Fugitive's Trail

by Robert J Conley

  “Where do you need to take him?” she asked me.

  “The closest town with a law office in it,” I said. “It’s too far to them mining towns out west.”

  She never said nothing right then, and I knowed what she was a thinking. The closest place would be right back where she had just run away from, and I knowed she didn’t want to ride back there.

  “Let’s make us a camp and sleep on it,” I said.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Ole Sally didn’t cotton too much to sleeping real close to that there corpus what I had just kilt, so I moved us off a little and made us a camp for the night. I kind a thought that we might have us a little fun that night, but she weren’t in a mood for it. I guess the killing done that too. Just then I was some sorry that I had kilt the feller. I thought, if I was to have to kill the son of a bitch, why the hell couldn’t it at least a been ole Clell. Damn it all to hell. There I was in the middle a nowhere with a good-looking whore, and I had gone and messed up the chances just by killing a damned ole outlaw. It just didn’t seem fair.

  Under the circumstances, it tuck me a while to get off to sleep, but I fin’ly done it all right. I musta been sleeping like a rock too, ’cause Sally woke me up by shaking on me and whispering in my ear. “Kid,” she said, “someone’s coming.” I shuck my head some and rubbed my eyes and started in to sit up.

  “What?” I said.

  She shooshed me by clapping her hand over my mouth.

  “I said someone’s coming. Listen,” she said.

  I heared her plain that second time, and what she said kinda cleared my head. I tuck a grip on my Colt and sat on up and listened. Sure enough, I could hear a horse a coming. In another minute I could tell it was two horses. The fire was most nearly out, but even so I told her, “Move away from the fire,” and I got up and follered her away from it. I wanted to make sure that whoever it was riding up wouldn’t see us in the light, what little there was of it. A few feet out into the dark, I put Sally behind me and waited. Two horses with riders come up into the camp. I thumbed back the hammer a my Colt.

  “Just set easy there,” I said.

  “Kid?” come a voice. “Is that you?”

  “Rice?” I said. “Who’s that with you?” and I come on up to the fire. Getting closer like that, I could see that he had a prisoner a setting on that other horse, but it weren’t Clell, and the man I had kilt weren’t Clell either.

  “It’s the outlaw I trailed,” Rice said. “He ain’t Clell Hook though.”

  I tossed some more fuel on the fire to build it up some and get a better look at the bastard Rice had brung in alive, and I was never so surprised in my whole young life as I was when I recognized him. I reckon he was about as dumbfounded as me, but the both of us had enough horse sense about us to keep our mouth shut. But I’ll be dipped in shit if it weren’t my own ole paw a setting on that horse with his hands tied.

  I couldn’t think a nothing to say. I never was so speechless in the whole history a my life. I realized right off though that I had myself a hell of a problem. If ole Rice knowed what he was a doing, and he usual did, then my ole paw was one a them outlaws, and what was worse, Rice had him captured. And I was pardnering with Rice. Well, likely you know already that I didn’t have no overabundance a love for my paw, but still in all, the bare true fact a the matter was that he was my paw. I knowed that I couldn’t just let Rice take him in to get tried and maybe hung up by his neck. He had give me a dime for candy and then after I had splitted ole Joe Pigg’s skull, he had give me ten dollars and a old swaybacked horse. I guessed that I owed him something.

  “What about the other one?” Rice asked me. “You still on his trail?”

  “I ain’t trailing him no more,” I said.

  “He killed him,” Sally said.

  “Was it—”

  “It weren’t Clell,” I said. “It was some other feller, and he didn’t give me no choice. He started in blasting away at me, so I kilt him. That’s all. He’s over yonder a ways. I been trying to figger out what to do about the reward. Back to Lowry’s the closest place, but I kinda hate to take little ole Sally back there after she run off from that Alf what thinks he owns her.”

  “If we’ve got a body on our hands,” Rice said, “we’d better get it turned in as quickly as possible. We’ll go back to Lowry. Whoever this Alf is, miss, he won’t bother you with me and the Kid alongside you. You game for it?”

  “I guess,” she said.

  “Or, better yet,” he said, “when we get close, you and the Kid can stay outside of town, if you like. I’ll take the body in and claim the reward, if there is one. Would that be better?”

  “Yes,” she said. “I think so.”

  “It sounds okay to me,” I said. “Then we’ll head back for Lowry in the morning?”

  “Early,” said Rice. He walked over to where Paw was still a setting on top a that horse, and he reached up and tuck hold of him. “Come on down,” he said. I couldn’t tell if he pulled ole Paw down or helped him down, but anyhow Paw was soon standing on the ground. I rolled him out a blanket close to the fire.

  “You can sleep there,” I said.

  He give me a look right in the eyes. “Thanks,” he said, and he stretched on out on the ground. His hands were still tied behind his back. I turned away from him right quick.

  “Rice,” I said, “if you trailed after this feller here, and I trailed after that other one, the one I shot, where the hell is ole Clell?”

  “That’s what I’d like to know,” Rice said. “He gave us the slip somehow. I thought we had all but two of them, but we got those two and neither one is Clell.”

  I turned back to ole Paw where he was laying. “How about it, mister,” I said. “Where’d ole Clell go?”

  “I don’t even know no Clell,” Paw said, “and I don’t know how come this ranny to track me down and hogtie me like this.”

  “We was chasing bank robbers,” I said.

  “Well,” said Paw, “I never robbed no bank.”

  “No,” I said. “None of them did. We opened up on them first before they had a chance to go in on it.”

  “Well,” he said, “I don’t know nothing about it. Nothing at all. And I don’t know no Clell. Why don’t you just leave me get some sleep?”

  I didn’t see no advantage in pursuing the question with ole Paw. He was always stubborn as hell, and being all trussed up like that didn’t seem to make no difference. Likely he didn’t keer none for me talking to him like that neither. But we was both playing like, so I really didn’t have no idea how to take the way he was acting. I decided to just let it go.

  “I couldn’t get anything out of him either,” Rice said. “Not even his name. When we go back into Lowry, I’ll just turn him in there. Let them worry about him.”

  Well, we all bedded down shortly after that, and what with Paw and Rice both right there with us, I decided that it was all for the best that me and Sally hadn’t got nekkid together after all. I was wide awake though. I was thinking about ole Paw. I was wondering what would become of him, him being caught by ole Rice for one a the bank robbers. I figgered too that he likely was one of them, ‘cause I never had knowed where it was that he went off to ever’ now and then, and he would come back home with groceries and whiskey and maybe even a little cash money.

  I sure didn’t want to see him hang or even know that it was fixing to happen. I wished that I had never saw him again in my whole life, ’cause if I had never saw him, it wouldn’t a been no worry a mine what might a become of him. Damn it, I was sure mad at him for having rid along with ole Clell on this here bank job, what with me riding along with ole Rice and tracking Clell. It was all a real unfortunate mess what he had got me into. I told myself that I would never forgive him for all that as long as I might live even if I was to live to be a hunnerd, which, a course, weren’t likely. Not the way I was a going.

  Anyhow, eventual I drifted off to sleep again, and this time I slept till morning. When I come aw
ake ole Rice was already cooking up our breakfast and done had the coffee made. We said our good-mornings all around, and me and ole Paw was a giving each other strange looks. Rice never said nothing. If he noticed, he likely just thought that I was giving ole Paw the eye ’cause he wouldn’t tell us about Clell. I poured Paw a cup a coffee and give it to him. I had to let loose his hands first. He thanked me, and then I give one to Sally, got one for myself and set down beside her.

  “I’m sorry ’bout having to go back to Lowry,” I said.

  “Oh,” she said, “it’ll be all right. At least I’m away from Alf.”

  “Yeah,” I said.

  Pretty soon ole Rice dished us all out some grub and we et. Then we cleaned up our camp and packed up our horses. We loaded the corpus onto Sally’s horse, and she clumb on behind me and we headed back toward Lowry. Nothing much of any interest happened along the way. I guess there was some little small talk, but that’s about all. The only one a them outlaws left out there was just ole Clell, and he weren’t likely to come on us. Prob’ly he was doing his best to avoid us. Maybe even heading for Mexico. Anyhow, it was near dark when we come on Lowry again, and we stayed out a town and made us another camp.

  “I think I’ll ride on in with our two outlaws,” Rice said.

  “Just take in the corpus,” I said. “I don’t think this one here’s worth nothing nohow.”

  “You don’t know that till you search through the dodgers,” Rice said.

  “Well,” I said, “you keep all the money for the dead one. Leave this one here with me. You can go on ahead and search through them dodgers and look for him and let me know if you found his picture in there when you get back. Just leave him here for now. Okay?”

  Rice give me a real curious look then.

  “How come?” he said. “What do you care about this one?”

  “I don’t keer nothing about him,” I said, lying like hell, “but I want to talk to him some more. See if I can find out something about ole Clell. That’s all.”

  Rice scratched his head the way he done sometimes, and then he said, “All right. Maybe you can get something out of him, but I doubt it.”

  He headed on into town a leading the horse what was toting the corpus on it, and I’ll tell you what, it was none too soon to be getting shuck a that. Anyhow, whenever he was outa earshot, Paw turned on me.

  “I never thought to see you again, boy,” he said.

  “Well, I sure never thought to see you,” I said. “Special not out thisaway.”

  “You turned into some kinda gunfighter?” he said.

  “I can handle myself all right,” I said.

  “I’ll be damned,” he said. “I can’t hardly believe it. Me and your maw, we wondered from time to time if you was even still alive. And traveling with a lawman too.”

  “Me and him was just after the same feller,” I said. “That’s all.”

  “Clell?” Paw asked me.

  “Yeah,” I said. “Ole Clell. Only thing is, he wants to take him in alive, and I mean to kill him.”

  “How come?” Paw asked me.

  I told him about how Clell and them wanted to kill me ’cause I had kilt one a their kin, and I told him about how Clell and that other Hook had beat up my ole pardner and robbed him, and I even told him about Clell kicking that kid’s dog.

  “Get my chaw outa my pocket, will you?” Paw said. His hands was tied up again by then. I pulled out his chaw for him and held it up for him to bite, and he bit off a chunk, and I tucked the rest back into his pocket. He chawed on it a bit and spit, “You never will get over that damn Farty,” he said. “I knowed you wouldn’t.”

  “Farty ain’t got nothing to do with this,” I said, but actual, I reckoned that Paw was at least some right about that.

  “So you got to get Clell, do you?” he said.

  “I sure as hell do got to,” I said.

  “Well,” Paw said, “ole Clell, he never left town when the rest of us did. As we was hightailing out a town, I seed him duck in a doorway.”

  “You mean he’s right there in Lowry?” I said.

  “Naw,” said Paw. “Not likely. All I said is that he never rid outa town with the rest of us. Likely he waited a spell and then slipped out in another direction. That’s what’s likely.”

  “Well, where would he go?” I asked.

  “If I was to have to guess,” Paw said, “I’d guess that he headed back for his hidey-hole in the mountain.”

  “Cabin up in the mountains?” I said.

  “Yeah,” Paw said. “How’d you know that

  “Never mind how I know,” I said, “but I do know.”

  Paw spit again. “You going to let that man take me in to hang?” he said.

  “You said you never robbed no bank,” I said.

  “Well, now,” he said, “you reckon them fine folks is going to believe anything I tell them?”

  I looked at him, and I figgered I sure as hell wouldn’t, but I never answered him. Just about then, ole Sally poked herself into the talking anyhow and kinda saved me from having to answer that question. She had been a watching and a listening all this time, but from some little distance, and I had noticed earlier that she was real curious.

  “You two know each other?” she said.

  I sure didn’t want to give her no details.

  “We knowed each other a while back,” I said. “We ain’t seed each other for some years though.”

  Then I seed ole Rice a coming back, and he was by his lonesome. I give Sally a look. “Don’t say nothing to Rice,” I told her.

  “All right,” she said.

  Then I seed her eyes open kinda wide and her hand go up to her mouth, and I could see that she was a looking in the direction a town, and so I looked too. There was a rider coming along behind ole Rice.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked her.

  “It’s Alf,” she said. “He’s coming after me.”

  “Just you take it easy,” I said. “He ain’t a going to get you.”

  Rice come on in then, and before his feet hit the ground, I said, “You bring Alf along, did you?”

  “Alf?” he said. He looked around and seed Alf a coming. “No,” he said. “I didn’t bring him.”

  Me and Rice stood a facing Alf and waited for him to ride on in. When he come close, I seed that he was a slick one. He had the look of a gambling man and maybe a smooth gun hand too. He pulled up his horse, and he looked right past me and Rice, right at Sally.

  “Come on,” he said.

  “No,” Sally said. “I ain’t going back with you.”

  “You got no choice,” Alf said. “You owe me. Now come on before I get mad.”

  “You heard the lady,” said Rice. “She’s not going back with you.”

  “You stay the hell out of this,” said Alf. “That’s my property.”

  “She ain’t your property,” I said. “This here’s a free country, ain’t it? And Rice, you just do like old Alfie says. You stay outa this. It was me what tuck Sally outa town. This here is between me and Alfie. You going to set your horse and fight, Alfie, or you wanta get down?”

  Ole Alfie smiled at me, and he swung down offa his horse real casual. Then he kinda flipped back the long tails a his black coat. He was wearing a six-gun on each hip. I wondered which one he’d go for, or if he’d go for the both of them. I set myself for action.

  “You sure you want a part of this, boy?” Alf said. “She’s just a whore, but she’s my whore. She ain’t worth you getting yourself killed over.”

  “It might not be me what gets kilt,” I said. “You don’t know who you’re a facing, do you?”

  He smiled again, like as if he didn’t really give a shit, but he said, “Who are you, boy?”

  “They call me Kid Parmlee,” I said. “They say I’m a regular Billy the Kid.”

  Alf reached fast for his left-hand gun, but my Colt was out faster, and when it blasted, a hole opened up in Alfie’s chest. He never even pulled the trigger. He look
ed real surprised. He stared right at me for a few seconds, and then he looked down at that hole in his chest and the blood a running down his white shirtfront. He wobbled a bit. He looked up at me again, and then he just pitched forward and landed hard on his face in the dirt. Rice run over and knelt down beside him and checked him. Then he looked up at me.

  “He’s dead,” he said.

  Sally went to crying. I holstered my Colt and walked over to her and put a arm around her shoulders and kinda hugged her to me. “It’s all right now,” I said. “It’s all over. He won’t never bother you no more.”

  “I know,” she said. “I know.”

  She kinda calmed herself down a bit then, and in just a little bit I turned a loose of her.

  “That was slicker’n owl shit,” ole Paw said. “I ain’t seed shooting like that in a long time. Maybe never. I wouldn’t a believed it.”

  “I guess I’ll have to take this one back into town now,” Rice said.

  “I guess,” I said.

  We loaded ole Alf up on his own horse, and Rice mounted up and led it on into town. It was just me and Paw and Sally again.

  “Where’d you learn to shoot like that, boy?” Paw asked me.

  “Around,” I said.

  “I bet you could take that Texas lawman,” he said. “I bet you could take him quicker’n a blink.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  I spent a while that night a wondering if ole Paw was right about that, but then I tried to give off thinking about it at all. I didn’t like it, ‘cause I knowed I wouldn’t like the way a shoot-out between me and Rice was to come out no matter whichaway it come. Fin’ly I just went ahead and went to bed, but I never went to sleep. I waited till I heared a horse a coming. I let it get close enough, and then I said, “That you, Rice?”

  “It’s me,” he said, and I could tell that it was, so I settled on down to sleep. We never talked till morning. As usual, he was up first and a cooking. After we had all et, me and Rice got off by ourselfs so we could talk free.

  “What about that Alf?” I said.