A Cold Hard Trail

by Robert J Conley

  I kept my gun in my hand and looked around the room kinda furtive like to see if they was anyone in there looking bold enough to come after me. They all just set still, while the stinking smoke from my gunshot kinda drifted around and filled the room, and I commenced to backing slow towards the back door. Red, she never made no move away from the bar. She just stared at me, and I reckon she had done changed her mind about taking me on up to her room. I guess her mood was way changed on accounta what I had just did. I didn’t have no choice in the matter though, and I wondered couldn’t she see it thataway? Why, if I hadn’t a kilt him, he’d a kilt me for sure. It was his stated out loud intention. Anyhow, if I had me any doubts left in my head regarding what was in ole Red’s mind, she cleared them right up by what she said next.

  “Kid,” she said, “get out of town. Hurry.”

  I didn’t argue with her none. I got to the door. My back was a-pressing on it. I tuck me one last look around the room.

  “Ain’t there no end to them goddamned Piggses?” I said.

  I got to my ole horse and mounted up, and I rid outa town near as fast as I could make him go. I was blind fool mad too, I can tell you. Here I had planned me a whomping good night with ole Red, and it had to go and get spoilt by a damn fool on accounta something what had happened way back yonder in time when I was only fourteen year old. You know, sometimes the world just don’t seem fair.

  Chapter 11

  Well, if I had gone into Fosterville a-thinking that I could kinda slip around and not be noticed, that there last Pigg had tuck keer a that for sure. I lit outa there in a hurry, I can tell you, and you mighta noticed that I got me a long history for such a young feller a hitting the trail without I first got myself well prepared for it. I didn’t have myself no food nor no camping stuff. I had me a blanket roll across the saddle, but that’s all. Oh, I did have a canteen a water. So anyhow, there I was a-riding the cold, hard trail again without I was really ready for it.

  I did have me some money in my pockets, thanks to ole Zeb what always managed to keep us pretty well fixed from panning gold dust here and there, so whenever I come onto the next town down the road, and me being real hungry and all, I stopped in and went to a eating place on the main street a the town. The place was called “Harry’s,” but the funny thing about it was that it weren’t run by no Harry. It was run by a woman name a Gertie.

  Ole Gertie was all right too. She was older than my own old maw, and she weren’t nothing like no other woman I ever seen or knowed before or since then. She was a tough ole gal, that’s for sure. She was damn near as short as me, but I bet you she weighed three times as much, and her hair was gray and kinda stringy like. Her old dress was greasy from cooking, and she was dusted all over with flour. I never seed her without she had a stump of a ceegar in the left corner a her mouth, and her just a-chomping on it.

  And she sure could cook. She whomped me up a steak and taters and gravy and biscuits and other stuff and fed me two plates full. I had lots a her good strong coffee too. I was in there at a odd time, and she didn’t have no other customers just then, so me and her got to talking, and we got good acquainted. I hadn’t give away no information on myself though. Then she got to talking about a bank robbery what had tuck place in their little town just a week or so before, and then I really kinda perked up to listen to that.

  “It was three of them,” she said. “One little squirt ’bout your size.”

  I didn’t let that bother me none. Hell, I knowed I was a little squirt. That was how come me to get so damn good with my Colt shooter. You know, they called that Colt the equalizer, and I come to find out how come. I figgered that my own ole equalizer equaled me up with any man. Anyhow, she went on.

  “Then they was two old farts with him. I was in here a-cooking just like now whenever I first heard the ruckus out in the street. Someone was hollering,”They robbed the bank,” and then they was some gunshots. I grabbed my greener from behind the counter and went out the front door. I seen a man laying dead in the street, and I seen them three a-heading for their horses. The squirt, he was just right over there a-coming outa the bank. It’s just two doors down. And his back was turned toward me, so I leveled my greener on him and cut loose. I dusted his britches good. He yelped out something fierce and managed to get into his saddle, but I g’arantee you, he weren’t none too comfy a-setting on all them pellets I put in his backside.”

  “Gertie,” I said, “if someone was to pull down his britches and give him a close look, would they see that his hind end had been peppered?”

  She let out a raucous laugh, and then she said, “For damn sure, sonny. They was blood in his saddle all right.”

  “Well, now, Gertie,” I said, “I am sure happy that you told me that there tale. Now I’m fixing to tell you one. First off, I’m knowed as Kid Parmlee.”

  “Glad to know you, Kid,” she said. “You already got my handle.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” I said. “Now here’s the tale. While back I was running with my ole pard, Zeb Pike, and my ole paw had hitched up with us. We had been up in the mountains for a spell and hadn’t heared no news, and we come down to water, you know, and we went into Fosterville back down south a here where we knowed the sheriff, ole Jim Chastain. Well, ole Jim, he throwed down on us before we knowed what was what, and he throwed us into his damned ole jail cell. Seems like three men what sounded like us had robbed a stagecoach up this direction and kilt a man in the doing of it. Ole Jim, he figgered it was us. Anyhow, I broke us outa his jail, and so now he’s after us and I’m after them real outlaws so I can to prove to ole Jim and ever’one else that it never was us in the first place.”

  “Well, I’ll be damned,” Gertie said. “So it’s them three what robbed our bank here that you’re after.”

  “It sure sounds like it to me,” I admitted. “But now that you’ve butt-shot the kid, maybe I can prove that it never was me on account a they can pull down his britches and look for them buckshot marks.”

  “By damn,” she said. “And not only that, Kid, but I got me a good look at that little snot, and I can tell them for sure that he ain’t you.”

  Well, right then and there I tuck ole Gertie for a angel a mercy come down from the gates a heaven to rescue me from a horrible fate a either getting my ass blowed all to hell by ole Jim Chastain or else getting hung up by my neck to stretch to death. Hell, I jumped up outa my chair and give her a big hug. I hadn’t never even hugged my own maw the way I hugged ole Gertie.

  “Gertie,” I said, “I think you have just saved my life.”

  “You just ride back down to Fosterville,” she said, “and fetch that sheriff up here. I’ll set him straight.”

  “I don’t reckon it’ll be quite that easy,” I said, “on account a whenever he sees me again, he won’t wait for me to tell him nothing. He’ll just commence to shooting at me with a full intent to kill me dead.”

  Then I went and told her how come me to say that. I told her how I had left poor ole Jim nekkid in his jail and then done it to him again up on the mountain. She just looked real serious and kinda shuck her head slow.

  “Hell, Kid, any man would want to kill you dead for doing that to him,” she said, “not once but twice. That was a bad thing you done.”

  Then of a sudden she went to laughing. After a while her laughing sent her to coughing, and final whenever she got control a herself again, she tuck a deep breath, and she said, “The picture of it just come into my mind a the nekkid sheriff. It was a mean thing you done, all right, but it was a pretty funny one at the same time.”

  “I kinda wish I hadn’t did it now though,” I said, “’cause, ole Jim, he sure is mad at me.”

  “Well now,” she said, “if you can’t go talk to him to straighten this all out, what are you going to do?”

  “I guess I’ll just keep on a-riding around these parts and hope to blunder into them outlaws,” I said, “’special that kid with the speckled butt. Meantime, if ole Jim or any other lawman comes alon
g thisaway, maybe you could tell them that you’ve saw me, and you know that I ain’t him.”

  “I’ll do that,” Gertie said. “You ain’t fixing to head on out today, are you?”

  “I was,” I said.

  “You wouldn’t get far down the road before dark set in,” she said. “Why don’t you stay here tonight? I’ll give you a place to sleep the night and fix you a good breakfast in the morning. What’s more, there won’t be no charge for none of it. It’ll be on the house.”

  Well, that sounded just fine to me, and so I thanked her kindly and tuck her up on her offer. After a while, she locked up her front door and led me through the back door, and I’ll be damned if that there eating place weren’t just the front room a the place where she lived. The back rooms was all her house. She set me down on a comfy couch and fetched out a bottle a good whiskey and two glasses and poured us each a drink and set down beside me. I rolled myself a cigareet and lit it. We had us a good time a-visiting and drinking whiskey and smoking and all. She sure was a grand ole gal, I can tell you. But then, I didn’t know the half of it.

  It come on late evening and I was a-thinking that it was might near time to hit the hay and wondering where the hell she was a-going to put me, when of a sudden, the ole gal reached a hand over and put it right down there between my legs and went to rubbing on me. That sure surprised me, but it didn’t surprise me near as much as the fact that I went and tuck to it, if you get my meaning. Why, here was this ole gal what was older than my own maw, and her a-acting like that on me, and me not running for my life.

  Well, I ain’t going into no more details, on account a I ain’t that kind, but I’ll just say that ole Gertie tuck me right into her own bed with her, and we didn’t get right off to sleep neither. We was some time before either one of us thought about sleeping. We woke up in the night a time or two and done it again each time too, and then we done one more in the morning. Ole Gertie, she was a live one.

  Come time for her to open up her place a business, though, and we got our ass up and got dressed and went on into the business part a her place there, and she unlocked the front door and went to cooking my breakfast. Right away she had some more customers come in, and me and her just acted like we wasn’t nothing to each other atall. When I had et my full, I got up to leave, and just then a man come in with a badge on his chest. He give me a look as he walked by me. Gertie come up to me then, and she handed me a bagful a food for the trail.

  “I’ll see you later, Kid,” she said. “I’ll give you time to get outa town, just in case, and then I’ll tell the sheriff here your story—and mine. Maybe that’ll be a start toward convincing your Chastain.”

  “Thanks, Gertie,” I said. “I’ll be back.”

  Riding north along the road what I thunk would eventual take me on into Denver if I was to keep a-riding on it long enough, I was thinking about ole Gertie and what a streak a luck it had been, me a-coming across her. Now if I could only just get my hands on that other kid, what now had his ass shot full a Gertie’s buckshot, I could damn sure prove that me and Paw and Zeb was innocent a them robberies and killings. I was also thinking about ole Chastain and how if I was to come across him again I wouldn’t have no chance to talk about nothing. I was hoping that he would ride all the way up the road to ole Gertie’s town so that she could tell him the truth a the matter before I would have to actual face him again.

  ’Course, that weren’t all I was a-thinking on. I was thinking on the kinda night I had just spent with ole Gertie and how no one would ever a believed it. I couldn’t hardly believe it my own self. And the mainest thing I couldn’t hardly believe about it was that I was not just only willing, but I had actual enjoyed it. I come to the reality about life just then that young and pretty ain’t ever’thing.

  Well, long about noon, I stopped and opened that sack ole Gertie had give me, and I found me some biscuits and some dried meat and some tins a beans. I didn’t want to build a fire and make a for-real camp, so I just et some dried meat and biscuit, is all. I washed it all down with water and got back to moving along. Like before, I didn’t have no special destination in mind. I was just kinda wandering, but only I was wandering in the general area in which them owlhoots had been doing their operating. I knowed I was right about that, on account a ole Gertie telling me how they had robbed the bank recent there in her town. They was still around all right. I figgered if I was to do much wandering without getting my own ass caught or kilt first, I was bound to run across them sooner or later.

  I rid on till late evening with the sun a-getting low in the west and coloring up the horizon over thataway real pretty like, and I hadn’t seed no sign of a town a-coming up any time soon, so I figgered that I had best be a-looking for myself a place to make me a camp for the night. They was plenty a water in that country on account a the snow way on up in the mountains, and so it weren’t long before I was able to pick me out a nice enough spot.

  I unsaddled my ole horse and set him a good place by the crick which run by, and there was aplenty a grass there too. Then I built me up a good little fire and rolled out my blanket on the ground. I fetched me some water from the crick and set it on to boil so I could have me some coffee. Ole Gertie had put ever’thing I needed in that there sack. I went and het up a tin a beans too, and I had myself a good enough meal. It weren’t nothing as good as ole Zeb’s camp cooking, but it satisfied me all right.

  I poured myself a last cup a coffee for the night and was just a-setting there by my little fire and a-sipping my coffee, and then I heared the sound a horses a-coming along the road. I set still and listened for a space, and I figgered they was coming up my back trail, coming from the south. They was moving slow and easy though, and they weren’t too many of them. It didn’t sound like no posse to me, but I weren’t about to make no dumb mistakes. I put down my cup and backed away from the fire out into the dark and waited.

  By and by three riders, a-leading one horse without no rider, come into view, and I got all excited thinking that they might be just exact who it was I was a-looking for, but then they come closer into my fire, and I seed right away by the firelight that it weren’t. It was three cowhand-looking fellers. They stayed in their saddles.

  “Anyone to home in the camp?” one of them called out.

  “Who wants to know?” I said, and I seed them kinda stiffen in their saddles.

  “Just some travelers looking for some hospitality,” the man said.

  “You lawmen?” I said. “You on anyone’s trail?”

  “Not us,” the man said. “We’re just outa-work cowhands, is all.”

  “Climb on down,” I said, “and welcome.”

  I come on back into the light a my fire then, and I told them boys where to put their horses over yonder where I had put mine. They done that, and then they come a-walking back over towards the fire.

  “You boys hungry?” I asked them.

  “We sure are,” one of them said. He weren’t the same one what had talked before, and I tuck him to be the youngest one a the bunch by the look of him.

  “I done et and drunk up alla my coffee,” I said, “but I’ll put on some more. I got aplenty.”

  “That’s right neighborly of you,” said the first one. They all went and set around the fire, and I dug down into my sack a stuff from ole Gertie again. Before long I had them all fed, and we was all of us setting around with coffee a-sipping and making small talk about how there weren’t no ranches around with jobs for outa-work cowhands. I lied just a little bit by telling them that I was in the same fix what they was in, and I was doing mainly the same thing what they was doing. I didn’t see no harm in it, ’cause if I hadn’t a been on the trail a them owlhoots, likely I woulda been looking for me some cow-punching job.

  “Which way you riding?” one a the men asked me.

  “I was headed south,” I said, a-lying again.

  “You might just as well turn north and ride along with us,” he said. “We done checked all the ranches behin
d us, and there ain’t no work to be had.”

  “I reckon you just saved me some trouble,” I said. “But I been up north, and I didn’t find nothing there neither.”

  “It’s hard times,” the young’un a the bunch said.

  “Enough to make a man turn to bank-robbing or stage-robbing or something,” I said, saying it kinda casual like, as if I mighta really meant it or I might nota.

  “No profit in that,” said the older one. “Not around these parts. We had some cousins what got into that line a work, and they’re mostly dead now.”

  “Besides,” the younger one said, “there’s three bad ones running around this here area doing all the dirty work. They ain’t leaving nothing for no one else. You want to get into the robbing line, you best go to some other part a the country.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “I heared about them three. You fellers ever think about taking up gold-hunting?”

  The older one shuck his head.

  “Naw,” he said. “That ain’t no kinda work for cowhands.”

  Well, a powerful need come on me just then, I had drunk so much coffee, so I got up and walked out away from the fire into the dark to take keer a that little necessary, and I could hear them three a-talking back there, but only I couldn’t make out anything they was a-saying. When I had finished up with my business, I headed back over thataway kinda slow, staying ready for anything. I still didn’t have no idea just who the hell them three was. You mighta noticed that we hadn’t bothered to exchange no names nor nothing like that. That made me figger that they was kinda like me, meaning they didn’t want to give out their names to no stranger. There’s got to be a reason a feller is like that.