“Say, what’s your business here?” he asked me. “And what business you got asking about people’s shotguns?”
“Oh, none,” I said. “I got a pard in there I wanted to see about.”
He kind of shifted around to have me more in front of him. “Who?” he asked. “I’m law, so I’ve got a right to ask.”
“Who?”
“Yeah, who.”
I wanted him to know who was fixing to kill him and why. I said, “Wait a minute!” and suddenly took two quick steps backward. It lined him up nicely against the light.
“You ever heard of Wilson Young?” I asked him. As soon as I said it he started up with the shotgun, whirling to go into a crouch so he could shoot. I hadn’t waited. As soon as I spoke I was drawing. I pulled and shot him twice. My gun made a lot of noise, but I heard him yell, “Oh, no! My God, no!”
At first I thought I’d missed him and I fired again, but he was going to the ground even as I pulled the trigger. He was such a big man that the slugs didn’t knock him down as they ordinarily would have. He fell, the shotgun falling out of his hands and hitting the ground. He went down and lay spread-eagle in the dust. I walked over and stood over him a second, noting where I’d hit him. All three bullets had gone home. He wasn’t laughing any more. He wasn’t ever going to be laughing again and he wasn’t going to be transporting any bodies and collecting any fifteen hundred dollars. I figured I’d give him a fairer shake than they’d give Les. I nudged him once with my boot. He didn’t move. He was dead all right. I didn’t feel bad about it. As a matter of fact I felt damn good. I turned away and walked off.
It was a good little ways downtown to the hotel, but I hurried all I could. As I’d been walking away I’d seen the door of the hospital open and the man who’d been at the desk stick his head out. He’d heard the shots no doubt and was coming to see what was up. It wasn’t likely, but there was a chance somebody might jump on a horse and ride down and alert Bird. I wanted to be sure I got there in time. I sure didn’t want to miss him.
I remembered one time when me and Les was boys, maybe twelve or thirteen, and we were out hunting jackrabbits. We used to chase them on horseback and try to hit them on the run with a hand gun. It was good sport though not much bother to the jackrabbits, as we mainly just busted a lot of caps without ever hitting one. But this particular time we’d got separated, I think he’d gone one way after a rabbit and I’d gone the other after a different one. I was running my horse pretty hard when he chanced to stumble and fall. It didn’t hurt the animal, but it did knock me out and break my leg. When I come to it was getting near dark and my horse had run off and I was miles from home. I didn’t know what the hell I was going to do. I was a young shaver and it kind of scared me. I knew Les would eventually go in and tell somebody, but it’d be quite a while before they found me. My leg was swelling up and turning blue and that scared me even more. I figured I was gonna die for sure. Well, I’d been laying there for about thirty minutes, worrying and just about getting ready to cry, when I heard a horse coming up behind me. I switched around and there come old Les, riding along and looking for me. He’d seen my horse hightailing it for home, so he’d known something must have happened and he’d set out to find me. I don’t know, I’ve always kind of appreciated that. It wouldn’t have been nothing for a man to do, but old Les was just a kid himself and it was coming on dark. Well, he was always a mighty good man.
When I got near to the hotel I could see Jack out in front. He was pacing back and forth in the street, every now and then giving a look up at a window of the hotel. As soon as he saw me he came walking down toward me.
“Are you all right?”
“Yeah,” I said. I didn’t feel much like talking. I was feeling pretty bad in my mind.
“Did you see Morton?”
“Yeah,” I said. I’d stopped and was looking up at the window Jack had been casing. “Is he up there?”
“Bird? Yeah, he’s up there. The room with the light on.”
“How do you know?”
“I made me up a question and went up and asked him. He’s laying up there in the bed.”
“What’d you ask him?”
“Oh, just something about notifying Les’s family. Asked him if he was going to.”
Jack was awful nervous. I guess he wanted to know what had happened with me and Morton, but he was too polite to just out and ask.
“What’d he say about that?”
“He said, hell no he wasn’t going to notify them. Said they could read about it in the papers for all he cared.”
“I see,” I said.
We walked in toward the hotel and went in the door and stopped in the lobby. “Morton’s dead,” I said. “I killed him.”
Jack just nodded. He wasn’t going to say anything about it. I started for the stairs and then turned back to Jack.
“Will you do me one other favor?”
“Name it.”
“Will you tend to that about letting Les’s daddy know? After I get through with Bird I’m going to be a bit rushed for time and I know Les would have wanted his daddy to know right away.”
“I’ll see to it,” Jack said.
I took out some money. “And will you also see to getting his body shipped back? I expect they’ve got it ready over at the hospital. All ready for Bird and Morton.” I looked up the stairs. “But they won’t be shipping any bodies, not right away.” I held out a twenty-dollar gold piece. “This ought to cover shipping him on the train.”
“Aw hell, Will,” Jack said. “I’ll get that. It won’t be that much.”
“I know,” I said. “But I want to get it. All right?”
He shrugged and took the money. “I know how you must be feeling, Will.”
“I’m fixing to be feeling a lot better.”
He put out his hand and touched my arm. “Will, you know Bird.”
“I know him,” I said.
“He’s a tough hombre. He’s still got all the bark on.”
“That’s all right,” I said. I turned for the stairs again. “Jack, I’m much obliged for all your help. If I were you I wouldn’t hang around here. You don’t want to get mixed up in this.” I stuck out my hand and he took it and we shook. “I’ll lay out somewhere and then catch that early train in the morning.”
“I’ll see you, Will.”
I watched him until he’d walked across the lobby and went outside and then I turned and climbed the stairs. Bird’s room was on the second floor. It was the middle one facing on the street. I stopped in front of his door. It was just a little ajar, which wasn’t unusual because most of them didn’t have latches anyway. I’d loaded my gun on the walk over from the hospital and I loosened it in the holster and then suddenly pushed open the door and stepped into the room.
Bird was laying on the bed with his hands behind his head staring at the ceiling. He had his breeches on, but he was barefoot and in his undershirt. His holster was looped over the bed post. I’d come in so quiet and quick that he didn’t have hardly time to jump before I was in and had the door closed behind me. He recognized me right off, but he just kind of raised his head and took his hands down. We stared at each other for a second or two.
I nodded my head toward him. “Was that just about the way Les was settled when you and Morton killed him?”
Bird didn’t say anything for a minute. He was watching me close. I knew he was thinking about his holster just right by his shoulder and calculating his chances.
Finally he said: “He didn’t give us no choice. He made us do it.”
“Sure,” I said.
“I’m not lying, Young. We had him covered and he pulled on us. We had to shoot him.”
“Is that why you had to shoot him four times? I hear them last two looked like you’d jammed the barrel right in him.”
“I’m telling you how it was, Young.”
I didn’t say anything and we stared at each other for a minute. It’s not my style to kill an unarmed man,
but I wasn’t too sure I wasn’t about to break that rule in Bird’s case. He was still laying on his back, but he’d kind of slowly inched his way up until he was leaning against the headboard a little. I just watched him, hoping he’d make a sudden move.
Finally he seen I was aware of what he was doing and he kind of settled back. “Well?” he asked me. “What are you going to do?”
“Kill you,” I said. “Morton’s already got his.”
He didn’t say anything to that. We stared at each other another second or two. I wasn’t in any hurry. I wanted to make the bastard sweat a little if he would. But he was a cool customer all right. I hadn’t come into the room with any idea I was fooling with a schoolboy. Bird’s been around and he can handle himself. But so can I.
Finally he asked me if I just planned to shoot him down.
“There’s your gun,” I said, nodding toward the bed post. “Yours is in the holster and so is mine.”
He gave a little snort. “Oh, goddam, Young! I know who you are. You mean that’s all the chance you’re going to give me?” He snorted again. “Hell, that ain’t no show.”
I just looked at him and didn’t say anything. He’d pulled himself up a little more, but the gun was still way above him and in an awkward position to make a draw.
“I’ve heard you were square, Young. I’ve heard you’d give a man a chance.”
“You’ve got a chance,” I said.
“About the same as a calf in a wolf den.”
I just kept watching him. I could see it was starting to bother him. Finally he got a little edge in his voice. “Goddamit, if you’re going to do it, get on with it. Don’t just keep standing there staring at a man!”
“Get up on that bed a little further,” I said. “But take it slow.”
He looked at me, hard, for a second and then slowly began to inch himself up. There was a bedside table just beside his bed. Hanging from the bed post, the end of his holster was nearly touching the top of the little table. I watched Bird, letting him inch his way along until he was almost sitting straight up. But he was still going to have to reach out and up to make his draw. It wasn’t really fair, but it was all I was going to give him.
He’d adjusted himself so that he wasn’t quite leaning back. He was almost sitting up. I could see he was tensed. He had his arms flung out at his sides, but he was running the fingers of his right hand up and down the leg of the little bedside table. It pleased me. The way he kept playing with it made me think he was getting nervous. I wanted him to sweat.
“All right,” I said. “Hold it right there.”
“Here? Just here? My God, Young, this ain’t no show. Gimme a chance!”
“That’s it,” I said.
“My God, man!” He had hold of the leg of the little table, had his fingers around it and was squeezing so hard his knuckles were white. He was getting scared all right.
“You better get ready,” I said. I let my hand steal up toward my gun.
We stared at each other. I could see him tensing his muscles.
Then I don’t know what happened. His arm suddenly came up and forward and the next thing I knew the little bedside table was flying across the room right at my head. I ducked, drawing as I did, and went down to my knees. Before I could get straightened back up and get off a shot I heard a boom! and something hit me high on the shoulder and knocked me back against the door. It had hit me in the right shoulder, my gun hand, and I could feel my arm going numb. I tried to raise my gun. I could see Bird, he was on his knees, on the bed, leveling to get another shot at me. Suddenly his gun exploded again and I felt a bullet hit me in the side. I thumbed my own piece, getting off two shots, but they went wild. I figured it was all up with me. My arm was so numb I couldn’t aim. I rolled to my right, switching my gun as I did. Bird fired again, but he hit where I’d been. I laid on my side and snapped off a quick shot at him lefthanded. It was awkward shooting, but it hit him in the stomach and he suddenly sat backward. I was rising when he got himself back up, holding his revolver with both hands, and shot me just under the right collarbone. I pumped two or three shots into him and he went backward and hit the headboard and then slid off the bed.
After the gunshots the room seemed very quiet. My ears were ringing and I was dizzy. I got up on my knees and then got hold of the wall and pulled myself to my feet. The room was spinning and I leaned against the wall trying to get my senses back. I was hurt, hurt bad, and I knew it. I was still holding my revolver and I reached across my body and got it back in the holster. My right arm felt completely useless. I looked across to where Bird lay but the room was so full of smoke I couldn’t see. I pushed away from the wall and staggered over to where he was. He was laying half on and half off the bed and he had his mouth open. He’d bought his all right.
“Well, there,” I said. “You bastard.”
I felt my side and my hand came away smeared with blood. The wound in my side wasn’t too bad. It was the wound up under my collarbone that I was worried about. I was scared to look at it.
Then I became conscious of voices out in the hall. I reached across and pulled my pistol out and got it in my left hand. I was going to have to move before the local law came around. I walked over and jerked the door back with my foot. There were about four or five men out in the hall and they kind of fell back when I walked out. They could see I didn’t intend to be fooled with.
“Get out of my way,” I said. I had my revolver about half up, but not aiming it at anybody in particular. I walked by them and headed for the stairs. “Anybody follows me and I’ll kill them.”
I stumbled down the stairs and made it across the lobby and went outside. For a second I was confused and didn’t know what to do. I could feel myself getting weaker and I knew I was losing a lot of blood. I was in a bad way. I had to hurry. I turned south and started off in a kind of trot. I wasn’t going to the train station. I’d go south of town and Rag it down the next morning. I’d hide out all night along the tracks. Hell, I’d be all right. I was Wilson Young. I was some hombre.
I ran as best I could, but I couldn’t go very fast. I kept getting dizzy. For just an instant everything would suddenly begin to whirl around and I’d feel like I was going to fall down. Then my head would clear and I could go on. I wished for my little filly. I wished mightily for her.
“She’d get me back,” I said. I said it aloud, but it took a second to realize I’d spoken out. I thought I was thinking the words.
I’ll get back, I told myself. I’ll get back to my filly and Sabinas and that Linda. I’ll be all right.
I kept running along in a kind of stumbling run. I was running down the middle of the dusty street. I’d gotten away from the square and now I was running down a little street past dark houses. They were all shut up for the night. There wasn’t a light showing. I kept running along thinking about the girl. I couldn’t think too good, my head kept spinning on me.
Suddenly I stumbled and fell. I ended up down in the dust on my knees. The fall had knocked my revolver out of the holster and it lay in the dust in front of me. I picked it up and looked at it.
I thought about Sabinas and Linda. I thought about it and I felt like crying, felt just like that time when I’d been only thirteen and out on the prairie and it getting dark and my leg hurting.
“The hell I will!” I suddenly said out loud. Far off I could hear a dog howling. I got off my knees and sat down in the dust. I wasn’t going back to Sabinas. I wasn’t going anywhere. That girl wasn’t for me, that life wasn’t for me. I was a bank robber. I’d always been a bank robber.
“The hell with it!” I said aloud. I raised my revolver and pointed it at the sky and began firing. It went boom, boom, boom, boom. It made a lot of noise in the quiet night. I felt very, very dizzy. I thought how good it would feel just to lay back and take a little nap. I raised my revolver and fired again. The hammer snapped when I pulled the trigger the second time. I was out of shells. I lay back.
LYRICAL PRESS BO
OKS are published by
Kensington Publishing Corp.
119 West 40th Street
New York, NY 10018
Copyright © 1970 Giles Tippette
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.
LYRICAL PRESS and the Lyrical logo are Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Office.
First electronic edition: April 2016
ISBN: 978-1-6018-3811-7
The Bank Robber Page 23