A Cold Hard Trail Read online

  “Come on,” he said.

  Paw stuck a bony finger on his chest.

  “Me?” he said.

  “You,” said Chastain. Paw walked out and Chastain shut the door again and locked it. He went on over to the next cell and opened it up. “Go on,” he said, and Paw went in there. Chastain shut the door and locked it.

  “How come you to do that?” Paw asked him.

  “There’s just two beds in a cell,” Jim said. “Now you got two. Take your pick.”

  Well, we lounged around the rest a that day, and Paw done some grumbling, but final the sun went down and it come dark outside. I heared a horse whinny out loud like something was really a-bothering it, and then it made some more noise and final went stamping away. Chastain got up and hurried to the front door, jerking it open and running on outside to see what was the matter. Then I heared a voice from outside the cell winder.

  “Kid,” it said. “Kid.”

  I looked around me, but I didn’t see no one, and so I set up. The voice come again.

  “Kid, hurry up,” it said. “We ain’t got all day.”

  I looked around me kinda stupid like, and then ole Zeb, he said, “Go over to the winder, you dummy.”

  I got on up and stared over at that winder, and I wondered who the hell could it be a-calling to me like that and what for, and then that voice come at me again.

  “Kid, are you there?”

  It was a female voice, for sure, and it just had to be good ole Red. It couldn’t a been no one else. I come real excited then. I don’t know what I thunk a female gal would be able to do for me and Zeb and Paw, but somehow in that moment a my desperation, I didn’t think of ole Red as just only a female gal. In my wishfulness she come into my head like a true angel a mercy, and I knowed that she was going to be the saving of us.

  Chapter 3

  I hurried right on over to that there winder, and I stuck my face in it smashed against them bars, and sure enough, there she was. It was ole Red, all right, and she was a-holding my own Colt six-shooter up towards me a-pointing the barrel right at my nose.

  “Red,” I said, “point that thing some other way.”

  “Oh,” she said, and she turned it off to the right somewhat.

  “What’re you doing with that anyhow?” I said.

  “I fetched it over here to you,” she said.

  “Well, how in the—”

  “Never mind all that,” she said. “We ain’t got time. All I done was slap that horse on the butt real hard a couple of times. Jim’ll figure that out pretty soon and be back in here. Here. Take this thing.”

  I reached out the bars and tuck hold a my Colt and drawed it inside with me. Paw and Zeb, both their eyes got real big.

  “I got the rest of it too,” Red said. “It’s with your horses out back. Don’t worry. No one saw me.”

  “But Red,” I said, “how did you—”

  But I shut up then on account a she had done hurried on off, and so I was just a-talking out the winder to myself. Good ole Red. She never let me down yet. Here I was trying to figger out how to get us outa jail, and damned if she didn’t bring me my own six-gun. I just didn’t hardly know what to think about that.

  “You better hide that damn thing,” Paw said. He was talking at me through the bars from the next-door cell.

  “Yeah,” I said. I turned back away from the winder then. Chastain hadn’t come back in, so I just kinda laid back down on the cot the same way I had been before, but I tucked that Colt in under the piller that my head was a-resting on. “I told y’all I’d figger a way to get us outa here,” I said. Then Chastain come back in. I just laid there.

  “Well?” Paw said.

  “This here might not be the best time,” I said. “Hell, it’s broad daylight out there.”

  Ole Zeb squatted down beside me and kinda whispered into the side a my head.

  “Yeah,” he said. “It’s broad daylight, and someone’s liable to go walking along behind the jailhouse and see our horses out there. Then when’s it gonna be the right time? Huh?”

  I set up then. He was right. And Red had said she had put the rest of the stuff with the horses, and I couldn’t figger what she meant by that ’cept maybe Paw’s gun and Zeb’s, so Zeb was right. I had to do something right by God then before someone was to come along and find our critters and guns a-waiting for us out back. Ole Chastain was a busy at some kinda paperwork at his desk, so I slipped that Colt out from under the piller and stood up with it behind my back. Then I sidled over to the bars.

  “Hey, Jim,” I said.

  “What?” he said, without even looking up.

  “Jim,” I said, “come on over here a minute, will you?”

  He looked up then, and he said, “What is it? I can hear you.”

  “I just want to talk to you,” I said. “I been trying to figger out how come that there description a them robbers was to go out sounding so much like me and Paw and Zeb when we never had nothing to do with it.”

  “We’ll get those witnesses out here and clear the whole thing up,” Chastain said.

  “Men has been hung dead by mistake,” I told him. “I’ve heared about it. More than once. What if there’s another scrawny kid out there, something like me, you know, and a couple a old farts with him, and they done it, and them witnesses sees us, but they never really got no good look at them other three, and so they says, yeah, that’s them, but only we ain’t. Not really. What about that? Come on over here, Jim.”

  “Kid,” he said. “I’m busy, and I don’t want to get into that kind of discussion with you anyhow.”

  Well, I give up trying to get him over to the cell. He just weren’t going to go for it, so I just went on ahead and pulled that Colt out from behind me and thumbed back the hammer, and ole Jim, he heared that sound all right. He looked up then, and he seed that he was looking right into the barrel a my shooter.

  “Stand up slow, Jim,” I said, and he did. Real slow.

  “Kid,” he said, “you don’t want to do that.”

  “I don’t want to set in your jail and wait to see if you wind up hanging my ass up in the wind,” I said. “Walk on over here, but pick up them keys on your way.”

  Well, he done what I told him to do, and I had ole Zeb to get his gun and the keys.

  “Open the door, Zeb,” I said. Ole Zeb, he reached on out through the bars and twisted his hand around so he could put the key in the hole and turn it, and he did get the door opened. Then he hurried on out and went over to unlock the cell ole Paw was in. Paw was really faunching too. I was still holding my shooter aimed at ole Chastain, and I went out last.

  “Now you can get on in there,” I said, “and see how you like it.”

  “Kid—” he said, but I cut him short.

  “Whenever I wanted to talk,” I said, “you wasn’t interested, so now I ain’t interested. Just get your ole ass in there.”

  Ole Jim got in the cell, and Zeb shut the door and locked it.

  “Now you can start taking off your clothes,” I said.

  “What?”

  “You heared me,” I said. “Strip yourself nekkid.”

  “What do you want to do that to me for?” he said.

  “At first I wanted to kill you for the way you embarrassed me out there on the street while ago, marching me around in front a ever’one with both my hands stuck way up in the air and all that,” I said, “but I reckon embarrassing you back is just about as good. Maybe even better. Now do it.”

  He crossed his arms over his chest and put a real stubborn look on his face.

  “I ain’t going to do it,” he said.

  Ole Zeb walked over to the gun cabinet and picked up that greener that Chastain had pointed at us back in the saloon. He cocked both hammers and aimed it at the cell that Chastain was in.

  “You ain’t, huh?” he said.

  Ole Jim, he turned white as processed cotton. “Hey, old man,” he said, “if you just touch that trigger, you’ll splatter me all over
this cell.”

  “Then you best do what the kid says,” said Zeb.

  Ole Jim likely never stripped so fast in his life, not even for a whore, and each time he pulled off a piece a clothes, I made him hand them through the bars to me, and then I made ole Paw gether them up to bring along with us. Final I told Zeb to bring along the scattergun and the keys to the cell.

  “Kid,” said Jim, “if you take the keys, how’ll I get out of here?”

  I looked back at him, and he sure did look silly standing there nekkid in the cell, all long and gangly and bony and hairy, but I never laughed out loud. Instead I just give a shrug, like as if to say, I sure as hell don’t know. Then I looked back around at my two partners in evil doings.

  “Zeb,” I said, “take a peek out that back door and tell me what you see.”

  Ole Zeb peeked, and then he said, “I see our critters out there all right.”

  “Any folks?” I asked.

  “Nary a soul,” he said.

  “Then let’s get outa here,” I said. The three of us went out the back door and clumb up on our horses, and ole Red, she had even brung along ole Bernice Burro, so Zeb tuck hold a her line to bring her along with us. We rid slow and easy till we got plumb out to the edge a town, and then I figgered that someone might spot us riding on out, so I kicked my ole horse in the sides and give a yell. Paw and Zeb done the same, and we went tearing on the hell outa that place.

  We never said nothing, not a word, till we got us a couple miles outa town and final slowed our critters down so as not to run them to death, and then we just kinda moved along slow like for a spell without saying nothing still. Of a sudden ole Zeb, he bursted out laughing. Whenever he final stopped long enough to draw in a breath, I asked him what was so damned funny.

  “Ole Chastain nekkid in his jail,” Zeb said.

  Well, then me and Paw commenced to laughing, too, at the thought of it and the remembrance a how ole Jim looked back there whenever we left him, and then I told Paw, whenever we got done laughing like that, to drop ole Jim’s boots. He done that, and we rid on a ways, and I had him to drop Jim’s shirt, and on like that till the poor bastard’s clothes was strung out for several miles along the road. The last thing we had was the keys to the jail cell, and I tuck them and throwed them as far offa the road as I could. I figgered no one would ever find them again.

  “Reckon how long it’s going to take for ole Chastain to get outa that there cell a his?” Zeb said.

  We all commenced in to laughing again.

  “Well,” I said final, “the first thing is he’ll have to yell his head off to get someone’s attention.”

  “Then whoever it is hears him will go into the jailhouse,” Zeb said, “and see him in there locked in his own cell nekkid as a mole.”

  We laughed some more at that thought.

  “Then he’ll have to have them to go find him some clothes,” Paw said.

  We laughed some more.

  “And once he gets some new clothes to cover up his nekkidness,” said Zeb, “then they’ll figger out that he ain’t got no cell keys, and they’ll have to hunt up someone to cut through them bars or something.”

  “He’ll be all day a-getting his ass outa there,” I said.

  We went and laughed even more, and my belly and sides and jaws was all a-hurting, but we final got stopped laughing like that and we rid along quiet like for a bit there, and then ole Paw spoke up and he was real serious.

  “He’ll kill you for that if he ever gets the chance,” he said.

  “What?” I said.

  “Chastain,” said Paw. “He ever gets the chance, he’ll kill you.”

  I didn’t say nothing, but I done some deep thinking on that, and I figgered that ole Paw was right for sure. Why, ole Jim had tuck my shooter away from me and made me walk down the street with my hands stuck up in the air, and I had told myself that I would kill him for humiliating me in front a folks thataway. Now, I reckon I weren’t humiliated none compared to what ole Jim was going to be whenever he was discovered nekkid in jail like that. No, sir. That was a mean thing I done, and I final realized the full and complete meanness of it just then.

  “I reckon he can try if he’s a mind to,” I said.

  None of us said nothing more for a spell till ole Paw said, “Where we headed anyhow?”

  “You’re headed for Texas,” I said.

  “I ain’t so sure about that,” said Paw. “I hate to go home to your maw without my pockets full a cash. You know I always bring her cash money and groceries whenever I go home after a trip.”

  Well, I didn’t know no such thing. I did recollect that sometimes after he’d been gone off for a long spell, he’d maybe bring home some groceries all right, but I don’t recall him ever giving Maw no cash money. More likely he’d done drank it all up before he come home. Anyhow, I never said nothing about that. Instead, I dug into my pocket and pulled out what I had in there. I hadn’t had no time to spend hardly any of it, so I still had all that money I got for my share a the gold dust we had cashed in. ’Course, I knowed that Paw had his too, and he had got the same amount as what I had got. I kept me a little a that cash and handed most of it to Paw.

  “I know you’ve already got more than that in your own pocket,” I said. “With this here you oughta have plenty. Now, you promised me, you old son of a bitch. You said you’d go home to Maw if I was to figger us a way outa that jail.”

  “You never figgered a way out,” Paw said. “It was that redheaded gal what brung you your six-gun. She figgered it out for you.”

  “The law’s going to be after your ass here in Colorady,” I said. “You’ll be safe at home in Texas.”

  “Well,” he said, “There’s some truth in that.”

  “Well, head for Texas then,” I said.

  “I ain’t made up my mind yet,” he said. “The law’s going to go after you worse than me, and I ain’t heared you talking about getting outa the state. Maybe I’ll just string along with you.”

  I slowed my ole horse and kinda faded back on the trail till I was back behind ole Paw, and then I pulled my Colt and cocked it. Paw heared it all right.

  “You made me a promise,” I said, “and if you don’t keep it, I’m fixing to shoot off your other earlobe right now.”

  “Well, boys,” Paw said, “it’s been fun, but I got me a woman a-waiting at home. I’ll be seeing you around.”

  Then he kicked his horse in the sides and let out a yell and tuck off so damn fast I couldn’t hardly believe it. I eased the hammer down on my Colt and put her away.

  “You reckon he’ll really go home?” Zeb said.

  “I ain’t going to foller him to make sure,” I said. “At least he’ll be gone from us.”

  “He was right about one thing,” Zeb said.

  “What was that?”

  “Me and you’d be better off outa the state too. They’re going to be a-hunting us. ’Special ole Chastain after what we done to him. We ain’t going to be safe no place in Colorady. Maybe up in the mountains. Maybe they can’t find us up there, but even if we was to go back up there, we’d have to come back down again sometime. What if we was to head north, say up into Wyoming, and then we could go on up in the mountains up there? Maybe Californy. I can sniff out that gold anywheres. What do you say?”

  “I don’t know, Zeb. I ain’t too anxious to leave the state.”

  “Kid, they’re on our trail. You know that. And whenever they catch up with us, Chastain or whoever, they’re going to commence shooting without asking no questions. They’ll shoot to kill, on account a they know how good you are with a gun. They won’t be wanting to take no chances.”

  I just kept riding along. I didn’t say nothing.

  “You hear what I said?”

  “I heared you, Zeb. You go on. Go to Wyoming or Californy and hunt that mother lode. I got me other things to hunt.”

  “What? What you got to hunt? What’s so important you’d take a chance on getting yourself kilt over
it? Tell me that. What is it?”

  “I’m going to hunt me up three men,” I said. “A scrawny, skinny kid and two old men.”

  “Are you crazy?” Zeb said.

  “Well, I reckon that there question ain’t yet been answered,” I said. “I might be, but I just know only one thing.”

  “What? What’s that?”

  “I don’t like being on no one’s wanted list, Zeb. I ain’t no way comfy with that fugitive stuff. I been there before, and I don’t like it, I tell you. I mean to get busy and find them three outlaw bastards what really done that stagecoach robbing and killing and bring their ass in and prove to ole Chastain and ever’one else that it weren’t us what done it. I mean to clear off our good names.”

  “How the hell you going to go about the doing a that?” Zeb said. “Where you going to start? Where you going to look? We don’t even know who they are. Who you looking for? Hell, we don’t know whichaway they tuck out after they went and done their evil and nefarious deed.”

  “What’s that mean?” I said.

  “Never mind,” he said. “Hell, they could a gone anywheres. Canada or Mexico. Chicago maybe. They got enough cash outa the deal, they mighta even got on a boat and headed to China.”

  “They wouldn’t a gone to China,” I said, “lessen they could talk Chinaman. I don’t mean to cuss and discuss it no more. Like I said, you go on wherever it is you want to go. My mind is made up all the way total. I’m going to find them three no good son of a bitches and bring them in or kill them dead. I mean to do it.”

  Chapter 4

  Well, ole Zeb, he got me a good one, he did. I thunk that I’d had him, but he turned it right around on me.

  “All right,” he said. “All right. You win. I’ll string along with you. Hell, you knowed I would, didn’t you? Don’t I always? Don’t I do whatever it is you say most ever’ time? All right. We’ll hunt them killers and stagecoach robbers. We’ll hunt their ass down. Where we going to start?”

  Well, I couldn’t rightly answer him that. I didn’t have no idea where the bastards would likely be at. The robbing and killing had tuck place north of us, but that didn’t near mean that they was still up there. Like ole Zeb said, they coulda headed for China for all we knowed.