bath, hell I took me a bath not no more than two, maybe three weeks ago. And I done it all by myself, too. And whenever the time comes in the next two weeks or so that I’ll be takin’ me another one, why, I’ll take that one by myself too.”
“Whatever you say,” Mabel replied.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Regret was still packing his shirttail down in his pants as he came down the stairs to join Sam Davis and Lucas Depro, who were both waiting in the lobby. Depro was no longer wearing a uniform.
“Have you heard?” Davis asked.
“Have I heard? Have I heard what?” Regret answered.
“There ain’t goin’ to be no dance. Instead, they’re havin’ a parade and a town picnic today.”
“Well, hell, that’s as good as a dance, I reckon,” Regret answered.
“Yeah, well, there’s more to it,” Davis said. “The picnic ain’t for us, it’s for the colored soldiers. And the reason they canceled the dance is ’cause the coloreds couldn’t come on account of they ain’t goin’ to let the coloreds dance with the white women. And now, they’re plannin’ on celebratin’ the coloreds killin’ Mean to His Horses.”
“Well, I don’t see why they couldn’t have a picnic for the coloreds, and go ahead and have that dance for us,” Regret said. “That way, we could go to both of ’em.”
Davis shook his head. “Ain’t goin’ to be nothin’ for us—’ceptin’ maybe jail if Cody and MacCallister have their way.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Read this,” Davis said, showing him the paper.
“You know I can’t read.”
“Yeah, I forgot. All right, what it says is that Cody and MacCallister went out to the Injun village to have a look around, and now they’re tellin’ the whole country that what we done was just murder a bunch of Injun women and children.”
“How can you murder an Injun?” Regret asked.
“Ain’t that pretty much like steppin’ on a bug or somethin’? It ain’t like they was white or anything. I ain’t never heard of no one gettin’ in trouble for murderin’ an Injun.”
“There’s more,” Davis said. “They know that me and you and Depro sold the guns to the Injuns.”
“Damn!” Regret said. “They know that? How the hell do they know that?”
“I don’t know,” Davis replied. “But it don’t matter none how they know. The point is, they know.”
“We need to get out of here,” Regret said.
“Won’t do no good to run,” Depro said. “It won’t make no difference where we go. I know both MacCallister and Cody, and believe me, them two can track a fish through water and a bird through the air. If they are alive, they’ll find us.”
“If they are alive,” Davis said.
“What?”
“You said if they are alive,” Davis repeated. “Seems to me like you just come up with the answer. If they are alive they’ll find us, if they are dead, they won’t. So, the smartest thing we can do is to kill them before we leave. That way we can go somewhere else and not worry ’bout being found.”
“Yeah, well, killin’ ’em ain’t goin’ to be that easy,” Depro said. “Like I said, I know them two.”
“Besides which, we ain’t got enough money to go anywhere in the first place,” Regret said.
“Don’t worry about the money, we’ll get it,” Davis said.
“How we goin’ to get any money? You plannin’ on robbin’ a bank or somethin’? ’Cause I ain’t goin’ to do that. A man can get hisself kilt, doin’ somethin’ like that,” Depro said.
“We’ll get it from Bellefontaine. He owes us,” Davis said.
“Maybe he owes the two of you, but he don’t owe me nothin’,” Depro said.
“Sure he does. When you got them guns from the army, you was doin’ that for Bellefontaine.”
“Yeah,” Depro said. He smiled. “Yeah, I was, wasn’t I?”
“You are mistaken, gentlemen, I don’t owe you anything,” Bellefontaine said. “If you wish to run, feel free to do so. But I have no intention of leaving. Not now, not when I have everything going just the way I want it to go.”
“You ain’t got nothin’ goin’ the way you want it to go,” Davis said. “Didn’t you hear what I just said? The paper says what we done out at the village was a massacre.”
“There are those who said the thing about Chivington at Sand Creek, and about Custer at Washita. But today Chivington is still a respected man in Colorado, and no one is more honored than Custer. I have no intention of letting a negative newspaper article change my plans.”
“Yeah, well maybe that works for you,” Depro said. “But it’s different with Davis, Regret, and me. We sold guns to the Injuns. If they catch us, we’re goin’ to jail for that.”
“Then, gentlemen, I suggest you start running.”
