Ole Devil at San Jacinto (Old Devil Hardin Western Book 4) (26 page)

However, although the meeting had been going
on for several minutes, it was clear to Ole Devil that no decision
had been reached. Either no leader had arisen with sufficient
strength of personality to dominate the group, or no member of the
anti-Houston faction was willing to accept the responsibility
personally.

All eyes turned towards Company
‘C
’ as they
approached and the rumble of conversation died away. There was not
a man present who was unacquainted with Ole Devil, although he
could not recognize any who he could claim as friends or
associates. One thing he did know, they were all aware that his
sympathies were definitely pro-Houston and they could probably
guess why he had come.

When some fifty yards separated
them from the crowd, Sergeant Smith gave an order, and, displaying
a military precision only rarely seen in the Republic of Texas’s
Army, the two files of Company ‘C
’ fanned out. They halted in a double
file, so positioned that the men in front were not in line of fire
of those at the rear, behind the human triangle formed by Tommy
Okasi, Ole Devil and Mannen Blaze.

‘
Well,
gentlemen
?’
Ole Devil said, standing ramrod straight in front of his
Company and sweeping the crowd with a cold gaze. ‘What’s all this
about?’

‘
Us fellers’re quick sick
of running,’ answered the burly man in the forefront of the
gathering, looking distinctly uneasy at finding himself apparently
being singled out to act as their spokesman. ‘So we,
all of us,
conclude it’s time
we did something else.’

‘
Don’t you think General Houston’s
doing it?’ Ole Devil challenged.

‘
Sure he is,’ scoffed a
speaker who was careful to keep himself concealed among the crowd,
when the burly man did not reply
—nor anybody else—for several
seconds. ‘He-all’s aiming to do the same’s he’s been doing all
along. Keep running away!’

Listening to the muted, so far anything but
unanimous mutter of agreement, Ole Devil was hard put to control
his temper. Yet he knew to lose it would be ruinous. Unless he
handled the situation correctly, he would ruin all his mission had
achieved and Paul Dimmock’s self sacrifice would have been made in
vain.

The latter consideration, even
more than Ole Devil’s sense of duty
—which would have compelled him to
intervene at the meeting anyway—made him determined to prevent the
crowd from carrying out their intentions. If they did, it was
almost certain that the majority of the Army—already furious and
eager to avenge the slaughter of the Alamo Mission’s defenders and
the massacre at Goliad—would insist upon accompanying
them.

So, although Dimmock’s death was
a great inducement
to succeed, Ole Devil knew that it must not be allowed to
cloud his judgment and lead him into a rashness which would have
disastrous consequences.

The situation was, Ole Devil realized, very
similar to the one he had faced on leaving the hollow at San Felipe
after the duel.

There was, however, one vitally
important difference
.

This time, Ole Devil could not
count upon the assistance of friends who appreciated the situation
and were mingling with the opposition so as to help him. Lacking
such an asset, he would have to rely upon his own knowledge of
human nature and
—although he had never heard of the word—crowd, or mob,
psychology.

Studying the attitudes and expressions of
the crowd, the young captain forced himself to control his growing
anger. Instead, he drew his conclusions in the deliberate and
calculating fashion which made him such a deadly efficient fighting
man and an extremely capable leader.

While the group might have congregated, as
yet they were far from being united in their purpose. Nor, which
was even more important, had any one of them displayed the cool and
forceful kind of personality that was needed to direct their
efforts. Unless one did, backed as he was by his grim-faced, loyal
and resolute Company, Ole Devil believed that he could disperse
them.

‘
And what do
you
say should be done?’
the young captain demanded, still addressing the person he had
apparently decided was the leader of the crowd.

‘
Me?’
came the indignant and not unexpected reply. ‘I just aim to
do what the rest of these fellers want to do.’

‘
And we aims to have us a fight is
what!’ declared the second speaker, still without allowing himself
to be identified.

‘
That’s what General
Houston intends to give you,’ Ole Devil pointed out. ‘But it will
be when he
, and not Santa Anna, wants it.’

‘
When’ll that be?’
demanded the voice from somewhere in the
center of the crowd. ‘After
Santa Anna’s growed too old to fight back?’

‘
Go and draw a line between us,
Tommy,’ Ole Devil said quietly, then spoke louder. ‘It will be soon
and, when it comes, we’ll have the best chance of licking Santa
Anna that anybody could want.’

Silence fell after the captain
had made the statement and every eye followed the little Oriental’s
movements. Advancing until he was half way between the two groups,
he employed
laijitsu
to whip out the
tachu.
Without as much as a glance at the puzzled
onlookers, he obeyed his employer’s instructions. Having done so,
he replaced the sword just as quickly and returned to his position
in front of Company ‘C’.

‘
All right!’ Ole Devil went on, his
savage scrutiny raking the faces of the crowd. ‘Are you willing to
let General Houston pick the time and place for us to tackle Santa
Anna?’

‘
Like hell we are!’ yelled the man
from the midst of the gathering. Although there was little obvious
support for his sentiments, he went on, ‘We aim to have us a fight
right now and that’s what we’re going to do.’

‘
Very well!’ Ole Devil
barked, pointing at the groove carved by Tommy Okasi’s sword. ‘If
all you want is to fight for the sake of it, hot damn, we’ll oblige
you! Anybody who’s so inclined, walk over that
line
—but be ready to start shooting as soon as you’re
across.’

A good two hundred strong, as
opposed to at the most forty-five men behind their challenger, the
dissidents still stood indecisive and exchanged glances. They all
knew the members of the Texas Light Cavalry’s hard-riding,
harder-fighting Company ‘C
’ would not hesitate to carry out
any
command given by the
Satanic-faced young captain. Nor would they be influenced by the
fact that they were confronting fellow Texians.

So every dissident was waiting for somebody
else to guide him!

Each knew that whoever crossed the line
would have a fight to the death on his hands!

There was a sudden, concerted sucking in of
breath as a man stepped forward!

Watching the tall, long haired, unkempt and
buckskin clad figure approaching, not a sign of apprehension showed
on Ole Devil’s Mephistophelian features. For all that, he was
consumed by anxiety. It seemed that his challenge was being
accepted.

Once the man reached the line, others were
sure to follow him!

When that happened, a situation
could erupt which was
going to end the Republic of Texas’s small Army as
a fighting force.

With a bitter and sinking
sensation in the pit of his stomach, Ole Devil told himself that
his gamble was not producing the desired results. Behind him, the
men of Company ‘C
’ stood like statues. Yet nobody who looked at them could
fail to appreciate their readiness to take whatever kind of action
might become necessary. Their very stillness, caused by the
instructions he had given as they were marching to the meeting, was
impressive and the crowd had taken notice of it. So he had felt
sure that, confronted by such a disciplined body of grimly
determined and well armed men, nobody in the gathering would be
willing to take the initiative against them.

That one should have, could be
disastrous.

However, there was one slight consolation
for the young Texian.

As yet, nobody else was moving forward!

Clearly the rest of the crowd was waiting to
find out what happened when the man crossed the line!

There was, Ole Devil decided, only one
chance of averting a full scale clash.

If the buckskin clad man could be killed
swiftly, unexpectedly, and without any suggestion of hesitation the
moment he crossed the line, his companions might have second
thoughts about following.

Using the techniques for drawing and firing
the Manton pistol which he had developed, Ole Devil was confident
that he could do it.

However, the young Texian also appreciated
the dangers of such an act.

There was a possibility that the crowd would
feel called upon to avenge their self appointed leader.

Yet to yield and let the man cross would
weld the onlookers into a united band against which no kind of
verbal argument would prevail.

It was, Ole Devil knew, always best to take
a positive action in such conditions.

Even if to do so meant taking the life of a
brave, if misguided man!

From his position to the right
and rear, Mannen Blaze could not see his cousin’s face. For all
that, he could guess at the way Ole Devil was thinking. Remembering
what was
at
stake and, also, how Paul Dimmock had willingly given his life to
bring it about, Ole Devil was in the state of mind when he was at
his most ruthless and dangerous.

In the
redhead’s opinion, the life
expectancy of the advancing man was no longer than it would take
for him to walk four more paces. The moment his foot passed over
the line drawn by Tommy, in the hope that the suddenness of his
death would dissuade the others, Ole Devil would kill him in his
tracks.

There was no other way to deal with the
situation!

Not with the future of the Republic of Texas
in the balance!

Nor after Paul Dimmock had allowed himself
to be killed to bring about the state of affairs that the crowd’s
wish to march south was threatening.

In the next few seconds, the fate of all
they had been striving for would be resolved!

One way or the other!

‘
I’m
coming over there,
Cap’n Hardin, sir,’ the potential leader announced in carrying
tones which, despite having a somewhat different timbre, reminded
Ole Devil of the unknown agitator’s voice. ‘And I ain’t like
some’
s’s a-scared to show themselves when they talking big about
wanting to

Fight
.’

For all the employment of the
honorific, ‘sir’, the young Texian decided that the words had an
undesirable import. Obviously the speaker had the kind of nature
which must accept
any
challenge. Furthermore, his comment suggested that he could
not be the agitator who had remained incognito among their
colleagues.

‘
I
told you how it is
if you come across,’ Ole Devil said, in flat and dispassionate
tones, making the words sound more of an unavoidable fact rather
than a threat or a warning. ‘So on your own head be it if you
do.’

‘
I’m coming
over,
cap’n,’ the man repeated.

A silence which could almost be felt had
come over the crowd. Every eye was fixed upon Ole Devil and his
challenger to the exclusion of all else.

At the most, two more steps would see the
latter crossing the line!

Standing motionless, but with his Satanic
face as implacable as fate, Ole Devil was getting set to bring free
and discharge the Manton pistol!

The man stopped a good stride clear of the
dividing mark!

‘
Only not to take you up
on it, sir
,’ he went on, as a sighing gasp arose from the crowd and
the members of Company ‘C’ alike. ‘No sir, Cap’n Hardin. By grab,
you’re right in what you said and I’ll be honored to stand
alongside you on it.’

‘
And I’m with you, mister!’ called a
voice to which excitement, or some other emotion, had given a
timbre closer to a contralto than a tenor. ‘We’ll get all the
fighting we want when General Houston knows the time’s right for
it. So, by cracky, that’s good enough for me.’

For all the somewhat effeminate tones, the
figure which stepped forward was very masculine in appearance. Not
that, with the wide brimmed black hat on his head and a luxuriant
mass of bushy black whiskers, much could be seen of his features.
Buttoned to the neck, a heavy black cloak-coat obscured him to the
top of his riding boots and his hands were buried in its
pockets.

‘
And for me,’ seconded the
man in the buckskins. ‘We ain’t scared of
’em none, but we all
know just how big an army Santa Anna’s got. Say what you will about
Sam Houston, he is neither a fool nor a coward. If he don’t want to
lock horns with ’em, it’s cause he knows the time ’n’ place isn’t
right. When it be, he’ll be out there ahead and leading us.’ He
darted a scathing look over his shoulder at the crowd. ‘Not staying
hid like some when they’re making big talk about wanting to fight
and gets offered the chance. Be it all right if I step up and join
you, Cap’n Hardin?’