falcon and wolf 9 cliffie bonus

 Just a word from me, I will do my best today, but this morning our little cat, Polly, had a heart attack and died in our arms. She was 9, and had had a heart murmur as long as we have had her, and she was suffering shortness of breath in the heat.  It wasn't unexpected, but we are still grieving deeply for our girlie. The comedy of this chapter is a little bittersweet. But I hope you all enjoy it. I loved writing it.

 

Chapter 9

 

Luke stepped up to the supposed woman, and flung out his arms dramatically.

“Lucille!” he cried, dramatically. “You surely picked a fine time to leave me, with our babies left hungry, and a crop in the field!”

“I don’t know who you are,” said Angel-Face, coldly, and not a little startled.

“Are you denyin’ who you are, Lucille Stubbins, when I’ve a picture here of yuh with me on our weddin’ day?” demanded Luke, pulling out the photograph, and showing it around.

There were murmurs of ‘For shame!’ and ‘Scarlet woman!’

The man sat next to Angel-Face pulled a gun.

“Drop the idea, mister,” he said.

“Oh, Lucille! Couldn’t you pick a better man than a gunman, willing to gun down your lawfully wedded husband?” cried Luke. “Oh, Lucille! Have you forgotten calling me your own Bitsy-Pookums, my dear Sweet Angel?”

The gunman next to Lucille suddenly realised that there was a cold, steel circle on his neck.

“I’m a bounty hunter, and this here fellow your wife has gone off with is a wanted man,” said Wolf.

“Oh, y’all are lost entirely to shame, Lucille!” cried Luke. “And here we are, coming into the station; we’ll sort it all out, my darling, for I’ll forgive you, and take you back home, to little Lily, who cries for her Mommy, and Mark, and Harry, and Lizzie, who are too young to understand!”

“You’ll beat me!” tried Angel-Face, shrilly, in desperation.

“I never will, my darling,” said Luke, heaving her to her feet, grabbing ‘her’ hands amorously in one hand, to kiss the horrified Angel-Face passionately, to the hoots and cheers of the rest of the passengers, and his other hand adeptly searched clothing for the hidden six-shooter one side, and, changing grip, without releasing her lips, relieving the bandit of his six-shooter the other side. Wolf was fitting handcuffs on the other owlhoot, and Luke manhandled his ‘wife’ tenderly off the train, with the parting shot, “And if the child you bear is his, I’ll still be a daddy to him or her.”

Every aid was given to assist so uxorious a man, who might be an unlettered sod-buster, but was still plainly a good husband.

Once on the platform, Luke murmured in his ‘wife’s’ ear, “Now, Angel-Face, you just behave, or I’ll have the greatest pleasure, and the support of all the train, in whupping your ass. I have the drop on you, and you have no guns.”

Angel-Face managed to get a hand free and felt in his skirt pockets in some panic. Luke thrust him into the station building, and snapped handcuffs onto the young man’s hands, and draped the shawl he wore over them. There was no point having a scene on the way to the sheriff’s office.

By prior arrangement, the train was being held for them, and the sheriff waiting.

“I’ll be back to do the paperwork, but here’s Robert ‘Angel-Face’ Roberts, and, if I’m not mistaken, Benjamin ‘Flinty’ York,” said Luke.

He and Wolf hopped onto the caboose, where they changed, Luke into his regular clothes, Wolf into leathers, and helped Luke shave off the beard before they made their way forward. Here, they drifted one to each side of the carriage, to look out for a reception committee of bandits. It would give some idea where they might be operating, and therefore where to look for them.

 

The train thundered over a viaduct, crossing a deep valley, and started to go round a curve as the grade rose a little. Luke chuckled to himself at the thunderstruck faces of the reception committee of owlhoots on the small plateau the other side of the viaduct, plainly expecting the train to come to a halt as it started up the incline. He gave a fluting whistle, and Wolf joined him.

“Them wondering if Angel-Face or Flinty has betrayed them,” said Wolf.

“We need to find out where they get their provisions,” said Luke. “It’s going to involve a lot of riding around for you.”

“At least I have a horse because mine doesn’t try to wreck the caboose every time he’s in there more than two hours,” said Wolf.

“He only did it once,” said Luke. “He just gets bad tempered. Besides, he isn’t the sort of horse a fellow like ‘Baby-Face Bellamy’ would ride.”

“No, that’s true,” agreed Wolf. “Do you suppose Magree will read about the supposed exploits of other owlhoots?”

“Yes, they tend to keep abreast of what each other is up to,” said Luke. “And ‘Baby-Face’ will intrigue them. Wanted for smuggling whiskey to Indians in bottles hidden in holes cut in Bibles when dressed as a pastor; the same guise used to smuggle weapons into gaols, for good pay, a pick-pocket in the guise of a mild-mannered schoolmaster, or schoolma’am, never quite making it big.”

“And they’ll like go into town to see what they can hear on Angel-Face and Flinty,” said Wolf. “And hear about ‘Baby-Face,’ and wonder if it’s ‘Angel-Face’ moonlighting.”

“Until you bring me in, and I plainly am not,” said Luke. “My poor moustaches.”

“Moustaches… or a total of seventeen thousand dollars,” said Wolf.

“Well, when you put it that way…,” said Luke.

 

They got out at the next stop, and Wolf got his horse out of the caboose.  They made a stop at the sheriff’s office, and demanded maps.

“Maps, why do you want maps?” grumbled the sheriff.

“After Magree,” said Wolf. “Indian no hunt without sign. Bandits leave sign on map plenty clear.”

“I never heard of following sign on a map,” said the sheriff, suspiciously.

“Sheriff,” said Luke, “My friend is whimsical, but if you think about it, mapping where owlhoots have been can give an idea where they will go. We know where they waited fruitlessly for Angel-Face to give the sign, and Flinty to stop the train.”

“Well, I’m damned! How did that happen?”

“We took Flinty and Angel-Face in charge before they could do so,” said Luke. “Left them at the last stop down the line. Oh, the expression on Magree’s face as the train thundered past without so much as slowing, it was a lovely thing. Shock, melting into chagrin, horror, anger, and promise of retribution to whoever had caused this.”

“That’s us, when they find out,” said Wolf, cheerfully. “Meantime, it’s Angel and Flinty. Me no care, only care for seventeen thousand good dollars.”

“It’s a healthy enough attitude, I suppose,” said the Sheriff. “There’s the county map on the wall.”

“It’s mountainous all around here,” said Luke. “Wolf, I’m not a mountain man, how far could one reasonably ride in a day?”

“Is no just about distance,” said Wolf. “Um need to find right path. But me say, to get to train, wait, steal paychest, they no go more’n three-four miles.  Them camp there, have town as base maybe three-four miles from there,”

“I hear your words,” said Luke, fishing a piece of string out of his pocket to tie to a pencil.  “They won’t be limited by the side of the railroad where they waited, that’s just where the best ambush site was.”

He tied off a knot having measured three miles on the scale and stuck the pin in the ambush site to inscribe a circle, not bothering to cut into the valley crossed by the viaduct. Then he tied a second knot at six miles.

“Where was the last ambush?” he asked.

“This is the first one this side of the ravine,” said the sheriff. “And, indeed, the first I heard that they’d spread into my territory.”

“Well, then, you’ll have the kudos of being the sheriff who brings them down,” grinned Wolf.

“I can work with you, if you’re agreeable,” said the sheriff, cautiously.

“I’m always agreeable to work with the law,” said Luke. “I’ve been a deputy sheriff for half a year, and it’s damned hard work, without having some flashy bounty-hunter steal all the thunder. I’m interested in the money so I can retire before I’m thirty, and enjoy myself rearing horses.  You can have the glory. Now, from what I can see, there’s three major communities within that six mile line, and a couple of plausible ones that fall outside it. I’m going to go and set up a base in the mountains, away from where I suspect the gang of camping, whilst Wolf goes poking around incognito, so I can go in on the inside.  You’ll have had posters declaring me to be Baby-Face Bellamy and a list of false crimes – you can check my bona fides with Sam Douglas, the US Marshal; we’ve worked together before.”

“You ain’t gonna be tossing around Sam Douglas’s name if you ain’t on the level,” said the sheriff. “Name’s Jim Carstairs.”

“Good to know you, Jim,” said Luke. “I’m Luke; Wolf is Wolf.”

“Howdy,” said the sheriff. “Coffee?”

“Now, that’s right civil of you,” said Luke, who preferred tea, but would take coffee. “I can’t let you know our plans because they are loose at best right now.”

“Well, knowing that Baby-Face Bellamy is a sham is good enough for me right now,” said Carstairs. “This here town is only just outside the six mile limit, and they could ride up the railroad easier’n going through rough country.”

“It’s a good point,” said Luke. “I’d best get out of town soonest then.”

“I’ll provision up,” said Wolf.

“I’m heading out this way,” said Luke, pointing to the map.

Wolf glanced at it and nodded; and Luke removed his pin, smoothing the hole with his thumbnail, and rubbing off the pencil marks with an eraser he also kept in his pocket.

“Why are you rubbing that out?” asked Carstairs.

“Well, Jim, as you point out, this place is conceivably a base; and if they have friends here, who might drop in to report, oh, a lost watch, intending to see what you know about some bandits, they might be able to interpret my marks on the map,” said Luke.

“I understand, and concede the point,” said Carstairs. “Good luck with your endeavours; d’you want me to swing by where you camp out once a week or so and see how you are?”

Luke considered.

“I was going to refuse, but you know what? I don’t mind if you do.  I don’t mind being lonely, but a visitor from time to time to share a meal, a smoke, and a tale or two wouldn’t come amiss. Just in case anything happens to Wolf. But make sure you ain’t followed.”

“Maybe Baby-Face should get hisself up as a woman, and I let folks as are wonderin’ where I go, know that I’m courtin’ a woman.”

“Now that ain’t such a bad idea.”

“And can you cook trail meals?”

“Jim, I cook so well, that when I’m done up as a lady, you’ll want to marry me.”

The lawman laughed.

“That’s a lot to live up to.”

“I’m a lot of living.”

 

 

Luke started walking, whilst Wolf was still purchasing supplies.  The Cherokee overtook Luke two hours later, well out into the mountains, Luke having left blazes for him, as well as indicating his probable route on the map.

“You know how to shift on foot,” said Wolf.

“I carry Blackwind’s mobility in my heart,” said Luke.

“It takes Indian brother to understand that,” said Wolf. Luke nodded.

“I smell water; I think there’s a nice little blind valley up ahead where we can camp,” he said.  “Listen; rapid water.”

They came to a high point in the trail, down the other side of which a small river laughed and grumbled in turns, leaping from one level to the next.  It came gushing out of a raised valley floor in a fall as tall as a man, with a swirling pool below it.

“Not an obvious point to leave the trail,” said Luke, pleased. “Your horse might not like it.”

Wolf got off his horse, and unburdened it of packages, walked it back again, and remounted. Touching his heels to its sides he started to gallop, and with one bound, the horse topped the rise.

Wolf laconically dropped the end of a rope, and Luke attached the packages, to be pulled up the rise by the strength of the horse, guided past projections by Luke.  Luke followed after.

It was a bit of a scramble up rapids to the valley, but nothing Luke found difficult. The valley ran back another three or four hundred yards, to a pool fed by several small waterfalls from the mountain peaks above.

“Nice and cut off,” said Wolf, approvingly. “Waterfall make good fresh water. How long we stay?”

“As long as it takes,” said Luke. “I was considering building a cabin against the wall of the valley, and digging in as well.”

“Um.” Wolf grunted. “You want something to keep you occupied while Wolf goes looking.”

“Essentially, yes,” said Luke.

“Wolf help you with footings and chimney,” said Wolf. “Give Magree time to find things out.”

“May as well use the wall of the valley as one side of the chimney,” said Luke. “I’ll try not to get bored enough to tunnel clear through the mountain.”

“Let me know if you strike gold,” said Wolf.

“In your dreams,” said Luke.

“I can dream as well as any man,” said Wolf, cheerfully. 

They set up the tent for the night, and Luke shivered.

“Damned cold up here,” he said. “I wonder if there’s another bad winter coming.”

“Likely another few more,” said Wolf. “Bad things come in sevens.”

“Cheerful bugger,” said Luke.