The Whippoorwill Trilogy

by Sharon Sala

  “You ’bout finished,” he finally asked.

  Letty gave up one last laugh, and then rolled over on her back, holding her belly.

  “Oh… oh… I hurt. I don’t know when I’ve laughed so much. Can you believe she didn’t think we were tough enough to be here?”

  Eulis grinned. “Yeah, well, she doesn’t know us, is all.”

  Letty sat up, then looked at Eulis, thinking as she did that he seemed really tall from down here.

  “No. She doesn’t know us.”

  Eulis gave her a hand up.

  “Come on, Sister Leticia. You need to go wash that mean off you before you hurt someone.”

  She grinned. No matter what lay in wait for them, she was going to enjoy this night as it was meant to be enjoyed. No telling how long it would be again before she got to take a warm bath and sleep in a real bed—under a real roof.

  Fever—Hot And Gold

  In deference to her sex, Mrs. Cocker had offered Letty separate sleeping quarters behind a curtained alcove beyond the main sleeping room, but Letty had refused. After coming this far with Eulis at her side, she wasn’t going to start separating herself from him now.

  They had bathed, eaten a supper of stew and cornbread, and some of the best dried apple pie that Letty had ever tasted. After tending to their mules, they wearily crawled into bed.

  There were at least two dozen beds in the room, and more than half of them were filled. Letty lay on her side with her face to the wall, listening to the sounds of the men settling down for the night.

  Except for Mrs. Cocker, Letty was the only female on the place, but she didn’t feel threatened. The men who’d come to Cherry Creek had a fever all right, but not for women. They’d come for gold.

  Eulis was unusually quiet. As Letty lay there, waiting for sleep to claim her, she realized that she was also listening to him. She heard the cot squeak as he settled himself into a comfortable spot, then felt the warmth of his breath against the back of her neck as he exhaled wearily. Somewhere off in the distance, she heard the faint echo of a gunshot and flinched. She’d heard of how wild a gold camp could be, but she’d been in rough places before. She consoled herself with the fact that at least this time, she wasn’t at the mercy of men, depending on their favors for her living. Here, she was an equal. She had just as good a chance at striking it rich as any man here. All it was going to take was hard work, perseverance, and possibly more luck than anyone had a right to expect.

  Another gunshot sounded, but she smiled, closed her eyes, and slept dreaming of a stream bed lined with gold nuggets.

  Eulis woke up once and leaned over Letty’s cot, pulled the cover back up over her shoulder, and then looked around the room, making sure that all was as it should be. All but a half dozen beds were now full, and it appeared that everyone was asleep. However, he wasn’t so green as to trust anyone except Letty in a place like this. So he rolled over on his other side with his back to Letty and his face to the room, felt again for the barrel of his rifle just beneath his bedroll, and closed his eyes. After tonight, everything was going to be a new experience for him and for Letty. He couldn’t help but feel a sense of expectancy. In a place like this, anything was possible—then he amended the thought with another less comforting. Yes, anything was possible—but having gained it, knew that it could be taken away as quickly as it had come. So he slept and dreamed, unaware that someone from their past was ten beds away on the other side of the room.

  It was sometime after midnight when a commotion began in the hall outside the sleeping area. Eulis woke first and reached for his rifle as Letty rolled over and sat up on her cot.

  “What’s happening?” she said.

  “I don’t know. Sounds like a fight.”

  Several other sleepers in the room were roused as the noise became louder. They could distinguish Mrs. Cocker’s voice, but the others were unrecognizable. Eulis took his rifle and started to get up when Letty grabbed him by the arm.

  “Wait… you might get hurt.”

  “I think Mrs. Cocker is in trouble.”

  “Oh lord… okay… but I’m coming with you.”

  “No,” Eulis said. “Stay here.”

  He got up and started toward the door, but he wasn’t going alone. The other men in the room had also been awakened, and a couple of them appeared to have the same thought as Eulis. Letty watched as they got up with guns in hand and fell in behind Eulis.

  Someone lit a lantern, and then someone else cursed and told them to blow it out before they became targets for whatever was happening beyond the door.

  Letty grabbed her new boots and slipped them on, then quickly stuffed all of their belongings into their bags. If they had to run, she wanted to be ready. She crawled into the corner of the bed, pulled her knees up beneath her chin, and hoped for the best.

  When Eulis opened the door, he was momentarily silhouetted by the light from the next room, then the other men blocked Letty’s view and she couldn’t see any more. She held her breath, and like everyone else in the room, waited anxiously to learn what was happening.

  “Get out of my inn and be quick about it!” Mrs. Cocker yelled, and then reached beneath the counter and pulled out a rifle. With one smooth movement, she had it cocked and aimed.

  “You heard the lady,” Eulis said, as he joined her with his rifle aimed.

  The two other men who’d come out did the same, adding their presence and fire power to the men who had challenged the innkeeper’s demand. Unfortunately, the half-dozen men who’d come charging into Four Mile Inn had an agenda of their own, and they didn’t appear to be in the mood to listen. One of them—a shaggy mountain of a man who appeared to be their leader—stepped forward.

  “Now look here, Mrs. Cocker. We done told you why we come and we ain’t goin’ nowhere ’til we see if Art Masters is here.”

  “I don’t know Art Masters,” Cocker said, “but even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you a thing. But I know you, Will Hodges, and I know that you’re drunk. In fact, the whole lot of you are no better than a lynch mob.”

  “What’s goin’ on?” Eulis asked.

  The big man’s gaze swerved from the innkeeper’s face to Eulis. He frowned.

  “What’s goin’ on is none of your business. That’s what’s goin’ on,” Hodges said.

  “When you come into the place where I’m sleepin’ and raise enough hell to wake the dead, then it becomes my business… it becomes all our business,” he added, thereby reminding Will Hodges that there were now four guns aimed directly at their faces.

  Hodges frowned, but acquiesced to the firepower.

  “We don’t aim to cause trouble for none of you,” he said. “We’re just lookin’ for a back-stabbin’ claim jumper by the name of Art Masters. He jumped a claim, and shot the man it belonged to. That man was our friend and he lived long enough to tell us who did him in.”

  Mrs. Cocker frowned. There was no law in this part of the country, and for the most part, there was also no justice. But claim-jumping was serious business, and if that was the case, she had no desire to shelter a back-shooting thief such as that.

  “You sure you know who you’re looking for?” she asked.

  Hodges nodded. “Ask any of these men. We was all present when our friend said the name, and we was all present when he died. So… is he here, or ain’t he?”

  “I told you the truth when I said I didn’t know anyone by the name of Art Masters, but I also don’t know the name of any of my guests. However, I won’t be accused of sheltering a killer.” She turned to the men who’d come to her aid. “Gentlemen, I thank you for coming to my assistance. However, I am going to let these men into the sleeping area. Please stand aside.”

  Eulis stepped back, but he didn’t stand aside. Instead, he went back into the room and headed for Letty. If something happened, he intended to be between her and the shooting.

  Mrs. Cocker followed him, carrying a lit lamp into the room.

  “Gentlemen, I’m sorry for
the inconvenience, but I must ask you to light the other lamps. There is a killer on the loose and these men are looking for him.”

  There was a loud grumbling until she mentioned the fact that the killer was also a claim-jumper. At that point, a candle and two lamps were quickly lit. In the gold fields, a claim-jumper was the worst sort of a criminal, and one not to be tolerated.

  “So, Mr. Hodges… do you see your man?”

  The big man took the lamp from the woman’s hand and began moving up and down the rows of beds, holding the lamp close to each face as he passed.

  Eulis stood between Hodges and the lamp with his gun drawn. Thinking that Eulis must have something to hide, Hodges headed that way first.

  “The man you’re lookin’ for ain’t over here, so back off,” Eulis said.

  “I reckon I’ll see for myself,” Hodges muttered, and started to shove Eulis aside.

  Fearing Eulis would get himself hurt trying to protect her, she quickly crawled out of bed and stood beside him, meeting the big man’s surprised gaze.

  “Like he said, Mister. We aren’t hiding anything. Look somewhere else for your killer.”

  There was noise on the other side of the room, as if someone was trying to make a break. Everyone turned to look just as a young, stocky man made a run for the door.

  “Grab him!” Hodges shouted.

  Suddenly, the man was on the floor and begging for his life.

  “Let me go! Let me go!” he begged, then began to cry, bawling in earnest as he realized what his fate would be. “I didn’t do anything. I swear, I didn’t do anything. You’ve got the wrong man.”

  Hodges thrust the lamp near his face and then snarled.

  “By God, it’s you, Art Masters, it’s you. You shot Henry Cummings in the back.”

  “I didn’t. I swear, I didn’t. You got the wrong man.”

  “He said your name before he died. He said you took his poke and then left him to die.”

  Subconsciously, the man’s hand moved to his waist.

  Hodges yanked it back then ripped open his shirt. A small leather pouch fell out onto the floor. Hodges picked it up.

  “Look here! All of you look! This leather pouch has Henry’s initials. H.C. Why would a man named Art Masters be carryin’ a pouch belongin’ to a dead man, unless he’s the one who stole it off him?”

  Realizing he was caught, Masters started to beg. “Take it! Here! Take it and be done with it. It was an accident anyway. Just let me go. I’ll leave and never come back. You can have Cumming’s claim. No one will know. No one will care.”

  “I’ll know,” Hodges said, and then pointed to everyone who was staring at the man in disbelief. “And they’ll know. All of them. You shot a man in the back, which makes you the dirtiest sort of a killer. You’re a coward, man, and you’re gonna die.”

  Masters started begging and pleading, but to no avail.

  Letty watched, stunned into silence by the violence of the moment. When they grabbed the man up and began dragging him out of the room, most of the others went back to their beds, while a few followed the vigilantes.

  When Eulis saw that they were gone, he relaxed his stance and sat down on the side of the bed.

  “What are they going to do with him?” Letty asked.

  “Most likely hang him,” Eulis said.

  “Good Lord,” Letty muttered, and dropped onto her cot with a thump. She stared down at her boots, uncertain whether to take them off or leave them on, just in case there was more trouble later.

  “It’s no more than he deserves,” Eulis said. “People got to protect themselves the best way they know how in places like this. Claim jumpin’ is as serious here as horse stealin’. You can’t let a back shooter get away with murder.” Then he turned around and looked at her. “Go back to sleep. I’ll stay awake for a bit to make sure everything has settled down.”

  Letty nodded and stretched out on her cot, but she didn’t close her eyes. Instead, she found herself looking at the back of Eulis’s head and the hard set of his shoulders as he sat between her and the world, and it occurred to her that, not since her father, had anyone ever cared enough about her to look after her welfare. She didn’t know whether Eulis was doing it out of duty, or because he cared, and right now she didn’t much care. It felt good—real good—to know that he was there.

  “Eulis.”

  “Hunh?”

  “Thank you.”

  “For what?”

  Letty frowned. “I don’t know… just thank you, okay?”

  “Okay,” he said, and then smiled to himself as he heard her hit the bed with a flop.

  A few minutes passed.

  The room and the men finally settled down, though a few, like Eulis had decided that caution was needed, and they sat up on their cots with their guns at the ready.

  Eulis was so busy watching the door to make sure there were no more surprises coming through it, that he missed seeing the man staring at them from the other side of the room. But if he had, he would have been none too happy to know that Boston Jones, the gambler who’d been one of the passengers on the stagecoach on which they’d been riding, was once again, back in their lives. Boston was surprised to see them here and more than curious as to what had happened to them. If it hadn’t been for the woman speaking up, he wouldn’t have recognized either one of them, but her voice had been unmistakable. Only there were noticeable differences about them from the first time they’d met.

  The preacher was leaner and there was a hard expression on his face that hadn’t been there before. The woman was thinner, too, and wearing men’s clothing. But the thing he noticed most was that they seemed to have switched power. Before, Sister Leticia had been bossy, constantly ordering the preacher around, but now it was just the reverse. Right now the preacher was on guard with his rifle across his lap and the woman had gone back to bed, obviously trusting him to take care of them both.

  Boston stretched his legs out on the cot, locked his hands behind his head, and leaned back until he was resting against the wall. He sat that way for a while, listening to a couple of men talking quietly in the back while the man next to him snored. Soon, he began to grow sleepy again. He stood up, straightened his bed clothes, and then lay back down. One more time, he glanced across the room to where the preacher and his woman were sleeping, and realized the preacher was lying down and already asleep.

  Boston frowned. Ordinarily, he wasn’t so unobservant. He swiped a hand over his face then felt beneath his bedroll, making sure his handgun was handy and closed his eyes. When he opened them next, it was morning.

  Someone yelled “breakfast”. Within moments, all of the sleepers were rousing, anxious not to miss the meal that came with the cost of the room. Letty got up quickly and made a quick run to the outhouse, leaving Eulis to see to their belongings. He rolled up their bedrolls and stacked them on top of their bags, then carried his rifle with him as he took a quick trip outside, himself and took a piss behind a tree by the inn. By the time he came back, diners were gathering at the table, only Letty was noticeably missing. He felt a brief moment of panic and then backtracked.

  Although it was still early, barely daybreak, the air was warm and still. The sky was a dirty color of gray and held a promise of rain. Eulis paused on the back stoop, listening for anything that seemed out of place, but heard nothing alarming. He was just about to go in search of Letty when she came around the corner of the inn.

  She looked startled when she saw him.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked.

  “I was about to ask you the same question,” Eulis said.

  Letty frowned. “I told you where I was going.”

  “I know.”

  “There was a line.”

  “Oh… well, I was just coming to check, that’s all.”

  “I’m fine. Let’s eat.”

  Eulis followed her back into the inn, pausing only once to look behind him, and then firmly closed the door.

  Mrs. Cocker was carr
ying in a huge platter of hot biscuits when Letty took a seat at the table.

  “Good morning, Mrs.,” the innkeeper said.

  “It’s Miss,” Letty said, and scooted over slightly so that Eulis had room to sit down.

  The innkeeper arched her eyebrows, but said nothing more.

  Letty glanced up only long enough to see if anyone had been paying attention, then breathed a sigh of relief when she realized that the men were too intent on eating to pay attention to what the two women had been saying.

  Eulis leaned over and spoke quietly in Letty’s ear.

  “Food looks good, don’t it, Letty?”

  “Smells even better,” Letty said. “Sure beats what we’ve been calling food.”

  “Now that we’re here, we’ll do better.”

  “Not unless you do the cooking,” she said.

  The only eating utensils were large spoons, but Letty could have cared less. She was starved for real food, and would have gladly eaten it with her fingers, if necessary. She picked up her spoon and was about to take her first bite, when she heard a familiar voice.

  “Since there’s a preacher here at the table, don’t you reckon we oughta’ have him bless the food? Especially after the set-to we had last night.”

  Letty felt Eulis flinch as she looked up. Boston Jones was staring at them from the other end of the table.

  “Preacher? Who’s a preacher?” Mrs. Cocker asked.

  Boston pointed at Eulis. “That man there is Reverend Howe. Right, preacher?” Then he tipped his hat at Letty and smirked. “Good morning, Sister Leticia. I trust you slept well after the trouble last night.”

  “I slept fine,” Letty said, and then saw Mrs. Cocker smiling congenially, far more friendly than she’d been when they had arrived yesterday evening.

  She glanced at Eulis, who was grim-faced and pale. She grabbed his hand beneath the table and gave it a squeeze, then picked up her spoon as if nothing was amiss and stared pointedly at Boston Jones.