built-in instinct most frontiersmen possessed woke him. A check of his pocket watch told him it would be dawn in another hour.
Scratch stepped out into the hotel corridor at the same time Bo did. The Texans nodded to each other and went to the door of Chloride’s room. Scratch put his ear to the panel and grinned.
“Sounds like he’s still sawin’ logs in there,” he said. “We’ll have to wake him up.”
“Better be careful about it,” Bo advised. “He may sleep with that old horse pistol under his pillow. You saw what a ruckus he made when you woke him earlier.”
“Yeah, he acted like he thought ol’ Sittin’ Bull and Crazy Horse were after him.” Not wanting to disturb the other guests in the hotel, Scratch knocked quietly on the door and called, “Chloride! Hey, Chloride, wake up!”
Then he took a quick step to the side just in case the old-timer grabbed a gun and blasted a shot through the door without knowing what was going on.
Instead Chloride responded with a groggy, “Huh? What in blue blazes—”
“Time to get up, Chloride,” Bo said through the door. “We’ve got things to do and places to be.”
“Oh, yeah. Hang on.”
Bo and Scratch listened for more snoring, in case Chloride went back to sleep, but a few minutes later the door opened and the old-timer emerged from the room, yawning. “All right, I’m ready to go,” he said as he ran his fingers through his tangled beard.
They went to the livery stable first and found that Esteban, the Mexican hostler, was getting ready to hitch the mule team to the wagon by lantern light. Bo asked him when the saddle shop opened, and Esteban said, “Whenever you need it to, senor. The man who runs the shop lives above it, and since he is a bachelor, you will not have to worry about disturbing his family.”
Bo nodded his thanks. “All right. We’ll wait a little while before we go over there. I see the cafe is open already, so we’ll have some breakfast first.”
“Si, Senora Pendleton is there early and late. She works very hard.” Esteban shrugged. “But what else is she to do, with no man in her life? It was very hard for her when her husband died.”
“I’m sure it was,” Bo said. He lifted a hand in farewell. “We’ll be back after a while.”
They went up the street and angled across to the Red Top. A couple of men were already at the counter drinking coffee. Sue Beth was nowhere in sight, but she emerged from the door into the kitchen a moment later.
“It’ll be a while before the food’s ready,” she said as she greeted the newcomers with a smile, “but I can pour coffee for you.”
“That’ll be fine, ma’am,” Scratch told her.
They settled down on stools at the counter while Sue Beth placed cups and saucers in front of them and then fetched the pot from the stove. “I heard about what happened last night,” she said as she poured. “I’m sorry about your cabin, Chloride.”
The old-timer shook his head. “It’s my own dang fault, I reckon, for throwin’ in with these two wild Texas boys and makin’ the Devils mad at us.”
“They don’t like anyone defying them, do they?”
“Apparently not,” Bo said. “They’d have to be pretty upset to burn down a fella’s cabin with him in it.”
Sue Beth frowned. “Are you certain it was the same bunch? There could be more than one gang of outlaws around here, you know.”
“That’s true,” Bo admitted. “But these hombres wore the same sort of outfit that the Devils do. Anyway, another bunch of owlhoots would have tried to rob us. Those men last night just wanted us dead.”
“I’ve been doin’ some thinkin, too,” Chloride put in. “Last night I heard one of the varmints give the order to light that coal oil they’d splashed around, and I’d swear it was the same fella I heard bossin’ the others that day they hit the Argosy gold wagon.” A little shudder ran through the old-timer. “The same one who carved the pitchforks into the foreheads of them dead guards.”
“But you can’t be sure of that, can you?” Sue Beth asked.
“I reckon not. But I got a feelin’ in my bones that I’m right, and I’ve learned to trust these old bones.”
Charlie the cook called through the opening behind the counter. “I got flapjacks and bacon ready!”
“I’ll be right back,” Sue Beth told her customers.
The food was as good as always. Bo, Scratch, and Chloride enjoyed their breakfast and washed the meal down with plenty of coffee. Having their bellies full helped them get over everything that had happened the night before.
When Bo went to pay for the food, Sue Beth shook her head and said, “Marty Sutton came by here a while ago and told me that if you stopped in for breakfast, I should just add the bill to her tab.”
“Miss Sutton’s already up and about?” Bo asked.
Sue Beth nodded. “That’s right. She had some coffee, then said she was on her way to Bullock and Star’s. She may still be there.”
Bo put his hat on and ticked a finger against the brim. “We’re much obliged. See you the next time we’re in town.”
“Hopefully that won’t be too long.”
“And maybe we’ll have that turkey for Thanksgivin’,” Scratch added.
Sue Beth laughed. “I’ll be waiting.”
