The Brother

Chapter 9

The next few days passed slowly for Dillon. He had tried to explain to Kitty that if this man Gannon knew that his plan had failed, he might be sending another hired gun to Dodge any day. The only way he could stop that from happening was by going and confronting him there on his home ground.

Both Kitty and Doc had put forth very good arguments as to why Matt should not head out for the Gannon Ranch, but the Marshal was adamant in his decision. He knew that Judge Brooking would be coming through Dodge in about two weeks, and he figured that gave him enough time to ride the hundred miles or so and bring Gannon back to face trial along with his henchman Billings. They had begged him to at least take Chester with him, but he couldn't. Someone had to stay and take care of the prisoner.

Dragg Billings was becoming irate at being held in Dodge City's jail and threatened all kind of unpleasant consequences, but Matt was undeterred. Firstly he did not want him reporting back to Gannon and secondly he did not want him roaming free and thus having a second chance to carry out his boss's orders.

He allowed himself four days to make the approximately 130 mile trip to Gannon's ranch. He had spoken to Max Lemay who had told him that the Blazing G ranch was located about 90 miles east of Pueblo just south of Fort Lyon, he had even been able to locate it on a map. It would not be an easy ride and he took along a spare horse, just in case. His shoulder was still a little sore, but Doc had removed the stitches just before he left town and that had helped. Now he had nothing to do but count off the miles.

He had decided ahead of time where he would stop that first night to camp. He had to make it that far to keep to his schedule.

By the time he pulled off the trail behind a rocky outcrop, he was dog tired and his shoulder was aching – maybe Doc was right yet again, but he knew he didn't have much choice in what he planned to do, and he had a limited time to do it.

The remainder of the trip passed without incident, he had no clear plan in his head as to how he would find or arrest Gannon but knew that some way or another he had no choice.

As luck would have it things worked in his favor. He was approaching the part of the trail where Max Lemay had told him there was a turn off leading to the Gannon ranch. Fortunately he had just crested a ridge and saw a small cloud of dust headed towards him. Ever cautious he backed off from the trail to watch the approach of what turned out to be three riders. A good memory for names and faces was an essential part of any lawman's job and as they approached he recognized two of them. One was Willie Crocker whose face he had seen several months ago on a poster, he was wanted for holding up a stage and killing the shotgun rider. The other face was the one he had arrested in Dodge and held in the jail overnight about four years ago – Lou Gannon. He was a man who thought the world owed him a living, a man without conscience who could cheat at cards and kill anyone who tried to cross him. The man was too clever to be the one who did the killings – he always hired someone else for that. The third man of the group was unknown to Dillon.

The trio left the ranch road and turned onto the main trail heading towards Pueblo. Dillon worked his way through the rocks and managed to get ahead of the men so he could ride down from the rise and appear in front of them. He made an imposing figure – a large man on a large horse with a Sharp's rifle in his hands. As they rounded the slight bend in the road they saw him there.
"Hold it," he called out in a loud, commanding voice.

Gannon recognized him almost at once.

"Well Marshal Dillon, you're a long way from home. What are you doing here?" He began to move ahead of the other two men who had stopped in their tracks.

"I said hold it." Dillon ignored the man and raised his rifle slightly as he spoke.

Gannon laughed. "Do you seriously think you can take all three of us?"

"Maybe not, but I'm sure I can get a bullet in you before I go down. Now all of you throw down your weapons or else Gannon here will be the first to die."

The men looked to their boss for guidance, but he was not ready to give up yet.

"What is it you want, Marshal?" Gannon was trying to play for time, to find out what had happened in Dodge. If Lemay had managed to kill that saloon girl, he knew that Dillon would find an excuse to kill him for sure.

"I'm taking you and Crocker back to Dodge, you can ride in the saddle or over it, I don't much care which. Now drop your guns, I'm not planning to sit here all day."

He looked over at the third man – he could tell he wasn't much more than a boy, probably 18 at the most.

"What's your name?"

"Mel Turner, Marshal." The young man was somewhat intimidated by the figure in front of him. Matt ran the name through his head but couldn't remember having seen it before.

"Listen Turner, you are riding with trouble here. I don't want you, just throw your gun down and turn and go – you can come back later to pick it up."

The boy looked at his boss, then back at Dillon. He made his choice and turned his horse to head west away from the fix he had got himself in.

Matt turned his attention back to the two men remaining in front of him.

"Now for the last time throw down your weapons, over there to those rocks on your right, will do."

Slowly they obeyed, thinking that with two of them they could easily overcome this man when the opportunity arose.

"Now get down off your horses and walk over there," he indicated a place to their left, well away from where the guns were lying. He turned his horse so he was facing them, then still holding the rifle he dismounted. Once on the ground he switched the rifle to his left hand and placed it in the saddle boot where it belonged, and drew his colt from its holster with his right. Keeping his eyes and his gun on the two men he reached in his saddlebag for the two pairs of handcuffs he always carried. There was enough distance between him and the men that they could not jump him. He had them both sit on the ground with their backs towards him, then watching both of them for any slight movement he had them put their hands behind their backs and locked the cuffs in place. Now he could relax a little. He gathered up the guns they had thrown down and threw them off the trail behind some rocks where they would not be found any time soon.

"Aren't you a little out of your territory Marshal?" questioned Gannon, as the Marshal returned to his prisoners.

"Nope," was the only reply he received.

Matt was not looking forward to the return trip to Dodge. He had thought he would have about twelve hours at the Fort to rest, but now he had the man he was after and would have to turn around and make the trip back without that luxury. The fact that he had picked up Crocker as well was an added bonus – although it would make his job much harder now.

Gannon and Crocker were both men who hated the thought of any kind of law interfering with their lives. Gannon was more the organizer who came up with the schemes, Crocker was just the hired help who did what he was told and looked forward to the big payoff at the end. Dillon knew that he was going to have to be alert for the entire duration of the trip back to Dodge. He could not let down his guard for a minute, these men would take any opportunity to escape and probably take pleasure in killing him while doing so.

The Marshal wanted to get them mounted up and on their way before any more of Gannon's men arrived on the scene. Accordingly, one at a time he released the handcuffs just long enough for them to get up on their horses, then refastened them behind their backs. It would make for an uncomfortable ride so he didn't usually do that to his prisoners, but there were two of them and he knew they would take advantage of any little weakness he showed.

The first two days went fairly smoothly. The men complained a lot about all the riding they had to do, but Matt paid no attention. It was the nights that were the worst. He didn't dare sleep very much, and by the third night he was having a hard time staying awake. He worried about making one little mistake that would give them the chance to overpower him. By the fourth morning he felt his concentration waning, even so he followed the same procedure he had used up to now. He had Gannon mounted up and had re fastened the cuffs so the man's hands were behind his back. As usual the man sat there and complained all the time he was getting Crocker over to his horse. At the last minute, just as Matt had released the man's hands and Crocker was about to mount up, Gannon maneuvered his horse close enough to launch a hefty kick at Matt's head, but got his shoulder instead. Crocker seized his chance and managed to grab the Marshal's gun. Matt launched himself at the man, but Gannon began to get off his horse to help. Somehow in the confusion Crocker was determined to leave the scene, he grabbed his horse and started to ride away, firing the gun at the Marshal in the hope of making good his escape. Somehow Matt managed to grab his own rifle from the saddle on the buckskin and fired after him. His aim was good and he watched as the man fell to the ground.

He turned to Gannon who had meantime managed to get off of his horse and grabbing the man's arm looked around for something to secure him to while he went to check on Crocker. There was a fairly large tree to the right of the trail – that would work. He pushed his complaining prisoner in that direction and refastened the handcuffs so that the man was secured to a substantial limb.

He walked off to check on Crocker, affording himself the luxury of rubbing his shoulder. At least it wasn't bleeding again. Crocker was lying face down where he had landed. Matt retrieved his gun and held it ready while he turned the man over with his foot, he could see that he was dead. Crocker's horse was standing nearby, he should probably throw the man's body over the saddle and bring it back to Dodge, but that would only make the remainder of the trip more difficult, in the end he removed the saddle and bridle from the animal and turned it loose. It took him a few minutes to walk back to where he had left Gannon and the other horses, he replaced the rifle in its scabbard and with pistol in one hand, removed the cuffs from Gannon.

Indicating the body on the ground he turned to Gannon

"Take him over there towards those bushes and find some rocks to cover him"

Gannon started to complain, "You just flat out killed him Dillon, now you gonna leave him here?"

The Marshal ignored him, just kept urging him on with the Colt he was holding. Gannon made several other remarks, but they all fell on deaf ears.

The delay had cost them about two hours so it was already getting dark by the time they rode into Dodge. Matt wanted to get his prisoner locked in a cell and then get a telegraph off to the sheriff in Kansas City where. If he remembered correctly, Crocker was wanted for bank robbery. He needed to let him know that the man was dead.

He was just tying the horses to the rail outside the office when the door opened and his assistant appeared.

"Mr. Dillon, it's good to see you made it back."

"It's good to be back, Chester. Take this man for me and lock him up."

"Marshal in case you'd forgotten I've still got these cuffs on."

Matt had grown tired of the man's manner.

"You managed to get of your horse back there on the prairie, so I figure you can do it again here." He watched the man's ungraceful descent to the ground and took his rifle from the saddle boot and handed it to Chester.

"I've got some good hot coffee on Mr. Dillon. As soon as I've got him locked up I'll bring you a cup."

TBC