Last Reckoning For the Presidio Kid Read online

  Last Reckoning for the Presidio Kid

  A stagecoach robbery and a train explosion announce the sudden return of the elusive Presidio Kid. Hardly anything is known about the Kid and what triggered these events remains a mystery.

  In an isolated mountain cabin, Clugh Bendix is nursing a gun wound to the leg, vowing to find out who shot him and why. His journey takes him to the volatile Texas borderlands: right to the heart of the mystery of the Presidio Kid.

  For Bendix, the mystery becomes a battle and he must rely on his wits and his guns to survive. Long-buried secrets and an unexpected romance are revealed, but what will his fate be when the explosive showdown arrives?

  Last Reckoning for the Presidio Kid

  Emmet Stone

  ROBERT HALE

  © Emmet Stone 2010

  First published in Great Britain 2011

  ISBN 978-0-7198-2301-5

  The Crowood Press

  The Stable Block

  Crowood Lane

  Ramsbury

  Marlborough

  Wiltshire SN8 2HR

  www.bhwesterns.com

  This e-book first published in 2017

  Robert Hale is an imprint of The Crowood Press

  The right of Emmet Stone to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him

  in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

  Chapter One

  After the shooting Bendix must have passed out. When he came round he was lying in the snow which had partially covered him. The snowstorm had ceased but the skies were still heavy. For a few moments he felt nothing, then the pain in his leg started up and it was remorseless. Groaning, he tried to move but the pain rolled over him like an avalanche and he lapsed once more into unconsciousness.

  When he came round the second time night had fallen and a snowstorm was howling across the mountainside. He was chilled to the bone, but the pain in his leg had receded. In fact he could feel nothing of his lower limbs and he realized that he was on the way to freezing to death. Something warm and fuzzy was beginning to wrap itself around his consciousness. It was tempting to give way to it but he had enough awareness remaining to know that if he was to have any chance of survival he must gather himself together and reach down into whatever last reserve of energy he might possess.

  Gritting his teeth, he began to pull himself towards the cabin. He still had some control over his upper body. Maybe it was the strength he had acquired in his shoulders from all that recent hard work chopping wood, climbing the mountain, setting traps and fishing the streams. Whatever it was, he needed it now to haul himself along, clutching at the earth, seeking a purchase for his fingernails. He felt a stab of pain in his left foot and began to try and push with it. It gave him an extra hold and slowly, slowly he inched his way along the ground till with a final despairing effort he heaved himself over the doorsill of the cabin where he lay immobile as snow blew in gusts though the open door.

  Night descended. Fitfully he slept but only to be awakened each time by the crashing pain in his right knee. He had no way of knowing how much damage the bullet had caused but the fact that he could move at all gave him courage that the leg was not completely smashed. As it was he had lost a lot of blood and he knew he needed to stop the flow. There was a bottle of whiskey on the floor of the cabin. He had been pouring himself a drink when he first heard the sound of the intruder and he had placed it beside the rocking-chair. Coming out of another troubled interim of sleep, he turned his head to look for the bottle. The night was bright and windy. He could see the bottle lying in a broad swath of moonlight and, gritting his teeth against the pain, he managed to crawl the few yards till he could reach it.

  Pushing with his left knee, he succeeded in propping himself up against a leg of the table. He reached down, slashed his trousers with his Bowie knife and took hold of the whiskey bottle. He poured part of its contents over the wound, flinching as he did so. Looking down, he was relieved to see that his leg appeared to be intact. There was no bone protruding and he guessed the bullet had somehow ricocheted from his knee. It was still badly damaged. He undid his kerchief, made a tourniquet and fastened it as tightly as he could around his upper leg. Then he put the bottle of whiskey in his mouth and took a deep draught. By the time he had finished the bottle the pain had subsided and he felt a whole lot better.

  The days that followed were very bad. At first he was unable to move at all but thirst finally drove him to make the effort needed. Snow had gathered in a pile just inside the doorway and he used it to drink and to bathe his wound. He found an old buffalo robe and covered himself with it. The weather was freezing but at the same time the biting cold probably helped to save his leg from becoming gangrenous and kept the wound clean. He had a supply of whiskey but he was wise enough to use it sensibly. He survived on strips of jerky and, when he was able to move with slightly less pain, on water from a trough outside. He would have to break the frozen surface. All the time he could only move in a slow and painful crawl, but he knew he must soon begin to try and place some weight upon the injured leg.

  He started to try and lift and straighten the damaged limb. Struggling to get on a chair, he attempted to move the knee, first to the right, then to the left and then to bend it. The pain was excruciating and the knee was very swollen and tight. All down the back of the leg the bruising was severe. He pulled himself upright using his good leg, then attempted to straighten as well as bend the damaged knee.

  There were trees surrounding the cabin and he considered how he might go about making himself a crutch from a branch. In the end he used his rifle. Very slowly at first but then more quickly he began to regain the use of his right knee. He soon realized, however, that while he might achieve a sufficient degree of mobility to be able to get about once more, it would take weeks before the knee would regain anything like a semblance of its old flexibility; it would never function in the same way again. He would always walk with something of a limp. But that wasn’t so bad. At least he would be able to move with relative freedom. It could all have been a lot worse.

  The morning came when he was able to hobble down the path which led away from the cabin. The weather had turned milder, making for treacherous conditions under foot. The snow lay thick in the woods and on the mountainside but had turned to a slippery tainted slush all around. Water dripped from the eaves. Taking it slow and using the rifle as a crutch, he made his way along the track, moving downhill, till he could see the remains of his assailant lying in the wet grass. It wasn’t a pretty sight. Every instinct told him to ignore the corpse, but he had to see whether he could find any information about who the man was or why he had attempted to kill him. He covered his mouth with a bandanna and, holding his head away, he felt inside the man’s pockets. There was nothing to be found other than a slim wallet, a pack of Bull Durham and a card. He checked carefully a second time to make sure he had not missed anything. Then he took the man’s gunbelt and rifle, which were lying at a little distance, and kicked the body over the side of a precipice. After he had done that he fastened the gunbelt around his waist and picked up the rifle. Carrying it made walking even more difficult, but slowly and awkwardly he made his way back to the cabin.

  When he got there he threw the man’s weapons on to a bunk, first taking out one of the revolvers to examine it. It was a Smith & Wesson of a type with which he was not familiar. It was .44 calibre rather the usual .32 or .22, and it was heavier than the ones he was accustomed to. It seemed to be a more than capable man-stopper. He guessed it was new on the market. Whoever his assailant was, he came well equipped. Sitting at the table, his damaged right leg held stiffly at an angle, he next looked
at the card. It read:

  Bolton Moss

  Delivery Guaranteed

  The card was embossed with the figure of an eagle with a salmon in its claws.

  ‘Bounty Hunter,’ Bendix muttered to himself. ‘Fancy card don’t mean nothin’.’

  He had a low opinion of the breed, no matter how they duded it up, but it immediately started him thinking. There was no price on his head. So that meant this Bolton Moss was being paid by someone to track him down and kill him, or else it was a case of mistaken identity. Over the years he had made enemies but he couldn’t think of anyone who would resort to that kind of measure. His brow wrinkled in thought, he turned to the wallet and emptied its contents on the table. There wasn’t much: some dollar bills, a used railroad ticket, a hotel bill from the Pearl Hotel, Driftwood, Wyoming Territory. It seemed like the man had come West on the Union Pacific, stayed two nights at the Pearl, and then ridden up into the mountains. He had known where to find Bendix. Thinking over his two theories, Bendix came to the conclusion that it was a case of mistaken identity. It was Ed Gilpin whom Bolton Moss had been looking for.

  Gilpin was the man who had built the cabin and lived in it for years. Bendix had met him a long time before, when they were both riding for an outfit called the Crazy E. They became friends and rode together till Bendix decided to try his luck prospecting. Later he heard that things hadn’t gone so well for Gilpin and that he had dropped out of sight. In the course of his travels Bendix heard some talk and then decided to find what had become of his old friend.

  He found him in the cabin high in the mountains. He had built it himself and had been living there in isolation. When Bendix discovered him, Gilpin was already far gone in the illness which took his life a few weeks later. Bendix did what he could to look after him and make him comfortable and when he died he had buried him in a tiny clearing in the woods behind the shack.

  And now it seemed that someone was out to get Gilpin. But what could it have been about? Gilpin was a good man. He was not the type to have enemies who would go to such lengths to kill him. Whatever had happened in the past, it must have been some considerable time ago. It was nearly two years since Bendix had erected the wooden cross in the clearing. He had only returned to the cabin recently because he was at a loose end and not sure what to do next. There was a woman involved and the cabin had seemed a natural choice to stay and lick his wounds.

  A stab of pain jarred his leg. Now he was literally carrying a wound and he had a new purpose. He would find out what this business was all about. Maybe it wasn’t really his concern, but he had a personal stake in it now. More than that: Gilpin had been his friend. He owed it to his memory.

  Next morning he stood by the grave of his old comrade. The sky was cloudy and a thin rain spread across the mountainside like mist.

  ‘Whatever this is about,’ he said, ‘I’ll settle it. Lie easy.’

  He turned away and climbed painfully into leather. It wasn’t an easy matter but only a couple of weeks ago it would have been impossible. He was riding a big steeldust. It was getting a bit old, like Bendix himself, but it was sure-footed and made light work of the difficult trail down the mountain. Now that the weather had broken the way was easier, but great slabs of ice and melting snow remained and further down the mountain the path was so narrow that in places Bendix’s foot hung out over space. Gilpin had chosen his hideout well. Towards the bottom of the mountain the trail was strewn with boulders and rock debris, overgrown with low brush and some stunted trees. Beyond that the land was ridged and broken with few trails, but Bendix was familiar with it. In the diffused morning light with a haze of rain sweeping across it like a curtain it had a strange, ethereal look. He let the horse go at its own steady pace. There was some way to go before he reached Driftwood.

  Driftwood was a township like many others. The wide main street was flanked by false-fronted frame buildings comprising the usual businesses; a general store, a barber shop, several saloons, a bank, an eating-house. About two thirds of the way down there was a central square with some shade trees and a clapboard church with a squat tower and opposite to it, as if by way of contrast, the marshal’s office and jailhouse.

  After leaving his horse at the livery stables, Bendix made his way to the Pearl Hotel. It was easy to find, being the largest building in town. Checking in for the night, he asked if he might look at the register. The clerk was a bored youth. He shrugged his shoulders to indicate he had no objection to Bendix’s request. Bendix thumbed through the register until he came upon the name of Bolton Moss. He hadn’t expected to find it, assuming that the bounty hunter would have used a false name. The man had signed himself with a fine flourish. Bendix was closing the register when he asked the desk clerk if he remembered anything about him. The youth shook his head and Bendix turned to go up the stairs.

  ‘Hold on a moment,’ the clerk said.

  ‘Yeah?’ Bendix said.

  The youth had a frown on his features as if he was trying to remember something. Bendix produced a couple of dollar bills.

  ‘Now that you mention it,’ the youth continued, ‘there was something. He was carryin’ a picture of a man. Asked me if I’d ever seen him in town. We get a sprinklin’ of people passin’ through, headed for the mountains.’

  ‘Had you seen the man before?’ Bendix enquired.

  ‘Nope. Reckon it was just a long shot.’

  ‘Can you remember what the man on the picture looked like?’

  ‘Sorry. I only took one look. It was just a face like any other.’

  ‘What sort of a picture was it? A photograph?’

  ‘Seemed like it was torn off somethin’.’

  Bendix nodded and went on up the stairs. His room was on the second floor. There was a bed, a wardrobe and a chair but not much else. It was like a lot of rooms he had been in: bare and functional. Maybe some day there would be something better. He was happier sleeping beneath the stars. He threw himself down on the bed and began to think about what the desk clerk had told him. Moss had certainly been here and he had been looking for someone; the man in the picture. Where had the likeness come from? The clerk had said it appeared to be torn from something. Bendix suddenly sat up. Could it have been torn from a Wanted poster? A wanted man was the normal target for a bounty hunter. Could his friend Gilpin have had a price on his head? At first he was inclined to dismiss the idea, but then he began to have second thoughts. What did he really know about Gilpin? Sure, they had ridden together, but cowboys were a very private breed. They liked to keep themselves to themselves. What might have happened to Gilpin after he split from him? The only thing he knew for certain was that Gilpin had sought the isolation of his mountain hideout. What reason might lie behind his choice? The more Bendix thought about it, the more reasonable the hypothesis became. There was one way to find out. He would pay a visit to the marshal and ask if there were any old wanted dodgers out on Ed Gilpin.

  Early the next morning he made his way over to the marshal’s office. The marshal was a sharp-featured man in his late thirties. He looked up at Bendix with steely grey eyes.

  ‘Stranger in town?’ he drawled.

  ‘Yeah. Just passin’ through.’

  The marshal looked Bendix up and down. ‘Somethin’ wrong with that right leg?’ he asked.

  Bendix had not been aware that he was carrying it awkwardly. He had only taken a few steps into the marshal’s office.

  ‘Old range accident,’ he replied.

  The marshal continued to regard him fixedly. ‘We get a few visitors since the spur line link,’ the marshal said, ‘but I don’t figure you come on the train.’

  ‘Been ridin’,’ Bendix replied.

  The marshal’s steady gaze relaxed. He swung round on his chair.

  ‘I guess you got some business with me,’ he said. ‘Make sure it don’t turn out the other way round. What can I do for you?’

  Bendix liked the man. The night he had spent in the hotel had been quiet. There had been littl
e to disturb him. He guessed the marshal ran a tight town.

  ‘My name is Bendix,’ he said. ‘Clugh Bendix. Without goin’ into a lot of details, I have an interest in a man called Gilpin, Ed Gilpin. He died some time ago. I have some reason to believe that when he died he may have been a wanted man.’ He paused. The marshal was looking at him intently again.

  ‘I don’t know how long you keep old Wanted posters. I was wonderin’ if you might have anythin’ on him.’

  The marshal did not immediately reply. He seemed to be considering Bendix’s words. After a time he reached into a drawer and produced a folded sheet of paper.

  ‘Gilpin,’ he said. ‘Would this be him?’ He sat up and tossed the parchment to Bendix. It was crinkled and discoloured. Bendix opened it out. Looking up at him from the page was the face of his old friend, looking a lot younger than he remembered him last. He quickly glanced down at the writing.

  $250 reward. For the arrest and conviction of Edward Gilpin. Wanted for Robbery and Murder. Dead or Alive.

  Before he had finished reading the poster, the marshal’s voice interrupted him.

  ‘Now it’s a funny thing,’ he said. ‘That poster has been lyin’ about for at least three years. I got a whole collection just like it. I don’t know who any of ’em are or where they are. Nobody ever showed no interest and I doubt if I ever looked at any one of ’em again after the first time. Then suddenly I get two people in as many weeks askin’ questions about the same hombre.’

  Bendix looked up. ‘Two people?’ he said.

  ‘So far.’

  Bendix thought quickly. ‘This other person. Did he give a name?’

  ‘Sure did.’

  There was a pause. ‘Would you mind sayin’ what it was?’

  The hint of a smile spread across the marshal’s countenance. ‘Why don’t you tell me,’ he said.