Fugitive's Trail

by Robert J Conley

  After we had crept back down through that narrow trail and got ourselfs back on the road, I rid ole horse along at a pretty fair clip for a spell, and he enjoyed it some too. I could tell. I come to another place where someone had camped real recent, and I figgered, like the last time, that it was likely ole Clell. I also figgered that I was a catching up with him. But then, I weren’t keeping my mind on my business with him neither, ’cause I was still a looking back over my shoulder real regular like. I decided that I had to do something about that. I commenced to spying along the sides of the road for a good spot for an ambush.

  I hadn’t never shot no one what weren’t trying to kill me first, but then I figgered there’s got to be a first time for ever’thing, and this here seemed like a good time for the first time. That man on my trail was annoying me all to hell, and so I had good reason for stopping him dead. Anyhow that’s what I told myself. If he was a lawman and fixing to get me hung up, why, in a sort a peculiar way, it’d be self-defense. If it was some friend of a Hooks or a Pigg, or if it was some gunslinger out to make hisself a name outa killing me, then it’d be the same thing.

  It musta been a couple a hours on down the road before I seed what looked to me like a good location for such a thing, a big bunch a round boulders what looked like they’d rolled down the mountainside a good long time ago, and I rode back around behind them. I tuck ole horse a good ways back and hid him well outa sight, and then I went back and found myself a likely spot. I was up just a little off the road and not very far back. I wouldn’t be seed right away by no one a coming along from the south, but I’d see him all right. I’d get the drop on him before he had a chance to even be surprised. I settled in real good then and got my rifle ready, and I waited.

  I waited a while real anxious, but then of a sudden I got to asking myself just what the hell I thought I was going to do when whoever that was back there actual come a riding up. What if it was a total stranger to me? It could be a total stranger a coming after me, that was for sure, but then it could also be just a total stranger, someone who didn’t know me from Big and Little Harp. So what would I do? Shoot him down anyhow? And what even would I do if I was sure he was after me? I’d killed me a few men, that’s true, but I hadn’t never shot no one from ambush nor in the back. I weren’t that kinda killer. I know I had said that this here might be the time for it, and I had made all kinda excuses about self-defense and all, but I was having me some real serious second thoughts on that.

  Well, them questions and them second thoughts worried me some, I can tell you, but I stayed right there and kept right on a waiting, ‘cause the one only thing I was damn sure about was that I wanted to know if someone was really dogging me, and if so just who the hell was it. So I stayed, and I couldn’t even make myself a smoke, ’cause just a little smoke even from a cigareet would a give away my hidey-hole there. I just waited and kept asking myself them annoying questions.

  It musta been near about noon when I heared the horse a clomping along the road. It was coming from the south, so I figgered that it had to be my man. I checked my rifle, but I knowed that I had already chambered a shell and was ready to shoot if such was called for. I set the Winchester into my shoulder, and my heart was a pounding something fierce. The air was still cool, but I begun to sweat. Fin’ly that horse and rider come around the bend, and it weren’t no one I had ever seed before in my whole life, not that I could recollect, but I reminded myself that a stone stranger could be a follering me, hired by someone, or trying to build hisself a reputation, or maybe a friend or a relative of them Hookses or Piggses. I let him come on a little more. He didn’t see me nor suspect nothing, and he rid just a little past me.

  “Hold it right there, mister,” I said.

  Well, he sure stopped right then, and he kinda raised his hands out to his sides to show me he weren’t thinking about going for no kinda weapon nor nothing like that. He just set there still and quiet, and then it come to me that I didn’t know what the hell to say to him next. I felt pretty damn foolish.

  “Well,” he said fin’ly, “you mean to rob me, or you just want me to set here like this all day?” In secret, I was kinda grateful to him for starting the conversation.

  “What’s your name, mister?” I said.

  “I’m Bill Rice,” he said, “out of Texas.”

  “Texas is a fur piece,” I said. “What brings you up here to these parts?”

  “Business,” he said.

  “What’s your business?” I said.

  “You sure are full of questions,” he said. “If I drop my gun belt, can I put my hands down and get off this horse? We could have us a civilized conversation then.”

  “Just set right there where you are, Mister Bill Rice from Texas,” I said, “and tell me what’s your business.”

  “Well,” he said, “I’m a lawman, and I’m trailing someone, but I’m also out of my jurisdiction. So to tell you the truth, I guess I’m on what you might call personal or unofficial business.”

  “Was you trailing me?” I asked him.

  “I ain’t even seen you,” he said. “I don’t know who you are. How can I answer that?”

  “Well, drop your gun belt then,” I said, and he did, and then I said, “All right. Climb down offa that horse, but climb down on the other side from where you dropped your gun.”

  He swung on down, and then he turned around and got a look at me from where I was a holding my rifle on him. He motioned to the other side of the road from where I was at. There was a clear flat place over there.

  “How about I build us a little fire and boil up some coffee?” he said. “I don’t believe you had any this morning.”

  I set my jaw to look real mean, and I said, “How come you to know that?”

  “It ain’t no big deal,” he said. “I didn’t see no campfire smoke up ahead of me. That’s all.” Well, I guessed that he weren’t lying to me, cause I had seed his smoke, and I had figgered that he was having his breakfast and his coffee. So it made sense for him to figger I never ’cause he never seed no smoke from me. I eased myself down and around that boulder so I was standing facing him on level ground. I moved over and picked up his gun belt, and then I pulled his rifle out a the scabbard on the side a his saddle.

  “All right,” I said. “Go on ahead.”

  Taking his guns along with me, I went back and got ole horse and brung him out with the rest of us. There was some grazing and a little stream a running along the side a the road on the same side as where the Texas lawman was a building the fire, and I tuck ole horse down there. Then I tuck the Texan’s horse down there too. It weren’t nothing against the horse what his rider might a been up to against me. I waited for that Texan to say something about me messing with his horse, but he never said nothing. ’Course, I was doing good by the horse, and I did have all the guns.

  Anyhow, he put the coffee on to make, and real soon, it sure did smell good to me. I was kinda glad he had made that suggestion, but I didn’t smile none nor let on that I was glad for nothing. I just kept a scowling at him. I found me a spot and set down with all my guns and all a his, and I was eyeing him from across the fire. I didn’t say nothing, nor neither did he till the coffee was all did, and he had poured out two cups of it. He brung one over toward me, but I stopped him cold.

  “Just set it down right there,” I said, “and then go on back around there where you come from.”

  He set down the cup for me and kinda grinned, and then he went on back around to the other side a the fire and set his own ass down to sip his coffee. I waited for him to be set clear down before I got up and went for my cup. Then I tuck it back with me to where I had been a setting with the guns. I tuck me a sip and like to blistered my lips and tongue, but I never let on, and damn, it sure did taste good in that cool mountain air.

  “Well,” he said, “what else do you want to know from me?”

  “I believe you been tailing me,” I said.

  “That ain’t a question,” he said,
“so I can’t answer it.”

  “All right then,” I said, “have you been a tailing me?”

  “Well,” he said, and he tuck another sip a coffee just to make me wait a little longer for my answer I think, “let’s just say that maybe I thought you were headed in the right direction for me.”

  “You mean you been follering me, but I been like a guide?” I said. “Is that what you mean?”

  “Kinda like that,” he said.

  “That’s pretty far-fetched, ain’t it?” I said. “What part of Texas you from anyhow?”

  “West Texas,” he said.

  “Yeah?” I said. “Well, me too. Some years back. Little place called Sneed. You ever hear tell of it?”

  “I’ve been through there,” he said.

  “You wouldn’t be a dogging a kid what kilt a man name a Pigg, would you?” I said. I figgered it was about time to quit all that shilly-shallying around and get right to the point. “Meaning to take him back to hang?”

  “I know about Pigg, all right,” he said, “and I know about the kid who did it. Melvin Parmlee, his name was. Oh, it was murder, all right. Plain and simple. The kid hit Pigg in the back of the head with an ax handle. Pigg never knew what hit him. The kid ran off. But then, no one in Texas ever thought it was worth following up. The kid was just a kid, like I said, and Pigg was a worthless scoundrel. We just never got the goods on him to put him under arrest. So I guess the local law just figured to let it all go and chalk it all up to some kind of natural justice. ’Course, if I was that kid, I wouldn’t go back into Texas. On the other hand, I wouldn’t worry myself over it as long as I was out of the state. Texas ain’t going to pursue him. I’m pretty sure of that.”

  Well, I kinda mulled all that over in my head a wondering if he was telling me the truth of it, or if maybe he was just trying to catch me off guard. He didn’t say nothing more about it, and fin’ly I said, “Do you know who I am?”

  “They call you ‘Kid Parmlee,’” he said, “‘a regular Billy the Kid.’”

  “I ain’t no Billy the Kid,” I said. “Whenever I hear that kinda talk, I try to put a stop to it. I’ve killed me a few men, but they was all a gunning for me. They all pulled their irons first too. And I shot a ear off a man.”

  “I heard about that one,” Rice said.

  “So you know that a kid named Parmlee killed that Pigg feller,” I said, “and you know my name. We both come from West Texas, and you been a dogging my trail, and you want me to believe that you ain’t after me to take me back to Texas? I could kill you right now. You know that?”

  “You could,” he said, “but you don’t kill like that, do you?”

  “Pigg was hit in the back a the head,” I said.

  “That was different,” he said.

  “It was,” I said, and I thought about ole Farty, and tears come into my eyes, but I blinked them back.

  “Listen to me, Kid,” he said, then he paused a bit, and he said, “I take it you don’t go by Melvin anymore?”

  “I never did like that name,” I said, “and if you ever say it in front a any other human person, I will kill you, front or back.”

  “I won’t ever say it again,” he said. “Now listen to me. Texas law wants a man named Clell Hook for rustling cattle and for murder. They want him so bad that I was sort of sent out here on my own to bring him back to Texas. That can’t be official, of course, so I’m really out here on my own as a bounty hunter, you might say, looking to catch me a wanted killer for the price on his head. When I catch him, I’ll take him back to Texas. Then I’ll make it official and put him under arrest and take him on in.”

  “You’re a hunting Clell Hook?” I said, and I can tell you, I was astonished.

  “That’s right,” he said. “And I heard that he was looking for you, so I decided to follow you, hoping that you might lead me to Hook.”

  “You shoulda come on a little, sooner,” I said. “I come on to Clell and Asa back yonder, and I kilt Asa, but Clell got away.”

  “I know,” Rice said. “I heard about it when I hit town.”

  “And you mean to take him back to Texas alive?” I said.

  “That’s right,” he said.

  “Well, I can’t let you do that,” I said. “I mean to kill him.”

  “What’s the difference if you kill him or if he hangs?” Rice said.

  “One difference is it’ll make me feel some better if I kill him,” I said, “partly because I made a couple a promises.”

  “Tell me about it,” he said.

  Well, I just set quiet for a spell and sipped me some coffee. I had been talking so much that I had let the coffee in my cup get cooled down too much, so I just gulped it on down and then went to get myself a fresh hot cup. Rice never made no move at me nor nothing. I set back down and I sipped hot coffee. Then I put down the cup.

  “I got a pardner back yonder,” I said. “Ole Zeb Pike.” I waited to see if Rice would make fun a me or of ole Zeb ’cause a that name, Zeb Pike, but he never, so I went on. “He’s a old man. Them two Hookses, Asa and Clell, they beat him up and stole all his money. They beat him up pretty bad. I promised ole Zeb that I’d kill them for it. I’ve only did half the job.”

  Rice waited a minute, and then he said, “You said two promises.”

  “There’s a kid back there,” I said, “what told me that Clell kicked his dog.”

  Damn if I didn’t start to get teary-eyed again, and this time I think that ole Rice seed it, but he never let on. I believe though that he knowed the whole story a why I kilt that first Pigg, and I think he kinda understood what was going through my head. Anyhow, I quick like gulped some hot coffee, and then I put the cup back down and made like that coffee was so hot and burned my gullet so bad that it teared up my eyes, and then I wiped them out.

  “Another reason is that ole Clell’s been wanting to kill me,” I said. “I just figger it makes good sense for me to kill him first.”

  “Sounds like you have all kinds of reasons, Kid,” Rice said. “Is that all of them?”

  “There’s one more,” I said.

  “I’m listening,” he said.

  “Sometimes the law lets them a loose after a trial,” I said. “I’ve heared tell a that happening. I let you take him in alive, he might not ever hang, and I can’t just set and wait for the trial to be over and then get him if they turn him a loose, ’cause you already done told me to stay outa Texas.”

  “All right. Well, I’ll tell you something else, Kid,” Rice said. “This ought to give you a big surprise too.”

  “What’s that?” I said.

  “The Pigg brothers and some of their cousins rode with the Hooks gang.” he said. “They’re all one big bad bunch.”

  That like to of knocked me over in the dirt. Here I’d had trouble dogging me from two families and come to find out it’s all one outlaw gang. I just didn’t know what to say or what to make of it.

  “I’ll be damned,” I said.

  “What do you say we join forces?” he said, after he give me a little bit to recover from the surprise.

  “You mean, me and you go after Clell?” I said.

  “There’s liable to be more than just Clell,” he said. “I expect he’s headed north to join up with what’s left of the gang.”

  “There’s more?” I said.

  “I’m afraid so,” he said.

  “How many?” I asked him.

  “We’re not exactly sure about that,” he said. “There’s at least one more Pigg, Stanley, and there’s Jody and Eddie Hook. There was someone else back in Texas that we never quite pinned down, but we don’t think he was a relative, just another member of the gang. That’s at least five that we know of. ’Course, I don’t know how many of them he’ll manage to pull together either.”

  Well, now, I had thought that I was just a hunting down ole Clell Hook to kill him for what he done to ole Zeb and to that kid’s dog and partly because a the fact that he was a hunting me, but of a sudden now I was l
iable to find myself facing a whole gang a outlaws, five maybe. Maybe more. ’Course if I was to take up with ole Rice like he suggested to me, then it would be two against five. That still didn’t sound too good to me. I wondered if maybe I had ought to just forget the whole damn thing and head for Califomy or some such place.

  Then I thought about Zeb again, and I give some more thought to that kid and his dog, and I recalled ole Farty and how come me to even be out here in this kinda pickle. But fin‘ly it come to me that ’cause I had done kilt me a couple a Piggses and a couple of Hookses, them other five or so what was left would all be a wanting to kill me and would come a hunting me sooner or later. I figgered then that I’d be a hell of a lot better off with this here lawman siding me than if I was to have to deal with them all by my lonesome. I didn’t want to give in that easy though.

  “Let’s just ride along together for a spell on ole Clell’s trail,” I said, “and see what happens to come up.”

  I laid down my rifle and stood up. I picked up Rice’s rifle and his gun belt, and I walked over to where he was a setting and handed them to him. Then I turned my back on him and walked back over to my own spot. I never even looked over my shoulder. Then I set back down and picked up my coffee cup and tuck a sip. Then I eyeballed him over the top of the cup. He was just a setting there.

  “That sounds good to me,” he said. “For now.”

  “If we stick together though,” I said, “eventual we’re going to have us a problem.”

  “What’s that?” Rice asked me.

  “Whenever it comes to a showdown, and we got ole Clell right there in front of us,” I said, “you’re going to be a wanting to take him back to Texas alive, and I’m going to be aiming to kill him dead. Whenever that time comes, if we still disagree real strong on that point, we might just have to fight it out betwixt the two of us.”