Texas Kill of the Mountain Man

Book 48: Mountain Man

by William W. Johnstone, J.A. Johnstone

Genres: Action & Adventure; Historical Fiction; Westerns

Synopsis

A New York Times Bestseller

Bestselling western authors William W. Johnstone and J.A. Johnstone take their best-known sharpshooter Smoke Jensen deep into the heart of Texas, where justice comes from the barrel of a gun . . .
 
Welcome to Texas. Now Go Home.
 
Smoke Jensen has met some down-and-dirty, murdering prairie scum over the years. But this time it's personal and it's bloody—and going to get bloodier. First, they stole fifty of the hundred horses Smoke delivered to his old friend Big Jim Conyers in Tarrant County, Texas. Then they stole two thousand cattle from Big Jim . . . and killed him just for the fun of it. Now they're going to pay . . .
 
The leader of this unholy band of devils is Delbert Catron—but everyone calls him The Professor. Whatever he's called, he leads the most ruthless gang of vicious kill-crazy desperadoes this side of the border. Hellbent on avenging his friend's murder, nothing will stop Smoke Jensen from hunting down these killers.
 
And celebrating justice . . .
 
Live Free. Read Hard.

 

Release date: December 1, 2020

Publisher: Pinnacle Books

Print pages: 289

Sample

Laramie County, Wyoming Territory

Emma was hanging up her wash when she saw a rider approaching. At first she felt a sense of joy, thinking perhaps her husband was returning from his trip, but as that rider came closer, her joy turned to dread.

“My husband isn’t here,” she said, when her unwelcome visitor rode right up to her and dismounted.

“That’s good, because I didn’t come to see him. I came to see you.”

“What do you want, Marvin?”

“You know what I want, Emma. I want you. I’ve always wanted you. Come with me now. We can start a new life somewhere else, just you and me.”

“No, Marvin. I made my choice a long time ago.”

“How can I convince you that you made the wrong choice?”

“You can’t convince me. I didn’t make the wrong choice.”

“All right, then, at least invite me in for a cup of coffee. I’ve come a long way today, and you owe me that much.”

“What do you mean, I owe you? Why would I owe you anything?”

“Let’s just say it’s for the memory of the way it once was between us.”

“There was never anything real between us, Marvin,” Emma said. “Except in your imagination.”

“But I thought we were enga—Well, at least let me leave with some dignity. A cup of coffee together? Would that hurt?”

“All right,” Emma replied with a resigned sigh. “One cup of coffee, then I want you to please leave.” She nodded toward the clothes basket which was half-filled with just washed items she had not yet hung up to dry. “I need to finish hanging out my clothes.”

Minutes later, Marvin followed Emma into the house. As soon as the door was closed behind them, he grabbed her, then turned her around, and even as she was fighting him, he forced a kiss on her. “You want me, you know you do.”

“No, no, go away. Leave me alone!” Emma slapped him.

Marvin smiled at her, but the malevolent smile was without warmth. “All right, bitch. As you said, you have made your choice.” He pulled out his pistol and brought it down on her head.

She dropped to the floor and he fell upon her, ripping off her clothes and having his way with her. She regained consciousness in the middle of his attack and tried to fight him off, but he was too strong for her.

When he was through he stood and looked down at her naked and bruised body. “If I can’t have you, he can’t either.” Marvin pulled his pistol and shot her in the stomach, then left her moaning on the floor behind him.

The clothes on the line were flapping in the wind as he rode away.

Three months later

Smoke Jensen sat on the top rail of the corral looking at the horses that had just been brought in. These were five of the one hundred horses he had just sold. The contract not only called for the delivery of one hundred horses, it also specified that the horses be saddle broken.

Four of the horses had been broken, but so far, three riders had been unable to break the fifth. His ranch hand was about to try.

“Cal, there’s no need for you to break your neck trying to ride that horse,” Smoke said. “Turn him loose. We’ll just keep him as a stud for breeding. We can replace him with another.”

“Now, Smoke, if you order me to do that I will,” Cal replied. “But I’d like to give it a try. I don’t like to think that a horse can get the better of me.”

“Ha!” Pearlie said. “If you ask me, that horse already has the better of you. Why, I wouldn’t doubt but that he could beat you at checkers.”

“We’ll see,” Cal said as, without any preliminaries, he swung into the saddle.

The reaction of the horse was instantaneous and violent. The horse leaped straight up with all four legs leaving the ground. Coming down on four stiff legs jarred Cal, but it didn’t dislodge him from the saddle. On the next move, however, the horse kicked his back legs into the air so that his back formed about a sixty-degree angle pointing to the ground. The maneuver caused Cal to be tossed forward over the horse’s head, where he wound up lying on his backside.

“Cal! Are you all right?” Smoke shouted. Jumping down from the fence, he hurried over to the young man who had become more like a son than an employee. “Are you hurt anywhere? Is anything broken?”

“Nah, I’m all right,” Cal said as Smoke and Pearlie helped him to his feet. Cal put his hands, gingerly, to his backside. “I’ll tell you this, though. I don’t think that horse is going to let anyone ride him.”

“That’s because he hasn’t had anybody who knows what they’re doing try it yet,” Pearlie said.

“Are you telling me that you can ride him?” Cal asked.

Pearlie smiled. “You just watch.”

The horse was tethered by a long rope to a pylon in the middle of the paddock. The idea was to let the horse run in concentric circles, the circles decreasing as the rope wound itself up on the pylon.

Pearlie mounted the horse but he, too, was thrown from the saddle perhaps even more quickly than Cal had been.

“I’ll tell you what,” a sheepish Pearlie said as he regained his feet. “That horse just pure dee doesn’t want anyone to ride him.”

“It’s not worth someone getting a broken neck,” Smoke said. “Turn him loose and bring in a replacement.”

“All right, Punch. It looks like you’re going to get your way,” Pearlie said as he began removing the saddle. “Out you go.”

“Punch?” Cal said.

Pearlie nodded. “He punched three others out of the saddle before he took us on,” Pearlie said. “Can you think of a better name?”

“He’s Smoke’s horse,” Cal said. “It’s up to Smoke to name him.”

“Punch it is,” Smoke said.

“Are you going to try and ride him, Smoke?” Cal asked.

Smoke chuckled. “No, and I’m not likely to try and stick my hand up a bear’s butt, either. I told you. We’ve got enough horses to meet the contract, so we don’t need this one.”

“Which just goes to show how smart you are and how dumb we are,” Pearlie said.

“I’m going to check with Herman and see how he’s doing,” Smoke said, turning away from the others to complete his task.

“I hate confessing that the horse beat me.”

Smoke heard Cal’s remark as he headed toward the toolshed that was being remodeled by Herman Nelson.

As he approached, Smoke heard sawing and knew Herman was gainfully occupied. Behind only Pearlie and Cal, Herman was the most dependable of all his permanent hands. One thing Smoke particularly appreciated was how efficiently Herman took over the ranch and ran it during the many times Smoke, Sally, Pearlie, and Cal were away.

When Herman saw Smoke approaching, he stopped sawing. “Hello, boss. Is there anyone left that’s crazy enough to try and ride that horse?”

“Did you try?” Smoke asked.

Herman laughed. “Oh, yes, I have to admit that I was the first one dumb enough to get throwed by ’im. ’N I’m tellin’ you right now, even if you ask me to, I don’t plan to try again.”

“I’m not going to ask anyone else to try,” Smoke said. “I don’t want to take a chance on anyone getting his neck broken. How are you coming in here?”

“I need some angle iron for the shelves, and I’ll have this place looking like some grand mansion somewhere,” Herman said proudly.

“How many do you need?”

“Three per shelf, four shelves, so I’ll need twelve.”

“All right. I’ll make a run into town,” Smoke said.

“Great, I would love to go into town,” Sally said enthusiastically in response to Smoke’s announcement of his plans a few minutes later. “I have so many errands to run.”

“I was just going to run into town and come right back. I hadn’t really planned on you—” Smoke stopped in midsentence.

“You hadn’t planned on me what?” Sally challenged.

“Uh, I had no idea you would be willing to go into town with me. What a pleasant surprise this is. I’ll be happy to have you go into town with me.”

“Oh, Smoke, you say the sweetest things to me,” she teased. “I can be ready right away.”

Kansas and Pacific Railroad Depot, Big Rock, Colorado

Roy J. Clemmons and Sue Martin were two of the six passengers who stepped down from the train. They stood out from the others—four men were wearing jeans and cotton shirts. Clemmons was wearing a black suit with a red vest over a white, collared shirt with a black string tie. His dark hair was perfectly coiffured, and his moustache, which didn’t extend beyond each end of his lips, was well-trimmed.

Sue stood out, not only because she was an exceptionally pretty woman with bright red hair, but also because of what she was wearing. The provocative V-neck of her dress was low enough to show the tops of her breasts.

“Our train doesn’t leave for six more hours,” Clemmons said. “There is plenty of time for us to earn a coin or two.”

As they walked away from the depot, they paid no attention to the two riders, man and woman, just coming into town on Jensen Pike, the road that came in from the west.

“I’ll go on down to Earl Cook’s place,” Smoke said. “You can do whatever it is that you have to do.

“It shouldn’t take me too long,” Sally said. “If you don’t mind, I’ll just go on back home when I’m done.”

“I may be a little later,” Smoke said.

“Tell Louis I said hello.”

“What makes you think I’ll be going to Longmont’s?”

“I don’t know. What makes me think the sun will set in the west tonight?” Sally replied with a little laugh.

Smoke Jensen was in Longmont’s Saloon sitting at Louis Longmont’s special table with Louis.

“What are you doing in town at this time of day, anyway, Smoke? Is there not enough to keep you busy out at Sugarloaf?” Although Louis Longmont was a longtime resident of Big Rock, he still spoke with the lilt of a French accent.

“We’re gathering some horses to take down to Texas, but Pearlie and Cal seem to have things well in hand,” Smoke answered. “Who’s your new girl?”

“What are you talking about? I don’t have a new girl.”

“That one,” Smoke said, pointing to an attractive young red-haired woman who was setting drinks before the card players. Though what she was wearing was as provocative as what was worn by any of the other bar girls, even Smoke could tell that her dress was more expensively made.

He recognized only two of the players.

“Oh, non, monsieur. She isn’t working for me. She came in with the man in the suit. But you have changed the subject. What brought you to town in the middle of the day?”

“Sally had some things to do, so I volunteered to come with her, to help out.”

Louis chuckled. “Oui, one can easily see that you are being a big help.”

“I am being a big help. Sally said I would be most helpful just by staying out of her way.”

“You could have stayed out of the way by staying out at the ranch.”

“That’s true,” Smoke agreed. He held up his beer. “But then I couldn’t be sitting here talking with you. Anyway, I had to take care of something down at Earl’s.”

“What did you need done at the blacksmith shop?”

“Nothing major. I just needed some braces made for a few shelves I want to put up in the machine shop.”

Their conversation was interrupted by a woman’s scream. They looked toward the source and saw that someone had grabbed the red-haired woman who had been the subject of Smoke’s earlier observation. The woman’s assailant had his arm around her neck. He was holding his pistol to her head, but he was yelling at the well-dressed man sitting at a card table.

“You’ve been cheatin’, mister! You’ve been cheatin’ from the moment I sat down here. And this woman has been helpin’ you.”

“What are you talking about? I haven’t done anything!” the woman said, her voice breaking with fear.

“Don’t give me none o’ that, lady. Do you think I don’t know how you’ve been sneakin’ around behind all of us, givin’ him signals ’n such on what cards we was holdin’? Now all of you, get up and leave the money on the table. We’ve been cheated out of a lot of money, and I plan to get back my share of what he stole.”

Smoke stood up and walked toward the table while aiming his pistol at the man holding the woman hostage. Because everyone’s attention was on the scene playing out before them, neither they, nor the man with the gun, saw Smoke until he was within ten feet of the table. When the man did see Smoke, he jerked around, still holding his gun to the woman’s head.

“Stop right there, mister!” he called out, angrily. “What is it you think you’re about to do?”

“I’m not real sure, but it could be that I’m about to kill you,” Smoke said, his voice flat and completely emotionless.

“What do you mean, you’re about to kill me? Are you blind? Don’t you see that I have a gun pointed toward this woman’s head?”

“Now that you mention it, I have noticed that. By the way, you might also have noticed that my gun is pointed at you.”

“Drop the gun, mister. Drop it now, or I’ll kill the girl.”

“All right, go ahead,” Smoke said easily.

“What?” the man asked, shocked by Smoke’s response. “Look, you don’t understand. If you don’t drop the gun now, I’m goin’ to kill her!”

“Yes, you keep saying that. The truth is, mister, you’re in a bit of a quandary here, aren’t you?”

“A bit of a what?”

“You’re in a bit of a fix. If you move that gun toward me, I’ll kill you. If you shoot the woman, I’ll kill you. So if you are going to shoot her, go ahead and do it. If you don’t drop it, I may just go ahead and shoot her myself so we can get this over with.”

“I . . . I don’t believe you.”

“Why not? I don’t know her, so she doesn’t mean anything to me.”

The man who was holding the woman looked at Smoke and saw the black hole of the end of the pistol pointing straight at him. His eyes grew wide in fear, and small beads of perspiration popped out on his forehead and his upper lip.

“I’ll give you to the count of three to make up your mind,” Smoke said. “One.”

“You’re crazy!”

“Two.”

“No, no!” The man dropped his gun and took his arm away from the woman’s neck.

Quickly, and with a little cry of relief, the woman darted away from her would-be assailant to join the suited man at the table.

“Thank you, mister. You saved my life,” the woman said.

“Yes, well, this would have never come up if you hadn’t been helping your man cheat,” Smoke replied.

“What? Why, I never!” the woman said.

Smoke didn’t know the gunman, nor the card player the woman had run to, but he did recognize the other two players, though he knew the name of only one. Ivan worked at the stable, the other player he knew only as a cowhand who worked on one of the area ranches.

“Ivan, are you a winner or a loser?”

“Ha, are you kiddin’? I’m down fourteen bucks,” Ivan said. “Dobbins is losin’, too,” he added, nodding to the cowhand across the table from him.

“How about it, Dobbins? How much money are you down?” Smoke asked.

“I’m down twenty-two dollars,” Dobbins said. “It was damn foolish of me to lose that much money. That’s a month’s pay for me.”

“What is your name, mister, and how much have you lost?” Smoke asked the would-be gunman.

“My name is Crabtree, Buster Crabtree, and I’ve lost twenty-eight dollars, all to him!” Crabtree pointed directly across the table.

“And who would you be?” Smoke asked the winner.

“My name is Clemmons. Roy J. Clemmons.” The man spoke with the accent of someone from the Northeast.

“You’re a little out of your territory, aren’t you? What are you doing in a place like Big Rock?”

“Sue and I arrived by train this morning. We are on the way to San Francisco, where I have taken employment at the Blue Chip Club. I’m sure someone like you has never been to San Francisco, so no doubt, you’ve never heard of the club.”

“The Blue Chip Club is a gambling establishment on Lombard Street,” Smoke replied.

Clemmons’s eyes opened wide in surprise. “You know the place?”

“I know the place. I also know that it has a reputation for hiring gamblers who can assure the house wins by manipulating the cards.”

“I-I don’t know what you are talking about,” Clemmons stuttered.

“Mr. Clemmons, there is no doubt in my mind but that you were cheating these three men, and I’m quite sure your woman was involved in some way. I don’t approve of what Mister Crabtree did, but I can understand what drove him to do it. So here’s what you are going to do. You are going to return the twenty-eight dollars to Mr. Crabtree, the twenty-two dollars to Mr. Dobbins, and the fourteen dollars to Ivan. Then each of you are going to take out whatever money you have put in the pot for this hand. Gentlemen, this game is over.”

“Now, just why in the hell should I do such a thing?” Clemmons asked, angered by Smoke’s demand.

“Because I’m holding a gun and you aren’t,” Smoke replied easily. “And I could kill you long before you can get to that holdout gun you are keeping just under that bright red vest.”

“And here I thought you were my hero for saving me,” the woman said as Clemmons began counting out the money, then reluctantly returning it to the other three players. “Why, you are nothing but a thief with a gun.”

“Yes, ma’am. Well, some folks steal with a gun, and some folks steal by using a good-looking woman to signal what the other card players are holding.” Smoke replied.

The three men began counting their money and putting it away.

“Mr. Crabtree, we aren’t going to have any more trouble with you, are we?” Smoke asked.

“No, sir, I’m satisfied that all is well. And I apologize for makin’ such a damn fool of myself. I also thank you for bein the only one of the two of us to show any sense this morning.”

Louis had come over to the table. “Monsieur Clemmons, I believe you said that you arrived on the morning train?”

“I did.”

“Then it is my suggestion, monsieur, that you return to the depot and await the earliest train that can take you out of town.”

“You’ve got no right to order me to stay in the depot,” Clemmons said

“Oui, that is true. I can only offer that as a suggestion. However, as the owner of this saloon, I am telling you to leave my establishment now and never come in here again.”

“Yes, well you certainly don’t have to tell me that. I’ve no intention of remaining in an establishment owned by somebody who would countenance robbery at gunpoint.” He glared at Smoke. “Nor do I intend to stay in this town any longer than the very next train. Come, Sue, let’s get out of this place.”

The others in the saloon applauded as Clemmons and the woman left.

Smoke returned to his seat.

“Annie,” Louis called to one of the girls who did work for him. “Bring us two more beers, would you, mon cher? These have grown flat.”

“So, when are you going to Texas?” Louis asked when the beers were delivered.

“Just as soon as we get the horses gathered and broken, we’ll be taking them to Big Jim Conyers at his ranch near Fort Worth.”

“Why do they call him Big Jim?”

“Well, he’s six feet seven inches tall, and he weighs nearly 300 pounds. Does that give you a hint?” Smoke asked with a chuckle.

“Mon Dieu, that is a big man,” Louis said.

“Yes. He’s also a pretty big man in Tarrant County, and I’m not just talking about his size.”

Sugarloaf Ranch

Seeing a plume of dust in the long, dedicated road that approached the ranch, Sally Jensen smiled, then stepped out onto the wide porch so she could watch his arrival. The road—on the state and county maps it was called Jensen Avenue—came from Big Rock and served at least four more ranches and half a dozen remote houses before; reaching the eastern boundary and passing under the entry arch with the name of the ranch, Sugarloaf, fashioned from wrought-iron letters above. But she knew Smoke had no intention of riding under the arched entry.

He left the road, then, urging his horse Seven into a mighty jump, sailed over the fence almost as if on wings. After successfully negotiating the fence, he galloped into the compound before pulling the horse to a stop and leaping down from the saddle.

Sally stepped out to the railing to look down at her husband. “Well,” she said with a wide and welcoming smile. “It does my heart good to know you still think of me as someone you would gallop home to.”

“Sally, my love, I would soak my trousers in kerosene and ride through a forest fire to get home to you.”

“What? And expose Seven to such danger?” she quipped.

“If I asked it of Seven, he would do it without hesitation. He is the greatest horse in the world!” Smoke augmented his comment by patting the hard-breathing animal on its forehead.

Sally laughed. “Smoke, you have said that about every other horse you have ever owned. And you have named every one of them Seven.”

“That’s true, and they were the greatest horses in the world, too.”

“Don’t be silly. There can only be one greatest,” Sally reminded him.

Smoke held up his finger and waved it back and forth. “No, that’s the schoolteacher in you talking. If you love horses, you know there can be as many greatest horses as you want.”

Again, Sally laughed. “If you say so.”

“How are things going here?” he asked.

“Here comes Pearlie. You can ask him yourself.”

Smoke’s foreman was Wes Fontane, though not one out of a hundred people who knew him knew what his real name was. He was Pearlie to one and all.

“Is Earl goin’ to be able to get them angle irons done?” Pearlie asked as he approached.

“Pearlie!” Sally said in a chastising tone.

For just a second, Pearlie looked confused, then he smiled and nodded. “I said them angle irons, ’n I was supposed to say those, wasn’t I?”

“Very good.”

“So, Smoke, did—”

Smoke held up his hand. “Just say the word those.”

“What?”

“I already heard your question. Just change them to those and I’ll answer. There’s no need to repeat the whole question.”

“Those,” Pearlie said.

“Yes,” Smoke replied,. . .