The Bounty Hunting Sullivans

By Richard M Beloin MD

This book takes place in the late 1880’s with half of the book covering bounty hunting by three men who travel from capers by railroad travel. There is plenty of shooting and western adventure.

As is common, the hero makes contact with an old classmate and falls in love. The last portion of the book covers the commercial raising of hogs for pork meat with the advent of refrigeration and the tin can. The entrepreneurship is well explained—as life was a century ago.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Nov 3, 2020
• ISBN: 9781664139749

Richard M Beloin MD

The author is a retired physician who now spends his winters in South Texas with his wife of 50 years. After fifteen years as an accomplished Cowboy Action Shooter and a lifelong enthusiast of American Western History, he has returned to writing in 2016. He has been writing western fiction circa 1880’s since 2018 and has now accumulated four books in this series. They are: Wayne’s Calling, Cal’s Mission, Sylvia’s Dream, and this latest production called Paladin Duos.

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Copyright © 2020 by Richard M Beloin MD.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 10/30/2020

Xlibris

844-714-8691

www.Xlibris.com

821996

CONTENTS

Dedication

Chapter 1—The Formative Years

Chapter 2—The Early Years

Chapter 3—The Trio at Work

Chapter 4—Finding Allie

Chapter 5—Have Job will Rail-Travel

Chapter 6—On the Rail Again

Chapter 7—The Detective Trio

Chapter 8—Saving Allie

Chapter 9—The Wedding

Chapter 10—Expansion Woes

Chapter 11—The Cannery

Chapter 12—Present and Future

DEDICATION

I dedicate this book to my son Dennis who is a food producer and my daughter Lise who loves all animals.

CHAPTER 1

The Formative Years

Growing up in Central Texas was a good time for children during the 1870’s. Such was the case for Bryce J Sullivan, born in 1871 in the small growing town of Abilene, located 150 miles south of Dallas and 150 miles east of Odessa. Bryce was the second born. His older sister by one year was Cindy-Sue and his younger sister, also by one year, was Anna-Mae. His dad was Jim Sullivan who worked the family gun shop with his dad, James Sullivan Sr. His mom was a stay at home mom caring for the three young Sullivans.

The daily routine of play with his sisters and the neighborhood kids came to a halt when it was time for Cindy-Sue to enter 1st grade. Because the senior Sullivan was in poor health, Jim and Sally decided to hold Cindy-Sue back one year, and jump Anna-Mae a year earlier, thereby allowing all three kids to enter school at the same time. That decision allowed the entire family to leave their rural home at the same time, travel the two miles to town, leave off the kids at school and Jim and Sally would open up the shop by 7:30AM. The senior Sullivan would show up by 11AM and be heading home by 2PM. It was two weeks before Christmas that the senior Sullivan passed away from an intractable heart condition.

After the funeral and transferring the shop ownership to Jim and Sally, a new routine was established. Sally would be the front receiving customer agent and head salesman of all firearms. With Jim’s help and several manuals, Sally knew her pistols, rifles, and shotguns. She then became a convincing salesperson that the public learned to trust. At 3PM when the kids walked to the shop from school, Sally and the girls would ride the buckboard back home to take care of household chores and preparing supper—keeping the trailing horse for dad and Bryce.

Bryce would stay with his dad and slowly learned the gun trade. Initially, Bryce was showed, at a young age, how to reload ammo. Not to shock the customers, Bryce had a secluded corner with a curtain to hide him as he reloaded ammo every day. Before long, he watched his dad disassemble a Colt Peacemaker and then reassemble it after repairing it. One day, he surprised his day by saying, here, let me tear it down, and I’ll put it back together after it’s repaired. From that point, Bryce picked up all the tricks of the trade from cleaning guns, to performing action jobs, and eventually troubleshooting problems and repairing them. By 1885, Bryce was fourteen, and could handle any job in the shop, and would even take over his mom’s job when she went home with the girls after school.

1885 was also a crucial time for his sisters. Cindy-Sue convinced the elderly leather worker, next door to the Sullivan’s gun shop, to take on Anna-Mae and herself as apprentices in the leather trade, for six months without pay. The key argument was that they could both sew clothing and would work hard to help out the aging leather tradesman. It was only two months later that Adelbert Abbott admitted to Jim that the girls were not only talented gals quick to learn, but their presence in the shop was simply a life saver for his depressed state as a new widower. For the first time in months, he couldn’t wait for school to be out so he could continue teaching the gals how to do their job in building saddlebags, pistol holsters, gun-belts, rifle scabbards, knife sheaths, protective chaps, and even leather vests. Every Saturday, the girls spent the entire day making products for Mr. Abbott to sell in the gun shop or several of the mercantiles.

Christmas of 1885 was another momentous occasion. It had always been a tradition for each of the family members to give one gift to each other family member. So, the TREE experience started with the girls. Each one received five boxes containing leather working tools, aprons, knives, punches, boxes of rivets and one envelope. The girls opened their envelope to each find $75 in US Currency and an individual employment contract from Adelbert Abbott promising a wage of 50 cents per school day for three hours from 3—6PM and $2 per day for Saturday and any day when there was no school, but without room and board—plus a big thank you for their help and brightening his days. Both girls spent the rest of Christmas Day ruining several handkerchiefs till their mom told them to take the buggy and go pick up Mr. Abbott for Christmas dinner.

Bryce had four packages under the tree. The first one, from his dad, threw Bryce for a loop. A brand-new Colt Peacemaker in 44-40 caliber with three boxes of ammo. The second was a state of the art reloader from the Ideal reloading company. Mom clarified the gift by saying that the reloading components were in the office. He was told to set up the reloader in the office, and half of the reloads went to the shop and the other half were his to shoot off for pleasure and training. The last two gifts from the girls were a gunbelt and a gunfighter holster for his Colt pistol.

The next two years till graduation was a routine that made each one feel like they were on solid ground, including Mr. Abbott. The routine was: wake up, ride to school and then the shop, changing of the guard after school, mom using the trail horse to go home, dad closing shop at 6PM and bringing the three kids home in the buckboard, supper, school work, shooting session, household chores, reloading and bedtime.

Bryce practiced his pistol shooting every evening after supper before nightfall. His dad taught him how to point and shoot, how to draw and fire his Colt with one hand, and even taught him the fine points of quick draw. Later, he added fanning with point and shoot. This latter technique required changes made to the internal parts of the pistol to withstand the rigors of fan shooting which also included changing the hammer’s shape to enable fanning.

With all these steps, Bryce would practice every day till he ran out of bullets or the arrival of darkness. After the practice session was over, he would go back to reloading or do schoolwork till bedtime.

***

Finally, graduation arrived in early June 1887. The ceremony was held at the local Methodist Church. In attendance were the parents and family of the graduates. It was a momentous occasion for the Sullivan family since all three kids were graduating together. The Sullivan’s guest of honor was Mister Abbott and the town’s lawman, Sheriff Marlow. The required attendees were all the students in the school which numbered almost 100. The ceremony was simple. A short speech from the headmaster and the diplomas’ handing-out. Bryce was suspicious why his dad had invited Sheriff Marlow to their table. Little did he know that the sheriff was looking to mentor an apprentice who had potential as a future local lawman. Plus, he also was not aware that his dad had given the sheriff permission to make the offer. Also, it would be years for him to realize that there was an unknown girl in the seventh grade that he did not associate with since the High School 8th-10th grades were separated from the lower grades 1—7. This gal was a gorgeous youngster, tall, slim, in early development, with unusual short blond hair, and bright green eyes—the daughter of a successful pig farmer. Bryce did not know her, but this gal certainly knew of him—as strong as any teenage crush could be.

For the next two years, Bryce continued working at the gun shop as well as practicing his shooting. Sheriff Marlow started doing 5PM afternoon rounds while including Bryce before the family returned home by 6PM. The sheriff always had a subject to cover as they walked the Main Street boardwalk of their town—a town with a population of a thousand people in 1887.

Jim Sullivan knew this visiting with the sheriff could mold Bryce’s destiny, and as much as he missed Bryce in the shop, he knew that his future would be living by the gun. Since this was inevitable, he hoped that working with a honorable lawman would instill safety, security and a respectable work ethic.

***

CHAPTER 2

The Early Years

A few days later, Sheriff Marlow came to see Bryce while at work in the gun shop. Say Bryce, I hear thru the grapevine that you’re quite fast with your Colt. What do you say we have a friendly competition of you against me in your dad’s range behind the shop? Sure. Great, then set up six 8-inch tin cans at 20 yards.

With everything set to go, the sheriff added, it’s not only important to be fast, but you need to hit your target, or you will be the loser in a gunfight if you only end up shooting air. With both shooters ready, Jim agreed to give the start order and to stop the competition as soon as one shooter hits all three cans. To clarify, he would yell now’ and stop."

After a random delay, Jim yells now. Sheriff Marlow draws and shoots the first tin can and as he was pulling the hammer for his second shot, the stop order was clearly heard. Meanwhile, during the sheriff’s first shot, everyone heard a BA-ba-BANG. The triple sound was faster than a Gatling gun and actually sounded like the echo of a single shot. However, everyone could see the three of Bryce’s cans in midair.

Sweet mercy! How is that possible?

Jim responded, because of speed fanning with a properly altered firearm, thousands of rounds down range, and years of dedicated practice.

Can you teach some pistol, as well as rifle and shotgun, shooting techniques? Yes sir.

Well here is my problem. When you were born the town had a population of 500. Today, eighteen years later, it is up to almost 3,000. I need three deputies and the council has approved their salaries and benefits. I can teach them as much as I can from my experiences, but I need someone to teach them how to handle guns. I also need someone who can have my back as I go against more aggressive opponents in our growing city. The railroad stockyards, although good business for the town, have brought in some unsavory characters that have no respect for the law.

I see, how does this affect me?

It will, only if you agree to be my head deputy.

Bryce looked at his dad, looking for some guidance. Your mom and I knew this day would come when we gave you your first Colt and Ideal reloader. This decision is yours to make. It’s a fork in the road and only you can choose which path to take. We’ll accept your decision as the road to the beginning of your destiny.

Bryce took a moment and with a smile said, thank you sheriff, I’ll take the job.

"Great, here are your benefits without housing allowance:

• $55 a month plus two meals a day at any local diner.

• You work five days a week and two ‘overnight duty’ in the jail. No one takes Saturday or Saturday night off.

• 100% medical if hurt or shot on job.

• Your salary will continue indefinitely if you become temporarily disabled and at 50% if permanently disable—both from a work- related injury or a non-related illness.

• $2,000 work-related life insurance to your beneficiaries.

• Unlimited ammunition.

• 100% livery housing for your horse.

• You provide your guns, horse and tack.

• If on a manhunt, the sheriff will provide vittles and other needs. If you are hunting solo, the council will reimburse your expenses.

• If you arrest and jail an outlaw with a reward on his head. The bounty money is yours to keep."

You start tomorrow at 8AM with the swearing-in ceremony and signing of official documents.

***

The first three days on the job was very slow. Sheriff Marlow hired two other greenhorn deputies, Dwight Abrams and Dexter Burke, and spent those three days with their indoctrination. Bryce spent those three days walking the boardwalks but there were no fist fights, robberies, domestic assaults, petty thefts, shootings or even cheating card players. So, he spent his days showing merchants and patrons that there was a new lawman on the prowl.

The third day, Bryce started his firearms training at the local public range just on the outskirts of town. Both Abrams and Burke had a long road to firearm precision but were both in their 20’s and eager to learn. The interesting part of each day was the one-hour class Sheriff Marlow held every morning. Each day brought a new topic of material they needed to know. Bryce had the Wednesday and Saturday nightshift this week as well as the weekend duty with Thursday and Friday off.

Wednesday night, while on his 6PM rounds, he found the front door to Albright’s Mercantile unlocked. Bryce walked in, in total darkness with his pistol drawn. Suddenly, a man bumped into him and his burlap bag fell to the floor. Hold it right there, mister. You’re under arrest for robbery. After some commotion with snoopers, Azra Albright was summoned. As he walked in, he said, Eustache Backus, what is the meaning of this?

Well Mr. Albright, we ran out of venison and eggs three days ago and my kids were so hungry that I had to come and get something for them to eat.

By breaking in!

Oh no, I would never do that. I picked your lock with this long neck fine screwdriver.

So, you were going to steal these vittles and leave?

Oh no, I would never do that. I left a receipt on your desk.

Bryce walks over to the desk and picks up a paper. After reading it he says, better read this Mr. Albright.

Azra picks up the paper and reads out loud. IOU 10 pounds of bacon, 10 pounds of dried beans, 5 pounds of oatmeal, 5 pounds of flour and a tin of baking powder. Signed—Imogene Backus.

"Eustache, why didn’t you come and see me today?

Stupid pride, I was hoping to shoot some venison, or the chickens would start laying again. But after three days, I had no choice, even if I was carrying a credit of $62.

Eustache, listen to me. I WILL FEED YOUR FAMILY ANYTIME, AND I DON’T CARE IF YOUR CREDIT GETS TO A THOUSAND DOLLARS. So, hell with your pride, we’ll work it out. Now add four half gallons of canned beef stew, some fresh vegetables, some sugar, some butter, and some candy for the kids.

Bryce was listening to all this and was very impressed with Mr. Albright. As he was woolgathering, he saw a good size bag of homemade sugar cookies for four bits. Bryce pulls the 50 cents from his pocket and hands it to Mr. Albright. The merchant simply smiled and accepted the funds. The bag of cookies went straight in Eustache’s burlap bag. Once Eustache left the store, Azra said, that was a thoughtful thing to do for his kids. Really, not very significant compared to what you are doing for the family. Something tells me he’s not the only homesteader getting your help, hey? Shush, about that. Bryce thought—one of these days I will be able to financially help these struggling homesteaders.

***

With his two days off, Bryce was a bit lost since he hadn’t had a workday off in years. To fill in the time, he decided to get his black gelding and take a ride out of town to meet some of the ranchers. being a city boy, he had spent very little time on the roads leading to Abilene. Today, he headed out west. He stopped to see the first cattle rancher by the name of Sawyer Skinner. After social introductions were completed, Bryce was directed to the next westerly homestead, a pig farm owned by Waldo Adkins.

Arriving at the homestead, Bryce was sitting in his saddle next to the barn, completely surprised not to smell the usual odor of a piggery. As he sat there trying to decide if he should step down, suddenly the barn door opened and there stood a young woman with a full cap to cover her hair, rubber boots to her knees, work gloves too big for her hands, and a barn jacket that hid her female attributes. The young gal was totally flabbergasted. Bryce saw her embarrassment and spoke first.

Are you Alie Adkins that I went to school with? Yes, and that’s Allie with two l’s. I was four years behind you, so we never got to associate. But I was at your graduation. I see you are now Deputy Sheriff Bryce Sullivan. Good for you. Unfortunately, I’m just a pig farmer.

Whoa, hold on. I have two points to make. For just being a pig farming worker, you’re a beauty to behold. Secondly, never berate or minimize your worth as a pig farmer. Like any profession, growing our food supply is a very honorable profession.

Well I don’t know about the beauty part in my work attire, but I appreciate your comments on our business. Would you like to meet my parents and get a tour of the barn? Yes Ma’am. I’d be happy to.

After introductions were done, Allie gave Bryce a quick tour of the different stalls and its tenants. Bryce was amazed how clean the animals and stalls were. Especially surprised was the fresh smell in the barn. After the tour, Bryce thanked them and as Allie walked him to his horse, she naturally took her head cap off and her golden short hair fell over her ears. As Bryce stepped onto his horse, he said, thanks for the tour, I hope we get to meet again in town. Well, at age 15, my parents don’t let me out of their sight, but maybe when we deliver a pork carcass or get supplies from Albright’s Mercantile, we could talk again.

The remainder of the day, he continued heading west and met all the ranchers and homesteaders for the next 10 miles, getting back home by nightfall. On Friday, after a long shooting practice, he rode north of town for another 10 miles and introduced himself to the locals. Saturday was back to work. His backup deputy during the day was Dwight and Dexter went on duty at 6PM. The day was rowdy at the saloons but nothing too disruptive. At 10PM, a messenger was sent by Sam Belknap, bartender at the Wet Your Whistle Saloon.

Sheriff, there’s a man holding a gun on three card cheats and is gonna shoot em. "Ok, we’ll be over. Dexter, take the shotgun