“That would please Welcome.”
“What’s she got to do with it?”
“I was only making an observation.” Then Emma said, “I agree with your terms.”
“You sure?”
“Yes.”
Ned reached over and touched her cheek with the back of his fingers then abruptly pulled away his hand and said brusquely, “I’ll go change my clothes and come back in ten minutes.”
“I’ll be ready.”
She was. When Ned entered Emma’s room without knocking, she was dressed in men’s pants and shirt, a handkerchief knotted around her neck and a worn hat on her head that covered her hair. Ned had given her the hat, but Emma had gotten the rest of the outfit on her own. She looked like a young man, and although they would cover their faces when they went into the bank, Emma nonetheless had rubbed something on her chin that made her look as if she had a few days’ growth of beard. Ned took a gun out of his pocket and handed it to her, but Emma declined it.
“I’ve brought a revolver with me,” she said. “After all, I might have needed protection from Mr. Withers.”
“You sure are a steady one,” Ned told her, rubbing his hand over the stubble on his face. “Shoot, I don’t guess I ever met anybody so cool, even a man.” He felt nervous, as he always did before a job, and wondered if it showed.
They made their way down the stairs and out the back door of the hotel. Through the glass window of the bank, Ned could see that the banker’s chair was empty. But someone was talking to the clerk. “By zam,” he muttered. He took out the makings of a cigarette, sprinkling tobacco on a paper and licking it. Before he could put away the fixings, Emma took the tobacco bag and papers from him and made her own. Ned stared at her so long that Emma, amused, reached into her pocket for a match, which she struck on her pants’ leg, and lit her cigarette. Then she held the match for Ned. “I never saw a lady smoke a cigarette before,” he said, inhaling.
“Addie smokes.”
Ned was about to reply that Addie was not a lady, but thought better of it. The cigarette relaxed him. He and Emma would draw no more attention than any other pair of men who had stopped for a smoke.
Ned strained his neck to peer inside the bank, but it was dark, and all he could see was a black figure with his back to the window. “Hurry up,” he muttered as he finished his cigarette and threw the butt into the dirt. He didn’t want a second cigarette, but taking out the makings gave him something to do, so he rolled another. As he used his teeth to pull the string on the tobacco bag tight, he glanced at the bank again. There was movement inside. “He’s leaving,” he muttered to Emma, who had sat down on the step and was leaning forward with her arms on her knees, her back to the bank. Ned dropped the cigarette and broke it apart with his foot, then stuffed the bag into his shirt pocket. He squinted to see what was going on. “They’re leaving. There are two of them. Must be farmers asking for a loan. Maybe they got treated better than us.”
Of a sudden, the door of the bank was jerked open, and two men hurried out. Emma jumped up, but before she and Ned could retreat into the hotel, the Minder brothers rushed out of the bank and stopped in front of them.
Earlie narrowed his eyes at the two, then smirked. “That teller in there, he’s color-blind. He can’t tell his money from mine.” Earlie raised the gun so that it was pointed at Ned. But Ned was more concerned with the knife in Earlie’s belt, which was big and covered with blood.
Black Jesse grabbed Earlie’s arm. “You whack him down outside here, and somebody’ll hear it. Come on.”
Earlie thought that over for a few seconds. “I guess it’s your lucky day, Ned boy.” Black Jesse started down the street, but Earlie held the gun on Ned a few seconds longer, then he pointed it at Emma. “Was you going to the bank?” he asked. “They ain’t got no money left.”
“Is he dead?” Emma asked.
Earlie shrugged. “He makes sounds like a calf that’s got its throat cut.” Earlie laughed, then turned and ran after his brother, and the two turned the corner. In a few seconds, Ned heard horses galloping away.
Ned grabbed Emma’s arm and tried to pull her inside the hotel, but she resisted. “That teller, he may be dying. We ought to help.”
“And get hanged for something the Minders did? How are we going to explain what we’re doing out here and why you’re dressed like a man?”
“We can’t let him die. I can’t let a man die, not one who doesn’t deserve it.”
Ned thought that over. The teller bothered him, too.
“Give me your hat,” Emma said, reaching up and untying his neckerchief. “I’ll change clothes. You go upstairs with me, then come down the front steps and say you heard yelling at the bank.”
Ned wished he’d thought it through that way. He turned and led the way upstairs, but just as they got to Emma’s room, they heard a commotion on the street. Someone yelled, and then there were footsteps. Emma collapsed onto her bed with a sigh of relief. She looked ashy, as she put her hands to her face and seemed to shrink into herself. “I believe I am very foolish,” she said.
Ned sat beside her and put his arm around her. “It’s done with.”
“We could have been the ones who injured that man. We might have shot him.”
“We weren’t,” Ned replied. “You can’t fret about what didn’t happen.”
“We must leave.”
Ned wanted to hold her longer, but Emma was right. It was dangerous to stay. They changed their clothes and picked up their bags, and in a few minutes, they were in the lobby, where the desk clerk told them the bank had been robbed. “Two men. They knifed poor old Stingy Dan, the teller. He scratched out ‘Minder’ in blood on the floor, but myself, I heard one of the Minders was dead. My guess is it was a Minder paired up with Ned Partner. He hangs out not far from here. But a pair of old ladies could have robbed Stingy Dan. Hell, your sister here could have pulled it off.” He cocked his head at Emma and ran his tongue over his teeth.
Emma appeared only mildly annoyed. “Well, then, if farming does not work out, we shall have a new way to earn our livelihood.” Then she raised an eyebrow at the clerk. “I for one should prefer robbing hotels that overcharge.”
Ned paid four dollars for the two rooms, and he and Emma walked to the livery stable, where they collected the horses and wagons. They stopped to pick up the box of rations they had bought at Spillman & Gottschalk, for the grocery clerk would think it strange if the purchases were left behind. Then Ned took a north road out of town instead of heading east to Nalgitas. The Minders were likely to go southwest toward Santa Fe, where they were known to have kin. So the posse would go that way, too, Ned explained to Emma. But if the fool desk clerk convinced the sheriff that Ned Partner had robbed the bank, the posse would ride east toward Nalgitas. So the two of them were better off going straight north, then circling east in the morning.
Ned wished he’d bought a whip at the store to hurry the horses. He slapped the reins over their backs, and they ran like the devil for a minute or two, then exhausted themselves and settled back into their slow plod, and nothing would arouse them. From time to time, Ned turned around to see whether anyone was behind them, but there was no sign of the sheriff. After an hour or two, he relaxed. Without thinking, he slapped Emma’s knee and exclaimed, “I guess we got away with it.”
Emma stared at him a moment before turning away. “With what?”
Ned felt silly. She was right, of course. They hadn’t gotten away with anything. They had only gotten away. It had been a foolhardy adventure. Even if they hadn’t pulled off the robbery, they could have been arrested. He wouldn’t like it on his conscience that he was responsible for Emma winding up in prison. Hell, he wouldn’t like it to be on his conscience that he was in prison. He’d seen how upset Emma was when she heard the teller was knifed. What if Ned had shot the man? Would Emma have insisted they go for a doctor? And what if Emma had shot him? She’d have been as useless then as jelly in the sun. Maybe they were damn
-fool lucky that they’d gotten away.
He slapped the horses with the reins again, out of frustration, really, since it still did no good. He glanced at Emma, who was staring out across the plains. A wind had picked up since they left Jasper, moving the prairie grasses like waves on the Mississippi. The wind was hot, but it felt good. It calmed him, and after a while Ned’s good humor returned. He smiled to himself when he realized that he and Emma would have to camp somewhere that night. Their plan had been to return to Nalgitas the way they’d come, driving all night. But going north, as they were, there was no way they could reach Nalgitas. They would have to spend the night together.
“We will have to find an encampment this evening,” Emma said, as if reading his thoughts. Then she laughed. “It is a good thing we bought those blankets and the provisions. Why, we even have a coffeepot and cups.”
“Are you sorry we did this?” Ned asked. “I wasn’t very smart, I guess.”
“No, you are smart enough. I will hand you that.” Emma shrugged. “But neither you nor I thought it through, and it will cost us. You will get something back for these horses, but we are out the price of the hotel and what we purchased at the store. If you will let me know the amount, I will reimburse you half when I get my money from John.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“Perhaps I will give you forty percent then, as you agreed to pay me only that amount from the proceeds.”
“But I intended to give you half all along,” Ned said, then laughed. “I believe you could make your living running a bank, not robbing one.”
They rode through the afternoon, not talking much. From time to time, Ned turned to look behind them. Emma did, too, but the road was deserted. Ned had convinced himself they were alone on the prairie and was thinking about a campsite when Emma touched his arm. “Behind us there is dust,” she said.
Ned turned and judging from the dirt that was stirred up, he knew there was more than one rider. He urged the team forward, then gave up, knowing his horses couldn’t outrun a cow, let alone men on horseback. Whoever it was would catch up in a few minutes. He removed his gun from the holster and placed it on the wagon seat between them, while Emma put her own gun beside her, under her skirt. Then she reached for her sewing basket. When the posse caught up with them, Emma was stitching.
The sheriff shifted painfully in his saddle as he stopped beside the wagon. “You folks seen anybody?” he asked.
“Not since we left Jasper,” Ned replied.
“Bank got robbed. We’re looking for two men.”
“We heard about that. The hotel clerk told us,” Ned said.
“He also told us the teller was hurt,” Emma said, putting her sewing in her lap and leaning forward. “Is he all right?”
“He died out. He said the Minder brothers done it. They’re as mean as they come. There wasn’t any need to smash Stingy Dan—God rest his soul—since he gave them the money.” The sheriff touched his hat again. “If it is the Minders, you folks best be on the lookout. There ain’t ever no knowing what they’ll do.”
“What makes you think they came this way?” Ned asked.
The sheriff jerked his thumb at one of the three deputies who accompanied him. “Wattie here says two men left out right after the robbery, heading this way. Could have been anybody, but we got to go in some direction, and this is as good as any. The information’s pretty scattering. Wattie says it could have been Ned Partner, too. He used to raise old scratch out this way, but I ain’t heard of him in a while.”
“Are there no honest people in this country?” Emma asked tartly.
“Only yourselves, I reckon,” the sheriff said in way of a joke. “Say, you wouldn’t have buttermilk on you, would you? This is agitation work, and I sure would like a glass of buttermilk.”
“I would like one myself. I could drink buttermilk all day,” Ned told him, although he hated the stuff.
The sheriff seemed in no hurry to move along. Then Ned remembered the man’s pains and knew he sorely did hurt and would want an excuse to sit longer. So Ned said, “I guess we’d best hurry along home. We wouldn’t want to meet whoever did the deed.”
“Where was you farming?” the sheriff asked.
Ned swallowed. “The Johnson place,” he said.
The sheriff cocked his head and thought a moment, then nodded. Ned knew he’d never heard of anybody named Johnson but didn’t want to admit it.
“We are not buggy riding. If you have no further need of us, we must be on our way,” Emma said.
Ned rolled his eyes to show that Emma was an exasperation. The sheriff touched his hat to her and muttered, “Ma’am.” Then he led the posse past the wagon and rode off.
“Sheriff Tate is meek as a sheep and dumb as a calf,” Ned observed, as he urged the horses down the road the posse had taken. “Still, I don’t like the idea of my name festering in his mind.”
“Out here, we’re as plain to see as an elephant in a watch pocket,” Emma told him. “Perhaps we should leave the wagon behind and ride the horses.”
Ned had thought the same thing, although he did not know how much faster they would go riding bareback on a pair of old plugs. Perhaps they could acquire horses at a farm, but he doubted it. Then he remembered a man he’d once ridden with who’d gone to farming. He had a place not far away and was known to accommodate his old friends. Ned told Emma to climb back in the wagon and put on her shirt and pants. She did so without a question, and when she was dressed, Ned asked her to make two bedrolls out of the blankets, wrapping up inside them as much of the rations and anything else she wanted as two horses could carry. While Emma picked through their things, Ned turned the wagon off the road onto a trail that wound through a gully. He stopped at a protected spot and said Emma should wait there for him with the bedrolls. Taking a shovel from the wagon, he asked her to bury any clothes she hadn’t wrapped in the blankets, while he went on alone to see about horses. He didn’t want his friend to know he was with a woman. Ned promised to be back in an hour. He clicked his tongue at the team and took off as fast as they could go, before Emma could ask what he’d do if his friend wasn’t there or couldn’t spare the stock.
But the man was at home, happy to provide Ned with two horses and saddles, although he drove a hard bargain. Ned had to give him the team and wagon along with the provisions left in it and pay him fifty dollars. Ned didn’t have time to argue, however. As he told Emma later, it was root, hog, or die, and he was lucky to get the horses at any price.
The sky had turned crimson by the time Ned returned to Emma, who was waiting next to a mound of dirt covered by rocks. The shovel stuck out of one of two fat bedrolls, lying next to Emma’s portmanteau. As he fitted the bag’s handle over his own saddle horn, Ned explained that there was a canyon to the west where they would camp. He picked up a bedroll and said they couldn’t have made it with the wagon, for the trail into the depths was suitable only for horses. He wished the light would last longer, but he thought he could find it in the dark. The ride would be a hard one, Ned said, glancing at Emma to see if she was up to it.
Emma only nodded, as she finished securing the second bedroll. Ned was impressed at the expert way she fastened it to her saddle, and for an instant, he wondered where she had learned such a thing. That wasn’t something a farm girl would know, but it didn’t matter, and the thought left his mind. He mounted and galloped off, Emma behind him.
They crossed the main road and angled west across the prairie, to avoid the posse if it returned. Ned would be hard-pressed to explain to the sheriff why he and his sister had abandoned their wagon and were mounted on horses, and why Emma was dressed like a man. There was no trail, and they rode through the long dried grass until it was dark. If they had to, they could make a campsite on the prairie, Ned supposed, although he wouldn’t feel comfortably safe about it. But Ned was good at remembering trails, and he spotted a rock formation that looked familiar and led Emma to it. He dismounted, and leading his horse, he
looked for a cut between two rocks that marked the entrance into the depths. It took nearly thirty minutes, but at last, he found the spot and told Emma they would reach the bottom in an hour or so.
He looked at her face to gauge how tired she was, but by then, it was too dark for him to make out her features. Emma seemed to know what he was thinking, however, and she said, “I will make it.”
As he mounted his horse and led the way, Ned felt a drop of rain on his hand, then another. “By zam! It hasn’t rained in five years, and we get it tonight. It’ll be slow going.”
“But the rain will cover our tracks,” Emma replied. “No one can follow us.”
The canyon wall was no shelter against the storm, and the going was miserable. The trail that hugged the side of the cliff was steep, and Ned feared the moisture would wash it out, so he went slowly. After a while, the rain turned into hail that seemed as big as guinea hen eggs. Ned hoped it wouldn’t make the horses skittish and considered waiting for the hail to stop. But the horses were just as likely to panic while standing still, so Ned kept on. As they descended into the canyon in the heavy dark, the hail turned to a steady drizzle. Once, Ned’s horse stumbled, and Ned pulled him up tight, sweating a little despite the rain that made the night as cold as November. On one side of the trail was a sharp drop-off, and if the horse lost his footing, both he and Ned would fall hundreds of feet onto the canyon floor. He wondered what Emma would do if he disappeared over the edge. Behind him, Emma’s horse dislodged a stone that rolled past him and fell so far into the canyon that he didn’t hear it land. Then he heard Emma cry out and turned quickly, but he couldn’t see her in the blackness.
“A branch hit me,” she called.
Ned wondered if he should dismount and lead his horse, but he wasn’t sure there was even room to do that. Besides, the trail was slick, and the horse was surer footed than he was. So he kept going, letting the horse feel the way. After a long time, there was a flash that showed they had reached a wide place on the trail. Ned waited for Emma to come up beside him. “You going to make it?” he asked her.
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