The wind had continued to strengthen, blowing clouds of gritty, salt-flavored dust between the false-fronted buildings. I had Debaria high street entirely to myself except for a few hitched horses that stood with their hindquarters turned to the wind and their heads unhappily lowered. I would not leave my own so--nor Millie, the mule the boy had ridden--and led them down to the livery stable at the far end of the street. There the hostler was glad to take them, especially when I split him off half a gold knuck from the bundle I carried in my vest.
No, he said in answer to my first question, there was no jeweler in Debaria, nor ever had been in his time. But the answer to my second question was yar, and he pointed across the street to the blacksmith's shop. The smith himself was standing in the doorway, the hem of his tool-filled leather apron flapping in the wind. I walked across and he put his fist to his forehead. "Hile."
I hiled him in return and told him what I wanted--what Vannay had said I might need. He listened closely, then took the shell I handed him. It was the very one I'd used to entrance Young Bill. The blackie held it up to the light. "How many grains of powder does it blow, can'ee say?"
Of course I could. "Fifty-seven."
"As many as that? Gods! It's a wonder the barrel of your revolver don't bust when'ee pull the trigger!"
The shells in my father's guns--the ones I might someday carry--blew seventy-six, but I didn't say so. He'd likely not have believed it. "Can you do what I ask, sai?"
"I think so." He considered, then nodded. "Aye. But not today. I don't like to run my smithhold hot in the wind. One loose ember and the whole town might catch ablaze. We've had no fire department since my da' was a boy."
I took out my bag of gold knuckles and shook two into the palm of my hand. I considered, then added a third. The smith stared at them with wonder. He was looking at two years' wages.
"It has to be today," I said.
He grinned, showing teeth of amazing whiteness within the forest of his ginger beard. "Tempting devil, get not aside! For what you're showin me, I'd risk burning Gilead herself to her foundations. You'll have it by sundown."
"I'll have it by three."
"Aye, three's what I meant. To the shaved point of the minute."
"Good. Now tell me, which restaurant cooks the best chow in town?"
"There's only two, and neither of em'll make you remember your mother's bird puddin, but neither'll poison'ee. Racey's Cafe is probably the better."
That was good enough for me; I thought a growing boy like Bill Streeter would take quantity over quality any day. I headed for the cafe, now working against the wind. It'll be a full-going simoom by dark, the boy had told me, and I thought he was right. He had been through a lot, and needed time to rest. Now that I knew about the ankle tattoo, I might not need him at all . . . but the skin-man wouldn't know that. And in the jail, Young Bill was safe. At least I hoped so.
*
It was stew, and I could have sworn it had been seasoned with alkali grit instead of salt, but the kid ate all of his and finished mine as well when I put it aside. One of the not-so-good deputies had made coffee, and we drank that from tin cups. We made our meal right there in the cell, sitting cross-legged on the floor. I listened for the jing-jang, but it stayed quiet. I wasn't surprised. Even if Jamie and the High Sheriff came near one at their end, the wind had probably taken the wires down.
"I guess you know all about these storms you call simooms," I said to Young Bill.
"Oh, yes," he said. "This is the season for em. The proddies hate em and the pokies hate em even more, because if they're out on the range, they have to sleep rough. And they can't have a fire at night, accourse, because of--"
"Because of the embers," I said, remembering the blacksmith.
"Just as you say. Stew all gone, is it?"
"So it is, but there's one more thing."
I handed over a little sack. He looked inside it and lit up. "Candy! Rollers and chocker-twists!" He extended the bag. "Here, you have the first."
I took one of the little chocolate twists, then pushed the bag back to him. "You have the rest. If it won't make your belly sick, that is."
"It won't!" And he dived in. It did me good to see him. After the third roller went into his gob, he cheeked it--which made him look like a squirrel with a nut--and said, "What'll happen to me, sai? Now that my da's gone?"
"I don't know, but there'll be water if God wills it." I already had an idea where that water might be. If we could put paid to the skin-man, a certain large lady named Everlynne would owe us a good turn, and I doubt if Bill Streeter would be the first stray she'd taken in.
I returned to the subject of the simoom. "How much will it strengthen?"
"It'll blow a gale tonight. Probably after midnight. And by noon tomorrow, it'll be gone."
"Does thee know where the salties live?"
"Aye, I've even been there. Once with my da', to see the races they sometimes have up there, and once with some proddies looking for strays. The salties take em in, and we pay with hard biscuit for the ones that have the Jefferson brand."
"My trailmate's gone there with Sheriff Peavy and a couple of others. Think they have any chance of getting back before nightfall?"
I felt sure he would say no, but he surprised me. "Being as it's all downhill from Salt Village--which is on this side of Little Debaria--I'd say they could. If they rode hard."
That made me glad I'd told the blacksmith to hurry, although I knew better than to trust the reckoning of a mere boy.
"Listen to me, Young Bill. When they come back, I expect they'll have some of the salties with em. Maybe a dozen, maybe as many as twenty. Jamie and I may have to walk em through the jail for you to look at, but you needn't be afraid, because the door of this cell will be locked. And you don't have to say anything, just look."
"If you're thinking I can tell which one killed my da', I can't. I don't even remember if I saw him."
"You probably won't have to see them at all," I said. This I truly believed. We'd have them into the sheriff's office by threes, and have them hike their
pants. When we found the one with the blue ring tattooed around his ankle, we'd have our man. Not that he was a man. Not anymore. Not really.
"Wouldn't you like another chocker, sai? There's three left, and I can't eat nummore."
"Save them for later," I said, and got up.
His face clouded. "Will you come back? I don't want to be in here on my own."
"Aye, I'll come back." I stepped out, locked the cell door, then tossed the keys to him through the bars. "Let me in when I do."
*
The fat deputy with the black hat was Strother. The one with the undershot jaw was Pickens. They looked at me with care and mistrust, which I thought a good combination, coming from the likes of them. I could work with care and mistrust.
"If I asked you fellows about a man with a blue ring tattooed on his ankle, would it mean anything to you?"
They exchanged a glance and then Black Hat--Strother--said, "The stockade."
"What stockade would that be?" Already I didn't like the sound of it.
"Beelie Stockade," Pickens said, looking at me as if I were the utterest of utter idiots. "Does thee not know of it? And thee a gunslinger?"
"Beelie Town's west of here, isn't it?" I asked.
"Was," Strother said. "It's Beelie Ghost Town now. Harriers tore through it five year ago. Some say John Farson's men, but I don't believe that. Never in life. 'Twas plain old garden-variety outlaws. Once there was a militia outpost--back in the days when there was a militia--and Beelie Stockade was their place o' business. It was where the circuit judge sent thieves and murderers and card cheats."
"Witches n warlocks, too," Pickens volunteered. He wore the face of a man remembering the good old days, when the railroad trains ran on time and the jing-jang no doubt rang more often, with calls from more places. "Practicers of the dark arts."
"Once they took a cannibal," Strother said. "He ate his wife." This caused him to give out with a foolish giggle, although whether it was the eating or the relationship that struck him funny I couldn't say.
"He was hung, that fellow," Pickens said. He bit off a chunk of chew and worked it with his peculiar jaw. He still looked like a man remembering a better, rosier past. "There was lots of hangings at Beelie Stockade in those days. I went several times wi' my da' and my marmar to see em. Marmar allus packed a lunch." He nodded slowly and thoughtfully. "Aye, many and many-a. Lots o' folks came. There was booths and clever people doing clever things such as juggling. Sometimes there was dogfights in a pit, but accourse it was the hangins that was the real show." He chuckled. "I remember this one fella who kicked a regular commala when the drop didn't break 'is--"