Rattlesnake Wells, Wyoming Read online

  Bob’s grin turned into a thoughtful scowl. “Normally, that’s exactly what I’d do. For a good long soak. But I’ve already got one bad hombre behind bars and, even though we have a second cell, I’d as soon not give the two poisons a chance to mingle.”

  “You gonna just run their asses out of town, then?”

  “That’s what I’m thinking, yeah.”

  Iverson looked up from where he and Pepper were huddled together, sudden concern crowding out some of the pain showing on his face. “What about my hand? You’re gonna give me a chance to see the doctor, ain’t you? You was gonna do as much for that lousy little whore.”

  Bob’s scowl deepened. “You know, I just might have allowed that . . . if you hadn’t opened your stupid, evil mouth. Thanks for reminding me what a worthless piece of crud you are and how you don’t deserve one damn ounce of consideration.”

  “But my fingers are shot off and—”

  “Shut up. I’ll get back to you in a minute. Any more bellyaching out of you, I promise I’ll add to your misery.”

  Pepper glared at him. “You’re a mighty hard man, Marshal.”

  “You should have thought of that before you decided to go tangleways of me. I’d advise you to stow it, too.” Turning to the Macy brothers, Bob said, “Vern, Peter, do either of you know where the doctor’s office is down in Old Town?”

  Peter shook his head. “No, but we can figure it out.” Tipping his head, he indicated the amount of activity stirring farther down Gold Avenue as a result of his uncle’s rifle shot. “Looks like there’ll be plenty of fellas along the way we can ask if need be.”

  “Good. You do that,” Bob said. “I want the two of you to take this cart—you can see there’s an injured young girl in it—and go find the doc. His name is Tibbs. Tell him I sent you. Tell him I found this girl unconscious and half-buried in the wreckage left behind by the raiders. He’ll know what to do from there. You got that?”

  “Yes sir,” said Peter and Vern in near perfect unison.

  “Tell the doc I’ll be along in a little bit. You fellas wait there. Your uncle will be showing up with me.”

  “What about me?” asked Lee.

  “I want you to go along with your brothers. I’m counting on you,” Bob said earnestly, “to make sure they don’t tarry along the way and get stuck answering questions and such by all those nosy men who’ll be trying to slow them down on the way. Can you do that?”

  “You bet! I’ll tell ’em there’s a hurt girl and they better clear the way because it could be a life-or-death emergency.”

  “That’s exactly right,” said Bob approvingly. “Now hop to it, all three of you. See to it that girl gets taken care of.”

  Once the Macy boys had headed off on their mission, Bob turned back to the pimps.

  “So that’s it?” said Iverson. “You ran the youngsters off so they couldn’t see what a cruel sonofabitch their big hero marshal really is?”

  Bob took a step toward him. “Did I tell you you could say anything yet?”

  Still on his knees, Iverson cringed, leaning back against an ashen-faced Pepper for support.

  Bob halted in his advance on the two men. He looked sideways at Pardee. “He’s right about me sending away the boys because I’d as soon they didn’t see this part. What I’m about to do may seem a mite harsh. If you’d rather not be part of it, either, I’ll understand.”

  Pardee met Bob’s look with a flinty gaze of his own. “When I back a man, I back him all the way. Get on with it.”

  Bob nodded an acknowledgment without further comment. He looked away from Pardee, set his gaze beyond the two pimps, and called out, “Whoever’s in those wagons get out here! You women! I know you’re there. Get on out here, and make it pronto. And you better not have a notion to try anything funny or it will go bad on your men . . . and you as well.”

  “Do what he says!” Pepper was quick to add. “Don’t try anything foolish. Just get out here and be quick about it!”

  At the urging of the men, five women came piling out of the wagons—three out of one, two out of the other. All had shawls over their shoulders but were wearing short, flimsy gowns that left their legs and feet bare. The five included two plumpish blondes, the redhead who’d poked her head out briefly a few minutes back, a slat-thin brunette, and a tall Negress with the emptiest, weariest-looking eyes Bob had ever seen. The women shuffled listlessly forward until they crowded together behind their pimps.

  “What’s this all about?” said the redhead. “Why you shooting up our men?”

  “It’s the least they deserve,” Bob told her. “Calling that pair of varmints men is a bigger insult than you can probably imagine.”

  The redhead’s mouth curved into a lewd smile. “Oh, I can imagine a lot of things, Mr. Marshal. Come on back to one of those wagons with me and I’ll show you. I’ll let my imagination run plumb wild.”

  “Knock it off, Marvelle. This is serious,” Pepper growled over his shoulder then cut his anxious gaze toward Bob. “So what are you gonna do with us? Let’s get it over with.”

  “You already heard it. It’s real simple,” Bob said. “You’re leaving town. Right now. Tonight.”

  “You’re really gonna do that without givin’ proper attention to Iron’s hand?”

  “When you were trying to get me to hand over the young girl to you and not bother taking her to the doctor,” Bob reminded him, “you kept assuring me you could take care of her just fine. Well, now you can do the same for your pet ape.”

  “What about Mee-Kee?” asked the redhead, showing a trace of genuine concern on her face. “Is she gonna be all right?”

  “Is that the Oriental girl’s name? Mee-Kee?” Bob asked.

  “It’s what we called her.”

  “Whether or not she’s gonna be all right, I can’t say. She’s been taken to our town doctor. He’s a good man and will bring her around if anybody can. But no matter. She’s not going anywhere again with you and your so-called men.”

  “On top of the cruelty you’re showing Iron, that’s flat-out robbery!” Pepper protested. “I paid good money for that Chink whore.”

  “That’s your tough luck,” Bob said. “What’s more, I’ll put this to the rest of your women. Do you any of you want to make the break from these two and stay behind in Rattlesnake Wells? If so, I’ll give you a fair shot to try and make it on your own, however you can, as long as you obey the law, don’t force yourselves on those who ain’t interested, and otherwise cause no trouble.”

  Pepper glared furiously, hating Bob with his eyes. But he knew enough not to say anything.

  As for the women, their response to Bob’s offer was a mixture of mildly confused looks and totally blank stares. Finally, Marvelle, the redhead who seemed to be the senior member and spokesperson for the group, said, “That’s a real intriguing proposition, honey, but I’m afraid you’re laying it out about ten or twenty years too late. You see, gals like us have come to know our lot in life. Everything is behind us and not much is ahead, except continuing to get by on our backs. We stay here, we’d just end up the same, maybe worse. You ever hear the saying, Better the devil you know? With Pepper and Iron, we know we’ll be fed, we’ll have some kind of shelter over our heads, and we won’t be roughed up too much. So when they roll out, we’ll be stickin’ with ’em.”

  Bob hadn’t known exactly what to expect nor really what he was hoping for. He was glad he at least made the offer, but he was sort of relieved that none of the women took him up on it.

  To Pepper, he said, “That’s it, then. Commence to making ready to roll out. You came in those canopied wagons, I figure, so where are the horses or mules that pulled ’em?”

  “At the livery stable in Old Town. Horses, four of them,” answered Pepper in a strained voice. “I paid some up front, probably owe more by now.”

  “No need for you to go after them. I’ll square your bill with the liveryman, just to make sure you’ve got no excuses, and have the nags fetched
here to you. You see to it you’re ready to hitch ’em up when they arrive and then are on your way damn quick after that. I’ll be back to check and you’d better hope you’re long gone when I do.” With that, Bob turned and started away, Pardee on his heels.

  “Marshal?” Marvelle called after him.

  Bob paused and looked back.

  The redhead was wearing a deeply saddened expression and for a moment he thought she was going to say she’d changed her mind.

  She said, “Tell Mee-Kee that Marvelle said I hope the best for her, will you? And tell her I . . . hell, never mind. She won’t understand a damn word of it, anyway.”

  Chapter 13

  “She suffered a pretty hard blow to the crown of her head,” Doc Tibbs explained. “There’s a bruise and some swelling, but it would have been hard for you to see, Marshal, due to her thick hair and the fact the skin wasn’t broken so there was no bleeding. Additionally, she is suffering from the accumulated effects of being regularly drugged with some sort of opiate. Even before she got knocked out she likely was very listless and lethargic. On top of that, her physical condition was very near total exhaustion.”

  “Those bastards,” Curtis Pardee said, not quite under his breath. “I got half a notion to go back and pay those pimps another visit.”

  “It’s a tempting thought,” Bob said, “but it won’t do little Mee-Kee any good now, one way or the other. We’ve got her separated from them, and they’re on their way out of town. Let’s just leave it go at that.”

  Bob and Pardee were in Tibbs’s waiting room. The Macy brothers were there, too. Mee-Kee was resting quietly on a bed in the adjoining examining room. The door was slightly ajar so the doctor could hear if she stirred any.

  “So what does all that mean, Doc?” Bob asked. “Is she gonna come out of it okay? Is she gonna be all right?”

  “From everything I can tell right now, I don’t see why not. A lot of rest, getting the poisons flushed out of her system and replacing them with some solid nutrition . . . She should be fine. It will take some time and I can’t say what her mental state might be, but, physically, I see nothing less than a full recovery.”

  “When will she wake up?”

  “I could force her awake now, but she needs rest. I expect she’ll sleep through until morning, and I believe that would be for the best. She can stay right where she is. I have a cot I can fold out in the office here, so I’ll be close by when she does wake.”

  “That’d be swell, Doc. I really appreciate it,” Bob said. “If it’s any consolation, I’m sleeping on a cot at the jail tonight. So neither one of us will be getting a choice night’s sleep. I’ll check with you first thing in the morning and from there I’ll make some kind of arrangement for putting Mee-Kee up after that. Good night.”

  Outside on the boardwalk, Bob paused to talk a bit longer with Pardee and his nephews. “I want to say again how grateful I am for all the help you fellas have been,” he told them sincerely. “It’s been a long day for me, but, if not for you four, at a couple different points it might have been shortened permanentlike.”

  “No need to make more of it than it was, Marshal,” Pardee replied. “Just doin’ the right thing and glad we was on hand to pitch in.”

  “Okay, then. Let’s talk about that,” said Bob. “Something has crossed my mind. I don’t have the whole say, not without the town council backing me. And you may not be interested at all. I’m just tossing this out to see which way the milkweed blows . . .

  “When we visited earlier, Curtis, you were saying how you’re worried that your small claim is gonna have a hard time supporting you and all three boys now that they’ve shown up. I don’t want to get anybody’s hopes up, but what if, instead of them going back up on the mountain to work your claim with you, I could offer Peter and Vern decent paying jobs here in town, starting right away? If they’re interested, that is.”

  “We’d be interested,” Peter was quick to say. “We didn’t come all this way to be a burden to Uncle Curtis, our ma’s only brother, or with the sole intent of diggin’ for gold. We understand how chancy that is. After the fever took Ma and Pa back home, nothing was left for us there. Since we were faced with havin’ to take a chance one way or the other, we figured we might as well come West to do it.”

  “Whether it’s back in Iowa or here in Wyoming Territory,” Vern added, “no Macy has ever looked down his nose at the prospect of honest work.”

  “I think I already got an idea,” Pardee said measuredly, “but just what kind of work are you talkin’ about?”

  “Deputy marshals. Working for me,” Bob said flatly. “Rattlesnake Wells is getting bigger practically by the day and, as you’ve all well seen, so is the trouble that comes with the growth. As I was talking with a couple council men just today, it’s becoming clear that me and one deputy are spread too thin to handle it all. Like I said, I’ll have to get authorization from the full council, but I’m pretty sure I can persuade ’em. Especially after today’s raid and attempted bank robbery.”

  “You don’t think these boys are a mite young for the danger that can come with puttin’ on a badge?”

  “They’re young, true,” Bob said. “But what makes a sensible, capable man ain’t always just a matter of years. I’d say Peter and Vern have proven themselves able to fit the bill for what I need . . . if they continue to have the interest, that is.”

  “We’re interested,” the brothers said again in almost perfect unison.

  Pardee pursed his lips. “Reckon I got no argument. What about Lee, the youngster?”

  “We can make arrangements for him to stay here in town with his brothers, if that’s what you want. I don’t know how far along he is in school, but we got a good teacher who covers all grades and learning levels. Otherwise, I thought maybe you’d want to take him along with you.”

  “I’ve had enough schoolin’,” Lee spoke up. “I want to go prospectin’ with Uncle Curtis . . . until I’m old enough to pack a badge, too.”

  “When were you planning on going back to work your claim, Curtis?” Bob asked.

  “I got my supplies bought and ready. I was figurin’ on headin’ up tomorrow, but I can hold off another day.”

  “Good enough,” said Bob. “You’ve got some things to hash over and I’ll do some hashing over of my own, first thing in the morning with the town council. I’ll come by your place after that and we can decide where we stand. How does that sound?”

  Pardee nodded. “We’ll look for you tomorrow, then.”

  Chapter 14

  “So it’s settled then,” declared Reese Modello. He took a final drag of his cigarette before flipping the smoldering butt into the campfire. “We go back and hit that damn town double hard. We bust it wide open this time, along with cleaning out that bank and freeing Arlo from behind bars. We’re all in agreement, right?”

  “I’m damn sure in agreement.” Ace Greer reached up to gingerly touch his bandage-covered left ear. “I can’t wait for another crack at that stinkin’ town and its busybody marshal who shot my ear off.”

  “Your ear ain’t shot off,” said Salt River Jackson, somewhat wearily, from where he sat next to Greer. “Just a little piece nicked away, is all. I oughta know. I’m the one who put that bandage on it for you, while you was howlin’ and carryin’ on like you was crappin’ out a thorny cactus.”

  “It was a damn sight more than a little piece,” Greer argued. “And I was howlin’ because it hurt like blazes. Still does, if you’d like to know.”

  “Tired as I am of hearin’ about Ace’s ear, he makes a valid point when it comes to the Rattlesnake Wells town marshal,” said Modello. “I don’t have the same personal grudge against him, but Ace called him a busybody. That’s the part I mean to key on. Whoever that badge-totin’ hombre is, he not only was busy during that fracas this morning, but he didn’t back down from no part of it. He was all-fired lucky when it came to dodgin’ our bullets and flat hell on wheels at triggerin’ ones of his ow
n. In a matter of minutes, he came from the north part of town, where he killed Chester and Earl and shot Ace’s ear, then showed up outside the bank, where he wounded Arlo and made it so hot for Pete and me, we had to hightail it out of there with no chance to go back for him.”

  “Exactly what are you sayin’, Reese?” asked Charles “Bad Luck Chuck” Ainsley, his deeply lined face pulled long by a bewildered frown. “You ain’t suggestin’ we oughta be afraid of this hell-on-wheels law dog, are you?”

  Reese Modello was a tall, rawboned specimen with a square jaw and narrow, flinty eyes set too close on either side of a broad, blunt nose. He shot Ainsley a hard look that caused his flinty eyes to narrow into even tighter slits than normal, a look anyone who knew him recognized as a sign of his quick temper boiling near to the surface.

  “If you think you heard me say anything about being afraid of that bumpkin marshal, Ainsley, it’s time for you to clean the horse shit out of your ears. And if you’re sayin’ that you think I’m scared, it’s time for the two of us to have a real serious disagreement.”

  “No. No, Reese, I never meant it that way at all,” protested Ainsley, a small, spindly man with streaks of white running through his otherwise rust-colored hair, marking him as the oldest member of the gang. “Jesus, I’d never say anything like that! Not even hint it.”

  “You’d damn well better not,” Modello seethed. “And you’d better be a whole lot more careful about choosin’ your words from now on, or I might forget about us already bein’ shorthanded and throw your bony old ass over the side of this mountain just to make sure you never misspeak again.”

  “Jesus, Reese, I was just tryin’ to get clear on what you was tellin’ us, that’s all,” muttered Ainsley.

  “Is it so hard to understand?” Modello held up his hands, fingers splayed wide. He swung his gaze in a wide, slow arc, touching each grim, shadow-cut face of the other gang members encircling the campfire in the remote, hidden canyon of the Shirley Mountains. Unlike its neighbor, the gold-bearing Prophecy range to the west, the Shirleys had survived numerous early prospecting attempts without ever yielding any sign of valuable ore and so remained largely an untouched wilderness, providing any number of good places for hiding out.