Slocum and the Glitter Girls at Gravel Gulch (9781101619513)

by Logan, Jake

  The moonlight limned their bodies with an ethereal glow as their desire waned, then flared into life again a few moments later.

  And their loving was deeper and more satisfying the second time.

  They were alone and the night was kindly with the moon’s pale light glistening like alabaster dust on the windows.

  25

  Slocum arose early while Laurie was still fast asleep. He dressed quickly, strapped on his gun belt, and left her cabin before the sun was up.

  He walked over to Harvey’s unfinished log cabin and saw lamps burning. Smoke curled from the chimney and he could smell the aroma of strong coffee when he knocked on the front door.

  Harvey opened the door. He was dressed except he had no shirt on over the top of his long johns.

  “John,” he said. “What brings you here at such an early hour?”

  “Wanted to talk to you before you went to the mine,” Slocum said.

  “Sure. Come on in. I just made a fresh pot of coffee. My eye opener. Join me?”

  Slocum went in and Harvey closed the door, waved Slocum to a crude wooden chair that had no padding as yet. The cabin smelled of fresh logs and fresh-cut lumber in cabinets and tables.

  Harvey walked to his kitchen and came back with two tin cups. He picked up the coffeepot on the potbellied stove in the front room and poured the cups nearly full.

  They drank coffee and rubbed their overnight beard stubble.

  “So, you came here for a reason so early, John. What is it?”

  “I want to warn you, Harve, and show you something.”

  Slocum pulled the wanted flyer from his pocket, unfolded it, and handed it to Harvey.

  Harvey read it quickly and looked long and hard at the drawing of Junius Collins.

  Then he handed the flyer back to Slocum, who refolded it and slipped it back in his shirt pocket.

  “I’m not very surprised,” Harvey said. “But surprised. That’s Orson Canby, I’m sure.”

  “It is. He murdered a friend of mine in Dodge City when he was called Junius Collins.”

  “So you’re going to try and collect the bounty?”

  “For his widow, yes,” Slocum said.

  “Well, good luck. Canby is surrounded by guns and men who know how to use them.”

  “That’s not why I came over, Harvey,” Slocum said.

  Harvey sipped his coffee. His eyebrows arched.

  “No? Why, then?”

  “If you saw those smoke signals yesterday, you know the Apaches are up to something.”

  “I’ve seen smoke signals before. Not here, but on the way out here.”

  “Last night, a wagonload of guns left Deadfall and headed out to the desert. Spencer repeaters. Carbines. And ammunition. I think Canby is in cahoots with the Apaches. On the way here in Obie’s wagon, we were attacked by some Apache braves.”

  “Oh?”

  “Except one of them was a Mexican named Sanchez. Obie told me he worked for Canby.”

  “Yes. Fidel Sanchez. He was one of Canby’s strong arms. Gave me and some other miners a hard time a couple of months ago. You killed him?”

  “Yes. He was wearing Apache clothes. And war paint.”

  “Hmmm. Curious.”

  “More than curious, Harvey. I think Canby wants the Apaches to wipe out the settlement here so he can lay claim to all the holdings in this valley.”

  Harvey let out a low whistle.

  “So,” Slocum said. “From now on, carry your rifle with you when you go to and from your mine. There will be some kind of signal, I’m sure, which will give Canby a chance to light a shuck before the shooting starts.”

  “I’d better warn all my friends here,” Harvey said.

  “Laurie and I plan to ride out this morning and convey this message to everyone. If we stick together, we can drive the Apaches out of here before they slaughter every man in Deadfall.”

  “All right. Good idea. I can’t possibly see every man here while I’m on foot.”

  Slocum finished his coffee and rose up from his chair.

  He and Harvey shook hands.

  “What about Canby?” Harvey asked.

  Slocum started for the door.

  “I’m going after him,” Slocum said. “Today.”

  “Good luck.”

  “Watch your topknot, Harvey.”

  Slocum left and walked back to Laurie’s cabin.

  The sun was still in another part of the world.

  He had a lot to do and very little time to accomplish all that needed to be done.

  But, he thought, he had made a start.

  26

  Laurie was up and dressed by the time Slocum returned and entered her cabin.

  She held a small pistol and holster in her hand.

  Slocum recognized the items.

  “You left this on the floor in my bedroom,” she said. “At least I assume it’s yours.”

  Slocum laughed and grabbed the small revolver and its case.

  “My belly gun,” he said.

  “Where did you go so early this morning?” she asked.

  Slocum attached the gun inside his trousers behind his belt buckle and told her that he had been to see Harvey.

  They ate a quick breakfast and walked to town, where they headed for the stables. The sun was up, but there were still shadows on Main Street.

  Johnny was there, feeding all the horses, when they walked in on him.

  “You goin’ for a ride, Miss Laurie?” Johnny said. “With him?”

  “John, maybe you’d better talk to Johnny before we go. Show him that flyer you have.”

  While Laurie led her horse out of the stall, Slocum took Johnny aside and pulled the flyer from his pocket.

  “Do me a favor, will you, Johnny?” he said as he made sure they were both out of earshot of Laurie.

  “I don’t know, Mr. Slocum. Mr. Canby would have my hide if he knew you were here and I didn’t tell him.”

  “Oh, you can tell him I was here, Johnny,” Slocum said. “But first, I want you to take this flyer and give it to Marlene Vanders at the Wild Horse. Do you know where her room is?”

  “Yes, sir, I sure do. Everybody does. But she’s probably still asleep. Till noon maybe.”

  “Wake her up and tell her I wanted her to have this.”

  Slocum handed the paper to the stable boy.

  “What is it?” Johnny asked.

  “You can take a look at it if you want. But you better do it before you tell Canby I was here.”

  “Where you goin’, Mr. Slocum?”

  “I wish I could tell you, Johnny, but now is not the time. Trust me. I’ll see you later today maybe, or sometime tomorrow.”

  Johnny took the paper and tucked it into a shirt pocket.

  Slocum saddled Ferro. He and Laurie rode back to her cabin so that he could get his saddlebags, rifle, and canteens.

  She packed food and they rode out into the valley. By then the sun had cleared the buttes, the creeks were shining, and the valley lit up like an oil painting.

  “Did you give that wanted flyer to Johnny?” she asked as they rode toward the far end of the valley, to where Hornaday was hiding out.

  “Yes.”

  “Don’t you think it would help to show that to all the men we’re going to warn?”

  “I have another one,” Slocum said, and patted a pocket of his shirt.

  “You’re smarter than you look,” she said, and smiled.

  “Maybe I look smarter than I am,” he said.

  The sun was at their backs as they rode down the center of the valley. Men were already at the creeks with their pans and sluices, and men entered holes in the buttes that they had blasted and carved with pickaxes. They all waved as the two passed by.

  “They won’t be smiling when they hear what you have to say, John.”

  “And they’ll have to empty out this valley and fetch their rifles and sidearms,” he said. “There’s probably not too many moments to lose.”

 
; “What will you tell them?” she asked as they headed for the mesa where Hornaday had spent the night in a cave.

  “I’m going to tell them to prepare for war,” he said.

  “War?”

  “War with the Apaches. I’ve got my own war to wage.”

  “Whatever are you talking about, John? Aren’t you going to fight alongside the rest of us?”

  “If I get the chance,” he said. “But I’ve got a war of my own to fight.”

  She looked at him long and hard.

  “Canby,” he said. “Before he leaves town.”

  27

  Shortly after noon, the empty wagon rolled up to a stop behind Mrs. Hobbs’s boardinghouse. Rodrigo set the brake. He and Paco climbed down and entered the house through the back entrance.

  Moments later, they carried out mattresses, pillows, and worn-out sheets and piled these in the bed of the wagon.

  Then the two walked up to the hotel and went through the back doors.

  They found Canby in Matt Jennings’s office on the mezzanine. Both men stood near the open safe. They were placing stacks of money into saddlebags on Jennings’s desk.

  The Mexicans had never seen so much money before. And there were bags full of gold dust on the desk as well.

  “Back already?” Canby said.

  “Blue Wolf is coming,” Rodrigo said. “When he sees the smoke, he will attack. Paco and I have the wagon loaded with the old mattresses and pillows like you said to get from Mrs. Hobbs. We are going to go to Gravel Gulch and leave it.”

  “We will soak the bedding with coal oil,” Paco said. “Like you said, Orson.”

  “So, by late afternoon…” Canby said, exchanging looks with Jennings.

  “That’s fast, Orson,” Jennings said.

  “We’ll be lucky to leave before they come.”

  Then he looked at Paco.

  “When you boys leave, stop by the stables and tell Johnny to hitch those new horses to that covered wagon parked out back.”

  “I will do that,” Paco said.

  “After you boys light up that wagon, you better light out of town.”

  “Where do you go, Orson?” Rodrigo asked. “With all that money and gold?”

  Canby smiled.

  “West,” he said. “Until the scalps are dry in the Apache lodges.”

  Both men backed out of the office and ran down the stairs.

  They knew Blue Wolf would come, and they wanted to set fire to the wagon and light out themselves.

  “We must take our saddles with us and ride those horses that pull the wagon,” Rodrigo said.

  “Yes. We must do that,” Paco said.

  They headed for the stables, driving the wagon full of worn-out bedding.

  Their eyes were still wide from seeing all that money and gold.

  28

  Slocum rode back into Deadfall alone.

  He had warned all the men in the valley and they had left town themselves as he had advised.

  Laurie had gone back to her cabin.

  Hornaday was with her. They both saw the wagon rumble into the valley.

  They watched with binoculars as two Mexicans unhitched horses, saddled them, and then poured something over whatever was in the wagon bed.

  Then both men struck matches and tossed them into the wagon.

  The wagon erupted in a blaze of fire that turned to smoke.

  The smoke rose straight up in the sky as if through an invisible chimney.

  “Wallace,” Laurie exclaimed. “That’s the signal for the Apaches to attack. It’s got to be.”

  “All hell’s goin’ to break loose pretty soon,” he said as he gripped his rifle and looked at the column of smoke.

  The two men climbed up on the saddled horses and rode off toward town at a gallop.

  Slocum rode Ferro past the stables and headed for the hotel.

  The sun had passed its zenith and was falling toward the west in a slow burning arc.

  Just before he turned the corner of Second Street, he saw Johnny run toward him from the stables.

  “Mr. Slocum, Mr. Slocum!” he called.

  Slocum reined in Ferro and came to a halt.

  “I gave that flyer to Miss Marlene,” he said. “Like you told me to.”

  “Good, Johnny. Now you better get yourself a rifle and strap on a pistol.”

  “How come?”

  Slocum looked back toward the valley and pointed.

  “That’s the signal to the Apaches,” he said. “They’re going to come through town like shit through a tin horn pretty quick.”

  “I looked at that flyer, Mr. Slocum. That’s Canby, ain’t it?”

  “Afraid so, son.”

  “He had me hitch up them horses you sold him and he’s loadin’ up bags and suitcases and such right now. Like he’s goin’ on a long trip.”

  “Thanks, Johnny. Marlene say anything?” he asked.

  “She said to thank you, Mr. Slocum. And…and she said she hoped she would see you again sometime.”

  “Better tell her about the Apaches, Johnny.”

  Slocum rode around the corner. Down the street, he saw Canby and a man he did not know, lifting bundles and satchels into a covered wagon. The four horses he had brought to Deadfall were hitched up and stomping their hooves.

  He caught Canby by surprise. The man with him went wide-eyed as well.

  “Slocum,” Canby said.

  “Junius,” Slocum said.

  Jennings’s face turned white.

  Slocum dismounted and slapped Ferro on the rump. The horse trotted off but then stopped and stood several yards away.

  “You want to go easy, Canby, or hard?” Slocum said as he stood there, feet apart, his arms loose at his sides.

  “I ain’t goin’ with you, if that’s what you mean, Slocum. Me and Jennings here have other plans.”

  “You called it, Canby,” Slocum said.

  Just then a man stepped out of the hotel. He looked at Slocum in surprise.

  It was Hack.

  He started for his pistol, his hand diving like a hawk toward the butt of his Colt.

  Slocum drew his pistol, cocked it on the rise.

  “You made your choice, Hack,” Slocum said. “Now die.” He fired one shot, and Hack fell to the street.

  Slocum turned as Jennings opened his coat and his hand floundered to reach the pistol hung high on his belt.

  He shot Jennings in the face before the man could draw his weapon.

  Canby had a derringer in his hand. He cocked it as Slocum swung his pistol.

  Canby fired one round, which missed Slocum by several inches.

  It was the last thing Canby ever did.

  Slocum squeezed the trigger and shot Canby right through the heart. The blood spurt did not last long as the organ stopped pumping.

  Canby collapsed into a pile of tailored cloth and blood.

  Smoke lazed from the barrel of Slocum’s pistol.

  He walked over to Ferro and climbed into the saddle. Then he reloaded his pistol and rode back into the valley.

  Apaches screamed as they emerged from behind the buttes in bunches of three and four.

  Gunfire erupted from rifles and painted bucks bit the dust everywhere he looked.

  Slocum drew his rifle from its boot and rode into the fray. As he levered shell after shell into the chamber and started firing, the Apaches started dropping.

  Finally, one warrior threw up his hands in surrender and rode toward Slocum.

  Slocum held his fire.

  “You are the one my braves told me about,” he said in English. “I am Blue Wolf.”

  “Canby is dead,” Slocum said. “The men here will fight you to the death.”

  “I know. I leave now. You have won.”

  Then Blue Wolf rode away, calling to his men. The Apaches melted into puffs of dust behind the buttes.

  A silence settled over the valley.

  The war was over.

  The Apaches had carried off their dead,
and the wagon was burned to a crisp, just a smoldering hulk in the middle of a valley that was peaceful once again.

  Watch for

  SLOCUM AND THE SANTA FE SISTERS

  410th novel in the exciting SLOCUM series

  from Jove

  Coming in April!