CHAPTER 19
“What you’re doing is wrong,” Alice said to the coarse-looking man who took her roughly by the arm and led her into a small shed attached to the line shack. “I don’t wanna go in there. I wanna go back to my mama. Drew didn’t mean to give me to you. Please take me back home.”
Clearly uncomfortable with the kidnapping of a six-year-old girl, Jim Duncan was hard pressed to think of what to tell her. Ned was already annoyed to have her there, and Jim was afraid if she caused any fuss at all, Ned would severely punish her. “You’ll be all right in here, a whole little room all to yourself. Just be quiet, or you’re liable to get Ned riled up, and you don’t wanna do that. You be real quiet, and I’ll bring you a cup of water and somethin’ to eat, all right?”
“I wanna go home,” Alice insisted.
“Now, honey, don’t make a fuss and you’ll be all right.” He closed the door. There was no lock for the door, but he closed the hasp and secured it with a twenty-penny nail, especially for that purpose. He left her and returned to the line shack where Stark and Frank Deal were sitting at a crude table, using two upended wooden boxes as chairs.
“Where the hell is Drew?” Stark demanded. “He oughta been here by now.”
“They musta been a little bit slow findin’ out the little girl is gone,” Frank answered.
“If he don’t show up pretty quick, I’m gonna go look for him,” Stark declared. He had been threatening to do that for about an hour. The plan that Drew had agreed to was for him to pick up the girl, since he was sure she would come with him. Then he and Jim and Frank would leave enough of a trail so anyone could follow it when they brought her out to the shack. When Perley followed them, they would bushwhack him. He had come to hate Perley Gates so passionately that he would know no satisfaction unless he personally put the bullet in him that finished him. And now, he was beginning to realize that Drew had gone back on the plan, just so he could gain a reputation for killing him. He had tried to tell Drew that killing Perley Gates wouldn’t gain him a reputation, because he had never heard of him before. Drew had always had a big head about his fast gun. Ned should have suspected he was up to something when he insisted that the other boys should go with him to pick up the Parker brat.
“I told her I’d bring her a cup of water,” Jim said. “You reckon we oughta give her somethin’ to eat?”
“What the hell for?” Stark responded.
Jim shrugged and said, “I just thought she might be hungry and maybe thirsty—thought it might keep her quiet.” When Stark didn’t respond, Jim said, “I can give her some water outta my canteen. There ain’t enough water in that little stream for the horses to drink.”
“Hell, it’s your canteen,” Stark said. “If you wanna waste it on that young’un, that’s up to you.”
Sitting huddled up in the tiny shed, Alice could hear the three men talking, but she was not sure why they had taken her. Feeling alone and frightened, she held onto the one thought that sustained her. “Perley will come to get me,” she murmured softly to herself. In her heart, she believed this, and it was enough to keep her from crying. She pictured her mother and her sister worrying about her, and it almost made her cry. So she told herself again, “Perley will come to get me.”
* * *
Even as Alice told herself not to cry because Perley was coming, Perley was urging Buck to maintain a steady lope that was rapidly shortening the distance between them. Leading the big white gelding that Drew had ridden, he followed the trail left for him to see. The trail turned when it came to a trickle of a stream, and he followed it for about a quarter of a mile before he pulled Buck to a stop. He had been riding along the stream bank through a sparse copse of trees. But now there were no trees as the stream wound its way across a grassy plain, and he could see a shack of some sort sitting in another small patch of trees about one hundred yards away, backed up to a low ridge. He studied the shack for a few minutes. There were horses in a small corral beside the shack, which he decided must be an old line shack. Had he ridden out of the trees to follow the trail, he could have been easily seen by anyone in the shack.
There was no reason for anyone to be in a line shack this time of year. Even when in use, there was usually only one man. So he figured this was where Alice had been taken. Evidently Stark was holding the girl here, in the event a posse showed up at his ranch looking for her. He was still puzzled over Stark’s interest in the kidnapping. Was he thinking of holding Alice for ransom, as he had considered earlier? Drew Dawson had evidently taken advantage of the kidnapping strictly for the purpose of a showdown with him. No matter what Stark’s reason was for holding her, Perley’s purpose was to rescue her and see her safely home, so he started thinking about how he was going to do it. While he was sitting there on Buck, he looked back at Drew’s horse and an idea struck him.
He slid out of the saddle and grabbed his rope, then he tied Drew’s horse’s reins to the limb of a tree while he prepared to give him a tail. He pulled Drew’s saddlebags off and tied them to one end of the rope. Then he played out about fifteen feet of the rope, cut it off, and tied that end to the saddle horn so that the saddlebags would drag about nine or ten feet behind the horse. He took a look at the saddlebags, picked them up and dropped them a couple of times, and decided they could use a little more weight. He removed the pistol and cartridges from Drew’s fancy gun belt and put them in Buck’s saddlebags. He put Drew’s gun belt around the saddlebags and drew it up tight so it wouldn’t fly off. “That’s better,” he said and prepared to set the white horse off to the races. He picked up the saddlebags and gun belt tail and carried it while he led the horse to the edge of the trees. With the reins wrapped around the saddle horn, he aimed the horse at the shack and gave him a slap on the rump. When the horse jumped, startled, Perley pulled his six-gun and fired three quick shots right behind him. When he ran, Perley threw the saddlebag tail up in the air after the charging horse. When it hit the ground, it bounced up behind the frightened horse, causing it to gallop even harder. Hoping Snowball did his part in his plan, Perley jumped on Buck and raced off in a circling direction to come up on the other side of the ridge behind the shack.
* * *
“What the hell!” Stark blurted when he heard the shots fired about a hundred yards from the shack. All three men ran out the door, their guns drawn.
“That’s Drew’s horse!” Frank exclaimed. They watched, astonished, as the riderless white horse galloped across the grassy prairie in front of the shack. The saddlebag tail bouncing high in the air every time it hit the ground effectively chased the confused horse relentlessly.
“What the hell?” Stark repeated, this time a question. “Where’s Drew?”
“That don’t look too good,” Jim said, then uttered what they all thought, “Perley Gates.”
“Maybe,” Stark responded, then ordered. “Go after that crazy horse before it breaks a leg.” He picked up his rifle while Jim and Frank ran to get their horses and galloped after the panicking horse. Out in front of the shack, he watched the woods from which the horse had come, waiting for whoever was chasing the horse.
Alice held her head up when she thought she heard someone whisper her name from behind the shed. Then she heard it again and turned toward the back of the shed to discover someone there. She could see a body through the wide cracks between the boards but couldn’t tell who it was. “It’s me, Perley,” he whispered. “I’m gonna get you outta there.” He grabbed one of the boards and gave it a good yank. The rusty nails offered no resistance, so he pulled the board out of the way and grabbed the next one.
He only had it pulled halfway aside when she whispered, “I can get through,” and wedged her little body all the way out. She took hold of his hand then and followed him up the low ridge behind the line shack. He paused only once to take a look behind them to make sure her escape had not been discovered. Ned Stark was still standing out in front of the shack scanning the open expanse, his rifle ready. Then Perley ran up the slope at a trot, so Alice could keep up with him. Over the top, they ran to find Buck waiting at the bottom. Alice had not spoken another word until she was on Buck, behind Perley, with her arms locked tightly around him. “I knew you would come to get me,” she said softly.
“You can count on that,” he told her as the big bay gelding’s hooves pounded the dirt in a steady ground-eating rhythm. “I just wanted to be sure you weren’t late for supper.” With Alice safely behind him, he was not worried about being chased. The two men he saw ride out after Snowball were of no concern to him. The frantic horse was leading them off in the opposite direction to town, and the last glimpse he got of him, Stark was still standing out in front of the line shack with his rifle ready to fire. Since it was not that long a ride back to town, he eased Buck back to a gentle lope.
When they arrived at the hotel, Perley rode Buck around to the outside entrance to the dining room. When they went in the door, they were met by four worried women, who squealed joyous cries of relief upon seeing the little girl safely home. Perhaps the calmest female in the room was Alice, who stood by Perley’s side until her mother came to her with arms outstretched. “Oh, baby, baby,” Rachael repeated over and over. “I was so worried. If anything ever happened to you . . .”
“I wasn’t afraid, Mama,” Alice said. “I knew Perley would come to get me.”
“I knew he would, too, darlin’,” Rachael replied. She released Alice long enough to give Perley a big hug. “Thank you, Perley. Thank you for my daughter.”
Her obvious sincerity embarrassed him slightly, so he took the opportunity to lighten the mood when he felt Melva leaning up against his leg. He placed a hand firmly on top of her head and said, “I don’t know if I’da bothered, if it’da been this little scamp, though.” She responded by sticking out her tongue at him. He pretended to try to grab it, which caused her a giggling fit.
The gathering of women around him smiled at Melva’s giggling. Rachael, watching the happy reunion, couldn’t help thinking what a wonderful father he would be. If I was a few years younger . . . she caught herself thinking and immediately shook her head to clear it.
Realizing there was no one in the dining room but the four women around him, when he would have expected Possum and Rooster to be waiting there as well, he asked, “Where’s everybody else?”
“They’re down at the Buffalo Hump,” Bess was the first to answer. “They’re gettin’ up a posse to go after Alice.”
“We shoulda told you that as soon as you got here,” Emma said. “You’d better get down there and let them know Alice is back safely.”
“I don’t know what they’re gonna do about Drew,” Kitty wondered. It occurred to the women that they were so happy to see Alice’s safe return, but there had been no mention of the man who carried her away. They all looked at Perley then.
“They won’t have to do anything about Drew,” he said. “I reckon I’d best get down to the saloon to tell ’em about Alice.” With that, he turned and went out the door.
When he got to the Buffalo Hump, he found the core of the council, the men who were committed to take action when the town required action, gathered to decide what to do. “Perley!” Rooster bellowed as soon as he saw him enter the room.
“Did you find ’em?” Possum called out.
“Did Drew Dawson come back with you?” Sheriff Mason asked.
“I found ’em,” Perley answered. “Alice is all right. She wasn’t harmed. Drew ain’t comin’ back. He’s dead.” The reaction to his statements was predictable, so he was quickly pressed to explain. He told them of Drew’s involvement with Ned Stark in the kidnapping, but he could not explain exactly what their demands were going to be. Ransom possibly, he guessed, since he didn’t realize the real purpose was to draw him out to his death. He told them that he had been given no choice other than to kill Drew Dawson. He didn’t offer any details of the killing. As far as Ned Stark and the two remaining members of his gang, he said that he had no actual contact with them. He just sneaked in and got Alice out. And the last he saw of Stark he was standing in front of a line shack while he watched his men chasing a runaway horse.
His explanation was adequate for the gathering of men in the saloon with the exception of Possum and Rooster. Possum stepped up close beside him and informed him, “You’re gonna have to tell me a helluva lot more about it than that, especially the part about Drew Dawson.”
“There ain’t much to tell,” Perley replied. “I’m wonderin’ now what these fellows are thinkin’ about doin’.” Then it occurred to him. “What about the trial?” He looked around him and realized the saloon was no longer set up like a courtroom. His concern for Alice’s safety had driven thoughts of Junior Humphrey out of his mind.
“I reckon you’re faster than Drew was, right?” Rooster asked, ignoring his question about the trial.
“I ain’t got no idea how fast he was,” Perley answered. “It just didn’t come to that. I was lucky to get a shot at him when he wasn’t expectin’ it.”
Rooster gazed at him with a skeptical eye and was about to call him on his story when he was interrupted by Ralph Wheeler calling the meeting to order. “There isn’t any doubt that we’re all mighty relieved to know that Alice Parker is back home safe and sound. It’s sorrowful news to hear that Drew Dawson was playing us all for suckers. Nobody ever thought he was in cahoots with Ned Stark. That’s what you said, isn’t it, Perley?”
“Yes, sir, that’s right,” Perley answered. “Matter of fact, Ned was Drew’s cousin.” His reply brought a wave of snorts of disgust for their gullibility.
Wheeler continued. “We need to decide if we should take any action against Ned Stark and his two men now.”
Sheriff Mason stood up to respond. “It doesn’t make any difference if Alice Parker is home safe. Ned Stark and his men are guilty of kidnappin’, and that’s a serious crime. As sheriff of Bison Gap, it’s my duty to arrest ’em and bring ’em in for trial. I’m gonna need some help with three of ’em to arrest, so I’m askin’ for volunteers to ride in a posse, the more, the better.” His request was immediately answered by half a dozen hands raised. Mason nodded his appreciation for their support. He looked at Perley and said, “I’d like to have you go with us, Perley.”
“I figured you knew I would go with you,” Perley responded.
“’Preciate it,” Mason said. “I reckon we could get ready to go as soon as everybody gets their horses saddled and their weapons.”
That suggestion was met with some reluctance on the part of several of the volunteers. The first to speak was Rex Cooper. “It’s gettin’ kinda late in the day to start out, ain’t it? I don’t know how many of us have ever been out to that ranch. I know I ain’t ever been there. I ain’t sure I could find it, especially in the dark.”
His remarks were met with general agreement, and no one admitted that they knew where the ranch house actually was, whether they did or not. It was awfully close to suppertime, and it would be a while before everyone could prepare to ride. “I don’t know,” Horace Brooks remarked, “but does it make that much difference whether we go out there tonight, or in the mornin’?”
They generally agreed that it didn’t make a great deal of difference, figuring that Stark would be holed up at that ranch house. Mason was more in favor of going right away, but he was not going without a posse. So the final decision was to ride first thing in the morning. After that was settled, Perley finally learned the outcome of Junior’s trial when Wheeler made a final announcement. “I know we said the hanging was supposed to be tomorrow morning, but because of the posse tomorrow, we’ll reschedule it for day after tomorrow.” Since it was nearing suppertime, most of the crowd departed, leaving the usual evening crowd to consume Henry Lawrence’s whiskey supply and rehash the events of the day, a day that was crowded with them.
Rooster decided to join Perley and Possum for supper in the hotel dining room. So they walked back up the street together, with Possum pumping Perley for more details about Drew Dawson’s death every step of the way. Finally, Perley gave up and told them how the confrontation actually played out. “So, this whole kidnapping thing was just so Drew could throw down with you to see who was the fastest gun in Texas?”
“I don’t know if it was or not, but he decided to wait for me to follow them when they took Alice. Figured it would be a good opportunity to find out, I reckon. He talked like it was important to him.”
“But not to you,” Possum said. “So you just went ahead and shot him down before he was ready to draw?”
“Well, hell,” Perley answered. “I didn’t know if he was the fastest gun in Texas or not.”
Possum shook his head slowly while he thought that over. “I swear, Perley, you’re smarter than I give you credit for.”
“Too bad you couldn’t hang onto that white horse ol’ Drew rode,” Rooster said.
“Like I said,” Perley explained, “I needed that horse to help me slip in to get Alice outta that little shed they had her in.”
“What about that fancy quick-draw gun belt and six-gun Drew wore?” Possum asked.
“The last time I saw them,” Perley said, “they were chasing that big white horse of his across a stretch of open prairie.”
When they walked into the dining room, the women were anxious to know about the meeting. When they were told that a posse was set to ride out to Stark’s ranch in the morning, the news was welcomed by all. Maybe, they hoped, the long reign of lawlessness might be at an end with the destruction of Ned Stark’s gang of hoodlums. “I set the tables up to give us one big one again,” Rachael said. “So set yourselves down. Bess has made a sugar cake to celebrate Alice getting home safe. So save a little room for a slice of that after you polish off her Texas stew.” As usually happened, Perley sat down with Alice on one side of him and Melva on the other.