Part 77 (1/2)

”Once,” Augustus said. ”He killed a Mexican bandit that way once before I could stop it. The Mexican had cut up three white people, but that wasn't what prompted it. The man scorned Call.”

He took another piece of candy. ”It don't do to scorn W. F. Call,” he said.

”Was it me?” Newt asked, feeling that maybe he should have managed things better. ”Was it just that he was quirting me?”

”That was part of it,” Augustus said. ”Call don't know himself what the rest of it was.”

”Why, he'd have killed that man, if you hadn't roped him,” Dish said. ”He would have killed anybody. Anybody!”

Augustus, eating his candy, did not dispute it.

86.

IT WAS BECAUSE of the fight that the boys ended up amid the wh.o.r.es. Dish saddled and left, and Augustus finished loading the wagon and started out of town. When he turned the wagon around, Newt and the Raineys were talking to Pea Eye, who had been up the street getting barbered and had missed the fight. Pea Eye had so much toilet water on that Augustus could smell him from ten feet away. He and the boys were standing around the b.l.o.o.d.y anvil and the boys were explaining the matter to him. Pea didn't seem particularly surprised.

”Well, he's a fighter, the Captain,” he said mildly. ”He'll box 'em if they get him riled.”

”Box?” Ben Rainey said. ”He didn't box. He run over the man with a horse and then near kicked his head off when he had him laying on the ground.”

”Oh, that's boxing, to the Captain,” Pea Eye said.

Augustus stopped the wagon. ”You boys aim to linger around here?” he asked.

The boys looked at one another. The fight had startled them so that they had more or less forgotten their plans-not that they had many.

”Well, it's our only chance to see the town,” Newt said, thinking Augustus was going to tell them to go back to the wagon.

That was not Augustus's intention. He had four ten-dollar gold pieces in his pocket, which he had intended to slip the boys on the sly. With Call gone, that was unnecessary. He flipped one to Newt, then handed them to each of the other boys.

”This is a bonus,” Augustus said. ”It's hard to enjoy a metropolis like this if you've got nothing but your hands in your pockets.”

”h.e.l.l, if you're giving away money, give me some, Gus,” Pea Eye said.

”No, you'd just spend it on barbers,” Augustus said. ”These boys will put it to better use. They deserve a frolic before we set out to the far north.”

He popped the team with the reins and rode out of town, thinking how young the boys were. Age had never mattered to him much. He felt that, if anything, he himself had gained in ability as the years went by. Yet he became a little wistful, thinking of the boys. However he might best them, he could never stand again where they stood, ready to go into a wh.o.r.ehouse for the first time. The world of women was about to open to them. Of course, if a wh.o.r.ehouse in Ogallala was the door they had to go through, some would be scared back to the safety of the wagon and the cowboys. But some wouldn't.

The boys stood around the blacksmith's shop, talking about the money Augustus had given them. In a flash, all the calculating they had done for the last few weeks was rendered unnecessary. They had means right in their hands. It was a dizzying feeling, and a little frightening.

”Ten dollars is enough for a wh.o.r.e, ain't it?” Ben Rainey asked Pea Eye.

”Ain't priced none lately,” Pea Eye said. It irked him that he had gone to the barbershop at the wrong time and missed the fight.

”Why not, Pea?” Newt asked. He was curious. All the other hands had rushed in, to the wh.o.r.es. Even Dish had done it, and Dish was said to be in love with Lorena. Yet Pea was unaffected by the clamor-even around the campfire he kept quiet when the talk was of women. Pea was one of Newt's oldest friends, and it was important to know what Pea felt on the subject.

But Pea was not forthcoming. ”Oh, I mostly just stay with the wagon,” he said, which was no answer at all. Indeed, while they were standing around getting used to having money to spend, Pea got his horse and rode off. Except for Lippy and the Irishman, they were the only members of the Hat Creek outfit left in town.

Still, none of the boys felt bold enough just to go up the back stairs, as Dish had instructed them. It was decided to find Lippy, who was known to be a frequenter of wh.o.r.es.

They found him standing outside a saloon looking very disappointed. ”There's only one pia-ner in this town, and it's broke,” he said. ”A mule skinner busted it. I rode all this way in and ain't got to hear a note.”

”What do you do about wh.o.r.es?” Jimmy Rainey asked. He felt he couldn't bear much more frustration.

”Why, that's a dumb question,” Lippy said. ”You do like the bull does with the heifer, only frontways, if you want to.”

Instead of clarifying matters, that only made them more obscure, at least to Newt. His sense of the mechanics of whoring was vague at best. Now Lippy was suggesting that there was more than one method, which was not helpful to someone who had yet to practice any method.

”Yeah, but do you just ask?” he inquired. ”We don't know how much it costs.”

”Oh, that varies from gal to gal, or madam to madam,” Lippy said. ”Gus gave Lorena fifty dollars once, but that price is way out of line.”

Then he realized he had just revealed something he was not supposed to tell, and to boys too. Boys were not reliable when it came to keeping secrets.

”I oughtn't to tolt that,” he said. ”Gus threatened to shoot another hole in my stomach if I did.”

”We won't tell,” Newt a.s.sured him.

”Yes, you will,” Lippy said. He was depressed anyway, because of the piano situation. He loved music and had felt sure he would get to play a little, or at least listen to some, in Ogallala. Yet the best he had done so far was a bartender with a harmonica, and he couldn't play that very well. Now he had really messed up and told Gus's secret.

Then, in a flash of inspiration, it occurred to him that the best way out of that tight spot was to get the boys drunk. They were young and not used to drinking. Get them drunk enough and they might forget Ogallala entirely, or even Nebraska. They certainly would not be likely to remember his chance remark. He saw that the strongest thing they had treated themselves to so far was h.o.r.ehound candy.

”Of course you boys are way too sober to be visiting wh.o.r.es,” he said. ”You've got to beer up a little before you attempt the ladies.”

”Why?” Newt asked. Though he knew wh.o.r.es were often to be found in saloons, he wasn't aware that being drunk was required of their customers.

”Oh, yeah, them girls is apt to be rank,” Lippy a.s.sured them. ”h.e.l.l, they wallow around with buffalo hunters and such like. You want to have plenty of alcohol in you before you slip up on one. Otherwise you'll start to take a leak some morning and your p.e.c.k.e.r will come right off in your hand.”

That was startling information. The boys looked at one another.

”Mine better not,” Pete Spettle said darkly. He was not enjoying himself in town so far, apart from the miracle of being handed ten dollars by Gus.

”Why, that's a leg pull,” Jimmy Rainey said. ”How could one come off?”

”Oh, well, if it don't come plumb off it'll drip worse than my stomach,” Lippy said. ”You boys oughtn't to doubt me. I was living with wh.o.r.es before any of you sprouted.”

”How do we get the beer?” Newt asked. He was almost as intrigued by the thought of beer as by the thought of wh.o.r.es. He had never quite dared go in a saloon for fear the Captain would walk in and find him.

”Oh, I'll get you the beer,” Lippy said. ”Got any cash?”

The boys looked at one another, reluctant to reveal the extent of their riches lest Lippy try to exploit them in some way. Fortunately they had nearly three dollars over and above what Gus had given them.

They shook out the small change and handed it to Lippy. They knew that drinking was something required of all real cowboys, and they were hot to try it.

”Will this get much?” Newt asked.

”h.e.l.l, will a frog hop?” Lippy said. ”I can get you plenty of beer and a bottle of whiskey to chase it.”