Thirty-three

 

When he awoke again, Gillom had a bandaged goose egg on the back of his skull. The chunk of wood somebody had brained him with had broken his scalp, so the cut had been sewn up while he was knocked out. The teenager squirmed as he rose in bed.

“Awww.… Head aches.”

“Easy, son. You took a good blow to the bean. Rest and water and your headache will gradually go away. No alcohol, though, until we see how you do.” This opinion came from a slim, bearded man sitting on the next bed over, sewing up Ease’s wounded leg. Dr. Frederick Sweet was the mining company’s doctor.

“Least you don’t have a hole in you,” his buddy offered.

“You gonna walk, Ease? Still chase girls?”

“Just can’t catch ’em for a while. Doc here says the bullet went right through my calf, didn’t break any bones. Ouch!” The bartender twitched as the nurse assisting dabbed astringent on his bare calf the doctor was stitching, to staunch the bleeding.

Gillom was concerned. “You see the sheriff?”

“No, but a deputy came about the gunfire and helped me in here. Told him we were ambushed.”

Gillom looked around. This hospital was Bisbee’s first, located near the old Rucker Mine, about a half mile from Main Street. The facility had opened the year before and was a four-winged structure with a well-lit operating room. It was paid for by the Copper Queen Mining Company and its small staff hired by the same. Dr. Sweet no longer had to go to the patient’s home and operate on their kitchen table.

“Ahhh.…” Gillom felt round his sides and ribcage through his unbuttoned shirt. “Couple ribs might be busted, Doc. Pains in my chest where I got slammed into a stair railing.”

“I’ll take a look.” With scissors he clipped his last black stitch in Bixler’s holed calf.

“There. Just walk easy, with a crutch or a cane for a while, so you don’t tear these stitches open and start bleeding again.”

The middle-aged surgeon polished the glass lenses of his metal-framed glasses on a shirtsleeve.

“Your employers probably aren’t going to compensate you boys for late-night gunplay. Either of you have any money for your treatment today?”

Ease gave him a rueful smile. “Always heard ‘M.D.’ meant ‘money down.’”

“I do, Doc. Work at the bank and have a savings account,” replied Gillom.

“Fine. Pay my secretary on your way out. Now let’s see these sore ribs.”

Sheriff White arrived in a three-legged tear as Dr. Sweet was finishing applying liniment and wrapping long strips of bandages around Gillom’s bruised ribs. The lawman was, as usual, in a bad mood.

“Heeere’s these young gunslingers like to shoot up my town nights.”

Ease spoke up. “It was an ambush, Sheriff. We got attacked just hikin’ up Youngblood Hill to our homes.”

“For what reason? Another stick-up?”

“No sir,” answered Gillom. “I told their boss, Luther Goose, last night in the Senate, to leave my girlfriend alone. Those three thugs who surprised us work for Luther, as muscle.”

“They also work as miners. William and Frankie, whatever their last names are. We don’t know the third jasper yet. But you crack shots didn’t have to shoot ’em dead.”

“They knocked us down, Sheriff. Were beatin’ on us in the dark. Hard to see what’s suddenly going on up there,” explained Ease.

“We were just defending ourselves, best we could,” added Gillom.

The sheriff grew angrier. “Maybe at first, but then you stalked William all the way up to the mine. Copper Queen Consolidated doesn’t appreciate having its miners gunned down on its own property. Upsets the workers and makes ’em concerned for their own safety.”

“Hey, their worker was throwing blasting caps at me, could have blown away anybody up there!” Gillom slid off the bed and stood like a mummy in his underwear and wrapper. Sheriff White poked a stubby finger into his bandaged midsection.

“You’re not understanding me, boy. Phelps Dodge is the most powerful company in this territory. And you’re fucking with their mother lode! Arizona’s trying to become a state. There’s a United States Senator from Indiana, Senator Beveridge, who’s filibustering Congress we’re unfit for statehood, too primitive to join civilized society. So we cannot have shootouts in our best mines, in the middle of our nice town. Scares the workers. Scares me. And it’s bad for business, which pays all our salaries.” He gestured at the two medicos, listening intently to the sheriff’s oration. “So I advise you to buy a trunk, kid, soon as my investigation’s concluded.”

His dander up, Gillom Rogers stood his shaky ground. “What about my girlfriend, Anel Romero? Luther Goose has been bothering her at the Red Light. She didn’t want to go away with him. He’s a damned pimp!”

“I’ll check that. Dance halls pay a liquor license fee and the city council doesn’t want their good business disrupted, either. But if this whole dispute is over just one painted cat, it has gotten way out of hand.” The lawman put his hand down, stepped back from his threatening closeness. “Your family’s known in these parts, Bixler, so you can still work at the Bonanza, if you stay out of more shootings. But you, El Paso, tie up your affairs and get the hell gone.”

Sheriff White turned on a bootheel and stalked from the new hospital. The nurse assisted a glum Gillom into his pants and boots and guns so he could help Ease home. The bill for patching them both up came to twelve dollars, which Gillom paid since he’d gotten his pal into this trouble. Ease groused they were being overcharged for misbehaving.

As they wobbled out, the doctor stopped the young mankiller.

“You may have trouble breathing with those two bruised, maybe fractured ribs. Take a deep breath occasionally to get air way down in your lungs, even if it hurts. Use pain liniment on the site, or ice if you can get it, and keep your ribs bandaged. May take a couple of months to heal, but broken ribs come around. Lay off the whiskey and stay out of fights.” The surgeon stared hard at both young men. “You’ll live longer.”

*   *   *

The lads lay low in their cottages over that weekend while the sheriff’s investigation of their shootings continued. They snuck out after dark for their one meal a day, and went together for protection. They ate in out-of-the-way restaurants so as not to attract undue attention. Gillom and Ease were healing and went armed, but because of their stiff gaits and pained movements, neither would have been much of a match for anybody else in another fight.

Monday morning, Ease was moving well enough to attempt his day shift behind the bar in the Bonanza, since it would be a slower weekday. Gillom lathered on more Tiger Balm, a Chinese painkiller he’d picked up in the Bisbee Drug Store, mummified himself in fresh bandages, and headed off for work. He was there at 9:00 A.M., before the bank’s doors opened at 10:00, but was immediately confronted by Mr. Cunningham.

“Pinkham wants to see you.” Gillom didn’t care for the gleam in the treasurer’s eye.

Sumner Pinkham’s office wasn’t regal, but it was distinguished by several large wooden lamps with fancy laminated shades atop his big oak desk for night work. The young man noticed cut glassware and several bottles of vintage whiskey on a side table in a corner, evidently for night work, too. The boss wasted no time on formalities.

“Heard about your contretemps last Friday evening. How you feeling?”

“Better, sir. Lathered on Tiger Balm for a couple bruised ribs, but the doc says I’m serviceable.”

“I can smell it. Self-defense again, was it?”

“Yes, sir.” The president hadn’t indicated a seat in one of the heavy oak chairs for customers, so Gillom stood. “Thugs ambushed me and my buddy in the dark near home, so we had to shoot it out. I’d warned their boss to stay away from my girlfriend, who’s a customer of ours, by the way. This Luther Goose is a gambler, and I guess he didn’t like me objectin’ to him pressin’ his affections where they weren’t wanted. Those bodyguards worked for him.”

“Those thugs were miners, Gillom. Heard about this mess over the weekend, when I was paid a visit by Ben Williams, Copper Queen’s superintendent. They don’t take kindly to their miners being shot on their property. Killings get the company unfortunate publicity. Your shoot-out is in the papers, and the Copper Queen at this moment has the reputation as an unsafe place to work.”

“But I had to get that wrestler, or he’d have kept coming after me on Goose’s orders. Bastard already banged me around once before, besides this ambush. Hell, he was throwing dynamite caps at me up there, trying to blow me up, hurt other miners on their night shift, too. I couldn’t have turned him into the sheriff in that predicament. That jasper wasn’t going to be taken.”

The bank’s president nodded. “”Well, I’m glad you came out of your scrap relatively unscathed. And that your girlfriend won’t be bothered anymore. But you’ve become more trouble to me now than you’re worth, Gillom. So I’m letting you go, with two weeks’ severance, to help you move on. I’m sure your gun skills will be useful elsewhere. I’ll even write a letter of recommendation. Shootist extraordinare!”

“Did the sheriff put you up to this?”

“I haven’t spoken to Sheriff White.”

“Well … it’s not fair.”

The bank officer was perturbed. “Fair? Fair? Phelps Dodge is our biggest customer! Their interests are my major concern.”

“And my interests aren’t.”

“Wish you a safe journey, son. And better luck.” This time Sumner Pinkham offered his hand to shake, but Gillom Rogers didn’t take it. The insult raised a scowl on the banker’s face. “Cunningham has your pay.”

*   *   *

Gillom didn’t bother Ease at his workplace with this latest bad news as he climbed slowly up Brewery Gulch in the bright morning’s light. His ribs ached as his sore chest rose and fell from the climb. His pockets and the hidden moneybelt on his holster were full of greenbacks and gold coins from closing out his bank account. But he wasn’t worried about being accosted even in the dangerous red light district. Nobody was going to fool with young Gillom Rogers in Bisbee, not with his sudden reputation as a three-time killer in just two months! Not unless they worked for Mr. Goose.

The parrot didn’t bother him approaching Jean’s green-roofed cottage. The bird must have been sleeping off a raucous weekend itself. Red Jean greeted him in a housecoat, with curlers holding up her mass of auburn hair.

“Gillom! Your shoot-out’s the talk of the tenderloin! You all right?”

“Coupla sore ribs, but I’m still walkin’ and talkin’. Ease got shot in the leg, but it went clean through. He’s already back behind the bar. But I lost my guard job at the bank.”

“No! Why?”

“Two of Goose’s thugs we shot were miners. Copper Queen’s manager complained to my boss, and that mine does the biggest business at the bank, sooo…”

“So what will you do now?”

“Probably be movin’ on. But I gotta talk to Anel first. Do you know where she lives? I don’t know if I can make it up Chihuahua Hill with this chest pain. Hampers my breathin’.”

“No, but I’ll find out. We were busy at the Red Light this weekend, but I don’t remember seeing her, now I think of it. Why don’t you stop by there tonight?”

“Can’t risk running into Goose again, Jean. Bastard’s probably already hired more bodyguards.”

“Don’t recall seeing him after Friday night, either.”

“Was he in then?”

“Yes. By himself. Drinking, dancing with Anel.”

“They leave together?”

“I have no idea, young sir. Had my own business to attend to.” The bar belle lowered her eyes.

Gillom chewed a lip. “Suppose he fled up to Clifton with her?”

Now Jean looked concerned. “Let me get dressed, pay a visit when I locate her lodgings, see if she’s okay? I don’t work tonight.”

“If you can track her down, bring her along tonight to the Turf Saloon at eight. I’ll get Ease, too. I’m hosting a farewell dinner.”

“So quick?”

“Well, Anel’s missing, and as of this morning I have no job here. When the sheriff starts making threats, I pay attention. Time to vamoose.”

The dance hall queen managed a half smile. “Then I’ll see you young foxes at dinner.”

It was the bird who wished him a fond farewell from his perch up the scrub oak.

“Adios, pendejo.”

If he’d felt better about everything, Gillom might have grinned.