Six Guns Straight From Hell - Tales Of Horror And Dark Fantasy From The Weird Weird West (7 page)

“
Goodbye, my friend.” Lupo whispered.

Ty heard the mournful howl of the wolf and then the darkness took over.

I'm Bill Craig, raconteur of the amazing adventures of Jack Riley and the
Fantastic
Adventures of Hardluck Hannigan
as well as
The
Decker P.I. Mysteries
and the noir thriller
Th
e
Butterfly Tattoo
. I have always enjoyed westerns and I have always enjoyed werewolves, so this gave me a chance to put the two together. I've been writing my own stories since the age of six and my five year old son and I frequently tell stories to each other and he has unfortunately inherited his love of horror from his mother and combines it with my love of adventure so who knows what sort of tales he may one day pen...

On the Road to Bodie

by

Lyn McConchie

When Manny McGovern died in the cave-in of his worthless mine soon after the gold rush in Bodie, California, there was little choice for his Mexican widow and his daughter. Maria went to work at the Bodie laundry for old Wang Sing, while his daughter Ines went to work for Elijah Smith on his ranch seven miles out of town.

That was a hard life for a girl of thirteen. Elijah worked her day and night, or if not night, then late into the evening until the child was dropping from exhaustion. Her food was simple, basic - and never quite enough for a girl growing up. He never laid a hand on her for he was one of those iron-fisted, righteous Christians who would have scorned to use a servant that way. But Ines feared him more than the devil anyway.

Once a month, she took her day off, walking early into town to spend a half-day with her mother, before walking home again in the cool of the evening. And a fourteen miles walk was no less tiring than her work. And always her mother fed her, held her against her heart and mourned that she could do no better for her daughter.

“
Once we had land, a land-grant given before Texas was a state, but the deed was lost when my grandfather was murdered. Our family became poor when we could no longer prove what was ours. Once I could have given you clothes to shame any woman in this town even those women whose men found gold. You could have gone to a good school with the nuns then married well. Now we have nothing and who will you marry?”

“
No one, mamacita,” A glimmer of fun stirred. “I will search the tailings and find a golden nugget, I will buy you a house and stay with you always, we will be two old ladies together. We will find a good cat for the mice and wear purple dresses on Sundays.”

Maria stifled a small laugh. “Ah, si, a good dream. Well, it is true that now and again I find a pinch of gold dust in the pockets of the shirts I wash, never enough to free us from this place though. But what I find I save and it may be that one day I will have sufficient to take us back to Texas.”

“
Texas?” Ines knew the dream but it was always pleasant to hear her mother tell it again.

“
Texas, yes. To the land we owned until the deed was lost. No one farms that land yet. If we came with the deed we could take it up. Be landholders and hire kin from beyond the border to work it for us.”

“
We would need money to stock the ranch,” Ines said, practically.

“
Si, but the lands were great, we could take a loan from the bank for that. Or we could sell a portion of the land to buy what we need and owe nothing to anyone.”

“
I think that would be better.” The girl's voice was thoughtful. “I have seen here how people hate those who have too much. It makes them a target for thieves. Better to sell half the land and buy what is needed in cattle and gear. Hire men who are recommended as trustworthy, owe nothing to the bank, and make friends nearby, go to church, and speak politely to all. That way if any come against us there are those who will speak for us and come to our aid.”

Maria looked at her almost respectfully. “You have an old head on those young shoulders. Si, that is a good plan. When the deed is found that is what we should do.”

“
Mama? Why did my papa's family not assist us when he died?”

Maria sighed. “Ah, my Manny was a fine man, a loving husband, a good father. But his family did not like that he married a woman of Mexico, nor were they pleased when he said he was coming here to find gold and be rich.”

“
Did you write to them that he had died?”

“
I did and heard nothing. I sold his claim for what I could, I have the money still, one day it will be yours so that you have some choice in what you will do.”

That part Ines knew, and knew too that the claim had not proved out, it had been all but valueless. What her mother had received would be barely enough to take them back to Texas on the stage. And what would be the use of returning to a family that had no interest in them, or to land they could not prove was theirs?

That evening she walked back to the ranch, slept deeply and rose to work again. Elijah was gone and his foreman was in the house. John Garton was as Ines was by basic breeding, in his case the son of an American and his half-Mexican wife. Thus he was three-quarters American and proud of that, despising his mother's mother's people. But Ines he did not despise, she was growing into her dresses, filling out and John had begun to notice. She was young, but she'd make a wife - if she was well schooled to respect her husband and to follow his orders.

He made advances and was denied. He went away smoldering that she dared to reject him. But he could bide his time, Elijah Smith would not be always at home. A year later Elijah was gone briefly and John moved into the house again, he sent at once for Ines.

“
Why do you send me away? I have a good job, I earn well, I would marry you before the priest if that is what you want?”

“
I do not want to marry you.”

“
You are a child, you do not know what you want,” John said contemptuously.

“
And do you wish to marry a child?” Ines's tone cut with the implications.

“
I will marry you. You have the folly of a child, the mind that does not see what is good for it. But you are a woman in body or so says American law. And I will have you. I'll speak to Elijah on his return and he will give you to me.”

“
He is not my father, he can give me to no one.”

John smiled then. “Can he not, pretty Ines? Remember the girl who had your job before you came here? You'd have heard, she lay with a cow-puncher and the boss fired her as soon as he heard. He said he wasn't having a whore on the place. How if I tell him that you've lain with me and that I wish to wed. He is a church-going man. He will command that you marry me or leave. And if you leave the ranch branded a whore, who will have you in Bodie? Who will give employment to Garton's whore?”

What he said was true. But the thought of taking him as her man sickened her. And, if she could hold him off for long enough another might take his fancy. She might even speak privately to Mr. Smith and have him order Garton to leave her alone. She summoned courage.

“
That may be, all of it, but I want time to consider. My mother must hear of your offer, if she bids me accept you then it may be that I shall. And my father's relations should know, they have a large ranch in Texas and would surely wish to come to a wedding.” None of it was true but she was fighting with what weapons she had.

John Garton guessed at her desperation, believed in his eventual success - and his smile was ugly. “Very well, I shall wait until you have written to your father's family and until you have discussed this with your mother. I give you three months. After that look for me, I shall be your husband yet.”

Ines walked steadily along the road to Bodie a month later. She had written the letter to the McGovern family and would post it in town to catch the stage that evening as it came through. Elijah Smith would be home in two more weeks as well. She had two strings to her bow of hope and she prayed that one or the other would save her.

The letter went as she'd planned. She'd written carefully, in her best handwriting, a plea that her father's family should come or send for her and her mother. Even if they only gave the two of them the same work as they did now but in Texas, it would be far better than what John Garton planned.

Maria held out no false hope. “You could not bear to marry him?”

Ines shuddered. “To the center of my bones he disgusts me.”

Maria nodded. “We have sufficient money saved. We would take the stage to Texas perhaps, it might be that if we were standing before them, your father's kin might help?”

“
And if they still will not?” Ines asked quietly. “Then we have spent all we have, we are stranded in another place and without work. What do we do then and where would we go?”

Maria nodded slowly. “Yet there is this. At least we would still be together and - John Garton would not be with us.”

It was desperation and Ines felt it, that her mother would willingly throw away all they had to save her daughter. But there were still the other possibilities. They waited, but no letter came nor any rider from Texas. Three months passed and it seemed clear that no one else would save them. What could be done they must do themselves. Ines gathered her courage and asked for a private word with Elijah.

“
Mr. Smith, I ask that you give me your advice.”

Elijah leaned back in his chair. That was the sort of thing he liked to hear. He could tell his fellow churchgoers how his employees came to him for aid, even the least of them. He knew what the problem was. John Garton had an eye for a pretty girl and wanted to marry this one. No doubt, she was humble at her good fortune and wished to be sure that her employer agreed. Garton had hinted that he'd had his way with her, and that Elijah Smith most strongly disapproved. But so long as he married the girl there was no harm done.

He listened to Ines' faltering words and was stunned into silence. Far from wishing to marry the man who had most likely already dishonored her, she wanted her employer to send him away. Or, at the least, it seemed, to order John Garton to leave her be.

“
He raped you?” That was the only thing he could think of.

Ines was stunned in turn before understanding came to her. Her head lifted proudly. “No, sir. He has laid no hand on me, ever. But he wishes to marry me, by force he has said if I come not willing. I want none of him. I would not wed John Garton, even if he had raped me.”

Elijah Smith looked at her and was angered by this folly. John Garton was a good foreman, if he had his mind set on the girl why should he not wed her? And if she would not, then he'd have a foreman who did not have his mind on his work while the girl was nearby. Worse still, if Garton did as the girl claimed he'd threatened then it would be a scandal - and Elijah Smith went to church each Sunday. There they would ask perhaps, why he had not prevented it. He made up his mind.

“
I will give you the advice you asked for, Ines. Marry John and be a good wife to him. Or if you are so set against that, take this,” he dug into his pocket and spilled three gold eagles into her hand. “Here, a month’s wages for a cowhand. You and your mother catch the stage for another place, because you no longer have a job here unless you are marrying John. Marry him and the money is yours anyway.”

It was worth it to him to have her gone-or wed-and his good foreman with his mind back on the ranch's prosperity again. Or at the least, the girl would be gone without a scandal that would tarnish Elijah's reputation.

Ines stood staring, her fingers clasped around the coins. She saw from Elijah's face that there was no appeal. Very well then, it must be Texas. She had little here, she could pack it all into a sack and be gone in an hour and walking into her mother's room in town in two more. It would be dark when she arrived and dusk for the last part of the journey but she was not afraid, she'd walked the road to Bodie often enough to know every foot of it.

She had packed her meager belongings and was halfway home when John Garton rode back from where he and his men had been gathering the cattle. He went quietly to her room-to find the girl and all that she owned were gone. He went to Elijah and heard with increasing rage of the talk his boss had had with the girl.

So, she would not wed him of her free will. Well, then, she would wed him anyhow and once she was in his hands he would know how to tame her. He took his best mount, a dun that liked to run, and followed the road at a speed that would bring him up with her long before she reached town - even if she did not stop on the way to rest a while.

Ines had stopped. It was a warm night, little though her belongings weighed they seemed heavy after she had walked past halfway, and there was a convenient boulder when she could sit a while. But as she approached she could see a man already sat there, nearby a roan grazed. A fine beast, wearing a very old-fashioned saddle. The man was of middle-age and medium size, a Mexican lithe as a cat with an old cap and ball gun on one hip and a sheathed knife at the other.

Ines slowed and he smiled at her. “Ay, chiquita, come and sit and do not be afraid. I had a wife and a daughter once and in their name and for the love I had for them no harm shall come to you. Tell me, your face seems known to me. Where do you go so late and who are your kin?”

“
I am Ines McGovern, my mother is Maria McGovern who was Ines Mendoza.”

He nodded. “Ines Mendoza of the land that borders the river, and of the family of Juan Cuchillo?”

“
Yes, you knew her?”