Slocum and the Killers

by Jake Logan

  “Hey, Limpy,” said the third man. “Look at ole Bo.” Then he laughed out loud. Limpy turned to look, and he, too, started to laugh. Just then, Bo lost his grip and toppled to the ground.

  “Well,” said the other man, “you want to stop for him or ride on and leave his drunk ass here?”

  19

  The prairie between the Gillian ranch and the road to Devil’s Gap in the foothills of the mountains was wide open, but it was crossed by a few well-worn paths or trails. The result was that any travelers across the prairie would likely either run into one another or at least cross one another’s paths. Slocum, Holmes, Billy, and Old Jan were out ahead of everyone else, but Jigs was about to come up on Limpy and his two buddies, who had stopped to camp because of drunkenness.

  At their rough campsite, Limpy and one man sat up drinking beside a campfire. Bo was already passed out. The sun was down, and the night was getting cold. Limpy said to the other man, “Bernie?”

  “Whut?” Bernie answered.

  “It’s getting a little bit of a chill in the air, ain’t it?”

  “Yeah. It is.”

  “You reckon we ought to drag ole Bo up closer to the fire?”

  “Well,” said Bernie, “I reckon it might do him a little good.”

  “Might keep him from getting a harmful chill overnight,” said Limpy.

  “Yeah,” said Bernie, taking another pull on his bottle. “It might do that.”

  Limpy took another slug from his bottle. He set the bottle down and dug into his shirt pocket for the makings of a cigarette. Then he started to roll himself a smoke. Finishing the job, he poked the cigarette between his lips, picked up a burning stick from the fire, and lit his smoke. Bernie watched him exhale and said, “Hey. Let me have some of that.” Limpy handed the makings to Bernie. Soon both men were smoking and drinking together. Bo started to snore and snort.

  “We really ought to drag him closer to the fire,” said Limpy.

  Jigs was still riding, but he was thinking about stopping somewhere for the night. He figured that the ground was a little tricky for night riding. He was still thinking about all that gold. Sluice and Gillian had to have it. Most of it anyhow. That goddamned sheriff and his cohorts had some of it. They had the share that those three owlhoots of Gillian’s had run off with. He was thinking so hard about the gold and how he would get it away from one bunch or the other that his head was starting to hurt. He had never had to do too much thinking for himself. Someone else had always done it for him. Most recently, it had been Sluice, but Sluice had double-crossed him twice. Left him to get caught or killed. Now he had to think for himself. The other way had not worked out so well. He wanted to get even with Sluice. And he wanted that gold. Suddenly, he hauled back on the reins and stopped his horse. He saw the light from a fire ahead right on the trail he was riding.

  He began easing forward slowly, keeping as quiet as he could. Drawing closer, he could see that two men were sitting around the fire. He moved in yet closer, and he drew his six-gun and cocked it. He moved yet closer. He stopped again. “Hey, you in the camp,” he called out. Limpy and Bernie each came to their feet in a hurry and hauled out their six-guns, squinting out into the darkness, looking for their unexpected visitor. Limpy staggered a bit from his drunkenness.

  “Who the hell are you?” he called out.

  Limpy was standing on the other side of the fire, and the light glimmered over his face. Jigs recognized him.

  “Limpy,” he said. “By God. I’m glad to see you. This here is Jigs. Can I ride on in?”

  “Jigs?” said Limpy. “You alone?”

  “Hell, yeah. It’s just me.”

  “Well, shit,” said Limpy. “Come on in.”

  The two gunnies holstered their weapons as Jigs came into view. He dismounted, putting his horse with the other three. Turning to face Limpy and Bernie, he noticed a third man laid out on the ground.

  “Who the hell is that?” he said.

  “That’s Bo,” said Limpy. “Remember him? He’s passed out.”

  “Oh, yeah,” said Jigs. “I recall Bo.”

  “And Bernie here.”

  “Sure. How you doing, Bernie?”

  “I’m all right,” Bernie said.

  “But what about you?” Limpy said to Jigs. “When you disappeared during that gun battle, we never knew what come of you.”

  “Well,” said Jigs, “I hope you don’t think I run out on you. I just knowed that fucking Grimes was after me, so I got the hell out of there. I figured Grimes and them would stop fighting if I was gone. I was right, wasn’t I?”

  “Yeah,” said Limpy. “The way things turned out, I reckon you was. Sit down and have a drink.”

  Jigs moved up to the fire and sat down. Limpy passed his bottle to him. Jigs had a good, long drink before he gave it back.

  “Thanks, Limpy,” he said. “That sure was good. Just what I needed. Say. I’m glad I run across you boys.”

  “Yeah?”

  “You know all that gold that Gillian and Sluice and them went after?”

  “Yeah,” said Limpy, somewhat cautiously.

  “Well, I’m on its trail. It seems they got it all right. Then they got back to the ranch and seen the place all burned up. They turned around and headed back this way. They run into a sheriff and had a fight. Seems the posse all got wiped out, all but the sheriff. It seems like Gillian and Sluice is the only ones left. There was three others with part of the gold, but the sheriff and them three that was after me and Sluice got them, and they got that part of the gold, too. So now there’s two bunches of them out there, each one with part of the gold. I don’t rightly care which ones I catch up with. Or both.”

  Limpy took another drink and handed the bottle back to Jigs. “Funny thing,” he said, “but we kind of had the same idea. Only, you got more information than what we had.”

  “What do you say we team up?” Jigs asked.

  “I say you got a pretty good idea there, pard.”

  Gillian and Sluice returned to the shack outside of Devil’s Gap. They went to the corral to put up their horses, and right away noticed the missing horses.

  “What the fuck?” said Gillian.

  They rushed into the shack and looked around quickly. There was, of course, no sign of Homer and the other two men. Gillian rushed to the loose floorboards and jerked them up. He pulled out sacks of gold and counted them.

  “The chickenshits took off with some of the gold,” he said.

  “We going after them?” Sluice asked.

  Gillian walked slowly to the table. He pulled out a chair and sat down heavily. He heaved a sigh. “Hell,” he said, “I guess not. They didn’t take no more than their share. I reckon we can let them go with it. Fuck them. We don’t need them nohow. You and me will just get ourselves set up here in Devil’s Gap.”

  “What if we ever run into them three again?” Sluice said.

  “If that happens,” said Gillian, “we’ll kill them.”

  Slocum and the others stopped for the night. Holmes told them that they were very close to Devil’s Gap. They all agreed that Sluice and Gillian and the rest of the stolen gold would be there. It had been a long ride for Slocum, Billy, and Old Jan, and they knew that they were very near the end of their trail. Slocum’s gun hand was itching. He wanted both of those men badly. He had almost forgotten about Jigs. But he wanted Sluice and Gillian. He could not remember ever wanting anyone in a worse way. Billy and Old Jan had most of the same reasons Slocum had, and Sheriff Holmes had his own reasons. But they all wanted the same thing. They all wanted it badly. They sat quietly around a small campfire sipping hot coffee. Soon, they would try to get some sleep. They would head on in to Devil’s Gap with the first light of the morning.

  At daylight, Sluice and Gillian woke up and got ready to ride back into town. First, they filled their pockets with gold coins once again. It was a short ride into Devil’s Gap. The town had grown up in a hurry because of a recent gold strike. There were a few bui
ldings thrown up with boards, but the town was mostly tents. There were businesses in tents, and people living in tents. Smoke was billowing up from just about every tent and building in the place. One long tent displayed a sign out front that read EATS. They stopped in front and tied their horses to an already crowded rail, and then went inside. Most of the tables were filled. The place was noisy. At last they spotted a table that was unoccupied. They headed for it and sat down. It was a few minutes before a man in a greasy apron came over to ask what they wanted.

  “Coffee,” said Sluice.

  “And whatever you got for breakfast,” Gillian said.

  “Same thing for both of you?” the man asked.

  “Same thing,” said Gillian.

  “Yeah,” said Sluice.

  The man went away, leaving Sluice and Gillian to sit and wait in the midst of all the talking and clattering of dishes. Sluice wanted to talk, but he couldn’t think of anything to say, and besides, there was too much noise. They sat in silence waiting for their meals. At last, the man returned with their coffee. That was at least a relief. They sipped at the hot coffee, feeling it warm their guts. They had slurped their cups down about halfway when their breakfasts showed up. They each had a platter filled mostly with potatoes. There were two fried eggs on each and a slab of ham. Both men dug in and ate like it was their last meal. When they finished, they paid for the meals with a gold coin.

  The man in the greasy apron looked astonished. He held up the coin in front of his face and stared at it. “I, uh, I got to make change for this,” he said.

  “Ain’t you never seen real money before?” Gillian asked.

  “Not around here,” said the man. “Not very often.”

  He found the change he needed and gave it to Gillian. Then Gillian and Sluice walked out. They stood for a moment watching the people, almost all men, walk up and down the busy street, in and out of tent stores.

  “Sluice,” said Gillian, “there’s opportunities in this town. I can see them.”

  “What are you thinking about?” Sluice said.

  “Oh, maybe buying us a business. Maybe a gold mine. We’ll have to nose around a bit first.”

  “Yeah,” said Sluice. “Some kind of a business.”

  “Come on,” said Gillian, and he led the way down the street. Now and then, he stopped to peer into a tent and see what was going on. He checked out each business as he passed by the tents. He saw money changing hands—well, mostly gold nuggets or gold dust.

  “Yeah, Reb,” said Sluice. “All kinds of opportunity around here.”

  A man came walking down the street toward them, and as he was about to pass them by, Gillian grabbed him by the arm.

  “What the hell?” the man said.

  “We’re strangers in town,” said Gillian. “Just got a question. That’s all.”

  “Oh. Well, what is it?”

  “We, me and my partner here, we’re kind of interested in getting set up here with some kind of business. You know what I mean? Do you know of anything that’s for sale?”

  “Not much,” the man said. “Most folks in town are doing so well right now they wouldn’t sell out for nothing.”

  “Everyone’s getting rich, huh?” said Sluice.

  “Well, they’re doing right good is what I’d say. But listen. Yeah. There’s a miner up the hill yonder that just might sell out. He’s getting old and tired. He just might sell out. Hell, he’s got enough put away to last the rest of his life anyway.”

  “Can you point him out to us?” Gillian asked.

  The man turned and pointed up the hillside. “You see that little shack up yonder, kind of nestled into the hillside?”

  “Yeah,” said Gillian.

  “Well, that ain’t no shack. Not really. That there’s the entrance to his mine. The tent off to the right is where he lives. The only thing is, it won’t be cheap.”

  “That’s no problem to us,” said Sluice.

  “What’s his name?” asked Gillian.

  “Ezra Waits is what we call him,” the man said.

  “Thanks for the information,” Gillian said.

  “Sure thing,” said the man as he walked on. Gillian stared at the mining shack and tent up on the hillside.

  “You want to buy a mine?” said Sluice.

  “We can pay someone to do all the work,” Gillian answered. “We got plenty of cash.”

  “Yeah,” Sluice said. “That’s right. We could do that.”

  “With what we’ve already got,” said Gillian, “and what comes out of that mine, we could be the richest sons of bitches for miles around. Hell, we could build our own opry house right here in Devil’s Gap.”

  “Everyone would look up to us then,” said Sluice.

  “Damn right. Well, come on. Let’s go.”

  “Where we going?”

  “Up there to look at our mine,” said Gillian.

  Slocum, Holmes, Billy, and Old Jan rode into Devil’s Gap around mid-morning. As they moved down the only street, they looked at all the faces in the bustling crowd. They did not recognize anyone. They rode clear to the opposite end of the street. Then they turned around and headed back again. They stopped in front of a large tent that had lettering painted on the front canvas: SALOON. They tied their horses at the rail and went inside. It was early in the day, but the place was already crowded. They stood near the bar and looked the crowd over. Still, they did not recognize anyone. Slocum was standing at Holmes’s right.

  “Are you sure they’ve got to be here?” he asked.

  “There’s no other place,” said Holmes. “Not the direction they were headed. They’re either out on the prairie or in town here.”

  “They’re not out on the prairie,” Slocum said.

  Holmes shrugged. “Then they’re here—somewhere.”

  A young girl appeared from out of the crowd and sidled up to Billy Pierce. Slocum thought that she looked more frightened than greedy. “Buy me a drink?” she said. Billy looked at Slocum.

  “Go ahead,” Slocum said.

  Billy walked the girl to the bar and ordered a couple of drinks. Just then a big ugly man came out of the crowd. He spotted Billy and the girl. He stomped over to the bar and grabbed the girl by a shoulder, spinning her around.

  “So here you are,” he said.

  “Leave me alone,” she said.

  “Come on, damn you,” the man said.

  “You heard the girl, mister,” said Billy. “Leave her alone.”

  “She’s with me,” the man said. “You stay out of this.”

  “Mister, you—”

  The man punched Billy in the jaw before Billy could finish what he was about to say, and Billy went sprawling on the floor. Slocum stepped up quickly.

  “Hold on there,” he said.

  “Oh,” said the big man. “You want her, too?”

  20

  “I just want you to back off,” said Slocum. “Go on back over there and drink your whiskey.”

  “And I’m telling you to mind your own business, asshole,” the man said, “if you don’t want your head bashed in, too.”

  Slocum stomped the man’s boot and felt bones crunch. The man yelled and grabbed his foot with both hands. While he was hopping on one foot, Slocum bashed him in the side of the head with a hard right. The man fell on the floor and lay still. Slocum reached down and pulled the six-gun from the man’s waistband. He tossed it on the bar and said to the bartender, “Put that away.” The barkeep took the gun and stashed it under the bar.

  “You didn’t have to do that, Slocum,” said Billy.

  “Ah, hell, I just felt like it,” said Slocum.

  “Thanks, mister,” said the girl.

  Billy ordered two drinks from the bartender, but when the drink was put in front of her, the girl took a tiny sip and coughed.

  “You all right?” Billy asked.

  “I didn’t really want a drink,” she said.

  “But you—”

  “I just wanted to get away
from that—that man,” she said, and she looked with distaste at the man still lying unconscious on the floor. “And I don’t want to be here when he wakes up.”

  “Well, where can you go?” said Billy.

  “Come on,” she said.

  Billy looked at Slocum, and Slocum nodded. “Go on ahead with her,” he said.

  Billy let the girl lead him away. They went out of the tent saloon, and she led the way to a smaller tent and inside. There was a cot in there and not much else. She sat down on the cot and looked at the bare ground that served as a floor. Billy stared at her full of wonderment.

  “Look,” he said, “you don’t have to—I mean, how long you been working in that place anyhow?”

  “Just since this morning,” she said. “That man—he was the first to—”

  “He was the first one to try to get you—alone?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, how come you be in there in the first place?”

  “My daddy was mining,” she said. “Trying to anyway. He died a few days ago, and I run out of money pretty fast. I didn’t seem to have no choice.”

  Billy looked at her for the first time. She was young, no more than twenty, he thought. She had long blond hair and big blue eyes. Her lips were full and red. The cheap outfit they had put her in showed off her ample shape. But she looked sweet and vulnerable. Billy suddenly felt responsible somehow.

  “I don’t want to go back in there,” she said.

  “You don’t have to,” said Billy.

  “They’ll come after me.”

  “Well, they’ll have to get past me,” he said. “And that won’t be an easy thing.”

  “You mean that?”

  “Of course I do. I don’t say nothing I don’t mean.”

  Back in the tent saloon, Holmes, Slocum, and Old Jan ordered a couple of drinks and sat down at a table. They kept watching the faces as new customers came into the place. Still, they recognized no one. Slocum started to say, “Holmes, are you sure—”

  “They’re here somewhere,” the sheriff said. “I know it.”