The Devil's Trail

by Robert J Conley

  “You said ‘the Kid,’” the barkeep popped up.

  “What?” Cherry said.

  “You called your pard here, the Kid. What Kid might that be?”

  “Is they more than one?” I said, and I said it in my coldest tone a voice with my eyeballs slitted way down narrer.

  “Well, sure. I’ve heard of Billy the Kid, the Verdigris Kid, the Sundance Kid, the Apache Kid, Kid Curry. If I was to think on it real hard, I bet you I could come up with a few more.”

  “Well, you missed one,” I said.

  “You?”

  “Yeah. I sure ain’t none a them you named.”

  “Well?”

  “This here is Kid Parmlee,” Cherry said.

  “Oh yeah,” said the barkeep. “I heard a him all right. They call him a regular Billy the Kid.”

  “They’d call that other’n a regular Kid Parmlee if only he was good enough,” I said. I was sure sick a hearing that comparison made about me and that back-shooting other and more famouser kid. Hell, I kilt more’n him, and I didn’t even keep count. I never heared that he ever shot no ears off, neither.

  “Yeah,” the barkeep said, “well, uh, I’ll just see if Mr. Wheeler is busy over there.”

  He walked around the far end a the bar and went out amongst the customers at the tables, and he come up to one side and kindly behind that Wheeler, and he leaned over and mouthed something into Wheeler’s right ear. Ole Wheeler give him a look, and then he give another one to me and ole Dick Cherry from over there acrost the room. Then he whispered something on back to the barkeep. The barkeep looked up at us, and then he come back around behind the bar and on down to where me and ole Dick was a-waiting on him. In the meantime, I seed Wheeler say something to the two Montana peaks, and they got their ass up and went on over to another table to plop down and set, a-leaving Wheeler there all by his lonesome.

  “Go on over and join him,” the barkeep said to us.

  “You never said who this here Wheeler is,” I said.

  “Why, he owns this place. He damn near owns the whole town. I thought everyone knew that. Go on. He’s waiting for you.”

  We picked up our glasses and bottle and ambled on over to Wheeler where he was a-waiting on us. He looked up and smiled, and I thunk at the time that his smile was fakey and kindly slick-like. Kindly like a ole boy what’s a-trying to sell you a jaded horse, you know? He’s a-trying to cover up something with that there phony smile a-spreaded all acrost his face. I didn’t like him none right off from the start.

  “Sit down,” he said. “I’m Jared Wheeler.”

  “I’m Dick Cherry,” my pard said, “and this is Kid Parmlee.”

  Ole Wheeler stuck out his clammy hand, and me and Cherry both shuck it. Then we set down acrost from him.

  “Kid Parmlee,” Wheeler said. “I’ve heard that you’re—”

  “I’d ruther you not to say it,” I told him. I still had my eyeballs slitted way down, and I was a-keeping my voice cold. I was kindly astonished once again, though, to find out just how far my reputation had spread out.

  “Well,” Wheeler said, “I guess I don’t blame you. I’ve heard about you. We’ll let it go at that. What can I do for you boys?”

  “I came in last night,” Cherry said, “to meet up with Clem Dawson.”

  “Did you?”

  “What?”

  “Did you meet up with Dawson?”

  “Yeah. Me and the Kid here were supposed to meet him, but the Kid is suspicious. Real cautious. He didn’t want to ride into town till we’d talked with Clem about it. So Clem rode out with me last night to where the Kid was camped. We had us a long talk. We were planning a—well, some business together. Clem told us he had a room here in town, and he said we could share it with him. Then he said he had some other business, private business, up north. He told us to ride on in and wait for him in his room. Said he’d be back here tonight. The bartender said that we ought to talk to you about that, uh, about moving into Clem’s room, you know.”

  “Are you two on the lam?”

  “Why, I—”

  “You’re safe from the law here. Are you on the lam?”

  “I’ve had a lawman on my trail,” I said, a-recalling how ole Cherry had lied by not telling the whole truth that time. Wheeler looked at Cherry.

  “Well,” Dick said, “I was sort of run out of town by the local sheriff back down the road.”

  “I see,” said Wheeler. “Now, just what kind of business were you talking over with Dawson last night?”

  Cherry give me a look, and I give one right back to him. “It’s all right,” Wheeler said. “You know what kind of town this is, don’t you?”

  “It looks pretty much like any other town to me,” I said.

  “I’ve, uh, heard some things,” said Cherry.

  “Just so we’ll all understand one another,” Wheeler said, “I’ll explain it to you real clear. Devil’s Roost is a refuge for outlaws, for men on the run. That’s why Dawson came here. He has a price on his head, and he knew that this is a safe haven. No lawman will dare set foot in Devil’s Roost. The last four that did never rode out again. We take good care of our guests. Devil’s Roost is a place where you can get yourself a safe, quiet room, have a good time, ride out when you want and take care of your business, and ride right back in again. We have everything you could want here, everything you need. And you’re safe. And we don’t ask for too much.”

  “Yeah?” I said. “How much is that?”

  “One hundred dollars a night, and that’s cheap for all you get. You don’t have to keep looking over your shoulder all the time. You buy your eats and drinks. If you ride out of here to pull a job, when you ride back in, I get ten percent. That’s the whole deal.”

  It seemed to me that I’d been a-hearing a lot a that percent stuff lately, and I hadn’t never heared much about it atall during the whole rest a my life. ’Course, I was still a youngster. “A hunnerd dollars is awful steep for just only a room,” I said.

  “A room where you can sleep quiet and undisturbed,” Wheeler said. “And that’s a hundred each, even if you’re sharing a room. We provide a service, and you pay for it. It’s your choice. You can stay or ride on through to somewhere else.”

  Me and Cherry give each other a look then, and I give him a nod. ‘Course, if we meant to track down that there stole bank money, we didn’t have much choice in the matter. Me and ole Cherry, we had done figgered that it just had to be somewheres in this here town, most likely right in ole Dawson’s room what he was a-paying a hunnerd bucks a night for. That is, a hunnerd bucks a the Fosterville bank’s money, and that there was a-cutting down on my percentage ever’ night the bastard stayed.

  “Can we get into Clem’s room?” Cherry asked.

  “I don’t see why not,” said Wheeler. “You say he told you to wait for him there. If you prefer to stay three in a room instead of having a room each, it’s all the same to me. The price is the same.”

  We each of us, me and ole Dick, digged down into our pockets, then, and come up with the bucks and laid them on the table. Wheeler counted it out real keerful and stuffed it into his own pocket. Then he reached into another pocket and brung out two skeleton keys what he tossed on the table in front of us. “Dawson’s room is number twelve,” he said. “Top of the stairs and down the hall on your right.”

  I picked up my key. Cherry said, “Thanks,” and tuck up the other’n. Then we stood up to go check out the room.

  “Stable’s down at the end of the street,” Wheeler said.

  “Prices are reasonable. We don’t figure the horses are wanted by the law.”

  “Thanks again,” Cherry said. Then he turned to me.

  “We’d best take care of the horses first, Kid.”

  “Yeah,” I said, still acting sullen as I knowed how. I was a-thinking that it sure woulda been nice and handy to have them horses waiting just right where we had left them, so that whenever we come up with that money, we could hightail it ou
ta town right fast. But Cherry was right. If we was to make Wheeler believe that we was planning to stay the night, we needed to take keer a the horses. ’Special since Wheeler was the one what had thunk of it. We turned to walk out, but ole Wheeler stopped us.

  “By the way, boys, when Dawson gets back, and the three of you ride out to conduct your business, don’t forget about my ten percent.”

  “We never forget a percent,” I said.

  We tuck our horses to the stable, and then we walked back to the saloon and went straight through to the stairway. We went on up and found ole Dawson’s room all right. Inside, we lit us a oil lamp what was a-setting there on a table, and we commenced to looking around. We like to a tore the place apart, but we never found no money.

  “Damn,” I said. “I woulda had to a kilt the son of a bitch before we could make him tell us where he had hid the loot at.”

  “What could he have done with it?” Cherry said.

  “Dog shit if I know,” I said.

  “Do you suppose this town has a bank?”

  “A town fulla bank robbers?”

  “Yeah. Well, neither of his brothers had it on them. It wasn’t anywhere in the room they were sharing. He didn’t have it on him either, and it’s not here in his room. He hid it somewhere or stashed it somewhere here in town.”

  “Would you leave anything what was worth anything with that sleazy ole bastard Wheeler?” I asked.

  “No, I wouldn’t,” Dick said, “but Dawson had to do something with that cash.”

  “What are we a going to do?” I said. “Search the whole damn town?”

  “Hell, we were lucky to get to search Dawson’s room. I’m a little surprised that Wheeler bought that story so easy.”

  The door come open just then, and them two Montana peaks stepped in a holding shotguns what was done cocked. Even if I coulda kilt the both of them, a twitch a either one a their trigger fingers woulda splashed me and ole Cherry both all over the damn room. They come on in and kindly stepped away from each other, and then ole Wheeler come a walking in betwixt them with a wide grin on his shitty face.

  “I did buy that story pretty easy, didn’t I?” he said.

  “What is this?” Cherry asked.

  “You didn’t tell me the truth,” said Wheeler. “And you called me a sleazy bastard. Tell me the whole truth right now, and if I like it all right, and if I believe you, then I won’t hold it against you that you didn’t tell me up front.”

  I didn’t have no idee what ole Cherry was a thinking nor what he might say if I was to wait for him to say it, but I sure didn’t like them two greeners cocked in the same room with me, and then a idee popped right quick into my usual slow head, and so I just went and blurted it on out. It seemed like the only thing to do at the time.

  “You’re right, Mr. Wheeler,” I said. “Ole Dawson, he weren’t our pardner atall. Matter a fact, we hardly knowed him. Only thing we knowed was that him and his brothers robbed the bank back at a place called Fosterville. They run from a posse, and they hadn’t hardly had no time to spend the money, so we figgered they still had it. Then ole Clem’s two brothers got theirselfs kilt, and we was kindly hanging around a-listening to folks talk, and we heared that they didn’t have no money on them and that no one found none in their room neither. Well, me and my pard here, we figgered that ole Clem must still have that there bank money on him.”

  “And you figured to take it away from him and keep it for yourselves.”

  “That’s about the size of it,” I said.

  “If Dawson didn’t know you, how’d you get him to ride out of town with you?”

  “I lied to him,” Cherry said. He had caught onto my line a bullshit and jumped right in. “I told him that the Kid was out there and that he was the one who had killed his brothers.”

  “Who did kill them?”

  “The sheriff and some town folks caught them coming out of the bank,” Cherry said.

  “So you two just watched it all develop and decided to horn in on it?”

  “That’s right.”

  “I thought it was something like that,” Wheeler said.

  “What made you suspicious of us in the first place?” Cherry asked him.

  “I talked with Dawson. He told me about his brothers, and he never mentioned any other partners. Tell me, did you kill him?”

  I give Cherry a look.

  “Look, uh, Mr. Wheeler,” Cherry said, “if we take off our gunbelts, would you tell these two to put away those shotguns? They’re making me awful nervous.”

  “Drop them on the floor,” Wheeler said. Me and ole Cherry, we done that. Then Wheeler give a nod to them two Montana peaks, and they eased the hammers down on them shotguns and went on out in the hall. Wheeler nodded over toward the bed, and me and Dick walked over and set on the edge of it.

  “Is that better?” Wheeler said.

  “Considerable,” I said.

  “Now,” he said, “did you kill Dawson?”

  “I did,” I said. “I kilt him. He was a-throwing down on me, though. I ain’t never kilt a man what weren’t trying to kill me. I shot a couple a ears off without giving no warning, but I never kilt a man thataway.”

  “Now, I’m going to save you boys a whole lot of trouble,” Wheeler said. “You can stop looking for Dawson’s bank loot. I got it myself. Somehow, I didn’t think he was coming back.”

  “What would you a did if he hada come back?” I asked.

  “Oh, I’d have returned it to him. We have a reputation here. You and your belongings are safe—as long as you pay.”

  “Yeah, well, that might be a problem for us after tonight,” said Cherry. “I don’t think we can afford your town. We were kind of counting on, well, you know.”

  “There’s a place across the street where you can get a good breakfast in the morning,” Wheeler said. “I’ll tell them to take care of you. After you’ve had your breakfast, come back over here. I’ll be in my office downstairs. Maybe we can work something out.”

  He didn’t say nothing more, not a good night nor byebye. He just turned around and walked out and left us there in that room. Me and ole Cherry, we just kindly stared at each other for a minute. I was used to being hassled by lawmen, but I hadn’t never been hassled like that by the boss of a town what was a kind of a outlaw hisself. I didn’t have no idee what ole Dick might a been thinking.

  “What the hell do you make a all that?” I asked him.

  “I don’t know,” he said, “except that Wheeler was one step ahead of us on that bank money. It makes me nervous, though.”

  “It makes me more curiouser than nervous,” I said. “He’s up to something. He’s a-fixing to make us some kinda proposition in the morning. Otherwise, he’d a had them two Montanas go on and kill us dead.”

  “You’re probably right about that.”

  “Sure, I am. And I’ll tell you two things right now.”

  “What?”

  “I mean to find out what he’s up to.”

  “And?”

  “I ain’t aiming to leave outa this here Devil’s Hole without that there bank money.”

  Chapter 9

  Well, we done one better than what that damned ole Jared Wheeler said. We went and actual caught up with him in time for breakfast in the morning, and I tell you what, I et till I couldn’t hardly stand it no more, on accounta the pure and simple fact that he was a-paying for it all, and I wanted to make damn sure I got ever‘thing outa him I could get. I et flapjacks, fried eggs, ham, taters, bacon, biscuit, gravy, and I drunk coffee, lots and lots of it. I tried my bestest to run his bill way on up there, but, hell, I’m sure paying for it never hurt him none. Not the way he was collecting money offa all a them fugitives ever’ damn day a the week, and him owning the saloon and the hotel rooms and all. Besides, I reckoned that he likely owned the damned eating place along with ever’thing else.

  Well, he never talked much atall as long as we was all eating like that, but whenever we final was all did st
uffing ourselfs, and it was me what was the last one of all to quit, skinny as I was, well then he went and got real serious on us. He put a kinda scowl on his ugly ole face, and he went and wrinkled his brow on up like as if he was a-thinking on something real hard. “Boys,” he said, “I recall you told me that you couldn’t afford much more of my hospitality. Is that right? Am I remembering what you said correctly?”

  “That’s about the truth of it,” I said. ’Course I was a-telling him a ball faced lie. Me and ole Cherry, we both had us plenty a money in our pockets to last us for a while, even at Wheeler’s puffed up prices.

  “If you could afford it, would you stay longer?”

  I give a look to ole Dick Cherry, and he give me a nod. “I believe we would, Mr. Wheeler,” he said.

  “It is a comfort to know that the law ain’t a-going to slip up on a feller’s back,” I said. “But only that there was a big ‘if’ what you said,” I added.

  “It was that,” said Dick.

  “I have a proposition for you,” said Wheeler. “You interested?”

  “That all depends on what’s the deal,” I said. “I never agree on nothing up front what I don’t know what it is before I go and agree to it. That there’s a policy a mine what I always sticks to.”

  “The deal is that you stay here, and you pay me after the job is done. You pay me what you would’ve paid even without the job. You just pay later instead of up front. The loot you get from the job is yours, all except my ten percent.”

  There come that percent again. I was a-starting in to feel like a big shot businessman a some kind or ’nother just a-listening to that kinda talk so much all of a sudden.

  “How much loot we talking about?” I asked him.

  “It’s a payroll shipment,” Wheeler said. “A quarter of a million dollars.”

  I didn’t rightly know how much money that meant in real numbers, but I never let on about my ignorance. Lucky for me ole Cherry spelled it out.

  “That’s two hundred and fifty thousand,” he said. “Ten percent would be twenty-five thousand dollars. That would leave me and the kid with two hundred and twenty-five thousand.”