Day of Reckoning

by William W. Johnstone

  “Yeah, I seem ’im at the trial that was held for him ’n Manning,” one of the other men at the table added. “’N it’s like Charley said, once you’ve seed the son of a bitch, it ain’t likely that you’ll forget ’im.”

  Charley jumped back into the conversation. “Callahan was one of ’em all right, ’n if he was there, you can believe Manning was along, too. Seven of ’em, they was.”

  “Seven? Who was the rest of ’em?”

  “I don’t think there’s nobody that knows that. All the paper said was they was seven of ’em what held up the stagecoach.”

  “Laraby, you been awful quiet here,” Charley said. “You rode with ’em two boys once, didn’t you?”

  “I ain’t never rid with Callahan,” Laraby replied. “But me ’n Manning rid together some. We never did no killin’ when I was with ’im, though. ’Bout the onliest thing we ever done was we throwed a long rope now ’n then. I spent two years in prison for it, ’n I tell you true, that ain’t no place I ever want to go back to, which is why I’m satisfied now to be a cowboy for forty ’n found.”

  “Hell, who ain’t throwed a long rope now ’n then? It’s just that some of us ain’t dumb enough to have ever been caught,” one of the others replied in a joking manner, and the others laughed.

  “You know what I think?” Laraby asked.

  “What’s that?”

  “I’m a-thinkin’ that I wouldn’t be none surprised if they wasn’t the same ones that held up that bank up in Bordeaux. They said it was four men that done it, ’n it went off slick as a whistle. ’N folks is sayin’ one of ’em was Callahan.”

  “Four men?”

  “That’s what they’re tellin’. Four men it was that robbed the bank, ’n one of ’em was a big man with a broke nose.”

  “Yeah, but it was seven men what held up the stagecoach.”

  “And Callahan was one of ’em,” Charley said. “It’s just real plain to me that Callahan rounded up some more people, is all. Don’t know who the others are, though.”

  “Yeah, well, how do you think Callahan ’n Manning escaped? Had to be someone that helped ’em do that, ’n more’n likely, that’s who the other men is.”

  * * *

  “Have either of you ever been to Cummins City?” Duff asked quietly.

  “I haven’t,” Ina Claire said.

  “I have. I sold some dresses to a Mrs. Allen who lives there. Her husband, Tom, is a big farmer in the area.”

  “Good, then you can show us around.”

  At that moment a big brute of a man, with long, stringy hair and an unkempt beard, stepped through the batwing doors. He stood just inside the doors for a moment, scratching his crotch and looking around the saloon floor.

  “Oh, hell, there’s Pete Pollard,” one of the men who was sitting at the other table said.

  “What’s he doing here?” Charley asked. “I thought that son of a bitch was in jail.”

  “Yeah, for beatin’ up a store clerk. But he only got thirty days for it, ’n here he is, out again.”

  “Don’t nobody look over toward ’im,” Laraby said. “Otherwise he might come over to our table, ’n I’d just as soon he don’t.”

  The big bearded man the other table had identified as Pollard happened to walk by where Duff, Meagan, and Ina Claire were sitting. He gave them a casual glance, looked away, then stopped and did a double take.

  “By damn, you are women, ain’t ya?” he asked.

  “Yes,” Meagan replied. “We are women.”

  “Sir, ’tis a convivial conversation that we are having, ’n your intrusion is unwelcome,” Duff said.

  “Yeah? Well it don’t seem fair to me that you’d be sittin’ in here with two women, and I don’t have none.”

  “Who would want anything to do with you? You are ugly,” Ina Claire said.

  Meagan and Duff laughed.

  “You think that’s funny, do you?” the big man said to Duff. He pulled his pistol and pointed it at Duff’s head. “Now, I tell you what I’m goin’ to do. I’m goin’ to take one of these women upstairs with me, ’n I’m goin’ to let you decide which one it’s goin’ to be.”

  Pollard’s voice was loud and challenging, and it got the attention of everyone in the saloon, especially after he drew his pistol.

  “Oh, I don’t think I would want you to have either one of them,” Duff replied in a voice that was as calm if he were engaged in a friendly conversation. “Actually, I doubt if any o’ the ladies in here would be amenable to such a request. Ye’ might be better off taking your proposition to a pub that caters to a lower class of patrons.”

  “Mister, you talk so damn fancy that I don’t understand half o’ what it is you’re a-sayin’. But I’m tellin’ you now that you had better make up your mind just real quick which one of these women I’ll be takin’ or else I’m goin’ to blow your head off . . . uhh!” the big man’s blustering challenge was interrupted by a grunt of pain.

  “Here now, ’n would you be for feelin’ a wee bit of a pin prick in your belly?” Duff asked, the tone and tenor of his voice unchanged. “That would be the point of my knife. I’ve stuck it no more than, oh, I’d say half an inch into you, just enough so that you would know that it’s there. And if I see your thumb draw the hammer back, I’ll gut ye like a fish, ’n ye’ll be for bleedin’ to death on the floor.”

  “Be . . . be careful with that knife.” The bravado in the man’s voice was gone, replaced by fear.

  “Turn your gun around, then give it butt-first to my wife.”

  “It’s your wife, is it? Well, mister, I didn’t mean no harm here, I sure didn’t know that it was your wife.”

  “Hand her the pistol, please.”

  Turning the gun around as he had been ordered, the big man handed the pistol to Meagan.

  “Now, I’ll be for asking you to be leaving the table. Oh, and if I were you, I’d do something about that wound in your stomach. ’Tis a small wound, that’s true, but as filthy as you keep your person, ’tis likely to get infected. And an infection there could go to your inner organs, and it would be a very painful death.”

  “What about my gun?”

  “I’ll leave it at the sheriff’s office for you.”

  “Wait a minute . . .”

  “You’d better do what the man says, Pollard,” Charley, from the adjacent table, said, stepping up then. “You’d better get yourself cleaned up. I seen a feller die once from a wound that warn’t no bigger’n that’n you got, but it up and putrefied on ’im, ’n he died hard.”

  Duff watched as the big man left the saloon, then he turned back to Meagan and Ina Claire.

  “I expect we had better leave as well,” he said. “I doubt we’ll get any more information here today. We’ll drop the gentleman’s gun off at the sheriff’s office, then check into a hotel for the night.”

  Chapter Twenty-four

  “You stabbed him, you say?” a deputy at the sheriff’s office said.

  “Aye, but only a wee bit,” Duff replied. “Just enough to discourage him it was.”

  The deputy laughed. “I would like to have seen that. Pollard is a big man full of swagger, and more often than not people back down to him. He just got out of jail this very morning for beating up a man. I’m glad to see that he got his comeuppance.”

  * * *

  “I’ll get us three rooms for the night,” Duff said as they walked from the sheriff’s office to the hotel.

  “There’s no need for you to be getting three rooms,” Meagan said. “Two rooms will do.”

  “Aye, the two of you can stay in the same room.”

  “Now how is that going to look?” Meagan asked. “We’re supposed to be married, but you’ll be in a room by yourself and I’ll be sharing a room with my sister?”

  “Meagan, I . . .”

  Meagan smiled and held out her hand. “Sure ’n if ’tis your virtue ye be worryin’ about, Duff MacCallister, ye can put such fears to rest, for m’ motive be as pure a
s the driven snow.”

  Duff laughed. “Meagan Parker, so perfectly does the brogue o’ Scotland roll from your tongue, are you sure ye nae be from Edinburgh?”

  Meagan dropped the brogue. “You are trying to avoid the subject. You know that if we are to maintain this façade, that what I’m saying is correct. We must share the same room.”

  “Aye, woman, there is truth in what ye say. It’s just that I’m a wee bit concerned about the lass here.”

  “Oh, Ina Claire, I wasn’t thinking about you. Of course, if you’re too frightened to stay in a room by yourself, I’ll stay with you.”

  “No, I’m not too frightened,” Ina Claire replied. “I’ll be fine.”

  Meagan smiled and put her arm through Duff’s. “Good,” she said. “Good for you.”

  * * *

  Pete Pollard, with the small wound in his stomach patched up, returned to the Rendezvous Saloon. That big galoot had caught him by surprise when he was here before, and he took his gun away from him.

  Well, sir, I got me another gun, Pete thought to himself. ’N that funny-talkin’ son of a bitch is goin’ to play hell gettin’ this one from me.

  He stood just inside the saloon door for a while, perusing the main room, but the man, and the two women who were dressed as men, weren’t here. He stepped up to the bar and ordered a whiskey.

  “Hello, Pollard, I didn’t think you’d be back in here tonight, not after you had your little run-in with Mr. MacCallister,” the bartender said.

  “After my run-in with who?”

  “MacCallister. Duff MacCallister,” the bartender said. “That’s the name of the man who took your gun away from you.”

  “Yeah, well, he sorta surprised me, stickin’ that knife in my belly like he done. How come it is that you know him? I been comin’ here off and on for most of two years now, ’n I don’t think I ever seen him before.”

  “Well, if you had seen him before it would’ve been what they call a coincidence, I mean, you just happenin’ to be here at the same time he was. He owns a ranch up near Chugwater you see, ’n when he’s come to Cheyenne on business, he drops in here from time to time. Most often when he’s here, though, you’ll see him with an older fella by the name Gleason.”

  “What’s he doin’ in town now?” Pete asked.

  “Oh, hell, I don’t have no idea why he’s here, but generally when he’s here it’s ’cause he’s shippin’ cattle somewhere.”

  “Do you know them two women that was with ’im?”

  “Women? I didn’t see no women with him.”

  “No, Mel, he’s right, there were some women with him,” a bar girl said.

  “What are you talkin’ about, Sadie? MacCallister had two men with him when he came in here tonight. I know, on account of he bought three beers ’n took ’em over to the table where they were sitting.”

  “They were dressed like men, and from a distance they may have looked like men, but when you got close to ’em, they were women,” Sadie said. She laughed. “I ought to know, I near ’bout made a fool of myself tonight, tryin’ to pick one of ’em up.”

  “This man, what did you say his name was? MacCallister? He told me that one of the women was his wife, ’n the other was her sister,” Pete said.

  “Yes, he told me the same thing,” Sadie said. “His sister-in-law was very young, so young that you might say she was more of a girl than a woman.”

  “His wife, you say? Well, well, so MacCallister got hisself married, did he? Well it must have just happened, and I’ll tell you this, whoever the woman is who caught ’im, she did all right for herself. From all that I have heard about that ranch of his, it’s the biggest one around Chugwater, ’n maybe one of the biggest in all of Wyoming,” Mel said.

  “Wait a minute. Are you tellin’ me this MacCallister feller is rich?” Pollard asked.

  “Oh, he’s rich all right. Why, I wouldn’t be surprised if he wasn’t one of the richest men in the whole territory,” Mel said.

  “I’ll be damn. Who woulda thought that?” Pollard replied.

  “They didn’t stay very long,” Sadie said.

  “He don’t never stay too long,” Mel replied. “Most of the time when he comes in, he’ll have no more’n one or two drinks, then he goes back to the hotel. He’s a quiet sort. To tell the truth, Pollard, that’s why I was a little surprised to see that you had got on his bad side. He ain’t riled all that easy, and somehow you got ’im riled up.”

  “It was just a misunderstandin’ is all,” Pollard said. “I didn’t know the woman was his wife ’n I mighta said something that I shouldn’ta said. The reason I come in here lookin’ for ’im is ’cause I was plannin’ on tellin’ ’im I’m sorry ’bout anythin’ I mighta said that was out of line. I mean, bein’ that the woman was his wife ’n all.”

  “I’m sure Mr. MacCallister would appreciate that,” Mel said. “It’s like I told you, Mr. MacCallister is a decent sort of man, only he ain’t the kind you’d ever want to get on his wrong side.”

  “You said he generally just had a couple o’ drinks, then went to the hotel,” Pollard said. “Would that be the Del Rey or the Milner?”

  “I’m sure it’s the Del Rey. It’s a lot nicer than the Milner, ’n I can’t see a rich man like Mr. MacCallister stayin’ at the Milner.”

  Another customer stepped up to the bar then, and Mel moved down to take care of him. Sadie went back to working the floor, and that left Pollard alone to stare into his glass of whiskey.

  Initially, Pollard’s plan had been to find the man who had humiliated him and kill him. After all, he had proof that the man had attacked him with a knife, and he had a reasonable expectation that MacCallister represented a threat. And if that was the case, he had every right to defend himself.

  But the bartender said that MacCallister was a rich man, and that gave Pollard an idea. The young girl was his sister-in-law, and if they were staying at the hotel, what with MacCallister just getting married and all, he sure wouldn’t want that young girl in the same room with him and his new wife. That means the girl would be in a room all by herself, and if he was able to grab her, and hold on to her, he was pretty sure that MacCallister would pay a pretty penny to get her back. After all, he wouldn’t want anything to happen to his new wife’s sister now would he?

  He’d have to wait until late tonight in order to carry out his plan, because he would need to be certain that everyone was asleep.

  Looking around the room, Pollard saw a chair open up at a table where a poker game was in progress, so taking his beer with him, he walked over to join them. He needed to kill some time, and playing poker seemed the best way to do it.

  “I didn’t expect to see you back here tonight, Pollard,” one of the cardplayers said.

  “Why not?”

  “I mean, after what MacCallister done to you ’n all.”

  “Yeah, well, Mel just told me that one o’ them women was his wife, ’n I might of got a little out o’ line. I just come back here to apologize is all.”

  “I’m sure he would have appreciated that,” the cardplayer said.

  “Look here, Mel told me that feller was rich. Is that true?”

  “He’s as rich as Croesus,” one of the other players said.

  “Yeah? Who is this Croesus feller?” Pollard asked.

  “Someone who is as rich as MacCallister,” the player replied, and the others laughed.

  * * *

  “Why would we want to go somewhere else to eat when there is a perfectly nice dining room right here in the hotel?” Meagan asked.

  “Oh, but you must eat at Hogjaw’s, at least once while we are here,” Duff said.

  “Hogjaw’s? The place is called Hogjaw’s?”

  “Aye, ’twas Elmer who found it.”

  Meagan chuckled. “Now why am I not surprised that Elmer would find a place called Hogjaw’s?”

  “Dinnae be puttin’ the place down until ye’ve had supper,” Duff said. “Ye may find it to your liking.�
�

  “Hello, Mr. MacCallister,” someone said, greeting Duff, Meagan, and Ina Claire when the three of them stepped into the restaurant. He was a rather large man wearing blue denim trousers, a white shirt, and red gallus.

  “Hello, Hogjaw.”

  “What brings you to town? Cattle business?”

  “Nae, ’tis but a visit, but I dinnae want to go back without having a meal in your foine establishment.”

  “It’s welcome you and your friends are,” Hogjaw said. “Find a table somewhere, and we’ll start the pass-arounds.”

  “Pass-arounds?” Meagan asked as they were seated.

  “Aye, ’tis a thing Hogjaw does. As soon as you are seated, someone will bring you such things as fried potatoes, fried squash, hot bread, and the like.”

  “Hogjaw? That’s his name?” Ina Claire asked. She laughed. “What a funny name.”

  “His real name, as I understand it, is Norman. And who would want a name that reminds one of the Normans, one of history’s most beastly lot?”

  “Duff, how are we going to find these people?” Meagan asked.

  “By perseverance,” Duff replied without further explanation.

  “Perseverance?”

  “Aye.”

  “If you will excuse me for saying so, that doesn’t sound like a plan that is all that likely to succeed.”

  “Let me ask you this, Meagan. Do you think men such as the scoundrels we seek will, to quote Shakespeare, ‘go gently into the good night’? I think not. I think they will continue with their nefarious deeds and that will leave a trail for us to follow. Remember the conversation in the saloon tonight brought up the suggestion that the men we seek may have held up a bank in Bordeaux. And ’tis most likely the same ones held up the stagecoach. But the article in the newspaper says they got no money from the stagecoach, so they’ll be trying another scheme soon. All we have to do is follow the trail they will be leaving for us.”

  Meagan smiled. “Sometimes, Duff, I forget how smart you really are.”

  * * *

  The night clerk at the Del Rey Hotel was sitting behind the check-in desk. The chair was tipped back against the wall, and the clerk had his ankles hooked around the front two legs of the chair. His head was buried in a newspaper, so he didn’t see Pollard come in.