by James Short
It was good he was last because it was then safer to follow him. He was the key. He could out-devil the devil. Capture him and the plan was foiled. Outside, she couldn’t see five paces through the dense fog, but by listening carefully and treading softly, she managed to track him all the way to the hut of the Chinese fisherman’s family.
“Just you stay put,” she whispered, then she went in search of Conrad Kurtz, unable to help now the mad laughter bubbling out of her.
Onto the Rocks
Kurtz acted quickly on the information. The four roads leaving Solvidado had already been blocked, the dock and beach guarded, and nobody could stir out their house without being challenged by one of his hired guns, so he was fairly confident he had the pair bottled up.
His men having botched several aspects of this business, Kurtz decided to watch the hut of the Chinese fisherman himself. He yearned for a cigar as he kept vigil on the outline of the hut, which was in the fog the barest sketch of charcoal on deep gray. The darky had likely gone there to arrange the use of a boat. If Kurtz exercised patience, Franklin would lead him to Deering and the girl.
Elsewhere, Jacinto, after having strung a rope cargo net between the two trees—one side with slipknots, the other securely attached—was busy at his gruesome task in a small gully behind his shack. He had already dumped the mangled now faceless corpse of the tramp dressed in Tomàs’s clothes on an isolated beach north of Solvidado. The much-abused vagabond had the same dark hair as the Mayor of the Flats and was not too dissimilar in body type. Unfortunately, the odor was so high Jacinto doubted the body could be transported through the town without calling attention to itself. He would give the leftover scraps of this corpse to El Gran Conde—a damnable but necessary sacrilege.
Tomàs and Penelope were huddled underneath a small ledge by Solvidado Creek. Hiding the horse was too risky so they had let it wander off. Penelope pressed her cheek to his chest, realizing with some regret she could never leave this man, thief or not. Tomàs, holding this warm, live, wonderful creature in his arms, regretted their future rested solely on the denseness of the fog.
Franklin did not want to put the kind Chinese family in danger by staying too long. He hoped Jacinto could finish his work quickly because the longer Tomàs and Penny stayed in their place, the greater the chance of discovery. He mentally mapped out his course to the wagon that lay well-hidden near a road that ran along the cliffs. In the back of the wagon, there would be a dozen gold coins and the corpse of a faceless woman wearing the clothes that Kurtz had seen on Penelope.
The plan called for Franklin to drive along the road near Point Partida. Thornton would be waiting with Barnwell nearby. On hearing the wagon, Thornton was to call out Tomàs’s name and initiate a chase. In the fog and darkness, Barnwell wouldn’t make out who was in the wagon. Thornton would begin to fire, attracting the attention of Kurtz and his men. Just before the wagon went over the cliff, Franklin would stand up and grab the net strung between two cypress pines.
Since the cliff jutted out into the ocean like the prow of a ship, when the slipknot gave, Franklin would fall to the south, the port side, the net catching him like a sling. It would pay out twenty feet. By undoing a knot, Franklin could lower himself the rest of the way. The wagon would tumble off the starboard, the north side, attracting attention while Thornton cut the line at the base of the tree. After collecting the net and rope and hiding them, Franklin was to wade and swim past the breakers where Jacinto waited in his boat.
Meanwhile, Tomàs and Penelope would make their escape in another small boat cleverly hidden in a cave that was only exposed at low tide. Suspicion would fall on Franklin and Jacinto, however with most of the gold nowhere to be found, the suspicion wouldn’t bear fruit or treasure.
Franklin realized this plan was compromised as soon as he emerged from the hut and smelled the slight taint of stale tobacco. That odor hung around Kurtz whether he was smoking his cigar or not. With a tinge of regret, Franklin abandoned the first plan so elaborately conceived and contemplated the second.
“Well, time to give Mr. Kurtz other things to think about,” Franklin almost said out loud and thrust his hands into his heavy pockets. His fingers caressed thirty-five double eagles—seven hundred dollars—and thought how appropriate was the phrase, “All hell breaking loose.” as he walked towards the Flats.
Franklin pounded on the door of the first house he came to—a tiny two-room clapboard shack.
“Get away. You already searched us and stole all our venison stew,” answered a voice inside.
When he kicked the door in, Franklin found himself confronting a shaky gun held by a small man and two skinning knives in the steadier hands of each of his sons.
“They spilled the money everywhere from Cypress Beach to the Cliffs,” Franklin whispered breathlessly and took out of his pocket two fistfuls of coins. “Tell your neighbors. Show them these.” He opened his palms displaying the gold, then gave the boys two coins apiece who stared at their sudden wealth astounded.
“Are you trying to get my sons killed? This place is crawling with gunslingers who don’t care what they shoot.” A woman with startled eyes and a beaky nose appeared out of a dark corner.
“The gunslingers are too busy picking up whatever gold they can find to be thinking about picking a fight. Hurry. Best go out the back way.” Franklin moved his cupped hand with the coins back and forth under their noses.
The boys grinned and slid away boards from a glassless window.
“Humberto, stop them,” The woman yelled furiously at her husband as the boys slipped out.
Humberto shrugged his shoulders. “You’re always the one crabbing about not having two cents to rub together. This man just gave our sons more money than I’ve made all year.”
The door flew open and Kurtz burst in with four of his gang who threw Franklin, the husband, and his wife against the wall.
“You have ten seconds to tell me where Deering is?” Kurtz held a gun to Franklin’s head.
Too surprised that his life would end this way to be afraid, Franklin opened his hand letting six coins fall to the ground.
“Where did you get those?” Kurtz demanded.
“Along the road leading between the Flats and the town proper,” Franklin said, noticing the effect his words had on the hired guns.
The wife, who had ducked down, came up with the gun her husband had dropped and stuck behind Kurtz’s ear. “If I’m going to have to clean any darky’s brain off my wall, I might as well clean yours too. You boys go look for the gold. Don’t lose your chance, but don’t shoot anybody and tell your friends not to shoot anybody because then you’ll have to deal with me, and I’m meaner than all of you banditos put together.”
There was a shuffling of feet, a guilty smile or two, as the men left.
“Now, sir, let go of your gun.” She yanked it away from Kurtz. “You can go look for the gold yourself after we give this black devil here a head start.”
“A hundred dollars to let me go first,” Kurtz growled.
“A hundred dollars for what?” the woman said sharply. “Commit a mortal sin by helping you murder this darky? I ain’t selling my soul that cheap, sir.”
As Franklin hurried away, he was gratified to hear voices coming from a dozen different directions and see several blurry torches heading towards the cliffs and the mansion. The demons had come out. Tom and Penny must now take advantage of the confusion.
Tomàs covered himself and Penny with a blanket while they waited underneath the ledge by Solvidado Creek.
“We fit,” Penny said as she buried her head in his shoulder.
Tomàs held her and listened for Franklin’s footsteps and signal, which would be a long low whistle. When saw the bobbing torches passing along the trail above them and heard the excited conversation about the gold, he began to worry. It wasn’t good so many people were about. The plan had depended on the residents of Solvidado staying put. As time passed, Tomàs became more and more co
nvinced something had gone wrong.
Gently pushing Penny away, he climbed onto the trail. When another group passed, he ducked behind a tree. Leonel Bustamante, a cousin of his, was bragging loudly about what he was going to do with his share of the treasure. As Tomàs tuned his ears to the sounds around him, he heard voices, screams and wild laughter. He had the impression all of Solvidado was in an uproar. Tomàs returned to Penny.
“What’s happening isn’t right. Every man, woman, and child of the whole damn town is looking for the gold. I doubt we can sneak to the beach. We must try to get to the wagon ourselves and go overland.”
“Franklin promised he’ll come, and he will.”
“I would not hold him to his promise. We can no longer wait.”
Because of his supposed knowledge of where the coins had spilled, half the town was looking for Franklin at the same time they were looking for the gold. Never so glad for the dense fog, Franklin borrowed a horse and was cautiously heading towards Penny and Tom’s hiding place.
Kurtz, now mounted, was making contact with his men, asserting his authority, promising all an equal share of the gold to those who cooperated and no share and great harm to those who tried to “Cheat me and cheat his fellows out of their due.”
Thornton, unaware the plan had been abandoned, stubbornly waited with Barnwell near the fog-shrouded cliff with two blackened lanterns.
Jacinto sat in his boat, rocking off the base of the cliff which was invisible in the fog but whose presence was made known by the sound of the waves lapping against the rocks.
When Tomàs approached the beach where his boat was hidden, he heard the men Kurtz had sent to ambush him griping about their unprofitable guard duty while they passed around a flask of whiskey.
Tomàs located the ambushers’ horses, and leading one quietly away, he returned to Penny. This time she succeeded in mounting the horse on the first attempt. They nosed along in the darkness and fog until they found the old logging road which led east over the mountains. They were stopped a quarter mile beyond the town by a drunken voice thundering, “Hey there!”
“Do you have a little drink for me, amigos?” Tomàs shouted back, slurring and thickening his accent. He trusted they couldn’t make out in the fog that two people were mounted on the horse.
“Go to goddamn bloody hell, you goddamn bloody beaner!” came the reply followed by hoarse laughter.
They had better luck finding the wagon Jacinto had hidden for Franklin. It had been pushed off to the side of the road that led to a small cove north of Solvidado, the horses, unhitched, were hobbled in a marshy field nearby.
“Well, it looks like Jacinto has done his job,” Tomàs whispered as he hitched the horses to the wagon and touched with a shudder the bloody blanket covering the corpse. “I don’t think the fellows on the logging road are sober enough to put up much of a resistance. If they come after us, we have a better chance in the wagon than two on a horse.”
“I would give half of my remaining years on earth for one good eye and another good horse,” Penny said.
They set off. They hadn’t gotten very far when a group of townspeople searching for the gold suddenly loomed out of the fog blocking them. Seeing no alternative, Tomàs laid on the whip and drove through them. They scattered except for one man who jumped into the wagon bed. Tomàs shot him in the leg and he rolled off, cursing. The second band they came across, comprised of Tomàs’s friends and acquaintances including Matamoros, wasn’t so confrontational.
Holding a torch close to Penny’s face to get his eyeful, Matamoros said, “Boss, we aren’t going to rob you, and we mean no harm to your miss, but it would be a help if you swore you don’t have any gold.”
Tomàs handed out the dozen eagles in his pocket, leaving in his open palm only two, which he said he needed to keep for himself and Penny.
Matamoros shook his head. “Drunk or sober, boss, Kurtz’s boys will catch you. This town’s sewn up tight as a drum. Bay, coves, beaches, roads all covered by his pistoleros. And there are a thousand eyes watching. Every man, woman, and child are about searching for the gold. Even Canarias and Granny Lindheimer have crawled out of their beds for the first time in a decade to find their fortunes.”
After they went on, Penny explained her plan. Tomàs laughed bitterly. “No, dear, it will never work. I’ll find a place to hide you and then give Kurtz a merry chase all the way to hell.”
“Don’t pretend you don’t know me. This is the only way I won’t be separated from you. We either live together or die together, dear,” she said. “Besides, I’ve always liked going fast and never have had very many opportunities to do so in my life.”
Kurtz was the first to spot the wagon trundling along the cow path a quarter mile from the cliff. Hallooing, he spurred his horse while the wagon picked up speed. Thornton heard Kurtz’s call and the rumble of the wagon. He answered with a halloo, cried out “Stop in the name of the law,” and rode forward towards the smudgy light of the torch.
A moment later, the fog thinned, and Thornton saw over the impossible gap of two hundred yards Kurtz quickly pulling alongside the racing wagon despite the driver’s furious laying on of the whip. Holding the reins in one hand and a torch in the other, Kurtz couldn’t draw his gun so he tossed his torch into the back of the wagon. The flames quickly rose, clearly revealing to Thornton’s shock Tom and Penelope. Kurtz drew his gun and aimed.
“No!” Thornton screamed and hurtled forward as Tom thrashed at Kurtz’s gun with the whip.
Suddenly, another rider burst out of the fog and rammed Kurtz, both horses and riders falling in a heap. Thornton raced passed Franklin and Kurtz who wrestled, swearing and tangled on the ground. A few yards ahead of him, the burning wagon plunged over the cliff. As his horse reared on the crumbling edge, Thornton saw the light from the flames quickly diminish as the wagon fell. Heart in his throat, he wrenched his horse back. The darkness that followed was absolute. It occurred to him that he still had a job to do. He dismounted.
Tomàs had lashed himself to Penelope, over her protests. “Like you said, we live together, or we die together. When I tell you to stand, you stand and grab onto whatever comes your way.”
Things happened fast after Kurtz rode out of the darkness and yelled, “Stop or I’ll blow her brains out,” and further off, Thornton shouted, “Stop in the name of the law.”
Tomàs didn’t see the torch thrown, but he felt the heat of the rising flames licking at his back. With Kurtz riding furiously next to the wagon, holding the barrel of his revolver ten feet away from Penny’s head, he almost forgot to say the words. It seemed hopeless—all three would go over in a fireball. As Franklin charged out of the fog, Tomàs terrified croaked to Penelope, “Stand!”
A branch whipped Penny’s face. The net then entangled them both as they were jerked off the wagon sideways. It seemed for a second that Penelope’s foot was caught underneath the seat of the wagon. She screamed and madly grasped at nothing as her arms slipped through the interstices of the net. A revolving wheel hit the back of Tomàs’s thigh almost flipping him over in midair. For a frightening instant, he felt them both tumbling through space.
“You can’t tell me they died,” April said, “because they didn’t.”
“How do you know?”
“The gold was never found because, of course, they took it, or...” April’s brow wrinkled thinking but not articulating a thought. “Also, remember when we visited the cliff the first day and my hat flew off into the water. It floated south. Tom’s body was recovered on a beach north of Point Partida. The waves hit the rocks below the cliff from the north. If you look at the way the trees are bent, the prevailing winds come from the northwest. The current flows north to south. How could his body have ended up north?”
“That’s hardly definitive.”
“I’m sure the bodies were too smashed up to be really identified. Also, I read in Barnwell’s deposition that Jacinto buried the bodies right away because of the smell. You are
aware of my family’s business? The bodies appeared early the next day. There wasn’t enough time for them to stink that bad. And, there’s something else I can’t explain until we go back to the museum.”
Then the net suddenly jerked and tautened, and they hit the side of the cliff three times, Penelope crying when they struck the rocky face each time. Tom suppressed the uncharitable thought that she deserved this punishment for suggesting the harebrained scheme. They continued to swing like a giant pendulum, forty feet above the rocky surf.
Locating and tearing at the knot with fingers and teeth, Tom was able to undo it and lower them onto a heap of jagged rocks. Tom disentangled Penny and himself from the ropes, folded the net up, felt his way to the cliff side and stuck it deep into a cranny where it would not be seen. The blur of a torch appeared above them briefly, but otherwise, the thick foggy darkness acted as a blindfold.
Tom returned to Penelope, who was shivering. She stood shakily, and he half guided half carried her down the jumble of rocks and over the rubble sticking out of the roiling surf like broken crockery. The tireless waves covered any noise they might have made.
There was now a commotion on the cliff. Gunshots. Loud voices. Several blurry splotches of torch flames. “You can stare until your eyes bug out, Mr. Kurtz,” Tom said softly, “but you ain’t going to see nothing.”