Ole Devil at San Jacinto (Old Devil Hardin Western Book 4) (11 page)

Incensed by their treatment at
Ole Devil’s hands and guessing what had caused it, the two
young
Creoles
had been determined that they would take their revenge in
spite of their superior’s comments on the matter. Nor had they
expected any difficulty in obtaining help. Feelings were running
high over the orders to leave in the morning for Harrisburg, and
could be turned to their advantage.

First the pair had spoken with
their regiment’s fencing master. He was a noted duelist and
generally ready to demonstrate his ‘courage
’ on the ‘field of honor’. However,
when they had told him of their wishes, he had said he would be
willing to represent them had it not been for Colonel Dumoulin’s
orders. Refusing to be thwarted, they had sought for another
substitute.

Finding a similar reluctance to disobey the
commanding officer among the more likely potential candidates,
Jaloux and Pierre-Quint had concluded they must try some other
means. They had selected Alphonse Dumoulin, knowing he was unlikely
to survive a duel with such a capable fighting man as Ole Devil had
proved to be, because he was the colonel’s nephew. They had felt
sure that, on hearing that he had been killed or wounded by the
Texian, his uncle would withdraw the prohibition and so free the
fencing master to uphold the ‘honor’ of the New Orleans’
Wildcats.

Unfortunately for the pair, they had been
discussing the fencing master’s reluctance and how they planned to
overcome it while they, but not Dumoulin, were making use of the
hotel’s toilet. Little knowing that they were being overheard, they
had said enough for Hallistead to deduce what was a-foot and
appreciate its implications. Sending his wife to inform Colonel
Dumoulin, in the hope that he would arrive quickly enough to make
an official intervention, the entertainer had intended to find and
warn Ole Devil. However, he had been delayed by meeting a man who
had something of importance to tell him. By the time they had
concluded their business, the confrontation was already taking
place.

Guessing what the Texian had in
mind, Hallistead had also duplicated the summation with regard to
Dumoulin’s unsuitability for participation. So he had been willing
to render his assistance. Appreciating the advisability of keeping
the affair restricted to as few people as possible, he had used
some information he had been given by Ole Devil during their first
meeting as a means of persuading the
Creoles
to accept Tommy in the capacity of second,
thus helping to hurry the proceedings along.

Having achieved his purpose by
bringing the duel to a bloodless conclusion, and allowing Dumoulin
to emerge
with honor, Ole Devil was now faced with an extension of
the problem created by the
Creoles’
scheme. He had known that they could not hope to
keep the affair a secret, but counted upon it not arousing too much
attention. As it had, he knew that he must prevent it from being
exploited by his fellow Texians as an excuse for displaying dislike
and resentment of their allies from the United States.

Looking around the crowd, he
recognized only a few of them and could count upon just two as
friends. None of them were members of the Texas Light Cavalry. So
he realized that he could not rely upon his rank, or military
authority, to disperse them. Instead, he would have to employ the
strength of his personality and try to subjugate them to his will.
If he could, he might cause the affair to blow
over
—unless
the angry Colonel Dumoulin said or did something to spoil his
chances.

Let
that
happen, the young Texian told himself, and
the New Orleans’ Wildcats could not depart quickly enough to avoid
further clashes.

‘
I thank you for taking
such an interest, gentlemen,’ Ole Devil Hardin, in a tone which
held no suggestion that the gratitude was genuine. Striding ahead
of his companions, he hoped Colonel Jules Dumoulin would have the
good sense to keep quiet. ‘But it was a
private
matter and has been settled with
honor and to the satisfaction of both sides.’

‘
Oh
dear!
’
Corrinne Hallistead ejaculated, stopping and waggling her right
foot as the Texian spoke and increased his pace. ‘I seem to have a
stone in my shoe. Could you lend me your arm for a moment,
colonel?’

‘
Certainly,
madame,’
the burly
Creole
replied, guessing
what the Texian was trying to do and not being averse to having an
excuse to let him get on with it. Coming to a halt, he allowed the
little blonde to brace herself against his arm. ‘Will you have to
take the shoe off?’

‘
I
think not,’ Corrinne
decided after a moment. She watched what was happening.

‘
Did
you
—?’
a member of the crowd began, as the blonde made her request for
help.

‘
As I said,’ Ole Devil
interrupted, conscious that he was moving forward alone and pleased
by Corrinne’s intervention. The cold glare he directed at the
speaker did as much as his chillingly prohibitive words to prevent
the question from being completed. His hard eyes raked the rest of
the assembly as he went on quietly, but with deadly emphasis. ‘And
I’d be obliged if I don’t have to
repeat
it. The affair was
private
and I wouldn’t thank
anybody
who wasn’t involved for expressing an
interest in it.’

There the suddenly quiet and attentive crowd
had it!

The situation had been laid out as plainly
as even the least discerning of them could desire!

Looking at the straight backed
young Texian standing
before them, feet apart and thumbs tucked close to
the weapons on his waist belt, every member of the crowd deduced
that he would not countenance any further questions. What was more,
they could tell he had every intention of enforcing his wishes.
Knowing his well deserved reputation for being a ‘li’l ole devil
for a fight’, they did not doubt he was capable of doing it if the
need should arise.

Everything, as Ole Devil was
painfully aware, depended upon what happened next. From his
examination, he felt sure that none of the crowd had had sufficient
to drink to induce a frame of mind where
any
challenge must be taken up. For all that,
somebody might feel it incumbent upon himself to do so.

‘
By cracky, though, the
cap’n’s right,’ declared one of the scouts who had been with
‘Deaf
’
Smith at the Grand Hotel that afternoon and who now stood in the
forefront of the crowd. ‘Seeing’s everything’s been settled fair
’n’ square, it ain’t
nobody
else’s never-mind.’

‘
Way it strikes me,’ the
second of the aged Chief of Scouts’ companions continued, from
another part of the assembly. ‘What went on
’tween you-all ’n’
those other young fellers’s your own doings, cap’n. Which it ain’t
the way of us Texians, no matter what folks does “otherwhere”, to
go poking our noses into other folks’s personal ’n’ private doings.
That’s what we’re set to fight Santa Anna over.’

Studying the crowd’s reactions
to the two comments, Ole Devil could see they were producing a
desirable effect. Of course, the identities of the men who had made
them was helping.
‘Deaf’ Smith and his small force of scouts were respected
and admired by the majority of Texians, having been in the
forefront all through the conflict. It had fallen upon them to
investigate the rumors that the Alamo Mission had been taken. Given
three days to complete the task, they had returned the following
evening escorting the wife of Captain Almeron Dickinson—who, with
her young daughter, had been present all through the siege—after
her release by Santa Anna. What was more, the reference to the
Texians’ trait of minding their own business could not be
overlooked; particularly with one of the despised Louisianans in
the vicinity.

Showing no sign of his feelings, but
counting upon the people with him to act correctly, Ole Devil
started to walk slowly forward. Having drawn similar conclusions,
Mangrove Hallistead stepped out to catch him up. Smiling her thanks
at Dumoulin, Corrinne put off the pretence of shaking the stone
from beneath her foot and followed. By the time the Texian was
almost on the crowd, his companions had joined him. No more
questions were asked and the onlookers parted to let his party
through.

‘
Whew!’ Hallistead
ejaculated,
sotto voce,
once they were beyond the crowd. ‘You really told them, my
Mephistophelian young friend. Let us hope that they bear in mind
what you said and allow the incident to be forgotten.’

‘
It’s a pity they can’t
all be kept occupied by something to make them forget
it
,’
Corrinne declared, frowning pensively.

‘
I doubt if anything short of the
threat of an attack by the Mexicans would do that, my dear,’
Hallistead replied. ‘And I’m afraid such a contingency is
remote.’

‘
That’s
true,
madame,’
Dumoulin went on. ‘According to our scouts, there aren’t
any Mexicans within miles.’

‘
Good heavens!’ Corinne gasped,
looking very concerned. ‘Does that mean nobody is keeping watch for
them?’

Remembering their last
meeting,
^xxv
Ole Devil was puzzled by the little
blonde’s attitude. Demure, petite and fragile as she might appear,
he had had no cause to think of her as the frightened and helpless
female she seemed to be at that moment. Glancing at her husband in
the hope of enlightenment, he failed to detect a clue on a face
which—like the woman’s—was capable of producing whatever kind of
expression or emotion the situation called for.

‘
They are,
madame,
never fear,’
Dumoulin said, clearly having none of the Texian’s misgivings.
Instead, all his masculine protective instincts were aroused by the
little blonde’s apparent perturbation and he wanted to reassure
her. ‘Some of Colonel Smith’s scouts are always on watch well to
our rear. There’s no chance of the Mexicans arriving without our
knowing.’

‘
Oh, that
is
a relief!’ Corrinne
breathed and, looking a little less worried, continued, ‘Manny
darling, don’t you think you should tell the colonel about the
cause of the duel?’

‘
Egad yes, my dove, I do and I will,’
the entertainer agreed, and started to comply with something less
than his usual verbosity.

Before Dumoulin had heard the
whole of what Lieutenants Gerard Jaloux and Marcel Pierre-Quint had
tried to bring about, a splutter of explosive French profanity
erupted from him. Then, remembering that there was a lady
present
—although Corinne was showing neither distress nor horror
at the vehemence of his reaction—he made a visible effort to
control his temper and listened to the rest of the explanation in
silent, ever growing anger.

‘
The damned young fools!’
the colonel spat out, after Hallistead had stopped speaking.
‘Did
Maitre D’Armes
de Lepage know what they were up to?’

‘
They didn’t say he did in so many
words,’ the entertainer admitted. ‘But I received the impression
that he was not averse to the possibility of being able to engage
Captain Hardin in a duel. Is he the kind of man who would
countenance such an irresponsible scheme?’

‘
He’s acquired a name as a duelist as
well as a fencing master,’ Dumoulin replied. ‘Men of that kind
generally want to enhance their reputations by taking to the “field
of honor”, particularly against somebody who is regarded as being a
capable fighting man himself. But I don’t want to say he would have
agreed to the scheme if he’d been told about it.’

‘
Is he likely to take up for those
two, sir?’ Ole Devil inquired.

‘
He knows my orders on the
matter,’ the colonel said. ‘He also knows that he’s anything but
my
beau ideal
for a
maitre d’armes.
So I think that
he’ll
think twice, as he did when they asked him in the
first place, before he does anything to give me an excuse to
get
rid of
him.’

‘
May I make a request, sir?’ Ole Devil
asked, his tone formally respectful.

‘
You may, captain,’ Dumoulin
authorized.

‘
Will you ensure that all
your men know I have taken part in my
last
duel,’ the Texian said. ‘We’re
fighting a war against the Mexicans, not with each other. So I’ll
consider the next man who issues a challenge to be an enemy of my
country and treat him accordingly.’

‘
I
understand and
concur, captain,’ Dumoulin declared, impressed by the complete lack
of bombast or arrogance in the young man’s attitude. He was doing
no more than stating a fact, which he had every intention of
putting into effect. ‘And I’d like to thank you again on my
nephew’s behalf. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have my duties to
attend to. I’ll do everything in my power to prevent any further
mischief.’