Part 23 (1/2)

He nudged the bay forward.

I put on the hat and followed.

We rode down dusty Locust Street, past the sleepy saloons and the tired brothels, where the inhabitants were loitering in doorways with cups of coffee or gla.s.ses of whiskey in their hands, cigarettes dangling from their lips. They watched us pa.s.s without saying a word or giving a wave of greeting. As we approached Bridge Street, the bell at the Union Church on Gospel Ridge began to ring. I knew it was because a preacher had been sent down the tracks from Emporia or Newton or Topeka to hold services. But in my bones, it felt like the bell was tolling for me and for Calder.

Then we turned south on Bridge Street, and just south of town we had to pay a toll of a dollar apiece at the big wooden bridge across the Arkansas River. We pa.s.sed a cottonwood tree and Calder told me to take a good look at it, because it would be the last tree for a good, long while.

At points not far south of Dodge, we had our pick of trails that veered off, including the Western Trail, the Adobe Walls Trail, and the Jones and Plummer Trail, which led to Fort Elliott. All of these trails had been opened up in 1875 because the last free bands of Comanche and Kiowa had been rounded up and put on reservations near Fort Sill, deep in Indian Territory.

Thus began three days of hard travel over hard country.

After we left the Arkansas River Valley, the land flattened and dried out, but it wasn't so bad because we met a few herds coming north. We could parlay with the cowboys who traveled with them, and sometimes spared a few minutes for coffee or beans at the chuck wagons that preceded the herds. The weather was pleasant enough, not too hot and not too cold. Once or twice, we were soaked by a sudden shower.

Then we entered No Man's Land, a narrow strip of land between Texas and Kansas that had been set aside for the Indians to hunt buffalo, but which had been opened up after the Indians were imprisoned on the reservation. The deeper we went in No Man's Land, the lonelier we became. Calder said we were gaining ground on the supply caravan. He could tell because of the freshness of the dung left by the oxen.

On the afternoon of the third day, we entered a rolling plain, and Calder said we had crossed over into Texas. Close to sundown, we came upon a little cabin next to a creek. Calder expressed surprise.

”Don't remember this,” he said.

”You've been this way before,” I said.

”Not in years,” he said. ”Last time I was here, all of this was controlled by the Kiowa and Comanche. Anybody who put down stakes here would be asking to be burned out, and worse. I guess times have changed. Let's see what the occupants have seen in the past couple of days. Act friendly and keep your hands out where the folks in the cabin can see them, so they know you aren't hiding a gun.”

We rode up to within thirty yards of the cabin and stopped.

”Aren't you going to say something?” I asked.

”Nope,” Calder said. ”They're looking us over to decide if they want to invite us in or not.”

So we sat there, and the rest gave me time to study the sky beyond the cabin. There was a wicked-looking line of clouds in the southwest, their flat bottoms dark with rain, and their tops ascending the sky like castle walls. A gentle wind was preceding the storm, but no rain yet.

After another minute or so, the cabin door swung open on leather hinges. A young man stood in the doorway, holding a shotgun in both hands. His suspenders were down and his feet were bare, as if he had just rolled out of bed.

”Looking for trouble?” the man asked.

”Not particularly,” Calder said.

”Are you with them?”

”Mister,” Calder said, ”we're with n.o.body but ourselves. Sorry to bother you. We'll be on our way.”

Calder tugged the brim of his hat and turned his horse, and I followed.

”Wait!” the man called.

”Is there something we can do for you?” Calder asked over his shoulder.

”You can tell me if I've gone crazy or not,” he said. ”Yesterday the supply train bound for Fort Elliott came by here. They crossed the creek at the rocky ford yonder.”

”Was a whiskey trader by the name of Vanderslice with them?”

”There was a whiskey trader, but I don't know his name.”

”Tall? Good-looking?” I asked.

”He was vain, if that's what you mean.”

We turned back and walked our horses to within a few yards of the cabin.

”What you got that scattergun loaded with?” Calder asked.

”Dimes. A dollar of silver in each barrel.”

”What has you so rattled?” Calder asked.

”Mister, I saw a man turn into a wolf yesterday.”

”That a fact?” Calder asked.

”Saw a man turn into a wolf and rip the stuffing out of my brother like he was just a rag doll, right here in front of the cabin. So I figure I'm either going crazy or there is something powerful evil on the loose. Either way, it don't sit easy with me.”

”You're not crazy,” I said, dismounting. ”My name is Ophelia Wylde, and this is my partner, Jack Calder. I talk to the dead, and Jack's a bounty hunter. We're on the trail of this evil thing you saw yesterday. Do you mind if we come in and talk?”

The man invited us in, but kept the shotgun across his lap as he sat at a table with his back to the wall. He said his name was Pollux Adams and that he was twenty-five years old and that he had been a cowboy driving herds from the panhandle over to the Western Trail. He said he liked this little patch of land along Kiowa Creek enough that he came back with his brother, Castor, and filed a claim, becoming the first white settler in probably fifty miles. That had been a year ago. And apart from the occasional Indian scare, things had gone right well-until yesterday.

The wagon caravan bossed by Malleus had always made him uneasy, he said, but it had never given him any trouble. The train had a dozen or so rangy bullwhackers who seemed more animal than human, but that wasn't unusual for bullwhackers, because they were a rough sort. But these bullwhackers, he said, were rougher than usual, and he never heard them speak-just snarl and snap at one another. Yesterday afternoon the Malleus train rattled over the ford as usual, but one of the whackers seemed particularly aggressive. Castor and Pollux Adams were cooking up some supper on the little stove inside the cabin, just jackrabbit stew and corn bread, and the whacker came right into the cabin and lunged for the pot. He burned himself, of course, spilled the stew all over the floor, and scrambled like a wounded animal on all fours as he slunk away. Castor gave him a swift kick in the ribs for his trouble, and the man yelped and snapped at him before running out the door.

”It was the d.a.m.ndest thing I ever saw,” Pollux Adams said. ”The man behaved just like an animal. Castor and me laughed about it, and then we cleaned up the mess on the floor, and salvaged what jackrabbit meat we could, and started another batch. We ate supper, and had a smoke, and sat outside while it grew dark.”

A blast of wind hit the cabin and rattled the shutters as Pollux told us his tale. The cabin door was open, as were the shutters on the windows, and the air and sky had turned an odd green hue.

”I don't like the color of outside,” Calder said.

”What happened next?” I asked, ignoring him.

”It was twilight when the whacker came back,” Pollux said in a voice so low we had to listen hard to catch every word. ”He had stayed hidden down by the creek while the train had moved on. He walked up like a man, but by the time he got to the night shadow of the cabin, he was a wolf-a big gray one with yellow eyes.”

”What did you do?” I asked.

”We both were so surprised, we didn't do anything for a moment-like that feeling you get in dreams when you're scared but can't move,” Pollux said. ”But we came out of it pretty quick when we realized the wolf was coming at us. Both Castor and me are in the habit of keeping our pieces in our belts, because you never know out here when you're going to need them right quick, and we both drew down on the rangy beast and fired. I can't conceive of how we missed, but apparently we did. The wolf didn't even slow down. When he was about six feet out, he jumped and landed square on Castor's chest and tore open his throat like he was bringing down a calf.”

There was a flash of lightning outside, followed a split second later by thunder, which shook dust from the rafters. Then came the patter of rain on the shake roof.

”Ophelia, we need to get the horses under that pole and thatched stable out back,” Calder said.

”Jack, I need to hear the rest of this story.”