Trego. J. D. Oliver
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winter. If you need any help, just get word to me, or my wife, Brie Stevens, but now it’s Shelby, we, her and I got married just today.”
“Yes, the word is already making it’s rounds, this is a small town. They say you’re a gunman, Mr. Trego. Is that right?”
“Well, I guess you could say that, but it’s not Mr. Trego, it’s just Trego. I don’t use my last name much, in fact this is the first time I’ve used it, now it belongs to my wife, Mrs. Shelby.”
“Thank you, Trego. I don’t think you’re as bad as they say. I think you’re an Angel. By the way, there are halters hanging on the back porch for the mares, don’t forget them.”
“Yes, I’ll get them. Perhaps you can visit Mrs. Shelby, when you bring the bill of sale for the horses. I’ll tell her to expect you.”
I went out the back door, picking up the two halters and lead ropes on my way out. The mares had already ate the hay that I tossed them. They seen I had the halters, they came right to me.
When I turned them in the barn, Jim came over. They touched noses. I was glad neither of the mares were in heat. I hung the halters in the small tack room. Then I went up the ladder to the haymow. I was glad it was full, Brie had thought ahead. I forked down hay to all of the stock. As I went back down, I thought to myself, that I would have to shovel the manure on the morrow.
I was feeling right proud of myself. Now I knew better than that, pride goes before a fall, they say. Which it almost was, as I went out of the barn I turned my back to the snow storm to close the barn doors. Splinters flew right beside my head, I dropped to the snow and rolled, dragging my right hand gun from under my coat, bullets were kicking up snow all around me.
I saw the person who was shooting at me. I had counted the rounds, five of them. I rolled up on my elbows, steadied my gun and put one right through his head. Brie came busting out of the house, screaming; “Trego, Trego are you alright.” I was still laying there, just checking to see if he was alone, he was. I was just starting to get up, when she was on me.
I stood up, with difficulty, cause Brie was attached to me. We went over to the body, I rolled him over with my foot. Damn, it was that Blythe kid. How in the hell had he even gotten out of bed. I had put a round in his leg, not over twenty four hours ago. I guess hate is a powerful motivator.
The whole town heard the shooting, the first one there was that old Doc Hoeffer. He stopped, looking down, he didn’t even bend down. I said, “Aren’t you going to see if he’s dead or not?”
“No, don’t you ever shoot them anywhere except in the head?”
“Yes, I shot this snot nose in the leg just yesterday.”
He just grunted, a crowd was gathering. Including his Dad and those two babysitter’s. Evan dropped on his knees beside his son. He looked up at me, hate shinning like he was summoning it up all the way from hell. That is if there was a hell.
I said, “It was your own fault, why didn’t you keep a better eye on him, you knew he wasn’t right in the head.” One of the so called babysitters said, “We’re sorry Boss, but you’re the one who had us check the payroll at the mine.”
“Don’t you riff-raff sass me, pick him up. Take him to the Doc’s house.”
Doc Hoeffer cleared his throat, “No you don’t, there’s nothing I can do for him. Take him to your place or the ice house.”
Doc had started to turn away, “Just a minute Doc. Would you check his gun, there should be one round left?” I said.
Doc picked it up from the cold snow, he pushed the cylinder sideways. “Yep, one live round.”
“You see why I shot him in the head, he could of got lucky with that last one, I couldn’t take a chance.”
“I don’t reckon you take many chances, do you?” Doc said.
“Oh I don’t know, I think I took the biggest chance of my life when I rode into this town.”
“Well they say, fools rush in where Angels fear to tread. I guess you can take your pick on which one you are.” Doc said, as he turned away and trudged through the snow, with his shoulders hunched, like the tired old man he was.
I thought of what he said, as I kicked fresh snow over the kid’s blood. The crowd had dispersed by the time I looked up. Brie was standing by the barn door looking at me. As I turned she rushed into my arms again.
She whispered in my ear, “I think you’re an Angel, sent here for me.”
“I’m sorry Honey, I didn’t want this to happen on your wedding day.” I said, kissing her ear.
“Don’t be sorry, if you hadn’t of got him first, my wedding day would have been a whole lot worse. I seen you bought two more horses?”
“Yeah, Mrs. McBeth sold them to me. She wanted a hundred for the pair, but I gave her two hundred. She’s supposed to bring the bill of sale over.”
“She’s a nice woman, I know she needed the money. Come on and wash up, the cook has our supper ready.”
Winter set in with a vengeance that night. It didn’t get above ten degrees all winter. The usual Chinook never materialized. The snow just kept piling up. The only good thing about it, was that it was more miserable than the people who would have been out in it.
Everyone in town was getting cabin fever. The only problem that I had was a few drunks that I put up in the jail for the night. The supply wagons only came once a month, instead of every two weeks like they used to.
That also meant that the mine was not shipping their silver. The road was too bad for the heavy laden wagons of silver. They had a silver smelter at the edge of town, so it was pure silver they needed to ship, not ore.
The only ones, as far as I knew who wasn’t suffering from cabin fever was Brie and I. We spent our leisure time having sex. Seems we never got tired of it. My lovely wife had a vivid imagination.
I don’t know whether I was looking forward to the spring breakup or not. I was afraid that along with the melting of the ice and snow, the inhibitions of the populace would also melt. They had been cooped up in this town for almost six months.
That warehouse of silver was on my mind a lot these days. As I was sure it was of every road agent in this territory. That was a topic that my Uncle Lambert and I had discussed just about every time that I got a shave and haircut. Plus it was a topic of conversation when ever Uncle Lambert and his wife ‘Garnet’ came over to our house for a meal. Garnet was not only my Aunt by marriage, but also because she was my mother’s sister.
It was the first week in March, the temperature moderated a bit. Lambert, Garnet, Brie and I, were seated in the Den, smoking and drinking a brandy. The women weren’t smoking, but they were sipping their brandy.
Lambert blew a smoke ring, then laid his cigar in the ash tray. “I think it’s time we addressed the Elephant in the room.”
“Huh? The Elephant, what are you talking about?” Brie said, I knew what he referred to.
“It’s a term I read in a book. It means a topic or situation that everybody carefully avoids talking about. And that’s my brother and Trego’s father.”
“Alright, since you brought it up, I’d like a few details on how my mother got killed and my Dad’s legacy, that he left me?”
Garnet put her drink down, “Perhaps I can tell you a little bit, it was the time when the Sioux had all but closed the Bozeman trail, so it shifted north, up the Missouri and through Fort Benton. The Calvary had troops all along the way, to protect the people. The Army had to supply those troops, they had wagon trains of their own. On those wagons were not only food and dry goods. But also the troops had to be paid,