Chapter 05

Going South

We take our time and spend eighteen days going to Albuquerque after making a lot of short stops at farms and hamlets along the way. After the first few days we sell the farmers some things they need, but not yet so desperately for them to take a few days off to go to town. Most of what we’re selling is flour, salt, gunpowder, coffee, and some cloth.

Arriving in the late afternoon we circle Albuquerque to camp near where the families of my first group live. Jesus has José put a minimal guard for the night from the new men while the rest of the men are given leave to visit their families. We stay in our wagons for the night.

The next morning I tell the wagon families we’ll be here for a few days if they want to check out the town, some do and they walk into town as a group. I drop in on Miguel where I find out the people at BH Land have bought the new Town Marshal and he has a warrant for my arrest.

I smile. While in Santa Fe I saw a judge to get Federal Warrants and handbills issued in the names of all of the remaining members of The Cause: they’re wanted for murder and kidnapping with a reward of one hundred dollars each. I had to pay for the reward up front. Also, with the rewards paid out for the bandits I’m now an official and approved bounty hunter as well. This could be interesting because I can get some of my money back so I may end up with a bit of profit too, thanks to the bandits’ bounties.

Cleaning Albuquerque

After Miguel tells me BH Land is now run by two men called Wills and Hawkins, two members of The Cause, I smile at him and I head uptown with Tom, Steve, and Loki by my side. Loki is about the fastest of the Great Danes and a real handful because he has a very wicked disposition. So I take him along to keep him under control.

I reach the Town Marshal’s Office and I walk in. He looks up at me. I don’t know him and it’s clear he doesn’t know me. I drop the warrants for Wills and Hawkins on his desk while saying, “Morning, Marshal, where in town will I find these two men?”

He looks at the drawings and names then he gulps while saying, “They run BH Land Development now. Who are you?”

I grin as I say, “I’ve many names, Marshal, when I’m out collecting bounties most people call me Mexican Ed.” He flinches at the name so I add, “By your reaction I’d say you heard of me.”

He nods, “Some cowboys came through here about a week back and told how you took out ten men who tried to kill you at lunch in a restaurant then later killed two dozen bandits in a cantina at dinner time. They said you were a bad one to cross and no one should try to interfere with your meals. I figure they may have been a bit long in the numbers, but there must’ve been some truth to it, somewhere.”

I laugh and say, “Lunchtime it was five men and a woman while I was paying the bill and dinner time was sixteen half-drunk Mexican bandits with six of them killed by my friends. I believe these two are expecting me to be after them and their friends so they probably hired some guns to slow me down or to take me out. Anyone tries to interfere will die when they do try. I’ve got a personal beef with these people as well as the official one.” I wave the stack of the other Cause people I’ve warrants on while I talk.

He takes the stack and goes through them to point to three more, Bell, Hawkes, and Preston while saying, “They’re in town too.” I nod my thanks and I walk out.

I’m surprised when the Marshal doesn’t rush out and away to warn the targets. But I keep heading up the street to the BH Land office while I say, “Steve, Tom, I’ll walk up the road while you two best get over to the side-walks so they don’t immediately associate you with me.” Neither answers before they peel off to walk over to the side-walks, Tom on my left and Steve on my right while Loki stays at my heels. When we’re about thirty yards up the street I check behind me to see the Marshal taking a slow walk along the side-walk while watching us with his hand well away from his gun.

Steve reaches the street we’ll be turning down and he’s waiting at the corner. I slow down so Tom has time to get ahead and cross over. Once he reaches the opposite corner I angle across to enter the side street near a saloon on the corner. When I approach it five men come out and head toward me as they aim for some horses just down from the saloon. The group includes Bell, Hawkes, and Preston.

Hawkes sees me and yells, “There’s the bugger, let’s kill him now.” All five go for guns so I race to the side and draw my belly gun while also reaching for my left shoulder gun.

I get the first shot off and Bell drops with a very red chest while I get my second gun out as I duck behind a wagon. By now the street is fast emptying while people duck for cover, most into shops. My next shot is buried in a burst of gunfire from the remaining four, Steve, and me. They’re not much good with a gun as only two of the rounds fired at me hit the wagon in front of me while I hit one of the extra men in the chest and Steve shoots Hawkes in the back. Surprised at the gunshot behind him Preston starts to turn while I move out to fire with my left hand while re-cocking with my right and Steve opens up with his left hand. Preston takes a round from Steve high in the side of his ribs while the fifth man loses his chest when re-cocking his pistol. All five are down so that’s it and no harm to us at all.

I turn to look down the street to see the Marshal standing, empty handed, in a shop doorway with his eyes popping out, so I wonder if he’s ever seen a gunfight before. Both Steve and I take a moment to reload before moving to check on the dead.

We’re quick to strip them of their valuables and guns, confirm which horses are theirs, and strap the dead to them. I ask the Marshal to take them back to his office for me while I finish my other business. He nods yes while he takes the reins to lead the horses and bodies away. With a nod at Steve and Tom I continue down the street.

We arrive outside the office of BH Land Development and we go into our prepared plan. Tom crosses over to go round the back to cover the back door to shoot anyone he knows and anyone coming out the door with a gun in their hand. Steve waits to follow me in when the shooting starts, if he’s needed to back me up. I hold the warrants in my left hand with my shotgun in my right when I enter the office.

Walking in I glance at the four armed men sitting around the back of the front room. I walk over to the secretary and I drop the papers on her desk while saying, “I’m a bounty hunter here serving these federal warrants to arrest Wills and Hawkins. Please tell them to come out with their hands up and make it easy on us all.”

One of the men comes up to looks at the papers. He makes a slow reach for them and I nod for him to take them as I’ve copies. He turns and goes into the back office. The door closes behind him. I move over to lean on the wall opposite the secretary where I can watch everyone at once. Through slitted eyes I watch them with my right hand on the cocked shotgun ready to swivel up and my left hand is near my already cocked belly gun. From the corner of my left eye I can see Steve outside the window peeping in while he leans against the woodwork beside it and he watches the state of play; he has both hands on gun butts.

The back door opens and the man returns with Wills behind him. When Wills gets in the doorway he looks at me and yells, “Kill him.”

I swivel the shotgun up to fire it and the belly gun. My position has the Dragoon aimed at one of the armed men sitting down and he takes the .44 ball in the chest while both Wills and the man with him lose a leg each from the shotgun blast. Both remaining gunmen start to stand so I swivel left, firing both guns again. I’m getting good at this body aiming, and I’m not sure how well it’ll work at the several feet between us. But I get this guy in the belly when he’s half up and he goes back down again. The other gunman takes most of his shotgun blast in the chest.

I nod for Steve to watch outside while I move toward the door to the back room. I can see movement in there but I don’t fire yet because I don’t know who it is or what they’re doing, and I don’t want to shoot any innocent bystanders. Hearing a shotgun blast and a pistol shot from behind the building I rush the door to find two men with guns near the back door. One of them is Hawkins so I just shoot him in the neck with the Dragoon. The other turns and raises his gun so I fire the shotgun and he loses his chest.

Approaching the back door I call out to Tom, he replies and he soon walks in. I watch while he reloads and then he watches when I do the same. We take time to check out all of the dead and we strip them of valuables. Steve enters and he starts going through the papers in the office while I start dragging the non-bounty dead out the back door. Tom stands at the front door to refuse people entry after he sends a message for the undertaker to come to the back door.

Steve finds a few copies of the deposit lists and maps with them marked. So he’s quick to switch them for copies he brought with him, because we expected this may be the case. After checking everything he leaves to get a wagon to take the valued dead to the Marshal. We’ve a bonus because Perkins is here as well. That’s six more of The Cause list of people killed today.

While Steve is away I ask the secretary to get the other members of the BH management together for an urgent meeting. She darts off to do so while Tom and I drag our three wanted to the front door, I want the world to see this bit. The undertaker arrives and he loads up the extras out the back. He’s leaving when Steve returns and the BH management arrive. I explain to them what happened and I suggest they restructure without the dead. They nod yes and leave to have a meeting elsewhere.

Back at the Marshal’s Office we hand over the collectable dead to get a receipt to take to the courthouse for payment of the rewards. The Marshal promises to find out where the men stayed and to look after the rest of their effects. I smile as I nod my agreement. He pulls out a handbill with my picture and name. He rips it up while saying, “I wondered why they were so insistent this get issued, now I know. None have ever left this office and now none need to.” I nod to him and leave. It seems like the town has a much smarter Marshal now than the one they had on my last visit here.

Taking our new horses we return to the cantina for a nice meal and a drink. I find out while we were gone Alice organised for the families of all of our men to move to the wagon train and to be ready to leave when we are. Most of the families have the bulk of the money to hand back to me so I accept back sixty dollars from each of them and tell them to keep the rest as wages earned and an advance against wages to come because they’ll need some money to buy things for the trip south. As all of the families are going south with us. We have to do a little reorganising, because we now have a family in each of my wagons of trade goods as well as a lot of single men.

While I’m reorganising the wagons Steve burns the maps and papers he took from the land office records, then he crushes the ashes to ensure nothing can be made from the remains of the old records.

The next day I sell some goods to the local Mexican community as my prices on them are lower than in the local stores. However, most of the goods I have are at the same prices as the local stores prices.

We leave Albuquerque to head for Socorro the day after that.

Note: I later learn the non Cause people on the BH Land board change their focus to buying cattle ranches to the east of Albuquerque instead of the land to the west because they’re more familiar with land that way on both sides of the river. I don’t mind since it’s away from the mineral deposits the Cause wants control of. However, I often wonder what they made of the maps and lists, but nothing is ever said about them where I may hear of it.

To Socorro

Heading south out of Albuquerque we’ve two trails to choose from: one on each side of the Rio Grande del Norte, usually called Rio Grande by us gringos. We travel along the western most trail because it goes through Socorro while the eastern one doesn’t and crossing the river further down has other hazards I’d rather avoid until well down near Santa Barbara. We could’ve taken a much quicker route on the eastern side that goes through Fort Conrad, but I’m very wary of anywhere with the words ‘del Muerto’ in their names as a few places south of the Fort have, so that cuts out the straight run from Fort Conrad to Doña Anna. Because that leaves us on the western side of the Fra Cristobal Mountains I’m taking us through Socorro to remove some Cause people there.

We’re a few days out of Albuquerque when we’re passed by ten men with three wagons, two of which have twenty-six young black girls in chains in the back of them, fourteen in one wagon with twelve in the other. While passing us the man in charge tells me they’re all virgins and he’s on his way to sell them to a brothel in Socorro for a premium price. None of the girls seem happy with the idea, but they can’t see any way out of it. Nor can I, because slavery is legal in this here and now.

About an hour later José, Fernando, and I are scouting about three miles ahead of the wagons with Mars and Loki when we hear gunfire ahead. We race to get closer. When we near the top of a small ridge we can tell, from the sounds, it’s just the other side. So we slow down and leave the trail to get a good look at what’s going on before whoever is doing the shooting can see us, we dismount to walk up to the ridge line.

From a point in the trees about twenty feet to the right of the trail we see a small clearing while we stay hidden in the trees. In the clearing are the slavers fighting a group of Indians. Although this is west of their normal range they’re a small Comanche war party. I expected Navajo, Chiricahua Apaches, or Jicarilla Apaches here.

Indian Fight

My first action is to send Fernando back to the wagon train to get ten more guards and to hurry the train along a bit, because I don’t want us to spread out too much. We’re only about sixty yards from the action when José and I take out our rifles to get ready to shoot at the Comanche. There’s twelve Comanche in an active attack while two more of them are directing affairs from the side with about six or seven dead on the ground. Four of the slavers are dead, another has a bad wound, while all of the girls are still chained to the wagons and trying to hide in the little protection they give. From here we can see two have minor wounds.

With a huge smile I say to José, “We’ll take the two war chiefs first then concentrate on the rest. It’d be a shame if we aren’t able to kill all of the Comanche or to run them off until after all the slavers are all dead.” José turns to stare at me for a moment, then he gives me a smile as he nods his agreement with my worries. I think he knows my intentions and he agrees with them.

After taking careful aim we fire, and the two war chiefs both topple from their horses. We shift aim and fire again, one of the Indians riding toward us falls off his horse while one of the slavers slides to the ground with a ball in his side. By the time we stop to reload our rifles three more slavers have died, and so have seven more of the Indians. It’s down to three slavers, one wounded and seven Indians. We both stop to reload, then I notice the Comanche are changing tactics.

All seven gather down the trail as a group to have a chat. In a sudden movement they all start yelling and charging at the wagons, so it’s clear they intend to run right over the last three defenders. It’s also clear they don’t realise we’re here.

To José I say, “Right, on our horses and we’ll use the shotguns before they can hurt the girls.” He nods yes and we dart back to our horses. We’re quick to mount, put the rifles back in their boots, and draw out the shotguns. We ride back to the trail and start down it at a canter. By the time we’re working up to a gallop we’re halfway to the wagons and the Indians are on top of the slavers. In a moment the last three slavers are down with two more Indians down as well. The five Indians left are congratulating each other on all of the fine young female slaves they have when their horses come to a stop and they look up at us on hearing our horses. That’s our cue and we’re now only ten yards away so we open fire with the shotguns to have three enemies. They’re surprised at our sudden appearance but they react well when they bring their rifles up and we all fire at once. I feel an impact on my chest while two of the Indians are knocked off their horses with destroyed chests and José gives a grunt. He’s been hit but he’s still in the fight. We both fire again while the last Indian is aiming at me. We both hit him and he’s lifted clean off his horse by the blasts. We slow down and stop.

I help José down and check his wound: a graze along the ribs so he’ll live. I check the Indians, all dead, then the slavers. The slave owner has a bad wound but he’s still with us. He looks at us and says, “I got no partners or family so I guess these are all yours now. Enjoy them.”

I’m a bit stunned, but I’m quick to get out some paper to write a short will on for him, adding his name when he gives it to me. He signs then José and I sign as witnesses. I give him a painkiller from my first aid kit and check the wounds on the girls: three have grazing wounds on legs or arms. The Indians knew the girls couldn’t go anywhere so they were avoiding killing them because they wanted them as prisoners. I clean and treat the wounds while José makes the last slaver comfortable.

Leaving him to die in peace José and I go to strip valuables from all of the dead. While we do that our support arrives so I send out some flankers while the rest go to catch the loose horses. The slavers started with sixteen while the Indians started with twenty-one. Only four are dead and a fifth needs to be put down, so I do that. That still gives us thirty-two extra horses for free, plus all those guns, wagons, and things.

By the time the rest of the wagon train arrives we’ve dragged the dead off into a small ravine about fifty feet to the side of the trail and collapsed part of it onto them. The place Jesus wishes us to camp is only another hour’s ride ahead so we get organised and keep on going to it.

Clean Up

Where we camp for the night is in a nice wide clearing beside the river. We form our normal circles with the wagons to have my special two and the first three family wagons in a circle in the centre and the rest in a big circle around them. This gives us an extra safe zone for the women and children right in the centre. We add the two slave wagons to the inner circle and the other new wagon to the outer circle.