Confessions of a Gunfighter (11 page)

Chapter twenty-seven

I didn’t know what to do or say. Before I could think of something, Palmer reached down, unbuckled his gun belt, and tossed it aside.

“Stand up!” he said roughly. “Before I kill you I’m going to give you the whipping you deserve.”

“Are you crazy?” I asked in confusion. “You’re messing everything up! Kinrich’s going to kill you!”

I was expecting an answer, but Palmer was through talking.

He swung his fist and hit my jaw hard. The blast knocked me off the bench.

Before I could recover, he was on top of me. He swung both fists, and he peppered me in the face with short, powerful blows.

Within seconds my lips were busted, and blood flowed out my nose.

It was then that the feeling grabbed a-hold of me. I felt a rage deep down, and I forgot all about the trading post and Kinrich. Instead, my only thoughts were of survival.

From somewhere inside me an outraged yell erupted, and I shoved Palmer off me.

Palmer flew off the porch and landed in the street.

Before he could recover I was on my feet. I unbuckled my gun belt, and then I viciously attacked.

Palmer tried to raise his hands to fend me off, but I didn’t give him the chance as I hammered away with both fists. 

I heard a sharp, cracking sound in my left hand, but that didn’t stop me. I kept slamming away, and Palmer was really taking a beating.

But Palmer wasn’t done yet.

Suddenly he lashed out with a hard right to my midsection, and the blast left me momentarily stunned. He followed it with a smashing blow to the side of my face, and as I staggered backwards I barely kept on my feet.

I tasted blood, and my head throbbed with pain. But the feeling just wouldn’t let me quit, and with a wild fury I dove back at Palmer. 

We both swung our fists as we stood toe to toe and slugged it out. We both were taking a beating, but finally Palmer’s knees buckled. He hit the ground, and I was right on top of him, still swinging away.

But suddenly, I felt huge, rough hands grab a-hold of me from behind. I was yanked off Palmer, and I went flying through the air.

I hit the ground hard.

I looked up and saw a big man looking sourly at me. I also noticed that the big man wore a badge.

“Knock it off,” he said roughly. 

I got to my feet slowly, and as I did I noticed that a huge crowd had gathered around us. It looked like the whole town had come a-running to see the fight. 

The sheriff looked over at Palmer. 

“Help that man up, mister,” he told me.

I went over and grabbed Palmer by the shoulder. I pulled him to his feet, and then Palmer shoved me away. 

“Get your hands off me!” He muttered.

“I want to know what’s going on here,” the sheriff demanded.

Palmer just stood there looking sullen, so I turned to the sheriff. 

“I don’t rightly know myself, Sheriff,” I said.

The sheriff studied us with cold, hard eyes. 

“I ain’t never seen you two before. Why are you here?”

“I’m just passing through, looking for a ranch job,” I replied as I wiped blood off my lips.

The sheriff frowned, and then grunted. 

“Well, you ain’t going to be getting a job around these parts, I can guarantee it! You’re both leaving town right now, and if I see either one of you in my town again I’ll arrest you on sight! This here’s a peaceful little town, and we don’t tolerate trouble makers.”

“Yes, sir,” I replied meekly. 

“Now you two get outta my sight!”

It was embarrassing, being ordered out of town. While the whole town watched I grabbed my gun belt, and then I painfully climbed up onto Slim.

The sheriff made us ride out of town going in different directions, and I was glad for that. Now I could talk to Kinrich before Palmer did. 

I rode to the designated hideout, and by the time I got there one eye had completely swelled shut.

Camp was busy. Everybody was packing up, and nobody even noticed me.

I dismounted and looked for Kinrich.

That’s when I saw the pack mules. They were both loaded down with furs, and I was suddenly confused. 

“Button! You made it!” I heard Kinrich call out from behind me. 

I turned around and saw Kinrich walking up with a big grin on his face. Lee was behind him.  

“Where’s Palmer? Did you kill him?” Kinrich wanted to know.

“No, he should be riding in behind me,” I replied in a confused voice. “What’s going on here? Where did all them furs come from?”

Kinrich was still smiling big. 

“Well, after you left this morning Palmer came to me and started griping about you, saying that you tried to kill him and all. That’s when I decided to change things up a bit. Best way to rob anything is with a diversion, and you two did a good job.”

I was shocked. 

“
You
sent Palmer into town to fight me?”

Kinrich was real proud of himself. 

“I sure did. And it worked too. Nobody saw us when we robbed that trading post.”

“You could have warned me!” I said irritably.   

“I needed it to look real,” Kinrich replied. “And besides, I did warn you to be ready for anything, remember?”

“Palmer tried to kill me back there!” I replied angrily.

“Palmer did say that he wanted to kill you, so I told him to go ahead and try it,” Kinrich replied calmly.

“You
what
?” I asked in astonishment.

“I told you before that I can’t have turmoil amongst my men. But Palmer wasn’t going to let it go, so I told him I’d give him this one chance. He failed, so now it’s over. He knows I’ll kill him if he tries anything else.”

I was angry. 

“You used me as bait!”

Kinrich shrugged. 

“That’s one way to look at it, I reckon. ’Course, I figured you was tough enough to handle Palmer, and I was right. But you sure did take a beating though. You don’t look so good.”

I was so mad I couldn’t reply, but Kinrich didn’t seem to notice.

“We’ll be leaving in a bit. Until then, why don’t you sit in the shade and take it easy.”

Kinrich walked off and left me there. I was still mad, so I walked out of camp a ways to collect myself.

After a while Lee came out and joined me.

“You all right?” He wanted to know as he sat down beside me on a log.

I didn’t answer. Instead, I just shrugged.

Lee couldn’t help but smile.

“Ol’ Ben sure has a way of making a feller feel special, don’t he?”

“I reckon so,” I replied in a subdued voice.

“Palmer just rode back in. He looks worse than you do,” Lee said.

I tried to smile.

“Good.”

Lee looked me over. 

“What’s wrong with your hand?” He asked.

I looked down at my swollen fist. 

“I don’t know… I think I might have broke it.”

“And that ain’t the only thing,” Lee added as he looked at my face. “Your nose is broken for sure. Hold on, I’ll fix it.”

Lee grabbed my nose, and with a powerful twist he straightened it out. It stung really bad, and I couldn’t help the tears that ran down my face.

“There, that should do it,” Lee said as he leaned back. “And as for your hand, wrap it real tight with some cloth. It should heal pretty quick.”

“Thanks,” I replied gratefully. “I’ll do that.”

Lee was silent, and then he said softly, “Kinrich is sort-a hard to figure, ain’t he?”

I nodded soberly.

“Sure is.”

“Well, if you only learn one thing today; learn this,” Lee said seriously. “Don’t trust nobody, Rondo, not even me. We’re all a bunch of no good outlaws, and don’t you be thinking that we all will always stick together. Every man here is looking out for himself, and if there was anything to gain from it there ain’t a man here that wouldn’t kill you, ’cept for me.”

“I believe it,” I replied.

“Good,” Lee said as he stood. “And don’t you be forgetting it neither. It just might save your life one of these days.”      

Lee started to leave, but on second thought he stopped and turned back. 

“By the way; I saw most the fight. I ain’t never seen a feller fight with more guts than you did.”

“I was mad,” I explained dryly.

“Well you got my respect,” Lee said. “I’d ride with you any day.”

Lee left me alone, and as I sat there I thought some more about Kinrich. 

It was then that I started to see Kinrich in a different light. Before I had always thought of him as a friend, but now I didn’t know what to think.

I did know one thing. From now on, I was going to be wary of Ben Kinrich.    

Chapter twenty-eight

I stayed mad for a long time after the trading post robbery. But I finally got over it, and life went on.

My face was left with a few nasty scars, but in time both my hand and nose healed. My nose was a bit crooked, and Kinrich laughed often about it.

There was one thing that Kinrich didn’t laugh about, and that was when he heard that I got all of the credit for the trading post robbery. 

A feller from the wagon train had seen the fight, and had recognized me. This feller then told the sheriff all about me killing Tom Benson, and it didn’t take the sheriff long to put two and two together.

Somehow word had also gotten out that I had killed Glen Harris, and word was also out that I had joined up with Ben Kinrich. In fact, there was even another story going around that I was Kinrich’s right hand man.

All of this talk made me sound very dangerous. I now had the reputation of a gunfighter, and my name was a household name. I wasn’t very happy about this, but that’s just the way it was. 

Life as an outlaw went by fast. Job after job started flying by, and over time I finally became accepted as one of the boys. Course, I remembered Lee’s warning, and I didn’t trust nobody. Especially Palmer.

Palmer left me alone because he had to, but he sure didn’t like it. I was the one getting the reputation he so badly wanted, and he hated me for it.

Every job Kinrich planned was successful, and to my relief no innocent folks ever got killed. A few shots were fired from time to time, and once Valdez even got hit in the arm.

That was one thing that surprised me about being an outlaw. I had figured that we would get into all sorts of gunfights, but that just wasn’t the case. Most of the time folks were real quick to do what we asked, and Kinrich always planned things out so good that we were hardly ever put into dangerous situations.  

I’ll admit being an outlaw did have its bright sides. I was able to save up a lot of cash for our cattle venture, and I saw a lot of country. Over time we rode down all the main trails, and I got to know the country real good.

Before I knew it, two whole years had passed.

I was now seventeen. I wasn’t skinny and lanky anymore neither. I had grown taller and had filled out. My shoulders were wide and my hips were narrow.

We had been lucky those first two years, and everybody knew that it was just a matter of time before Kinrich’s luck ran out.

Trouble was, everybody ’cept Kinrich felt it. Whenever it was mentioned in front of Kinrich he’d just laugh scornfully and say that we were getting jumpy over nothing.

Looking back now, I can clearly see just how much Kinrich changed during those first two years. 

His mood swings started happening more regularly, and they lasted longer. One day he would yell and scream at me over nothing, and the next day he would try to be my best friend. 

I was confused by his behavior, and I kept my distance.

As for me, I kept getting more and more nervous. My greatest fear was that I would be forced to kill innocent folks, and it was on my mind constantly.

Deep down I knew it was time to quit. I know I’d told Kinrich I’d stay for four years, but I was afraid of what I was becoming.  

I asked Kinrich about it one day, and he got a funny look on his face.

“Why quit now, Button?” He asked. “I’d say things are going pretty good.”

“But we’ve got more than enough money now to start our own outfit,” I replied. “And that
was
the plan, wasn’t it?”

Kinrich was silent as he thought it over.

“Tell you what, Button,” Kinrich finally said. “I’ve already got some jobs lined up for this next year. Stick with me one more year, and then you and me will quit and get ourselves that cow outfit you’ve always wanted.”  

So there it was. One more year, and then my days of being an outlaw would be over for good. We had been lucky for two years; why not one more? 

“All right, Kinrich,” I answered. “I’ll stay one more year. But after that I’m leaving, with or without you.”

Then came the day when I killed another man.