A Cold Hard Trail

by Robert J Conley

  “You look like a goddamn redskin to me,” he said.

  Churkee looked him right back in the eye.

  “I don’t see that who or what I am is any of your business,” he said.

  “Injuns ain’t allowed in this saloon,” the man said. “Matter of fact, Injuns ain’t allowed to buy booze.”

  “I reckon I paid for that, mister,” I said. Well, he turned on me then.

  “It’s against the law to buy booze for a redskin,” he said.

  “You a lawman?” I asked him.

  “No,” he said, “but—”

  “Excuse me,” said Churkee. “I’m about to do you a favor. You probably don’t realize it, but that man you’re talking to is Kid Parmlee. You know they say he’s—”

  “A regular Billy the Kid,” the man said. “Hell, Kid, I didn’t know who you was. I’m sorry. If the Injun’s with you—”

  “His name is Churkee,” I said.

  “Oh. Yeah. Well, if Churkee there is with you, then ever’thing’s all right.” He turned away from the bar then to look out over all the customers a-setting around at tables. “Ain’t that right, boys?” he said. “Anyone Kid Parmlee wants to bring in here is okay.”

  He got hisself some nods and muttered agreements, and then he looked back to me.

  “Okay?” he said. “No hard feelings?”

  “I ain’t got no hard feelings,” I said. “Anyhow, I just kilt me two men last night, and I ain’t really in no mood to do no more killing just now. Churkee, you got you any hard feelings on anyone here?”

  “Naw,” Churkee said. “I quit taking offense at ignorant statements a couple of months ago. I just hear too many of them.”

  “Hey, Sam,” the dumb bastard yelled out at the barkeep. “Bring a bottle of your good stuff over here for these two. I’m paying.” He looked at me again. “Okay?”

  “Okay,” I said, “and by the way, mister, just for your information. Ole Churkee here is a whole lot more deadlier rattlesnake than what I am. Count yourself lucky, friend. Hell, you could be a-laying dead on the floor right this very minute, if ole Churkee had been in a different mood.”

  Chapter 13

  Well, they was hotel rooms attached to that there Miner’s Saloon, and so while ever’one was proper respectful a me and ole Churkee, I went on over there to the desk where a clerk was a-lounging and got us a room for the night. No one balked none about it neither. I reckoned they knowed better than that. I tuck the key from the desk clerk and went on back over to where Churkee was a-waiting for me at the bar. We tuck the bottle and our two glasses and went on upstairs. No one made no moves against us. We went into our room and put the bottle and glasses down, and then we went on back downstairs. We walked outa that place and went and tuck keer of our horses down to the stable where I asked the man if he might be interested in buying them extry three, and he was, so we sold them and got us a pretty fair price too. We split the cash even betwixt the two of us, tuck up our saddlebags and blanket rolls, and went on back over to our room. I shut the door and locked it and then went for that whiskey bottle. Then ole Churkee, he pulled a little notebook outa his saddlebag, and he set down and commenced to making some marks in it. I seed them.

  Now, I’m sure you know already that I ain’t had much learning, but I do know how to read and write. I read slow, and I don’t know all them big words, but they ain’t no use nohow, and I print mostly, but I can write my own name good if I have to. So anyhow, I knowed that Churkee weren’t writing reg’lar writing.

  “What’s that there?” I asked him. “Is them some kinda witching marks you’re a-making?”

  “It’s Cherokee,” he said. “I’m just keeping some notes, a journal, you might say.”

  I wouldn’t a said no such thing, ’cause I don’t know what the hell that there “journal” means, but I never let on.

  “You mean, you’re a writing in Churkee?” I said.

  “That’s right.”

  “I ain’t never heared a no Injun writing,” I said.

  “Most Cherokees are literate in their own language,” he said. I was sorry to hear that, but I didn’t say nothing more about it. I figgered that maybe it was something a Churkee wouldn’t want to be a-talking too much about. You know, sometimes folks likes to keep their miseries to theirselfs, so I kinda changed the subject real delicate like. “Well, read some a that out loud,” I said.

  “It wouldn’t mean anything to you,” he said.

  “That’s all right,” I said. “I just wanta see can you really read it. I wanta hear what it sounds like—them marks you make.”

  “All right,” he said. “I’ll write something you might be able to remember.”

  He made four a them marks off by their self, and then he read them out loud. “Uk san,” he said. “Say it.”

  “Ook san?” I said.

  “That’s good,” he said.

  “That’s what you read from them marks there?” I asked him.

  “That’s right,” he said.

  “What’s it mean?” I said.

  “Asshole. Feel free to use it any time you feel it’s appropriate.”

  “Ook san,” I said. “Ook san. Hey, I’m going to remember that one. Am I for real talking in Churkee? Ook san.”

  “You certainly are,” he said. “You have a limited vocabulary, but you’re talking Cherokee.”

  “Ook san,” I said. “Ook san.”

  Churkee finished up his notes and put his little book away. It was still a little early in the day for more whiskey drinking, and I was a-getting hungry, so I suggested to ole Churkee that we go on out and hunt us up a place somewhere to eat something besides beans and biscuit. He agreed with me on that there, and we went on outa the room and locked the door and started on down the hallway. We was a-coming up on the landing there whenever Churkee put out a arm to stop me and stuck his finger up to his lips to shush me. I stopped still and listened. It didn’t take me long to reckanize the voice a that bully what had backed down whenever he heared my name called.

  “We ought to run them two out of town,” he was a-telling someone. “He’s a cold-blooded killer. They call him a regular Billy the Kid. Why, he’s worse than Billy the Kid. And then having the gall to bring that damn Injun in here like that. Why, hell, he’s just rubbing it in our face. What do you say, boys?”

  “Ah, I don’t know, Roscoe,” someone said.

  “Listen,” Roscoe said. “We got laws, ain’t we? What the hell good does it do to have laws if we let someone like that come in here and ignore them?”

  “They ain’t hurting no one.”

  “Naw, it ain’t like they killed someone or something.”

  “But if we let it go by, it’ll just get worse,” Roscoe said. “You want to wait till they do kill someone? Give them a inch, they’ll take a mile.”

  “What do you mean, Roscoe? Next time Kid Parmlee’ll come in here with two Injuns? Long as they can pay for their drinks, I don’t see no problem. Leave them be before you get yourself into some real trouble.”

  “Well, I do see a problem,” someone said. It was a new voice. “I agree with Roscoe. Something damn sure ought to be done about it. A killer and an Injun in our town. In our saloon.”

  “Sit down, Sherm,” said another.

  “What do you want us to do? Shoot them?”

  “Someone go get the sheriff,” Sherm said. “He can throw them in jail.”

  “For what?”

  “It’s against the law to be selling liquor to an Injun.”

  “Then they’d have to throw me in jail,” the barkeep said. “It was me what sold it.”

  “We wouldn’t need the sheriff if you’d all get behind us,” Roscoe said. “There’s enough of us to take them.”

  Well, now, that there was enough a that shit for me. I stepped on out onto the top step, and Churkee, he stepped out right alongside a me, and the whole bunch a them bastards down there shut up all in a minute. It was that quiet you coulda heared a mouse fart. I started
in to walking down the stairs kinda slow and steady and Churkee moving along right beside me. No one a them sniveling cowards said nothing, and ever’one of them was a-looking right smack at us as we was a-coming down towards them. We final come to the bottom a the stairs, and we walked right over to ole Roscoe and his new pard that there Sherm. I stood there in front a Roscoe a-looking him in the eye with my coldest and meanest look. Churkee was doing the same thing to that Sherm.

  “What was it you was a-wanting to do?” I asked Roscoe.

  “Nothing, Kid,” he said, and his tone a voice had sure enough changed. He was some nervous, I can tell you that much. “Me and the boys here was just talking. That’s all. Just talk. Nothing to it.”

  “I heared you saying something about me breaking a law,” I said.

  “Oh, that,” he said, and he tried to give out a laugh but it choked up on him. His face had kinda paled some, and he had commenced to sweating on his brow. “It’s an old law,” he said. “You know, one of them they don’t take off the books when they should, you know? It don’t mean nothing. No one pays attention to it these days.”

  “From where I stood,” I said, “it sounded to me like you was paying it some serious attention all right.”

  “You got it all wrong, Kid,” Roscoe said.

  “Uk san,” said Churkee.

  I nodded. “I reckon you’re right about that,” I said.

  Just then they was shots fired out in the street, and ever’one looked thataway. Sherm and Roscoe was visible relieved by that interruption. A man come a-running in from outside. His face was pale, and he was a-sweating and waving his arms around like crazy. “They’re robbing the bank,” he said.

  Someone at a table close to the door jumped up and pulled out a shooter.

  “Let’s go, men,” he said.

  Well, we all follered him a-pulling out guns, and then I seed them out there in the street. A skinny, scrawny kid and two old farts. They had just clumb up onto their horses and was skeedaddling outa town a-headed east. The kid turned in his saddle and fired a last shot, and a man on the street fell down dead. There weren’t no reason for it. Another man on the street turned back towards us what had just come outa the saloon, and then I seed the badge on his chest.

  “Get your horses and guns,” he yelled out. “You’re all a posse. Come with me.”

  I looked at Churkee.

  “It’s them,” I said. “I seed them. Come on. Our damn horses is in the stable.”

  We headed for the stable at a run, but just as we was a-running past the sheriff, I heared him tell a man to gether up food and water and foller on behind. Men was already mounting up and ready to go. By the time me and Churkee had got our saddles on our nags and rid outa the stable, the rest a the posse was already disappearing outa town. We hurried on to catch up with them. They was a-riding hard, and so did we at first, but then ole Churkee, he looked over and hollered at me.

  “Slow down,” he said.

  “But they’re a-moving on,” I said.

  “They’ll have to slow down soon,” he said, “unless they want to kill their horses and wind up on foot. When they slow down, we’ll catch up.”

  Well, a course, I seed that he was a-making good sense, I knowed better my own self, but only I just hadn’t been a-thinking, I guess, so I slowed down the pace and rid kinda easy alongside him.

  “What about them outlaws?” I asked him. “Ain’t they likely to get away if we don’t move a little more faster?”

  “They’ll have to slow down too,” he said. “We’ll get them. Just be patient.”

  I knowed that he was right. I was just awful anxious to get that damn kid in my gunsights, him and his two old pards, on account a, a course, they had been making ole Chastain and some others believe that me and my pard and my paw was killers and thieves. That had been going on for so long that my anxious was just a-getting the best a me. I wanted them real bad, and the sooner the better. Anyhow we rid along easy like for a spell, and then we speeded up for a while, and on like that, and sure enough, we eventual catched up with that damn posse. Their horses was a-panting too. I figgered they had rid them so hard that final they had been forced to slow down. Churkee was right.

  “Any sign a them bastards?” I asked.

  “Just their tracks,” the sheriff said. “We’re on the right trail.”

  “Did you get a look at them, Sheriff?” I asked. “Back yonder in town?”

  “I sure did,” he said. “It’s that same bunch that’s been terrorizing the whole countryside around these parts.”

  “Well, I’m sure glad a that,” I said, “on account a you know then that it ain’t me up there we’re a-chasing.”

  He give me a funny look, and I said, “I been mistook for that skinny kid before, and I got on his trail in order to prove that I ain’t him and he ain’t me. Now I got me a witness, and it’s you. Even if we don’t catch them.”

  “We’ll catch them, all right,” he said. “No matter how long it takes. I’ve got supplies coming after us, so we won’t have to turn back.”

  I recalled then hearing him tell that feller to get the supplies and foller along, and I had to hand it to that sheriff for that fast thinking. If this here chase was to wind up taking some days, we’d have food and water and plenty a bullets and bandages and such, and we’d be able to keep on a-keeping on. That was plenty smart a him to think a that in the heat a the situation back there in town.

  Well, we lollygagged along the trail for so long that I begun to get impatient again, and I tuck me a look at ole Churkee, and he was just looking relaxed in the saddle like as if there weren’t nothing at all wrong or to worry about in the whole entire world, so I tried my best to act the same exact way he was a-acting, but the truth was that I weren’t near so calm on the inside. That damn kid and his buddies was up there somewhere ahead of us, and I was powerful anxious to get him. Final the sheriff decided that him and the rest a the posse had eased up on their mounts long enough.

  “Come on,” he said, and he kicked his horse into a good lope. The rest of us done the same. Then I could see up ahead that we was headed into some green hills, and since I couldn’t see no sign a them three owlhoots, I figgered they musta gone up in there already. If we was a-going to have to go into the hills after them, they’d have theirselfs a chance to lay a ambush on us, maybe more than one chance. I was a-going to say something about that to the sheriff, but before I had a chance to open my yap, he done it. He held up a hand to slow us down.

  “Watch it, boys,” he said. “They went into them hills up ahead. They could be waiting for us.”

  Of a sudden, ever’one got kinda tensed up like. It was one thing for a whole gang a posse to ride down on three men out in the open a-blasting away like hell, but it was a whole different deal if them three might be hid and waiting to pick us off one at a time. Ole Roscoe, he was the first one to speak out and let his chicken shitness show.

  “I don’t think it’s a good idea to just ride on up in there,” he said.

  “We got them outnumbered,” the sheriff said.

  “I know that,” Roscoe said, “but that won’t make no difference to the first few they pick off from their hideyholes.”

  “They might not’ve stopped,” said another guy in the posse. “They might be riding like hell to get away from us.”

  “But they might not too,” said that Sherm. “They might just be laying in wait up there like Potter said. They could pick a few of us off for sure, and I don’t aim to be one.”

  Well, then, I figgered that Potter was that there sheriff’s name. Me personal, I didn’t have no idea what was the likeliest possible about that there situation. Them three bastards could be riding like hell or they could be laying up in ambush. There was just only one way to find out that I could tell, and that was to just keep on a-riding on their trail. If they was to take some shots at us, why, then we’d know. I weren’t a-skeered to take that chance.

  “I’m riding on ahead,” the sheriff
said. “Who’s going with me?”

  A few a the men opined as how they’d go along, and they headed on into the hills right behind ole Potter. That Potter, he showed some guts all right. If there really was a ambush up there, he’d likely be the first one to get dropped. Roscoe and Sherm hung behind though, and so did me and Churkee, on account a Churkee give me a sign to hang back. I didn’t know what for, and I weren’t about to ask him with them two a-setting there. Then Roscoe tuck a look over at us, and he kinda puffed up some.

  “Well, I ain’t a goddamned coward,” he said. “Come on, Sherm. Let’s go get the bastards.”

  Them two kicked their horses in the sides then and headed off after the rest a the posse. ’Course, they was pretty safe, on account a if the shooting did start, they would be way back in the back a the crowd. I’m sure that’s what ole Roscoe was a-thinking too. He didn’t fool me none. What I didn’t have no idea about was what ole Churkee was a-thinking. I knowed he weren’t a-skeered. I give him a look and seed that he was just a-setting and watching that posse ride into them hills and Roscoe and Sherm a-taking up the rear at a safe distance. Final he nudged his horse into motion.

  “Come on,” he said.

  I didn’t like to think that he was more a scaredy cat than what them two was, but I didn’t know what else to think, ’cause I didn’t know where the hell he was a-headed, till he turned off to our left and led me toward them hills at a angle. Then it come to me what he was for real up to. If them outlaws had for sure laid down a ambush, they would be a-watching the posse come at them. Me and ole Churkee, we could get in behind them maybe. ’Course I didn’t know them hills, so I didn’t know how hard or easy it was a-going to be to do that, but Churkee was acting like he knowed what he was a-doing, so I just rid along with him. I didn’t say nothing, and he didn’t neither.

  We rid up into them hills for a space, and then Churkee stopped and clumb down outa the saddle and lopped the reins around a small tree there. I done the same thing what he had did. I was trying to act like I knowed what he was up to, like I was smart enough to a figgered it out or maybe even thunk a the same thing my own self, but really I was just a-watching him real close and follering along in total and complete ignernce. He started in to making his way on foot up the side a the hill through some thick, scratchy bushes and trees, and I follered him right along.