My Foot's in the Stirrup . . . My Pony Won't Stand (Code of the West) (24 page)

“Keep movin’,” Cabe growled.

“Shut up. Can’t you see this woman’s pregnant? She needs to catch her breath.”

“After we do away with Andrews and the other one, you’ll get the beatin’ of your life,” Banner threatened.

“Selena, doesn’t this remind you of the old days?” Pepper said.

“Keep movin’.” A prod from the shotgun barrel forced Pe
pper to stagger forward a step.

“You mean, like the time Tiny Moss and that bunch marched us out of April’s across the street to the barn?”

“Yes. This is just the same, don’t you think?”

“I remember. But are you sure?” Selena whispered. “You’re in a different shape than you were then.”

“Fat girls can fight, too. Let’s do it.”

Before daylight Tap and Lorenzo stopped to rest the horses and take a nap.

“At the rate we’re pushin’ ’em, these cayuses ought either to be broke or dead by the time we get to Pine Bluffs,” Tap remarked as he pulled the saddle off Roundhouse.

“I’ve been thinkin’ the same thing. What I can’t figure is, how in the world did the two of us fine experienced gunmen get stuck with these mounts in the first place?” Odessa grinned as he resat his hat.

“Because we’re too pigheaded stubborn to admit we bought lousy horses.”

“When we get back to town, I’ll shoot your horse if you’ll shoot mine. Then we’ll have an excuse for buyin’ new ones,” Lorenzo o
ffered.

Tap stretched out on top his bedroll. “You know what I can’t fi
gure? Cabe and Banner seem to be one jump ahead of us. They keep drawin’ us away from the herd and the others. They seem to know what we’ll do in every situation. Are we that predictable?”

“Yep. But we ain’t never goin’ to change. It gives us a sense of purpose.”

“Lookin’ after women?”

Odessa plopped down on the dry prairie grass and propped his head on his saddle. “Lookin’ after women, chi
ldren, and all those others who can’t look after themselves. If we didn’t do that, we’d be saddle bums like the ones we’re chasin’. It’s the thing that separates us from them. There has to be somethin’. Because you and me know we aren’t like them . . . deep down inside, at least. We don’t even think the same.”

“Lorenzo Odessa, cowboy philosopher.”

“Shoot, Tap, you know what I mean.”

“Yeah. But maybe we need to expand our purpose.”

“Like what?”

“Like raising a God-fearing family, putting meat on the t
able for all them folks back east, and bringing a little civilizin’ to this wild country.”

“That’s easy for you to say, partner. You got the wife and junior on the way.”

“You could catch up mighty quick, Odessa.”

“Been givin’ it some thought.”

“You mean Selena?”

“Yeah. What do you think I should do first?”

“Settle up with the Almighty.”

“You’re serious, ain’t ya?”

“Yep. . . . Are you?”

“You figure we’ll reach Pine Bluffs tomorrow mornin’?”

“You’re changin’ the subject, Odessa.”

“You got me pinned in a corner, Andrews. I’ve got to find a loose barn board somewhere.”

Tap closed his eyes and thought he felt a slightly cool breeze roll across the prairie.

“You know I’m right, Lorenzo.”

“Okay, okay, you’re right. Does that make you happy?”

“Yep.”

“Now when will we make it to Pine Bluffs?”

“I reckon we’ll ride into Pine Bluffs about this time tomo
rrow mornin’.”

“Unless we can catch up with Cabe and Banner first,” Lorenzo mumbled.

The second day they rested their horses and themselves more and more often. Sometime in the middle of the night they reached the Union Pacific tracks and headed west toward Pine Bluffs. Tap bypassed the livery and rode straight to his house. Tying the horses up to the fence in the front yard, Tap pulled his rifle and sauntered to the front door. His boot heels banged on the wooden sidewalk, and his spurs jingled. Down the street a dog barked. To the east, the sky broke into a predawn gray. The slightly bowlegged Lorenzo Odessa followed him, carbine over his shoulder.

Tap banged on the door.

“Who’s there?”

The quick reply from right inside the door startled him.

“Angelita?”

“Mr. Andrews?”

“Open the door, little darlin’. It’s me.”

The thick wooden door swung inward. In the glow of the lantern Angelita stood by the doorway, carrying a shotgun. She dropped the gun and ran to throw her arms around him.

“What’s wrong, darlin’? Where’s Pepper?”

“They took her,” she sobbed. “They tricked her, and then they took her. And I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to go after them. Honest, I did. But Mrs. Andrews insisted I stay here with the door locked. And I was scared, really scared. They said you were dying, and I was afraid to see you dead.”

“Who took her?”

“I don’t know,” Angelita sobbed.

“Where’s Selena?” Odessa asked.

“They took her, too.”

“Banner and Cabe?” Bending low, Tap pushed Angelita to arm’s length to look steady in her dark eyes. “When did this happen and where did they go?”

“Maybe half an hour ago. They were goin’ to the livery. But if they got horses or a carriage, I don’t know where they went. I couldn’t stop ’em. I tried to take care of Mrs. Andrews like you told me. I’m so sorry,” A
ngelita wailed.

Tap hugged her again. “It’s okay, darlin’. Now you wait here, and me and Odessa will go after the ladies.”

“No, I can’t wait here. I have to help. Please.”

Tap wiped the corner of her eyes with his callused thumbs.

Lord, Pepper hasn’t had any peace from the day she married me. This is crazy. The one thing in life I want to do most—take good care of her—I’m the biggest failure.

“Grab that Greener, Angelita, and come on.”

She clutched the shotgun and followed Tap and Odessa out the door into the early morning dawn. They had just reached the horses when a deep voice rolled out from the shadows.

“Andrews, I’m here to arrest you.”

Tap raised his rifle in the direction of the voice.

“Don’t try it,” came another voice behind them.

“I don’t have time for this, Marshal.” Tap kept his rifle raised.

“I got papers.”

“And Cabe and Banner are holding my expectant wife and another woman hostage. I’ve got to find them before they are harmed.”

“I don’t know anything about that.”

“You don’t know anything at all,” Odessa broke in. “Tap was in Sundance Mountain when Tracker was killed. Me and a dozen others will testify to that.”

“Cabe shot Tracker, and now he’s threatenin’ harm to my wife. Marshal, if you’re goin’ to use that gun, you better make your play, because I’m goin’ to rescue my wife if it’s the last thing on earth that I do.”

“If I pulled both these triggers, would both barrels fire at once?”

Tap and the marshal glanced back. Angelita had slipped around to the side of the horses. She pointed the shotgun at the marshal’s mi
dsection.

“Just a minute, little girl,” the marshal hollered.

"I'm not a little girl. I’m a young lady.”

“Don’t point that at me.”

Tap and Odessa grabbed the reins of their horses and led them across the street.

“Where are you going? You’re under arrest,” the marshal cried out.

“We can visit about it over a cup of coffee later,” Tap replied.

“Then we’ll go with you.” The marshal and his deputy scu
rried to keep up with Tap and Lorenzo. “How do we know you won’t just mount up and escape by riding out of town?”

Odessa turned around to the lawmen. “Why don’t you two ride our horses, and we’ll walk to the livery?”

Tap gave Lorenzo a look.

“I’ll take the gray. You take the roan,” the marshal m
otioned to his lanky deputy.

The deputy lasted four jumps before the roan deposited him on the hitching rail by the bakery. The thick beam cracked like a toot
hpick, and the deputy didn’t move. The marshal was still clutching the horn with both hands as Roundhouse tore down the alley sideways, rear hooves in the air, head ducked under a full clothesline.

Tap, Odessa, and Angelita raced toward the livery.

“That was a mighty mean trick to play on decent lawmen,” Tap chided.

“If they’re goin’ to stay in the marshalin’ business, they better i
mprove their horse-ridin’ skills. Maybe we should sell them those two ponies.”

Tap ducked down a side street, coming up to the livery from the west side. Squatting down in the dying shadows of night, he surveyed the empty street. Odessa and Angelita hunkered down beside him.

“What do we do from here?” Odessa asked. “We don’t know if they rode out of town or are hiding in the livery.”

“I figure they’re in there. They want us, not the women. We might go tearin’ out on the prairie and not find them.”

“You think they won’t harm the women until they take care of us first?”

“That’s what I’m hopin’.”

“And prayin’?” Odessa quizzed.

Tap nodded. “Angelita, you stay here.”

“I want to go in with you,” she insisted.

“I need you here. If you hear a lot of gunfire and Cabe or Banner comes out of that building, let ’em have a barrel from back here. That will slow them down and keep you safe. Can you do that for me?”

“I can do it. I won’t let you down this time, Mr. Andrews.”

“Darlin’, you’ve never let me down in your life.” He hugged her. “Come on, Odessa, we’ve got business across the street.”

“Straight at ’em?”

“Yep. I just don’t have the time or energy to figure out som
ethin’ fancy.”

Both men began walking side by side toward the livery barn. Tap held the rifle at his hip, as did Lorenzo the ca
rbine. Reaching the huge front doors, Tap transferred the rifle to his left hand and pulled his revolver. He motioned for Odessa to swing open the right side door. As he did, Tap dove through the doorway, intending to roll to his knees and come up ready to fire.

Instead, his left knee crashed into the stock of his rifle. The pain forced him to collapse and drop face first into the dirt floor of the livery.

“Just stay right there in the dirt, mister, or your compadre is dead.”

It was a familiar voice.

A woman’s voice.

Tap pushed himself up on one elbow.

“Selena?”

“Tap?”

“Tap,” Pepper shouted.

“Pepper darlin’, are you all right?” Tap sat up in the dirt and r
etrieved his dropped rifle.

The two big front doors of the barn swung wide. Daylight r
evealed the scene inside.

“Miss Selena,” Odessa called in, “are you safe?”

“You two weren’t worried about us, were you?” Selena called back.

Tap brushed himself off and hobbled with Odessa over to Selena and Pepper in an almost empty stall. The only co
ntents were a roped and tied Colton Banner and Wesley Cabe. Selena held a knife, Pepper a pitchfork.

“For God’s sake, Andrews, get this woman away from me,” Ba
nner grumbled. There was blood on the right sleeve of his coat.

Pepper slipped her arms around Tap.

“Are you and little Tap all right, darlin’?”

“We’re fine.”

“They didn’t hurt you?”

“They didn’t get a chance.”

“But they must have had guns. How did you do that?”

“They made a serious mistake when they tangled with two retired dance-hall girls,” Selena explained. She backed away from Banner and strolled over to Odessa, slipping her arm in his.

“Retired?” Lorenzo asked.

“That’s up to you, cowboy.” Selena winked with a very bruised eye.

Tap pushed his hat back and scratched the back of his neck. “But still I can’t figure how you could . . . I mean, Cabe and Banner are the kind who wouldn’t hesitate to . . . Here you are, you know, in a womanly way.”

“I’m fat.” Pepper managed a slight smile. “But don’t ever think ten years in dance halls leaves a girl defenseless. We know how to fight.”

“And we don’t play by the rules.” Selena waved the knife at Banner’s midsection. “This guy didn’t think I’d use my knife. That was a serious mistake.”

Pepper waved her arm at the two bound men. “Mr. Cabe let me get too close to a pitchfork. I suppose my motherly cond
ition threw him off guard.”

Selena slipped her knife back into the sleeve of her dress. “The first lesson in self-defense in a dance hall is not to bluff. You have to be ready to do whatever you threatened to do.”