“I don’t hear her complainin’,” Enos said and nudged Melissa. “Better watch yourself, Missy. This pup has taken a shine to you, or I’m the Queen of England.”
Charley’s anger mounted. “Quit callin’ me a pup.”
“Or what? You’ll huff and puff and get me all afeared of you? Mercy me, whatever will I do?”
To Charley’s dismay, when Howard cackled, Melissa laughed, too. “Since we might be workin’ together, we shouldn’t bandy insults.”
“Work? Hell, son, if that’s why you came lookin’ for me, you’re a loon. I haven’t done a lick of work in nigh on a year or better, and I don’t aim to do any for as long as I can avoid it.”
Melissa was as puzzled as Charley. “Then how do you make ends meet? How can you afford to buy potatoes and whiskey?”
“Anyone else, I’d tell them to go bite a porcupine, but since it’s you, Missy, I’ll let you in on my secret.” Howard lowered his voice. “Antlers, dearie. Deer antlers, elk antlers, antelope antlers, you name it. There’s this Chinese feller who’s willin’ to buy every one I find.”
Charley had been through Denver’s Chinese section a few times. It always fascinated him. A number of the buildings were exactly like the buildings in China, and everywhere he looked there were Orientals. Many worked on the railroad. Most had come to Denver by way of San Francisco.
“Wong is some kind of medicine man,” Howard was saying. “He grinds up the antlers, mixes ’em with herbs and whatnot, and sells the stuff to his own kind for whatever ails them.”
“You must shoot a lot of animals to get so many antlers,” Melissa mentioned, and she did not sound happy about it.
“Hell no, Missy. Dear and elk and the like shed them once a year. I’ve got me an old Injun who spends all his time lookin’ for antlers up in the foothills. I give him a bottle for every sackful he brings me. Then I take the sack to Wong.”
“How much do you earn?” Tony inquired.
“Enough to keep me in redeye for weeks at a stretch.” Howard licked his lips, then stroked his beard. His fingers trembled slightly. Swearing under his breath, he shoved his hand in a coat pocket.
Charley recognized the symptoms. Back in Kentucky, he had a neighbor who was uncommonly fond of liquor and, when in need of more, always came down with a powerful bad case of the shakes. “How would you like to make enough money to keep you in redeye for the next ten years?”
“Did somebody sell you a map to one of those lost Spanish mines?” Howard chortled.
Melissa cleared her throat. “We’re thinking of collecting the bounty on some wanted men and splitting it four ways. Equal shares for everyone, including you—provided you’ll throw in with us, of course.”
“Manhunters? You?” Howard erupted in a fit of glee. When he stopped, he glanced at Charley and Tony and began laughing anew so hard it brought tears to his eyes. “Lordy! I haven’t enjoyed a belly-buster like that in a coon’s age. Talk about flashes in the pan! What makes you lunkheads think you’ve got what it takes to be bounty chasers?”
Since Tony saw fit not to defend their honor, Charley took it upon himself. “We’d only need to collect bounty once. The men we plan to track down have a high-enough price on their heads that we can split it and still have plenty.”
“Who are these badmen, pray tell?”
“Maybe you’ve heard of them. They’re called the Hoodoos.”
Enos Howard acted like he had walked into a stone wall. He nearly tripped over his own feet, he stopped so suddenly. Utterly dumfounded, he gawked at Melissa, then Tony, then back at Charley. His mouth moved, but no words came out until, “The Hoodoos? Brock Alvord’s wild bunch?”
“The bounty on their heads is up to seven thousand dollars. I don’t know about you, but that’s more money than I’ve seen my whole life long.” Charley thought to add as incentive, “We’d each get one thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars.”
“You’d each get kilt, is what you’d get. Boy, that’s about the dumbest notion I’ve heard since who flung the chunk! What idiot came up with it?” Howard looked at Melissa, then at Tony, neither of whom met his gaze. Slapping his thigh, he exclaimed, “Don’t this beat all! It’s true what they say. You never can tell which direction a pickle is goin’ to squirt.”
Charley was trying to fathom how pickles were mixed up in it when the buffalo hunter nudged him.
“It was you, wasn’t it, hoss? You’re the grubber who thought this silliness up. The Hoodoos! You might as well go up against a pack of rabid wolves. The result would be the same.”
“They’re men, aren’t they? They put their britches on one leg at a time like the rest of us, don’t they?” Charley was mad again. “I didn’t expect this kind of talk from a buffalo hunter with your reputation. Why, you must have fought all kinds of men and beasts when you were in your prime.”
“First off, we call ourselves buffler runners, not hunters. Second, who in hell says I’m not in my prime?” Howard drew himself up to his full height. “I’ll have you know I can whip my weight in wildcats and beat a griz in a rasslin’ match. I am a two-legged twister, half-wolverine, half-snapper, and all grist and gristle. You won’t find another like me anywhere west of the muddy Mississippi.”
Tony rolled his eyes skyward. “And you say Buffalo Bill Cody likes to exaggerate?”
“Don’t rile me, pup,” Howard warned. “I’m hell with the bark on when I’m riled. Why, once I kilt seven Blackfeet with nothin’ but my Bowie and my bare teeth. They caught me in a box canyon, and I was plumb out of bullets so I lit into ’em man-to-man. I took two arrows in the shoulder and another in the leg, but when I was done, that canyon was runnin’ red with Blackfoot blood.”
Charley saw his opening. “Then huntin’ the Hoodoos should be a piece of cake for a man like you.”
“Those Blackfeet didn’t have guns,” Howard shot back. “And I was in a spot where they couldn’t get at me all at once.” Clasping Melissa’s arm, he resumed walking. “I’ve got to tell you, Missy, these acquaintances of yours have marbles between their ears.”
“It’s impossible then?” Melissa asked him
“Nothin’ is ever impossible, potato gal. One day Alvord’s luck will run out. A war party will catch the Hoodoos with their pants down. Or a sheriff will get up a posse that don’t know how to quit. Or an army patrol will be in the right place at the right time.”
Melissa nodded. “So it’s only impossible for us, is that what you’re saying, Mr. Howard?”
“It’s Enos. And don’t be puttin’ words in my mouth. I could track the Hoodoos clear to Canada if’n I was of a mind. Then all I’d have to do is keep my distance and pick ’em off one by one with my Sharps. At the Battle of the Chalk Cliffs, I dropped a Blackfoot chief at a range of a mile and a half, and I can do the same with the Hoodoos.”
“I heard it was three-quarters of a mile,” Charley said.
“Who was there, whelp? You or me?” Howard bared his yellow teeth like a dog about to bite. “Why, those Blackfeet were so far off, they weren’t no bigger than ants.”
Melissa plucked at his coat to get his attention. “I’m confused, Enos. First you say it can’t be done. Then you say exactly how it can be done. Which is it? Because if it can, I’d like you to consider our proposal. The money means more to me than you can imagine.”
Howard glanced down at his hands. They were shaking worse than before. Perhaps to disguise the fact, he tugged on his beard. “I truly would like to help you out, Missy. I’ll cogitate on it some over a drink. But I ain’t makin’ no promises.”
Charley wondered if Howard really would consider it, or whether he was only interested in the liquor. Little else was said until they reached Kincaid’s. They took a corner table.