We all of us got up and follered Clem outa the place. ’Course, he stopped on the way out to pay the bill. We didn’t want no trouble over such a matter as that to interfere with the big plans. We walked outside and on down the street and acrost it to the front door a the bank, and just as we was about to get to it, we seed a feller in a suit unlocking the door. We give each other a look and walked on over there. Early in the morning afore we had gone to the eating place, we had tied our four horses to a hitch rail just acrost the street from the bank, and they was still there just a-waiting for us. Clem give a nod to Arny, and Arny peeled off from the rest of us and walked over to wait with the horses. The plan was that whenever he seed us a-coming outa the bank, he would loose the reins of all four horses so they’d be ready for us for a fast get-outa-town. The other three of us kept on a-walking.
When we come to the front door a the bank, Bo turned around and leaned against the wall real casual-like, and he tuck the makings outa his pocket and rolled hisself a cigareet. He was to make like he was just a-loafing around and smoking but actual, he was a kinda lookout. Me and Clem went on inside. I stopped just to one side a the door, and Clem, he went on over to the counter. The feller what had unlocked the door was standing behind the counter, and he looked up at Clem and grinned.
“How may I help you, sir?” he said.
Clem whipped out his six-gun, and I done the same thing. Then Clem brung a sack out from under his coat and throwed it on top a the counter.
“Just fill it up,” he said, “and don’t try funning me with small bills.”
The grin went offa that ole boy’s face right quick, and he went to shaking. “Yes, sir,” he said. “Yes, sir. Please don’t shoot.”
Well, with his hands a-trembling and all, he went to opening drawers and hauling out bills and stuffing them in that sack. By and by, ole Clem said, “That’s enough of that. What’s in the vault?”
“Why, I—”
“Just open it up,” Clem snapped, “and be quick about it.”
Ever’ now and then, I would glance outside through the winder to see if anyone was a-coming toward the bank door. That there was a part a my job. I never seed no one a-coming though. We was lucking out on that part a the deal. Anyhow, I had just give one a my looks out the winder, and when I turned back I seed that there bank feller a-stuffing money into the sack from outa the vault. Clem give a nervous look back in my direction ever’ now and then. Final he figgered that we had done spent enough time inside the bank.
“All right,” he said. “Hand it over.”
“There’s still more money—”
“That’s enough,” Clem said. “Hand me the goddamn sack.”
The silly little bastard walked back to the counter and handed the bag a money to Clem, and Clem choked it up real good with his left hand.
“Lay down on the floor,” he said, and the little feller disappeared back behind the counter. Clem come a-hustling toward the door, and I jerked it open and stepped aside. He went out, and I follered him. Ever’thing outside looked quiet. Giving quick glances up and down the street, Clem headed acrost toward the horses and Amy with Bo right by his side. Me, I had dropped back a couple a steps a purpose. Them two Dawsons was about in the middle a the street whenever the sheriff come outa the front door a the general store a pointing a Henry rifle.
“Hold it right there,” he called out. “You’re under arrest.”
Clem and Bo hesitated, a-looking like as if they was a-thinking about going for their guns, but just then ole Dick Cherry stepped out from in front a the eating place.
“Don’t try it,” he said.
Clem tried it. He went for his six-gun and yelled out at the same time, “Let’s take them.”
I shot the hat offa his head. “Throw down your guns, boys,” I yelled.
Well, it come on them then what they was for real up against, but instead a doing the smart thing, Clem, he pulled his iron anyhow and snapped off a shot at the sheriff. The sheriff ducked back into the doorway. In the meantime, Arny and Bo had both hauled out their shooters, and Bo was taking aim at ole Cherry. I dropped Bo easy. Arny whirled on me, and ole Dick Cherry dropped him. Clem had by that time run to the horses, and he had ducked on down betwixt them. He tuck off like a pony express rider a-lurking down by the side a his horse. I figgered I could take him on down anyhow, but just as I was fixing to do that there little thing, damned if Bo didn’t raise up from where I had thunk he was a laying dead.
“Look out, Kid,” Cherry yelled, on accounta he didn’t have no clear shot at Bo, and I whirled around and sent another slug into poor ole Bo. He dropped dead that time for sure.
“Clem’s getting away with the money,” I hollered, and the sheriff come outa hiding and raised that Henry up to his shoulder. He tuck a keerful aim and snapped off a shot, and I seed ole Clem give a flinch, and I seed that money sack go a-flying. Clem kept on a-riding. I run acrost the street and jumped on Ole Horse and tuck after Clem. Dick and the sheriff was right behind me. Whenever I come on that money sack, I just kept on a-going. I was after Clem, and I was a-wondering where all a the money from the Fosterville bank was at—what was left of it. Well, Ole Horse done a admirable job, but Clem and his nag had too much of a start on us. I had to give it up. I turned around and rid slow back to where Cherry and the sheriff was a-gathering up the sack and some money what had spilt out of it whenever Clem had dropped it.
“He’s got too much of a start on me,” I said.
“We can catch up to him later,” Cherry said, and I seed something wild in his eyes as he was a stuffing some bills into the sack what the sheriff was a-holding.
“At least we recovered the money,” the sheriff said, “and we got two of them.”
“They’s another five hunnerd riding out yonder away from us,” I said, remarking, a course, on the reeward money on the Dawsons’ heads.
“We’ll catch up with him,” Cherry said, kindly exasperated-like.
Well, them two got that sack stuffed back full, and the three of us rid back into town. Someone had done laid out the two dead Dawsons side by side on the sidewalk, and a man with one a them damn camera things was a-taking their dead poses with their guns a-laid acrost their chests and their dead eyes a-staring straight up. I had kilt me some men as you all know, but I hadn’t never seed no one take their portraits like that, and it kindly made me want to puke, but I never.
“I want me a drink,” I said, early as it was.
“I’ll be along,” Cherry said.
I went on over to the saloon and ordered me up a shot a good brown whiskey, and I drunk it down fast. I usually sip at it, you know. Then I called for a second one, and I did just kindly sip at that one. By and by, Cherry come in and bellied up to the bar beside me.
“What’s wrong, Kid?” he said.
“Ain’t nothing wrong,” I said, a-lying to him. “It ain’t the first time I kilt a man.”
He laid out five hunnerd on the bar.
“That’s your share for the two Dawsons,” he said. Then he counted out five more a them big bills. “The bank president gave us a thousand for saving his money.”
“That was right big a him,” I said. I was thinking a the ten percent what ole Throne had promised. ’Course, ole Chastain had kindly prodded him into making it that much. He had offered five the first time.
“Say,” I said to Cherry, “what about the Fosterville money?”
“I asked the sheriff. He’s checking the pockets and the saddle bags of the dead men. Of course, if Clem has any of it, it’s gone along with him.”
“We have to go after him, Dick,” I said. “I promised—”
“I know. You promised your lawman friend. Besides, there’s another five hundred on his head, and there’s the rest of the Fosterville bank money—almost for sure. We’ll get on his trail right away. But for now, let’s wait for the sheriff to clean up the mess in town.”
I tuck me another sip a whiskey, and then I realized just where I was a-heading myself, and I
said to Cherry, a-changing my tone somewhat, “I reckon in the morning’ll do just fine.”
Then, ’stead a ordering me another shot, I called for the bottle. Cherry got hisself a glass, and me and him went to set down at a table.
“Well, Kid,” Dick said to me, “what do you think of the bounty-hunting business now?”
“I reckon they’s always a-plenty a work,” I said.
Ole Cherry laughed at that. “That’s the truth,” he said. “There’s always another outlaw with a price on his head. And we did all right here this morning. A thousand dollars apiece. That’s not bad for a morning’s work. Right?”
I give a shrug. I was a-thinking that it was a might easier than panning for gold, and it sure did pay a hell of a lot more than chasing cows. A course, it could be dangerous, but then I was just cocky enough to believe that I was a bit more dangerous than most men what I had run up against, anyhow. I didn’t say none a that to ole Cherry, though. Instead I just tuck me another sip a whiskey. My head was a-getting warmish. Just then I heared a feller up at the bar a-talking to the barkeep.
“Who’d they say brought down those two outlaws?”
“Fella named Cherry,” the barkeep said, “and his partner. The one they call Kid Parmlee. That’s them right over there.”
“Kid Parmlee,” the other feller said. “That’s what I thought I heard.”
I looked up then, and I seed that feller. He had turned around and was a-looking in our direction. I didn’t think I had ever seed him before, but somehow, he had a kindly familiar look about him, and it was one that I didn’t like none, neither. He seed me a-looking back at him, and he hitched his britches and come a-walking at me with a ugly sneer on his already ugly face. He was a good sized bastard, too. He come within a few paces of me and stopped still.
“You Kid Parmlee?”
“I get called that,” I said. “Who might you be?”
“I figured I’d run across your trail some day,” he said. “I guess this is my lucky day.”
Well, I ain’t dumb. I could see that he was trouble a-coming at me, and I was just already some woozy from the drinks I had drunk so early in the day. I scooted back my chair, and I stood up, and I felt my legs a-rubbery under me. I also felt like I was a-weaving some.
“So you run acrost my trail,” I said. “So what?”
“I got it in my head to kill you, Kid,” he said.
Well, hell, I had heared that before, and so it didn’t skeer me none. “Any pertikler reason?” I asked him. “Or just for fun?”
“It’ll be fun, all right,” he said, “but there is a reason.”
“You gonna let me in on it?”
“Yeah,” he said. “I might as well. I think it’s always a good policy to let a man know why he’s about to die.”
“And I kindly like knowing how come I’m a-fixing to kill a man,” I said.
“My name’s Chesley Hook,” he said.
I kindly groaned out loud.
“That bother you?”
“I done kilt me a-right smart a your family,” I said. “Whyn’t you just let it be? I don’t need to kill me no more Hookses nor Piggses. And besides that, ain’t there no end to you? I figgered I’d done kilt the whole damn bunch ’cept for maybe wimmen and childern.”
“You ain’t funny, Kid,” he said. “I mean to kill you right now. Go for your gun.”
“You’re a-starting this thing,” I said. “Go for yours.” To tell you the gospel truth a the matter, there was a little something inside a me just then that told me I might very well be a-fixing to be dead, on accounta I weren’t near at my level best. Whiskey always did impair my doings more than somewhat. Still, I weren’t about to back down from no Hook, even if it did might mean my own killing. Then the next thing what happened, I didn’t hardly know it till it was did.
I seed ole Hook a-reaching for his iron, and I went for mine, and usual the next thing woulda been, I’d a-shot him dead. But I never. I heared a roar from off to my left side, and my own trusty Colt weren’t even clear a leather, and I seed a splotch a red on the chest of ole Hook, and I seed the stupid look come on his face. I seed his fingers kindly relax and let that there six-gun slip loose and fall to the floor. I watched him stand there a-swaying and a-looking at me with major surprise writ big on his ugly face. Then, I seed his eyes go kindly blank, and he pitched forward and landed hard on his face right smack there in fronta me. I looked over to my side, and there was ole Dick Cherry a-standing there with his shooter in his hand.
“I didn’t mean to horn in, Kid,” he said.
“If you hadn’t a-horned, I’d be dead,” I said. “He was faster’n me.”
“Aw, you’d have probably beat him,” Cherry said.
“Ain’t no way,” I said. “He was a-leveling on me when you shot. I hadn’t even cleared leather. He’d a kilt me sure.”
I set down heavy back in my seat and poured me another drink. The sheriff come a-running in then, and he seed the dead Hook and he seed me and ole Cherry. The barkeep told him what had tuck place there, and the sheriff, he accepted the story. He didn’t even ask no questions. He said he’d send someone to take out the carcass by and by, and then he went on out again. I drank down my whiskey and poured another, and I could feel a serious drunk a-coming on me. But I was a-doing me some heavy thinking, too.
“Dick,” I said, “you saved my worthless life.”
“Ah, Kid—”
“No,” I said. “You did. You for real did. I’ve faced me a bunch a men, and I’ve kilt all of them what I didn’t skeer outa drawing. He had me cold. I know it. I seed it. You saved my ass, ole pard. You done it. I won’t never forget it neither. I promise you that, Dick. I won’t never forget it what you done.”
Well, I reckon by that, ole Cherry had got tired a my drunken blubbering, on accounta he interrupted me right then and changed the subject kinda.
“What was that about his family?” he asked me, and so I had to go and tell the whole long and complicated tale a me and the Piggses and the Hookses, and how it was the killing of a Pigg, ole Joe to be exact, what had first set me out on the fugitive’s trail whenever I was just only a snot-nosed kid a the tender age a sixteen years. I told Dick how come me to kill a man at that ripe age, on accounta he had kilt my ole dog Farty, and how my old man had did the first nice thing he had ever did for me by giving me his old sway-backed horse and ten dollars and telling me to get the hell outa Texas. I told him from there how I come to learn cowboying and gunfighting from ole Rod and Tex and the rest a the boys at the Boxwood, and then I told him about how it seemed like as if ever’time I turned around they was one more a that Goddamned family a-coming at me.
“You know, they might be a-coming after you, too, now,” I said.
“We’ll worry about that when it happens,” he said.
“Yeah,” I said, “I seed you take that one there. I reckon for sure you can handle yourself all right.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“Another damn Hook,” I said. And then it come to me that whenever I had first off met up with ole Cherry, he had drawed on me, and I had beat him square, and he had friz up, and I never shot him. I begun to wonder then if he had did that a purpose, a-faking me out to make me think I was faster than what he was. If he had did that, then I wondered how come he had did it, but I went and shoved that there nagging thought outa my head. They was just one thing what was sure for certain, and that was that he had outdrawed both me and that latest Hook, and he had saved my ass.
“Kid,” Cherry said, “I think you’ve had enough. I think you ought to go upstairs and sleep it off. What do you say?”
“Yeah,” I said. “All right. I’m a-going. Hey, Dick?”
“What is it?”
“Send me that little ole gal on up, will you? What was her name?”
“You mean Sparky?”
“Yeah. Send Sparky on up to me.”
Chapter 7
Well, somehow or ’nother I got my ass ups
tairs and into the bed in my room, and I guess I just went on over to it and flopped down just like I was, with my gunbelt and my boots and ever‘thing still on me and not even a-bothering to shut the damn door, much less to lock it, and that’s about the last thing I recall till I come awake way later in the day. Damned if I weren’t nekkid as hell and ole Sparky a-laying there beside a me in the same gen’ral condition. Well, you might recall, I had been caught thataway once before, and I didn’t like the outcome a that incident not one damn bit. I come up outa that bed right quick and run over to check the door, but ole Sparky, she knowed. She had bolted it good from the inside, so ever’thing was all right.
I headed back for the bed, and Sparky come awake just then. She set up and looked at me, a-rubbing her eyes, and she smiled. I crawled back in beside of her and tuck her plumb nekkidness into my arms and hugged her real good. “You tuck good keer a me, darlin’,” I said. “I thank you for that.”
“It was nothing compared to the way I’m fixing to take care of you,” she said.
And Lord Godamighty did she ever mean what she said. She tuck keer a me all right. More than all right. She tuck wondrous keer a me. She give me one a the most magnificentest times I ever had in my life. She used ever‘thing she had on ever’thing I had, and I won’t never forget none of it, not a minute, for as long as I live if I was to get as old as ole Zeb and my ole paw put together, and their years all added up to a hunnerd and forty-seven or whatever it might come out to be. When she was all did with me, I couldn’t move. I didn’t want to neither. I just laid there like a whipped dog a-breathing slow and deep.
Well, final she got up and got a bowl a water and a sponge and washed me all off real good and her own self too, and then she went to getting herself dressed. “I’ve got to go now, Kid,” she said. “Is it all right?” I knowed I weren’t the onliest thing in her life what she had to deal with, and I told her that it was just fine, and I understood. I watched her till she got all dressed and left the room. Then I mustered up all a my strength, what weren’t much just then, and got up to bolt the door back. I rolled myself a cigareet and lit it, and then I poured myself a drink a that whiskey and tuck me a sip. I was setting on the edge a the bed like that whenever I heared a knock at the door. I looked around real quick-like and seed where ole Sparky had hung my gunbelt on a chair back. I grabbed out my Colt and went over to the door. “Who’s there?” I asked.
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