Appaloosa Run

Appaloosa Run

Author

Will Welton

Smashwords Edition

Copyrights 2010

Copyrights on all Welton Novels wrote by

Will Welton are held by

Crystal Welton-Betts

Copyright at the Library of Congress

2009

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, and incidents either is products of the author's imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental unless other wise noted.

White Bear Clan

Series

Early Times of the White Bear Clan

John O’Leary U.S. Marshal

Harmon Bell Texas Ranger

Lem Dew

Black Thorn

Tanner Oaks Texas Ranger

Trail Drive

Frontier Doctor of Indian Territory Oklahoma

Ai Machonnee Wolf Man

Always Pardners

Cane Longbow Range Detective

Never Too Late

Nights of Terror

Run From A Hanging

Treasures of Indian Territory Oklahoma

Sam Mountain Texas Ranger

Lee Garrett Bounty Hunter

Ghost Riders{Mystery of events in 1962}

Just a Dumb Okie {Short stories and Jokes) Humor

One

There had been nothing to do all day except to set there on the wagon seat and watch the horses. They were well trained by someone because they followed the road without having to saw on the reins. So he thought about when he first came west. He could still hear the clickty clack of the wheels of the freight car as it hit the joints in the railroad track. The only thing about riding the brake rails of the rail cars was it had to be done at night. If not the brakie would catch the free loaders trying to get from place to place riding in the box cars or on the brake rods and bash their heads in or break a leg or arm.

The rhythm of the noise and the sway of the car would either drive you batty as a bull frog or put you to sleep. That was dangerous if you happened to fall a sleep for you might drop off the brake rods and onto the track to be run over by the big steel wheels of the train cars. Thinking back he did not know where he had been born or even what day or month. He had no idea of who his parents even were but he was glad he had run away from the orphanage.

The last beating he had received at the grocery store where he had to clean was for eating and apple. Then they had beaten him at the orphanage for Mister Caldwell not wanting him back at the store. It had taken three days before he could get out of bed and make it to the table to eat his bowl of corn meal mush. He was gong to make sure that didn’t happen again.

While he had worked at the store he had listened to the old men setting around and talking about what they had eaten and how they had eaten the wild plants and things which had grown in the wild. He had picked up five of the tobacco sacks people had thrown away, managed to fill them with salt, and hide them under his bunk in a crack in the wall. When he left the orphanage he took only the blanket, a two bladed knife with one blade broken off he had got out of the trash at the store, the five bags of salt, a box of stinker matches and a chunk of ham from the kitchen side board.

After leaving the orphanage it had taken him a week of going through the woods and avoiding people for fear they would catch him and send him back to the orphanage. He remembers the night he went across the railroad bridge over the Mississippi River. He had been caught on the tracks as a train decided to pass over the bridge heading back towards the way he had just come from. He had crawled down on the big cross beams just under the edge of the track and had been scared to death the train would hang on to him and drag him back to where he had started.

However when that train had passed it was only a short while that another train going the opposite direction came over the bridge. He had made it almost across the bridge before he had to hunker down on the cross beams again. The train had stopped on the track and from where he sat on the cross beams he was at about the middle of the train. He had heard about ridding the break rails under the freight cars to keep the railroad Bulls and Brakes from beating you with clubs before you could get away from them.

That is how he came to be where he was. It must be because of his small size that when the train stopped for water and fuel the brake man who looked under the car did not see him. Although it might have been it was black as pitch in the middle of the night. The train had stopped several times for water or fuel out on the prairie and no one had walked along the cars looking under them. It was coming daylight and he knew that he had better get off at the next stop or the brakes would find him for sure. They had stopped like this once before because of a hot box and a wheel had been smoking. However the train crew had pushed the rail car into a rail siding and then continued on its way.

Then he had heard the shooting and a loud explosion up towards the front of the train. That is when Don decided it was time to leave before something bad happens. He slides over the side of the tussle and into the water. The water came underneath the arm pits and he half swum and half walked down the side of the creek in the water until he could climb out into the brush. The came out of thinking for the wagon hit a chug hole and he bounced in the seat.

The sun had gone down hours ago and the cold was almost unbearable. Don had wrapped in the two wool blankets, he had brought from the ranch, long before the lights went out. His hands were too cold to even pull back on the reins to stop the horses if he had the need for his fingers felt as if they were wooden. As the wagon rambled on mile after mile with more prairie that hills and timber Don was looking for a possible campsite where there might be some firewood. The last wood that he had seen was at the small creek where the horses had stopped on their own to drink and that was three hours ago. Even that wood you would have to gather up several armfuls to have enough wood to burn and get warm by because it was just scrubby brush. However out on the Stake Plains it was hard to find wood or anything else to burn to make a fire to get warm unless you happened to stumble on a small water way or where a cow or Buffalo herd might have passed through before the rains and the dung was dried out and harden by the sun.

The only reason he didn’t buck up and not want to come after the supplies was because of the weather. But he owed Charlie Diditmore and he had seen him talking to Harmon Bell before Bell came over to the long table in the dinning area of the bunkhouse. What surprised him more was that Mister Bell had in trusted him with the money from the bank robbery, which had occurred at Mobatee last week, and with cash in envelopes to pay on his accounts in Mobatee. Don had thought when Mister Bell had said, Be sure you get a receipt from the banker and make someone else count what the banker takes and have them sign the receipt also.

Don had commented in his cocky way, You don’t trust me?

Mister Bell had replied, I trust you but I never trusted a Banker before and don’t intend to start now. That had made Don feel very small but he knew some about Mister Bell and if he trusted you that you had better live up to it.

In the distance up ahead Don thought he saw some lights which could be his imagination or possible the lights of Mobatee. The horses hitched to the wagon started stepping out more than that humdrum walk they had been in for the last five or six miles. In another half hour the horses were in a trot and really stepping out as the lights commence to materialize into buildings out of the night.

As the horses slowed to a walk, after entering town, and moving down the street he saw the sign of Davis General Store up a head and Don started to pull the reins on the horses but they turned down beside the store and pulled the wagon up close to the loading dock behind the store stopping in their tracks. One side of the wagon you could step from the wagon onto the dock. Hell theses horses have done this a lot. Don said out loud, to no one predominantly, and from behind him he heard, Two or three times a month.

Don turned slowly as he was stepped down from the wagon wheel, letting his hand hang near his pistol, as he worked his fingers to try and get some feelings back in them, He saw a shinny badge reflecting from the moon light. I’m Nolan White the Deputy Sheriff here in town. The tall man replied as he came near the wagon.

Don Ulma. Work for Charlie Diditmore and Harmon Bell. Don replied as he relaxed some and not have to worry about someone stealing the saddle bags with the money in them.

I’ll help you unhitch the team. White said as he came forward towards the horses. It didn’t take long to get the team unhitched and take the harness from the horses. Don put the harness into the wagon bed and then Don retrieved the saddle bags, which were under the seat of the wagon. From moving around unhitching the team his legs and arms had warmed up from the almost frozen state they had been in on the trip into town. The two men led the horses up the street to the livery. The livery was closed and no light was on in the building so the two men turned the horses into the corral next to the livery. The horses went straight over to the shed attached to the livery and started munching on the hay hanging in the feeder. Don and Deputy White walked over to the hotel and when they entered the lobby the clerk looked over at them from a news paper he was looking at on the desk.

Don handed the clerk one of the envelopes with Hotel wrote on the outside by Mister Bell and said. Need a room for two nights and a bite to eat tonight if that is possible being this late at night.

The clerk looked at the writing on the envelope and smiled. He handed Don a room key and he replied, I’ll have you something to eat sent up to your room in a few minutes. The clerk left the counter and headed down the hall of the hotel.

I’ve got to finish my rounds and see you tomorrow night maybe. Deputy White said and then Don headed up the stairs. He had been in the room only long enough to pull his boots off when a knock came at the door. He answered the door and an older lady came in carrying a tray which smelled good enough to eat. As she set the tray down on the table, in the room, she turned and said, The fire just went out on the hot water tank but there’s still plenty for a hot bath. If you’re interested the bathing room is down the hall. I’ll pick the tray up in the morning. She was out the door and her last statement carried in from the hall.

Don uncovered the food and thought to him self, Hell the Bell ranch takes care of their riders good. Believe I’ll let this steak, eggs and taters cool a little and try the hot bath. He recovered the tray, with the cloth towel and taking the saddle bags headed down the hall.

The next morning after breakfast, in the restaurant of the hotel, and Don had the ham, eggs, pancakes and half a pecan pie with coffee enough to float a boat, Don shouldered the heavy saddle bags and then headed for the General Store. He passed the bank and saw the sign on the door with bank hours. He saw that the bank would open at nine and he would have to find something to keep busy till then. Going into the General Store he found several people moving around. Don walked over to the counter and handed the envelope to the clerk behind the counter. The man smiled as he opened the envelope, counted the money and wrote a receipt out. Then the man took a ledger book out from behind the counter, opened it turning several pages, and made an entry.

He wrote on the receipt again and handed it to Don replying, We should have the rest of this list loaded by noon. Don nodded his head, walked out to the front porch of the store, and set down in a chair on the porch. After about an hour he had got all the looking of the goings on in town and went over to a small café across the street for some coffee. In the café he saw the clock on the wall had eight thirty and he ordered pie and coffee at the counter. Looking out the window of the café he saw the four riders going down the street again. He wondered what they were cruising the main street looking for. The hell with it he though and concentrated on having a good pie, since this was his second piece of pie for him this morning.

When the clock on the wall hit nine, Don left the café heading for the bank. He could see a man standing off to the side of the bank with horses behind him and Don knew the bank might just be in the process of a robbery. Don had bought a box of Mexican cigarillos, at the store this morning, and he pulled one out of the package as he walked toward the store beside the bank. He was feeling in his pockets as if he was hunting a match and then he walked over to the man standing beside of the bank, watching as the man put his hand on the pistol grip of his pistol hanging on his side. He could see the man move his hand down to his pistol and Don asked, You got a match? I forgot to get any at the store.

The man pulled his hand up from the pistol butt and reached into his shirt pocket. As the man looked down at his pocket Don came across with his own pistol, hitting the man on the top of the head, and laid the man out cold on the ground. He took the man’s pistol and stuck it in his waist band and then Don scattered the horses down the alley at a slow walk to hold the noise of them leaving down to minimal amount.

Don took off his hat and wiped his face and forehead, brushing the strands of long hair which came below his collar, placed his hat back on his head. Pulling his colt .44 from the holster, placing a round in the chamber he usually kept empty, and putting it back into the holster. He took the pistol from his waist band that belonged to the man on the ground and opened the loading gate. He rolled the cylinders around and found the man had all chambers loaded. Don stuck the pistol back in his waist band. He then pulled his self up to his full five foot eight inches tall one hundred forty pounds and took a deep breath. Letting the air out he thought to himself, Getter done boy. Then he stepped off heading for the front door of the bank.

Walking up to the door of the bank, he never slowed down, turning the door knob, then Don shoved the door open as he drew the pistol in his waist band. A shot came from the left and Don knew from the jolt in his side he was hit with a bullet but he fired at the man with the smoking gun. By that time the other two men had turned and were shooting at Don and he was returning their gun fire. He felt the jolts on his left side three more times and the impact of the bullets had shoved him against the wall next to the door.

As the gun smoke was clearing some Don could see the three

men were down and looking over at who he thought might be a teller in the bank he said, You go get the Sheriff or some kinda law.

The man hesitated and Don replied, Have I got to tell you twice? Don cocked the pistol again and the man took off out the door in a run. Don, let the hammer down and stuck the pistol back in his pants waist, felt along his chest, and left shoulder underneath the saddle bags. He brought his hand out to see no bloodwhich was a great relief for him. Who’s the banker here named of Hooligan or something close to that?

I am. A shaky voice came from the right inside of a fence in the middle of the bank.

Don walked over to the area and up to a desk. Setting the heavy saddle bags down he saw four holes in the pouch that had been to the front. Marshal Diditmore and Harmon Bell said to ask how much money you lost in the robbery last week?

Fourteen thousand three hundred and eighty dollars is the total the outlaws took from the bank. Hooligan answered as he wiped sweat from his face and bald head with a white handkerchief.

Opening the saddle bag pouch that had the holes in it Don took two money sacks from the pouch and set them on the counter. Start counting. Don said as he motioned to Hooligan.

The banker was shaking but he called another man over from behind the little teller cage and they got busy. In a few minutes Hooligan looked up and said, Nine thousand four hundred is here.

Don opened the other side of the saddle bags and drew out another sack setting it on the desk and they started counting again. Sheriff Burger came into the bank; Don saw him and commented, You got one of the bank robbers beside the bank taking a nap. He was the horse holder.

Yauha I saw him taking a nap and he’s already on the way to jail with one of my Deputies. Sheriff Burger answered and walked over to where the money was on the desk being counted. The doctor came in and with the aid of several of the men standing around moved the one wounded man out. The undertaker had got the other two out of the bank.

You’re still twenty dollars short on the money. Hooligan said as he pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his bald head again.

Don opened the saddle bag taking a cloth bag out and untied the strip of string on the bag from the saddle bag. From the bag he took out a twenty dollar double gold eagle coin. Handing it to the banker he said, Write me out a receipt on you receiving the money and get the teller there to sign it. Then Don retied the bag and put it back into the saddle bag.

The banker busied himself with writing on a large piece of paper and then Sheriff Burger comment, Hooligan didn't you say you would put up a two thousand dollar reward for the return of your money?

Hooligan gave the Sheriff a dirty look and counted out two thousand dollars handing it to Don. Don looked at the money and replied, Make out a receipt that you gave me the reward because every dollar is to be accounted for that I am carrying.

As Hooligan was writing out the receipt Burger said, Come back before closing time and pick up the reward on these four outlaws. For a fact I saw eight hundred dollars lying in the floor on two of the men. There might be more.

Hooligan handed Don the receipt as Don put the money and the receipt into one of the sacks the money had been in and put the sack into the saddle bags. Looking up at Hooligan he comment, "I’ll be