THE NIGHT OF THE COMANCHE MOON

By Andamogirl

Author's note: season 1.

"The Night of the Steel Assassin" episode Tag.

Reference to the following episodes: "The Night of the Terror Stalked The Town", "The Night of the Howling Light" and "The Night of the Steel Assassin".

Trivia: Ross Martin and John Denher (Torres) played together in the Gunsmoke episode "Bottleman', season 3 episode 28. In "The Night of the Steel Assassin" when Nina Gilbert is throwing items at Jim and Artemus, Ross Martin accidentally gets hit in the face with a book.

Comanche traditionally raided for horses, captives, and weapons during full moon when they could see to ride at night.

In chronological order (based on the TV series episodes order), story coming before my story called "TNOT Deadly Opera." But it can be read as a stand-alone.

Warning: graphic depiction of violence and a bit of torture, not much blood though.

Many thanks to my beta reader Old Toad.

WWW

TEASER

The Wanderer

El Paso railroad yard

Miss Nina Gilbert – back to her old self, i.e. sure of herself, cold, authoritarian and not nice - was gone by the first outbound train to San Francisco.

Before that she had changed her clothes, of course. Artemus Gordon had offered her to take anything she wanted from the big wardrobe in his sleeping compartment where he kept his various costumes.

She had been very surprised by the offer but had made no comment – far too happy to get rid of his showgirl outfit - and she had left the Wanderer wearing lingerie pants, a corset, a crinoline, a petticoat and a plain dark gray and strict dress with no silky ribbons, no bows and no lace.

Artemus closed the glass-paneled door of the parlor car and turned around before leaning against it. He sighed in relief and said, "James my boy, this is the first time I'm glad to see a pretty young woman leave, no literally flee from the Wanderer."

James West smiled. "She left wearing half of your female underclothes and in one of your dresses, and you're not going to see them again you know? She's probably going to destroy it. To keep it would remind her of a bad memory."

Artie shrugged. "I don't mind. The underclothes are replaceable. As for the dress, it wasn't my favorite. On the other hand, I would have been very upset and unhappy if she had chosen the red one with the white lace. It's my favorite. It took me two weeks just to fashion all the lace and another week to make the dress." He massaged his aching left temple, winced and added, "She hit me with a blunt weapon you know…I now have a bump and a bruise."

James West couldn't help but let out a soft chuckle. "It wasn't a blunt weapon, but a book. It's the hazard of our profession, buddy, one day you can be hit by a bullet or - a book." The tone was mocking.

Still massaging his sore temple, Artemus joined his partner who was standing beside the table and pouring coffee into two cups, and continued, "It's a first for me, before her no one had ever hurt me with a book – I preferred it when she threw that pillow at me."

Still in mocking mode Jim nodded. "A pillow that you dodged admirably. Nice reflexes!" He handed a cup to his best friend. "I preferred Miss Gilbert like she was before, when she was hypnotized: I mean a young bird-brain woman thinking only to party, have fun. She was far more agreeable. We should have left her that way, hypnotized."

Artie nodded too. "Yes, you're right. She was absolutely outraged and went completely mad when she discovered with horror that she was dressed, or rather half-dressed, in that showgirl outfit."

Sitting on a chair, James West took a sip of coffee and said, "Yes, she thought that one of us had dressed her like that – like a hussy - and she didn't appreciate my kiss… it's a first for me. All the women love to be kissed by me, or almost. I kind of resent that. And she slapped me!" Looking at Torres's lamp sitting on the table he said, "You should have given it to her, as a souvenir."

Holding his cup of coffee, Artemus took a place on the golden upholstered sofa and shook his head. "Why? She probably would have broken it in thousand pieces. She wanted to forget everything that happened to her when she was hypnotized – besides, I wanted to keep that lamp for myself to put it in my collection of souvenirs from our missions. Torres used it on me too, you know, but he didn't manage to hypnotize me with it. My will was stronger than his lamp and his voice." He swallowed a mouthful of delicious strong coffee (he had prepared himself – Jim's coffee being abominable) and continued, "I had to pretend that I was hypnotized, but it wasn't easy, and I was hurt." He rubbed his right shoulder where the 'man of steel' had pushed a long needle up to the bone." One day I'll write something about hypnosis techniques; it's really a fascinating subject which has been little studied."

Smiling, Jim nodded. "Always the scientist… You know what you're talking about with hypnosis. Dr. Arcularis hypnotized you a few months ago."

Leaning against the backrest of the comfortable sofa, Artemus sighed. "Yes, and I don't remember anything, but I probably had the same treatment he gave to you." Disgruntled, he pursed his lips "You resisted and I didn't. I wasn't strong enough to resist." He cursed under his breath. "I don't understand… I'm not suggestible. Proof: I resisted Torres successfully."

Sitting beside his best friend, Jim patted Artie's leg in a comforting gesture. "There's an explanation. Dr. Arcularis managed to hypnotize you because you were very worried about me, and your mental defenses were thus affected. You're too emotional, Artie, and sometimes it causes some problems. Your emotions took over your cool. You kept your emotions at bay with Torres and not with Arcularis. The difference is here, Artemus. You're the strongest-willed man I know, buddy; you don't have to be angry with yourself."

Knitting his eyebrows, now ashamed, Artie said, "I tried to kill you – I don't remember that either. Oh boy! I could have killed you, Jim."

Smiling Jim pressed his partner's shoulder. "But you didn't. You weren't yourself Artie, it wasn't your fault. You were obeying Arcularis' orders. I wasn't happy to, but I had to knock you out. It was you or me. You are a very good shot buddy, and you missed me."

Feeling better, Artie smiled. "Of course I missed you, you had kicked my hand, hurt my fingers – my aim wasn't good." He finished his coffee and then placed the empty cup on the coffee table. He took his violin from the sofa and tried the strings, tuning them gently.

Concerned, Jim frowned. "Speaking of hurt, your shoulder's okay?"

Smiling, Artie nodded. "Oh yes, it's just sore." He drew his bow across the strings and played a short dancing melody. "I've had more serious injuries, but pretending not to feel anything when Torres hurt me with that needle was very difficult. It hurt like hell!" He placed the instrument and the bow on his lap, and took a fresh sip of the bitter and hot beverage he had prepared a few minutes earlier. "It was difficult also to swim under the water during the several minutes I was in the siphon to reach the subterranean river. It was dark and I couldn't see anything and the water was cold, numbing. But fortunately for me, I'm very good at holding my breath and I was lucky. I ended up in the middle of the river and I escaped. I took a horse, and half an hour later I was on the President's train. I told Grant the whole thing and I took his place as a decoy."

Sitting his empty cup on his lap Jim said, "I didn't know there was a siphon communicating with that subterranean river."

Artie shook his head. "I didn't either. It was just a deduction: the river was not far away, we could hear it running, and when I saw the water hole and the water moving on the surface, I thought that the two were communicating via a siphon. I seized the opportunity to escape, I needed to warn the President, protect him and then save you. But you were safe when I finally found you – and Torres was dead, drowned."

Feeling a pang of anxiety remembering what happened, Jim frowned. "I thought you were dead Artie – knocked out with that gas and drowned in that waterhole after you fell in it."

Still feeling guilty, Artemus took his violin and carefully retuned it. "I'm sorry, Jim, and I apologize again. In fact I let myself fall into that water hole in order to escape – but I was suffocating, I was unable to talk to you, to explain my plan to you."

Jim stood up and poured himself a second cup of coffee. "Apologies accepted again. I was both very surprised and immensely relieved to see you after Torres was drowned."

Artie grinned. "And I was immensely relieved to see that you were still in one piece, Jim," he said, plucking at the strings.

Suddenly there was a knock at the door, and it opened shortly after, revealing Ulysses S. Grant. He took a step inside. "Good day gentlemen," he said, removing his hat.

Immediately the two men stood, standing almost at attention, and Jim asked, "Mr. President? I thought you had already left for Washington after your speech at Alto Nuevo, Sir."

Grant smiled. "Without thanking you both for what you did, no. It would have been rude of me." He closed the door behind him and said, "Jim, Artemus, thank you. You saved my life again – stopping that man, Torres, that steel assassin who wanted to kill me. You'll have both a commendation for that."

Both Jim and Artie smiled, very pleased, and said, "Thank you, Sir," in chorus.

President Grant put his hat on the desk where the telegraph key was sitting, and took a place on the sofa, carefully placing the violin and the bow on the coffee table. "Sit down please." The two men immediately complied. "You should replace me more often, Artemus. Excellent likeness, by the way. I might give myself a break from time to time and go fishing while you are in my chair at the White House. Speaking of the White House, I met Miss Emily Bartow, Senator Bartow's lovely daughter at the White House before leaving for Texas. She asked me to say 'hello' to you, and to tell you that she would love to see you as soon as possible at her home to get acquainted with you more..."

Blushing a little, embarrassed Artie said, "Emily is a good friend of mine, Sir…"

Grant nodded. "And she's not the only one, I am told. All the lovely women of Washington seem to be good friends of yours, Artemus – very good friends."

Even more embarrassed, Artie defended himself, "I have many good friends in Washington Sir… and they're not exclusively female."

Pouring a third cup of coffee, Jim handed it to Grant. "Coffee Sir? Artie prepared it." He smirked while Grant took the cup and said "thank you". "You're right Artie, not all of them are female, only 99%." He ignored his partner's black look and added, "How could they resist you? You are very intelligent, gallant, well behaved, multi-talented. You have a lot of charm and you rescued many of them when they were attacked by robbers in recent weeks, armed with your courage alone. You're a knight in shining armor and women love knightly men. Women talk – a lot, and they're fighting to invite you for tea or for a collation in the garden, and you just can't say 'no' to women." He chuckled.

Smiling, Artemus said, "Yes, it's true, but you forgot that I'm handsome. But once Washington is behind us, you are the one which no woman can resist, I no longer exist then. I'm invisible. But I'm not jealous, it's like that, that's all. I accept it." He smirked. "Oh! But sometimes it doesn't work, take Miss Gilbert for example. She slapped you after you kissed her. My poor James, you just can't win them all."

Grant sipped his coffee silently, very amused at the two men bantering. Since they started working together the two men had loved to exchange remarks in a good-humored teasing way like brothers do.

Jim smiled. "But the exception confirms the rule."

Clearing his throat, Ulysses S. Grant finally said, "Boys, please! Let's be serious now. I also came here to give you a new assignment. Four trains of the Southern Pacific Transportation Company, transporting soldiers and loaded with important cargos - weapons, bank notes and gold - mysteriously vanished between Piedra Blanca and El Paso, on the Sunset Route, in the span of one week, last month. I sent troops to explore the area along the railway track, but they didn't find anything. I hope you have better luck. Your mission, gentlemen, is to find out what happened: to find the people, the trains and their cargos and to do what is necessary so that what happened doesn't happen anymore."

The two secret agents nodded. "Yes Sir," Artemus said.

President Grant took a sip of coffee and added, "Be cautious, that mountainous far-west portion of Texas is the playground of several bands of free Comanche warriors."

Jim nodded. "We know Sir. But they don't kill the white people they capture, Sir. They trade them against livestock. They're hiding in the mountains next to the Mexican border. We tried to force them to go in the reserves, but they refuse and fight our soldiers."

Ulysses S. Grant nodded. "I know that. Of course, if you are captured, it could take some time before the negotiations are successful, but in the end, you will be released. Jim, Artemus, best for you would be to avoid the Comanche."

Jim nodded. "We'll do our best, Sir."

Frowning, Artie whispered to himself, "I have a bad feeling about this…"

Tbc.