Trego, page 22
A heated argument broke out between them, the guys on the horses, not with my women. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but it seemed to split them in half, well as much as seven can be halved. Three of them pulled their horses away from the other four. They pulled their pistols from their holster’s with two fingers and dropped them on the ground.
I got up and told Jake and Wolf to stay. I didn’t want a stray shot killing them. I was standing about twenty feet behind them, before they knew I was there.
“Gentlemen!” I said, “and I use that word loosely. Just what seems to be the problem?” One of the four turned in his saddle and looked at me.
“Shit! Its Trego. Smitty, its Trego!” He said.
“I don’t care who it is, I want those girls. They took the money from the safe, plus there isn’t enough whores to go around with them gone. Besides we’ve been following them for a week, I ain’t going back empty handed.”
“Smitty, don’t you know who Trego is?”
“Just some breed gunslinger, he’s nothing to me, I’ve killed better gun hands then him.”
“Well, you can count me out, I’m with those cowboy’s, we didn’t sign on for anything like this.” Then he shucked his six shooter and joined the other three. But those other two were buddies of Smitty’s, they also thought they were tough. Or else they had a bad case of the ‘pride’s’, and didn’t want to back down in front of the women.
I walked around in front of them, where Brie and the twins were standing. I handed Janie my Sharps, “You girls stand back, this is my fight, yes you too sweetheart, there are only three of them.” I said.
“Why should you get them, they were insulting us women, not you.” Brie said.
“Oh, they didn’t call me a breed and said that they were faster than me?” I said.
“Are you as bad as them, they insulted your pride?”
“Nope, not in the least. I know you could take all three of them, shoot even Janie and Melinda could take these yokels, but hell honey, can’t I have some fun once in awhile?” While Brie and I were jawboning, Janie had that Sharps pointed right at Smitty’s chest. I looked over at the four that had dropped their weapons, and said,
“You guys want to dismount and go stand over there by those four girls,” then I looked at Smitty setting up there on his horse with a smirk on his face.
“Are you three ready to get down and die?” I said, “Or, I am willing to let you shuck your guns and ride away.”
“What’s the matter Trego, you let your mouth overload your ass?” Smitty said.
“Nope, not in the least. You keep running your mouth and I just might let Brie kill the three of you. You see my wife is one hell of a lot faster, and she shoots straighter than me. It’s your choice though?”
“Oh, you’re going to let your wife fight your battles for you, huh?”
I looked at Brie, “You see Honey, they don’t want to meet their maker by the hands of a woman, they would a lot rather have me kill them.” As I was talking the three of them got off of their horses. I had turned my head just a little when I talked to Brie. They thought I wasn’t paying attention, they were drawing their guns as they dismounted.
I whirled, going down on one knee, I got Smitty through the head, Brie got one, Janie had just raised the barrel of the Sharps a little and pulled the trigger, she got the other one.
I looked at those other four Cowboys, “I tried to give them an out, they had a death wish. But I know one thing for sure, you boys rode with them, you bury them.”
“Yes Sir, we will. They told us that them thar girls were thieves, and being that they were whores, they had no rights.”
“Do you really believe that just because they sold their body’s to stay alive, that they had no rights?” I said, he looked at the ground, then answered.
“No sir, I don’t believe I do. But that’s what they said.” The young Cowboy said, indicating the dead bodies laying on the ground.
“You see son,” I said, “everybody has rights, except those that don’t want them, like those three. I gave them the right to walk away, but they choose to die. The shovel is over by the wagon.” I said, waving my hand toward the wagon.
Sometimes the price of life is mighty heavy to carry. How many am I willing to kill to stay alive? I walked over to a windfall and sat down, Jake and Wolf came and sat beside me. But what came to mind in answer to my question, was: It just wasn’t my life, it was all of the women. I had a right to die myself, but did I have a right to take my family with me to that great unknown? Nope, I guess not. So I guess I will keep shooting straight. It wasn’t my fault there were so many blame damn idiots out there.
Brie came over and sat beside me. “What’s wrong Hon?” she asked.
“Every time we kill somebody it takes a little bit out of us. Pretty soon we’ll just dry up and blow away.”
“Yes I suppose it does take a little bit of our humanity away. But not as much as those three being lowered into the ground. I’d say their humanity is completely gone. You know sweetheart we don’t have to judge ourselves, they’re plenty of people out there willing to judge us.”
“I reckon you’re right about that. People are quick to judge other people without knowing all of the facts. But at times you have to make a snap judgment, take for instance when those three got off their horses with those guns in their hands, I judged that they wanted to kill us. Was I right?”
“Yes Honey, you were right and so was I and Janie. We had no choice but to defend ourselves. So get up and out of that slump you’re setting in, lets go for a swim.”
I followed my wife, sort of moping along. Heck, I didn’t even know the names of those three, shouldn’t I find out? Why? I didn’t even know the names of the four girls from Helena. Now, not only those three, but the four cowboys digging their graves. Now my conscious was bothering me, it seems only proper that you know the names of people, if you have been around them for more than fifteen minutes, right?
We found a nice swimming hole, out of sight of the others. My countenance was picking up, the more my wife was taking off. By the time she was naked, I couldn’t even remember my own name, much less what I was thinking about before….
We were floating around the pool on our backs when Janie and Melinda showed up. “They have the burying all done. And those Cowboys and the girls are getting sort of cozy.”
“Cozy? Just how cozy?” I asked.
“Oh, not in that way, they’ve been talking a lot. Jake and Wolf are watching our wagon, we don’t trust the whole bunch of them.” Melinda said.
“Well, we sure don’t know them all that much. So its only common sense to be as cautious as the serpent.” Brie said.
“I think you two had better get out, that is if you’re done.” Janie said.
I looked at Brie, she said, “Yes we’re done, as you call it. Does anything embarrass you two?”
“Some things, but making love isn’t one of them. We know that you’re married and married people love each other, its only natural.” Melinda said.
“Fine, you two head on back, it embarrass’ Trego, when you see him naked.”
“Really? There’s nothing wrong with his body, why should he be embarrassed?”
“Shoo, the both of you, we’ll be there in a minute.” I said. We dried off with our hands, then got dressed, buckling on our weapons last. Brie shirt stuck to her damp breasts, showing the nipples. “What about those?” I said, pointing.
“What about them? You don’t like them?”
“I didn’t say that, but there are those four men, I don’t want them to see.”
“Alright, I’ll go by the wagon and get a vest, does that suit you?”
“Yeah, I’m not a prude, but no use giving them a free show.” Brie wasn’t an exhibitionist, but she was what could be called a free spirit, I guess.
The eight of them were setting around the campfire, quite cozy was my impression. Brie and the twins were by our wagon. I stopped at our wagon, “What are you going to do about them?” I asked Brie.
“Me? Why me? But hell, you know not everybody in this world is our responsibility, you know.”
“Alright, you answered my question. I was just thinking the same thing. Let’s jaw at them a bit.” I said.
The four of us went over to the fire. “The way I understand it, is that you girls took a little more money than what was owed you, is that right?”
The same one who was the spokes person before spoke up, “Yes, I suppose so, but we had it coming, after all, they kept us and wouldn’t let us go.”
“I’m not arguing about that, I figure you got it coming. The eight of you look pretty chummy, you all going to hook up?” I asked.
They looked at each other, all eight of them nodded. “Good, I suspect that you have enough money to buy a small ranch or even a saloon or something, but what I would suggest is that you get your asses to the nearest town and get a lawyer to draw an agreement between the eight of you, otherwise, you’ll be at each other’s throats in no time. We’re going to hook up our team and hit the road, you all do what you want.”
I said, as we turned to walk back to our wagon, I signaled to Janie to watch our backs. I’m a pretty trusting fellow, yeah right. But really, we had just met all eight of them, you might say, and the human being is a lot more dangerous and unpredictable than a Grizzly Bear. It didn’t take us long to put the harness’ on the team and saddle up.
I felt a sense of relief as soon as they fell out of sight. Sometimes I sure missed the wide open spaces, this Territory was sure getting full of people. It seems every time I get around people there is trouble, seems more times than not, someone gets killed.
We sat up a pretty steady trot, to put some distance between, to where we was, to where we is at. The English language is a lot of fun, if you don’t get all caught up in its rules and such. I was pondering on its ambiguities as we rode along.
Rules, rules, rules. Men will load you down with them if you don’t watch out. But I think the only rule that matters all that much is the Golden Rule. ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.’ But of course it seems a lot of people turn it around, ‘Do unto others before they can do unto you.’
We were riding in silence, thinking. Brie glanced at me, I at her. “Crap! This wasn’t going to work.” Brie said, at the same time I did. “Lets go back, we can’t leave those girls like that.”
I called out to the girls: “Hold on. Pull over there, beside the river in those trees. Brie and I are going back. You two make camp, keep Jake and Wolf with you. We have to go back and make sure those girls are alright.” With that we whirled our horses and gigged them up into a run.
As we got close, we slowed to a walk in the dense timber just outside of the camp.
We could hear shouting. We got off of our horses, ground tying them. We crept ahead quietly.
One of the men had the girl that seemed to be the spokes person for the girls (I’m going to have to learn their names) with his arm around her neck and a gun pressed in her back. He was yelling at the rest of the girls; “Tell us where the money is and I won’t kill her.”
The other three girls and one of the men, the youngest looking one, were standing on the other side of the fire. The other two men had the drop on them. One of the girls yelled back at the man holding their friend, “You wouldn’t be doing this if Trego was still here!”
The man said in a sarcastic voice, “Well, he isn’t is he, you Bitch’s are all alone. You don’t need to tell us where the money is, we’ll find it. Then we’ll take our time raping the lot of you, that is after we kill Junior there!”
He was still talking when I clipped him behind his left ear with my left hand .44.
He went straight down. I side stepped to give my self a clear shot at the other two, but I needn’t have done that, cause Brie had already shot them through their gun arms. Brie said: “My but you men don’t learn very fast, you just buried your buddies, now you want to join them.”
The girl beside me was holding her throat and coughing. I hadn’t noticed right off, but he had almost strangled her. I asked her: “You alright?” She nodded with tears in her eyes. “I thought you had abandoned us.”
“Yeah, I thought I had also. But I’m cursed with this conscious that kept saying ‘those girls are too stupid to be left alone.’ Or was he calling me stupid? I don’t rightly know, but one of was anyway.” Another thing I just noticed, he had torn her shirt off, both breasts were sparkling in the late afternoon sun. They were snow white, she needed to get some sun.
Brie had picked up the guns those two had dropped from bloody hands. I bent to get my guys guns. He wasn’t moving at all. I felt his neck for a pulse, there wasn’t any. I didn’t think I had hit him that hard. I was sure I hadn’t, he was middle age with a beer gut to prove it, his heart had just probably stopped on its own.
Brie was checking the damage her bullets had made of their arms. It wasn’t that bad, she had just grazed the top of their forearms. More nuisance than anything else, but of course they thought they were dieing. Pansy’s, that’s what they were.
As Brie was patching them up, I asked the girls their names. The three that were on the other side of the fire were named: April, May and June. I said, “You have got to be kidding?” They weren’t. I looked at the girl with the snowy mountains, “And yours?”
“Its Jan, short for January and no I’m not kidding either.”
“Are you going to put on a new shirt?” I asked her.
“Why, does it bother you?”
“Nope, not in the least, go naked if you want to, but those skeet’s are going to be coming out in earnest with the setting sun.”
April had her arm around that young man, his face was white. “What’s your name son?” I asked.
“Samuel Longfellow Sir.”
“How did you get mixed up with this bunch?”
“They said that they were getting a posse together to go after some thieves. I didn’t know it was the girls. April was my girlfriend, I was surprised, she’s no thief.”
“I reckon not. But chance and circumstance can sure play some mean tricks on you at times.” I said.
“Yes Sir. I’m beginning to see that.” Samuel said.
“Where are you from son?” I asked. “Louisiana Sir.” He said. I had thought so.
Those Louisiana boys were almighty polite with their Sirs and Mam’s. I guess we could all take a lesson from them.
Brie came over, she looked at Jan, “Get a shirt on. Then get your plunder together and harness that team and hook up your wagon. Our twins are waiting for us a few miles on down the trail.”
I walked over to those two cry baby’s, “Boy’s, now if I was a Bible toting man, I’d simply have to hang both of you. Cause according to the Bible intent is the same thing as doing. You see, you both had intentions of raping those girls. Now don’t go to saying you didn’t, cause you did. But being a forgiving man, I’m going to let you bury your partner, then take any valuables that he may have had and any that those others you buried had and hit the trail. But not back to Helena, you just pick a spot far away from this Territory, anywhere. But just not where I’m libel to see you, cause if I do, I’m going to plant you.” They glanced at Brie, she nodded. They were more afraid of her than me.
There were extra horses and saddles. The saddles were tossed in the wagon, the horses were free to come along or go where they wanted to. As we headed off, they followed along.
Chapter Eleven
Janie and Melinda weren’t surprised when we showed up with the bunch of them. They didn’t even ask what happened to the rest of the men. Of course Jan, the Yakity Yak of the group told them.
We were getting quite a herd of horses. The teams of horses we picketed out, the saddle horses just hung around on their own. Jake and Wolf were sort of our watchdogs. Funny thing I thought that wolf was a male, I hadn’t taken the time to see for sure, but turns out she was a female. I bet Jake liked that.
There wasn’t any warm swimming holes at this campsite. So we had to make do with a spit bath. That’s when you just used a basin and a washrag. Even that could be fun, if you shared the chores.
Brie was the Generalissimo, she assigned all of the duties, even down to where they were all going to sleep. Did that bother me? No. Why should it? The home was always the woman’s stomping grounds. And right now this was home. I wasn’t worried, I knew where I was going to be sleeping. Right next to the fire. And I didn’t mean the wood fire either.
Brie was cuddled up close to me. Any closer and we’d be inside of each other. You already couldn’t tell where Brie left off and I began. That was just fine with me, after all didn’t the Bible say that the two would become one?
That was the way we slept all night. If one turned the other turned, if one twitched the other did also. I only wished we could get inside of each other’s dreams, wouldn’t that be fun?
The next morning as we broke camp, I made sure everyone picked up any mess they had made. Those new girls were somewhat forgetful. Heck, I even had to show them how to take a stick and dig a hole when they went to the bathroom. This younger generation were somewhat lax in their manners. Shoot, even the Israelites in the wilderness knew enough to bury their waste’s.
It weren’t far to the ranch where we left Carl Albert. We figured we could make it before dark. The Boulder had backed off since we were by here earlier. It was rushing some pumpkins then. Now it was a right peaceable river.
We did waste a little time when we found a nice warm backwater. If taking a bath is a waste of time. Now Sam was taken back a little, he had never seen anything like it. He just stood there staring when those girls threw their clothes on the bush’s and jumped in. Couldn’t blame him any, it was quite a sight. April, his girl had to get out and almost undress him. When she got his clothes off, I could see why he was hesitant. He turned and backed into the water so those other girls wouldn’t see how excited he was.
