A Cold Hard Trail

by Robert J Conley

  “All right. But, say, we had us a deal, Kid,” Weaver said. “Remember? It’s payback time.”

  Well, my head was still a-swimming what with all that action we had just had ourselfs, and I had to ask ole Weaver just what was it was he a-making reference to. It sure didn’t ring no bells inside a my head.

  “You help us solve our problem,” he said, “and we’ll help solve yours. Remember? So now that Morgan’s out of our way, at least for a while, like you said, some of us can ride on down into Fosterville with you, and talk to that sheriff, and clear your name. That should settle your problems.”

  “Well,” I said, “it sure as hell should, and I’m mighty anxious to get it did. All right, let’s get your camp all straightened up real nice here first, and then we’ll just go on ahead and do that.”

  Chapter 10

  We was all on our way down the mountain on that narra trail meaning to do just exactly what ole Weaver had promised me he would do, and I was thinking how ever’thing was going to be straightened out between me and the law pretty soon now. We was maybe halfway down the trail whenever we seed the posse a-coming up at us. Now you might think that shoulda been all right, on account a I was wanting ole Weaver and them to have a good talk with Jim Chastain and convince him a the truth a the matter that me and Zeb and Paw couldn’t no way a been the owlhoots he was after. But it didn’t work out thataway. That seems to be the general way a life that things don’t work out the way you mean for them to.

  It didn’t work out like that atall, ’cause me and ole Chastain, we seed each other right at the same exact instant a time, and he done just what ever’one had told me he would do whenever he would see me again. He pulled out his revolver and started in to shooting and shouting. He hollered out to the posse behind him, “There they are. Shoot to kill.”

  Well, I went tumbling offa my saddle and rolled over to the edge a the road and got my ass in behind a boulder what wouldn’t a even been there if it hadn’t a been for that there rock slide ole Zeb had caused us to do a while back, and I hauled out my own shooter right fast and commenced to firing back, but only I weren’t shooting to kill. I was wanting to prove that I weren’t no murderer, and killing a lawman sure didn’t seem like the way to go about accomplishing that task. I didn’t want ole Weaver nor no else a-getting kilt neither. I just only figgered that the way to make ole Jim and his posse set still and keep their heads down was to make like I was a-shooting back at them. It worked too. They knowed my reputation as a slick gunhand.

  “Weaver,” I called out. “Zeb. Get ever’one’s ass back up the mountain.”

  “We can’t leave you here like this,” Weaver said from somewhere. I don’t know just where he was at, but I kinda assumed that ever’one back behind me had did like what I had did and tuck cover whenever the shooting started. I could tell that Chastain and them had dismounted and hid down below on account a I was a-looking down on them.

  “Zeb,” I said, “can you hear me?”

  “I hear you, Kid.”

  “Get them bastards all back up the mountain,” I said.

  “Come on, fellers,” I heared Zeb say. “The Kid knows what he’s a-doing.”

  I could hear them all scurrying their way back up the mountain then, and so I knowed that I was left there all by my lonesome a-facing a whole damn Chastain Fosterville posse what was determined as hell to kill me dead, but that there was the way I wanted it. Well, I didn’t know exact what to do, and I figgered that I was a goner for sure, but still ever’time I seed one a them son of a bitches stick his damned ole head up, I pinged me a shot off somewhat close to him to make him duck his ass back down again.

  I got to thinking that since I had done made up my mind not to kill no one, I could real easy shoot all my bullets up in just a little while, and then I’d be in a surefire hell of a fix, so I went and looked all around me, and I seed right off that they was a bunch a loose fist-sized rocks laying around within easy reach, and being up high the way I was and them being down below me, I was in a real good position to take advantage a that source a ammunition. I went to picking up good throwing rocks and chunking them down thataway, and now and then, I got me in a good hit.

  My first toss, I was pretty sure I beaned one of them, ’cause I heared him holler. I rained down a few more rocks kinda in general, and then I tuck to waiting a bit and watching for targets, and whenever I done that, why, I did hit me a few more of them for sure. Then it come to me what me and ole Zeb had did the last time, and we was in damn near the same place where we had been back then. I decided to send a whole rock slide down at them, and since they was so many loose rocks from the last time, it didn’t take too much effort to cause another one. I miscalculated on one thing though.

  When them rocks went to rumbling down the trail, ole Chastain having been out in the front a the posse, he was up some higher on the trail than anyone else, and them rocks tumbled right on past him, but the rest a the posse seed it coming and jumped up and skeedaddled on down the mountain to get away from the slide. Chastain was separated from his bunch. I had got rid a the posse all right, but I still had ole Jim to deal with. Whenever the rocks quit rumbling, I could hear their voices from way down there most near on the flat.

  “What do we do now?”

  “We can’t get through there.”

  “Let’s head on back.”

  “What about Chastain?”

  “He can take care of himself.”

  So they by God mounted right on up and rid off lickety-split and just abandoned the poor son of a bitch to his fate, which was a-going to be they didn’t have no idea what. I didn’t neither just yet. I knowed for sure, though, that if I was to just go down there and face ole Jim, he would sure enough try to kill me dead for what I had did to him, and I wouldn’t have but two choices, neither one a which I liked. One was to just go right on ahead and kill him, what you already know I didn’t want to do that, and the other’n was to let him kill me. I didn’t want that neither. I guess I coulda follered Zeb and Weaver and them back up to the gold camp, but I didn’t want to bring no more trouble on them folks, and I figgered that if ole Chastain was to eventual dig that there trail out and get his ass on up to the camp, why, if I was to be there he’d spot me right off, but ole Zeb, he might could just sorta blend in, being a crusty old prospector and all.

  I wanted to talk to Jim anyhow, and if he just absolute refused to listen to the voice a reason and all, why, I wanted to get on to the serious business a running them three real outlaws down. Now me and ole Jim was on opposite ends a all them rocks I had sent down the trail. There weren’t no way a getting up or down with a horse, but I figgered a man could climb around all right, long as he was to stay offa them loose rocks, so I eased myself back farther away from what had been the trail and commenced to working my way over rocks and boulders and such on down toward where I figgered Chastain was still a-lurking.

  ’Course, far as I knowed, he coulda been a-doing the same thing as what I was a-doing, but ’cept he coulda been trying to work his way down to his horse in order to hightail it back toward Fosterville like his posse had did, or he coulda been a-working his way up to try to come on me by surprise. To tell you the truth, I don’t know which a them things he was a-doing if either one, but I had the advantage on him, me being up higher than what he was, and I did final spot him hunkered down behind a rock with his six-gun in his hand. I come up behind him though. I sneaked in on him, and I leveled my shooter right square between his shoulder blades. There ain’t no way on this whole entire earth or the history of it that I coulda missed him.

  “Don’t move a muscle, Jim,” I said, and he didn’t. He friz stiff instant. I said, “Drop that shooter.”

  He didn’t drop it though, and I knowed that he was a-thinking could he spin around right quick like and snap off a lucky shot and get me without me getting him at the same time or even first.

  “Jim,” I said, “drop it. You know I can kill you.”

  “Yeah,” he s
aid. “They say you’re a regular Billy the Kid.”

  Well, that was the last thing I wanted to hear, and I snapped off a shot what blowed a hole in his Stetson and knocked it offa his head. He flinched and dropped his revolver and stuck his both hands up in the air.

  “You going to kill me?” he asked.

  “Damn it, Jim,” I said, “once I thunk that we was friends. I sure did believe that you knowed me better than that. I ain’t never shot no one what wasn’t shooting at me to kill me. Well, I did shoot off Paw’s left ear a while back on account a he pissed me off real bad, but if I’d a wanted to kill you, you’d done be dead.”

  “What do you mean to do then?” he asked me.

  “I want you to move on down the way a little more farther,” I said, and he had to climb over some rocks to do that, but he done it, and I done the same thing till I was just right there where he had been, and I picked up his shooter and tucked it in my belt. “I was on my way into Fosterville,” I said, “with some witnesses what coulda proved to you that me and Zeb and Paw ain’t the ones what you want, but whenever you seed me you went to shooting first, so I sent them off. I didn’t want no one kilt over this here misunderstanding what you got stuck so firm in your stubborn muley head.”

  Jim, he didn’t say nothing to that, and I hoped that he was a-thinking a the pure wisdom a my words. He knowed damn well that I was a-telling the truth about one thing. If I’d a wanted him dead, he’d a done been kilt. I was that good, and I knowed it, and he did too, and I’d had me a couple a good chances, if that had a been my intention.

  “Jim,” I said, “I didn’t rob that stagecoach, and I didn’t rob your bank, and I didn’t kill none a them innocent folks what got kilt. Neither did Paw and Zeb.”

  “Damn it, Kid,” he said, “if you’re telling me the truth, the best thing you could have done was to stay put in my jail.”

  “Hell, you was ready to string us all up,” I said.

  “If you’d been locked up in my jail, and if you’re telling the truth, you’d have had a perfect alibi when the bank was robbed,” he said.

  Well, I hadn’t never thunk about it thataway, but whenever he said it, I sure couldn’t argue none with it. The only thing is, that there thought didn’t do me no good then.

  “Well,” I said, “I ain’t going back and set on my ass in your jail cell and wait for the bastards to come and rob your bank again. What’s did is did. Start in a-stripping off your clothes.”

  “Oh, now wait a minute, Kid,” he said. “You’re not going to do that to me again.”

  “It’s either that or I commence to shooting off your ears and such,” I said.

  “What makes you want to do such a mean thing?” he said.

  “It’s the best way I know of to slow you down without actual shooting you in a kneecap or something,” I said. “Now peel them off.”

  Well, he done it, and I made him toss them clothes over to me, and I gethered them up in a bundle. Now, my horse was up above that rock slide, and there weren’t no quick way to get it down, and Jim’s horse had went down the trail with the rest a the posse horses whenever the men had got off their backs to take cover, so it was on down there below. I was a-wanting to be down there, too, and a-riding off somewheres, so I come up with a quick plan.

  “Now, Jim,” I said, “I’m a-fixing to climb over these here rocks till I get all the way down yonder, and then I’m a-taking your horse, and I don’t want you to go charging me with no horse-stealing neither. What I’m doing is I’m swapping with you. You can work your way up there where I left my critter. The fastest way for you to get down from here then will be for you to ride on up to the end a the trail to the mountain road and then turn north. You’ll come onto a little gold camp run by a feller named Weaver. Him and his people is good folks. While you’re there, ask them where the hell me and old Zeb was at whenever your bank got robbed.”

  “I can’t ride into a gold camp stark nekkid,” he said.

  “Why not?” I said.

  “Kid!” he said. “Damn you all the way to hell.”

  Then I recollected the way I had come down offa the mountain whenever I had found it necessary to toss away my soiled britches, and so I rolled up his shirt and throwed it back to him.

  “There you go,” I said. “Be seeing you, Jim.”

  I went to crawling over them rocks a-heading down to the bottom, and I heared ole Jim yell out at me, “I’ll get you for this, Kid,” and I figgered that one way or another, he likely would, but I meant to put off the getting a me for as long as I possible could.

  So there I was all by my lonesome again. Zeb was up in the camp with Weaver and them, or leastways he would be pretty soon, and Paw was on his way back to Texas. Now, it’s true that ole Zeb was my pardner and all, but at just that there time, I was glad I had got myself separated from him. I hoped that he’d be safe up there with Weaver, and I figgered I could move around a little more freer by myself than if he was to be a-tagging along with me. The other thing was that too often whenever I got me a idea, ole Zeb, he’d come up with a different one and commence into telling me what all was wrong with my own. I figgered that just then I didn’t need none a that kinda confusion in my head.

  I made it on down to the bottom a the foothills there and found ole Jim’s horse just a-grazing away real contented like and not giving a shit what the hell was a-going on around it. I caught it up real easy and mounted and tuck out headed north. I didn’t really have no definite plans. I still figgered them outlaws was up thataway somewheres, and that I might could run across them if I was to wander around up there. Judging from the recent bank robbery in Fosterville, they wasn’t getting too far away in their depradating.

  That evening found me back in that there grove a trees off east a Fosterville a-studying on the notion a going back in there for another visit with ole Red. I was a-trying to figger out should I sneak on in like I done the last time or just ride on in all bold as hell. ’Course, I knowed that ole Jim wouldn’t be back in town for a spell. What I was a-asking myself was did anyone else in town besides just Red know me all that well and if anyone else was to get a look at me, would they think anything special about me without me being in the company a two old codgers. Well, I never really answered the question, but I was kinda tired a sneaking, so I decided to just ride on in.

  I found ole Red in the big main room a the saloon, and they was quite a few men in there drinking and having a good ole time. Whenever Red seed me, she come a-running, and glommed onto my left arm, she knowed better than to take and encumber my main shooting arm, and she dragged me off into a corner and set me down in a chair and set down close beside me.

  “Kid,” she said, “are you crazy?”

  “You done asked me that once before,” I said.

  “Everyone’s looking for you,” she said.

  “They’re looking for a skinny kid with two old men,” I said. “Hell, they won’t notice me just all by my lonesome. Besides, ole Chastain’s up on the mountain nekkid. He won’t be back for a spell yet.”

  “You didn’t,” she said. “Not again.”

  I grinned real big and nodded my head.

  “Kid, he’ll kill you for sure.”

  “He likely will if he ever gets him a chance,” I said, agreeing absolute with just what she had said.

  “Well, what’re you doing?” she said. “What’re you doing here?”

  “I’m just sorta riding north,” I told her. “Sorta looking for them three outlaws. I just figgered it’d be kinda nice to stop here and pay you a little visit along the way. Hell, Red, I can’t hardly ride past this town without stopping in to see you. You know that, don’t you?”

  “Well, let’s get out of here before someone recognizes you,” she said.

  “Get out to where?” I asked her.

  “Oh, we’ll go to my room,” she said.

  Now that there is exact what I wanted to hear, and I give her a smile, and I said, “Okay.” I stood up, and so did she, and
she started in to steering me toward the back door. We was almost there, but we had to pass by one more table what had a cowhand-looking feller a-setting at it and a-drinking whiskey just all by his lonesome. He weren’t no big man, ’bout medium built, I guess, but then, medium is big to me, since I’m so scrawny. I didn’t pay him too much mind as we walked past him, but then I heared his chair a-being pushed back, and then I heared his voice.

  “Kid Parmlee?” he said. “Is that you?”

  I stopped and turned around to face him, and then is when I seed that there was something kinda vague like familiar about his ugly features. I couldn’t place him though. I didn’t think that I had ever saw him before. He was wearing a low-slung gun on his left hip, and he was dirty and unshaved. I kinda squinted at him, and I give ole Red a sorta gentle shove away from me, on account a he didn’t look to me like he was wanting no friendly talk. She moved on over to the bar.

  “Do you know me?” I said.

  “I know who you are,” he said.

  “You got business with me?” I said.

  “I been looking for you for quite a spell,” he said. “I mean to kill you.”

  “You might try,” I said, “but before one of us is final kilt, and likely it’ll be you, do you mind a-telling me what it’s all about?”

  “You kilt a whole mess a my cousins,” he said. “You son of a bitch.”

  “What’s your name?” I said.

  “It’s Henry,” he said. “Henry Pigg.”

  Then he went for his shooter in a flash without no further warning, but I was expecting it all right. I been shot at enough that I got a kinda feel for it, you know. And he weren’t too bad, but then, me, I’m real fast. That’s how come them to keep on a-calling me a regular Billy the Kid, as much as I don’t like to hear it said. Anyhow, I beat him, a course. I jerked out my big Colt and thumbed back the hammer and fired all in one motion and well before he even had his hammer cocked. There was a hell of a roar, us being inside the way we was, and my bullet tore a big hole in his chest. Blood went all over the place, and he done a little dance all staggering around and trying to hold up his shooter and get off a shot at me, but he never, and final he just fell over right onto his face so flat and hard, I bet he busted his nose. Only thing is, he didn’t keer at that point, ’cause I’m pretty sure he was done dead before he ever hit the floor.