BY
Vaughn C.
Hardacker
-I-
Billy Marsh was sick and tired of having nothing and was determined to do something about it. He squatted in the mid-afternoon heat and stared through the shimmering waves floating above the dusty road surface. He impatiently tugged on the visor of his tattered pork-pie hat and spit out the shoot of grass he had been chewing. With a sigh of disgust, he stood, kicked at the dust and spun around looking at the woods. “Where are those guys?” he mumbled. “They should have been here an hour ago.”
He walked out of the sun, entered the shade of a big maple tree, flopped down and leaned back. He pulled a dime novel out of the back pocket of his overalls and then settled down and shifted his buttocks until he was comfortable. He opened the book to the folded page that marked his place. He squinted as he read, stumbling over the words. After a few minutes he nodded, as if having finally mastered a difficult concept, refolded the page and raised his buttocks enough to shove the dog-eared book back into his pocket.
He looked down the road again and saw three boys running toward him. He recognized Tommy Jordan, Charley Hawkins and Ken, Charley’s twelve-year-old brother. “Now why’d he bring that kid?” He inserted two fingers into his mouth, letting out a shrill whistle.
“Where you guys been?” Billy yelled.
“Pa made Charley slop the hogs,” Ken answered.
“Ken, shut up!” Charley threatened. He pushed his brother and they began grappling and pulling each other through the dust.
Billy pulled a stalk of grass from the ground and popped it into his mouth. “Once you guys finish foolin’ around I got a question to ask.”
The boys stopped wrestling and turned to him. Exerting himself in the blazing heat had left Charley breathing hard. “Okay, we’re finished; ask away.”
“How’d you guys like to make some money?”
Tommy laughed. “That’s sure one dumb question, Billy. We all need money. My Old Man has been looking for work for months. Last night I heard him tell Mom the bank will probably foreclose on our place soon.”
“Yeah,” Charley added, for two weeks we ain’t had nothing to eat except boiled potatoes. Ain’t no way a bunch of kids are going to get work when grown-ups can’t.”
“I didn’t say nothing about work. I said: How’d you guys like to make some money?”
The three boys stared up at him.
“——Course if you don’t, I’ll bet there’s plenty of others who do.” He sauntered toward the road.
“Aww, come on, Billy,” “We ain’t said no,” Tommy said, racing to catch up to him. “We was asking how...”
Billy knew they’d see it his way. Didn’t he always have the plans? He turned to face them and said, “What we’re gonna do is rob a train...”
“You’re nuts,” Tommy said “Nobody robs trains any more——not even Dillinger!”
“Exactly! Nobody will ever expect a bunch of kids to pull off something like this. Think about it. Tommy, you can save your old man’s farm!”
Charley leaned forward, “Golly! Just like Jesse James! Tell us more, Billy!”
“Every Saturday afternoon the train comes from the C. C. C.[1]
camps up north; it brings the workers down to
“Why not rob it on Sunday, on its way up; it’ll be going slower then,” Ken said.
“Cause, dummy, those loggers get paid on Saturday; by the time Sunday rolls around they ain’t got any money left. They’ve either spent it or give it to their wives——not much sense robbing a train that ain’t carrying any money; now is there?”
“Go on,” said Tommy.
“The train slows down for that sharp curve at Wesley Siding;
then it speeds up and runs downhill to
“Why not?” Ken asked.
“Because we’re going to pile logs across the tracks; big ones the engine can’t push out of the way. When they stop, we’ll get in the passenger car and hold it up.
“It just might work,” Charley said.
“I only got one question,” Tommy said. “What we going to use to get them boys to give us their money?” He held up his hand, pointed the forefinger and raised his thumb, imitating a gun. “This ain’t likely to scare a bunch of men with nothing on their mind but getting drunk.”
“I got that figured out too.” Billy walked over to a stand of brush and reached into the bushes. He turned around holding a small burlap sack, which he quickly carried back to his ‘gang’, and dropped at their feet. “These ought to do the trick.”
Tommy picked up the sack and dumped its contents onto the wilted dry grass. “Golly! Where’d you get these!”
All the boys stared at the two pistols lying by Tommy’s feet.
“Oh, I’ve had them for a while.”
Charley picked up the revolvers. “These ain’t no good! This one ain’t got no trigger.” He held one up. “Heck, this one’s got no hammer! These ain’t about to scare no one; they ain’t nothing but junk!”
Billy took the pistol with no hammer from Charley. He pointed it at Charley, the barrel almost touching him between the eyes, “Can you tell it ain’t got no hammer?”
Charley shook his head.
“If we keep a finger in the trigger guard on the other one, no one will know the difference.” Billy paused. “Anyways, I ain’t got bullets for them.” He dropped the guns into the sack. “Can your baby brother here keep his mouth shut?”
“I can keep my mouth shut as good as anybody.” Ken stood before Billy with clenched fists. “And I can rob a train as good as any of you guys!”
Charley stepped forward, “I’m in, but only if Ken gets a full share.”
“No problem; if Ken takes a fourth of the risk and does a fourth of the work; he gets a fourth of the money.”
“So,” Tommy chimed in, “When do we do it?”
Billy triumphantly leapt to his feet. “This Saturday, meet me here in the morning.”
-II-
On Saturday, they met just before seven as planned. Charley brought along a surprise; one of his father’s large draught horses. “I thought we could hitch him up to the larger logs,” Charley said, basking in the approval of the others.
“That ain’t all we got,” Ken chimed in, waving a double-barreled twelve-gauge shotgun.
“Got any shells for that thing?” Billy asked.
“Sure do.” He held three cartridges in his hand.
“We better get going.”
The sun was at its zenith when they reached the siding. They scoured the steeply sloped forest bordering the siding for logs large enough to suit their purpose. When they pulled the last tree onto the tracks, it was around 1:00 PM.
“Okay,” Billy asked. “You guys got it straight?”
Charley nodded, “I jump into the engine and hold the engineer. You guys go through the passenger car with the shotgun. No problem.”
Billy pulled four bandanas from his pocket and handed one to each of his partners. “Swell, now we ain’t got nothing left to do but wait for the train.”
-III-
Deputy
Sheriff Perly Davis leaned back in his seat. He puffed on his cigar and
relaxed, enjoying the cool breeze through the open window. The weekly run up to
the logging camps and back was his favorite part of the job. It was easy——a
nice serene ride into the
He tossed the cold cigar butt out the window, pulled his hat over his eyes and fell asleep.
The train struggled to maintain speed as it climbed the grade to Wesley Siding. The engineer, Gilman Provost cursed the locomotive and Sam Dills, his fireman, “More steam Sam!”
Gilman looked out the window and spotted a pile of debris on the tracks. “Merde!” He pulled on the brake.
Sam stuck his head out the window and shouted, “Looks like there’s been a slide.”
The locomotive slowed and stopped short of the debris.
“Damn it,” Provost said, “It’s gonna take hours to clean that stuff up. The passengers are going to have to earn their drunk today...”
Sam took one step from the locomotive’s cab, then raised his hands and began to back up.
“Jeez, Sam——,” Provost said. Then he saw the scruffy kid with a bandana hiding his face.
As the train stopped amid a cloud of steam, Billy motioned the others on, “Let’s go!” Steam hissed from the engine as he ran for the passenger car with Ken and Tommy on his heels.
Billy burst through the door of the passenger car, the shotgun waving menacingly before him. “Don’t anybody move! This is a stick up!”
Ken and Tommy followed him through the door. Tommy motioned for Ken to stay put and started down the aisle with the broken pistol and a burlap sack. “Put all your money in it,” he ordered the passengers. He worked his way to the rear of the car. He thought Billy was right! This was working perfectly!
He reached the last seat, where a big-bellied man was sleeping. He poked the man with the gun. “Put your money in the sack.”
Perly awoke with a start. He saw the gun aimed at him and reacted without thinking. He leapt to his feet and reached for his right hip.
Tommy froze, instead of money the fat man held the biggest pistol he had ever seen.
The end of the gun flashed. The bullet tore through his chest and threw Tommy back into an unoccupied seat.
Billy heard a loud crack. He looked to the rear of the car
and saw Tommy tumbling backward. He recognized the heavy man as the deputy
sheriff from
Billy pushed Ken toward the door, “RUN!” He fired the shotgun over the heads of the passengers, aiming toward Perly. Several pellets hit the deputy, spoiling his aim. A bullet slammed into the door jam next to Billy’s head and exploded with a loud SMACK!
Ken bolted through the door, running as fast as his legs would carry him. Billy fired his remaining cartridge into the ceiling and ran after Ken.
They half ran, half slid down the slope to the trees; screaming for Charley to run.
When he heard the loud BOOM from the passenger car, Charley’s hand wavered. He kept his thumb over the rear of the pistol, hoping they would think he was holding the hammer back with it. He jumped with surprise. “D-don’t you get any ideas,” he stammered, “I-I’ll shoot...”
Provost and Dills showed no inclination to try anything. Charley wondered if they could see how scared he was.
Charley heard Billy yell for him to run. He didn’t have to be told twice. “Y-you better not try and follow us. Y-you hear?”
“Kid,” Provost said, “I wouldn’t follow you if you was the
only whore in
Charley jumped off the train and dashed for the woods. He entered the trees at full speed and smacked into a low-hanging limb, knocking himself to the ground. He screamed when a hand grabbed him by the shirt collar, pulling him to his feet.
“Shut up,” Billy hissed, “We got to get out of here!” Along with Ken, they ran to the horse. The trio bent over panting as they paused to recapture their breath. Ken was crying, tears leaving tracks in the dirt on his face.
“Don’t cry, Ken. It’s okay. Billy tell him everything’s okay.”
Billy said nothing.
Charley looked around, “Where’s Tommy?”
“He ain’t coming,” Billy wheezed.
“Why not?”
“Because,” Ken wailed, “Tommy’s dead! The fat man shot him!”
Billy grabbed the horse’s reins. “We got to get out of here.”
Charley grabbed Billy by the arm. “What’s Ken mean Tommy’s dead? What fat man?”
“Yeah,” Billy spat out, “That fat old deputy sheriff from
-IV-
Perly saw the two kids leap from the train. He knew he’d never catch them so he turned to the boy he had shot.
The conductor bent over the small boy and looked up when Perly blocked out the sun. “He’s only a kid.”
“He wasn’t too young to rob this train.” Perly pushed the conductor aside and bent over the boy. If this boy was fourteen it was not by much. He pulled the bloody bandana away from the boy’s face—he looked familiar. His voice was strangely soft when he asked, “What’s your name son?”
The boy hawked up frothy pink blood. Perly had seen similar blood before, coming from a deer he’d shot. The boy was lung-shot and wouldn’t last long.
“T-Tommy.”
“Tommy what?”
“
“You Harvey Jordan’s boy?”
Tommy nodded.
Harvey Jordan’s only boy; this was going to be hard on the family. “Who was with you, Tommy?”
Tommy coughed again; blood dribbled from the corners of his mouth. “I hurt real bad.”
“Who were the others?”
“It ain’t right to rat...” Tommy rolled onto his side and retched. He sobbed once, and then died with a raspy sigh.
Perly picked the limp body up and turned to the conductor. “Wh-where can we put him?”
The conductor pointed to the rear, to the caboose. “We’ll put him in there.”
“I never shot anyone before—when I do I kill a boy!”
The conductor put his hand on Perly’s shoulder, “He had a gun.”
Perly spotted the gun; it had no trigger! The passengers cleared his path as he walked into the caboose. He knelt down and placed Tommy’s body on the bare mattress that served as the brakeman’s bunk. Silently he vowed to catch the ones who ran away and left this boy to die.
-V-
The three boys rode the horse hard.
“What we gonna do now?” Ken asked.
Billy pulled back on the reins and stopped the laboring horse beside a stream. He walked to the bank, stared into the clear water for a few seconds, and then dropped down and drank deep gulps of cold mountain spring water. He desperately tried to figure out what they should do next.
Ken went on the attack, “You ain’t got any idea what we should do! You got Tommy killed with your stupid plan!”
Billy spun and charged at Ken. Before he reached him, Charley knocked him down.
“You want him, you gonna have to fight me,” Charley’s voice was hard, flat and filled with menace.
Billy lost all desire to fight. “I didn’t know that Perly was gonna be on the train.” He looked at the sky. “Jeez, louise, Tommy was my friend too!”
Charley dropped his hands, opened his fists and then put his arm around Billy’s shoulder, “I know that. We all thought it was going to be a great adventure—just like Jesse James.”
Ken snorted with contempt and Charley spun on him, “And you keep your mouth shut, Runt. If you don’t I’ll thrash you. You understand me? You’re only running off at the mouth because you’re so scared you want to mess in your pants!”
Ken backed up a couple of steps. Billy wiped tears from his face and dried his hands on his pants. They sat down together. For several minutes nobody spoke.
Charley stood up and said, “We’ll cut across the top of Staple’s Mountain and use the mare to pile up some downfall!”
Billy was skeptical. “How’s that gonna help us?”
“The old man has been after us to get some firewood for a couple of weeks. Anybody asks where we been we just tell them that we been up on the ridge all day collecting wood.
Billy agreed. “We better get a move on. We only got a couple of hours to get a pile together.”
-VI-
The train arrived in
“What in blazes kept you?” Long asked. He stared at the sleeve of Perly’s white shirt. He saw what looked like blood on it.
“We were held up.”
“That’s obvious, you’re two hours late.”
“I mean we were robbed—up near Wesley Siding. A bunch of fool kids piled some trees and rocks on the tracks; when we stopped they got on board.”
“Damn,” Long laughed, “That took some brass. I hope you put the fear of the Lord in those youngsters.”
“It ain’t that simple, Norm.” Perly cleared his throat. “I killed one of the kids——”
“Jesus, Perly!”
“I dozed off and when I woke up there was this kid aiming a pistol at me. Before I knew it I’d shot him. I gunned down Harvey Jordan’s son.”
“Tommy?”
Perly nodded. “Now I’ve got to go tell
Long looked away from Perly’s pallid face and watched the
conductor as he carried Tommy’s body through the gathering crowd. “I’ll go see
“No, this is something I got to do myself. I killed that boy; the least I can do is take him home.” He paused. “There were two or three others with him. They got to learn a lesson from this.”
“Okay, take the boy home and see if you can’t find out who put him up to this tom-foolery.”
-VII-
Perly battled the steering wheel of the county-owned Ford,
trying to keep the wheels in the ruts that passed for a road. Each time he hit
a pothole Perly looked back to make sure Tommy’s body was still on the seat. As
he crested the hill above the
-IIX-
Perly stepped from the car and faced
Perly blurted out, “It’s about your boy...”
“Damned, kid; he knows I ain’t got any money for fines and such. What’s he gone and done?”
“
The serious timbre in Perly’s voice hit
“Tommy was killed trying to rob the train from the C.C.C. Camp.”
“What? That’s not true, I—.”
“I wish it wasn’t true
Mildred Jordan rushed out the house, the door banging behind
her. She ran across the yard and ripped the car’s back door open. When she
pulled the blanket away from Tommy’s face, her wail echoed across the yard. She
gathered her dead son into her arms, struggling to lift him from the car.
All life seemed to drain out of Mildred. She shuffled into
the house.
Perly put a hand on
“Hear what?”
“I’m the one shot him. I woke from a sleep and there he was with a gun——I didn’t even think...”
“Harvey, Tommy wasn’t alone. There were maybe three others with him.” He hesitated, “You got any idea who they might have been?”
Perly watched
-IX-
At sundown, the three boys led the horse into the barnyard. They saw a car in the yard and became scared. “Remember our story,” Billy warned.
Perly and Jake Hawkins were on the porch deep in conversation. When they saw the boys approach the barn, Jake shouted, “Charley! Ken! Where in Hell you been?”
“We been up on the ridge, Dad. Gathering deadfall for firewood!”
“All day?”
“Yeah.”
“Make sure you rub that horse down good. Then get cleaned up for supper. Your mother’s been looking for you!”
Jake watched the boys suspiciously as they pulled the horse inside the barn. He lit a cigarette and said, “Something stinks; I’ve been at them for two weeks to gather that wood and they ain’t done nothing. All of a sudden they just up and do it...” He started walking off the porch, heading for the barn.
Perly took him by the arm, “I’ve got to talk to them.”
Hawkins stopped and sighed. “Go ahead Perly. Damned if I know what to do with them. If they did what you say they did they got to be taught.” He shook his head in sorrow. “If them boys go to prison it’ll kill their mother.”
“Well, Jake. Let’s cross that bridge when we come to it.”
Perly walked into the barn.
The boys stopped brushing down the horse when they saw the big deputy sheriff step inside the barn. Perly hung his thumbs from his gun belt and said, “Looks as if you boys have had a busy day.” He took three steps, halving the distance between them and him. The boys began to back away. “SIT DOWN, OVER THERE!” He pointed toward several bales of hay.
The boys scrambled to obey.
“Four kids tried to hold up the camp train today?” He glared at Billy and Ken. “I saw two of them real close.” He turned to Charley, “I’ll bet Gil Provost and Sam Dills wouldn’t have much trouble identifying the fellow who held a gun on them either.”
Perly squatted down so his eyes were level with theirs. “I know damned well it was you boys—along with Tommy Jordan.”
“Mister,” Ken looked his age, innocent and unable to believe what had happened, “we never intended for no one to get hurt—we wanted to be just like Jesse James.”
“Don’t matter what you intended, now does it? Tommy is dead!” he pointed at Billy, “And you came within inches of getting your damned head blown off!
“The penalty for armed robbery is twenty years. Damned good thing you didn’t have anything bigger than birdshot in that scattergun or you could be facing hanging!”
The boys watched in horrified silence as the deputy stomped around in circles. He stopped and stood over them again.
“There’s already one family in this county mourning a son and I don’t want there to be any more!” He bent forward, his menacing face close to theirs. “I catch you boys jay walking, skipping school for any reason except to help out on the farm and you’re going away for a long time! YOU GOT THAT?”
The boys shook like leaves in a strong wind and said nothing.
“YOU GOT THAT?” Perly’s voice snapped like a thunderclap.
Perly left them in the barn and saw Jake standing on the porch with Grover Marsh. “Grover came by looking for Billy,” Jake said. “I told him what happened. We heard everything.”
Marsh took Perly’s hand, “Thanks, Perly. We’ll never forget what you did here.”
“What I did won’t bring Tommy Jordan back.”
The three men were silent for a few moments.
Grover broke the heavy silence. “There are three boys in that barn that will think twice before they try anything like this again.
“I hope so. In times like these, kids get to worshippin’ the wrong heroes.”
Perly got into his car and hoped Norm Long would approve of
the way he had handled the situation. As Perly drove toward
THE END