Doc Holliday was ailing badly, so Kid Taylor recommended that he go to Colorado Springs, where he hoped the mineral waters could help. Wyatt Earp decided to go with him, only along the way Doc got better enough that he stopped to party in Denver and got himself arrested. Worse still, Arizona territory demanded he be extradited to face trial for his part in the Earp Vendetta Ride.
Earp sent word back to Bat Masterson. Masterson had contacts with the Governor and figured he could work out a plan, so he headed off to Denver, leaving Other Miller deputized as Sheriff in his absence.
No sooner had Masterson left than Other Miller ended up finding a commotion in town. A rancher and a group of his cowhands had rode into town and dragged a drifter out of Masterson's Saloon, ready to hang him. Allegedly, the drifter had murdered the rancher's older son and then fled, he'd been spotted by chance in Trinidad by one of the cowhands.
As Sheriff, Miller couldn't let a mob hang a man in town, so he stood down the dozen men. Things were tense, as Miller could be quite intimidating but of course he was out-gunned, but Texas Jack Vermillion was there too. Texas Jack had initially been all for the hanging, but he vouched to the rancher (named Morrison) that Other Miller was a good man and would see justice done. The rancher reluctantly agreed, not wanting to kill a lawman and wanting even less to be killed by one. They took the drifter into the town jail, the drifter insisting all along that he was innocent.
Other Miller's instincts as a lawman told him that the drifter's pleading that he was innocent sounded sincere. The drifter claimed he'd been in the creek behind the main ranch house when he'd heard a gunshot. He headed to the house to find out what was happening and saw the ranch foreman in front of the house who quickly shouted that the drifter had shot Robert (Morrison's son). Several men (including Morrison's younger son Tad) ran after him but he turned and fled.
The men Morrison left behind to keep an eye on the jailhouse had a different story. They claimed that the drifter had gone into the ranch-house and tried to have his way with Robert's wife, but Robert apparently interrupted him and after a tussle the drifter killed Robert with his own gun, then he fled. Robert's wife Emily had seen everything and that was her story, and the foreman and Tad had both seen the drifter fleeing the ranch house.
Needing answers, but realizing that if there were secrets at the ranch he might not be able to get them himself, Other Miller decided to call on Kid Taylor for help. Taylor had, this past month, set himself up in a small medical practice in Trinidad; so Other Miller wrote a letter to Morrison explaining that for the upcoming trial he wanted Taylor to examine Emily. Kid Taylor and Texas Jack rode off with a couple of the cowhands that were returning to the ranch.
Along the way, a couple of miles down the road from Trinidad, Kid Taylor spotted a tent, with a man leaning on a tree keeping an eye on the road. By the look of the man, and the looks the man was giving him, Kid realized he was almost certainly a bounty hunter. All of Earp's Immortals were now wanted in Arizona, with a hefty reward (dead or alive); and while hunting them in Colorado was illegal, that wouldn't be likely to stop some bounty hunters from bushwhacking solitary riders outside of town and then dragging their carcasses back across the Arizona line. It was clear that at least this time, with four riders, the bounty hunter wasn't going to try anything.
Morrison wasn't too keen on Emily being interviewed, but Kid Taylor had a great gift for social manipulation. Soon he'd gotten Emily and Tad alone and immediately used his fast-talking skills to get Tad to let slip that he'd murdered his own brother, because his brother had been beating Emily. Kid Taylor didn't particularly want to see Tad hang, but he came up with an idea: he made up a story about having gotten Emily to release repressed memories of the man who'd "really" attacked her: the bounty hunter he'd seen on the road. Between his gift of gab and Emily's ability to burst into tears to manipulate the old man, Morrison believed it. They rode out that night with a dozen men.
They reached the Bounty Hunter's tent, but he'd heard them coming. When it was obvious they were all there to get him, the bounty hunter (who had hidden behind some bushes) shot one of Morrison's men. But Kid Taylor had spotted him and drew. The bounty hunter's reaction was so quick that he got a shot off, but missed. Kid Taylor didn't, shooting the bounty hunter through the head, and thus conveniently avoiding any chance of the bounty hunter to plead his innocence.
Morrison sent word the next morning for Other Miller to drop the charges against the drifter. He also sent, by way of apology, an envelope full of money for the drifter. Other Miller let him go and he took the first train out of town.
About two hours later, an Army officer knocked on the sheriff's door. Apparently the drifter had actually been a deserter who'd killed a fellow soldier. If Kid Taylor hadn't been so quick to resolve the situation, the deserter would have been caught and hung.
Oh, and finally, word came from Tombstone: the town had suffered another devastating fire. There was hardly any loss of life, but over 100 buildings burned to the ground, including half of Crazy & Other Miller's properties there.
RPGPundit
Currently Smoking: dunhill shell diplomat + C&D's Crowley's Best
No comments:
Post a Comment