Saddle Dust

Chapter 8

Maxine is out of the door and flying down the stairs before Victor even has time to register Philip's death. Waterton follows her swiftly out. Frederick looks to Victor, and sees tears standing in his eyes. Frederick reaches out a hand to help Victor to his feet, but Victor falls onto him instead, his shoulders heaving with sobs. Surprised, Frederick tentatively pats his back and tries not to look at Philip's stiff body and the expression of pain etched into it forever. He reaches down with his free hand and tries to close Philip's eyelids, but the muscles are locked in place and they won't stay down all the way. He thinks Philip looks only half awake. So close to sleeping, but still conscious.
At the back of the house, the kitchen door flies open and Maxine rushes out of it; a shoe flying off as she runs into the tall prairie grass and falls to her knees. She is bawling. Bawling like Casey did when she found Sundance and Butch shot dead lying in the street in Bolivia.
Waterton walks quickly from the porch onto the lawn, but stops when he sees her cast off shoe. He stoops and picks it up, then smooths back his oily, pine-scented hair with a steady hand. He straightens his necktie and walks out to Maxine's trembling form kneeling in the tall grass. His foot catches on a small freshly dug coyote-hole causing him to stumble momentarily, but he quickly regains his balance. He approaches Maxine and kneels beside her. She leans into his side and he wraps his arms around her, placing his chin on her head. He waits for her sobbing to quiet into shallow hiccups before speaking.
"I...I'm so sorry Maxine. Even in the short time I knew him he... seemed like such a benevolent and kind-hearted fellow."
Maxine nods, then looks up at him. Her eyes are red and swollen with tears and her breathing is still shaky.
"Did...did you hear what he said? About..."
Waterton holds back an oily grin. This is the question he followed her out here to get the answer to.
"His last words? I did. But I'm wondering something..."
Waterton pauses and pretends to be contemplating whether he should continue or not. Maxine sniffs and nods a go ahead at him.
"Did I hear him properly when he said Casey Long? Maxine, did he say that name?"
"Yes. He...he did. She was just here a little while ago...visiting I guess you'd call it. But I'd really think it was more looking for table scraps and pitying eyes."
"Maxine, why would Casey Long visit you? Does she know you? Your family? Or did she just drop by for some homestead hospitality like the rest of the saddle tramps out there? If she was here to threaten your family or..."
Waterton trails off allowing Maxine's mind to wander and pick through the dark intents of common trail rovers. He waits for her to burst into another impassioned flood of tears and admit to a random house burglary or horsetheft or even threatened murder by Casey Long, but she surprises him with her reply. Maxine furrows her thinly arched eyebrows and a small smile crosses her face as she realizes that Waterton doesn't know who Casey is.
"Why, Waterton, didn't I ever tell you that Casey is my adopted sister?"
Even the sweat on Waterton's neck freezes in place.
"Um...ahem...haha...she's your...what?"
"Well, it's a bit of a complicated story, but Victor and Philip and another ranch hand, Michael, brought her to us when she was a little girl. She lived with us for several years before pa and momma decided to send her to a finishing school in Philadelphia. Bless their kind, generous hearts. After she arrived at the school, well, she sort of dropped off the map. We looked everywhere for her. Momma was so worried that... then we saw her face start to appear in the papers and in wanted posters and learned that she had joined a...a gang. But we hadn't actually seen her before she turned up here just a little while ago and...and she shot...killed-"
Maxine begins to wail again and Waterton holds her as he contemplates this shocking bit of news.
So Sundance's little bitch used to live here...then for some reason decided to come back and kill that ranch hand...but why?
Waterton doesn't really care why, he just smells an opportunity. A plan has begun to dimly flutter to life in his mind, and he thinks it will work out alright after all. The Sundance Kid embarrassed him that day he and his gang escaped his posse. But that wasn't the only time Waterton was made a fool of by the Sundance Kid. Waterton has been eclipsed by his former business partner's successes his entire life ever since the Sundance Kid decided to go his own way leaving Waterton in the ruins of a town barely a dot on the map. Well at least now I'm the mayor of that hellhole, Waterton thinks. Even from the grave the Sundance Kid has been mocking me. Leaving his Casey to run rings around my boys, all the while stealing my cattle and robbing my banks. Someday, she's going to meet a man with a hand faster than hers. A true rattlesnake on the trigger...
To start with, let's start slowly.
"Erm...Maxine, dear..."
He tries out the word with her, testing the waters a little before going all in. She has calmed down again, and appears to be in a semi-coherent frame of mind. Waterton thinks that semi-coherent is better than fully because he needs her to still be at the brink of her emotions when he proposes his idea. He doesn't wait for her to respond.
"Well, several years ago I had a little run-in with Ms. Long and Elzy Longabaugh- the Sundance Kid by common name, and I wasn't too impressed with the way I saw the Sundance Kid raising Casey, so, myself being of some prominence in the town, I naturally smelled that something was off. I approached Mr. Longabaugh and asked how his business was trending. He told me it was quite well. I felt it safe to inquire about the girl- I think she was eight or nine at the time. I inquired if she was his daughter, and he replied that she was, but his face turned quite red at the question. I thought his answer was most likely true, but I still felt like there was more to the story, and I was really quite concerned for the young girl's own safety. So, to be sure of myself, I asked if he was taking her to her mother for watch and safekeeping. Of course, I had already deduced that she was the daughter of a...well, a companion of Mr. Longabaugh's. He had many, you know."
Maxine blushes, but her eyes remain intent on Waterton, eager for the rest of the story.
"After I asked this, he turned quite aggressive and- I'm sorry to have to tell your lovely ears this, pulled a gun on me."
Waterton pauses and revels in Maxine's small cry of outrage. He's just warming up now.
"Yes! Can you believe the sheer nerve of the man! So, being the gentleman, I did not draw my own revolver. I could see by the look in his eyes-"
Waterton pauses and points to his own eyes while widening them both.
"I could see that he had almost certainly been at the saloon recently. And...thinking of it now..."
He trails off for added drama.
"I do...yes...I believe that...why, Maxine. I'm really quite sorry to tell you this, but I think it important to your understanding of the kind of people Ms. Long allows herself to be associated with even from a young age. But maybe I shouldn't?"
"Oh, do continue Waterton. Whatever you say next isn't going to surprise me in the least, I'm quite sure. When she visited, I could see the lines of her sinful life etched on her face as clear as day. Please, confirm my suspicions."
"Well, alright then..."
Waterton leans in close to Maxine's ear and lowers his voice to a whisper.
"I saw him carrying the girl on his shoulders out of the saloon!"
Maxine chokes back a cry and her hands fly to cover her mouth. Her eyes are wide and she breaths out "NO! That can't be!"
"Yes! It is! But instead of drawing my own weapon on him I told Mr. Longabaugh, quite firmly, that I was worried for the girl's own safety and I thought his behavior to be quite dangerous to her young mind. I knew his game well by then, of course, and so I told him that if he turned the care of the girl over to my kindly and charitable sister then I would let him go about his day even though he was clearly very drunk and causing a disturbance in public."
"What did he do?"
Now Waterton has come to the height of his story. This is when he brings it all crashing down on his unwitting audience.
"He set the girl on his horse and climbed into the saddle behind her. Then, he handed her the gun and, speaking quite loudly, told her that if she saw me move, she should shoot. He said that she should try to aim for my chest, but that it didn't really matter what she hit when it came down to it."
At first, Maxine's eyes narrow suspiciously and Waterton is afraid that his incredibly tall tale has broken the spell he has been holding over her. He waits for her to stand up and go inside and tell Frederick what Waterton has just said and tell him to 'get rid of that liar!' But instead, she reaches down and touches his cane lying in the grass beside him.
"So that's why you walk with a limp and need this thing. That's why...that's where...she shot you. Isn't it? Even at such a young age..."
Maxine trails off and looks back at waterton. She misreads his own disbelief as surprise at her own cunning for discovering his secret.
"Y-yes. That's exactly right. Even at such a young age...I suppose she had the devil's right hand or something of the sort. Even though Mr. Longabaugh's behavior must have been influencing her morals, nine is still old enough to understand what a gun is and know not to point it at a man. Especially for a young lady."
The two remain in silence for a few moments before Maxine startles Waterton out of his head.
"We used to call her Lily. Her name was Lily Hartford. She was my sister. We picked flowers together, and she went into town with me and Sam. We were quite the trio, you might say. She was one of us. And yet...she wasn't. We all knew where she had come from, and there were whispers in the town about her parent's wrongdoings, but everyone was forbidden to tell her about any of it. She never asked anyways. I'm not even sure she was aware that she was different. But...she always had this air about her. Of having..."
"Dark intentions?"
Maxine shakes her head.
"No, not entirely. She had...this knowledge about her. Like she knew exactly what she was doing even when she was only five...and no one saw it coming."
Maxine now begins to become immersed in her passion. In saying things that she feels- thinks she has been holding back for years.
"She knows exactly what she is doing. Always has. She has this sort of...unnatural knowledge hidden in her. She knew enough to run away from the school, to shoot you, and she even decided to stick to her sinful ways years after Mr. Longabaugh and the rest of her...friends died or went down their own paths. She even...knew that it would...hurt me if she...murdered Philip."
Maxine almost begins to cry again but holds herself together. Waterton sees his opportunity, and takes it.
"Maxine, Casey has put you through so much. Too much. She is what is keeping you from your dream of a prosperous and civilized life. She needs to be stopped before she causes any more harm to you or anyone else which she undoubtedly will."
"Yes, but even Pinkerton's detective agency can't find her. How will we?"
"Well, she was just here a little while ago. So obviously this is a place she feels like the arm of the law hasn't reached yet. She won't know that the people here are against her now. That we are standing up to her vile ways, and won't be taken for path stones anymore. I have a plan, but I need you to help me with it."
"Yes! Anything! Please tell me. Casey needs to face the justice she deserves."
"Well, alright then. The first thing that I need your absolute guarantee of is your confidence. No one else can know of this. We just don't know where their sympathies lie, and they could alert Casey to our plan before we are even able to show her the error of her ways. Do you agree with this?"
Maxine nods vigorously.
"Good. Now. Here's what I'm thinking. From the private scouts I have working for me I have learned that Casey is holed up somewhere in Minnesota. Probably in the...pardon my language, brothels in the cities."
Maxine makes a disapproving noise.
"My men have also learned that Casey might be getting restless. She doesn't usually stay in one place for more than two, maybe three months. My plan is this: Since you say Casey made her appearance a little over a week ago and my men say she's now back in Minnesota, we send her a letter. Maxine, what does Casey want most of all in the world besides causing destruction wherever she goes?"
Waterton already knows the answer he wants, but he wants Maxine to feel like she came up with half the plan herself. Maxine thinks.
"Well...when the family brought up her...status as outlaw, she became very defensive. Didn't want to even talk about where she had been in the last few years."
"And why do you think that was?"
Maxine answers immediately.
"She didn't want us to give away where she had been to the law."
"Exactly! Casey wants nothing more than to be left alone by the law! And quite understandably. She has a steep reward on her head and a place on her neck that has been pre-marked for the rope."
"So, she wants nothing more than her name to be cleared?"
"Quite so! You really are quite clever."
Maxine blushes.
"Casey wants to be cleared of all charges. So I think we send her a letter claiming that your relatives from Tammany Hall have gotten her cleared of all charges, ay? What do you think?"
Maxine frowns.
"No, I don't think that will work quite right. She'll see right through it. Maybe not immediately, but soon enough. I think that the letter should come from my father. That...oh yes! I've got it. We won't tell her that Philip has...has passed. We'll say he's...alright. That Philip wants her name cleared. She'll take that!"
Waterton is incredulous.
"Really? She'd believe that her enemy has forgiven her even after her attack?"
"Yes. Well...no. But I think it has a better shot than using my Tammany Hall family in the letter because she knows for a fact that they only stand to benefit from her capture. You know, she always liked Victor best. Maybe you'd better write a second letter. One from Victor asking her to come home for a while. That would bring her here."
Waterton is taken aback by her idea of a second letter. It's a good idea. He sees where a large hole in his plan has been fixed as well. If Casey got a letter saying that she had been relieved of her duty at the rope, she probably wouldn't rush home to celebrate with the family she left behind. She would probably gallop on her blasted horse to the nearest saloon and drink herself full of whiskey before going out into the street and finding an unsuspecting passerby to fight or do Lord knows what with. She's fond of her fistfights.
"Wonderful! That's just what I was going to ask you about next."
Waterton isn't about to give Maxine the benefit of feeling like she now owns more than half of the plan.
"I was thinking that for the second half of the plan we would need to send Casey another letter, probably "written" by Victor, urging her to meet him...let's say, oh! I have just the thing. I have a few men looking to join one of my cattle drives. I think I'll have them start a new drive and have a few head of cheap cattle. They'll collect more along the way, if you follow me, so that by the time they're nearing Dodge City or wherever I decide to send them, Casey will have caught up with them and will think it's a legitimate business. Once she finds out that the're picking up a few stray cattle along the way, she'll be completely enthralled in the business and will have no choice but to follow them along to their destination."
"That's a splendid idea, but Victor will never follow along with it."
"Oh, my dear Maxine! That's just the thing. You see, Victor won't know any of this. We'll keep him out of it completely."
"But he has to be. If Casey is looking for him, and doesn't find him in the false drive, then she will probably leave."
"Yes, I've spent some time thinking about that little trick. And to be honest, I don't think there's any way to guarantee that Casey will join the drive. You know as well as I do that she's a slippery snake apt to change at the slightest detection of something funny in the wind, but I think this is the best we've got. We'll just have to hope that luck is with us and that she decides to join the drive. I'll have my men informed of the situation, and I'll tell them that if Casey should ask, they should say Victor joined the drive, but that your father split his contract between two drives- uncommon, yes, but not unheard of. They'll say that Victor has already gone to join the other drive for the second half of the season, and that she just missed him. I'll also have them tell her that they just had another man leave their company. That he skipped trail because he was too weak for the weather or something, and now they're short two men. They'll offer her his contract and pay for her labor on the drive. She'll agree. She'll have to. It's too good a deal not to."
Maxine speaks slowly at first, but then nods her head and begins to sound more confident.
"Yes...yes. I think...I think that's the best path forward. But what will happen at the end of the drive? And won't she be suspicious that these strangers let a...a lady join their drive with no questions asked?"
"Ha! Yes, a lady. I wouldn't worry about that, Maxine. You and I both know that Casey travels in the least lady-like fashion imaginable. I seriously doubt that she would approach these men without some form of disguise or at least story. As for the end of the trail, those cattle towns are always jam packed with people when the drive season ends so I'm certain that I can arrange something. But that's months away. The letters alone will take at least a month to get to wherever she is even through the channels I have. By the time she receives her invitation to join Victor, the drive will be well underway and she'll catch up to them for the last month of trail."
"Yes. That seems alright then. I do believe that she will fit right into our little plan nicely. How could I not have thought of her wearing a disguise before? She even showed up here in one, and when I offered to give her more...well, becoming attire she refused and asked for...work pants!"
Waterton gives a polite cry of outrage as he smiles inwardly to himself. He thinks his own plan is working almost too well. He thinks that maybe Maxine is feigning her excitement at his proposal in order to trap him and turn him over to Frederick. But when she looks at him again, he sees the gaze of a simple child who is keeping a small secret or trick hidden from her parents and he knows that his secret is safe with her.
Besides, she's just a stupid housewife with her head stuck in children's fairy tale stories about right and wrong. There is no right or wrong. There is only the successful, and the weak. The wolves, and the flock. I wish her brother...Sam? Was here to set my plans with instead, but he isn't as angry at Casey as she is. I am the wolf. That Sundance Kid was one too, until he turned away from business success and towards the simple game of thievery. He prostituted himself to society. Casey is just the same. She needs to-
"I wonder if Philip is up there now."
Maxine startles Waterton out of his thoughts. He looks down at her and sees her blue eyes gazing up at the stars above. Only the brightest ones are left, but the sun almost seems late in rising.
"Where? In the sky?"
"In the stars."
She remains silent for a few moments before turning to Waterton, panicked and speaking quickly.
"Do you think he's up there? I mean, I know he wasn't the cleanest in his habits, but...but he wouldn't ever harm anyone or anything. He was even kind to the cattle and the horses-Waterton, please, tell me. Do you think he's up there?"
"Maxine, any man, woman, or innocent child who is killed by a no-good like Ms. Long is sent to the seat highest in the stars. Do you know why? Because they were murdered. Any man who is murdered by a degenerate like Ms. Long is sent to the brightest star in the heavens."
She considers his reply as she gazes out at the landscape. A light fog has begun to creep over the tall grasses. When Waterton speaks again, his words are almost in lock-step with Maxine's own thoughts.
"Ms. Long is a murderer. She must be stopped."