The Wild Bunch
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: I don't own Castle or anything by Sam Peckinpah. Rating: K Time: The year 1902.
Rick looked at Mirabella. He thought she might be about twelve years old and was definitely expensively dressed. Any jewelry she might have had was doubtlessly with the dead men below,
"Do we have to walk back to Walden?" She asked.
"No, we have horses, including one for you, at the other side of the canyon."
"Those men worked for Boss Bracken. I heard them say he'd never let me go. They'd take all of my dad's money. And they said..." Mirabella stopped. Then she went on. "They said they'd do things to me that... only married people are allowed to do."
No one corrected her on that, but Sykes cackled.
It took them longer to ride back to Walden since Mirabella was tired and hungry. They did give her some food, but they couldn't stop to rest since Boss Bracken's men could be anywhere.
When they did arrive back at Walden, it seemed the whole town was waiting for them. As they rode in, the crowd began to cheer. As soon as Mirabella saw her father, she rode to him, jumped off her horse and into his arms.
Rick and the rest stayed back so the two could get reacquainted. Finally, Vaughn led Mirabella over to where Castle and the rest had dismounted. With him were two heavily armed men carrying a strong box.
"Mr. Castle, Mr. Esposito, Mr. Ryan...All of you. Thank you for bringing Mirabella back to me. She's confirmed our fears about Bracken and what would have happened to both of us. As I promised you, I have one thousand dollars in fifty-dollar gold pieces for each of you."
Vaughn opened the strongbox and took out the gold, handing the money to each and every one of them.
"If you'd like, you can stay here for as long as you like. Some men that are handy with guns will come in handy with Bracken around."
Rick looked at his two friends.
"We'd like to, Mr. Vaughn, but Ryan's brother is waiting for us. He has more need of men with guns than you do. With your money, you can hire all the men you need."
Freddie Sykes spoke up.
"It'd be best if you went down to Mexico and headed for Ryan's brother and his friend from there. I know my way around La Republica, and I know a real nice place we can hole up until the heat dies down a bit."
"Sounds good." Rick said.
"What about you ladies" Vaughn asked.
Kate looked at her friends.
"The offer is tempting, but if we're here, it would be too easy for Bracken to send people to pick us off one by one. The farther we are from Bracken, the safer we'll be. If Mr. Castle and his friends will take us along."
"Fine with me." Rick said. he saw that his friends nodded in agreement. "But I think we'd like a day or two to rest and buy supplies. 7mm Mauser cartridges aren't too common in New Mexico. Do you know of any place that might have some?"
Vaughn nodded.
"There must be some in Santa Fe. I'll send a telegram right now and see how much I can get you. I'll pay, of course."
Vaughn was as good as his word. On the morning of the second day, a train pulled in from Santa Fe, carrying fifteen hundred rounds of 7MM Mauser ammo, plus ammo for Sykes Sharpes rifle, the Winchesters, their one shotgun and their pistols.
"That's one hell of a lot of ammo, Mr. Vaughn." Rick said, looking at the boxes of ammo.
"I want you to kill as many of Bracken's people as you can. Hell, I want you to kill Bracken, but he never does any of his own dirty work. The more ammo you have, the better. In addition, I'm giving you two good pack horses to carry all of your gear."
"That's not necessary, Mr. Vaughn. We do have money as you well know."
"To a man in my position, the money is a mere pittance, and far less valuable than my daughter's life."
Rick decided not to argue and began getting his party ready for their trip. By the afternoon, they were off. Freddie led them to a small cave complex not more than six hours from Walden. There they spent the first night. Each night it seemed that Freddie found them someplace to hole up that gave them shelter from the cold and cover from any enemies.
One day he pointed to a range of mountains in the distance.
"See them mountains, Rick? That's Mexico. Now bein' in Mexico won't stop Bracken any, but I got friends in them mountains. Good friends who don't like Bracken one damned bit. Tomorrow night we'll sleep in Mexico."
They began to climb the mountains. Rick decided they weren't all that high, but they were rugged and heavily wooded. Better, from their point of view, the canyons were narrow and twisty. If you didn't know the area, you could easily get lost. Freddie knew the area.
On the third day in the mountains, someone called out to them.
"Senor Freddie. Is that you?"
"Angel, is that you? What are you doing out here watching the trails, young feller?"
"I am not so young, Senor Freddie. I have a gun now."
Angel came out from behind a tree and showed them his gun. Rick thought it was the oldest and most beat up Colt 1876 Army revolver he'd ever seen.
"He's going to fight off Bracken's men with that thing?" Rick asked.
Both Freddie and Angel laughed.
"Nope. All he has to do is fire one shot in the air. That'll let the men of the village that trouble is on the way, and they'll grab their guns and come a running."
Freddie led them into the village itself, a small place of several hundred people, nestled in a small forest. Rick could see open fields through the trees.
Freddie rode to a house that was larger and more substantial than the rest. An old, bearded man came out.
"Buenos dias, jefe. Como esta?" Freddie said, tipping his battered hat.
"We are fine here in the village, Senor Sykes. You have friends with you?"
"These folks and I had a little trouble with that bastard Bracken. We killed a bunch of his damned people."
"That is good. We remember Bracken here. The sooner he and all his men are in Hell, the better. Introduce you me to your friends."
Freddie introduced everyone, explaining why each one hated Bracken.
"Your good friend Senor Thornton was here a week ago, Senor Sykes. But he has gone north again."
"Anybody else here, jefe?"
"Just me, Freddie." Said another voice.
Everyone turned to look at the newcomer. He was a tall Black man, who was very well dressed. He had shiny, store-bought shoes on, and an expensive looking blue suit. A light blue vest covered part of a cream-colored shirt, with a floppy tie held in place by a diamond stick pin. On his head was a bowler hat. He also had a pair of silver plated, ivory handled Smith and Wesson .44s on his belt.
"Dude Montgomery! You're here?"
"Looks like it, Freddie. Climb down from those horses and I'll get you all a drink of the best whiskey in all of Mexico."
Dude looked again at the party.
"Perhaps whiskey for the gentlemen and some wine for the ladies?"
"Wine's fine for them." Ann said. "I'll have whiskey."
They sat on the patio of the jefe's home. A young woman bought a bottle of whiskey, a bottle of wine and glasses. Dude poured out the whiskey for the man while the woman served the ladies. When she got to Alexis Rodgers, Martha put her hand over Alexis' glass.
"My granddaughter does not drink."
"Grams, I'm old enough to drink." Alexis complained.
"Not in front of me, you aren't."
Rick found that the whiskey was very good, very good indeed.
"Where did you get this, Mr. Montgomery? What kind of whiskey is it?"
Montgomery stared at him and Rick thought he might have said something wrong.
"Mr. Castle, I do believe that's the first time any white person has ever called me Mr. Montgomery."
"I served in the US Army in the Philippines from 1898 to 1902. I served with Black soldiers, Hispanic solders, with and against Filipino soldiers. I found them all to be, on the whole, good soldiers and good people."
Montgomery nodded.
"To answer your questions, Mr. Castle, I won several bottles of this whiskey in a poker game last month. The whiskey itself is from Canada, and it's a very good whiskey." Montgomery smiled. "I think perhaps you should call me Dude, and may I call you Rick?"
"Certainly, Dude."
The rest of them introduced themselves by their first names.
"Glad that damned nonsense is over, and we can have a nice drink." Freddie cackled.
"You play cards for a living, Dude?" Lanie asked.
" I turn my hand to a number of things." Dude said, rather vaguely.
"You ladies should go easy on the wine tonight." Rick said. "Tomorrow, I want to see how well you shoot."
"You have a very interesting rifle, Senor Rick." The jefe said.
Rick explained the rifle to the jefe and also showed him the telescopic sight.
"Jefe is interested in firearms, Rick." Freddie said. " Lots of folks who need to disappear from the States for a while know they can come here and live in peace for a while. They pay jefe here for the privilege and he buys guns and ammunition. They don't have no problems with the local bandidos here, and even Diaz's boys are polite."
"Who's Diaz?"
"Porfirio Diaz has been the president of Mexico since forever. He's a damned crook and his army, for the most part, is no better. So, if you joined the army to get rich stealing from the peasants, you don't want your peasants shooting back at you."
Jefe asked a lot of questions about the Mauser, including how much they cost and where he could buy some.
It was after noon before Rick got everyone to a large field just outside the village to see how the women could shoot. He began with Kate.
"Can you shoot Miss Beckett?"
Kate raised an eyebrow.
"I thought we were all on a first name basis, Rick."
"That we are, Kate. Can you shoot?"
"My father taught me."
"Okay, let's start with your pistol. There are a bunch of rock on an old log in front of you. start shooting at them from the right and work to your left."
Kate hit all six rocks in succession, but she was very slow.
"You need to shoot faster, Kate."
"Isn't the idea to hit what you're aiming at?"
"Yes, but you won't hit anything if someone shoots you while you're lining up your first -shot. You need practice."
Next, he had Kate shoot with Ann's Winchester. Again, she was a good shot, but slow.
Next was Lanie Parish. She didn't hit a thing.
"I've never shot anything, Rick. White folks don't like colored folks to have guns.
Dude walked up by Lanie and drew a revolver. He shot six rocks as fast as anyone Rick had ever seen.
"I think Lanie just needs a little instruction, Rick. If you don't mind, I'll take her to the end of the line and do some instruction."
"Fine with me, Dude."
Next was Martha Rodgers. She was a terrible shot, and Rick immediately identified her problem.
"Martha, you need to keep your eyes open when you shoot."
"But the gun is so loud, and the recoil frightens me."
"No one ever got killed by a pistol's recoil, or by noise. Try again and keep your eyes open."
Martha tried but couldn't keep her eyes open.
"We may have to work on this, Martha." Rick said.
Last was Alexis Rodgers.
"Rick, I want to learn how to shoot. I want to kill Bracken and all his men for killing my fiancé, Ashley."
Alexis had never shot before, but she had plenty of incentive to shoot well and was a quick learner. After fifteen minutes, she had the basics down, they just weren't second nature to her as they were to Rick, the other men and Ann.
"You've got it, Alexis. You just need to practice."
TBC