Day of Reckoning

by William W. Johnstone

  “I’ll be glad to lend a hand,” Duff said. “Meagan, would ye be for making the wagon available?” Duff asked.

  “Yes,” Meagan replied, and she hurried over to a place where many of the injured lay, as Duff followed the conductor to the front of the train and the overturned express car. There were two porters and a third man, standing on the topside of the overturned car. They had begun to cut through.

  “Nae,” Duff called, holding out his hand toward the men on the car. “That is nae good. If he is injured, you will have to lift him out. Ye should be on the ground and go in through the roof of the car. It will be easier to get him out that way.”

  “Yes,” the conductor said, nodding his head. “Yes, that’s a good idea.”

  The men who were standing on the car came down, then started using their axes on the roof. It took but a couple of minutes, and they had a hole big enough for Duff and one of the porters to climb through.

  “Mr. Poindexter? Mr. Poindexter, it’s me, Jackson. Are you here?”

  “Yes, Jackson, I’m here,” a weak voice replied.

  It was dark in the car, the only light coming through the hole that had been chopped through the roof.

  “There he is,” Duff said, pointing toward the sound of the voice.

  Poindexter was trapped under some of the shelving, and Jackson reached for him.

  “I’ll pull you out from under all that,” Jackson said.

  “Wait, dinnae be so fast to move him,” Duff said. “Sometimes if ye aren’t careful, ye can make things worse.”

  “I think I have a broken arm, but if you can get everything off, I’m pretty sure I can move myself,” Poindexter said.

  For the next couple of minutes, Duff and Jackson worked, moving shelves and crates, until Poindexter was freed. Then, as he had said, he was able to move on his own.

  By the time Duff crawled back out of the express car, the wagon had already left, filled with the most seriously injured.

  “How far is it to the next town?” Duff asked.

  “It’s only four more miles to Rock Creek. The wagon left ten minutes ago. I expect it will be there within another few minutes.”

  “The money is safe,” Poindexter said. Poindexter was cradling his arm. “The train robbers didn’t accomplish a damn thing.”

  “I cannae agree with you, Mr. Poindexter,” Duff said. “They killed five, wounded several more, ’n they wrecked a train.”

  “Five were killed?” Poindexter asked.

  “Five so far,” the conductor replied. “We’re still pulling people from the wreckage, and there may be more. I hate to tell you this, Andy, but one of the ones who was killed was Doodle.”

  “Doodle? Oh, damn,” Poindexter said. “Someone’s goin’ to have to tell Virgie. And they have two kids.”

  “Doodle?” Duff asked.

  “The engineer. His real name was Cephus. Cephus Prouty,” Decker said. “But I’ve never heard him called anything but Doodle.”

  “What I don’t understand, though, is how they knew we were carrying the money,” Poindexter said. “None of the money shipments are ever publicly announced.”

  “Maybe it was just a coincidence. Maybe they just intended to take their chances on whatever the train was carrying,” Decker suggested.

  “No, sir, I clearly heard one of ’em say, ‘we ain’t got the sixty thousand dollars yet.’ And since that is exactly the amount of money we were carrying, then that tells me that they knew all about it,” Poindexter said.

  “We need some help back here!” someone shouted, and Duff, Decker, and one of the two porters answered the call. The other porter stayed with Poindexter, leading him to a spot where the less seriously injured were gathering.

  It took almost an hour to get everyone free from the wreckage. The fatality count went up by two when they found a mother and her little girl dead in the twisted wreckage of one of the cars. Shortly after they performed the sad duty of laying those two bodies beside the engineer and the other passengers who were killed, they heard the whistle of an approaching train.

  “Is that the westbound?” Poindexter asked.

  Decker pulled his watch from his pocket and examined it. “No,” he said with a shake of his head. “That’s not due for another two hours.” He smiled, then looked at Duff. “I’d say the wagon reached Rock Creek, and they must’ve wired back to Laramie to send a special train for us.”

  Decker was right, and shortly after the relief train arrived, every passenger and crewman, including the injured and the dead, had been evacuated from the site of the wreck. The conductor of the relief train said that telegrams had been sent out, halting all traffic in both directions until lifting cranes could be brought onto the scene so the track could be cleared for further traffic.

  Duff, Meagan, and Ina Claire did not go with the train. Instead they saddled their horses and rode into Rock Creek.

  Rochelle, Wyoming Territory

  When Callahan and the others left the wrecked train, they rode southwest until they reached the town of Rochelle. Rochelle was a small, off the track town at the edge of the Medicine Bow Mountains. The town existed primarily as a result of the nearby coal mines. And like Cummins City, it had a bunk room where cots could be had for fifteen cents.

  Passing themselves off as cowboys who were “returning to Texas,” they stayed in Rochelle for a few days, confident that there would be little chance of their being connected with the attempted train robbery.

  “Nothing!” Cooper said a few days later. “We didn’t get one dime from the stagecoach holdup and nothing from this, either. Hell, if it warn’t for that peddler ’n the store, we wouldn’t have no money a-tall, which is damn near what we don’t have already.”

  “You forgot about the bank in Bordeaux,” Callahan said.

  “Oh, yeah, I did forget. But we didn’t get no more’n a few hunnert dollars there, neither. I mean a bank, a whole bank, ’n we didn’ even get a thousand dollars. I thought robbin’ the train was goin’ to make us rich. Sixty thousand dollars rich. But we come away from it without a damn cent.”

  “The money was there,” Callahan said. He held up a copy of the Rochelle Standard. “It says right here that the sixty-thousand-dollar shipment was untouched.”

  “So, what are we going to do next?” Cooper asked.

  “How much money do we have now?” Callahan asked.

  “What do you need to know how much money we have for?” Morris asked.

  “If I’m goin’ to make any plans, I need to know where we’re startin’ from. If you remember, we got two hundred and thirteen dollars from that peddler, that give us fifty-three dollars apiece, six hundred and twenty-nine dollars from the bank in Bordeaux, ’n that give us a hundred ’n fifty dollars apiece, ’n another hundred and eighty-three dollars from the store.”

  “Which broke down to only twenty-six dollars, seein’ as we divided it up seven ways ’cause Pardeen, Bates, ’n Donner took their cut, remember?” Cooper said.

  “And don’t forget, when we first broke ’em out of jail, why we give them boys twenty dollars apiece outta the money we took from the bank,” Morris said.

  “I’m just damn glad we didn’t give ’em a hundred dollars apiece before they went to kill MacCallister,” Cooper said.

  “Which they didn’t do, or they woulda done been back here askin’ for their money,” Manning said.

  “So, how much do we have now?” Callahan asked, repeating his question.

  The four men emptied their pockets and came up with a total of five hundred and sixteen dollars between the four of them.

  Callahan did some figuring. “All right, that comes up to one hundred and twenty-nine dollars apiece,” he said.

  “Hey, wait a minute, that ain’t fair!” Manning said. “I put in a hunnert ’n forty-two dollars. What do you mean it comes up to a hunnert ’n twenty-nine? That’s less money than I put in.”

  “We’re goin’ to divide it equal,” Callahan said resolutely.


  “No we ain’t. That ain’t right,” Manning said. “There ain’t nothin’ at all right about that.”

  “Come on, Manning, you’re in this like the rest of us,” Cooper said.

  Grumbling, Manning assented to the division of the money.

  “All right, we’ve got the money all divided up,” Morris said. “But I can tell you now, it ain’t goin’ to last long. We’re goin’ to have to get us some more money, some’eres, ’n we’re goin’ to have to get it soon.”

  “Well, seein’ as the only time we’ve been able to make any money is when we’ve held up a bank, I think we should hit another bank,” Callahan suggested.

  “You got somethin’ in mind?” Cooper asked.

  “Yeah, I got somethin’ in mind,” Callahan said. “The First Federal Bank in Cheyenne.”

  “What?” Cooper replied incredulously. “Are you out of your mind? That bank is like a fort.”

  “Yeah, it is,” Callahan said. “And you know why it’s a fort? It’s where the Union Pacific Railroad keeps all their money. There ain’t never less than a hundred thousand dollars there, and more’n likely it would be closer to two hundred thousand dollars.” Callahan smiled. “And, boys, two hundred thousand dollars, divided four ways, would be fifty thousand for each of us.”

  “Fifty thousand?” Manning said. He smiled, put his hand to his forehead. “Wow, just thinkin’ about that much money makes my head spin.”

  “Ha!” Morris said. “With that much money, forget about me gamblin’ on a Mississippi riverboat, I’ll buy the damn thing.”

  Cooper shook his head. “Don’t you all go spendin’ money we don’t have now. Hell, it wouldn’t make no difference if it was a million dollars. I don’t see no way that the four us could rob that bank ’n get away with it. Don’t forget, Pardeen ’n the others didn’t come back. ’N if you ask me, they didn’t come back ’cause they got themselves kilt by MacCallister.”

  “Yeah, that’s what I’m thinkin’, too,” Callahan said. “But that means if MacCallister killed Pardeen and the others, then he’s still at his ranch. ’N if he’s at his ranch, he isn’t looking for us.”

  “A hundred thousand dollars, huh?” Cooper asked.

  “At least. And it’s like I say chances are there will be two, maybe three times as much money there.”

  “Damn! Divided by four, huh?”

  “Five,” Callahan said.

  “Five?”

  “Yeah, five. There’s one man in particular I want, seein’ as he is the one who first come up with the idea of robbin’ this particular bank. He’s also done a lot of studyin’ on it.”

  “What would be our cut if they was five of us, ’n we got a hunnert thousand dollars?” Manning wanted to know.

  “Twenty thousand,” Callahan said.

  “Twenty thousand? Hell, just a minute ago we was talkin’ about fifty thousand apiece, ’n now it’s dropped down to no more’n twenty thousand?” Manning said.

  “What the hell, Manning? You plannin’ on turnin’ your back on twenty thousand dollars?” Cooper asked.

  “When I was talkin’ fifty thousand, that was if the bank had two hundred thousand dollars ’n they was only four of us. But I say better to take a smaller cut and get the money, than not have enough men to do the job and get nothin’ at all. Anyway, it’s like I said, there could be twice as much money in that bank,” Callahan said.

  “Yeah, well, we was goin’ to get fifteen thousand apiece from the train robbery, too, wasn’t we? Only we didn’t wind up with nothin’,” Manning said.

  “The bank ain’t likely to turn over on its side with the door side down, neither, is it?” Callahan replied.

  “’N we don’t have to stop it, neither, on account of ’cause it ain’t goin’ nowhere. The bank just sits there,” Cooper said.

  “Are you for this, Cooper?” Morris asked.

  “You’re damn right I’m for it.”

  “All right,” Morris said with a nod of his head. “I’m in.”

  “Me too,” Manning said.

  “Who is this other feller you’re a-wantin’?” Morris asked.

  “His name is Red O’Leary, ’n I know just where to find ’im,” Callahan replied.

  Chapter Thirty-three

  Duff, Meagan, and Ina Claire had taken two adjoining rooms in the Dorsett Hotel in Rock Creek. At the moment they were all in one room engaged in a discussion as to their hunting expedition.

  “Och, ’tis m’ misfortune that I am nae a tracker,” Duff said. “If I were, we could have followed their tracks from the site of the train wreck. As it is, we are nae closer to finding them now than we were on the day we started.”

  “Maybe we could hire a tracker,” Ina Claire suggested.

  “There’s no need to hire one,” Meagan said. “All we have to do is send a telegram.”

  “Send a telegram?” Ina Claire asked. “To who?”

  “Duff knows where to send it.”

  “Aye,” Duff said, nodding his head. “’Twas my mistake in not bringin’ him with me in the first place.”

  “You know he won’t come by himself,” Meagan said.

  Ina Claire flashed a big smile. “You’re talking about Mr. Gleason and Mr. Wang, aren’t you?”

  “Aye, lass, that I am.”

  “And they are good at tracking?” Ina Claire asked.

  “I’ve heard it said that Elmer could track a bird,” Duff said.

  “Really?” Ina Claire asked, amazed by the statement. “Why, that’s impossible, isn’t it? How can you track something through the air? Who told you Mr. Gleason could track a bird?”

  “Let me see,” Duff replied as he stroked his chin. “I’m trying to remember now who it was that told me Elmer could track a bird. Aye, I remember now. ’Twas Elmer his own self.”

  Meagan and Ina Claire laughed.

  “I’ll send him a telegram and ask him to meet us here,” Duff said.

  “What will we do until he gets here?”

  “We’ll do a few more of our medicine shows ’n see if we can pick up any information on the brigands.”

  Rawlins, Wyoming Territory

  Callahan was in the Bucket of Blood Saloon when he saw a familiar looking red-haired man sitting at a table with two other men.

  Five years earlier, Callahan, Red O’Leary, and three others had held up a stagecoach. Their information that the coach was carrying a money transfer was accurate, and they came away with a total of fifteen thousand dollars. That was still the most successful robbery Callahan had ever committed, but it was small change compared to the possible reward of a successful robbery of the First Federal Bank in Cheyenne.

  Callahan went over to speak to him.

  “Hello, Red.”

  O’Leary had not seen him approach, and when he first looked up the expression on his face reflected some irritation at being interrupted. When he saw who it was, though, the irritated look was replaced by a smile.

  “Well, I’ll be damn,” he said. “If it ain’t my old friend . . . uh . . . what moniker are you using right now?”

  Callahan glanced at the two men who were sharing the table with O’Leary, and not knowing whether or not he could trust them came up with a name.

  “Smith is good enough,” he said.

  O’Leary laughed. “If you two fellas will excuse me, I think me ’n my old friend, uh . . . Smith . . . here, need to catch up on what’s been goin’ on since we last seen each other.”

  The other two got up to leave, and Callahan took one of their chairs.

  “I seen in the paper where you escaped from jail,” O’Leary said when they were alone. “Fact is, they’s a reward out on you, ’n I could make five hunnert dollars just by turnin’ you into the sheriff.”

  “I suppose you could turn in an old friend ’n make five hundred dollars,” Callahan said. “Or you could throw in with me ’n make yourself anywhere from ten to fifty thousand dollars. And when I say fifty thousand, I’m talkin’ about your cut.”
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  O’Leary drummed his fingers on the table for a moment before he responded. “You got somethin’ in mind?” he asked.

  “Yeah, I got somethin’ in mind.”

  “I hope it works out better’n than that train holdup you just tried the other day.”

  Callahan blinked in surprise. “How do you know about that?”

  “This is a railroad town,” O’Leary replied. “Ever’body all up ’n down the track knows about the four men who wrecked the train, kilt some people, ’n didn’t get away with any of the money. ’N the leader of the group, they say, was a big man with a broken nose ’n a scrunched-up ear. I figured that was you.”

  “We didn’t kill nobody,” Callahan said.

  “They was kilt in the wreck, so you same as kilt ’em.”

  “Yeah, well, that didn’t work out all that well, I admit, but what I got in mind now will.”

  “Why are you askin’ me to join you? I don’t remember us bein’ all such good friends that you just want to give me fifty thousand dollars.”

  “I’m askin’ because I’m goin’ to need you in order to make it work. Seein’ as you are the one that first come up with the idea. ’N I know you’ve studied on it some.”

  “I’ll be damn!” O’Leary said with a broad smile. “You’re talkin’ ’bout the First Federal Bank of Cheyenne, ain’t you?”

  “Like you said, that’s where all the money is.”

  “Railroad money,” O’Leary replied. “Ha! Wait, there ain’t no way me and you could do this by ourselves, though. Let me ask you this. Them men that was with you for the train robbery, have they run off on you? Or do you still have ’em?”

  “I’ve still got ’em.”

  “That makes five of us then,” O’Leary said. “Yeah, that should be enough to do the job.”

  “I’ll also be wantin’ you to scout the bank out for us.” Callahan put his hand to his nose. “They’s been enough descriptions of me writ up in newspapers lately that if I was to go into a bank ’n just start lookin’ aroun’, could be that someone could get a little suspicious.”