31
The four men stood up and moved quickly to the front of the house. They stepped outside as a buggy rolled to a stop beside the porch. Frank recognized the lean figure of Doc Ervin at the reins. His son Bob sat beside him, a chunky boy with a scowl on his face.
“Hello, Doc,” Tolliver greeted the medico. “What brings you out here?”
“I thought you might like to know what happened to Howard Longwell, Cecil,” Ervin said as he handed the reins to his son. He started to climb down from the vehicle, but paused in surprise when he saw Frank. “Well, I didn't expect to run into you again so soon.”
“You two know each other?” Tolliver asked.
Ervin nodded toward Frank. “This fellow brought me the news that Howard Longwell had been shot.”
“Shot!”
“That's right. However, he didn't mention that Howard was gunned down by some of Wedge's erstwhile Rangers.”
Frank tensed. “I told you Longwell accidentally shot himself, Doc.”
“Yes, and under the circumstances I forgive you for lying to me,” Ervin said crisply as he came up onto the porch. “I suppose you weren't sure who you could trust and who you couldn't in San Rosa.”
“That's about the size of it,” Frank drawled.
“Howard, however, knew he could trust me, so he and Doris told me what really happened. You saved their lives, sir.” Ervin put out his hand. “Thank you. The Longwells are good people.”
Frank shook hands with the doctor as Darrell Forrest said, “I don't know what the hell's goin' on here.”
“Just what we were afraid of,” Ervin went on. “The Rangers have crossed the line. They've gone renegade, damn them.”
Tolliver turned to look at Frank. “So you already knew about Wedge and his men?”
“I got a pretty good idea, pretty fast, once I rode up to the Longwell place earlier this evening and found three of Wedge's men trying to steal Longwell's horses after putting a bullet through his shoulder.”
Tolliver cursed in a low, heartfelt voice. “Let's all go back inside,” he said. “We've got a lot to talk about.”
For the next half hour, Frank heard more about how the Rangers had tightened their grip on the area in the past couple of weeks. No massacres such as the one in the Mexican village had been carried out, but other than that the parallels between the situations above and below the border were uncanny. They were so similar, in fact, that Frank began to wonder if there might be some connection. Nathan Wedge and Domingo Estancia knew each other; maybe they had hatched their schemes together. It was something to ponder.
In the meantime, though, there were more pressing problems. Cecil Tolliver thumped a fist on the table and declared, “We've got to do something about this. We can't just let Wedge buffalo us.”
“No one man is any match for the Rangers,” Frank pointed out. “Even with all your crew, Cecil, you'd be outnumbered.”
Doc Ervin said, “That's why we need to get together, all you ranchers and some of the men from town who aren't afraid to stand up to Wedge, and figure out a way to act in concert.”
“That's a good idea, Doc,” Tolliver said enthusiastically. “We can have a meeting here. You'll spread the word, won't you?”
Ervin nodded. “I reckon I can do that. I travel all over the area tending to the sick and injured. Wedge won't be suspicious of me.”
“You'd better send a rider to Austin, too,” Frank suggested to Tolliver. “Write a letter to the governor and ask him to send some honest Rangers down here. That would be a better way to break Wedge's stranglehold than if you try to fight him yourself. That would just make you and your friends look like criminals.”
“Mr. Morgan has a point,” Doc Ervin agreed. Tolliver scowled. “Maybe so, and I'll write that letter, but if Wedge gets any more high-handed before the real Rangers can get here, there's liable to be trouble.” He looked at Frank. “You'll stand with us if there is?”
“I reckon you know the answer to that,” Frank replied quietly.
“Yeah, I reckon I do, and I'm sorry I asked it.” Tolliver pushed his chair back. “We've talked a lot, and now we got a lot to think about. I'm gonna turn in. Doc, you and Bob will stay the night since it's so late?”
“Yes, and we're much obliged.”
“Frank, you can have the same room you did before,” Tolliver went on.
Frank came to his feet. “Thanks. I'll admit that I'm a mite tired. I'll turn in as soon as I've seen to my horse.”
“Some of the boys could do that,” Tolliver offered.
“No, thanks. I want to handle it myself.”
Tolliver nodded, and Frank went out to take Stormy over to the barn and find an empty stall.
He was unsaddling the Appaloosa when a footstep made him turn, his hand dropping to the butt of his gun. Ben Tolliver stepped forward in the shadowy barn, his hands held out empty to show that he wasn't a threat.
“It's just me, Mr. Morgan,” the young man said. “I wanted to talk to you.”
Frank grunted. “About Carmen, I'll bet.”
“Is she all right?” Ben asked anxiously, keeping his voice pitched low so their conversation wouldn't be overheard.
“She was fine when I left the hacienda,” Frank assured him. “As far as I know she still is.”
Ben heaved a sigh of relief. “Thank you for not saying anything to my pa. He just wouldn't understand.”
“Pretty soon he may have to,” Frank said bluntly. “I don't think you're going to be able to keep your secret much longer.”
“Why not?”
“Because I've got a letter for him from Don Felipe Almanzar asking for a meeting between the two of them six days from now in San Rosa, so that they can hash everything out and put an end to their feud.”
Ben's eyes widened in surprise. “That's impossible! Don Felipe would never agree to such a thing. Neither would Pa.”
“It was my idea,” Frank said, “but Don Felipe came around to my way of thinking.”
Ben shook his head, obviously unable to comprehend what he was hearing. “I don't believe it. I just don't believe it.”
Frank put a hand on his shoulder and said, “This could be just what you and Carmen need, Ben. If your fathers agree to get along again, or at least to not hate each other, there's no reason the two of you can't admit how you feel. There wouldn't be any reason to keep it secret anymore.”
“That would be . . . wonderful,” Ben said, his voice a little awed now. “But they've hated each other for so longâ”
“For no good reason, just a prideful misunderstanding,” Frank pointed out.
“Yeah, but it's hard to believe it could ever happen. Did you say anything about it to my pa?”
Frank shook his head. “Not yet. He had enough to do tonight, what with this problem with the Rangers. Maybe we can get that settled, and then we'll see about patching things up between him and Don Felipe.”
“That might be best,” Ben agreed. “But there are those rustlers, too, and the Black Scorpion....”
“The Black Scorpion never was your enemy, Ben. You might as well get that through your head. And I'm convinced the Rangers are behind all the rustling, although I can't prove it yet.”
“Those men who jumped me and Pa, that evening when we first met you . . . do you know who they were?”
“I know who they
weren't,
” Frank said with conviction. “They weren't working for Don Felipe, and they weren't the Black Scorpion's bunch.”
“Then who . . . ?”
“Maybe some of Wedge's friends,” Frank suggested. “With some recruits from below the border to make it look good, so either Almanzar or the Black Scorpion would get the blame.”
That idea had slipped fully formed into Frank's brain, but he saw that it made sense and tied right back in with his speculation that there was a connection between Wedge and Estancia.
“Tell me,” he went on, “had your father had any trouble with Wedge before that evening?”
“Well, sure,” Ben said. “In fact, Pa was the first one around here to start talking about how Wedge was coming down on folks too hard, like he was trying to take over or something.”
“So Wedge might have gotten the idea that your father was starting to stir up trouble for him. He wouldn't have wanted Cecil to rouse the whole border country against him.”
“Like we're trying to do now.”
Frank nodded. “Exactly. What Wedge was worried about is starting to come true. But a couple of weeks ago, he thought he could nip the problem in the bud by getting rid of your pa and laying the blame for it on either Almanzar or the Black Scorpion.”
“It would have worked, too, if you hadn't come along when you did.”
Frank smiled thinly, thinking of the attempt on his life earlier in the night. “If our theory is true,” he said, “then I reckon I've been a thorn in Wedge's side right from the start.”
“You're lucky he didn't just kill you when you went across the border with him after the Black Scorpion.”
“I reckon he was just biding his time. If I hadn't gotten separated from him and his bunch of gunnies, I doubt if I'd have made it bach across the Rio Grande alive.”
Ben sighed “It's sure a complicated state of affairs, isn't it?”
“It is, at that,” Frank agreed.
But he knew that sooner or later there would be a showdown, and nothing untangled a mess of knots like gun smoke and hot lead.
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Though an air of tension hung over the border country for the next couple of days, there were no outbreaks of violence. It was a lull, like the eye of a hurricane, but Frank knew that such respites never lasted. Trouble seldom if ever went away on its own.
As Cecil Tolliver had predicted, his wife Pegeen was happy to see Frank. Visitors were always welcome on the Rocking T, and Pegeen was the sort to seize any excuse for some extra cooking and baking, happily bustling around the ranch house kitchen with her daughters Jessie and Debra.
Frank didn't say anything to Cecil Tolliver about the proposed meeting between him and Don Felipe Almanzar, and neither did Ben. Frank had found more trouble here on this side of the Rio Grande than he had anticipated, and he hoped to be able to wait for a better time before springing the idea of a truce on Tolliver.
During those two days, according to the plan worked out with Doc Ervin, the physician was traveling around the area, ostensibly on medical calls, but actually he was telling the other ranchers to come to the Rocking T after dark on the second night, so they could try to figure out what to do about Nathan Wedge and the renegade Texas Rangers. Some of the men from San Rosa would probably attend the meeting, too.
Tolliver had chosen one of the cowhands, a fresh-faced youngster named Hardy, to ride downriver to Laredo and send the letter that Tolliver had written to the governor of Texas, outlining the situation and asking for help. Frank had helped Tolliver with the letter and was convinced it would draw the results they wanted. The question was whether or not help would arrive in time to keep Wedge from taking over completely. Hardy had set out at night, on a fast horse, hoping to escape notice in case Wedge was having the ranch watched.
So all they could do was to bide their time and wait for the meeting. Around noon on the second day, Frank sought out Cecil Tolliver and made a suggestion.
“Why don't you see if Pegeen and the girls would be willing to go into San Rosa and visit Roanne for a few days?” Frank said as the two men stood beside one of the corrals.
Tolliver frowned. “You really think that's necessary?”
“I'm convinced Wedge has already tried to kill you once, Cecil. If he got wind of this meeting, he might see it as a chance to wipe out all his opposition at the same time.”
“I trust Doc,” Tolliver said stubbornly. “He's a sly old bird. He won't let Wedge know what's going on.”
“I trust Doc, too, but there are other people who know about the meeting now, and I don't know how careful all of them will be. It's just a precaution, but I think it's a good idea.”
Tolliver sighed. “What you say makes sense, Frank, but you don't know that woman of mine. If she thinks I'm tryin' to get her out of harm's way, that'll just make her more bound and determined to stay.”
“Maybe you can tell her that she needs to go in order to get your daughters to go. Appeal to her maternal instinct.”
Tolliver scratched at his close-cropped beard. “Aye, could be you're right. But I still think Pegeen will outsmart me somehow. She always does.”
To his surprise, Pegeen agreed to go into San Rosa with Jessie and Debra and put up no argument about it. She didn't allow any protests from the young women, either. By the middle of the afternoon they had one of the ranch buckboards loaded with enough bags for a visit of several days. The women kissed their husbands good-bye and then drove away, trailed by a couple of well-armed cowboys who would escort them to the settlement and then return to the Rocking T. Frank had considered going along himself, so that he could see Roanne again and check on Dog, but decided against it. If there was any trouble at the meeting that night, he didn't want to risk finding himself cut off from it.
With that taken care of, the men settled down to wait again. Frank suggested that they do something useful to pass the time.
They cleaned their guns.