Allerton and Axtell

by Gary Lee Martinson

  They started beating him hard with their fists, to the head and stomach. Gilbert felt the wind get knocked out of him, and blood oozed out from his mouth and nose. Suddenly there was a clank, and one of the men fell to the ground near him. The other thug turned his head, and there was another clank. He saw the second ugly thug fall to the ground next to the first ugly thug.

  Gilbert’s brain was still foggy when he looked up and saw the most beautiful angel. As his eyes were able to focus in on the angel named Clara. Clara had decided to see Gilbert after the races, regardless of his wishes. She had seen the men go into the barn, and peeked in to see what was happening. She had slowly opened the doors just enough to squeeze through, grabbed a shovel and took out the two thugs.

  “Gilbert,” she checked him out. “Come on, let’s get out of here. I got a stronger swing now, but these guys appear to be really tough.”

  He slowly got up rubbing his head, “We need to tie them up quickly.” He grabbed a harness from the wall and started to tangle the thugs up together. Clara remained close by holding the shovel over them, just in case. He looped any ends in a knot whenever he could. He finished by tying their hands up tight in the reins. They were so tied up in the harness they would have to be cut out of them. One of the thugs began to regain consciousness and started to try and get out of mass of harness.

  Clara lifted the shovel and threatened to hit him again if he didn’t stay still. “Stop it.” He stopped struggling as he looked at her, afraid of another shovel attack.

  “I get saved by a girl, again,” Gilbert frustratingly spat out some blood.

  “Should I have let you get beaten up?”

  “No,” he said disgustedly. “But you should have gotten somebody to help.”

  “I didn’t think you would last long enough for me to get help.”

  “I was doin’ all right.”

  “Yes, you were doing very well, honey,” she consoled him mockingly. “I have had enough experience in this stuff that I felt I could handle these guys.” Clara suddenly got an excited thought in her head. “I know sweetie. Why don’t we tell everybody that you took them out by whopping them over the head with the shovel.”

  Both thugs had awakened and were taking in the conversation quietly. Gilbert half considering the idea eventually dismissed it. “I don’t want to say that. Besides these guys will tell them the truth.”

  “No,” one of the thugs said, “We’ll go along with it.”

  Clara chuckled, “Like anybody is going to believe them.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Gilbert turned her around. He privately spoke to her, “All they will do is keep them overnight and put them on a train headed out of town. You and I will never be safe from them again. They’ll come back to get us, trust me.”

  “We make a good team,” she said, “we can handle them.” Gilbert knew better than to believe they could take care of themselves.

  “Yeah, kid,” one of the thugs said, “we’ll back you up. We don’t want people to think we got dunked by a girl. It will ruin our reputation.”

  The other thug said pleadingly. “If you let us go, we won’t bother you again. We’ll owe ya.”

  “If you don’t let us go,” the big thug said, “We will get both of you, real good.”

  Clara looked at them angrily raising the shovel. “Shut up, You need to find a different job. A job that you can handle.” Gilbert looked at her pleadingly for her not to antagonize them any further.

  The smaller of the thugs spoke harshly, “Hey, we were doing just fine till you showed up, cowardly of you, sneaking up on us like that.”

  “Shut up!” Gilbert yelled as he went into deep thought.

  Clara put her arms around him, “I promise the next time, I’ll be the one who gets beat up.” She smiled, “You can be the hero for real. But this time, tell them you whopped them over the head. If you don’t, my father is going to really think you are weak. Anyway, he is going to find out I was here.”

  “Go get someone from security.” Gilbert kissed her.

  “Are you sure you can handle things?” She smiled broadly, then added, “I’m just kidding sweetheart.” She handed him the shovel, then left.

  The small thug said, “You’re a lucky fella, to have such a great girl like that.”

  The bigger thug looked at him, “Don’t start getting friendly.”

  Gilbert knew the situation and these guys would not let it go that easy. He knew Clara didn’t realize the consequences of her interference. They would have roughed him up a bit and that would be the end of it. Now, the two thugs have a score to settle with Gilbert and Clara.

  The big thug said. “Have a heart kid. At least say you did it.” Gilbert reached into a small cupboard and brought out a box of rat poison.

  The small thug asked squeamishly, “You’re not going to poison us, are you?”

  Gilbert did not say a word. He opened the box and threw it against the wall next to the thugs, spraying rat poison pellets all over the place.

  “What the hell?” The big thug said as they both ducked the best they could while being tied up in ball.

  Clara soon returned with Sheriff Higbee and several security men. Clara’s uncle, Mr. Morton showed up shortly after the sheriff.

  “What happened, Gilbert?” The sheriff asked as he looked at the thugs and smiled with amusement at them tangled up in a horse harness.

  There was a deafening few seconds of silence as the thugs and Clara waited to hear the story that Gilbert would tell.

  “These guys came into the barn and threatened to poison Allerton with that rat poison.” He pointed over to the wall that had rat poison splattered around and the box open on the floor of the barn. “I was able to battle them off for a while, but they got the best of me until Clara here showed up with the shovel and clunked them on the head.”

  The thugs were stunned that they were being accused of trying to poison a valuable horse. Clara showed no change in her expression as if the story was true. She had not gotten there soon enough to know whether or not Gilbert was telling the truth. She, however, did not recall seeing the box of rat poison on the ground before. The sheriff looked at the poison and at the thugs.

  The head thug spoke out, “That’s a lie. We just wanted to rough the kid up for not eliminating his horse from the race. You know how it is.”

  “What happened here?” Mr. Williams asked as he, Barney and Katie walked into the barn.“Nothing has happened to Allerton has it?” He looked closer at Gilbert seeing he had blood on his face.

  Gilbert looked away from Mr. Williams trying to clean away the blood, “Allerton is fine, sir.” Then Gilbert remained silent. He was unwilling to tell a lie to Mr. Williams about the men trying to poison Allerton.

  Sheriff Higbee then volunteered the information, “Apparently these men were going to poison Allerton, and this young man tried to stop them.”

  “Tried?” Mr. Williams asked.

  “Apparently this young lady was able to subdue the perpetrators with a shovel.” The sheriff nodded to Clara standing in the doorway.

  Mr. Williams looked to her with great appreciation, “How were you able to subdue these large professional wretches?”

  Clara was reluctant to speak up in front of all these men. “Well,” she slowly squeezed out, “while this boy was keeping them busy by getting beaten up. I was able to acquire a shovel and I wack them over the head.” She made a proud small gesture with her hands of wacking them with a factitious shovel. She referred to Gilbert as a boy so not to alert her uncle that she knew him. Gilbert at first was offended, but understood after seeing Mr. Morton.

  “Is that what happened, Clara?” The sheriff asked her, “They really were going to poison Allerton?”

  “She came in later,” Gilbert interrupted, “she didn’t see that part.” He didn’t want to have Clara involved in the lie.


  “I heard a shout and a bang on the wall,” she pointed to the wall the poison had been thrown against. “I heard scuffling; I peeked in and these two men were beating up Gilbert, I mean the boy. Then I quietly picked up the shovel and whopped them over the heads.”

  The two thugs weren’t going to stand for that and both began to shout, “That’s a lie. He got the drop on us. And we weren’t trying to poison the horse. We didn’t even know this was Allerton. He threw the poison on the wall after she left to get you.”

  “Forget it,” the sheriff interrupted as he and two other security men began to pick the thugs up. “You two are going away for trying to destroy a priceless animal.” The sheriff and the two other men had to drag them since they were hopelessly entangled in the harness.

  “Aren’t you going to get us out of this harness?” the bigger thug asked.

  “No,” the sheriff said and added as an afterthought, “I’m not sure we could get you out of it.” He looked to Mr. Williams, “We’ll get the harness back to you as soon as possible. I don’t know if we can untangle it without cutting it up though.”

  “That’s fine,” Mr. Williams responded.

  Mr. Williams and Mr. Morton stayed behind with the young crime fighters. Mr. Williams looked at them, “This sounds like a familiar story I heard years ago.”

  “Yes, sir,” Gilbert replied quietly with some embarrassment.

  “Clara, are you all right?” Mr. Morton asked her.

  “Yes, I am fine.”

  Mr. Williams looked to Mr. Morton “With your permission I would like to have Clara make sure Gilbert gets to the infirmary. There are many people there being looked over from the bandstand collapse this afternoon. They may have to wait a short time.”

  “If Clara would like that,” Mr. Morton said happily, “she sure is welcome to.”

  “Yes, sir,” Clara replied as she looked at her uncle gratefully with some reservations. He gave her an approving look as he put his arm over her shoulder. “You want a job as one of the guards on the money wagon? We could sure use you.” He looked to Gilbert, “If you are up to it, could you see that Clara gets home this evening.” He smiled, “Mr. Fenny, please?”

  “Yes, sir,” he replied with great pride. It was apparent to both of them that Mr. Morton approved of their being together, disregarding her fathers insistence.

  Mr. Williams put his hand on Gilbert’s shoulder, “Thank you very much for your loyalty to Allerton and myself.” He put his hands on both shoulders and pointed him to the hospital. “Get yourself fixed up.” He pushed Gilbert toward the infirmary. He turned to Barney, “Could I get you to clean up the poison and check over Allerton for me?”

  “Yes, sir,” Barney replied with pride.

  “I don’t have to tell you how important it is to get all the poison cleaned up.”

  “No, I-I will get ev-ev-every bit of it, sir,” he said.

  “Thank you Barney.” Mr. Williams headed off toward the Rush Park entrance.

  Gilbert could see Clara was exhausted. Her face solemn in appearance, but still very pretty. Her reddish hair had fallen out of its tight bun. Her bonnet was on crooked and she didn’t seem to care.

  Barney looked to Gilbert, “Sorry, I wasn’t around to help you like you we-we-were around when I nnnneeded you.”

  “I know you would have jumped in to help me.” Gilbert told him.

  Katie bent down to start picking up poison. “Come on honey, I’ll help you.”

  Gilbert reached for Clara with open arms. She fell into his arms, then guided her to a bench outside the barn. “Maybe I should take you home now.”

  “No,” she said quickly, “I want to be with you for a while. Besides, we need to get you looked at.”

  “I’m not hurt that bad. They didn’t have time to get too many punches in. I’ll be fine.” He calmly spoke to her. They sat there for nearly a half hour, just leaning on one another watching the last bit of glow from the setting sun fade away. It was a peaceful warm evening. Clara tapped his shoulder. “Yes, my dear.”

  “Did they really want to poison Allerton?”

  He did not want to answer it. “Why would you ask?”

  “I don’t remember that box of poison on the ground, and they had some poison on their clothes.” She questioned. Gilbert was cornered by her questions. He couldn’t lie to her, and he couldn’t tell her the truth, it would make her an accomplice to the lie.

  “Let’s go to the lake,” he said.

  Clara knew the truth, but knew it was best not to pursue the story. “Some day you will have to tell me why.”

  They took a walk around the oval shaped Williams Lake. They held hands as they walked on bridge to the small island in the middle of the lake. They weren’t the only ones taking advantage of the romantic setting. There was Lee Palmer and Anna Norris sitting on a bench near the lake. They were kissing when Clara and Gilbert approached them. There was a group of younger adults who were talking near the edge. There was Andrew and Dick O’Brien, Will Littlejohn, Alice and Betty Rosemond and Leta Holman. Alice and Betty had removed their shoes dangling their feet in the water.

  Katie and Barney had cleaned up Allerton’s barn and were holding hands leaning on one another as they sat on a rock at the north end of the lake. They found each other’s lips for a short loving kiss. Clara said softly, “He must have gotten the poison picked up.”

  Gilbert needed to get Clara home. As they approached the front gate of Rush Park, they could see Mr. Morton and several guards preparing to run a wagon full of barrels of coins from the track to the bank. The guards were armed with shotguns and sidearms.

  It was a known fact that the amount of money taken in at the track was phenomenal. It was such a pile of coins collected, they often used shovels to load the coins into small barrels to be transported to the bank. Mr. Morton saw Clara and Gilbert as they approached. He gestured for Clara to hop on the wagon, for a ride into town. “I can see that she gets home Mr. Fenny. You look like you should get to bed. Give her a proper good-bye if you wish.”

  Clara wide eyed turned to him waited for a kiss goodnight. Gilbert did not shy away and approached her slowly. They kissed a long passionate kiss as the men around them turned away in embarrassment. Most of the men in the security group knew who they were and their history.

  Mr. Morton asked Gilbert, “How are you doing? Did you get fixed up all right?”

  “Yes sir, I’m fine,” he answered.

  Clara turned to get on the wagon, Gilbert steadying her by the hand as she stepped up. Mr. Morton also assisted her up. The security men got on board and Mr. Morton jerked the reins, the wagon lurched forward. Gilbert stayed and watched the wagon disappear into the darkness. He stayed until he could no longer hear the creaking wheels.

  Mr. Morton opened up the conversation with Clara, “I don’t know why your father doesn’t like him. I figure if Mr. Williams likes him and puts so much trust in him, he must be a special young man.” Clara kept silent not knowing what to say. “I could have a talk with your father, if you want me to.”

  “No,” she said, “he will only come around if it is his idea to do so.”

  “Do you think he ever will?”

  “No, he is to stubborn to admit he has made a mistake.”

  “Are you really serious about Gilbert?” Mr. Morton asked. “I’m sorry maybe I am getting too personal?”

  “I am glad you know,” she said, “I am serious or I wouldn’t be taking a chance of upsetting my father.”

  “That should have been obvious to me,” her uncle said. “Your aunt and I have known for a few years. I hate to admit we overheard you and Eva talking on the roof of the porch once.” Clara looked at him funny. “We never said anything to anyone, even you, because we were ashamed about how we overheard.”

  “Oh,” Clara responded sharply.

  “I
am very sorry. I hope you can forgive us.”

  “That is no big deal, you didn’t try to overhear. You were just in the wrong place or actually you were in the right place.” Clara said. “I am glad you know and that you understand.”

  Clara accompanied her uncle to the bank with the other men protecting the money. The downtown area was newly lit by more electric lights for the racing week. This was to make the city safer for people late at night. The streets were full of men and women walking and talking, having a great time. Many of them having just finished up eating or attending shows. There was a large crowd of people coming out of Kings Hall.

  There were some arguments and foul language on the streets. A crowd had gathered around a fight between two men. The fight was quickly broken up by temporary sheriffs deputies.

  When Mr. Morton and the guards reached the bank, they were received by several other armed men. One by one the barrels of coins were taken into the bank and placed in the vault. There were two men who stood guard at the bank all night during race week. They were armed with shotguns and pistols.

  Once they had unloaded the wagon, one of the men swept the back of the wagon, picked up a handful of coins, “Your wife is going to have a lot to dig out tonight.”

  “Yeah,” Mr. Morton responded, “she’ll do it all night if she has to.”

  Mr. Morton and Clara climbed back aboard the wagon and with a flip of the reins the wagon started the few blocks to their house. Mr. Morton pulled the wagon around to the back of the house. Mrs. Morton came out the back door carrying a lantern and a bucket. Gretchen greeted them, “Hello, was it another big day, dear?”

  “Yes,” her husband responded, “you will have a bucket full again tonight.”

  Gretchen asked, “Clara, I was beginning to wonder about you. Would you like to give me a hand.”

  “Sure,” she answered.

  Mr. Morton looked at his wife, “I think she should call it a night.”

  “I am sure Clara can speak for herself.” Gretchen said calmly before she turned to Clara. “My dear, would you want to help me or go on to bed.”