The Reckoning

by Mike Torreano

  Buster, the professor, and Lorraine looked stunned.

  “They kept robbin’ and stealin’, and their loot just kept pilin’ up. I guess they thought it was gettin’ to be too much to lug around, so they stashed it somewhere up in the mountains between here and Denver.”

  Lorraine’s shocked look turned into a wide-eyed gawk, again. “How much would it have to be to be too much to carry along?”

  “Well, I don’t know for sure, of course, but I’ve heard they hid upward of one hundred thousand dollars in cash and gold somewhere around here.”

  Buster’s eyes widened. “So, are you sayin’ that when Manning came out here, he found the treasure the Reynolds gang buried? But how could he get to it if the gang was still around?”

  “Good question. Turns out, they weren’t still around. Word is, not long after they buried the money, they got ambushed by a posse and scattered. Some were killed and some escaped, but those that got away were hunted down by Union cavalry and captured or killed. About this time, Manning was comin’ to Colorado from Kansas, and he already knew about the money. One of the gang members on the run must have told him where it was, because the next thing that happened was Manning was buyin’ lots of cattle and carvin’ out a big ranch right here.”

  The three all stood there, mouths agape, as Ike finished.

  The professor broke the silence. “How did you come to know all this? I am supposed to be the researcher, and here you’ve outdone me by a mile. I can’t believe what I have just heard. Impressive, sir.” He came to attention and nodded to Ike.

  Ike nodded back. “It’s easier if you’re already lookin’ in the right spot in the first place. And talkin’ to the right people. Like the marshal in Denver. When I first came through, I asked about Manning. He didn’t know anything about him, but when I asked about Cottonwood and South Park, he told me about the Reynolds gang and the loot. And speakin’ of lookin’ in the right spot, I got proof that Kelly killed George Pinshaw, and that probably ties him to Sue, too.” He fingered the two slugs in his pocket that he’d dug out at the Wildfire and the cottonwood tree.

  Lorraine said, “I don’t know what to say. I’ve heard some real tall tales in my time, but I’ve never heard anything quite like this.”

  Buster looked up at Ike and smiled. “You been leadin’ us around by the nose all the time there, Ike. Good for you, that there story’s a keeper for sure.” He gave Ike a wink and a grin.

  Lorraine said, “Okay, so if all that’s true, what do we do now?”

  Ike looked down at her. “We? We don’t do anything. I already got plans to take care of things, but thanks for offering.” He moved to gather up the rest of his gear again, when Lorraine stopped him with a hand to his chest.

  “You just hold on there a minute, Mister Ike. You been playin’ your cards real close to your chest. Any more you ain’t showed yet?”

  Ike rubbed at his beard. “Reckon not.”

  Lorraine drew herself up as tall as she could and craned her neck up at him. “Well then, you ain’t goin’ nowhere without Buster and me.”

  The professor chimed in too. “And me too.”

  It was Ike’s turn to look startled.

  Then Lorraine’s expression changed, and she cleared her throat. “Hold on a minute.” She sat slowly and broke eye contact with all of them. Her bottom lip quivered. “As long as we’re confessin’ stuff, I reckon I got a few things to get off my chest too.”

  The three men looked at each other blankly, then back at their landlady.

  “I ain’t proud of it, but I nearly threw in with Tompkins, I mean Manning, the other day.” The professor’s eyebrows arched, and Buster looked confused. Ike just stood and stared at Lorraine.

  “You see, after my husband got killed several years back, the major was real nice to me, me bein’ a new widow and all. I guess he felt like he wanted to make things easier for me, on account of my Frank bein’ killed by his herd, so he helped me buy this place here, and every now and then, he gives me a little something, so in a way, I’m beholden to him.”

  She tried to look away from Ike, but his gaze held her hard. “So, the other day, when the sheriff told me you might be a wanted man back in Kansas, I started out for Emerald Valley to tell Tompkins about you. Off and on, I’d heard about some things he mighta done back in Kansas, but I always put it out of my mind because he was so nice to me. I knew you were from Kansas too, but I didn’t know if there was any connection between the two of you. So, when I heard you might be wanted back there, I thought he ought to know. But I changed my mind at the last minute and came back home.” Her eyes welled up.

  Ike softened. “I know. I saw you out there.”

  All of a sudden color rushed back into her cheeks, and she yelled at him. “You mean you followed me out to the ranch? Why, you no-good, connivin’, beat-up, lame cowboy! You got no business mindin’ anybody’s business but your own!”

  Ike ignored her outburst. In a low voice he said, “I was proud of you when you turned around. I knew the sheriff visited you, and while I didn’t know what he said, I figured it was somethin’ about me, and it wasn’t good ’cause him and me ain’t got along since I been here. So, when you hightailed it out to the ranch after his visit, I followed. I watched you from a stand of pines not far from where you stopped on the little trail, and I smiled a little smile when I saw you turn back.”

  Buster spoke up. “Must’ve looked like that little smile you got on your face now.”

  Lorraine’s flush faded a bit. “All right, I guess I had that comin’.” She grabbed Ike’s holster then paused. “Let’s get on out of this bedroom, so I can go back to work—this place doesn’t run itself.”

  Lorraine started for the kitchen, but Ike stopped her. “I need that holster you’re carryin’.”

  “Forget it, cowboy, you’re not goin’ out to that ranch.”

  The professor held a hand up and stopped Lorraine from leaving the room. “A moment of your time everyone, if you would, please. I…uh…feel the need to add something.” They all looked around at him, a mysterious someone who none of them really knew anything about. He smoothed at his frock coat and wiped a hand across his forehead. “I would like to confess that I have been out here under false pretenses myself.” He nodded to Ike.

  Lorraine sat back down, still holding the holster.

  “I’m not the person I’ve tried to pass myself off as. I’ve presented myself as an educated, wealthy Englishman, who’s here to conduct what amounts to a laboratory experiment on a lesser species—you Americans. The truth is, I’m none of those things, except I am English. I was actually hired by the stage line that the Reynolds gang robbed, to find out where they hid the stolen money.”

  The other three stood listening to him with their mouths slightly open.

  The professor turned to Ike. “Frankly, I suspected you were somehow involved in the theft, Mr. McAlister. I’ve been watching you closely since you arrived. I’ve always thought Tompkins was involved somehow, but I didn’t know that for sure until my trip to Denver. My guess was, like yours, that he used some or most of the money to buy the Emerald Valley and stock it with cattle. And start the hotel.”

  He looked at Lorraine. “I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t want to have anything to do with me after the way I’ve deceived you and taken advantage of your hospitality.”

  The man looked so pitiful that Lorraine went over and put an arm around him. She paused and looked at the three men. “This is some kind of a crew we got here, isn’t it?” and laughed and broke into a big smile that coaxed the others to do the same. “Looks like none of us is as good as we think we are, but none of us is as bad as we think we are either.” She squeezed Buster’s hand, and small tears snaked down his cheeks. Silently, he wiped a hand over his face. A hanky quickly appeared out of Lorraine’s apron, and she dabbed at his eyes.

  “Thankee, ma’am, I thankee very much.” He drew in a big gulp of air and exhaled a long breath.

  Ik
e didn’t know what to make of Buster’s reaction. Was there something else he was hiding? Lorraine looked up at Ike, who stood there taking it all in. “Well, cowboy, looks like quite a gang you got on your hands.”

  Ike said, “Gang? What do you mean?”

  She said, “I mean I’m in on whatever plan you got in mind to take Manning down and find out about Sue. There’s a lot of payback I owe him. And my guess is, these two buckos are in too.” She eyed Buster and the professor.

  The professor said, “Of course I’m in. I’ve never been in a gang before. This should be fun.”

  Buster just nodded his head vigorously. “If you’ll have a beat-up old goat, count me in too.” He composed himself again.

  Ike smiled in spite of himself. He’d never had a gang. He just hoped that what he had to do wouldn’t get any of them killed.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Dan Kelly found Scratchy by the corral, watching some of the other hands break new horses in. He was sitting up on a fence rail when the top hand called him over. “Scratchy, you and me is gonna go find us some stray beeves up in the hills. Go get saddled up.”

  “Should I pack some grub too?”

  “No, I don’t think you’ll be needin’ any. Let’s go.”

  Scratchy put a bridle on his horse in the corral and led him out. As he saddled the horse, Scratchy said, “Whereabouts we goin’, Dan? Are we headin’ up that little draw just to the west in them hills? That’s always a good spot to find strays, right?”

  “I’ll let you know when we get there.”

  They rode west and soon gained the rising foothills, riding at an easy lope.

  Scratchy chatted the whole way. “Sorry you got all messed up in that fight the other night. The one where you got that cut cheek. I wish I’d have been with you and could have helped you take on all those miners at the saloon. Sounds like you held your own though, but that’s a nasty cut, and I’m bettin’ your head can’t feel too good neither. And you havin’ to walk all the way back from town in the dark with no horse, that just riles me up no end.” For once, Scratchy’s ever-present smile was missing.

  Kelly didn’t want to be reminded about his encounter with Sue. “Give the yammerin’ a break, will ya? Let’s just ride.”

  “That’s a fine idea, Dan. Why, I’ll just keep an eye out for wayward critters.”

  “Do that.”

  They rode in silence for a couple of hours, which took them up into the high country, dense and remote.

  Kelly raised a hand. “Let’s stop here.”

  “Don’t you want to keep ridin’ until we see some of our cows?” Scratchy scanned the surroundings.

  “No, pull up here.”

  They were just below a ridgeline on a treed slope that gave way to a steep drop. Kelly dismounted and peered over the rim at a four-hundred-foot plunge. At the bottom, gray granite outcroppings mixed in with a jumble of evergreens on a rocky landscape. Kelly backed away from the edge and walked back to his horse. Scratchy was down off his mount and stood looking at Kelly with a puzzled expression.

  “There ain’t no cows this high up. Let’s go on back down a bit and search a flatter spot. Cattle don’t like slopes like this.”

  Kelly pulled his rifle out of its scabbard. A promise he’d made to his mother just before she died flashed through his head. He was to look after Scratchy, but he just couldn’t do that any more. His brother wasn’t ever going to change. Trouble had a way of finding him. He pointed the barrel at Scratchy.

  “What’re you doin’, Dan? Quit foolin’ around. You’re startin’ to scare me.”

  “I ain’t foolin’ around, Scratchy. I’m just through puttin’ up with your foolheadedness. I had to kill two people ’cause of you—George Pinshaw and that shop girl, Sue somebody. All because you had to go get drunk and start mouthin’ off to Pinshaw about us. He said you told him about all the bad stuff we done back in Kansas. Well, I wasn’t about to let him blackmail us. He said he told that shop girl about things we done, and she had to be made to shut up too. So, you see, Scratchy, you ain’t very reliable anymore.”

  “I’m reliable, Dan, real reliable. Why, you know that. I don’t recall tellin’ that fool Pinshaw anything at all. He must have made things up.”

  “It don’t surprise me you can’t remember nothin’. You were probably too drunk to remember even talkin’ to him, and that’s another reason I can’t let you leave here. You’re likely to do that again, and it’s easier to kill you than killin’ everybody you meet.”

  “I won’t never do that again, Dan, I swear. You wouldn’t kill your own brother, would you?” He had his hands extended in front of him now, pleading, looking around the mountainside for an escape route. There was nothing but trees and rocks in every direction, except for the dropoff behind him.

  Kelly motioned with his rifle. “Go on over there by the edge of that cliff, and do it now.”

  Scratchy shuffled toward the brink, facing his brother as he backed away. Kelly said, “Turn around, I don’t want to look at you no more.” Scratchy turned, and before he could say anything, Kelly fired one round into his brother’s back. Scratchy pitched forward into the abyss and disappeared. Kelly waited for a moment, then went over to the edge and looked down. Scratchy lay sprawled on a large rock in the distance below. Motionless.

  His mother would never forgive him.

  Kelly mounted up, grabbed Scratchy’s horse, and trotted off the ridge. When he got back to the ranch, the cowboys in the corral stopped and stared at the top hand leading a riderless horse. Scratchy’s horse. No one said anything, and Kelly told one of the hands to unsaddle the horses and put them in the corral with the others. He was walking away when one of the wranglers said, “Where’s Scratchy?”

  Kelly turned around and glared at the men. They’d gathered in a small circle now and stared at Kelly. “He didn’t make it. We were up in the high country lookin’ for strays, and he fell off a cliff. Nothin’ I could do.” He started to turn away again when another hand said, “Well, let’s go get him.”

  Kelly’s gaze shifted left and right. “Won’t do no good. Where he fell is a long way down, and there ain’t no way to retrieve him anyway down in all those rocks.” His mouth turned down, and he squinted at the men. “And nobody who wants to keep workin’ here is gonna be goin’ out to look for him, so just leave it be.” He turned and headed toward the main house as the cowboys grumbled behind him.

  Someone yelled out, “Where’d he go down?”

  Kelly quickly turned on his heel back toward them. “Ain’t none of your business, and none of you is gonna leave here lookin’ for him, unless you want to leave here permanent.” Kelly’s meaning was clear, but the hands didn’t disperse. They just continued to stare back at him. Hard.

  Kelly turned and walked toward the main house. Someone yelled, “He was your brother!”

  Kelly disappeared into the ranch house without turning around.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Ike held the scrap of paper up to his lit cigarette in the night. Kelly raid tomorrow nite Jefferson dressed as Injuns. He stared at the note for a second, then placed it against the working end of his cigarette. It was gone in a fiery flash. He was up in the hills behind the ranch, having just retrieved Rob’s message from under the rock by the outhouse below. His cigarette’s orange glow was a small pinpoint in the dark as he sat there, thinking.

  Behind him, Ike heard someone say, “Saw you leave.” Ike whirled and drew his pistol in one motion. Buster.

  Buster put his hands up and stood still in the moonlight. “It’s just me, Ike. Guess I should have warned you I was here. Followed you when you left the stable.”

  “Damn you, Buster! I almost shot you! If my reactions weren’t so slow right now, you’d be dead on the ground.” His heartbeat began to slow, and he holstered his six shooter. “What the hell are you doin’ out here?”

  “Like I said, I followed you. I been followin’ you for some time now on your night jaunts out her
e to pick up messages from your brother.”

  “How’d you find out about them?”

  “I may be a drunk, but I’m not dumb. You said he was workin’ out here. He’s been right under Kelly’s nose. Real smart.”

  “How come I never heard you out here before?”

  “You never heard me before because I didn’t want to be heard. Years and years in the mountains, and you learn some things or starve to death. So, what’s it say?”

  “Ain’t no nevermind, Buster. Just somethin’ me and Rob got to do. We been waitin’ for the day when we’d be able to take Manning down.”

  “Did you forget about your gang already, Mr. Ike?” Buster stood with a small smile on his face.

  “You don’t want no part of this, Buster. Gonna be some killin’ tomorrow night. I’m gonna be dead or Kelly will be.”

  “Then let us help make sure it’s Kelly.”

  ****

  The next morning, Ike walked to the stables and readied his gear for the ride to Jefferson with Buster. He was surprised when the professor showed up and wanted to join them.

  “I may not look like I can take care of myself, Ike, but I can assure you looks are deceiving. I am a crack shot.” He flicked a half dime into the air, drew his Cooper pocket revolver, and fired five double action shots at it before it hit the ground. Three hits made the coin do a crazy dance in the air. Ike went over and picked the coin up. It was mangled beyond recognition.

  “That’s some shootin’, Professor. I had no idea you…”

  “You probably didn’t think I could even grasp a weapon properly, much less shoot it. Did you?”