Prisoner of Gun Hill, page 10
There was a restaurant connected to the hotel, Luke noted as Billy settled their bill in advance. That would save them the time of searching a strange town for a decent place to eat. Luke could smell steaks frying from the kitchen.
‘I think we’ve reached heaven after all that hell we’ve been through,’ he told Billy as they climbed the staircase to their second floor room. Tick-Tock was already settled in.
‘They had to tote up an extra bed, but it looks like we’ve still got plenty of room, doesn’t it?’
‘It suits me fine,’ Billy said.
‘Me, too,’ Luke agreed, looking around the small room with its walls papered in white with small blue flowers in the design. The furniture was thin and probably flimsy, but it was the finest place he had seen for a while. A blue curtain fluttered in front of the open window in the warm evening breeze.
‘How are the girls set up?’ Luke asked, tossing his rifle on to one of the beds and removing his faded, trail-dusty Stetson.
‘Their room seems to be real nice,’ Tick-Tock said. ‘It’s all fitted out in red and gold. No one can go over there right now, though – they’re having hot water brought up, and a tub to take baths in.’
‘Clever of them,’ Billy said.
‘They are just naturally cleaner animals,’ Luke said, sitting on the bed. ‘It would have occurred to us sooner or later. Probably later.’
‘Look what I picked up at the hotel desk,’ Tick-Tock said, tossing a pamphlet on to the bed beside Luke Walsh. ‘A stagecoach schedule with the prices to various destinations.’
‘That’s useful,’ Billy said, picking it up. ‘Where are you intending to go, Tick-Tock?’
‘I’m already there,’ Tick-Tock answered with a buck-toothed grin. ‘This is where I was headed in the first place, if you’ll remember.’ Tick-Tock sat on an opposite bed and removed his straw hat. ‘I’ve got a distant relative who lives here – so distant that I don’t even know if she’s cousin, an aunt or what. Her name’s Dusty Donegall – or it was Donegall. She’s married now.
‘She owns a house in town, and her husband’s a long-riding man who’s sometimes gone for months at a time. Anyway, she said I could stay with her at least until her husband gets back or until I can find a job in Crater, whichever comes first.’
‘It’s good to have family,’ Billy said.
‘Most times, I guess,’ Luke said in a sort of grumble. No one in his family had ever amounted to much. He rose from the bed. ‘I guess we’d better at least rinse off in the basin if we are going to take the women out to supper.’
‘I wish I had a decent shirt,’ Billy said, looking at his torn, trail-dirty white shirt.
‘In a town like this, I’m sure they’ve seen dirty shirts before,’ Luke said. ‘After we do some figuring on how much money we need for the stagecoach fare, maybe there’ll be enough left over for you to dude yourself up.’
‘All I want is a clean shirt,’ Billy repeated.
Tick-Tock told him, ‘They’ve got a laundry in this hotel, the women told me. Maybe they can do something with it real quick. The ladies already sent some clothes down there to have them freshened up and ironed.’
‘Susan would never have thought of that!’ Billy said in amazement.
‘Dee Dee would have, first thing,’ Luke told him. ‘Let’s wash up, boys. Anybody got a razor?’
‘You can have one sent up,’ said Tick-Tock, who seemed to already have gotten the hang of being a hotel dweller.
To the rough-living desert rat, Billy Rafferty, it seemed nothing short of miraculous; to Luke who had coiled up in Dee Dee’s hotel room for a while, it was a service he had known about but had forgotten and seldom had the call to use.
Looking slightly more civilized, the three men left their room an hour later and tapped lightly at the ladies’ door.
‘Who is it?’ Dee Dee answered from within.
‘Three gentlemen wishing to escort you to your dinner table,’ Luke replied.
‘Well, for goodness’ sake! You gentlemen didn’t waste much time cleaning up, did you? You’ll just have to wait. One of these ladies is not quite dressed and the other is still soaking in the bathtub.’
‘We’ll meet you downstairs,’ said Luke, who had half-expected such a response.
‘What are they doing?’ Billy asked as they started toward the staircase. ‘I mean – what, that takes so long?’
‘Making themselves into the creatures that we are so glad they are.’
‘What do we do now?’ Billy asked.
‘What men always do while they’re waiting – we have ourselves a drink.’
‘You seem to know a lot about this man-woman thing,’ Billy said to Luke as they reached the lobby. Luke looked at him with a frown, then smiled.
‘No, I don’t. No one does. We just try to keep the truce between us as best we can.’
Dinner in the brightly lit hotel dining room was steak, baked potatoes, corn muffin and apple pie for desert. There was no stopping Tick-Tock, who barely raised his face from his plate until it was cleaned. Billy, on the other hand, glanced at the women with something like amazement now and then.
Dee Dee wore her dark-blue dress, her hair brushed to a glossy shine and pinned up in the style she favored. Susan wore a yellow dress that must have belonged to Dee Dee, and also had her hair pinned up and coiled at the nape of her neck. If Billy watched his cousin with astonishment, Luke looked at her with ill-concealed admiration, his eyes fixed more on her than his food – which was a very good meal, indeed. His plate was still half-full when the others were digging eagerly into their desert pie. Susan caught his eyes on her and returned a pleased smile.
They sat finishing their meal with restaurant coffee, so much better than their boiled rough-country brew, served in small white cups.
‘I suppose the stagecoach must run back to Tucson,’ Dee Dee said across the table.
‘Yes, it does,’ said Tick-Tock who had had time to study the schedule. ‘Is that where you’re going, Miss Dee Dee?’
‘I might as well. I don’t have much there, but I’ve got friends and a place I can get a job.’
‘The Bluebird?’ Luke almost grumbled.
‘Why not – I ran out of high ambitions a long time ago, and they treat me right there.’
‘How about you, Luke?’ Billy asked, ‘Is that where you’re heading?’
‘I don’t think so,’ Luke answered firmly. Only Dee Dee knew what he meant. It was true that, besides Dee Dee, no one had actually seen him shoot Marshal Stoddard, but the idea of returning to Tucson seemed too risky. ‘I believe I’ll stay away from big towns for a while.’
Billy Rafferty said, ‘To a desert rat like me, Crater is a big town. I might just hang around and see if I can find some kind of work – so long as it doesn’t involve a pick and a shovel.’
‘There’s bound to be something,’ Susan put it in.
‘You haven’t told us what you intend to do, Cousin,’ Billy said, finishing off his coffee.
Her blue eyes shifted until they were meeting Luke Walsh’s straight on. She answered softly, ‘I just haven’t made up my mind yet, I guess.’
‘Well,’ Dee Dee Bright said, ‘the stage leaves in the morning, and Virgil Sly and Boston Sears are heading this way. It might be a good time for you to draw up a plan.’
Luke had to let his gaze fall away. Still he had nothing to offer Susan but circling the desert on a stolen horse, trying to elude the law. He couldn’t let her live like that. She deserved much better. Men walking past their table cast admiring glances at both women. Susan could easily find a better man, and a better life than any he could offer. In the back of his mind was the idea of riding back to the Havasu Ranch, but now herding cattle seemed a pointless, wearying way to finish his worthless life.
‘What about the old woman?’ Dee Dee asked. No one caught her reference at first. ‘The one staying back on Gun Hill.’
‘Emma Sears?’ Billy asked.
‘That’s the one. If Boston is coming to Crater, then she’ll be left alone for a long while yet. Maybe Boston Sears doesn’t intend to go back to Gun Hill at all. He’d have thought she had enough people around to take care of her.’
‘It would serve her right if he doesn’t go back,’ Susan said bitterly. ‘Besides, she’s got enough provisions to live on out there for a year.’
‘I didn’t like her much,’ Dee Dee said, ‘but I wouldn’t wish that on any woman – living alone on a lonely desert mountain. Maybe I could hire someone in Tucson to ride out there and bring her back. You know, it’s not her fault her son is a criminal.’
‘If you’d be willing to do that, Dee Dee, I think it would be a fine gesture,’ Billy said. ‘Just so you’re not crazy enough to take her under your wing.’
Dee Dee laughed. ‘I’ll find her a job working in the Bluebird kitchen. If she doesn’t like it, she can go her own way.’
That settled, and the waitress eager to clean off their table as the small restaurant began to gather an evening crowd, Dee Dee, Susan and Tick-Tock went upstairs toward their rooms while Billy and Luke went out on to the plankwalk to breathe the night air and have a look at the small town’s night denizens. There were more than a few moving about. Some walking, some riding, all moving toward the two facing buildings up the street where lights glared and men’s voices and whistles could be heard.
‘Want to go have a look at the local saloons?’ Luke asked.
‘I’ve never even been in one – living the way I have been,’ Billy told him.
‘That’s why I asked you,’ Luke said. ‘Myself, I’m not big on places were men see how drunk they can get before they try to start a fight.’
‘Kind of pointless, isn’t it?’ Billy Rafferty said thoughtfully.
‘And it can get expensive, making a fool of yourself.’
‘Let’s forget that idea,’ Billy said. He tilted himself against one of the uprights supporting the awning over the hotel’s porch and said, ‘You know, Luke. With what we know about Virgil Sly and Boston Sears, wouldn’t it be a good idea to tell the local law that they’re probably making their way toward Crater?’
‘I can’t see that it is, no,’ Luke answered.
‘Then we could be sure that Dee Dee and Susan would be protected,’ Billy persisted.
‘We’ll protect them,’ Luke said firmly. Billy did not understand Luke’s reluctance.
‘But if they robbed the Tucson bank, and they are known outlaws, doesn’t it make sense to alert the local marshal? It’s not like we’ve done anything wrong, Luke.’
‘You’ve forgotten about Cummings and Gross.’
‘That was in self-defense against two other known gunmen!’ Billy said, getting excited.
‘I’m the one who pulled the trigger,’ Luke reminded him. ‘I don’t want to answer any lawman’s questions. Suspicion can fall on anyone. No sense asking for it.’
‘I think you’re wrong, Luke. We can all testify to the fact that you did nothing wrong.’
Can you testify to the fact that I did not kill Marshal Stoddard back in Tucson? No you can’t because I am guilty of it. Luke smiled. ‘I say we let the marshal do his own job, and we just get out of town.’
Billy was silent for a minute. Then he said, ‘Luke, I have to disagree with you. I generally value your advice, but I have to tell you that I think you’re dead wrong this time. We have to keep those murderous thugs away from the girls – and putting them in the marshal’s jailhouse is the best way to do that.’
‘You do what you conscience dictates,’ Luke replied, his eyes searching the streets of the small town, looking for nothing, no one. ‘I won’t stand in your way.’
‘It’s the right thing, Luke,’ Billy said.
It might have been the right thing for everyone else, but not for Luke Walsh. After discovering Marshal Stoddard’s body in Dee Dee’s room, any lawman worth his salt would have found out that Dee Dee Blight’s ‘lover’ had quickly left town. Someone working in the hotel would have provided him with Luke’s name – he had never kept it a secret. At the least, he figured, there would be fliers out with his name on them as being ‘sought for questioning’, the phrase they traditionally used on such bills.
Then, whether they managed to get Dee Dee to open up or not, which was highly unlikely, Luke thought, with Sly and Boston in custody any questioning of them would uncover the fact that Luke Walsh had indeed been at the outlaw hideout on Gun Hill. Those two would give up that information happily, pleased to drag Luke down with them, perhaps even to the point of claiming he was a member of their gang.
As to the deaths of Dan Cummings and Earl Gross, why, that could be painted by some clever attorney as a falling-out among thieves if Luke had indeed been a part of that gang. They could claim that Luke felt he had been cut out of the pay-off and wanted the shares that Cummings and Gross were carrying. A jury could be bent to believe all of that if it was fashioned skillfully by a smooth prosecutor.
Standing in the darkness, Luke had the sudden urge to walk to the stable and find out what condition the buckskin horse was in before riding out once again on to the desert and leaving all of this, even Susan, behind. He felt like a man slowly walking the last mile to hell.
Life on Gun Hill hadn’t been that terrible after all. Up the street, he saw Billy Rafferty entering the town marshal’s office. Luke glanced toward the upper story of the hotel, seeing a light burning in the window of the room that Dee Dee and Susan occupied. He thought he once caught a ripple of feminine laughter from there, but could not be sure above the gathering night-saloon noise.
He re-entered the hotel and climbed the stairs. Tick-Tock was still awake, but obviously sleepy. Luke said nothing as he retrieved his gunbelt and strapped it on. He recovered his Winchester and went out again before a puzzled Tick-Tock could ask a question. Then Luke crossed the street once again and made his way toward the stable opposite as sounds of the night-life continued to echo from uptown and the stars began to gleam against the dome of the cobalt sky.
ELEVEN
Luke Walsh rode the stubby buckskin horse out on to the desert as the night continued. When the lights of the town had faded from view, no longer casting a pale glow against the sky, he made a rough camp and unsaddled the horse. The horse was a good companion. It offered no recriminations, but accepted the fact that it was time for Luke to ride away from his heavy burdens.
Luke Walsh did not judge himself so lightly. There had been a chance, however slim, that he might have had Susan Rafferty. But what then? Was she to wait for him while he spent years in prison? Possibly it wouldn’t have mattered. They probably wouldn’t have waited for a trial in Tucson, but have hanged him on the spot. What a proud moment that would have been for her.
No, it was better this way. Let Virgil Sly and Boston Sears get whatever was coming to them. Luke wanted no part of it. He was once again an outlaw on the long desert with no future lying ahead of him. He thought again of returning to the Havasu Ranch, but why take his own trouble to the men there? Some of them, he was sure, would fight for him out of loyalty should a posse come tracking him. The Havasu boys did not deserve to be involved in trouble which was none of their making.
Kicking around to displace any snakes that might lie hidden in the sand, Luke shook out his blanket and settled to the rough ground to watch the lonesome stars and his own life pass before him.
His sleep was a troubled sleep. He engaged himself in arguments all the night long, and at dawn he rose tired and stiff, unsettled and devoid of purpose. He rose to saddle the buckskin, his joints creaking as he moved after his night on the cold desert floor. He was getting too old for this sort of living. His first thoughts were that he might have been too hasty in fleeing, but logic told him that he would have been inviting trouble by remaining in Crater.
What would Susan do now? The question nagged him. Would she travel to Tucson with Dee Dee, who seemed determined to return there? The image of Susan’s face, her fine, slender body, was vivid in his mind. He had thrown the saddle over the buckskin’s back but had not yet cinched down when he asked the mute, stolid creature:
‘What in hell should I do? Remain a coward roaming the desert, or see if there’s still a chance I can regain my direction, confidence and possibly even Susan Rafferty?’ The animal rolled its eyes, but like all of its kind, had no suggestion to offer. Almost angrily Luke cinched the saddle and swung aboard. He turned the animal’s head toward the south, retracing his ride of the night before.
He watched the sun rise to his left, slowly, almost reluctantly entering the skies. The sand began to gleam with morning light. He had to talk to Susan – at least to explain and apologize for running out on her. But before he had reached the outskirts of Crater he heard sounds that reminded him that on this morning the coach for Tucson was pulling out. A bullwhip cracked in the stillness of the morning. Harness creaked as it tightened itself behind the pull of a four-horse team, and the stagecoach rolled out of town heading west. Luke could not make out the passengers through the windows of the distant coach. But he had a burst of fear – or intuition – convincing him that Susan was aboard, and he would never see her lovely face again.
He turned the buckskin to follow after the coach. The road wound through a few scattered scrub oak trees and then faded away on to the flats beyond, stretching out in an arrow-straight line toward Tucson. The four-horse team pulling the coach under the capable hands of a skilled stage driver was rapidly drawing away from him.
He hated to do it, knowing that the little buckskin had already been abused, but he heeled the horse roughly, trying to get its best speed out of it. After a chase of a mile or so, Luke thought that he was gaining ground, but it was little enough. The stubby little buckskin was wearying, and it could not have ever been very fast.
Still he urged it on, riding bent over the withers, his hat brim flapping back in the wind. The road bent slightly to avoid a low knoll and Luke decided to cut the trail there to try gaining ground. Mentally apologizing to the struggling animal, he rode it roughly on, crested the knoll, looked ahead.…
