“Hell,” I said, “if you ain’t all that serious about it, I’ll go on after them all by my own self. It’s just that I thunk that was exact what you didn’t want me a-doing.”
Well, that got his attention all right. “Kid,” he said, “I’ll have to let you in on something. I was going to keep it to myself, but you forced my hand.”
“What the hell you talking about?” I asked him.
“When you first spotted me looking at that poster on the Dawsons,” he said, “I wasn’t really looking for them. That poster just caught my eye. It was the first time I ever saw anything on them. What I was really doing was looking for the latest information on ole LeRoy Girt. He’s right here in town, and he’s worth a thousand bucks all by himself. I meant to get him myself and then ride out with you after the Dawsons.”
“You son of a bitch,” I said. “You was a-meaning to start off our brand-new pardnership right off by cheating me outa five hunnerd bucks. I oughta shoot off your damn left ear just for the hell of it. I’ve did it before, you know. Shot ears off.”
“Cool off, Kid,” he said. “I was after Girt before we met. I figured that our partnership was starting with the Dawsons, but now that you’re threatening to go after them without me, I decided to let you in on this other deal. We get Girt first, we can take after the Dawsons with an extra five hundred each tucked in our jeans. What do you say?”
“You say he’s in town?”
“I can point him out to you right now.”
“And he’s for sure wanted?”
“Come on,” he said. He led me back over to the front a the sheriff’s office where them dodgers was all a posted, and he poked a finger at one a them. It was for LeRoy Girt all right, and it had his picture right there with one thousand dollars writ right under it. He was wanted for murdering and robberying. It seemed all right to me then. Oh, yeah, it also said “dead or alive.” I tuck it that meant it was all right to just walk up behind the bastard and shoot him dead without even giving him no warning nor nothing like that. ’Course, that weren’t my style, but it could be did and still be all legal, all right.
“Where is he at?” I asked.
“First of all we have to come to an agreement,” ole Cherry said.
“I’m a listening.”
“We take Girt, and we split the reward fifty-fifty.”
“Agreed.”
“Then we spend the night right here and get us an early start in the morning on the trail of the Dawsons. When we get them, we split the fifteen hundred the same way—fifty-fifty.”
“And we take the stoled money back to the bank in Fosterville?”
“Of course. And split the reward from the bank. Same as all the rest.”
I thunk on that for a spell, a-scratching on my head and shuffling my feet around some. “They’ll get that much more farther away from us,” I said.
“They don’t know we’re after them, do they? We’ll catch up to them easy enough. Besides, I think I know where they’re headed.”
“How come you to know that?”
“They’re headed east, aren’t they?”
“Yeah,” I said, “I reckon. They was the last I knowed, and I for sure never seed them double back and cross my path.”
“I know the country east of here,” Cherry said. “There’s only one place they could be headed for.”
“Where is it then?”
“We got a deal? We do it my way? Head out in the morning? Together?”
“Hell,” I said, “all right. We got us a deal all right. Now tell me where it is they’re a headed to.”
“They’ll be headed for a little town called Snake Creek. It’s the only place east of here within reach. I imagine they’ll stop over there to rest up and play around for a spell. We’ll catch them there.”
“You better be right what you say in all your speculating,” I said. “Okay. What do we do now? Where is this Girt at right now?”
“He’s right in there in the saloon,” Cherry said. “He’s sitting at a table in the far corner all by himself. He’s been there for a couple of hours, so he’s likely drunk. You and me together can take him real easy.”
“Let’s go do it, then,” I said.
I hitched at my britches and headed into the saloon, and ole Cherry, he was right along behind me. We went on inside and bellied up to the bar. Kindly casual-like, I glanced around way back to the darkest and fartherest corner a the room, and sure ’nough, there set a feller all by his lonesome a-sipping at a whiskey glass. Nobody was a-setting at no table nowhere near where he was at. They was a bottle a-setting on the table in front of him. I turned back to the bar and said in a real low voice, “That him back there?”
“That’s him,” Cherry said.
“How you wanta do this?”
“I figure if we come at him from both sides at the same time, we can take him without any trouble. I’ll walk down to the end of the bar and then along the back wall. I’ll be coming up to him from his left. You go on over to the farside wall and come at him from that direction.”
“I get his right side?” .
“I’ll take his right side if you want.”
“No,” I said. “That’s all right. We’ll take him like you said.”
“Are you ready then?”
“We going to try to take him alive?” I asked.
“You can ask him to give up if you want to,” said Cherry. “It’d be a whole lot easier to just shoot him though.”
“I’ll ask him to give it up,” I said. “Any man oughta be give that chance. Don’t do no shooting before that.”
He give a shrug. “Have it your way,” he said, and then he turned away from me and went to walking alongside a the bar. I let him go on like that a ways before I turned around and kindly looked towards the other side a the room. I picked up a glass and a bottle and headed on back thataway. Whenever I got clean back to the wall, I put the glass and bottle on a table like as if I was about to set my ass down there, but only I never. Instead a setting, I turned again and commenced to walking along the wall a-headed for that there Girt feller. I seed that ole Cherry was a-doing the same thing back at the back wall. We was a-coming at him from both sides just the way ole Cherry had planned it.
Well, Girt weren’t total drunk. He seed us, and he knowed what was a-happening all right. He shoved his chair back and come right up to his feet, his gunhand a-making a motion. I hollered right up. “Give it up, Girt. Ain’t no call for killing.” He stopped still. So did I and ole Cherry, he did too.
“You lawmen?” Girt asked.
“We ain’t lawmen,” I said, “but we aim to take you in.”
“Bounty hunters,” he said, and it was like as if he spit out them words like they was real distasteful.
“Call it what you like,” I said. “Unbuckle your gunbelt real easy-like and let it drop, and there won’t be no shooting.”
“Fuck you,” Girt snarled, and he went for it. Well, as usual, I was faster. I whipped out my trusty Colt and snapped off a shot what tore into his right chest. I was a little off. It didn’t kill him, but just then ole Cherry shot, and he hit him, too. His shot went into Girt’s heart, and the ole outlaw fell back against the wall, and then kindly slow, he slud down to set on the floor with his chin a-resting on his chest. He left a smear a blood down the wall where he had slud. He was dead all right.
Well, we collected our blood money, but the local sheriff, he didn’t like us none too much. He let us know right for sure that he would be real happy whenever we got our ass outa town. He didn’t keer too much for bounty hunters. To tell you the truth, I never had keered too much for them my own self, and I felt kindly funny-like putting that money in my pocket. Hell, I hadn’t even knowed that Girt feller.
“What are you looking so down about, Kid?” Cherry asked me as we was a walking out on the sidewalk.
“Nothing,” I said. “Just only that I just now helped you to kill a man what I didn’t even know and what wasn’t doing nothin
g to me.”
“He was a cold-blooded killer, Kid. Don’t give it another thought.”
“If what we done was so all-fired noble,” I said, “then how come the sheriff to act like he done towards us? Tell me that. How come him to want us to get outa town?”
“Is it any worse that we killed Girt than if that sheriff had done it?” Cherry asked me. “And how about this? Girt was sitting in the saloon, and that sheriff wasn’t doing a damn thing about it. We did the law’s job, and I say, it’s justice that we got paid for doing it.”
Well, I never could argue like that, so I just kept my yap shut, and I walked along with ole Cherry till we come back to the front door a the saloon. We went back in there, only this time we got us a bottle and two glasses and set our ass down at a table. I felt kindly like ever‘one in the place was a looking at us, and likely I was right. They had just a little while back seed us kill a man in there. They knowed we had money, too, on accounta the reeward. Pretty soon, sure enough, a little old gal come over and set down right beside ole Cherry and commenced to rubbing on him and making over him like as if he was General Grant or something. She never paid no attention to me atall. I figgered it was ’cause I was so skinny and scrawny and never did look like much nohow.
It didn’t take long before them two stood up and headed for the stairs what led up to the whore rooms. That gal was a hanging tight onto ole Cherry’s left arm and a-giggling all the way. I couldn’t help myself, but I started in to thinking about my ole Red back in Fosterville, and I developed me a powerful urge on accounta the thinking. There I was a-setting by myself there with a bottle a whiskey. I sipped me a little more. The whiskey was good enough, but it weren’t what I was really a-wanting. I guess you know what I mean.
I kept a-watching around a-wondering if that little gal upstairs with ole Cherry was the only gal a-working in that place. But I never seed no other gal a tall, and so I just kept on a-drinking, and by and by I was pretty damn drunk. Well, I stood up kindly wobbly, and I went a-weaving my way over to the bar. I was kindly self-conscious staggering around like that in front a all them folks. It was a good thing too that I come to the bar as quick as I done, ’cause I needed to ketch myself on it to keep from tumbling on over.
“I think you’ve had enough,” the barkeep said.
“Hell,” I said, “I know I’ve had enough. Where can I rent me a room to sleep it off in?”
“Right here,” he said.
Well, I paid him, and he give me a skeleton key to one a them whore rooms upstairs. I tuck it and turned to head for the stairs. I had made my way about halfway down the length a the bar when a big, ugly character come up from a chair and walked over to the bar smack in my way. He stood a-facing me, and I swear he was so bow-legged that his legs was two inches apart there where they come together. I could see that he was a-looking for trouble.
“You don’t look so dangerous now,” he said.
I stood a-swaying, and I kindly blinked my eyes at him, and I said, “You talking to me?”
“That’s right,” he said. “You’re drunk and all alone, and you don’t look so tough like that.”
“Mister,” I said, “I want a bed. I don’t want to do no killing just now. Why don’t you go on and set your ass back down and leave it go? I’m drunk all right, but I’d have to be plumb passed out before I couldn’t kill you in a blink.”
“You’re pretty cocky, ain’t you?” he said. “For such a little shit.”
I was feeling plenty woozy by then, and I was afeared that I was might near ready to fall over on my face. I sure did want to get rid a this bully before that was to happen.
“Listen, shithead,” I said, “either set down and shut up, or go for your gun.”
Well, he went for it, but he didn’t even have it outa the holster before my Colt was cocked and pointed right straight at his nose, which was a pretty big one. He stood there skeered to move, and he went to shaking.
“I oughta kill you,” I said. “I’ve kilt aplenty for less reason. I’ve shot their ears off, too. Once I even shot a man’s thumb off. You want me to shoot off your thumb for you?”
“No,” he said. “No. I—I’m sorry, mister. I take it all back.”
“Go on and slip your hogleg outa the holster,” I said. “Real easy. Toss it behind the bar.”
He done what I said. “Now drop your britches down around your ankles,” I told him. He was that skeered, he done that, too. I walked on around him then and left him with ever’one in the place a-laughing at him. I managed somehow to keep on my feet and make it all the way to the stairs. Then I used that railing to hold my ass up and help me climb. Pretty soon, I found my room and went inside. I locked the door and fell down on the bed. Right away, I passed on out, and if I dreamed any dreams, why, I never had no recollection of them the next morning.
When I woked up the next morning, my head was kinda hurting, but I splashed some water in my face and straightened my clothes up some and walked on downstairs. Ole Dick Cherry, he was already down there, and he was a-wearing a whole new set a clothes and was all slickered up real nice.
“You don’t look to me like you’re fixing to hit no trail,” I said.
“Well, I am,” he said.
“Like that?”
“What’s wrong?” he asked me.
“Nothing, I guess. Let’s find us some food and eat and then get going.”
He agreed, and we hunted us up a eating place what was open early and went inside. It was kindly busy, but we found us a table all right, and pretty soon we had ordered up eggs and ham and biscuits and such. We started out with coffee, and we finished up the same way. When we was all did, we paid up and headed for the door, and just as we was about to go out, that feller what I had the run-in with the night before come in. We like to run into each other. He stopped still.
“Excuse me,” he said.
“That’s all right,” I said. He stepped aside to let me and ole Cherry go on by. I started to go on, but I stopped. “What’s your name?” I asked him.
“Marlowe,” he said. “They call me Moose.”
“Well, Moose,” I said, “after last night, it come to me that we had oughta be interduced proper. I’m knowed as Kid Parmlee.”
Well, I reckon that there Moose Marlowe had heared about me all right, on accounta whenever I said my name, he went kindly white in the face.
“Be seeing you around,” I said, and I walked on by him and out the door. Ole Cherry follered me. We went on down to the stable and fetched out our horses along with them three extry I had brung along, and pretty soon we was on the trail.
“Right smart of you bringing along those extra horses,” Cherry said.
“It was the Dawsons what left them behind,” I said.
“Real thoughtful of them.”
I laughed at that. “Yeah, it was, weren’t it?” I said.
We rid along a bit farther without saying nothing too much, but only I was a-watching the trail, and I seed them same hoof marks what I had been follering all along. I didn’t say nothing, but I knowed then that ole Cherry had been right about where them Dawsons was a-headed. We was on their trail for sure. I was just a-hoping that he had been right about the rest of it, that they would lay up at that there Snake Crick like he had said.
Then kindly outa nowhere, ole Cherry said, “What was that between you and Moose Marlowe back there?”
I told him more or less what had went on the night before betwixt the two of us, and he laughed at the thought a Marlowe standing in the saloon with his britches down, but whenever he got hisself over that, he got kindly serious like again.
“Kid,” he said, “you made yourself a dangerous enemy in Moose Marlowe.”
I give a shrug. “I wouldn’t say that,” I said. “Hell, I was staggering drunk last night, and I outdrawed him real easy. I made him do what I said, and he just only stood there a-trembling. Then this morning whenever I told him my name, I seed him go all white. Didn’t you see that?”
> “I saw it all right,” he said.
“He’s so skeered a me, I won’t have no trouble from him even if I was to see him again.”
“He’s afraid to face you,” my new pard said, “but he won’t be afraid to shoot you in the back or to pay someone else to do his dirty work for him. I know him. I’ve known him a long time. He’s like that. He’s a coward and a bully, and he holds a grudge. Last night when he went for his gun, you should’ve killed him. You’re too soft, Kid.”
Chapter 4
Long about nightfall I knowed that me and ole Cherry was going to be obliged to set us up a camp for the night, and it might near had me agitated on accounta I figgered that if them Dawsons was still a-running hard, which a course they mighta been, they would be well ahead of us by then. By morning they’d be long gone and we might never ketch up with them atall. The only thing I was a-counting on and a-hoping for was that Cherry would turn out to be right about what he said that they would stop over for a spell to rest up some in that there Snake Crick, and we would come right up on their ass whenever we was to get on in there. That’s what I was a-hoping, but I was still some uneasy on accounta they was a problem there, too. The longer them bank-robbing bastards was to be a-laying and playing around in Snake Crick before we was to ketch up to them, the more a that there bank money they would most surely get spent and the less our reeward would come to. That bothered me somewhat, but even more it was a-bothering me to think that I wouldn’t be able to keep my promise to ole Chastain and even ole Throne that I was a-going to bring all a that money back.
But anyhow, we come across a good camping spot before long what had a small grove a trees and a little spring a running right there. It had some good grass, too. The real surprise though was that it had done been used and that real recent-like. We figgered on accounta the road weren’t much traveled and ’cause a the tracks what we was a-trailing that it was them Dawsons what had camped there. That eased up my mind some. If they had camped the night there then they wasn’t quite as much ahead of us as I had thunk they might be. They was apparent relaxing some, thinking they had done outdistanced their pursuit.
The Devil's Trail Page 3
