Wanted! Belle Starr! (5 page)

Earlier that evening, introducing themselves
as the “Duchess and Duke of Haute-Savoie, from Paris, France,” the
couple responsible for fleecing the young New Englander had
insisted upon taking the ‘other foreign visitors’ to dinner in the
hotel’s dining room. During the meal, they had expressed sympathy
with ‘Donna Maria’ when she complained that ladies like herself
were not allowed into the bar-room to join a game of poker. Saying
they had arranged for a few acquaintances to play at the house they
were renting, as Emily was subject to the same annoying restriction
in the town’s places of entertainment, Armond Chauvelin had offered
to let their ‘newfound friends’ go with them and participate.

Visiting the ladies’ restroom before leaving
the hotel, Belle had given Emily an ‘explanation’ of the Kid’s
status and presence. Admitting that he was ‘far below her class’
and hoping he would never learn what she had said, she had
attributed him with sexual prowess of a high order. The impression
she created was that his position was less that of an equal partner
in a matrimonial alliance than a combined travelling companion, bed
mate and bodyguard. With regards to the latter, she had claimed he
was most effective. However, sharing a general belief which she
ascribed to all gauchos, that the harder one pulled the trigger,
the faster the bullet flew, she said he was no gunfighter. Instead,
he relied upon the big bowie knife and other, even more deadly,
methods—which she did not elaborate upon at that time—if there
should be the need to protect her. When ‘the Duchess’ had suggested
she left him behind, clearly having felt concerned over having such
a potentially dangerous person along, she had declared this was
unwise as his weakness for hard liquor and sexual proclivities made
it necessary for her to keep him under constant observation.
Finding ‘Donna Maria’ was adamant upon the matter, Emily had given
grudging consent to ‘Manuel’ accompanying them.

Taken to the luxuriously furnished mansion
in the most wealthy section of Newton, rented from the butler and
housekeeper while the owners were away on vacation, the lady outlaw
and the Texan had found everything pretty much as described by
Bullstrode. One problem the Kid had anticipated had not arisen.
Although she was known to the dishonest employees, as she had
admitted, she had also been aware that neither would be on the
premises. One of the conditions the servants had imposed when
engaging in their transaction was that they would be absent at all
times the property was in use. This offered them an excuse to plead
ignorance if their ‘guests’ should be caught.

The only major difference in the set-up was
that, having no need to act as lure for a susceptible young man,
Emily was serving in her true capacity as Armond Chauvelin’s wife.
All the ‘acquaintances’ were the same and using the supposed
occupations they had given to their previous victim.

What was more, the pattern of the play had
followed a similar course!

With the Kid seated by her side, but not
playing due to the supposed language difficulty, Belle had quickly
established that she had no liking for losing. Then, although she
had played with far less skill than she actually possessed, she had
been allowed to win steadily. However, the attempts made by Emily
to ply her and the Texan with hard liquor had met with no success.
Claiming almost total abstinence for herself, she had asserted that
as she had heard was also the case with Indians and half breeds in
North America it was most unwise to let ‘Manuel’ drink intoxicating
beverages.

Commenting upon the proposed ‘hunting trip’,
apparently because she was in high spirits over having taken
another sizeable pot which she had felt sure was presented to her,
despite Driberg having held a hand of higher value than the one she
displayed the lady outlaw had been offered the opening she needed
to introduce a subject essential to the culmination of her
scheme.

“
As you wish, Armond,
Reverend,” Belle continued, with the good-humored acquiescence of a
person who found everything was going as she desired. Which was
true, although not in the way the majority of her audience believed
to be the case. She was most gratified by the way in which all the
members of the gang were studying the Kid in a speculative, even
perturbed fashion. “Let us by all means play on, so I can make the
most of my good fortune!”

“
You’re real lucky and
that’s a fact!” Driberg admitted, with the sourness of a
disgruntled loser. “There’s none of us can do a thing right against
you!”

“
Madre de
dios
!” Belle
Starr gasped, the game having been resumed and two more pots coming
her way without any suggestion the trap had begun to be sprung.
Glancing at the grandfather clock in the corner of the room, while
the deck was being shuffled in what she knew to be a legitimate
fashion, she continued, “Is that the hour?”

“
It is,” Armond Chauvelin
confirmed, a trace of suspicion in his otherwise blandly polite
voice. “Why?”

“
Much as I hate to do so while
enjoying such a lucky streak, I’m afraid I must leave after your
next deal, my dear Armond,” the lady outlaw explained. “I have the
so early meeting in the morning with a Captain Dusty Fog what
strange names these
Americanos del Norte
have, don’t you think?”

“
Very strange,” the ‘Duke of
Haute-Savoie’ agreed, his tone pensive as he was aware of the
reputation ascribed to the man mentioned by his intended
victim.
^xi
He found the possibility of her
attending such a meeting disturbing. “Do you know him
well?”

“
I have heard something about
him, but we have never met,” Belle replied, truthfully with the
first part and much less so where the second was concerned. “By all
accounts, he is
segundo
for an uncle who owns one of the largest ranches in Texas
and should be able to offer me many cattle at a suitable price. We
are to discuss this in the morning and I never care to talk the
business unless I am fully rested.”

“
A most sensible
precaution,
mon cher
Donna Maria,” Chauvelin praised jovially, concluding there
was no justification for his fear that the beautiful young woman
was intending to make an excuse and leave before the trap could be
sprung. He also decided, bearing in mind the person she was meeting
in the morning, that it would be advisable to leave Newton after
the game was over. Turning his gaze to his wife and giving a brief
inclination of his head, receiving an equally quick nod indicating
an understanding of what was wanted, he went on, “But perhaps your
luck will change before you leave us.”

“
All things are possible,”
Belle conceded, giving no indication of having noticed the exchange
of signals between her host and hostess. “That is what gives
gambling its fascination for me. However, as I have been so lucky
all evening, I’m sure my good fortune will last a little longer and
I hope you won’t object to me leaving a winner?”

“
Certainly not,” Chauvelin
lied, considering such a contingency was non-existent. “The chance
of winning, or even losing, is what gives gambling its fascination
for me also. By the way, Mr. Driberg, are you acquainted with
Captain Fog?”

“
I’ve bought cattle from
him,” the stocky and hard featured man replied, guessing what was
expected of him. “Now there’s a feller who enjoys a game of poker.
I’ll say one thing about him, though. He surely hates a poor loser
and’s told me more than once he wouldn’t do business with one under
no circumstances.”

“
How interesting,” the
‘Duke’ declared, hoping the point would be taken by ‘Donna Maria
Constanza del Santa Rosa’ and prevent her from complaining about
her losses to the Texan when they met the following
morning.

“
Hey, ‘Mrs. Duke’, ma’am,”
Thomas Driberg went on, knowing what was required of him at this
point in the proceedings. “Would there be any chance of me and the
boys getting drinks before the next pot?”

“
Verily,” supported
‘Reverend’ Leslie Huckfield. “For does it not say in the Good Book,
‘Take a little wine for your stomach’?”

“
Of course,” Emily
Chauvelin assented. “If you will tell me what drinks you want, I
will go and start preparing them right away. Perhaps, Donna Maria,
as you are to leave us so soon, we might persuade you and your
husband to join us this time?”

“
But of course,” the lady
outlaw replied, with the air of one so satisfied by the way things
were going she could afford to be magnanimous. However, she had
fully intended to request that she and the Ysabel Kid were included
if the invitation had not been forthcoming. “We certainly will and,
as it will be only the one, ‘Manuel’ will only be affected properly
by it.” Directing a knowing glance at the ‘Duchess’ as she was
making the last part of the statement, she went on, “We will each
have a glass of wine, please.”

As she had on other occasions when a ‘guest’
had made a similar request for liquid refreshment, Emily
disappeared into the kitchen. She had already explained to Belle
that the servants had all been given the evening off to avoid
embarrassment for ‘Reverend’ Huckfield whose congregation, it was
claimed, would not approve of him playing poker for any kind of
stakes even in a ‘scrupulously honest’ game. Having established
that her lack of experience in carrying out such a mental task did
not make her an efficient and speedy ‘bar lady’, she had no fear
that her delay in returning would arouse the suspicions of their
intended victim.

Working swiftly and yet carefully, the
‘Duchess’ arranged a deck of cards, identical to the one in use, so
the hands would fall as they had on other occasions after a dupe
had been primed and was ready for plucking. However, the task could
not be performed until the seating arrangements around the table
were settled, due to a mark being rendered less suspicious by being
allowed to select whatever position he desired. The sequence she
was setting out was such that, even if the victim elected to draw
one card to replace the ace with the four jacks, the straight flush
would still be made by Huckfield.

Having made everything ready, keeping a
watch upon what was going on in the dining room through the
partially open serving hatch, Emily poured the drinks for the
‘guests’. Placing them on the tray she had used previously when
supplying liquid refreshment, she held the prepared deck underneath
it and timed her arrival to coincide with her husband completing
the shuffling of the cards already in use.

Waiting until ‘Donna Maria’ had cut the
original deck, which would strengthen the belief that nothing
untowards had taken place, the ‘Duchess’ held out the loaded tray.
After the ‘wealthy Brazilian’ had accepted one of the glasses of
wine, she served the Kid. Reaching with the haste which might be
expected of one in a hurry to take a drink, he contrived to spill
some of the liquor while accepting his glass. Growling an
imprecation in his fluent Spanish, although of the kind spoken
along the border between the United States and Mexico rather than
in South America, he set the glass down untouched on the table.
While the right hand began to rub at the front of his multi-colored
‘trade’ shirt, the left went into the outside pocket of the leather
jacket as if in search of something with which to help dry its
mate.

Giving ‘Manuel’ no more than a cursory and
slightly disgusted glance, Emily continued to distribute the drinks
until reaching the ‘Duke’!

Waiting until the ‘Duchess’ was extending
the tray in the direction of her husband, holding it ready to
exchange the two decks of cards undetected in the manner she, he
and one of the ‘guests’ who handled the task when, as with Andrew
Bullstrode, Emily was playing the ‘helpful sister’ role had
perfected, the lady outlaw rose swiftly and threw the wine into her
face.

Despite her claim to be a member of the
French aristocracy, the profane exclamation which burst from the
‘Duchess’ was in most basic English!

Emily’s hands, rising instinctively to her
eyes, which the liquid was stinging severely, released the tray and
the cards sprayed in an incriminating cloud from beneath it!

Having been warned by Belle as to when and
how the situation was likely to develop, the Kid had not been
reaching for something with which to dry his right hand!

Instead, the disguised Texan had taken hold
of the hollow wooden tube about six inches in length in the left
side pocket!

Seeing the time for inactivity was ended,
much to his satisfaction, the Kid also came to his feet. Moving as
he had spent much time in practicing since learning the part he was
to play, he brought out the tube and raised it to his lips. At the
same instant, he was sending his right hand beneath the near side
of his jacket. As the other men around the table were showing
consternation and starting to get up, he blew sharply into the
tube. Propelled by the gust of air and moving faster than the human
eye could follow, a sharp sliver of wood its rearmost tip supplied
with a piece of cotton wool dyed bright red for a flight flew to
bury its point in Chauvelin’s left cheek.

Rising involuntarily, as his wife’s had
done, the fingers of the ‘Duke’s’ right hand touched the missile
and he gave vent to a gasp of alarm!

Moving faster than any of the other
‘guests’, Driberg sent his right hand towards the butt of his
holstered revolver!