The Wild Bunch
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: I don't own Castle or anything by Sam Peckinpah. Rating: K Time: The year 1902.
After four days, the four women had improved some. Well, Martha no longer closed her eyes, but her hands shook so badly she couldn't hit anything. Kate had gotten faster without losing her ability to hit the target. Lanie Parish was getting better under the tutelage of Dude Montgomery. Alexis had improved the most.
"Rick, watch this." She had said. Then she drew her pistol and fired six times, hitting six rocks thirty feet away. She was pretty fast, too.
"Very good, Alexis. Just remember, shooting at people who are shooting back at you is a lot harder than shooting at rocks."
"I'll remember." She said, and then put her arms around \rick and gave him a quick kiss. "Thank you for teaching me to shoot."
Martha hadn't noticed the kiss as she was being helped by both Ryan and Esposito. Kate did notice and felt a sudden pang of jealousy.
Why should I feel jealous? She thought and dismissed the thought.
Dude walked over to Rick with Lanie right beside him.
"Rick, do you mind if I try out that Mauser rifle of yours?"
"Sure. Just a minute and I'll get it."
Rick got his rifle and explained to Dude how the rifle worked and how to use the telescopic sight.
"Dude, there's a dead tree about three hundred yards downrange. Try to hit the branch on the right."
Dude knelt, took careful aim and fired.
"Good." Rick said. "You hit the tree trunk just to the left of the branch."
Dude worked the bolt and fired four more rounds. Each one hit the branch.
"Any idea where I could get one of these, Rick?"
"I'm afraid I'm not interested in selling, and I doubt Ryan or Esposito are interested. You could probably order one from a big city. But remember, ammo for it isn't that common in the US."
The next day, Rick decided to give his shooters a rest. They whole group were relaxing at the jefe's house when four men came riding in.
Although no shots had been fired by the village lookouts, Rick was suspicious. He swung his Mauser around to cover the men.
"Freddie." Called their leader. "Will you tell that man we're friends?"
Freddie Sykes laughed.
"Damn it, Bill, he isn't just my friend, he's your friend, too."
"Then how come I don't know him?"
Freddie laughed again.
"He's your friend because he's the man who killed Deputy Colin Hunt. He's Rick Castle."
"You shot that bastard Hunt? Mister, I'd be mighty proud to shake your hand."
"Okay, dismount." Rick said, lowering his rifle.
The man dismounted, followed by his three companions.
"Howdy, sir. I'm Bill Tucker." He said, shaking Rick's hand. "This here's my little brother Jim, my littlest brother John and our cousin, Mike. We're all damned glad to meet the man who killed that bastard, Hunt."
"How come you hate him so much?" Rick asked.
Bill blushed.
"We just do."
That made Sykes laugh and laugh.
"If you won't tell him, Bill, I will. Seems that Bill was sweet on a little girl who danced in a cantina in Socorro, Falina was her name. Damned pretty girl she was, too. Problem was, Deputy Hunt was sweet on her, too. He didn't like Bill sparking his girl. So, Hunt and a bunch of deputies grabbed these four, took their money, horses, saddles and tack, their guns and all their clothes and marched them out of town, all in broad daylight. Once they were outside of town, the deputies beat on the boys something fierce."
"Now you know why I hated him. I hope he died real slow like."
"No." Rick said. " He never even knew what hit him."
"Say, is Dude Montgomery here. We got business with him."
Dude, who'd been sitting in the back, stood up.
"I'm right here, Bill. Do you have my money?"
"Sure do. Do you have our goods?"
"Of course."
"What are you selling them?" Rick asked. "Just curious."
"Ever hear of the Munroe effect?"
Rick shook his head.
"A feller named Munroe was working for the US Navy a while back. Set off a slab of guncotton against a metal plate."
"What's guncotton?" Lanie asked.
"You soak fine cotton with nitric acid and sulfuric acid. The result is an explosive. Anyway, Munroe noticed that the guncotton manufacturer's name was stamped into it. When he set the guncotton off, the manufacturer's name was cut into the metal plate. He and some other people did some work and found you could direct an explosive in one direction and cut through thick metal."
"What good is that?" Lanie asked.
Bill and the rest laughed.
"It's real good for cracking a safe."
Bill and his family went off with Dude to attend to their business.
When they had left, Kate grabbed Rick's hand and pulled him away.
"Rick, those men are criminals."
Rick nodded.
"Sykes said that the people who come here are looking to lay low for a while, so I guess they are."
"Doesn't that bother you?"
"Freddie is a criminal. You had no trouble with him being around when he was shooting at Deputy Hunt's posse, or when we rescued Mirabella Vaughn."
"Considering what those two groups of men were, I don't see Sykes' actions as being criminal."
"Everything he's told us about himself indicates that he's a criminal, Kate, just like we are."
"What do you mean, just like we are? We're not criminals."
"Oh? You hung two men without a trial. Do you want to tell me that wasn't murder?"
"Those two men shot and killed an unarmed man and tried to rape Alexis. What did you expect us to do?"
"You're not the first people in New Mexico to take the law into your own hands, and I'd be willing to bet that a fair and impartial jury would agree with you, but they still had no trial. Then there's the five men we killed in Silver Queen."
"They attacked you! You were defending yourselves." Kate shot back.
"True, but we took their horses, weapons, money, food and horse fodder. That was stealing and you women benefited from it."
"You cannot be serious."
"I am, plus we shot and killed members of Deputy Hunt's posse. I know what they were like, nothing but hired killers. But they were sworn peace officers in the Territory of New Mexico, chasing a wanted man."
"That's absurd. I don't believe you could say those things."
"I'm not saying that what we did was morally wrong, in fact it was the right thing to do, but all those things were crimes in the eyes of the Territory of New Mexico."
Kate turned on her heel and walked away.
Rick shook his head and walked back to the jefe's house.
"Freddie, you've said that these people know about Bracken. What happened?"
Freddie just laughed, but jefe replied to him.
"Senor Castle, we first saw Bracken more than twenty years ago. Yes, it was the spring of 1882. For many years Americanos had been coming to Mexico to escape the law in their own country. Yes, they were criminals, but they wanted a place where they could relax and feel safe. Few of them caused any problems. This village and many others hosted wanted Americanos like Senor Sykes."
Sykes cackled again.
"Damn straight. I was down here well before 1882. I was so happy here I would have stayed forever, but I didn't have the money, so I went back north.
"When Bracken came here, "jefe continued, "he was a wild, violent young man. We welcomed him, not knowing what kind of a man he really was. One night, his men used their guns to force everyone out of their houses, killing anyone who resisted. Bracken's men stole everything of any value in the village, took enough food to feed his men for a month, and each man took a woman with him when they left. The women eventually came back, having been beaten and raped. One of the men who had been killed for resisting was my father, the jefe then. We didn't know what to do."
"What happened?" Rick asked.
"A man called Anderson Cross came to our village with two friends. He saw we didn't want him here and asked us why. When we told him, he said we needed to buy guns so we could fight. In return for our hospitality, he gave us two extra guns that he had and ammunition. He gave us a .44 Smith and Wesson pistol and a single shot Remington rifle."
"He and his friends taught us how to shoot and how to care for the weapons. He suggested we buy American Winchester rifles in caliber .30-30. He said because of the rough country and the forests, we didn't need really long-range rifles."
"From that day on, whenever anyone in the village made any money, it went straight to our fund to buy weapons. In 1883 I took two men to the north and bought two Winchesters and some ammunition. We've kept buying weapons and ammunition since then. We have rifles and a pistol for every man in the village."
Jefe smiled.
"We still welcome Americanos here, even if they are not the best of men. But by now, everyone knows we can and will defend ourselves."
The next day the Tucker gang rode out, headed north. Rick asked Dude where they were going. Dude just shrugged.
"I don't know. I never asked them because I don't care. I've done my business with them and now it's all up to them."
Later that day, Kate came to Rick.
"Rick, I need to apologize to you. I've thought about what you said, about us being criminals. You were right. I'm sure my father would have been the first to agree with you. The things we've done are against the law."
Rick nodded.
"As I said, just because what we did was against the law doesn't mean it wasn't morally right. If we get caught by Bracken, we'll be legally hung. If we were to get arrested in Walden, we'd be found innocent, no matter what we did. Anyplace else, we'd probably be okay. Don't worry about it."
Life in the village was quiet and peaceful. Ryan, Esposito, and Ann Hastings passed the time playing cards with Dude. Dude was a far better poker player than the other three and won, even though the stakes were only pennies.
Six days after leaving, the Tucker gang came back, riding in with big smiles on their faces.
"Jefe," shouted Bill Tucker, "has old Jorge still have his hot water bath, and barbering tools?"
"Of course."
"Tell him to get ready. And have someone clean and mend our clothes while we get slicked up,"
"Have a good trip?" Dude asked.
"The best. We'll tell you all about it when we get done."
Two hours later, the four Tucker boys came out of Jorge's, all bathed, barbered, and cleaned up.
"You did a good job for us, Dude. A damned god job. And you'll be happy to know we got old Bracken good."
Jefe brought out pulque and Dude brought out a bottle of whiskey. Everyone got a drink and Bill told his story.
"That bastard Bracken had fifteen hundred dollars in gold in a safe in San Carlos. The safe was so good, Bracken thought, that he didn't need no men to guard it. No one could open it without the combination that only he had."
"He was wrong, I bet." Sykes said.
"Yup. We walked in, pulled our guns and went straight to the safe. The manager just smiled and said no one could open it but Boss Bracken. Well, we put Dude's explosive right where he told us to and let her rip. Blew that safe wide open. The bank manager just stood there with his mouth open. We grabbed Bracken's gold and a few dollars that was also in the safe and left. No one even said boo to us."
"Now jefe, let's get some music and some food and have us a fiesta."
TBC