Ralph Compton Straight Shooter Page 10

  “I have my reasons,” Aldus snapped. “After you went behind my back to make arrangements to skip Cedar Rapids in favor of some unproven town, you owe me that much.”

  Hayes took a step back. “Calling me out and making it impossible for me to refuse, eh?” He smiled good-naturedly as he added, “I truly will make a real businessman out of you.”

  Chapter 9

  It was another two days of riding before Aldus would catch sight of Seedley. The little town was a bit south of their normal route, and they were forced to take a different path. Once they’d steered away from the wide, straight trail to which they were accustomed, the journey became a bit more difficult. The grass became thicker and the terrain became rougher. There were shallow creeks that needed to be forded, and the wagons were slowed to a crawl while Aldus rode ahead to pick the best spot for their crossing.

  There were a few bluffs along the way that also hindered their normal rate of progress. The horses had to slow as they climbed the gradual incline. Afterward, they wound their way around a series of ditches and a dried riverbed that could have overturned one or both of the wagons if the drivers weren’t careful in their approach. It would have been a much easier ride if the men were on horseback, but they couldn’t exactly leave the wagons behind. When they made camp, Hayes sifted through Aldus’s letters. He read them carefully while Aldus collected firewood and was still reading them when it was time to fix supper. Aldus suspected the other man was dragging his feet simply to avoid his share of the chores, but rather than make a fuss about it, he warmed up a mixture of beans and salted pork.

  “So,” Aldus said as he scooped some of his supper into his mouth from the old pie tin he used as a plate, “what did you make out from them letters?”

  “She didn’t say anything alarming as such,” Hayes replied. He picked at his meal with a spoon the same way he would eat a bowl of soup at a fancy restaurant. “Much of the simple details were the way you described. As for the rest, I didn’t find anything alarming.”

  “Maybe it’s just because I can’t read too good.”

  “No, there is something to your concerns. I just don’t know if it’s particularly alarming.”

  “If you got something to say, just say it,” Aldus demanded.

  “She does mention . . . someone else.”

  Aldus’s face darkened. “Like who?”

  “A friend of hers. Nate Talbott. Perhaps you’ve seen the name mentioned.”

  There were plenty of words that Aldus didn’t recognize when he read something. The main difference with Bethany’s letters was that he stuck to the task long enough to make out enough to get what he needed. Much as a person might watch someone’s facial expressions as he spoke to him in another language, Aldus had developed a knack for making just enough sense out of the written word to get some sort of meaning from it. There came a point, however, when he had to give in to the fact that he was still missing a lot. It was a defeat that stung worse than the ones he’d been handed in the ring. Admitting that defeat to his friend and employer in the quiet of that campsite as night crept in around them was somehow worse than falling face-first in front of a roaring crowd.

  “No,” Aldus said. “I never seen that name.”

  “Well, she only mentioned it a couple of times. He’s been coming around to visit and seemed to have made an impression on one of the boys. But there was something about the way she talked about him in the last letter that was markedly different from the first time Nate was mentioned.”

  “How did she talk about him?”

  Hayes paused, measuring his next words carefully. “It didn’t seem romantic. Not overly so, anyway.”

  That made Aldus wince.

  “She mentioned him as a friend,” Hayes continued. “In fact, she went out of her way to say that you might have a lot in common. Apparently this Nate fellow did some boxing as well. They seemed to have had a falling-out. It was just a small mention in the second letter. You may have overlooked it even if you could read every last word.”

  When Hayes pointed out his shortcoming, Aldus didn’t feel as though it was an insult in any way. Even so, he didn’t like hearing it from a man he respected so much.

  “I know what you were talking about in the letters,” Hayes continued. “There was a change in her. She does seem a bit forlorn and distanced once she mentioned that she had some sort of falling-out with Nate. After that, she is sad. To be honest, I may not have picked up on it at all. Just reading the letters, I would have thought she was distracted or possibly didn’t have much to say. But when you mention it, I believe you’re right. I think this Nate fellow is troubling her and the boys. It’s just something she said in the last letter. Nothing specific, but there is something . . . off about her. If I may ask, how did you pick up on it?”

  There were plenty of things that didn’t set right with Aldus where those letters were concerned. Most of all, the last one seemed as if she was scratching it out with a hint of anger instead of crafting her words the way she normally did. Rather than explain any of that to Hayes, he said, “I know her well enough to know when something ain’t right.”

  “Well . . . I believe you have a good point. Perhaps it is good that we spend some time in Corbin. Besides, her boys seem delightful.”

  “Yeah,” Aldus said with a smile. “They do.”

  • • •

  The next day, Hayes insisted on getting a move on since Seedley wasn’t too much farther ahead of them. Once the horses were hitched to the wagons, the small procession got moving once again. Aldus would have felt better if he knew they were making a straight line toward Corbin, but a good portion of what Hayes had told him about Seedley had sunk in. It did seem like a good move to go there. If Jack Grable was pulling some sort of trick just to keep Hayes out of Cedar Rapids, then he would be very unpleasantly surprised indeed when Aldus returned to pay him a visit.

  If not for the directions given by Jack Grable, Hayes and his wagons could very well have missed the town of Seedley altogether. Not only were the wagons on an unfamiliar trail, but the town was about a mile off that trail nestled in among some hills on the western edge of Iowa. It was the tail end of a gloomy day when they rolled into town. The sky was gray and the clouds had been threatening to douse them ever since the previous night. Instead of a good, hard rain, Aldus and Hayes were spat upon by little droplets that hit their cheeks and spattered upon their horses’ backs.

  By the time he spotted the town in the distance, Aldus was wet and chilled to the bone. His coat and hat had collected just enough of the little droplets to soak through his clothing. He’d allowed Hayes to get a bit farther ahead than normal, so he was able to see Seedley’s paltry collection of homes surrounding a few buildings that were no more than two floors high. As far as he could see, the entire town wasn’t much more than three streets and two intersections.

  “Oh yeah,” Aldus grumbled to himself. “This place is really gonna cover our losses from Cedar Rapids.”

  “What was that?” Hayes shouted back to him.

  “Nothing!”

  “It’s not the size of the town that matters, you know. It’s how well we do our jobs that will determine how much we walk away with.”

  Aldus couldn’t decide which irked him more at that particular moment: Hayes’s unwavering optimism despite being drenched, tired, and cold or the fact that he’d been able to read Aldus so accurately without even having to look at him.

  One small comfort was that the trail that had made their progress thus far such an effort widened and became much smoother as it took them closer to the edge of town. Alongside the trail, there was a sign written in bold letters upon large wooden planks. The wagons were going slow enough for Aldus to make out a few very familiar words: forbid and firearms.

  After waiting to hear from the man ahead of him, Aldus called out, “Hey, Zeke! You see that sign?”

&nbs
p; “I did.”

  “You think we’ll make a lot of sales in a town that don’t allow guns?”

  Hayes leaned over to look behind the wagon while holding his hat on with one hand. Instead of the more expensive top hat he used when working, the one he wore now was an older style with a wide brim intended to shade him from the sun and offer some bit of protection from the insistent drizzle. “That sign was just a warning about a town ordinance.”

  “Well, an ordinance against guns don’t seem much better.”

  “The ordinance forbids the carrying of firearms that haven’t been registered with the town law.”

  “So we’ll have to check in with a sheriff before we get something to eat?” Aldus asked.

  “Since we’re riding in a wagon filled with firearms, I’d say that would be a prudent course of action.”

  “You think that’s why those men have to leave town to get their guns repaired?” Aldus asked as a burst of thunder rolled overhead.

  Hayes stuck his hand out to signal for both wagons to come to a stop. After pulling back on the reins, Aldus set the brake and climbed down from his seat. As he passed the horses, he gave one of them a few pats on the neck and the other a quick rub on his nose. That calmed them both down while the storm brewed in the skies. Walking around the lead wagon, Aldus glanced over his shoulder at the sign. There was nothing else written on it and not a living soul to be found in his field of vision. Even when he turned back around, the town itself was as still as an oil painting while the horses and even Hayes himself all shifted in their spots.

  Scooting all the way to the edge of his seat, Hayes climbed down to stand beside Aldus. “What did you say back there?” he asked.

  “I was wondering if that ordinance could be why those men have to leave town to get their guns fixed.”

  “Could be. What concerns me is that we make a good first impression when we present ourselves to the law. It would probably be best if I presented myself as the man in charge.”

  “You are the man in charge,” Aldus said.

  “Yes, well, it may be prudent for me to pass you off as less than what you are.”

  Aldus chuckled. “Wouldn’t be the first time.”

  “I’ve been to a lot of small towns like this one,” Hayes explained. “This was before I got a system down as polished as it is now. You know how you were able to read between the lines . . . so to speak . . . with Bethany’s letters?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, I can read between the lines here. This is not a place that will take that ordinance lightly,” the salesman said as he leveled a finger at the sign they’d passed. “It looks like that notice has been repainted a time or two and the sign is in real good condition. Other towns . . . that sign would be shot full of holes just because the men doing it thought it was funny. But not here, which means there’s likely someone enforcing the letter of that particular law and they do not take kindly to being disobeyed.”

  Aldus held up his hands. “I wasn’t thinking we should disobey anything. I’d just like to get in out of the rain.”

  As if on cue, the spitting sprinkle of cold droplets became just a little heavier as another ripple of thunder worked its way through the thickening clouds.

  “When I present myself to the sheriff,” Hayes continued, “I’ll have to explain myself fully and probably turn these wagons over for inspection. I don’t want you to protest or put up any kind of fuss.”

  “When have I ever caused a problem?” Aldus asked.

  “You haven’t. It’s just when someone is enforcing a rule like restricting firearms, it means either they’re worried about trouble or they had some pretty serious trouble not too long ago. That’s the kind of trouble involving life and death, which tends to make folks nervous. Lawmen . . . doubly so. That’s why I don’t even want to introduce you as an apprentice because then we’ll just have to spend that much more time with you answering the same questions I probably will. All you do is clean up after me. Got it?”

  Aldus scowled reflexively, much the same as he had in the days when he’d first started trying to make a name for himself as a boxer and Basil Polaski had introduced him as the man who cleaned the floors instead of one of the fighters. Even though he had been cleaning floors at the time, being regarded as so low on the totem pole made him feel as though he’d been lumped in with the dog.

  Suddenly Hayes pointed stiffly at Aldus instead of the sign at the side of the trail. “See?” he said. “Right there. That look in your eyes is what I’m trying to avoid. You’re about to speak up for yourself and tell me you do more than pick up shell casings.”

  “No, I wasn’t,” Aldus lied.

  “Whether you were or weren’t, it doesn’t matter. You look like you resent how I described you, which looks suspicious. And when you look suspicious to men who are already nervous enough to enforce an ordinance like that one, it doesn’t bode well for our chances here. I don’t have to tell you that we both need this stopover to work as well as it possibly can.”

  “I already know that.”

  “So don’t look like you want to knock my teeth in when I say those things to whoever I need to report to, all right?”

  “Yeah,” Aldus said. “Let’s just get moving again so we can dry off.”

  Hayes patted Aldus on the shoulder and sent him on his way, but not before saying, “I do the talking when we get into town. Agreed?”

  “I won’t say a word.”

  “It’s only for the best. Also, it would be a good idea to not have any guns on our person when we arrive.”

  Aldus was already heading back to the second wagon. As soon as he climbed into the driver’s seat, he removed his Schofield from the old leather holster and set it under his seat before releasing the brake and flicking his reins. The wagon lurched forward to follow Hayes, who’d already driven back onto the trail leading into town. As they got closer to Seedley, the drizzle turned into a steady rain. The drops were still small but fell in a much quicker drumbeat against the top of Aldus’s hat and the canvas cover of the wagon. He reached once more beneath his seat, rummaging around under there until he found a bottle that was about a quarter full of whiskey. Aldus pulled the cork out and tipped the bottle back to take a drink. The liquor was harsh and did a mighty fine job of warming his innards.

  They drove down Main Street, which cut all the way through the entire town. Aldus didn’t have any trouble reading the little sign marking the street because he’d seen that word on more street signs than he could count. At the town’s second intersection, Hayes signaled for them to come to a stop. The building at the corner on the left was one of the taller ones in town and had the star of a lawman painted onto its front window. Aldus pulled his hat down over his eyes and stayed in his seat as Hayes climbed down to walk beneath an awning in front of the building.

  “At least come in out of the rain,” Hayes said.

  Aldus waved for him to move on. “Just go ahead. It’ll probably be easier if I stay outside, anyways.”

  “You sure about that?”

  “Someone should watch the wagons.”

  That was enough to convince Hayes, so he knocked on the door before opening it. Aldus could hear the beginnings of an overly enthusiastic greeting followed by an introduction before the salesman stepped inside and shut the door behind him.

  A clap of thunder rolled through the air, and the rain started pouring down even worse. Gritting his teeth while reaching for the whiskey bottle, Aldus cursed himself for his choice to stay outside. Just as he thought about going into the lawman’s office, the door swung open and a tall, lean figure filled the entrance. He was dressed in black pants and a white shirt with a badge pinned to the breast pocket. Stern eyes stared straight at Aldus, and the mouth partially hidden beneath a long, thick mustache was formed into a straight line.

  “You’d be the fella riding along wi
th Mr. Hayes?” the lawman asked.

  Adhering to his previous orders to stay as quiet as possible, Aldus nodded.

  “You’d best come inside so I can—”

  Another clap of thunder exploded nearby. Almost immediately, Aldus realized it wasn’t thunder at all but a gunshot. He twisted around to get a look in the direction from which the gun had been fired, only to find a man crossing Main Street while pivoting around to fire at the first intersection Aldus and Hayes had passed on their way to the lawman’s office. He fired the pistol in his hand before another gunshot ripped through the air. Aldus could see a plume of smoke coming from in front of one of the shops on that side of the street. The silhouette of another gunman was outlined by the flickering light coming from behind that store’s front window. That man fired again and the fellow in the street grunted in pain as he dropped.

  “What in blazes?” the lawman shouted as he and two others raced from the office.

  Hayes emerged from there as well, trying to clear a path for the others while also getting a look at what was going on.

  The man now lying in the street fired once more before he was cut down by two more shots fired from the shadows. All of the lawmen were returning fire by now, and their bullets quickly shattered the front window, but the gunman had already run away from the store, emptying his pistol by firing wildly behind him as he fled. When Aldus heard more shots fired from the opposite end of the street, he turned just in time to see another figure standing directly across from the lawmen’s office. Since the lawmen were all tearing after the first shooter, the one closest to the office had a perfect angle to shoot them all in the back.

  Aldus jumped down from the wagon on the side closest to the lawmen’s office just as a pair of shots punched through his wagon’s canvas cover and drilled a set of holes through the seat he’d abandoned.

  “There’s another one across the street!” Aldus shouted.

  Hayes was the only one who heard him since all of the lawmen who had emerged from the office were either checking on the man lying in the street or firing at the one that had bolted. “What?” the salesman asked.