Devil’s Den (The Trailsman No. 390)

Devil’s Den is a 2014 novel attributed to Jon Sharpe, no. 390 in the Trailsman series of short western novels (not to be confused with a 1988 installment in the same series, no. 77, with the same title, set in Indian Territory). Created by John Joseph Messmann, who wrote the majority of the first 200 books, the series centers upon the eponymous Trailsman, Skye Fargo, and his various adventures across the nineteenth-century United States and Canada. The Trailsman series began publication in 1980 and continued through 2014, ending with book 398, Arizona Ambushers. Various authors have contributed to the series, all writing under the name Jon Sharpe, and multiple volumes were set in Arkansas, including Arkansas Assault (no. 263), Ozarks Onslaught (no. 275), Arkansas Ambush (no. 346), Death Devil (no. 363), and Night Terror (no. 391). Devil’s Den presents a rather stereotypical view of the state, with lines such as, “In the backwoods of Arkansas, a ‘virgin’ was any girl who could run faster than her brothers.”

The novel begins in 1860 in the town of Busted Flush, Arkansas, described as “a jerkwater berg [sic]” just south of Fayetteville (Washington County), with Fargo punching “Deputy Sheriff Harney Ross through the wall of the Hog’s Breath saloon.” Fargo gets taken to the jail by the amiable Sheriff Dub Gillycuddy, who has already imprisoned a “half-breed Choctaw” named Cranky Man who had previously saved Fargo’s life near Lead Hill (Boone County). However, sisters Marcella and Malinda Scott, who operate the Ozark West Transfer Line, want to hire Fargo to deal with Anslowe Deacon of the Fort Smith Express Company, a competitor whom they accuse of criminal deeds—most recently killing one of their drivers south of West Fork (Washington County)—perpetrated in order to wrest away “a lucrative Butterfield State Line mail contract” from the sisters. Suspicion falls upon the Scofield boys, a group of five (likely inbred) brothers and cousins who live deep in the Boston Mountains, as having performed the killing on behalf of Deacon, and when the Scofields learn that Fargo has been hired, they plot to kill him.

Fargo and Cranky Man travel to the station house of the Ozark West Transfer Line to begin their work. The next day, they head to Fayetteville to talk with Deacon, described as a perfumed “man in a fancy ruffled shirt and octagonal necktie,” after which they are attacked by Deacon’s men and flee town. Marcella believes that someone with Ozark West might secretly be working for Deacon. An attack on the transfer station results in five mules being killed. Fargo goes back to the Hog’s Breath saloon, where he encounters all five of the Scofield boys. Pursued by them out of town, he lays a trap and kills Romer Scofield. This earns them a few days’ respite. While out scouting, Fargo and Cranky Man learn that Eb Scofield has something hidden away in Devil’s Den Cave. Later, Lem Scofield sets fire to the Ozark West station barn. In retaliation, Fargo arranges for the theft of fodder and grain from Deacon’s own barn before setting it afire. When Fargo returns, Malinda seduces him. Fargo rides with Sebastian Kilroy on the mail cart the next day, and the two barely escape a rockslide. Fargo and Cranky Man raid and burn one of Deacon’s freight wagons. They then investigate Devil’s Den Cave and discover that Eb Scofield is obsessed with Marcella.

The Scofields enlist Deputy Sheriff Roscoe Harney to kill Fargo, but he is himself killed while trying, and suspicion falls upon Dagobert Hastings, the company accountant, of being in league with Deacon, and he soon confesses. Fargo arranges for Marcella to ride into Busted Flush with him hidden in the wagon, hoping to lure out Eb and capture him, but Eb escapes. Fargo later searches Devil’s Den Cave again, knowing that Eb has acquired something that can ruin Marcella, and finds a jeweled bracelet stolen from an Ozark West traveler and a nude photograph of Marcella, which he quickly burns before wounding Eb, who flees. Fargo reports to Marcella, and they have sex in her office.

Deacon goes to confront the remaining Scofields about their failure to kill Fargo thus far, but when he swats away Bubba Scofield’s pet rat Jimmy, the big man swiftly breaks Deacon’s neck. Figuring that the Scofields have some secret hideout they have not yet located, Fargo and Cranky Man go in search of it. They find an old trapper’s cabin, where Fargo kills the dying Eb and then Lem, while Cranky Man kills Stanton, but in the melee, Jimmy the rat is lost, and after Fargo helps Bubba find it, Bubba rides off alone. With Deacon dead, the sisters take over his business and, before Fargo departs, take “turns visiting him all night.”

For additional information:
Sharpe, Jon. Devil’s Den. New York: Signet, 2014.

Staff of the CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas