Torture of the Mountain Man Read online

  Slater’s entry into the store was announced by the jingle of a bell that was attached to the door. At the moment, Dolan seemed to be the only one in the store.

  “Why, Ed Slater,” Dolan said, looking up with a smile. “My oh my, it’s been a month o’ Sundays since you was last in here. It’s good to see you back. The missus and I were talking about you just the other day. ’What happened to our good friend Ed Slater?’ she asked. I told her you were just traveling around but that I was sure you would come back soon. Ma!” Dolan called. “Ma, look who has come to see us!”

  “Eddie!” a short, stout, white-haired lady said coming from the back of the store. She had a broad smile on her face, and she opened her arms to pull him into an embrace. “Have you come to stay with us some more? Because if you have, your room is still in the back, just the way you left it.”

  “No,” Slater said. “I haven’t come to stay.”

  “You haven’t? Well, that’s too bad,” Dolan said. “We so enjoyed having you here. I’m glad the prison warden sent you to us to work out your last six months of probation. Why, it was almost like you were part of the family. You will have dinner with us, though, won’t you?” Dolan looked over at his wife. “I’ll just bet that Betty Ann would be willing to make a peach pie, wouldn’t you?”

  “Of course I will,” Betty Ann said. “I remember how much Eddie liked my peach pies.”

  “I won’t be here for dinner,” Slater said.

  “Well, I am glad that you stopped by to pay us a visit. But if you haven’t come to stay with us, and you can’t even stay for dinner, what does bring you to Fort Worth?” Betty Ann asked.

  “Money,” Slater replied.

  Dolan laughed. “Money? Oh, you mean you have found a job here, in Ft. Worth? Why, that’s wonderful. Look, while you’re getting on your feet with your new job, why not stay here, with us?”

  Slater drew his pistol, cocked it, and pointed it at Mrs. Dolan.

  “Like I said, money. Empty out your cash drawer if you don’t want to see this old woman shot.”

  The smile left Dolan’s face to be replaced by a look of shock and fear. “Ed, what are you doing? If this is a joke, I’m afraid I don’t find it very funny.”

  Slater shot Betty Ann Dolan in the leg, and she screamed.

  “Does that look like it’s a joke? The money, Dolan, give me the money!” Slater demanded.

  “All right, all right, here it is!” Dolan said, emptying the cash drawer. “I don’t understand this. I thought we were friends! You were like a son to us!”

  “I had one old man that I couldn’t stand, I sure as hell don’t need another one,” Slater said. He raised the pistol and pulled the trigger, shooting Dolan right between the eyes.

  Betty Ann Dolan’s cries of pain turned to screams of horror when she saw her husband shot.

  “Dan! Dan!” she shouted at the lifeless form of her husband. “Eddie, what have you done?”

  The next shot ended her cries as she, too, took a bullet to the head. Slater counted the money, forty-seven dollars and eighty-one cents, and stuck it in his pocket as he left the store. There was no one in sight, and no one who had seen, or had even heard, the shooting.

  It was no more than half a mile from Dolan’s store to the depot.

  “I’d like a ticket to Weatherford,” Slater said, stepping up to the ticket counter.

  “Yes, sir, that’ll be two dollars and fifty cents,” the ticket agent said.

  “Is the train on time?”

  “Oh, indeed, it is, sir,” the ticket agent replied, proudly. “We just got a message that it departed Dallas on time. It should be here within half an hour.”

  Slater took a seat in the waiting room, confident that even if the bodies were discovered within the next half hour, he would be gone before the city police began looking for the killer.

  * * *

  Having reached Ft. Worth the day before, Smoke, Sally, Pearlie, and Cal spent the night at the Live Oaks Ranch. Big Ben’s foreman, Clay Ramsey, brought them back to the depot in the big barouche. Tamara had come with them, and she was riding between Pearlie and Cal.

  “My goodness, Tamara, it looks to me like you have two beaus after you,” Sally teased.

  “Yes, and you’re going to have to choose one of us, but be careful when you make your choice, because I’m the kind that gets very jealous,” Pearlie said.

  “Oh, but how can I choose between two such handsome men?” Tamara replied, going along with the banter.

  Smoke laughed. “Artfully dodged. I’d say that Tamara is already learning the wiles of being a young woman.”

  “So it would appear,” Sally agreed.

  “From what I remember, and what I have seen since she came back, I would say that Tamara is going to choose Billy Lewis,” Clay said, and Tamara blushed.

  “Ah ha! Now I really am jealous,” Pearlie said.

  “Are you enjoying your time here with the Conyers family?” Sally asked.

  “Oh, yes, ma’am, I’m enjoying it very much. They are such nice people, and they are treating me ever so well.”

  “Good, I thought that would be the case. But please know, Tamara, that whatever you might need, at any point in your life, Smoke and I will always be here for you.”

  “You have already been there for me,” Tamara said, reaching over to take Sally’s hand.

  The train was pulling into the station just as Smoke and the others arrived. They were already ticketed through to Weatherford, and their luggage had shipped ahead the day before. Because of that, it wasn’t even necessary for them to go into the depot, so, bidding good-bye to Tamara and Clay, they stepped down from the carriage and onto the train.

  As they boarded the train, they saw a very pretty and unaccompanied young woman sitting in the first seat. Pearlie smiled at her and, showing a flash of embarrassment, the young woman returned the smile.

  The four moved halfway back in the car, then Pearlie and Cal took the backward facing seats just across from Smoke and Sally. This position afforded Pearlie and Cal a clear view of the attractive young woman.

  “Oh, my, Pearlie, I think she likes you,” Cal teased, once they took their seats.

  “How can she not like me? She was just taken by my irresistible charm,” Pearlie replied. “Also, I’m a lot better looking than you are.”

  “To say nothing of your humble demeanor,” Sally teased.

  Pearlie was still looking at the young woman when the last passenger boarded. He didn’t have a beard, as such, but he did have what looked like about a ten-day stubble. His hair was disheveled, and he looked as if he hadn’t bathed or changed clothes in a while. He took a seat right across the aisle from the young woman.

  “Look at that,” Pearlie said. “There are empty seats all through the car, and he chose to sit right across from her.”

  “Well, can you blame him? She’s a pretty girl,” Cal said.

  “Yes, she is,” Pearlie agreed

  Shortly after the train got underway, Pearlie saw that the man was talking to the woman, though because he was halfway back in the car, he was unable to hear what the man was saying.

  * * *

  “Say, darlin’, why don’t you come over here ’n sit with me? As long as we’re together on this train, why, we may as well get to know each other. My name is Ed Slater. What’s your name?”

  “Thank you, no, I’m quite comfortable where I am.”

  “What’s your name?”

  The young woman didn’t answer.

  “I give you my name, it’s only decent that you give me your name. How are we goin’ to become friends, iffen you don’t tell me your name?”

  “Please, sir . . .”

  “It’s Slater. But you can call me Ed.”

  “Please, Mr. Slater, I would rather not make friends with strangers on the train.”

  “Well see there, that’s what I’m gettin’ at. I done told you my name and iffen you was to tell me your name, why, we wouldn’t be strangers
no more.”

  “Excuse me, I think it would be better if I moved up to the next car,” the young woman said as she stood.

  Slater reached out for her, but she pulled her arm away from him.

  * * *

  Pearlie was not close enough to overhear the conversation between the two, but he could tell from the way the young woman was reacting to the man, that she had neither solicited the interest nor appreciated it. Then she stood up and Pearlie saw her move her arm, sharply, to avoid his reach. The young woman stepped through the front door of the car, and the man went after her.

  Pearlie stood.

  “Where are you goin’?” Cal asked.

  “Maybe to save a damsel in distress,” Pearlie replied, heading quickly toward the rear door of the car.

  When Pearlie stepped out onto the connecting platform he could feel the vibration of the car through his feet. Out here, the noise of the train was much louder because it was not muted by the walls of the passenger car. Here, too, he could see the track ballast flashing by, quickly.

  Pearlie had thought to follow them into the next car to see if the man was still bothering the young woman, but he didn’t have to go any farther than the connection between the cars. The man had pushed the young woman up against the railing.

  “Please, let me be!” the woman cried out, her voice high-pitched with fear.

  “One little kiss,” the man said. “One little kiss and I’ll let you go.”

  The young woman saw Pearlie and, with her eyes, pleaded for help. The sound of the train was loud enough so that Slater had not heard Pearlie step out from the car, and because his back was to him, he hadn’t seen him.

  Pearlie reached up, and grabbing Slater by his shoulder, jerked him away from the girl and spun him around.

  “What? Who the hell are you?”

  “I’m the trash collector,” Pearlie said.

  Grabbing him by his belt and the top of his shirt, Pearlie tossed the man off the train. The man fell, then rolled away from the track, and Pearlie watched as he got up then held up his fist in anger. Pearlie could tell that he was yelling something, but he couldn’t hear it.

  “Oh! Did you kill him?” the young woman asked.

  “No, come over here and take a look,” Pearlie invited.

  The young woman accepted the invitation, then when she saw that Slater wasn’t injured, she laughed.

  “I know it is awful of me to laugh about it,” she said. “But it is funny.”

  “If you’re all right, I’ll rejoin my friends,” Pearlie said.

  “Would you like to . . . that is, if... well, I would feel a lot safer if you would sit with me for a while.”

  “Where are you going?” Pearlie asked.

  “I’m going to Santa Fe.”

  Pearlie smiled. “I’m only going as far as Weatherford, but I would be happy to sit with you until then. My name is Pearlie.”

  “Pearlie?”

  “That’s what all my friends call me.”

  “Well, after what you just did for me, I consider you my friend, Pearlie. My name is Jill. Jill Castle.”

  Pearlie smiled, and dipped his head, slightly. “It’s very nice to meet you, Miss Castle.”

  “My friends call me Jill,” she said.

  Returning to the car Pearlie stepped to one side so Jill could regain her seat. Once she was seated, he took his seat beside her.

  * * *

  Cal laughed.

  “What is it?” Sally asked.

  “Pearlie said he was going to rescue a damsel in destress, and doggone if if doesn’t look like he did just that.”

  Because Smoke and Sally were facing the front of the car, neither of them had noticed the exchange between the girl and the man who had been in the seat across the aisle from her. Sally turned now to see what Cal was talking about.

  “Oh, my,” Sally said. “What a pretty young lady. Pearlie does seem to be doing all right for himself, doesn’t he?”

  “Yes, ma’am, he does at that,” Cal said. “The lucky so-and-so.”

  “It looks to me like Pearlie may have made his own luck,” Smoke said.

  “Well, never let it be said that Pearlie is one to spurn an opportunity,” Sally added.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  With a few bruises and superficial cuts, Slater dusted himself off, then left the tracks and stepped out onto the dirt road that ran parallel with the railroad. He began walking west, toward the town of Weatherford, continuing on foot the trip that he had started by train.

  “I’ll kill that son of a bitch if I ever see him again,” he muttered. But even as he spoke the words, he realized that he wouldn’t even recognize the person if he ever saw him again. It had all happened so fast that he was not able to get a good look at whoever it was that threw him from the train.

  Before Slater took the train to Ft. Worth the day before, he had boarded his horse in Weatherford. Now he was afoot, with at least twenty miles to go.

  “I’ll kill him,” he said again. “I’ll kill him the moment I see him.”

  Slater had a moment of concern. Had he lost his gun when he was thrown from the train? He reached down to his holster and wrapped his hand carefully around the handle. Good, it was still there.

  “I’ll kill the son of a bitch,” he repeated, pulling the pistol up, slightly, and letting it fall back into the holster. “The moment I see him.”

  * * *

  “So, you’re going to Santa Fe to be a schoolteacher, are you?” Pearlie asked the young lady he was sitting beside. “Miss Sally is a schoolteacher.”

  “Miss Sally?” Jill asked.

  “She’s married to Smoke Jensen, and Smoke is my boss. That’s them up there.”

  He pointed, and Cal, who was watching intently, smiled and waved.

  Jill waved back. “And who is that?”

  “Oh, that’s a sad story,” Pearlie said. “I’m glad you waved at him. He’s a pitiful case. He was kicked in the head by a mule about a year ago and he hasn’t been the same since.” Pearlie made a circle with his finger at his temple. “He’s a little slow, now.”

  “Oh, the poor thing,” Jill said, and she looked at Cal again, this time with an expression of pity on her face.

  Cal frowned, surprised by the look on her face.

  “Why did he frown?”

  “Pay him no mind,” Pearlie said. “Remember, he’s not quite right in the head.”

  “Oh, bless his heart.”

  “Let’s not talk about him anymore,” Pearlie said.

  “Cal is my friend, and I don’t want to embarrass him.”

  “How sweet of you,” Jill said. “You said you worked for the gentleman who is married to the schoolteacher. What sort of work do you do?”

  “Smoke owns a big ranch in Colorado, one of the biggest, in fact. And I’m his foreman.”

  “Oh, what a responsible job. And I’m sure you are very good at it,” she added, the broad smile showing her dimples.

  For the next hour Pearlie enjoyed his conversation with the attractive young woman, who, he learned, was from Austin, Texas, the daughter of a lawyer. Their visit was interrupted when the conductor came through the car.

  “Weatherford!” the conductor called as he passed through the car. “Folks, this is Weatherford. Don’t leave the train unless you are supposed to be getting off here, because we won’t be standing in the station for no longer than five minutes.”

  Pearlie turned to the young woman with her. “This is where I get off,” he said.

  Pearlie stood, then as Smoke, Sally, and Cal passed by, he introduced them. “Smoke, Miss Sally, this is Jill Castle. She’s going to be a schoolteacher in Santa Fe.”

  “Oh, how delightful,” Sally said.

  “Pearlie said you were a schoolteacher,” Jill said.

  “I was. It is a wonderful and most rewarding profession.”

  “I’m Cal,” Cal said with a smile.

  Jill took Cal’s hand in hers, then put her other hand on top. �
��You have a very good friend in Pearlie,” she said. “You don’t have a thing to worry about. I’m sure that, in time, everything will be just fine.”

  Cal got a very confused look on his face. “Everything will be fine?”

  “Yes, I just know it will,” Jill said enthusiastically.

  “Come on, Cal, the conductor said we were only going to be here for about five minutes,” Pearlie said, hurrying him out of the car. Looking back at Jill, he shook his head sadly, and Jill nodded, to show that she understood.

  “Pearlie, what did she mean when she said that I didn’t have anything to worry about, that everything would be fine?” Cal asked.

  “Oh, she was just a very nice young lady who wanted to make you feel better.”

  “Feel better?”

  “Yes, you know, after you were made a little daft by being kicked in the head by a mule,” Pearlie added with a chuckle.

  “What? What did you tell her?”

  “I told her you were my friend, and I promised that I would look out for you,” Pearlie said.

  Cal looked back at the train, which was just now leaving the station. “Hey!” he shouted. “Jill! I’m not crazy!”

  “For heaven’s sake, Cal, don’t you think standing here, shouting at a moving train that you aren’t crazy, is little crazy?” Sally asked with a laugh.

  “I’ll get even,” Cal promised.

  “Let’s see about the stagecoach to Audubon,” Smoke suggested, after they retrieved their luggage.

  Right across the street from the depot was the depot for the Risher and Hall Stage Coach Lines. Smoke learned, upon inquiring, that they had a daily coach that ran to Audubon. He bought four tickets.

  “You’ll be the only passengers,” the ticket agent said. “So you should have quite a comfortable ride. And, you’ll be there just in time for supper.”

  “Hey, Pearlie, it’s too bad Jill didn’t leave the train here,” Cal said. “We could take her in the coach with us, and you could have taken her to dinner tonight. You and Jill could have gotten a table all by yourselves. Pearlie and Jill, all alone. Jill and Pearlie, Pearlie and Jill,” Cal said in a teasing, singsong voice.