sid Felder. Dr. Willis grudgingly patched up Felder, grumbling, “I don’t know why I bother—I’m only saving him for the hangman.”

“Hangman’s got to make a living, too, Doc,” Matt said.

Willis had taken the physician’s oath to preserve life, even the life of a no-good such as Felder. He extracted the bullets, stemmed the bleeding, and bandaged Felder, who was then taken to jail.

Matt and Sam skipped that trip. They thought it politic to avoid encountering Assistant Deputy Osgood, for reasons they kept to themselves. Plenty of volunteers were available to haul Felder off to jail.

The prisoner’s armed escort discovered Gila Chacon gone, with a mortified Hubert Osgood occupying the bandit’s cell. Everybody got a good laugh out of Ringo’s written receipt for Gila—everyone but Osgood, that is. Osgood was released and Felder locked up.

“If we hurry with the trial, we can still hold a hanging on Saturday, with Felder taking Gila’s place,” somebody said. The others agreed that that was a fine idea. A lot of folks were looking forward to a hanging and it would be a shame to disappoint them.

A couple of men stayed behind at the jailhouse to help out Osgood. “Seeing as you’re having trouble holding on to your prisoners, Deputy, we’d hate to see you lose this one, too,” one of the helpers said.

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