The Devil's Trail

by Robert J Conley

  That there Polk stood up then. “I’ll be right back,” he said, and he hustled his fancy ass outa that place. I noticed that Doc was a-giving me a real kindly curious look. I couldn’t quite figger out how to describe it. She was a-smiling real sweet, and she looked like as if she was a-feeling proud a me somehow, but it was more than that, too. I think maybe for the first time she really believed me that I never was no outlaw.

  “Kid,” that Stratton feller said, “could I interest you in a job with the railroad?”

  “Aw, I don’t know nothing about railroading,” I said.

  “That doesn’t matter. The job I have in mind is what you might call a troubleshooting job. Kind of like what you’ve already done for us. You might call it a railroad detective job. We’d pay you real well.”

  “Well now, I thank you kindly for the offer, Mr. Stratton,” I said, “but I got me a job right now what I have to finish up.”

  “Will it take long?”

  “Prob’ly not too long,” I said. “I got to ride over to Fosterville is about all. Then I’ll be all did.”

  “Keep us in mind. I’ll hold that job open for you.”

  “I ’preciate that,” I told him. I picked up my glass and sipped me some whiskey. “Say, what’s happened to them three what stoled that payroll in the first place?”

  “Oh, they’re sitting over in the jail,” Stratton said. “We won’t have a judge in town for another week.”

  “We decided that we’d let them have a trial before we hang them,” Mr. Long said, and then they all laughed.

  “You fixing to hang them just for a robbing?” I said. “No one got kilt on that job, did they?”

  “He’s just jawing,” Stratton said. “We have no way of knowing what the judge will say. But it was a serious robbery. It brought this community to a standstill for a while. It had a lot of men and their families broke and stopped the progress of the railroad. People around here take that pretty seriously.”

  “They’ll hang,” Bowman said.

  I give a shrug and tuck me another sip a whiskey, and just then that Polk come back in. He had a bundle a bills in his hand, and he laid them on the table in front a Stratton. Stratton picked them up, counted through them real quick-like and laid them down right under my nose.

  “The railroad appreciates you, Kid,” he said. “Remember what I said about that job.”

  Well, them railroad fellers excused theirselfs right after that and left me and Doc setting alone in that fancy eating place. I poured Doc another glass a that bubbling stuff and me another whiskey, and I leaned back looking as pompous as I could look, being as scrawny as I was. Doc looked at me real proud-like.

  “You’re a hero in this town,” she said.

  “I reckon so,” I said, “but whenever them folks out in the street first come a-running at me, I thunk I was in for a fight.”

  She laughed at that, and we finished up our drinks. Doc reminded me that we was on our way to buy me a suit a clothes whenever we was interrupted, so we decided to go on ahead and do that. We got up to leave and whenever I went to pay our bill, the man there said that it had done been tuck keer of. We puffed up some more and went on over to that store. Doc made me try on two or three suits a clothes before she made up my mind, and whenever we left there, I was a-sporting a new pair a shiny black boots, a three-piece black suit, a white shirt and string tie, a black hat with a fancy band, cuff links, and a stick pin.

  We went back to our hotel room then and ordered up another bath. Whenever it was all ready, we locked our door and got us both nekkid, and we soaked and played and had us a fine time. We fooled around like that till supper time when we was a-getting hungry again, and then we dressed ourselfs up real fancy and headed our ass on back for that fancy eating place. Well, they already knowed us in there on accounta our earlier visit, you know, and they treated us like we was someone real special. We et and drank real good. Why, we couldn’t empty a glass but what someone was right there a-filling it up again. I tell you, I never seed nothing like it in all a my whole entire young life.

  And whenever folks would come in or go out and they would walk past our table there, they all smiled and nodded and said howdy to us real friendly-like, like as if we was well knowed and prominent citizens a their town. It come to me that I could get to liking that kind a life with all a that respect and attention and such. It sure as hell beat getting throwed out a hotel winder stark nekkid, I can tell you that. The other thing was, it got me to thinking kindly hard about ole Stratton’s offer of a job with the railroad. It come to me that if I was to take that there job a his, why, I would move on down there to End a the Line, and I’d get paid good, and all a these folks would treat me like that all a the time. It sure was a tempting me.

  “Doc,” I said, keeping my voice kindly low, “what do you think about that there job that feller offered to me?”

  “It could be dangerous,” she said.

  “My whole life has been dangerous,” I said. “The only difference, it seems to me, would be that I’d be a getting paid for it. Well, I been paid for it before, like with this here reeward, a course, but Stratton’s way, it’d be regular, you know. Steady like. I reckon I’d always have money in my pockets.”

  “With a steady job, Kid, you could have money in the bank. You could buy a home. You could become a real success.”

  That there word she said then just went straight into the middle a my brain and set there like a lump. Success. I’d thunk about a lot a things, being a outlaw, finding a gold bonanza, bounty hunting, but I hadn’t never actual thunk a being what folks would call a success. And in that there town a End a the Line, I was already being treated like a success, and I was being offered a chance a being one for real and for permanent. What did ole Stratton call it? A troubleshooter, or a railroad detective. Why, it started in to sounding better and better.

  Then another thought come to me. I had been bragging to ole Doc about all the friends what I had me in Fosterville, and I did have some, that’s true enough, but I didn’t have nothing in Fosterville to compare to what I had right in that there town where I had never before set foot till that day. Why, hell, I thunk, I could have it all right there. I decided to put it to the real test. Whenever we finished up in there, I paid up, and I asked that feller in the red vest what had been making over us so much, “Say, where would I find that there Mr. Stratton?”

  “He has his railroad office right across the street,” the feller said, “but he’s not likely there this late in the day. If he’s not there, you might try the hotel. He stays there. Or the saloon.”

  “Thanks, pard,” I said, and I give my arm to Doc, and she tuck it, and we walked outa there.

  “Are you going to talk some more about that job?” Doc asked me.

  “Not just yet,” I said, “but I got me something else to talk to him about. If it works out, I’ll let it be a surprise for you.”

  I walked her back to the hotel, and then I went a-hunting Stratton. I found him in the saloon. He smiled real big whenever he seed me a-coming at him. He had them same other fellers with him, and he invited me to set with them, and he poured me a drink a real good whiskey.

  “Have you reconsidered my offer?” he asked me.

  “I been thinking on it,” I said. “That’s for sure. I still got to finish that there other job what I told you about, but I’m a-thinking real hard about coming back here once I’ve did it.”

  “Good.”

  “But that ain’t how come I come here a-looking for you.”

  “Oh?”

  “I got me something else to ask you about.”

  “Ask away. I’ll help if I can.”

  “Mr. Stratton, you know that there lady what is with me?”

  “Yes.”

  “I call her Doc, you know. It’s a kind of a nickname I give her, but I give it to her for a real good reason. You see, she really is a honest-to-God doc. She’s went to school for it and ever’thing. Only problem is that folks out here
don’t want to give a chance to a woman doc. If she opens her up a office, they won’t come to see her. I’m a trying to help her find a place where she can settle in and do her doctoring business, and—”

  “I suspect that if your lady friend gets an office here, and if she gets patients coming to her, that will be the more reason for you to come back. Am I right?”

  “Well, yes sir, you got that right.”

  “Kid, say no more. I can have her set up in practice tomorrow.”

  “It might could take longer than that,” I said. “The last place she was at kindly got burned up, and she lost all a her doctoring tools. Likely she’ll have to send off for more.”

  “We can help with that, too. Bring her over to my office first thing in the morning, and we’ll talk business.”

  I stood up a-grinning wide, and I reached out to shake ole Stratton’s hand, and whenever I got aholt of it, I pumped it up and down real good.

  “Thank you, Mr. Stratton,” I said. “I sure am obliged to you for that. We’ll be over and see you first thing. The two of us. And, Mr. Stratton, I’ll take that job. Soon as I get this other tuck keer of, I’ll be right on back here, and I’ll take that job.”

  Well, I had went and did it almost without thinking. Now there weren’t no backing out. I had to keep my word. I couldn’t change my mind whenever I got back to Fosterville and Chastain and ole Red and ever’ one. Ole Zeb, he was likely off somewheres in the mountains looking for his mother lode, but them others would be there, and they’d likely be a wanting me to stick around, but I wouldn’t be able to. No, sir. I had blurted me out a promise, and so I had to keep to it.

  But that was all right, on accounta I had fixed things up for ole Doc. I had been secretly a-worrying some on how things was going to work out in Fosterville with me a getting Doc set up there in the same town with ole Red. So this here was a relief to me in a couple a ways. I knowed, too, that ole Stratton and them would have a whole hell of a lot more influence on what doc the folks in their town would go to than Jim Chastain and ole Red would have there in Fosterville. Things was a-working out real well, and I hustled my ass back over to the hotel to tell Doc about it.

  She weren’t asleep, neither. She was a-waiting for me. Whenever I give her the news, she sure was happy. It was just what she had been a-wanting, and I was sure happy that it was me what had been able to get it did for her. She was so excited about it all that she hugged me and kissed on me till I thunk that I might pass out from it. Final, she broke away loose from me a bit.

  “So I’ll stay here now,” she said, kindly asking, but not quite, “while you go on.”

  “Well, yeah,” I said, “like I told that Stratton, I got me a job I got to finish. It’s what I come out this way for in the first place, you know. I come out a-chasing bank robbers and meaning to return that stoled bank money. Well, I kilt the robbers, and I got the money. All I got to do now is to just take it back to the bank, but just as soon as I get that did, I’ll turn right around and come back here, Doc. I promise you that. Why, hell, I done tole ole Stratton that I would for sure take that job.”

  “You did?”

  “Right after he promised to do what he’s a-fixing to do for you, I tole him, I’ll be a-coming back. I’ll take that job.”

  “Oh, Kid,” she said, and she throwed her arms around me so hard and fast I fell over backwards on the bed. Well, she didn’t need no more hint than that, and I ain’t a-going to tell you no more.

  The next morning, me and Doc strolled over to Stratton’s railroad office, and we found him there all right. He stood up and shuck our hands when we come in.

  “Good morning,” he said. “Have you two had your breakfast?”

  “No,” I said, “we come straight over here like I said we would.”

  “Good. I haven’t either. Let’s go over to the restaurant. We can talk over breakfast and coffee.”

  Well, we done that, and what we found out was that Stratton had done picked out a office in town for Doc, and he had done fixed it for her to be the official doc for the railroad crew. He asked her where to send off to for the tools and stuff she needed, and he tuck notes whenever she told him, and he said that he would order all a that stuff. Doc, she told Stratton where to write to in order to get what she called her creedentials so he would know for sure that she was for real, and he said that he didn’t need to do that, but she insisted on it, so he final agreed to it, and he tuck down all a that there information, too.

  Well, betwixt the two of them, they had my head a-spinning, but I sure did like the way things was a-going, and I never did see me a woman so happy and so excited and so all fired businesslike all once and at the same time. Doc was really something. Then just as I thunk that they had everything figgered out and tuck keer of, Stratton come up with something else.

  “Staying in a hotel can be expensive,” he said, “and less than private. I know of a little house at the edge of town you could get for a good price, and I’m sure the bank will cooperate—if you’re interested.”

  “I’d love to look at it,” Doc said.

  So whenever we finished our breakfasts, what ole Stratton paid for all of them, we walked out, and we went and tuck a look at the office what Stratton had in mind, and Doc said she sure did like it, and he said it was settled then, and then we walked on to the edge a town and seed the house. It was a nice little house, and Doc was real happy for that, too. From there we went on over to the bank where ole Stratton got his way again. The banker feller come up with the money for the house right away. And I was glad to notice over at that there little house, that they was a nice little stall for a horse out back and a bit of a fenced-in place for a horse to run around some in.

  Once ever’thing was settled, me and Doc walked down to the stable where I paid up and saddled up Ole Horse and that little filly what I had bought for her. Then we mounted up and rid on back to her house, just the two of us this time, and she had the key.

  “It’s really mine,” she said.

  “It sure is.”

  “Let’s go in.”

  I couldn’t turn down that offer, so I tuck the two horses out back and put them inside the fence, and me and Doc went into her house. I had just stepped inside the door, and I run smack into her a-waiting for me with her arms opened out wide. She hugged me tight and kissed my mouth.

  “Just one thing, Kid,” she said.

  “What’s that?”

  “We called this my house.”

  “Well, it is, ain’t it? I mean, you got to pay that banker feller back the money, but whenever you get your business a-going, you won’t have no trouble doing that. And I can help you whenever—”

  “That’s not what I meant,” she said.

  “What then?”

  “It’s your house, too. It’s ours.”

  Chapter 20

  Well, I seed to it that ole Doc, she got settled in, all right. She had her a nice little house with furniture and all, and ole Stratton give her the key to the office he had picked out for her, and he set a sign painter to work a-fixing up a sign for her to hang out front. He ordered up all the things she would need in order to outfit her office all proper, and I moved her little horse to the stall out back a her house. I couldn’t think a anything else there was to be did, so I told her, “Darlin’, I hate to leave you, but the sooner I get going, the sooner I’ll get back here to you.”

  She didn’t argue with me none, and she give me a real swell good-bye smooch, and I dumb up on the back of Ole Horse and we headed north on that stagecoach road. I rid through the day, and I had to make me a camp for the night, and the next morning I got started early again. Around noon, I didn’t know it was a-going to do it, but that road swung northeast. Now, I had to go west to get back to Fosterville, but I sure did prefer a real road to just riding across wild country. For one thing, you know that a road is a going someplace, and it’s possible for a feller to get hisself all turned around slaunchways just out in the open like that. So I figgered a
stopover in a town wouldn’t hurt me none, and I had to come to some place or other where a east–west road would join up with that there stagecoach road. I stayed on it, even though it were taking me some outa my way.

  In another hour or so, I come on a little town. A sign beside the road called it Etter, and I come well into Etter before I realized that I had been there before. It was the same damn little one-horse town where I had met up with ole Dick Cherry the first time, and where we had tuck that outlaw Girt and formed up our ill-fated pardnership. Well, that was all right with me. I knowed that I could take the west-going road outa that place and get my ass on back to Fosterville all right. I brung back to mind the little boarding house in Etter where I had stayed before, and I rid over there and got me a room for the night. Then I tuck Ole Horse over to the stable, and when I went to leave him there, he snorted a good night to me. I found the eating place there without no trouble, and I had me a bowl a beef stew what was pretty good. Had some corn bread with it. I drunk a few cups a coffee to finish it all off.

  When I got up to leave, I paid the man, and then headed for the door, but before I had reached it, it come open and I reckernized the big ugly bastard a-coming in. He reckernized me too, and he give me a hell of a look. It was that there Moose Marlowe what I had humiliated the last time I was in that town. I recalled that whenever I had not bothered to kill ole Moose, Dick Cherry had told me that I was too soft. I reckoned he was right about that, too. Most likely, I shoulda kilt Moose that time, and I had oughta have kilt ole Cherry, too, at least one of two different times.

  I stopped and touched the brim a my hat in a greeting and smiled, and I said, “Howdy, Moose.” He kindly grunted at me. “Don’t you recall my name?”

  “Howdy, uh, Kid,” he said.

  “Say,” I said, “when you finish up your eating here, come on over to the saloon, and I’ll buy you a drink.”

  I didn’t make him answer me that time. I just walked on past him and out the door. I figgered right then that I would have to watch my back the whole time I was in Etter. Ole Moose, he wouldn’t face me, but he would dearly love to back-shoot me. I knowed that. I walked on over to the saloon and got me a bottle and two glasses. Then I found me a table where I could set down with my back to the wall. I poured me a little drink a whiskey and set it down on the table. I weren’t in no hurry to drink it.