Fiddlefoot

by Luke Short

  “Don’t go,” Frank said. “It’ll save me telling you, Carrie.” He looked at the Judge. “I don’t want Saber for a while, Judge. How do you go about putting it away?”

  There was a long silence, and then Carrie echoed, “Don’t want Saber?”

  Frank nodded, not looking at her. “Hannan seems to think I killed Rob,” he said. “He thinks I did it because I wanted Saber. I’d like to put Saber away until he’s found Rob’s killer. If he doesn’t find him, I don’t want it.”

  Judge Tavister could not hide the distress in his face, but before he had a chance to speak Carrie said hotly, “That fat fool of a Hannan! I’ll kill him!”

  “Now, now, don’t say that even in fun, Carrie,” her father admonished.

  “But it’s blackmail!” Carrie said hotly.

  Judge Tavister looked at Frank now. “That’s absurd, Frank. The property is legally yours. Let Hannan try and make a case against you.”

  “He can’t, if I don’t take Saber.”

  Carrie said indignantly, “But what about you? You give up a big ranch!”

  The Judge said temperately: “Exactly. You’re doing it backwards, Frank. Our law is founded on the assumption that a man is innocent until proven guilty; not that he is guilty until proven innocent—as you seem to believe. Let Hannan prove it.”

  Frank said dismally, “What if he can make out a good case?”

  “How can he? Can’t you account for your time?”

  “No,” Frank lied.

  “Weren’t you traveling with Rhino’s men?”

  “Not all the time,” he lied again.

  A look of bitter accusation mounted in Judge Tavister’s eyes, and Frank knew what he was thinking. This was the “hurt” he mentioned that night in the quiet darkness, the disgrace shaping up that would break Carrie’s heart, and Frank saw the Judge understand this and accept it with a wry dislike. The Judge said stonily: “It’s yours to dispose of, Frank. I’m Rob’s executor. I suppose I could arrange to put Saber in escrow under the terms you wish.”

  Carrie looked from Frank now to her father, and the protest mounted in her green eyes and she looked levelly at Frank. “So all you said the other night was fluff? You said you’d run Saber and prove to me you weren’t a drifter, that you’d accept that responsibility, didn’t you?”

  Frank nodded miserably.

  “And now you won’t. You’ve seen a chance to dodge and duck again.”

  “What am I dodging?” Frank asked wearily.

  “You have a chance at last!” Carrie said passionately. “You’ve got a ranch to run, a crew to pay, cattle to raise and ship! You’ve—you’ve even got a wife to win—if you want her!”

  Frank looked down at his hands a long moment, and he tasted the full bitterness of this. The one thing that could free him he could not tell her, because in telling her he would lose her.

  He rose now and shook his head and said miserably, “You’ve got to let me work it out my way, Carrie.”

  “Yes,” Carrie said quietly. She managed a faint and unenthusiastic smile. “Maybe a few more months added onto six years won’t kill me. But you can’t dodge forever, Frank.”

  She came up to him then, raised on tiptoe and kissed him. “There. I’ve stopped scolding.”

  Afterward, Frank went down the stairs and turned aimlessly into the street, a gray despair riding him. Carrie was still loyal to him, but he had disappointed her again, and this time deeply. The most he could hope for was time, time in which to prove to her that he would work at other things, if not at Saber.

  He found himself teetering on the edge of the boardwalk, staring blankly at the hotel across the street. A sudden hunger moved him into the street, headed him for the hotel dining room—a slim-hipped, restless man with misery in his face.

  Chapter 7

  HUGH NUNNALLY drifted into the lobby of the Colorado House and idled up to the desk. He said good evening to Mr. Newhouse, the owner, bought a couple of cigars at the counter by the desk, and then strolled over to one of the deep leather chairs and sat down. Passing the dining room, he didn’t even bother to look in. He knew Frank was there.

  He lighted a cigar, stretched out his legs, and settled himself comfortably. Isaac Maas, the owner of the Rifle Tribune down the street, spoke to him with his customary gentleness on his way into the dining room, and Hugh lazily waved in answer. Afterward, he studied the half-dozen mounted elk and deer heads on the far wall, idly counting the points on each pair of antlers and wondering if he had killed bigger. There was nothing much on his mind; he had gone over what needed going over.

  Presently, Frank Chess came out of the dining room. Hugh, unobserved, watched him, noting the black eye and marked nose and the sober set to his dark, alert face, and he smiled. Rising, Hugh strolled over to the dining room door, looked inside, verified what he already knew, and then came back through the lobby.

  Through the front window, he saw Frank just touching a light to his cigarette. Hugh reached the door just as Frank was untying the reins of his horse at the hotel tie-rail, and Hugh strolled across the boardwalk and put a shoulder against the veranda pillar.

  “Nice horse, Frank,” he observed. “Want to sell him?”

  Frank looked up, and a hard scowl came on his face. “Not to you.”

  Hugh smiled and said pleasantly, “Rhino’d like to see you.”

  Frank had his foot in the stirrup. He paused and looked sharply at Nunnally, and Hugh could almost see him telling himself, Maybe I’d better.

  Frank said derisively, “You’re a big fella now, Hugh. Why don’t you quit running errands for him?”

  Nunnally wasn’t to be baited; he smiled faintly. “I don’t mind it. Coming?”

  Frank tied his reins again while Hugh skirted the tie-rail, and fell in beside him. They crossed the street, passed the bank, and beyond it turned into Willie Haver’s barbershop. Haver, a bald, slight little man, was seated in one of his two chairs reading a worn paper, and at their entrance he lifted his thumb and pointed over his shoulder toward the rear and resumed his reading.

  In the corridor Hugh, leading the way, again smiled faintly, this time in anticipation. He palmed open the knob of the second door and stepped inside. This was a big, dimly lit room, the left rear corner of it filled with an oversize zinc bathtub. Rhino Hulst lay half-submerged in its soapy water, a half-smoked cigar in his mouth, a folded newspaper in one hand. There was a wall lamp behind and above him which was lighted against the perpetual gloom of this warm, soapy-smelling room. Rhino’s massive arms and chest almost filled the width of the tub. Beside him on the floor stood a brace of buckets filled with hot water.

  Rhino didn’t even look at Hugh, who crossed the room to the back wall.

  “Hello, son,” Rhino said pleasantly to Frank.

  “Hello, Uncle Rhino,” Frank said mockingly.

  Hugh, seating himself in a straight-backed chair, felt a perverse pleasure in Frank’s cockiness. It would make what followed so much more entertaining. He put his elbows on his knees and looked up at Rhino in time to see him scowling.

  “Is it die light, or have you got a black eye?” Rhino inquired mildly.

  Hugh looked over at Frank and saw that he had put his shoulders against the front wall, and tucked his thumbs in the pockets of his pants.

  “Get down to business, Fatty,” Frank murmured.

  Rhino chuckled. “How do you like Hannan’s theory?” Rhino asked. “I don’t see how you can beat it.”

  “I’ve already beat it,” Frank said.

  “Giving up Saber?” Rhino asked mildly. He shook his head. “Won’t do you much good, I’m afraid, Frank.”

  Frank, Hugh saw, was faintly surprised that Rhino knew of this. Frank touched a match to his cold cigarette, and then looked idly at it. “How far are you going with this, Rhino?” he asked then.

  “Right up to the finish.”

  “I won’t hang for Rob’s murder. The finish will be me telling Hannan about the uniform so he ca
n prove where I was.” Nunnally cut in softly, “You’re lying,” and watched the caution come into Frank’s dark eyes. He went on, still softly, “You want that girl too badly, Frank, and she won’t have you, knowing that about you.”

  “You’d hate to bet on that, wouldn’t you, Hugh?”

  “I have bet on it,” Rhino put in calmly. “That uniform can get me in trouble too, but not as much as it can you. I’m betting you’ll never tell Hannan.”

  Frank’s eyes widened. “I’d hang first?”

  Rhino shook his head in negation. “You’ll come back first. That’s what I’m trying to tell you. It’s the only way out.”

  Hugh watched stubbornness come into Frank’s handsome face, darkening it, and he felt return of the same perverse pleasure. There was nothing complicated about Chess, he thought; like a hooked fish, there were only so many motions he could go through, variations on the same protest, before he subsided.

  “I won’t come back, Rhino,” Frank said flatly, angrily. “I’ve worn that uniform for the last time.”

  “Of course you have,” Rhino agreed mildly. “Who said anything about a uniform?”

  “Hugh.”

  Rhino glanced reprovingly at Hugh, who was studying the floor now, seemingly out of this.

  “Hugh has my interests at heart,” Rhino said forgivingly. “He was just trying to drive the cheapest bargain.” Now Rhino puffed on his cigar long enough to find it had gone out. He tossed it carelessly onto the floor, and then said, almost idly, “No, what I had in mind was a partnership, Frank.”

  Hugh looked up in time to catch the surprise in Frank’s face. “Partnership?” Frank echoed blankly.

  “In Saber,” Rhino said. He settled back in the tub a little, laced his fingers together behind his neck and looked at the ceiling a moment, and then frowned. Looking at Hugh now, he said, “Get me a cigar, Hugh, and warm this water for me, will you?”

  Hugh went over to the chair where Rhino’s clothes were lying, took a cigar from the breast pocket of Rhino’s coat, gave it to him, held a match for the cigar, then dumped one of the buckets of water into the tub. Occasionally, as he moved about this business, he glanced at Frank, and reading what he saw in Frank’s face he thought, He’s quick enough. He knows.

  He came back to his chair and sat down, and now Rhino said with a gentle persuasiveness: “Look how it is. I’ve got money and plenty of horse-buyers, but every time the Army needs a big jag of horses I have to go buy them. You’ve got Saber, the buildings, the grass. Together, we could raise horses, buy them, hold them, trade them and sell them. We’d be the biggest horse-dealers in the West. Why, we’d make a fortune.”

  Frank had come away from the wall now. His dark eyes were bright and steady and remotely searching as he regarded Rhino.

  Then he said softly, “Rhino, you killed Rob, didn’t you?”

  Rhino chuckled. “Why, yes.”

  Hugh gently slipped his gun from its holster and held it beside him. He watched Frank accept this, standing utterly motionless, his lean restlessness stilled, hands at his side, feet spread a little apart, his face hard and unforgiving and strangely wild.

  Frank’s glance shuttled to Hugh now, and Hugh said dryly, “Do you care?”

  Afterward, there was a full half-minute of silence. Frank balled up his right fist and rubbed it gently in the palm of his left hand, and he stared at the floor. Hugh watched him a tense ten seconds and then he thought, He’ll take it, and relaxed, waiting for the rest.

  Rhino said presently, “Now, Frank, listen carefully. There are three things you can do.” He leaned both arms on the edge of the tub and waggled an admonitory finger at Frank. “You can get reckless and walk out of here straight to Hannan and tell him I’ve just said I killed Rob. If you do, I won’t even have to deny it. I’ll simply tell Hannan you came to me with the proposition to split Saber with me if I would dig up a man who could prove you were with him between the fourth and ninth of July. Hugh will be my witness. Furthermore, after Hannan’s arrested you, I’ll dig up a man who saw you here between the fourth and ninth.”

  Rhino paused, nodded as if to nail this down, and then touched the second finger of his left hand, ticking off the second item. “Or,” he said, “you can free yourself of all suspicion of Rob’s murder by telling Hannan you were wearing an Army uniform between the fourth and the ninth.” He smiled at the idiocy of this suggestion.

  “Or,” he continued, spreading his hands, “you can get Saber back, throw in with me, and I’ll prove you were with my crew between the fourth and the ninth. After that, we’ll make money.”

  He settled back in the bathtub, although Hugh heard, this rather than saw it. He was watching the gathering wildness in Frank’s face, and he thought resignedly, Here we go.

  Frank turned and moved toward the door, and Hugh rose and said sharply, “What’ll it be, Frank?”

  “I’m going to Hannan,” Frank said.

  Hugh tipped up his gun and said, “Stay there,” and Frank halted. Carefully, Hugh moved over to him and lifted the gun from the waistband of Frank’s levis, and then stepped back.

  Rhino said mildly, “Are you sure, Frank?”

  Frank didn’t answer. Hugh glanced over at Rhino, saw Rhino’s nod, and then he hefted Frank’s gun in his hand, cocking it. Once it was cocked, he pointed it at the floor and pulled the trigger. The shot bellowed through the room, and Hugh, still keeping Frank covered, moved over to the door and opened it and called sharply, “Willie! Get Hannan at the hotel!”

  He heard Willie run out, and now he looked at Frank and grinned lazily. “Begin to shape up?” he asked gently.

  “You’re a fool, Frank,” Rhino said crossly.

  They waited then, and Hugh watched the bitter resignation replace the anger in Frank’s eyes.

  When, some minutes later, Buck Hannan hurried through the door, they were standing exactly as they had been. Buck halted just inside the room and looked from one to the other. Willie Haver and a couple of men poked their heads into the room, but Rhino shouted angrily, “Get out, you fools! I’m taking a bath!”

  Hannan closed the door on the curious, and then said to Rhino, “What’s the trouble, Rhino?” He eyed Frank with a cold suspicion, Hugh noticed.

  Hugh handed him Frank’s gun, and then Rhino said, “Look, Buck. Isn’t there any way you can keep this wild man off my back?” in a plaintive, half-angry tone.

  Hannan looked again at Frank and said softly, “Sure. What happened?”

  “He shot at me,” Rhino said. “That is, he was going to, if Hugh hadn’t knocked his gun down.”

  “Why?” Hannan demanded.

  Rhino glanced levelly at Frank and said, “You feel like telling him, Chess?” His voice held an undertone of irony.

  Frank’s face was stony and expressionless. Hugh saw him take a deep breath, saw his lips part, as if he were going to speak, and then his lips closed. He said nothing, didn’t even shake his head, and Hugh smiled faintly, derisively, thinking, He’s folded.

  “All right,” Rhino said resignedly. “Hugh brought him here because he asked to see me. He boiled in here and said he’d heard Virg Moore was coming in from Utah and to keep him out of town.”

  “Who’s Virg Moore?” Hannan asked quickly.

  “One of my crew,” Rhino said patiently. “I’ve sent for him, already, but Chess didn’t like it. When I told him I couldn’t stop Virg coming, he said Virg would lie about where he was between the fourth and ninth, and he pulled a gun on me. Hugh jumped him, and Frank’s gun went off.”

  Hannan raised the gun and smelled it, and then said coldly to Frank, “That what happened?”

  “No.”

  “What did?”

  Frank looked wickedly at the four of them, and said tonelessly, “Anything they say.”

  Hannan said dryly, “For a man that couldn’t have killed Rob, you seem pretty damn jumpy.” He glanced now at Rhino. “What do you want me to do? Arrest him for attempted murder? You’ll have to co
mplain first, Rhino.”

  “What about a peace bond?” Nunnally suggested gently.

  “No, no,” Rhino protested. “Hell, I don’t want to persecute him. The kid’s worried, and I don’t blame him. Maybe Virg will lie. But I can’t have him shooting at me.”

  “Well, what do you want me to do?” Hannan demanded in exasperation. “Scold him?”

  Rhino said crossly, “Oh, hell, forget it, Buck; I was scared, that’s all.”

  Hannan wheeled on Frank now, and Hugh saw the anger in the sheriff’s face. Hannan said mockingly, savagely, “Let me alone,’ eh? I’ll let you alone, Chess, when you can account for every minute between the fourth and the ninth—every damn minute!” He strode to the door and paused. “When Virg Moore comes in, send him straight to me.”

  He went out, absently taking Frank’s gun with him.

  When Hannan had gone, Nunnally, grinning broadly, looked over at Rhino.

  Rhino’s face had dropped its geniality now. He looked at Frank closely and said, “You had your chance. Where was your story to Hannan?”

  A slow flush crept into Frank’s face, and the look of baleful anger in his eyes stirred Rhino into irritation.

  “I can do anything with you I want, can’t I? Tell any story I want, can’t I, as long as you’re afraid of that soldier suit?”

  When Frank didn’t answer, Rhino said crisply: “Virg will be here in five days. You better see me before he gets here. Now get out.”

  Chapter 8

  TESS LET HERSELF into her room with the key and crossed to the window and opened it. The late afternoon sun streamed cheerfully into the room, filtering through the bright curtains, but as Tess stood in the window, looking out over the back lots and rooftops of the town, she could not rid herself of the depression that had been with her all day. She stared at the roofs, trying to imagine this another town, wishing desperately that it were and that she did not have to go through the next hour.

  Presently, she turned and walked over to the mirror above the washstand and looked at herself. I make a handsome executioner, she thought, and the absurdity of it brought a smile to her face. She was, she knew, being too tragic about this; the world wouldn’t end however it turned out, and it was time she learned to compromise.