There was a catch in it, of course, as there nearly always was. There was no adequate description of the outlaw.
A description of sorts: a big man—and at first glance all Almagre’s citizens looked big—and he had a girl’s head and the name “Marge” tattooed under his heart.
Standing on the street, Bowdrie eyed the passing crowds with disgust. “If you go to pulling the shirts off every man in town, you’ve bought yourself some trouble!”
It began to look like the goosiest of wild-goose chases. Aside from the vague description, the escaping outlaw had dropped a letter addressed to Wiley Martin, and he had left a trail of sorts. Few trained men could have followed the trail, but a good many Apaches could have, and Chick Bowdrie did.
He had taken but two steps toward the nearest and largest saloon when the batwing doors exploded outward and a man landed in the street on his shoulder blades. He came up with a lunge, grappling at his gun, but the doors slammed open again, revealing a bearded man with a gun. He fanned his six-shooter, and four shots exploded into a continuous roar. The first shot smashed a window four feet to the left of the man in the street, the second and third shots obliterated his belt buckle, and the fourth grazed the hip of one of the two broncs hitched to a buckboard.
The bronc leaped straight up and forward, coming down across the hitching rail, which splintered beneath it. The horse went down, threshing wildly in a snarl of harness and broken rail. Its mate backed away, snorting. The girl in the buckboard grabbed at the reins, and Chick lunged for the downed horse. A grizzled prospector moved in to lend a hand.
“Looks like a live town,” Bowdrie commented.
“This one?” The old man spat expressively. “She’s a lalapalooza! A real wingdingin’ hot tamale!”
The wounded man in the street made a futile effort to rise, then sagged back. Nobody approached him, not sure the shooting was over. Bowdrie’s quick estimate told him the girl was in more need of help than the unfortunate battler, for he had only a minute or two to live.
“That’s only the first one today!” the old man said cheerfully. “Wait until Bonelli gets in! Things’ll pop then!”
“Who’s Bonelli?”
“He makes big tracks, son.” He gave a glance at Bowdrie’s guns. “If you’re huntin’ a gun job, there’s only two ways to go. You work for Bonelli or you become town marshal. The first job can last a lot longer. We just buried our third town marshal.”
“Bonelli hires gunhands?”
“He surely does! He’s revolutionized the cow business in this neck of the woods. He drove fifty head into the hills three months ago, and now they all have four or five three- to six-month-old calves!”
Bowdrie chuckled. “Sounds like an enterprising man. What the marshal’s job pay?”
“A hundred a month, cabin, an’ cartridges. Of course, you’d be sleepin’ in a dead man’s bed!”
They had the horse on his feet and quieted, so he broached his question: “Ever hear of a man named Wiley Martin?”
The old man put his pipestem between his teeth and started away on his short legs without another word. Mildly astonished, Bowdrie stared after him, then turned to help the girl from her buckboard. An older man, probably her father, was coming to help.
He looked like any other man except that he was freshly shaved and seemed prosperous. The girl could have been nobody else in the world, for they never made two like her.
“Thanks for helping to get my horse up,” the older man said. “I am Jed Chapin. This is my daughter, Amy.”
“Proud,” Bowdrie said. “Folks call me Tex.”
“I ranch south of here, JC brand. If you’re down that way, drop in an’ see us.”
Bowdrie glanced again at Amy. “Might be. Right now I’m thinkin’ of applying for the marshal’s job.”
“Don’t do it. Marshals don’t last long around here. Erlanger doesn’t like ’em.”
“Who is Erlanger?”
“Foreman for Bonelli. He and that prison-mean Hank Cordova make life a misery for folks.”
“How about Wiley Martin?”
Chapin’s face changed. “Get up in the buckboard, honey. It’s time we went home.”
Bowdrie’s dark eyes met Amy’s. For an instant she searched his eyes; then she spoke softly. “Don’t ask that question. There’s trouble in it.”
“I’ve a message for him.”
“Forget it. There will be no answer in Almagre.”
“I’ll be riding your way. Maybe we should talk.”
Her eyes relented a little. Her eyes became warmer, even curious. “Maybe we should,” she said. “Please come.”
He crossed to the saloon. Three men played cards at a table near the wall. One of them had a narrow, triangular face with a crisp blond mustache, the ends drawn out to fine points. His eyes were gray and steady, and their expression when they glanced up at Bowdrie was direct and probing. One of the others was the bearded man who fanned his pistol.
Three men followed him into the room and came to the bar near Chick. The biggest man spoke, immediately placing all three of them for Bowdrie. “Get Chapin for me, Jeff. Bring him here.”
“I think he just left town.” The speaker was slender and dark, not the man addressed. “I saw the buckboard leavin’.”
“Then go get him and bring him back, whether he likes it or not!” The big man was obviously Bonelli, his face like polished hardwood, his eyes bright and hard.
Erlanger went out, and Bowdrie leaned his elbows on the bar. In the mirror he caught Bonelli’s sharp, inquiring glance. The air had an electric feel like something about to happen.
Two of the men at the card table cashed in their chips and left quietly. The bearded man exchanged a brief, questioning glance with Bonelli. The man with the gray eyes riffled the cards with agile fingers, then lighted a long black cheroot.
“Who’s the mayor of this town?” Bowdrie’s question was unusually loud in the quiet room. Bonelli glanced at him as if irritated, but did not reply.
Cordova looked at Chick. “What you want with the mayor?” he asked.
“I heard the town needed a marshal. I’m huntin’ a job.”
The man with the gray eyes took the cheroot from his teeth, glanced at it, then at Bowdrie. He seemed amused.
Bonelli turned sharply and looked Bowdrie up and down. The skin around his eyes seemed to tighten a bit. Bowdrie’s back was to the bar, his elbows resting on its edge. He returned Bonelli’s look with a blank, hard stare.
“You’ll do well to keep movin’,” Cordova said. “That job doesn’t need fillin’.”
“Some folks might feel otherwise. I saw a man shot out there a bit ago. Men shouldn’t carry guns in town. They might shoot the wrong people.”
“I suppose you’d take ’em away?” Cordova commented contemptuously.
“I’d ask ’em to hang ’em up when they came in. If they didn’t, I might have to take them away. There’s decent folks in every town, and mostly they like it quiet.”
A buckboard rattled to a stop before the saloon; then the doors pushed open and Chapin came in. He looked pale but angry; Erlanger was right behind him. “What’s this mean, Bonelli?” Chapin demanded.
“It means that I am buyin’ you out, Chapin. I’m offering five thousand dollars for your place and your stock.”
“Five thousand?” Chapin was incredulous. “It’s worth fifty thousand if a dollar! I am not selling!”
“Sure you are.” Bonelli was enjoying himself. “My boys found some misbranded stock on the range today. My brand worked over to yours. We hang rustlers, you know.”
“I never rustled a head of stock in my life!” Chapin’s fury did not prevent him from speaking with care. “That’s a put-up job, Bonelli. You’re tryin’ to force me to sell.”
“Are you callin’ me a
liar?” Bonelli spoke softly. He stepped away from the bar. His intention was obvious.
Chapin knew he was marked for death if he said the wrong thing. He was a courageous but not a foolish man, and he had a daughter waiting in the buckboard outside. “I am not calling you a liar. I am not selling, either.”
“Reilly said he wouldn’t sell. Remember?”
“Look, Bonelli. I am not bothering you. Leave me alone.”
The man with the gray eyes had stepped to the bar. His eyes caught Chick’s, and he took something from his pocket and slid it along the bar. Chick covered it with his left hand. Neither of the men with Bonelli had noticed; all their attention was on Chapin, whom they apparently expected to kill. Chick Bowdrie pinned the badge to his vest, then hooked his left thumb in his shirt pocket so the palm covered the badge.
“You don’t have to sell if you don’t want to, Jed.” He spoke quietly. “As for that rustling charge, Bonelli, you’d have to prove it.”
Bonelli turned irritably. “Keep out of this!”
“This is my affair, Bonelli.” His eyes were on Erlanger. “Get in your buckboard and go home, Chapin. Bonelli’s through pushing people around. He isn’t the big frog in any puddle. He only looked big for a little while because the water’s mighty shallow. You go on home, now.”
“You heard me,” Bonelli said. “Stay out of this!”
Bowdrie moved his left hand, revealing the badge.
“I’m in, Bonelli. I’ve drawn cards.”
Erlanger moved toward him. “I don’t like marshals! I don’t like the law!”
“Bonelli!” Bowdrie’s tone was stern. “Take your boys and ride out of town. The next time you come in, check your guns at the marshal’s office when you reach town. Otherwise, don’t come to town at all.”
Erlanger and Cordova both moved toward him, but Chick’s reaction was swift. Grabbing Erlanger’s wrist, he jerked the man toward him, pulling him off balance. As Erlanger staggered toward him, Bowdrie deftly kicked his feet from under him and shoved him into the other two. Then he stepped back quickly, drawing a gun.
“Next time you start something with me, Erlanger,” Bowdrie said, “better fill your hand first. Now, you three get out of town and don’t let me hear of you makin’ trouble or I’ll come for you.”
Bonelli’s astonishment had turned to fury. “Why, you cheap tinhorn! I’ll run you out of town! I’ll strip you and run you into the desert!”
“Erlanger! Cordova! Unbuckle your belts and drop your guns…now!”
With infinite care the two men unbuckled their gunbelts. “Now, get over there and face the wall. Be very, very careful! This here’s a hair trigger an’ you might make me nervous.”
When they stood against the wall, hands above their heads, Bowdrie’s eyes shifted to Bonelli. “All right, Bonelli. You just threatened to run me out of town. You’re said to be a bad man with a gun. You want my hide and you’ve strutted around here runnin’ roughshod over some good people. Now, right here in front of your bold bad men I’m going to give you a chance to see how mean you are. Now, I am goin’ to holster my gun. I’m goin’ to give you an even break.” As he spoke, he dropped his gun into its holster. “Come on, Bonelli! Let’s see what you’re made of!”
Bonelli’s hand started, then froze. Some sixth sense warned him. It had been a long time since anyone had dared challenge him, yet he was no fool. This man was a stranger, and there was something in that dark, Indian-like face that made him suddenly uncertain. He hesitated.
Chick waited. “Come on, Bonelli! You’ve convinced these people you’re a hard man. You’ve even convinced those poor slobs who follow you. Let’s see you try! Maybe you can beat me. Maybe!”
Bonelli’s hands slowly relaxed. “Just wait,” he said. “My time will come.”
“Get out of town, Bonelli, and take your two errand boys with you. If you have guts enough to come to town again, check your guns.”
Bowdrie walked to the door and watched them mount, then ride sullenly from town.
Jed Chapin was not gone. The rancher stood across the street with a Spencer rifle. “I wasn’t going to run out on any man,” Chapin said. “They’d have certainly killed me if you hadn’t come in.”
“It’s over now. I’ll be ridin’ out to see you in a couple of days.” He glanced at Amy. “I promise we’ll have that talk.”
When they were gone, he walked back into the saloon. The gray-eyed man was back at the card table, playing solitaire. “My name is Travis, Bob Travis. I am head of the Citizens’ Committee.”
Lying on his bed in the hotel much later, Bowdrie reviewed the situation. He was now the marshal of a cattle and mining town, but no nearer to capturing the Pecos killer. Nor had he any clue except for the curious silence whenever the name was mentioned. He could not decide whether that silence was born of fear or friendship. That he was in or near Almagre seemed certain. Beyond that, he knew nothing. Nor, he realized irritably, did he know that the man he sought was in fact the killer. Only that the name was somehow connected to the killer.
He might be one of the Bonelli outfit, even Bonelli himself. He knew that several of the outfit had been in Texas. The man who had robbed the Pecos Bank had been in town at least an hour before the holdup, had bathed the dust from his chest, shoulders, and arms in the corral trough, eaten a meal, and loafed about near the bank.
It had been there that Bowdrie found the small grayish seeds. Hoary saltbush, or wingscale, did not grow in the vicinity. Their seeds were often gathered by the Zuni to grind into meal, or even eaten as they were collected.
Travis puzzled him. Was the man a public-spirited citizen who wanted law in Almagre, or had he some more devious purpose in giving the marshal’s job to Bowdrie?
Did he want Bonelli killed? Or—and Chick became speculative—did he want Bowdrie himself killed? Travis was a big, well-set-up man. Could he be Wiley Martin?
Certainly one of the trails he had followed from Texas might have been that of Travis.
Bowdrie returned to the street and wandered about. People looked at the badge either with contempt, or pity, or irritation. He spotted a buffalo hunter whom he remembered from other towns, although the man seemed to have no memory of him. Buffalo Barton had always been a decent, law-respecting man, so he made him a deputy. Next he arrested a cowhand who objected to checking his guns.
Nobody could tell him anything about Wiley Martin, although he asked few people, and those few chosen discreetly, and he asked no direct questions. He did check records in the marshal’s office and found no arrest record for such a man or for anyone answering to the description.
One thing was obvious. The town was waiting for him to be killed. A few, however, hearing about how he had faced Bonelli and made him back down, were betting on him. No one wanted to be anywhere near him when things began to happen. That much was obvious.
Travis, he learned, kept a gray horse in the livery stable. The killer had ridden such a horse. If he could see the tracks, it might be evidence enough to tell him he was at least on the right trail.
As the evening wore on, the feeling that he was marked for death became stronger. It was not an unfamiliar feeling, but never a comfortable one. Yet the night passed quietly, and after he turned in, he slept comfortably.
At daybreak he made a quick check of the town, noticing the new horses in the livery stable and in the corrals. With a friendly warning he freed the cowhand he had arrested, then walked the streets again, paying close attention to horse tracks.
He was sitting over a late breakfast in an empty dining room when Amy Chapin entered. She came to his table. “I couldn’t sleep, knowing you might be in trouble because of us.”
“It would not be your fault. I came here hunting a man…Wiley Martin.”
Her lips tightened and her eyes were grave. “Tex, you have friends here. You are admired
for the way you made Bonelli back down. Why don’t you forget about Martin?”
“Does he have that many friends?”
She hesitated. “Something like that. Tex,” she said impulsively, “why don’t you quit this job and come to work for Dad? He needs help, and with you beside him he wouldn’t be afraid of Bonelli. We have a good range, and it can be built into something. He needs help and he likes you.”
“Especially,” Bowdrie said, “if I stop hunting Wiley Martin?”
She flushed and half-started to rise, then sat down again. “My offer was sincere, and it comes from Dad.”
“Amy? Do you know who Wiley Martin is?”
An instant of hesitation. “Not really.” Her voice sank almost to a whisper. “I think I do.”
“Do you know why I’m huntin’ him?”
“No, I don’t, only somebody is always hunting him, and he’s a good man, Tex, a very good man.”
“Amy, a man believed to be Wiley Martin or somebody he knew robbed a bank in Pecos and killed two honest, decent men. He left two widows and five orphans. Is that the kind of man you wish to protect?”
Her face was ashen. So she did know him, then! “I don’t believe it! It simply can’t be true!”
Three tough-looking men had stopped outside the door and were arguing loudly. All three were wearing guns.
From where Bowdrie sat, he could see out the window and across the street. Through the shutters of a closed saloon across the way he could see sunlight, a few threads of which showed through the shutters evidently from a back window. Twice in just a few minutes somebody or something had blocked off that sunlight, so somebody was inside the closed saloon, peering out through the shutters.
The setup was too pat, even amateurish. He was supposed to step outside to stop the argument and take the guns from the three men, and as he did, the man in the saloon would cut him down.
Excusing himself, he stepped to the door. One of the men glanced his way and threw his cigarette into the street.
A signal? Or just getting his hands free? Chick stepped out quickly and just as quickly moved to the left, putting one of the men between himself and the window.
Bowdrie (Louis L'Amour's Lost Treasures) Page 15