OverTime 03: Slipping (First 70 Chapters)

Chapter 44: Guns (Garrison)

That bastard Ed shot 'em.

Garrison did not bother correcting his partner's language. They'd both heard Elizabeth use worse. Likely Cooper felt wearied and angry, seeing another fine house burnt, same as his family home.

His wife went very still where she leaned against his left side, under the meager protection of his left arm. He wanted his right hand and his gun holster accessible, in case of trouble. With Coopers' words, trouble seemed closer than it had this morning.

Garrison eyed the landscape around them, triple-checking for possible ambush sites and assessing the various risks. Despite what some folks thought about the frontier beef business, foremen like himself rarely armed their men. Untrained boys were far more likely to shoot livestock, each other, or themselves than to successfully repel presumed threats, most of whom could be easier bought off or reasoned with. Southern boys also tended to resist giving up their firearms on entering cow towns--which understandably prohibited weapons above the tracks--leading to more run-ins with Yankee sheriffs than any situation a six-shooter might help.

Garrison sorely regretted having to change that policy.

Schmidt had always traveled armed, because he guarded their supplies and their lockbox, but Schmidt was a hardened veteran. Since Ogallala, when Garrison put Amos in charge of the wife, Amos kept a rifle under the seat of the cart as well. Amos had years and a steady way to him. After the uncertainty at Fort Laramie, Garrison had armed Jorge, Shorty, Juan, and Swede--the point and swing riders. Now he considered arming the younger boys: Romero, Ropes, Milton, Lee, Tomas, and even Clayton.

Clayton might yet take it into his head to shoot at whatever he thought were ghosts. But the chances of someone coming for Elizabeth had just risen considerable.

Ed--or Callahan--had killed Elizabeth's friends and got clean away.

The man had been hunting Elizabeth in Chicago.

Garrison did not need to be a college-educated fellow like his pard to know what kind of a target that painted on his wife and, through her, his cattle drive. He hated accepting how ill equipped he was to deal with this danger.

His outfit could be carrying a Gatling gun and a few cannons, and still not protect this foolish, soft-hearted little woman against someone they could not understand and might not see coming. They needed more information. Who was this Callahan? What experience or training did he have? Was he familiar with this part of the country?

Most important was the question Garrison should have been asking since Elizabeth told them about her dead friend in Dodge City. He felt a fool, to have ignored that question until now.

"Shot 'em why?" he demanded, sharp. He would start riding a wider perimeter. He would put Cooper on swing and set Juan, their best tracker, to scouting behind and around them, not just focusing on the next day's path. But that might not be enough.

He felt mired in his own ignorance and inactivity, doing nothing but listening and holding his wife--much as he generally liked holding his wife.

Much as her clinging hands, on his hand, indicated her need of him.

He needed to act. But action, without understanding, would prove worse than useless. It would exhaust and demoralize them.

Cooper just said, "I'm gettin' to that."

Little on God's earth could stop Benjamin Cooper mid story.