Lawmen of Laramie

By Burr Cook

In this novelette, a sequel to "Bart of the Badlands", Buck and Bart form a posse to track down a wild gang who killed most of the Riley family. The youngest posse man, James Riley, at age 16 shoots one of the gang members in Denver. The outlaw gang is then tracked to Salt Lake where they met their end.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: May 6, 2014
• ISBN: 9781312170841

Book preview

Lawmen of Laramie

The Lawmen of Laramie

Copyright 2014 Burr Cook

All rights reserved

ISBN: 978-1-312-17084-1

Preface

This story is a sequel to Bart of the Badlands and is the third in a trilogy beginning with The Hanging of Big Steve Long and continues the saga of the Hansom, Riley, Landers and Burton families. One new character is Frank Wolcott who was a Federal Marshal in the Wyoming District in the early 1870s. There was such a person but since this is a fictional story I have made no reference to real events. The story is not meant to reflect any actual history. And although I have made many cross country trips by air, rail and automobile the geography may not be perfect.

Chapter I Checking on the Riley Family

Spring time had come to Laramie, Wyoming Territory; and here and there some folks had coaxed some flowers to grow. Ranchers were moving cattle around in search of new grass. The cattle had grown thin over the winter. It was not unusual to see cattle driven down the main street in Laramie. You could hear the cowboys whoop and holler at the steers to keep them moving.

Buck Benson, now a Marshal in Laramie City, sat at his desk in an office that he shares with his deputy Marshal Charlie (Bart) Burton. Both Buck and Bart had moved their families into Laramie, giving up ranching to become full time lawmen. Charlie, nick named Bart, is the youngest deputy Marshal in the whole of United States. They thought there would be trouble on that otherwise pleasant late morning when a gang of fifteen riders came through town stopping just long enough to water their horses and drink a glass of whiskey at the Laramie Hotel. They rode in and were gone within about twenty minutes before continuing east toward Cheyenne.

Buck had recently received a notice about the gang’s activities so he looked around his desk among the many unsorted papers until he found it. According to the notice the gang was made up of a very wild bunch. Four of them were Indians and another three were half breeds. They were a real wild bunch and were wanted for several robberies and killings in the Wyoming Territory as well as territories to the west. He mentioned the notice to Charlie and gave thanks that the bunch had moved on so quickly. Otherwise they would have had to make an arrest. A posse would have been needed in order to arrest the entire gang.

They decided that it would be wise to wire the authorities in Cheyenne. They would be better equipped to deal with such a wild gang especially if they knew it was on the way.

Bart was deep in thought a short time after Buck had made him aware of the gang’s reputation for violence. You know Buck, Bart drawled. That bunch of trash had to have come through the pass. That means that they passed by the Riley homestead. The Riley family with the exception of Jack Hansom’s wife Beth who lived in a cabin near the Lander’s ranch, and Ed who lived in the bunkhouse on the Lazy-L ranch, had homesteaded