“No, thanks just the same. I don’t have to go that far, just down the street next to the bank. We live behind Daddy’s harness shop.”
“You sure? ’Cause I don’t mind.”
She assured him that she didn’t need an escort, so he went to his room, feeling like the children were being well cared for.
CHAPTER 18
“I gotta be honest with you, Jim,” Frank Deal spoke quietly to make sure Stark didn’t hear him. “I ain’t too happy about this business of kidnappin’ a little girl. I’ve been accused of doin’ a lot of lowdown things in my life. And I reckon I done most everythin’ I was accused of, but I ain’t ever snatched a young’un before.”
“Damn it, Frank, don’t start talkin’ like that again. I don’t like it, either, just like we said when Ned and Drew first told us what they were gonna do. But I don’t reckon we’ve got much choice with the shape we’re in right now. Both of us with one bad arm, not a penny left of that last payday we had, Ned and Drew are the only game in town for us. And they’re holdin’ plenty of cash while we’re broke. Like I said, we ain’t got no choice.”
“He’s liable to get us killed,” Frank said. “That’s what’s liable to happen—Drew in town shinin’ up to all them people—and Ned settin’ in there at the kitchen table, broodin’ like a sick mule. What I wanna know is what’s he gonna do with me and you after he kills Perley Gates? Him and Drew will cut outta here. What do they need us for? That’s the only thing either one of ’em cares about. I heard ’em talkin’ last night about goin’ to Arizona or Colorado. Didn’t hear a word about me and you.”
“Evenin’, boys.” Both men jumped, startled when Drew rode his horse silently up beside the porch where they were sitting. “Good thing I ain’t Perley Gates, ain’t it? I slipped right up on you.” He pointed his index finger like a gun. “Bang, bang, it’da been easy.”
“Ah, hell, Drew, you already told us there weren’t nobody from town comin’ to look for this place. We weren’t tryin’ to act like lookouts,” Jim Duncan complained.
Drew laughed and asked, “Where’s Ned?”
“Where he is every night now,” Frank answered, “in the kitchen workin’ on that last bottle of likker.”
“I’ll go cheer him up after I put ol’ Snowball away for the night,” Drew said and wheeled the white horse away from the porch.
“I thought you were gonna stay in town all night,” Stark grumbled when Drew walked into the kitchen. “Did you enjoy yourself? I’m surprised you didn’t stay in the hotel.”
“You know, I thought about that, since I’m gettin’ to be like one of the family. Those two little girls think I’m Uncle Drew, and I’ll tell you the truth, I think their mama is beginnin’ to discover my charmin’ ways.” He gave his cousin a great big grin. “But then I got to thinkin’ about my cousin settin’ out here, anxiously awaiting my return.”
Stark scowled out from heavy dark brows. “Drew, you’re so full of horse droppin’s.”
“Horseshit?” Drew howled. “It’s been hard work sugarin’ up those two little brats. But I know everything those two young’uns do all day long, and I know where they’re gonna be day after tomorrow at ten o’clock in the mornin’ when that trial starts. And those two jaspers settin’ out there on the porch can pick ’em off like berries on a bush.” He cast a serious gaze at his cousin. “Just one more day of waitin’ around, then we’ll see how fast Mr. Perley Gates gets on our trail. You might wanna slack up on that bottle a little bit, so you’ll be ready.”
“Don’t you worry your head about me and this bottle,” Stark reacted at once. “I don’t need nobody to tell me how much I can drink. I reckon I got along just fine the whole time you was in prison.”
“I didn’t mean to rile you,” Drew quickly tried to apologize. “I know you were runnin’ the gang just fine while I was gone.” And look what you’ve done with it, he thought, down to the three of you and scared to go into town. He had been giving serious thought to the notion that he’d be better off without his cousin. Seeing him in the state he was in now added fuel to that fire. Once the matter of Perley Gates was settled, then he would tackle the matter of Ned Stark. “Well, I’m gonna hit the hay and tomorrow I’ll get Frank and Jim ready to do their part on Monday mornin.” He left his cousin still moping over his whiskey glass.
* * *
Monday morning broke clear and dry, another day without rain. It seemed to the small ranchers east of Oak Creek that it must have been a month without significant rainfall. In the town of Bison Gap, many of its residents were planning to attend the trial of Junior Humphrey. Although the actual trial would not begin for hours yet, the stage was being set in the Buffalo Hump Saloon as Henry Lawrence supervised the arrangement of the tables and chairs to resemble a courtroom. In the jailhouse, the prisoner, Junior Humphrey, was not even aware that this was to be the day of his trial. He had been advised that Monday would be his trial day, but that was two days before this morning and he had forgotten.
At the Bison House Hotel, Bess Curry was reviving the fire in her big iron stove in preparation to fix breakfast. Both co-owners of the hotel planned to attend the trial, as did the manager of the dining room. Rooster rode in for breakfast, since he planned to go to the trial, too. Knowing Perley would be there as soon as the door opened in the dining room, Rooster made it a point to be early.
“Good morning,” Rachael said when she unlocked the outside door and found Perley and Rooster waiting there. “What a surprise to see you so early,” she said facetiously. “Where’s the third member of your gang?”
“I’m sure he’ll be here any minute,” Perley said, seconds before the knock on the door that led to the hotel. Rachael smiled and walked over to unlock that door.
“Good mornin’,” Possum said when he walked in. “Everybody gettin’ ready to go to the trial?” Everybody said yes but Perley. “How ’bout you, Perley? Ain’t you goin’?”
“Tell you the truth, I hadn’t planned on it,” Perley answered. Sitting in the saloon, watching a man on trial who was probably not intelligent enough to know what was going on, held no attraction for Perley.
“Well, why not?” Possum asked. “You got somethin’ else to do?”
“No, I just thought I’d take Buck for a little ride, maybe, get him out of the stable for a spell. I ain’t got much interest in that trial.”
“Hell,” Possum persisted, “you might as well go with us. You’re goin’, ain’t you, Rooster?” Rooster said he wouldn’t miss it. Back to Perley then, Possum said, “Emma and Rachael are goin’. You might as well go with us.”
“Maybe I will,” Perley relented. “But I think I’ll take Buck out this mornin’, anyway.”
They walked back in the dining room, where Kitty and Bess were setting plates and silverware out. Rachael teased Perley as the men sat down at a table. “You pay so much attention to that horse of yours, when are you gonna pay some attention like that to a girl?”
“Yeah, when, Perley?” Possum joined in, thinking of Becky Morris back at the Paris Diner.
“Well,” Perley japed, “I’ve kinda had my eye on Bess lately.”
“Ha!” Bess reacted. “I might wear a young boy like you down to a nub.”
Perley shrugged and looked at Rachael. “I reckon I’ll just have to wait till Alice is sixteen.” Everybody chuckled. It was the general mood in the little town on this morning.
After breakfast, Perley went down to the stable to see how Buck was doing. The big bay gelding was in the corral when Perley got there. “Mornin’, Perley,” Horace Brooks called out from the barn. “You goin’ to the trial?” It was the standard greeting on this morning.
“I reckon,” Perley answered as Buck ambled over to greet him, “since that’s where everybody else is gonna be.”
“You takin’ him out?” Horace asked when the big bay nuzzled Perley’s chest.
“I think I will,” Perley decided for sure when he got the feeling Buck wanted to get out of the
corral for a while. “I’ll get his saddle. You go ahead and finish what you were doing.”
* * *
Far different from the casual morning in Bison Gap, there were also preparations underway at the ranch house a little over three miles from town. Content to let Drew call the shots as long as the intent was to lure Perley Gates out to him, Ned Stark looked surprisingly sober, considering the alcohol in his system. With two hesitant accomplices to rely on, Drew was going over their role in the kidnapping once again to make sure they knew what to do. He had decided on a change in plans, dictated by several factors.
He still sensed Frank’s and Jim’s reluctance to the snatching of a child, and he had been alert through the night in the event they might decide they couldn’t go through with it and slip off. However, they were both still there when the sun came up, so he went over some changes in the operation of the kidnapping. He would go with them to show them exactly where they were to take the child.
Both men had questioned him on his plan, mentioning a possibility that seemed obvious to them. If they snatched the child, how did Stark know Perley Gates would come alone looking for them? More likely, they argued, a posse would arrive at the ranch. Their logic convinced Stark of that possibility as well. “You’re right,” Stark agreed. “You can’t bring that young’un out here. The four of us will play hell tryin’ to fight a whole posse. Damn it! I want Perley Gates by himself!”
“Agreed,” Drew conceded. “It ain’t smart to risk it. That’s why we need to take her somewhere else. So, instead of you settin’ here waitin’ for him to show up, you could go out to that little line shack you told me about.”
“That shack’s half a mile,” Jim Duncan said. “Ain’t nobody used it since we took this place.”
“That’s right,” Drew continued. “And I’d be damned surprised if anybody in town knows about it. So, Ned, you ride on out there and wait for us to bring that young’un there. I’d bet everything I own that Perley Gates won’t wait for them to get up a posse. He’ll come ahead, and he’ll have to track us, so we’ll make sure we leave a trail. If they get up a posse, they’ll come straight out this way, lookin’ for this place.”
“What if the posse ain’t as dumb as you think, and they show up at the line shack and we’re settin’ there waitin’ for Perley Gates?” Ned asked.
“Then I reckon we’ll leave the little girl and run,” Drew said. “But it’s a better chance to get a shot at Perley Gates.”
What Drew did not tell them was his intention to kill Perley himself. He couldn’t deny his obsession with the thought of gunning Perley down in a face-off to prove who was faster. His real plan was for Perley to never reach Stark, who just wanted him dead. Drew wanted him more than dead. He wanted him beaten, and he wanted it known who beat him. So, when it was time, Stark got on his horse and headed for the line shack. Drew, with Jim and Frank, headed for town.
So as not to be seen by anyone in town, Drew led his two partners along the creek bank until reaching a point almost exactly where he had gotten off the train when he first arrived. He surprised them then when he told them to stay there out of sight and he would bring the girls to them. More than happy with the change of plan, they sat there on their horses and watched him ride across the railroad tracks to the back of the hotel. From where they waited, they could see a small grassy area behind the hotel with one tree in the middle and a rope swing hanging from a limb. They were there, two little girls, one in the swing, the other swinging her. They stopped when the white horse approached.
“Hey, who’s that monkey swingin’ in the tree?” Drew called out.
“Drew!” Alice cried out gleefully when she recognized her friend. She ran at once to meet him, leaving Melva to scramble out of the swing and run after her. “Whatcha doin’, Drew?” Alice asked.
“Goin’ for a ride,” Drew answered. He looked quickly at the back door of the hotel to make sure there was no one else outside. “You girls all by yourself out here?”
“This is where we play,” four-year-old Melva said.
“I know,” Drew said, “you told me that. Nobody watchin’ you?”
“Barbara’s watchin’ us,” Alice answered. “She’ll be back in a little bit. She’s changing Danny’s britches.”
“Would you like to take a ride on Snowball?” Drew asked.
“I would!” Both girls screamed delightedly at the same time with hands raised, but Alice was quicker to step up by his stirrup.
“All right,” he said, “but I can only take you one at a time ’cause I have to make sure you don’t fall off.” He reached down and took Alice’s outstretched hand. “Put your foot on mine,” he said and lifted her up so she could. “All right, swing your leg over behind me.” When she was settled, with her arms wrapped tightly around his waist, he looked down at Melva. “You stay right here and I’ll come back for you.” She dutifully took a step back. “Here we go!” Drew sang out. “Giddy-up, Snowball.”
He rode out of the yard, up across the railroad tracks to the two men waiting for him on the creek bank. They stared wide-eyed at him as he approached. Seeing the two men, both with one arm in a sling, Alice became frightened at once. “Drew,” she cried, uncertain.
“Don’t be afraid,” he said. “They’re friends of mine.” When he rode past, they turned and followed.
“Drew, they’re coming after us,” she cried.
“I told you not to worry about it.” This time, his tone was a little sterner, causing her to become even more fearful. A few minutes later, when approaching a low ridge, he reined the white horse to a stop. Jim and Frank pulled up, one on either side of him, both staring at the young girl as if she was some strange animal. “Take her,” he said to Duncan and pulled Alice’s hands from his waist. He helped Jim get the girl seated in front of him in the saddle, so he could hold her with one arm. “Head for the shack. I’ll be along later.” He looked at Alice, who stared back, wide-eyed with fright. “He’s takin’ you somewhere safe. Ain’t no use to be afraid.” He watched them ride off until they were out of sight. He had never been to the line shack, so when he finished with the business he had planned for this morning, he was going to have to follow their trail. “So now we just wait,” he announced, “and we’ll see how fast Mr. Perley Gates really is when he’s facing a professional.” He found himself a spot on the ridge where he could relax against a tree trunk and watch the trail he had taken from the hotel. If things went as he expected, Barbara Cooper would soon find Alice missing, her little sister would tell her that he took her away on his horse, and Barbara would tell Perley. Then when they found his body, they would know it was Drew Dawson who killed their gunslinger.
* * *
Drew was almost exactly on the money with his speculation. Melva Parker stood dutifully where she was told to stand and waited for the white horse to come back for her turn. Although it seemed to be much, much longer to the young child, Drew Dawson and her sister had been gone for a quarter of an hour when Barbara Cooper returned to the yard to find Melva alone. “Where’s Alice?” Barbara asked. “Did she go in the hotel and leave you out here by yourself?”
“She went on the white horse, and she’s supposed to come back, so I can go,” Melva said.
“White horse?” Barbara asked. “What do you mean, Alice went on a horse? Did someone put her on a horse?” She immediately began to panic. “Melva, tell me exactly what happened.” Melva told her about Drew coming up on his big white horse and asked them if they wanted to go for a ride. Barbara felt somewhat better when she learned that it was Drew who took Alice for a ride. He was a big playmate of theirs. She would have wished that he had waited until she came back before taking Alice away. After another fifteen minutes and they had not yet returned, however, Barbara became worried again, fearing there had been some kind of mishap. Maybe Alice fell off the horse, the horse bucked them both off, or something frightened the horse. She finally decided they had been gone too long for something not to have happened. She gr
abbed Melva with one hand and Danny with the other. “Come on!”
With the two children in hand, she hurried them through the back entrance to the hotel, down the hallway to the dining room door. When Bess turned to see who was charging in through the door, she at first grinned to see the two children, but one glance at Barbara’s face caused her to blurt, “What’s the matter?” Kitty heard and came from the kitchen, and Barbara told them what had happened.
“I’ve gotta go tell Rachael!” Barbara cried. “Can I leave these two here with you?”
“Leave ’em here,” Bess said. “I’ll look after ’em. You go find Rachael. Kitty can run out to the back yard in case Drew comes back with Alice.”
Barbara ran all the way to the Buffalo Hump. She ran into the saloon when Dick Hoover was laying out the charges against Junior Humphrey. Ignoring the heads turning to see who ran in, she paused only for the time it took to spot Rachael, then she headed straight for her. Immediately alarmed, Rachael called her name, “Barbara! What is it?”
“You gotta come,” Barbara blurted, causing Dick Hoover to stop in the middle of his charges to see who had caused the disturbance. “It’s Alice! She rode off on a horse with Drew Dawson and she didn’t come back!”
Sitting next to Rachael, Emma said, “Go! If she’s with Drew, she’s probably all right, but you need to go.”
Rachael got up to leave, and Perley, sitting behind her, said, “I’ll go with you.” He got up, and they hurried to the door. He hadn’t particularly wanted to go to the trial, anyway, and had left Buck at the hitching rail, thinking he would probably ride out to Rooster’s with him after the trial. Outside, he led Buck while they hurried back to the hotel, with Barbara telling them everything that caused her concern.
“You did the right thing, coming after me,” Rachael told her. “We’re probably worried for no reason. Drew is crazy about my girls. I just hope there hasn’t been an accident of some kind.”
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