A Cold Hard Trail

by Robert J Conley

  Then it come to me that with ole Chastain outa town, why, I’d likely be pretty fair safe in there. I made up my mind right quick to just go on in, and that’s what I done. I was a-wanting to see ole Red, you know, and I kinda wanted some whiskey too, but the main thing just right at that very minute was that I was ferocious hungry. I mounted up on my borned horse and tuck the reins a the other one and rid on into Fosterville, but I rid in on the backside a the main street. I went on down the way like that till I come up on the backside a the stable, and I tuck the horses in there to get them feed and all. Then I walked down the way to a eating place what I knowed, and I had myself a big meal. I felt some better then.

  Being well fed like that and knowing that ole Chastain and his posse was outa town musta made me feel just plumb cocky too, ’cause whenever I got up to leave that place, I just walked out the front door right onto the main street and stood there a minute a-looking the place over like as if I was fixing to buy the whole town or something. Then I seed ole Red. She just come outa a shop across the street and down a ways, and she walked along at a pretty fair clip for a few strides before she happened to glance over my way and see me a-standing there. Well, she hustled her pretty ass on over to me.

  “Kid,” she said, “you damn fool, what are you doing in town?”

  “Well, the sheriff and the posse is gone outa town, ain’t they?” I said.

  “Yes, but—Oh, come on.” She grabbed aholt a my arm and looked up and down the street. Then she pulled me along with her across the street and in between two buildings there. When we come out on the backside, she turned us to the right, and we walked on down to where a stairway was on the back wall a one a the buildings there. I reckanized it, and I knowed that it would take us right on up the room what she stayed in. We went up and then down a hallway and on into her room. She shut the door and locked it.

  “Jim is really mad at you,” she said. “I think he’d shoot you on sight if he had the chance. Why, half the town went into his office just to get a look at him in the jail cell like he was. And he was cussing and shouting out orders and blushing all over his whole body.”

  “It didn’t hurt him none, did it?” I said. “He oughta learn to take it a little better’n that.”

  “Where’s your paw and ole Zeb?” she asked me.

  “I sent Paw back home to Texas,” I said. “Ole Zeb, he’s safe holed up with some folks we run into.”

  “Where at?” she said.

  “If I don’t tell you,” I said, “then can’t nobody make you tell them. I had some business I had to take keer of that brung me close into town, and being so close, I figgered I’d just come in and drop in on you. I was going to wait till dark, but then I seed the posse ride out and figgered this would be as good a time as any.”

  “You crazy fool.”

  “Listen,” I said, “I got me and Paw and Zeb all cleared a them stage robbing and killing charges. The folks we’re a-staying with can prove that we been with them for a few days now, and we just heared that them three what folks think is us done robbed the bank right here in Fosterville.”

  “That’s right,” said Red. “They did, and Jim is sure that it was you.”

  “Well, I can prove that it weren’t,” I said. “We was with them other folks away from here. Only thing is, them folks got a problem theirselfs, and they can’t hardly afford to leave home and come down here till we get it solved for them. I’m kinda hoping that ole Jim catches up with the real crooks even before that, so he’ll know the real truth about it on his own.”

  “Oh, Kid,” she said, “you sure got yourself into a big mess this time.”

  “I never got me into it,” I said. “It was them three crooks, whoever they are, and ole Chastain for believing that they was us.”

  She throwed her arms around me just then and smacked her lips right up against mine and give me a long and sloppy kiss. It surprised me real good, but it was just what I was a-wanting. Then, whenever she final broke loose, she tuck aholt a me and led me on over to the bed, and we commenced to pulling clothes offa each other till we was both stark staring nekkid, and then I started in to laughing. Red give me a hard look for that.

  “What’s so funny?” she said.

  “I was just thinking,” I said, “that if ole Jim was to come in here and see me like this here, he’d most likely march me right down the middle a the street without letting me get back into my clothes.”

  She laughed too then.

  “He’d prob’ly handcuff you to a hitching rail out front and leave you nekkid there for a while,” she said. “Likely at least a day or two.”

  We both of us laughed, and then we wound up rolling around on the bed in each other’s arms, and then of a sudden, we wasn’t laughing no more. We become downright serious over each other’s nekkidness, and we sure had us a time for a while. I don’t know how long we kept it up, but when we was all did, we just laid there side by side in that sweaty bed a-panting like two dogs.

  “You want a drink, Kid?” she said.

  “Well,” I said, “I don’t reckon one would hurt me none.”

  She got up to go pour us a couple a drinks, and while she was a-doing that, I set up on the edge a the bed, reached into my shirt pocket and pulled out the makings. I rolled me a cigareet and lit it, and she brung the drinks over. I give her a drag offa my smoke, and I tuck me a sip a the drink she had brung. Then we heared the sound of a bunch a horses, and she went over to the winder and tuck a peek out.

  “Jim and the posse,” she said. “They’re back.”

  “They got any prisoners?” I asked, right hopeful that they had come onto them real crooks.

  “No,” she said.

  I tuck another sip a my drink and then another drag on my cigareet.

  “Now that they’re back in town,” she said, “you better stay right here till after dark. I don’t want any of them to see you. Especially Jim.”

  “Well,” I said, “if I got to lay low, I can’t think of a better place to do it in.”

  We finished up our drinks and my smoke, and then we went to playing around a little more, and we done that sorta thing for most all the rest a that afternoon. When it come on toward evening, ole Red, she got dressed and went out, and in just a little while, she come back with a whole mess a food, and we et ourselfs full and had another drink. Then she suggested to me that late night weren’t the safest time for me to go sneaking outa town. Early morning before daylight was the best, she said. Ever’ one what had stayed up late would be sleeping real sound. Well, I never argued with her over that, and I made up my mind then that I’d just stay right there with her till the wee hours a the morning. Then I would go on and slip outa town and head back for ole Weaver’s gold camp.

  I had done found out all the news and it weren’t good. Ole Jim still thunk he was after us, and he hadn’t even come near to catching the real outlaws, so we had to keep hiding out till Weaver and them was ready to come down and clear us. The good news a course was that I had stopped ole Morgan’s man from getting into Fosterville with them papers. I figgered that on account a them papers, Weaver and the others was likely worrying about me and what had happened, and I bet that ole Zeb was some concerned too, but I figgered it wouldn’t hurt them none too much to wait just a few more hours to get the word.

  And ole Red, she had saw Chastain whenever she had gone out after our dinner, and she had talked to him some. She told me that he was still for damn sure and certain that it was me and Paw and Zeb what was doing all that wickedness around the countryside, and that nothing she had said had went even a inch towards convincing him that he might be mistook in his feelings.

  Anyhow, I had me a whole lot more fun that night, and just before time for the sun to come a-creeping around, I dressed and slipped out the back way and went on down to the stable and got my two borried horses. By the time I had rid back to where I had shot that Morgan man, the sun had just peeked up the tiniest bit. I stopped and loaded the stiff onto the extry hors
e. It weren’t too bad on account a the nights and even the days a little bit was starting in to be kinda cool. I made it back up that mountain without no trouble, and I woulda stopped for the night along the way, but only I didn’t have no food packed in, so I just kept on a-going. It was into the night whenever I made it back to Weaver’s gold camp.

  They was two guards there, and they stopped me, but whenever I told them who I was, they let me ride on in. I found the dead man’s horse what he hadn’t been able to get to whenever I tuck my first shot at him, and I switched him from the horse he had stoled to the one what was his own or else Morgan’s, and then I sent that there Morgan horse on the way back to ole Morgan’s camp. Someone woke up Weaver to let him know I was back, and he dragged me into their food tent and heated up some coffee and dug out some cold meat and biscuits, and I et them, and they was all right. I was that hungry.

  I give Weaver back the papers that owlhoot had tuck, and he was sure glad to get them back into his own hands, I can tell you. Before I was able to give it all up and go on to sleep, it seemed like as if most near the whole entire camp, including ole Zeb, had woke up and come to see me and to find out what had happened.

  I lied to them all just a little bit whenever I told them that I had saw the posse what was a-looking for me and Paw and Zeb, and I had gone into hiding till the coast was clear again. It was about half a lie, I guess. Anyhow, they all tuck that as good enough reason that I had been gone for so long. Final they was all satisfied, and they let me go on and get some sleep. I sure as hell needed it too.

  I was up early enough in the morning to have me a big breakfast in their tent with ever’ one else, and whenever the miners and their women all went on back to work, me and ole Zeb set there in the tent and had us some more coffee.

  “Kid,” Zeb said, “what’re you going to do about that there Morgan camp? We can’t just set here in this camp forever.”

  “Well, hell, Zeb,” I said, “I don’t rightly know. I’m pretty damn good with my Colt, but I can’t just ride on over there and take on that whole army what ole Morgan’s got over there.”

  “Well, I know you can’t do that,” he said, “but we’re going to have to come up with some kinda plan. We got to make something happen here.”

  “Well, I’m thinking on it,” I said. “If you come up with any ideas on it, you let me in on them. You hear?”

  I slurped the rest a the coffee outa my cup and set the cup down and got up and walked on outside. I didn’t want ole Zeb a-pressing me no more about what I was a-planning, on account a I really didn’t have no idea, and maybe I was a-thinking on it, but in my thinking, I hadn’t managed to produce no worthwhile thoughts. I went walking kinda aimless around the camp, and I wound up over on the north side a-looking towards Morgan’s camp. ’Course, I couldn’t actual see it from there, but I knowed where it was at all right. I looked up into the high mountains around us, and I could see snow way up on their tops. I really did like that.

  Then come another one a them loud blasts, but it was louder than the other’ns I had heared, and I figgered that it musta been closer or else it was a bigger charge a powder than them others. I weren’t for sure which. But it did make me jump whenever it went off, and I could hear the critters in the camp behind me nickering and braying and such and even stamping around some. Weaver and Tucker come up and stood one on each side a me and looked towards Morgan’s along with me.

  “The son of a bitch,” Weaver said.

  “How come that there blast to a been so loud?” I asked.

  “He’s moving closer to us,” Weaver said.

  “He’d best not come any closer than that last one,” said Tucker.

  Weaver pointed ahead and off a little to his left.

  “He’s moving along that ridge,” he said. “If he moves much farther this direction, his blasting could send the side of that mountain right down on our camp.”

  “Is there some way we can get ourselfs up yonder where we can take a look and see just what the hell he’s a-doing?” I asked.

  “We can get up there,” Weaver said.

  “Well, s’pose,” I said, “me and a few men with guns was to climb up there to take a look.”

  “Why with guns?” Tucker said. “Just to take a look.”

  “The guns would be just in case a something unexpected,” I said. “I don’t like to get caught with my britches down, if you get my meaning.”

  Tucker nodded.

  “I get your meaning,” he said.

  “I’ll go with you,” Weaver said. “And I bet Charlie will too.”

  “You and Charlie got rifles?” I asked him.

  “Yes,” he said, “and we can both handle them too. When do you want to go?”

  “Right now,” I said.

  It was just a few minutes later whenever ole Raspberry tuck the lead and me and Weaver was a-follering him. They both had their rifle guns all right, and I was a-packing my ole Colt as usual. I wasn’t never no good rifle shot nohow. Anyhow, we clumb a long climb, and now and then the going got pretty tough all right, but final ole Raspberry stopped along a low ridge. Me and Weaver come up beside him, and he nodded.

  “There they are,” he said.

  And they wasn’t very far off from us. They was digging around in the side a the mountain, and even I could tell that what they was up to was they was digging holes to shove them dynamite sticks into.

  “That’s too close,” Weaver said. “They’re not even blasting for gold. They’re trying to scare us off. If that doesn’t work, my bet is that they’ll move right on over here where we are and blast this ridge away.”

  “They’d rain a mountain down on us if they did that,” Raspberry said.

  “Well, whyn’t we just discourage them somewhat?” I said.

  I looked around us, and I seed where I could climb my ass up a little higher and then work my way over closer to them Morgan hands. It looked like to me as if I could get might near close enough thataway for some decent shots with my six-gun.

  “I’ll go over thataway,” I said, a-pointing, “and when I get to where I want to be, I’ll wave back at you. Then you get ready with your rifles. I’ll. snap off a shot or two at them from over there, and then you two cut loose from over here.”

  “Do we shoot to kill?” Raspberry asked.

  I looked at Weaver.

  “That’s up to you,” I said. “I figger on just skeering them back on down into their camp. If we shoot at them from here, they might not come back thisaway, on account a they’ll never know whuther or not we’ll still be here a-waiting for them.”

  “I think that’s good enough for now,” Weaver said. “Let’s just put some fear in them.”

  “All right,” said Raspberry.

  I went a-crawling on up the mountain. Now, I ain’t no kin to no mountain goat, and once or twice I slipped some, and it skeered me so once that I like to a messed my britches but I never. I kept on a-going. Once I looked down, and I seed how far I’d fall if I was to take a tumble. I didn’t look down no more after that. I final got to the place where I didn’t want to climb no higher. I just wanted to work my way on a little closer to them bastards, and so I started into moving along on a kinda little ledge what was there, and then I had final made it all right. I slipped the Colt outa my holster, and I looked back at Weaver and Raspberry. I could see that they was a-watching me.

  I waved my shooter in the air, and then I looked down on them Morgan men, and I tuck me a shot. It zinged into a rock just to the left a one a the bastards, and he did jump. He pulled a gun out, and he ducked behind that rock. I shot again, and he laid low. Just then Weaver and Raspberry cut loose on them with their rifles, and them Morgan men hopped and jumped around not knowing whichaway the bullets was a-coming at them from. They ducked behind something, and then whenever another bullet hit something, they’d move around to the other side a the rock or the ridge or whatever cover they thunk they had found.

  Whenever I figgered we had sent enough lea
d their way, I waved at Weaver and Raspberry again, and we ceased our firing and just set quiet for a spell. I seed one a the Morgan men peek out kinda like he wanted to hunt for a target, but he never seed none a us, so he never did shoot.

  “Let’s get outa here,” he said. I heared him clear enough from up there where I was at. Then he turned to run, and he run as far as he could before he went to sliding down the side a the mountain on his ass. His buddies all follered him, and they all slud too. It was pretty comical, and I did enjoy a-watching it. When I final seed that they was all gone, I started in to making my own way back towards where ole Weaver and ole Raspberry was at. But then I made my big-ass mistake. I looked down again, and it skeered me real bad. It put all kinds a fear into my very heart and soul, I can tell you. I went to shaking, but I tried to control it and keep myself a-going. Then I come to that there one place where I had slipped before, and of a sudden, I couldn’t move. I was just stuck to the side a that mountain, and right then I had me a most dreadful vision of a godawful unpleasant death just a-waiting right ahead a me. Either that or a real long fall clean on down into China.

  Chapter 8

  “Oh, lordy Jesus God,” I said, “please get my ass down safe offa this son-of-a-bitching mountain.”

  I hadn’t never prayed to no one nor nothing before in my whole entire life, but I had heared about Jesus and them, and I knowed that some folks did pray like that, and I had even heared that now and then they got whatever it was they had prayed for, and I was so skeered to be froze on the side a that there mountain like that on account a the things that ole Zeb had told me about folks falling off and all, I just had to do something, and I figgered that chancing a prayer couldn’t do no harm, and, hell, it might even help. I even had me a vision just then of a great big hand a-reaching down outa the sky and taking aholt a me and lifting me offa there real gentle like and then setting me down safe on solid flat ground. But a course, it never happened like that. I heared Weaver a-calling to me though.