“I’m willing,” Matt replied.
“I figured you would be. But I’d appreciate it if you didn’t say nothin’ to the other passengers about that wheel.”
“I won’t say a word,” Matt promised.
“All right, Johnny, let’s get the luggage loaded, then you can tell the folks in there we’re ready to go.”
The luggage was brought out onto the porch, then loaded into the boot, though there was so much that several pieces had to be put on the roof. Gabby and Johnny spent about five minutes loading and securing the luggage. Then Gabby climbed up into the driver’s seat.
“Come on up, sonny,” Gabby called down to Matt. “Soon as the others get loaded, we’ll get under way.”
The road ran parallel with the Southern Pacific Railroad tracks, and about two hours after they left Sentinel, they passed the burnt-out, smashed, and strewn cars from the wreck. A huge, rail-mounted lifting crane was on the scene as a railroad work crew went about the business of repairing the railroad and cleaning up the mess.
“That must’ve been some wreck,” Gabby said.
“It was.”
Gabby looked over at Matt. “Was you in it?”
“Yes.”
“Well, I’ll be. All this time we’ve been talkin’, and you ain’t said nothin’ about bein’ in the wreck.”
Matt laughed. “Gabby, if you’ll excuse me for saying so, all this time you’ve been talking.”
Gabby laughed. “Well, I guess you got me on that one, sonny,” he said. “It weren’t for nothin’ that I come by this moniker Gabby. So you was in that train wreck, was you?”
“Yes.”
“I figured it was pretty bad, what with all the bodies and the injured that was brought into town and all. I guess I just didn’t have me any idee of what it actual looked like.”
“Maybe, seeing the train wreck, the complainers down inside will understand why they are being inconvenienced,” Matt suggested.
“Ha, don’t count on it,” Gabby said. “Folks like that would complain if you hung ’em with a new rope.”
Matt chuckled, though as he had been on his way to being hanged, the joke hit a little closer to home than he would have wanted.
“Gabby, have you ever heard of an outlaw named Cletus Odom?”
“I hope to smile I’ve heard of him. Why are you asking about him? Don’t tell me you are a bounty hunter, lookin’ to claim the reward on him.”
“No, I just heard the name and I was wondering about him, that’s all,” Matt said. “Why, is there a reward on him?”
“Oh, yeah, there’s a reward on him all right. Five thousand dollars it is, same as what’s on this Jensen fella. But whoever goes after it will have to earn it, because I’ll tell you this about him. He may be just about the meanest son of a bitch that ever drawed a breath. He robbed a coach once, then shot ever’ man, woman, and child so’s nobody could identify him. Only one of the women lived long enough to tell the law who did it, which is how come we know who it was.”
“That was a brave woman,” Matt said.
“Yes, sir, she was that.”
“This man, Cletus Odom,” Matt continued. “Would he be the kind of man that would wreck a train just to rob it?”
“Hell, yes,” Gabby said. “He’d do that in a heartbeat. And to tell you the truth, if we didn’t know for sure that this here Matt Jensen fella wrecked the train, I would’a bet a dollar to a doughnut that Odom did it.”
“How do we know that Matt Jensen did it?”
“How do we know? ’Cause Marshal Kyle said he done it.”
“And you believe everything Kyle says?”
“Well, Ben Kyle is a good man,” Gabby said. “He ain’t given much to lies and such. So, if he said Jensen done it, then I reckon I have to go along with that.”
“How do you think he did it?”
“There’s prob’ly lots of ways he could’a done it. He could’a shot the engineer and fireman, so there was nobody to run the train. And it if was goin’ too fast around a curve, well, you could see what would happen.”
“But why would he have done such a thing?”
“Well, if he stole the money, then he prob’ly wrecked the train just to cause a lot of confusion so’s he could get away.”
“You seem to have it all worked out,” Matt said.
Gabby chuckled. “Yes, sir. Well, truth to tell, though I ain’t never done nothin’ like that, from time to time I like to plan things out. Sort of a hobby, you might say.”
“I see.”
“But now, don’t go gettin’ me wrong,” Gabby said. “They ain’t no way on God’s green earth I’d ever actual do somethin’ like that.”
“Getting back to Cletus Odom,” Matt said. “Do you know much about him?”
“You sure are askin’ a lot of questions,” Gabby said.
Matt chuckled. “Well, I tell you, Gabby, you like to talk, so I figured I would just see to it that you talk about something I’m interested in.”
Gabby guffawed. “You got me there, sonny,” he said. “Yes, sir, you really did. Well, let’s see, what do I know about Cletus Odom?”
Gabby spit a wad of tobacco, which hit the top of the wheel, then rolled under with the progress of the stage. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.
“Cletus Odom,” he said again. “All right, sonny, you just sit there and listen, and I’ll tell you about Cletus Odom.
“At one time, Cletus Odom was on the right side of the law. Leastwise, you could say that. He was a bounty hunter, you see, but he was the kind who would rather bring in dead quarry than live prisoners. He always made the claim that he didn’t have no choice, that he was only defendin’ himself. Even then, there was folks that didn’t like him, but then he done somethin’ that put him on the wrong side of the law for good.”
Gabby pulled out a twist of chewing tobacco, offered it to Matt, who declined, then bit off a big chew. He worked the chew down somewhat before he continued his tale.
“Seems there was a couple of cowboys named Evans and McCoy. They rode for the Rocking J. That’s a spread about ten miles south of Sentinel. I know’d ’em both, they was good boys—a little rambunctious at times, if you know what I mean. But all in all they was good boys.
“Well, sir, after a drive one day—wan’t that much of a drive, all they done was just bring some cows into town from the ranch in order to ship ’em out on the railroad. Then, after they got the cows loaded and drawed their pay, they went into the Ox Bow and started drinkin’.
“Turns out that Odom was in the saloon, too, and he was causin’ trouble for this little ole’ gal that Evans liked. I mean, she was a whore, there was no gettin’ around that, but Evans was sweet on her. Anyhow, when he seen Odom slap her, he walked over and knocked Odom down.”
Gabby spit out a stream of tobacco, then wiped his mouth with the back of his hand before he continued the story.
“Well, sir, Odom, he didn’t like that much. No, sir, he didn’t like that none at all. So he got to eggin’ Evans and McCoy on, callin’ ’em cowards and other things that no man could take and still call hisself a man. Then, Evans and McCoy pulled iron agin’ Odom. And that was their mistake.”
“He killed them?”
“He kilt both of ’em, deader’n a doornail,” Gabby said. “There was an inquest, but it was ruled self-defense, bein’ as a lot of people seen that Evans and McCoy drawed first. ’Course nobody felt good about it, what with Odom eggin’ ’em on like he done. So whatever support Odom might have had for bringin’ in outlaws was sort of used up that day.”
“If he was found not guilty, why is there a reward out for him?” Matt asked.
“Well, sir, like I said, Odom didn’t have many friends left after he kilt them two cowboys. Then, not long after that, he kilt a man and brung him in for the reward. Onliest thing is, they had already pulled the paper on the feller he brought in, when they found out that he wasn’t guilty. Besides which, the reward didn’t say nothin’ about ‘dead or alive’ in the first place. They tried Odom again, an’ this time they found him guilty of murder, but he escaped and went on the outlaw trail.”