©1997 by Kathy.
"All right, boys, would you leave us alone please? You too, Lou. C'mon
now." Emma's had to raise her voice considerably before anyone moved. "Lou,
it might be a good idea for you to go into town and get Doc to come visit when
he gets a chance."
"Emma, I need to be..."
"Lou! Emma said to go into town. Now do it!" Teaspoon's tone meant
that he would brook no argument. "Go on, son." He was worried, but
had heard of this happening before. A young sergeant he'd known back in the
war with Santa Anna had got in a fight one evening with a rival for the Captain's
daughter. When he woke up the next day he couldn't remember where he was. He'd
forgotten the fight and still thought he was in training camp. Never did remember
anything in between, neither. It was called memnes...comnes.. amnes-y-something.
Teaspoon hoped that wasn't the case with Kid. He sat down on the chair next
to the bed.
"Son, er, Kid, I'm not your Pa," he said quietly. "I take it
you don't remember who I am?"
Kid shook his head. "No Sir, I don't."
"What's the last thing you do remember?"
"Well, I remember..." Kid thought hard for quite a while before he
answered. "I guess I don't remember much of anything."
"Your name? Where you are?" Emma couldn't resist the temptation to
find out Kid's real name, especially when she could justify it completely in
this situation. She ignored Teaspoon's look, after all, he wanted to know Kid's
name too.
"No, Ma'am." That was the end of that idea. The Kid looked at her
innocently. Damn! He looked so young.
"We all call you 'Kid.' You're at the Sweetwater Pony Express Station.
My name is Teaspoon Hunter, and this here's Miz Emma Shannon. You come off your
horse Katy and hit your head pretty bad. Lou found you and brung you home."
That about covered everything Kid needed to know right off, thought Teaspoon.
He'd have plenty of time to work out the rest. "C'mon Miz Emma, Kid needs
his rest."
"Right, Mr. Spoon. You hungry, Kid?"
"Yes Ma'am."
"I'll get someone to bring you some more soup. This's cold. Anything else
you need?"
"No Ma'am, thank you Ma'am." Right now, Miz Shannon seemed like the
kindest woman in the world to Kid. "Is, is it all right if I rest awhile?
I don't want to be no bother."
"Kid, this is your home. And I don't want to see you out of bed 'til Doc's
been and talked to you. Hear?"
"Yes'm."
"I'll see you later then." Emma took the cold soup with her and headed
back to her bunkhouse. One thing was for sure. Since she'd decided to allow
Russell, Majors & Waddell to set up the Pony Express Station on her land
and become foster-mother to six of the trouble-findingest boys in the territory,
life had been interesting. Exciting, scary at times, but always mighty interesting.
"Mornin' Emma." Sam Cain, Marshal of Sweetwater, rode into the muddy
yard. Sometimes he came for business reasons, other times to continue his often-stormy
courtship of Emma Shannon.
"Aint you goin' to say it properly, Sam?" Emma came over and lifted
her face to his.
"Oh, sorry, Emma." He bent down and kissed her, but his mind was obviously
elsewhere. "Teaspoon around?"
Emma gave up. Today, Sam was all business. "In the tackroom. What's wrong,
Sam?"
"If you'd get the boys into the bunkhouse Emma, I'll tell you all together."
He strode off to the tackroom. One thing for sure, whatever was wrong, this
was serious.
When everyone was together in the bunkhouse, Sam explained his preoccupation.
"I'm real sorry to be back here and askin' you boys to do this when you
just got home from helping me get the Browning gang yesterday, but there ain't
nothin' else I can do." His own tiredness showed in the bags under his
eyes.
"You gonna get around to telling us what happened sometime soon, Sam?"
Cody had a pretty good idea. Whenever Sam needed a posse, he usually went first
to the Express Station. Apart form being the best shots in the territory, the
boys had formed into a group. They knew they could rely on each other and Sam,
and Sam could rely on them, no matter how bad things got. That was more than
Sam could say about the 'good townsfolk' of Sweetwater itself. It wasn't so
much that they didn't back him when it was really necessary, it was just that
their definition of 'when it's really necessary' came a hell of a lot later
than Sam would like it to.
"Late last night, the Wiltshire Brothers come into town. They went to the
White Horse and started drinkin'. Guess they had a bit too much 'cos they got
rowdy. Ben Wiltshire was losin' in a poker game and accused Pete Michaels of
cheatin.' 'Course Pete wasn't - he just had a run of pure luck. Anyways, Pete
got up too quick and Wiltshire shot him down in cold blood" He shook his
head sadly. "Pete wasn't even armed."
Sam paused, taking a gulp of the coffee Emma had silently placed before him.
"Wiltshire and his brothers left town in a hurry, shootin' at anyone who
got in their way."
"Anyone hurt, Sam?" Teaspoon asked quietly.
"Will Sloan's dead and a couple of drummers who come in on yesterday's
stage are hurt - one real bad." He shook his head. "One thing, there
were too many witnesses - Ben'll hang for sure."
"The Wiltshires won't take kindly to that." Buck understated the case.
While neither the wealthiest nor the most powerful family in the area, the Wiltshires
were notorious for looking after their own interests at the expence of others.
They'd been known to be a little quick to hang anyone suspected of 'cattle rustling'
on their land - even when there'd been no sign of any such rustling. A couple
of times a starving drifter had been known to be hung for eating 'stolen beef'
on their land. The thing was, the 'beef' had been rabbit. With no witnesses
apart from those who worked for the Wiltshires and couldn't afford to cross
them, Sam hadn't been able to do anything about it. Until now.
"Guess we know what's comin' next." Jimmy's pretended indifference
hid his sadness. Pete had been a friendly young fellow always ready with a joke.
Jimmy had never known him to have a bad word for anybody, and that wasn't just
speaking well of the dead. In this case, it was true.
"When d'you want us ready, Sam?" Even Cody had the sense to recognise
that smart comments weren't appropriate now - quite a rare occurrence. This
was serious. The townsfolk would never stand up to the Wiltshires. Bringing
in Ben Wiltshire was going against the head of the clan, Abe Wiltshire. That
was always a mistake, as too many people had found out the hard way. The thing
was, the revenge wouldn't come quickly. It would come in the form of an 'accident'
that occurred with no witnesses, except maybe a Wiltshire or two who would be
terribly sorry, but just got there too late.
"We can be ready in about 20 minutes, Sam. Lou's gone into town to get
Doc Whittaker. He'll be back soon."
"The Kid's worse?" Genuine concern coloured Sam's eyes.
"He's awake, but that knock on the head seems to have scrambled his brains
some. He'll be fine." Teaspoon was already planning who and what to take.
"Who's up next?"
"Jimmy. Cody's after him, then Ike. I guess Lou'd better stay and help
Kid get better." Buck answered.
"Hold on a minute. I really need you, Buck. Seems like Ben called home
before he took off. Picked up that Apache, Cold Eyes, to help him hide his trail."
Buck nodded his acquiesence. "Jimmy, you and Cody have done your share
this week. I'll manage with Lou and Ike, Teaspoon. Small posse'll be able to
tail them better."
"You sure that's enough, Sam? I may be an old dog, but I sure as hell know
a few tricks or two. Beggin' your pardon, Miz Emma." Teaspoon touched his
hat to Emma to apologise for his bad language.
Sam smiled. " Be right glad to have you along, Teaspoon."
"All right then." Teaspoon couldn't hide his satisfaction at joining
the hunt. Life with the boys was interestin', but he had a hankerin' to get
away now and then.
"Rider comin'." Buck always heard the riders first.
"Right. That'll be Lou. I'll tell him what's goin' on. Get ready boys.
We're goin' huntin'.
