Chapter Thirty-one

Chugwater

When Wang Chow stepped into Lu Win’s Restaurant, he saw many more Miguó rén than Zhngwén. It was very popular with Americans so there were always more Americans than Chinese.

Mae Win was taking an order from a man who was sitting alone at a table. Although the man had his back to Wang, there was something familiar about him, a familiarity from Wang’s past.

Having taken his order, Mae Win turned to go the kitchen, then she saw Wang and smiled broadly. “Wang, how happy I am to see you.”

The man who had just given the order turned when she spoke and looked directly at Wang.

Wang gasped in surprise. “Loh!” The word was almost an expulsion of his breath.

“I am no longer the Tiger. Here, I go by my Miguó name. I am Zack Clark.”

“I did not know that you had left China.” Wang smiled. “I will eat with you, and it will be as it was when we were novitiates together at the temple.

“Hunyíng n, w de péngyu,” Wang added.

“Thank you, but here, I speak only English,” Clark replied just as Mae Win returned, carrying his order.

She had heard Wang say welcome my friend. “You are friends?”

“Mae, this is Zack Clark. I met him at the Shaolin Temple of Changlin. There he was called Loh. We called him the Tiger because of his fierce fighting ability.”

“Is he as good as you?” Mae asked.

“We fought many matches in training,” Wang said. “It shames me to say that I never bested him.”

Impressed by Wang’s words, she said to Clark, “Oh, you must be very good.”

“I am humbled by your praise,” Clark said, putting his hands together and making a slight bow of his head.

“How is it that you know our ways so well?” Mae asked.

“I was born in China and I lived there for many years.”

“You were born in China?” Mae was surprised by the revelation.

“My parents were missionaries. They were killed when I was but six years old. I was taken in by a Chinese woman until I became of age to enter the temple.”

“It is there that we met,” Wang said, picking up the story. “We were both boys then, but we became good friends and remained so until I left.”

“Shi. You left because the Empress Dowager Ci’an issued a decree ordering your death.”

“You know of this?” Wang asked.

“Shi. Everyone knows of this.”

“It shames me that I brought dishonor to the Shaolin Temple of Changlin,” Wang said, his voice showing his contrition.

Clark smiled. “But we will not speak of this now. Now, we will speak as we did when we were very good friends.”

The line cabin

Butrum had had no intention of eating supper with Kay and Jake. “Ain’t no need for me to eat beans ’n bacon here when I can get me a good steak ’n some taters in town, which is what I’m a-goin’ to do soon as Hawken gets here. Onliest thing is, the needle-brain is pert’ near always late, ’n there ain’t no doubt in my mind but what he’ll be late again tonight.”

Because the time finally lacked but an hour of sunset, Butrum was standing out on the front porch, looking for Hawken.

“I think this might be the best time to escape,” Kay said, speaking quietly enough so not to be overheard by Butrum.

“Yes, I can help you crawl through the back window and if you run you can get into the trees,” Jake replied, just as quietly. “Butrum’s standing out front looking for Hawken, so he won’t see you, and you won’t even be missed until Hawken gets here. And like Butrum says, Hawken is always late. You would have at least an hour, maybe even longer of a head start.”

“You mean we’ll have a head start.”

Jake shook his head. “Kay, you know I can’t go with you. I would slow you down too much. Why, I can barely walk in these things, let alone run.”

“You won’t have to run, or even walk. There are two horses here—the one I came on and Butrum’s horse. We’ll ride out of here.”

“How am I going to ride? With these leg irons, there’s no way I can straddle a horse.”

Kay smiled. “How are you at riding sidesaddle?”

“Sidesaddle?”

“You do know what a sidesaddle is, don’t you? They are designed so you don’t have to straddle a horse. It isn’t considered proper for a woman to ride astride. And it just so happens that the horse I rode out here on has a sidesaddle. If we can get you up on it, those leg irons won’t matter. Then, after we get those cuffs off, we’ll switch horses.”

“Yes!” Jake said enthusiastically, breaking into a broad smile. Just as quickly, the smile disappeared. “It’ll never work. Even if we could sneak out, these things are so awkward that Butrum would be on us before we can even saddle the horses.”

“Oh, you of little faith,” Kay said.

Over the next few minutes Kay outlined her plan. At first, Jake was opposed to it, suggesting that it might be too dangerous for her.

“Jake, you said yourself that when this was over, they would probably kill us, didn’t you?”

Jake nodded. “Yes, I believe they will.”

“Even a mewing kitten will fight if it is backed into a corner. We have been backed into a corner, Jake. And I would rather be killed trying to escape than to let them murder me.”

Jake nodded. “All right.”

“It’ll take us a minute to get ready.”

No more than a minute later, Kay opened the door. “Mr. Butrum?” she called in the same sultry voice she had developed as a hostess.

“Yeah, whatta ya want?”

“I want to know if you were serious when you said that you and I could have a little party?”

“What?” Butrum asked, turning to look at her for the first time.

She was holding the door open, and she was totally nude.

“What the hell?” The exclamation burst out in total shock.

“Come on in, and let’s party,” Kay invited. She laughed, a sexy, trilling little laugh.

Butrum stepped inside. “What . . . what about him?” he asked, nodding his head toward Jake.

“I want to watch,” Jake said.

“Can you believe it? He said he would give me one hundred dollars if he could watch. I’ve had men pay to watch me before, but nobody has ever paid me that much. So, what do you say? You want to help me earn a hundred dollars?”

“Yeah, hell yeah!” Butrum said with an enthusiastic smile.

“Well, honey, you can’t do it with your clothes on.”

Excitedly, Butrum started to undress. Just as both arms were temporarily caught up in the sleeves, Jake stepped up behind him and hit Butrum over the head with a piece of firewood. He went down like a poleaxed steer.

“Is he dead?” Jake asked.

Kay knelt down and put her ear over his nose and mouth. “He’s just knocked out. He’s still breathing. Get his pistol while I get dressed.”

“His pistol, yes.” Just as Jake was pulling the pistol from its holster, Butrum regained consciousness.

“You bottom-feeder, you hit me!” Butrum shouted and even as he was getting to his feet, he put both hands around Jake’s neck and began squeezing. The pistol fell to the floor.

“I don’t care what Collins says, I’m goin’ to kill you, you bastard!” Butrum didn’t notice Kay pick up the gun.

The two men went down to the floor with Butrum on top, his hands still wrapped around Jake’s neck. Jake was making strange gurgling noises. Seeing his face turning blue, Kay pointed the pistol toward Butrum’s head and at point-blank range, pulled the trigger.

Without a word Butrum fell with a little pool of blood and brain detritus spreading under his head.

Still struggling to breathe, Jake put his hands to his neck. Quickly, Kay moved over to kneel beside him, and she put her hand on his shoulder. “Jake! Jake! Are you all right?”

Jake coughed once, then he sat up and took a few deep breaths. “Yes. Yes, I’m all right.”

In a spontaneous action that shocked her as much as it did him, Kay put both arms around his neck and kissed him deeply, on the mouth. The kiss lasted several dizzying seconds before she realized what she was doing, With a little cry of alarm she pulled away from him. “Oh, I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!”

Jake smiled at her. “Sorry as in you think it may have offended me? Or sorry as in you wish you hadn’t done it at all.”

Kay returned the smile. “Come to think of it, I’m not sorry. Come on. We need to get the horses saddled and get out of here before Hawken comes.”

“Don’t you think you should get dressed first?”

“Oh!” Kay gasped as if just realizing she was naked.

Just over fifteen minutes later, with only a dim glow over Tomahawk Mountain in the west, both horses were saddled.

“Tell me how to ride on this thing,” Jake said.

“You see this little stub coming up from the saddle here? That’s how you hold yourself on to the horse . . . by hooking your knee around it. You can get your legs open far enough to do that, can’t you?”

“Yes, I can bend and open my knees all right. But the question is, how am I going to get in the saddle?”

“You grab hold of that stub and pull yourself up. I’ll wrap my arms around your legs and lift at the same time.”

Following Kay’s instructions, and with her help, Jake managed to pull himself into the saddle. Kay mounted Butrum’s horse a few seconds later.

“Which way now?” Jake asked.

Kay pointed. “This way, away from town. I don’t want to take a chance of running into Hawken.”

* * *

“Butrum!” Hawken called when he reached the line cabin about half an hour later. “Butrum, as you can see I’m here on time, so don’t you be late in the morning!” He dismounted and tied his horse off at the porch rail. “How come you ain’t got your horse out here ’n ready?” He stepped up onto the porch. “Hell, I figured you’d be ready to go by now.”

When Hawken went inside, he gasped. Butrum was lying on the floor, his head in a puddle of blood.

“Damn, what happened to you?”