The Devil's Trail

by Robert J Conley

  “I wish you’d take that back about Billy.”

  “Well, I ain’t a-gonna do it. For some time now folks has been a-saying that I’m a regular Billy the Kid, and I’ve got plumb sick a hearing it. Ever’ time I hear it, I’m a-gonna say just what it is I think about it, and that’s what you heared me say, and I ain’t taking nothing back.”

  “Well, I ain’t going to fight you. I ain’t that stupid. I just wish you’d take it back, that’s all. Hell, it ain’t Billy’s fault that folks’re saying what they’re saying. He might not like it, neither.”

  “Like I said, he can come and see me anytime he’s a mind to.”

  Billy’s buddy turned around and walked away, and the crowd got loud again. I watched that feller though. He was a-burning on accounta what I had said about his precious Billy. He said he weren’t going to fight me, but I thunk that maybe he just might pull a Billy the Kid trick and try to shoot me in the back one a these fine days. I wished that I had asked him his name, but it was too late. I had done let the chance pass by. Then another feller tuck keer a that oversight for me.

  “Kid, don’t let what ole Tom said bother you none. He just likes to talk is all. Hell, I ain’t for real sure that he ever really rode with the Kid or even fought in the Lincoln County War.”

  “You say his name is Tom?”

  “That’s right. Tom Grant.”

  “Well, as long as he minds his own business, I won’t give it no other thought.”

  I checked the time, and then I had me one more dnnk. I ordered a bath sent up to my room on accounta I had been on the trail some, and I wanted to smell nice and pretty for Doc. I excused myself and went to the barber shop for a haircut and a shave and some smelly water. By the time I got back to my room, the bath was all ready for me. I was just getting ready to strip myself off nekkid when there come a little knock on my door. I give a cold hard look at the door and said, “Who is it?”

  “It’s just me,” come a sweet little voice, and I went and opened up the door for the doc. She sure was pretty. Even more’n what I remembered.

  “Come on in,” I said, stepping off to one side to get outa her way. She come in, and I shut the door and bolted it. It did have a inside bolt. “I weren’t expecting you so soon. I was just a fixing to have myself a bath.”

  She smiled and said, “Don’t let me stop you.”

  Well, I stripped off and she did too, and we both of us got down in that there tub, and I tell you what, they weren’t much room left in it for nothing else. But we went to scrubbing all over on each other real thorough, and it sure was fun. By and by, we got out and got dried off and went to the bed. We had us even more fun there.

  After a while, we tuck us a break from all our rambunctuousness, and Doc, she kindly propped herself up on one elbow and looked down at me a-smiling. She run her free hand through my hair.

  “You’re riding out again?” she said.

  “Yeah. I got to.”

  “You will be careful?”

  “Yeah. I will.”

  Laying there a-looking up at her like that, I couldn’t hardly believe that she could be anything more than what she said she was, and I couldn’t believe there was no way in the whole world that she could be anything special to Wheeler or him to her. All she was was just a doc in that town. That was all.

  “Would you get outa this here outlaw town if you could?” I asked her.

  “I’m doing all right,” she said, looking down at the sheet past my eyeballs.

  “I reckon you are at that,” I said, “but just for the sake a talking, if there was a way a getting you outa here and into a regular town where they was women and kids and such and they would let you set up your doctoring business, would you want to do it?”

  “It would be nice to see children. And to see other women besides the—saloon girls. Why are you asking me this?”

  “Oh, nothing,” I said. “I just might know someplace you could go, and I ain’t a-going to be settling in this damn town my own self. I’ll be a-getting out a here one a these days. I guess I been a-wondering if you want to go with me when the time comes.”

  She didn’t say nothing right off. She just stared like as if she was in real deep thought, and then she said, “When the time comes, I’ll let you know.”

  Whenever I waked up the next morning and kindly rolled my head over, the first thing I seed was ole Doc. She was done up and about half dressed, and she seed me stir on the bed, and she looked down on me real sweet-like and smiled. Then she come to the bedside and leaned over and give me a good-morning kiss. Straightening herself up again, she said, “Kid, you be real careful. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

  “I’ll be just fine,” I said. “Don’t worry none about me. But only, while I’m gone, will you think on what I asked you last night?”

  I was a-referencing what I had said about her a-getting out a the Devil’s Pot, and she knowed all right just what it was I meant.

  “I’ll think about it,” she said.

  Well, pretty soon she was gone outa the room, and it sure did seem empty in there where she had been just a little bit ago. That there was one a them things about life what made me ponder now and then. You know, how things what happens, once they’ve done happened they don’t seem like they was really real atall. The only thing what seems real is just what’s a going on right now this minute. A course, you remember what happened before, but when you’re a-setting in a empty room with just only your own self, what happened before don’t seem real no more.

  Even whenever I had been all stove up out there on the prairie and left alone to die, as miserable as I was then, setting in that there hotel room, that there experience didn’t hardly seem real no more. I had me a little bit a pain left from it was all. I s’pose that whatever happens whether it’s good or bad, it’s always gone soon enough.

  Well, I’d had enough a that deep thinking, and I had me some things to do, so I got on up and got myself dressed and headed out. I had me a breakfast at the eating place and then went on down to the stable to saddle up Ole Horse. Right soon we was a-headed outa town. I had me a place in mind on that trail, and I was a-hoping that I wouldn’t meet up with Cherry and them before I come to it. It was a place with a high hill on the side a the road where a man could set and watch over what was a-coming or going down below. And a horse could be hid back behind it without no trouble. I wanted to ketch them three by surprise.

  It were a fair ride out to that place, but I come to it all right, and I hadn’t seed no sign a them bastards. I put Ole Horse back out a sight, and I dumb up to the top. I snuggled my ass down in a kinda hole where I could see both ways on the road down there, and I rolled me a cigareet and lit it. Then I made up my mind that I was in for a long wait.

  It come to me that I might could wait forever. I didn’t really have no way a knowing that they would be a-trailing me. They might believe that I was done dead. The way they had left me, I shoulda been, that’s for sure. But then, on the other hand, whenever they found out that they had been robbed a that stole money, they’d just about have to think that it was me what done it. Unless they had been a-blabbing like three fools, there weren’t no one else who knowed they had it.

  So if they figgered it was me, the next thing they’d figger is that I was a-headed back to Hell Hole with it to turn over a share to ole Wheeler like we had promised to do in the first place. They had tried to get me to take it with them, and I had turned them down, so they knowed what my mind was on that subject. Having mulled all a that over, I figgered they was after me all right.

  Well, I smoked that cigareet, and I dozed off a bit, and then I come awake, and I rolled and smoked another cigareet. It sure was boring just a-setting there like that. I got all excited whenever I seed some riders a-coming, but then they come closter, and it weren’t the ones I was a-waiting for. I tell you what, I be damned if I didn’t set there the whole rest a that day and they never come along. Well, I was hungry, and I was a-going to have to sp
end the night out there and watch some more the next day. Come near dark, I went back down the back side to Ole Horse, and I fixed me up a little camp and cooked up some beans and coffee. I explained things to Ole Horse, put out the fire and went back up to my perch for the night. I tuck me a blanket along.

  I was snugging down for the night when I heared the horses a-coming. I waited kindly tense-like. They was three of them. Damned if they didn’t stop right down below me. That weren’t really no good camping spot, but then, them three weren’t the smartest I had ever knowed. They went and set up their camp. They built up a fire, bigger than what they needed. It was ole Zeb what learned me that you don’t need no big fire at a camp site, and ever since then I didn’t think too much a someone what built one up too big like that. But only I was kinda glad they did, on accounta whenever they had it all built up, why, I could see them plain. It was them all right. Dick Cherry and them two dumb Duttons.

  I had them right where I wanted them. Sort of. If I was to go scooting down the side a that hill, they’d hear me sure. I had to get over to their little camp quiet-like. In case you might be a-wondering how come me not to just shoot them from where I was at, they’s two reasons for that. First off, it was too far for a revolver shot, even for someone as good as me. And then I didn’t want to kill them without they was a-knowing who it was a-doing the killing. I wanted to face them so they’d see me.

  So I was a-thinking that I’d best go down the back way and then walk the long way around, but while I was a thinking on that, another thought come intruding into my head. What was I a-going to do after I had kilt them, I asked myself, and my answer was that I was going back into town and tell ole Wheeler what it was I had did. And then what? Why, hell, I’d be right back where I was at before, just only me against a whole town a outlaws. I had to get all that money outa ole Wheeler’s safe, you know.

  I done a powerful lot a thinking on my way down the backside a that there hill, and then I went over to Ole Horse, and I tuck his reins. “Ole Horse,” I said in a nearly whisper, “them three what I want is over on the other side a the hill and the other side a the road. We got to walk around there, and we got to be real quiet in the doing of it. I need to sneak up close on them. You understand me?”

  Well, he blowed kindly soft a-telling me that he did, so I started walking and a-leading Ole Horse along. We walked on around the westernest end a that hill, and then I told Ole Horse to wait for me there. I went on alone. I got up kindly close to the camp before anyone in there heared a thing. Then I reckon ole Dick musta heared me step on something, on accounta he stiffened up and pulled out his shooter, and he said, “What was that?”

  “I didn’t hear nothing,” said Haw.

  Spike jumped up and said, “What? What you hear?”

  “Shut up,” said Dick. “Listen.”

  Well, I figgered I was close enough then. “You all a-looking for me?” I said out loud.

  Both Duttons pulled their shooters out, and all three a them owlhoots was a-looking this way and that in the dark a-trying to spot me.

  “Kid?” said Dick. “Is that you?”

  “It ain’t Billy the Kid,” I said.

  “Damn,” said Spike.

  “I told you we shoulda finished him off,” Haw said.

  “Shut up,” Dick said. “Kid? What do you want? You mean to kill us?”

  “Ain’t that how come you to be here?” I said. “To kill me?”

  “Now, wait, Kid—”

  “Ain’t nothing else woulda brung you back thisaway. Not after what you done.”

  “Kid, let’s talk about it. Can we talk?”

  “Funny thing,” I said. “That there’s just what I want to do. Talk. If you’ll put away them shooters, I’ll come on in to the light a your fire, and we’ll set and talk. You got coffee on?”

  “All right, Kid,” said Dick. “Come on in.”

  He put away his shooter. “It’s a trick,” said Haw. “I don’t trust him.”

  “Put it away, Haw,” Dick said. “It’s no trick. He could drop us all three from out there in the dark if that’s what he meant to do. Put it away.”

  Both Duttons holstered their guns, and I walked on in. I tell you what, I ain’t never seed three nervouser sons a bitches than what them three was. They all knowed that if we was to have a stand-up gunfight, I could likely drop all three. Even if I couldn’t, I could drop two before the third one could get a shot into me. They was just a-standing there a-looking at me come in.

  “What about that coffee?” I said.

  “Get it going,” Dick said to Haw, and Haw went to fixing it. “Shall we sit?” said Dick.

  Dick and Spike set down on the ground side by side, and I set direct acrost the fire from them. We didn’t say nothing, yet. We waited for Haw to get the pot on the fire to boil. Then he set beside a his brother.

  “I reckon you know I’m a-wanting to kill you real bad for what you done to me,” I said, “and I know damn well you come back thisaway to kill me for a-taking that there payroll away from you.”

  “I’d say that’s clear enough on both sides,” said Dick. “So why the talk?”

  “It won’t do you no good to kill me, on accounta I done tuck that payroll to ole Wheeler, and he’s got it all locked up tight. I know where it is, though, and I know how to get it. I let him have it ’cause I wanted to know for sure where he put all his loot. I want that Fosterville bank money.”

  “You got a one track mind, Kid,” Cherry said.

  “Once I gets on a trail, I keeps on it,” I said, “if that’s what you mean.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Anyhow, I need you three alive to help me get all that money back from ole Wheeler. Four of us against that whole town, that’s bad enough odds, but me all by my lonesome, well, I wouldn’t have no chance atall. So what do you say? Do we set aside our grudges long enough to get all that money away from Wheeler?”

  “If we get the money and come out alive,” Dick said, “what then?”

  “I know what you want, and you know what I want. We’ll deal with that whenever the time comes. Right now, we ain’t even got nothing to fight over.”

  Dick Cherry looked acrost the fire at me for a bit, and then he looked at them Duttons.

  “What do you say, boys?” he said. “It’ll be four of us against all of Devil’s Roost, and then three of us against Kid Parmlee.”

  “I don’t like the odds,” Spike said, “either way.”

  “The stakes are high,” Cherry said.

  “That’s for sure,” said Haw. He looked at his brother eager-like.

  “Hell,” said Spike, “let’s do her.”

  “All right,” I said. “Now listen here. Ever’ gang has got to have a leader, and I name my own self leader a this here gang. Anyone object to that?” I waited a bit and didn’t hear no objections, so I went on. “We got to make us a plan if we want to come outa this alive and with the money. We can’t just go charging in there.”

  “Where’s the money, Kid?” Cherry asked.

  “In Wheeler’s office safe,” I said. “I can open it.”

  “How?”

  “Never mind. I just can.”

  “Then why can’t you just sneak in there and get it and sneak out again?”

  “You see a winder in that back room?” I asked.

  “Well, no, I guess not, come to think of it.”

  “The only way in there is right smack through the big main room a the saloon, and it’s the only way out again. We’re going to have to come up with something besides just only sneaking.”

  Chapter 16

  Well, we went to talking then about how in the world could the three of us take on that whole town and get the job did and get out a there alive.

  “It seems to me,” Cherry said, “the whole trick is going to be to find a way to get the Kid here into Wheeler’s office so he can get the money out of the safe.”

  “And then get me out again,” I added.

  “There’s da
mn near always someone in that saloon,” Spike said. “What if we was to start some kind of commotion across the street or something like that?”

  “That there’s the idee, all right,” I said, “but what we got to figger is just what kinda commotion and when’s the best time to do it. You three can’t just ride into town. You’d be shot on sight. If I go back in, Wheeler’s going to want to know did I get you.”

  “We’d ought to go in after dark,” Haw said.

  “That saloon’s jumping till the wee hours,” his brother said.

  “The bestest time might be just before sunup,” I said. “Might near the whole town’s asleep long about then.”

  “I think you’re right,” Cherry said. “We’d have a better chance of getting in and out without being seen.”

  “Yeah.”

  We all come quiet at once then. Didn’t no one seem to have nothing more to say. I tuck out my makings and rolled me a cigareet. I didn’t offer them over to no one else. They wasn’t no friends a mine. We was a-working together out a necessity. That’s all.

  “So when do we go?” asked ole Dick.

  “Daybreak,” I said.

  “Tomorrow?”

  “Why put it off?”

  “I guess you’re right,” Dick said. “We might as well get in there and get it done.”

  “Well, but just what is it we’re gonna do?” Haw asked.

  “How about this here?” I said. “I’ll just go riding straight into town like there ain’t nothing wrong. I’ll stop in front a the saloon and go in. Likely there won’t be no one around, and I’ll get into ole Wheeler’s office somehow. Then I’ll open that safe, get the money, and get on out.”

  “That sounds too easy,” said Spike. “What the hell you want us in on this for?”

  “It is too easy,” I said. “There might easy could be someone in that saloon. Ole Wheeler might even be in his office. I might have to go shooting someone, and if I was to have to do that, why, hell, it could bring ever’ outlaw in town down on me. So just in case a the worstest, here’s what I want from you all. When I ride in on the main street, I want the three a you to ride in on the backside a the buildings on t’other side. ’Bout the time I tie up Ole Horse at the rail out front a the saloon, I want you to start a fire on the back wall a the eating place. By the time I get that there money, the whole town had ought to be busy with the fire.”