The Devil's Trail

by Robert J Conley

  I set still there a-trying to recover from the pain and the effort and waiting for the stars to cut out their dancing in front a my eyeballs. Final I said, “Let’s go, Ole Horse,” and I give him a little nudge, and he started off, but I held him to a slow walk. I figgered that was all I could stand a the jarring and jouncing what comes with riding a horse. Again, I thunk that Ole Horse was prob‘ly a-wondering what the hell was wrong with me, a-riding him so slow like that. Not that I ordinary tuck off with him like a bat outa hell, ’cause I never, only ’cept in dire emergencies, but ordinary I would likely a trotted him along a bit more livelier than what I was doing just then.

  Well, it were a slow ride back to that Wheeler’s Devil Town. I stopped along the way a time or two whenever I seed some good grass and water for Ole Horse, but since I didn’t have no food nor no way a-ketching me any, I sure didn’t have no need a stopping for my own meals. I just kept a-plugging away, and even whenever I stopped for Ole Horse, I never got down outa the saddle. The reason being was that I didn’t want to go through that painful ordeal a getting back up there again.

  It were nightfall whenever I final rid on into hell. I hadn’t met up with no one along the trail, but there in town, they was outlaws all over the place. I put Ole Horse in the stable and went a-hobbling on over to ole Wheeler’s office. Ever‘one in the saloon give me stares as I walked through, I was so beat up and dirty looking. ’Course, I was also the only son of a bitch in the place without a six-gun strapped on me. Just as I come to the door to Wheeler’s office room, I wondered if he would believe my story or would he just kill me dead on accounta me losing all that payroll money from him. I tuck me a breath and rapped on the door.

  “Come on in.”

  I opened the door up and stepped on inside, and ole Wheeler, he looked up at me from behind his big, slick desk, and when he got hisself a good look, his eyeballs popped wide open. “What the hell happened to you, Kid?” he said.

  “It’s a kind of a long story,” I said.

  “Well, sit down.” He got up and went over to a cabinet what stood against one wall and got a bottle and a glass and poured me a glass a whiskey. I set in a chair there by his desk, and he brung me the drink. I tuck it with thanks and tuck me a sip. Oh my, but it was good after what all I had been through.

  “You was right about that there payroll,” I said. “And we tuck it too without no trouble atall.” I tuck me another sip.

  “Well?”

  “Well, we was on our way here with the payroll, and them two owlhoots what you stuck me with decided that they didn’t need to bring that money back here and share none of it with you. They stood ready to face me down, and I was ready to take them both on and kill the both of them, too. I’ve tuck more than two before, and I knowed I could do it. Then damned if my own pard, ole Dick Cherry, didn’t crack open my skull from behind me. He double-crossed me and tuck up with them Duttons. They tuck the money, all the food, my horse, and my gun, and they left me a-laying there to die slow and miserable. Lucky for me, Ole Horse, he musta got away from them somehow, on accounta he come back to me. That’s the only reason I’m here to tell it.”

  “So the Duttons and Dick Cherry turned on you and me both.”

  “They damn sure did.”

  “I can’t let them get away with this.”

  “Hell, me neither. I mean to kill them all, ’special ole Dick for turning on me, and him my pardner. Only thing is, Mr. Wheeler, here I am not just only busted up, but busted. I ain’t got no way to pay you for a room nor nothing.”

  “You’re on my payroll,” he said, “starting right now. There’s no charge for your room, your meals, your drinks, the stable—nothing. Here.”

  He hauled some bills outa his pocket and shoved them at me. I tuck them and shoved them down into my own pocket. I stood up then with a groan.

  “I’ll get on their trail just as soon as I can heal up some,” I said.

  “How bad is it?”

  “My cracked head ain’t too bad,” I said. “It don’t hurt too much by now. Not ’lessen I touch it. What’s bad is they kicked in my ribs, and I can’t hardly do nothing without it hurts like blazes.”

  “Go on up to your room and take it easy,” Wheeler said. “I’ll have a hot bath brought up to you, and I’ll send Doc to see you. Take that bottle and glass along with you, too. You might need them.”

  I thanked him and left his office. Then I dumb the stairs up to the room what had been mine and Cherry’s and before that had been the Dawson boys’s room. I tuck off my hat and boots and that there nasty shirt I had been a-wearing, and then I had me another drink before I fell back onto the bed. The falling back hurted my rib cage. I was about drifted off to sleep whenever I heared a knock at my door.

  “Who is it?” I said.

  “Your bath.”

  “Oh. Well, come on in.”

  Well, a whole damn crew come in. Two of them lugged a tub in, and the rest of them was toting buckets a hot water what they poured into the tub. They come back several more times before they had that tub all filled up, and then one of them dumped some kinda soap powders in there and sudsied it all up. Ever’one left the room but just only one last man, and he pulled a table over to the side a the tub, and laid out a big towel and a rag and a brush on the table. Then he put a ashtray on it with a ceegar beside of it and some matches. He set my bottle on it, too.

  “Anything else?” he asked me.

  “I reckon not,” I said, and he left. Well, I stood up and studied that there hot and sudsy water, and I finished my drink and stripped my ass the rest a the way off nekkid and stepped into that hot water. It tuck a bit for me to ease my whole self on down in there, but once I was in it up to my chin, it sure did feel good. I got to thinking just how dirty I for real was, what with dirt and sweat, my own blood, and buzzard blood and guts, and nasty crick water. A good cleaning had oughta do me a world a good, I thunk. Then I heared another knock.

  “Who’s there?”

  “It’s Doc.”

  Well, that plumb puzzled me on accounta, I knowed that ole Wheeler had said he was a going to send a doc up to see me, leastways someone he called Doc and I had figgered must be a real doc, but that there voice what I had just then heared was a little sweet voice like a woman’s voice.

  “Doc?” I said.

  “That’s right. Mr. Wheeler sent me up.”

  “Well, come on in.”

  The door opened up and one a the most beautifullest ladies what I had ever saw come a-sweeping into the room. She had kinda auburn hair, I think they calls it, and it was all put up on top a her head, and she was a wearing a white blouse with lacy stuff around her wrists and her neck, and she had on a long black skirt. She was a-carrying a black bag what looked like a doctoring bag all right. My face went plumb red, leastways I think it did ’cause it sure het up some. I could feel it.

  “They call you Kid?” she asked me.

  “Yes’m,” I said. I hadn’t been expecting no lady to come in on my bath like that, and I were some embarrassed.

  “Mr. Wheeler said you might have some broken ribs. I thought you might need some help scrubbing.”

  “Uh, yes’m.”

  She put aside her doctoring bag and got down on her knees beside the tub and tuck up the brush and went after me. It was real nice, I can tell you. Then she went to washing my head, and whenever she seed all that scabby blood messed up in my hair and all, she went to feeling around in there and a-looking and studying on it. It was some tender to even her touch, but I didn’t mind none.

  “Mmm,” she said. “That’s bad. I’ll just clean it up first.”

  She washed my whole head and cleaned up that there wound, and then she went and got some kinda salve outa her bag and daubed some on it, and it felt cool and nice. Once she had tuck keer a that, she went back to washing up the rest a me, and I do mean the whole, entire rest a me. She washed me all over real thorough-like, and I got to feeling like I wanted something more outa her, and the evide
nce a my wanting was right down there underneath that sudsy water. She knowed it, too. She had run into it with her scrubbing hand. She never said nothing, though, and neither did I. Whenever she had final finished up with all a her washing, she stood up, picked up the towel and held it up, and said, “All right. You can get out now.”

  I didn’t want to on accounta several things, but then the way she was a-holding that towel up, I figgered she wouldn’t be a-looking at me you know where, so I stood on up, and she wrapped that towel around me and went to giving me a real brisk rub-down and drying off. Whenever she dried on my ribs I winced some to let her know they was a-hurting me. All did, she wrapped that towel around my waist and tucked it in so it would stay there, so my embarrassment was mostly hid.

  She had me go over to the bed and set down on the edge of it, and then she got some long bandages outa her black bag, and she went to wrapping me all around real tight. “That’s about all we can do for broken ribs,” she said. “It’ll just take some time for them to mend. You’ll be just fine.”

  “Say,” I said, “are you for real a real doc?”

  “Yes,” she said. “I am.”

  “Well, how—”

  “Not many places were willing to let a woman doctor set up practice in their town,” she said. “Mr. Wheeler wasn’t so particular.”

  “But you’re here in a whole town full a just only outlaws,” I said. “Don’t that skeer you none? You being a lady and all?”

  “Mr. Wheeler assured me that I would be safe here,” she said. “Once a rowdy did try to attack me, but Mr. Wheeler had him quickly subdued and thrown out of town. I’ve had no more problems.”

  “Well, are you and ole Wheeler, uh—”

  “Ours is strictly a business relationship, I assure you.”

  “Oh.”

  “Now what about you? You’re awfully young to be an outlaw, aren’t you?”

  Well, I come wide open. I went and told her the whole tale a that Joe Pigg a-killing my poor ole dog Farty, and then me a-killing Joe Pigg, and me only thirteen year old. I told her my whole sad story, about how Paw give me ten dollars and a sway-backed horse and told me to get outa Texas, and then how I went to cowboying and gunfighting. I might near told her that I weren’t really no outlaw but was just only pretending to be one so I could get back some stole money and return it to the bank, but I stopped myself just in time. Hell. For all I knowed, sweet as she looked, she mighta blabbed the whole thing on to ole Wheeler, and I sure couldn’t have none a that. No, sir.

  She set down beside a me then and put a arm around me and give me a hug, and it sure did give me a thrill. I reckon my sad story kindly brung out the mothering instinct in her, and it didn’t hurt none that I was skinny and scrawny and young and even some beat up. Whenever she done that, why, I just kindly laid my head over on her shoulder, and I were a-looking down at the pretty shape a her tits under that there white lacy blouse. It was all I could do to keep my hands down. I was a-wanting her something fierce.

  “You don’t belong here with these men,” she said. “There has to be a better life for you than this.”

  “Well, what about you?” I said. “I don’t rightly believe that you belong here neither. Why, you’re a real lady.”

  And I meant that, too. She was just about the only woman I had ever knowed besides my own ole maw who weren’t a whore. Well, I had sorta knowed Mrs. O back at the first cowboying job I had ever had, but then she was older than my maw or at least just as old.

  “I told you why I’m here,” she said.

  “Well then, I reckon I done the same for you. Say, what do I call you? Doc?”

  “Everyone here does. Doc will do just fine.”

  I lifted up my head, and I had on my most pitifullest lostkid look I could muster up, and I looked her right in her big, lovely brown eyes, and her face was just right there close to mine, and I got bold as hell and just went and give her a kiss right on her lips. I was afraid she might jump away or maybe even slap my face or something, but she never. She just kissed me back, long and luscious. I’d a thunk I was in heaven but only my rib cage was a-hurting, and I figgered folks in heaven didn’t never hurt no more.

  Well, damned if she didn’t lay me back on that bed and take that towel off from around me, and then she straightened herself up and stripped right off. She dumb into bed with me then, and I ain’t gonna talk about no more details a that wonderful time what we had then, but it was most lovely, I’ll tell you that much. She weren’t no whore, but she was as good as any I ever had. No. Hell. She was better.

  The next few days, Doc come around to see me right regular, and she checked my head, and she checked my ribs and rewrapped them, and then we’d have us a right nice romp together. I come to look real forward to her visits. Slowly, my ribs got better, like she said they would, and pretty soon I could lift my arms up. I decided it was time to find out could I still draw and shoot, and so I made my way down and out and over to the hardware store, where I bought myself a new Colt and gunbelt. I tuck Doc with me with a picnic basket, and we went a ways outa town.

  We had us a good time together, and I tried out my shooting arm, and I was damn near as good as ever. I knowed I’d be back in prime shape in just another few days. Whenever we went back into town, Doc went on to her office, and I went to see ole Wheeler.

  “How are you feeling?” he asked me.

  “I’m a feeling like a free loader,” I said. “I think it’s nigh onto time for me to get after ole Cherry and them Duttons.”

  “I can get a couple of boys to ride with you.”

  “I’d ruther not if you don’t mind.”

  “You’re thinking of the Duttons.”

  “And Cherry. I can trust my own self. I don’t know about no one else.”

  “There’s three of them.”

  “And I can take them. The mostest trouble will be in the finding a the bastards.”

  “How will you go about it?”

  “I’ll head south. I got good reason to believe they was headed for Mexico.”

  “That’s a long ways.”

  “They won’t be that far, yet. Leastways, I don’t think they will. But however far they’ve got, I’ll find them, and I’ll kill them.”

  Wheeler poured me a drink and handed me a ceegar and a match. Then he leaned back in his big soft chair and give me a look.

  “And me?” he said. “Will I ever see you again?”

  “You’re a-thinking on that big payroll.”

  “You’re right.”

  “I’ll be back. I don’t want that payroll for myself.”

  I didn’t lie to him, neither. I wanted to return the payroll, and what’s more I meant to get back the Fosterville bank money and return it as well. So I never lied. I just failed to tell ole Wheeler the whole and total truth a the matter was all. I was also a-thinking on ole Doc, and I sure didn’t want to ride away from that Devil’s Hole and not never see her no more. What I did want was I wanted to get her to ride outa there with me and see if I couldn’t maybe get her set up in a better life somewheres. Me having friends in Fosterville, maybe they’d listen to me and let a lady doc set up there and even go to see her with their ailments and hurts and woes and stuff. The only thing about that was that I was having me a good ole time with the doc, and ole Red was back there in Fosterville, and that there might bring on some complications what I didn’t feel like as if I needed in my young life. I knowed I’d have to think on it some more.

  “When will you start?” Wheeler said.

  “First thing in the morning.”

  “Get anything you need in the general store,” he said. “Write it down on my tab.”

  Chapter 13

  I moved out early the next morning, all right, a-headed southwest. I coulda went right back to where them three bastards had left me laying to die and likely a-picked up their trail from there, but that woulda meant heading west and then turning south. I figgered it’d be quicker to just head kindly southwest and hope to pic
k up the trail thataway. They had done had a good head start on me, and to tell the whole truth a the matter, they coulda gone anywheres, but I had it in my head that they was aiming for Mexico. They weren’t too big a surplus a towns down along that way, so I figgered I had me a pretty good chance a coming acrost them. The other thing was, they wouldn’t be a-looking for me. They figgered I was dead, or damn near.

  I rid till noon, and then I stopped and had myself a meal and rested Ole Horse. I drunk me a right smart a coffee too, and I rolled a smoke and puffed it all up. Then I put the saddle back on Ole Horse and started in again. But I had me a funny kinda feeling. There weren’t no good reason for it. I just had it, that’s all. It was one a them kinda feelings what makes a man keep on a-watching over his shoulder and looking around in all directions so he won’t be caught by surprise. That’s the kinda feeling I was a-having.

  “Keep your ears pricked up and your eyeballs peeled, Ole Horse,” I said. “I got me a sensation.”

  Ole Horse, he blowed some air like as if he was a giving me a answer to what it was I had just said to him. Sometimes whenever I was off on a trail like that by my own self, why, I would talk to Ole Horse just only to hear my own self talk. Just sorta to make the time pass, you know. But other times, and this here was one of them, I swear, I thunk that I was really a-talking to him. I mean, I thunk that he could not only hear my voice but that he were a-comprehending the meanings a my words, and just then I tuck that there blow noise a his as a real and actual honest-to-God answer to what I had said. I felt a little better a-knowing that there was now two sets a eyes and two sets a ears at work paying attention to my surroundings.

  “Ole Horse,” I said, “I reckon you’re just about the bestest companion and pard a feller could possible have. Why, hell, you saved my life whenever you got yourself aloose from them outlaws and come back after me. You’re ever’ bit as good as ole Zeb, or Churkee, and a sight better than Paw. I ain’t even a-counting that Goddamned Dick Cherry no more.