The Devil's Trail

by Robert J Conley

  He give a shrug. “I don’t know. Several miles, I’d say.”

  “If you’re up there on top, and you see that stage a-coming, would you have time to get back down here and tell me, and it not be a-getting too close to us yet?”

  “Sure. I’d have plenty a time.”

  “All right,” I said. “You go on up there then. Soon as you see the stage coming, get back down here and tell me. Then we’ll get ready for it.”

  “I’ll just go up there with you,” Haw said to Spike.

  “He won’t need no help up there,” I said. “You stay here.” I tell you what, ole Haw give me a mean devil look at that, but he never said nothing. To tell you the truth a the matter, I wanted to keep them two brothers separated as much as I could on accounta I figgered that Haw’s cowardness would take more charge a his senses if he was alone from his brother. Anyhow, Spike rid south a-headed for the place where he knowed he could get on up on top fairly easy. Haw stayed with me and Cherry, a-frowning something fierce.

  I went and set behind a rock on the north a the curve and west a the road and studied, trying to picture a stagecoach a-coming and then rolling on around that there curve. I satisfied myself that I could be hid real good there, and whenever the stage went on past me, I could stand up and throw down on them from the rear end. Then I walked across the road and got down behind one a them clumps a brush what I done told you about. I studied from there too and come to the same conclusion as I had did on the first spot. I figgered I’d put Haw behind the rock and Dick behind the brush. Then I went hunting some more places.

  Just around the curve I figgered to put my own self, and then acrost the road and up a ways was another clump where I decided to have Spike hide out. Here’s the way I schemed it up. Soon as that stage come a-rolling in sight around the bend, Spike would show hisself and call out to them to halt. He’d be a holding a rifle gun. Almost immediate after that, I would come outa my hidey hole and repeat his orders. He’d be ahead of them, and I’d be just a little bit behind. Then the two behindest, Haw and Dick would show theirselfs. The driver and shotgun rider and anyone inside the stage what might be a possible defender a the right would know that they was surrounded, having armed men at all four corners. Likely they’d give it up without a fight, which was what I was a-hoping for, on accounta I didn’t want no one to get kilt in the doing a this here deed. Please remember that I ain’t really no outlaw. I was still involved in the process a trying to recover some stole bank loot, and I meant to return that there payroll, too, just as soon as it was possible for me to get it did.

  Well ’bout as soon as I had it all figgered out, here come ole Spike a-hauling ass down the road towards me and a-waving his hat. He come to a quick stop just a few feet away from me, and he said, “I seen it. It’s a-coming.”

  “All right,” I said. “Get the rest a the horses and take them all down thataway out a sight. Then hurry on back here.”

  Well, Spike done that, and when he come back, I gethered them all around me and told them what my plan a action was. “If we all do it right,” I said, “there won’t even have to be no shooting. I don’t want no shooting if we can possible help it. You all got that? I mean it now. If any one a you shoots anyone, I mean to shoot off his ear, and you know I can do it.”

  Ole Haw give me a hell of a look and stroked his ear scab, but no one argued with me none, and so I showed them their places. I explained to Spike that just as soon as the driver and shotgun rider come into his view he was to show hisself and call a halt. He said he understood all right, and so we all hid our ass and waited. It seemed like a hell of a long wait too, but final I heared the coach a-coming. I heared it come close, and then I could even tell whenever it slowed down to make that curve. Then they was horses a snorting and pounding their hoofs right alongside a me, and then the coach come in view. It was so close that if the driver had spitted off the side a the coach, it coulda went in my eye. Then I heared Spike, right on schedule.

  “Hold it up there.”

  I stepped out with my Colt in my hand and cocked. “You heared him. Stop them horses.”

  Well, the driver, he stopped them all right, but that there shotgun looked a mite hesitant.

  “They’s two more behind you,” I said. “Sneak a look.”

  The driver and the shotgun looked back, and I reckon they seed Dick and Haw back there. Both of them seemed like as if they was a mite more convinced a the realness a their predicament.

  “Throw them guns down,” I said, and they did. “You got passengers?”

  “No passengers,” the driver said.

  I walked over and looked, and he never lied to me. This was just all too easy.

  “You’re a carrying a payroll,” I said. “Toss it down.”

  “It’s inside,” said the driver.

  I opened the door and seed a saddlebags a-laying on the floor. I reached in and opened a side and pulled out a wad a bills, big ones, too. I checked both flaps and the bags was stuffed full. I had expected a strongbox a some kind, but here it was, all that money in saddlebags. I closed the flaps back and jerked the bags out, tossing them over my left shoulder.

  “All right,” I said. “Roll on outa here.”

  The driver whipped up the team and the coach started in to lumbering up the steep road. I stood a-watching it go, and the other three come out and gethered around me. “Go get the horses,” I said to Spike, and he run and grabbed onto the back end a the stage to take hisself a ride up to where he had hid our mounts. Haw and Dick was both a-staring at the saddlebags on my shoulder.

  “Well, let’s see it,” Dick said, and his eyes was greedy.

  “Just hold on,” I said. “We’ll see it soon enough.”

  Spike come back with the horses, and I clumb onto the back a Ole Horse. “Let’s get outa here,” I said, and the others mounted up and follered me. I figgered they’d be a bellyaching real soon to take a look at all that money, so I rid over to the side of a little crick and stopped and dismounted. I throwed them saddlebags down in the dirt. It was well past noon, and I was some hungry.

  “Go on,” I said. “Take your look. Then let’s have us a little fire and some coffee and grub.”

  Did they ever have theirselfs a time over all a that money! They held handfuls of it and kissed it and rubbed their cheeks with it and throwed it into the air. Final, they actual set and counted it, and ole Wheeler had been right, by God, about how much money was in that there payroll. It were all there. While they was all a-acting fools like that, I had built a pot a coffee, and when it was all boiled up real good, I made them stuff all that money back and come and set and drink some coffee. We didn’t have no real cook amongst us, but we had brung along some hardtack and some jerky, so we et that and washed it down with coffee. Ole Spike, he went over to the edge a the crick and got down to wash his face in it. He was still there whenever Haw went down to join him. I didn’t think nothing of it at first, but whenever they had been there together like that for a few minutes, I come suspicious.

  “Dick,” I said, and I jerked my head towards them brothers, “I don’t like that.”

  “What?” he said.

  “Them brothers hoovering together like that. They just might be scheming up some way a knocking us off and getting off with all a this money.”

  “You want to kill them?”

  “Naw. Not just like that. You oughta know me better’n that. I’m just suspicious is all. I think we best keep our eyes on them two.”

  “Better yet,” Dick said, “why don’t I wander down there and see if I can tell what they’re up to?”

  I thunk on that for a minute. I didn’t rightly think they’d let ole Dick in on anything, seeing as he was my partner and all that, but then on the other hand, it was me what they was a-hating, ’special that Haw. They might let ole Dick in on something. It was worth a try, and it couldn’t hurt nothing. If nothing else, if they was a-scheming on us, why, when Dick got hisself in amongst them, they’d have to stop their sc
heming.

  “Give it a try,” I said.

  Dick stood up kindly casual-like and tuck his canteen over to the crick. Whenever he kneeled down to refill it, he were right close to the Dutton boys. They clammed up and stared at him. Haw looked over at me. I reached for the coffee pot like as if I didn’t have no idee that nothing was a-going on. By and by I could hear them a-talking again in hushed tones. Dick were a-talking with them. I sipped coffee and waited. They talked on and on. Final I decided they’d had enough time. If they had talked up something, well, let them try it. If they hadn’t had enough time that was okay, too.

  “Let’s pack it up and hit the trail,” I said. “We hustle our ass on along we might make it back to the Devil’s Shit place before dark.”

  We put out the fire and straightened up that little camp site pretty quick on accounta we hadn’t did much there, and then them Duttons was the first ones over to the horses, but only they never mounted up. Instead, they turned back to face me, a-standing side by side. I give them a curious look.

  “Dick?” I said.

  “I’m right behind you, Kid.”

  “What do you reckon them two’s got on their furry brains?”

  “They don’t want to take the money back to Wheeler,” Dick said. “And they don’t want to split it four ways, either.”

  “They actual think they can take us?”

  “I guess they mean to try.”

  “Haw,” I said, “you know what happened last time you tried to go against me. You want your ears to be a-matching? Is that what you want?”

  He never said nothing. “Spike,” I said, “you seed me nick your brother’s ear. You think you can take me? You think even the two a you together can stand up to me?”

  “You never know, Kid,” said Spike. “One of us might get lucky.”

  “I reckon it’d have to be luck,” I said. “Now unbuckle your gunbelts and let them drop before I decide to get mad and start in to shooting. Go on, now. Do what I say.”

  “We might get lucky,” Haw said, and he was damn near drooling at the thought a killing me. It was beginning to look like I was a-going to have to kill them two boys. I decided to try once more to talk them out of it.

  “Drop your gunbelts, like I said, and this’ll stay just with the four of us here. I won’t say nothing to Wheeler. Your only other choice is, I’ll just kill the both of you. I won’t take no time to go shooting ears nor nothing like that. I’ll just kill you with one shot each. What do you say?”

  “Kid?” ole Dick said from behind me.

  “What?”

  I didn’t bother turning to look at him. I was too busy keeping both eyes on them Duttons what seemed like as if they had lost alla their brains, what wasn’t none too many in the first place.

  “Like they said, they might get lucky.”

  Then I felt a sudden blow to the top a my head, and I seed red stars a-bursting and a-popping in front a me, and then I seed black all around with different colors a things a-hopping and a-dancing around, and I sudden lost my balance and fell over on my face. I felt like as if my head had been splitted wide open, and I couldn’t see nothing but that black with them dancing things in it, and the world seemed to be a-spinning around and a-tilting from one side to t’other, back and forth. I heared voices, though. They was real vague like they was far off, but I heared them.

  “Let me kill the son of a bitch.”

  “No. I told you. And you agreed. Just take his Colt. We’ll take his horse, too. He won’t get far like that. I think I busted his skull anyway. He’ll likely die right here.”

  “It’ll be slower and more painfuller like that, too, Haw.”

  “Oh, hell, all right.”

  I could feel it whenever someone jerked the Colt outa my holster, and then I could for sure feel it whenever someone give me a swift kick in the ribs.

  “Cut it out. Let’s go.”

  “All right. All right. Son of a bitch.”

  “Which way?”

  “South. To Mexico.”

  I laid there and I listened to them horses’ hoofs a-pounding as them three assholes runned off a-leaving me there to die a slow and painful death. I can tell you one thing for sure. I weren’t dead, but I was sure a-feeling that painful part. My head hurt like hell, and after that kick to the side, so did my ribs. I reckon I rolled around some then and done some out-loud moaning and groaning. I figgered that I might for sure die a horrible and agonizing death right there in the dirt just a few feet away from that there crick water. Well, thinking along them lines reminded me a that crick, and I decided that I would crawl on over to it and at least dunk my hurting head in them soothing waters, but only whenever I went and tried to crawl, I just couldn’t hardly make no progress, it hurt so bad. I don’t know if it really did or not, but it sure as hell seemed like as if it tuck me a hour at least to get over there and drop my head down in the crick. And it was some soothing, but only I had to come up for air now and then, and the coming up hurted me all over again.

  Final I drunk me some a that water, and then a little while later I managed to roll over so that I could lay there almost on my back with the back a my head laying in the edge a the crick, so that I could take advantage a the soothinness a the waters and still breathe. I got me enough relief thataway that I was able to start to think a little, and I was a-thinking that I was plumb helpless. Even if I coulda got up onto my feet, which I couldn’t, it was a hell of a long walk to the Devil’s Den. Them bastards had tuck Ole Horse with them. I was kindly sad thinking that likely I had seed the last of Ole Horse. Then I got to thinking about who all else I had seed the last of: ole Zeb, and Red, and even Jim Chastain. Hell, even my ole paw and maw come to mind then.

  I wished for a time there that I had been a praying kind, ’cause I figgered that I was a-fixing to meet my Maker, and I was pretty damn sure that he’d be a-sending me straight down to hell if what them preachers said was true. Then my head was clear enough, in spite of how much it was paining me, to ask itself a question, what was, what the hell happened? The answer come real easy. Ole Dick, whenever he went down to the crick to try to find out what them Duttons was up to, he had conspired with them. Then, whenever I was a-facing them two and him behind me, he had whopped me on the head with his shooter. He had double-crossed me. I had knowed that he was greedy for that money. He hadn’t made no secret a that fact. But he was my pardner. I never figgered him to do me like he done. Whop me on top a the head from behind for the sake a money. And him my pardner. I made up my mind right then that I weren’t gonna lay there and die after all. No sir. I meant to live long enough to kill ole Dick Cherry.

  Chapter 11

  Well, sir, I laid there like that for most a the rest a that day before I tried to move atall, and whenever I did final try to move, why, I can tell you, it hurt me like blue-blazing hell. I rolled my head over somewhat, and I kindly rolled over onto my belly so that I could get me up onto my hands and knees, but only my head throbbed and sharp pains went a-shooting through my ribcage. I ain’t never hurted like that there, not even whenever I got myself shot through.

  Now the reason I was a-putting myself through so damn much agony is that I had to get myself up to go and answer the call a nature if you get my meaning plain enough. I sure didn’t want to just lay there and do it in my britches. If I was a-going to die right there, why, I didn’t want no one coming along later and finding my body in that embarrassing state, and if by some miracle a the Lord I was to live, why, there was even more reason to keep my pants clean. So that’s how come me to be a-suffering all that misery and wretchedness in order to get my ass up from there.

  Well, I done it all right, and then I went right back to where I had come from, and I set my ass back down there beside a the crick. I knowed for sure that I never had the strength to start in walking back to the Devil’s Town. It hurt too damn bad to walk for one thing. And then too, I didn’t have no idee how long I had been a-laying there in misery ’cept only the sun were getting low i
n the western sky, so I reckon it had done been most a the whole rest a the day.

  My head weren’t yet quite clear, but I started in trying to think anyhow. I wanted to figger out what the hell I had oughta be a-doing about my miserable predicament. There I was all alone miles and miles from any kinda civilization on foot without no food nor no gun, and on top a all a that I was hurt some. My head was splitted and my ribs was caved in. I started into feeling hungry, too. All I could do was to just drink water outa that there crick, and I was thankful for that one blessing that I was there at a crick. I figgered I could live on water for a while, but sooner or later I was a going to have to have some vittles.

  Trouble was I didn’t have no idee on how I might could take keer a my problems. I didn’t have no way a looking at my own head to see how bad it was splitted, and it was a-hurting me too much to reach up and touch it and feel around, and not only that, but if I was to a tried to reach up to it, why my ribs hurt real bad whenever I raised up my arm. And it was my right arm, too. ’Course, I didn’t have no gun nohow. And about them ribs, all I knowed that anyone, even a doctor, could do about busted-in ribs was to just wrap something real tight around them, and I didn’t have nothing to wrap them with, nor I couldn’t a did the job myself if I had a had something. The more I thunk the more I figgered I was just going to lay there and die.

  Well, the lastest and furtherest kinda thought I had ever had was that I would die like that. It had come to me that I might could get my ass blowed away one a these days. You know, someone might slip up behind me and shoot me in the back, or I might get my ass involved again in one a them big general shootouts where it didn’t make no difference how good a man was, they was so many bullets a-flying you could ketch one total by accident. Or I might be off in them mountains with ole Zeb and fall offa the side and wind up down in China. Or maybe a whore might get mad at me and slice me up with a hide-out knife or bang me hard over the head with a whiskey bottle. Or some lawman like ole Chastain might cut me in half with a shotgun blast. All a them kinda things had crossed my mind before at one time or another, but never just a-laying hurt beside a crick without no food nor horse nor gun.