Ride the High Lonesome

by Rosanne Bittner

  The man scowled. “Aw, come on, ma’am. You already have a perfectly good fire there, and you said yourself your husband would be back soon. I don’t mean you no harm, honest to God. I’m just tired and hungry and want some sleep.”

  Kate studied his eyes. He seemed sincere. “At least take off your gun belt and leave it here with me,” she told him. “And if you walk back in here with a rifle from your gear, I’ll shoot you.”

  The man shook his head and scowled, as though defeated. “Deal,” he answered. He unbuckled his gun belt and tossed it across the fire. It landed on the other side of Kate’s bedding. “Thank you,” he said. “My name is Buck. Just Buck.” He leaned down and picked up his hat full of water, glancing at Kate’s revolver again before heading out of the cave to water his horse.

  Kate lowered her gun, which had begun to feel heavier and heavier. She walked over to the fire and took Luke’s gun belt from her shoulder, feeling as though she’d lifted a hundred pounds from her neck. She sat down to wait, wondering how on earth she and the stranger called Buck were going to spend the rest of the day and night together. She realized now that she would have to come up with an excuse for when it got dark and Buck realized her “husband” wasn’t coming back tonight at all. She decided she’d tell the man her husband had said he might spend one night away if he had to ride too far to find game. But he could show up any time, she would warn. Deep inside she’d like nothing better than to see Luke Bowden come back sooner than expected. Now she would have to try to stay awake all night. Then again, if wolves came snooping around, Buck could help her fend them off. She could end up glad she’d let him stay after all.

  She hated being constantly afraid and never knowing who to trust. Maybe she couldn’t even trust Luke to come back. It irritated her that Buck had come along at all. How likely was it that one lone man would happen by in this great big country and decide to use this one cave set amid a vast valley that stretched for hundreds of miles?

  Just as likely as you and Luke coming upon it, she thought. Fate was fate.

  Buck came back inside with his saddle over his shoulder and plunked it down with a thud. Kate kept hold of Luke’s gun, resting it in her lap as she watched him. He’d brought no rifle with him.

  “That coffee hot?” he asked.

  “Yes. But I have nothing else to offer,” she answered, her stomach beginning to pain her because of hunger. She had one biscuit left. “My husband and I were attacked. Everything was taken, so we don’t even have food. That’s why he went hunting.” She hoped that if she kept talking about a husband who could return at any time, it would keep Buck at bay in case he was having wrong thoughts.

  Buck dropped a leather supply pack near the fire and sat down across from her, then picked up a tin cup and poured himself a cup of coffee. Before he drank it, he reached into the supply pack and took out a flask of whiskey. He uncorked it and poured some of it into the coffee, glancing slyly at Kate. “A man needs a little whiskey after a long, hard ride,” he told her. He drank down the coffee and whiskey in one gulp, then poured straight whiskey into the cup. “You know, somethin’ don’t add up,” he said. “You look damn thin and hungry and tattered. No man around. No sign of any kind of supplies at all, other than what you probably found in this cave and that one supply pack nearby…and that gun.” He slugged down the second cup of whiskey. “I don’t think you have a husband at all, lady. Could be you’re some whore a man brought out here with him for a good time, then abandoned once he was done with you.”

  Kate stiffened. “You are very wrong. It’s like I told you. We were attacked and lost everything, wagon and all. We had one horse left, and my husband used it to go hunting. Surely you saw the fresh horse dung outside.”

  Buck nodded. “I saw, but that could have been left by the cowpoke who brought you here and got his jollies, then left.”

  Kate kept hold of her revolver and lifted it a little. “Believe what you want. Just know that I am a respectable woman who knows how to use this gun. If you want food, you’ll have to get it from your own supplies or go hunt for it, like my husband is doing right now.”

  Buck chuckled and shook his head, pouring himself a third cup of whiskey. “Whatever you say, lady. Seems to me you talk about your husband a bit too much, which makes me think there ain’t no husband. What’s his name?”

  “Luke. Luke…Winters,” Kate told him, remembering she’d already told the man her own last name. “We were on our way to northern California.”

  Buck slugged down the third cup of whiskey. “Too late for that. It’s already snowin’ up in the Sierras. You’ll have to hole up someplace out here for the winter.”

  “We already know that.”

  Buck leaned closer over the fire and grinned, showing crooked, yellowed teeth. “Could be your husband, if he really exists, is runnin’ from the law. That’s how it is for most men out here. Why else would he just now be comin’ through country like this so late in the year, tryin’ to make it to California? What did he do that the law is after him?”

  “Whether he is running from the law or not is none of your business. And I do not appreciate you getting drunk,” Kate told him.

  Buck poured himself more whiskey. “Well now, ain’t that just like a woman, tryin’ to tell a man what to do.” He slugged down the drink. “I had a wife once who did that. I got tired of her bitchin’ and I slugged her.” He set the flask aside and looked Kate over again in that way that told a woman what a man was thinking. “Trouble is, I slugged her a little bit too hard, and she went and died on me. That’s what brought me out here. I’m wanted back in Missouri for killin’ her. What do you think of that?”

  “I think I made a bad decision letting you stay here. I think you’re a reprehensible, despicable, filthy-minded murderer, and that maybe I should shoot you. My husband can bury you when he gets here.”

  Buck leaned his head back and let out a loud guffaw, then poured coffee into the cup rather than whiskey. Kate could hardly stand the sight of his teeth as he grinned broadly at her. She noticed then that several of his lower teeth were missing.

  “I guess maybe then I should drink more of this coffee and sober up, huh?” he asked. “Whiskey tends to make a woman, any woman, look pretty good to a man, even one as untidy and unpleasant and bossy and skinny as you.”

  Kate felt all her nerves tingle with rage and dread. “And a woman would need whiskey to put up with the likes of you!”

  Buck laughed again and poured another cup of hot coffee. In the next second, he threw it at Kate, catching her completely off-guard. She let out a scream as the hot water burned her cheek, neck, and shoulder. She instinctively knew the man was diving at her. She fired the six-gun, not even aiming it or knowing if she’d hit anything. Something heavy fell across her. She smelled whiskey breath and felt whiskers scraping her neck and cheek. Buck’s body was on top of hers, and her gun was caught flat under his belly.

  “Get off me!” she screamed.

  “Ain’t no man who hunts this late, lady. You’re lyin’ about havin’ a husband, and I aim to poke you ’til sunrise, you fuckin’ whore!” Buck growled the words, pushing his hand hard between her legs while he slobbered at her neck.

  Desperate, Kate pulled the trigger on the six-gun, even though she couldn’t raise and aim it. Buck jerked and grunted, and at the same time, Kate felt pain in her left leg.

  Buck rolled off her. “What the hell!” he screamed. He raised up a little and looked down at blood quickly soaking his shirt at his belly. “You shot me!”

  Ignoring the pain in her leg and her burned skin, Kate managed to jump up and away from him. “I told you I would, you filthy pig!” she screamed. “Get out of here! Get out!”

  Buck got to his knees and tried to get up. “I…can’t! You gut-shot me, you…bitch! You rotten bitch!” He reached for his own gun that still lay nearby where he’d tossed it. Kate fired again. A h
ole opened in the man’s chest, close to where Kate guessed his heart would be. Buck never got a chance to pull his gun from its holster. He just froze in place for a moment, staring at her.

  “I…didn’t think…you’d do it,” he muttered.

  “You thought wrong, mister.” Kate stood there shaking as she watched the life go out of him. Eyes wide, Buck finally slumped over in death.

  Kate dropped her gun and grasped her stomach, looking at the man called Buck in disbelief. She’d just killed him. In that moment, she felt no better than Buck or Luke or any other outlaw in this country. In her mind, she’d become one of them.

  Ten

  Luke searched two more saloons and a brothel for the other two men who’d hanged him. Jake and Jess followed him, watching out for back shooters. Every place they went, the women seemed to know Jake Harkner well.

  “I thought you were married,” Luke joked.

  “I am, and my wife is the best damn woman who ever walked this earth,” Harkner told him. He headed out the door of the brothel ahead of Luke. “But I was raised by women like the ones in that brothel. They often protected me from my father whenever the rotten son of a bitch tried to kill me, and that was pretty often.”

  “Yeah?” Luke asked. “What happened to him?”

  Jake didn’t look his way. “I finally ended up killing him instead, and that’s something I’d rather not discuss. Let’s go try The Shooter saloon. Maybe the men you want will be there.”

  All three men walked across the street, and Luke decided he’d better stay away from the subject of Jake and his father, since he’d been warned by the barkeep and now by Jake himself. He figured nothing he heard about the doings of men in outlaw country should surprise him, and right now he had his own killing to do. He knew it should bother him, but it didn’t, so he figured he was no better than Harkner.

  The three men stepped up on the boardwalk in front of The Shooter, and Jake leaned against a wall to light another cigarette. “We’ll go in and let you look around,” he told Luke. “You do what you have to do, and Jess and I will back you up.”

  “I can’t thank you enough,” Luke told both men. “Like I said, this helps me get back to Kate faster.”

  “That’s the name of the woman you left back at that cave?” Jess asked.

  Luke nodded. “Kate Winters.”

  “That woman is the reason we’re helping you,” Jake told him. “No woman alone is safe in country like this.”

  “I know that. She’s already been through hell. She was lost and looking for help when she came upon those men hanging me. She hid till they left, then cut me down. I didn’t have any choice but to leave her behind early this morning so I could travel faster and get the supplies we need, but I need my money back so I can afford the supplies. She’ll starve to death if I don’t get right back to her.”

  Jake finished his cigarette and crushed it under his boot. “I left California because of a shoot-out that got a little too much publicity—decided my wife and kid were better off without me around for a while. Soon as I can find a job some place where no one knows me, I’ll be able to send for them.” He gave Luke a dark look of warning. “Look, Bowden, once we part ways, you never saw me. Remember that. I’m wanted back East.”

  “Harkner, if you help me find these men and get my money back, why would I do anything to bring you harm?”

  “Because there’s money on my head.”

  “I’m not a man to judge, and from what I saw back there of how you handle a gun, I’m not about to get on your bad side.”

  Jake nodded. “Just making sure we understand each other.” He looked toward the swinging doors that led into The Shooter, then looked back at Luke. “If we find the other two men, do you want them, or do you want me to handle it? I’m not particularly fond of men who would hang someone for no good reason.”

  “I want them, unless something happens and you have no choice, like that guy on the balcony in that saloon. You saved my life back there.”

  “I’ve had my share of being accused of things I didn’t do,” Jake answered. “If I can help somebody else in the same fix, I’ll do it.”

  “Let’s go,” Jess told Luke.

  The three men headed to the doors of the saloon and charged through. There were only five or six men inside, and they turned to look at the newcomers.

  “Look around,” Jake told Luke. “Do you see either one of the other two men?”

  Jess and Luke held rifles ready as Luke studied each man. They all stared back warily, and one man moved his hand to his sidearm. Just that quickly, Jake Harkner’s handgun was drawn and pointed directly at the one who’d started to draw.

  “Jesus, you’re fast,” Luke muttered to Jake.

  “Any man who makes too quick a move for his gun goes down!” Jake announced to everyone inside. “No questions asked.”

  Jess and Luke held rifles ready.

  “This here is Jake Harkner,” Jess announced. “That should be enough to make all of you hesitate.”

  Every man in the place moved his hand away from his gun.

  “Go on upstairs,” Jake told Luke. “Jess, go with him. I’ll keep an eye on the men down here.”

  “Sure.”

  Luke hurried up the stairs and Jess followed. Luke kept his rifle ready as he began kicking in doors. A woman screamed, “Get the hell out of here!”

  “Sorry, ma’am,” Luke shouted at the woman who was just getting into bed with a man Luke didn’t recognize.

  “Can’t a man have his daily poke in peace?” the man yelled.

  Luke left the door open and walked to the next, kicking that one open also. No one was in the room.

  He hurried to a third room and kicked yet another door open. A man wearing an eye patch rolled off the bed. He reached up to grab a six-gun from the bed table, but Luke raised his rifle and fired first. A hole opened in the man’s chest. He just sat there for a moment, naked and bleeding, his one good eye wide with shock.

  “You…son of a bitch!” he groaned. “How’d you…?” His eye rolled backward until Luke saw only white as the man slumped all the way to the floor. The woman in the bed who never even screamed just sat staring at Luke, a sheet pulled up to her neck.

  Luke turned to see Jess standing behind him. “He was one of them—wore an eye patch.” He nodded toward a bed post, where a red vest hung neatly. “I recognize the eye patch and that red vest.”

  “One to go,” Jess said with a grin.

  Luke walked to the next door to see a man ducking out a window just as he kicked in the door. Luke turned and charged past Jess and down the stairs. “He went out a back window!” Luke yelled to Jake as he ran out the door. Jess was on his heels, and Jake joined them.

  “Go around to the right!” Jake told Jess as they headed outside. Jake ran around the left side of the building, and the men reached an alley behind the saloon to see a man ducking around the corner of a supply store.

  The chase was on. Luke headed back toward the street while Jess and Jake followed the man down a side alley. By then, other men had come outside to watch the fracas. Luke saw a man dart into the street. “Hold it!” he shouted, wanting to be sure he had the right man.

  The runner turned and fired. A bullet whizzed past Luke’s ear, and he saw long black hair and a black vest. It was him! The man started running again, and Luke raised his rifle. “Turn and shoot, you son of a bitch!” he yelled.

  The man kept running. Luke decided he didn’t want to have to worry about the man coming after him later, maybe while Kate was with him. He took aim and fired, hitting him in the back just as Jake and Jess came running into the street from a side alley.

  Luke lowered his rifle, and they hurried toward the body that had fallen facedown. The outlaw suddenly rolled onto his back and sat up, aiming his gun at Luke, who raised his rifle again. Someone else’s gun boomed
before he could fire, and a hole opened up in the outlaw’s head. Luke turned to Jake, a little taken aback by the very dark look in Jake’s eyes. Yes, he had the heart of a killer.

  Jake holstered his six-gun. “Go on back to those rooms at The Shooter and get your money from their belongings.”

  “Thanks for handling him,” Luke told Jake.

  Jake shook his head. “Your bullet did the job. He was already dying when he sat up and tried to shoot back. My bullet just finished him off faster.” Jake lit yet another cigarette.

  “I thank you for your help, and I hope you find a job and can rejoin your wife,” Luke told him. He put out his hand, and Jake shook it.

  “I miss her like hell,” Jake said. He squeezed Luke’s hand tightly. “It’s a rough life out here, Bowden, so be on the lookout, and don’t hesitate to use that rifle. You seem to be pretty good with that thing.”

  “My pa and I did a lot of hunting together back in the day.”

  A darkness came into Jake’s eyes, and he let go of Luke’s hand. “Sounds like you had a good father. My own father was born of Satan’s blood.” He adjusted his hat and turned to head for The Royal Flush. “I wish you luck, Bowden. I have a card game to get back to, before the other men at that table make off with my money.”

  Luke shook his head. “Do you really think any man would dare to steal from you?” he shouted as Jake walked away.

  Jake just laughed and kept walking. Luke watched after him, thinking how the man had helped him as though it was merely all in a day’s work. He headed back to The Shooter, thinking how people…strangers…moved in and out of a man’s life—here today and gone tomorrow, especially in this country, where figuring out which of those men could be trusted was just guesswork. Men out here might help you one day and shoot you the next.

  So far today he’d had a good run of luck, but it might not be that way for Kate. He had to get back to that cave.