Six Ways from Sunday, page 7
Lugar, he nodded at Arnold, who avalanched off his nag since he couldn’t get down graceful, and waited for them dogs to come in on him. They sure enough did. First was a big brown one with a square jaw, snappin’ at Arnold. He just ignored them dog teeth and grabbed that mutt and snapped its neck. It quivered once and quit livin’. Arnold waited for the second, a liver-spotted white hound that come streaking in on him. This one he booted quicklike with them hobnails and sent that mutt flyin’. When it landed, Arnold whacked its head with his fist and it just quit right there. The third, a big black with wolf teeth chopping and smacking, came after Arnold hard, and Arnold let him sail past, grabbed it by the tail, lifted that thing up, and whirled him around and flung him good. That there black, it landed in a heap and didn’t get up. So much for them dogs. Arnold, he just clambered up on that sore old horse and kicked its ribs in. Them three thugs, Garfield, Arthur, and Cleveland, they was snickering pretty good. I was sort of wishing Arnold had done it to them, and not those good dogs.
It was uncommon quiet again, but we pushed on toward the mine, up some steep grade until we topped a flat and could look across to where the Hermit was sittin’ against the mountain. It sure was quiet there. Maybe them miners had pulled out, got the message and was two counties away by now.
We went a little farther, but then Lugar, he called a halt.
“All yours, Glan,” he said.
Glan nodded, stepped down from that good horse, pulled his extra-long-barrel Sharps out of its sheath, adjusted the sights, and settled himself behind an old log that would make a bench rest. He wasn’t in the fancy-standup-shooting business. If he could shoot more accurate with his barrel resting on something solid, he’d do ’er.
Me, I didn’t like none of this here stuff.
“You gonna go in and tell ’em to get out?” I asked Lugar.
“You done that already,” he said.
“Yeah, but we need to tell ’em to load up and git.”
Lugar sighed. “Who are you? Scruples?” he asked.
I seen how it would be. But there wasn’t a thing I could do about her now. It was all in motion and I was just a watcher of whatever was gonna happen.
We were sittin’ there some while. There was a nice breeze that morning. I watched a monarch butterfly flit around that meadow and then disappear somewhere. It was collecting its dinner, I imagine. Some crows were scouting us, and anyone alert to the world could read them crows and know something was riling them up. Critter, he was nipping grass and getting it all mired up in his bit.
Then at last there was movement up there. I saw that little dark-haired brat of a boy come trippin’ out of the shack, and almost dance because he got loose of his schoolin’. Then I saw Glan steady that Sharps, and I tried to stop him.
“That’s the boy,” I said. “Let him go.”
But Glan just eyed me like I was a dead fish, sighted down that rifle, and squeezed.
That boy, he collapsed like a sack of potatoes, squirmed once, and lay still. That there shot echoed up into the rock and sent the crows to squawking.
“No!” I yelled.
The boy’s ma tumbled out of that shack, screaming, runnin’ toward the boy, yankin’ her skirts up, and then Glan, he shoots her, too. I could see that one better. That bullet turned her face pure red, and she fell acrost that boy and lay there quiet. It was awful quiet.
Nothing more happened.
Lugar came over to me. “Anyone else in those shacks when you was there?”
I shook my head. I just wanted to get on board Critter and cut loose, but there’d be a bullet in my back if I did.
Arnold, he got down on all fours and puked. There he was, the roughest in that crowd, heaving up his guts into the grass. Dogs he could deal with; a woman and a child, that was what emptied his gut. I swallowed back my bile, because I was almost there, too.
After a while Lugar nodded, and the bunch moved up to the mine buildings. That woman and boy, they just lay there, covered with big black flies and a lot of red. There was nothin’ else to see. The men, they must have been deep in that hole in the side of the cliff.
“Seal it,” Lugar said. He nodded to them thugs of his, and they carried the dead woman and her boy into the hole a ways and left them there. Then the one called Garfield, he finds the powder magazine off a piece, and gets some sticks of DuPont, and some fuse and a copper cap, and he makes some charges. He must have worked some in Butte, because he knew what to do with powder. It’s a big job, and he makes about three charges that he sets up in the mouth of that mine, with long fuses, and then he motions us to get away and lights them fuses. We hurry down the slope to where we were, and that’s when them charges go off and the mouth of the mine vanishes in rubble. There’s no one left around there.
“Clean out the shacks,” Lugar said. So we go up there and throw clothing and food down the two-holer and freed a mule from its pen and let it wander. Pretty quick, it looked like miners just quit and took off. Transactions, Incorporated, had itself another mine. It was all peaceful there, with no one in sight, and any miners back in that shaft trapped behind a wall of rubble. I saw that old monarch butterfly flit by, lookin’ for dinner.
I wasn’t feeling good. I’d get to spend the night with Amanda now, but I didn’t feel like it. I wished Amanda would just get out of that valley so I’d never see her again. We rode back to the bunkhouse real quiet, and Lugar, he went into the Pullman Palace Car to report to Scruples, and we didn’t see him for a long time. No one felt like eating. I didn’t think I’d eat for a week. It was a real quiet afternoon. I couldn’t take the bunkhouse no more, so I hiked off a way and lay down in some clean grass and stared at the sky.
Tomorrow they’d go after Agnes Cork. Glan would kill him, too, easy as shooting a deer.
I didn’t want to go into that bunkhouse, so I just settled there in the grass away from the railroad car and watched the dusk thicken. Sometime I’d have to go into that bunkhouse. I had to go feed Critter, too. But I just couldn’t do it.
I got to hearin’ something like a drumbeat, a steady thump, thump, thump that seemed to come from below somewhere, and then that drumbeat came closer and got louder, and I couldn’t make no sense of it. It sounded like some funeral, that steady, mournful beat of a bass drum. I watched as men poured out of the bunkhouse to see what was happenin’. Glan, he picked up his rifle and sidled away, and the rest, they went for their weapons. And that thumpin’, it just got louder. Something real bad was happenin’ and I sure didn’t know what. I checked my Baby Dragoon, which I still wore, and waited.
Then I saw something strange. Six men were carrying something big and flat, and on it was something. And behind was a crowd, and someone in that crowd had him a bass drum strung to his shoulders and he was hammerin’ soft and steady.
Lugar, he shouted a few orders, and pretty soon all them in the bunkhouse was spread across the path in a loose line—the thugs with their scatterguns; Arnold, clenching his meaty fists; the little killer called The Apocalypse, makin’ himself small in a corner near the Palace Car; and Lugar himself, out front with a pair of revolvers slung from his hips.
And still the drummin’ came along, and now I saw what it was comin’ in there. It was them six miners from the Hermit Mine, and on their shoulders was a big door torn off its hinges, and on that big plank door was them two bodies, the woman and the boy, lyin’ there for all to see. And half of Swamp Creek was walkin’ behind.
I thought maybe my life was about over, and I lay lower in the grass above, where no one would see me. But them miners weren’t armed, and no one in that crowd of people from Swamp Creek was armed. They was all comin’ to lay the blame where it belonged.
The miners, they just kept comin’ along, closer to the line of fighting men Lugar had thrown across their path. And that drum just kept on beating, like a heartbeat, and no one stopped or even slowed, even with them shotgun bores pointed straight at the miners.
That was the same bunch as stomped my face in and broke my ribs, so I wasn’t feelin’ very quiet while all this was happening. I remembered them hobnailed boots and ham fists hitting on me. But now they weren’t looking for a brawl.
They’d laid the woman and boy out on the board, carefully folding the hands across the chests. But the blood was there, and the clothing was the same as when they was shot so sudden. I glanced at the Pullman car in time to see Amanda and Scruples peer out, and then suddenly drop the velvet curtain across the windows. They’d seen what they wanted and weren’t going to look no more.
And still, the marchers came on. I hoped Lugar had some sense. There wasn’t a one in that crowd that was armed, far as I could see. But who could say what a bunch like that would do? The miners carrying the door came on, straight toward the Palace Car, ignorin’ those shotguns and revolvers. It was plain that they’d got themselves out of the mine, and brought the woman and boy with them, and it was plain they knew where to come. But what might happen next, I sure didn’t know.
Chapter Ten
Lugar, he showed some sense. Them miners carrying the dead woman and boy, they just kept on a comin’, with the crowd and that drummer behind. At the last moment, Lugar motioned them thugs to hold off and collect around the metal steps of the rail car. So that bunch of Swamp Creek people just swarmed in, with that drum hammering like a heartbeat. I don’t know as I ever saw anything like it.
Them six that carried the door must’ve been down in the Hermit Mine when they got sealed in, and now they was out and paradin’ two dead people. They got there to the railroad car and lowered the door to the ground. They hadn’t done nothing to wash up them two, and the clothing was soaked with dried-up blood. People was collectin’ there, lookin’ down on the woman and boy, and I sure didn’t know what would come next.
Then Carter Scruples, he walks out on that platform, and if it was quiet before, it got a lot quieter now. He stared at the two dead, and at the miners, and they stared back at him, knives in their gazes.
“This is a great tragedy. I don’t know why you brought them here. Something bad happened, and I share your sorrow,” he said.
Them miners, they didn’t quit staring. I sure didn’t know what to expect.
Then Amanda Trouville shows up on the platform, too. She’s got a shawl and put it over her hair and wrapped it over her shoulders. She peered down at the woman and boy on the door, and clutched Scruples, and sighed softly.
“Someone’s wife and son,” she said. “This is a sad day. I’d like to pay for their burials if you’d let me.”
No one said nothing.
She sure looked pretty, all soft and tender, with that lace over her head.
All them thugs was collected at the foot of the platform, makin’ a wall between the crowd and her and Scruples.
“May God watch over them both,” she said.
I don’t think she or Scruples wanted anything bad like that to happen, and now they were feelin’ bad about it. But who could say? Not long ago, they was tellin’ me they was confidence men. But they sure looked sad, standin’ there in that quiet.
Scruples, he dug into his pants and pulled out some coin. “Here’s two double eagles to see them buried,” he said. “Maybe the whole town should take up a collection, and I’d like to get it started. This is a loss for all of Swamp Creek.”
No one of the miners stepped up to take the proffered gold coins. So Amanda, she got them coins and stepped down off the rail car and laid the coins on that door, right between that mother and her boy. Then she slowly retreated back to the platform, and into her railroad car.
Nothing much happened for a while. That crowd, it didn’t know what to do. But finally, them miners got in position and lifted the door carrying the dead, and walked quietly down the slope and into Swamp Creek, while the crowd drifted along behind. It was over, whatever it was.
I peered around from up there on the hill. Glan, he was at the barn, his rifle out, his good horse saddled. He’d been ready to get the hell outta there. Now he was stuffing that Sharps back into its sheath.
From where I was, I could see that crowd drifting into Swamp Creek. They all were heading for the Mint Saloon, and pretty soon them miners carried the dead right in there. I knew it wasn’t over. That whole crowd could turn itself into a lynch mob in no time at all. A drink or two would do it. And then they’d march back up the hill, with some coils of hemp in hand.
I hadn’t done any shooting of a boy and a woman, but I shore felt like I had. I lay there in the grass, knowin’ something had changed in me. I’d gotten tied up with the wrong outfit. I ain’t very smart, but I knew enough to stay outa trouble. But now I was in trouble. Just bein’ with this bunch was the biggest mistake I ever made. I wasn’t no killer of women and boys. And this business of jumpin’ claims and takin’ over mines that this outfit had no right to, it bothered me real bad.
Them thugs, they’d gone back into the bunkhouse, except for The Apocalypse, who hung around lookin’ for someone to kill. I headed for the barn and threw a saddle over Critter, who kicked at me because I’d been ignoring him. I went into the bunkhouse, where most of them boys was stretched out on the bunks, not sayin’ much. I threw my truck into my war bag and started out the door.
“Where you goin’ with that?” Lugar asked.
“I’m puttin’ it on my saddle,” I said.
“You quitting me?”
“I am.”
“No, you aren’t.”
“I’m going to the railroad car,” I said.
Lugar followed me around. He watched me tie my truck behind the cantle, and head over to the Pullman Palace Car, like he was gonna keep me there if he felt like it. He wasn’t gonna do it because I would shoot the son of a bitch if he tried.
I walked right up them metal steps and knocked on the door.
Scruples eyed me through the drapes and opened a crack.
“Quitting,” I said.
“You can’t. You’ve made a contract, and you owe us for a month’s board, horse feed, and that revolver.”
“I haven’t seen a thin dime,” I said.
Amanda, she appeared at the door. “Cotton, you come back in an hour, and I’ll enjoy your company.”
That still made me weak in the knees. She stood there, still in that lace shawl, and I was some smitten all over. But it just didn’t work no more. I couldn’t be spending time with her and thinkin’ about that dead woman and boy. I just couldn’t be takin’ my pleasure with her, not ever.
“Bye, Amanda,” I said.
Scruples smiled. “Leave the revolver,” he said.
“That’s mine; I earned it.”
“Our mistake,” Scruples said, and shut the door in my face.
I was their mistake, all right. Lugar, he heard it all and didn’t stop me. I drifted out to the barn in the gathering dusk and climbed onto Critter, who shivered under me. Critter, he always knows when something’s up.
“Horse should be shot,” Lugar said.
I eased out of there, fearful that the straw boss would backshoot me, but he didn’t. Scruples thought he’d made a mistake hirin’ me, and he had, and Lugar knew it. So I let Critter ease himself down that road, until my itchy feelin’ left me, and I came down into Swamp Creek, which was quiet but not peaceful. It seemed like the quiet before a thunderstorm to me. I knew I’d not be welcome in town, and might get myself strung up, so I eased through there as quiet as I could, all the while wonderin’ where to go. Damned if I knew. I didn’t have a dime to my name.
And then I knew. I’d ride out to Joseph St. Agnes Cork. He’d spare me some flapjacks. And maybe I could tell him a thing or two about what would be coming his way.
And then, right there in Swamp Creek, with people starin’ at me as I steered Critter through the twilight, I knew what was about to happen. I was switchin’ sides. I’d try to keep Glan from pumping a bullet into Aggie Cork, for starters, and after that I’d see what I could do to get that Pullman Palace Car outfit clear out of Swamp Creek before anyone else got hurt or busted.
It shore felt good. But feelin’ good didn’t make it any better. I’d likely end up six feet under. But a feller had to do what he had to do, and switchin’ sides was what I had to do. I’d left Scruples and Amanda with nothin’ more in mind than getting away, but now I was comin’ around to the rest of it.
That is, if anyone wanted me. I didn’t think that them miners would have much use for me, seein’ as how I was working for Transactions, Incorporated, until then.
“Dammit, Cotton,” I said to myself. “You sure stepped into the dog doo now.”
Critter, he responded with a long loud fart. That was his biggest compliment. I hadn’t heard him cut loose one of them for a long time. We jogged past them big mines, the Fat Tuesday and the Big Mother, which was workin’ two shifts steady, and made a lot of noise night and day, and pretty soon we was out in the country, with the stars beginning to pop up and the smell of pines drifted down off the mountains. There was still a lantern lit here and there, a bunch more mines, but we kept on goin’. Cork’s mine was pretty near the last one in that long string of ’em up and down Swamp Creek Valley. It was a right pretty evening, and I was lookin’ ahead to a good visit with Aggie, providing I didn’t get shot at first. You never knew about them old bachelor miners. One moment they’re fine; next moment they’re pumping lead at you.
I cussed myself for switching sides. Dumbest thing I’d ever done. I knew I wasn’t born too smart. And now I was going to prove it once again. That bunch there, Glan and The Apocalypse, and that brawling brute Arnold, they could turn me into worm-bait in about one minute. And me with nothing but an old Baby Dragoon bouncing on my hip. By the time I pulled the trigger, and the cap blew into the nipple and ignited the charge in the cylinder, and that load took fire and pumped a ball out the end, they’d have about six rounds in me. About all a Baby Dragoon was good for was holding up banks.
I got to the turnoff. I think it was anyway. Nothing looks the same in the dark. But it was as good a turnoff as any, and there was woods ahead, like I remembered, so I steered Critter in there and he about had fits he was so happy. Of course I didn’t know how I was gonna tell old Aggie Cork I was there, but I settled on shouting some, and after he shot at me a couple of times he might listen.
