The Whippoorwill Trilogy

by Sharon Sala

  She often watched the workers from time to time, and felt as if they were constantly considering a way to steal. She knew that, if given a chance, there were at least three of them who would try, and one who would most likely kill to have what they had. Moral turpitude was sadly lacking in most of the available workers. The diligent were already engaged in working their own claims or trying to set up as shopkeepers.

  Letty and Eulis had to make do with what they had, so she’d made a pact with herself last night as she’d watched Eulis sleeping so soundly beside her. She never thought she would have a life like this, and with a man who treated her like a proper lady. There was no way she was going to take a chance on having it taken away from her by some good-for-nothing lout. As soon as the workers arrived tomorrow, she intended to make a few things plain. Then, if they wanted out when she was finished, there would be no hard feelings or retribution taken.

  Originally, the entrance to the mine had been inside the old cabin, but as soon as they’d started working the mine and hauling ore into Denver City to the smelter, they’d dug a new opening away from the cabin, giving them some privacy, and eliminating the aggravation of bringing the ore out through the home. Now that Eulis and the men were coming back with the shipment, it was time to put her plan into motion. She dried her hands, got the rifle and was outside waiting when the men finally arrived at the mine.

  To a man, they flinched. Some paled a bit at the threat of an armed woman, while the others heard the truth of her words. Eulis would swear later that, at that moment, he felt a physical shift in their behavior. As for himself, he was torn between the urge to grin, and an overwhelming pride.

  Damn, but he’d sure picked himself a winner. His Letty was something else and that was a fact.

  Letty leaned forward just the least little bit and then smiled. It wasn’t a friendly smile and all twelve men knew it.

  “Is there anything about what I just said that you don’t understand?” she asked.

  Twelve men answered in unison.

  “No, ma’am.”

  “Are any of you planning to give me any trouble?”

  “No, ma’am.”

  “Well then… that’s that. Do have yourselves a good day.” She shifted her gaze to Eulis. “Husband, I would appreciate a word with you before I go.”

  Eulis arched an eyebrow. She wasn’t in the habit of asking permission from him to do anything. Still, this was her show and he wasn’t going to ruin it for her. He took off his hat as he followed her a short distance away.

  “Reckon you laid it on a mite thick?” he asked.

  Letty turned in the saddle and stared back at the men.

  “No. Those red-headed Scotsmen will be good workers. The three men who call themselves the Dorsey brothers would steal you blind, and that tall, skinny man with the dirty blonde hair is a killer.”

  Eulis looked askance. “Do you know him?”

  “No. Just his type,” Letty said.

  “Reckon I should fire him?” Eulis asked.

  Letty thought about it for a moment, then shook her head.

  “No. Probably better to have him under your nose, than out hiding behind some tree waiting for a chance to back shoot you.”

  “I know,” Eulis said. “We’ve got to have workers and we ain’t exactly in a place bursting at the seams with men who are willing to mine someone else’s gold.”

  “Just be careful,” Letty said.

  Eulis grinned and then winked at her.

  “I’m always careful, girl. You mind yourself, too.”

  Letty nodded. “I’m going to ride up to the new home site and see how the work is coming along. I’ll see you later.”

  Eulis watched her ride out across the valley and up into the trees. When he returned to the men, they were suddenly acting as if they’d taken vows of diligence. Before long, they’d fallen into a kind of rhythm that boded well for the mine. Eulis took it as a good sign.

  Meanwhile, Letty’s trip to the new home-site had taken a sudden turn for the worse. She had just ridden up to what was going to become their front yard when her horse did a fancy little sidestep, reared up on its back legs, and promptly dumped her into the dirt.

  She’d already discovered that the men who’d been working on the property were not on the premises, which meant they’d gotten themselves another grubstake and were out trying to strike it rich. The way she figured it, their big fancy house might never get finished, what with all the fools suffering from gold fever.

  Cursing the horse and all manner of males, she was dusting herself off and reaching for her hat when she became aware of a rustling in the undergrowth. Well aware that there were grizzlies fresh out of hibernation, as well as all manner of two-legged varmits, she ran for the horse to get her rifle.

  The horse shied once as she made a lunge for the dangling reins and would have bolted if she hadn’t caught them. Yanking hard on the bridle, she pulled the horse to a halt, grabbed her rifle out of the scabbard, and aimed it toward the bushes. Within a matter of seconds, a bone-thin, half-grown pup of questionable heritage came slinking out on its belly.

  Letty didn’t know whether to be relieved or disgusted. The pup stunk to high heaven—all the worse for wear because of a previous bout with a skunk. It was a brown and white short-hair, obviously part hound, with huge feet, floppy ears, and the beginnings of mange. She could count every rib. The humane thing would have been to put a bullet in its head right then and there, but it would have been easier to shoot a man, than a helpless animal who meant her no harm. She tried threats instead and began waving her arms and shouting.

  “Get, you mangy critter! Go on! Get away before I put a bullet between your eyes!”

  The pup whined as it continued to belly crawl until it had crawled all the way to her feet. At that point, it gave a big groan and rolled over on its back. Submission was all it had to offer and gave it gladly.

  Letty rolled her eyes and then stomped her foot.

  “Go on now, I said! Get! Get!”

  The pup added another soft whine to the belly he’d bared.

  “Oh, for the love of—”

  Something rattled in the grass behind her. Before she could turn, the pup had sprung to its feet and lunged past her, barking and snarling like a dog gone mad.

  She saw the rattlesnake at the same moment that her horse reared up and bolted. Before Letty could aim her gun, the pup had the snake in its mouth, shaking it like a rag doll. Just when she feared the pup was going to get bitten, it turned the snake loose.

  It went flying, like a thick brown piece of rope, coiling and uncoiling as it sailed through the air.

  Letty blasted the head from the body in mid-air. The silence that came afterward was deafening.

  Her heart was pounding so hard she couldn’t hear herself breathe. Every hair on the pup’s back was standing up like the quills on a porcupine’s back.

  She lifted a shaky hand to her forehead, swiped away the hair that had come loose from the ribbon and jammed her hat back on her head.

  “Well now,” she muttered, still eyeing the half-starved pup.

  Hearing her voice, the pup turned and looked up at her, as if waiting for a sign.

  Letty sighed.

  The pup took the sound as some inner signal. Within seconds, the hair on his back smoothed out like the feathers on a duck’s back.

  “Well now,” she said again.

  The pup wagged its tail once, like a soldier wagging a white flag of defeat, then sat down without taking its eyes from her face.

  Letty eyed the dead snake, cursed the horse she was going to have to retrieve, and then squatted down until she was eye level with the pup and offered her hand. To her delight, the pup reached out a paw, as if it understood what was meant, and together, they exchanged a handshake.

  It was a silent, but irrevocable understanding. Without another word, Letty stood up, shifted her rifle to her other hand and started walking toward what was left of the snake.

&nbs
p; No longer cowering, the pup followed at a hasty trot, confident that no more begging was needed. Letty frowned, and then glanced up, eyeing the direction in which her horse had gone.

  “I don’t intend to walk all the way back to the valley, so let’s go get that blasted horse.”

  It took the better part of an hour, but she finally caught her mount, led it back to the new home site, dropped the snake into the saddle bags, and tossed it across the horse’s back. The horse did another neat little side-step and rolled its eyes as it looked back at Letty.

  “It’s dead, so get over it,” she said, grabbed the saddle horn and mounted in one smooth motion.

  She looked down at the pup, took a piece of deer jerky from inside her pocket, and dropped it on the ground. The pup ate it quickly and looked up at her for more.

  “If you’re a mind to follow me home, I reckon I can furnish a bit more to go with that.”

  The pup seemed willing, and when she rode away, it followed.

  By the time she got back to the cabin, the men were deep inside the mine.

  She took the snake out of the saddle bags, turned the horse out into the corral, and then headed for the cabin. She paused at what passed for their smokehouse long enough to cut off a large chunk of fatback from a crock inside the door, then turned around and handed it to the pup.

  It took the meat from her fingers with all the delicacy of a gentleman, and then held it in its mouth until she gave the pup permission to eat.

  “Go ahead,” she said. “You’ve earned it.”

  The pup immediately flopped down and began chewing on the meat. Letty leaned the empty rifle against the door of the smoke house, knowing Eulis would have to reload it for her tonight. She sat down on a stump and waited until the pup was finished.

  As soon as the pup had swallowed the last bite, Letty stood. The pup followed suit, waiting for a signal as to what to do next.

  “Okay now,” she said. “Let’s skin out that snake.”

  By the time Eulis came home for supper, the pup had been doused with axle grease for mange and fleas, and was chewing on the leg bone of an elk that they’d butchered over the winter. A fine stream of smoke was coming out of the chimney, and the skin of the rattlesnake was nailed to the side of the house.

  Eulis watched the men mount up and ride off, and then headed for the cabin. It wasn’t until he came around the side of the house that he saw the pup lying on the doorstep between him and Letty.

  The pup growled softly beneath its breath.

  Eulis frowned. “Ease up, fella’. I live here.”

  The pup got up and sniffed Eulis’ feet, then picked up his bone and moved off to the side of the doorway.

  “Thank you for the vote of confidence,” Eulis drawled, then looked up and saw what she had nailed to the wall.

  His flesh crawled as he eyed the snake skin, stunned by the size, and the knowledge that, once again when he was too far away to help, Letty had been forced to save herself. He was torn between pride in her ability to bounce, and a feeling of inadequacy. It seemed that she was always two steps ahead of him.

  He looked down at the pup, taking note of the prominent ribs and the careful application of axle grease and frowned.

  “Exactly what part did you play in all of this?” he asked.

  But the pup had nothing more to say.

  Eulis shook his head as he opened the door. The scent of cooking meat and baking bread met him as he entered.

  “Something sure smells good,” he said, as he hung his hat on a wall peg and kissed the side of Letty’s cheek.

  “I made some johnnycake,” Letty said.

  Eulis lifted the lid on the pot cooking over the open fire in the fireplace.

  “Snake. My favorite.”

  Letty’s face was flushed from the heat of the fires, but she turned a little redder when she caught the teasing tone of his voice.

  “So, I guess you saw the skin on the wall.”

  Eulis arched an eyebrow. “Well, yes, ma’am, I did. A blind man couldn’t a’ missed it. Are you all right?”

  Letty grinned. One of her favorite things about Eulis was his ability to overstate the obvious.

  “I’m fine, of course. It was just a snake. Oh… you need to reload the rifle for me, too.”

  “If you’re gonna go about shootin’ it off all the time, you oughta be learnin’ how to reload.”

  “I guess,” Letty said, and kept stirring the stew.

  Eulis knew that was the end of the conversation about the gun, and set about waiting for her to talk about the pup, but she didn’t.

  “So… I understand how the snake come to be nailed on the wall, but I ain’t quite figured out how that greasy, half-grown hound figures into the situation.”

  “He showed up about the same time as the snake.”

  Eulis had known Letty for far too long to believe that was all.

  “And… what? You just invited him to supper?”

  She knew when she was being made fun of, but when it was Eulis, she never seemed to care.

  “Of course not,” she said. “He earned it and then some. I rode into the yard at the new house. The workers were gone. The outside of the house is finished and the roof is on, but the windows still aren’t in. I didn’t get a chance to go in because the darned pup was thrashing about in the brush and scared my horse. I fell off and—”

  Eulis grabbed her by the arm, his eyes wide with concern.

  “You fell off? Are you all right, girl? Did you hurt yourself somewheres?”

  Letty eased his fears with a smile and a touch of her hand against his cheek.

  “I’m fine. The pup came crawling out of the bushes on its belly as the horse ran off. It was mangy and starving. I tried to run it off. Instead, it repaid my bad attitude by saving my hide from that snake. So it’s here. I named him T-Bone.”

  Eulis laughed out loud.

  “That’s a fine piece of meat, but I can’t say as I’ve ever heard it used as a name for a dog.”

  Letty sniffed. “He’s a fine dog… or he will be when I get him healed and fattened a bit. Do you want to meet him?”

  “I reckon I already did,” Eulis said, then pointed to the pot over the fire. “How long before the snake is done? I’m so hungry I feel like that dog looks.”

  She smiled. “It’s all done. I was waiting on you.”

  “Let me just wash up a bit first,” Eulis said, and went back out the door.

  There was a bucket of water, a wash basin, as well as some lye soap and a rag on the bench outside the door. He poured water in the basin, splashed his face, wet down his hair, and then picked up the soap, scrubbing fiercely until the day’s dirt from the mine was gone from his face and hands.

  He tossed the water onto a bush Letty was trying to grow and then began to dry off. The pup looked up from chewing on the elk bone long enough to growl beneath its breath.

  Eulis hung up the rag and then looked down at the pup.

  “Listen here, T-Bone. I don’t wanna hear no more of that. I was here before you, and you best not forget it.”

  The pup cocked his head to one side, as if studying the wisdom of what Eulis had just said, then got up and sauntered over to Eulis’ feet, flopped down and rolled over.

  Eulis shook his head and then grinned.

  “One minute you’re tryin’ to eat me for supper and the next you want a belly scratch? You’re somethin’ all right.”

  He leaned down, found a spot that was free of axle grease, and gave the pup a quick scratch. As he did, he saw knots on the pup’s ribs and realized that, at one time or another, those ribs had been broken.

  “You know something, T-Bone? Danged if I ain’t been right where you are. However, all is not lost. You got yourself a really good woman. Take good care of her and I promise she’ll take good care of you.”

  Eulis wiped the ends of his fingers on his pants, just in case he’d gotten some axle grease on them, and then went back inside to get his share of snake.
/>
  Beggar Man

  A couple of days passed with no more problems from the men. It was just after sunrise when Letty stepped outside to toss the dishwater, and saw a stranger walking across the valley. T-Bone saw him, too, and bounded up from his bed beneath the trees, barking as he ran.

  “T-Bone!” Letty yelled.

  The pup stopped immediately, looked back at her, and then trotted back to where she was standing and sat down at her feet.

  “Good boy,” she said softly, and laid a hand on his head, giving him an absent pat as she watched the stranger’s arrival.

  The trail across the valley didn’t go anywhere except to their cabin, so whoever he was, he was obviously coming to see them.

  Letty glanced back at the doorway.

  “Stranger comin’,” she called.

  Eulis was inside shaving when he heard Letty call out. He wiped the last of the shaving cream from his face and stepped outside.

  “What did you say?” he asked.

  She pointed across the valley.

  “Stranger coming.”

  Eulis strode across the yard, his steps slow and measured. When he got to Letty, he put his hand on her shoulder, never taking for granted his right to do so, and thought how pretty she was in the early morning light.

  The tension in Letty’s body eased. As long as she had this man by her side she could face the world.

  “He looks right poorly,” Eulis commented.

  Letty nodded. The man was little more than a mirror image of the way the pup had looked upon his arrival. His clothes were in rags and his body was bone thin. Even though he was still a distance away, Letty could see the hollows beneath his eyes, and the sunken places in his cheeks.

  “Is he packin’?” Letty asked.

  Eulis squinted. “I can’t tell from here.”

  “Better get the rifle, just in case,” Letty said.

  Eulis stopped her.

  “Just wait.”

  Letty didn’t listen, but walked straight to the cabin, grabbed the rifle leaning against the wall inside the door, and walked back to where Eulis was standing.