Fugitive's Trail

by Robert J Conley

  “It’s all right,” he said. “I told them what happened. Actually, they seemed a bit relieved. Apparently he was some kind of local bully.”

  “He got friends?” I asked.

  “No one special that I could tell,” Rice said.

  I was thinking about how might near ever’one I had kilt had friends and cousins and brothers and such that come a looking for me. Anyhow, the Alfie business seemed to be more or less settled, and so I figgered I should tell ole Rice what I had found out about Clell from ole Paw. I told him how that outlaw he had captured told me that ole Clell had never left town whenever we chased them others out. I told him that the outlaw had figgered that Clell had waited till we was out a town and then lit out, most likely for his hideout back yonder west in them mountains. I said that I figgered it was the same one that we had camped down beneath it that time. He hummed a bit and rubbed his chin, and then he pushed his hat back and scratched his head.

  “There’s something wrong with that story,” he said.

  “What’s that?” I asked him.

  “We followed seven outlaws out here,” Rice said. “We’ve accounted for seven, and Clell ain’t one of them. Yet this one here tells you that Clell stayed in town and then rode off.”

  I hadn’t thought a that. “Well,” I said, “could be we counted wrong.”

  “I don’t think so,” Rice said.

  “They was seven to start with all right,” I said. “Three was kilt in the street. I kilt one out here. You kilt that first one we follered. One group a citizens kilt another one out on the trail, and you got this one here captured.”

  “That’s seven,” Rice said.

  “It is?” I said.

  “It is,” he said.

  “Well, I’ll be,” I said. “What’re you going to do now?”

  “I guess I’ll head back west,” he said. “How about you?”

  “Me too,” I said. “I ain’t give up on ole Clell. You oughta know that much about me by now.”

  “I reckon I do,” he said. “All right then. What are your intentions regarding those two over there?”

  “Oh,” I said, “you mean ole Sally there and that there outlaw?”

  “That was my meaning,” he said.

  “Well,” I said, “I ain’t got intentions about ole Sally. She wanted to get away from Alf. I helped her. That’s all. Now that Alf ain’t no problem, she can go back down into Lowry if she wants to or if she wants to go on out west with us and find her a place out there, then she can ride along, I guess. I ain’t talked to her about that none since I shot that ole Alf.”

  “All right,” Rice said. “We’ll talk to her. What about the other one?”

  I tried real fast to figger a reason for keeping ole Paw alive and out a jail without telling Rice that he was my paw.

  “I kinda figgered,” I said, talking kinda slow so I could think more about it while I was a talking, “I kinda figgered that maybe we had ought to take him along with us till we catch up with ole Clell. He might be some kinda help along the way.”

  “Well,” Rice said, a scratching his head again, “you did get more information out of him than I did. Even though some of it doesn’t seem to make sense. All right. We’ll take him along.”

  We talked to Sally after that, and she said that she didn’t have no desire to go back down into Lowry. It wasn’t nothing there for her but just only bad memories. She said that she had much ruther go on west with us, and whenever we found her a good enough town, why, she’d just drop off there and wouldn’t be no more worry to us. We agreed to carry her along. Then we packed on up and headed on out.

  There was lots a tracks along the way, but a course, we didn’t have no way a telling if any of them belonged to the horse ole Clell was a riding. It was long about noon, I guess, when ole Paw rid up alongside me and spoke to me in a kinda low and secret like voice.

  “You see them prints there with the crook in the right forefront shoe?” he said.

  I squinted down at the tracks in the road, and then I seen a print kinda like what he said.

  “I see it,” I said.

  “That’s ole Clell’s horse,” he said.

  “Then we’re on his trail all right,” I said.

  Paw just kinda nodded. He knowed that I wanted to kill Clell and that Clell wanted to kill me. He didn’t like talking to no law, but then I weren’t no law, and I was his own son. I reckon after all that did mean something to the old son of a bitch. I didn’t rush on up to ole Rice to tell him what Paw had said to me, but whenever we stopped a little later to eat, and whenever Paw went out to the bushes to relieve hisself, I set down alongside a Rice.

  “We’re on ole Clell’s trail all right,” I said.

  “Oh?” he said. “How do you know that?”

  “Just trust me, Rice,” I said. “We’re on his trail.”

  We didn’t talk no more about it after that, but around mid-afternoon, Rice give me a look and looked down at the tracks on the road, and I tuck me a look down at them and just nodded my head. We rid on. We didn’t never see no sign a anyone being ahead of us on the road, but then I figgered that ’cause we had gone on back to Lowry, ole Clell had got a real good lead on us. Our best hope a catching him was if Paw was right about where he was a heading.

  We made another camp that night, and we had et our evening meal so Paw was untied. I knowed that ole Rice would tie him up again before we all bedded down, but for the time being, Rice had found him a chance to set with ole Sally, and they was a talking real quiet like off a little ways from us. Paw was standing by the fire, and I was just a setting there on my saddle a sipping some coffee.

  “You could take that lawman right now,” Paw said.

  “Never mind about that,” I said.

  “What’s the matter, boy?” he said. “You don’t want to save your own ole paw from a hanging?”

  “It ain’t that,” I said.

  “Well, what then?” he said. “Tell me. I just don’t see no other way, boy.”

  “There’ll be another way,” I said. “I’m a thinking on it.”

  “Come here,” said Paw.

  I never even thought about it. I just stood up and walked over to him. Doing what your ole paw tells you to do without even thinking on it first is a hard habit to get out of, even if you ain’t seed him for a spell. He was still taller’n me and a hell of a lot tougher looking.

  “You don’t want to do it,” he said, “then give me your pistol. I’ll do it myself.”

  “I ain’t giving you no gun,” I said.

  Well, he smacked me a good one right across the chops. He was still my ole paw all right. I flew backwards and landed hard on my ass. I was some surprised by that, I can tell you, and besides that, it smarted some. I wiped at my face with the sleeve a my left arm, and at the same time, I whupped out my Colt with my right hand. Paw was a coming at me, but whenever I thumbed back that hammer and he found hisself a looking down the barrel and that Colt cocked, he stopped all right.

  “You wouldn’t shoot your ole paw,” he said.

  “You ever hit me again,” I said, “you ever try to get my gun, you’ll damn sure find out. Now set down.”

  Paw set on his saddle, and he commenced to laughing. ’Bout then Rice come a walking over.

  “What’s going on here?” he said.

  “Ain’t nothing wrong her,” I said.

  He looked at the gun still in my hand. I eased down the hammer and holstered the Colt.

  “It’s all right,” I said.

  He give Paw a look, and then he walked back over to where he had left ole Sally. Paw’s laughing had toned down to a kind a chuckle.

  “What’s so damn funny?” I asked him.

  “I guess you’ve growed up, boy,” he said. “I reckon I won’t be a slapping you down no more. I done it a bunch a times, but I guess I won’t be doing it no more. I tell you, son, I ain’t never seed a faster gun than what you got. Why, you’re a—”

  “I know,” I said.
“I’m a regular Billy the Kid.”

  “That’s it,” he said. “That’s exactly what I was a thinking. How’d you know?”

  “It’s been said before,” I told him.

  I went and poured myself a cup a coffee. Then I looked over at Paw. “You want some?” I asked him.

  “Naw,” he said.

  I tuck me a sip, and it was plenty hot. I like to a blistered my top lip. I didn’t let on though. I said, “How’s Maw?”

  “Aw, she’s all right,” he said. “She ain’t changed none.”

  “You got any money?” I said.

  “Hell, no,” he said. “I’m flat-ass broke. That’s how come I—Well, I ain’t got none.”

  “I got me a share of that reward money,” I said. “I’ll give you some to take home for her whenever it’s time for you to go.”

  “You meaning to get me out a this?” he said.

  “You heared me,” I told him. “Now go on to bed.”

  He kinda smiled at me, and he said, “Okay.”

  He went on to bed, and I did too. I don’t know what Rice and Sally done.

  It was the middle a the next morning. The dry land had got kinda rugged what with cracks in the ground and gullies and dry washes and such. The trail was kinda narrow, and Rice was riding in front. Sally was right behind him, then Paw, and I was taking up the rear. Of a sudden, I heared a shot ring out from somewhere up front.

  “Take cover,” Rice hollered.

  I rid my ole horse down into a ravine off the side a the road, and ever’one else done the same thing. We all jumped off our horses. Paw and Sally hunkered down low, and me and ole Rice pulled our guns out and peeped up over the edge of the ravine.

  “What is it?” I yelled out to him.

  “Bandits, I guess,” he called back. “Come on up here.”

  I made my way past Paw and Sally and three horses in that narrow gully and come up beside ole Rice.

  “Over there,” he said.

  I looked and seed a few heads peeking out from behind some rises in the rough ground.

  “How many?” I said.

  “I’d say eight,” Rice said.

  “What the hell do they want?” I asked him.

  “They didn’t say,” he said, and I felt kinda foolish. He still could do that to me. Just then Paw come a sidling up to me.

  “You say eight?” he said. “There’s only two a you. Give me a gun, and I’ll help fight them off.”

  “Just keep your head down,” Rice told him.

  “Give me a gun,” Paw said. “We’ll have us a fighting chance then.”

  I looked ole Rice in the eyeball.

  “Hell,” he said, “give him one.”

  “There’s a Winchester back yonder on my horse,” I told Paw. “Go get it.”

  “But don’t shoot unless I shoot first,” Rice said.

  “I got you,” Paw said, and still hunkered way down, he run back toward ole horse to get the gun. Pretty soon I seed him lay up over the edge a that ravine ready and waiting.

  “Well,” I said to Rice, “what the hell’re we going to do now?”

  He never answered me. Instead, he give out a yell to them owlhoots.

  “Hey,” he hollered. “You out there. What do you want with us?”

  “We just want to talk is all,” come the answer.

  “You got a funny way of showing it,” Rice yelled.

  “That shot was a accident,” the voice come back. “Let’s talk.”

  “One of you come out and walk this way,” Rice said. “I’ll meet you.”

  “All right,” the voice answered. “No shooting now.”

  “No shooting,” said Rice.

  Pretty soon we seed this feller come up outa the ground and start walking toward where we was at. He weren’t holding no gun in his hands. Rice let him walk pretty close before he started up outa the ravine. I grabbed hold a his arm, and he looked at me.

  “They can pick you off if you go up there,” I said.

  “If they do,” he said, “you kill that one.”

  “I’ll do her,” I said, and I let him go, and he crawled on outa there. Then he walked on a few steps to meet up with that feller. Whenever they stopped, they was close enough for me to hear what they was a saying. Then I knowed how come ole Rice to wait so long before he clumb out over the edge, and I thought to myself that was some clever a him to do thataway. You see, they was standing a whole lot closer to us than they was to that bushwhacker’s pals.

  “Howdy,” said the stranger.

  “What do you want with us?” Rice said.

  “We don’t mean no harm,” the stranger said. “We thought you might want to sell some horses.”

  “We’ve just got enough for ourselves,” said Rice.

  “Any extry grub?” the stranger said.

  “Sorry,” said Rice. “We travel light.”

  “Maybe you’d like to sell us that little gal you got with you,” the ugly feller said.

  “Why don’t you and your friends just mount up and ride on out of here before someone gets hurt?” said Rice. “We don’t have anything to talk about.”

  “I’ll tell you something, mister smart talker,” said the stranger. “We watched you coming. There’s four of you and eight of us. And one of you is a gal. You give us the gal and her horse, and we’ll let the rest of you go. Otherwise, we’ll just kill the three of you men and take her anyway.”

  “You got one thing wrong, mister,” Rice said.

  “What’s that?” the other guy said.

  “We’ll only have seven to fight,” said Rice.

  “How’s that?” the man said.

  Rice raised an arm, motioning back toward the way the man had come from.

  “You see the distance you had to walk to get over here?” he said. “You’ll never make it back.”

  The man’s eyes opened up real wide, and his mouth kinda dropped open too. He stammered.

  “You mean—You mean—”

  He turned and started in to run. At the same time ole Rice turned and run a couple a steps and then tuck a dive back into our hole.

  “Kill him,” he yelled.

  I kinda hesitated. I hadn’t never shot no one in the back before. Then I heared the shot, and I knowed that it was my ole Winchester. Paw had did it. The running man kinda jerked, but he kept a running. He run a few more steps, but he looked kinda like a rag doll a running, with his arms a flailing around loose and his head a bobbing, and then he kinda pitched forward and plowed headfirst into the ground. He was dead enough. Paw had got him good.

  Then the bullets come a flying hot and heavy, and all of us scrunched ourselfs down till the shooting slowed. After a while, I peeked out, and so did Rice. I seed one a them bastards out there, but it was too long a shot for just my Colt.

  “Paw,” I said.

  “I see him,” said Paw, and just then he shot, and I could see the blood fly off from that feller’s head when the bullet hit him. Paw always had been good with a rifle. I knowed that. Why, he just only tuck one bullet out with him whenever he went to hunt, and he always brung something back for supper. That was the way he had taught me. But growing up the way I done, I had never had no pistol in my hand, and that’s how come me to have to be taught to gunfight by ole Tex back then at the Boxwood.

  “Six to go,” Paw said.

  “Kid,” Rice said to me, “I think that if you were to make your way down the ravine and sneak out down there, you could cross over and get behind them. You think you could do that?”

  “I bet I could,” I said. I didn’t wait for him to say nothing more. I just hunkered over real good and started running through that gully. Ever’ now and then I heared a shot, but I couldn’t rightly tell where they was coming from, my side or theirs. I kept on a running and a hoping that none a them owlhoots’ shots was a hitting their marks. When I had gone on about as far as I thought I needed to go, I stopped, and I tuck myself a real keerful peek up over the edge. It sure enough looked like as i
f I had made it far enough, so real slow and easy, I clumb on out over the edge. No one tuck no shots at me, so I run across the way for a distance.

  I had me a pretty good idea where them skunks was hid out, even though the lay a the land looked some different from my new view of it, so I moved cautious like along to get myself behind them. I thought I was getting close enough all right, but still whenever I seed that first hat right up ahead of me, it just stopped me real abrupt. I really weren’t ready for it. I seed the hat, and it was just a little ways ahead. I sneaked on up a little more till I could see the whole feller, well, most of him anyhow. The trouble was, I didn’t have no way a knowing if he was the last of them or the first of them or if he was somewheres in the middle. I decided I couldn’t let that worry me none.

  Now I just told you, I think, that I never shot no one in the back before, and the thought a doing it kinda bothered me somewhat, but I figgered that this was a different situation. These guys, after all, was a shooting at us and had ever’ intention a killing us off, all ’cept poor ole Sally, and I knowed why they didn’t mean to kill her. So I didn’t figger this to be nothing at all like bushwhacking. This was smack in the middle of a fight, and I had just managed to get myself in a better position than what he was in. That’s all. I leveled my Colt, and I cocked it, and I put a bullet smack between his wing bones.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Well, ole Paw had got two of them, and I had got one, so what started out to be eight was now just only five. The odds was getting to look a whole lot better. But I was in a pickle. Like I done said, I didn’t have no idea where the rest of them was at, and I sure didn’t want to lay myself open for one a them to shoot at me while I was a hunting them. Then I heared another shot, and I could tell that it come from across the way. It was shot from a six-gun too, so I knowed that ole Rice had shot it. I wondered why he had did that, trying to hit someone at that distance with just only a revolver, but I soon found out, for another shot answered it, and it come from the side I was on, and it come from my right side, so then I knowed where at least one a the road agents was at, more or less.

  I slipped on down real easy like to right beside what was left a that feller I had plugged, and it kinda give me the willies. I’d kilt them before, but I’d never snuggled up to one of them like that. I tried to just ignore what it was I was a nesting with and look down the way to see could I spot me one a his pardners. I didn’t see no one. I begun to sneak on down to the right. I had only just gone a few feet whenever I heared someone on down thataway say, “Zack, is that you?”