Blood and Bullets

by William W. Johnstone; J. A. Johnstone

  Grunting a little as he tugged on the rope Josh had tossed over, pulling it tight, Charlie said, “Yeah, the way you laid it out sounds good to me. No, we ain’t rightfully dishonest fellas. If we was, we would’ve found a helluva lot easier way to build up this nest egg we’re workin’ with now than bustin’ our humps at wranglin’ work for all the years we did. But you’re also right in sayin’ that the way we plan to start out with these gals is gonna look wrong at first and put us on the dodge for a while in the beginnin’. That’s all I meant by that ‘dishonest fellas like us’ remark.”

  “Okay. Good. I’m glad we’re lookin’ at things the same way.”

  “As far as anybody messin’ with our stuff on account of how we’re gonna be leavin’ it here for a while,” Charlie added, “I don’t think there’s hardly no worry about that happenin’. There’s some risk, I suppose, but we’re gonna have to live with it. Most folks around are basically honest and, especially today, they’re way more interested in the big town festival than anything else.”

  “Yeah, I guess that’s all there is for it.” Josh looked thoughtful for a minute and then abruptly broke into a grin. “The thing on everybody’s mind right now is the big pancake feed down by the rodeo arena. And I gotta say, my mind is strayin’ in that direction, too. So let’s finish up here and head in that direction ourselves. While we’re chowin’ down and minglin’, maybe you’ll get your sights set on the gal you aim to take for your bride . . .”

  CHAPTER 29

  As Firestick had predicted, it didn’t take Dan Coswick long to come around wanting to talk about the charges he might be interested in filing against Earl Sterling. What the marshal hadn’t predicted was that Coswick didn’t come alone.

  Firestick had just stepped back into the office after going to check on a moaning and wretchedly hungover Sterling, when the front door opened and Coswick came in accompanied by Frenchy Fontaine, Cleo, and Big Arthur.

  “If I didn’t know better,” Firestick said, his eyebrows lifting, “I might think I was seein’ things on account of inhalin’ too many secondhand alcohol fumes from my visit back there to the lockup just now.”

  “I can understand how you believe you may be hallucinating,” said Frenchy, her lush mouth twisting wryly. “But trust me, you are not. The four of us—quite to our own surprise yet in our individual self-interests—have reached an agreement on some things we feel you will be interested to hear.”

  “Oh, you got me interested, alright,” Firestick assured her. “Why don’t you pull some chairs over closer, have a seat, and tell me about these agreements.”

  “We’re okay standing,” said Cleo. “This won’t take that long.”

  “What are your further intentions to punish Earl for his behavior yesterday?” asked Frenchy.

  Firestick folded his arms. “To tell you the truth, I ain’t rightly made up my mind yet. A lot of it is gonna depend on what charges Dan here is lookin’ to make.”

  “None,” Coswick said bluntly. “There wasn’t no harm done to my place except for a couple bullet holes in the boards that had been put up due to the damage from before. As far as the threats and the rest . . . I’m willin’ to chalk that up to the booze. I’ve done plenty of dumb things my own self when I had too much red-eye in me. And, let’s face it”—he cast a sheepish glance in Frenchy’s direction—“I was awful fast to horn in on the situation between Sterling and Frenchy, trying to turn it to my benefit. I ain’t saying I deserved to get shot over it, but a pop on the nose from Sterling wouldn’t have been out of line.”

  “He’s being unnecessarily gallant,” Frenchy was quick to say. “Everyone knows it was I who went to him about a job at his place. Because of that and because Dan went to the trouble and expense of building a stage for me, I have agreed to perform at the Silver Spur on alternating weekends through the summer.”

  “What’s Sterling gonna say about that?” Firestick wanted to know.

  “If he knows what’s good for him, he’d better go along with it,” Cleo said. “Otherwise he’ll lose Frenchy completely again—and for good this time. He’ll lose her both as his entertainer and his lover. And he won’t have little ol’ me to fall back on as a replacement, either.”

  “And what do you get out of this?” Firestick said.

  “Cleo and I reached a truce,” Frenchy answered. “I no longer blame her for Earl’s stupidity. He was using both of us. Nor do I begrudge her and the other girls continuing to work at the Palace. Frankly, it is good for business and, since I am going to insist on a percent of the business if I stay with Earl, then I have to take that into consideration.”

  “And don’t forget me,” Arthur spoke up.

  “Yes. Arthur deserves a cut, too. We’ve both been with Earl for a long time. Last night and today are not the first times we’ve bailed him out when he got himself in a fix. It’s past time for him to do right by us.”

  “Sounds reasonable to me,” Firestick said.

  “And,” interjected Cleo, “to get back to your question about what I get out of all this—first of all, to keep my job. Providing Earl has the sense to go along and the Palace keeps running, that is. If so, then Frenchy and Arthur are gonna put me in charge of the rest of the girls to make sure we quit sniping amongst ourselves and do our part to keep rowdy customers in line so a certain ornery lug of a lawman don’t keep comin’ around trying to put the run on us.”

  Firestick grinned. “Sounds like a pretty ambitious undertakin’. But one I like the sound of all the same.”

  “So where does that leave your decision on what to do about Sterling?” asked Coswick. “How long are you going to keep him locked up?”

  Firestick regarded the quartet before him for a long minute before he said, “Tell you what. In the spirit of this bein’ festival weekend and considerin’ the way you four have ironed things out, I’m willin’ to go easy on him. Let’s make it time served and a fifty-dollar fine for disturbin’ the peace. How does that sound?”

  He got looks of satisfaction and relief for an answer.

  “But, right at the moment, your boy is still pretty deep in the miseries of bein’ hungover,” Firestick told them. “I’d advise lettin’ him sweat it out a while longer before you hit him with all those conditions you’ve cooked up. Come back with the fifty dollars in two or three hours, and he’ll be all yours.”

  Frenchy smiled and gave a nod of her head. “I’ll be here.”

  “And I’ll be with her,” Arthur added, “in case the boss needs some help mindin’ his manners and recognizing the good deal he’s being offered.”

  * * *

  After the contingent from the local saloons had left, Firestick found himself feeling pretty good. If only he could figure out some way to get around the duel that still loomed between Beartooth and Rupert Shaw, he could allow himself to feel a whole lot better.

  As he was reflecting on this, the door opened and something more to make him feel good came through it. Kate.

  While Firestick stood smiling at the sight of her, she moved toward him saying, “I saw your other visitors leaving—including once again the little dove Cleo. I must say, that seems to be turning into a habit I could find annoying if I thought about it very hard.”

  “Take it easy. You saw that she was part of a group, didn’t you?”

  “Yes, and that was something of a surprise in itself. Especially seeing her walking shoulder to shoulder with Frenchy and Frenchy not reaching over to try and claw her eyes out.”

  “They’ve called a truce,” Firestick informed her. “In fact, the whole bunch of them came here in sort of an alliance. One that includes Earl Sterling, too, although he don’t know it yet.”

  “Okay. You’ve succeeded in getting me past my annoyance and making me intrigued,” said Kate. “So tell me the rest of it. What’s going on?”

  Firestick gestured toward the chair in front of his desk. “Have a seat and I’ll fill you in. But first, what is that you got with you that I can’t help bu
t notice smells so good?”

  In her hands Kate was holding a small squarish package wrapped in a cloth dinner napkin. “You mean this?” she said coyly, lifting it slightly. “Well, it started out being a couple of fried egg sandwiches that Marilu made up for me to bring over to you after Victoria told us you’d ridden in without breakfast and might not make it to the pancake feed before everything was gone. But then, when I saw Cleo twitching her tail out of here again, it helped remind me that you have a prisoner in the back who needs feeding, too. I’ve been debating with myself whether he should get both sandwiches or maybe only one.”

  “Let me solve that question for you. Sterling is too hungover and sick to keep even a bite of anything down. So you can put those sandwiches right here,” Firestick said, tapping a finger on his desk, “and I’ll see to it they get took care of.”

  “I just hope I’m not contributing to the starvation of a poor prisoner.” She placed the wrapped sandwiches on the marshal’s desk, then took a seat in front of it as Firestick moved around and sank into his own chair. “Now tell me about this alliance that Frenchy and Coswick and the rest worked out.”

  While he ate, Firestick gave her a quick rundown on what he’d heard from his four previous visitors. When he’d finished, Kate leaned back in her chair and said, “I wondered what happened to Frenchy—why she never came back to the hotel last night. I heard that she and Arthur joined together to keep the Palace running after you locked Sterling up. I just never realized she threw her negotiating net wide enough to get the others to cooperate with her.”

  “However it came to be,” Firestick said with a shrug, “what they put together don’t sound like a bad deal to me. Providin’ Sterling goes along with it, that is. Which I think he probably will because he’s got too much to lose if he don’t. Coswick comes out of it with a sort of win because he gets Frenchy entertainin’ part of the time at his place, and Sterling makes out okay, too, because he keeps her all the rest of the time. And Arthur and Cleo got a stake in keepin’ the Palace runnin’ and makin’ sure it operates more peaceful-like. If it all hangs together, then it actually works out tidier than I had any reason to expect at the start of the day.”

  “I agree. If.” Kate studied him. All of her coyness was gone now, her expression very serious. “But there’s something apart from all of that that still has you troubled, isn’t there?”

  “Shouldn’t be hard to figure out,” Firestick said as he lifted his second sandwich to take a bite.

  “The duel between Beartooth and Rupert Shaw?”

  Firestick nodded, chewing.

  “Victoria’s beside herself over the same thing. It’s all she talked about when she stopped by my place a little while ago to change her outfit.”

  “Was Beartooth with her?”

  “No. I think he accompanied her as far as the hotel, then went on to the pancake breakfast by himself. When I left to come here, Victoria was headed that way, too, with Marilu and Big Thomas.”

  “If Victoria’s so worked up about it,” Firestick said, “then it seems to me she’d be better off talkin’ directly to Beartooth.”

  “I get the impression they’re hardly speaking at all. She says he refuses to listen.”

  Firestick sighed. “Yeah, that’s true enough. The damn stubborn mule. What about Shaw? He’s the one who started it. Did she try talkin’ to him?”

  “Not this morning. He’s nowhere around where she could have tried to talk to him. He and that big Hadley left the hotel practically at first light. I think they went out of town somewhere to practice shooting. In case you didn’t know, Shaw bought himself a gun yesterday—a big, fancy Colt .45.”

  Firestick swore under his breath. “That’s just great.”

  “He’s obviously taking this whole duel thing dead serious,” said Kate, her brows pinching together.

  “Yeah, and that’s exactly how he’s gonna end up—dead,” Firestick said bitterly. “He can buy all the fancy guns he can get his hands on and he can practice from here to the second coming, but it won’t do him any good. If he goes up against Beartooth, Beartooth will kill him. It’s that simple.”

  Kate eyed Firestick closely. She gnawed her lower lip for a moment, then said, “Maybe you could talk to Beartooth. Get him to—”

  “I tried that yesterday when it was first bustin’ loose,” Firestick cut her off. “How far did I get?”

  “But now that he’s had a chance to cool down some, maybe—”

  Firestick cut her off again. “No. Nothing I can say will change his mind.”

  “How do you know if you don’t even try?”

  “Because I know Beartooth.”

  “But you’re the marshal. You’re expected to try and stop this kind of thing. Let alone the fact that Beartooth wears a badge himself, doesn’t he realize—or care—the spot he’s putting you in?”

  “You heard Shaw. If they take it outside of town, I have no legal jurisdiction over what they do.”

  Kate’s dark eyes flashed. “That’s a feeble excuse if I ever heard one! I know you. If you really wanted to, that’s not something that would stop you from . . .”

  Her words trailed off. The heat went out of her eyes but she kept them locked on Firestick. In a quieter voice, she said, “I think I’m beginning to understand. You won’t try to stop Beartooth because you refuse to ask him to act differently.”

  Firestick didn’t reply. He looked away from her gaze and concentrated instead on the empty napkin on his desk.

  “In his place,” Kate continued, “you would do exactly the same. You can’t ask him to do something you wouldn’t do yourself.”

  Now Firestick lifted his eyes and met hers. “There are some things a man can’t step around, Kate. Not and stay a man. Shaw threw this in his face, called him out in front of the whole town. I appreciate why Beartooth can’t back away from that. And you’re right—I’m damned if I’ll ask him to.”

  CHAPTER 30

  Charlie and Josh had eaten their fill of pancakes and were drifting away from the crowd still gathered near the rodeo arena where the breakfast feed was beginning to taper down some. Not all of the tables that had been set up were filled to capacity like they had been earlier, even though most of the diners still remained in the area, milling and visiting. A handful of industrious men had begun taking the tables that were now empty and moving them up the street to the grassy area behind the church where the noon picnic would be held.

  Not wanting to get asked to join a work detail that might detain them when they were ready to make their move, Josh and Charlie put distance between themselves and any such risk. As they meandered up Trail Street, once past the churchyard where more preparations were taking place, the street around them turned basically empty of other people.

  “We ain’t gonna have much luck findin’ you a woman up this way, Charlie,” Josh pointed. “Pickin’s are about as slim as a ghost town, what with everybody back the other way either by the church or still at the pancake feed.”

  “You think I can’t see that?” Charlie said irritably.

  “Speakin’ of seein’—did you spot any likely bride candidates in the crowd back there?” Josh asked. “You’re gonna have to lock your sights on one sooner or later.”

  “You want to tell me something else I already know?” grumbled Charlie. “Yeah, I saw plenty of gals back there who would have suited me just fine. But the circumstances wasn’t hardly right for slingin’ one of ’em over my shoulder and walkin’ off. I need to catch one out on the edge of the pack where I can grab her and slip away without nobody noticin’. We’ll have to go back and mingle some more when everybody starts driftin’ up to the church. That grassy area out back where there’s some trees around the edges looks like it’ll give me a better chance than the way it was with all that open space around the rodeo arena.”

  “I reckon,” Josh allowed.

  “In the meantime, as long as we’re up this way, we might as well duck in and check on our horses. Make
sure everything’s okay.”

  “Yeah, that’d be a good idea,” agreed Josh. “You know, speakin’ of ideas, here’s another one you might want to consider.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Well, I made sure to look real careful but I didn’t see no sign of Miss Cleo back there at the pancake feed.”

  “Did you really expect to? Come on, Josh—an upstairs saloon girl like her? You think the goody-goods of the community would allow gals like that to mingle right in the thick of their precious festival? There’s only one place for their kind, and they know it as well as anybody.”

  Josh’s face reddened with anger. “Yeah. Bunch of stinkin’ town phonies. Most all the men back there would trade their fat cow wives for a beauty like Cleo in a heartbeat. But they have to act all goody-good, like you said, in order to pretend otherwise and treat the girls like dirt as part of their act.”

  They were entering Roeback’s Livery by this point and Josh peevishly smacked the edge of his fist against a corral post as he walked past. “But that’s gettin’ away from the idea I was tryin’ to get to,” he continued. “The thing is, see, not havin’ Miss Cleo down there amongst all the others is a good thing for me. After you’ve picked out your gal and we’re ready to light out, I know right where Cleo will be and I can snatch her away pretty easy.”

  “Yeah, we already went over that,” said Charlie. “So where does this big new idea come in?”

  “Don’t you see?” Josh spread his hands. “There’s three or four other upstairs girls at the Palace, ain’t there? Since you ain’t picked out nobody else yet and the ones you’ve spotted are turnin’ out to be sort of tricky to get to, well, how about considerin’ one of those other Palace gals?”

  They’d reached the rear stall where their horses were. One look made it quickly evident neither the animals nor their supplies had been trifled with.