‘Does he think we took the pelt?’
‘He most certainly does, and do you know why? One of his trappers claims to have seen you hurrying through the hall with it tucked under your arm. I asked Mayfield to upend our rooms and baggage but he said it was beneath him. He whispered to his whore, and she hurried away. She is searching the trappers out, I’d imagine.’ He moved to the window, gazing down at the main road. ‘It makes me angry to think of them playing such a trick on us. If I wasn’t feeling so low I’d go right after them.’ He looked over at me. ‘What about you, brother? Are you up for a fight?’
‘Hardly.’
Squinting, he asked, ‘What’s that under your coat?’
‘A gift from the girl.’
‘Is there to be a parade?’
‘It’s a simple bit of fabric to recall her by. A bomboniere, as Mother would say.’
He sucked his teeth. ‘You should not wear it,’ he said decisively.
‘It’s very expensive material, I think.’
‘The girl has played a joke on you.’
‘She is a serious person.’
‘You look like the prize goose.’
I untied and removed the cloth, folding it into a tidy square. I decided I would keep it with me but regard it only in private. ‘Now who has the red head?’ said Charlie. Turning back to the window, he tapped the pane and said, ‘Aha, here we go.’
I crossed over and saw the whore from the floor of the parlor speaking to the largest trapper. He stood listening, rolling a cigarette, and nodding; when she was through he shared with her some instruction or another, and she returned in the direction of the hotel. I watched her until she was out of sight, then looked again at the trapper, who had located us in the window and was staring from beneath his floppy-brimmed, pointed hat. ‘Where do you even get a hat like that?’ Charlie wondered. ‘They must make them themselves.’ The trapper lit his cigarette, exhaled a plume of smoke, and walked in the opposite direction of the hotel. Charlie slapped his leg and spit. ‘I hate to admit it, but we’re beat. Give me your double eagles, and I will hand mine in, also.’
‘Returning the money is just the same as an admission of guilt.’
‘It is our only option other than fighting or running, neither of which we are in any shape to do. Come on now, let’s have it.’ He approached and stood before me with his hand out. I went through the motions of patting my pockets, a sad pantomime that gave me away. Scratching his stubbly neck, he said, ‘You left it for the woman, didn’t you.’
‘That was my own earned money. And what a man does with his earned money is no other man’s business.’ Remembering his whore’s clutched hand as she had covered her mouth, I said, ‘Didn’t you give any of yours away?’
‘You know, I hadn’t thought of that.’ He checked his purse and laughed bitterly. ‘And Mayfield had said it was on the house, too.’
More shouting from the parlor. A bell was rung, a glass broken.
‘I hope you don’t propose to pay the man out of our own pockets,’ I said.
‘No, I am not that keen to make friends. Let me gather my things, then we’ll fetch yours. We can exit out your window and hope for an unchecked departure. We will fight if we must but I would prefer to wait for another day, when we are feeling one hundred percent.’ Bag in hand, then, he scanned the room and asked, ‘Have we got everything? Yes? All right. Let us navigate the hall in pure silence.’
Pure silence, I thought as we crept along to my quarters. The words struck me as somehow poetical.
Chapter 33
We climbed out the window of my room and snuck along the overhang that ran the length of the walkway. This proved handy to us, for Tub and Nimble were housed in a stable at the far end of Mayfield, and we covered that entire distance without a soul noticing our travels. At the halfway point, Charlie paused behind a tall sign to watch the largest trapper leaning against a hitching post below us. Now the other three joined him, and the group stood in a loose circle, speaking through their dirty beards. ‘Doubtless they are infamous among the muskrat community hereabouts,’ said Charlie. ‘But these are not killers of men.’ He pointed at the leader. ‘He is the one who stole the pelt, I’m sure of it. If we come up against them, I will take care of him. Watch the rest take flight at the first shot fired.’
The men dispersed and we continued along the overhang to its limit, dropping off and sneaking into the stable, where I found the bucktoothed hand standing next to Tub and Nimble, staring at them dumbly. He jumped at our greeting and was loath to help us with the saddles, which I should have been made suspicious by but was too distracted with thoughts of escape to dissect properly. And so: Charlie and I were tying off our bags when the four trappers stepped noiselessly from the stall behind ours. We did not notice them until it was too late. They had us cold, the barrels of their pistols leveled at our hearts.
‘You are ready to leave Mayfield?’ asked the largest trapper.
‘We are leaving,’ said Charlie. I was not sure how he would play it, but he had a habit of cracking his index fingers with his thumbs just prior to drawing his guns and I kept my ear trained for the noise.
‘You’re not leaving without returning the money you owe Mr. Mayfield.’
‘Mr. Mayfield,’ said Charlie. ‘The beloved employer. Tell us, do you make his bed down for him also? Do you warm his feet with your hands on the long winter nights?’
‘One hundred dollars or I will kill you. I will probably kill you anyway. You think I am slow in my furs and leather, but you will find me faster than you had believed. And won’t you be surprised to find my bullets in your body?’
Charlie said, ‘I do think you are slow, trapper, but it is not your clothing that hinders your speed. Your mind is the culprit. For I believe you to be just as stupid as the animals you lurk in the mud and snow to catch.’
The trapper laughed, or pretended to laugh, an imitation of lightness and good nature. He said, ‘I heard you getting drunk last night and thought, I will not drink a drop this evening. I will be rested and quick, just in case I have to kill this man in the morning. And now it is morning, and I ask you this only once more: Will you return the money, or the pelt?’
‘All you will get from me is Death.’ Charlie’s words, spoken just as casual as a man describing the weather, brought the hair on my neck up and my hands began to pulse and throb. He is wonderful in situations like this, clear minded and without a trace of fear. He had always been this way, and though I had seen it many times, every time I did I felt an admiration for him.
‘I am going to shoot you down,’ said the trapper.
‘My brother will count it out,’ said Charlie. ‘When he reaches three, we draw.’
The trapper nodded and returned his pistol to its holster. ‘He can count to one hundred if it suits you,’ he said, opening and closing his hand to stretch it.
Charlie made a sour face. ‘What a stupid thing to say. Think of something else besides that. A man wants his last words to be respectable.’
‘I will be speaking all through this day and into the night. I will tell my grandchildren of the time I killed the famous Sisters brothers.’
‘That at least makes sense. Also it will serve as a humorous footnote.’ To me, Charlie said, ‘He’s going to kill both of us, now, Eli.’
‘I have been happy these days, riding and working with you,’ I told him.
‘But is it time for final good-byes?’ he asked. ‘If you look closely at the man you can see his heart is not in it. Notice how slick his flesh has become. Somewhere in his being there is a voice informing him of his mistake.’