“You ready to go?” I asked her.
“Like this?” she said, and she called my attention to her working-girl outfit what she had on.
“Well, what do you mean to do?” I said.
“Just go by my room and let me get some clothes,” she said. “It won’t take but five minutes.”
Chapter Fourteen
Well, I got that little ole gal’s clothes all bundled up and loaded on that extry horse, and the two of us got all mounted up and rid out a town in the direction what Rice had told me to go, so I was a helping that gal to get away and at the same time I was a trailing one a them last two outlaws. ’Course I was hoping that I was on the trail of ole Clell. I figgered that things had actual worked out pretty good for me. If ole Clell, or whichever one it might be, was to spot us on his trail, why, he wouldn’t be near so suspicious of a man and a woman a traveling together as he would a just a man a riding along by hisself.
Then if my luck was to hold up then maybe I would find out that I was for sure a trailing Clell, then I could just go on ahead and kill him before ole Rice even knowed that I had caught up with him. Thataway I wouldn’t have to fight Rice over him. That’s how I was hoping things would work out. I hadn’t yet worried about just what I was a going to do with that yella-haired gal, but I did get to thinking after we had rid a ways outa town that maybe I had ought to at least know her name.
“I’m Kid Parmlee,” I told her as we was riding along side by side. “What’s your name?”
“I’m Sally Goodin,” she said.
“Well,” I said, “you are too. You’re just that.”
“What?” she said.
“You’re a good’un,” I said. “Sure enough.”
She laughed a little at that and kinda ducked her head.
“Do you mean that?” she said.
“Oh, yeah,” I said. “I mean it. I never say nothing ’less I mean it. I’m kinda keerful with what I say and with my words and all.”
“Well,” she said, “maybe you just ain’t had much to compare me to.”
“I’ve had me a few,” I said, and I guessed that I weren’t lying too much when I said that. I guessed a couple was the same thing as a few, or close enough anyhow, and to tell the truth, ever’ time I got myself with a gal like that, I thought it was the best thing I had ever had. I reckon if I had been able to get back with ole Red right at that very minute, why, I’d think she was the best again. Even ole Sherry Chute back in Ass Grove. That’s just the way I was about that business. Whatever I was a getting into at the time seemed like the very best in the whole wide world.
“Kid,” Sally said, “where are we headed for?”
“Aw,” I said, “we’re just kinda headed generally away from where we was at. You said you wanted to get away from there, and you never said where it was you wanted to go. Well, we’re headed kinda west.”
“Okay,” she said. “Are there towns out there?”
“Oh, yeah,” I said. “Lots a towns.”
I begun to feel a little guilty then, ‘cause I never told her that I was actual tracking a killer and wasn’t really headed for no town, not unless he was to lead me into one. And I give some thought too to the kinda towns we might run into, them rough-and-tumble mining towns, and I thought that if it was just any old whore I was taking along, well, she prob’ly wouldn’t mind them kinda towns. But Sally was running away from her whore life, and she most likely would ruther find herself some nicer kinda place than them kinda towns. I didn’t know nothing about them kinda places, though, and I weren’t at all for sure just what it was I would wind up doing with her.
Well, we rid along slow and easy through the night, and come morning I checked around to make for sure that I was really on that outlaw’s trail. I found it all right without too much trouble. I told myself then that I didn’t need ole Rice around to help me track no outlaw. Sally seen me a poking around like that, and she asked me what I was a doing.
“Oh, just checking the trail,” I said, and she didn’t say nothing more about it, but I don’t see how she coulda been satisfied with that kinda answer. We moved on, and in a little while she complained that she was getting hungry for breakfast. I watched out then for a good camp spot, and when I found one by some water, I stopped us and made a little camp. I brewed up some coffee and fixed us a little meal. It weren’t much, but at least we didn’t have to go on hungry. She never complained neither. She even thanked me for the feed. Ole Sally, she had a real good disposition. I cleaned up and packed up, and we headed on out again.
We made good traveling time, I guess, ’cause I kept thinking that the trail I was follering was a little fresher the more we went on. The sun was up over our heads whenever we come to the river. I don’t know what its name was, and it weren’t very deep, but it was clean and running along real nice. I told Sally that it was a good place to stop and eat, and it was about the right time for it too, so we stopped, and I begun going through the little ritual a setting up a camp again. I was just getting a little fire a going when I looked up and seed ole Sally a stripping off all a her clothes.
’Course I had seed her like that before, but even so I couldn’t hardly take my eyes offa her. I for sure had never seed no woman strip nekkid right out in the middle a the wide world like that. Well, it kinda wrought me up, if you get my meaning. There weren’t nothing I could do about it. I throwed a little more wood on the fire so it wouldn’t go out on me, and I run right over to the water. She had done waded in. I tore off my clothes and folkred her right on in there. Pretty soon I had grabbed onto her, and it was really something being all wet and hugging and feeling a wet woman. I hadn’t never done nothing like that before neither.
Well, there weren’t nothing else for it but to just go on ahead and do it right there in the water, and we did too. When we was all done, I was feeling somehow guilty, and I guess I musta showed it in my face. She put her hands on my cheeks and kissed me real nice and sweet, and then she said, “Is something wrong, Kid?”
“Maybe I shouldn’t oughta have did that here in the water,” I said. “Someone else might come along after us and want to drink some a this water.”
She laughed at me then, and I got kinda embarrassed like.
“Fish live in this water, don’t they?” she said.
“Yeah,” I said. “I reckon.”
“And how do they make more fish?” she asked me.
I thought about it for just a short spell, and then I grinned wide. I felt all right again.
“Yeah,” I said. “And turtles. They do it in the water too, don’t they?”
“And cows and horses and ever’thing else walk right out in it to get a drink,” she said, “and sometimes they just pee right in it.”
“Yeah,” I said. “I seen that happen sometimes.”
I felt so much better about what I had did, that I pulled her close to me and kissed her real good and long, and then we went and done it all over again. Oh my, she was good. Just then I was sure glad that I had her company along that trail. I thought about ole Red back there a keeping watch over ole Zeb for me, and I felt just a little guilty about that, but it passed. Well, we fooled around at that noon camp a spell longer than what we prob’ly should of, but I didn’t keer about that too much. I figgered that trail was still warm, so pretty soon we went ahead and got dressed and et, and then we started out again.
It musta been a couple a hours on down the trail when I heard a shot up ahead. It was a good ways off, I could tell. I figgered that outlaw must a shot something for his supper, or at least tried to. Whenever Sally asked me about it, that was what I told her too. I didn’t say outlaw though. I just told her that likely someone up there somewhere was a hunting. We kept a going, and in a while I seed smoke, a thin wisp like from a campfire. I started in looking for the highest spot a ground around. Whenever I did find it, it weren’t very high, but I tuck to it anyhow. I was a squinting real hard trying to make out something about the campfire ahead, and Sally was right b
eside me puzzling over my actions.
“You trying to spy on that camp up there?” she asked me.
“Yeah,” I said. “I’m kinda curious.”
“I’ve got some opera glasses in my stuff,” she said.
“Opry glasses?” I said. “What’s that?”
She went and dug them out and brung them to me, and it was the sissiest pair a looking glasses I had ever saw, but I used them, and they worked pretty good. I could make out the campfire, and I could tell a good-sized hunk a meat was roasting over it too. I had been right about the gunshot. I seed a horse standing by, and I seed the man, but I couldn’t make out was it Clell or not. I studied on the situation some, trying to figger my next move. As flat and bare as that damn country was, there sure wouldn’t be no sneaking up on the man. I decided that we could just hang out and rest a bit before follering him anymore. Let him get his meal did and start out again. Then move on after him. What I didn’t know was that Sally had been a studying on me too.
“We’re following that man up there,” she said. “Aren’t we?”
I looked at her, and she was giving me a real serious hard look. Well, I just couldn’t lie to her, and since she had gone and asked me direct like that, there weren’t nothing more for it but to just go on ahead and tell her the whole truth.
“Yeah,” I said. “We are.”
“How come?” she said.
“He’s one a them bank robbers from back there,” I said. “There’s likely a reward of some kind on him. There was on the others. We got all but two of them. That one up ahead and one other one. My pardner’s on the other’n’s trail.”
“Is there going to be some shooting?” she said.
“Most likely,” I said. “I guess I shoulda told you, but the reason I was so ready and willing to get you outa town is just ’cause I knowed I was going to be getting on after him anyhow. I woulda waited till morning to foller him if it hadn’t a been that you was wanting to get out right away. I guess maybe you wouldn’t a wanted to come along with me though if you’d a knowed that I was on a manhunt.”
“Well,” she said, “I do wish you’d’ve told me, but then, I guess it wouldn’t’ve made no real difference. I‘d’ve come along with you anyhow. I sure did want to get away from that Alf. He thinks he owns me. I couldn’t’ve stood it much longer. I think I’d’ve killed myself.”
“Oh,” I said, “I wouldn’t a wanted you to do a fool thing like that. If things was all that bad, I’m sure as hell glad that I come along when I did.”
“I’m glad too,” she said, “and I ain’t mad that you didn’t tell me about trailing after this guy, whoever he is.”
Well, she had me going so that I just couldn’t help myself. I went and told her the whole rest a the story ’bout how Clell and that other’n had beat up my partner, ole Zeb, and tuck all his money, and how I come to find out that them Hookses was after me anyhow, and I had kilt one of them but ole Clell had got away, and that was how come me to be after him in the first place. I told her how I come to be a riding with ole Rice too, and how I meant to kill ole Clell but ole Rice meant to take him alive back to Texas.
“Kid,” she said, “are you a gunfighter?”
“I reckon I am,” I said. “I been trying to tell myself that I ain’t. I been trying to just say that I can handle myself pretty good, you know, and that I got myself into a couple a scrapes is all. But trying to be truthful with you here, I guess I got to say that I am a gunfighter. ’Course, I don’t hire out to kill no one. I ain’t that kind. My jobs has all been working on cattle ranches.”
“I’m glad you told me all that,” she said.
We hung around there for a spell, and then that outlaw up ahead fin’ly put out his fire and mounted up. We got back on our horses and follered after him real casual like. I knowed that just heading back west the way we was going, the country wasn’t going to change much till we come to that mining town back there, so I was studying on just how I might deal with that feller up there. I hadn’t come up with nothing when I seed that he was stopped. He weren’t going nowhere.
We was moving slow and easy, so I just kept us a-going at that same pace. As we got closer, I seed that his horse had come up lame on him. That was how come him to stop like that. He pulled the saddlebags off a the animal and throwed them over his own shoulder, tuck a rifle in his hand and started to walk. He just left that lame horse to take keer of itself. I knowed that whoever he was, he weren’t much of a man. I figgered that I’d take keer of the horse whenever I come up on it.
Well, the outlaw never seed us behind him, so when I come up on that horse and checked him out and found out there wasn’t no hope for him, and I went on ahead and shot and kilt the poor thing, that outlaw looked around. I didn’t notice him but Sally did.
“He heard your shot,” she said. “He’s looking back at us.”
“He’s got eyes,” I said. “That’s what they’re for. Let him look.”
I was plumb mad at the son of a bitch for leaving a horse like that. I was sure hoping that it would turn out to be ole Clell, ’cause now I had me one more reason to kill him.
I mounted back up and we started in riding again. For a while, the outlaw kept a walking. Ever’ now and then he’d turn around and look at us a coming after him. Then he just stopped. He was a waiting for us to catch up to him. I figgered he only had two things he could do. One was he could ask us to give him a hand. Let him ride double with one of us till we come to someplace where he could get hisself another horse. But the other was the most likely. Likely he’d just look for a chance to kill me and steal my horse and whatever else I had that he might find useful. I figgered he’d think that Sally would be some useful to him. I had to start thinking clear, and I wondered what ole Rice might come up with for such a situation.
When we come within rifle range, I begun to feel somewhat nervous. It seemed to me the easiest thing he could do was to try to pick me off before I come any closer. I kept a moving slow right towards him, but I was ever’ minute expecting him to raise that rifle to his shoulder. He never. I glanced over at Sally.
“That man’s a bad outlaw,” I said. “He’s liable to try something to get at least one of our horses. If he takes a shot at me or something like that, you ride like hell off in some other direction. Even if he was to hit me, it would take him some time to catch up to ole horse here.”
“All right,” she said.
Anyhow, whoever it was up there, he weren’t stupid. He guessed what was a running through my mind, ’cause he dropped his saddlebags on the ground. Then he laid his rifle on top of them and walked well off to one side. He was a trying to tell me that he weren’t meaning to be no threat to us. I looked over at Sally again.
“Remember what I said,” I told her. Then I said, “Come on,” and we rid on at a gallop till we come in close to him. We was close enough for a good man with a six-gun to hit his mark, and I figgered that he weren’t meaning to start nothing, when of a sudden, he made a dive for where he had dropped his rifle. That sure enough caught me by surprise.
“Ride,” I yelled to Sally, and she turned her horse sharp and headed south. At the same time I throwed myself off the left side of ole horse, but I hung on. I was hiding behind ole horse, so the bastard couldn’t shoot me, but then I couldn’t shoot neither. My right hand was a holding tight to the saddle horn. I done a total turnaround with ole horse and headed back east to get outa his rifle range. He fired off a shot, and I heared it whistle over my head. He could easy have tuck ole horse down, but I figgered he wanted ole horse alive and healthy, and he wouldn’t do that.
I got out a ways and turned around again, and this time I stopped ole horse and slid on down to the ground. I pulled out my own Winchester and laid it across the saddle, taking keerful aim at that outlaw. I knowed already that he weren’t Clell. He fired again, and ole horse jumped a little, but he settled down again. I knowed now that I had a big advantage over my foe, for I had a clear shot at him, and he didn’t
have no clear shot at me, not without taking a chance on killing ole horse, what he was wanting awful bad.
I sighted in on him real good, and I pulled the trigger. He jumped and hollered, and I knowed that I had hit my mark. When he come down from his jump, he fell on over on his back, and he didn’t move. I knowed that he might be a playing possum trying to trick me into riding in close again, so I tuck me another keerful aim. I shot him in the leg while he was just a laying there, and he kicked and yelped. He got up onto his feet again and commenced to hopping around and howling, and I tuck one more shot and laid him down again. This time I was pretty sure he was done for.
I mounted ole horse and rid back over there. The outlaw never moved. I was holding my rifle ready though, just in case. I tuck ole horse so close that he would a stepped on the man if he had tuck one more step, and the man never moved. I was looking right down on him. He looked dead enough to me, and besides, he weren’t in no position to grab up a gun real quick. I got down and checked him real close and for sure. I had kilt him all right. As I was a straightening up, Sally come riding back in.
“You got him,” she said.
“Yeah,” I said. “I did. He shot first though.”
“I know he did,” she said. “Is it the man you were after?”
“No,” I said. “He ain’t.”
“Well,” she said, “what now?”
“I’m thinking on that,” I said. “I don’t rightly know. Ole Rice said the first one of us to get our man should ride across to pick up the other’n’s trail. But right now I’m thinking that these guys is mostly worth money, so I can’t just leave this one here and still collect no reward. If we go looking for Rice, this corpus ain’t likely to keep. It’s getting cold up in them mountains, but I ain’t felt no sign of cool down here on these flats.”
I was thinking on something else too. I was thinking that since my man weren’t ole Clell, then Rice had to be on Clell’s trail. Could be he had him already. That would mean that I was going to have to fight ole Rice over him after all. But Sally brung me back to my more pressing problem concerning the corpus what was just a laying there.
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