Dolly insisted he really was an angel. “That’s the reason he ain’t interested in Blanche’s offer of our services. Angels ain’t interested in sins of the body.”
“Hell,” Grace snorted. “I think he’s just bashful. Just plain innocent. Ain’t ever been around women like us before.”
“Whores, you mean?” Lucy asked as if offended.
“Yeah, whores,” Grace came back. “You druther I call us ladies of the evenin’ or angels of mercy? How ’bout what Jake Barnes thinks we are? Hogs? Ain’t that what everybody called that place of his, a hog ranch?”
“If that’s what you think you are, then that’s what we’ll call you,” Lucy said.
“All right,” Blanche interrupted. “You two are fixin’ to get into a catfight if you don’t shut up. That’s the reason for this whole thing, ain’t it? ’Cause we’re tired of bein’ treated like somebody owns us. Like hogs or those horses, right? When we get to Dodge City, we’ll be our own bosses. We’ll set ourselves up in a nice social club where we entertain our gentlemen and don’t nobody own us.” She didn’t offer any means they possessed to accomplish that lavish plan.
Not one of the other three believed it could happen, but at that point, no one wanted to point it out to her. They had summoned the nerve to make their escape, so they had to believe something good would come of it.
Up ahead, the “innocent” cowboy was muttering under his breath about his natural tendency to find himself in the middle of somebody’s problems. It reminded him that he had found himself in a similar situation with two whores on the way to Denver about a year before. That had turned into a gunfight before it was over. This time, there looked to be no problems beyond needing some horses. At least, there had been no mention of anything beyond that. He had to admit, however, that they had not had time to discuss their situation at any length.
After covering about ten miles, Perley decided it would be a good idea to rest the horses and stopped near a small stream that offered some grass as well as water.
Lucy strolled over to talk to him while he unloaded his horses. “Why are we stoppin’ so soon?”
“Rest the horses,” was his simple answer.
She nodded and thought about that for a moment. “We were drivin’ our horse a lot farther than this before we met up with you, and that was just one horse pullin’ the wagon.”
“That so?” Lucy, he thought, recalling another girl named Lucy, a girl who once had him thinking he was in love. The trouble was so did every other bachelor back home in Paris. This Lucy was nowhere near the tease Lucy Tate was. He decided he liked this one a whole lot better. “Reckon you could go back to the creek and ask that horse how that worked out for him.” When she shrugged as if indifferent, he asked, “Did you let him graze when you did stop?”
“We let him drink if there was water, but he had all night to graze when we stopped every night.”
He didn’t ask any more questions after that. He felt sorry for the old horse to have ended its days in the hands of the four women who obviously had no notion of how much rest and feed a horse pulling a wagon needed. At the same time, he couldn’t really fault the women for their lack of horse sense. He suspected that the four sacks of seed corn were weighing more heavily on his mind than they were on his two packhorses, and that was the reason he couldn’t feel more empathy for his new companions. He scolded himself for his attitude and decided he could be a more cheerful guide. None of the women but Lucy had shown even the slightest interest in what he carried in his packs, and she showed no more after he told her it was corn. He decided there was little need to worry about it, at least until they reached Dodge City.
When he deemed the horses had had enough rest, he loaded everybody up again and set out for the creek he had in mind for their stop that night.
CHAPTER 8
“Hey-yo the camp. Is that you, Blanche?”
Perley sat rigidly upright, almost spilling the coffee in his cup when he heard the deep voice calling from the darkness. He rolled out of the firelight and looked back at the four women, who were too shocked to move.
When none of the women answered, the voice came again. “I found your horse back yonder. Looks like you found yourself some help, but it wasn’t such a good idea to take this little trip. It sure has cost me a lotta trouble.”
Finally, Blanche found her voice. “You’ve got no business here, Jake. We don’t work for you no more.”
“Well, now, I reckon as how I see things a little different from you,” Jake called back. “I spent a lotta money settin’ you girls up in business and I ain’t had much return on my investment. Tell you the truth, I wouldn’t give a damn if it was just you that ran off, but you took three younger girls with you. Left me in a bind. So I’ve come to take my property back.”
“We ain’t your damn property!” Lucy yelled back. “You didn’t give us half of what you promised when you talked to us in Cheyenne.”
“Sounds to me like you found some other sucker to take you in,” Jake called out again. “Whoever you are, I don’t expect those women told you they made a deal to work in my place. I’d best come on in and we’ll talk this over.”
“The hell you say!” Blanche responded. “You’ve got no business with us.”
Caught completely by surprise, Perley could only listen in amazement. He realized he was involved in the trouble between the prostitutes and this Jake person who seemed to think he owned them. Cradling his rifle, Perley looked toward the fire and saw four anxious faces looking back at him. “All right,” he answered. “You can come on in and we’ll talk about it. You by yourself?”
“There’s two of us,” Jake called back.
“He’s got Grady Short with him,” Dolly whispered. “We’re done for.”
“He don’t own us,” Blanche complained to Perley. “He’s got no right to stop us.”
“Who’s Grady Short?” Perley asked.
“He’s a damn gunslinger that takes care of all of Jake’s dirty business,” Lucy answered. “Jake says he wants to talk, but he won’t waste any time talkin’. I’m sorry we got you into this, Perley. I reckon the best thing you can do is just do whatever he says and maybe you won’t get hurt.”
“To hell with that!” Blanche growled. “He’s gonna have to kill me. I ain’t goin’ back to that damn hog ranch.”
Perley hesitated for a few moments, then decided to try to settle the debate peacefully. “Come on in as long as you’re peaceful,” he yelled. Then back to the terrified women, he said, “We’ll hear what he has to say. Maybe he’ll listen to reason when you tell him what your complaints are.”
Blanche glared at Perley, hopeless. “Perley Gates,” she pronounced slowly. “You’re a nice enough young man, but you ain’t ever come up against the likes of Jake Barnes and Grady Short. They’ll cut you to pieces. I’d advise you to run, but it’s too late now,” she said as the two men emerged from the darkness.
Perley stood up from the kneeling position he had taken when he heard the first shouts from Jake. He studied the two men as they approached the fire. There was no need for introductions, for it was easy to see which one was the gunslinger by the way he wore the cutaway holster low on his hip.
Jake wasted no time in addressing his problems. “Damn you, you old bitch,” he started on Blanche. “You’ve cost me time and money. Did you think I wouldn’t come after you?”
“This is my camp,” Perley interrupted. “I thought you came to talk to me.”
Jake cast a critical eye toward Perley, glaring at him for a long moment before asking, “Who the hell are you? These four women work for me. The best thing you can do is just keep your mouth shut and maybe you’ll come outta this alive.”
“Like I said, this is my camp and I invited you in to talk like civilized people, but it doesn’t look to me like you’re anything close to that. From what I’ve heard so far, it sounds like you think you own these ladies. Everybody knows that ain’t true since the war some years back. It
doesn’t look like they wanna go back with you, so that pretty much ends the story, doesn’t it?”
Jake and his partner were astonished by Perley’s speech and swapped puzzled glances before Jake could summon words again.
“Mister, how the hell have you lived this long? What the hell is your name?”
“Don’t say anymore, Perley,” Blanche interrupted, feeling guilty for involving him. “You’ll get hurt. Just let it be. This is between Jake and me. You shouldn’t have even got mixed up in our problems.”
“Perley?” Jake blurted. “Is that what she called you?”
“That’s right. Perley Gates.”
“Well, if that ain’t—” Jake started, then both he and Grady Short burst into loud guffaws. “Perley Gates.” He repeated it several times, laughing harder each time. “I swear, Blanche, you picked you a real stud horse to protect you this time.” Turning back to Perley, he said, “I’ll tell you what. I’m in a good mood tonight since I got my whores back, so if you pack up your possibles and ride on outta here, I’ll let you go this time.” He cocked his head in warning. “But don’t ever cross my path again, or Grady, here, will write his initials across your chest with .44 slugs. You can take your packhorses, but leave the two you hitched to the wagon. I’m gonna need them. I’m pretty sure that’s where Blanche got the horses, so to show you what a sport I am, I’ll buy ’em from you. I’ll give you twenty-five cents apiece for ’em. How’s that? That’s fair, ain’t it? Twenty-five-cents and your life.”
Perley waited patiently until Jake finished his rant before responding to the ultimatum. “The horses ain’t for sale,” he said calmly. “’Preciate the offer, though. Now I’d appreciate it if you and your friend would ride on back the way you came and leave us alone. The women don’t wanna go with you, so I can’t let you take them.” He waited then, knowing what was coming, wishing that it wasn’t, but knowing there was no choice.
“Mister,” Jake fumed, “you’re the dumbest jackass I’ve ever run into. You ain’t leavin’ me no choice. Cut him down,” he yelled to Grady, reaching for his pistol as he said it.
Grady, anticipating the move, was fast enough to beat Jake to the draw, but his shot went into the ground at his feet when Perley’s .44 slug split his chest. Stunned by the swift execution of his partner, Jake finished in third place when the second round from Perley’s Colt doubled him over, gut-shot.
A stony silence fell over the creek following the sudden explosion of gunfire. Stunned immobile, by the unbelievable speed just witnessed, all four women could only stand and stare at the mild, unassuming young man.
Lucy uttered the first word after what seemed an eternity. “Damn!” That was all she could say.
Blanche, equally shocked, commented, “I think there’s a lot more to Perley Gates than meets the eye. Here, I was afraid we were gonna hafta take care of you. You beat Grady Short,” she said, as if he didn’t realize what he had done. “Grady Short had a helluva reputation.”
“Maybe so,” Perley said at once, “but I don’t want one. The less talk about what happened here, the better. I don’t get any pleasure outta takin’ a man’s life, even one as bad as those two. I just wish they’d ’a talked it over with you women, but when he went for his gun, I didn’t have any choice.”
When the shock of the unexpected visit from Jake Barnes and Grady Short finally subsided, they were left with several somber decisions to be made. The unpleasant aspects of two bodies to dispose of would seemingly be left up to the man. At least, that was what Perley expected, but he was surprised to find all four women were more than willing to help put the two bodies in the ground.
In fact, Blanche, especially, seemed to be quite enthusiastic about it. When Dolly suggested dragging the bodies out of their camp and leaving them for the buzzards, Blanche insisted that she deserved the privilege of throwing a shovelful of dirt over Jake’s face. “I figure I’ve got that comin’ after all the hell I’ve put up with from him,” she asserted.
Perley asked if there was anyone else involved in Jake’s operation. She told him that Jake and Grady were the whole operation.
“Oh, there’s two women still there that didn’t wanna come with us,” Blanche said. “I reckon it’ll be up to them what they wanna do when they find out Jake ain’t comin’ back.”
“Maybe you might wanna go back now,” Perley suggested.
“Hell, no!” Grace responded before Blanche could. “That place is dead. There ain’t nothin’ there no more.” The other three women promptly agreed.
“Well, you’ve picked up a couple of horses you didn’t have before,” Perley pointed out. “So I reckon you don’t need mine anymore. And you’ve picked up some guns and ammunition, so you’ve got more than that one shotgun for protection.”
“We’ve also got any money they’re carryin’,” Lucy declared. “It belongs to us, anyway ’cause every cent they’ve got came from what they made offa us.” She made the statement even though she was uncertain whether Perley might claim some of the spoils since he’d done the actual shooting.
He staked no claims on any of their possessions. He had shot only to keep from being shot and he told them so. “After we bury ’em, I don’t reckon you’ll need me anymore. You’ve got your own horses and you ain’t but a short day’s drive from Dodge City.” As soon as he said it, he saw concern on each of their faces.
Blanche confirmed it at once. “I ain’t talked to the others about it, but I’d surely appreciate it if you’d ride along with us to Dodge City. I know you say we ain’t far from there, but we wouldn’t have been this far east if any of us had enough sense to know what direction we was drivin’ in.” The other three women were nodding their agreement, so she continued. “I know we’re holdin’ you up on your way to Texas, but we’d be glad to pay you a little for your trouble. Whaddaya say? It’ll just set you back a day.”
“Two days,” Perley corrected her. He was thinking that he couldn’t tell them he had avoided Dodge before because of his concern for what he was carrying in the sacks of corn on his packhorses. As he glanced from one of them to another, he saw a return of the childlike hopeful faces he had seen before. He wanted to say no and cursed himself for not being able to. “I’ll ride with you to Dodge, but I won’t take any money for it.”
“I knew he wouldn’t take any money,” Dolly said, a wide grin adorning her ruddy face. “Angels ain’t got no use for money.”
“Angels don’t go around shootin’ people,” Perley said, halfway convinced that the simple woman might be serious.
Grace got a lantern from the wagon and they walked down along the dark creek bank, looking for a spot where the ground might be a little easier to dig.
“Hand me that shovel and I’ll get started,” Perley said. He got a good start on a hole to bury the two victims in before Blanche insisted on taking over for a while.
Before the grave was deep and wide enough to hold both bodies, everyone had a chance to have a hand in it.
“That oughta do it,” he decided and stepped up out of the rough hole. He waited then while the women stripped the two bodies of anything they could possibly find a use for. By the time they dragged them over to the grave, Jake and Grady were left to face their Maker in their underwear.
He was caught by surprise when Blanche suddenly started hiking her skirt up and he realized what the next part of the burial ceremony was going to be. “I reckon I’d best go check on my horses,” he announced. He turned and walked down near the creek, only pausing to look after he was some distance away from the grave. “I reckon they really hated that man,” he said to Buck as he watched their parting message to the departed.
In the glow of the lantern light, accompanied by a chorus of giggling, each one squatted on the edge of the grave to leave their final respects.
“I swear,” Perley uttered. “I reckon we can cover them up now.” He returned to the graveside when Blanche was already in the process of shoveling dirt on Jake Barnes’s face.
It was virtually impossible for the women to get much sleep that night. Perley could hear them talking well into the wee hours. He finally picked up his bedroll and moved down the creek a few yards.
Up at daylight the next morning, he had a fire going and coffee working away before Lucy crawled out from under the wagon where she and Dolly had slept. Seeing that she was the first of the women to wake, she picked up the shovel and banged the side of the wagon with it. “Time to get up, lazybones!” Then she helped herself to a cup of coffee and sat down on the ground beside Perley. “What time do you think we’ll get to Dodge City?”
“This afternoon,” Perley answered, “dependin’ on how soon we get started.” He could see by her expression that she was giving the prospect serious thought, so he asked, “You ladies got any idea where you’re gonna go in Dodge? You know anybody there?”
“We ain’t got the first idea where we’re gonna end up,” she confessed. “None of us know anybody or anything about the town other than what we’ve heard. That it’s a wide-open town.”
“I was there a few weeks ago,” Perley said. “Me and my brothers drove a herd of cattle through there and stopped for a couple of days on our way to Ogallala. And to tell you the truth, the crew said there wasn’t no shortage of whores.”
“I know,” she said. “We’ve talked about that.”
“Talked about what?” Blanche asked, having just returned from a trip to the bushes.
When Lucy told her, Blanche immediately responded. “We’ll find us a spot to work out of,” she said confidently. “Whatever it is, it’ll be better ’n where we came from. Hell, if we have to, we’ll work outta the wagon.” She laughed and declared, “We could call it the Dodge City Hayride.” She turned to Perley then. “Whaddaya think? Perley, you’d take a chance on a hayride, wouldn’tcha?” When he answered with no more than a shy grin, she chuckled delightedly. “I swear, Dolly might be right. Maybe you are a genuine angel. Most men would be wore out by now from takin’ turns in the back of the wagon, especially if they didn’t have to pay for it.” Since the threat of pursuit by Jake Barnes was no longer an issue, she found herself in a much more playful mood, and Perley’s obvious shyness around women made him the perfect target. “Ain’t none of us got your blood stirred up yet?”
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