The RECKONING: A Jess Williams Western (17 page)

CHAPTER ELEVEN

              In the morning, Jess woke and gathered up his things and headed to the dining room. He had breakfast and thanked Martha for her hospitality. He asked Martha about Billy’s ma and how she got the bad leg. Jess had spotted her a few times down at the stables talking to Billy. She told him the story of how Billy was playing in the street when a bunch of hooligans raced their horses through town and Billy’s ma had to grab him and pull him out of the way of the horses. Unfortunately, not before she had her leg broken by one of the horses. They had no money for a doctor and she had to set the bone herself. It never healed right and she’s limped since. Jess walked over to the stables and found Billy, who was brushing down a horse.

             
“Hey, Billy, got my horse ready?” he asked.

             
“Morning Mister Williams,” he said excitedly. “I can have him ready to go in just a few minutes.” Billy went about getting Gray ready.

             
“Billy, how’s your ma doing lately? I noticed her visiting you a few times. Does she work?”

             
“Well, she cleans houses, but has a hard time getting much work,” he replied sadly. “That bum leg sure slows her down a lot. She can’t get around very well, but we do the best we can. That’s why I work here so much. The twenty dollars you said you were going to pay me will sure help a lot. We still have a deal, don’t we?”

             
“Yes we do, but I figure I need to change the deal a little,” he said.

             
A worried look came over Billy’s face, as if he was about to be let down.

             
“Actually, I figure with all the risks you took, I should pay you say…how about one hundred dollars?” Jess asked him.

             
Billy’s mouth opened, but nothing came out right away. Finally, he responded, “Why would you give me that much money?”

             
“I figure maybe your ma could go and see a good doctor and set that leg right,” he replied.

             
“Mister Williams, you’ve got a friend for life for sure,” exclaimed Billy.

             
“Well, Billy, I need all the friends I can get. Listen, if you need more money for your ma’s leg, you just get hold of a man named Jameson at the bank in Black Creek, Kansas,” said Jess. “He’ll know how to reach me and I’ll do what I can to help. Killing bad men seems to pay off right nicely.”

             
“As long as you don’t get shot doing it,” he agreed with a grin.

             
“Can’t argue with you on that point, Billy,” he said. “Listen, you take care of yourself and your ma, okay?”

             
“Sure thing,” replied Billy. “Where are you headed?”

             
“Heading for Texas,” replied Jess. “Seems one of the other men I’m looking for has been seen down there in a little town called Timber.”

             
“Boy, I sure wouldn’t want to be him, that’s for sure,” said Billy.

             
“No, you surely wouldn’t,” replied Jess. He took the reins from Billy and walked his horse down to the sheriff’s office. As Billy watched Jess, he thought to himself that he wanted to grow up to be just like him. A bounty hunter who was fast with a gun and yet could still be a nice fellow.

             
Sheriff Manley was sitting out in front. He looked sober and he seemed to be in a surprisingly good mood.

             
“Good morning to you, Mr. Williams. “I suppose your heading for Timber?”

             
“Yeah, got a date with a dead man there, hopefully,” he replied.

             
“Well, I want to thank you for cleaning up the town here a little,” offered Manley. “I know I ain’t the best sheriff in these parts, but what you did will make my job a lot easier for sure.”

             
“I guess there’s a silver lining in every cloud. Sheriff, will you do me one more favor?”

             
“Sure, you name it,” he replied.

             
“Take five hundred dollars of my bounty money and wire it to my bank in Black Creek, Kansas,” he said, handing Manley a piece of paper. “Take the other hundred and give it to the boy at the stables.”

             
“Billy?” asked Manley, a look of puzzlement slowly forming on his face.

             
“Yeah, he and his ma need the help, especially with her bad leg and all, and he did take good care of my horse.” The sheriff grinned. He had gained a lot of respect for this young man, Jess Williams. Truth be known, Manley always had a soft spot in his heart for Billy and his ma. If he had been doing his job right, maybe that accident with the horses would’ve never happened. Manley had always felt a little guilty about it.

             
“That’s a mighty nice thing for you to do Mr. Williams, mighty nice,” exclaimed Sheriff Manley. “If you ever come back to my little town, look me up; I’d like to buy you a drink.”

             
“Thanks, Sheriff. You take care.”

             
“I will and you do the same,” he replied.

             
Jess climbed up in the saddle and headed slowly down the main street. Martha was standing in the doorway and she waved goodbye. Jess smiled and tipped his hat at her. As he rode out of town, he thought that maybe he would come back again and take Manley up on his drink offer. That way he would get another chance to see Martha, but not yet; not until he finished his task and killed the other two men he was hunting.

***

              Hank Beard and Blake Taggert had left Tarkenton about two weeks after they had arrived there. They headed for Red Rock first. Blake still had some family there. The plan was for all three of them to meet up at the Taggert house in Red Rock after a while. Hank was in Red Rock for less than a week when he heard from his old pal Ben Grady, who was in a small town in Texas called Timber. Grady had wired a message to Taggert’s family for Hank figuring they would get it to him sooner or later. Hank wired him back and they continued to send some messages back and forth. Ben Grady had a plan to rob the man he worked for in Timber and wanted Hank in on the deal. Hank thought it was a good way to make some quick money so he agreed to meet Grady.

             
“So, are you heading for Timber?” Taggert asked Beard.

             
“I guess so,” he replied. “We’re running low on funds. Hell, we haven’t robbed anyone or anything in a while. We’ll have to do something soon or we’ll all have to get a real job.”

             
“No chance of that happening,” replied Taggert plainly. “I ain’t working for money as long as I can take someone else’s.”

             
“Hey, barkeep, how about two more whiskeys?” asked Beard, waving at the barkeep. Beard and Taggert had been bellied up to the bar in one of the saloons in Red Rock for over two hours and both of them had had their share of whiskey.

             
“Well, one of us has got to do something,” added Beard. “That dog Randy hasn’t done a thing but chase skirts back in Tarkenton. I ain’t seen any money from him or you.”

             
“Simmer down,” replied Taggert. “I told you I had a plan to rob that family out the other side of town. I hear they keep their money hidden in the house ‘cause they’re afraid of putting the money in the bank.”

             
“Yeah, well planning is one thing and doing is another,” retorted Beard. “You best get to it and real soon.”

             
“You can count on it,” he replied deviously. “You know what else they got there?”

             
“What?”

             
“A nice young pretty daughter,” he replied with an evil smile on his face. “She looks to be about fourteen and pretty as a cactus flower.”

             
“You just can’t pass up a pretty face, can you?” asked Beard. “Why can’t you pick on some older women instead of the young ones? I didn’t like what you did to that little one back in Black Creek.”

             
“Hastings in the one who shot her after I was finished with her,” he argued, as if that made what he did okay. “Anyway, I hear this family has several hundred dollars stashed.”

             
“We can sure use it,” said Beard. “I’m going to head for Timber in the next few days and if that works out as planned, we’ll have enough money to take care of all three of us for quite some time.” They finished their whiskeys and ordered two more.

***

              Jess headed southwest and made camp at dusk. He woke at dawn and rode for about two weeks without seeing a soul. That kind of solitude bothered some men, but Jess rather enjoyed it. It gave him a lot of time to think and to practice with his pistol. One morning, he had ridden only about two hours before he finally crested the top of a hill and looked down on a lovely sight. There was a large meadow with a river running through it. The river meandered through the meadow and just before it headed back into a wooded area; it took a ninety-degree turn.

             
Right at the point of the turn, Jess spotted a tent with a smokestack poking through the top of it. There was a horse grazing the meadow untied and a rocking chair outside the tent. It was about noon and Jess figured he had to be close to the town of Timber. He figured that whoever was living in that tent might know something about the man he was hunting. Jess made his way down to the tent. When he was about one hundred yards from the tent, he heard a low raspy voice holler out. “That’s close enough, mister!”

             
Jess reined Gray up and stopped. He could see a man peeking out of the front of the tent holding a long rifle that looked like an old beat up buffalo gun. Jess got down from his horse.

             
“I mean no harm,” he explained. “Just need a cup of coffee and maybe some talk, that’s all. I’m not looking for any trouble.”

             
“Well, come on then and let me get a good look at ya,” said the raspy voice.

             
Jess slowly walked up to the front of the tent. A rough looking man with a bushy beard came out and looked him over real good. Jess stood very still not wanting to set the man off, especially while he had that rifle pointed at him.

             
“You one of them bounty hunters?” asked the man.

             
“I don’t really think of myself as a bounty hunter.”

             
“Sure do look like one.”

             
“I’ve been told that before.”

             
“Who you looking for?”

             
“I’m looking for a man by the name of Hank Beard; you know him?”

             
“Name don’t ring a bell, but I’m not good with names anyway,” he said. He put the rifle down as if he was no longer worried about Jess’s intentions.

             
“Speaking of names, I’m called River Bend Bill. What’s yours?” he asked.

             
“Jess Williams.”

             
“Nice to meet ya, Jess Williams.”

              “How long have you been living out here?” he asked, looking at the raggedy old tent.

             
“Oh, ’bout five years or so,” he replied. “I can’t recall for sure. How ’bout that coffee? I got the pot, if you got the coffee.” Jess tied Gray off and got some coffee out. After Jess poured them both a cup, he showed him the drawing of Hank Beard, but Bill didn’t recognize him.

             
“So, how’d you get the name of River Bend Bill?” asked Jess.

             
“Well, I suppose it’s ‘cause of where I live. Right here, by this bend in the river,” he replied. “Can’t live in town, they’d just throw me out.”

             
“Why?”

             
“Well, it’s a long story you see,” he explained. “There’s a woman by the name of Patti Nate in town. I guess I kinda like her, but so does the sheriff, Mark Steele. Every time I go into town and try to talk with her, he gets all riled up and runs my ass out. I keep going back and he just keeps running me out. I think she’s sweet on him, but she was with me first, so I figure I’ll keep trying as long as she ain’t hitched to him yet.”

             
“Sounds like you got a fight on your hands,” implied Jess. “I wish you luck.”

             
“Yeah, thanks,” he replied. “I’d a wupped his ass already, exceptin’ he wears that badge and that gives him a lot of leeway, you know. Plus, I think she’s impressed with that badge, course I guess most women are, don’t ya think?”