Ironhorse

103

It was late in the afternoon when I woke up. I found my clothes folded at the foot of the bunk I was sleeping on, and Virgil was gone. I looked out to the meadow behind the bathhouse, and trees surrounding it were swaying with the breeze and the air was much cooler now than when I fell asleep. I took my time getting dressed. I cleaned my teeth real good, drank three full ladles of water, then walked down the side hall leading out to the front porch of the bathhouse. When I stepped out the door I found the street was a bustle of activity. Up the street to the west, past the corner, I could see Berkeley talking with his deputy on the porch of the sheriff’s office. I crossed the street and started walking toward the office.

“Everett.”

I turned. Virgil was coming up the boardwalk from the east.

“Get yourself some good sleep?” Virgil said.

“Did,” I said. “Needed it.”

Virgil caught up to me, and we continued walking.

“You?”

“For a bit,” Virgil said. “Then I went over to the depot and had Jenny send a wire to Appaloosa.”

“Allie?”

Virgil nodded.

“Allie.”

“What’d ya wire?”

“Let her know we were on our way back,” Virgil said, “to be expecting us.”

I thought about that for a moment. That was Virgil’s way of telling her to keep her breeches on, but the fact of the matter was, her breeches had already been off. According to the telegram Virgil received when we were in Nuevo Laredo, her breeches had been off quite a bit.

“That’s a good idea,” I said.

Virgil nodded.

“I thought so, too,” he said.

“A warning shot.”

“Yep,” Virgil said.

“Don’t want to waltz in there and brush the dirt away from the lock-and-load.”

“No,” Virgil said. “Don’t.”

“But that don’t change the fact when we get back to Appaloosa you got some housecleaning to take care of.”

“Don’t have a house,” Virgil said. “Allie burnt that down.”

“That ain’t the housecleaning I’m talking about.”

We stopped at the corner and waited for a buckboard to pass. I looked to the north. Clouds were rolling in and it looked like more rain was headed our way.

“Chauncey Teagarden and me will have our go of it outside.”