Chris stretched his aching back as J.D. trotted into the sheriff’s office.

“Sorry I’m late, Chris. Buck was teasing Ezra and I couldn’t leave until...” The boy’s leader dismissed the excuse with a casual wave of the wrist. ”Thanks, Chris. Ezra isn’t happy, though. You’ll never guess what Buck did?”

“I can imagine,” Chris muttered, moving toward the door. Chris had known Buck Wilmington for over twelve years. There was very little the exuberant scoundrel could do that would shock Larabee these days. “Prisoners haven’t been fed yet. See to it.” The men had been complaining for over two hours. They wanted their breakfast.

“Okay, Chris. Hey, Chris, what do the words insidious and malevolent mean?”

Larabee paused in the doorway. “Why?”

“Well, Ezra said that Buck was an insidious snake in the grass whose malevolent...”

Chris grinned. “Cunning and spiteful, son.”

J.D. considered the description with this new found knowledge and then smiled. “Yep. I woulda said that too if he’d done it to me.”

Chris pulled his hat onto his head and stepped onto the porch to survey ‘his’ town. His, in so much as two weeks earlier he had taken on the job of maintaining peace here. Judge Travis had offered a dollar a day plus room and board, but it wasn’t that that had enticed the talented gunfighter to put down temporary roots here. He couldn’t’ really explain why, though he knew it had a lot to do with the six other men who had also agreed to take on the job. Six men who had defended an Indian Village with him for no other reason than to get the blood pumping - men who looked to Chris Larabee as their leader now.

They were an unusual group to say the least: an ex-preacher who believed in God but not religion as such, a black healer who was an ex-slave and one damn fine doctor and a con man and cheat, though there was a lot more to Ezra Standish than met the eye. Buck. Chris smiled. It had been good to hook up with Buck again. The two of them had been through a lot together. There was also J.D., a boy who had come west looking for adventure but who’d found more than he’d bargained for. Thankfully, he’d found Buck first. Wilmington was doing an admirable job of keeping J.D.’s annoying enthusiasm under control while at the same time developing the boy’s obvious talents. Dunne was young, but he had good instincts and a strong sense of justice. Chris hadn’t wanted J.D. to join the group, but the youth had proved his worth too many times to count in the past two weeks.

Chris paused on the porch and watched as a dusty young man exited the alley beside Potter’s store. The final member of the Seven, an ex-bounty hunter, a tracker and sharpshooter. Vin Tanner was a complicated and yet inherently simple man whom Chris had the honour of calling friend. He and Tanner had an uncanny understanding of each other, but the understanding hadn’t come from years riding the same path as one might expect. Quite the contrary, in fact. The pair had only met three weeks earlier, but in those short weeks they had established a bond that was more spiritual in nature than anything else. It had actually taken no more than a single glance for their friendship to be founded. In that split second look, they had read each other’s soul and the unquestioned trust they now shared had been cemented - all without having spoken a single word to one another. Strangely, neither man had ever trusted easily and still didn’t, yet both had known instantly that the other was worthy of their trust.

The object of Larabee’s attention got half way across the street and then paused. His face clouded with wariness. He just stood, listening - sensing. Vin’s eyes narrowed with concentration. Chris watched his best friend curiously at first and then with concern.

Stepping off the porch, the Seven’s leader strode out to join the young tracker standing almost motionless in the middle of the street. Chris surveyed the people around them with distrust, his hand descending to his holster and coming to rest there. In the three weeks the Seven had been together, all of Vin’s companions had come to realize that Tanner had uncanny instincts - eerie as a matter of fact. He also had a $500 bounty on his head for a murder he was innocent of. The bounty was never far from Vin’s mind, nor for that matter, any of the Seven’s.

Larabee studied the few new faces wandering the street. If they were here to collect the bounty on Vin, they would have go through Chris Larabee first and few people were prepared to do that.

“Something wrong?” Chris asked, stopping next to his friend.

Vin’s brow creased with uneasiness as he lifted his eyes to the horizon. “Hope not.”

“Vin?”

The tracker spun to the right and brushed Chris’ arm as a quick reassurance as he turned toward the livery. “I’m heading out to the bluff,” he called back to his friend. “Be back in a couple of hours.”

Chris watched the young man go, shaking his head with puzzled resignation. Sighing, the gunfighter turned and resumed his trek to the saloon. Now, what the hell had that been all about?

**********

“Things have been quiet in the last two days,” Nathan commented to Josiah, as the two settled at the round table in the middle of the room.

The preacher nodded. “The word’s spreading.” People as far away as Tenterfield had heard the rumours concerning Four Corners’ seven hired guns - seven men not to be crossed - and trouble had found other towns to descend upon it seemed. Outside of the rowdy miners, who were cooling their heels in jail after disturbing the peace the night before, the town’s protectors had had little to occupy their very specific talents recently.

“Well howdy, fellas,” Buck chirped, as he took a seat at their table. The trio was collected in the saloon, which was where they gathered at this time of day. It was time for their customary afternoon poker match.

“I hear Ezra isn’t happy with you,” Josiah chuckled.

Buck Wilmington’s face lit up with pronounced innocence. “Don’t know what you’re talkin’ about Josiah.”

“I heard that...”

“I object most ardently to having that unfortunate incident discussed around a table in a house of public drinking,” Ezra bleated with mock disgust as he pulled up a chair. He gave Buck a scathing look to which the scoundrel grinned with satisfaction. Without any further comment, the gambler produced a deck of cards from his pocket and began dealing.

For all intents and purposes, these men were strangers. They knew little of each other’s background, but that mattered little. When the bullets started flying, they could depend on one another. They had proved that more times in the last three weeks than any of them cared to think about. The seven of them had never set out to be friends. Each had his own private reasons for signing on to protect the Indian village. Strangely, in the short period they had known each other, they had begun to develop a fellowship stronger than most of them had ever known.

“J.D. on duty in the jail?” Nathan asked Buck. The scoundrel nodded, flicked his eyes across to the silent man seated in the corner on his own and inclined his head. Larabee declined the invitation with the slightest shake of the head. That wasn’t unusual. Chris rarely joined the afternoon poker match. In the evening, he would usually play a few hands, but in the afternoon, he either sat at that table in the corner; silent and alone, studying the other occupants of the room, or he was joined by Vin - in which case the two of them sat in silence studying the other occupants of the room.

“Anyone seen Vin?”

“He rode out of here a couple of hours ago,” Josiah informed his friends as he picked up his cards and eyed them with interest.

“Mrs. Travis mentioned that her son Billy is coming out on the next stage,” Nathan claimed. “I’ll have two, Ezra.”

“She’s got a son?” Josiah asked. “Reckon I’ll take three, Ezra. Ain’t much sense keeping any of this trash,” the big man muttered, tossing the cards down.

“Mr. Wilmington?” Ezra inquired when Buck failed to communicate his intentions. Something seemed to have caught the scoundrel’s eye. He was staring intently toward the door. The others turned to investigate. As they did so, Vin Tanner shouldered through the batwing doors, his face intense, his strides short and sharp. Tanner nodded his head curtly toward his four associates and headed straight for Larabee’s table. His fellow peacekeepers dropped their cards and did likewise. Larabee rose to his feet.

“We got trouble, boys,” Vin informed them. His voice was quiet and calm, but his eyes showed deep concern. Tanner removed his hat and wiped his brow with the back of his sleeve. Clearly, he had done some hard riding.

“What is it?”

“Storm. Bad one. We’re gonna need to get ready for it.”

The other men glanced at each other. A storm? Not quite what they had been expecting, but then, they had been hired to protect the town from any threat... even Mother Nature it seemed.

“How bad?” Josiah asked. He’d seen ‘bad’ before.

Vin flicked his eyes to the preacher and then back to Chris. “Real bad.”

“How long have we got?” Nathan asked.

At this, Vin’s brow furrowed. “Don’t know, but it’s comin’.” None of the men doubted him for a second. Vin Tanner was one of those rare individuals who were attuned to nature. He could read a trail like no man the others had ever met. He saw, heard and if the truth was known, sensed things that most men could not.

“Alright, let’s warn everyone, but don’t panic them. Last thing we need is for people to work themselves up into a frenzy. Get around town and speak to everyone. Tell them to tie down anything that’s not nailed down. Tell them to stay in doors when it hits,” Chris ordered. The group nodded and started to head off.

“Won’t be enough,” Vin announced softly, replacing his hat. Tanner’s face, which was usually so calm, was burdened with knowledge. He seemed unsettled, and that was out of character for the laidback tracker.

“What do you mean?”

“This ain’t just a storm. This is Mother Nature gettin’ real pissed,” Vin murmured softly, his eyes searching the area above the batwing doors that afforded a view of outside.

“That bad?” Josiah muttered. He’d seen Mother Nature loose her temper before and it wasn’t a pretty sight.

Vin grunted thoughtfully. “We need to board up every window in town. Cover all glass. Have to pull down anythin’ that ain’t been built well or it could blow down and cause damage. Get some blankets, water and food down in the cellars and Indian shelters. Make sure everyone has somewhere to go. Best to be below ground.”

Ezra stared at him bewildered. “Below ground? I don’t understand. Is that really necessary?”

Vin’s attention remained somewhere beyond the door. He was listening - sensing. “Nature’s gonna growl,” the tracker whispered. He seemed to be in a world of his own. Caught up in a memory the others were not a part of.

“Vin?” Chris prompted.

Tanner dragged his eyes back to his companions. “It’s gonna be a real bad one.” He shook his head. “Real bad.”

The quietly spoken tracker was not a man who was known to exaggerate. If anything, he tended to understate things. After all, he had described the coldest day Buck could ever remember as ‘ a might cool’ - and a three inch cut to his own right arm that had gone down to the bone as ‘a damn scratch’.

Chris Larabee eyed Vin carefully. He really didn’t want to get the town riled up if there wasn’t reason to, but by the look on Vin’s face, there was reason. “Alright. Buck, you’re in charge of identifying anything that could be a danger. Nail it down or pull it down. Rally some men to help you.” The scoundrel nodded. “Nathan, you organize the shelters. Get J.D. to join you. Make sure we have enough room for everyone. You’ll have to do a head count.”

“Okay.”

“Ezra and Josiah, I want every window in town boarded up. All glass covered. Arrange it.” The two men nodded.

“We should wire Eagle Bend and tell ’em what’s comin’,” Vin suggested.

“I’ll do that,” Chris stated.

“I’ll ride out and warn the surrounding farms.”

“You got any idea how long before this thing will hit?” Chris pressed.

“When it’s ready,” Vin replied, turning and heading for the door. You couldn’t rush Mother Nature. She was beautiful, unpredictable, destructive and more powerful than any other force known to man. She demanded the respect of all creatures. Some, however, were too foolish to heed her warnings. Vin Tanner was one person who had learned through experience that only an idiot ignored or disrespected nature.

The rest of the men watched him disappear and then glanced at each other. None of them had ever seen Vin look so troubled or worried.

“Real bad?” Buck asked with concern.

“Real bad,” Josiah agreed.

“Come on,” Larabee prompted. The group stepped out of the saloon, but stopped on the porch, their eyes focused on the heavens. The crystal blue sky above them was cloudless and stretched as far as the eye could see in all directions.

“Storm?” Ezra muttered sceptically.

“If Vin says there’s going to be a storm,” Larabee growled. “Then there’ll be a storm.”

**********

Four Corners was alive with activity. Buck and a team of six men were going around the town pulling down and repairing anything that could potentially blow down and be a danger.

“What about the sign above Potter’s, Mr. Wilmington?”

Buck raised his eyes and nodded. “Get up there and see how firm it is. Add some supports if it needs it.” Two of the men rushed to carry out the instructions.

Ezra and Josiah had organized the various store and homeowners to board up their windows. Hammers flashed as all of the glass in the town was systematically covered.

Nathan and J.D. were working with Mrs. Potter and Mary to organize shelter for everyone. They had collected blankets, water and food and were sending it down into the cellars and Indian shelters via a convoy of helpers. Thankfully, Four Corners had an abundance of such underground rooms. There had been a time in the past when the people of the town had been paranoid about Indian attack and thus every building had a huge shelter below a trap door where they could barricade themselves and hide in the event of an assault.

Chris Larabee scanned the street with his eyes. Everyone had responded without question, despite the fact that the sky was blue and the day fine. The gunfighter caught Ezra’s eye. The gambler glanced skyward and then back at Larabee, raising a questioning eyebrow.

**********

“... and I’d fix that barn door. It won’t hold when the storm hits,” Vin stated, marching back to his horse. He had visited several farms, informing the inhabitants of the pending tempest. The people had accepted his proclamation and instantly began preparing. Everyone around Four Corners knew who Vin Tanner was. He was a member of the Larabee gang and all felt that it would not be wise to ignore instructions from him or from any of the seven peacekeepers.

“Mr. Tanner, how long before it will hit?” Dan Carter asked, staring up into the cloudless sky.

“Don’t know, but you need to be ready.” With that, Vin tugged on the reins and sent Peso on toward the next ranch that belonged to Stuart James. He knew he would not be welcome there, but James had both women and children at his ranch and they did not deserve to be hurt or killed because James and Seven had crossed swords in the past.

**********

“Mr. Callum, you are going to need to shift your chair off the porch,” Ezra informed the elderly man.

John Callum and his best friend Harry Wilson spent twelve hours of every day seated in their wooden chairs on the porch of the Grocery store. The wisdom seats, Josiah had christened them. From their vantage point, the pair of old miners could see the entire town. For the past twenty years the two men had spent their days discussing ‘the good old days’, or conversely, ‘the bad old days’.

“Do you remember the ‘great storm’ when the Benson’s windmill got blown over, Harry?”

Harry pursed his lips and shook his head. “That wasn’t the ‘great storm’. That was a moderately windy night.” Ezra stared from one of the seated men to the other. They had completely ignored him. “No, the really ‘great storm’ was the great storm.”

“Mr. Wilson, I have to ask you and Mr. Callum to shift your chairs indoors,” the gambler repeated, politely.

“When was that?” John demanded.

“When Dave Baxter got decapitated.”

“That wasn’t the ‘great storm’!”

“Mr. Callum?” Ezra prompted, pointing to his chair.

“Well, it was pretty damn great!”

“No, the ‘great storm’ was when old Malcolm got blown into the river,” Harry insisted.

“Gentlemen, I really must insist that...”

“Oh, that. The ‘great wind’.”

“The what?” Harry snapped.

“In the ‘great wind’ there was only wind. For it to be a great storm, there’s gotta be rain. Ain’t that right, Mr. Standish?” John insisted, acknowledging Ezra’s presence for the first time.

“Well, I suppose that technically...”

“See,” John crowed happily, cutting Ezra off. The gambler stared at the two men and started to open his mouth to re-issue the instruction. He was wasting his breath.

“Okay, but do you remember the ‘great cold’?” Harry asked.

“Oh, yes. Froze your balls off.”

“Well, I must say, I’m pleased I missed that. Now, Mr. Callum and Mr. Wilson, we are expecting...”

“Poor old Agatha,” John muttered. Standish rolled his eyes.

“What about her?” Harry demanded.

“Well, she died, didn’t she? In the ‘great cold’. Froze to death one Friday.”

“No, no, no. That wasn’t the ‘great cold’. That was the ‘great frost’.”

Buck strode up to Ezra and glanced at the two old men. “We’ll have to get them inside.”

“Be my guest,” Ezra offered, his voice echoing his exasperation.

“It was the Shortby sisters, Mable and Edith who froze to death in the ‘great cold’ of 49,” Harry corrected his friend.

“Fellas there’s a storm coming and we need...” Buck started.

“No, the Shortbys died in the ‘great freeze’ of 55,” John corrected, apparently without hearing Buck.

“Actually, I think it was the ‘great dry’ of 65.”

“And I’m going to die in the ‘great bore’ of 74,” Ezra murmured.

“You know,” Buck stated seriously to John and Harry. “This reminds me of the ‘great debate’ of 68!” The two old men eyed the scoundrel and then both began to nod thoughtfully.

“Now, if I remember, that was over old Marvin’s donkey” Harry reflected. Buck Wilmington glanced at Ezra grinning. He knew there had to have been a great debate at some time. The gambler rolled his eyes, spun on his heels and left his fellow regulator to coax the stubborn old men to safety.

**********

“You ever been through a really bad storm, Josiah?” Nathan asked, as he and the preacher worked to board up the last of the church windows.

“Yep. Sky went black as night in the middle of the day. Lightning and thunder so fierce that I thought the sky was going to explode. Wind like I’d never seen before and ain’t seen since.”

“Yeah?”

Josiah paused. “It was the noise that froze a man’s blood, though. Like the whole world was roaring out in anger.”

“Nature’s going to growl,” Nathan murmured, remembering what Vin had said.

“Yep.” The two men glanced up into the sky. Surely God had never created a more beautiful, clear day.

“No sign of it yet,” Josiah muttered. The sky was blue, the sun shining and the breeze light and chirpy.

“You’d think there would be a sign of it by now.”

Josiah glanced at his friend and shrugged. “I ain’t about to argue with Vin on something like this, even if the sky is blue.”

**********

Chris ran his eye over the town. Everything was all but ready. All of the windows were boarded; the shelters prepared and anything loose or poorly built had been secured or pulled down. Now they just had to wait for the storm itself.

The citizens of Four Corners were collected on the verandas of the various buildings, their faces skyward. Larabee lifted his own eyes. There wasn’t a cloud in the heavens to mar the day.

“Still must be a long ways off,” J.D. remarked, coming to stand next to his leader. Larabee grunted. The youth glanced at the older man. “You reckon Vin might have been mistaken?”

Chris dropped his eyes to the boy, stepped down off the porch and strode away.

“Obviously not,” the youth muttered.

**********

Stuart James glanced up from his desk. He could hear shouts coming from outside. The cattle rancher climbed to his feet and reached for his cane. Many years earlier, he had been thrown from a horse, the startled animal’s hoof crashing down on his left knee. Thankfully, he hadn’t lost his leg, but the knee had seized up and how he walked with a pronounced limp.

James made his way out onto his veranda. In the yard in front of him was a mob of his men wrestling on the ground. Five feet from them was a black horse with a white blaze.

“What’s going on out there?” James demanded.

“It’s one of them damn peacekeepers from Four Corners!” Stuart James felt his blood run cold. So it was one of the men who had spirited his nephew away to hang.

“Bring him over here!” The mob threw a few more punches and then climbed off the intruder beneath them.

“Get off me!” Tanner shouted. He had certainly given as much as he had got, even though he had been out-numbered. James’ men backed away and began rubbing their bruises and wiping away the blood from the various cuts sustained during the short skirmish.

Four men dragged Vin to his feet. The tracker shoved his elbow into one, freeing his right hand. In one movement, his mare’s leg was drawn and aimed at James. “Call ’em off!”

“Why?” James demanded.

“’Cause I came out here with a warnin’. Don’t want any trouble with you.”

James eyed the horizon. “Where are your friends?”

“I’m alone.” James’ men began to mutter. “There’s a storm comin’. Real bad one. Came out to warn ya to get the women and children to safety.”

“He’s lyin’!”

“Ain’t no storm coming!”

“Ain’t a cloud in the sky!”

James listened to his men’s arguments.

A rider came in fast. “Isn’t any sign of his friends, Mr. James.”

The cattle baron stared at Tanner who had lowered his rifle. The young man’s face was cut, bruised and emotionless.

“A storm?” James repeated.

“Yeah. If you’ve got a cellar or Indian shelter then make sure it’s got blankets, food and water down there. Board up all of the windows. Cover all the glass. And nail down the roof on that bunkhouse. It looks loose. Pull down that old water tower or it’ll come down.”

“It’s some sort of trap, Mr. James.” James and Tanner continued to stare at each other.

The cattleman lifted his eyes to the clear skies above and then glanced back at the scruffy tracker. Stepping down off the porch he walked up to Vin and offered his hand. “I’m obliged to you.”

Vin refrained from shaking the other’s hand, but nodded. Turning, the tracker retrieved his hat and then walked over to Peso and pulled himself into the saddle.

“How long before it will hit?”

“When it’s ready,” Vin replied, wheeling his horse around and trotting off in the direction of Four Corners. James watched him go. He had once known a man like Tanner - a man who could read nature. He had seen others mock him and they had paid with their lives.

“Sir?” his foreman asked.

“Get the roof nailed down and some men to pull down the old water tower. Board all of the windows up.”

“But, sir. Why should we believe him?”

“Because he didn’t come out here to warn us. He came out here because of the women and children.” James could tell that the tracker couldn’t have cared whether he and his ranch hands lived or died, but James had a wife, two daughters a sister and three nieces at the property. Tanner had come out because he was a good man - for that, Stuart James was grateful.

“But, Sir, if we all go hiding, the Larabee gang could come out here and...”

“Do you really think they’d send one man alone if it were an attack. Besides, he’s just warned us to barricade the windows. You think he’d suggest that if he was intending attacking us?”

His men glanced around at each other bewildered.

“Get to work!” Stuart James took one last glance at the heavens and then headed in doors to warn his family and prepare the cellar.

**********

Go to part 2 of 6

Return to "When Nature Growls" Index

---

Aussielass_site@outlook.com

Return to Home Page

Return to "Old West" index