The Bride

Chapter 14 - Reinforcements

Walter hurried up the road licking jam from his finger and stumbling on a rut before jumping up onto the walk in front of the buildings. He barged into the jail house and called for the Sheriff.

Nathan came from his room and leaned in the doorway, arms outstretched on the frame. It had been two days since his final apology to Allison and it was still resonating in the back of his mind. They had spent almost the entire night together exploring and discovering one another physically, mentally and intellectually. It took him a moment to realize Walter was standing there, waiting.

"What is it, Walter?"

"Mister Jepson gave me a message for you." He licked the inside of his finger then wiped his hand on his pants.

"Are you going to give it to me?"

"Right, yep." He handed Nathan a crumpled piece of paper and stood back, head bobbing.

The message read that Playford had wired two men, telling them to get to Parkerville as fast as possible, he had jobs for them. That was no problem as far as Nathan could see; Playford wanted fencers. What caught his attention were the names of one of the men - 'Plug Hat' Johnson and Donnie Iwai. He folded the message and stuck it in his shirt.

"Thank Jepson for me, Walter and don't get that door handle sticky on your way out."

He went to his file cabinet and dragged out a file of old wanted posters and sorted through them until he spotted the one he wanted. It was a picture of a scruffy bearded man around forty with close set eyes and a scar on one lip - 'Plug Hat' Johnson. Wanted for rustling, stage robbing and the shooting of a bartender in the town of Buffalo Wing. Among known associates was the name of Donnie Iwai.

The poster was nearly five years old and obviously still open since he was coming to Parkerville. Nathan put the file away leaving the poster on top of the cabinet. It was a strange pair, he thought, a black man and a Japanese - but no less deadly. They weren't coming to Parkerville to string wire.

**********

Once again the noon stage blew into town in a cloud of noise and dust, hauling up in front of the hotel, unloading its passengers, baggage and mail bags. Mrs. Hastings, wearing a thundercloud face followed the driver into the hotel where all the mail was left for pick up by recipients. She stood huffing and glaring at the driver and Ryan as they sorted through the items in the bag, gratefully finding the envelope for the bank and seeing Mrs. Hastings on her way.

"Poison she is." The driver spat unerringly into the copper spittoon by the desk.

"Something's changed; she used to be pretty nice."

"Don't want to know, jest sign fer that bag and I'm goin' to wet my whistle, water the horse and be on my way." As he headed into the bar two people came in from the street and Ryan cleared a space on the desk.

"Howdy folks, looking for a room?"

Bates glanced at Dora and gave a tiny shrug at her expression. "Two rooms and put 'em both under Deputy Marshal Bates."

"Deputy Marshal! Absolutely, sir and welcome to the Cooper Hotel and Saloon. Two rooms, second floor right across from the stairs. Can I get you to sign the book and I'll get those bags upstairs for you."

"Where's your mayor's office?"

"Right across the street and down a couple. Can't miss it, has the flag outside."

"Thanks. Take the bags up, we'll be back later."

Edith looked up, removing her wire glasses and adopting a curious smile. "May I help you?"