The Devil's Trail

by Robert J Conley

  Wheeler grinned. “That’s right,” he said.

  I give Cherry a look and asked him, “How much is that split in two?”

  “One hundred and twelve thousand, five hundred dollars for you, and the same for me,” he said.

  “A hunnerd and twelve thousand and five hunnerd dollars.” I said. Then I looked back at Wheeler. “How come you to be so generous in the splitting up of all that much money?” I asked.

  “It’s not being generous. It’s my standard rate. I get twenty-five thousand from you, ten thousand from someone else, and so on. I’m doing all right. I also get your hundred a night for the room.”

  “And you own the whole damn town, too,” I said. “The saloon. How about this here eatery?”

  “It’s mine,” he said, and he were still grinning. “Well, what do you say? It’s entirely up to you. You can take the job, or you can ride on out of town. I can always find someone else.”

  I reckoned that was for sure and him with a whole town full a outlaws paying him more than a hunnerd dollars a day. Hell, they had to come up with some way a-paying the bills or else get on outa there and take their chances with the law.

  “We’ll take it,” I said. “What is it?”

  “Not here. Like I told you last night,” he said, “we’ll talk about it in my office. Let’s go.”

  We follered Wheeler outa the eating place and across the street to the saloon. His office was through the big main room and back behind the back wall. He unlocked the door and went on in, and me and ole Dick follered along. As Wheeler was a-going back behind a big desk to settle his ass, he told us to set ourselfs down. We set in two chairs what was direct acrost the desk from Wheeler. He opened up a box a ceegars and offered them around, and pretty soon the three of us had that there little office all filled up with gray-blue smoke. They was good ceegars too. Not cheap.

  “Well?” Dick said. “What’s the job?”

  “Just hold on a bit,” Wheeler said. “You’ll find out all about it soon enough.”

  I hadn’t said nothing, but I was a-taking the time to look around the office kindly casual-like, you know, and I seed a safe over against the wall to my left. I was a-wondering then if that was where the Fosterville bank money, what was left of it, was stashed away at. I figgered that likely it was. The problem was how to get at it. I sure weren’t no safe cracker. I had heared about robbers a-blowing up safes, a course, but I wouldn’t a-knowed how much dynamite to use, and really, I didn’t want to use none a that stuff neither. I sure didn’t want to go waking up a whole town full a outlaws. Besides, I heared once about a outlaw what tried to rob a safe by blowing it up thataway, and the dumb son of a bitch blowed his own ass right smack through the roof a the place. I figgered I’d just tell ole Cherry after a while what it was I was a-thinking on, and then maybe the two of us could think up some way to deal with the situation. Just then the door come open and damned if them two Montana peaks didn’t come ambling on into the room and grab theirselfs a couple a chairs and set.

  “’Morning, boys,” Wheeler said.

  They mumbled good mornings back at him, give us cold stares, and then Wheeler told them who we was. Then he said, “This is Spike Dutton and his brother, Haw. You’ll be riding with them on this job. Spike, Haw, the kid here will be in charge.”

  “I thought we was in charge a this job,” Spike said.

  “I never said that. There just wasn’t anyone else involved until now. The kid’ll take over.”

  “How come?” Spike said. “We was in on it first. We know the whole set up. Him and his pal there come in at the last minute, a couple a Johnny-come-latelys, and you want them to just take it on over?”

  “That’s right. In the first place,” Wheeler said, “Kid Parmlee has struck fear in hearts for hundreds of miles around. He’s a dead shot, and he’s fast. Hell, he just killed all three Dawson brothers.”

  That there weren’t true, a course, but I never corrected him none. I just let him go on and let them all believe that there tale. At the time, it seemed like as if it might be to our benefit for them to think thataway.

  “In the second place, you two put together aren’t smart enough to skin a cat. That’s the reason I’ve been looking for someone else to help you out. I was thinking about Dawson, but the kid killed him. Besides, Dawson was just one man. The kid’s got a partner.”

  “And he’s just only a smidgen slower than me,” I said. “He can part your hair all right and not even scratch your scalp.”

  “I’m slow compared to the Kid,” Cherry said.

  “Well, I don’t like it,” said Haw. “I don’t think he looks so tough, neither. He ain’t nothing but a snot-nosed kid is all.”

  Well, I stood right up then, and I slitted my eyes down some and backed away a ways a-looking hard at that there Haw Dutton.

  “Mr. Wheeler,” I said, without taking my eyes offa Haw a course, “you want us to go outside to settle this, or you want me to just take him down right here in your office?”

  “There’s no need to go outside and make a public show,” Wheeler said.

  “All right then, stand up, Dutton,” I said. “Hell, both of you if you want. It don’t make no difference to me. Dick will stay out of it. I don’t need no help to kill the both of you. Stand on up.”

  Haw Dutton stood up kindly slow, and he stared at me.

  “Keep your seat, Spike,” he said.

  “Mr. Wheeler thinks we needs four for this job,” I said, “so on second thought, I won’t kill you after all. Which ear you want to keep on your head?”

  “What?” Haw asked, wrinkling up his face like as if he couldn’t quite believe what it was I had just said at him. I decided to explain it to him a little more fuller then.

  “I’m a-fixing to shoot off a ear offa you. Which one you want to keep?”

  “You ain’t going to do no such a thing,” ole Haw said, and he give a nervous laugh. “I’m fixing to kill you.”

  “Mr. Wheeler,” I said, “which one a his ears you want me to shoot offa this weasly-faced bastard?”

  “Take off his right one, Kid.”

  I mighta knowed he’d a said that. I thunk then that I shouldn’t oughta have pushed it quite so damn far. I shoulda just been happy to say that I’d shoot off a ear and not went to calling which one. You know, it’s a mite tougher for a right handed shooter to take off a right ear than a left one. But it was too late. I had done asked him, and he had told me, so I had to shoot Haw’s right ear off without doing no worse damage to him than just that. I stared at him and never moved.

  “Go on,” he yelled at me.

  “I’m a-waiting for you,” I said. “You’re going to need a head start on me.”

  Ole Spike, he got up outa his chair real slow-like, and he moved a good ways off from his brother. I seed that my current pard, ole Dick Cherry, were keeping his eye sharp on Spike just in case he was to decide to give his brother a little help on the side, you know. I was glad a that, ’cause thataway, you see, I didn’t have to concentrate on nothing but just only Haw’s right ear what I was a-meaning to knock right offa the side a his head or at the least tear a big hole outa the thing.

  “You want to take back what you said and sit down, aw?” Wheeler asked. “It’s not too late. There won’t be any hard feelings, will there, Kid?”

  “No hard feelings,” I agreed.

  “I ain’t backing down,” Haw shouted, and at the same time he went for his shooter. I jerked mine out and blasted, all in one smooth move. Haw’s gun was out all right, but it weren’t yet so much as leveled up at me whenever the hot lead a my bullet tore his right ear. Blood went a-flying, and Haw, he yelped something fierce and dropped his gun. His right hand went up to the side a his head, and that there ear blood was a-running free, just a-pulsing through his fingers and running down his arm to drip offa his elbone and puddle up on the floor a ole Wheeler’s nice fancy office room.

  “Ow, ow, ow,” Haw yellered out. “I’m a-bleeding to death here.
”

  “You won’t bleed to death from no tore ear,” I told him. “You will bleed considerable though. Kindly like a stuck pig. I oughta know. I’ve shot off a few.”

  “You son of a bitch.”

  “How come you to go calling me names thataway?” I said. “Hell, I coulda just as easy a-missed the mark a wee little bit and kilt you deader’n a flat toad, but I never. You’d oughta appreciate little favors like that.”

  “Calm down, Haw,” Wheeler said. “He’s right. Besides, you asked for it.” He pulled open a desk drawer and dragged out a bar towel what he throwed over at ole Haw. “Use this,” he said. He tossed a second one at ole Spike. “Mop the floor.”

  Haw went to dancing around, still giving out with little yelps. I seed that neither Haw nor his brother wasn’t about to do nothing more, so I went and holstered my Colt and set my ass back down in my chair.

  “That was good shooting, Kid,” Wheeler said. “Good thinking, too. You Dutton boys see now why the Kid’s in charge?”

  “I see, Mr. Wheeler,” Spike said.

  “My head hurts,” said Haw, “and I’m bleeding bad.”

  Spike jabbed a elbone into Haw’s side, and Haw jumped and real fast said, “Yeah. Yeah, I see.”

  I give a narrer-eyed look at ole Wheeler then, and I said, “Now you going to tell me and ole Dick here just what this job is?”

  “That payroll I mentioned will be on the stagecoach at noon tomorrow on the road from Victorville to a place called End of the Line. It’ll be headed south. There’s a good spot for an ambush about halfway between the two towns. Spike knows where it is. If you get there by noon tomorrow, you’ll be ahead of the stage. The four of you can take it easy. Get the payroll and come straight back here with it. That’s all.”

  “How long a ride is it to over yonder from here?” I asked.

  “If you leave Devil’s Roost at first light in the morning, you’ll be there in plenty of time,” Wheeler said.

  “A quarter of a million?” Dick said.

  “A quarter of a million,” said Wheeler. “Well, is it a deal?”

  “We’ll be a wanting a real early breakfast,” I said. “Men can’t do that kinda robbing on a empty stomach.”

  “It’ll be ready.”

  When me and ole Dick turned to leave Wheeler’s office, I give a motion a my hand to the Dutton boys, and they both got up fast to foller me. I reckon that me and Wheeler together had done convinced them that I was the boss all right. That Haw, he kept up his whimpering and whining, but he done what I said him to do. I led the way to the stable, and I made them show me their horses. They was good enough. Then we went to the general store, and I made sure that we all four of us had a-plenty a ammunition and even some trail grub. I told ever’one to check their canteens and make sure they was full a water.

  Well, we had us a full day a rest to look forward to, and I told them boys to not be getting their ass drunk and to get them a good long rest and a good night’s sleep. I told them what time to meet up with us for breakfast, and then I sent them off on their way. “Come on,” I said to ole Dick, and I led him back to our own room, what had once been the room a ole Clem Dawson. I shut the door and locked it up, even though I weren’t none too sure that locking a door in Jared Wheeler’s Devil Town would do no good if Wheeler was to want to come through it. Ole Dick, he throwed hisself down on the bed, and me, I tuck myself a chair and leaned it back on two legs against the wall.

  “With four of us in on the deal,” Dick said, “our cut’s only going to be fifty-six thousand, two hundred and fifty dollars.”

  I kindly muttered something. I weren’t really paying no attention to what he was a-saying.

  “Unless we kill those two Duttons.”

  “You notice that there safe in Wheeler’s office?” I asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “You reckon that there Fosterville money is in there?”

  “Probably so.”

  “You got any idee how we might could get it out?”

  “I’ve never robbed a safe in my life,” Cherry said.

  “Me neither,” I said, “but we got to figger out just how to rob that one.”

  “What for?”

  “The Fosterville bank money,” I said.

  “Come on, Kid,” Dick said. “We’re going after a quarter of a million in the morning. What do we care about the Fosterville bank’s money?”

  I kindly lifted up one ear at that there comment what come from ole Dick. I weren’t quite sure for certain that I had heared him right, or if I had, that I had for real understood just what the hell he was a-getting at.

  “What do you mean by that?” I asked him.

  He set up and give me a hard stare.

  “It’s plain enough,” he said. “If we have a quarter of a million dollars, we won’t need however much the Dawsons got out of the bank at Fosterville. Likely it’s only a few thousand. What do we care? We’ll have enough to live like kings. We’ll be set up for life.”

  “We come after them Dawsons for the reeward money,” I said, “and for a percentage of the returned bank money. And on accounta I promised that I’d get that there bank money back to the bank. This here stagecoach job, the only reason we’re a-going along with it is ’cause we ain’t yet figgered out how to get our hands on the Fosterville money yet. Whenever we get that payroll and get it back here, we’ll have to get to where Wheeler stashes his loot, take the payroll and the Fosterville money, and return it all to where it belongs. Then we’ll collect our reewards and go on our ways.”

  Well, ole Dick, he looked like as if he really wanted to say something to me then, but instead a doing that, why, he just heaved out a heavy sigh and give a shrug. “All right, Kid,” he said, “whatever you say. Like Wheeler said, you’re the boss.”

  “I don’t necessary want to be no boss,” I said. “I just only want to do what it was we set out to do. That’s all.”

  “All right.”

  “I’m a-thinking,” I said, “when we come back here to this Devil’s Pot with all that cash, and we take it on in there to ole Wheeler’s office, why, he’ll likely open up that there safe. We’ll watch him real good and sly, and maybe we can tell just how it is he does it.”

  “Yeah? Then what? You thinking about pulling off a robbery in this place? Devil’s Roost? A town full of desperate outlaws?”

  “It’s the only way I can think of to get the money back.”

  “You’re crazy.”

  “You got a better idee? I’m a-listening.”

  “No. I don’t.”

  “Well, then, quit your bellyaching about it. Unless you come up with a better way a doing it, we’ll do it the way I said.”

  “Yeah,” ole Dick said. “I hope they give us a decent burial in this owlhoot’s nest. That’s all I have to say.”

  Chapter 10

  The rest a that there day weren’t nothing much to talk about. I did go into the saloon and ketch them two Duttons after they’d had them each about three or four drinks, and I told them to cut it out and go to bed. Whenever they whined a bit at that thought, I told them they had three more ears I could shoot at. They went to their room all right. Then whenever I felt reasonable sure they was a-going to stay there till morning, I tuck me and ole Dick Cherry off to our room. I wanted us all up early, well rested and raring to go.

  In the morning I was up first, and I kicked the side a the bed to wake up ole Cherry. He come up without no problems. Soon as we was dressed and ready to go, we walked over to the room where the Duttons was a-staying, and I banged on their door till they come awake. Then me and Dick went in and waited till they was ready. The four of us went downstairs, outside and acrost the street to the eating place together. We found us a table inside, which weren’t no trouble on accounta it was so early, and we set down and ordered us each up a big breakfast. I told that man there what tuck our orders that ole Wheeler were a-putting it on the cuff for me, and he never argued with me none. Pretty soon we had et and drunk
our fill, and we left that place and walked to the stable. We saddled up our horses and headed on out.

  I had noticed since we first went into the Duttons’s room, and all the way through breakfast and even afterwards that ole Haw Dutton would ever’ now and then rub his ear scab and give me a hard look. I knowed that he wouldn’t dare to face me and try anything, but I was pretty damn sure that if he ever got hisself a good chance, he would most for sure try to kill me by backshooting or some other such cowardly way a doing the deed. I didn’t figger on giving him a chance.

  We never talked a whole hell of a lot on the way over to that there stage coach road what was west a the Devil’s Spot and a running north and south. There weren’t a lot to say. We all knowed what it was we was a-fixing to pull off, and we knowed how much it was worth. What we didn’t know was just exact how we was a-fixing to do it, on accounta it was me what was calling the shots, and I hadn’t never seed the place where it was we was a-fixing to hold up the stage. I had to get us there plenty early so I could look over the lay a the land and figger that out.

  Well, we made it early enough, and sure enough, the road tuck a sharp turn around a high-up wall a rock on the right. Just around the curve it went to climbing uphill. It was a place where the driver would for sure have to slow it down considerable, and what’s more, he wouldn’t be able to see what was in the road around the bend. The ground on the left side a the road, that was the east side, it were might near flat, but it did have a few clumps a brush spotted here and there, enough for a man or two to crouch down behind and hide his ass.

  I rid along north and south real slow-like, a-looking at both sides a the road and up toward the top a that there sheer wall a rock, studying real hard on the situation. The other three was a-getting kindly impatient with me, I could tell. Final I looked at ole Spike Dutton, and I asked him, “Can you get up there on top a that there wall, you reckon?”

  “Yeah,” he said. “I know the way.”

  “How far north along this road can you see from up there?”