The Jessie James Archives

by Craig Gallant

  It was Billy’s turn to shake his head sharply. He leaned over the table; his hands pressed wide to either side, and tried to force belief into the skeptical outlaw across the table. “You weren’t there, Jesse. You weren’t lookin’ into that old man’s eyes as he died. He was terrified, man. He was terrified we was gonna find this thing. Whatever it is, it meant enough to them to send some of their best, with one of their elders, an’ you know how they guard those old men, Jesse. They sent their best, an’ this old man, far away lookin’ for this thing when they needed ‘em most against Grant. It’s big, Jesse, its mighty big, whatever it is.”

  Jesse stared at the younger man for a long time. When he spoke, he was careful to keep any tone of agreement or warmth out of his voice. “You know where we’d have to go to get it?”

  Billy’s eyes dropped and his hands started to tap randomly on the back of his chair. “Well, not exactly—“

  Jesse barked a laugh. “Not exactly!” He slapped the table and then looked around at his own men. “Not exactly! Well, hell, Billy, what does that mean, exactly?”

  Billy’s eyes flared at the tone. “I know what the Injuns call the place. I figure, we get closer, out into the desert, we start talkin’ around, there’s always some folks out that way, half breeds an’ whatnot. Probably, someone’ll know where it is we’re tryin’ to get to.”

  Jesse watched him squirm. “And leavin’ aside for a moment the location of this great treasure of yours, you’re thinkin’, if this is so all-fired important, you’re figurin’ you’ll need extra bodies to go get it?”

  Billy shrugged. “They sent twenty of their best braves, Jesse. An’ those folks near-wrecked my crew. I’m figurin’ they was expectin’ a fight, an’ we better expect one too, if we take up their trail.”

  Jesse grinned. “Or coulda been, they were expectin’ the fight you gave ‘em, Billy, and they lost that one. Maybe all the fightin’s done, and you just gotta walk into this fairytale place an’ grab whatever it is they were headin’ for!” Jesse could see that possibility had not occurred to the younger man, and he shook his head. “Course, it’s probably two dusty old buffalo hides and a spittoon of squaw piss that you’ll be grabbin’, blessed by the Great GoogelyMoogely, or whatever.”

  Billy brought his hands down on the table, ready to push off with anger, and beside him Smiley and Garrett were frowning as well, hands on their weapons. Jesse raised one finger to stave off a fight.

  “But let’s assume there is somethin’ worth havin’ out there, Billy. An’ let’s assume we’re gonna have to fight to get it. That still don’t answer my original question: why’ve you come lookin’ fer me? You ain’t never lacked for lads to fill up yer posse whenever you were on the shoot.”

  Billy settled back down, fingers steepled across the back of his chair. “Well, Jesse, first, I’m figurin’, for somethin’ this big, I really need someone I can ride the river with, you know? Someone I can trust to watch my back, an’ everyone knows, that’s gotta be you, right?” His smile was as wide as it was false.

  Jesse watched him with lidded eyes, knowing full well that there had never been any great trust or faith between them. However, he merely waited, a growing curiosity as to Billy’s true destination growing in him. He gestured with one lazy hand for Billy to continue.

  Billy was ready to charge right in and continue the flattery, but something stopped him, he paused to take stock, and then with a sharp nod, he said, “I figure, once we find whatever it is, we gotta get rid of it. Find someone to buy it. Ain’t nothin’ any good to ya if you can’t find someone else who wants it.” He flipped a hand towards Jesse. “You got a lot more inroads with folks that could pay big, when we gotta unload it.”

  Jesse watched him fidget for a moment and then said, “You gonna tell me the rest, or you gonna make me guess?”

  Billy sighed, but then lurched forward, his eyes glowing with an idea he had kept close to his vest, from even his closest men, until now.

  “Well, Jesse, the Warrior Nation is fightin’ for its very life against the Union, right? So I figure, they’re lookin’ for somethin’ that desperate like, it’s gotta be somethin’ they think they can use against the Union, am I right?”

  Jesse nodded for him to carry on. He could tell that this was the first Billy’s men were hearing of this new wrinkle because all of a sudden Smiley and Garrett were watching their boss with growing interest and confusion.

  “Well, I’m thinkin’, if they could use it against Grant and his bully boys, what’s stoppin’ anyone else from usin’ it the same way, right?” Billy’s mind was racing now, his eyes bouncing around the table, and Jesse could almost taste his excitement. There was doubt there too, however. Billy did not have full confidence in his conclusions, he was following blind impulse, or advice that he did not fully understand, and it was clear that he was riding full tilt without a map.

  “Sounds like that might not be completely mad, Billy. But so what, you plannin’ on goin’ up directly against Grant and the whole Union, now?”

  Billy looked around the table, his eyes sly again. “Well, no, not me, exactly.” His eyes slid sideways back to Jesse. “But it struck me, we got some mutual friends that might not mind gettin’ their hands on somethin’ powerful enough, the Nation thinks it’ll help against the Union. Strikes me, we know some folks got their own grudge against Grant and the rest of those damned Lincolnites, an’ they might be more’n willin’ to entertain some generous thoughts for the folks who brought ‘em a little treat like that.”

  Jesse’s brow furrowed in confusion for a moment before clearing, and then rising in disbelief. “You mean the Rebellion?” Since Grant’s armies had crushed the Confederacy, the remnants had been skulking around in the swamps of Florida and Louisiana, calling themselves the Confederate Rebellion, swilling rotgut and singing Dixie at the moon. Jesse was disgusted with what had become of his former comrades in arms, and he let that distaste show now.

  Billy, either because he was more of an idealist or, more likely, because he’d been too young himself to fight in the war, did not share Jesse’s disdain. “Yeah, the Rebellion! Those boys’re just waitin’ for their chance, Jesse, an’ we could give it to ‘em!”

  Jesse looked at Harding and Gage, the only other men at the table who had fought in the war. “This strickin’ you boys as a good idea?”

  Harding spit a plug onto the floor nearby with a snicker. “Rebellion don’t have a pot to piss in, literally. They’re down in those swamps, chasin’ gators and getting’ eat by gallinippers. And besides, they ain’t got two copper pennies to rub together, neither.”

  Billy leaned in again. “But Jesse, if this thing the savages were after, if it’s all that, don’ you think it could make a difference? Don’ you think those ol’ gray backs out in the swamps, they’re just lookin’ for some way they can get their own back?” He leaned even closer. “An’ don’ you think, they’d jump at the chance to follow whoever it was that showed ‘em that way?”

  Billy leaned back, his hands grasping the chair back on either side, a smile forming once more on his face. “You see the possibilities now, don’cha? Two gents like you an’ me? Showin’ up in the swamps with a way to put Grant down, and the South can rise again? Hell, Jesse, we’d be writin’ our own ticket at that point!”

  Jesse stared at the bag still dangling from Billy’s wrist. Although he could not tease it out right now, Billy’s whole scheme had a lot to recommend it. It was not like the war leaders of the Warrior Nation to send a party out under the command of an elder on a frivolous mission. There could very well be something out in the desert, and if so, it was something Sitting Bull, Geronimo, and the other chiefs who now led the unified Warrior Nation were keen to collect. It could be some sort of weapon, the way new and alarming things kept popping up ever since Carpathian had arrived towards the end of the war. If someone were to appear down in the swamps with some new super weapon, to rally the shattered forces of the Confederacy, reshape them into a
fighting force once again, wielding whatever it was that Sitting Bull seemed so eager to recover…

  “Most o’ those I rode with in the war come up a cropper a long time ago, Billy.” Jesse leaned back, the picture of regret. “Those that ain’t, most o’ them are still ridin’ the trails up here with us. I’m not sure who all ended up down in the swamps, but I’m not sure they’d give a lick for me or what I thought, if I was to suddenly appear down there. I wouldn’t even know who to ask for.”

  Billy nodded at this renewed interest. “I get it, Jesse. I do. But you knew a bunch of folks! Gotta be some of ‘em ‘re still down there, an’ if we could bring’em somethin’ big, somethin’ they could use to get back on top? I’m pretty sure, we follow it through, we could end up big bugs ourselves, one day soon.”

  Jesse noted the excitement in Billy’s eyes. “These are pretty grand plans, Billy. You’re thinkin’ mighty big all of a sudden, ain’tya?”

  “Well, ain’t nothin’ says we gotta stay in the shadows forever, now, does it?” Billy gestured to the saloon around them. “Kansas City gets ‘emselves some decent law, an’ they will, we’re out in no-man’s land again. As long as the Union is in charge out here, we ain’t gonna have nowhere to go. We’re gonna be stuck on the fringe. But if we can tip that balance? If we can bring back the Rebs? Why, then, Grant’s gonna have a whole lot more to worry about than us, eh?”

  Jesse nodded slowly. “Might be you’re onto somethin’, Billy. I’m willin’ to give you that. An’ you say you got an idea of where we’d be headed?”

  Billy’s energy dimmed slightly with suspicion. “Yeah, I got a name. I figured, though, we’d share that sort of details when we got a bit closer.”

  Jesse laughed. “You don’t trust me, Billy? That hurts. That really does a number on my insides. Okay, well, that’ll come. Can you give me an idea of what types of terrain we’ll be lookin’ at? If my boys an’ I go with you, what’re we gonna need?”

  Billy shrugged. “Desert, I think, like I said. An’ the white hair said it was buried. So we might need to be diggin’ it up.”

  Jesse was blank. “Dig? How deep?”

  Billy shrugged again. “I don’t know. But the Injuns, they were carryin’ an awful lot o’ spades, axes, an’ things like that. They looked like they were plannin’ on some serious excavation.”

  Jesse tapped the table, his eyes unfocused slightly as he thought. “Well, if we’re gonna have to be doin’ a lot of diggin’, I ‘m thinking maybe we wanna stop somewhere along the way an’ get some serious equipment, do it right.”

  Billy brightened. “Carpathian? You think he could help us?”

  Jesse shook his head. “No, not the Doc. I’ll go see him anyway on our way west, my boys and I need to see him about a few things.” He looked down at one mechanical hand, opening and closing the fingers quickly. “But I was thinkin’ we swing through Diablo Canyon. We need heavy equipment, there’s enough there, pretty much all we’d have to do would be to throw it in a wagon—”

  Billy nodded, smiling, but Garrett and Smiley shared a hooded glance as soon as Jesse mentioned Diablo Canyon, and Jesse stopped.

  “What?” The older outlaw’s face was blank as suspicion flared again in his heart.

  “You ain’t heard about Diablo Canyon?” Smiley was not smiling.

  The suspicion built. “Yeah,” Jesse kept his voice even. “Diablo Canyon. Best place in the territories to kick up a fuss if you’re feelin’ the need. Ain’t been no law down there since those odd sticks ran the railroad tracks right to the edge of the cliff with no ideas on how to get across. Place is a pirate’s paradise, with all that equipment just sittin’ there, waitin’ for someone to shoot or get off the pot.”

  Jesse twisted to look over at Gage and Ty. “Boys, if we’re goin’ to Diablo Canyon, you all are in for a right good time.”

  “They got themselves a ‘bot.” Garrett’s voice was flat as he spoke, and his words brought Jesse’s head snapping back around.

  “They got a ‘bot? You mean a UR-30?” His tone rose incredulously. “How in the name of Hell did one o’ them metal marshals get down to Diablo Canyon, for God’s sake?”

  Billy looked grim and shrugged. “The townsfolk were bein’ bled dry. They sent a telegram to Tombstone, an’—“

  “Damned Wyatt Earp.” Jesse collapsed against the back of his chair. “Damned Earp and his damned fool Lawmen, stickin’ their noses in where they don’t belong.” He looked up at Billy. “The thing any good?”

  The younger outlaw nodded. “Ringo and the Apache Kid got caught by it, the thing cleaned their plow somethin’ fierce, left most of their boys pushin’ daisies before they could skedaddle.”

  Jesse pursed his lips. “Ringo and the Apache, eh?”

  “They ain’t no slouches, Jesse.” Harding muttered. “Johnny Ringo and the Apache Kid ain’t no slouches.”

  Jesse nodded. “So, they got themselves a ‘bot… “

  Billy nodded, and then added, somewhat sheepishly, “That might be another reason I need you to ride along, Jesse. The way Ringo talked, this thing’s a killer, and no mistake.”

  Jesse’s smile returned. “Well, now everything makes a lot more sense, Billy! I was worryin’ you’d gone all mamby-pamby on me all of a sudden! So, you knew we’d need to go to the Canyon.”

  Billy shrugged. “Thought it might come up.”

  Jesse thought for a second and then nodded. “Okay, I think I can work with all this. Tell you what, you an’ your posse head on over towards Diablo Canyon. We’ll follow you, and we’ll meet just above town, where the tracks go through that cut in the hills?”

  Billy nodded, a slight smile returning to his own face.

  “So, we meet up in the hills, an’ we’ll come up with a plan on how we’re gonna get around the metal man.” Jesse paused and then gave Billy a sharp look. “Your boys are all heeled with the latest, right? Crimson gold all around?”

  Billy took out one of his modified RJ-1027 six-shooters and gave it a quick twirl around his trigger finger before sliding it back into the holster. “’Course, Jesse.”

  Jesse nodded again. “’Course. Well, then. You boys be on your way, an’ we’ll meet you in the hills, bout seven days from now?” They all nodded. “We take care of the UR-30, we go find this mysterious oasis, dig up our treasure, and see if we can’t raise the South once again, eh?”

  Jesse reached out for his glass and raised it towards the other outlaw boss. “You wanna drink on it?”

  Billy smiled and raised his own glass, and the two gave a heavy clunk as they hit over the center of the table. “Seven days from now, just above Diablo Canyon.” They shot back the warm remnants of their drinks and nodded to each other.

  Jesse held up one gunmetal finger. “An’ you don’ go rushin’ in without us, now, you hear? ‘R lightin’ a shuck ahead of us an’ leavin’ us seven days from civilization and nothin’ to show for it.”

  Billy waved with both hands, his smile firmly in place. “Jesse, we’re in this together, thick or thin. I won’t let you down.”

  They reached over the table again to shake hands, and Jesse gripped tight when Billy expected him to let go. The older man pulled his younger compatriot closer and stated, “I know you won’t.”

  Billy pulled his hand away with a start, and a cloud moved over his face before his smile came swiftly out again. “That’s you, Jesse, always funny!” He nodded to the other men and then moved towards the door, Smiley and Garrett following behind, not breaking eye contact with Jesse’s boys until they had to, their faces grim.

  “So,” Harding muttered, playing vaguely with his cards. “We headin’ west?”

  Jesse smiled and shook his head. “Not necessarily.”

  The men all leaned forward. The boss held up his mechanical hands, still smiling widely, and gestured with a thumb over his shoulder towards the door. “That little corncracker ain’t ever gonna tell me ‘r mine what to do, first off. So, if’n I see’s fit to let him stew in t
he hills for a few days, he’s gonna grin and take it. He knows it, an’ I know it. But if we do wanna throw in with the Kid and his mob of misfits, well then, we’re all set to do just that.” He wove his hands behind his back with a series of soft whirs and clicks, his grin growing wider. “So, we either got the Kid stuck in the middle of nowhere waitin’ for us for God knows how long, ‘r we got us partners in what might or might not be the damned-foolest thing I ever heard of.”

  Gage chuckled. “Secret Injun weapons, raisin’ up the damned Rebs outa their fool swamps, save the world, and damn the Union!” He downed the last of his own drink. “Sounds like a good enough ride to jump on, just to see where it takes us!”

  Harding grunted. “I don’t trust Bonney. He ain’t nobody’s baby, and those soaplocks he rides with are all of ‘em worse.”

  Jesse did not disagree. “Well, there’s nothin’ sayin’ we gotta ride with ‘em. Plenty of time for us make that call later. Billy’ll wait for a few days, anyway, afore he goes chargin’ in or runs off with tail tucked. Ain’tno rush.”

  Jesse flipped his cards over, a quick glare daring any of his men to say something. “Well, this game’s dead, boys. I’m gonna head up to my room for a sec, then move on over to the Occidental. Who’s with me?”

  Although most of them had the grace to look sheepish, all of the men around the table muttered something about other plans. Jesse’s smile hardened. “Well, that’d be your loss, ya’ll. I think I want ya’ll with me anyway, in case I need to get a hold of you. Meet you all over yonder?”

  He picked up his hat, settled it on his head, and tapped a single mechanical finger to its brim before turning and heading for the door.

  It felt as if he’d been hearing William Bonney’s damn fool nickname every day for a year. And he knew that his own men were starting to feel that they had spent too much time in Kansas City. The cockup in Missouri City hadn’t helped that at all, either.

  Harding and the other steady hands had come to him and recommended they lose Ty after the Missouri City job. But there was something about the kid that made Jesse feel more comfortable with things, and he had denied them. He knew Harding had talked with Frank, though, and he knew his older brother would be watching the young kid like a hawk, and there was nothing wrong with that.