Savage 10 by E. Jefferson Clay

Author:E. Jefferson Clay
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: gunfighters, winchester rifle, mens action adventure, western ebooks, piccadilly publishing, pulp western fiction, wild west fiction, american frontier fiction, rj roberts, old west 1880s
Publisher: Piccadilly

Chapter Six – The Takers

ACROSS THE SHIMMERING plains where Apache, Pima, Comanche and Yaqui once roamed and ruled, it was nothing but empty and silent today.

Despite the stillness, coming as it did in the wake of the frenzied hunt for Jimmy Ringo, the winds of change, so long a part of Southwest Territory, were blowing more strongly on the day of Savage’s return to the capital than they had done in years.

Savage, the administration’s lethal weapon in the untidy, divisive affair, had met up with the governor’s wanted man and had been sent home with his tail between his legs—a bullet in his slats and minus his horse and rifle.

Defeat and humiliation in one neat bundle with the official Ringo seal stamped upon the package.

Nothing could have stirred the winds more. The fence-sitters of yesterday were today left wondering whether the kid was right and maybe the governor was the one at fault.

Only a Jimmy Ringo could have whipped up such fervent emotions—strong enough to suddenly place Melville’s administration in jeopardy. As a result, the governor’s political enemies were making full use of the situation to again start clamoring for reform and change—perhaps even demanding the reintroduction of martial law!

The answer was simplicity itself.

Ringo was a hero desperately short of the rare breed. Son of a famed frontiersman and idealist, Jimmy Ringo seemed to have it all from the outset, excelling at virtually everything by which Westerners were judged. Horseman, marksman, charmer, fighter, lover and friend, he was every Territorians favorite son and best pard.

Ringo had it all—but lacked a shred of vanity or arrogance and thus cemented his position as Alameda’s favorite son.

This was a purely honorary and unofficial ranking they bestowed upon him, yet substantial enough even so. He may have lived out his life roaming, hunting, helping out in the occasional range war and freewheeling through life as he’d always done—but for the killing.

The arrest, breakout and killing of the deputy in the capital resulted in the massive manhunt, and had aroused the Territory in a way which seemed disproportionate to its actual significance.

And now, as the Springer supporters bucked against the governor’s incompetence, with Melville putting in twelve-hour days at his mansion office and with big Savage allegedly forced to take to his sickbed at the Pawnee Hotel off the square, even the capital’s dogs seemed to be barking unrest and uncertainty.

And all because of a twenty-one year old who only needed to shave every second day.

Today, that same troublemaker was guest of honor out at the Tiptoe Ranch. The big boss, one of the richest men in the Territory, was publicly calling upon Governor Melville to institute an immediate high-level enquiry into the entire Ringo affair, or be prepared to accept the consequences.

It was common knowledge that Tiptoe’s Van Goodeve was a fellow cattleman’s club member along with Jacob Springer, and was reported to have recently entertained hardnosed General Kirk, prime contender for the role of military administrator should Congress return Southwest Territory to the bad old days of martial law.

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