Brother's Keeper (19 page)

“That bastard shot me!” Murry complained.
“What did you think he would do, invite you down to lunch?” answered Jess.
“Yeah, well he shot me first! And mine is worse that yours!” hollered Carl. A dozen more shots pounded the rocks and edge of the hill all around the three of them.
“I told you two to be careful. Now stay down. At least we know where he is and he can’t come out because he would be too exposed. There is no other cover for him except for the clump of bushes. Can you two still handle your Winchesters?”
“Hell yes,” replied Carl, angrily, “I’ll put some lead in that bastard for shooting me.”
“Murry, how about you?” asked Jess.
“Just say the word; I’m ready to start shooting.”
“Carl, you start first. Murry, you start firing when he’s empty and keep a steady but slow firing pattern to give Carl enough time to reload before you’re empty. Carl, you start reloading as soon as you’re empty and then start firing again as soon as Murry is empty. That should keep him busy while I try to get a shot at him.” Carl and Murry nodded as if they understood what Jess wanted.
“Hold on just a minute. I guess we should ask if that really is Aker down there.” Jess hollered out as load as he could. “Mister, we’re looking for Lloyd Aker. If you’re not him, now would be a good time to let us know.”
There was a moment of silence, as if the man was deciding what to do. A loud voice boomed back. “You can tell Heath Connor I’ll see him in hell with that bitch of a wife of his!”
“Well, I guess we have our answer,” said Jess. “If it isn’t Aker, the man down there just made his last mistake. Okay boys, start shooting.”
“I guess we’re really bounty hunters now, huh Murry,” exclaimed Carl, as he began firing his Winchester steadily.
“Hell yes, I damn well guess we are,” replied Murry.
“Shut up and keep throwing lead,” Jess added, as he rolled back over between the bushes and propped his Sharps back into the forked branch. He kept looking at the bushes above the large boulder and he could see some lingering powder smoke rising from the left side of the bushes. Carl’s shots were hitting all around the area. As soon as Carl’s Winchester emptied, there was a pause that lasted only a few seconds. A few rounds came back at them from the bushes; one hitting the rock that Carl was now crouching behind, feverishly reloading. Jess saw a muzzle flash coming from the left of the bushes. He picked out the spot where he had seen the flash. He figured the man, hopefully Aker, would fire off a few rounds again when Murry finished. Jess figured right. As soon as Murry stopped, Jess spotted the muzzle flash again and at the very same instant, the Sharps barked, aimed directly at the muzzle flash coming from the bushes. Jess heard a howl and saw the bushes move. A few seconds later, he saw a rifle clatter down out of the bushes. He held up his hand to stop Carl from shooting. They waited for a few minutes.
“I think I might have hit him. I’m going to go down there and I need you two to cover me. Split up a little more so you both have a sharper angle at the bushes. That way there will be less of a chance of hitting me with a stray bullet if you boys have to open up. Murry, take my spare Winchester and make sure both of yours are loaded. If he opens up again, I want both of you to open up at the same time from both angles.”
Jess left the Sharps on the hill. He grabbed his Winchester and slowly worked his way down the hill towards the other side. The bushes where the shots had come from were on the other side about twenty feet above the valley. Jess approached cautiously and used whatever cover he could find, which wasn’t much at all. He finally made his way to the boulder and stopped there for a moment.
“Aker, you in there?” asked Jess. No answer.
“I have two men with Winchesters on the hill across from you. If you so much as make a move, they will open up on you.” No answer. Then, Jess heard a horse. He worked his way around the large boulder, which was the size of a small cabin and then he saw it. Aker lay dead at the mouth of a cave. He had a few wounds from the Winchesters, but it was the Sharps .50 caliber that obviously put the large hole in his chest. He was in a sitting position against the wall of the cave. Jess made sure he was dead and then he waved for Carl and Murry.
“Leave the horses up there and come on down.”
Jess walked into the cave, which really opened up after the first twenty feet or so. It was a steep drop and it opened up into a large cavern with a small waterfall pouring down from one side of the cavern into a large deep pool of pristine water. There were four horses tied up to a small log that was lying by the pool of water. There were remnants of a few piles of hay by the pool. Jess heard Murry holler loudly outside the cave opening.
“Son of a bitch!”
“I told you to be careful,” Carl yelled.
“Goddamned rocks!” exclaimed Murry. The two of them came into the cave, Murry limping and Carl looking in amazement at the cavern.
“What happened?” Jess asked. Murry just groaned.
“Clumsy idiot tripped over a rock and sprained his ankle,” replied Carl, smiling because it wasn’t him this time.
“Sprained hell, I think it’s broken!”
“Aw, quit your complaining. Hey, we got Aker and now we have enough money to open our place back East,” said Carl. Murry smiled at that and then went back to moaning. Carl looked around and spotted a large pile of gold bars with some saddlebags next to them. He walked over to the saddlebags and sure enough, they were stuffed plumb full of cash. There were empty saddlebags lying by the gold bars.
“Guess he had to keep handling it,” said Carl.
“I’ve heard that gold will do strange things to a man. I hear it can make a man go crazy. He probably had to handle it every night before turning in,” added Jess.
“Looks like they planned this thing pretty well,” added Murry.
“I think so,” replied Jess. “They hauled enough hay in here for the horses and they stashed enough food for a month in here. They placed enough extra bushes around the opening that no one would have seen it unless they walked right up to it. Pretty slick.”
“He almost got away with it,” replied Carl, looking out at Akers dead body.
“Yeah, but he didn’t know he was going to be hunted by the best bounty hunters in the business,” said Murry, proudly.
“Let’s get the gold loaded up into the saddlebags and get these horses out of here. We have a bounty to collect and a pretty good one at that.”
Both Carl and Murry agreed with that. They loaded up the horses and Carl and Jess walked them up the hill. Murry had to ride because of his ankle. They collected their stuff and headed back into town. Akers dead body was tied down to his horse.

HEY ARRIVED BACK IN
H
OLTEN
in the late afternoon. Sheriff Mathers had seen them come in from the east end of town where the

livery was. He noticed it because there were three men and a string of horses following, and one of the horses had a body strapped across it. He walked into the livery as Jess was handing Gray over to the liveryman.

Mathers asked.
“I thought about what you said about him having dug
himself a hole and buried himself, so I took a guess that he
must have had a cave that he was hiding in,” answered
Jess.
“Yeah, but how did you ever find it? We combed
those damned hills pretty good.”
“You would’ve never found it, even if you passed
within ten feet of it. It was hidden real well behind some
bushes.”
“Jess here decided to do some practice shooting with
that new Sharps rifle of his,” added Carl. “He kept
pounding those hills until we finally got a response from
Aker.”
Mathers chuckled as he turned to Jess. “You mean you
kept shooting at the hillsides waiting to see if you’d get a
response?”
“I figured we had to do something different,” replied
Jess. “No one had any luck any other way. Besides, I
needed the practice with the Sharps and I got pretty good
with it. Sheriff, let’s go over to Heath Connor’s house and
personally deliver this piece of crap along with his gold
and money.”
The sheriff grabbed the reins of the horse carrying
Aker’s body and Carl and Murry held the reins of the
horses carrying the gold and the cash. They headed down
the street towards the Connor house. Heath Connor was
waiting on the front porch of his house. He had heard
already that some bounty hunters with a dead body had
come into town and the truth was Heath Connor pretty
much knew whatever happened in town as soon as it
happened. He stood as he watched Jess, Sheriff Mathers,
and two more men walking horses towards his house. He
looked Jess straight in the eyes and Jess could see tears in
Heath Connor’s eyes.
“Is…is it Aker?” Connor asked, his voice breaking up
with raw hatred.
“Yes it is,” replied Jess, grabbing Aker’s hair and
lifting his head so that Connor could see it was Aker. “I
told you if we found him, I would kill him. I wanted to
deliver his carcass to you personally.” Connor hung his
head in silence for a moment as if in deep thought. His
head rose slowly.
“Mr. Williams. I don’t know how I can thank you. I
will be indebted forever for what you have done for me.
You sir, can have anything from me that you wish,
anytime.”
“Thank you, Mr. Connor, but the reward will do just
fine for us.”
“Sheriff,” Connor shifted his gaze to Sheriff Mathers,
“I want you to take this piece of crap out to the edge of
town and place his body spread eagle and face up. I want
to be able to watch the vultures and coyotes pick his bones
clean.”
Mathers shook his head. “Man, that’s pretty cold, Mr.
Connor. You sure you don’t want me to just bury him?” “There is no way that bastard will ever get a decent
burial. He doesn’t deserve it or anything else meant for a
decent human being.”
Mathers had long ago learned better than to argue with
Heath Connor when his mind was made up. “If that’s what
you want, that is exactly what you’ll get, Mr. Connor.”
The sheriff headed back towards the east end of town
towing Aker’s body behind him.
“Mr. Connor, we got all your gold and money here in
these saddlebags,” said Carl. “It took us damn near an hour
to load it all up.”
Connor nodded, and that’s when he noticed that the
two men had been wounded. “You men should see the
doctor and tend to those wounds.”
“We will as soon as we get your money in the house.
Besides, we ain’t hurt all that bad,” said Murry, almost
proud of his flesh wound.
“Bring all of it into the house,” said Connor. Jess
followed Mr. Connor into the house and Carl and Murry
started carrying the saddlebags into the house. It took them
several trips, especially with Murry limping with every
step.
“That’s all of it,” Carl said, as he dropped the last of
the saddlebags. “Jess, we’re going over to see the doctor and then get cleaned up at the hotel. How about we meet
for some supper in the hotel café at five?”
“That sounds real good to me, boys. You two did real
good out there, by the way,” Jess added.
“Well, we did have you to lead us, that’s for sure,”
replied Murry.
“Yeah, but you still did good. Some men would have
got on their horse and ran for the hills at the first shot. You
two stayed at it, even after you were wounded. That counts
for something.”
“I guess that we really are bounty hunters then?”
asked Carl.
“Yeah, retired bounty hunters,” said Jess, with finality in
his voice that both Carl and Murry understood. Both of
them headed out to see the doctor and get a good hot bath.
Connor motioned for Jess to take a seat.
“Would you like a brandy, Mr. Williams?”
“I don’t drink much of the hard stuff, but yes, I think I
will.”
“So, are you retiring after this job?”
“Oh no, those two are, not me. It was the deal I made
with them. I would help them get the reward for Aker and
they promised me they would go back East before they
ended up dead.” Jess explained the story about how they
were going to make enough money to open up their
establishment and how they had come out here to make
quick money at bounty hunting to do it.
Connor laughed at that. It was the first time he had
laughed in quite a while. Then, he looked at Jess with a
serious look. “I have a business suggestion for you Mr.
Williams.” He told Jess what he was thinking about and
Jess did in fact, like the idea. Jess finished his drink and as
he stood up, he told Connor he needed one more favor. “Anything, all you have to do is ask,” replied Connor
with a smile.
Jess went back to the livery and took care of Gray and
got a few of his belongings. He went to the hotel and got a
nice hot bath and headed down to the café to meet with
Carl and Murry. The two of them were already seated and
sharing a fine bottle of whiskey. Jess joined them. “I figured we could afford the good stuff now,”
exclaimed Carl.
“Well, this isn’t what I would call the finest whiskey,
but it sure is better than that rot-gut we drank before,”
added Murry. “Jess, you want a shot of this?”
“No, but I will have a beer.” Murry motioned over to
the barkeep and he brought Jess a beer.
“This has been an exciting day for me,” said Carl. “I
can’t believe we actually did it.”
“Of course, we couldn’t have done it without you,
Jess,” added Murry. “I don’t think we can thank you
enough.”
“The good thing is that you have enough to start your
business back in New York and better yet, you’re both still
alive to see it happen.” Carl and Murry both looked at each
other and back at Jess.
“Well,” Murry said, somewhat sheepishly, “we are a
little short of what we had planned. We wondered if we
might try one more job before we go back.” Carl said
nothing; he just kept his head down.
“Not a chance in hell,” Jess said firmly, “you boys
made a deal with me and you’re going to keep it.” “But Jess…we…”
Jess cut Carl off in mid-sentence. “No. We made a
deal and that is the end of it. I won’t hear any of it. You
two are going back to New York or I swear I’ll shoot the
both of you myself and get it over with.”
“We did make a deal,” Murry said, “and we’ll stick by
it. We just thought…”
“I have another deal for you,” said Jess, cutting Murry
off in mid-sentence.
“Oh yeah, what might that be?” Carl asked, getting
excited.
“I want you two to take the entire six thousand dollars
of the reward money. I’ll keep the five hundred reward
from Curley Simms.”
“Now who is backing out of a deal? We were
supposed to share the money,” said Murry.
“We are, but I want to invest my share in your
business. I figure it should buy me a ten-percent share of
the profits since you two will be doing all the work. Sound
like an okay deal with you boys?” asked Jess.
“Consider it done, my friend,” said Carl.
“Yeah,” added Murry, both men shaking hands with
Jess to seal the deal.
“Maybe we can get those padded leather chairs right
away after all,” said Murry.
“And maybe the carpeting. I think we can cut back on
the crystal glasses and some of the fancy woodwork,”
added Carl. Jess shook his head as he spent the rest of his
meal listening to the two of them bantering back and forth
about their business.
“I guess all we have to do next is collect our money
and get some tickets for the train,” said Carl, as he sat back
in his chair with another shot of whiskey in his hand. Jess smiled as he reached into his back pocket. “No
need for that. I already have you two booked on the train to
New York. I also have your bank draft for the six thousand
dollars and I will personally put the two of you on the train
leaving out tomorrow.”
“I heard the train to New York didn’t leave until the
day after tomorrow,” Carl said, confused.
“Mr. Connor was nice enough to change the schedule
for me. It leaves tomorrow and your two sorry butts will be
on it,” Jess responded, with that same finality in his voice. “Sounds like our friend here has been busy,” Murry
said to Carl.
“I didn’t know you wanted to get rid of us so fast,”
added Carl.
“The faster, the better,” replied Jess. “I need to protect
my investment.” They all laughed at that.