Range War Along the Pecos, by John Theron Crow

Range War Along the Pecos

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

 
Logan knew them well, but was puzzled as to why they would be in this part of the country. The obvious leader of the bunch was Captain Russell Fogg. Captain Fogg would be about thirty-eight years old by now, Logan guessed. He was about six feet two inches tall, and wore a moustache and at this moment, was in need of a shave as he was sporting about two days growth of a beard. He was wearing a confederate shirt, and jeans with army issue riding boots with the jeans tucked inside. He had on two Colt 44 caliber pistols, the left one rigged for a right-handed crossdraw, and he carried himself with an obvious air of authority.
Captain Fogg had ridden for the Texas Rangers before the war, and had made quite a name for himself in the fifties. When the war broke out, he joined up with William Quantrell's raiders in Missouri, feeling as though the regular Confederate army was too tame for his methods. Quantrell was never officially claimed by the Confederate side where he was viewed as nothing more than a raider and plunderer. However, even Quantrell's ways were too tame for Fogg, and he soon broke off from that group and formed his own.
At one point, him and his men had burned an entire town to the ground in Kansas, and it was rumored that he had had all the men and teen-age boys of the town executed, although it had never been actually proven that he had been personally responsible.
Though his methods were ruthless and brutal, his courage was unquestioned. Many times, his raiders had defeated Yankee forces two or three times their size by charging into their midst, reigns in teeth, and pistols in each hand, completely decimating them. It was said that he'd never suffered an actual defeat during the whole course of the war, and his guerilla tactics were the terror of the countryside.
After the war, it was he, who first began robbing banks, along with what was left of his group. However, unlike the James brothers, he did not stay with it but accumulated enough money to return to Texas and purchase a ranch. Part of that spread had at one time belonged to Duncan Murdoch before he sold out and moved his herd out west with his son Angus.
From there, it was widely believed that Captain Fogg built his heard by cattle rustling, at first, from below the border, and later, from neighboring ranches. Needless to say, a number of range wars had ensued. Fogg had emerged victorious in every case. His men were all expert with guns, and all, save his son and three others, had been with him as guerilla fighters during the war, and some, had been rangers before that. The other ranchers that had tried to best him with guns had found that they were no match for Captain Fogg and his men. He had ended up building a sizeable herd.
Unfortunately, it had also been rumored that him, or at least some of his crew, were responsible for several stagecoach robberies. After a time, although they could not prove anything, the ranchers banded together, and with the help of the state police, ordered him and his men to leave the territory or be forced out. The mob was too much even for him, and he elected to leave peaceably. The last Jesse had heard, was that Fogg and his boys had re-located down into Mexico and had been raising all kinds of hell down there.
Jesse glanced over at the other men. There was Fogg's son, William, whom everyone called Billy. Billy would now be about a year younger than Jesse at eighteen. He had a reputation as an extremely fast draw, and the nerve to match it. He was known to be reckless and quick to start a fight--and to finish one as well. He wore only one Colt, a Navy thirty-six, on his left hip. It was rumored that he'd killed fourteen men, three at once on one occasion. He was about Jesse's height and walked around with a cock-sure expression of confidence on his handsome face. He was clean-shaven and had shoulder length black hair with piercing green eyes. Jesse notice Conchita staring at him appreciatively. Her look did not go unnoticed by young Billy who smiled, winked, then made an obscene gesture towards her with his tongue.
But it was the third one through the door that most caught Jesse's attention. He was a man who appeared to be in his late twenties, five-eleven to six feet in height. He was wearing a brown Stetson, and buckskin shirt with fringes only on the shoulder, along with stovepipe boots with the jeans tucked in. He wore no mustache and like Captain Fogg, appeared to have about a two day growth of beard on his face. He sported two tied-down Remmington 44s slung low on his hips. His eyes were extremely piercing and appeared to be an almost translucent black. His face appeared to have been chiseled out of granite and carried a hard, forbidding look about it that made the gaze of most men falter almost immediately.
Logan knew this one alright. His name was Tyler Dain. In the years following the war, at least twenty-three men had gone down before his guns, many of them expert gunmen themselves. It was said that not a one of them ever had time to even level his pistol before being drilled through with 44 caliber holes. There was no telling how many men he had killed during the war. His eldest sister had been Captain Fogg's wife, and Billy's mother, but she'd been killed by Comanches shortly after the war. Billy's own prowess with a six-shooter was due largely to Dain's tutelage. Logan knew personally, that this was one thoroughly dangerous gunman.
Three others, who were easily recognizable as brothers, Logan knew to be the Zales, Pete, Jim and Matt. All were about six feet in height, and all wore two guns, one tied down on the right hip in normal fashion, and the other on the left set up for the cross-draw. All three had killed several men in gunfights since the war, and any one of them was considered extremely dangerous.
The next two were Dancing Jack Haylock, and Bob "Mad-dog" Morely. Both, expert gunmen in their own right. Haylock had earned his nickname by compelling captured Yankees to dance as they tried to dodge his bullets. He would tie their hands above them to a tree limb and remove their boots and socks then step off a few yards back. He would then practice his quickdraw, firing at their toes until he'd shot each one of them off. Naturally, each one of these unfortunates would dance around in a vain attempt to cause him to miss, which he rarely did. When he did however, he would allow the man to keep that toe.
Mad-dog Morely had killed several men and was thus named due to the fact that when in combat during the war, he went nearly insane with a killing rage, foaming at the mouth much as would a rabid dog. He would fight any man at the drop of a hat, except for his compatriots from the war who served with him under Captain Fogg.
The last man was particularly noticeable. He was a dark-skinned giant of a man, Jesse guessed about six feet seven or better, with long black hair worn Indian style, a Colt Dragoon on one hip in cross-draw fashion, and a wicked looking Bowie knife on the other. He wore high topped Indian moccasins and no shirt, only a brown cowhide vest, exposing tremendous muscles and a huge hairless chest with numerous scars from various knife, bullet and animal encounters. His left ear was missing due to a fight with a mountain lion which he had finally killed with his bare hands.
Logan knew of this one too. His name was Lance Nighthawk. He was half Irish and half Shawnee Indian. This one also, was a legend in his own right, largely due to his great strength, and the many men he'd killed with just his hands. Although he had the appearance of a savage, he was in fact, well educated due to the efforts of a Methodist missionary couple who took him under their wings in the Indian territory (what is now Oklahoma) during his childhood years. Nighthawk had lived alternately with various Indian tribes, Comanche, Blackfoot and Cheyenne, as well as Whites, learning the customs of all. He had joined up with Captain Fogg during the last year of the war, after living with the Blackfeet Indians for over a year up in Montana.
Until now, Jesse had thought Brazos Murdoch was probably the strongest man in the country, but now, he was no longer so sure. This man was tremendous! It was also known that he was fast with his gun, and deadly accurate with a rifle. In his belt, there were a number of scalps, which appeared to be mostly Indian although a couple could have been from Anglos or Mexicans.
During the latter part of the war, when Captain Fogg had a prisoner who was reluctant to divulge certain information, he would call upon Nighthawk to help loosen the man's tongue. Nighthawk had learned a variety of torture methods during his years with the various Indian tribes, and had devised a few of his own. The last man who had refused to give out crucial information on enemy troop movements broke down after only a couple of moments under Nighthawk's tender care.
Nighthawk had removed the man's clothing and staked him out spread-eagle on the ground, with the wind blowing in the direction of the man's crotch. He had then gathered up driftwood and kindling which he'd piled up beginning from between the man's knees, and culminating at his crotch where the pile became the densest. He'd then lit the fire at the man's knees and sat back to watch the wind blow it up towards the man's groin area. The soldier broke down and told them all they wanted to know well before the fire reached his groin. Captain Fogg had complimented the man on his common sense and reasonableness and then, had promptly hanged him.
Jesse wondered what in the heck they were doing here. He knew that this wasn't all of them. Where were the rest? This certainly looked to be among the worst of them though, the hard core (so to speak), of Fogg's raiders. This was a dangerous bunch. Even the dreaded Dunstall gang, which Johnny Lancer had ridden with (and later helped bring down), had been run out of their territory and had wisely elected to leave them alone after a few shootouts with them where the Dunstalls had come up on the short end. To back down the Dunstall gang was no small feat, and if Logan's memory served him correctly Johnny Lancer had been a member of that gang at around that time.
The nine men strode up to the bar and Captain Fogg ordered whiskey for all of them. It wasn't long before Billy Fogg began eyeing Jesse in a challenging way. Dain noticed and tapped Billy on the shoulder, then shook his head warning him off. Dain then approached Jesse, and Billy wandered over and began flirting with Conchita Mireles.
Dain helped himself to a chair across the table then sat down. He smiled ironically. "Howdy, Logan." Dain said simply.
"Long time no see, Tyler." Logan replied. "What brings you rowdies into this neck of the woods?"
"Don't know that its any of yer concern, Logan."
"Maybe, maybe not. But I reckon you owe me one anyhow, Tyler, so out with it."
Jesse was referring to a time when he had backed up Dain in a Gunfight down in Gonzales.
Dain had gunned down a pistolero down in Piedras Negras Mexico a month previously. The man had been popular and had several brothers and pistolero friends. Seven of them had trailed Dain to Gonzales. Jesse had been there hunting down a cattle rustler who had killed one of Murdoch's hands that year. While playing poker with Dain and a couple of cowhands, Dain had admitted to Logan that he knew where to find the man, but had refused to tell. As Dain had left the game and walked outside the saloon, Logan saw the Pistoleros stop him on the street. They began cursing Dain in Spanish. Dain, had slowly turned and faced them, hooked his thumbs in his gunbelts, and then simply smiled. Logan admired such courage, nevertheless, he knew the gunman was about to meet his maker and decided to step in.
He quickly rose and stepped out the door, then walked up beside Dain. The pistoleros had been slightly taken aback, but had spread out in preparation for the fight. Dain had said, "Hell pardner, I had 'em all in a bunch til you got here and screwed it all up."
That had brought a smile to Logan who said, "Wouldn't want you to have all the fun to yerself, pardner." Logan had turned slightly to his left, and Dain to his right in order to keep the pistoleros covered. Then the pistoleros had gone for their guns. Logan, fanning his right handed 44 with his left, downed three instantly and looked over to Dain who was already in the process of holstering both of his pistols after downing the other four.
They had introduced themselves, and both were genuinely surprised when they learned each other's names. Each, already had enormous reputations, and knew about the other. After introducing themselves to each other, Dain thanked Logan by giving him the information he sought. Logan had left with a healthy respect for Dain and his ability with guns. He went on to catch up to, and gun down the rustler, but he never forgot Dain, or the fact that Dain had killed four to his own three.
"Ah, what the hell." Dain said. "Cap Fogg, boys, this here's Jesse Logan. Saved my ass once down Gonzales way."
"Yeehaawww, yelled Billy Fogg, Mr. chained lightnin' hisself. Ya wanna show us some peeestola tricks, MISTER Logan?" Billy asked, pretending to be in awe of Jesse, yet sporting a disdainful smirk upon his handsome face.
Jesse could see that Billy was prodding for a fight, and was about to reply when Captain Fogg commanded, "Shut up Billy!" and strode over to the table and sat down with Logan and Dain. Fogg ordered a bottle of whiskey and three fresh shot-glasses. Dain said, "Captain, seems Mr. Logan here wants to know what we're doin' round these parts. You want to tell him?"
"I don't suppose it would do any harm, unless he works for a Yankee skunk named Tanner." Fogg said while looking directly into Logan's eyes challengingly.
Before Logan could reply, a deep voice said, "Nope, he works for Murdoch, has off and on for years." The voice came from Lance Nighthawk. Continuing, Nighthawk said, "I met Murdoch's friend Zach Baynes down Big Bend way about a month ago. We never liked each other, but he had gotten himself in a fix with the Apache down there and I got him out. He told me a lot about the Murdoch spread and who works for him. In fact, I expect he'll be back here in a day or two if he's not already. He said he was coming back for a while."
That was good news as far as Logan was concerned, Baynes might be of help in tracking down Jared Ransom or whoever shot at him the night before.
"That's right interesting Mr. Nighthawk, but what the hell does me maybe working for Tanner have to do with any of this?" Logan asked impatiently.
"Well, we ain't got no beef with Murdoch yet." Fogg said, placing emphasis upon the word "yet."
"Course if'n he's friends with that damned Yankee Tanner, we may have soon." Fogg continued.
"You got a beef with Murdoch, then you can start with me, Captain." Jesse said quietly, his eyes gazing steadily into those of Fogg's.
"Murdochs' bout as friendly with Tanner as a grizzly is with a panther." Nighthawk interjected, breaking the tension that had suddenly filled the room.
"If you boys got a quarrel with Tanner, it sure ain't gonna break my heart none." Logan said.
He was debating telling them about the problems that had been shaping up. But the fact was, Logan instinctively did not trust Fogg or his men. Dain, maybe, but he was Fogg's man, and Fogg was loyal to no one but himself. Jesse took a swig of beer then asked, "You folks want to tell me what brings you to dislike Tanner, besides the fact that he's a Yankee?"
Dain laughed. "Hellfire, ain't that enough reason fer anybody?" he asked grinning.
"The bastard's squattin' on my land fer one thing, we found part of his herd on it, leastways, it had the MT brand." Fogg grumbled. He then went on to explain.

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