Then Sly stood up and started down the hill, and Miller come right behint him. “What the hell are you two a-doing?” I said, but they never bothered to answer me. They just kept on a-going till they was down in the road, and then they kept on a-walking toward that camp. I seed bullets kicking up dust nearby them both, but they kept a-walking with their guns in their hands. When they got close to the camp, Sly picked out one what was peeking out from around a big tree, and he snapped off a shot and drilled the son of a bitch through the neck. Miller got one what was laying down behint a log. He shot his in the forehead. They kept a-walking, and they walked right past one what was behint a tree, and he stepped out with a gun in each hand, and he aimed at Sly’s back, but ole Polly drilled him clean right betwixt the shoulder blades, clean from up on the hillside where she was hid at. They was two of them left, not counting that Cody. One of them jumped and went to running through the woods. The other’n musta been buried low somewheres. I never seed him atall. Sly and Miller was a-standing in the middle a’ that camp a-looking around, but they couldn’t find no one.
“Let’s all go down,” I said, and I stood up and started making my own way. I could hear the rest of them a-follering me. Pretty damn soon we was all down in the road and walking toward Miller and Sly. “Happy,” I said, “go see can you catch up our horses.” He went running off down the road. I walked up beside a’ Miller. “Cody went off thattaway,” I said, pointing back behint the campfire. Me and Miller walked back thattaway. There was a sharp drop-off to a little gully, and there was six horses there. “So that’s how come him to disappear so quick,” I said.
“Damn,” Miller said.
Polly come up to us just then and she sized up the situation right quick. “So the son of a bitch got away again,” she said.
We walked back to the middle a’ the camp, and I looked around. “Where’s Bonnie?” I said.
“Oh,” Dingle said, “she went running after Happy down the road.”
“Goddamn it,” I said. “One a’ them bastards run through the woods thattaway.”
“Look here, Barjack,” said Butcher. I looked and he was a kneeling beside a stack a’ stuff and he had a bottle in his hand.
“Well,” I said, “have a goddamned drink on the bastards.”
He uncorked that son of a bitch and tipped it up, taking a long drink. Then he helt it out toward me and I tuck it and had me a drink. I passed it over to Polly. “It ain’t the best whiskey I’ve ever drunk,” I said, “but we never paid for it neither.”
Polly had herself a snort. Then we heared a shot come from a distance to the south. We all of us looked thattaway with our guns ready. We waited. By and by we heared some horses coming. I walked out into the road, holding my trusty Merwin and Hulbert self-extracting six-shooter ready for anything. But then here come Happy and Bonnie, each one riding a horse. Happy was leading a couple of others.
“What the hell was that gunshot?” I said.
“It was Bonnie what shot it,” Happy said.
“What for?”
“That bastard was fixing to shoot Happy,” Bonnie said.
“Tell me what the hell happened down there,” I demanded.
“Well,” said Happy, “I had caught up one horse. It was this one here that I’m a-riding.”
“I don’t care about that part of it, goddamn it,” I said. “Tell me about the shooting.”
“Happy was catching up that horse,” Bonnie said, “and that nogood son of a bitch stepped out of the woods beside the road and took aim at Happy’s back. I was just a little ways back, and I seen him, so I shot him with my rifle. That’s all.”
“Did you kill the bastard?” I ast her.
“I don’t know,” she said. “He didn’t move none.”
“She killed him dead, Barjack,” said Happy.
“All right then,” I said. “We got them all but ‘cept Cody.”
Then one a’ the ones laying around the campfire went to moaning and wiggling around a little bit. I hurried over to check him. He was shot good, but he weren’t dead. I throwed his gun away out of his reach. “Check them others,” I said. In another minute, Sly said, “They’re all dead, Barjack.”
“Happy,” I said, “ride back again and see can you catch up the rest of our horses. Butcher, go down in back here and bring up them outlaw horses. Dingle, gether up all a’ their weapons.”
While Happy was off gathering up our mounts, we got the bodies loaded up on horses and cleaned up the campsite, packing in their gear and putting out the fire, which was some bigger’n it ever needed to be. By the time that was all did, Happy come back with the rest a’ the horses and the corpus a’ the one Bonnie had kilt down the road. We all mounted up and headed back for Asininity.
When we got back to town it was well into the night, but I told Happy, “You and ole Butcher take these stiffs down to the carnal house, and when you’ve dropped them off, take all a’ the horses to the stable.”
“Yes, sir,” he said, and him and Butcher headed for the undertaker’s. Me and Bonnie, we headed for the Hooch House. Dingle and Polly follered us, but ole Sly the Widdamaker headed for his home. Whenever we stepped inside the Hooch House, I could see right off that Aubrey was having a hell of a time. I guess with me and Bonnie both gone at the same time, some folks decided that the lid was off and anything could go. They was a fight a-going on in one a’ the front corners a’ the room, and ever’one in the place was hollering around. “Go on back to our table, Bonnie,” I said, and she headed for it, follered by Dingle and Polly. I walked toward the fistfight what was under way.
They was five guys involved in it, and I come up behint one of them. He had just picked up a chair to use, but I hauled out my Merwin and Hulbert and whopped him damn hard on top a’ his head. He dropped straight down on the floor like a potato sack. Then I aimed my shooter at the middle a’ that fight. “Be still, you bastards,” I said. They stopped fighting right at once, and they was all a-looking at me. “You think you can break up my place whenever I’m busy somewhere else?”
“No, Barjack,” said a cowboy what I knowed. He was a regular customer. He was wiping at some blood on his mouth with a shirtsleeve. “It ain’t that. It just—well, it just happened.”
Happy and Butcher come in then, and when they seed me with my gun out, they both come right on over. “You’re just in time, boys,” I said. “Take this bunch to jail, and don’t forget that one on the floor.”
“Aw, Barjack,” said the cowboy.
“Shut up,” I said. I holstered my shooter and headed for my table, where I found ole Bonnie a-yelling at someone what was setting at my table. Well, they was a bunch a’ someones setting at it. There weren’t a single chair available. Bonnie was arguing with someone what had decided to talk up for the rest of them. “What the hell’s going on here?” I said.
“These farts are setting at our table, Barjack,” Bonnie said.
“I can see that,” I said. “All right then. You all might not a-knowed it, but this here table is private. It’s reserved. And it’s mine, so get up and move somewheres else.”
“We got here first, and the table was empty,” said the bastard what had been argying with Bonnie.
Well, I didn’t want to fuss with him no more, so instead I tuck hold a’ his collar behint his neck and lifted him up outta the chair. Then with my other hand, I pulled the chair out from under his ass, and I dropped him on the floor. I drawed out my six-gun soon as I dropped him, and I pointed it at his head.
“I told you to move,” I said. “I own this place along with this lady you was a-fussing with, and on top a’ that, I’m the town marshal here. Count yourself lucky I don’t throw your ass in jail.”
While he was a-standing up, the rest of his buddies was getting up outta their chairs and backing away. The one getting up from the floor looked up into my face, and he said, “Sorry, Marshal. Sorry. I didn’t realize.” He stood on up, and he tuck his hat in his hands, and he looked at Bonnie. “Sorry, ma�
�am,” he said. Then the whole bunch of them left. They never went to another table nor to the bar. They just left by the front door. I set down in my chair. Aubrey come running with our drinks. Happy and Butcher come back in then, and they come over to the table and set down.
“You get them ole boys locked up safe and sound?” I ast them.
“We sure did, Barjack,” Happy said.
“One of them was howling around,” said Butcher, “till Happy throwed a’ bucket a’ water on him.”
He went to laughing then. And Happy chuckled some too.
“I wish I had been there to see it,” I said.
“I wouldn’ta did it if you’da been there,” Happy said.
“How come?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “I just know I wouldn’ta.”
That set me to wondering about ole Happy. I guessed that he felt a whole lot more freer whenever I weren’t around. It come to me that if I was around, he wouldn’t do nothing without he ast me first if it was all right. I guessed I was just too damn bossy or something. I wanted to say something to him, but I couldn’t think just what it was I wanted to say, so instead, I picked up my glass and tuck a big swaller.
“Barjack?” said Butcher.
“Whut?”
“Whenever we was coming back in just now, we passed a bunch a’ guys leaving, and they was grumbling around and talking about you it sounded like to me.”
“So?”
“I was just wondering what the hell was wrong with them.”
“They was setting at our table whenever we come in,” said Bonnie, “and Barjack throwed them out.”
“Oh,” said Butcher. “They was lucky then, I guess.”
“What do you mean, Butcher?” Happy ast him.
“Well, if my old man was to walk into his favorite restaurant in the city and find someone sitting at his table, they’d get the shit beat out of them, at least.”
“Your old man is a criminal, Butcher,” I said. “I’m a lawman. There’s a difference.”
“I guess so,” he said.
Miller the Churkee come in about then, and he come over to set with us. “You’ve missed some excitement,” Bonnie said, and then she went and tole him about the fight what I busted up and the bastards what was a-setting at our table.
“I guess I should’ve come in with you,” he said.
“So where was you?” I ast him.
Aubrey come over and brung him a drink.
“I was just looking after my horse,” he said. “I’m thinking about riding after Cody in the morning.”
“Again?” I said.
“Yeah. He’s alone now.”
“But you don’t know where he went to,” said Happy.
“I can track him,” Miller said.
“If you do,” said Polly, “I’ll go with you.”
“What if I don’t want you going along?”
“You can’t stop me,” she said.
“We’ll see about that,” he said.
I tuck a drink, and I went to studying the both of them. Each one looked damned determined, and if I was to have to bet on one of them, I wouldn’ta knowed which one to bet on.
Chapter Twelve
I never slept very good that night. I was thinking about them two young folks, ole Mose Miller and ole Pistol Polly, a-going out after that goddamned Cody all on their own. I didn’t like the sound of it. I tossed around considerable in the bed, but final I did drop off to sleep. I woked up several times in the nighttime, though, and I woked up right early the next morning. I never really give it much thought, but whenever I got my ass outta bed, I got myself dressed right away, being careful not to wake up ole Bonnie, on account a’ she might come near killing me if I was to wake her up. Whenever I had all my clothes on and my Merwin and Hulbert self-extracting revolver strapped on around my middle and my hat on my head, I slipped outta the room real quiet like a little goddamned mouse, and I went on down the stairs. Hell, not even ole Aubrey was around yet. It was right early.
I walked all the way down to the livery stable and woked up the man and tole him to get my horse all saddled up and ready to go and bring it down to my marshaling office, and then I walked all the way back down there. I got my Henry rifle ready and stuffed my pockets full a’ boxes a’ shells. Then I tuck the bottle outta my desk drawer and put it in my coat pocket. I went to the winder and looked out, wondering what was taking so damn long about getting my horse to me. Final the slow-witted bastard come along with him.
“What tuck you so damn long?” I snapped at him.
“I was all ready to bring him along, when that Indian and that gal come in a-wanting their nags,” he said. “I had to get them ready.”
“Did they ride on out?” I ast him.
“Soon as they got their crow baits,” he said, “they mounted up and lit out.”
“Goddamn,” I said. I shut the office door and walked on down in the street to my horse.
“You going after them, Marshal?”
“I ain’t going for no joyride,” I said, swinging my ass up into the saddle. I knowed which way they was headed, so I just tuck out after them. Knowing that they had a start on me, I moved out kinda quicklike. After I had rid along for a ways without no sign of them, I begun to wonder if I had tuck the wrong road, but then I topped a rise and there they was, riding along real calm and easy side by side. They looked for all the world like a couple a’ kids out for a pleasant ride together on a Sunday morning. I spurred my old critter to catch up with them.
Whenever they heared my hoofbeats, they turned their heads to see who it was a-coming up behint them. Whenever they recernized me, they stopped to wait for me. I rid up beside them.
“Barjack,” said the Churkee. “What brings you along?”
“It don’t seem right you two going outta my town after a goddamned outlaw what is wanted for robbing my bank without me along to make it legallike,” I said.
“We told you we were going after him,” Polly said, “and you didn’t seem to give a damn.”
“Well, I slept on it, and I do give a damn. Let’s go.”
We kicked up our horses and moved out. Nobody said nothing till we come to the outlaws’ last camping place, the last place anyone had ever saw that damn Cody, and we stopped there to look the place over. Churkee walked down the slope where Cody had disappeared.
“He grabbed a horse here,” he said, “and he lit out that way.” He pointed off across the prairie.
“There ain’t nothing out that way,” I said.
“Well, that’s the way he went,” Miller said.
“Can you foller his tracks?” I ast.
“All the way to hell,” he said.
“Well, shit,” said Polly. “Let’s get after the son of a bitch.”
We mounted up again, and the Churkee led the way, moving slow and watching the trail real careful-like. A time or two he stopped and really studied the ground. Then he’d start up again. Me nor Polly didn’t say nothing. We just follered him along real patientlike. Then he stopped his horse and set looking hard at the ground for a bit. He got off and dropped down on one knee. Final he stood up and pointed off to the west where a line a’ hills was running north and south. He pointed at them.
“He’s headed for those hills,” he said.
I looked where he was pointing, and I couldn’t see nothing between us and there, “He’s done there then,” I said.
“Yeah,” said Churkee. “Let’s go.”
The way hills is, they was a lot farther off than they seemed to be. We rid the rest a’ that day away and had to make us a camp for the night. We cooked up a mess a’ beans and some salt pork, and I pulled the bottle outta my pocket and tuck me a slug a’ good whiskey. Then I passed it around. By and by we dropped off to sleep. I swear I thunk I heared a disturbance in the night, but I never really waked up. I just only kinda rolled over and snorted. But whenever I really woked up in the morning, I seed that our horses was gone. All three of them.
&nb
sp; “Goddamn it,” I yelled out, and Churkee and Polly both come outta their blankets real fast.
“What is it?” Churkee said.
“What?” said Polly.
“Where’s our damned horses?” I said.
“They’re gone,” said Polly.
“Hell,” I said, “I can see that. Goddamn it.”
“They were secured,” said Churkee. “Someone slipped up here and cut them loose.”
“That’s what happened,” said Polly. “It had to be.”
“You reckon it was that goddamned Cody?” I ast.
“I’d bet on it,” said Miller. “Damn his hide.”
“Well, track the son of a bitches,” I said. “We’ll have to foller them on foot. Damn it to hell. I hate to walk.”
“We got no choice,” Polly said.
“Cody or whoever it was came up on foot,” Churkee said, “probably so he wouldn’t make too much noise. Then it looks like he led the horses off. He never just turned them loose.”
“Well, let’s get going,” I said.
We rolled up our bedrolls and throwed them over our shoulders, and Churkee led the way after our horses. We trudged along. It didn’t take very long before I was plumb wore out, but just about then, Churkee stopped again.
“Here’s where he left his horse,” he said. “Then he cut ours loose and led them back here to pick up his own mount. He rode away still leading them.”
“He still headed for the hills?” I ast.
“So far,” said Churkee.
The little rest made me feel better a bit, so I just said, “Well, okay, let’s go.”
Barjack and the Unwelcome Ghost Page 9