I give my own voice a kinda harsh whisperlike sound, and I said, “Yeah.”
Of a sudden a man come around a curve in that embankment with his gun out and ready for action, and he said, “No, it ain’t.” He pulled the trigger, and I throwed myself hard into the wall to my right just as his shot went off, and his bullet thudded into the dirt over to my left. Just as I hit that wall, I got off a shot. It tore into that bastard’s right shoulder and crippled it. I didn’t see no sense in leaving him like that, so I shot again and hit him square in the chest. He dropped dead with that one. There was four to go.
Then I heared some scrambling, and I figgered they was trying to get away, so I commenced to running on down that natural hallway, and I come around another curve, and there they was. They had scrambled outa their hole and was running for their horses. The problem for them was that they had exposed their backsides. I tuck one of them down with my Colt, and Paw got one from off across the way with my Winchester. They yelped and fell back down into the hole. The other two got mounted and tuck off fast. Paw got off another shot but missed, and I tuck out after them.
“Let them go,” Rice shouted.
I looked back toward ole Rice and then looked after them outlaws again. Then I kinda shrugged and put my Colt away and started into walking back over where Rice and them was at. It was a long enough walk, but I sure weren’t ready for what I seed whenever I got back over there. I looked down into that ravine, and there was Paw with my Winchester, and he had it pointed right at ole Rice.
“Paw,” I said. “Put that thing down.”
“I ain’t going to jail,” he said.
“Put it down,” I said.
“Hell, boy,” he said, “they might hang me.”
“You don’t put that rifle down,” I said, “I’ll kill you right here.”
Paw kinda humphed, and he said, “You’re fast, boy. Fast as I’ve ever seed, but I’m holding this here Winchester in my hands, and it’s done got a shell in the chamber.”
“You got it pointing at ole Rice there too,” I said. “I can kill you fast as you can pull that trigger. He’ll be dead, but so will you. What’s the profit in that?”
Paw looked at me. Then he looked at Rice. He looked back at me, and then he said, “Shit,” and he throwed that Winchester down. Rice run over and picked it up. Paw stuck his hands out in front of him.
“I reckon you’ll be tying me up again,” he said.
“No,” Rice said. “There’s no need. Just go get on your horse.”
Paw done what Rice said, and I slid on down into the gully to get my own horse. Rice come over to me.
“Thanks, Kid,” he said.
“It’s all right,” I said.
“Your paw, huh?” he said.
“I slipped up,” I said. “I never meant to let you know that.”
“I guess I know now why you didn’t want me turning him in back there,” said Rice.
“I know he ain’t no good,” I said, “but he’s my paw. I never knowed he was with them bank robbers though, not till you come riding into my camp with him that night. I swear I never. I was just trailing ole Clell like I told you.”
“I believe you, Kid,” he said. “Let’s get mounted and go gather up those stray outlaw horses.”
We done that, and we burried them ones that we’d kilt. Not me nor Rice nor Paw recognized a one of them neither. The only thing we knowed about them was just only one first name, ’cause I’d heared that one call out to Zack. We went through their pockets and all and kept what little money they had on them. We also packed up their guns and ammunition. They didn’t have nothing else on them that was worth keeping, so we burried the rest of it along with them. Then pretty soon we was a riding the trail again. This time we was leading a string a six riderless horses along behind us.
No one was saying much. I was thinking about Paw, and I was considering how I had come close to shooting him back there. I wondered what it would a felt like to have to kill my own paw, and I wondered if I had did the right thing by standing him off. What if he hadn’t a backed down the way he done? I reckon I’d a shot him like I said I would. Then I’d a had to live with the certain fact that I had kilt my own paw. I didn’t like to think about that, but one thing I was sure was glad of, I was sure glad that ole Paw had dropped that Winchester when he did.
But there was something else a bothering me, and it had to do with Paw too. That was what ole Rice had pointed out, that what Paw had told me about ole Clell just didn’t add up. The only way it seemed that Paw could a been telling the truth was if there had been eight outlaws and not just only seven, but we had counted seven whenever we first seed them, and we had follered them, and we had counted the kilt and captured ones too. It sure seemed like as if ole Paw had been lying to me, and if he had lied about Clell, then whose crookedy hoof print was we a follering anyhow? And how come him to be lying to me?
The trail kinda widened up a little ‘bout then, and Paw slowed his horse down so that I come up alongside of him. I wished that he had just kept on ahead a me the way he had been. I didn’t want to talk to him just then. I didn’t even really want to see him, ’cause I weren’t for sure just how I was going to deal with him lying to me the way he done. We rid along quiet like that for a ways. Then he said, “‘Kid,’ huh? Like Billy the Kid?”
“They just started in to calling me that,” I said. “I let it go, ’cause I didn’t want no one to be calling me by my right name. You and Maw give me a shitty name.”
“How many men you kilt, Kid?” Paw said.
“I don’t rightly know,” I said. “I ain’t kept count.”
“You ain’t kept count?” said Paw. “Why, hell, boy, you oughta be carving a notch on the handle a that there Colt each time you gun one down.”
“I ain’t no hired gun hand,” I said, “and I don’t want to be tuck for one.”
“Well, it’s a bit late for that, ain’t it?” he said. “They say you’re a regular Billy the Kid. It’s done gone too far for you to be getting soft over that gunfighter label. You’re a wearing it, boy. It’s on you. You might just as well go on ahead and carve them notches.”
“I think there was nine,” I said.
“What?” he said.
“I think I kilt nine,” I said. “That’s counting that first one. Joe Pigg. The one I hit with the ax handle. I think there was nine all told.”
“Nine,” he said. “By God.” And he sure sounded proud. “Is that counting them just now? I mean back there on the road?”
“It’s nine counting them,” I said. “I think.”
“By God,” Paw said. “I reckon I’m sure enough lucky that I never pissed you off too much. There was twice now when you mighta kilt me. Nine men. By God.”
When we camped later that evening, Paw come and set with me, and he tuck up that same conversation.
“Tell me who they was,” he said. “Count them off.”
“Well,” I said, and I was a thinking real hard, “there was ole Joe Pigg what I hit in the head.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Paw said. “Go on.”
“Then there was his cousin or something who come to the Boxwood a looking to get me for killing his kin,” I said. “I kilt him, but he had friends with him, and they shot me up some. My friends kilt the rest of them.”
“That’s two,” Paw said.
“Then I shot Harley Hook in Ass Grove,” I said. “He was nekkid, but he had a gun in his hand.”
“That’s three,” said Paw, “and that’s why Clell and them was after you, huh? Well, go on.”
“Well, there was this feller called Clinch,” I said. “Him and his pal come on me and ole Zeb in the mountains, and I kilt the both of them.”
“Who the hell is Zeb?” Paw said. “Never mind. You can tell me later. Let’s see. That’s up to five now. Okay. Keep going.”
“I kilt Asa Hook after him and Clell beat ole Zeb up,” I said.
“Zeb again,” said Paw. “All right. That makes
six. Go on.”
“Then I kilt one a them outlaws out on the trail,” I said. “I thought it was Clell at first, but it weren’t. I don’t know his name.”
“That’s seven,” Paw said. “Okay. Okay.”
“I kilt Alfie,” I said.
“Eight,” said Paw. He was a getting real excited, and I couldn’t help it. He had got me thataway too.
“And three a them bushwhackers back down the road,” I said.
“Eleven,” said Paw, and he like to of jumped up and down for joy. “That’s eleven all told. Hell, boy, you said maybe nine, and it’s eleven. By God, you are a regular Billy the Kid.”
“There’s more,” I said. “Once I shot off a man’s left ear.”
Why, hell fire, me and ole Paw set up for the longest just a carrying on like that, and for the first time, I was a getting to where I felt real proud a being a gunfighter and a regular Billy the Kid. Old Paw, he never before in my whole life carried on like that over me, like he thought that I had did real good, you know? I mean, like he was real proud a me. Proud that I was his own kid. It felt good. When I was younger and still a living at home with him and Maw, even whenever I went out with just only one bullet and come home with a squirrel or something, he never bragged on me nor nothing, never told me I done good. So I was really having me a good time with ole Paw. Hell, likely it was the only good time I ever had with him. I guess that ole Rice got kinda sick a listening to us, ’cause he interrupted us there in a bit.
“We all need to get some sleep,” he said, but I believe that I could detect some kinda disgust in his voice. I didn’t say nothing though. I just agreed with him, and I laid out blankets for me and Paw.
There ain’t a whole lot for me to tell you about after that, not while we was just a riding along, and not till we had made it all the way back out to the mountains and was there where we had hid and watched Clell and them other outlaws ride down from that there cabin they had. We got out there and we set us up a camp right where we had been before. We was trying to decide our next move.
“That there’s where I believe he went to,” Paw said, a looking up that mountain.
“How do we get to it without him seeing us a coming?” I said. “That there’s a awful narrow trail.”
“There’s another’n north a here,” Paw said. “You go up thataway, and then you come back south kinda ’long a ridge there. You ride in right above the cabin.”
“You can lead us up there,” Rice said. “But we have to find a safe place for Sally first.”
“No, Bill,” she said. “I’ll ride along with you. I’ll be all right. After all, there’s only one of him.”
Rice give Paw a look.
“Is that right, Parmlee?” he said. “Is he going to be alone up there?”
Paw give a shrug.
“Damned if I know,” he said. “I ain’t for sure he’s even up there. I told you I figgered he’d be going there.”
“We follered his tracks the whole way,” I said.
“Someone else could be up there with him,” Paw said.
“Who’s left?” said Rice. “Who could it be?”
“No one that I know,” Paw said. “Ever’one I knowed rid out east with us. You know what come of all a them.”
Ole Paw, he was just a trying to aggravate ole Rice, but he was a aggravating me too. Here he was a saying that there could be more up there, but he didn’t know of no more who they could be. Well, we knowed that we wasn’t going nowhere that night, and it looked like we wasn’t going to have to take ole Sally nowhere special, not just yet, so we figgered on bedding down there at our campsite and going up the mountain in the morning. We all laid out our bedding. I was walking back over to ole horse for some reason or other, and I happened to walk close by ole Rice. He reached out and laid a hand on my shoulder. I stopped and give him a look.
“I thought you resented that gunfighter label,” he said.
“What do you mean?” I said.
“You threatened to kill me once if I called you a regular Billy the Kid where anyone could hear me. Remember that?” he said. “You said you didn’t want to be known as a gunfighter.”
“Well,” I said, “if I got that reputation, I guess I’ll just have to live with it.”
“Or die with it,” Rice said.
“Yeah,” I said. “That risk comes along with the reputation, I reckon. What the hell are you complaining about anyhow? You’re a professional manhunter. You’ve kilt some, I reckon.”
“I’ve had to kill a few,” he said.
“So what’s the difference?” I said.
“I’m not bragging on it,” he said. “I’m not counting them up and talking about notching my gun handle.”
I felt my face a getting hot and tears a building up in my eyes.
“I ain’t cut no notches on my gun,” I said. “And I ain’t a fixing to neither.”
I hurried away from him then for fear that my voice would crack and he’d be able to tell that I was about to cry. I sure didn’t want that to happen.
In the morning, Paw showed us that other trail up the mountain, and we tuck it. It was slow going, but we made our way over to where we was looking down on that cabin, but we was suspicious right away, ’cause it was kinda cold up there, and there weren’t no smoke coming out the chimbley. We slipped on down there kinda keerful anyhow, just in case, and Rice made Paw call out to Clell and then go in first. We went on in then, and sure enough there weren’t no one there.
“He’s been here though,” Paw said.
“How do you know that?” Rice asked him.
Paw stuck his hand inside the stove.
“First off,” he said, “there’s been a fire in here not too long ago. And I seed them telltale horse prints outside.” Then he picked up a dirty shirt and held it out for us to look at. “And this here is what he was a wearing when we all rid outa here.”
“Then we’ll just have to go back down and look for his trail again,” Rice said.
“It’s near about noon, ain’t it?” Paw said. “Why don’t we eat right here indoors for a change?”
We built a fire in the stove and had us a good hot meal there in the cabin. When we was all done, we went on out and mounted up again and headed back down. It didn’t take too much studying down on the trail to find that one peculiar hoof print, and when we found it, we seed that ole Clell was a headed back south again. We follered him. While we was riding along, I was thinking how that ole Rice and Sally had been cozying up to each other of late. At first I guess it got my goat just a little, but I got to thinking about it, and I come to decide that it was not a bad thing at all.
I sure didn’t have no plans that included her, and if ole Rice didn’t get sweet on her, why, we was just going to have to dump her somewhere in Colorady in some mining town or other. That didn’t seem like such a good idea. So I thought, maybe ole Rice will get so sweet on her that he’ll take her along on back to Texas, and she’ll be all right then. I never worried too much about the life of whores, but then I never met one before ole Sally what wanted to get away from where she was at and what she was a doing for a living.
Then too, we was headed back toward where ole Red was at. I sure didn’t want no women getting in no fights over me. That got me to thinking about ole Red again, and then about ole Zeb. I wondered how he was a doing. I hoped that I had left him enough money to take keer a all a his needs for all that time I had been gone away from him. And then I had me another thought. It just come on me sudden like, and I didn’t like it worth a damn. It was Clell what with the help a his brother had beat up ole Zeb in the first place. Why, hell, ole Zeb could put Clell in the jailhouse. If Clell knowed that, then Clell might go after Zeb again.
“Hey, Rice,” I said. “Can we hurry it up a little here?”
We rid on a little faster, but we couldn’t really go much faster, ’cause it wouldn’t a been good for the horses. A course I knowed that my own self, but I was sure a worrying over ole Zeb all of a
sudden, and I wanted to get back to that town. Then whenever the day was done we had to stop and camp for the night. I couldn’t hardly stand that, but there just weren’t no way around it. I et what ole Rice cooked up, and I drunk a bunch a coffee. Then I rolled me a cigareet and smoked it. Ole Paw wondered what was eating at me.
“You started to ask me about ole Zeb a while back,” I said.
“Yeah,” he said. “You brung up that name a couple a times.”
“Well,” I said, “ole Zeb was my pardner for a spell. He tuck keer a me in the mountains, and he taught me a lot a things that I never knowed before. He was—”
I stopped short, ’cause I caught myself about to say that ole Zeb was like a paw to me, and I guess that he really was kinda like that, but it didn’t seem like the right thing to say to ole Paw’s face.
“He was a real pardner,” I said. “Then Clell and that other Hook beat him up real bad and stole all his money, just ’cause he had beat them in a poker game.”
“Ole Clell never could stand to lose,” Paw said.
“Well, Zeb is laid up in that town yonder where we’re a headed, and Clell is headed there too,” I said. “If Zeb was to spot Clell, why, he could tell the law and have ole Clell arrested.”
“And if Clell was to spot Zeb first—” Paw said.
“Yeah,” I said, “you got it.”
Chapter Eighteen
We got on into that town just before dark, and for the first time I noticed as we was riding in that its name was Fosterville. I seed it on the sign just outside a town. Ole Rice said that he’d get us some rooms in the hotel, and I let him take keer of it, ’cause I was mighty all-fired anxious to check up on ole Zeb. I hurried right on over to the room I’d left him in, and damned if he weren’t gone. That worried me some, but the lady what run the boarding house said that he was just fine.
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