Fugitive's Trail

by Robert J Conley

  Rice got up and tuck his turn and sauntered over by the winder. He stayed for a spell and then come back.

  “They’re a rough-looking bunch, all right,” he said, “and they’re well armed.”

  “It’ll just take one bullet to stop each one of them,” I said. “What’re we waiting for?”

  “Just sit tight, Kid,” Chastain said. “I can’t have you starting a fight in my town. Especially if I get drawn into it.”

  “Then just stay out,” I said. “Me and Rice can handle them four.”

  “What about me?” said ole Zeb. “God damn it, just give me a shotgun, and I’ll take them out two at a time.”

  “I don’t want you getting into no fight,” I said to Zeb, and the only reason I can think of that I went and said that is that I had come to think that I just had to take keer a the old fart. That made me think about ole Paw in there locked up to the bed. Oh, he weren’t in there starving. Rice had got someone to take him in a breakfast all right. But I was thinking about how I was so all-fired pertective a ole Zeb, and I weren’t that way atall about Paw. Well, maybe a little.

  “I don’t want anyone getting into a fight,” Chastain said. “Not just now anyway.”

  “I don’t know what time would be a better time,” I said.

  “Take it easy, Kid,” said Rice. “So far here, we have the sheriff on our side. Let’s try to keep it that way.”

  “What I need to do,” Chastain said, “is find out if I can legally arrest those men for crimes committed in Kansas and Texas.”

  “If you know they’re wanted,” Rice said, “then—”

  “There’s paperwork that has to be done,” Chastain said, interrupting ole Rice. “I can’t do it just on your say-so.”

  “What’s the matter?” I said. “Don’t you believe him? Hell, he’s the most honestest man I ever knowed.”

  “It’s not that, Kid,” Chastain said. “It’s just that there’s a legal way to go about it. Give me some time to send a few telegrams. I’ll get back to you a little later.”

  Well, having done said that, he got up and walked right on outa there. I sipped some more coffee, but what was left in my cup had done got cold. I made a face at it, and Red went to get me some fresh.

  “Be patient, Kid,” Rice said. “Give him a little time.”

  “I got another question for you,” I said.

  “What’s that?” he said.

  “Are me and you going to fight it out over ole Clell before we all go fight them four?” I said. “’Cause if we get in a big fight with them guys, it ain’t going to be easy for you to keep ole Clell alive, now is it?”

  “You’re right about that,” Rice said. “We’ll just have to wait and see what happens. I don’t think we’ll have to fight over him.”

  He stood up then like as if he was a going somewheres. I asked him where he was a headed, and he said to check on his prisoner.

  “Let me do that for you,” I said.

  “Go on,” he said, and he set back down. I tuck a fresh cup a coffee and went on back upstairs to where our rooms was at, and I found Paw a hooked to that there bed. He had done et his breakfast, so I give him that coffee. He tuck it and slurped at it and give me the eye.

  “This the way you allow your own paw to be treated?” he said. “Like a dog?”

  “I wouldn’t treat no dog like that,” I said.

  “But it’s all right for your paw?” he said.

  “I never said that, Paw,” I told him. “It ain’t me a doing this to you.”

  “But you ain’t doing nothing to stop it, are you?” he said. “And you’re pardnering with that lawman. You might as well be doing it.”

  He throwed that cup and spilt all the rest a the coffee all over the floor. It made me jump back outa the way.

  “What the hell’d you do that for?” I asked him.

  “I don’t need no coffee from no one that would chain up his own old man like this,” he said. “I don’t need no pity. And when they fin’ly stretch my ole neck, I don’t want to see you a crying in the crowd neither.”

  “You old bastard,” I said, “I never asked you to go out and rob no banks with no outlaws, and Maw never either. Whatever mess you got in, you got in it your own self, so don’t go looking for me to get you out of it.”

  I turned around and started outa the room, but he stopped me.

  “Wait a minute, Melvin,” he said. I whirled on him with my Colt out and cocked, and his eyes opened wide as saucers, and he put his arms up in front a his face as best he could, being handcuffed like he was.

  “Don’t never say that again,” I told him. “I’ll kill you. I’ll make you number thirteen.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Well, I never kilt ole Paw, of course, but what I done instead is I looked that bed frame over real good, and I found out that if I was to pull the pieces apart there where ole Paw was handcuffed, why we could slip them cuffs right offa the bed frame, and he’d be a loose. He’d be free as a skunk. So I done that, and ole Paw, he helt his hands out toward me. They was still cuffed together a course.

  “I can’t do nothing about that,” I said, “and even if I could, I wouldn’t. I done too much already. You’re on your own now. Just get the hell outa my life.” I dug in my pocket and give him all my money, and I felt stupid for doing it, but I couldn’t help myself none. “Take this and get home to Maw,” I said. “I hope I don’t never see you again. Now get on outa here, and go out the back way too.”

  I left that room and never even waited to see what Paw was going to do. I guessed that he done what I told him and went on out the back way. I went back on down into the eating part a the hotel, and there was ole Rice a talking with Chastain again. I guess Chastain had come back around while I was in the room with Paw. The gals had gone on back to work, I guess, all but ole Sally Goodin, who didn’t have no work to go to. I got myself another cup a coffee and set down at the table with ole Zeb. He had done gone and got him a bottle a good whiskey. That was one thing about ole Zeb, no matter what was his circumstance nor how drunk he was nor what, he always managed to get real good whiskey to drink.

  “Have a drink, Kid,” he said, and he shoved the bottle over at me. I shoved it right back towards him.

  “I might have to do some killing here in a while,” I said. “I better not.”

  “Yeah,” he said. “Likely you’re right about that.”

  I was a looking at ole Rice and wondering what him and Chastain was talking about, but I was also feeling guilty about Paw and wondering if Rice would suspect me whenever he found out that Paw was gone. A course, if he was to say anything about it to me, it was my full intention to deny ever’ bit of it and claim to be innocent as a nekkid, newborn babe. I was a wondering too just how come me to go and do what it was I had did. It’s true enough that I didn’t really want ole Paw to hang up by his scrawny ole neck till he was dead, but I ain’t sure yet that’s the real and main reason I turned him a loose. I think I went and turned him a loose ’cause I just didn’t want to have to see no more of him. I was sick in tired a looking at him and a listening to him yap. Anyhow, I think so, but I ain’t for sure.

  Something or other was making me feel right ornery for some reason. I guess it was ’cause I was a feeling guilty, and I was trying to cover it up or something, and I drank down my coffee, and then I stood up and hitched my britches. I set a mean look on my face, checked my Colt for its slickeriness in the holster, and then I walked right on over to where ole Rice and ole Chastain was a talking in them low tones like as if they was a trying to keep something or another to theirselfs.

  “I ain’t waiting forever for you two to figger out the right and proper way to do this job,” I said. “I got me one killing to do for sure, and likely now it’s got to be four. Y’all can go on and talk all day if you’re a mind to. I mean to be getting to it.”

  “Hold on there a minute,” Rice said. “Just listen to what Jim’s got to say.”

  “I figured out th
at I can arrest those men and hold them for a good while just on suspicion alone,” Chastain said. “That should give us plenty of time to get all the right paperwork from Texas and Kansas.”

  “So you think them four will just walk right over to your jailhouse with you real calm like, do you?” I said.

  “No, I don’t think that,” Chastain said. “I propose to deputize both you and Bill Rice. If they submit to arrest, then everything will be okay. If they want to fight instead, well, three to four’s not such bad odds. Especially when one of the three is a regular Billy the Kid.”

  “I’d ruther you not to use that saying,” I said. “And what’s that depitize you said? Does that mean make me a depitty?”

  “That’s what it means,” said Chastain. “It’d be temporary. You’d be my deputy just till we get this mess taken care of.”

  “I don’t like the sound a that,” I said. “I got a bad enough reputation as it is.”

  “That’s the only way for it,” Rice said. “Otherwise you’ll have the law after you.”

  “Not if they draw on me first,” I said.

  “How could I ever believe that?” Chastain said. “You’ve already stated within my hearing that you mean to kill those four men.”

  “They’d draw first,” I said. “They always has. Most always.”

  “Just do it our way this time,” Rice said. “Hell, chances are it will all turn out the way you want it to anyhow. It’s like you said. Do you really expect those four to just hand over their guns and go peacefully along to jail?”

  “Well, all right,” I said. Then I looked ole Chastain in the eye. “If you make me a depitty, do you have go telling it all around?”

  “I’ll keep it as quiet as I can, Kid,” he said.

  “I’ll do her then,” I said.

  I walked over to the winder and looked out to that place across the street where them four had been hanging, but they was gone. I stood there a minute a thinking about the strange ways a the world. Ole Chastain had kicked me outa town the last time I was there. Here he was fixing to depitize me. I went back over to Chastain and Rice.

  “If you’d a come to this here conclusion about what we’re going to do some little while ago,” I said, “we coulda walked right over there across the street and tuck keer of it, but the bastards is gone now.”

  “We’ll find them,” Chastain said. “Are you two ready for this?”

  “Ready as I’ll ever be,” Rice said.

  “I been ready,” I said. “Let’s go get them.”

  The three of us headed for the door then, and ole Zeb hopped up from his chair.

  “Where you going?” he said.

  “We’re going after them Hookses and Pigg,” I said. “You just set there and drink your whiskey. I’ll come back and see you when the job’s been did.”

  “Get me a shotgun, and I’ll go along,” Zeb said.

  “Set down, Zeb,” I said. “I don’t want you a getting in the way.”

  He set back down then and went to sipping his whiskey. He didn’t look too disappointed.

  “Bill,” said Sally. She’d been quiet all this time. “Be careful. You too, Kid.”

  “Don’t worry none,” I said. “I won’t let him get hurt.”

  “We’ll be careful,” Rice said, and he give her a quick hug. I liked the look a that. I figgered that was for real off a my hands now. Rice had done tuck her on. I decided that I’d have to be real keerful that nothing happened to him out there in the streets.

  We walked on outside then and crossed the street. The place over there where I had seen them four lounging in front of was a saloon, so we went inside. We stopped just inside the door and looked over the crowd. None of us seed none a them, but there was several in there giving us the hard eye. If you’re a drinking and having a good time in a saloon, the last person you want to see come a walking in is the local law. I guess they was wondering too who the two characters with him was. Anyhow, in a minute or so, ole Chastain said, “Let’s go.” We turned around and left that place.

  We walked on down the street, and ever’ place we passed, we looked in the winders or the door. When we come to the next saloon, we went inside the way we had did at the last one. We never seed none of them in there neither. Well, our stroll down the street went on like that for quite a spell, and I was getting some frustrated. We had just come out of a place and was back on the sidewalk, and I turned to face ole Chastain.

  “Well, goddamn it,” I said, “where the hell are they hiding out at?”

  “I don’t know any more than you do, Kid,” he said. “We’ve checked all the saloons and most of the eating places. We’ve got a couple of hotels and a whorehouse or two left. We’ll just keep looking.”

  “I’m ’bout to get fed up with your way a doing things already,” I said.

  Long about noon, we still hadn’t seed hide nor hair of them bastards, and we all of us started in to getting hungry, so we decided to go get us some grub. We went into a hash house that was right close to where we was at, and we put on the feed bag for a while. I stuffed myself pretty good with that greasy hash and taters and such. We washed it all down with several cups a coffee, and then ole Rice, he waved at the gal what brought the food out. She come over and asked what was it he was a wanting.

  “Can you fix me up a plate to take out of here with me?” he asked her.

  She said that she could do that and then went off to take keer of it.

  “Ain’t you et enough?” I said.

  “I’m thinking about your paw,” he said. “I can’t let him go hungry over there.”

  I don’t know if my face showed out what come over me with that or not, but I just said, “Hell, he’ll be all right. You don’t need to do that.”

  He didn’t agree none with me on that issue, so we waited for the plate to get brung out to us, and then we walked back over to our hotel, and Rice, he tuck that plate into his room. He come back out looking pretty damn disgusted.

  “He’s broke loose,” he said. And he give me a look. “At least that’s what it looks like. He’s gone.”

  “Well,” I kinda stammered, “how’d he do it?”

  “The bed frame’s been pulled apart,” Rice said. “Wherever he is, he’s still wearing my handcuffs.”

  “He shouldn’t be hard to find like that,” Chastain said. “We’ll spread the word around town to watch out for him.”

  “What’re we going to do now?” I asked. I was sure feeling guilty like. You know how you feel whenever you sneak something to eat before suppertime and your maw starts in to wondering what happened to it, and you’re trying to play innocent? That’s kinda like how I was a feeling just then. Ole Rice, he never accused me direct, but he give me some looks. I made out like I never noticed.

  “We’ll just keep on doing what we were doing,” Chastain said. “Let’s go.”

  We went on back out again and started back on our rounds, and Chastain told someone out there about ole Paw and told him to pass the word around town to be on the lookout. I was sure hoping that Paw got hisself out a town and off safe somewheres. I didn’t want to see no more a him, and then too, I was kinda skeered that if they caught him, he might tell on me that I was the one what turned him a loose.

  We was a walking along the sidewalk headed for one a the places we hadn’t yet looked in, when back behind us someone yelled and a shot was fired, and we all jerked out our six-guns and ducked for cover and turned around a looking for wherever the shot come from. I kinda looked to see if any of us was hit, but we wasn’t. I had ducked into a doorway and was a peeking out to see what I could see, and there back down the street was a feller a standing on the sidewalk with a gun in his hand and his legs real wobbly like. As we watched him there, he fell over on his face. We all run down there.

  Chastain bent over the fresh corpus to check it out. Me and Rice was kinda crouched and ready for a fight and a looking around, but we couldn’t see no one who looked like he might be a shooter. Chastain grabbed
a handful a shirt shoulder and rolled the poor unfortunate over.

  “Eddie Hook,” he said. Then he just kinda looked around and yelled out at anyone and ever’one out on the street. “Where’d the shot come from?”

  An old-timer standing out in the middle a the street pointed and said, “I seen him. He run around the corner a the gen’ral store there.”

  The three of us tuck off all together, but I was the first one around the corner, being little and skinny and all. Rice and Chastain come right up behind me. We didn’t see no one, so we all run on to the back a the building and looked up and down the alley.

  “Shit,” said Chastain.

  “What now?” I said.

  “There’s no telling where he went,” said Rice. “Whoever he is.”

  “We’ll just keep doing what we been doing,” said Chastain.

  “Yeah?” I said. “Well, I vote we do it on our own. At least me. You two can stick together if you want.”

  “Look,” Chastain said. “I already told you—” But ole Rice, he stopped him clear. “I think you ought to let him go, Jim,” he said. “He might be right. If we split up, we can cover three times the territory in the same amount of time. If any of us sees any one of them, why, we can send a runner to find the others.”

  “You hear that, Kid?” Chastain said. “You spot any of them, don’t start shooting. Send for Bill and me. Just keep your eyes on them till we get there.”

  “Sure,” I said, but to my own self I thought, Like hell. ’Specially if I spot that damn Clell. I’ll just blow his ass away, and then I’ll call for help. Anyhow, we all went our separate ways. I decided to amble on down that alley, which was the last place we knowed of the shooter being. We hadn’t tuck time to talk about it, but I figgered the other two was wondering about the same thing what I was wondering about. Who the hell shot that there Hook? And why?

  Whoever done it had almost for sure saved the life of either me or Rice or Chastain, ‘cause that Hook had a gun in his hand, and from the looks of it, he was leveling down on one of us from the back. I wondered just then where ole Zeb was at, but then I kinda pushed that thought aside, ’cause even when Zeb had said he wanted to come along with us, he had called for a shotgun. It weren’t no shotgun what killed that Eddie Hook. It was a six-gun.