Wanted! Belle Starr! (4 page)

“
You were counting on him
having drawn three cards to a pair,” the lady outlaw suggested, the
young man having paused and glanced her way as if wondering whether
she was able to follow the description of the events. “Which, even
if he had caught the other two, they wouldn’t be able to beat your
four jacks as they couldn’t be queens, kings, or aces.”

“
That’s how anybody would
have seen it!” the New Englander claimed, with justification.
“Particularly after the right and cagey game he’d been
playing.”

“
But he still topped your
four jacks with a straight flush on the showdown,” the lady outlaw
stated rather than guessed.

“
You’re right,” Bullstrode
conceded, surprised at finding his confession was being accepted
without any sign of derision or condemnation on the part of the
beautiful if over made up woman and the very young seeming Texan
(whom he now suspected was somewhat older and far more worldly than
appearances suggested). Feeling slightly better now that he had
admitted what he had come to realize had been very foolish
behavior, he elaborated, “I did think he was drawing to improve a
pair, the same way he had several times before. Nobody but the
rankest ‘lamb’ or ‘rabbit’ would have stayed in a pot that steep
and drawn three cards in the hope of filling a straight flush and,
although I wouldn’t have rated him as any kind of poker playing
‘wolf”, he’d played a whole lot smarter than that up until
then.”
^ix

“
All of which was intended
to get you thinking you couldn’t lose the pot,” Belle went on, as
the New Englander stopped speaking. “So you saw what you took to be
your chance to get back all the money you and dear Emily if that’s
the name she gave you and her poor ‘brother’ had lost, perhaps with
some more on top of it. The trouble was, the only way you could
stay in the pot was by putting up that ten thousand dollars you
were supposed to deliver to Dusty Fog for General
Hardin.”

“
Yes, that h—!” Bullstrode
began, before the full import of what had just been said struck
him. Swinging his startled gaze to the lady outlaw, he demanded not
without a noticeable trace of suspicion, “How do you know it was
ten thousand dollars!”

“
I heard all about it and
you just after I arrived in town,” Belle replied, but refrained
from mentioning that when she had discovered for whom the money was
intended it had caused her to rule out the young New Englander as
one of her own possible victims. A friendship of long standing with
Ole Devil Hardin’s floating outfit, and not a fear

of the consequences, which would have
deterred most Western criminals, had led her to reach her decision.
This, in addition to considering herself under an obligation to him
for his attempt in helping her against the three drunken cousins,
made her go on, The thing is, how do we go about getting it and
your money back from them?”

“
Well now,” the Kid
drawled and, regardless of the seemingly gentle way in which he was
speaking, something in his manner caused Bullstrode to eye him
uneasily. “Happen they’re still around town, I could maybe drift
along and ask them real friendly-like to give it back to
you.”

“
They’re still in town,”
the New Englander claimed, in response to the interrogative glances
directed his way by his companions. “At least, they were this
morning. The Duke of Haute-Savoie was with Reverend Huckfield when
he came to collect his winnings. I haven’t seen either of them, or
the girl, since then. But two of the other men who were playing
went out of the hotel earlier this evening.”

“
That means they’re still
around,” the lady outlaw estimated, not without satisfaction.
“They’ll have been keeping watch on you all day to find out whether
you had got suspicious and meant to tell the marshal what had
happened.”

“
I thought of doing just
that,” Bullstrode stated grimly. “But the game took place in one of
the big mansions on the edge of town and, with the quality of the
people who were playing, I kept telling myself I must be wrong and
hadn’t been cheated. At least, I couldn’t have told the marshal I’d
seen anything to make me believe I’d been other than outsmarted
fairly.”

“
You’re lucky you didn’t
try to go and tell about them, they’d have stopped you cold,” Belle
asserted. “As it is, you were their first “mark” here and, after
the expense they’ll have gone to hiring that house, they’re likely
to be staying a few more days to pick up another couple or
so.”

“
Which being,” the black
dressed Texan said, in the same apparently mild tone and looking
almost angelically innocent. “Should you just tell me where they’re
at, I’ll drift on over and say, “Howdy, you-all”.”

“
And, seeing they’re trampling
on my range and have already wide-looped one mark I was fixing to
slap my brand on not you, Mr. Bullstrode, but back along the
railroad a piece I’d say go to it, Lon,” the lady outlaw declared,
having no illusions regarding the true nature of the Ysabel
Kid.
^x
“Doing it
your
Pehnane
Comanche way could get back the money, I’ll
admit—!”

“
But?” the Texan
prompted.

“
But not without you
winding up having to explain to the marshal why you took to the
warpath,” Belle elaborated. “Which, unless I’m mistaken, is the
last thing Mr. Bullstrode wants when it means that the story of how
he let himself be taken will be spread around. It won’t just stay
hereabouts, should that happen.”

“
You’re right about that,
‘Miss Beauregard’!” the New Englander affirmed vehemently. In a
quieter tone, he continued, “I know I haven’t shown in any too good
a light by what I’ve done, but to have word of it get back home
will ruin whatever chances I have of making a career for
myself.”

“
That’s what I thought,”
Belle admitted, with genuine sympathy and understanding.

“
I still can’t believe the
girl was in it!” Bullstrode said. “She looked so young and
innocent—!”

“
And isn’t either,” the
lady outlaw interrupted. She was all too aware although she tended
to select quarry less likely to seek revenge by informing the law
enforcement agencies, because they’d be hard put to explain their
own motives in seeking a big gambling game of how easily a lonely
and susceptible young man could be taken in by a woman with the
looks and histrionic abilities of the blonde she had described.
Then her gaze swung to the Texan and she went on, “Your way is out,
Lon.”

“
Do you have something
better in mind?” the Kid inquired, although his attitude suggested
he felt sure this was the case.

“
Not so much better as
less direct,” Belle replied. “In fact, it’s going to need to be a
real sneaky way to get the money back.”

“
Sacre bleu,
how absolutely horrible!”
gasped Emily Chauvelin, who was currently using as an alias the
title, ‘the Duchess of Haute-Savoie’. Fitting the description given
to Andrew Bullstrode by Belle Starr, tastefully and expensively
dressed and bejeweled, her English had a French accent which was
somewhat less pronounced than the Spanish timbre employed by her
intended victim. Darting a glance close to revulsion at the long
haired and Indian dark young man credited with very deadly
knowledge, she gave a shiver and went on, “Can’t we talk of
something less frightful please?”

“
Perhaps you will cut the cards
for me, please, Donna Maria?” requested Armond, ‘Duke of
Haute-Savoie’, whose English was of much the same quality as the
woman who was his wife in real life, although she occasionally
posed in other capacities. Of medium height, stocky in build, black
haired and swarthily handsome, with a sharp pointed moustache and
tiny chin beard in the Gallic fashion, he too was immaculately
dressed. Having completed the shuffling of the deck during the
description of how fatally effective a ‘blowing pipe’ and its darts
tipped with curare could be, he held it towards Belle Starr.
“Like
mon
cher
Emily,
I too feel a change to a subject less gruesome would be
welcome.”

“
Yeah, verily,” intoned
‘Reverend’ Leslie Huckfield, as somberly as if delivering a sermon
for the wealthy and influential local congregation he had claimed
to represent. “Though the ways of the ungodly are indeed
mysterious, I agree they do not make a pleasant topic of
conversation.”

“
But of course,” the lady outlaw
assented, in the manner of one conferring a favor. “I was only
explaining for
Señor
Driberg.”

After Belle had left to start making her
preparations for the attempt to retrieve Andrew Bullstrode’s money
on the night of their meeting, the young man had expressed doubts
over whether she would be able to accomplish anything. Neither she
nor the Ysabel Kid had told him of her true identity.

But, being far better informed, the
Indian-dark young Texan had not suffered from any such lack of
confidence!

Subsequent events had proved the faith shown
by the Kid to be fully justified!

Having put to good use her specialized
knowledge, facilities and talent, the lady outlaw had been able to
supply everything she considered would be needed for the scheme she
had concocted.

The first thing arranged by Belle was for
the young New Englander to make it appear he had left Newton,
rather than stay around admitting he had allowed himself to be
cheated out of the money put in his care. Although he had not been
under observation on the evening when they had become acquainted,
the surveillance was resumed the following morning. He had been
followed to the railroad depot by Driberg and another member of the
gang, then watched while boarding an east-bound train. Ostensibly
returning home, his misgivings having to some extent been dispelled
by the confidence in her expressed by the Kid after they had
separated the previous night still, however, without having learned
who she was he had carried out her instructions by going only as
far as the next town along the tracks.

Nor had Bullstrode travelled alone, Belle
and the Kid having joined him on the train when satisfied none of
the gang were travelling in it to ensure he did not change his
mind. Shortly after their arrival at the point of disembarkation, a
telegraph from one of the lady outlaw’s associates had confirmed in
a simple code that the ploy was successful. Obviously satisfied
their latest dupe had refrained from lodging a complaint with the
local peace officers, and also would not be around to warn others,
everything indicated the gang were remaining in Newton to acquire
further victims. They would be kept under observation,
nevertheless, in case they should leave before she returned. If
this had happened, steps would have been taken to find out their
next destination.

Staining her skin the olive
brown of a Latin, and equipping herself with appropriate wig and
clothing, Belle had transformed herself into ‘Señora Donna Maria
Constanza del Santa Rosa’. Her pose was that of an extremely
wealthy and headstrong South American who was visiting the Kansas’
trail end towns with her ‘husband’, prior to going further west on
a hunting trip, and to meet ranchers from Texas and arrange to
purchase cattle for her
estancia
in Brazil. It was a character she had played in
the past and, although unable to speak Portuguese—the main language
of that country—she could tell a sufficiently convincing story to
explain how a person of ‘Spanish’ birthright came to be living
there. She also knew enough to be able to satisfy the curiosity of
anyone who had not been to or made an extensive study of Brazil and
its customs.

On learning how the lady outlaw was planning
to handle the retrieval, being aware that it would not be achieved
without considerable risk, the Kid had insisted upon posing as her
‘husband’. Although he was not trained as a confidence trickster,
knowing his capabilities in other fields, she had concluded he was
better suited to play the role she envisaged than any member of her
‘crew’. He was also less likely to be recognized, as the rest of
her gang were all well known to other ‘bunco steerers’. She had
therefore given her concurrence.

Despite the Texan having his black hair cut
short after the fashion of cowhands, amongst whom the possession of
long locks and bushy beards were an abomination, he had only needed
an easily provided suitable wig and clothing to complete his
disguise. He was already sufficiently dark skinned and his Spanish
was fluent enough for Belle to pass him as her part Indian gaucho
husband, brought from another property her family owned in
Argentina. He had been helped in the portrayal by ostensibly being
unable to speak or understand English as well as if necessary
Portuguese. Having been less certain of his ability as an actor
than a fighting man, she had considered it was advisable to
restrict the amount he had to do and had taken the main burden of
creating the desired effect upon herself. Nor, having conceded his
limitations, had he raised any objections to the arrangements.

Leaving Bullstrode behind, the lady outlaw
and the Texan had returned by train to Newton in their disguises.
They had been followed from the depot to the best hotel by Thomas
Driberg. Having established themselves in the finest suite,
demanding it with the imperious and impressive attitude of one used
to having her own way in everything, Belle had set about giving the
impression that she liked to gamble. They had not had a long wait
before the bait was taken.