* * *
“Well, good morning, Sunshine,” Rachael greeted Perley when he came into the hotel dining room. “The two other early birds just beat you by a few minutes,” she joked. She enjoyed japing all three of them for their late arrival because, ordinarily, they were banging on the dining room door before she opened for breakfast.
Perley gave her a smile for her efforts to shame him and said, “Good mornin’ to you, too. I hope you’ve got plenty of coffee, ’cause I’m gonna need a lot of it. We didn’t get to bed very early last night.”
“I heard about the little party you had at the jailhouse last night after the meeting,” she said. “Go set yourself down and I’ll get you started on some coffee.”
“Much obliged,” he said and walked back to the table where Possum and Rooster were seated. “Mornin’,” he said as he pulled a chair out and sat down. Neither of them said anything in response to his greeting until he looked at them and asked, “What?”
“We was just wonderin’ if you was gonna stay in that bed all day,” Possum japed and winked at Rooster. “Me and Rooster have been waitin’ for you to show up for ’bout an hour. Ain’t that right, Rooster?” Rooster grinned and nodded.
“Is that so?” Perley responded in kind. “Well, now you know how I feel every other mornin’ of the year, don’tcha? Besides, Rachael just told me you two just barely beat me to the door.” While his two friends chuckled, he paused to say good morning to six-year-old Alice when she brought him his coffee. “Why, thank you, darlin’,” he greeted her. “My coffee always tastes better when you bring it to me.” She smiled sweetly and returned to the kitchen.
“How come that young’un don’t ever bring me and Possum any coffee?” Rooster complained.
Overhearing his question, as she brought two plates of food to the table, Kitty Lowery laughed. “You don’t like the coffee I bring you?” she asked.
“That was him that said that,” Possum quickly replied, pointing to Rooster.
“Next time, I’ll let him get his own,” Kitty said. She smiled at Perley then and said, “Your breakfast is coming, soon as Bess gets it on a plate.”
“Much obliged,” Perley said, then turned his attention back to the table. He couldn’t help noticing that everyone seemed to be in a downright playful mood this morning, so he commented on it.
“I don’t know,” Rooster answered his comment. “I reckon after that little shindig at the jailhouse last night, Ned Stark’s gang of outlaws has been whittled down to nothin’. Me and Possum was talkin’ about it, and as near as we can figure, there must not be anybody left with Stark but those two fellers that got wounded when they tried to shoot the jail to pieces that first time. And that’s somethin’ to get happy about. There ain’t no tellin’ if he’s got more men we don’t know about, but I think we’re at the place where we oughta ride out to that ranch and find out.”
“I think Rooster’s right,” Possum said. “And I think the town is ready to tell Stark it’s time for him and his kind to move along and find some other part of the state to pester.”
“I know we’re ready,” Rooster declared. “Last night, when we heard them shots from the jailhouse, did you see them fellers pourin’ outta the saloon to see what was the matter? And runnin’ right with ’em, Mayor Ralph Wheeler. Ain’t nobody ever seen that before.” He had no sooner said it when Possum nudged him and motioned toward the door as the mayor walked in.
Seeing the three of them, Wheeler walked back and seated himself at the table next to theirs. “Good morning, men,” he greeted them cheerfully. “I’ll sit over here so I don’t crowd you.”
“That’s a good idea, Mayor,” Possum said. “With all these elbows flyin’ at this table, somebody could get hurt.” His comment earned a hearty chuckle from the mayor. Perley was reminded again of the seemingly cheerful mood this morning.
As Perley expected, Wheeler was eager to talk about the night just passed and the course of action the town council should take to finish the job. “We was just talkin’ about that,” Rooster said. “We was thinkin’ it’s the right time to ride out to Stark’s place to see who he’s got left—maybe tell him it’s time for him to move on. And if he don’t want to leave, hell, arrest him ’cause he’s the one responsible for everything his men have been up to.”
“You may be right,” Wheeler responded. “I was already thinking about a little meeting with the sheriff and a few of the members to decide about that. I imagine you men would want to be in on it.” He glanced at Perley. “Especially since you have been involved in damn-near every incident of this war with the outlaws.”
The talk was interrupted then when another diner entered the dining room, and spotting them, walked back to greet them. “Good mornin’ gentlemen. This looks like an important meeting goin’ on. I won’t interrupt.”
“No,” Wheeler responded, “no meeting. Mr. Dawson, right?”
“That’s right,” he answered. “Drew Dawson.” He glanced around the table, smiling at each of them. Perley thought he detected a look of caution behind the smile, but decided it might just be that he was afraid he was interrupting something important. He relaxed completely when Wheeler invited him to sit down at his table and have breakfast with them.
“Why, that would be my pleasure,” Drew said, “if you’re sure I wouldn’t be interfering with any important discussion.”
“Better take another look at this table,” Possum said. “Does it look like we could be talkin’ about anything important?”
Drew laughed and replied, “Looks like you were planning the future of the whole damn town.” His glance at Perley went unnoticed. After he and the mayor told Kitty what they wanted for breakfast, he turned back to Wheeler. “As I was passin’ the entrance to the hotel, I heard a fellow say you had some excitement in town last night.”
“Well, yes we did at that,” Wheeler answered him quickly before Rooster could. His impression of Drew Dawson was one of a man who appeared to have a little money, and he seemed interested in the future of Bison Gap. He suspected him of hiding his real interest in the town, thinking he might be considering building a business here, but he was guarding against possible pressure by the mayor’s office. For those reasons, Wheeler preferred to downplay any problems the town had with outlaws. “There was a little trouble at the jail after a council meeting last night,” he continued. “A couple of outlaws made an attempt to free two prisoners from the jail, but the attempt was prevented by the sheriff with some assistance from the vigilance committee.”
“Oh, so now the sheriff has all of them in jail,” Drew assumed.
“He ain’t got but one of ’em in jail,” Rooster informed him. “The rest of ’em are dead.”
Dawson had to use all the control he could muster, but he managed to maintain a blank expression on his face. The news was as bad as he had feared, and he pictured Ned’s face when he took the news back to him. He couldn’t resist probing for more details. “Sounds like you must have been one of those who gave the sheriff assistance,” he said to Rooster.
“We all were,” Rooster declared, “but we weren’t there in time to make any difference, except Perley. He’s the one that stopped the whole thing.”
I knew it! Drew thought, but maintained his composure. “Perley Gates,” he pronounced the name grandly. “Nobody told me you were so handy with a gun.”
Perley shrugged, not wanting any of it. “As handy as the next fellow, I reckon, like everybody born on a cattle ranch. You learn to shoot snakes and coyotes.”
What if the coyote has a gun and is faster than you, I wonder? Drew thought as he smiled at Perley. I’d like to call you out in the street right now to see if you really are fast, or just lucky. He had to remind himself that this was not the time to call Perley’s hand, but he was determined that the time would come after he and Ned decided what they were going to do. And he was afraid his concern was showing in his face. He was saved when Rachael and Kitty came to the table with their meals. “I see you’ve come ba
ck to see us, Mr. Dawson,” she said. “I hope your breakfast is satisfactory.”
“Ah, Miss Parker, indeed it is but you knew I would have to come back here to get such excellent cooking, served by such charming ladies.”
“Mr. Dawson . . .”
“Drew,” he corrected.
“Drew, then,” she said, blushing. “You do go on. I’ll let you eat your breakfast before it gets cold.” She retreated to the kitchen. Possum gave Perley a sideways glance and shook his head. Perley grinned in response. He couldn’t recall having seen Rachael blush before.
“Forgive me, gentlemen,” Drew said. “I’m afraid pretty ladies are one of my weaknesses. I’m sure Miss Parker, or should I say Mrs. Parker, knows I mean no harm and certainly no disrespect.”
“I hadn’t thought about it one way or another,” Rooster said. “Rachael Parker can take care of herself. Ain’t that right, Possum?”
“That’s a fact,” Possum confirmed.
Devouring his breakfast in record time, Drew announced. “I’ve got some places to go, so I’ll say good mornin’ and be on my way. Once again, it was a pleasure.” He placed some money on the table and got up to leave, waving to Kitty on his way out. There was really only one other place he planned to visit, and that was the Buffalo Hump, for two reasons. He knew he would get more details about the previous night’s activities from the bartender, and he needed to replace the whiskey he and the others had consumed.
“Howdy, Drew,” Jimmy McGee greeted him when he came in. “I was wonderin’ if you’ d be back this way any time soon. Shot of rye?”
“Don’t mind if I do, Jimmy,” Drew answered. “Even if it is a little early.” He watched Jimmy pour his drink, then said, “I had breakfast with the mayor a little while ago. He was tellin’ me you had a little excitement over at the jail last night.”
“I reckon you could say that, all right,” Jimmy said. As Drew expected, Jimmy went on to tell him about the attempt by Junior and Sledge to free Eli and Slim that was followed by the shoot-out between Perley Gates and Slim and Eli, resulting in Junior as the sole survivor of the men Stark sent to get his men out of jail. He got every detail from Jimmy, who never left the saloon. But Drew had every detail he needed to paint the picture for Stark. There was every indication that the people were now fully prepared to fight any outlaw intrusion upon their town. Drew could only grimace when he thought about Stark and his two wounded men waiting back at the ranch, compared to the hard-riding gang he was reported to have the day he left prison. He said so long to Jimmy and rode back to the ranch. The only good news he could give Ned was that he was pretty sure there would be no posse coming his way today. The town had to have a meeting before they could do anything.
CHAPTER 17
Drew was not surprised when his cousin went into a rage upon finding out that Jack Sledge and Junior Humphrey were not going to return alive from Bison Gap and that Slim and Eli were already dead. At this point, Stark had been beaten in every confrontation with the gunman the town hired. And in spite of what Drew told him he had learned, Ned could not be convinced that Perley Gates was not a hired gun. “Why, then, wasn’t one of my men killed by someone else, someone besides Perley Gates?” Stark demanded. “I’ll tell you why, because that damn mayor, Wheeler, sent for that gunslinger when the sheriff couldn’t do what Wheeler wanted.” He banged his fist down on the table in a fit of anger, causing his cut hand to bleed again. He stared at the injured hand as if just discovering the bandage wrapped around it.
“Well, what are you gonna do?” Drew asked, when Stark seemed to have calmed down a little. “We’re finished in Bison Gap, that’s for sure. I’ve still got some of that money left that I got from T.C. We could head for Arizona or Colorado, maybe get back into the cattle business there.”
“We need men to drive cattle,” Stark said, “and we ain’t got men.” He hung his head and sulked for a few minutes more. “I don’t know where we’re goin’, but I know one thing. I’ve got some debts to pay off before I go anywhere. Ralph Wheeler, John Mason, and Perley Gates, I will see them dead. Then I’ll leave this damn town.”
“You sure you want to go after those three?” Drew asked him. “They’ll be hard to get to without somebody seein’ you comin’. And I expect they’re ready to shoot on sight, if you go ridin’ into town.”
“I ain’t dumb enough to commit suicide, if that’s what you’re thinkin’,” Stark answered him. “What I need to do is figure a way to draw Perley Gates out somewhere by himself and wait for him in ambush. I need to get him out of the way first, then I could ride right into town and get the other two. If it wasn’t so hard to set up with my rifle close enough, I’d just shoot him in town.”
Drew listened to Stark trying to come up with a workable plan to eliminate the three men he had come to hate so violently, and he realized his cousin had no idea what to do. “You’re right,” he told him. “The first thing to do is get rid of Perley Gates. Then we can handle the other two without any trouble at all. Since we can’t go in town to get him, we’re gonna have to make him come to us.”
“How are we gonna do that?” Stark asked, at once interested if Drew had a plan.
“By havin’ something he wants,” Drew answered, thinking of what Stark had said about the time he surprised the reunion in the hotel dining room when he confronted Rachael Parker. “You remember what you said about Perley Gates then? If you don’t, I’ll remind you. Jack Sledge told me you said Perley Gates just sat there playin’ pattycakes with Rachael Parker’s two little girls.”
“That’s right, that’s what I said ’cause that’s all he did,” Stark said. “Didn’t open his mouth the whole time I was there. So what?”
“We get our hands on one of those little girls, we’d have something he wants, and I’ll bet something he’d want bad enough to come after it,” Drew declared with a confident smile.
“Yeah,” Stark responded enthusiastically, “that would sure as hell do it. I remember I told that woman that waited on me that he looked like he’d like to be their daddy. Played with ’em like he weren’t no older’n they were,” Stark remembered.
“So, what we’ve gotta figure out is how to snatch one of those little girls and lead him back here after her. It’s my guess he ain’t ever been out here before, so we’d have to leave him a trail that’s not too hard to follow. Since I’m the only one of us who can go to town, I reckon it’s up to me to find away to get to those girls when there ain’t nobody to see us. I reckon I’m gonna be spendin’ more time in town.”
* * *
By the following morning, Ralph Wheeler and the members of the town council were beginning to enjoy a feeling of victory over the outlaws who had cast an evil shadow over Bison Gap. It was the common belief of the vigilance committee that Ned Stark’s ruthless gang of outlaws had been effectively reduced to one angry man and two wounded followers. And as such, they were no longer a threat to the town. There had been a meeting of the council primarily to discuss whether or not a posse should be formed to ride out to Stark’s ranch with the purpose of arresting the three survivors of his gang. Even though morale was now high in the hearts of the vigilantes, there was a general belief that Stark was whipped, and he and his two wounded men would leave the area and look for greener pastures. One who was opposed to this apparent truce with a man who had brought a lot of trouble to Bison Gap was the ever-vocal Rooster Crabb.
“We’re makin’ a big mistake if we don’t finish this thing off proper and put Ned Stark outta business for good—keep him from takin’ his kind of evil to some other poor unsuspectin’ folks. ’Cause that’s exactly what he’ll do. It’s in the breed for a coyote like him. He’s just as responsible for Tom Parker’s death as that lowdown snake, Curly Williams. It don’t matter if it was Curly that pulled the trigger—it was Stark who told him he could. So what we need to do is get up a posse to go after that snake in the grass and hang him for murder.”
There were some members of the council who ag
reed with Rooster; Possum Smith, John Payne, Horace Brooks, and of course, Emma Slocum. However, the majority, led by Reverend Harvey Poole, voted to leave Ned Stark to fade away from their town’s memory. So the council turned instead to the matter of the one remaining prisoner in Sheriff John Mason’s jail, Junior Humphrey. They were all in favor of having a trial for Junior to discuss just how serious his crimes were, whether or not they justified a sentence of hanging. So, once again a trial was scheduled for the prisoner, to be held in the Buffalo Hump on Friday, two days hence. This was in order to give the prosecutors and the defense time to prepare their cases. As expected, Ralph Wheeler would take the role as judge, Dick Hoover as prosecutor, and Harvey Poole would speak for the defendant.
An interested spectator at the meetings of the members of the council, always held in the saloon, was the now-familiar stranger, Drew Dawson, who seemed to be spending more and more time in town. When he wasn’t having a drink in the Buffalo Hump, it seemed you could find him in the hotel dining room, where he was becoming quite friendly with Rachael and the other women. Good natured and always in a pleasant mood, he enjoyed a joke, even one on himself. After a while, folks stopped wondering why he was still hanging around town, when originally, he was just passing through. His big white horse became a familiar sight on the main street of Bison Gap. The only one who seemed curious enough to ask him where he had set up camp, since he wasn’t staying in town, was Rooster Crabb. He told Rooster he had made a camp east of town, a couple miles away.
Two residents of the hotel who became fast friends with the charming stranger were Alice and Melva Parker, especially when he would sometimes stop by Wheeler’s store and pick up a couple of peppermint sticks, which he would stick in his vest pocket, half exposed. Then he would pretend not to know they were there and the game would be on. The girls would delight in his games and looked forward to his visits. Rachael was delighted as well that he entertained her daughters every time he came in, thinking it would take a special kind of man to take so much of his time to entertain someone else’s children. In a very short time, Drew knew every detail of the two girls’ daily routine, including when and where they usually played outside the hotel, if ever.
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