Hooker Butcher Case: James McCloud Texas Ranger

By Curtis Hawk

McCloud they began to call him all across the South-West: Lawman - Texas Ranger, the man who lived as hard as most cowboys of the 1880's he lived each day to the fullest. James "Jim" McCloud the investigator who could take the wilderness out of Texas and the life of most gunfighter's who had challenged him. Texas Ranger James McCloud became a Texas Ranger when he was twenty years old he had grown up under the care of a family friend Abigail and her husband John MacKinnon after his mother had passed away. John and Abigail owned the MacKinnon Hardware store in Amarillo it had been his father's business before he had taken over after his father's passing of assumption. James McCloud kept his family name as he still had a Father who was always away as a Texas Ranger doing his job-hunting down the worst of the worst in Texas. Sam McCloud would often return to Amarillo at every chance he has to keep in touch with his only son. During the visits Sam would always spend his entire time he was there seeing to his son and teaching him the things in life such as Honesty, Integrity, and Loyalty. Sam continued to visit James at least once a month but sometimes could only stay one day, but most often he could squeeze in five days before his next assignment. When James reached eighteen, he and his father agreed that he could now as a man move out of the home of the MacKinnon's and live on his own. James McCloud boarded a train the day after his eighteenth birthday headed for Dallas, Texas. There his father would be able to see James whenever he report to the Regional Office in Dallas. At age twenty, he joined his father as a Texas Ranger where his father now a Captain of the Regional Office pinned on his Official Texas Ranger Star, simply saying three words Honesty, Integrity, and LoyaltyTexas, 1886 For some reason the good Lord puts people on this celestial ball that by all rights and means shoulda' never been placed here. Sheriff Dean Pickerson was one of these. He and Ranger McCloud had once rode together as a team, but he had parted his way because of his wanting to roam more of Texas and be a bit more amorous with the ladies than the Texas Ranger McCloud. Besides that Ranger McCloud seemed to get all of the pretty women leaving him with some of the not so pretty, but still darn good lookin' ones. Dean Pickerson was sort of a gambler and womanizer more than he was a good right hand man to a Texas Ranger thought James McCloud. McCloud had teamed up with him because he seemed to know a lot about the small towns in and around Arapahoe Junction and other parts of Texas that was in McCloud's jurisdiction as a Ranger. Soon Dean just became a thorn in his side, a real pain in the arse for McCloud and the day came when McCloud had asked him to move on. "Dean" McCloud said. "I want you to find yourself upon your horse at daybreak, ride on, I am finished with your services, and I need to cut my expenses in paying you a Silver dollar a month to tell me about the town folks we meet." Dean had agreed as he felt that McCloud was too much of a Lawman for him and too much a good and proper man. Dean knew he was getting to be too much of a burden on McCloud with James always having to bail him out of fights during card games. McCloud was a good gambler too, an enjoyed playing the small towns learning the ways of the people that he met and using his good skills of reading people and the expressions on their faces when certain questions were asked. The next morning when both McCloud and Pickerson awoke, McCloud stirred the coals of the fire and added some more water to the already made coffee in the old tin pot he threw in a hand full of dry grounds from a small leather pouch made from a young Kid goatskin. Pickerson went about saddling up his horse, placing first the blanket and then the saddle upon its back he reached under the horse grabbing the cinch and pulled it up tight.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 152025797X
• ISBN13: 9781520257976
• Release Date: December 2016
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 216 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.5" x 6.0"