1824: The Arkansas War

CHAPTER 39

Missouri Territory

Skeptically, Zack Taylor eyed the two men standing in front of him. "Explain to me why I should care in the least whether this Clark fellow stays alive or not."

He waved a hand at the rise in the prairie, beyond which lay the bandit camp. "I've got three companies here. I'll call for them to surrender, but:"

His shoulders shifted, too slightly to be called a real shrug. The movement was an accurate reflection of his attitude, which was that bandits were unlikely to just lay down their arms-and he was indifferent to the matter. With three companies of dragoons, he could afford to be.

"What do you care, for that matter? The reward-both of them-specify 'dead or alive.' I'd think 'dead' would make things easier for you."

The man on his left-that was Ray Thompson-shook his head.

"It doesn't work like that, Colonel. Sure, and the reward poster says 'dead or alive.' You believe that, you believe in paradise on earth. What'll really happen-"

His partner chimed in. "You bring in a dead body, the man offering the reward will look at it, shake his head, and tell you it's the wrong man. Dancing with joy the whole time. And how are you going to prove otherwise? Seeing as how your principal witness to the contrary is dead, on account of you killed him."

Scott Powers, that was. Taylor remembered them both quite well. The two scoundrels had had the effrontery to claim that the meat they'd try to fob off onto Cantonment Robertson's commissary hadn't really been wormy. Just "prespiced," in the Louisiana custom. To this day, Zack didn't think he'd ever encountered more bold-faced liars in his life.

He hadn't run into them since, but he'd almost had the two arrested, just on general principles, when they arrived in his camp a few days ago. But eventually he'd agreed to come look for himself. There was no good reason not to, after all. It was less than a three days' ride, even for a sizeable force of dragoons, and until he heard what had happened to General Harrison's first thrust up the Arkansas River Valley he'd had to bide his time in Missouri Territory anyway. If Mrs. Houston's murderer was within his grasp, he had the duty to seize him. Besides, he just couldn't figure out any way-any reason, rather-Thompson and Powers would be lying about this matter.

Taylor still didn't know if Mrs. Houston's killer was in that camp. But that it was a bandit camp, he didn't doubt at all. There was no reason in the world for white men who weren't bandits to be camped out here like this. Not to mention still be sleeping this late in the morning if they were doing honest work. The sun had come up over an hour earlier.

"The two of you are experienced bounty hunters, I take it?"

Thompson looked more shifty-eyed than ever. Powers just grinned. "Not exactly, Colonel. Be more accurate to say 'experienced bounty.' But we know what we're talking about."

He pointed a thumb toward the hidden camp. "Anyway, that's why we need Clark alive."

Taylor's patience had run out. "Fine. But you'll have to figure out how to do it, because I'm not about to risk any of my men for the purpose. I'll give you ten minutes to get into whatever position you think might do the trick for you. After that, I'm calling on them to surrender-and if any of them so much as wave too hard, I'll have 'em all shot down."

"Ain't this a mess?" Ray grumbled, nine minutes and maybe fifty seconds later. They'd found a place to wait in ambush in some switchgrass on the opposite side of the bandit camp. It was a good hiding place, sure, but switchgrass was no fun at all. It was almost like hiding in a thicket of razor blades.

"Shut up," Scott hissed. "It's worth ten thousand dollars."

"I think there's a snake somewhere in here."

"So bite him if he gives you any trouble."

"I hate snakes, you know that. What if-"

He was interrupted by the sound of distant shouting. He and Scott were too far away to make out the exact words.

It didn't matter, though. He'd heard words spoken in that official tone of voice often enough to know the gist of it. We're the law and you ain't, so give up or we'll shoot you dead and not even have to skip lunch on account of it.

Not five seconds later, the camp burst into activity, men spilling out of their bedrolls and running every which-a-way. Most of them were pulling out guns, and two or three of them were shooting at nothing.

The idiots. Ray and Scott could only hope that their quarry was at least a little smarter.

The company Taylor had had hidden behind that rise came over it, just as crisp as you could ask for. Up came the muskets, and a volley went off. That took down at least three bandits. The rest started veering north, but another company was in front of them, and another volley went off.

This was about as uneven a contest as you could ask for. If their quarry was in that pack of dumb yahoos, he was a dead man, and they'd just have to hope Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay were more honest than most reward-posters. Given that one of them was a U.S. senator and the other was president of the whole country, Ray thought that was about as likely as getting a royal flush in an honest game of poker.

"Somebody's coming," Powers murmured. "Over there."

Ray followed the direction of Scott's little nod. Sure enough. Somebody was moving through the bluestem grass that covered most of the area. The stuff was tall enough for a crawling man to stay out of direct sight, but not so tall that his progress couldn't be followed by watching the grass move, if you were looking for it.

"Two of 'em, I think," Powers added.

Ray thought he was right. He gauged the course of whoever it was crawling through the grass, maybe forty yards off, and the pace they were making. Another volley went off while he did so. He could hear men shouting and screaming in the distance, but he ignored all that. The bandits who'd been caught in the camp were as good as dead. Taylor wouldn't be taking any prisoners, given that they'd put up a resistance. Such as it was.

So he and Scott might as well assume that Andrew Clark was one of the two men making their escape. There was no point in doing anything else.

"Fancy or not?" Scott asked.

Damnation, there was a snake in here. Ray could hear it slither.

"Fuck 'fancy.' I can run if you can't."

He was out of the switchgrass and running toward the quarry not two seconds later. It didn't occur to him until then that maybe the soldiers off in the distance would take him for a bandit.

But he ignored the risk. The range was long for muskets, and he really hated snakes.

He could hear Scott pounding behind him. As ambushes went, this one was about as crude as you could ask for.

The men in the grass heard them once they were halfway there. They rose up, each holding a pistol.

Sure enough, one of them was Clark. The other was Scott's erstwhile friend.

"Erstwhile" being the operative term, Ray stopped and shot him when he was ten yards off. The man returned fire-tried to-but his gun didn't go off.

Ray's shot hit him somewhere in the ribs, turning him. Scott's following shot hit him in the upper arm, knocking him down.

They each had two pistols, the second of which they brought to bear on Clark.

"You're under arrest!" That came from Ray's partner.

Clark fired his pistol. Scott yelped, clutching the top of his shoulder. Too angry to think straight, he fired back. His returning shot must have come within a hair of Clark's head, judging from the way the assassin flinched.

"We need him alive!" Ray shouted.

"The bastard hit me! He couldn't hit Houston right in front of him-but he hit me. "

"So what?" Ray might have had some sympathy, except it was obvious Clark's bullet hadn't done more than graze Scott's shoulder.

The assassin was now trying to reload, not paying any attention to Ray at all.

Ray shook his head. "Andrew Clark, you are one dang fool." He stepped forward a few quick paces, leaned over far enough to move the grass aside, aimed, and fired.

The shot was perfect, right through the top of Clark's Blucher half-boots. Probably blew off a couple of toes. He wouldn't be making any escape, for sure-and he wouldn't bleed to death, either.

Clark screeched and threw up his hands. The pistol he'd been reloading sailed off somewhere. He stumbled backward and fell on his butt.

Up close, with Clark howling the way he was, Ray could see the scar where Houston had split his lip pretty badly. At least three teeth were missing, too.

No reason not to subtract a few more. Ray kicked him in the face, twice, and then clubbed him with the pistol butt. That ought to do it.

"You stinking bastard!"

Looking over, he saw that Clark's companion was still alive. In fact, he'd levered himself up on the elbow of his uninjured arm.

Which was his left arm-and he was left-handed. In that position, he couldn't fight a kitten. The world was full of dang fools.

By then, Scott had retrieved the man's pistol and was working at it. "Sorry 'bout that, Eddie," he said, "but ten thousand dollars is ten thousand dollars."

"You stinking bastard!"

Scott flipped up the frizzen and shook his head. "You got some dew in the primer. You should've watched for that, this early in the morning, crawling through grass like you were doing." He scraped out the powder and reprimed the pistol.

"I'll kill you, you stinking bastard!"

"Oh, Eddie, that ain't likely at all." Scott cocked the pistol and shot the man in the head. At that range he could hardly miss, and he didn't.

He looked up at Ray and shrugged. "Sorta hated to do that, him being a friend of mine and all. But Eddie always was the unforgiving sort. I don't feel like having to look over my shoulder all the time, the next twenty or thirty years."

That was the main reason Ray and Scott had been partners for so long. They were both reasonable men, neither one of them given to silly fancies that might strain the relationship.

By the time they got back to the fort, three days later, word had arrived about Arkansas Post. The news was on the scanty side but enough for Taylor to know that he wouldn't be marching into the Confederacy any time soon. Victory or not-and Zack was sure that was a formality, in this instance-any army that had been battered that badly would need months to recuperate. Harrison wouldn't be moving out of the Post until winter came, and then he might very well decide to wait for spring. He'd need reinforcements-lots of them-before he could even think of marching upriver on New Antrim.

That meant Zack was effectively stymied also. The Confederates had the advantage of interior lines. If he and Harrison didn't move together, the enemy could simply switch forces back and forth between their southeastern and northwestern fronts.

He took it philosophically enough. Zack had never thought this war would be over quickly, to begin with, and he'd had years of experience on the frontier. Just another six to twelve months ahead, building another fort and keeping his men in fighting condition. Nothing he hadn't done many times before.

Besides, there was at least one small benefit. He'd be able to make sure those two rascals were telling the truth.

"Send a squad down to Arkansas," he told his aide. Then, thinking about it, amended the order. "No, better make it a whole company. The way that luna-the special commissioner-has been throwing arms around to Indians in the area, a squad might get ambushed. Under a flag of truce, of course."

"Yes, sir. And they're:"

"What do you think? Sam Houston was really the only eyewitness. See if he's willing to come here and verify that we've got the right man."