The rest a that there day weren’t nothing much to talk about. I did go into the saloon and ketch them two Duttons after they’d had them each about three or four drinks, and I told them to cut it out and go to bed. Whenever they whined a bit at that thought, I told them they had three more ears I could shoot at. They went to their room all right. Then whenever I felt reasonable sure they was a-going to stay there till morning, I tuck me and ole Dick Cherry off to our room. I wanted us all up early, well rested and raring to go.
In the morning I was up first, and I kicked the side a the bed to wake up ole Cherry. He come up without no problems. Soon as we was dressed and ready to go, we walked over to the room where the Duttons was a-staying, and I banged on their door till they come awake. Then me and Dick went in and waited till they was ready. The four of us went downstairs, outside and acrost the street to the eating place together. We found us a table inside, which weren’t no trouble on accounta it was so early, and we set down and ordered us each up a big breakfast. I told that man there what tuck our orders that ole Wheeler were a-putting it on the cuff for me, and he never argued with me none. Pretty soon we had et and drunk our fill, and we left that place and walked to the stable. We saddled up our horses and headed on out.
I had noticed since we first went into the Duttons’s room, and all the way through breakfast and even afterwards that
ole Haw Dutton would ever’ now and then rub his ear scab and give me a hard look. I knowed that he wouldn’t dare to face me and try anything, but I was pretty damn sure that if he ever got hisself a good chance, he would most for sure try to kill me by backshooting or some other such cowardly way a doing the deed. I didn’t figger on giving him a chance.
We never talked a whole hell of a lot on the way over to that there stage coach road what was west a the Devil’s Spot and a running north and south. There weren’t a lot to say. We all knowed what it was we was a-fixing to pull off, and we knowed how much it was worth. What we didn’t know was just exact how we was a-fixing to do it, on accounta it was me what was calling the shots, and I hadn’t never seed the place where it was we was a-fixing to hold up the stage. I had to get us there plenty early so I could look over the lay a the land and figger that out.
Well, we made it early enough, and sure enough, the road tuck a sharp turn around a high-up wall a rock on the right. Just around the curve it went to climbing uphill. It was a place where the driver would for sure have to slow it down considerable, and what’s more, he wouldn’t be able to see what was in the road around the bend. The ground on the left side a the road, that was the east side, it were might near flat, but it did have a few clumps a brush spotted here and there, enough for a man or two to crouch down behind and hide his ass.
I rid along north and south real slow-like, a-looking at both sides a the road and up toward the top a that there sheer wall a rock, studying real hard on the situation. The other three was a-getting kindly impatient with me, I could tell. Final I looked at ole Spike Dutton, and I asked him, “Can you get up there on top a that there wall, you reckon?”
“Yeah,” he said. “I know the way.”
“How far north along this road can you see from up there?”
He give a shrug. “I don’t know. Several miles, I’d say.”
“If you’re up there on top, and you see that stage a-coming, would you have time to get back down here and tell me, and it not be a-getting too close to us yet?”
“Sure. I’d have plenty a time.”
“All right,” I said. “You go on up there then. Soon as you see the stage coming, get back down here and tell me. Then we’ll get ready for it.”
“I’ll just go up there with you,” Haw said to Spike.
“He won’t need no help up there,” I said. “You stay here.” I tell you what, ole Haw give me a mean devil look at that, but he never said nothing. To tell you the truth a the matter, I wanted to keep them two brothers separated as much as I could on accounta I figgered that Haw’s cowardness would take more charge a his senses if he was alone from his brother. Anyhow, Spike rid south a-headed for the place where he knowed he could get on up on top fairly easy. Haw stayed with me and Cherry, a-frowning something fierce.
I went and set behind a rock on the north a the curve and west a the road and studied, trying to picture a stagecoach a-coming and then rolling on around that there curve. I satisfied myself that I could be hid real good there, and whenever the stage went on past me, I could stand up and throw down on them from the rear end. Then I walked across the road and got down behind one a them clumps a brush what I done told you about. I studied from there too and come to the same conclusion as I had did on the first spot. I figgered I’d put Haw behind the rock and Dick behind the brush. Then I went hunting some more places.
Just around the curve I figgered to put my own self, and then acrost the road and up a ways was another clump where I decided to have Spike hide out. Here’s the way I schemed it up. Soon as that stage come a-rolling in sight around the bend, Spike would show hisself and call out to them to halt.
He’d be a holding a rifle gun. Almost immediate after that, I would come outa my hidey hole and repeat his orders. He’d be ahead of them, and I’d be just a little bit behind. Then the two behindest, Haw and Dick would show theirselfs. The driver and shotgun rider and anyone inside the stage what might be a possible defender a the right would know that they was surrounded, having armed men at all four corners. Likely they’d give it up without a fight, which was what I was a-hoping for, on accounta I didn’t want no one to get kilt in the doing a this here deed. Please remember that I ain’t really no outlaw. I was still involved in the process a trying to recover some stole bank loot, and I meant to return that there payroll, too, just as soon as it was possible for me to get it did.
Well ’bout as soon as I had it all figgered out, here come ole Spike a-hauling ass down the road towards me and a-waving his hat. He come to a quick stop just a few feet away from me, and he said, “I seen it. It’s a-coming.”
“All right,” I said. “Get the rest a the horses and take them all down thataway out a sight. Then hurry on back here.”
Well, Spike done that, and when he come back, I gethered them all around me and told them what my plan a action was. “If we all do it right,” I said, “there won’t even have to be no shooting. I don’t want no shooting if we can possible help it. You all got that? I mean it now. If any one a you shoots anyone, I mean to shoot off his ear, and you know I can do it.”
Ole Haw give me a hell of a look and stroked his ear scab, but no one argued with me none, and so I showed them their places. I explained to Spike that just as soon as the driver and shotgun rider come into his view he was to show hisself and call a halt. He said he understood all right, and so we all hid our ass and waited. It seemed like a hell of a long wait too, but final I heared the coach a-coming. I heared
it come close, and then I could even tell whenever it slowed down to make that curve. Then they was horses a snorting and pounding their hoofs right alongside a me, and then the coach come in view. It was so close that if the driver had spitted off the side a the coach, it coulda went in my eye. Then I heared Spike, right on schedule.
“Hold it up there.”
I stepped out with my Colt in my hand and cocked. “You heared him. Stop them horses.”
Well, the driver, he stopped them all right, but that there shotgun looked a mite hesitant.
“They’s two more behind you,” I said. “Sneak a look.”
The driver and the shotgun looked back, and I reckon they seed Dick and Haw back there. Both of them seemed like as if they was a mite more convinced a the realness a their predicament.
“Throw them guns down,” I said, and they did. “You got passengers?”
“No passengers,” the driver said.
I walked over and looked, and he never lied to me. This was just all too easy.
“You’re a carrying a payroll,” I said. “Toss it down.”
“It’s inside,” said the driver.
I opened the door and seed a saddlebags a-laying on the floor. I reached in and opened a side and pulled out a wad a bills, big ones, too. I checked both flaps and the bags was stuffed full. I had expected a strongbox a some kind, but here it was, all that money in saddlebags. I closed the flaps back and jerked the bags out, tossing them over my left shoulder.
“All right,” I said. “Roll on outa here.”
The driver whipped up the team and the coach started in to lumbering up the steep road. I stood a-watching it go, and the other three come out and gethered around me. “Go get the horses,” I said to Spike, and he run and grabbed onto the
back end a the stage to take hisself a ride up to where he had hid our mounts. Haw and Dick was both a-staring at the saddlebags on my shoulder.
“Well, let’s see it,” Dick said, and his eyes was greedy.
“Just hold on,” I said. “We’ll see it soon enough.”
Spike come back with the horses, and I clumb onto the back a Ole Horse. “Let’s get outa here,” I said, and the others mounted up and follered me. I figgered they’d be a bellyaching real soon to take a look at all that money, so I rid over to the side of a little crick and stopped and dismounted. I throwed them saddlebags down in the dirt. It was well past noon, and I was some hungry.
“Go on,” I said. “Take your look. Then let’s have us a little fire and some coffee and grub.”
Did they ever have theirselfs a time over all a that money! They held handfuls of it and kissed it and rubbed their cheeks with it and throwed it into the air. Final, they actual set and counted it, and ole Wheeler had been right, by God, about how much money was in that there payroll. It were all there. While they was all a-acting fools like that, I had built a pot a coffee, and when it was all boiled up real good, I made them stuff all that money back and come and set and drink some coffee. We didn’t have no real cook amongst us, but we had brung along some hardtack and some jerky, so we et that and washed it down with coffee. Ole Spike, he went over to the edge a the crick and got down to wash his face in it. He was still there whenever Haw went down to join him. I didn’t think nothing of it at first, but whenever they had been there together like that for a few minutes, I come suspicious.
“Dick,” I said, and I jerked my head towards them brothers, “I don’t like that.”
“What?” he said.
“Them brothers hoovering together like that. They just might be scheming up some way a knocking us off and getting off with all a this money.”
“You want to kill them?”
“Naw. Not just like that. You oughta know me better’n that. I’m just suspicious is all. I think we best keep our eyes on them two.”
“Better yet,” Dick said, “why don’t I wander down there and see if I can tell what they’re up to?”
I thunk on that for a minute. I didn’t rightly think they’d let ole Dick in on anything, seeing as he was my partner and all that, but then on the other hand, it was me what they was a-hating, ’special that Haw. They might let ole Dick in on something. It was worth a try, and it couldn’t hurt nothing. If nothing else, if they was a-scheming on us, why, when Dick got hisself in amongst them, they’d have to stop their scheming.
“Give it a try,” I said.
Dick stood up kindly casual-like and tuck his canteen over to the crick. Whenever he kneeled down to refill it, he were right close to the Dutton boys. They clammed up and stared at him. Haw looked over at me. I reached for the coffee pot like as if I didn’t have no idee that nothing was a-going on. By and by I could hear them a-talking again in hushed tones. Dick were a-talking with them. I sipped coffee and waited. They talked on and on. Final I decided they’d had enough time. If they had talked up something, well, let them try it. If they hadn’t had enough time that was okay, too.
“Let’s pack it up and hit the trail,” I said. “We hustle our ass on along we might make it back to the Devil’s Shit place before dark.”
We put out the fire and straightened up that little camp site pretty quick on accounta we hadn’t did much there, and then them Duttons was the first ones over to the horses, but only they never mounted up. Instead, they turned back to face me, a-standing side by side. I give them a curious look.
“Dick?” I said.
“I’m right behind you, Kid.”
“What do you reckon them two’s got on their furry brains?”
“They don’t want to take the money back to Wheeler,” Dick said. “And they don’t want to split it four ways, either.”
“They actual think they can take us?”
“I guess they mean to try.”
“Haw,” I said, “you know what happened last time you tried to go against me. You want your ears to be a-matching? Is that what you want?”
He never said nothing. “Spike,” I said, “you seed me nick your brother’s ear. You think you can take me? You think even the two a you together can stand up to me?”
“You never know, Kid,” said Spike. “One of us might get lucky.”
“I reckon it’d have to be luck,” I said. “Now unbuckle your gunbelts and let them drop before I decide to get mad and start in to shooting. Go on, now. Do what I say.”
“We might get lucky,” Haw said, and he was damn near drooling at the thought a killing me. It was beginning to look like I was a-going to have to kill them two boys. I decided to try once more to talk them out of it.
“Drop your gunbelts, like I said, and this’ll stay just with the four of us here. I won’t say nothing to Wheeler. Your only other choice is, I’ll just kill the both of you. I won’t take no time to go shooting ears nor nothing like that. I’ll just kill you with one shot each. What do you say?”
“Kid?” ole Dick said from behind me.
“What?”
I didn’t bother turning to look at him. I was too busy keeping both eyes on them Duttons what seemed like as if they had lost alla their brains, what wasn’t none too many in the first place.
“Like they said, they might get lucky.”
Then I felt a sudden blow to the top a my head, and I seed red stars a-bursting and a-popping in front a me, and
then I seed black all around with different colors a things a-hopping and a-dancing around, and I sudden lost my balance and fell over on my face. I felt like as if my head had been splitted wide open, and I couldn’t see nothing but that black with them dancing things in it, and the world seemed to be a-spinning around and a-tilting from one side to t’other, back and forth. I heared voices, though. They was real vague like they was far off, but I heared them.
“Let me kill the son of a bitch.”
“No. I told you. And you agreed. Just take his Colt. We’ll take his horse, too. He won’t get far like that. I think I busted his skull anyway. He’ll likely die right here.”
“It’ll be slower and more painfuller like that, too, Haw.”
“Oh, hell, all right.”
I could feel it whenever someone jerked the Colt outa my holster, and then I could for sure feel it whenever someone give me a swift kick in the ribs.
“Cut it out. Let’s go.”
“All right. All right. Son of a bitch.”
“Which way?”
“South. To Mexico.”
I laid there and I listened to them horses’ hoofs a-pounding as them three assholes runned off a-leaving me there to die a slow and painful death. I can tell you one thing for sure. I weren’t dead, but I was sure a-feeling that painful part. My head hurt like hell, and after that kick to the side, so did my ribs. I reckon I rolled around some then and done some out-loud moaning and groaning. I figgered that I might for sure die a horrible and agonizing death right there in the dirt just a few feet away from that there crick water. Well, thinking along them lines reminded me a that crick, and I decided that I would crawl on over to it and at least dunk my hurting head in them soothing waters, but only whenever I went and tried to crawl, I just couldn’t hardly make no progress, it hurt so bad. I don’t know if it really did or not,
but it sure as hell seemed like as if it tuck me a hour at least to get over there and drop my head down in the crick. And it was some soothing, but only I had to come up for air now and then, and the coming up hurted me all over again.
Final I drunk me some a that water, and then a little while later I managed to roll over so that I could lay there almost on my back with the back a my head laying in the edge a the crick, so that I could take advantage a the soothinness a the waters and still breathe. I got me enough relief thataway that I was able to start to think a little, and I was a-thinking that I was plumb helpless. Even if I coulda got up onto my feet, which I couldn’t, it was a hell of a long walk to the Devil’s Den. Them bastards had tuck Ole Horse with them. I was kindly sad thinking that likely I had seed the last of Ole Horse. Then I got to thinking about who all else I had seed the last of: ole Zeb, and Red, and even Jim Chastain. Hell, even my ole paw and maw come to mind then.
I wished for a time there that I had been a praying kind, ’cause I figgered that I was a-fixing to meet my Maker, and I was pretty damn sure that he’d be a-sending me straight down to hell if what them preachers said was true. Then my head was clear enough, in spite of how much it was paining me, to ask itself a question, what was, what the hell happened? The answer come real easy. Ole Dick, whenever he went down to the crick to try to find out what them Duttons was up to, he had conspired with them. Then, whenever I was a-facing them two and him behind me, he had whopped me on the head with his shooter. He had double-crossed me. I had knowed that he was greedy for that money. He hadn’t made no secret a that fact. But he was my pardner. I never figgered him to do me like he done. Whop me on top a the head from behind for the sake a money. And him my pardner. I made up my mind right then that I weren’t gonna lay there and die after all. No sir. I meant to live long enough to kill ole Dick Cherry.