Forty-Four Caliber Justice by Donald L. Robertson Read Free Book Online Page B

door.
    Startled at seeing this big young man standing in front of him with a shotgun in his hand, he took a step back. Jake jumped up on the porch right behind Clay. “What’s going on here?” the surprised captain said.
    Clay started to push past him when Jake grabbed his arm. “Clay, simmer down. Just hold on. We’ll git this figgered out.”
    Clay turned on Jake with a fierce glare. “He’s in there, I know it.”
    Jake held on. “Think, boy. Just cool down and think.” He looked around and could see several soldiers had stopped what they were doing and were watching. A couple had started for the infirmary. “We don’t want to make a ruckus here, Clay. Slow down.”
    Clay looked around. He felt reason beginning to return. He took a deep breath, and turned back to the captain. “Captain, you’ve got a civilian in there who’s been shot up some?”
    “I might,” the captain said, “but I asked you what’s going on here, and I mean to find out before you go a step farther.” The captain turned to the advancing soldiers and waved them off.
    “Captain, that man is a member of a gang, the Pinder Gang. They killed my ma, pa, and a friend. They shot, hanged, and burned my pa and raped my ma. I reckon I have a right to see if the man you have is one of them.”
    “How do you know it was this man?”
    “The sheriff had posters on all those killers. I can identify them with the posters.”
    “Captain, what’s going on here?”
    Clay and Jake turned. The hard voice issued from an army colonel flanked by two armed soldiers.
    The captain quickly explained what he knew.
    “My name is Colonel Ranald Mackenzie. I am in command of this fort. What are your names?”
    Clay and Jake introduced themselves.
    “Mr. Barlow, no man races into my fort armed. You will put your weapons on your horse. That goes for you too, Mr. Coleman. Then we will go inside and see if this is one of the men you are after.”
    Clay slid the Roper into the scabbard, then unfastened his six-guns and looped them over the saddle horn. Jake followed suit. The two men stepped back onto the porch as Colonel Mackenzie opened the door of the infirmary. They followed the colonel and captain inside. The infirmary had eight beds, four on each wall. Half the beds were occupied. The captain headed for the one at the far end of the room.
    The man, apprehensive, watched their approach. Clay immediately recognized him as Birch Hayes, from the wanted poster. “That’s one of them, Colonel. He’s Birch Hayes, wanted for murder in San Antonio.”
    “That’s a blamed lie,” Hayes said. “I don’t know who you are, boy, but you’ve got a loose mouth. If I wasn’t laid up here, I’d teach you to have some manners for your elders.”
    Clay shuffled through the wanted posters, found the one he was looking for, and handed it to the colonel. “No lies, Hayes. You’re going to swing, and I’m going to watch.”
    The colonel looked at the poster, then at Hayes. “You’re right, boy. This looks like your man.”
    Hayes swung his head between Clay and the colonel. “Now see here, Colonel, there ain’t no proof. Anyway, I ain’t fit to travel. I’m lucky to still be alive, what with those Apaches attackin’ us and all.”
    It was all Clay could do to hold back from choking the man to death. “You weren’t attacked by Apaches, you lying piece of dirt. You were shot by Slim when you rode into our ranch.”
    Hayes looked nervously to the colonel. “Now, Colonel, I don’t know what this here boy is talking about. It was Apaches that done this, almost done me in too. We ain’t been around any ranch.”
    “Colonel,” Clay said, “if you’ll let me get my bowie knife and give me just a couple of minutes, I’ll have this liar singing like a mockingbird. He’s lying, and it won’t take much to get the truth.”
    “There’ll be none of that,” Colonel Mackenzie said. “I’ll hold this man until he’s able to travel, then he’ll be escorted to