“All you have to do is send a telegram to the sheriff of Hinsdale County and ask if the poster is still good.”
Turnball stroked his chin for a moment. “I could do that, I suppose, but what difference would it make?”
“What do you mean, what difference would it make? It would prove that I’m not a wanted man.”
“Oh, it might prove that you aren’t wanted for this crime anymore,” Turnball said, pointing to the poster. “Whatever the crime was. But that don’t have anything to do with why you are in jail now. You are in jail now because you robbed a bank and killed a good man, and near half the town seen you do it. That’s somethin’ you can’t get out of.”
“I didn’t do it,” Smoke said.
“Yes, well, I guess we’ll just have to let a judge and jury decide that, won’t we?”
Dooley, the Logan brothers, Fargo, Ford, and Buford Yancey had watched from an elevated position near the place where they had encountered Smoke. They saw the posse arrive, confront Smoke, then ride away with him as their captive.
“Ha!” Yancey said. “That was smart leavin’ them empty bank wrappers like that. They think he done it.”
“Yeah, but this is what gets me. They got to know that there was more’n one person,” Fargo said. “How come they’re all goin’ back with him? Why ain’t they still searchin’ for the rest of us?”
“Come on, Fargo, you know how posses is,” Curt Logan explained. “When they first get started, why, they’re all full of piss and vinegar, ready to chase a body to hell and back. But they run out of steam just real quick. Especially if they find just enough success to make ’em feel good about themselves. And what we done was give ’em somethin’ to make ’em think they done good.”
“Let’s go,” Dooley said, turning away.
Dooley led them up into the high country and through a pass that was still packed with snow.
“Damn, Dooley,” Curt Logan said. “Couldn’t you find a place that’s easier to get through? The snow here is ass-deep to a tall Indian.”
“Nobody who’s looking for us will expect us to come this way,” Dooley said. “And if they do come this way, it’ll be just as hard for them as it is for us.”
“Well, you seen ’em. They ain’t even comin’ after us at all,” Curt Logan said. “I sure don’t see no need to be workin’ so hard just to get away from a posse that ain’t even chasin’ us.”
“If you don’t like followin’ me, just go your own way,” Dooley offered.
“Well, hell, we ain’t got no choice now but to keep on a-goin’ this way,” Curt Logan said. “Now it’d be as hard to go back as it is to keep goin’.”
“Besides which, we ain’t divided up the money yet,” Yancey said.
“We’ll divide it up soon as we get through the pass,” Dooley said. “Then we can all go our separate ways.”
Chapter Eight
“Come on, Pearlie, why won’t you go with me?” Cal asked.
“I just don’t care that much about travelin’ shows, that’s all,” Pearlie said.
“But they say that Eddie Foy is really funny.”
“You go, Cal,” Pearlie said. “Have a good time.”
“You’re sure you don’t want to come? I mean, I won’t go if you . . .”
“Go,” Pearlie said. “We aren’t joined at the hip. You can do something by yourself if you want to.”
Cal smiled. “All right, if you’re sure.” He started down the street toward the music hall. A large banner that was spread across the front of the music hall read: EDDIE FOY—DANCER—HUMORIST.
“Cal?” Pearlie called.
Cal turned toward him.
“If you hear any good jokes, tell me tonight, will you?”
Cal nodded. “I will!” he said.
Pearlie watched his young friend walk away; then he headed for the saloon. It wasn’t that he didn’t want Cal’s company, or even that he didn’t enjoy his company. It was just that he intended to play a little poker tonight and he knew how Sally felt about such things. He didn’t want to be blamed for getting Cal mixed up in a card game.
There was another reason Pearlie wanted to play cards tonight. On the few nights he had come in for a beer, which was all he could afford before his first payday working in the livery stable, he had noticed that the Oasis Saloon employed a woman as dealer for the card games.
The woman’s name was Annie, and through the week, Pearlie and Annie had flirted with each other. She had invited him into the game several times, and Pearlie sometimes got the idea that the invitation might be for more than just a game of cards.
He had turned her down every time, not because he didn’t want to, but because he couldn’t afford to. Tonight, he felt like he could, so he nursed a beer at the bar, then went straight to the table the moment a seat opened up.
“My, my,” Annie said, smiling up at him. “Look who has finally come around.”
“I thought I might give it a try,” Pearlie said, sitting in the open chair.
“New player, new deck,” Annie said. She picked up a box, broke the seal, then dumped the cards onto the table. They were clean, stiff, and shining. She pulled out the joker, then began shuffling the deck. The stiff, new pasteboards clicked sharply. Her hands moved swiftly, folding the cards in and out until the law of random numbers became king. She shoved the deck across the table.
“Cut?” she invited Pearlie. She leaned over the table, showing a generous amount of cleavage.
Pearlie cut the deck, then pushed the cards back. He tried to focus on her hands, though it was difficult to do so because she kept finding ways to position herself to draw his eyes toward her more interesting parts.
“You aren’t having trouble concentrating, are you?” Annie teased.
“Depends on what I’m concentrating on,” Pearlie said.
Annie smiled. “You naughty boy,” she said.
“Here, what’s goin’ on here?” one of the other players asked. “You two know each other?”
“Not yet,” Annie answered. She licked her lips. “But I have a feeling we are going to. Five-card?” She paused before she said the next word. “Stud?”
“Fine,” Pearlie said.
The cards started falling for Pearlie from the moment he sat down. He won fifteen dollars on the first hand, and a couple of hands later he was ahead by a little over thirty dollars. In less than an hour, he had already tripled the money he’d started with.
Eddie Foy, wearing a broad, outlandish black and white plaid suit, along with a bright red shirt and a huge bow tie, pranced and danced across the stage. He was a very athletic dancer who often twisted his body into extreme positions, but did so gracefully.
Sometimes he would stop right in the middle of his dance and look at one of his legs in a seemingly impossible position. When he did so, he would assume a look of shock, as if even he were surprised to see his leg there. Then, with that same shocked expression on his face, he would stare at the audience, as if asking them how this had happened.
The audience would react in explosive laughter; then the music would start again and his dance would resume.
Sometimes in the middle of his dance, the music would stop and Eddie would walk to the front of the stage, turn sideways, then stare out at the audience, almost as if surprised to see them there. He was carrying a cane, and he had a method of holding the cane behind him in such a way as to cause his hat to seem to tip on its own.
As he spoke, he affected a very pronounced lisp.
“Yethterday wath thuch a nith day that I went for a thmall thtroll,” he began.
The audience grew quiet, and Cal leaned forward in anticipation of the upcoming joke.
“I took mythelf into the bank and gave the teller a twenty-dollar bill. My good man, I thaid, I would like to trade thith bill for two ten-dollar billth.
“The teller complied with my requeth.
“I then thaid, my good man, tho well did you perform that tathk, that now I would like to
trade my forty-year-old wife for two ladieth of twenty.”
Eddy Foy tipped his hat as the audience exploded with laughter.
Cal decided that would be one of the jokes he would have to remember to tell Pearlie.
Back in the Oasis Saloon, most of the other players were taking Pearlie’s good luck in stride, but the one who had asked if Annie and Pearlie knew each other, a man named Creedlove, began complaining.
“Somethin’ kind’a fishy is goin’ on here,” Creedlove said.
“Fishy, Mr. Creedlove?” Annie asked sweetly. Creedlove looked at Annie, then nodded toward Pearlie. “I think you’n him’s workin’ together,” he said.
“And just how would we be working together?” Annie asked. Almost instantly, the smile had left her face and her words were cold and measured.
“You think I believe that him winnin’ all the time is just dumb luck?” Creedlove asked.
“It’s not luck, it’s skill,” Pearlie said. “And the only dumb person in this card game is you. You need to calculate the odds so as to know when to bet and when to fold. That’s somethin’ you haven’t figured out.”
“You think you have me pegged, do you?” Creedlove asked. He stared across the table through narrowed eyes. “Suppose me’n you have a go at it? Just the two of us.”
“Don’t ask me,” Pearlie said. “Ask the others if they’d be willing to sit it out.”
“I come to play cards,” one of the others said. “I don’t plan to sit nothin’ out.”
“Twenty-five dollars to sit in,” Creedlove said.
“That’s too rich for my blood.”
“Anyone else?”
“Play your game, Creedlove. I’ll just drink my beer and watch,” one of the others said.
“How about you?” Creedlove asked Pearlie.
“All right, I’ll play. Name your game,” Pearlie said.
“Five-card stud.”
“I’m in,” Pearlie said, sliding twenty-five dollars to the middle of the table.
Creedlove reached for the cards, but Pearlie stuck his hand out to stop him. “You don’t think I’m going to let you deal, do you? We’ll let the lady deal.”
“Huh-uh,” Creedlove said, shaking his head. He nodded toward one of the other players. “We’ll let Pete deal.”
“How do I know that you and Pete aren’t in cahoots? Suppose we get someone who isn’t at this table right now,” Pearlie suggested.
“Who?”
Pearlie looked around the saloon and saw that there were at least four bar girls working the tables. “How about one of the ladies?” Pearlie asked. “You can choose.”
“All right,” Creedlove said. He looked over toward the nearest one. “You, honey, come here,” he called.
The girl looked up in surprise at being summoned in such a way.
“It’s all right, Sue,” Annie said. “It’ll just take a minute.”
“We want you to deal a hand of cards,” Creedlove said to Sue when she came over.
“She gets ten dollars from the pot,” Annie said.
“What? Why should she get ten dollars?”
“If she gets ten dollars from the pot, it won’t make any difference to her who wins,” Annie said. “It will guarantee you that it’s a fair game.”
“That’s fine by me,” Pearlie said. “How about you?”
“All right,” Creedlove agreed.
Sue dealt a down card to each, then an up card. Creedlove showed a king, Pearlie a five of hearts.
Creedlove laughed. “Not lookin’ that good for you, is it? Bet five dollars.”
Pearlie matched the bet.
The next card gave Creedlove a pair of kings showing. Pearlie drew a six.
“Bet ten dollars,” Creedlove said.
Pearlie called the bet, and Creedlove’s next card was a jack. Pearlie drew another six, giving him a pair of sixes.
Creedlove bet another ten dollars and Pearlie called.
Creedlove’s final card was another jack. Pearlie drew another six.
“Well, now,” Creedlove said. “I have two pair, kings and jacks, and you have three of a kind.” Creedlove lifted his down card. “So the big question is, do I have a jack or a king as my hole card? Or do your three little sixes have my two pair beat?” He chuckled, and put twenty dollars in the pot. “It’s going to cost you twenty to find out.”
Pearlie called and raised him twenty.
The smile left Creedlove’s face. “You’re puttin’ quite a store in them three sixes, aren’t you? How do you know I don’t have a full house?”
“I’m betting you have two pair, and I have you beat,” Pearlie said.
Creedlove hesitated for a second, then, with a big smile, he pushed twenty dollars into the center of the table. “All right, I’ve got you right where I want you. I call.” He smiled and flipped over his down card to disclose a king. “Well, lookie here, a full house, kings over jacks. It looks like you lost this one, friend. A full house beats three sixes.”
Creedlove reached for the pot as Pearlie turned up his down card showing another six.
“Yes, but it won’t beat four sixes,” he said, reaching for the pot and pulling it toward him.
“What?” Creedlove gasped. He pointed at the table.
“That’s not possible!” he said.
“Of course it’s possible,” Pearlie said. “There are four of everything in a deck. Or hadn’t you ever noticed that?” he added innocently.
By now, everyone in the saloon was aware of the high-stakes game and they had all gathered around to watch. They laughed at Pearlie’s barb.
Creedlove slid the rest of his money to the center of the table. “I’ve got thirty-six dollars here,” he said. “What do you say we cut for high card?”
Pearlie covered his bet; then Sue fanned the cards out.
“I’ll draw first,” Creedlove said.
Creedlove drew a queen.
“Ha!” he said triumphantly.
Pearlie drew a king.
“What the . . .” Creedlove shouted in anger. “You cheated me, you son of a bitch! Nobody is this lucky!”
“How did I cheat?” Pearlie asked. “You had the same chance I did.”
“I don’t know how you cheated,” Creedlove said. “I just know that, somehow, you cheated.”
Pearlie stood up then, and stepped back from the table. “Now, mister, you might want think about that for a moment,” he said in a quiet but ominous voice. “You can always get more money, but you can’t get another life.”
“No,” Creedlove said, shaking his head and holding his hand out in front of him as he backed away. “No. I ain’t goin’ to draw against you. But I ain’t takin’ back my words either. You are a card cheat.”
“Both you gents just hold it right there,” someone said loudly and, looking toward the sound of the voice, Pearlie saw the bartender pointing his shotgun toward them.
“Callin’ someone a cheat is the kind of thing that can get a man killed if he can’t back it up,” the bartender said. “Annie, Sue, you been watchin’ this. Was there any cheatin’ goin’ on?”
“Not a bit of it, Karl,” Annie replied. “The game was aboveboard in every respect.”
“All right, then that leaves you at fault, Creedlove. So I reckon you’d better get on out of here.”
“You got no right to run me out of here,” Creedlove said.
The bartender pulled back the hammers of the shotgun.
“This here scattergun gives me the right,” the bartender said. “Now, you can either walk out, or your bloody carcass will be pulled out. Which is it going to be?”
Creedlove glared at the bartender for a moment. Then he glared at Pearlie.
“This ain’t the end of it,” Creedlove said to Pearlie. “Me’n you will run in to each other again sometime.”
“I can hardly wait,” Pearlie replied.
“Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on your way out,” Annie called to him.
A th
underous laughter from the saloon patrons chased Creedlove out of the saloon.
“Marshal?” Smoke called from the cell.
“What do you want, Jensen?”
“I appreciate you standing up to the mob like that.”
“That wasn’t a mob,” Turnball said. “That was a group of concerned citizens. Maybe you don’t realize this, Jensen, but folks around here had a hard winter.”
“We all had a hard winter,” Smoke said.
“Yes, well, a lot of the folks hereabout wouldn’t have their homes or businesses if not for Mr. Clark. You picked the wrong man to kill.”
“I didn’t kill him.”
“And you expect me to believe that?”
“Marshal, send a telegram to Sheriff Carson, back in Big Rock. He can tell you who I am.”
“I might just do that,” Marshal Turnball said. Turnball walked away from the cell and saw Deputy Pike standing at the front window.
“What are you lookin’ at?” Turnball asked.
“Them fellas you run away is all standin’ down there in front of the Bull’s Head.”
“I don’t have any problem with them as long as they’re standin’ down there talkin’ and not up here makin’ trouble,” Turnball said.
“That wasn’t right, you runnin’ ’em off like that,” Pike said. “Ever’one of ’em is our friend. I can’t believe you would’a shot Mr. Fremont over somethin’ like this.”
“I didn’t shoot him, did I?”
“Would you have shot him?”
“I didn’t shoot him, did I?” Turnball repeated.
Chapter Nine
“And then he said, ‘I walked into thith church,’” Cal was saying.
“Thith?”
“This,” Cal explained. “But that’s how he talked. He would say words like Mithithippi instead of Mississippi. It was real funny the way he talked.”
“All right, go on with the joke,” Pearlie said. It was the morning after, and Cal and Pearlie were mucking out stalls in the stable.
“All right. So Eddie Foy says, ‘Thith cowboy went into thith church and took a theat on a long bench, neckth to a pretty woman.’ And then Eddie Foy asked everyone in the audience, ‘What do you call that long bench that people thit on in a church?’
Betrayal of the Mountain Man Page 7