The Devil's Trail

by Robert J Conley

  “Well shit. Well anyhow, that’s all the more reason for me to get outa this here town. Besides, I got me a job. And another woman.”

  “What kinda job?”

  I told ole Zeb then about how that there Stratton had made me that offer of a job for the railroad being a troubleshooter on accounta I had brung him back his stoled payroll money and all, and then he asked me about the woman, and I told him all about how I come acrost ole Doc.

  “A real doctor?” he said. “A female doctor for real?”

  “That’s right,” I said, “and I got her a job too a-being the official doc for the railroad crew there in End a the Line.”

  Then I went and told him about ole Moose and Lulu and how they was a-planning to string along with me on down to End a the Line.

  “I figger I can get ole Stratton to put Moose on,” I said. “Moose is a strapping big son of a bitch.”

  Ole Zeb went to wrinkling and scratching at his face. I knowed he was a-thinking some deep thought.

  “I reckon I’d best string along, too, then,” he said final. “You getting yourself surrounded by all a them strangers, someone had best come along with you to watch over you.”

  “Aw, hell, Zeb,” I said, “you don’t need to—”

  “You trying to get rid a me? You think you got yourself a new pardner and don’t need ole Zeb no more? Ole Zeb a-getting too old for you? Is that it?”

  “No, Zeb, hell no,” I said. “I was just only a-thinking that now you’re rich and all, you might just want to set back and take it easy for a spell, but come to think on it, you had better come along with me before you go to blabbing too much and someone busts your old stupid skull bone in and steals all a your money.”

  “I can damn well take keer a myself,” he said. “And I can take keer a you, too. When are we a leaving?”

  “Sometime in the morning,” I said. “I got to go see ole Chastain and collect my reeward money for them Dawsons, and I reckon I’ll see about ole Paw while I’m at it. I don’t want to bother them two what’s honeymooning, neither, so I’ll kindly wait around till they show theirselfs. But right after that for sure. I don’t want to hang around here no longer than I have to. What about you?”

  “Hell, I could ride out right now. Ain’t nothing a-holding me back.”

  “Zeb,” I said, “let’s you and me get drunk as hell. What do you say?”

  “I say bring on the whiskey, ole pard,” he said, and then he let out the damnedest whoop I had heared in a hell of a long time. Well, we commenced in to do just exact what I had suggested, and I got to say that I lasted damn near as long as ole Zeb did that night. I figgered that I must a been a-getting a little better at it, and I had got me in some practice. I don’t really recollect how nor when it happened, but I got me into a room and a bed sometime, or someone done it for me, ’cause whenever I waked up the next morning that’s where I was at.

  I got my ass up kindly slow, and I splashed some water in my face from the bowl what was a-setting on a table in the room. I hadn’t never really undressed the night before. All I had to do was just strap on my Colt and pull on my boots and set the hat on top a my head. There weren’t no one else in the room with me, so I just went on out and down and made my way over to the eating place. I found ole Zeb in there and I set with him.

  “I was a-wondering if you was still alive,” he said.

  “I’m alive, and I’m hungry.”

  We et, and then we headed down for the stable to get our critters ready to go. Ole Zeb, he got out his Bernice Burro and I saddled up Ole Horse and them other two horses, and I paid the man for the lot of them. We commenced to walking on over towards ole Chastain’s office a-leading all a them critters, and along the way I seed Moose and Lulu a-walking out on the street. I told them where to go get some breakfast and went to give them some money, but Moose said they had a-plenty left from what I had done give them. I told them where we was a-going and said for them to take their time a-feeding their face. Over at the sheriff’s office, we tied all a them animals to the rail and went on inside. My ole paw seed me come in right off, and he went to caterwauling from inside that cell.

  “Goddamn,” he said, “it’s about time you come to get your own old man outa this damned ole jail cell. Where the hell you been, Kid? Tell that fucking sheriff to let me outa here.”

  “Shut up, Paw,” I said, “or else I’ll just leave you in there to die and rot.”

  Chastain looked up from behind his cluttered ole desk and grinned. “’Morning, Kid,” he said. “You come about the paperwork for those Dawson brothers or about your ole paw?”

  “Let’s take keer a that there paperwork first,” I said. I never said nothing about him and Red, and he never, neither. I figgered it was best left thataway. Well, he filled out some papers and had me to sign them, and I got me a reeward for them guys all right. Then I looked over towards ole Paw a-scowling from the cell.

  “His fine’s fifty dollars,” Jim said.

  “I oughtn’t to do this,” I said, but I went and hauled out the fifty and tossed it on the desk in front a Jim. He stood up and went for the cell keys and then walked over and opened up the door.

  “You’re free to go,” he said.

  “It’s about Goddamned time,” Paw said.

  I said, “Shut up, Paw. From what I heared you got your ass throwed in there in the first place for a-cussing the sheriff. If you do it again, I ain’t paying no fine. You got a horse?”

  “I had me one,” Paw said, “but I don’t have no idee what become of it whenever this—sheriff—throwed me in here.”

  “Down at the stable,” ole Jim said. “There’ll be a charge to get it out.”

  I give ole Paw some money. “Go get it and saddle up and get your ass back down here,” I said. “We’re a-riding out.”

  Paw tuck off.

  “Likely he’ll go straight to the saloon,” Zeb said.

  “If he does,” I said, “we’ll just leave his ass here.”

  “You leaving town already, Kid?” Chastain asked me. I told him about my job with the railroad in End a the Line.

  “There’s some places on this here earth where I get respect,” I said. “I’ll be seeing you—maybe.”

  Well, I tell you, we was quite a crew a-riding outa Fosterville that day with me a-riding in the lead and ole Zeb alongside a me on his Bernice, and then my nasty ole paw and Moose and Lulu. Zeb had been right about one thing. Paw had not just only got his horse bailed outa the stable, he had also managed to get hisself a bottle a rotgut whiskey, and he was a-sucking on it as we rid along. Zeb was a-grumbling at the size a what he called our contingent. I didn’t have no idee what that meant, but I reckoned it meant something like a gang.

  I was real glad for it whenever we stopped to eat around noon on accounta ole Zeb done all a the cooking, and right then it come to me just how much I had missed his cooking whenever I was out like that on the trail and away from civilization. He was sure the bestest damn camp cook I ever knowed.

  “Where the hell’re we a-going anyhow?” ole Paw said.

  “Didn’t you hear me telling ole Chastain about I got me a job?” I said.

  “Hell no,” he said.

  “Well I did. I got me a job with the railroad. Troubleshooter, they call it, or else railroad detective. It’s a damn good job, too. We’re a headed to where my job is at. Place called End a the Line. I guess if I can’t trust you to go on back home to Maw, then you’ll just have to come on along with me.”

  “I go where the hell I want to go,” he said. “Who the hell’s the paw here anyhow, and who’s the kid?”

  “All right,” I said. “Climb up on your horse then and get the hell outa here.”

  “You’re free to go,” Zeb said.

  “Aw, hell,” Paw said, “I reckon I’ll tag along for a spell.”

  “When’s the last time you seed Maw?” I asked him. “Did you even go back to Texas after I told you to? Did you go back or not?”

  “Wel
l, I—”

  “Tell me the truth now, you old bastard. Did you go home and see Maw?”

  “Naw, I—Well, hell, something come up.”

  “You ever send her any money?”

  “Well, no.”

  He was a-muttering, and he was a-pissing me off something terrible. I was so mad at him I coulda kilt him ’cept that he was my ole paw, and I damn sure was a-wishing that he weren’t.

  “What the hell’s she living on?” I said. “Weeds and bugs?”

  “Oh, it ain’t all that bad.”

  “How would you know if you ain’t been back? Now listen here, old man. Whenever we gets to End a the Line, I’m a going to find you a house to live in, and then I want you to go and fetch Maw up to the house. I’ll give you some money now and then, and you’re a-going to use it to take keer a Maw. You understand me what I’m a saying?”

  “That sounds real good, Kid,” he said.

  Now, least you get the wrong impression a me and think that I were a real good kid what loved his ole maw, let me remind you that the last impression and memory I had a that old woman was whenever she slapped me real hard acrost the face right before I lit out from home at the age a thirteen with only ten dollars and a sway-backed horse. There weren’t hardly no love lost betwixt me and Maw, no more than what there was betwixt me and Paw, but the hell of it was that she was my maw, and there weren’t nothing I could do about that. That’s how come me to be a-hounding ole Paw about her the way I done.

  I actual had more genu-wine feelings for my friends than what I had for my own paw and maw, but ain’t that just the way things is? I mean, you picks your friends out, but you ain’t got no say in who’s a-going to be your maw and paw. But I didn’t mean to go getting philosophical-like on you there. I just can’t help myself from a-getting into them deep kinda thoughts ever’ now and then.

  Anyhow, I tried to shove my troubling thoughts, what was mostly about Maw and Paw, outa my head and dwell more onto thoughts about my coming-up new situation down in End a the Line what with old Doc in that there nice new little house and my new job with a good boss what had real respect for me and what I could do for him and a big outfit like the railroad a-backing me and likely alla the money I could ever spend in my whole entire life. I tried to think a my own self as a big-shot railroad detective. The sound a them words was pleasuring to my ears and thoughts. I couldn’t quite imagine it for real though.

  Well, we rid for the rest a that day and camped for the night without much to tell about, just only some bickering from Paw and Zeb, and we headed out early the next morning. I noticed that ole Paw’s bottle was a-getting low, so I figgered we’d be a-hearing him cry around pretty damn soon. Sure enough, the old son of a bitch emptied the bottle and throwed it away. It weren’t five minutes later, I swear, till he said, “Say, anyone in this here outfit got a drink?”

  No one answered him, and he kept quiet for a few more miles. Then he blurted out, “How damn soon are we a-going to get to some town? Huh? I need to get me another bottle. Well? How fur’s the next goddamn town?”

  “We won’t come to no town till sometime tomorrer, Paw,” I said. “So just shut your yap about it.”

  “Anyone bring along a bottle?”

  No one said nothing.

  “What kind a chickenshit outfit is this anyway?”

  I stopped Ole Horse and turned right quick on ole Paw, and I jerked out my shooter and shot the hat right offa his head. His eyeballs popped wide and his jaw dropped.

  “That could just as easy a been your good ear,” I said. “Now I want you to cut out your Goddamn grousing or else ride off from here on your own. I don’t even give a damn no more if you ride towards Texas or China. I just don’t want you a-spoiling the peacefulness a this here traveling group no more. You got that? Next time you feel like squawking, either bite your damn tongue or ride away. One or t’other. I mean it.”

  Now, I admit that I embarrassed myself some by that what I done and what I said to my own paw, and I was so damn mad at him that I just didn’t want to hang around no more for a spell. I shoved my Colt back down in the holster and turned Ole Horse around again. I rid up beside ole Zeb, and I said, “I’m riding ahead a ways. I’ll let y’all ketch up to me in a while.” Ole Zeb, he unnerstood, I guess, on accounta he never argued none, and I spurred Ole Horse ahead. We moved along right fast for a ways. Then I slowed him down again. He blowed a chastisement at me.

  “Damn it, Ole Horse, I know I made a kinda fool outa myself back yonder, but ole Paw makes me so damn mad sometimes that if he was anyone ’cept my own ole paw, I’d kill him. I swear it.”

  Then he nickered, but only he weren’t answering me back It was something else. Some kinda warning. He stopped right there in the middle a the road. I looked up ahead, and I be damned if we weren’t a-fixing to ride right up to that there spot where me and them others had robbed the stage a that there payroll. Well, I figgered if there was any danger up ahead it would be hid in them self-same rocks where I was hid that other time. I squinnied my eyes at them rocks real hard, and damned if I didn’t see a little motion up there, just a little and like a shadder, but it were enough.

  “Ole Horse,” I said real low, “I think you’re right. I think there’s someone a-laying in them rocks up there. Let’s you and me move real slow till we get down yonder where them clumps a brush is on the other side a the road. Then I’ll jump off and take cover. You run way back outa rifle range.”

  He blowed a unnerstanding response at me, and we moved on ahead. I kept on a-eyeballing them high rocks to my right, and I seed a glint a sunlight off a rifle barrel. If they was someone up there after me, I was gonna have to be real keerful. They’d have the advantage on me with rifles and me with just only my Colt sidearm. We come close to them clumps on my left, and Ole Horse, he just turned sudden and run right smack into the middle of them, and I jumped off, and he kept on a-running.

  When I hit the ground, I rolled, a-hoping that no one would be able to tell just where I was at when I quit rolling. I come up behind a thick clump a sagebrush with my Colt in my hand, and I squinnied up at them rocks. Just then about five rifle shots sounded, and bullets kicked up dust all around me. They couldn’t see me, whoever they was, but they sure enough had the range, and they might could get lucky just a-sprinkling the brush like that. Me, on the other hand, I couldn’t a hit no one up there at that range even if I was a looking at him. And I couldn’t see no one.

  “Hey,” I hollered, “who the hell’s up there, and who do you think you’re a-shooting at?”

  I heared a weird laugh then.

  “Hey, Kid,” come a answer. “It’s Dick Cherry, your old pard. Me and the Dutton boys. We want that payroll.”

  “Well, that’s tough shit,” I called out, “on accounta I ain’t got it. It’s back where it belongs. I turned it in.”

  “Now that’s too bad, Kid,” Cherry hollered. “I might be able to let it go by because of the past, but the Dutton boys here feel differently about it. If they can’t have that payroll, they want your hide. And there’s someone else. We picked us up a new partner, name of Harvey. He says you got something of his, and he wants it back.”

  “Is he talking about Lulu?” I yelled. “Is it that Harvey?”

  “That’s me, Kid,” come a new voice.

  “You can’t own a person,” I said.

  “We’ll see about that.”

  “Well, I’m down here all by my lonesome. Why don’t you chickenshits come down and face me?”

  “We ain’t stupid, Kid,” Cherry yelled. “It’s easier like this.”

  Well by God, it come a-raining rifle bullets, and they was a-kicking up dust all around me. I figgered it was only a matter a time before one of them got lucky and hit me. I figgered my number had done come up, and that just when my future was a-looking so bright, and all accounta I let myself get so pissed off at my ole man. Then I heared a shot what for sure weren’t no rifle shot, but it come from up there where them bastards was
at. It sounded for all hell like a shotgun to me. Then I heared someone up there call out, “Hold it right there.”

  “Don’t shoot,” come a answer.

  I raised up to get me a look, and that just in time to see ole Moose stand up tall right on top, and he had that Harvey by the shirt collar in one hand and by the seat a his britches in the other, and he just tossed him out over the edge. That there Harvey screamed something terrible as he went a-flying, and whenever he landed, he was all smashed up. I heared a little more commotion from up there and then another couple a shots. Then I heared ole Dick Cherry’s voice real clear.

  “Don’t shoot. I quit.”

  I stood up, and Ole Horse come a-running. I mounted up, and we rid on over to the road, and by then here come my ole paw, Zeb, and Moose all from around the bend. They had to a gone down the backside a that there hill and walked around the far end to get on the road. Walking in front of them was ole Dick with his hands held high. He stopped and looked at me and grinned. I looked at Zeb.

  “The rest is all dead,” he said.

  I looked back at Cherry.

  “Howdy, Kid,” he said.

  “Who’s got his guns?” I asked.

  “I got them,” said Paw.

  “Give them back to him.”

  Paw didn’t hesitate. He done what I said.

  “What is this, Kid?” said Cherry.

  “I reckon you know, all right,” I said. “Say, how come you three to get outa jail?”

  He shrugged. “Lack of evidence,” he said. “You sure you want to do this?”

  “You know I am,” I said. “It’s your move.”

  By God, he didn’t wait none atall after I said that. He whipped out his shooter, and he were fast. Just as I snapped off my shot, I heared his whizz right close by my left ear. Mine smashed his chest bones though, and he dropped. I walked over to him where he was a-laying. He looked up, still a-grinning.

  “Kid,” he said, “I never really knew till just now which one of us—”

  He croaked then without getting to finish what it was he was a-trying to say, but I reckon I knowed, all right. I looked around at all my pardners. I was sure proud of them, all of them.