Chapter Sixteen
Two days later, Stevie was still without a horse. He considered walking to town and buying one, but word was sure to get back to Granny. He didn’t need anyone questioning where he got the money. That was another thing he hated about small towns: Everyone wanted to know your business. He couldn’t raise suspicions now. If he could get to Denver, where no one knew him, he could buy a horse there. He couldn’t just sit at the farm and do nothing. He needed to find Frankie and tell him what was going on. But to find Frankie, he had to have a horse. After pacing for an hour, he decided there was nothing he could do tonight. He knew Granny well enough to know she would give him a few days to calm down and see the error of his ways. There was no way she’d leave him without a horse for long.
He walked to his bedroom and moved a table in the corner of the room to get to his hiding place. After he pried open one of the wooden slats in the floor, he retrieved one of the bottles of whiskey he’d purchased in town. He uncorked the bottle and took a drink before he pulled out the bag of money he’d stashed in the hole. He sat on the floor and counted his money again. He couldn’t wait to tell Frankie what he’d done. Frankie would be proud of him. He placed the money back in the bag and stuck it back down in his secret hidey-hole.
* * *
Frankie rode to the farm in the middle of the night. He was near the stable, watching the farmhouse for over an hour to make sure no one was waiting for him to appear. He’d left his men a few miles away at the old Conner place. It was an abandoned log home whose occupants were long forgotten. Their old homestead was nothing more than a dilapidated dwelling fading into the wild brush. No one would ever know he was hiding out so close to the farm.
“Stevie, wake up,” Frank whispered.
Stevie’s mind was still foggy from the bottle of whiskey he’d consumed. He thought he was dreaming about his brother. “Huh?”
“Shh, wake up and talk to me.”
“Frankie?”
“Keep it down.” Frank sat in the chair next to the bed. “Where’s Granny?”
Stevie slowly moved to a sitting position. He wiped his eyes, trying to clear his vision. It wasn’t a dream, Frankie was sitting in his chair. Fumbling for a match on his bedside table, Stevie finally put his fingers on one. Striking the head on the wooden table, he held the flame to the kerosene lamp. “Frankie, what are you doing here?”
“Turn that low,” Frank said. “What do you think I’m doing here? I came to see what’s going on.”
He dimmed the light as Frankie instructed. He couldn’t have been happier to see his older brother. “What happened in Kansas?”
“We got away from Morgan, and hid out at Purgatory Canyon. I thought you might be there.”
“I was going to ride to Purgatory, but Morgan’s got my horse. Frankie, you are not going to like what’s going on here.”
“Why does Morgan have your horse?”
“That’s what I’m trying to tell you. But first, I don’t think it’s safe for you to be here.”
Frank grinned. “I’m smarter than all of these yokels. Now tell me what I’m not going to like to hear.”
“The sheriff ain’t dead. I heard talk around town that they are going to go looking for you as soon as he’s able.”
“They’ve tried that, and see where it got them—nowhere. What else is going on?”
“Rose is going to marry Morgan LeMasters in a few weeks. The new pastor is going to perform the ceremony.”
Frank stared at him so long Stevie was beginning to wonder if he’d heard him.
“So she’s alive,” Frank finally said.
“Yeah, she had busted ribs, but she came home with Morgan. You’d think he was some kind of hero the way Granny is treating him.”
Frank smirked. “Well, that hero is not going to marry a sister of mine.”
“I knew you wouldn’t let that take place.”
“I promise you, that ain’t never going to happen. Langtry blood will never be mixed with LeMasters blood. Now get dressed so we can get out of here. The gang is holed up at the old Conner place.” Frankie pointed to the whiskey bottle on the floor by the bed. “Any left in there?”
Stevie tossed the bottle to him. “LeMasters took my horse and he hasn’t brought him back.”
“Why did he take your horse?”
“Said I was abusing it.”
Those words sounded familiar to Frankie. He knew Morgan would die protecting animals. Frank intended to be the man to see that he did. He opened the whiskey bottle and took a long swig.
“Granny didn’t say a word. I told her she cared more about Morgan than she did you,” Stevie said.
“Granny always did take his part. Where’s Rose and Granny now?”
“They’re staying at his ranch. Did you see the house? They moved most of the stuff out. Granny is going to live with Rose and Morgan.”
“Granny is going to leave the farm?” It was difficult for Frank to believe Granny would leave her home.
“Yeah. LeMasters said I could come work for him. Can you believe he thought I would work for him? Anyway, that’s not all I have to tell you.” Stevie got out of bed, walked across the room, and moved the table once again. He lifted the wooden slat and pulled out the bag of money, carried it across the room, and dropped it in Frankie’s lap. “I robbed a stagecoach.” He sat back down on the bed and told Frankie how he pulled off the stagecoach robbery, and about his partner in Denver. “I got shot in the arm.” He removed his shirt and showed Frankie his wound.
“Why didn’t you duck?” Frankie teased.
“I didn’t know another guard was inside the coach. Reuben didn’t either, but he was right about everything else, including how much money they were carrying. We can get out of here and go to Mexico. Just you and me, like we always talked about. We can start our own place now.” Stevie had never forgotten the plans they made when they were younger. Frankie always said he wanted to see the country, and not stay in one place and get old before his time, like Preacher.
Frank lifted the bag. “How much is in here?”
“Me and Reuben split the take. There’s two thousand in there.” Frankie wasn’t as excited as Stevie expected him to be. “Aren’t you happy I got us some money so we can leave here and never come back?”
“Yeah, Stevie, I’m real happy about that. But tell me more about this Reuben fellow. He could be very useful to us.” Frank was already considering how he could use Reuben for a bigger payday.
“You mean you don’t want to go to Mexico?”
“Stevie, we’d need a lot more money than this to survive and buy our own spread. After we get even with Morgan, I’m thinking about robbing a bank. I want to set us up so we never have to come back here again.” What he left unsaid was he didn’t plan on leaving Whispering Pines for good until Morgan LeMasters was dead.
Stevie wasn’t going to argue with his big brother. Frankie had always outsmarted everyone. “Reuben works in the Denver bank; he’s been there over two years. That’s how he knew that stagecoach was carrying the money. Reuben’s smart, and he knows everything going on in Denver. He’s not the kind of fellow who is good with a gun, he’s more of a tenderfoot, but he can give us the information. We’d have to split the money with him. That was how we struck our deal.”
“How did you meet him? You go to Denver often?”
“I don’t go there much. I was out target practicing, and he was out for a ride one day and stopped to talk. We talked for a long time about my shooting, and he told me about his job. We became friends, and before I knew it, we were planning the robbery.”
“Friends or not, he shouldn’t get half of the take. He doesn’t take any risks, he just told you what stage the money was on. You took all the risks.”
“But, Frankie, I wouldn’t have known about the stagecoach in the first place if not for Reuben. He’s so smart that he planned the whole thing. He staged the rifles on the rocks, and told me exactly what to do. He felt real bad about me getting shot.”
Frank laughed. “Yeah, I bet he did. But you were getting shot while he was nice and safe sitting on a soft chair in the bank. The man taking the risk always gets the biggest cut.”
“Is that how you do it with your gang?”
“If my boys don’t risk as much as me, then they don’t get a share.”
“I don’t know if Reuben would agree to anything if he didn’t get half. He’s risking losing his job. And I like him, Frankie, he’s a real nice fellow. He even told me I could travel the world with him.”
Frank stood. “Well, we’ll just have to make him see things our way. Did you two plan anything else? You sure as heck couldn’t travel the world on a measly two thousand dollars.”
“No. I told him I didn’t think we’d be interested since I thought we were going to Mexico.”
“How do you get in touch with him?”
“We usually meet once a month at the place where I target practice. But we met just this past week so he could let me know if anyone talked to him about the robbery. Morgan happened along and saw us talking on the road.”
“Did Morgan know him?”
“Nope, and Reuben didn’t mention his name. I told Morgan I didn’t know him.”
“Good. Now let’s go get that horse from LeMasters.”
“We’d have to go through the pines to get it,” Stevie reminded his brother.
“Don’t tell me you’re afraid to go through there.” He’d heard enough whining about the pines from his boys.
Stevie didn’t readily admit that he was afraid, but he did everything he could to avoid riding in there, particularly after dark. “Frankie, even if we get to Morgan’s stable, you know Joseph or one of the other men will be on watch and will hear us,” Stevie said. “Not only that, but everyone is expecting you to come back here, or to be in Purgatory Canyon. I know LeMasters will shoot you on sight, and I’d bet he’s told all his men to do the same thing.”
Frankie hadn’t consumed enough whiskey to do something foolish. When he went back on Morgan’s ranch he wanted to take more than one horse. “Yeah, you’re right. It’s not like we can’t afford to buy a horse. I’ll send Walt to town to buy one. No one knows him in Whispering Pines. We might even rob a bank before we rustle again. Then we can sell what we rustle on our way to Mexico.” Frankie planned to send Walt to Denver to find out everything he could about Stevie’s friend Reuben. He had a feeling robbing a bank was going to be a reality real soon.
“Yeah, we’ll get the horse when we rustle. LeMasters thinks he runs everything. I guess he thinks he’ll have this farm now, since I ain’t staying.”
Frankie had already figured that out. “That’ll never happen. Just like he ain’t gonna marry Rose. I’d rather see her dead before I let her marry him, and I’ll burn this place to the ground before he gets it.”
“Yeah,” Stevie agreed.
“Stevie, I promise you, LeMasters will pay for everything he’s done. Now let’s go meet up with the boys. You keep the stagecoach robbery to yourself. We ain’t sharing this money.” Frankie opened the bag and pulled out a handful of bills before he stuck the bag back in Stevie’s hiding place. “This will get you a horse and tide us over until we get a plan together. We’ll keep the money right here for now and come back for it later.”
Stevie and Frank rode double to the Conner place, arriving just before dawn. Frank took Walt aside and pulled out some bills. “I want you to go to town and buy enough supplies for a week, and buy a horse. Bring back several bottles of whiskey. After you come back, I want you to ride to Denver and check out a man for me.” Frank told him where he could find Reuben. “Don’t say anything to the other men about this Reuben fellow, but find out what you can about him.”
“Who is he?” Walt asked.
“Never you mind who he is. Just watch him for a couple of days. I want to know everything he does. See who he talks to, where he goes, if he’s got a girlfriend, or a sister. You understand? I want to know everything about him.”
“Sure thing, Frank.” Walt didn’t ask more questions. He was happy to go to Denver for a few days and get away from the rest of the men.
Just because Stevie trusted his friend Reuben, Frank didn’t have the same inclination. He wanted to know more about Reuben in case he needed leverage to make sure Reuben saw things his way. Reuben had told Stevie he was going to travel the world, so it sounded like he was planning on a few more jobs, or something big. Frank was curious to find out what he had in mind. “Walt, don’t forget to keep this between us. Some of the boys ain’t too smart, and the less they know, the better.”
“Understood. Listen, if you are planning on robbing the bank in Denver, I know a place near town where we can hide out. It’s a lot like this place, well hidden, off the main trail, and no one even remembers it’s still there.”
Frank liked the sound of that. The Conner place was too close to Whispering Pines to make a safe hideout for long. “That’s good to know, Walt. It might be smart for us to go there while we figure out our next move.”
Frank walked inside the cabin to get Stevie. “I want you to take my horse and go back home.”
Stevie shook his head. “I thought I was going to ride with you.”
“Now listen to me. You’ve got to go back and act like nothing is going on. I don’t want them to get wise to us. Keep the horse out of sight, don’t put him in the stable. I need to plan our next move, and it’s important that you know what’s going on at LeMasters’s ranch. We’re going to rustle his cattle one last time, but we’re also going to get rid of Joseph Longbow. Can you do this for me?”
Stevie wasn’t happy about going back to the farm, but if it would help Frankie, he would do it. “Yeah, I can do it.”
“Good. If Morgan comes around, be friendly. Make them all think you’ve had a change of heart about staying on the farm.”
“How long am I going to have to do this?”
“Not long. We’ll figure something out.”