The Tombstone Deliverance: Chapter XVI

SIXTEEN

Following what became known in local legend as the Tombstone Deliverance, Judge Newman awarded both Sheriff Parker and US Marshal Bill Smith with commendations for their sterling efforts in preventing the Cohen gang from ransacking Tombstone and, perhaps more importantly in Newman’s mind, for preventing an advance by the criminals into Boston proper. The four horsemen for whom true honours should have been given had not returned to the town after the train was brought to a successful halt and so were never mentioned in any of the official records, despite several witnesses attesting to their identities.

The Tombstone Deliverance: Chapter XV

FIFTEEN

“Get me to the next carriage! We’re dead men if we stay here!”

The Tombstone Deliverance: Chapter XIV

FOURTEEN

“Clear the road!”

Cohen roared at those men who were hurriedly unloading the recently acquired locomotive, relieving it of those armaments originally destined for the front lines. His horse galloped past the carriages until it brought him to the engine. Once there he dismounted, quickly followed by his cohort. Shaking with rage he yelled again, his fury directed at a lowly engine driver sat upon the cold hard metal of the track, who had been taken with the train and who had subsequently delivered it under duress to the outskirts of Tombstone;

“You there! Get this heap moving!”

The Tombstone Deliverance: Chapter XIII

THIRTEEN

“Everyone take your positions!”

Cohen emerged from the saloon. Spittle launched from his drunken lips and he shouted as loudly as his asthmatic lungs would allow;

“Whoever they are, stop them dead in their tracks! You lot, you’re with me!”

The Tombstone Deliverance: Chapter XII

TWELVE

“Stop it! Get off me, please!”

The train arrived, just as Parker had previously said it would. He and Smith hurriedly removed their badges of authority and pulled their hats low over their eyes, sticking to the shadows. The latter task was not difficult since the shadows increased in size with each passing minute, the daylight extinguished from the sky by the onset of night and quickened in its departure by the swirling darkness of uncharacteristically heavy clouds.

“Please, don’t hurt her! Take me instead, just don’t hurt her!”

“You don’t have anything we’re interested in, boy!”

The Tombstone Deliverance: Chapter XI

ELEVEN

Dalton had found new clothes in the adjoining room of the saloon; a pair of black trousers, a matching vest, a thick duster designed for cold nights on the trail and a hat of similar material. All were of basic construction and modest in style with the exception of the hat, which bore upon it a gold pin depicting a crown. A new shirt, also black, had been supplied to complete the ensemble and to replace the tattered one he had worn previously, although who had left the new vestments the Marshal could not discern.

The Tombstone Deliverance: Chapter X

TEN

US Marshall Bill Smith had ridden hard to reach the outskirts of Tombstone, summoned after he had received a telegram from the Judge. His mount had not been spared during the journey and so, by the time he stepped down from the saddle at the cemetery, the horse struggled to retain its footing and desperately swung its head from left to right in search of water.

The Tombstone Deliverance: Chapter IX

NINE

Bright sunlight pierced Dalton’s closed eyelids in an intensifying orange glow. As he regained consciousness he opened his eyes, slowly, before pausing to turn his head to the left. The movement, instinctive in nature, shielded his range of vision from the strong rays which entered through the large window to his right hand side. The window was high and wide, suqared off at the bottom and reaching up to a point at the top. A church window. The Marshal had turned to face the reverse side of rows of pews, arranged both sides of a narrow aisle and which faced towards an altar at the far end. The glass of the rear window intensified the heat which bore down from the cloudless sky and the right side of his face began to prickle. A bead of sweat, whether from the temperature or the fever he could not rightly determine, ran across the thick stubble of his cheek.

The Tombstone Deliverance: Chapter VIII

EIGHT

The horse’s hooves dug into the dew soaked earth as Dalton spurred it onwards towards Tombstone. As in Bleak Valley, the autumnal sun had begun to creep above the horizon in the far distance as both man and mount made their way at speed along the well-travelled dirt track. To his right Dalton could see the track of the railroad, running parallel to his own course at a distance of what he gauged to be no less than a hundred yards. On the outskirts of Tombstone no-one was visible until Dalton rounded a corner out front of a boarding house. Alone in the street a small figure was waiting, his back hunched over and his long black coat consuming all but his rosy face. Dalton slowed the horse to a trot and approached cautiously, halting in front of the man before he dismounted and began his enquiries;

The Tombstone Deliverance: Chapter VII

SEVEN

Judge Newman entered his office to find a telegram waiting for him. Sent by Sherriff Parker, the message it contained was short and concise;

Newman stop

Another incident stop

Young boy stop

 Cohen responsible stop

Send help stop

Newman’s brow furrowed. He took a deep yet sharp breath through his nose into his ageing lungs. Then he stared through the window out into the street.

Men in their derby hats checked the time using the fine watches hung from their exquisite waistcoats, while on the other arm they courted beautiful women in delicate dresses. Newman wanted no part of the Cohen gang. He didn’t want them on his patch. He didn’t want them disrupting his town, causing damage to his businesses and killing his people. As far as he was concerned the Cohens could stay in Tombstone, providing they didn’t go anywhere else. But he had given Parker his word. There were people in Tombstone who needed help; people just like those in Boston. Newman was concerned that going to war with the Cohens would prove an unwise gamble, but took comfort in the fact that he had sent the best man for the task.

Once he had stepped back out into the sunlight, traversed the bustling street and reached the telegram office, his reply was even briefer than the original message;

Parker stop

Have sent Dalton stop

Should arrive at dawn stop

With the first of his good deeds completed for the day, he nodded to the telegram assistant and made his way back towards the courthouse.