COWHAND BILLY ROCCO thundered into Apache Springs atop his quarter horse and dragged it to a sudden halt outside the barber shop. The youngster leapt from his mount, gathered up his reins and looped his long leathers around a hitching pole and tightened them. Darkness still prevailed as Rocco moved away from his horse and stepped up on to the boardwalk. He glanced up at the star filled heavens and listened to the music drifting along the main street.
Just like the majority of those who lived in and around Apache Springs, Rocco never questioned how so many remote settlements seemed to come to life after sundown.
To him it was just normal.
The young cowhand removed his gloves, tucked them into his gunbelt and then started along the boardwalks to his favorite drinking hole. The town seemed quieter than usual and that troubled the cowboy as he neared the Lucky Dice. There were less than half the saddle horses tethered to hitching rails along the wide street. And there were far fewer folks meandering along the main street.
It was as if Apache Springs inhabitants knew that something bad was brewing. Something that would cost them dearly. Like most lawless towns in the mid-west most folks had guns strapped to their hips and were not shy using them.
Rocco paused outside the Lucky Dice saloon and stared at the two lathered up saddle horses tied to one of the Salty Sally hitching rail. He knew more about horse flesh than most and it was obvious to him that the steaming horses outside the saloon were thoroughbreds. The most expensive mounts he had ever seen and out of place in this part of the territory.
Curiosity drew the cowhand across the sandy street. With every step Rocco took toward the horses bathed in lantern light he became more and more convinced that whoever owned the pair of nags had a lot more money than the average cowpoke like himself.
Rocco circled the horses silently. He wiped the dust and grime from their coats until he was able to see the distinctive markings of both animals.
A sudden chill traced his backbone as he recalled the men who had ridden these horses into Apache Springs six months earlier.
Rocco remembered the hired killers who had slain at least three of its citizens and then ridden away. He bit his lip and moved away from the tethered horses and crossed the street again back toward the Lucky Dice.
His heart was pounding like a war drum inside his checkered shirt. A hundred thoughts raced through his mind as he once again reached the boardwalk and stepped up on to it.
The killers were experts at their chosen profession. Rocco wondered why they would stray into such a remote town to unleash their venom. Why would they come to Apache Springs?
The question haunted the cowhand.
He knew that it had to be somehow motivated by money. Money was something the cowhand knew little about. Rocco did know however that his boss Ken Major of the Double K ranch was the last surviving rancher in these parts apart from the wealthy Morgan Bray.
Major had told the cowboy that he was expecting a telegraph message and to pick it up before heading back to the Double K.
Rocco rested a hand on the top of a swing door and entered the Lucky Dice Saloon. He had only just taken two steps across its sawdust covered floorboards when telegraph worker Gabe Payne came racing into the saloon behind him waving sheet a paper in his hand.
‘Billy, Billy,’ he shouted at Rocco as he caught up with the cowboy until he stopped walking. Every eye of each of the saloons patrons looked at the panting telegraph man who was doubled up in exhaustion.
‘What you want, Gabe?’ Rocco asked as he reached the bar counter and placed a boot on the brass rail which skirted the entire bar.
Payne straightened up and staggered two steps toward the cowboy and handed the sheet of paper to him.
‘Got a wire for Ken Major, boy,’ Payne gasped as he placed an arm on the damp counter and stared at Rocco as the cowboy snatched the wire from the far older man. ‘I’m glad I caught up with you before you went back to the Double K.’
‘I only just got here, Gabe,’ Rocco sighed. ‘I ain’t even wet my whistle yet.’
Gabe Payne rubbed his throat. ‘I’m a bit thirsty now you come to talk about it.’
Even though Rocco knew that the message was for his boss, he decided to read it. Having seen the horses of the hired killers across the street had rekindled old memories.
Memories which alerted him to possible danger.
Rocco knew that there was only one reason the deadly horse riders were in Apache Springs, and that was to kill. Death always The young cowhand did not know much about gunplay but he had witnessed the brutal destruction of his fellow cowboys the last time the strangers had visited these parts.
Rocco unfolded the telegraph wire and studied the penciled message for a few seconds. His expression then went grim as he stuffed the paper into his shirt pocket and signaled the bartender for two beers.
‘How long you had this message, Gabe?’ Rocco asked the still panting Payne.
Gabe Payne glanced up at the wall clock just behind the bar and scratched his whiskered chin.
‘Must be about thirty minutes by now, Billy,’ He said as the hefty barman pushed two glasses of beer across the slippery counter surface toward Rocco and the telegraph worker. ‘I’ve bin looking for you all over town. I tried the feed store and the Salty Sally. I knew you was in town but I couldn’t find hide nor hair of you.’
After tossing a coin at the bartender, Rocco watched as Payne downed half the glass of beer and then looked thoughtfully at the attractive bargirls who were moving steadily between the rest of the saloons customers toward him.
‘I’d best drink this glass of suds and head on back to the ranch,’ Rocco said with a deep sigh as his hand curled around the glass. ‘the boss will sure want to see this.’
Payne glanced at the cowboy. ‘You understand that message, Billy boy?’
Rocco nodded. ‘Yep, I know what it means.’
‘Who in tarnation is sending old Ken wires like that, Billy,’ Payne asked as he raised the beer glass to lips. ‘It don’t make no sense at all. I’ve had to copy thousands of incoming messages over the years and none of them have bin anything that one.’
‘The boss told me that he was expecting a wire,’ Rocco explained. ‘He’ll understand what it means.’
‘Do you understand it?’ Payne queried.
Rocco shrugged.
‘I know what it means, Gabe,’ he replied lifting his own beer glass to his mouth and swallowing its entire contents in two large gulps.
Payne exhaled loudly.
‘Good,’ the telegraph man said. ‘I thought that I might have taken it down wrong.’
‘Nope, you wrote it down right, Gabe,’ Rocco sighed as he was torn between returning to the Double K ranch and remaining in the Lucky Dice.
‘Is it important, Billy boy?’ Payne wondered aloud after finishing his beer and pushing his empty glass across the wet surface of the counter toward the bartender. ‘Gimme another beer, Joe.’
Thoughtfully Billy Rocco rubbed his jawline as his eyes drifted to the tempting bargirls and he began to wonder if he had enough time to sew a few oats before heading on back to Major’s ranch with the wire.
‘I ain’t sure how important it is, Gabe,’ he honestly replied. ‘All I know for sure is that the boss said he was expecting a wire. It looks kinda important to me.’
‘Looks like gibberish to me,’ Payne chuckled.
Rocco nodded in silent agreement.
Then the scantily attired bargirls moved down the length of the long bar counter and started toying with the cowboy’s sideburns. With great restraint, Rocco remained totally statuesque as the bargirls gathered around him and began their experienced methods of trying to excite his youthful juices into action. Reluctantly Rocco managed to fight the temptation of the females. Females he was already very familiar with. He took a deep breath and brushed them aside as he turned away from their advances. He placed the empty beer glass down on the bar counter and touched the brim of his battered hat.
‘Sorry, ladies,’ Rocco apologized and started to moved back toward the swing doors. ‘I got something mighty important I gotta do.’
‘I ain’t got nothing important to do, ladies,’ Gabe Payne winked at the bargirls as he accepted the beer glass from the bartender. ‘If you’re looking for a little company.’
The powdered and feathered females all raised their disapproving noses in the air and then walked back into the crowded heart of the bar in search of richer pickings.
‘Damn,’ Payne huffed in disappointment.
The amused bartender watched as the disheartened telegraph worker placed a coin on to the palm of his out-held hand. He grinned at Payne and observed Billy Rocco walk through the swing doors back into the street.
The swing doors rocked on their hinges for a few moments as Billy Rocco headed off through the lantern lit street back to his mount.
Joe Hanna the bartender polished a glass with his apron and chuckled to himself. He placed the glass next to a score of identical tumblers on the counter and then looked at the deflated Gabe Payne.
‘I never seen young Billy turn down the advances of any of the girls before,’ the barman said as he picked up a few more empty glasses and dropped them into a bucket of soapy water under the counter. ‘That wire you gave him must have been real important, Gabe.’
Payne took a big swallow of his beer and looked at the bartender. His expression gave the old timer the appearance of a sad hound dog.
‘I still say it was just gibberish, Joe.’ He sighed. ‘Nothing but gibberish.’
The bartender placed a long thin cigar into the corner of his mouth and struck a match with his thumbnail. He inhaled the smoke deeply and then blew the match into history.
‘I don’t know so much.’ He said. ‘It must have meant something to Billy. Why else would he hightail it back to the Double K?’
Gabe Payne finished his beer and pushed himself away from the bar counter. He inhaled deeply and raised his bony shoulders before turning and heading toward the doors.
‘Damned if I know, Joe,’ he said. ‘Guess I’d better get back to the office in case someone else is sending stupid wires that don’t make any sense.’
The telegraph worker meandered across the sawdust covered floor and left the saloon in a brooding mood. It was obvious that Payne envied the young cowboy and was angry that Rocco would turn down the opportunity of bedding any of the females and choose to return to the ranch instead.
The old timer knew only too well that there comes a time when those opportunities are no longer even offered.