Cherokee swore softly under his breath. The volunteers might not even find that camp if he doesn’t get there. At least without a good scout, they’ll be slowed down. Iron Knife’s gone ahead to warn his people, but who knows if they’ll listen to him?”
He stood there a long moment. If he tried to do anything to stop Dallinger, Silver would realize he wasn’t blind after all and he might lose her.
Boss, it ain’t your problem. Don’t get involved.”
That’s just what I was thinking myself, Keso,” he said uncertainly, and yet, if everyone thought only of himself, there would be no justice in this world.”
The boy looked at him, puzzlement in his face. So does that mean you are going to try to stop him? How can you when—?”
It’s a long story, Keso, but I’m gradually getting my sight back. I owe the Cheyenne; they saved my life when I was desperate.” He paused, weighing the consequences of his actions. He could ride out to try to intercept Dallinger and help the Cheyenne, but in doing so, he would lose Silver. Honor against love. What a choice!
Boss?”
He sighed, knowing he had no alternative. I’m a man, Keso, and a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do, no matter what it costs him personally. This is a debt of honor, and I’m sworn to repay Iron Knife for what he’s done for me!”
He started walking at a brisk clip, the boy almost running to keep up with him. But, boss, the army may find the Cheyenne anyway.”
They may, but I can lessen the chances by putting Dallinger out of action—or at least slow them down. Besides, I owe him justice because he killed my partners.”
They went to the barn and he saddled quickly. Although it was late Saturday night, there was a more boisterous crowd than usual on the streets and most of them looked drunk.
Keso, I may not be back.” He strapped on his pistol. He may get me first, and by morning, she’ll know about my sight when she realizes I’m gone, so that’s over.”
Won’t she be glad you can see?”
Oh sure, but even if I beat Jake and come back for her, I think she’ll run away and hide herself. I won’t be able to convince her I love her. She’ll call it pity.” He swung up on the horse, the saddle leather creaking.
The boy looked up at him hopefully. You’re not coming back?”
There’s a little matter of gold in the Palace safe that rightly belongs to me, but I don’t know how I could reclaim it. If I get killed, Keso, you tell the governess what happened and tell her I loved her more than she knew.”
Why don’t you come back and tell her yourself?”
Cherokee shook his head. I hate to say it, but I think she may be too vain to understand, but maybe that’s not her fault. Her looks meant more to her than I ever did, I reckon.”
He hesitated, wanting to take the lonely boy with him, but he wouldn’t expose Keso to danger. He nodded good-bye and put his spurs to his horse. If he could overtake Dallinger and kill him, he might save the Cheyenne, or at least give them a little more time to escape the cavalry. Cherokee didn’t look back as he rode through the rowdy crowds in the streets.
Keso stared after the big man riding off to the east. Somehow he had dared hope the half-breed might want a stray kid. Keso would manage alone; he had for a long time. But he would like to be part of a family. With a sigh, he curled back up in the hay and went to sleep.
Lon Brett was more than a little drunk. He knew it because he couldn’t focus well on his watch when he pulled it out and looked at it. The Saturday night crowd around him at the Progressive was as drunk as he was.
He leaned back in his chair and tried to keep his thoughts on the poker game at his table and all the laughing people, but his mind was on the girl at the Palace. Damn her to hell, she had had some part in the murder of his brother. He was sure of it, even though the police had that confession from Al Trovato. The Italian was trying to shield her, that was all. There was no legal way Lon could bring her to justice. Hell, he didn’t want justice, he wanted revenge!
Lon had a sudden idea and went looking for Big Ed. You still wanting an excuse to get rid of the Duchess and her saloon?”
Big Ed looked up from his drink. That’s a fool question. You know I do!”
Lon glanced around. It’s a big crowd and rowdy tonight with the holidays going on. Wouldn’t take but a few free drinks and a hot speech to get them out in the streets and ready to burn the Palace down. I’m told that’s how the Duchess got a mob to destroy the River House Saloon back in ’62, when it burned.”
Big Ed paused and studied him. What’s going on and what’s in it for you?”
Just say I’m trying to help a friend—you.” Lon grinned.
Big Ed said something obscene. Don’t give me that! What’s in this for you?”
Lon played with the ends of his string tie. Well, if your business gets better, I do better because I’m an employee.”
Tell me what you’re really after!”
All right.” Lon leaned closer. I want the governess to do with as I please.”
You mean that drab little thing that looks after the Duchess’s kid? I seen her on the street, Lon, are you drunk? She ain’t so special—”
I want revenge for an old wrong,” Lon said softly through gritted teeth. I want to rape her until she begs for mercy and then I want to kill her slow.”
Big Ed stared up at him. I reckon the less I know about that, the better. It would be great not to have to compete with the Palace anymore.”
Lon nodded.
You get rid of the Duchess for me, I sure don’t care what happens to the drab mouse. What do you know that might turn this crowd into a mob?”
A fella just told me something. I’m not sure he meant to. Might have been a little drunk. The Duchess is Injun, Ed, a dog-eatin’ Injun—Arapaho.”
Ed stared at him through the drifting cigar smoke, thunder-struck. Ain’t that one of the two tribes that’s been causing all the trouble around here?”
Yep.” Lon fiddled with his string tie. When you stop and think of it, don’t she look Injun?”
Big Ed stood up and looked at Lon a long moment. Then he pushed his way through the crowd to the bar, and banged on it with one of the big mallets used to knock the plug out of a barrel of whiskey. Listen, everyone!” he shouted. Listen!”
The noise and piano music hardly slowed at all. He nodded at Lon and banged the mallet against the bar again. Free drinks on the house!” he shouted. Free drinks for everyone!”
Almost miraculously, the crowd heard that. The men raised a cheer, then pushed their way to the bar for their reward.
Big Ed looked around as everyone drank. And now another free round of drinks on the house!”
More cheering as the bartenders poured cheap whiskey into dozens of outstretched glasses.
Big Ed jumped up on the bar. A toast!” he shouted. I want to make a toast!”
Men paused, glasses in hand, listening.
Lon leaned against the table and watched. Big Ed held his glass high and looked around at the crowd. A toast! A toast to this town that won’t let that damned bunch of redskins get by with what they been doing to decent folks!”
A cheer went up, but Big Ed held up his hand for silence. It only grieves me we got to put up with a damned Injun running a place wide open and calling herself a fancy Duchess! We all know she’s nothing but an Injun! Who does she think she’s fooling anyhow?”
A murmur went through the crowd.
Big Ed shouted. Are we gonna stand for this? Are we gonna put up with that damned Injun whore right here in the middle of Denver while her in-laws kill white folks?”
He looked toward Lon and Lon shouted, Hell, no! We won’t stand for it! Will we, men?”
An angry murmur went through the saloon.
Lon shouted louder. Who’s going to help me bring her to justice?”
A cry went up from the drunken crowd.
Lon waved his fist. Free drinks for every decent man who’ll help me clean that redsk
in and her cheating card sharps and diseased whores out of this town!”
He’s right!” men shouted. Let’s burn her out! She’s the only frame building left! Let’s burn her out!”
Lon watched as the drunken crowd shouted and surged forward toward the doors, even as Big Ed smiled and retreated back into a corner. It amazed Lon that, like sheep, a mob would do anything suggested to them in the name of doing what’s right.” For only a moment, he was dumbfounded, and then he ran to lead the men who pushed through the doors and surged out into the cold November night.
From somewhere, torches appeared, were set ablaze, and handed around. When it was what the democratic majority wanted, shouldn’t the people be able to prevail?
Someone thrust a torch into Lon’s hands and he paused before the crowd, waving it like a banner. All right, men, think of the money you’ve lost in the Palace! Think of that red-skinned bitch spreading the pox around with her diseased whores! Let’s do what’s right!”
The roar of the crowd drowned his out now and he turned and was swept along the street by the mob, everyone shouting and waving torches. Men along the sidewalks paused and ran to join in, not seeming to know or care where the crowd was bound for, just eager to get in on the excitement.
And it was exciting! Lon took a deep breath of the scent of burning pitch as the bright orange flares lit up the night and the crowd roared and surged around him. His heart beat hard with vengeance. He had waited for this moment a long, long time.
By the time they reached the Palace, the mob had grown to several hundred men, all shouting and waving torches. Where the law was tonight, Lon didn’t know or care. If they were smart, they’d stay out of the crowd’s way until justice was done.
Customers inside the Palace seemed to rush outside when they saw the crowd coming down the stret. All he had to do now was hold them back for a moment while he went in and got the governess.
Men!” Brett shouted as they surged around him in front of the Palace. Men, hold up a moment!”
Only a few even heard him as they pushed forward. What’s he want? I think he’s changed his mind and is trying to stop us! Stop us, hell! We’re going to do what’s right!”
Lon Brett threw up his hand and shouted for silence, but no one seemed to listen. This wouldn’t do! He wanted to get his hands on that girl first. Men! Stop!”
The crowd would not be done out of its fun. As they surged forward, Lon Brett realized too late that a mob was like a wild animal on the loose and looking for prey.
No!” they shouted. No, we won’t be stopped! Let’s burn the Palace! Death to the red-skinned whore!”
Lon tried to hold them back as they pressed forward with their torches. Someone hit him, knocking him against the hitching post. He dropped his torch and wiped the blood from his mouth, still shouting for the mob to stop long enough for him to go in and get the governess. No one paid any attention as they pushed ahead, setting the tinder-dry wood on fire. He managed to run up on the steps before the door. No, men! Stop! Listen to me!”
All around him, men were torching the dry wooden building and shouting drunkenly. He ran right up in front of the doors and tried to pull a torch from someone’s hands. The man knocked him down. Then the dozens of people came at him, walking on him as they hurried to set the Palace ablaze.
Lon Brett screamed in pain, trying to fight his way to his feet and escape from the hundreds of boots that were trampling him as the mob pushed forward. Lon shrieked and struggled but no one seemed to hear him. The crowd moved like some big uncontrolled animal and crushed him beneath their feet. The last thing he saw was the fire catching the paint on fire and men running inside to set fire to the tables and velvet drapes.
At the Essex, Silver came awake with a start, wondering what had awakened her. She sat up in bed, looking around. Cherokee?”
No answer. Where could he be? The room was dark and she was suddenly afraid of the dark without him by her side. What was that noise outside? She went to the window and looked out. In the black night, a faint orange glow lit the sky. Fire.
The thought sent a shiver of fear through her after what they’d all experienced in the April fire of last year. Almost the whole downtown had burned and been rebuilt out of bricks.
The Palace was the only frame building in the area. Silver jerked on her clothes, grabbed her cloak, and ran for the street. Waanibe. She had left Waanibe alone and asleep. Silver fairly flew down the steps and out into the street. For a long moment, she looked, trying to pinpoint the source of the blaze. The Palace. It had to be the Palace. In that split second, memories came back to her of the Nugget burning with all her hopes and dreams.
Waanibe. Surely the Duchess would get the child out. Silver took off at a dead run toward the Palace.
The Duchess had looked up from her table in the far corner as a bartender came running and shouted over the loud piano, Ma’am, there’s a mob coming down the street!”
So what? It’s the holiday season and Saturday night besides. Some of the boys have had a little too much to drink, that’s all!”
He shook his head. You better come look. Somehow I think there’s more to it than that.”
She frowned as she went to the window. A crowd marched down the street carrying torches. The orange and yellow flames threw a strange glow over the faces of the mob. A handsome man led the bunch and she tried to remember who he was and where he might be leading the men.
Around her, customers and dancing girls had heard the noise and looked at each other uneasily. A few went to the windows and door for a look.
The piano stopped playing and Gray Dove swore under her breath. With all this excitement, first thing she knew, her customers would be out there in the street, tagging along wherever the crowd was headed and she’d lose money.
Duchess!” the bartender shouted. I think they’re coming here!”
Oh hell, no! Why would they?”
But the people around her were already pushing through the doors front and back to get outside. She stood transfixed, staring out at the handsome man raising his arm for silence, trying to tell the crowd something, but the crowd was drunk and angry, not listening to him.
Suddenly, she remembered where she had seen the handsome man before—he worked for Big Ed Chase at the Progressive. For a split second, she remembered how she had encouraged a similar mob only two years ago. Then she realized that the torches were moving toward the Palace doors, the mob surging right over the man who had tried to hold them back. What in the hell was going on?
Stop them!” she shouted at her bartenders and card dealers. Get out there and do something! Stop them!” But no one seemed to hear her or pay any attention, they were all scrambling for the exits.
Gray Dove stood transfixed for a moment as angry men ran through the front door with their flaming-sticks.
They were going to destroy everything she had worked for—everything that meant anything to her! She had worked too hard and too long to stand by idly and let that happen. With a curse, she ran behind the bar and grabbed a shotgun even as someone torched the velvet stage curtains and some of the chairs.
In the smoke that billowed and drifted around her, she hardly saw what she was aiming for, but she fired and the man fell. His torch rolled across the floor and against the ornate bar.
Stop it! Stop it, I say!” She ran out from behind the bar, swearing and swinging the shotgun, but no one paid any attention to her at all.
Two men grabbed up whiskey behind the bar, took big gulps, then poured the remainder on the flames. The red fire roared even brighter. All the faces around her glowed with a strange light, the flames reflected in the wild, wide eyes. She might as well be dealing with wolves!
Water! What she needed was water! There was always a bucket behind the bar for just such emergencies. Gray Dove ran behind the bar, grabbed it, and splashed it on the flames that had now reached the bottles of whiskey. The bottles began to explode as they got hot, the alcohol feeding the flames. She had t
o get away from here! Lifting her skirts, she ran from behind the bar and looked around for help. All her employees and the customers had deserted her, running helter-skelter for the doors. Even the whores ran screaming down the fancy stairway, half-dressed, followed by men in their underwear, carrying their boots. Within minutes, only she and a dozen crazy men with flaming torches were left inside.
This was her saloon, and she wouldn’t let them burn it! She ran up to one man and fought him to jerk the torch from his hands. When she did so, she swung it as a weapon and caught him across the face with it. His scream was so high, it hurt her ears, and then it broke off in the middle.
Stop it! God damn it! Stop it!” All around her, tables and chairs and velvet cushions blazed. Men were raiding her liquor stock, drinking, and pouring some on the floor so the flames leapt along it. The acrid scent of burning was all around her, the smoke swirling. The saloon lit up in an eerie glow. Then the heat reached the mirror behind the bar and it exploded like a cannon shot, sending a shower of glass tinkling in every direction.
The Palace was fully ablaze. She wouldn’t be able to stop it. The whole fire would be out of control in a few minutes. She could only save what she could carry out in her arms. What was of the most value in the world to her?
She paused, looking up the ornate stairway. Already the lush scarlet carpet on the stairs smoldered. She had only a couple of minutes to get up there and get out before she was trapped. Coughing and choking on the smoke, Gray Dove ran up the stairs and stopped uncertainly in the hall. She hadn’t seen the governess or Waanibe run out. No doubt they were still asleep in their rooms.
What did she care most about? Once it would have been the child, when she thought Wannie was I ron Knife’s. As Jake’s whelp, the little girl meant less than nothing. Money. The gold dust Jake had put in her big safe. The fabulous jewels in the box on her bureau. Yes, those she could carry out in her arms. With that much wealth, she could start over someplace else.
Quicksilver Passion Page 32
