The Road to Ratchet Creek

by J. T. Edson

  Chapter 15

  HE WANTS ME TO GO AWAY WITH HIM

  BEFORE CALAMITY COULD TAKE THREE STEPS, COLE leapt after her. Catching her by the shoulder, he swung her around and back on to the chair.

  “It’s not Christmas, sister, but let’s have peace and good will toward all women,” he said. “Or at least let’s try thinking afore you start hair-yanking.”

  “How’d you mean?” Calamity answered.

  “You go down there and jump her, you’ll get stopped afore you can do any good,” Cole explained. “All that you’ll manage is to warn Hewes we’re on to him and proving against him’ll be hard enough without that.”

  “You never spoke a truer word, Solly,” Jergens went on. “There’s something neither of yo’s spoke about yet, too. Why’d they try to kill you tonight, Calam?”

  “Because they reckon I recognized him at the hold-up,” she guessed.

  “I don’t reckon so,” Cole answered. “Young John saw just as much as you did. Nope, there has to be some other reason for going after you.”

  “Could that jasper we had to shoot be the second man?” asked Calamity, a fresh aspect coming to her.

  “He could be. Nobody’s seen more than the second feller’s rifle so far. Only the one with the scatter ever showed his-self,” the sheriff answered.

  “Why’n’t I go talk to Monique?” suggested Calamity hopefully.

  “Because you’d get no place doing it,” Cole replied. “All you’ll do is scare him off.”

  “That’s what Hewes said to me about the feller who’s been peddling the fake stock for the Golden Eagle Mine,” Calamity said and told of the incident at the banker’s office.

  “He could be telling the truth,” Cole pointed out. “Anyways, I’ll see what he tells me about it.”

  “What brought you out this ways, Solly?” asked the sheriff. “Did you figure on the stage being robbed and get side-tracked by them whiskey pedlars?”

  “Nope. I didn’t even know the money was aboard. Nobody knew anything about it until the last minute——Except the Wells Fargo supervisor at Promontory and whoever asked for it to be shipped out here.”

  “Which’d be the banker,” Calamity guessed. “He wasn’t at the office when we pulled in last night.”

  “Ray found him in bed,” Jergens told them. “I didn’t think much about it at first. But it did look a touch strange, him not being on hand to make sure his money come in safe.”

  “I’d’ve expected him to be there,” Cole agreed. “Say, Ham, I’ll need some help tomorrow night.”

  “You’ve got it,” promised Jergens, after hearing of Sedgewell’s rendezvous. “Did that feller at the trading post say whether the message’d been passed on?”

  “Nope. Only that some jasper’d brought it. I reckon Cultus cut down the feller who should’ve gone for it.”

  “Then if Sedgewell didn’t get word, he may not be here.”

  “Likely, but we’ll keep a watch out——.”

  “Tomorrow’s Saturday,” Jergens interrupted. “There’s allus a fair slew of strangers around town then. We’ll just have to hope we’re lucky. Say, is that why you’ve come?”

  “Nope,” Cole replied. “I’m here to help guard a shipment of fifty thousand dollars in gold going East from a mine.”

  “So that’s it!” Calamity gasped and even the unemotional sheriff’s face showed that the news surprised him.

  “That’s it,” Cole agreed. “It’s coming here by a special stage, then going on to Promontory. Gets in Wednesday and leaves at sun up Thursday. And it’s been arranged that the gold’ll be put in the bank’s vault for the night as being safer than leaving it at the Wells Fargo office.”

  “Fifty thousand dollars!” Calamity said. “That’s a whole heap of money.”

  “More than that masked jasper ever stole in one go or all together,” the sheriff went on.

  “But not more than Sedgewell’s taken before now,” Cole replied. “A shipment like this’s his meat.”

  “We’re going to have to play this careful,” Jergens stated. “Anything I can do for you, Solly, just say the word.”

  “That’s all fine and dandy,” Calamity snapped. “But I’m more concerned with getting back Johnny’s and my money.”

  “So am I,” Cole told her. “And, unless some damned fool gal with red hair spoils everything by going off half-cocked I may be able to do it.”

  “Now I wonder who you can mean,” Calamity grinned. “I’ll do whatever you say, deacon.”

  “I’m counting on it,” Cole told her. “And this’s what I want you to do.”

  Listening to Cole’s plan, Calamity decided that it might work. Certainly she felt she could do her part of it.

  So next morning she presented herself at the bank shortly after it opened and requested an interview with Hewes. Millie Hackerstow’s disapproval was more marked, for Calamity carried her jacket and wore a shirt even tighter-fitting than that of the previous day. Unless Calamity missed her guess, more than a “good” woman’s disapproval lay behind Millie’s hostile glare as the teller told her to go in to the private office. Nor did Millie offer to close the door as Calamity walked toward Hewes’ desk.

  “That’ll be all, Miss Hackerstow,” Hewes said, but his eyes were fixed as if they were magnetized on the front of Calamity’s shirt.

  Giving an indignant snort, Millie backed out of the room and closed the door with a bang. Calamity grinned and sat on the edge of the desk instead of taking the offered chair.

  “I came to see you about that business of young Johnny Browning,” she said, eyeing the banker with what she hoped to be frank admiration.

  “I haven’t had time to think it over, Miss——.”

  “Why don’t you call me ‘Calam’?” she purred, leaning toward him. “And there’s no real rush. I only came in to see you again.”

  While talking, Calamity wondered if she might be rushing things a mite. Then she caught a glimpse of a self-satisfied smirk flicker across Hewes’ face and guessed that she was not the first girl to make such a statement to him. From the banker’s attitude, he had become accustomed to young women throwing themselves at him and treated her own actions as a matter of course.

  “I’m pleased you did,” he said. “Who was the man who saved you last night?”

  “Solly Cole.”

  “The U.S. marshal?” Hewes gulped, then his self-assured pose came back fast. “That was fortunate for you.”

  “He near on lost a deputy,” Calamity said. “Not a regular one, but he’s took me on to help guard——.”

  “Yes?” prompted Hewes as Calamity stopped with the air of one who feels she had said more than she should.

  “Shucks, you know about the gold shipment, so there’s no harm in me telling you. Solly figures I can watch better’n a man as nobody’ll figure on me being a deputy.”

  “You are in his confidence then?”

  “We’re real close—Not in any wrong way. He don’t go in for that kind of thing,” Calamity said, fighting to hold down a grin at the last sentence. “Say, is there any place around that I can get me a swim, private like?”

  “I always ride about a mile up the stream outside town,” Hewes told her. “There’s a good hole up that ways.”

  “Reckon I can find it without getting lost?” Calamity inquired, leaning closer to him.

  “It’s easy to find,” Hewes answered, eyes bugging out a mite as he stared down beneath Calamity’s chin. “But perh——.”

  Hearing the door’s handle turn, Calamity swung off the desk and Hewes adopted an attitude of business-like politeness. As Calamity turned, a woman entered the room. Standing the same height as Calamity, the newcomer looked several years older than Hewes. Which did not prevent her from being a tolerable fine piece of female. Raven black hair framed a good-looking face with lines of strength on it. The black suit she wore cost plenty and it fitted a figure which Calamity had to admit looked mighty eye-catching. Built on the lin
es most admired at that time, with a big bust, slender waist and firm, wide hips, the woman could have been an actress; yet she wore none of the make-up associated with the stage.

  “Evalyn, my dear,” Hewes greeted. “This is Miss Canary.”

  “Howdy, Mrs. Hewes,” Calamity said.

  “Miss Canary,” the woman replied distantly. “Dixon, I want to speak to you.”

  Studying the banker’s wife, Calamity could not think why he married her. Then she decided that if Mrs. Hewes had wanted to marry him, he would not have dared refuse. There stood a woman who could run her man, or Calamity had never seen one.

  “I was just going,” Calamity said. “Sure hope you can do something for young Johnny.”

  “I’ll think about it,” Hewes told her. “Possibly I may have something to tell you this afternoon.”

  “Let’s hope you don’t decide to wash me away,” Calamity replied and winked.

  Watched by the frowning female teller, Calamity left the bank. On her return to the Tappet house, she told Marshal Cole of the interview and announced her intention of going to the swimming hole in the afternoon. Cole pointed out that to do so could put her into danger. If the banker had tried to kill her the previous night, she offered him a mighty good chance to improve on his abortive attempt.

  Before any more could be said, the sheriff arrived with an important discovery. Making tactful inquiries, he had discovered that Hewes had been with the town preacher and an official of the local Mormon temple at the time of the shooting. That put the banker in the clear. Strangely Cole and Calamity failed to ask one question which might have shed some light on the matter.

  To keep John occupied and out of the way, the sheriff found him a number of gun repairs. So he did not see Calamity leave town that afternoon. Following the stream, she found the pool Hewes recommended and waited. Although she had brought along her carbine, Colt and whip, there seemed no need for the precautions. At last she decided that the banker did not intend to come. The water looked inviting, so Calamity peeled off her shirt and undershirt with the intention of taking a swim. Hearing a slight sound, she bent and scooped up her carbine.

  “It’s only me, Calam,” came Hewes’ voice and he stepped into view.

  Slowly Calamity replaced the carbine and took up her undershirt. “You handed me a shock there,” she remarked.

  Walking up, feasting his eyes on her naked torso, Hewes pulled the garment from her hands and said, “I thought you’d come for a swim.”

  The sun had set when Calamity rejoined Cole at the Tappet house.

  “What happened?” he demanded.

  “Now I’d say that wasn’t a gentlemanly question,” Calamity grinned. “Tell you one thing, though. He’s real interested in what you’re aiming to do about guarding that gold shipment. And in you.”

  “That last shows he’s got good taste,” the marshal said.

  “You’re telling me about his taste?” Calamity replied. “After I’ve fed, I’ll go to the Bull Elk and see Monique.”

  “You mind what I told you,” growled Cole. “Keep your cotton-picking hands offen her hair.”

  “Why sure, deacon,” grinned Calamity. “I don’t feel half so riled at her now.”

  Monique greeted Calamity warmly enough and asked questions about the shooting as they sat at a table in the saloon. Following the prearranged scheme, Calamity dismissed the affair as an attempt to kill Marshal Cole into which she had wandered by accident.

  “Say, I fixed up a loan at the bank for young Johnny,” she went on. “Dixon—Banker Hewes’s been real helpful.”

  “You’ve seen him?” asked Monique, her smile vanishing.

  “Sure. We had a real interesting talk this afternoon.”

  “This afternoon——So that’s why——.”

  “Why what?”

  “Nothing!” Monique snorted and pushed back her chair. “I must go and sing.”

  “That’s put a burr in your fancy lil breeches, gal,” Calamity thought as the singer stamped away. “Now I’m getting the hell out of here.”

  All through her act Monique debated to herself how she should handle the situation. Her idea of getting two of the girls to pick a fight with Calamity came to nothing. Guessing how Monique would react, Cole had insisted that Calamity should avoid trouble and leave the Bull Elk before the singer could make any arrangements.

  Next day they went on as planned. It being Sunday, Mrs. Tappet invited the Heweses over to supper and suggested that Millie Hackerstow came along. Continuing with her part, Calamity made sure the girl teller knew, or imagined she knew, how things stood with the banker. By the time the guests left, Calamity felt certain that Hewes was carrying on affairs with both Monique and Millie and had used them as aids in the holdups. She also figured that both the girls would take exception to him showing favor to her.

  Monday saw Hewes taking Calamity to lunch at the eating house, ostensibly to discuss John’s loan, with Millie scowling after them and Monique glaring down from the saloon’s balcony. Yet neither girl made any move or complaint that Calamity could see. In fact when she went to the saloon that night, she found Monique to be as friendly as she had been before Calamity had mentioned meeting the banker. The little singer’s attitude struck Calamity as just a touch pitying, as if Monique possessed some knowledge she did not and felt superior for it.

  “Maybe Hewes’s told her he’s just using you for what he can learn,” Cole suggested when Calamity mentioned the incident to him.

  “Could be,” Calamity agreed. “What’re we going to do now?”

  “Nothing tonight. Comes morning we’ve a meeting with him, Ray Burkee and Ham Jergens to fix up how to protect the gold shipment.” He paused and looked at Calamity. “You’re still set on going through with your end of it, Calam?”

  “Dead set!” she replied. “I’ve never been robbed afore and it rankles me to know that scent-sniffing dude done it.”

  “I wish there was some way I could help you.”

  “Let’s ask young Johnny if he can fix something up.”

  Cole looked at the girl for a time, then asked, “You reckon he can do it—and keep quiet about it after?”

  “I’m willing to bet on it,” Calamity replied.

  “You will be betting on it,” Cole pointed out. “And your life’s the stake.”

  Without a moment’s hesitation Calamity came to her feet. “I’ll go get him in right now.”

  On her return with John, Calamity explained the full plan. Watching the boy, Cole felt impressed at the way in which he took the news. Lines wrinkled John’s forehead as he thought on the problem and asked surprisingly intelligent questions considering his youth. At last he felt that he knew all that was necessary and promised to get down to some hard thinking. Cole promised to obtain anything John might need and warned the boy of the need for complete secrecy. Then the marshal left John to the problem and hoped that an answer might be forthcoming.

  The meeting went smoothly enough, with adequate plans made to ensure the shipment’s safety during the night in Ratchet Creek and on the journey to Promontory. The U.S. cavalry guard which was to bring it to Ratchet Creek had to return to its parent regiment, but Cole, Burkee and ten men would form a protective screen for the stagecoach. After some discussion it was decided that they would use the high country trail as being less likely to be suspected as their route. Calamity watched the banker and thought she detected a hint of disappointment on his face.

  All through Monday and Tuesday Calamity continued to give the impression of being infatuated with the banker. Yet she raised no further hostility on the part of Monique or Millie. Both girls seemed to regard her with a tolerant, pitying manner and she felt sure that Cole had guessed correctly at the reason for their change of attitude.

  While the others laid the foundations for their plot, John worked on his part of the affair. As promised, he had all he needed; although some of his requests struck Calamity and Cole as odd. Clearly he did not intend to stick to
the bare essentials of Calamity’s scheme. Yet, as she watched him work, the girl felt he might have gone off the trail a mite. However she allowed him to carry on, for the basic element of his idea struck her as sound. John worked with that quiet, almost awesome, concentrated manner which would in the future enable him to design and produce the pilot model of an entirely new type of rifle for the Winchester company in thirty days, including twelve days travelling time between the factory and his home in Ogden.

  On Wednesday afternoon Cole and Calamity visited the banker at his office.

  “We’ve got trouble,” the marshal said. “I’ve just got reliable word that the Hopkins gang’re after the shipment.”

  If Sedgewell had a rival, it was Rule Hopkins. So far the two outlaw gangs had stayed clear of each other’s territory. However such a large sum might easily cause Hopkins to break the unspoken truce.

  “That’s bad!” Hewes gasped.

  “It’s worse than you think,” the marshal went on. “Somebody at the Wells Fargo office’s slipping them word of our plans.”

  “What do you mean to do?” Hewes asked. “I’d say hold up the shipment and ask for military aid.”

  “Nope,” Cole answered. “We’re going through with it. Only we’ll need your help.”

  “Anything I can do, I’ll do it.”

  “We aim to send the gold out in the feeder-run coach to Shadloe, in secret.”

  “But the feeder run doesn’t have a guard along,” Hewes objected. “If the driver should learn——.”

  “The driver already knows,” Calamity interrupted. “It’ll be me.”

  “But it’s risky!” Hewes gasped.

  “Nobody but us three here’ll know,” Cole pointed out. “We’ll make the change over here at the bank. I’ve got it all worked out. The gold’ll be loaded in secret on to Calam’s stage and done in the open, with fake boxes, on the special.”

  Listening to the marshal’s plan, Hewes admitted that it might stand a chance of working. Not until Calamity and Cole left the bank to make their arrangements did the girl remember about the mining stock. When she asked, Cole told her that the banker had made no mention of it.