The Western Adventures of Cade McCall Box Set

by Robert Vaughan

  “Look, Mister, don’t get mad or nothin’,” Mack said. “My little brother ain’t all that bright, ‘n he had no call askin’ a question like that. I hope you’ll excuse him.”

  “I’m not the one to do the excusin’, I’m not the one that was insulted,” the bartender said.

  “Yes, sir, well, if you put it like that,” Mack said. “Willis ‘n them two girls wasn’t insulted neither, seein’ as they didn’t hear what my brother said.”

  The bartender was quiet for a moment, then the stern expression on his face eased, and he laughed.

  “That’s right, isn’t it? There didn’t any of them hear you.” The smile left his face. “But I wouldn’t take it too kindly if you said ‘nything like that again.”

  “My brother’s goin’ to be as quiet as a mouse,” Mack said. “Come Weasel, let’s you, me, ‘n Luke find us a table and just sort of enjoy watchin’ the pretty girls walk by.”

  9

  One of the girls approached the table chosen by the three brothers, and she greeted them with a smile. “If you gentlemen need another drink, just give me a signal and I’ll fetch it for you.”

  “Thank you,” Luke said. “What’s your name, honey?”

  “It’s Suzie.”

  “Well then, tell me, Suzie, how do you like working here?”

  “Oh, I like it just fine,” Suzie said. “Mr. Willis is easy to work for.”

  “He lives here, does he? In the saloon?”

  “He used to, but now he and his missus built a new house—a nice one over on Walnut. You’d know which one. It’s trimmed in red just like the Red House.”

  “Sounds like he’s a fine, upstanding citizen,” Luke said.

  “Oh, he is. We’re just real proud of him. He’s on the board of directors, you know.”

  “We didn’t know that. Thanks for the information,” Mack said.

  Early the next morning, Luke, Mack, and Weasel were sitting in a wagon they had borrowed from an old man in exchange for a bottle of whiskey. Willis’s house had not been hard to find, it being the only one in town with a red door, and now they watched. They saw Jeter come out on to the front porch, kiss his wife and two little girls goodbye, then start down the street heading toward his saloon.

  “All right, let’s go,” Weasel said.

  “No, not yet,” Mack replied, holding out his hand. “Let’s wait until we know he’s not coming back.”

  They waited for at least a half hour, then Mack nodded at Weasel who snapped the reins against the back of the team. When they stopped in front of the house, Weasel remained in the wagon, while Mack and Luke went up to the front door.

  An older lady answered the knock, and for a moment, Mack thought they might have come to the wrong house.

  “Yes?” the older lady asked.

  Luke pulled his pistol and pointed at her.

  “Don’t say a word, don’t make a sound,” he ordered, shoving her back into the room.

  “Who is it, grand-mère?” a beautiful young woman asked, coming into the front room.

  “We’ve come callin’ on you,” Mack said with a leering grin.

  Magnolia gasped when she saw that both men were holding guns, and she stepped in front of the girls who were on the floor.

  “What is it? What do you want?” Magnolia asked, fighting to keep her voice calm.

  “We want you, all of you,” Mack added, taking in the others with a wave of his pistol. “We want you to take a ride with us.”

  “No,” Magnolia said defiantly. “We won’t go.”

  “Then have it your way, missy.” He put his gun to Mary’s head. “Say good-bye to . . . Grand-mere, if that’s what you call her.”

  “Stop,” Magnolia said as she rushed toward the man. “Take me. Don’t hurt this woman.”

  Mack smiled. “We won’t hurt anybody, if you all come with us, but if you don’t . . .” he pointed his gun imitating the action of shooting at each of the two girls. “You’ll see what we can do.”

  The Red House Saloon, having just opened its doors, was empty of customers. Neither Cahill, nor the girls had yet arrived, and Jeter was sweeping the floor when two men came in. They weren’t regular customers, but Jeter remembered having seen them the night before.

  “You’re up bright and early this morning,” Jeter said, greeting them with a smile. “But that’s all right. Let me get rid of my broom.” When he stepped behind the bar he turned to them. “Now what can I do for you?”

  “How much money do you have?” one of the men asked.

  “What?”

  “You heard me. How much are you worth?”

  The smile left Jeter’s lips. “Gentlemen, I really don’t think that’s any of your business.”

  “Oh, but it is my business. You see, I was sort ‘a hopin’ we could just settle this by takin’ the money ‘n movin’ on.”

  Jeter reached under the bar and brought up a double-barrel shotgun. “Mister, if you came here to rob me, you chose the wrong place.”

  “Here now, we ain’t here to rob you, so you can just put the gun away. My name’s Mack Slater, ‘n this here’s my brother Luke. We come to do some business.”

  “Slater? I know that name. Are you from Caldwell?”

  “Well ain’t that sweet,” Mack said turning to his brother. “He knows us.”

  “I wouldn’t say I know you, but I do know that when you got into a fight with Cade McCall, he gave you more than you could bargain for. Is that what this is about?”

  “Ain’t you the smart one, though?” Mack said. “Cade McCall is the reason we’re here.”

  “If you’ve come to finish the fight, you’ll find it won’t be three against one. If I were you, I’d rethink whatever it is you have planned.”

  “Oh, we ain’t here to do no more fightin’,” Mack said. “Like I said, we’re here to do business. Business with McCall.”

  “You’re not going to find him here,” Jeter said.

  “Truth to tell, we didn’t much figure he would be here, seein’ as how we’ve heard he don’t take no real interest in runnin’ this saloon.”

  “If you didn’t expect to find him here, why’d you come?”

  “We’re here to talk to his partner. Now that would be you ain’t it?”

  Jeter nodded his head, wondering what they were up to.

  “Then I reckon we’ll just do our business with you,” Mack said. “It’s Mr. Willis, ain’t it?”

  “What’s this all about?”

  “Well sir, it’s this way,” Mack said. “It turns out McCall lost a lot of money to my brother. A whole lot of money it was, ‘n what he done was, he give Luke a marker for what he owed. I guess what happened is, he got to thinkin’ maybe he shouldn’t a’ done that, ‘n that’s what started the fight. You see, McCall tried to get the marker back but it was too late, because he done give it to Luke, ‘cause he lost the hand that the marker was against. So we have come here to collect.”

  “How are you going to collect, when he isn’t here?”

  “Oh, we know he ain’t here, ‘n that’s why we’ve come to you. We figured maybe you can pay us, ‘n then maybe get the money back from your partner.”

  Jeter sighed, then put the shotgun back under the bar. He opened the cash box.

  “All right, how much does he owe you?”

  “Seventy-two hunnert, ‘n fifty dollars,” Luke said.

  “What?” Jeter gasped, literally shouting the word.

  Luke showed the paper to Jeter.

  “This here’s the paper he give me for the money, ‘n as you can see, he signed it. He owes me seventy-two hunnert ‘n fifty dollars. That’s why I was askin’ about the money. Does McCall have that much money?”

  Jeter shook his head. “No,” he said, quietly.

  “Then I reckon we’ll just have to take the money from you.”

  “Are you out of your mind? What makes you think I have that much money?”

  “We sat here last night, and we watched you just
rakin’ it in. Even the bartender said you was rich. So you’ve got two ways to make it right. Either you give us the money your partner owes or we take over the saloon and call it even,” Mack said.

  “What do you mean you’ll be taking over the saloon? It was Cade McCall who signed that paper. I don’t owe you anything.”

  “The thing is, we got us a lawyer,” Mack lied. “‘N this here is what he told us. Bein’ as the two of you is partners, whatever one of you signs is the same as both of you signin’ it. That means that if we can’t get the seventy-two hunnert dollars from McCall, we’ll be a’ gettin’ it from you.”

  “Go ahead and take it to court,” Jeter said. “I’m prepared to fight you for it.”

  “Oh, I think we can settle this betwixt us without goin’ to court at all,” Mack said with an evil smile.

  “There won’t be any settlement, not for the kind of money you’re asking for,” Jeter said.

  “How much is the saloon worth to you?” Luke asked.

  “I don’t know how much it’s worth. To be honest with you, I don’t think it’s worth as much as you have on that marker.”

  “You wasn’t listenin’ to the question. What I asked was, how much is it worth to you? Is it worth your family?”

  “My family?” Jeter asked, a sick feeling coming over him.

  “Take a look out the front window.”

  When Jeter looked out he saw Magnolia, Mary, Bella, and Chantal sitting in a wagon. There was a man with them.

  “That’s our brother that’s with ‘em,” Mack said. “Weasel is . . . well, I don’t quite know how to describe him, but Weasel is a little touched in the head. He kind of likes to hurt people.”

  “You can’t do that,” Jeter yelled, but even as he was protesting he was thinking of Amon Kilgore and Fred Toombs. Those two had kidnapped Magnolia before, and he wouldn’t put it past these men to do it again. Before he asked the question, he knew what he would do. “What do you want?”

  “Sign your saloon over to us, and we’ll let ‘em go,” Mack said. He showed Jeter a piece of paper.

  This here paper is to show that I signed over my saloon to Luke, Mack, and Weasel Slater.

  “As you can see, they’s a place there for you to sign,” Mack said.

  “Are you telling me a lawyer drew this up for you?” Jeter asked after he read it.

  “No, I done it myself,” Mack said, rather proudly. “Now, unlessen you want your family hurt, you’ll sign this here paper like I told you to.”

  “You can’t do that, hold my family hostage and force me to sign over my saloon to you. Why the claim wouldn’t be legal.”

  “Why don’t you go to the sheriff? Oh, wait, Dodge City don’t have a sheriff, does it? You don’t have no law at all, except for this.” Luke held up his pistol. “And right now, we seem to be in the catbird’s seat. Now, what will it be, Mr. Willis?”

  “You’ll let them go if I sign that quit claim?”

  “You’ve got my word.” Mack lifted his hand. “We don’t want to hurt them, but we’re sort of usin’ them for leverage, I think it’s called. We needed somethin’ to push you into givin’ us what your partner lost fair and square in a poker game. If you don’t want to honor your debt, well then that little ole wife of yours . . . she’s a feisty one. She won’t want to see anything happen to that old woman and those two crying brats.” Mack squinted his eyes. “But you can damn sure believe, if we give the signal, our brother will kill ‘em right here as we sit, and by the time the law gets here from Hays, we’ll be long gone. Now what will it be Mr. Willis?”

  Jeter looked through the window again, and saw the fear in the faces of his wife and his mother, as they were trying to comfort the children. He had to trust that these men would not do them any harm if he signed the paper.

  “Give me a pen.”

  “Good man,” Mack said when the paper was signed. “Now, how about a drink, on the house, to celebrate? Oh, ‘n seein’ as this here saloon now belongs to us, why, when I say that the drink’s on the house, what I’m really sayin’ is that it’s on us.”

  “I don’t care to have a drink. All I want is my family back.”

  10

  Cade, Bat, Ed, and Theo were taking a lunch break while the team of mules, still attached to the draw blade, stood to one side of the graded path, munching on grass.

  “According to the railroad engineers we’re on track to finish the grading within another week,” Ed said.

  “One more week to go,” Bat said.

  “Then we’ll get three hundred dollars,” Theo said. “To tell the truth, I don’t think I’ve ever had that much money at one time.”

  “What plans have you made for your fortune?” Bat asked.

  “I’m goin’ to get a new set of clothes, then I’m goin’ up to Emporia to the best restaurant in town, ‘n order the most expensive thing they have.”

  “That would be escargot,” Bat said.

  “All right, then that’s what I’m going to order.”

  “What if you don’t like it?”

  “How would I not like it? If it’s the most expensive thing they have, then it has to be good, don’t it?”

  “Theo, do you know what escargot is?” Ed asked.

  “No.”

  “It’s snails.”

  “What? You’re kidding me! Who would eat snails, unless they was somewhere starvin’ to death? ‘N why would a restaurant serve it, ‘n why would they charge so much for it?”

  “It’s considered a delicacy by the French,” Bat explained.

  “Yeah? Well, this ain’t France, and as far as I’m concerned, snails is nothin’ but bugs. I reckon I’ll just get me a steak.”

  “Hey,” Ed said, pointing to a rider who was approaching. “Isn’t that your partner from the Red House?”

  “Yes,” Cade said with a broad smile. “That is Jeter.”

  Cade stood up and walked out to meet the approaching rider.

  “Jeter, what brings you out here? If it’s to check on my attitude, well I’ll have to tell you, you were right. I’ve done a lot of thinking since I came out here, and I’m a changed man. Hard work will do that for you.”

  Jeter had offered no greeting, nor did he respond to Cade’s remarks. He said nothing at all as he dismounted, then held out a piece of paper toward Cade.

  “What’s this?” Cade asked.

  “You tell me,” Jeter replied.

  Cade examined the paper.

  Redeemable for $7250.00

  Red House Saloon as Collateral

  Cade McCall

  “What is this? Where’d you get this?”

  “I got it from the men who now own the Red House Saloon,” Jeter said.

  “What are you saying? I don’t know anything about this.”

  “Cade, we’ve been together for many years. Do you think I can’t recognize your writing and your signature?”

  Cade didn’t reply.

  “I am bankrupt, you son of a bitch!” Jeter shouted. “You cost me my saloon, and nearly my family.”

  “Jeter, I . . .”

  That was as far as Cade got before Jeter hit him with a round house right that knocked Cade down.

  Cade got up, rubbing his jaw. “Jeter, I’m sorry.”

  “Sorry? Sorry? You cost me everything and all you can say is you’re sorry?” Jeter hit him again, and again, Cade made no effort to block it, though he did manage to keep his feet.

  “Fight back!” Jeter said. “Fight back you son of a bitch!”

  Jeter continued his pummeling, but at no time did Cade make an effort to defend himself.

  After a few more blows, Cade’s eye began to swell shut; he was bleeding from his nose and a cut on his lip. There were also bruises on his jaw.

  Finally Jeter stopped hitting him, and he stood there breathing heavily from the effort, and with both hands hanging down by his side.

  “You son of a bitch,” Jeter said again, though these words weren’t yelled, or even spoken ha
rshly. Rather they were spoken softly, and sorrowfully. “What were you thinking? How could you have done that to me, Cade? To us?”

  “I’m sorry,” Cade said again.

  “You’re sorry, all right.” Jeter turned away from him, then remounted. From his saddle, he looked down at Cade.

  “Don’t ever come around me again,” he said. “And another thing, you’ve never wanted to claim Chantal as yours; well you’re getting your wish. From now on Chantal is my daughter.”

  Cade watched Jeter ride away, feeling a lump in his throat. His best friend hated him, but not as much as he hated himself.

  “Cade, are you all right?” Bat asked, solicitously. He, Ed, and Theo had stood by, watching the entire confrontation in absolute silence, until this moment.

  “Lunch time is over,” Cade said. “We’ve got some grading to do.”

  When Luke Slater walked into the Pig Lot Saloon in Caldwell, he was greeted by Dusty Coleman.

  “I haven’t seen you for a while, Slater,” the saloon owner said. “And to be honest, I was hopin’ I wouldn’t be seein’ you anytime soon. The last time you were here, you started a fight.”

  “Yeah, well, you was paid for whatever damage me ‘n my brothers done. Is Lola Fontaine here?”

  “She’s upstairs, but I can get one of the other girls for you.”

  “No. I just want to see Lola.”

  “Then you’ll have to wait your turn. What’ll you have to drink?”

  “I don’t want nothin’.”

  “This isn’t a waiting room for the stage, Slater. If you’re going to sit around in here, you’re either goin’ to buy a drink or you’re goin’ to pay rent. Which will it be?”

  “I’ll have a beer.”

  Coleman drew a beer and handed it to Slater who took it over to a table that afforded him not only a view of the stairs, but of the first door up on the second landing. He knew that door very well; it was Lola Fontaine’s door.

  He was half finished with his beer when the door opened and a man came out. He had a smug and satisfied expression on his face, and was still packing his shirt tail in as he started down the stairs. Lola stepped into the door.