Mortally wounded, Mephisto O’Day lay on top of the box, which had been set up again, and allowed Doctor Connolly to do what little he could to treat the wound. Having had his shoulder bandaged, Dusty Fog stood with the Ysabel Kid and Waco in front of the Kweharehnuh chiefs.
‘What now, Magic Hands?’ Ten Bears asked and pointed to Giselle’s body. ‘The medicine is broken—’
‘I only said that the saw couldn’t hurt her,’ the small Texan pointed out. ‘Pohawe shot her.’
‘The witch woman has told you many times that the white man’s medicine was a trick,’ the Kid went on. ‘Yet she could not understand how it was done. So she killed the woman in anger and paid the price. She had no medicine power, or if she had, it left her for her badness.’
‘Cuchilo speaks with a straight tongue,’ declared the ‘old man’ chief who had loaned him the shield. ‘All along I said that she was no true medicine woman.’
‘This I give to you, Paruwa Semenho,’ Dusty said and drew the photograph from his shirt.
Watching, the Kid gave a silent whoop of delight and approval. Trust old Dusty to do just the right thing. Returning the photograph, without being asked or using it as a bargaining point, had been a masterly stroke.
‘My thanks to you, Magic Hands,’ the pariaivo replied and his deep sense of gratitude showed plainly. ‘What now?’
‘You will be given your ammunition,’ Dusty answered. ‘The people have it. In return, I say let them leave in peace.’
‘They wish to leave?’ Ten Bears inquired.
‘Maybe they don’t, but they will. You have the word of Magic Hands on that. Let them go and have your bravehearts give the sun-oath that they will not harm them as long as they leave the Palo Duro.’
‘The pariaivo of the Texans is right,’ Ten Bears admitted, throwing a disgusted glare at the bunch of citizens huddled in the background. ‘They would be coups only for tuineps just becoming tuivitsi. It will be done, Magic Hands.’
‘Captain Fog,’ Connolly said. ‘This man wants to speak to you.’
‘I’ll come right now,’ Dusty promised, having translated the request and received Ten Bears’ permission to finish the conversation. ‘Make the allocation, you folks.’
‘Then we can stay here?’ Youseman asked.
‘Nope,’ Dusty replied. ‘But you’re getting out alive with anything you can tote with you.’
‘But—!’ the undertaker began.
‘Can we leave in safety?’ Goldberg interrupted.
‘No Kweharehnuh’ll harm you, I’ll have their word on that,’ Dusty assured the citizens. ‘They’ll let you out of the Palo Duro. So start handing out that ammunition.’
Leaving Waco and the Kid to attend to the allocation, Dusty walked over to the box. Holding her head, Emma came up with the men Dusty had dispatched to make sure that she was all right. Ordering everybody else to keep away, Dusty stood with the blonde alongside the hideously disfigured man.
‘Have you ever seen a death scene in a drama, Captain Fog?’ O’Day asked. ‘If not, you are now. I am going to play my death scene, using breath some might say would be better employed in confessing my sins.’
‘Don’t talk, Mephisto—’ Emma began.
‘Talk is all I have left, my pet,’ the man answered. ‘So let me have my grand dying scene. I am sorry for striking you down—’
‘That’s all right,’ the blonde replied. ‘I’ve always taken lumps from one man or another.’
‘You’re not the delicate flower you would have us believe, Emma,’ O’Day chided. ‘But it is a good role and you can play it well. You’ll find the jewelry from Crouch’s safe, with that which Giselle stole from Duprez, in the left-hand drawer of Simmy’s desk.’
‘You killed Duprez?’ Dusty put in. ‘I didn’t suspect you of doing it.’
‘Why not?’ O’Day inquired. ‘Did I impress you to such an extent with my glowing honesty?’
‘Nope. I just couldn’t see Duprez showing you where the jewelry was hidden. I figured that it’d take a pretty woman to get that. On top of which, I knew that Emma and Giselle had come back to lay hands on the jewelry.’
‘You thought that I’d sent Giselle to do it?’ Emma demanded angrily.
‘Nope,’ Dusty replied. ‘I reckoned that was her idea. You’d’ve been planning to get it without fuss and killing.’
‘That’s what I planned,’ the blonde confirmed. ‘I kept warning her that you’d only stand by your word as long as nobody got hurt. Only she had to do it her own way.’
‘Come now, no further recriminations,’ O’Day put in weakly. ‘This is my death scene and I should hold the stage, not the supporting players.’
‘Go to it,’ Dusty requested, unable to hold down his admiration for the dying man. ‘There’s nothing anybody can do to save you.’
‘I don’t think I wanted saving,’ O’Day countered. ‘With a face like mine, there is nothing to live for except revenge. And even that is no longer with me.’
‘Simmy and Giselle were always afraid that you hadn’t drowned,’ Emma remarked. ‘They knew that you’d be looking for them if you hadn’t.’
‘And they were right. After Simmy had thrown the vitriol into my face, I dashed from the hotel and flung myself into the river. I almost drowned, but the water saved at least some of my face. Don’t ask me how I got out of the river. Luck, maybe. I was always a strong swimmer. Or determination not to die until I had been avenged on Simmy and Giselle. So I lived—if you could call it living—but by the time I had recovered sufficiently, they were gone. I headed for Mexico, only to discover that they had not reached the original destination. So I wondered if something had gone wrong. I returned to the United States and began to haunt the theaters. If Simmy needed money, that is where he would turn. I had all my props, wigs, masks, everything. Few people ever saw my real face and none who did lived. Yet there was no word of Simmy. Until at last I picked up a hint about Hell. It was enough to set me to trying to find it.’
‘You got here in the end,’ Dusty drawled.
‘And found that I had arrived too late,’ O’Day pointed out. ‘I could hardly believe the luck which threw me in with Giselle and Emma. It gave me a chance to see how well my disguise would stand up to old friends’ scrutiny.’
‘It worked real good,’ Emma praised. ‘But Giselle thought she recognized your voice.’
‘And put it down to the workings of her conscience, I’ll bet,’ the man grinned. ‘What a blow to be told that Simmy was dead. I had planned a different end for him. However, I decided to have my vengeance upon Giselle. And then I saw what a good proposition the town was. It would be a sop for my loss if I could take it over and run it in Simmy’s place. First, of course, I would have to eliminate you and your companions, Captain Fog. No. Don’t interrupt. I was seeking ways of doing it, when I followed Giselle to the bathhouse. I broke into the living quarters and hid in the bedroom. I saw her entice Duprez into producing le Blanc’s loot. Then she killed him and carried it off with her. I wasted some time commiserating with her victim and was confronted by the Wilson woman as I left. I don’t think she liked my face.’
‘It would have worked again, except that Emma had told me about you,’ Dusty commented. ‘So I was expecting something like it when you pulled the mask off.’
‘So that’s how I failed. No matter now. Slipping away from the barber’s shop, I decided to make some trouble for your party. I went to the jewelers and was opening his safe when his wife came in. I killed her to silence her, then I’m damned if her husband didn’t arrive. I knifed him, but he managed to run away. So I changed wigs and left the long one with the jewelry, my cloak and top hat hidden behind the hotel’s back house, then came to the saloon. It was my intention to incriminate Giselle, knowing that you would protect her and, given good luck, be killed. Instead, I found myself accused and in danger of being lynched. So I exposed your identities to divert attention from myself. May I say that you handled the situation in a masterly and efficient manner?’
‘Thank you ’most to death,’ Dusty answered dryly. ‘Why did you come back to town? I thought that you’d figured the Kweharehnuh’d settle your score with Giselle and’d lit out.’
‘That’s what I wanted you to think,’ O’Day admitted. ‘My real intention by that time was to become the ruler of Hell. I left my horses and property in the woods, returned before daylight and concealed myself in Simmy’s house. That was how I came to find le Blanc’s loot. I knew that Giselle was too smart to have kept it on her person.’
‘How did you know that I’d come and give you a chance to take over from me?’ Emma wanted to know.
‘Ah. That, I admit, was fortunate rather than planned. I had learned how the allocation was always made and knew that, apart from myself, only you in Hell knew how to handle the trick. I had come prepared, in the hope that an opportunity might arise. It did and I took my chance.’
‘And near on bust my head!’ the blonde stated indignantly.
‘Pure necessity, my dear Emma,’ O’Day apologized. ‘I assure you that I struck as gently as I could. It was my hope to perform the trick, then amaze the Indians by a transformation to my real self. Then I would have persuaded them to kill you and your men, Captain Fog. What I didn’t count on was that somebody would have plans of their own. What caused the shooting?’
‘Pohawe the witch woman, was fixing to bust your medicine by having Giselle shot from the rim,’ Dusty explained. ‘Only Lon happened along and cut in.’
‘A woman again,’ O’Day sighed. ‘All my troubles have stemmed from women. Poor, treacherous, vicious little Giselle. I might have forgiven her for the betrayal if it had left me dead. But not for this—’ He indicated his face. ‘Oh well, it’s all over now. Maybe I’ll meet her and Simmy in the other Hell.’
Looking around, Dusty found that the ammunition had been handed out. He heard the words of the sun oath rumbling out as the braves agreed that they would allow the citizens to leave unharmed and unhindered.
‘Sun, father, hear my words. Earth, mother, hear my words. Do not let me live for another season if I do not keep this promise.’
The small Texan nodded in silent satisfaction. No warrior would go against the sacred sun oath. The people could leave in safety. The town of Hell would no longer offer its citizens a refuge, but they would escape with their lives and such of their property as they could take with them. When he left this time, Dusty Fog would have no conscience troubles to worry him.