Fugitive's Trail

by Robert J Conley

  I blowed the head off a old rooster one time. It would a been a hell of a shot too, if I had been aiming at the damn thing, but I weren’t. I was aiming at a damn bean tin on the fence rail. But Tex, he kept a working with me and giving me pointers and all, and after some weeks a doing it ever’ day, I begun to knock them tins offa the fence rail. It sure made me feel good to see them fly. And whenever I had got to where I didn’t hardly ever miss them at all no more, why, then I begun to work on making my slow and easy and deliberate draw a little more faster and so on. Well, I turned out some slick. I longed for a real Peacemaker though, like the one what was hanging at Tex’s side, and I saved my wages up till I could afford one. It tuck me a little to get used to it, but then I got to be pert near as good as ole Tex hisself. ’Course I got myself some new clothes and a pair a boots what fit me, and I begun to feel real cocky, being a real working cowhand and a good hand with a gun to boot. Why, I was a drawing and whirling most ever’ where I went, and more than once ole Rod, he had to tell me something like, “Kid, we ain’t paying you to show off with that damn gun.” Well, I kinda settled down some then, and whenever I was at work, I tried to concentrate on my learning there too.

  I strung wire till both my hands was all cut up, and once or twice I had a wire snap off and come back and bite the hell out a me. Fin’ly they graduated me up to riding the herd with them, and the first time I ever roped a calf, the little shit pulled me right outa the saddle. I landed on my face and my belly, and I sure did get laughed at that day, I can tell you. But then I learnt to lap that rope around the saddle horn so that it wouldn’t happen no more. The first time I helped to cut the nuts off a calf I like to got sick with the sight and just the thought of it, and they laughed at me real good then, too. In fact, that very evening, ole Cookie, he served them balls up to me on my dinner plate, and I couldn’t eat them, and that got me a worse laugh than what the cutting had got.

  One morning my ole horse puffed out his belly when I went to cinch him up, and then when I started in to climb aboard, the damn saddle slipped off to one side, and I tuck me a hard fall. They hee-hawed me then too. Another time out on the range, I had roped me down a calf and was feeling some smug about how slick I had did it, but just then its mama cow come a running at me and knocked me over backwards and run right over me. Ole Rod come a running.

  “You hurt, Kid?” he said.

  “Naw, hell,” I told him. “I’m all right.”

  Soon as I said that then Rod and Tex and all the other boys commenced to laughing at me again. I got a whole hell of a lot a laughing at while I was a learning, but ole Tex, he told me not to take it personal. “It’s just all a part of the learning,” he said. “All of us has gone through it.” So I tuck it as best I could, and as time rolled on, by the time I was sixteen year old, I become might near as good as any hand on the ranch. I thought I had my whole life laid out in front a me right there on the ole Boxwood with Rod, and Tex, and all the rest a them ole boys, and the boss and his lady too. Hell, we was like family, and that was a real new feeling to me. I hadn’t never had that feeling back home with Maw and Paw.

  Then one day a feller come riding into the ranch, and he hauled up there in front a the big house. Chambers seed him a coming and walked over there to meet up with him. I was standing over by the corral, and I could sorta hear what they was saying over there. After the howdying was did, the feller pointed over to the corral, and it didn’t take long for me to realize that he was talking about the horse I had stole might near two years earlier. I figgered that maybe he was the man I had seed ride away from that house that day way back then, and I was glad I weren’t wearing his clothes or his gun no more.

  Chambers walked him over to the corral, and he kind a give me a look out a the corner a his eye. “She just showed up out here one day a while back,” he said. “We brought her on in to take care of her. You’ll find her in good shape.”

  “You got no idea how she come to be in these parts?” the feller asked.

  “No idea,” said ole Chambers. Then he looked over at me. “Parmlee,” he said, “fetch that roan mare out for this man.” I done it and tuck the line over to the stranger. He tuck it from me and thanked me.

  “Likely someone stole her from me,” the man said, “then rode her over this way and abandoned her to pick up a different one to hide his trail. Well, I sure thank you for looking after her.”

  When that man rid away leading his horse, I stood there a staring at Chambers, waiting for him to ask me for some explanation. He never. He just turned and went on with his business. I can tell you, I was embarrassed, but I sure did appreciate what ole Chambers done for me. He must a knowed that I had stole that horse, but he never said nothing about it—not to the owner and not to me. It was like as if he figgered that nothing I had did before he picked me up along the trail mattered none. The only thing he keered about was what I had did since then a working for him there on the Boxwood.

  But that weren’t the end of it. No, sir. ’Cause you know, them Piggses had never give up a-hunting for me. And the way I got it figgered after all that happened is this way. The Piggses had follered my trail to the house where I had stole that roan from. Maybe they had talked to the ole boy, and then maybe he had told them that someone had come by when he was out and stole all that stuff from him. Maybe they had even found old Swayback where I had left her. They knowed that I had got my ass on into New Mexico. They also knowed, a course, that they was hunting a kid name a Parmlee. Maybe they had told that man my name.

  Well, a couple a years had gone by, you know, but them Piggses was stubborn, and that man whose horse I had stole was still pissed off. I figger that when he fin’ly found his horse, he had hunted up them Piggses again and told them just where he had found it. Maybe he even told them that he had heared me called by that name. Anyhow, whatever the truth of all that might be, they rid onto the ranch early one summer morning. Piggses. They was four of them.

  Chapter Three

  Well, hell, I weren’t actual standing just right there whenever the bastards come a riding up. I was off to the corral fetching out a fresh horse to ride. I had been sent out on a early morning errand, and when I come back I needed to get me a fresh horse before I could ride on out to where the rest of the boys was busy catching up calves what needed to be branded. But ole Rod Chambers, he was out in front a the big house where the boss lived, and ole Tex was with him, I guess. I guess they had just been in the house a talking to the boss about something or other, and when they come out onto the porch, they met up with them four Piggses what had just rid up. I don’t know just exact what had transpired out there, but them Piggses must a asked after me by my own right name, ’cause pretty soon, ole Tex come around to where I was at in the corral. He sidled up kind a close to me, and he had a look on his face, and I knowed right away that something out a the ordinary was up.

  “Kid,” he said, and there weren’t nobody around to listen, but he was still keeping his voice down real low. “Kid,” he said, “you’d best mount up and ride on out of here lickety-split and lay low for a spell.”

  “What’s up?” I asked him.

  “They’s four riders over to the house,” he said. “Strangers. They call themselves Pigg. They’re looking for you, and they ain’t friendly.”

  Well, my heart kind a fell down into my belly at that unpleasant news, but I gulped hard once and then got myself braced all up. After all, it weren’t nothing to get all excited about. It was just something I’d knowed all about for a long while that I was going to have to face up to one fine day, and so here it was. That’s all.

  “I been expecting them,” I said. “Matter a fact, I wonder what tuck them so damn long to find me.”

  “Me and ole Rod’ll stall them off for you while you ride out of here,” Tex said. “Now get going. Go out to that north line shack where we was at last week. I’ll fetch you up some supplies after a while.”

  Well, I think I done told you that ole Tex had been trainin
g me up with a six-gun-for some time by then, and I was already feeling kind a cocky about my own prowess with same, so I just set my jaw and hitched at my britches, and I said real firm like, “I ain’t running from them Piggses, Tex.”

  “Hell, boy,” he said, “they’s four of them, and they look like toughs to me. You can’t fight them all.”

  “Tex,” I said, “whenever you and Rod and them first picked me up out there on the trail, I was a running from the Texas law and from them Piggses. I knowed that the Texas law couldn’t follow me out here, but I knowed just as well that them Piggses would, sooner or later. I knowed they’d catch up with me one a these fine days. I ain’t running from them no more, and that’s all there is to it. You just stay clear when the lead starts in a flying, you and Chambers.”

  “What the hell do they want you for anyway?” Tex asked me. He had shoved his old beat-up hat way back and was a scratching his head, and his face was all wrinkled up in a kind a puzzlement.

  “I kilt one a their kin back in Texas,” I said. “Back before you all found me on the trail.”

  “But you was only ’bout fifteen year old back then,” Tex said.

  “Fourteen,” I said, correcting him.

  “How’d you kill him?” he said.

  “Hit him in the back a the head with a ax handle,” I said. “The son of a bitch shot my dog.”

  “Well, I’ll be damned,” said Tex. “You sure you won’t take on out of here? I believe that them four mean to kill you.”

  “I’m sure,” I said. I hefted my Colt just a bit to make sure it was sliding easy in its holster. Then I headed on over toward the gate. Ole Tex, he just give a shrug and come on up alongside a me. We walked along together on over to the front a the big house, and sure enough, there was ole Rod standing facing four men who was still just setting horseback. I seed the boss hisself a standing up on the porch and watching. Rod seed us a coming, and he give me a real strange look. I guess he was trying to figger out why the hell I was coming out there ’stead a running away like Tex had told me to do. I figgered that Rod had sent Tex to warn me and to tell me to get the hell out a there. I most always done just whatever the hell Rod told me to do, but this here didn’t have nothing to do with the job. It was personal.

  I walked right out square in front of them four Piggses, standing with my back to ole Rod, and I said, “Rod, you and Tex step on out of the way.” Then I looked right hard at the biggest Pigg of the four of them. “If your names is Pigg,” I said, “then it’s me you’re a looking for. I’m Parmlee. You ain’t got no fight with these others here. Let them stand clear, and then make your move.”

  “We ain’t looking for no fight with anyone but you, Parmlee,” the big Pigg said. “Nobody kills a Pigg and gets away with it. You killed Joe, and we’uns is been hunting you ever since.”

  “Tuck you long enough to find me,” I said.

  “You’re a cocky little shit, ain’t you?” Pigg said. “Before we kill you, tell me just one thing. How come a little weasley shit like you to kill poor ole Joe the way you done?”

  “He shot my dog,” I said.

  “That it?” Pigg said, like as if he couldn’t hardly believe it. “You killed a human person over a dumb animal? Hell, boy, a goddamned dog ain’t worth killing a man over. It sure ain’t worth dying over.”

  “Joe Pigg weren’t fit to kiss my dog’s ass,” I said. “And my dog’s name was Farty.”

  Well, that done it. All four of them Piggses went for their guns at the same time, and mine was out in a flash too. My first shot hit that big Pigg, the one what had been talking, right in the mouth, but it was my only shot. A bullet tore right into my left chest and knocked me right over onto my back. I was shocked and stunned, I can tell you. Hell, I’d never been shot before, never really even hurt real bad. ‘Course, whenever I went out there, I knowed there was a real good chance a me taking a bullet, maybe even getting my young ass kilt. Even so, the actual feel of it was more than I ever expected or even imagined. I seed the hole, and I seed all the blood, and it was all mine. A couple more bullets hit the ground right close around me too. By the time I could raise up my shooter again, I seed where bullets was splatting into them other three Piggses from all different kind a directions. Anyhow, that’s what it looked like. When all four saddles was fin’ly empty, and all four Piggses was laying dead or dying on the ground, I relaxed and laid on back my own self. I figgered I was a dying too. I sure felt weak and kind a fading, but I didn’t keer too much about that, ’cause the bastards what had did it to me was all dead too, and there was four a them and only one a me. I figgered it was a pretty good score to go out with.

  But I got the surprise a my young life when I didn’t die. I just laid there a bleeding, and right soon ole Rod was a hovering over me. Tex come up on the other side, and I could see that he was only just then holstering his Colt. He had jumped in and helped me out. Likely Rod had too. I had told them to stay out a the way, that it was only just my fight, but they had went and jumped in it anyhow. I wondered about that. I wondered why they had did that. “They’re all done for,” Tex said. “How’s the kid?”

  “He’s hit bad,” Rod said. “We got to get him fixed up real quick. You ride for the doc.”

  “All right,” Tex said, and he was gone in a second. Then I heared the boss’s voice coming from somewhere off where I couldn’t see.

  “Get him in the house,” he said.

  Then old Rod, he just picked me right up the way you might carry a dang little baby, and he toted me right inside the big house what I had never been inside before and then on back to a bedroom somewheres, and he laid me right down in the biggest and softest bed I had ever even been near in my whole entire life, and me all dirty and all bloody, and the next thing I knowed, someone had tore off my shirt, and then someone was a washing the blood off a me, and someone had jobbed something into that bullet hole a trying to stop the bleeding, I guess. It seemed like I had a whole mess a folks worrying over me, and it was all kind of fuzzy to me. I could see sort of, but I wasn’t seeing real clear, and I hadn’t said nary word to no one since I had tuck that bullet. I guess I was just kind a staring at the world around me and wondering how come I was still in it.

  But the funny thing about it all was that it never hurt me none. I must have fin‘ly passed on out though, ’cause when I next come to and kind a come back to my senses, I was all cleaned up and bandaged up all good and proper, and, by God, that hole in my high chest was a hurting me then. It was a kind of throbbing with pain, you know. I kind a raised my head up just a little, and then I moaned out kind a loud, ‘cause it hurt when I moved, and then I seed Mrs. 0, that was the boss’s lady, her real name was Mrs. Oliphant, ’cause the boss was Mr. Oliphant, but we all just always called them Mr. O and Mrs. 0, well, I seed Mrs. 0 kind a hovering over me and looking real concerned, like she keered about me for real.

  “Just take it easy, young man,” she said. “Take it easy. The doc’s been here and took out the bullet. He says you’ll mend right enough, but it’s going to take a spell. You feel like sitting up and taking some broth?”

  “Yes’m,” I said, “I guess so,” and it sounded to me like my own voice was a way far off somewheres, and it didn’t even sound like me, but I reckon she heard all right, ’cause she went on out of the room, and by and by she come back in with a tray with a bowl a setting on it. Well, she set that tray down on the bedside table, and then she helped me to get all set up, and then she put fluffed up pillas back behind my back for me to lean back and rest myself on. It hurt me some to move around like that, but I managed to get myself all set up with some kind help from Mrs. O. And then, by God, if she didn’t set right down beside me on the edge a the bed, and she picked up that tray again, and she went and spoon-fed me from out a that bowl of steaming beef broth.

  It was so damn good, and it felt just for all the world like as if it was a putting the strength right back inside a me and a working already to heal up that bullet hole. I really a
nd truly thought I could feel it doing that. But mostly I was a thinking that my own mother wouldn’t never a treated me so good as what that fine lady was doing, setting there on the bed beside me like that and spooning that hot broth right into my mouth. And I don’t know what it was come over me so powerful strong, but all of a sudden there was tears a pouring down my cheeks, and I couldn’t do nothing about it. Not a damn thing.

  “There, there,” she said, and she tuck up the fine white napkin from off the tray, and real gentle like, she daubed at my cheeks and my eyes with it. “You’re going to be just fine. Does it hurt very bad?”

  “Oh, it ain’t that, ma’am,” I said. “The hurting didn’t make me do that. I can take it. And I ain’t skeered a dying or nothing like that. It ain’t that neither. It’s just that—well, no one ever treated me this good before in my whole entire life.”

  Well, I be damned if she didn’t set that tray aside right then and just reach her arms around me and hold me real close against her breast, and when she went and done that, I really commenced to bawling. She let me bawl till I was total bawled out, and then she went and mopped up my face again, and then she finished feeding me that bowl of broth. When she was fin’ly all done, she told me to just lay back and close my eyes and try to get me some more sleep. Well, I done what she told me to do, and she pulled the covers up over me real snug, up to my chin, kind a tucking me in, you know, but I didn’t sleep. Not right off. I closed my eyes all right, but I just laid there a thinking about that wonderful kind lady and how good and sweet she was a treating me, and I couldn’t help it, but I was thinking about my old maw too, and I was thinking how she had slapped me across the face the very last day I ever seen her before I run off from home for good and ever.