A Cold Hard Trail

by Robert J Conley

  “I would if I had to,” he said.

  I tuck me another drink.

  “Well,” I said, and it weren’t funny to me no more, “you won’t have to do nothing like that.”

  “Kid,” Jim said, “when Gish is taken care of, we have some business together, you and me.”

  I was a-hoping that he had done forgot all about that, but then, I shoulda knowed better. I tried to figger out how to answer him on that one. I knowed that what I done was plumb mean. I knowed he had a right to hate my guts and to do whatever he could do to get even with me. I didn’t want to hurt ole Jim, ’special not to kill him, but at the same time, I sure couldn’t just lay there or set there and let him do whatever it was he was a-fixing to do to me. I couldn’t play it thataway, and I knowed I couldn’t. Jim knowed it too.

  I figgered it promised to be a interesting ride on back into Fosterville, what with Jim Chastain a-riding along with me and my two pards. It looked to me like as if ole Jim, he was showing us that he trusted us in spite a what I had did to him and whatever he was a-planning to do to me. He was a-showing me the best way he knowed how that he knowed for sure and real that I weren’t no outlaw, and what I had to do was to show him for real that I really weren’t. Whatever it was that was left betwixt me and ole Jim was just only that personal business, the sad fact that I had left him nekkid and vulnerable to the whole entire world on two separate and distinct occasions in two total different places.

  Chapter 21

  Well, we was all of us as good as our word. Come first light the next morning, me and ole Zeb and Churkee met up with ole Jim Chastain. We all agreed to have us a good breakfast there in town before we hit the trail, so we done that, but we didn’t dawdle none over it, so it was still early enough whenever we rid on outa Gooseneck. Ole Potter, he showed up just before we left, and he thanked us all for all the help we done him and then told us all goodbye. I had me some funny kinda mixedup feelings about this here trip too. The last time I had gone into Fosterville with having a drink with ole Jim on my mind, that was when he had come up behind me with that there shotgun. He had throwed my ass in jail, along with ole Zeb and my ole paw too, and I’d had to get myself broke out and them with me.

  So I did feel some funny about riding right back in there with Sheriff Chastain hisself right alongside. ’Course he had done said that he knowed for sure that I was innocent a all a the charges a robbing the stagecoach and them banks and them killings and all. He had said that. But ever since he had come up behind me the way he had did that time, I had me this funny kinda feeling that maybe I couldn’t really quite trust ole Jim. Maybe he had some kinda secret up his sleeve. Then again, maybe I was just being kinda small-minded about it all. I don’t for sure know.

  So anyhow, I had me that there nagging feeling, but I also had me some real good kinda thoughts regarding ole Red, and I was a-thinking that maybe this time me and her would get to have us a good time together without me getting throwed in jail or run outa town or nothing like that to spoil things for us. I did really like that gal, and she liked me too. I could tell. Why, hell, we had not just only had us some fine romps together up in her room, but she had come through for me in a pinch more than once. I give a sideways look at ole Jim whilst I was thinking on ole Red, and I wondered if he had any idee who it was had slipped me my Colt whenever I was locked up there in his jail. I sure hoped not.

  I was also looking real damn forward to finding that damn cold-blooded little shit Gish and getting rid a him outa my young life once and for ever. I was almost telling the truth whenever I tole ole Jim that I didn’t really keer whether if I kilt him or Jim throwed his ass in jail. Almost. Down in my most deepest heart I most wanted to kill him my own self, but I couldn’t tell that out loud. I couldn’t let it out to ole Chastain.

  And then the finalist and most worrisome thought in my head on this here trip was what was likely a-going to happen once we had final done tuck keer a Gish, ’cause that there was just the veriest time what ole Jim was a-waiting for in order to do his getting even on me for them two times I had left him nekkid the way I done. Now that was a-worrying my head somewhat, I can tell you. I sure damn didn’t want to have to shoot it out with him, on account a I didn’t want to have to kill ole Jim, I kinda liked him, and I knowed that if it was to come to that, that’s the way it would end. He weren’t no match for me. But then, he knowed that too, so I didn’t really believe that it would come to no shoot-out. It had to be some other something he had in his mind to do to me.

  That there was the troublingest part of it all. I knowed that he damn sure wanted to get even with me for what I had did to him, and he weren’t going to call me out for a shooting fight, I was pretty sure a that. So just what the hell did he have in his mind? Riding along that trail with ole Jim and a-headed right smack into his own town the way we was, I come to know a true fact a life. You can face all kinds a danger up front, long as you know what it is a-coming at you, but whenever you don’t know what’s a-coming, but you do know that it’s something a-coming, but you don’t know when neither, that’s when you can get really a-skeered. It’s like walking into a dark room when you’re a snot-nosed kid, and you wonder is there a bobcat or something a-hiding in there. Well, there prob’ly ain’t nothing, but only it’s dark, and you sure do wonder about it, and that skeers you. That’s how ole Jim had me a-going in my head.

  Well, we rid that damn long road till long about high noon, and then we stopped, and ole Zeb, he cooked us up a hell of a good meal. We et it and had us some coffee, and then we cleaned up and packed up again. We had fed and watered our horses too, while we was there, so we saddled them back up, clumb on their backs, and headed on our way. And it seemed to me that the closer we got our ass to Fosterville, the more ole Jim was a-giving me smug like looks, like as if he knowed that his time was a-coming. His face was kinda constant wearing one a them sly half-smiles, you know. I sure didn’t like them looks none too much.

  We made some small talk along the way, like whenever ole Zeb, he asked out loud but to no one in pertikler, “You reckon that damn kid really is there in Fosterville?”

  “Call him Gish,” I said, not liking it whenever anyone called him “that kid,” on account a he had been mistook for me back then, and Kid was what I was called.

  “Yeah, that one,” Zeb said. “That kid Gish. You reckon he really is there?”

  “That’s the only information we have on him,” said Chastain. “Even if our information was correct, there’s no guarantee that he’ll still be in town by the time we get there.”

  “There’s never no g’arantees about nothing in this here life,” I said.

  “Kid,” said Churkee, “you’re becoming quite a philosopher.”

  I thunk that I knew what that there word meant, so I said, “A man gets his ass shot at enough times, it does that to him. There just ain’t no way around it. I sometimes wish I could cut it out though. It can get my head to almost hurting. I’d ruther just be out somewheres a-punching cows with a empty head.”

  “Then you’d have all the time in the world in which to philosophize,” Churkee said. “If you don’t want to be thinking, the worst thing you can have is time on your hands.”

  I reckoned he might be right about that. It was best to be busy with something. A fight or a gal or something.

  “Be better to be up in the mountains a-sniffing out the mother lode,” Zeb said.

  “You’ll die still looking for that bonanza, old man,” Chastain said.

  “Ha! That’s what you think,” Zeb said, coming up of a sudden real animated like. “I’ll find it. You’ll see. I can smell gold whenever I get close to it. I’ll sniff it out. And when I do, I’ll come back down and buy Fosterville, all of it, and I’ll have you out catching stray dogs. That’s what I’ll do.”

  “And who’ll be sheriff?” Jim asked him, still with that sideways grin on his damned ole face.

  “That?” Zeb said. “It don’t matter. Anyone. That’s a job anyone can
do. Hell, I might just give your badge to ole Red. That is, if she’d want it. I wouldn’t want it myself. Like I said, any ole anyone can do that job. Now sniffing out gold. That’s a different matter. It takes someone special to be able to do that job.”

  Chastain just grinned and kept on a-looking straight ahead down the road. I seed him outa the edge a my eyeballs. Well, we rid on like that till night come a-falling, and then we made us a camp, and ole Zeb, he cooked up some more eats. We set around a-jawing till kinda late, a-setting around the fire. It was almost cold that night. I wished that I had me a good drink a whiskey ’stead a just that coffee, but then if I’d a had it, I might not a been able to keep such a eagle eye on ole Chastain. Final we all hit the hay, so to speak. Next morning we was on the road again, and since we was by then on the downhill side a the trip, I fancied that I could see even more and stronger mischief in ole Jim’s face. I come real nervous then.

  We never stopped at noon that day on account a we was so close in to Fosterville we just kept on a-riding. The closer in we come the nervouser I got, and I wanted to try to put my mind somewheres else.

  “Churkee,” I said, “whenever this here business with ole Gish is over and did, what’re you a-going to do then?”

  “I’ve been giving that some thought,” he said. “I’ve got a little cash saved up. I think I’ll send it along with a letter to my parents and give them the good news that Randall Morgan has met his demise and that I’m all right. Then I think I’ll take a ride down into the Cherokee Nation. I’ve never been there, you know. I think it’s about time.”

  “Down in the Indian Territory?” Chastain said.

  “That’s what they’re calling it now,” Churkee agreed. “I think that just means that they’re a step closer to stealing our land again.”

  “Just by calling it that name?” I said.

  “An organized territory is the next step to statehood,” he said. “That’s the way it works.”

  Well, I sure didn’t know nothing about that, but I was kinda sorry to hear that the govament was a-fixing to steal his land again. I liked ole Churkee. He was one a my pardners. Then it come to me that the whole way our country come about was by the stealing a land offa Injuns, and I sure didn’t want to get started thinking along them lines, on account a I just didn’t know quite where I had oughta be a-standing on such a troublesome issue as that there. I decided just then to change the subject a conversation real quick like.

  “Say, Jim,” I said, “how’s ole Red a-doing?”

  “Red never changes,” he said.

  “No,” I said. “I reckon not.”

  I sure was a-getting anxious to see her and partake a her many feminine charms. I went to trying to recollect all the details a what things we had did together on the several times we had did them, and that kept my brain busy enough till we rid on into Fosterville. Then we all kinda perked up on account a we all knowed that we was a-looking for that crazy Gish what had it in his fool and deranged mind that he was a-going to kill us ever’ last one. We never seed him, though, a-riding in.

  Chastain went straight on to his office, and ole Zeb, he wanted to hit the saloon first thing, so me and Churkee went on along with him. Soon as we walked in the front door and them batwings still a-swinging, ole Red seed us and come a-running. She throwed her arms around my neck and like to knocked me over with the full impact of it, and she slobbered some kisses on the side a my head too. Then final she turned me a-loose and went to hugging on ole Zeb. Whenever she was done with saying howdy to us like that, she give a look at ole Churkee.

  “Who’s your friend?” she asked me.

  “Red,” I said, “this here is my new pardner, ole Churkee. Say howdy to him.”

  Well, she did, and it come on me of a sudden that she seemed to be a little too almighty interested. She tuck his arm and started in to walking across the room.

  “Let’s get us a table,” she said, and she give a nod as she passed by the bar. The barkeep went after a bottle a good whiskey. He knowed us all right. Red tuck us all on over to a table kinda at the far end a the room but up close to the bar, and by the time we all got our ass set down, there was a bottle and glasses on the table there for us. I paid for it, and ole Zeb, he went to pouring the glasses full. I looked at that there glass a whiskey in front a me, and I sure did want to drink it down, but I thunk about that Gish too.

  “Red,” I said, “we was told that ole Gish was here in town. You know, that skinny kid outlaw what Chastain had me mistook for. Has you saw him?”

  “He was here, all right,” she said, “but I ain’t seen nothing of him now for two days.”

  Well, now, part a me wanted to say goddamn it that he had got clean away from us once again, and ain’t this damn chase ever going to come to no end, but another part what was more up front said good. He ain’t here. I can commence into getting my ass drunk, and it’s about time for it too. I picked up my whiskey glass, and I never sipped it neither. I had myself a good healthy slug. It burned my throat and my gut real good. I pulled out the makings and rolled me a cigareet and struck a match on the underneath a the tabletop. I lit my smoke and give a look over to ole Red, and she was snuggled up right against ole Churkee’s side and a-looking up at him with them big blue eyes a hers. Ole Churkee was my pardner, all right, but I weren’t at all sure that I tuck to this too well.

  You see, I had been a-planning for all a them miles from Nugget clean down into Fosterville what me and ole Red was a-going to do together whenever I final come into town. The way she was huddled up on him, it weren’t exact a easy thing for me to bring up just then. I tuck me a drag on my cigareet and blowed out the smoke, and then I tuck another pull at my whiskey. Ole Zeb, he was already pouring hisself a second one. Churkee hadn’t even touched his drink, and neither had ole Red hers. I picked up my glass again, and this time I drunk it all down. I reached for the bottle and poured me another’n.

  Ole Red, she was a-talking whispers into the side a Churkee’s head then, and I kinda felt my face skin commence into burning. I tuck a drink. Then I seed Churkee turn his head a little so he could put a secret word or two into the side a Red’s head. Of a sudden, they stood up most together.

  “Excuse us,” Churkee said.

  Red smiled real wide and cute.

  “See you,” she said, and then I be diddly dog damned if she didn’t take his arm and walk over to the stairs and then start right on up there to her room with ole Churkee on her arm all the way. I glugged me down another swaller a whiskey. Ole Zeb, if he ever even noticed, he never paid it no mind. After all, it was her line a work, so I reckon it shouldn’t a bothered me none neither, but it sure did. I finished that second drink, and then I poured me out another’n. Just then, ole Jim come in. He made right straight for our table, and when he come to it, he set down.

  “Far as I can find out,” he said, “Gish disappeared a couple of days ago.”

  “That’s what Red said,” I answered him. I tuck me another drink.

  “So you decided you could afford to relax a bit?” he said.

  That question a his and the tone of it put a uncomfortable thought into my head, and my head was already starting in to feel a bit fuzzy.

  “You planning to take advantage a my getting drunk?” I asked him.

  “No, Kid,” he said. “I won’t do that. I want you to be sober and totally aware of what’s happening.”

  Well, that there relaxed me again, but only I shoulda knowed that it really shoulda worried me even more, on account a just what the hell was he a-planning to do to me that he needed me to be sober and aware to get the full shock of it? I didn’t think it all through just then though. I said, “Have a drink with us?” He nodded and waved for a glass, and one was brung to him.

  “Where’s Cherokee?” he said.

  I never answered him.

  “Where’s Red?”

  My skin on my face burned hot, and it musta showed.

  “Oh,” Jim said, “I see.”

&n
bsp; “Well, maybe you do and maybe you don’t,” I said, and I’m damned if I know what the hell I meant by them words, but they was just all that come outa me, that’s all. I drained my whiskey glass and reached for the bottle, but ole Zeb grabbed on to it first by the neck, and then he poured me a glass full. I figgered that he had been a-skeered that I would maybe spill it, drunk as I was. Well, I wobbled that glass up to my lips and drunk me a slurp, and soon as I had did it, I knowed that it were a big mistake. That there swaller went straight to my head, and I felt like as if my ole head was a-going to float offa my shoulders.

  My guts kinda felt loose, too, of a sudden. I sure didn’t want to make myself get damn-fool sick right there in front a Chastain and Zeb and ever’one else, so I put the glass down again, and I tried to get a handle on my ass. The room a-started to lean one way and then the other, and so I just stared hard at my glass there in front a me in a feeble attempt at making the floor steady up. I was a-trying to look and act sober, but I knowed that I weren’t meeting with much success.

  “You mean to keep hunting Gish?” Chastain asked me.

  “I’ll hunt his ass clean to China if I have to,” I said, and I could hear that my own words was slurred something awful. That pretty much embarrassed me. Ever’one I knowed and ever set down to have a drink with could drink way more than me without getting near so drunk as what I did on just a few glasses a whiskey.

  “Reckon how Cherokee and Red are getting along?” ole Jim said, and that were a mean-spirited thing for him to say. I picked up my glass in spite a what the last slurp had did to me, and I drunk ever’ last drop in it, and I slammed the glass down on the tabletop and stood up. I like to a fell over, but I managed to keep on my feet. Now I ain’t never been on a big ocean-going boat, but what I imagine it would be like is like the floor a that saloon felt to me at just them moments in my life.

  I turned to head for the stairs, but just then the floor tilted way far over to my left, and I staggered the four or six feet over to the bar and slammed against it. If it hadn’t a been there, I’d a fell flat for sure. I steadied my ole ass up and made another run for the bottom step, and I was a-moving the top a my body faster’n my legs and like to went over on my nose, but I grabbed onto the rail just in the nick a time and helt myself up. I straightened up my body, but I straightened it almost too much. I like to went over backwards, but I never.