Ride Tall, Hang High Read online

  Chapter NINE

  The six oulaws rode into Dodge in mid-afternoon, had a beer to clean the trail dust out of their throats, then took hotel rooms. They registered in pairs, with rooms next to each other. No sense setting up a six-man party in town.

  From there they went separate ways.

  The Professor ordered up a bath and bought two new sets of clothes.

  Juan bought a new pair of jeans and a shirt and four pairs of socks.

  Gunner made sure that Willy Boy was settled in, then lay down on the bed and took a nap.

  Johnny Joe went to see a doctor, who changed the dressings and said the healing process had begun. He guessed that the bullet had come close to the lung but did no damage. He did wonder if one of the cracked ribs had bent in and created a small hole in the lung.

  "We’d call that a pneumothorax, if it happened. That’s when some air gets out of the lung between the rib cage and the lung and can cause all sorts of problems. " He grinned. "Don’t look like that happened to you or you wouldn’t be breathing so well. You’re on the healing side of things now. Just try not to break open that healing in the back. "

  Eagle lay on his bed and read a stack of dime novels about the wild west. He guffawed regularly as he read, wondering how anyone could make up such wild stories about either the Indians or gunfighters.

  Willy Boy was going to check with the sheriff about the bounty hunter, but the Professor persuaded him it would be better if he went.

  The Professor came back a half hour later. He said quickly that no word had been heard of the bounty hunter.

  "Then I got to look through his wanted posters. Told him I was a part time bounty hunter myself and wondered what he had that was new. He gave me a stack half a foot high and I started going through them. Fourth one down from the top was this one. "

  WANTED

  DEAD OR ALIVE

  THE WILLY BOY GANG

  Willy Boy Lambier and five members of his gang broke out of the Oak Park, Texas, jail killing two deputies. They later killed 11 members of two posses chasing them.

  They are thought to be headed north from Texas. Others in the party include Juan Romero, Nathan Thadius (The Professor), Johnny Joe Williams, Gunner Johnson, and Brave Eagle (a Comanche Indian).

  A REWARD OF $2,000 IS OFFERED FOR EACH OF THE ABOVE.

  Contact Sheriff Jim Dunwoody, Oak Park, Texas.

  Willie Boy put down the wanted poster and grinned. "Hey, that’s more reward than the last poster I saw offered for Billy the Kid!"

  Willy looked at it again. "Damn good thing they don’t have any pictures on this thing. " He chuckled. "Nathan Thadius?" he asked looking at the Professor. "Good Lord in a hand bucket, no wonder you changed your name. "

  "Almost as bad as Lambier. If I hear you use my real name again, young William Lambier, I’ll slit your throat ear to ear!"

  Willy Boy laughed, but wasn’t sure just how much of that threat had been real. He never used the Professor’s real name again.

  "We got to tell the others about this," Willy Boy said. "I’ll show it to them, but I won’t let them read your name," he said to the Professor. "Somebody else could go through that stack of Wanteds. Oh, yeah, we got the poster now, the sheriff don’t. Would they send out two of them?"

  "Doubt it. Anyway, I’m not letting that stop me from getting a store bought shave and a hair wash and hair cut. " He looked at Willy Boy. "You could stand a trim as well. "

  "Not me. Longer hair makes me feel stronger, like Samson. Remember that?"

  "Remember ain’t believing," the Professor said and went back down to the street to get his haircut.

  Willy Boy walked the town. It was smaller than he figured from all the stories he had heard about it. He wasn’t even sure who the sheriff was now. From time to time they had had famous gunfighters as sheriff here in Dodge.

  He checked a clock in a jeweler’s window. Still time enough to ride out to Fort Dodge and see what he could find out for Eagle. He went back to his mount and took a ride. The fort was less than a mile from town.

  After talking to a sentry, a Guard Lieutenant and then a First Sergeant, he at last got to see the Fort Adjutant, a Lieutenant Parson.

  Quickly he outlined what he was trying to discover. "See, Lieutenant. I got a brother with that outfit, the Fourteenth Cavalry Regiment, and I sure would like to know where he’s stationed. "

  "Can’t say for sure, but last I knew of it, the Fourteenth was up at Fort Boise in Idaho. Long way from here. "

  "You positive they’re up there, Lieutenant?""That’s what my latest roster of assignments shows. I’m not supposed to be telling you this, so if anybody asks me, I never even heard of you. " He grinned.

  "Yeah, all right. Thanks, Lieutenant. Might be a few days before I get up that direction. "

  Willy Boy rode back to Dodge wondering how to tell Eagle, or if he should tell him. If Eagle knew where they were, he might ride up there and get himself killed. He’d think on it. First came Deeds Conover. Where should he look to find that bastard?

  They had supper that night at the hotel dining room. It wasn’t as fancy as some and they sat at different tables, two by two. He had warned them all when he showed them the wanted poster that they would do nothing publicly as a group.

  "Don’t want somebody getting curious about where that wanted poster went to if anybody makes the connection. Probably not more than two or three deputies

  saw it, but no sense in taking chances. "

  They had decided to relax for a few days in Dodge. Nothing special, no worries, just have some fun, spend some money, but not too much, and rest up.

  That night Johnny Joe felt good enough to pay a visit to one of the gambling emporiums. He took a beer to a table and slid into a vacant seat. He had $50 worth of chips and the three other players around the table grinned.

  "Fresh money," one man said who wore a suit and could be a banker. A cow hand across from him belched, drank half of a mug of beer and pointed at the banker type. "Shut up and deal," he said.

  The third man was a towner, in shirt sleeves held up with garters and a green eyeshade. Johnny Joe discounted the other two but watched as the black suit dealt.

  It was five card stud and it was a no limit game with table stakes. Johnny Joe lost the first three hands, investing $12 total. His old granddaddy taught him to play the game and ordered him never to win the first hand no matter how good a hand he had.

  He won the fourth hand, a seven card stud game and took in a pot worth over $30. He kept working, dumping when he was out of it, playing it smart and never bluffing. By the end of two hours he was about $50 ahead.

  The other two men bowed out and Johnny Joe was left with the man with the green eyeshade and the runny, weak blue eyes.

  "Cut for high card for $100?" the green eyeshade asked.

  Johnny Joe laughed politely. "Do I really look that stupid? That’s a sucker bet, especially with a used deck of cards. Would you offer the same thing with a new

  deck with an unbroken seal and I get to shuffle and cut?" The green eyeshade took his turn chuckling. "Not a chance. How about showdown at $10 a hand?"

  "You know we’re talking the pure luck of the draw here, no skill involved, no betting," Johnny Joe said.

  "True. My luck has been good tonight. I’ll make a side bet of $50 that I win more of the ten hands than you do. "

  Johnny Joe looked at the man. He was no country bumpkin. He was sure he hadn’t seen the man before or played with him, but he knew the routine.

  Slowly Johnny shook his head. "I’m a gambler, not a fool. I only bet on a hand that has a chance of winning. I’m more willing to bet on a sure thing. I don’t play along with your Mississippi River Boat gambling game. How long has it been since you’ve worked the boats?" The man looked up and nodded. "Thought you knew your way around. A cautious, by the odds player. You’ll win more times than you lose. What are you ahead right now?"

  "About $50. "

  "Two months wages for
a cowhand out there on the range in the dust and wind and rain and sleet. " The man grinned. "I know, I started out as a cowhand, before I figured out a better and damn lot easier way to make a living. "

  Johnny Joe signaled for a pair of frosty beers and looked up at the man. "You ever cheat when gambling?" The green eyeshade man smiled. "Only when I catch someone cheating against me. I love to watch a cheater know he has say, aces over queens, and I beat him with four deuces. "

  They both chuckled.

  "You staying around long?" the green eyeshade man asked.

  "Maybe a week or so. "

  "Make you a deal. You see me in a game, find another table. If I find you playing, I’ll go to another saloon or another table. No sense a couple of professionals beating each other to death. "

  They lifted the new beers and sealed the agreement, then Johnny Joe started feeling the weariness that had been his constant companion ever since he took that rifle bullet through his chest. He tipped his hat, stifled a groan, and walked over and cashed in his chips. Then he went directly back to his hotel room.

  Nobody bothered him. He locked his door and eased down on the bed. The only way he could sleep with any comfort was on his side. He settled down and slept.

  The Professor came to Willy Boy’s room about eight that night with a bottle of whiskey in one hand and two glasses in the other.

  "Busy?" he asked.

  Willy Boy waved him inside.

  The Professor poured both glasses half full of the amber fluid and handed one to Willy Boy.

  "Got a good long look at the bank in town this afternoon just before it closed. I changed a five dollar bill. Place is built like a whole damn vault. One door in and out. Armed guard beside the door. Both tellers have loaded revolvers showing at their cages. The manager has a sawed off shotgun in a quick grab clamp right behind his desk. I saw alarm signals of some kind, chain pulls I think they were.

  "The teller pulls a chain or a rope and that sets a spring loaded bell of some kind ringing until it’s wound down.

  The place is impossible. Glad we aren’t going to try to rob that one. "

  "Who says we aren’t going to take out that bank?" Willy Boy asked.

  The Professor almost swallowed the whiskey glass. He recovered and looked at Willy Boy and saw him laughing.

  "Don’t scare me that way. I’m depressed enough as it is about the security at that bank. "

  "There you go, using big words again. Somebody told me you went to college?"

  "That is entirely true, young man. I matriculated at Illinois College in Jacksonville, Illinois, for a year and a half. From that endeavor I went on to teach grades one through twelve in Swan Lake, Illinois, for two entire school years from 1866 to ’68. After that was over, I resigned and came West. "

  "What was the first bank that you robbed?"

  "You are full of questions, aren’t you. " He watched Willy Boy for a minute. "Should have brought you a beer, forgot you’re not much of a whiskey drinker. You’ll learn. "

  "Yeah, if I live long enough. Hell, I don’t plan on living much over 25. "

  "Don’t say that, I’m 24 already. Let’s see, first bank I took over. That’s easy. It was with Wild Bill Cranston. We got liquored up one night and went into the local bank at some little town in Kansas. I forget the name. We dropped in through the skylight. Then we busted open the old safe they had with a crowbar and a sledge hammer we brought along and went out the back door with over $600. "

  The Professor broke up laughing. "Wasn’t until the

  next day, when the president of the bank reported his loss, that he said the damn fool robbers had missed over $3,000 in a drawer below the one we had opened!" The Professor emptied his glass and looked at Willy Boy. "So you see, I was not the smartest of bank robbers when I began. But I learned fast. "

  "Now you know which banks not to try to rob?""Damn betcha!"

  "Sounds like a good way to live to be more than 25, if anybody would want to. "

  "You how old, Willy Boy?"

  "Seventeen. Seventeen and nearly a half. Been on my own since I was fourteen. "

  "Good for you. Now what the hell we gonna do next? Where we going? I can’t do any bank robbing in Dodge. ""I’m still looking for the bounty hunter who killed my Pa. He’s got to be here somewhere. One of the sheriffs said he thought he worked mostly in Kansas. ""What happens if you find him?"

  Willy Boy lay back on the bed, his hands behind his head. He looked at the ceiling. "Nothing quick. I’m gonna capture the bastard, then learn all the torture tricks the Comanches use from Eagle. After that, Deeds Conover is going to die as slowly as possible with as much pain as he can stand without passing out. I think to finish him off I’ll hang him head down over a fire and watch his brains fry and his skull explode. ""Willy Boy, you got some wild ideas. Until we find him, we need something to do. We gonna do some more banks, I hope. "

  "Yeah, why not. Just so we don’t get too damn many posses chasing us. My first job is to find that murdering bounty hunter Deeds Conover. "

  "We’ll find him, Willy. Don’t worry. We’ll find him. And now we’re six to one, not him trying to gun down some unarmed 14 year old. "

  Willy Boy went to the window and lifted it fully open and stuck his head outside.

  "Deeds Conover, you murdering bastard! Where the hell are you hiding?"

  Willy Boy pulled his head back in and grinned. "If he’s in town, that just might rattle him out of his hole. "