“Folks say that you are.”
“Here in Galveston, yes. I have bigger dreams. I want to work the riverboats. I want to gamble in places like St. Louis and New Orleans and Denver. That’s where the real competition is. And that’s where fortunes are made.”
“You’re in this to get rich? I thought you gamble because you like to play cards.”
“I do, but I wouldn’t mind having more money than I know what to do with.”
“Me either.”
Jason Drake chuckled. “Get good at our trade and hope Lady Luck favors us and you just might.”
“And one other thing.”
“What might that be?”
“I have to live long enough,” Chace said.
27
Linsey, Newton, and Randy Harkey stood at the bar in the Dirty Molly.
Linsey was facing the mirror. His brothers were leaning on it with their elbows and watching the goings-on in the packed saloon.
Linsey chugged a swallow, smacked the empty glass down, and swore. “We’re poor manhunters.”
“We tracked him this far,” Newton said. “I don’t call that poor.”
“He has to be somewhere,” Randy said.
Linsey refilled his glass and raised it to his lips. He looked in the mirror, and stiffened. “Quick. Turn around.”
“What?” Randy said.
“Do it,” Linsey commanded, and when they had their backs to the room, he said, “We don’t want him spotting us.”
“Want who?” Newton asked.
“Look in the glass. Over yonder by the table near the door. Who is that talking to that gambler?”
“I’ll be,” Randy blurted. “It’s that deputy works for Sheriff Wyler.”
“Nick Fulsome,” Linsey said. “Wyler’s brother-in-law.” A crafty gleam came into his dark eyes. “Now what do you suppose Deputy Fulsome is doing way down here in Galveston?”
“By God, I bet he’s hunting Chace Shannon, the same as us,” Newton said excitedly.
Linsey smiled and nodded.
“Should we go over and acquaint ourselves?” Randy asked. “Maybe we can hunt together.”
“Use your damn head,” Linsey growled. “He’s the law. He’s here to arrest the boy. We’re here to kill him. Fulsome finds out we’re here, he could make trouble for us. He might go to the local law and have them escort us out of town. Then where are we?”
“I didn’t think of that,” Randy said.
“What do we do?” Newton asked.
“We play it smart,” Linsey said. “We let the law dog do the hunting for us. That badge of his will get him more answers than we get. So we take turns following him and sooner or later he’ll lead us to the boy.”
Newton chortled. “You sly fox.”
“Why do you suppose he’s talking to a gambler?” Randy wondered.
Linsey scratched his chin and gnawed his lower lip. “It just hit me. We should have been doing the same. Gamblers see a lot of the comings and goings. Same as the bartenders.”
“Look out,” Randy said. “He’s coming this way.”
They lowered their heads and watched in the mirror as the lawman roved among the tables. Fulsome stopped to talk to another gambler and after a while moved toward the batwings. He didn’t come anywhere near the far end of the bar.
“Newton, you take the first turn,” Linsey said. “It shouldn’t be hard, as many people are out and about all the time. Stick with him until he turns in for the night, then come fetch us. You know where we’ll be.”
Newton nodded and drained his glass and hurried out after the deputy.
“Come on,” Linsey said. He had already paid for the bottle and took it with them out to the hitch rail. He unwrapped the reins to Newton’s mount, climbed on his own, and rode leisurely along street after street until they were at the south end of Galveston and the buildings gave way to brush and woodland. They rode into the woods to a clearing. In the middle were the charred embers of their previous fire. “Get it going,” Linsey said with a nod. Sliding down, he sat on a log they used for a seat and put his chin in his hands.
Randy went into the trees and came out with an armful of broken limbs. He hunkered and began placing them over the embers. “What are you pondering, big brother?”
“How to go about the boy. Fulsome being here changes things.”
“I don’t see how.”
“I get tired of telling you to use your head,” Linsey said. “We want the boy dead but we don’t want to end up behind bars for doing it.”
“Oh.” Randy snapped a long piece of limb in half. “You’re saying we wait for the deputy to find him and pick him off with a rifle so the deputy don’t see us.”
“No. I have me a better idea. We’re going to kill both of them.”
Randy looked up. “Are you drunk?”
“Didn’t you hear Newton a while ago? He called me a sly fox.” Linsey chuckled. “With the feud started up again, it would help us Harkeys if the law was on our side and not the Shannons’.”
“How will killing a deputy win the law to us?”
“Follow my trail, damn you,” Linsey said. “Sheriff Wyler takes his job serious. He’s always fair to folks. He treats us and the Shannons the same. He doesn’t favor us over them or the other way around. We can change that.”
“How?”
“It’s simple. We kill the deputy and make it look like the boy was to blame.” Linsey laughed. “What do you think of that?”
“I think Newton was right. You’re sly as hell.”
As had become his habit, Chace was at the Gem Saloon promptly at three. Some of the regulars nodded at him and he nodded back. His hands were in his pockets. He went to the same table as always.
Jason Drake was playing solitaire. He placed a red seven on a black eight. “You’re grinning like the cat that ate the canary.”
“I did it. Just like you said.”
Drake set down the deck and studied Chace’s frock coat. “You had a tailor take out the pocket and sew in a leather one so you can draw faster?”
“Not just one pocket.” Chace grinned and his hands flashed. In each he held a Colt Lightning double-action, nickel-plated with ivory handles. He twirled them forward and did a reverse spin and slipped them back into the special leather pockets.
“Slick as can be,” Drake complimented him. “But two? Gretchen must be paying you more than I thought. Ivory handles don’t come cheap.”
Chace pulled out his usual chair and sat.
“You’re not going to tell me, are you?”
“Tell you what?”
“Where you get your money? Those clothes, the pistols, that palomino you bought. And don’t forget this.” Drake took a gold watch from a coat and opened it and listened to the musical chimes.
“I wanted to show how grateful I am,” Chace said.
“You didn’t have to. You’re paying me, remember?” Drake closed the watch and slipped it back. “But I’ve got to admit, I’ve liked teaching you. You learn quick. It’s rare I have to show you anything more than twice.” He folded his hands. “You learn so quick, it’s scary.”
“What will it be today?”
“Today I’ll do the learning and you’ll do the teaching,” Drake said. “We’ll start with your past.”
“No,” Chace said. “I’m surprised you’d bring it up. I thought we were pards.”
“We are,” Drake said gently. “Which is why I have to warn you that a lawman from Arkansas is on your scent.”
Chace glanced at the front door and scanned the room.
“Nervous all of a sudden?” Drake teased.
“Where’s this lawman?”
“I wouldn’t know where he is right this minute but he’s been asking all over Galveston about you. I found out from a friend of mine, a member of our fraternity. The friend told him he’d never run into anyone answering your description. Then he came to find me.”
“Damn,” Chace said.
“Which
is why I’d like to know about your past. How much trouble are you in? Enough to get you hung?”
“From the highest tree there is.” Chace frowned and slid his chair back. “I’d best be going. The lawman finds us together, there could be gunplay. I don’t want you involved.”
“Stay where you are. What sort of friend do you take me for? Besides, I have a proposition for you. One you might like. It will get you away from the law and let you see new sights.”
“I’m listening.”
“I mentioned before that I’d like to work the Mississippi riverboats. How would you like to go with me? We could leave tomorrow. That deputy will never find you.”
“That sounds a lot to me like running away.”
“A tin star is a stacked deck with two legs and no gambler ever bucks a stacked deck.”
“Call it what you want.” Chace shook his head. “I can’t.”
“Be sensible.”
“I have to be true to me,” Chace said.
“Don’t let pride get you killed.”
“It’s not that.” Chace shifted his chair so he could see the front door and slid his right hand into the right pocket on his frock coat.
“Explain it to me, if you would,” Drake requested.
Chace was slow answering. “A while ago I had a decision to make. My sister had been raped and my pa had gone missing and was likely killed. I could either go after those to blame or let it go.”
“Forgive and forget, a parson would say.”
“Parsons don’t live in the real world. They live in their head. Some things you can’t ever forget. As for turning the other cheek, what good does that do if it gets your throat slit?” Chace stared at the floor. “I was at a cross-roads. I knew if I did as I should, my life as I knew it was over. Maybe a sensible person would have let it go but life is more than common sense. Life is feelings, too, and I had to be true to mine. I had to do to those who hurt my family as they had done to us.”
“Most your age never have to make a hard decision like that,” Drake observed.
“Life is what it is. So I did what I had to and then I had to run and now a lawman is after me. I can go on running but he might keep on looking and the running won’t have gotten me anywhere.” Chace looked at Drake. “A thing like this should be settled sooner rather than later.”
“What are you going to do? Confront him?”
“I don’t know yet,” Chace said. “I have to think on it some.”
“Whatever you decide I’ll back your play.”
Chace watched several men enter. “There’s another reason I can’t go. I can feel her inside me. Which means she’s close.”
“Feel who?”
“Promise not to laugh.”
“You have yourself a woman?”
“A twin sister. Ever since I can remember there’s been this feeling inside me whenever she’s near. I don’t know how to describe it except that I can feel her like I feel hot and cold and wet.” Chace paused. “I love her more than anyone in this world. That was the hardest part about leaving home, going off without her. I should have guessed she’d come after me. We never could stand being apart. She couldn’t stand it even more than me.” His voice broke and he stopped. He coughed and said softly, “If we could be man and wife life would be perfect.”
Jason Drake filled his glass and drank it down in two gulps. He filled it again and drank half. Then he said, “Well, now.”
“I need to find this lawman before he finds me,” Chace said. “That friend of yours happen to mention where the lawman is staying?”
“I doubt he knew. But it might be I can find out. I know a lot of people. I’ll ask around.”
“I’d be obliged. And who knows? Maybe next week or next month that riverboat notion will appeal to me.”
“It’s worth considering.” Drake swirled the whiskey in his glass. “Those new pistols of yours. You any good with them?”
“I’ve practiced some east of town,” Chace said. “I’m better with a rifle but I can hit a man in the guts if I have to.”
“I know a gent who could teach you things. He knows revolvers like I know cards. His name is Wilson. Has a son about your age. Works as a butcher, of all things, and has the quickest hands in Galveston. He’s been in five shooting affrays and shot seven men dead.”
“Why ain’t he in jail?” Chace asked, and then corrected himself with, “Why isn’t he in jail?”
“He never starts it. It’s always self-defense. He doesn’t look like much so others think they can pick on him and he proves them wrong.”
“Maybe when this is over I’ll see him,” Chace said, and stood. “Right now I have hunting to do.” He took a step but stopped. “You don’t mind if I pass on the lesson today?”
“How to tell marked cards can wait,” Drake said with a smile.
Chace went out onto the boardwalk. Dust motes hung in the hot air. Staying close to the buildings, staring at every face, he walked to the next corner where Zeke was holding a tray and shouting, “Suspenders! Get your suspenders here!”
Chace came up behind him and said quietly, “I have a job for you.”
Zeke turned so abruptly he nearly tripped over his own feet. “Boss! You shouldn’t ought to sneak up on folks like that.”
“How many times have I got to tell you? Call me Chace.”
Zeke looked him up and down and said in genuine awe, “Damn. You’re a fancier dresser than Tunk ever was. And you smell like lilac water. Must be that lady at the whorehouse, huh?”
“I have a job for you,” Chace said. “A job for everyone.”
Zeke turned serious. “Anything you want. Anything at all. Thanks to you letting us keep more of our money, I’ve got more than I ever had my whole life.”
“Get the word out. There’s a lawman in town asking about me. I don’t know what he looks like but he’ll likely be wearing a badge and not many wear the tin.”
Zeke moved his jacket so the stag hilt of a knife was visible above his belt on his left hip. “Want us to take care of him for you?”
“No. This is personal. Fifty dollars to whoever finds him. Another fifty if he can be found by dark.”
Zeke chuckled. “For that much you’ll have a hundred eyes and ears looking everywhere. That law dog is as good as found.”
28
Deputy Nick Fulsome was coming out of a general store when the little girl came up to him. He had just bought chewing tobacco and was biting off a chaw.
About to turn, he nearly collided with her and had to stop short. “Careful, girl. You’re liable to be stepped on.”
“Care for an apple, mister? Only two cents.”
Nick shook his head. “Apples and tobacco don’t mix. Should have caught me before I bit.”
“You a lawman?” the girl asked, staring at his badge.
“Arkansas deputy sheriff,” Nick informed her. “Here on official business.” He went to go by but stopped. “Say, I just had a notion. What’s your name, anyhow?”
“Tallulah,” the girl said sweetly.
“You must get all over town selling your apples.”
“I reckon I do at that.”
“Could be you’ve seen the gent I’m searching for,” Nick said. “He hails from the same part of the country I do. He’s not much older than you. His name is Chace Shannon but he could be going by any old name.”
Tallulah scrunched up her face in thought. “Chace, you say? That’s awful familiar.”
“It is?” Nick said hopefully. Squatting, he gripped her by the arms. “Think, girl, think. It’s important to me.”
“How important?”
Nick reached into his pocket and pulled out a handful of coins. He offered her a silver dollar. “It’s worth this much.”
“Add four more to that and it might help me remember better.”
“So that’s how it is? A face like an angel and the heart of an outlaw.” Nick grinned and jingled the five dollars in his palm. As she reached for the coi
ns he closed his hand. “Not so fast.”
“What’s wrong, mister?”
“I’m not stupid. You don’t get the money until you’ve taken me to Chace Shannon. For all I know you don’t really know him. You could skip off like a bunny and I’d be out hard-earned money.” Nick scrutinized her. “How is it you know who he is?”
“Like you said, I get around,” Tallulah answered. “I met him when he first came to town. He needed work, so I tried to help him, but he went and took over the Hawkers Guild, as some call it.”
“You don’t say.”
Tallulah nodded. “We used to get together every night but he works nights, so now we get together every day at five.”
Nick consulted his pocket watch. “It’s four now. Could you take me to where he’ll be? If I get there early I can lie in wait for him and take him by surprise.”
“I’d be happy to, mister,” Tallulah said. “I didn’t like what he did to Tunk and the changes he made. You arrest him and things can go back to how they were.”
Nick smiled and stood. “My luck has changed, running into you. Lead the way, little one.”
Tallulah turned and started off. “What did Chace do back in this place you come from that you’re after him?”
“He killed people.”
“Bad people or good people?”
“The law don’t care, girl. He did it, and that’s enough. He’ll be put on trial and likely swing.”
Tallulah was quiet after that. Ten minutes of walking brought them out of town and east over broken ground covered with scrub growth and islands of trees. That in turn gave way to a bayou. A path wound into its reaches.
Nick swatted at a few early mosquitoes, and swore. He saw a snake glide off and put his hand on his revolver. “Ain’t you scared in a place like this? What if a gator popped out?”
“I’d run real quick,” Tallulah said. She looked back at him and grinned. “They don’t catch rabbits much.”
“You’ve got grit. I’ll give you that.”
Tallulah slowed at a disturbance in the water and then moved on. “Watch out for the water moccasins. They bite without any warning. The rattlesnakes at least rattle.”
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