Part 66 (1/2)

Call and Augustus had to grab his arms and hold him steady. Dan dug his chin into his chest, so that Deets had to grab his hair and pull his head back to get the rope around his neck.

”You're a fool, Suggs,” Augustus said. ”You don't appreciate a professional when you see one. Men Deets hangs don't have to dance on the rope, like some I've seen.”

”You're yellowbellies, both of you, or you would have fought me fair,” Dan Suggs said, glaring down at him. ”I'll fight you yet, barehanded, if you'll just let me down. I'll fight the both of you right now, and this n.i.g.g.e.r boy too.”

”You'd do better to say goodbye to your brothers,” Call said. ”I expect you got them into this.”

”They're not worth a red p.i.s.s and neither are you,” Dan said.

”I'll say this for you, Suggs, you're the kind of son of a b.i.t.c.h it's a pleasure to hang,” Augustus said. ”If guff's all you can talk, go talk it to the devil.”

He gave Dan Suggs's horse a whack with a coiled rope and the horse jumped out from under him. When Dan's horse jumped, little Eddie's bolted too, and in a moment the two men were both swinging dead from the limb.

Roy Suggs looked pained. A brother dangled on either side of him. ”I ought to have been second,” he said. ”Little Eddie was the youngest.”

”You're right and I'm sorry,” Augustus said. ”I never meant to scare that boy's horse.”

”That horse never had no sense,” Roy Suggs remarked. ”If I was little Eddie I would have got rid of him long ago.”

”I guess he waited too long to make the change,” Augustus said. ”Are you about ready, sir?”

”Guess so, since the boys are dead,” Roy Suggs said. ”Right or wrong, they're my brothers.”

”It's d.a.m.n bad luck, having a big brother like Dan Suggs, I'd say,” Augustus said.

He walked over to Jake and put a hand on his leg for a moment.

”Jake, you might like to know that I got Lorie back,” he said.

”Who?” Jake asked. He felt very dull, and for a second the name meant nothing to him. Then he remembered the young blond wh.o.r.e who had been so much trouble. She had put him off several times.

”Why, Lorie-have you had so many beauties that you've forgotten?” Augustus said. ”That d.a.m.n outlaw took her away.”

To Jake it seemed as remote as his rangering days-he could barely get his mind back to it. Call walked over. Now that they were about it he felt a keen sorrow. Jake had ridden the river with them and been the life of the camp once-not the steadiest boy in the troop, but lively and friendly to a fault.

”Well, it'll soon be dark,” he said. ”I'm sorry it's us, Jake-I wish it had fallen to somebody else.”

Jake grinned. Something in the way Call said it amused him, and for a second he regained a bit of his old dash.

”h.e.l.l, don't worry about it, boys,” he said. ”I'd a d.a.m.n sight rather be hung by my friends than by a bunch of strangers. The thing is, I never meant no harm,” he added. ”I didn't know they was such a gun outfit.”

He looked down at Pea Eye and Deets, and at the boy. Everyone was silent, even Gus, who held the coiled rope. They were all looking at him, but it seemed no one could speak. For a moment, Jake felt good. He was back with his old companeros companeros, at least-those boys who had haunted his dreams. Straying off from them had been his worst mistake.

”Well, adios adios, boys,” he said. ”I hope you won't hold it against me.”

He waited a moment, but Augustus seemed dumbstruck, holding the rope.

Jake looked down again and saw the glint of tears in the boy's eyes. Little Newt cared for him, at least.

”Newt, why don't you take this pony?” he said, looking at the boy. ”He's a pacer-you won't find no easier gait. And the rest of you boys divide what money's in my pocket.”

He smiled at the thought of how surprised they would be when they saw how much he had-it was that lucky week in Fort Worth he had to thank for it.

”All right, Jake, many thanks,” Newt said, his voice cracking.

Before he got the thanks out, Jake Spoon had quickly spurred his pacing horse high back in the flanks with both spurs. The rope squeaked against the bark of the limb. Augustus stepped over and caught the swinging body and held it still.

”I swear,” Pea Eye said. ”He didn't wait for you, Gus.”

”Nope, he died fine,” Augustus said. ”Go dig him a grave, will you, Pea?”

They buried Jake Spoon by moonlight on the slope above the creek and, after some discussion, cut down Roy Suggs and little Eddie, plus the old man Dan Suggs had killed, a drummer named Collins with a wagonful of patent medicines. There was a good lantern in the wagon, which, besides the medicines, contained four white rabbits in a cage. The old man had run a medicine show, evidently, and did a little magic. The wagon contained a lot of cheaply printed circulars which advertised the show.

”Headed for Denver, I guess,” Call said.

Dan Suggs they left hanging. Augustus took one of the circulars and wrote ”Dan Suggs, Man Burner and Horse Thief on the back of it. He rode over and pinned the sign to Dan Suggs's s.h.i.+rt.

”That way if a lawman comes looking for him he'll know he can quit the search,” Augustus said.

They rounded up Wilbarger's horses and unhitched the two mules that had been pulling the little wagon. Augustus wanted to take the white rabbits, but the cage was awkward to carry. Finally Deets put two in his saddlebags, and Augustus took the other two. He also sampled the patent medicines and took several bottles of it.

”What do you think it will cure, Gus?” Pea Eye asked.

”Sobriety, if you guzzle enough of it,” Augustus said. ”I expect it's just whiskey and syrup.”

The wagon itself was in such poor repair that they decided to leave it sit. Call broke up the tailgate and made a little marker for Jake's grave, scratching his name on it with a pocketknife by the light of the old man's lantern. He hammered the marker into the loose-packed dirt with the blunt side of a hatchet they had found in the wagon. Augustus trotted over, bringing Call his mare.

”I'm tired of justice, ain't you?” he asked.

”Well, I wish he hadn't got so careless about his company,” Call said. ”It was that that cost him.”

”Life works out peculiar,” Augustus said. ”If he hadn't talked you into making this trip, we wouldn't have had to hang him today. He could be sitting down in Lonesome Dove, playing cards with Wanz.”

”On the other hand, it was gambling brought him down,” Call said. ”That's what started it.”

Deets and Pea Eye and Newt held the little horse herd. Newt was leading the horse Jake had left him. He didn't know if it was right to get on him so soon after Jake's death.

”You can ride the pacing pony,” Deets said. ”Mister Jake meant you to have it.”

”What will I do with his saddle?” Newt asked. ”He didn't say anything about the saddle.”

”It's better than that old singletree of yours,” Pea Eye said. ”Take it-Jake's through with it.”

”Don't neither of you want it?” Newt asked. It bothered him to take it, for Jake hadn't mentioned it.