by Lisa Rae
When she entered the cafe', she saw the room was full of the Gallinger cowboys finishing up their breakfast before leaving to head back to their home ranch. The 4th of July celebration now over, it was time for everyone to get back to work. Nat Love was enjoying his new fame of being named Deadwood Dick. A name that would stay with him the rest of his famous life.
Spotting the assayer, John McKnight, sitting alone, Angel headed to his table. "May I join you?" Angel asked.
"Why certainly. Angel, wasn't it?" McKnight asked if he remembered her name correctly.
"Yes, Mr. McKnight," Angel answered.
"Please, just call me John," he replied with a smile.
She smiled back as she sat down and asked, "John, can you tell me, are there any regular high stakes poker games around here?"
"If you're talkin' private games, yes there is one that gets together on occasions between the banker, Ross Wielder; Charles Wagner who owns the hotel; Howard Brook, the miner and rancher; and myself," John answered.
Quickly thinking that would be a good place to start, she replied, "Yes, that's what I'm looking for. Would it be possible to join the game the next time all of you men play?" she asked.
"I don't see why not, but I'll have to check with the rest of the men first to make sure."
"Of course, I understand," Angel said.
They were talking about the 4th of July celebration when John commented and asked, "You tied for second place in the shooting contest. Who taught you to shoot?"
"My father taught both me and my brother when we were just kids. He told us to make the first shot count, because you may not get a second shot."
"Sounds like you have a very smart father," John commented.
"I did have," Angel said sadly. "He was killed back in ‘69 by Apaches when he was out on a hunt."
Angel thought about how she had lost her mother six years before her father to pneumonia, and then learned from her father that she had a younger half brother and sister whose mother was a Ute Indian.
Angel and Roark grew up on the prairie in the Colorado territory. Her father, Fredrick Savage, spent a lot of time hunting in the mountains, and would be gone for long periods of time. When in the mountains, he often lived and hunted with the Ute Indians.
Living two separate lives, Angel's father was known as Black Eagle to the Utes, and he took an Indian wife, known as Laughing Eyes. She gave him two children, a son known as Dark Thunder, and a daughter named Snow Storm.
Snow Storm chose to marry a Ute warrior and still lives with the tribe. Angel has only visited with her a couple of times. Dark Thunder, better known to most people as Gabriel Savage, chose to live in the white man's world when he turned twenty years old.
Their father helped him get a job cowboying for the same ranch Roark worked for. The two, not knowing they were brothers, became good friends. When Roark and Angel's mother died, Fredrick decided to tell them all the truth.
At first, Angel and Roark were angry at their father. But in time they understood and couldn't resist that they had another brother and sister to call their own. It wasn't long after that, that the three became very close, especially after their father died.
"I'm sorry Angel. I didn't mean to bring up sad memories," John said.
"It's okay," Angel replied smiling. "They are not all sad."
When they finished eating, John thanked Angel for her company, and headed to open up the assayer's office. Angel decided to go for a morning walk through town when she sighted Diablo leaving the livery stable on his gruello horse. Ducking into an alley, she watched from the shadows as he rode by. Wondering what he was up to, she decided to hurry down to the stable and saddle her horse to follow him.
Angel had a good idea where he was going since he headed north out of Deadwood. Howard Brook's ranch. He was the man she saw pay Diablo money last night in the Nuttal & Mann's saloon. For some reason she couldn't picture Diablo cowboying, so what did Mr. Brook hire him to do?
Other than miners, there weren't too many tracks leaving town to the north. After she rode a little ways out she was able to pick up Diablo's fresh tracks, showing his horse was running at an easy lope. Was he in a hurry to get there, she wondered?
Now that she had located his tracks, she picked up her horse's pace to follow. The only recent tracks she could see were the ones they both made when they went for a ride together last night, and the ones from his horse now.
Angel stopped her horse up on the same ridge that looked down onto the Brook's ranch that she and Diablo had stopped on the night before. Pulling out her spy glass, she watched as Diablo approached the big ranch house. He climbed down from his stallion, untying his saddlebags, and carried them into the house when Mr. Brook answered the door.
Knowing she could not get any closer to the house in the daylight with all the ranch hands hanging around, Angel stayed where she was and watched through her spy glass.
* * *
Stepping into Mr. Brook's spacious ranch house, Diablo was surprised. He had expected to see a rather empty home with only the basics, considering Mr. Brook was not married and the home was recently built only last year. To his surprise, there were many ornate pieces of furniture and tapestry. Mr. Brook led him into the library for Diablo only to see walls and walls of books.
In awe, he was caught with his mouth open as Mr. Brook turned to him and asked, "Do you like to read Diablo?"
"I'm afraid I didn't get to finish my schooling, but I can read enough to get by."
"I see. Well if you decide you want to broaden your education, let me know. I can suggest a few books for you to read."
"Thank you, Mr. Brook," Diablo replied.
"Please, call me Howard. Now let's get down to business," Mr. Brook said as he pulled 2 big sacks of gold out of the safe in the corner of the room. "Ever since we struck a good vein of gold, I have been casually riding into Deadwood every couple of days with the gold in my saddlebags to sell at the assayer's office. Now with all the gold robberies that are happening, I don't feel comfortable doing it anymore and would rather pay someone like yourself to do it."
"Are you referring to the Treasure Coach Gang I've been hearing about?" Diablo asked.
"Yes, in the last two hold ups, there was around $300,000 in gold on those coaches. Each time the gang has been murdering the stage driver and all the guard escorts. Leaving no one alive to identify them."
"What makes you think I could do any better against a whole gang of killers?" asked Diablo dryly.
"The job does come with much risk. I'm just a simple business man. You, on the other hand, know how to fight and survive men like them," Howard replied.
"If you don’t have the stomach for killing to protect yourself and what's yours, why did you decide to go into mining?"
"Actually my brother is the one that started the mine and runs the mining operation. He's a bit of a recluse though, and hates towns. So he leaves me in charge of selling the gold," Howard explained.
"So you want to pay me to come out here every few days and carry gold back to the assayer to sell in your name?"
"Yes, and I want you to nose around and keep your ears open to find out who that murderous gang is," answered Howard.
"Alright, I'll take the job on two conditions. First, you pay me up front; and second, I make these trips at night from now on. It's too dangerous during the day when someone could pick me off as soon as I come into their rifle range," Diablo demanded.
"Deal," Howard said as he stood up from his desk to shake Diablo's hand.
After picking up the two heavy sacks of gold, and putting them into his saddlebags Diablo said, "I will be back in a couple nights around midnight."
When Howard nodded his head in understanding, Diablo turned and left, going out the same way he came in.
Securely tying his saddlebags back onto his ornately decorated black Wade saddle, Diablo swung up into the saddle without the use of his stirrups, and headed back towards Deadwood.
Diablo no
ticed after he topped over the ridge that overlooked the ranch house, that there were shod horse tracks heading to and from the ridge that were not there when he came through earlier.
Now on alert, Diablo proceeded with even more caution as he reached down and slipped the leather thong off his Colt .45 and made sure it would slide easily out of the holster.
Scanning his surroundings up ahead, he saw a single bird fly up out of a dense bunch of trees and underbrush. Someone is hiding there and waiting for me to come back through, Diablo said to himself.
Wanting to flush the person out and catch them off guard, Diablo continued on. When he was close, he silently slid off of his horse and gave the stallion a quiet slap on the rump to make him continue on down the trail.
Pulling his Colt revolver, Diablo quietly stepped to the side of the trail behind a big tree, and waited for the person to come out of their hiding spot.
Having been watching from her spy glass, Angel had seen Diablo climb on his horse and head back towards town. Wanting still to follow him, she hurried on down the trail till she found a good place to hide.
As she sat her horse in stillness, she heard Diablo's horse walk past her hiding spot. Waiting an appropriate amount of time to put some distance between them, Angel finally emerged from her location to follow.
When Diablo stepped out from behind the tree, Angel was already facing away and starting to head down the trail. "Hold it right there!" he shouted before he realized who it was.
In instinct, Angel whirled her red roan gelding around and pulled her ivory handled Colt Peacemaker.
Seeing it was Angel, He holstered his pistol and raised his left hand saying, “Whoa Angel, it’s just me!”
“Well what did you expect when you go sneaking up on someone,” Angel replied angrily as she put her pistol back in its leather holster.
“Wait a minute here, you was the one sneaking around and hiding. And why are you following me?” he demanded.
“I . . . I saw you ride out of town. Thought maybe I could catch up and ride with you,” Angel said trying to come up with a reasonable explanation for why she was there.
“But that don’t explain why you was hiding in the trees and brush?” Diablo questioned as he walked up to her on her horse.
Angel didn’t have an answer for that. Instead she said, “You want me to go catch your horse before it gets all the way back to town?”
Diablo whistled a couple of times, and they could hear his horse in the distance coming back their way at a fast pace. Then he reached up, and before Angel realized what he was doing, he pulled her out of the saddle and into his arms.
“What do you think you are doing? Put me down!” Angel exclaimed.
“Not until you tell me why you was hiding and waiting for me to pass by,” he said stubbornly.
She couldn’t tell him the truth. That she wanted to find out what Mr. Brook had hired him to do. So she lied. “I wanted to see you, but when I arrived at the ridge and saw you headed back, I got nervous and changed my mind.”
Diablo put her legs down so she could stand on her feet, but he didn’t let her go. He kept his strong sinew arms around her hourglass waist.
“Why did you want to see me?” Diablo asked as he looked deeply into Angel’s brown eyes.
She didn’t have to pretend now, as she was truly nervous being that close to Diablo with his arms around her waist. Not wanting to blow her cover, she did the only thing that she knew she could do to convince him. She leaned forward and kissed him.
When she tried to pull away, he tightened his hold around her and pulled her closer. This time he kissed her with a fierce passion that robbed her of her senses. Without her realizing it, Angel put her slender arms around Diablo’s neck, and hungrily kissed him back with a passion of her own. All of a sudden, Diablo pushed her back out of his arms, leaving her startled and confused.
He had heard a couple riders approaching in the distance from the west. “Get on your horse!” He ordered in a whisper as he swung up into his own saddle, and motioned for her to follow him to the place she had hid from him in the dense trees and underbrush.
They sat silently and listened as the two men rode right by where they were hidden. Diablo hoped that the men’s horses would not alert the men to their presence in the dense trees. His stallion was trained to not whinny when he heard or smelled other horses around, and he assumed that Angel had taught her gelding the same.
In the wild country out West, where there’s Indians and outlaws roaming around, your horse whinnying to another horse could cause you to meet your maker sooner than you had planned. But even if they keep quiet, a horse could still show signs that he knows there’s someone or something out there by silently alerting his rider with his ears.
The two riders were busy chatting amongst themselves as they rode by and didn’t notice their horse’s ears perk up in the direction of where Diablo and Angel were hidden.
Angel waited until the two men were long past before she asked in a whisper, “Why are we hiding? Is someone after you?”
Now it was Diablo’s turn to avoid telling the truth. “With that Treasure Coach Gang running around this area, I’d just rather be safe than sorry.”
She didn’t believe that was the reason. He was hiding something, and she was betting that, that something was in his saddlebags. She had seen him take them into Mr. Brook’s house.
The possible danger now passed, they headed for Deadwood. They rode in silence as he watched his horse closely for signs that they weren’t alone, while Angel tried to figure out what he was hiding and not telling her . . .
Chapter 7
When they rode back into Deadwood a little while later Diablo said, “Go on to the Grand Central café and have Aunt Lou fix us up some dinner. I’ve got to take care of a few things first.”
Angel wanted to watch and see where he went, but with him dismissing her the way he did, it didn’t leave her any options to stick around and watch. Next time she would just have to be more careful when she followed him.
As she headed on to the café, Diablo stopped at the mercantile store and tied his horse up. He then went inside with his heavy saddlebags. Not wanting anyone to be suspicious if he stopped directly in front of the assayer’s office and took his saddlebags in, he decided to make a detour into Boland’s store first. After taking his time and buying some Bull Durham chewing tobacco that he tucked away into his vest pocket, he left the mercantile store and walked over to the assayer’s office. On his way he made sure to look and see that Angel’s horse was tied up in front of the hotel and that she was nowhere to be seen.
Walking through the door of the assayer’s office, Diablo saw that John McKnight was alone and said, “I’ve got a delivery for you from Mr. Brook.”
“Yes, he told me to expect you,” John replied as he watched Diablo take the bags of gold out of his saddlebags and set them on the counter. “Let me get it weighed out and you can take the payment note over to the bank.”
Diablo watched as John scaled the nuggets and gold dust separately and wrote the totals on a piece of paper. Then John stacked the bags of gold in the large safe that stood in the back of the room, and locked it back by giving the tumbler a spin. After totaling the amounts, he wrote out a payment note for Diablo to take to the bank.
“Thanks, see you in a few days,” Diablo said as he was leaving.
Checking his pocket watch and seeing it was high noon, and knowing the bank would be closed for the dinner hour, Diablo put the payment note into his inside vest pocket and headed for the café.
After ordering them some dinner, Angel sat restlessly waiting for Diablo to join her. When he had dismissed her, he was going to the mercantile store with his saddlebags. Which was one of the last places she had expected him to go to. She was sure that whatever he was hiding in those bags were somehow connected to the Treasure Coach hold ups. Yet he had arrived in Deadwood the same evening she did, so she couldn’t see how he could be involved. She was just
going to have to keep a closer watch and see who he talked to and where he went.
The Treasure Coach hauled the gold from Deadwood to Cheyenne. Where it then was loaded on a train and shipped. Miners would sell their gold to the assayer in Deadwood, who was commissioned by the U.S. government to purchase the gold for minting new coins. The gold was owned by the government by the time it was loaded into the Treasure Coach, which made it Angel’s job to help catch the thieves.
When her husband was shot dead by Christopher Wolfe nine years ago, she had vowed then, that she would hunt him down and get revenge. Changing her first name, and learning to be an excellent poker player and marksman, gave her the opportunity to ‘blend in’ with the right crowd of people to search for him. After a couple years of doing this, Angel had built up a well-known reputation that could be of benefit to the government as an undercover agent. Both Roark and Gabriel, who were U.S. Marshals, recognized this and when they heard of a position opening up, they volunteered her name and she got the job. So for the past seven years, Angel has worked undercover for the Secret Service.
When Angel saw Diablo walk into the café, she put a smile on her face. “Did you get your business taken care of?”
“Yes, I did. Have you already ordered for us?” Diablo asked.
“Yes, looks like she’s coming now with our dinner,” Angel replied, indicating with her head in the direction of Aunt Lou headed their way with two plates of food.
As they ate their dinner, they chatted about different territories and towns they both had been to, and different people like Wild Bill and Calamity Jane, they had met over the years.
Wanting to spend more time with Diablo to learn about what he was doing for Mr. Brook, Angel suggested, “How about a few hands of cards over at the saloon if I promise not to stack the deck?” She then gave him a sheepish smile.
He couldn’t help wondering why the change? He knew she was just as attracted to him as he was to her, but she refused to give into it. She had even went as far as avoiding him at times. And now Angel was pursuing him. Just didn’t make sense, but he intended on taking advantage of it while it lasted. “All right,” Diablo replied smiling mischievously, “and what do I get if you do cheat?”