The Floating Outfit 57 Read online

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  After their first nine months on the recently opened Comanche range, the ranch-owners banded together or organize a great round-up. John Chisum, the Cattle King, planned to gain control by making sure that one of his men was picked as the roundup captain who would be the supreme boss of the whole affair.

  But the job went to a passing stranger. Removing him should not have been any great problem to Chisum, for his men were of the killer breed, mean gunmen to the core. However, there was one small detail, a fly in the ointment to Chisum’s success. The name of the passing stranger was Dusty Fog.

  THE FLOATING OUTFIT 57: THE MAN FROM TEXAS

  By J. T. Edson

  First published by Brown Watson Publishers in 1967

  Copyright © 1967, 2021 by J. T. Edson

  First Electronic Edition: March 2021

  Names, characters and incidents in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

  You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce, or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by means (electronic, digital, optical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

  This is a Piccadilly Publishing Book

  Series Editor: Ben Bridges

  Text © Piccadilly Publishing

  Published by Arrangement with the Author’s Agent.

  Publisher’s Note:

  As with other books in this series, the author uses characters’ native dialect to bring that person to life. Whether they speak French, Irish, American English or English itself, he uses vernacular language to impart this.

  Therefore when Scottish characters use words such as “richt” instead of “right”; “laird” for “lord”; “oopstairs” for “upstairs”; “haim” for “home”; “ain” for “own”; “gude sores” for “good sirs” and “wha” for who” plus many other phrases, please bear in mind that these are not spelling/OCR mistakes.

  Chapter One—Take the First Man Through the Door

  THE TOWN OF Goodnight, in the Texas Panhandle country bordering the New Mexico line and north of the town of Amarilla, lay under a blanket of uneasy silence like the still and calm before a storm. Yet it was pay day for the local ranches and pay day in Goodnight usually meant a round of wild excitement and horseplay as the cowhands, fresh from a month’s work on the range, tried to spend their hard-earned money in one hectic afternoon, evening and night.

  Lines of horses stood hip-shot at the hitching rails before the saloon, billiard hall, barber’s shop, stores and other business premises, proving that pay had been made and the cowhands were in town. Yet only one of the town’s businesses had any customers and even that one did not give out its usual sounds of cowhand merriment. The attention of every citizen of Goodnight appeared to be riveted on the large—two story high no less—imposing front of the Juno Saloon where the ranchers and their crews foregathered in solemn concourse to discuss a matter of vital importance. The business being thrashed out in the Juno Saloon was one which might affect the future well-being and very existence of the town as well as the local ranches. Handled properly, the business could mean prosperity for the area. Mishandled in any way it could ruin the ranchers, or cause such lasting bitterness that trouble and even a ruinous range war might spring from it.

  The inside of the Juno Saloon presented an appearance more in keeping with a trail-end city than to a small cow town. Its big bar-room had all the latest fittings, a large mirror behind the bar, the bar made of polished wood and with brass foot-rail and spittoons, a small stage on which singers or dancers could perform, or a band play to supply music for public dancing on the small cleared space in the center of the floor. There were tables and chairs where the customers might sit and drink while watching the show; the inevitable tiger-decorated faro layout, chuck-a-luck, black-jack and wheel-of-fortune catered for the sports who preferred gambling to dancing or sitting talking at the tables. Normally a large variety of drinks could be obtained, but on that Saturday afternoon no liquor passed over the bar’s shining top.

  Around the room, the cowhands stood in groups, or sat at tables. Tall, short, medium-sized; lean, middle-sized or bulky. Yet most had that undefinable something which set the cowhand as a man apart. They wore their hats shaped in much the same manner. Their bandanas ran a glorious riot of every imaginable shade and combination of colors. Gay shirts appeared to be the order of the day, Levi’s pants showed signs of pressing-iron and boots bore an unaccustomed shine; for the men were in town to celebrate and that called for one’s best clothes. Almost every man in the room had at least one revolver on his person, but that meant nothing, for a man rarely went unarmed in Texas.

  Usually the cowhands in the saloon would have mingled together, drinking, talking, meeting friends from other spreads, making fresh acquaintances, indulging in good-natured horseplay, flirting with Candy Carde’s girls—Candy herself was regarded as being too nice and important a lady to be accorded such easy-going familiarity—or trying to get rich beating the house’s percentage on the various games of chance.

  Instead of the friendly mingling, the cowhands stood or sat silently in well-defined ranch groups; and silence in those cow-chasing Texas sons-of-a-saddle had always been an ominous sign. Every man’s attention stayed on the table which had been drawn out into the center of the dance floor, watching the ten men who sat around it. Some of the ten wore expensive clothes which bore testimony to their wealth and social position. Others looked little or no different from the watching cowhands. One of the ten looked like a saddle-tramp. All had one thing in common; they each owned a ranch on the hundreds of square miles of land recently liberated from the Comanches.

  On the removal of the Indians, the vacated land had been split up and sold to the ten men around the table. Now it was late March; winter had gone and the time had come for the ranches to think of gathering in their free-ranging stock and checking on the numbers of cattle they owned. To ensure a complete gathering of their long-horned, four-legged harvest it was to their mutual advantage to organize and act in concert. So a meeting had been called to lay plans for a roundup. Naturally such a meeting was held in town; and inevitably Candy Carde’s Juno Saloon served as the meeting place.

  While every rancher agreed on the benefits of a mass roundup, including an enormous saving of money and time, they failed to agree on the most vital and important issue of all.

  Who would be their roundup captain?

  On the answer to that vital question rested the success or failure of the venture. The roundup captain ran the whole danged she-bang as boss over all and whose word was law. Nor did the roundup captain’s social position affect the issue. He might be the owner of the largest ranch in the area, or a top hand working on a small outfit, but as roundup captain he reigned supreme. It did not matter if he gave orders to a cook’s louse or the boss of a large ranch—the two opposite ends of the rangeland social scale—his words must be obeyed. Which meant that not just any man would be suitable.

  The roundup captain needed to know cattle, be cognizant with the various brands of the area, know, how to send the right number of men to the correct place so as to draw the fullest amount of work possible from all concerned. He had to be able to select the best spots in each section covered by the roundup to gather and hold the cattle for cutting and branding. To get the most out of the men, he would need their respect and mere wealth or social position alone did not give him that. Also he needed to be something of a d
iplomat if he hoped to keep everybody satisfied that they received fair treatment.

  One man at the table would have met with everybody’s approval.

  Stocky, bearded, well-dressed, Charles Goodnight—the town had been named for him and he bore the honorary title ‘Colonel’—was a man whose personal integrity and knowledge of all things to do with the cattle industry stood beyond question. He knew the local range, having been one of its earliest pioneers and the man most responsible for moving the Comanches peaceably on to their reservation; and he had the respect of the cowhands. But he had to leave on Monday for Houston to help iron out a tricky matter between the Comanches who had trusted his word and a section of the State Legislature that was trying to wriggle out of the deal, Goodnight could not delay his trip for the four weeks or more the roundup would last.

  ‘How about my foreman?’ asked Bunyon of the Barbed B.

  ‘My men won’t take orders from no hombre who fought for the Union in the War,’ answered Sanders of the Box S. ‘I’ll take on.’

  Nobody showed any wild enthusiasm to either offer. Not only Bunyon’s foreman fought on the Union side in the War Between the States, Bunyon had ridden as a major in a Yankee cavalry outfit. The War and the recently-ended Reconstruction which followed it were too fresh in Texas memories for a Yankee to be acceptable as roundup captain. Nor was Sanders a better choice, despite the fact that he had been a stout supporter of the Confederacy. At best he tended to be a mite truculent and over-bearing, not the kind of man to have sufficient tact to control a large body of high-spirited cowhands who all believed their own particular outfit should come first in everything.

  ‘Are you sure you can’t make it, Colonel Charlie?’ asked young Greg Haslett of the Rafter H.

  ‘Not a chance, Greg,’ Goodnight answered regretfully, for he could see the way things were going. ‘Why not let John Poe handle it, He’s been my foreman for ten years and knows this range.’

  ‘Him and my foreman’s been fussing about a waterhole down on the Village grazing,’ Meadows of the Flying M growled. ‘Put Poe in and my boys won’t take to it.’

  Which would mean trouble from the start, for Poe was no man to allow any flouting of his authority and the hands of Goodnight’s JA were loyal to their boss and foreman.

  ‘How about Greg here?’ asked Naylor of the Lazy N. ‘He knows the range hereabouts too.’

  An awkward silence followed the words. Naylor was a slim young man who wore spectacles. While he dressed in cowhand clothes and belted a Colt, he was not range-bred. He was an Easterner who came West for his health and bought in on one of the smaller ranches. So he had neither the ability nor the desire to be elected roundup captain.

  Yet in many ways Naylor’s suggestion looked sensible enough. Greg Haslett also owned a small place. However, he was a tophand with cattle and did know the country. Against that was the fact that he had married a saloon girl from the Juno and some of the ranchers—of more particularly their wives—would object to him being in command for that reason. The other men, not ruled by their wives or being more broadminded, did not care about Greg’s wife, but doubted if he had the personality to control the cowhands.

  ‘I’ll do it if you like,’ said a mild, friendly voice. ‘Me or Jesse Evans.’

  All eyes turned to the speaker. He slouched in his chair at the opposite end of the table to Goodnight; a tall, heavily built man with a bald head and a sun-reddened, jovial face. The face was that of a friendly, guileless man who one felt could be trusted with life, wife or wealth. Unless one happened to look at the eyes. They were cold, light blue, calculating and unsmiling. Taken without the face, those eyes would have spelled deceit, trickery and danger. The trouble was that very few people noticed the eyes—until too late.

  A cheap woolsey hat sat on the back of the man’s bald head, he had a frayed old bandana knotted at his throat. A worn old hickory shirt, battered calf-skin vest, patched Levi’s pants and scuff-heeled ready-made boots completed his outfit, for he did not wear a gun. The latter omission caught the eye first. Only a very few men rode unarmed in the wild range country of Texas.

  The speaker looked like a saddle-tramp and was known as the Cattle King. His name, John Chisum; his brand, the Long Rail, a straight line burned from shoulder to rump along the body of his stock.

  ‘You?’ Dickens of the Bradded D yelped.

  ‘What’s up, Dick?’ asked Chisum in his deceptively mild, friendly tones. ‘Don’t you trust me or Jesse?’

  ‘It—it’s not that, John,’ Dickens replied; although his voice implied that Chisum might have guessed the reason for his objections.

  Dickens’ ranch bordered on Chisum’s Long Rail and he knew that people who crossed the Cattle King’s path often ran into bad luck; such as having barns and other buildings unaccountably burnt down; stock disappear or die in dubious circumstances; or streams suddenly run dry because of mysterious land-slides blocking them on Chisum’s property. Not that any of the bad luck could be proved as having happened at the Cattle King’s instigation.

  Knowing of the ‘bad luck’, the last thing Dickens wanted to do was stir up ill-feeling in Chisum’s heart.

  However, Dickens saw that none of the other ranchers appeared to be wild with delight, or even mildly pleased, when Chisum offered to burden himself with the onerous duties of roundup captain.

  There were too many ugly rumors going around of how Chisum built up his wealth and herds just after the War for the ranch owners to show any great eagerness at putting the Cattle King in a position of trust.

  While Chisum undoubtedly knew cattle and how to handle men, there was some skepticism among his fellow ranchers on how he would discharge his duties. Sure, having a roundup captain would be an advantage—but happen Chisum was elected to the post, the benefit might be all one way, his.

  A good number of the men Chisum hired were what he laughingly called ‘warriors’, picked for their skill with a gun rather than outstanding ability at handling cattle. Backed by his ‘warriors’, Chisum could enforce any rules he made for running the roundup. It was common knowledge that Chisum had hoped to buy considerably more land than came his way, and as roundup captain he might easily use his authority to drive the smaller ranch owners out of business.

  All the time the discussion had been going on, Candy Carde stood by the main batwing doors of the saloon. She seemed to be taking the opportunity to breathe in some good Texas air and looking, with woman’s curiosity, to see who came into town by the northbound trail.

  She was a beautiful woman, five foot five inches tall; and with blonde hair that hung down below the level of her shoulders, curling under neatly at its ends and parted at the left so that the right side curled down and partially hid one sparkling blue eye. Her nose was well formed and her lips full so as to look almost pouting. Not for Candy Carde the simple, garish knee-length frock of the ordinary saloon girl. She wore a silvery gown which left her shoulders bare and was cut low on her bosom, a rich full mound of flesh that rose over a slender waist. The gown clung like a second skin to her waist and richly curving hips, but slit from hem to thigh to allow her shapely, black stocking-clad legs to show attractively as she moved, or lounged casually yet gracefully by the door.

  Candy Carde tended to be something of a mystery woman. Not even her employees knew where she came from or why she decided to settle down and run a saloon in a small cow town. She proved capable, knew the saloon trade, could sing and dance at least as well as most of the professional entertainers who appeared in the Juno and had all the accomplishments of a western hostess. Yet nobody could guess why she came to Goodnight instead of taking her undoubted talents to the more lucrative trail-end or mining cities to the north and west.

  That afternoon, on hearing of the urgency of the ranchers’ business, Candy had dismissed all her girls, told the gamblers to close their games and shut the bar after allowing each customer to buy only one drink—no man could be expected to talk business until he washed the trail dust out
of his throat with one snort. Then Candy stood back and waited for the meeting to end. Only it took a mite longer than anybody expected. Already the sun was going down and the meeting had not reached any decision.

  Just as Chisum made, and had rejected, his offer, Candy turned from the door and walked across the room. For an instant her swaying hip movements drew almost every cowhand’s eyes from the table. She came to a halt at Chisum’s side and smiled around the circle of faces.

  ‘Look, boys,’ she said, ‘all this whittle-whanging isn’t doing my bank account any good at all. Why not agree to a roundup captain and let me start to take your money?’

  One of the many things her customers liked about Candy was the charmingly frank manner in which she regarded them. Some saloon owners acted like they were doing the customers a favor by throwing open their rooms and allowing people in. Not Candy, she stated that she welcomed anybody as long as they spent their money and did not go too far beyond the bounds of polite behavior.

  ‘Riding horses into the bar-room is out,’ she had told her customers when the place first opened, ‘I get embarrassed at being afoot.’

  Candy knew the way to handle cowhands.

  ‘We could always let Miss Candy say who’s going to run the whole she-bang for us,’ Chisum remarked.

  ‘Oh no!’ Candy interrupted as the other men started to look hopeful. ‘You boys are all my friends; and, what’s more important, paying customers. I’m not being put in the middle that way.’

  ‘Come on, Candy,’ said Washman of the Walking W. ‘Make the choice.’

  ‘You might just as well take the next man through the door,’ she answered.

  ‘By cracky!’ Sanders grunted. ‘Way I feel, that’s what I reckon we ought to do.’

  ‘Naw,’ Chisum objected. ‘It’s too chancy.’

  Probably if anybody other than Chisum had made the remark, the remainder of the party would have agreed. But all, or the majority, took the view that Chisum had an ulterior motive for voting against Candy’s suggestion.