Friends Call Me Bat by Paul Colt

Author:Paul Colt
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Gale, Cengage Learning
Published: 2019-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINETEEN

March 15

Wyatt entered the Oriental early one evening. The tables were quiet, awaiting the late crowd. I could tell something was amiss by the grim set to his jaw and the purpose to his stride. He motioned me to the bar.

“Trouble?” I asked.

“Got a wire from Bob Paul. Road agents hit the Benson stage near Drew Ranch.”

“They get anything?”

“Bob saved the shipment, eighty thousand in silver. They killed the driver and a passenger. Get your trail gear and meet me at the office. I’ll swear you in there. We’re goin’ after ’em.”

“What about the game?”

“Luke’s got it. Let’s move.”

I arrived at the office a short time later to find Virgil, Morgan, and the Wells Fargo agent. Wyatt swore us in. We mounted up and rode north on a clear starlit night. Around midnight I jogged along stirrup to stirrup with Wyatt.

“Any idea who did it?”

Wyatt lifted the white of one eye under his hat brim. “Cowboys is my wager. Bob thought he recognized one of ’em for a man known to ride for the Clantons.”

We reached Drew Ranch shortly before dawn. Bob Paul was there to meet us. Curiously, we found Sheriff Behan and his deputy there, having previously arrived. Bob wired Wyatt; Behan’s presence seemed unexplained. He and Wyatt eyed each other like two roosters circling the same henhouse. I knew something of the background on Behan courtesy of Bob Paul. This would be my firsthand look at the man who would play a part in later events for both Wyatt and me.

“What are you doing here?” Wyatt asked.

“I might ask the same of you,” Behan said.

“My jurisdiction. Bob here sent for me.”

“I got word, too.”

“From who?”

“Not important.”

“You say not important; maybe it is. Maybe your information came from someone with first-hand knowledge of the incident.”

“All I know is what Bob here told me. Three gunmen threw down on the coach in order to stop it. The driver slapped his horses into a gallop. Paul got one load of shot off before the driver was hit and he was forced to take the reins. The passenger, riding up top, was killed as the coach drove away.”

“That true, Bob?”

“That’s what I said as far as he goes.”

“You got something more?”

“Pretty sure two of the men were Clanton men.”

“Missed that tidbit, did we, Johnny?”

“Speculation. I deal in facts.”

“So do I. Including facts that smell.”

We searched the area and found cartridge casings and sign where a fourth man held their horses in hiding. I thought it odd, given the size of the prize, that they made no attempt to overtake the coach. They had a near defenseless driver outnumbered with a team panting for relief at the next station. Instead, trail sign fled east toward the mountains.

“Mount up,” Wyatt said. “Trail sign’s plain enough.”

Behan spit. “You goin’ after ’em, Earp? Them outlaws got more’n a half-day’s head start.”

“You give up on all your pursuits after a half day, Johnny? Or just when you pursue your pals?”

“What’s that s’posed to mean?”

“Oh, that’s right.

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