A Cold Hard Trail

by Robert J Conley

  “That’s what the cheering was all about,” Weaver said.

  I looked up then, and I looked right at Weaver and then at Raspberry.

  “But what about—”

  “That’s all there was to tell,” Weaver said. “They appreciate what you did for them. We all do.”

  Well, I be damned if I didn’t feel them tears a-coming back into my eyes at that, but I done my best, and I fit them back. I tuck me a big gulp a hot coffee. Then, even though ole Weaver and ole Raspberry seemed as if they had kept my embarrassment to just only theirselfs, and so had ole Zeb on account a I had threatened his life, it kinda come to me that I might had oughta take the conversation in a whole entire new direction away from the events a the night before.

  “Well, all that’s well and good and all,” I said, “’cept only for one little ole thing.”

  “What’s that?” Weaver asked me.

  “Since we went and shot at them fellers last night,” I said, “and we driv them off from their meanness and all, I reckon we sorta declared open and all-out war on them, and since we went and done that, we gotta be watching our ass real keerful from here on. They ain’t gonna set still. They’ll be up to something. You can bet your ass on that.”

  “The Kid’s right about that, Charlie,” Weaver said. “They’ll be planning some kind of retaliation. Probably soon.”

  “As far as I’m concerned,” Raspberry said, “it’s about time. I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of this cat-and-mouse game we been playing with them.”

  “We have to do some planning of our own though,” Weaver said. “We don’t know just what they’ll pull, and we have to be ready, whatever it is.”

  “We can put guards out all around,” Raspberry said.

  “That’s a start,” ole Weaver agreed.

  I had just et the last bite a my breakfast and was slurping out the last a my coffee, and it was a good thing too, ’cause just then we heared a commotion outside. Ever’one in Weaver’s gold camp et breakfast together in the big tent, so they wasn’t no one a us out there. It had to be the damn men from Morgan’s camp. I jumped up and headed for the front door and most a the men in there was right behind me. Some of them was wearing guns, but most of them went unarmed most a the time. They had rifles back in their own tents or shacks. We come out, and some of them went a-running for them rifles. One man dropped dead just almost right beside me from a gunshot. The women come out, too, a-running this way and that way and screaming and all and gethering up kids and hustling them off somewhere.

  What it was it was some a Morgan’s men all right, maybe eight of them, and they was shooting in all directions and one of them rid up right close to the big tent and tossed a lit torch up on top a the canvas and set it to blazing right off. I whipped out my Colt right fast, and I dropped the man offa his horse what had throwed the torch. Then I just spun around to the next most convenient target, and I dropped me another’n. Some a the miners was in the doorways a their private tents or shacks by then, and they was popping away with their rifles and hitting their targets occasional. They was another couple a torches throwed, and a couple a smaller tents was on fire. It was a small war going on there, I can tell you.

  They had caught us with our britches down, so to speak, what meant that initial they had the advantage on us, but we rallied in a hurry, and we fit back like hell and turned the situation around on them for damn sure and certain. Well, they was four a the bastards down and dead, and a couple more was bleeding in their saddles. One of them yelled out real loud.

  “Let’s get the hell outa here.”

  They turned their horses around almost all at once and lit out fast going north, back towards the Morgan camp. I snapped me off a quick shot at the one what was the fartherest behind, and I nicked him in the shoulder. I seed the blood fly and heared him holler. He was too far off by then for a second shot, so I let him go. I wondered, though, how come none a the miners with rifles didn’t take no shots at the fleeing shits, but I guess they just wasn’t used to killing and couldn’t bring theirselfs to shoot a man in the back. Under circumstances like what we had just then experienced, I sure as hell wouldn’t have no such qualms. Like I said, I had done shot one a the bastards, and I only nicked him on account a it was a long shot for a six-gun. I’d a shot him dead if I coulda.

  Well, they was gone, and we was assessing the damage they had did. We had four men kilt and a few others wounded, no one real bad, and we had kilt four a them and shot up most all the rest of them. It looked to me like a broke-even deal ’cept for the fact that they had set them fires. Some a the men was busy tossing buckets a water on the blazes, and some a the women was crying and wailing, but most of them was at work patching up the wounded. It was a real mess, I can tell you that. I had said just before that we had declared war on the son of a bitches, and here we was a-standing in a fresh fit battle zone for sure. I knowed then what war was like. It didn’t spare no one, not women nor kids. We was lucky on that score, though, ’cause none a the women nor kids was hurt, not direct. ’Course, each dead man had left behind him a widder and some orphans, and that there was sad, sure enough.

  The deal that these folks all had with each other was that they was all equal partners in this mining adventure, and so whenever them poor fellers got theirselfs kilt, why, the rest would all see to it that their widders and orphans was tuck keer of. Whenever I learnt that, I was real proud a ole Weaver and them. After a while, things was kinda under control again. Me and ole Zeb was standing there looking at the ashes around us, and ole Weaver, he come over to stand there with us.

  “Well,” he said, “you had it straight, Kid.”

  “What’s that?” I asked him.

  “You said it was war.”

  “That’s right,” Zeb said. “You was right about that. We’re in a war all right.”

  “We got to finish it,” I said.

  “How’re we going to do that?” Weaver asked me.

  “I been thinking on that one,” I said. “We’re going to go right back at them. Right now.”

  “Right now?” Weaver said.

  “It’s the best time,” I said. “They’ll be figgering that we’re a-setting over here licking our wounds, but the truth a the matter is that they got theirselfs hurt most near as bad as they hurt us. I say hit them right now. It’ll be the biggest surprise they ever had, I can tell you that.”

  Weaver kinda shuck his head a little, and then he scratched it some.

  “Well, all right,” he said. “How do we do it?”

  “I ain’t seed you all doing no blasting,” I said, “but do you have any dynamite?”

  “Sure,” he said. “We don’t like to use it, but we have some just in case we should need it.”

  “You know that there place where—well, where we was at last night?” I said.

  “Yeah?”

  “Could you and another man or two get yourselfs over a bit more farther up there where as you could drop some a them sticks right down on them?”

  “I think we could,” he said.

  “Do you have some men what’s good rifle shots?” I asked him.

  “I can think of four that’s pretty good,” he said.

  “Well, then,” I said, “if you could take you and one more to drop them blow sticks and two more with rifles to pick off whoever they can from up there, I could take two more with rifles along with me and go into the camp from the road. I figger we could do a hell of a lot a damage thataway.”

  “Why just seven men?” Weaver asked me.

  “’Cause you done lost four,” I said. “Got some others hurt. If we work this the way I say, I don’t reckon none a them Morgans’ll get through the road to ride over in here, but just in case, we don’t want no women and kids left in here all by theirselfs. Ever’ able-bodied man what don’t go out on this raid has got to be here armed and a-watching to perfect the women and kids.”

  “Okay,” he said. “That makes sense.”

  “And here�
�s another thing,” I said. I was a-thinking how none a the miners with rifles hadn’t shot at them bastards what was running away from us. “The men that goes up yonder with you and the ones who rides over the other way with me, they got to go into this thing cold-blooded. When they get a target, they got to shoot to kill. If they do like I say, we’ll win this war this morning. It’ll all be over with and did.”

  “I’ll get the men together,” Weaver said.

  Weaver tuck Raspberry with him and a bundle a dynamite sticks, and then two more men with rifles went along. They’d all had a good talking-to by me and Weaver both. Then I had along with me ole Tucker, what was too fat to be climbing up with Weaver, but they said he was a hell of a shot with a rifle, and I had ole Zeb. Zeb brung a rifle and that shotgun he had stoled from Chastain’s office whenever we broke outa there. I weren’t at all sure I wanted ole Zeb to come along, but he wouldn’t have it no other way.

  Anyhow, me and Tucker and Zeb was all mounted up and ready to go, but I knowed it would take Weaver and them a little while to get up on that mountain, so I said we’d wait a while to let them get in place up there. We could see them most a the time too, so whenever I seed that they was getting close, I told the others let’s go, and we rid outa camp on the road. Thataway, we lost sight a Weaver and them for a while.

  Whenever we come close to Morgan’s camp, I slowed us down. I didn’t figger them to be expecting us along so soon, but I didn’t want to take no chances that they might be laying in wait. What I wanted, was I wanted the first sign a trouble to them bastards to be the first stick a dynamite that Weaver and Raspberry dropped in on them. Then while they was running around on account a being bombed like that, me and my two pardners would come at them from the other direction. I knowed, too, that once we rounded a little bend in the road, Weaver and them would be able to see us from up there where they was at. We had talked about that. That was the signal for them to commence the battle, whenever they seed us come around that bend.

  Well, we rounded it, and I couldn’t see no Morgan soldiers in the road ahead nor along the sides a the road, but still I called a halt.

  “Hold it up right here,” I said.

  We stopped and set there in our saddles a-waiting, and it seemed like a long wait, but it wasn’t prob’ly no more than a minute, maybe not even that. All ole Weaver needed was he just only needed to spot us down there in position and then have time to get a match struck and to get a fuse lit and drop it on down. Then a course, there would be however long it tuck the fuse to burn on down. I told myself all a that while I set there a-waiting. I also thunk about how it was that I was a-going into a situation here where the plain and deliberate plan was to just go and kill a bunch a men dead what I didn’t even know them atall. Oh, I had met Morgan and a couple a the others that time I had rid into his camp, but I didn’t really know them. But I guessed that was the way it was in a war. I also knowed what they had been doing to our new friends, and I figgered they deserved whatever they got back on account a that meanness they had did to my new friends.

  Then there was also two men what knowed just how I had acted on the side a that mountain the night before, and then there was my own pardner, ole Zeb, what knowed even the worst part a the whole mess, and I meant to do something to kinda erase them ugly memories outa their heads if I could. I needed to try to wipe them outa my own mind too, I was that embarrassed over it all. So here we was waiting to do some serious giving back to Morgan and them, and me, I was downright determined to do even more than my share a the giving.

  Then Lord godamighty, the whole earth shuck with the blast. I hadn’t never saw a dynamite blast that close up to it before in my whole entire life, and it was sure enough a sight, I can tell you. It roared and it thundered, and I could feel it hit me in the chest way off over there the way I was. Flames shot out and black smoke billowed. Clouds a dirt riz up high, and I seed boards a-flying through the air like sticks, and I even seed a man or pieces of a man a-flying. Well, me and Tucker and Zeb had a time controlling our horses, it was that bad. They whinnied and nickered and reared up and stamped their hoofs and danced around. We had a fight on our hands a-keeping them there where we wanted them and keeping our own ass in the saddles. I hadn’t figgered on that part.

  We did manage to keep them under control though, but I was sure glad that there weren’t no one a-shooting at us at the time. We wouldn’t a been able to shoot back nor to duck nor nothing, but I reckon that ole Morgan’s men, they was busy enough trying to figger out who had blasted them and from where. Then another one hit, and this time it landed on a shack that I didn’t know at the time but that ole Zeb told me later musta been where ole Morgan kept his supply a dynamite. I thought it was the end a the world.

  It weren’t just one big blast, although the one first one was big enough and loud enough, but then come another and another, and it seemed to me like as if it weren’t ever going to stop. I never seed so much fire a-flashing and black smoke a-rolling and dust and trash and all a-flying through the sky in all and ever’ direction. This time ole Tucker lost his seat. He landed hard on the road, and his horse tuck out for home.

  Whenever the holy hell had stopped, I asked him was he all right, and he come up on his feet a-gasping for breath and said that he was, so I told him to just stay there where he was at and take cover behind a rock and pick off any Morgan men what might come close enough to him for it. He scrambled over and tuck his cover.

  “Come on, Zeb,” I said.

  We lit out for what was left a that Morgan camp, and one more stick a dynamite went off. Our horses both went into their dance again, and we final fit them back under control and resumed our attack. As we was a-riding into the camp, the first thing what happened was a man come out from behind a shack and surprised the hell outa me, but ole Zeb raised up that scattergun and like to of tuck the bastard’s head off. We kept a-going.

  Another man come out from somewhere, and I was raising up my Colt when someone up there with Weaver picked him off with a rifle shot. I snapped off a shot and dropped one. Another one had managed to get onto a horse and headed out lickety-split towards the road over there where ole Tucker was a-waiting. That there was the stupidest way for him to go, but I figgered his brain musta been somewhat fuddled on account a all the blasting. Sure enough, Tucker brung him down with one shot.

  I hauled back on the reins a my mount and jumped down outa the saddle just as a couple a men come running out from a lane between two high walls a flames, and I whirled around and dropped them both in their tracks. I heared Zeb a-shooting back behind me too, but I was too busy to look back and see what was happening there. The riflemen up on the mountain was a-shooting down amongst us too. Then of a sudden, ever’thing was quiet. I couldn’t think of nothing for it but only that we had done kilt them all. I weren’t about to relax though. Not yet. I helt my shooter ready, and I was turning quick and looking around in all directions. I seed Zeb still a-setting in his saddle and holding his rifle and he was a-looking around too. Then he shouted at me and turned in his saddle and fired off a quick shot with his rifle all at once.

  I turned fast toward whatever it was he was a-shooting at, and then I seed ole Morgan hisself along with the man whose thumb I had shot off, and they was a-riding as fast as ever they could make their horses go, a-heading north outa camp along that road what me and Zeb had wanted to take whenever Morgan and his men had stopped us from doing it that time. Well, Zeb’s shot had missed its mark. I sure didn’t want them two getting away. They was the mainest mean ones a the bunch. I run back over to where my horse was at and started into trying to mount up, but the dumb critter was still nervous and skittered up from all the noise and such and give me so much trouble that by the time I got up on his back it was too damn late. They was gone.

  Oh, I rid out after them all right, but I never set eyes on them again. They had got well down that road before I had even got back in the saddle. I give it up and turned around and rid back to where Zeb was a-waitin
g for me. Me and him rid all around that waste of a camp a-checking here and there, and we final determined that there wasn’t nothing left alive ’cept for a few horses. We gethered them up and rid back over to where Tucker was still a-waiting.

  “Pick one and climb up,” I said, and he mounted a horse. We all rid on back into Weaver’s camp, and by the time we got on in there and offa our horses, Weaver and Raspberry and them was back down from offa the mountain. Me and Zeb had ever’one gethered up around us in quick order.

  “We did it, Kid,” Weaver said. “We won.”

  The cheers went up, and it was a while before it was quiet enough for me to give ole Weaver a answer to what he had said.

  “I reckon we did all right,” I said. “Me and ole Zeb here checked out the whole entire Morgan camp, and there ain’t nothing alive over there. Not now since we brung out all the rest a his horses.”

  They all cheered again. I can tell you, it was a happy bunch a miners on that day. ’Course, they was still some sorrow amongst them on account a the men they had lost that morning, but the war was over at last, and they knowed then that they could get on with their work without no more mean interference from that Morgan bunch a would-be claim-jumpering outlaw bastards. When they final quieted down again, I looked over at Weaver.

  “Only bad thing about it,” I said, “ole Morgan hisself and that one-thumb bastard got away clean.”

  “Morgan and Shark got away?” Raspberry said.

  “Yeah, Shark,” I said. “That’s his name.”

  “Damn,” Weaver said. “If Morgan got away, he just might be back with another bunch and try again. I’m afraid he won’t just give it up. Not like that. Not that easy. He’ll be back all right.”

  “Well, he might,” I said, “but I don’t think it’ll be anytime too soon after what we done here today. Besides, he’d have to go skeer hisself up a whole entire new army before he could make another run at you. And before he does try it, if he does, I might just run across his path again somewhere. I’d say that you all can just about almost relax. Oh, keep your eyes peeled just in case. But don’t worry your heads none too much on account a ole Morgan. Leastways, not for a while yet.”