The Legend of Perley Gates

by William W. Johnstone

  * * *

  It was late in the afternoon when they descended a steep hill, on a winding road that led them down into Deadwood Gulch, a narrow gulch about ten miles long. Perley’s first reaction to the settlement that had sprung up in the gulch was to compare it to an insane asylum. The narrow street was filled with people and animals, including horses, mules, and oxen. There were tents and shacks built along the banks of Deadwood Creek, as well as places of business. In fact, it seemed that every other building was a saloon or gambling house.

  Deadwood itself was farther ahead and was not the only town occupying the gulch, so they rode along the winding creek road through a couple of other towns until reaching Deadwood, where Mamie took command of their party and led them to the Gaines Hotel, between two saloons.

  “This is it!” she proclaimed. “This is my son-in-law’s place.” Eager to surprise him, she pulled her mule up to a stop and slid off its back. “Come on, folks, and I’ll introduce you to my daughter and her husband.”

  She and Lena hurried inside the hotel, but grandfather and grandson both took a wary look around them, wondering if their possessions were safe on a street teeming with every kind of villain imaginable.

  Perley was already wondering about where they would stay the night. From what he could see, there was no place near the creek where he could camp. “We might have to ride back out of this gulch and find someplace to make camp back up in the hills.”

  “That’d suit me just fine,” his grandpa replied. “This place is so crowded I bet they have to come out and stir it with a stick once in a while so folks can go about their business.”

  “Well, let’s go inside and make sure Mamie and Lena are gonna be all right.” Perley wasn’t really concerned about Mamie as much as he was for Lena. All she had requested of him in the beginning was that he take her to Deadwood, but he couldn’t help feeling some responsibility for her beyond that. He need not have worried, however, for when he and his grandpa went inside, they found Mamie and Lena talking excitedly in a happy reunion between Mamie and her daughter, Julia.

  “Come meet my daughter,” Mamie invited when the two men walked into the tiny lobby. “Julia, this is Perley Gates and Perley Gates,” she announced with a chuckle. “They were kind enough to see us safely here. Boys, this is Julia. She says that she and Ron, that’s her husband, have been waitin’ for me to get ’em a dinin’ room up and runnin’. I told her I’m rarin’ to get started.” She turned to give Lena a wide smile. “Told her I’ve brought my help with me.”

  This immediately caught Perley’s attention, and he turned to see Lena smiling at him. She nodded, and he knew she was happy with the arrangement, so there was nothing else for him to worry about.

  “Well, I’m right pleased to meet you, ma’am,” he said to Julia. “This looks like a nice little hotel you’ve got here. I reckon my grandpa and I will be headin’ back to Texas first thing in the mornin’. We’d best go see about findin’ someplace to keep our horses overnight. Maybe you can direct us to a good stable.”

  “There are two good stables in town,” Julia said, “but you can keep your horses in our barn, where my husband keeps his. We have a few stalls for our guests, and there’s no one using any of them right now. My husband should be back anytime now, and I know he’ll insist on helping you with your horses. And I’ve got a room for you and your grandfather, so you won’t have to go somewhere else looking for one.”

  “Much obliged,” Perley said. He looked at his grandpa and grinned. “That would be mighty nice of you.” Like his grandpa, he had expected to sleep in the stall with his horse. “We wouldn’t wanna trouble your husband none. We’ll just take the horses to your barn.”

  Things couldn’t have worked out much better. Mamie’s daughter seemed genuinely pleased to see her mother, and Lena appeared to be happy with her new role. Perley and his grandfather could go home now, with nothing in their way but a long ride to Texas. Perley was eager to get started. Morning couldn’t come quickly enough.

  The hotel’s stable was a small affair, half of it built into the side of the steep hill behind the hotel. The barn was almost filled with hay bales, since there was no piece of ground with grass for the horses to graze. Perley was in the process of forking some hay into the stalls when a slight man with a neat mustache and short dark hair came into the barn.

  “Glad to meet you, gentlemen. I’m Ron Gaines. Julia said you were getting settled all right. I want to thank you for seeing my mother-in-law safely here.”

  “Weren’t no trouble a’tall,” Grandpa spoke up. “She didn’t put up no fuss to amount to anythin’.”

  Ron laughed. “I’m glad to hear it, but she can be a handful if she sets her mind to it.”

  Perley shook Ron’s hand when it was extended to him. Upon meeting Julia, he had been impressed that a young couple could start a business as demanding as the hotel. He could see now that Ron was quite a bit older than his wife, already showing a bit of gray in his sideburns. “We’re obliged for your hospitality,” he said to Ron. “It won’t hurt us to bed down out here with our horses, if you can sell our room tonight.”

  “I wouldn’t hear of it,” Ron insisted. “You’ll be my guests.” He smiled at them both. “We’ll see if the women can rustle up something fit to eat. See if there’s any hope they can open a dining room for our guests.”

  * * *

  Mamie wasted little time in taking over her daughter’s kitchen, with absolutely no resistance from Julia, who was never the cook her mother was. However, she joyfully assisted in the preparation of their supper, with Lena’s help. It was a meal enjoyed by all partakers, especially Ron, for he was already beaming when he thought of the dining-room business he was bound to steal from the other hotels.

  After supper, Lena helped Grandpa clean up his wounds and apply clean bandages. There was still some bleeding around the wound in his back, enough so that Lena asked Perley to wait another day before starting out for Texas.

  “It’s not gonna hurt you to wait one more day, to make sure that wound ain’t gonna start bleedin’ like hell. I ain’t so sure he’s feelin’ as well as he claims he is. A ride like that might be pretty hard on that old man—and him with nobody to take care of him but you.”

  Perley conceded, but complained about the insult. He figured there were some supplies they were short on, so he might as well replace them tomorrow. With that settled, they retired to their rooms for the night.

  Morning brought another occasion for a big breakfast, as Mamie was intent upon showing her son-in-law what a good investment she was.

  “I could get used to this pretty quick,” Grandpa commented. “I might decide to stay here, instead of ridin’ all the way back to Texas.”

  “You sure ain’t gonna get any breakfast like this on the ride back, if I’m doin’ the cookin’,” Perley said, “so don’t go gettin’ used to it. Dr. Lena said that wound ain’t bleedin’ as bad this mornin’, and if it doesn’t get any worse today, they’re gonna kick us outta the hotel tomorrow.”

  “Speakin’ of Dr. Lena,” Mamie said as she sat down with them to have a cup of coffee. “I’m gonna have to take that girl shoppin’ for some clothes. She can’t spend the rest of her life in that one dress.”

  “I reckon not,” Perley agreed, “but it looks a lot better’n the one I found her in.”

  “There’s a new store opened next to the Bella Union Saloon,” Julia said. “You should go there. I’ve heard they plan to carry men’s and women’s clothes, so you might get a better price since they’re probably trying to get their business started.”

  “It doesn’t matter how good their prices are,” Lena interrupted, “I ain’t got no money.”

  “Don’t you worry, honey, Mamie’s gonna take care of you,” Mamie cooed playfully.

  Perley smiled, enjoying the warm, friendly atmosphere. It appeared he had wasted any moments he had spent worrying about Lena’s welfare.

  After breakfast, Perley and his grandfath
er decided to do a little sightseeing on the crowded street outside the hotel. Grandpa insisted he could walk in spite of his wounds, declaring that a little physical activity would speed up the healing. Perley had a strong notion that his grandfather’s real incentive was to finally feel the throbbing pulse of the teeming streets of Deadwood, the place he had ridden so hard to see. It would have been a shame for his grandfather to come so close to seeing Deadwood, only to turn back before getting a good look at it.

  Perley had to admit that he found the beehive of miners, merchants, drifters, whores, even outlaws, fascinating as well, but he would be glad to leave it in the morning. After he had checked on prices for some of the supplies he needed, he decided to wait until after they left Deadwood to buy what he needed. He and Grandpa resigned themselves to simply sightseeing.

  * * *

  “Lena!” Belle Tatum blurted without thinking when she spotted the young girl coming out of J. J. Wallingford’s.

  “Where?” Lucy Drover responded, as Belle grabbed her arm and pointed to the door of the general mercantile store across the street. “Well, I’ll be damned . . .” she drew out, then immediately whispered, “Don’t let Mott see her!”

  It was too late. “Well, as I live and breathe, ain’t that a sight for sore eyes? Looks like our little family is back together again, don’t it? Come on,” he said and immediately started across the crowded street, pushing anyone aside who happened in his way.

  “She’s got somebody with her,” Belle said, distressed over having blurted out Lena’s name. “Maybe we’d best not bother her.”

  “Maybe you’d best not tell me what to do,” Mott came back at her. “Ain’t nobody with her but that old lady, and I aim to claim my property.” He continued to plow through the people crowding the street.

  Mamie looked up to see the huge man bulling his way toward them and stepped to the side of the boardwalk. “Move over, or you might get run over,” she said to Lena.

  Lena looked behind her and froze in shock for a moment before she could utter the one name she detested: “Mott!” Seeing the leering face of the monster she hoped she had escaped, her only thought then was to take flight, so she ran past Mamie, her eyes wide with fright.

  Mamie immediately recognized the name Lena had muttered and acted at once to intercept the raging beast. She stepped in front of Mott and grabbed his shirt in an effort to stop him. Although a large and husky woman, she proved no match for a person of Mason’s size and strength. One blow with his fist sent her sprawling, to land on her back, and barely slowed him down in his craze to recapture his property.

  Lena, slim and quick, could outrun the clumsy man chasing her, but her luck ran against her when she collided head-on with a miner coming out of a saloon. Mott was on her before she could scramble back up onto her feet. With one huge hand around her throat, he lifted her up to stand her on her feet.

  “Hello, darlin’,” he slurred triumphantly. “Did you really think I wasn’t gonna find you? You put me to a helluva lot of trouble, and I aim to take it outta your hide.”

  “Let me go, you son of a bitch!” Lena cried, and began flailing away at his chest with her fists. It seemed to bring him a great deal of satisfaction and served only to tighten his hand around her throat until she could no longer breathe. When she could fight no longer, she began to fade away, giving in to the threat of death. She lost consciousness before she could hear the command.

  “Let her go.”

  The spectators, who had crowded around to watch the altercation between the man and the girl, hurriedly cleared a wide path to avoid getting in the way of any gunfire that might erupt.

  Standing at the other end of that path, Mott saw the man who had challenged him. He immediately released Lena to free his gun hand, and she crumpled to the ground. Without taking his eye off Perley, Mott ordered the two women who came up behind him to drag Lena away and make sure she didn’t run again. “Who the hell are you?” he then demanded of Perley.

  “I’m the man who’s gonna stop you from harmin’ that girl,” Perley said. “You’ve tormented her for the last time, and I’m givin’ you a choice—clear out of here and leave her be, or I’ll shoot you down.”

  He meant what he said. He had never threatened to intentionally take another man’s life before. It was against his nature, and he knew he would take no satisfaction in it, but there was no other choice. If he didn’t stop Mott Mason now, Lena would never be able to live without torment and fear, forever on the run.

  There was a brief standoff while the two men stood taking the measure of each other. Mason sized up the young man challenging him and concluded that he was not a serious threat. He didn’t wear his handgun low in a fast-draw holster, and he lacked the look of a killer, so Mott decided Perley was most likely emboldened to vie for the girl’s life because he was sweet on her. Convinced that that was likely the case, Mott decided to work on the young man’s nerves.

  “You the son of a bitch that stole her outta my camp?”

  Perley didn’t answer, so Mott continued, thinking the longer he talked, the more nervous the young man would become.

  “She didn’t tell you that I bought her from her old man, did she?”

  Perley made no reply.

  “And now she’s got you so worked up that you’re fixin’ to pull on a man that will outshoot you six days a week and twice on Sunday.” Mott shook his head as if amused by the standoff. “I don’t think I’ll even waste a bullet on a tenderfoot like you.”

  The outlaw shrugged and shifted, as if about to turn and walk away, but suddenly reached for his pistol instead, thinking to catch Perley off guard. A fraction of a second later, he doubled up in pain, struck in the chest by the .44 slug from Perley’s Colt, Mott’s gun having never cleared his holster. The look of pure shock on his face was reflected in the faces watching the duel.

  “Damn . . .” Lena exhaled, having recovered enough to have witnessed the shooting. “I never thought he could do anything like that.”

  She looked at Belle Tatum kneeling beside her, who was equally amazed. They were joined in moments by Mamie Dance, who was sporting a swollen lump beside her left eye.

  “Are you all right?” Mamie asked, relieved to see that Lena was conscious. When Lena said that she was, Mamie asked, “Did you know he could handle a gun like that?”

  Lena answered by slowly shaking her head.

  Equally impressed, for he had not read that quality in his mild-mannered grandson, Grandpa walked over to stare at the body of Mott Mason.

  “I swear, he’s dead—shot through the heart,” he announced, then looked around him at the spectators crowding in to get a look. “I reckon ever’body saw it. He drew his weapon first. It was self-defense.”

  “You’re right, old man,” one of the spectators said. “He drew first, but I never saw the young fellow draw at all.”

  The sound of gunshots had brought the acting sheriff and a deputy to investigate. There were plenty of witnesses willing to testify that the shooting was in self-defense, and the sheriff was happy to accept their word, but he suggested to Perley that he should move on to some other town. Perley assured him that he was leaving the next morning.

  Lena, of course, was free of ever again having to worry about the threat of Mott Mason. She was somewhat concerned about the situation Belle and Lucy now found themselves in. Mott had been their only means of support, and now that he was dead, what would they do?

  She was to find that their attitude was not one of despair at all. In fact, they felt a considerable measure of freedom now that he was not there to command their every move.

  “We ain’t worried,” Belle told her. “We’ve got us a horse and wagon and everything in it. Me and Lucy will make out all right.”

  There was a celebration of sorts that evening at the Gaines Hotel to salute Lena’s freedom, and a farewell supper for Perley and his grandfather. Mamie once again prepared a meal to remember on their way back to Texas, serving up deer meat, bacon,
and coffee. In a way, it would be a rather sad farewell, for in the short time they had all been together, they had begun to feel like family.

  After supper, Perley and Grandpa retired to their room, wishing everyone good night. The next morning, Mamie and Lena came down early to prepare a fitting breakfast for the travelers, only to find them already gone. Lena, especially, was sorely disappointed to find that Perley had not waited to say good-bye.

  “That man saved my life,” she cried. “I had so much to thank him for. I wanted him to know that.”

  “He knows, honey,” Mamie said. “That’s the reason he left before we got up, ’cause he hated to say good-bye.” She had no idea if that was true or not, but Perley struck her that way, and it seemed to make Lena feel better.

  CHAPTER 18

  “You know, boy, I weren’t sure you had much gravel in your craw when you first found me up yonder in Mamie’s shack,” Grandpa confessed as they sat by a campfire halfway between Deadwood and Hill City. “I reckon what they say about judgin’ a book by its cover is true.”

  He was seeing more and more of himself in his grandson, and he was genuinely looking forward to the long trip back to Texas. They would first return to French Creek to recover the treasure buried there. Then they would head home with enough gold to help salve Grandpa’s conscience for leaving his son so many years ago.

  When they struck French Creek, they ran up on a dozen deer drinking at the water’s edge, and when Perley yelled, “Let’s go huntin’,” Grandpa saw it as the very thing he was thinking. The deer bolted, but not before Perley brought one down with his Winchester. And when the rest of the herd scattered, Grandpa bagged a doe that veered across in front of them.