The Devil's Trail

by Robert J Conley

  Then I had me my biggest problem. I had to tie ole Dick. Now, ole Dick coulda easy whipped my ass, and I couldn’t rightly figger how I could tie him without getting too close and giving him a chance to get his hands on me. I made him set acrost the fire from me while I studied on it, and damned if he didn’t figger out what I was a worrying on.

  “You can’t tie me with a gun in one hand, can you, Kid?” he said, and he was a-grinning wide.

  “Shut up,” I said.

  “You can’t get me tied, can you? It’d take you both hands, and you’d be right up close to me. I don’t think you could outwrestle me, Kid.”

  “I said shut up.”

  “What’re you going to do? Kill me? You could have done that a while ago. I don’t think you’ll kill me.” I didn’t say nothing at that, and pretty soon, ole Dick, he went on. “About the only thing you can do, Kid, is to stay awake all night and watch me. It’d be like a gambling game. We’ll see which one falls asleep first. If it’s you, I don’t know if I’d leave you alive again. There’s too much money at stake, and you have too much integrity.”

  “I ain’t neither,” I said. ’Course, I didn’t know what that there word meant, and I weren’t paying too much attention to ole Dick nohow. I was a-thinking as hard as I knowed how on just how to deal with the situation what I was in. Then I got to looking at a tree just outside the ring a our camp. It was a good sized tree with a hefty low branch. It was a little too low for a good hanging branch, but it was higher than a man’s reach all right, and it give me a idee.

  “Go over there to your saddle,” I told ole Dick, “and get your lariat off it.”

  “What for?”

  “Just do it.”

  “Or you’ll kill me?”

  “I’ll damn sure shoot a ear offa the side a your head.”

  He got up. “Yeah,” he said. “You’d do that all right.”

  He went and got the rope. “What now?” he said.

  “Toss it over that there branch.” He done it. “Now throw the tail end of it over thisaway.” He done that too, tossing the most a the coil at me. “All right,” I said, “put your hands through the loop and pull it snug.” He tuck up the loop end and snugged it on down and then stuck his hands through it like what I told him. I picked up the other end a the rope and went to pulling till I had pulled his both arms straight up over his head and pulled that there loop tight on his wrists. “Now set down,” I told him. I give him just enough slack to let him set on the ground and lean his back against the tree trunk. Then I pulled that rope as tight as I could again, and I went and wrapped it around the trunk of another close-by tree.

  “Ow, damn it,” Cherry said. “You’re tearing the skin off my wrists.”

  “It’s better than killing, ain’t it?”

  I walked over to check his wrists, and the rope was snugged up on them all right. The only thing was, he coulda stood up and then loosened that rope from around his wrists. I hadn’t thunk a that. I couldn’t leave it go thataway. I went after another rope, and I looped that one around his both feet, and then I tied it tight to another tree trunk. I had him stretched where he couldn’t do nothing.

  “You expect me to sleep like this?” he said.

  “I don’t rightly keer if you get no sleep atall,” I said. I went back over by the fire and poured myself out another cup a coffee, and I rolled me a cigareet, and I set back to relax, having all my prisoners all trussed up thataway.

  “I’d like to have another cup a coffee,” ole Haw said.

  “You say even one more word,” I said, “and I’ll pour some over your head.”

  Well, they all quieted down, and it weren’t long before them Duttons was both a-snoring. Cherry was quiet, but I don’t think he was sleeping. Not yet. I got up and walked over to where Ole Horse was a-grazing. I walked up close to his ear on accounta I didn’t want none a them prisoners a mine to hear me what I was fixing to say.

  “Ole Horse,” I said low in his big ear, “I gotta get me some shut-eye tonight. I think them three is all tied up good, but only I ain’t too sure about ole Dick Cherry there. There might could be some way he could sneak aloose.”

  Ole Horse kindly fluttered his lips making what some folks would consider to be a rude noise, you know, but only I understood his meaning all right. What he told me was for me to relax and get me a good night’s sleep. He said he’d keep his eyes on that Cherry, and if it looked like as if ole Cherry might be about to get aloose, why, he’d just walk over there and step on him. I thanked him quietly and went on over to my bedroll and stretched out for the night. I had my two Colts under the blanket with me.

  In the morning whenever I woke up, ever’thing was all right, just like I had left it the night before. Them three mighta been uncomfortable, but they was all asleep and a-snoring. I thanked Ole Horse again, and then I went and built up the fire. I cooked up a breakfast a beans and bacon and boiled some coffee. Then I went and loosed ole Cherry’s feet. I kicked him on the bottom a his left boot, and he come awake.

  “Get your ass up,” I said.

  He struggled up to his feet and loosened up the rope around his wrists and tuck his wrists out and went to rubbing on them.

  “Go over yonder and dish out a plate for ole Haw,” I said. “Untie him and give it to him. Then do the same for his brother, and then get them each a cup a coffee. Then you can do the same for yourself.”

  I kept my distance and watched him real keerful while he done all that. Then I tuck keer a my own self. When we was all done eating and drinking coffee, I made them three clean ever’thing up and saddle the horses. I checked the cinch on Ole Horse to make sure that no one was trying to play me any tricks, and then I mounted us all up and headed us for the stagecoach road. It was damn near noon whenever we got there, and I found the same place we had set and waited to rob that stage. I had our horses back behind that hill, and I made them three stay down on the road. I got up higher and watched. By and by, I seed that stage a-coming.

  “You three down there,” I called out. “Lay back against the rock outa sight. When I yell, step out in the road in front a the stage.”

  I waited till the stage had slowed for the curve, and then I hollered, “Now!” The Duttons and ole Cherry all stepped out in front a the team, and the lead horses balked some, and the driver pulled back on the reins.

  “Whoa. Whoa. What the hell’s this all about?”

  I reckon he were puzzled on accounta being stopped by three unarmed men. The shotgun guard raised up his greener and helt it ready.

  “What do you men want?” the driver asked.

  “I can tell you that,” I called down to him. “Them’s the three men what robbed your stage a that payroll a while back.”

  “What?”

  “I suggest you tie them all up real good and tight so you can take them on in and turn them over to the law.”

  “Say, who are you and what’s this all about? How do I know these are the men?”

  “It’s them all right,” I said, “and here’s what they tuck.”

  I stood up and tossed that saddlebag over the edge and it landed with a whump on top a the stage. The driver turned around and grabbed it quick and opened up the flaps and dug in there. He give the guard a look.

  “He’s right, by God.”

  “That’s the payroll?” the guard said.

  “Looks to be all here, too.”

  “Well, I’ll be damned.”

  “Keep that gun on them while I get down and tie them up.”

  I watched from my perch while the driver clumb down and went and tied each one a them three. A passenger come outa the stage to see what was a-going on. He was a man what looked like he could handle hisself all right.

  “I’m putting these three inside with you,” the driver said. “Keep your eye on them.”

  “You got them tied real good?” the passenger asked.

  “I tied them good, but you can check the knots if you’ve a mind.”

  They wen
t to shoving them three into the stage, and I stood up and showed myself. The driver looked up at me.

  “Who might you be?” he asked.

  “I’m knowed as Kid Parmlee.”

  “I sure do thank you for catching those three and returning the money.”

  “He helped us steal it,” ole Haw shouted from inside the stage.

  The guard turned his shotgun barrel in my direction, and him and the driver and that there passenger all looked up at me.

  “That don’t even make sense, now do it?” I said. “How come would I help these bastards to steal all that money and then come and give it right back to you?”

  “Well, Kid Parmlee,” the driver said, “I’ll tell the sheriff how we got this money back and who it was that done it. There’ll be a whole bunch a folks grateful to you for what you done.”

  “Glad to do it,” I said. “Now I’m going to go down the backside a this hill, and then I’ll come on around with their horses and tie them on behind the stage.”

  “All right.”

  Pretty quick I done that, and then I shuck hands all around, but not, a course, with the prisoners. Whenever I walked by the stage, they glared out at me through the winders. Once again, I could see that they sure was a-wanting to kill me, and once again, I asked myself how come I had not just gone on ahead and kilt them. But I had did what I had did, and there weren’t no going back on it. I was just a-going to have to live with it. I got to hoping that the law would put the three a them away for a long time. I sure didn’t want to see any of them again. I was done sick a the sight of them.

  I set on the back a Ole Horse and watched that stagecoach roll on down the road with the recovered payroll and the three robbers in it. I felt like as if I had did a real good deed, and I figgered ole Jim Chastain would be right proud a me for the doing of it. Ole Rice too. And Red, and Doc. Doc? Damn. I had forgot all about ole Doc. I wondered had she got herself blowed all to hell back yonder in the blowing away a Devil’s Tit Town or what? There I was a feeling proud a myself and being all pumped up, and then Ole Horse blowed at me and said that I should ought to a kilt them three, and that likely I’d be sorry that I didn’t sooner or later.

  “Oh, shut up, Ole Horse,” I said. “I ain’t worried about them three a damn bit. I done forgot all about ole Doc back there when we blowed that town away. I meant to get her outa there. We got to go back, Ole Horse. We got to find her if she’s even still alive.”

  He nickered back at me as if to say, “Well, let’s get going then,” and so I turned his head and we lit out along our own back trail. It come to me then that I had sure as hell been doing a lot a that lately—back trailing. I was a-getting sick of it. We moved along as fast as ever Ole Horse could stand it, and we never stopped for food nor water nor nothing. Now and then we had to really slow it down and walk to keep from killing ourself, but soon as we was rested enough, we moved on out again. We went like that all day. Both our bellies was a-grumbling, but we neither one of us never complained, not once. We just kept on a-going.

  Come dark, we never stopped to camp neither. We moved a lot slower, though, on accounta I sure didn’t want Ole Horse a-stumbling over nothing and breaking a leg or something. We went along real keerful. That was sure one long night, I can tell you. I got to where I was thinking that it wouldn’t never end, and I wouldn’t never see no sun again nor any kinda daylight.

  “Ole Horse,” I said, “this here is the longest night I have ever saw in my whole entire life.”

  Ole Horse blowed at me, and I swear to God, I heared him clear, and what he said was, “You’re just a snot-nosed kid is all.”

  “Damn it,” I said, “you been around ole Zeb way too much.”

  But we kept on a-going, and it did final come daylight. In just a little ways then, we come across that little crick what I had got to know way too good that one time, and I rid Ole Horse over to it so he could get him a little drink a water. I never bothered, though, for my own self. Ole Horse noticed that, and he cut his own drinking short, and we went on our way. At long last, we come to the Devil town. We stopped at that same little camping spot on the side a the hill, and I looked down over what was left a that place.

  There was one building a-standing. It was scorched some on one side, but it was still all there. I didn’t see no horses nor dogs nor human beings. I did see some bodies a-laying around, and it come to me that it would sure be unpleasant down there with them bodies just a-laying around like that. It looked for all hell to me like there hadn’t been no one come nowhere near that there one-time town since we had blowed it all away. They was all kinds a trash and burnt lumber and furniture and piles a ashes. I wondered what someone would think who might come along and see the sight and not know what had happened there. Just what would they think?

  Maybe they’d think that a war had tuck place and they hadn’t never heared about it. It was sure enough a hell of a mess. Well, a-looking down on all that and not seeing no sign a life, I got to thinking the worst, and I asked myself just how the hell could I a rid outa there and not even remembered poor ole Doc, and the onliest thing that I could possible come up with was that there had been so much a-going on, and I had to fight alongside them three a-worrying all the time was they a-going to shoot me in the back. I had them and the money and—

  But then I thunk, if I was to try to explain it all to ole Doc, what would she think a them kinda excuses? I sure did feel mean and bad and ashamed and ever’ other kinda bad feeling a man can have.

  “Ole Horse,” I said, “we got to go down there.”

  Ole Horse snorted.

  “It ain’t a-going to be pleasant,” I said, “but we ain’t got no choice.”

  “Well, let’s go, then,” Ole Horse said, but a course, he said it by just a-blowing, but I understood him all right. We moved slow down the hill, and then we rid across that short open area till we come to what had once been the edge a the town. It come back into my mind how it had been before a-riding into town in just this same direction, how loud and lively it had been. Now it was dead ashes. The wind was a-blowing just enough to stir them ash piles as we rid betwixt them. The odor in the air assaulted my poor nostrils, and I’m sure that it did Ole Horse’s too on accounta the way he snorted and blowed. I made myself look at each body I seed as we rid along. Then we come up to the one building what was left, and we stopped.

  Chapter 18

  That there building had been a butcher’s shop, and it had been a-standing at the far end a the town whenever they was a town there. I reckon that’s the only way what it didn’t get burnt down or blowed up, ‘cause it set off a little ways all by its lonesome. Anyhow, it surely did look lonesome with the rest a the town a few heaps a ashes and it just a-setting there. Riding through the mess, I had made myself look at all the bodies, and a course, they was some that was in the ruins a the buildings what I couldn’t see hardly atall, so I couldn’t know ever’thing, but I didn’t see none that looked like they coulda been the doc once upon a time. I couldn’t see how she coulda survived though, not and still be in that town.

  I was a-hoping that she had run off somewheres whenever all the shooting and the blowing up had got started, and I was a-asking myself if she had did that how in the hell was I ever a-going to find her. ’Course, they was that there butcher’s shop a-standing, and if she had run off to safety till the war was over, and if she had any good sense about her, maybe she had come back to the shelter a that building. There had oughta be some food in there, too, you know, slabs a meat and such. I set my hopes on that notion, and I tied Ole Horse to the rail in front and went up to the front door. It was a-standing wide open. I didn’t take that as no good sign on accounta if she was in there, I figgered, she’d be a-shutting the door behind her to keep the critters and such out. But then, whenever I went to step inside, I seed that the door was just a hanging on one hinge. My hopes went on back up at that.

  I stepped inside and went to looking around. I didn’t see nothing out a the ordinary.
It looked like a butcher shop was all, ’cept only it looked like as if someone had been a-rummaging through it some. I tuck that as a good sign on accounta it didn’t make no sense that the shop woulda been rummaged before the war, and that meant someone had survived the war to go rummaging in it. ’Course it coulda been anyone, but I was sure hoping that it was ole Doc. I stepped on in a little further and looked around some more, but I didn’t see no clues.

  “Hello,” I said, kindly tentative. “Hello. Is anyone alive here?”

  I heared a noise like someone knocking against something, and I turned around real quick, and a damned ole cat meowed and run acrost the floor.

  “Doc?” I called out. “Are you in here? Anyone?”

  On the back wall a the room what I was in they was a door what looked to open into a back room, so I walked over there and put my hand on the door handle. I hesitated a couple a seconds, then shoved it open. Nothing happened. I stepped through into the back room kindly cautious-like, and then I heared a inhuman kinda roar, and of a sudden, and I don’t know where he come from, they was a monster of a man right in front a me. Why he looked to be as big as a grizzler bear and even more hairy, and his mouth was wide open and dripping slobbers, and his eyeballs was red and ferocious. He was wearing dirty furry clothes, and I figgered him to be some kinda mountain man or buffler hunter or some such damn thing, but mostly I figgered him to be crazy dangerous.

  You see, besides he had roared at me like a wild animal, his both arms was up way over his shaggy head, and his both big, dirty hands was a clutching the handle of a wood chopping ax what he was a-fixing to swing right at the top a my head. I yelped like a skeered rabbit and flung myself backwards onto the floor in the front room, and that there ax come down hard and fast and stuck itself in the floor right betwixt my legs. I scooted backwards like a crawdad, a-jerking out my shooter at the same time. He was a-wrenching that ax loose from the floor. I shot him right in the chest, and he stopped a-wrenching for a second or two to look down at the hole in his chest what was a-running red blood, but on him it looked like a little tiny hole, and all it done was it just only made him mad.