North of Austin Chapter Ten

Something Had to Be Done !!

 

Chapter ten

I thought long and hard about what to do with Abby telling me to get on with it. She was against all killing until this happened and now she was ready to go after them herself.

I knew the habits of the bullies and formulated a plan.

I went down to the blacksmith shop and found an old U.S. army singletree. It was used to hook the horses to their wagons.  One end was broke off and the back side had two sharp edges on it. There was still one hook to fasten the traces to, so I had the smithy cut it off.  The singletree was heavy but easy to wield.

I found out that two of the men who had attacked Howie were in town.  One was upstairs roughing up one of the saloon gals while the other had a woman behind the saloon. He was in the process of using the woman for his pleasure when I slipped up behind him and using the singletree gave him a hard blow to his head

He collapsed without saying anything.  The woman was paralyzed and I put my finger to my lips indicating for her to be silent. She ran off away from the saloon and it was days later before she returned.

I wiped off the weapon I had killed the man with, and headed up the back stairs of the saloon. I walked down the hallway and heard the woman trying to scream but could tell the man had his hand over her mouth.

Ever so quietly I open the door and before he could turn around I swung the singletree and it was over.

I whispered for the woman to slip back into the saloon and act as if nothing had happened. I showed her my weapon and said do not say anything or she would be next.  As far as I know she took what she knew to her grave years later.

When the two brothers didn’t return home, the father and the other two brothers came to town. The saloon owner had found the bodies and had slipped them out of the saloon area and threw then into a sink hole for he didn’t want to be associated with their deaths in any way.

The two brothers checked around town looking for their siblings without any luck. The old man went to the whore house and that was where I found him. I warned the madam not to ever say anything about what was going to happen.

The old man was abusing one of the girls when I found him. I rapped him upside the head just stunning him enough to disable him. I then told him he was going to pay for what he had done to Howie and Ada.

He tried to cry out but a sharp blow to the throat silenced him. It only took one more blow to finish him off.

I told the madam to dispose of the body and she could have any money he had on him.  She quickly got two of the patrons to get rid of the old man and all of the ladies were glad to see the last of him. She gave each of the men a bottle and by the time they sobered up they had forgotten the whole incident. 

One of the last two brothers decided to check on the old man and I got him when he left the whore house. I threw a rope around his legs and used my horse to drag him to the sinkhole.

It was late evening when the last brother headed out of town. I crawled up into the wagon before he saw me. He tried to pull his gun but the singletree did its job once again. I drove the wagon to the sink hole and deposited the last member of the family.

Then I drove the team out of town and got off the wagon. I sent the team on their way toward home where the hired hand would stable and care for them.

The next day I drew up some papers and signed in the place of the old man who beat Howie and went out to the ranch where the dead family had lived.

I told the hired help that Howie had bought the place and was the new owner.

I also paid them off after telling them he might be interested in keeping them on if they behaved themselves and didn’t steal anything.  I transferred the ranch, cattle, horses and the rest of the livestock to cousin Howie.  I felt he had it coming so I used my lawyer skills to bring it about.

Howie decided to keep some of the hands on and fired a couple of the worthless one’s.  Howie pretty well recovered but Ada was a little slow both mentally and physically from the beating she endured.

For the next month I had one of my hands staying over at Howie’s new place over seeing things, but after a month Howie was able to take over do for himself.

Ada still needed care for a couple of months but she wanted to move in her new home. We got a woman to help her with the chores the boys weren’t able to do.

Howie decided to farm the place and give up bootlegging. I was pleased with his decision for there was going to be problems with the demon alcohol if he didn’t.

To Be Continued