Scalpers by Ralph Cotton Read Free Book Online

He held out his glass and Ozzie Cord filled it. They drank their shot glasses empty in one deep swig.
    *   *   *
    It was well after dark when Turner Pridemore walked into the Mockingbird tent. Outside, a wind-driven rain lashed sideways against the small fortress town of Iron Point as if in vengeance. As Pridemore took off his hat and slung water from it,he walked across the muddy sawdust floor, and the mercenaries along the bar settled their revelry and turned toward him.
    â€œMake room for Bigfoot, men,” Darton Alpine said, shoving the drinkers away. The men watched Pridemore expectantly. He stood at the bar and took a hefty leather pouch full of gold coins from inside his coat and held it out at arm’s length over the bar.
    â€œThere you are, men,” Pridemore said. “That’s how many heathen Apache we sent to hell with their noggins docked.” He dropped the pouch. The gold coins jingled; the men cheered. Diamond Jim Ruby behind the faro table and Bertha Buttons behind the bar both looked relieved, having been running a tab for the whiskey, beer and women until Turner Pridemore arrived.
    â€œAre we going to tally out right now, Bigfoot?” a drunken scalper named Doyle Baines asked.
    â€œNo,” said Pridemore, “you’re all too drunk to be handling money tonight. I won’t see my men cheated.” He had a second pouch of coins that he’d collected for himself, overpayment from the captain for agreeing to kill Bertha and Diamond Jim.
    One of the newer scalpers, Bert Lacy, called out drunkenly, “But I want mine now. This
puta
and me are getting hitched!” A young woman naked from the waist up leaned against him bleary-eyed.
    Pridemore looked Lacy up and down.
    â€œSomebody take Bert out back and cut his throat good and deep,” he said.
    Dead silence fell in, but only for a moment.Three men reached for Bert Lacy, one already drawing a big knife from his boot. But Pridemore stopped them.
    â€œJesus, men, I was only joshing!” he shouted.
    â€œSo was I,” Lacy said in his slurred voice, jerking his buckskin sleeve away from the men. “I ain’t getting hitched!” He raised a boot to the
puta
’s rump and shoved her away roughly. “She smells like a wet chicken.”
    The men stepped back, hooted and cheered; the woman scrambled away. Diamond Jim and Bertha Buttons shared a guarded look from across the large tent. These were dangerous men, their eyes warned each other, as if there had ever been any doubt.
    â€œAll right, then, we tally up in the morning,” Pridemore said. He snatched up the gold pouch and looked at Bertha Buttons across the bar. “Ma’am, I remember you from Tejas. Is it all right with you and your parrot over there if we settle accounts come morning?”
    Parrot over there? This son of a bitch,
Diamond Jim fumed in silence.
    Bertha tossed the matter aside with the wave of a hand.
    â€œWhy, hell yes,” she said, knowing it would do her no good to say otherwise. “I remember you too, Bigfoot,” she added in a half-flirting voice. “Anytime you pay is fine by me—my parrot too.” She grinned and tossed her curly red hair in Jim Ruby’s direction. The men laughed.
    â€œThen keep setting us up,” said Pridemore,slapping a hand down on the bar top. As he spoke, the young woman Bert Lacy had kicked away sidled up to him and ran her arm around his waist. Looking down at her, he saw the suggestion in her dark eyes. But then he sniffed the air above her head and drew away.
    â€œNot now, little darling. You’ve made too many friends,” he said. “Find yourself some lye soap and scrub everywhere you can reach—come see me later.” He gave her a nudge away from him and looked all around the lantern-lit darkness. Outside, rain blew hard sounding like nails thrown against the side of the tent. “Anybody seen my boy,