Slocum and the Killers

by Jake Logan

  “Well, get the lead out.”

  Finished with the horses, Jigs walked over to Sluice and sat down. “Can I have a pull on that jug?” he asked.

  “Help Hardy get that fire going,” Sluice said.

  Jigs got down on his knees in front of the small pile of sticks Hardy had gotten together. He struck a match and tried to get the fire going. Hardy was still gathering wood. It took them a while, but they finally got a small fire going. Sluice told them to gather more wood. He didn’t allow them to stop till they had a good blaze going. “Stack up plenty of wood there,” he said, “so you can keep it going all night. I don’t want to wake up freezing my ass off.”

  “I sure do wish we had come to another town,” said Jigs.

  “Well,” said Sluice, “we didn’t, so there ain’t no sense crying about it.”

  “Hell,” said Jigs, “I ain’t crying about it. I just wish we’d of come to one. That’s all.”

  “You don’t even know what the next town will be like,” said Hardy. “It might be a dump, for all you know.”

  “Even a dump would be better than this. I ain’t cut out for trail life. I belong in a big city.”

  “You’d be hanging out in the damn slums,” said Hardy.

  “I’d rather be in the slums than out here,” said Jigs.

  “Come on over here, boys,” Sluice said, “and have a drink.”

  “Well, yes, by God, I will,” said Hardy.

  “’Bout time,” muttered Jigs.

  “What’s that?” said Sluice.

  “I said, ‘That’s fine,’” Jigs declared, covering up for what he had really said.

  The three of them got drunk, and finally fell asleep or passed out. The sun was up in the sky before they woke up. They woke up hungry, but they did not have anything to eat with them, so Sluice ordered them to pack up. They rode off, still headed south, with the ashes from their fire still smoldering.

  “How far’s the next town?” Jigs asked.

  “I done told you,” said Sluice, “I ain’t got no idea.”

  Gourd and Pierce came across the still-smoldering ashes. They stopped and looked around at the campsite.

  “I’d say it was them all right,” said Gourd.

  “How can you tell?” Pierce asked.

  “Well,” said Gourd, “there was three horses for sure. Then they built a great big fire like the assholes they are. They didn’t put it out when they left either. And look here. An empty whiskey bottle.”

  “There’s all kinds of men might be guilty of all that,” Pierce said.

  “The main thing,” said Gourd, “is that their tracks are the most recent ones to come out of James Mill.”

  “Jones Mill,” said Pierce.

  “What?”

  “The place is named Jones Mill.”

  “That’s what I said. Anyhow, these tracks are the last ones out of there.”

  “Yeah,” Pierce said. “I reckon you’re right about that for sure. How far ahead of us you reckon they are?”

  Old Jan stopped back in the doc’s office. This time he found Slocum awake. Doc looked at Old Jan and scowled. “Don’t tire him out,” he said.

  The nurse smiled at Old Jan and said in a low voice, “Don’t worry. He’s all right for a visit. I think it might even do him some good.”

  “Thank you, ma’am,” said Old Jan. “Slocum, pard, I’m glad to find you awake. I was worried you might not come out of it.”

  “I’ll be out of here in no time,” Slocum said. “Hey, by the way, how the hell did I get here?”

  “Oh, I found you out on the road. Back-shot.”

  “Yeah,” said Slocum, “I remember now. But I wasn’t on the road. I was down the side. In fact, I was where no one from up on the road could see me.”

  “Oh, well,” said Old Jan. “I came across your faithful steed hanging around right where you went off.”

  “So you went down the side looking for me?” Slocum asked.

  “Well, yeah. I guess I did.”

  Slocum smiled. “I reckon I owe you,” he said.

  “Aw, it wasn’t so much trouble.”

  “No,” said Slocum. “I guess not. Where are Gourd and Pierce?”

  “They decided to keep after Sluice and them,” Old Jan said. “I said I’d wait here with you.”

  “Well,” Slocum said, “we’ll catch up with them.”

  “You won’t catch up with anyone,” said the doctor in a grumpy voice. “Not unless they sit still and wait for you for a spell.”

  “I’ll be out of here in no time,” Slocum said again.

  “No, you won’t,” said Doc. Then he turned to Old Jan. “But you will. Right now. He needs his rest. Get out of here now. Get.”

  Old Jan looked at the nurse. She gave him a look and a shrug.

  Gourd and Pierce had ridden all night. Topping a rise, they spotted three riders down below, not far ahead of them on the road. They stopped and looked at each other.

  “That’s them,” said Gourd.

  “Are you sure?” Pierce asked.

  “Hell, yes,” said Gourd. “Remember? We’ve seen no other tracks on the road but the tracks from that campsite.”

  “Well, yeah. So, what’re we going to do?”

  “Let them ride over that next rise. Then let’s hurry along to the top of the rise. We’ll be closer if we do that. There’s boulders up there. We’ll dismount and hunker down and then pop off at them with our rifles. We ought to get all three of them easy.”

  “I don’t know about that,” Pierce said. “I ain’t never yet shot anyone without giving them fair warning and an even chance.”

  “These are killers,” said Gourd.

  “I know that. I wouldn’t be after them at all if they wasn’t. I still ain’t gunning them down from behind without no warning.”

  “All right. All right,” said Gourd, his voice exasperated. “We’ll yell at them before we start shooting. Does that satisfy you?”

  “Yeah,” said Pierce. “I reckon that will be all right.”

  When Sluice and the others disappeared over the next rise, Gourd and Pierce whipped up their mounts. They raced the rest of the way down the hill and then up the next one, hauling back on their reins just before they would have reached the top. They dismounted, secured their horses, and took places behind the big boulders with their rifles in hand.

  “I’ve got a damn good shot from here,” said Gourd, raising his rifle to his shoulder.

  “Wait a minute, Charlie,” said Pierce. “Remember what you agreed to.”

  “All right. Shit,” said Gourd. “Hey, you, Sluice,” he yelled. “Sluice and you two other goat shits.”

  The three riders down below halted their mounts and looked around. Sluice turned his horse clear around.

  “Who is that?” he called out.

  “Never mind who,” said Gourd. “We mean to kill you. That’s all.”

  Sluice lowered his voice. “Take cover, boys,” he said.

  While Jigs and Hardy dismounted and ran for the side of the road, Sluice ran his horse off the side of the road, then turned and raced south. As he did so, he spooked the other two horses, and they, too, ran south. Jigs and Hardy turned to watch them go.

  “The son of a bitch run out on us,” said Jigs.

  “Yeah,” said Hardy. “Well, we’ll deal with him later. Right now we got them up yonder to worry about.”

  6

  Billy Pierce fired an overanxious shot that went wide of its mark, missing Jigs by several feet and harmlessly kicking up dirt. Jigs scrunched down behind a small boulder on the west side of the road. Hardy flattened himself there beside the road and tried to look up to see who was firing at him. He could not see the top of the rise from his position, so he got to his feet again, staying in a crouched position, and ran for a nearby tree, securing himself behind its trunk.

  “Do you see them, Jigs?” he called out.

  “No, I can’t see shit.”

  Gourd fired a shot that chi
pped the boulder behind which Jigs was snugged.

  “Yikes,” yelped Jigs.

  Hardy saw where the shot had come from, and he fired off a round that came within a few feet of Gourd.

  “You got them spotted now, Billy?” Gourd asked.

  “I think I know where two of them are,” said Billy, “but I can’t get a clear shot at them.”

  “One’s behind that big tree yonder,” said Gourd. “The other one’s behind that little boulder a few feet on past him.”

  “That’s what I figured. How do we get at them?”

  “Just wait for one to show himself,” Gourd said. “Then pick him off.”

  “I think if I move up just a bit,” Billy said, “I can get a better angle on them.”

  “Go ahead,” Gourd said. “Try it.”

  Billy looked up. He and Gourd were behind a huge pile of boulders. He inched himself around until he found a place where he could climb. He made his way up slowly to the next boulder and took another look. He could not see at all. Maybe he had been wrong. He tried going up even farther and found himself behind an even larger rock. He straightened himself up as best he could and peered over the top of the big rock. He could see what looked like an ass sticking out from behind the big tree trunk. He raised his rifle, cocked it, and put it to his shoulder. He took careful aim and fired. He could see blood splatter from the target.

  “Ow. Yow,” Hardy screamed. “Oh. Goddamn it.”

  “You hit?” said Jigs.

  “Son of a bitch shot me in the ass,” yelled Hardy. “Oh. Son of a bitch. Goddamn. My ass. My ass.”

  Up on the hill, Gourd said, “Good shot, Billy. You got one of them.”

  “I just shot his butt,” said Billy. “He can still handle his rifle.”

  “That’s all right,” Gourd said. “I bet it hurts like hell.”

  Back in North Fork, Slocum was lying awake on the table. Time was wasting, he thought. He moved his arms, getting his hands on the edge of the table at his sides, and he heaved to sit up. “Ah,” he groaned. He paused, took a deep breath, and pushed again. This time he managed to sit up. He sat there breathing deeply for a long moment. Doc was in the back room doing whatever doctors do alone. Slocum was hurting. He began to wonder if he should have tried getting up. He thought about lying down again and trying later. Just then the door to the outside opened, jingling the bell that hung up at the top. Old Jan stepped in, and Doc came in from the back room to see who was coming into his office.

  “Slocum,” said Old Jan. “What’re you—”

  “What the hell are you doing up?” Doc said.

  “I ain’t quite up,” Slocum said.

  “Since you’re feeling so perky,” said Doc, “and since we’ve got some help here, we’ll just move you to the bed.”

  “I don’t see no bed,” Slocum said.

  “It’s in the back room,” Doc said. “Take his left arm,” he added to Old Jan. Old Jan took Slocum by his left arm and Doc took him by his right. “Come on now,” Doc said.

  They pulled Slocum off the table. As soon as his feet hit the floor, his knees buckled. Doc and Old Jan almost dropped him, but they managed to hold him up, and he managed to tighten up his legs and stand up. The sudden movement shot pains through his body, and he groaned out loud.

  “You all right, Slocum?” asked Old Jan.

  “Of course, he’s all right,” Doc grumbled. “Now, walk to the door.”

  Taking slow and painful steps, with Doc and Old Jan holding him up, Slocum managed to make it to the door. It was standing open, and they got through it all right. The bed was against the far wall, and they walked Slocum across the room. They turned him so that he could sit on the edge. Then Doc pushed him over onto his back and lifted his legs up. Slocum groaned, and then heaved a long and heavy sigh.

  “More comfy?” asked Doc.

  “It feels pretty good,” Slocum said. “How much longer will I have to be here?”

  “Whatever you think you’ve got to do,” said Doc, “just put it out of your mind. Relax and heal yourself up.”

  Doc walked back across the room to a cabinet and got a pill. Then he poured a glass of water from a pitcher that stood against the wall. He carried the glass and the pill to Slocum and made him take the pill and wash it down with water. Then he went to his desk and sat down. Old Jan watched him for a moment, until he was satisfied that Doc was finished for the time being. Then he grabbed a chair and pulled it over to Slocum’s bedside.

  “Are you feeling a little better?” he asked.

  “A little, I guess,” Slocum said. “I tried to get up a while ago. Reckon it was a little soon. I need to get out of here before that damn Sluice leaves the country or something.”

  “Don’t worry about that,” said Old Jan. “The boys are on his trail. Hell, by the time we catch up with them, they’ll likely have killed him already.”

  “I don’t want the boys to kill him, Jan,” Slocum said. “I want to do that myself.”

  Just then, the nurse stepped into the room. She heard what Slocum said, and she stepped over to the bed.

  “Are you so anxious to get back to killing?” she asked him.

  “In this case,” he said, “I am.”

  “Well, I’m afraid you’ll have to exercise your patience,” she said.

  “You know,” said Slocum, looking at her really for the first time and taking note of her rather appealing appearance, “we ain’t never really been introduced. My name’s Slocum, and this here is my pard, Old Jan.”

  “I’m pleased to meet you, ma’am,” Old Jan said, standing.

  “My name is Jill McGee,” the nurse said. “I work with Dr. Harman here.”

  “Now,” said Slocum, “that’s better. It might even make it easier for me to—what did you say?—exercise my patience.”

  “Jigs,” said Hardy. “Jigs.”

  “What?” answered Jigs.

  “Jigs, we got to kill them two up there. Is it two?”

  “I think it’s just two,” said Jigs.

  “Well, we got to kill them real soon somehow. I’m bleeding to death here through a hole in my ass cheek.”

  “Well, I can’t see them,” said Jigs.

  “All right,” said Hardy. “We’ll just shoot a bunch up there and see if we can’t spook them out. Now.”

  Hardy began firing his rifle as fast as he could, and Jigs joined in. Bullets bounced off the boulders around Pierce and Gourd, causing them both to stay low behind their protective rocks. Bits of rock were showered over their heads. Then all at once, the shooting stopped. Gourd popped up first to shoot back, and then Pierce. Hardy hugged his tree trunk, his butt still bleeding. Jigs practically dug a hole behind his boulder. In a short while, the shooting stopped again. No one was any better off.

  “Jigs?” said Hardy.

  “What is it now?” said Jigs.

  “Jigs, can you see our horses?”

  Jigs twisted his neck a little to look south on the road. “They’re down there a little ways,” he said, “grazing along the side of the road like there’s nothing wrong.”

  “Can you get to them?”

  “Without getting shot to pieces, you mean?”

  “Can you?”

  “Well, maybe I can,” Jigs said, “if I sneak along on the side of the road here.”

  “Get to them and bring them back here. We’ll mount up and get the hell out of here.”

  Jigs started to ask Hardy if he was nuts. He could maybe get to the horses, but it would be suicide to bring them back down the road to where Hardy would be waiting with his bloody ass. And how fast could the silly bastard mount up with that extra hole in his ass? And what was Jigs supposed to be doing in the meantime? Sitting there in the middle of the road waiting patiently for him, posing there for those goddamn shooters up on top of the hill? He started to say all that, but he changed his mind.

  “Okay,” he said. He moved a little farther away from the road to get himself more out of sight of the shooters up
above. Then he started working his way between the boulders and the trees and through the brush to the place up ahead where the horses grazed. He reached it safely at last. He crept back to the edge of the road and peered cautiously toward the top of hill. He was out of its sight. He moved out onto the road easily toward the horses. His own mount neighed and trotted farther away.

  “Goddamn you,” Jigs said. “Both of you. Make out like nothing’s wrong here.”

  He moved in on Hardy’s horse, and it let him walk right up. He shoved his rifle in the boot and swung up into the saddle. Then he turned the horse south and started riding away from where Hardy waited, hiding behind his tree, bleeding from the ass. As Jigs rode past his own horse, he took off his hat and waved it and slapped at the horse, turning it north and sending it scurrying. Then he rode on.

  “There,” he said to himself, “I’ve sent him a goddamn horse. That’s all I can do.”

  Jigs raced south along the road, his head full of fresh worries. What if Hardy managed somehow to survive, to get on the horse with his bloody ass, and come riding after him? He would be mad as hell for sure. Jigs wasn’t at all sure he could take Hardy, even with his ass shot. He would have to watch his back trail all right, for Hardy or for the other two, and he wasn’t at all sure what the other two looked like. So there were two or possibly three behind him, all of whom would be out to kill him. And what if he outran all of them and came upon Sluice? That just might be the worst thing that could happen. What would he say to Sluice? Would Sluice even give him a chance to say anything?

  He wondered if there was another direction he could ride. He knew he couldn’t ride west because of the mountains. What would happen if he turned east? Would he find a trail or a road anywhere? If he tried it, would he get himself hopelessly lost? He even thought about turning around and going back to help Hardy. But he rejected that idea. There were several dangers ahead of him, but that one was the nearest. He would continue running from it.

  Hardy saw Jigs’s horse come running up the road. It moved right past him and climbed the hill. There was no sign of his own horse or of Jigs. Jigs had either fucked up royally or had double-crossed him. There was no other explanation. He thought hard. He wondered what to do. He realized that he was alone against two men who meant to kill him. He was on foot, and he was wounded. He had few options.