Wes Fairly Ii: North of the Border

By Ted Jackson

This book is the second and, most likely, final book in the Wes Fairly series. The first book, "Wes Fairly: Gunman" was written in 2004. This book is set in 1875 in Canada where Wes has retreated with his new wife in order to attempt to begin a new life. With him is his friend Sandy who is also a gunfighter attempting to escape from his past.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Sep 30, 2013
• ISBN: 9781491708156

Ted Jackson

Ted Jackson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist who has spent nearly 34 years with New Orleans’s The Times-Picayune. In 1996, he was part of a four-member team that produced Oceans of Trouble, which was awarded the first Pulitzer Prize in the Times-Picayune's history. In 2003, he photographed “LEAP Year,” a local story about high-stakes school testing. The photographs received recognition from the Robert Kennedy Journalism Awards and won the 2003 American Society of Newspaper Editors Staff Award for Community Service Photojournalism. Through the years, he has covered the physical destruction and emotional trauma of earthquakes and hurricanes, most notably, Hurricane Katrina. For their coverage, The Times-Picayune staff won a Pulitzer Prize for public service and another for breaking news. His work has appeared in newspapers, magazines, and books around the world including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Newsweek, Time, and National Geographic. He has appeared in interviews on the CBS Morning Show, ABC, CNN, Fox News, and NBC with Dan Rather and Lester Holt, has been interviewed multiple times on NPR, and was one of three subjects featured in a documentary on Hurricane Katrina on The Weather Channel’s Hurricane 360. In spring 2017, he was named the first-ever recipient of the Jim Amoss Award, named for the long-time executive editor of The Times-Picayune, in recognition for “extraordinary photojournalism, video production and feature writing…For timeless journalism that has earned the trust of the community and the respect of your colleagues.” He lives his wife, Nancy, in Covington, Louisiana.

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

All was quiet at the sprawling ranch house of the WS ranch. Wes Fairly and his beautiful wife, Kathleen, were sleeping soundly as was the co-owner of the ranch, Sandy Nelson with his wife, Linda, in another large bedroom. Wes and Sandy had spent some six months constructing the ranch house and had employed a number of workers. They were justifiably and perhaps inordinately pleased with the results. They now had a veritable stone fortress but a comfortable one. Some 50 yards away lay their second project—a bunkhouse that would accommodate up to a dozen cowboys. The next step would be to make a trip south to Montana in order to purchase a herd of cattle. They had already hired 6 cowboys in preparation. The ranch was situated some 50 miles south of Calgary, Canada in the province of Alberta. It comprised the south end of a huge valley which abounded in lush grass. The valley was well-watered by the Bow river and a myriad of small streams.

Wes and Sandy were both retired gunmen who had journeyed north from the United States in order to assume new identities and, hopefully, begin new lives. Wes Fairly was widely known in the American West as the most dangerous man alive and Sandy also had a considerable reputation and was known as a man to leave alone. With a pistol he was scarcely less deadly than Wes though he was not ambidextrous as was the latter. Sandy relied on his right hand gun when forced to fight but was also a genius with a rifle. He and Wes had shot together and he had even given Wes some rifle pointers that had raised Wes’s level almost up to his own. As for his ambidextrous capability, Wes relied on just one gun unless trouble was imminent. When this was the case he wore two guns in the event of a misfire or mechanical problem.

Both Wes and Sandy had changed their names—Wes to Dave Stillwell, a name he had used before. Sandy now went by the name of Jeff Nelson. Thus far they had had no problems in Canada in maintaining the anonymity. They still, however, practiced their shooting almost daily and both had noticed a degree of improvement and particularly in Wes’s rife shooting. Although not ambidextrous as was Wes, Sandy was rapidly gaining some proficiency with his left hand and, like Wes, was now carrying a second gun belt and pistol in his saddlebag. The two reloaded their own shells in order to avoid creating suspicion at the considerable amount of ordnance they required.

Wes and Sandy shared the WS with several small ranches. They hoped to be successful and be in a position to buy out some of the these. They had become acquainted with these ranchers and already knew of one who would like to sell. Their relationship with the other ranchers was friendly except that with Herman Schultz, a German, who ran some 500 head of cattle. Schultz was literally a giant of a man weighing well over 300 pounds and standing close to 7 feet tall. He was extremely strong and took advantage of every opportunity to show off his strength. Schultz was also a gun aficiando and considered himself an expert with any type of pistol or rifle. Both Wes and Sandy had already had problems with the man in the town of Astoria which lay some 10 miles to the north of the WS ranch. Wes and Sandy were aware of the fact that the time would come when the German would have to be taught a lesson. Sandy was a slim man and could not hope to best Schultz in boxing or wrestling. With a handgun he was scarcely less slow and accurate than was Wes and he was a absolute wizard with a rifle, particularly at long distances. He had several catalogs featuring the world’s most accurate weapons and had gone so far as to order a few these for himself and Wes. The latter, on the other hand, was extremely powerful though not bulky and his speed was all but unbelievable.

It was now 5 AM and Wes arose from his bed. He dressed quietly so as not to awaken Kathleen and then went to the kitchen where he put wood in the cast iron stove in preparation for making coffee. A few minutes later Sandy strolled in, his unruly hair covered by his Stetson. Both had been unable to sleep any longer even though there was little to do until they acquired a herd of cattle for which to care. The bunkhouse, as of yet, had no roof but Wes and Sandy had decided to let the cowpunchers they had hired build the roof themselves as more than two people were required anyway. They did have one milk cow whom they called Myrtle for some unknown reason. Sandy offered to milk the cow but not until he had a cup of coffee. At any rate the cow hardly required the services of two gunfighters.

While the men were enjoying their first cup of coffee Kathleen entered the room. She kissed Wes and gave Sandy a quick hug and a peck on the check. Linda arrived shortly thereafter and repeated the ritual in reverse. Wes and Sandy, over coffee, began making their final plans to undertake a trip to Helena, Montana to purchase a herd of cattle. They had already hired a crew of six cowboys to herd the cattle back to their ranch. The cowboys would then stay on and finish up the bunkhouse. For the team being they would bunk in the oversized ranch house—at least they until they completed the bunkhouse roof. Currently the cowboys were lodging in the town of Astoria which was some 10 miles away in the center of the valley.

At 8 AM Wes and Sandy said good bye to Kathleen and Linda and made the ride to Astoria where they met the cowboys and, together, they began the 299 mile ride to Helena. Wes had the money that would be required in a saddlebag which his beloved and beautiful black stallion, Satan, was carrying. Both men as well as the cowboys carried blanket rolls on their horses as they anticipated that the trip would take several days. In addition to