MacCallister Kingdom Come (24 page)

It was nearly midnight when Wang, dressed in black, moved silently down the alley that ran behind the laundry. The blade of his sword caught a beam of moonlight and sent a sliver of silver into the night.

Reaching the back of the saloon, he climbed up the wall, finding foot- and handholds where none existed. He could hear muttering sounds coming through some of the windows opened to the warm night. Realizing that they were windows that opened into occupied rooms, he passed by those windows, moving sideways across the back of the building until he reached the window that opened onto the hallway. Using it as his point of entry into the building, he climbed inside.

Even though it was quite late, the saloon was very busy, and from the floor below Wang could hear the sounds of the piano and scattered conversation. A woman's loud shout was followed by a bellow of laughter from both men and women.

The hallway was dimly illuminated by low-burning wall-mounted lanterns, and as Wang moved down the hallway he extinguished the lamps one at a time. The result was a shaft of almost total darkness behind him.

Just ahead of him a door opened and a man stepped out into the hall. Wang moved quickly to step back into the darkness where he completely disappeared, thanks to his black clothing.

“That was good, Pearl. That was real good.” Obviously a customer, the man directed his words back into the room from which he had just emerged.

Wang heard a woman's voice reply, low and indistinct, so he had no idea what the woman said.

“Ha! If you say so,” the man replied with a little laugh. He closed the door, then looked up the hall, noticing that some of the lamps were out. “Huh. I wonder how that happened.” He started toward the darkness, and Wang moved his sword into a thrusting position.

The sword wasn't needed. The man shrugged his shoulders and started back toward the front of the hallway. Wang was glad. He would have killed the man to protect his mission, but he didn't want to kill anyone unless he was forced to.

He left the last two lanterns burning so that the darkness of the hallway would not be noticed from the floor below. When he reached the door of the room he had seen Belle go into earlier, he opened it quietly and stepped inside. By the ambient light of the moon, he saw two boys sleeping in the bed. No one else was there. He walked over to the bed and after lighting the bedside lamp put his hand on Timmy's shoulder and shook him gently.

“Timmy,” he said quietly. “Timmy, wake up.”

Timmy opened his eyes. “Mr. Wang?” he said in surprise.

The Chinaman nodded. “Come. I will take you back to your father.”

Ethan stirred awake then, and seeing Wang standing over the bed, gasped.

“It's all right, Ethan,” Timmy said quickly. “This is Mr. Wang. He's my friend.”

“What's he doing here?” Ethan whispered.

“He's come to take us home.”

It took the boys but a minute to put their boots on, then, admonishing them to be quiet by holding his finger over his lips, Wang opened the door. He saw no one, so they started toward the open window at the far end of the hallway.

At that moment, two men came out of the same room. “See, Lenny. I told you she'd give us a special deal on account of us bein' brothers. All we had to do was—” he stopped in mid-sentence when he saw Wang with the two boys. “Here, where do you think you're goin' with them two?”

“I think they're tryin' to escape!” Lenny said. “Kill 'em, Larry. Kill 'em all!”

Larry and Lenny Israel went for their guns, but Wang, who was wearing his sword hanging down his back, whipped it over his shoulder and in two rapid thrusts, killed both men before they could fire a shot. It was all quick, and except for the brief conversation between the brothers before it began, it was silent.

Another loud burst of laughter coming up from downstairs gave proof that no one was aware of what had just happened in the hallway above.

“We must move them before they are seen,” Wang said quietly.

“Where?” Timmy asked.

“We will drop them through the window.”

Wang picked up one of the bodies and draped it over his right shoulder. He draped the other body over his left shoulder. “Get the guns,” he said quietly, and Timmy picked up one of the pistols as Ethan picked up the other.

When they reached the back window, Wang dropped the two brothers into the alley below. Then he took Timmy by the hands and lowered him through the window so that he was just a few feet above the ground and let go. Timmy dropped safely to the ground. Wang did the same thing with Ethan, before he dropped down himself.

His first order of business was taking care of the bodies, and he rolled the two brothers into the crawl space under the saloon. Likely they'd be found pretty quickly, but it would give Wang time to get the two boys out of town before they and the gunmen were discovered missing.

Wang lifted the boys into the small, two-wheel cart he'd bought from Kai Mot earlier in the afternoon and covered them with a piece of canvas. Mounting his horse that was attached to the cart, he gave a cluck to his horse, and they started out of town with one of the wheels squeaking loudly.

 

 

“Where are they?” Belle demanded.

“Where is who?” Jaco asked, looking up at her.

“You know who I'm talking about. Where are they?”

“Woman, I don't have an idea in hell what you are talking about.”

“She's talking about the two boys, Jaco,” Sherazade said. “They're not in her room.”

“They ain't in the room? Where are they?” Jaco asked.

“That's what we're askin' you,” Sherazade said pointedly. “Jaco, have you taken those two boys somewhere? You promised me you wouldn't hurt them. Have you killed them?”

“Puke!” Jaco called.

The man Jaco had appointed sheriff came over to his table. “What do you need?”

“Them two boys is gone. Do you have any idea what happened to them?”

Puke shook his head. “No, I don't have no idea at all.”

“Find 'em.”

“Find 'em? What do you mean, find 'em? I don't know how to find 'em.”

“You're the sheriff, ain't you? Whenever somebody goes missin', it's the sheriff's job to find 'em.”

The expression on Puke's face was one of complete confusion. He had no idea what he was supposed to do next.”

“I'll help you look for 'em,” Mattoon said.

 

 

Puke, Mattoon, and four others overtook the little cart that Wang was pulling. Wang was slouching in the seat and when the four stopped him, he kept his eyes down.

“Hey, you, Chinaman!” one of the men called to him. “Have you seen two white boys anywhere on this road?”

“Do you want melons?” Wang asked, grabbing the edge of the canvas as if about to lift it. “I have good melons here. You look, I show you.”

“No, you ignorant Chinaman, I don't want to look at your melons,” Mattoon said. He spoke to the others. “Come on. We're wasting our time here.”

Soon after that encounter, Wang told the two boys they could come out from under the canvas.

Practically the entire town of Eagle Pass greeted them when Wang rode down East Main Street. By the time he reached the sheriff's office, Jason and Melissa were there to meet them.

Neither Elmer nor Morley nor Justin Craig—the prisoner Morley had recommended—drew so much as a second glance when they rode into town.

When they stepped into the Red Dog, a few of the patrons gave them a casual glance, then looked away.

But for one of the men, the glance was more than casual. “Damn. Elmer Gleason, what are you doing here?”

“You know these three men, Cyr?” Mattoon asked.

“I know that old, ugly one in the middle. There ain't no one nowhere more crooked than him.”

“Hello, Cuz,” Elmer said. “I see you never found the rest of your ear.”

Unconsciously, Cyr put his hand up to his mangled ear. “I ask again, what are you doin' here?”

“We heard you had somethin' good goin' on here, 'n we thought we'd join up,” Elmer said, playing the role.

“Yeah? Well you're goin' to have to take that up with Jaco. He's the onliest one who can decide.”

“Where is he?”

“Right now he's upstairs, and I don't have no notion of interruptin' a man while he's takin' care of business, if you know what I mean.” Cyr grinned.

“Yeah, I think I know what you mean. Come on, boys. Let's get us a beer and wait on Jaco.”

The three men bought a beer, complaining about the quarter it cost, then went over to have a seat at one of the tables. Three of the saloon girls sidled up to them with practiced smiles.

Elmer had no idea how old the three women were. They could have been as young as twenty-two or twenty-three, and as old as mid-forties. The dissipation of their profession had taken a heavy toll. “Ladies, we appreciate the attention, we really do, but you're just wastin' your time with us. We ain't got a whole dollar betwixt the three of us.” He smiled. “But oncet we get on with Jaco, why, I reckon we'll have some money we can spend.”

“Good,” one of women said to him specifically. “When that happens, I want you to keep me in mind. All right, old man?”

“Who you callin' an old man?” Elmer asked as if upset by the sobriquet. In truth, his bark was worse than his bite, as given away by the flashing smile in his eyes.

“Ha!” Morley said. “She's got you pegged, Gleason. You are an old man.”

“Look who's talking.”

“What are we goin' to do if Jaco takes us on?” Morley asked.

“If Duff is goin' to take this town, he's goin' to need to know what he's up ag'in,” Elmer said. “I'd say that, over the next few days, we just sort of look around, so's we got somethin' we can tell 'im.”

“Here comes Jaco.” It was the first time Craig had spoken since the three arrived in town.

“How do you know?” Elmer asked.

“I hear you three men are wantin'—” Seeing Craig, Jaco broke out into a big smile. “Justin Craig. I thought you were in prison.”

“And I heerd that you was about to be hung,” Craig replied. The two men shook hands.

“I see what you mean. The law may have one idea for us, but we might have somethin' totally different. You with these two, are you?”

“Yeah, this here is Jim Morley 'n this here is Elmer Gleason.” Craig pointed to the two men.

“You vouch for them, do you?”

“I can vouch for Morley. Truth to tell, I don't know nothin' about Gleason.”

“Well, I've heard of 'im, from Cyr,” Jaco said. “And none of it good.” He glared at Elmer. “Is it true you're the one that bit off his ear?”

“Yeah,” Elmer said.

The glare left his face and Jaco laughed out loud. “Ha! Anybody who would bite off Val Cyr's ear is all right in my book. I'd be happy to have you three boys ride with me.”

Citizens of Shumla!
Your Time of Delivery is
near
.
The outlaws who have taken
over your town will be dealt with.
You are advised to stay in your homes.
Anyone
seen on the street will be a target.

Six months later, Duff and Megan returned, but it was for a happy event—to attend the wedding of Cal Hanson and Jennie Garrison.

After the wedding when congratulations were offered and toasts were drunk, Jason asked the question. “When do you think Melissa and I will be going to a wedding in Chugwater?”

Duff and Megan smiled at each other, but neither of them responded to the question.