Oakdale Affair — 06 - Section 06
“Oh, don't!
” pleaded The Oskaloosa Kid.
“Let us in,” screamed the men without.
“Fer the luv o' Mike have a heart!
Don't leave us out here!
IT's comin'!
IT's comin'!
” “Oh, let the poor things in,” pleaded the girl on the bed.
She was, herself, trembling with terror.
“No funny business, now, if I let you in,” commanded Bridge.
“On the square,” came the quick and earnest reply.
The THING had reached the head of the stairs when Bridge dragged the bed aside and drew the bolt.
Instantly two figures hurled themselves into the room but turned immediately to help Bridge resecure the doorway.
Just as it had done before, when Bridge and The Oskaloosa Kid had taken refuge there with the girl, the THING moved down the hallway to the closed door.
The dragging chain marked each foot of its advance.
If it made other sounds they were drowned by the clanking of the links over the time roughened flooring.
Within the room the five were frozen into utter silence, and beyond the door an equal quiet prevailed for a long minute; then a great force made the door creak and a weird scratching sounded high up upon the old fashioned panelling.
Bridge heard a smothered gasp from the boy beside him, followed instantly by a flash of flame and the crack of a small caliber automatic; The Oskaloosa Kid had fired through the door.
Bridge seized the boy's arm and wrenched the weapon from him.
“Be careful!
” he cried.
“You'll hurt someone.
You didn't miss the girl much that time--she's on the bed right in front of the door.
” The Oskaloosa Kid pressed closer to the man as though he sought protection from the unknown menace without.
The girl sprang from the bed and crossed to the opposite side of the room.
A flash of lightning illuminated the chamber for an instant and the roof of the verandah without.
The girl noted the latter and the open window.
“Look!
” she cried.
“Suppose it went out of another window upon this porch.
It could get us so easily that way!
” “Shut up, you fool!
” whispered one of the two newcomers.
“It might hear you.
” The girl subsided into silence.
There was no sound from the hallway.
“I reckon you croaked IT,” suggested the second newcomer, hopefully;
but, as though the THING without had heard and understood, the clanking of the chain recommenced at once; but now it was retreating along the hallway, and soon they heard it descending the stairs.
Sighs of relief escaped more than a single pair of lips.
“IT didn't hear me,” whispered the girl.
Bridge laughed.
“We're a nice lot of babies seeing things at night,” he scoffed.
“If you're so nervy why don't you go down an' see wot it is?
” asked one of the late arrivals.
“I believe I shall,” replied Bridge and pulled the bed away from the door.
Instantly a chorus of protests arose, the girl and The Oskaloosa Kid being most insistent.
What was the use?
What good could he accomplish?
It might be nothing; yet on the other hand what had brought death so horribly to the cold clay on the floor below?
At last their pleas prevailed and Bridge replaced the bed before the door.
For two hours the five sat about the room waiting for daylight.
There could be no sleep for any of them.
Occasionally they spoke, usually advancing and refuting suggestions as to the identity of the nocturnal prowler below-stairs.
The THING seemed to have retreated again to the cellar, leaving the upper floor to the five strangely assorted prisoners and the first floor to the dead man.
During the brief intervals of conversation the girl repeated snatches of her story and once she mentioned The Oskaloosa Kid as the murderer of the unnamed victim.
The two men who had come last pricked up their ears at this and Bridge felt the boy's hand just touch his arm as though in mute appeal for belief and protection.
The man half smiled.
“We seen The Oskaloosa Kid this evenin',” volunteered one of the newcomers.
“You did?
” exclaimed the girl.
“Where?
” “He'd just pulled off a job in Oakdale an' had his pockets bulgin' wid sparklers an' kale.
We was follerin' him an' when we seen your light up here we t'ought it was him.
” The Oskaloosa Kid shrank closer to Bridge.
At last he recognized the voice of the speaker.
While he had known that the two were of The Sky Pilot's band he had not been sure of the identity of either; but now it was borne in upon him that at least one of them was the last person on earth he cared to be cooped up in a small, unlighted room with, and a moment later when one of the two rolled a 'smoke' and lighted it he saw in the flare of the flame the features of both Dopey Charlie and The General.
The Oskaloosa Kid gasped once more for the thousandth time that night.
It had been Dopey Charlie who lighted the cigaret and in the brief illumination his friend The General had grasped the opportunity to scan the features of the other members of the party.
Schooled by long years of repression he betrayed none of the surprise or elation he felt when he recognized the features of The Oskaloosa Kid.
If The General was elated The Oskaloosa Kid was at once relieved and terrified.
Relieved by ocular proof that he was not a murderer and terrified by the immediate presence of the two who had sought his life.
His cigaret drawing well Dopey Charlie resumed: “This Oskaloosa Kid's a bad actor,” he volunteered.
“The little shrimp tried to croak me; but he only creased my ribs.
I'd like to lay my mits on him.
I'll bet there won't be no more Oskaloosa Kid when I get done wit him.
” The boy drew Bridge's ear down toward his own lips.
“Let's go,” he said.
“I don't hear anything more downstairs, or maybe we could get out on this roof and slide down the porch pillars.
” Bridge laid a strong, warm hand on the small, cold one of his new friend.
“Don't worry, Kid,” he said.
“I'm for you.
” The two other men turned quickly in the direction of the speaker.
“Is de Kid here?
” asked Dopey Charlie.
“He is, my degenerate friend,” replied Bridge; “and furthermore he's going to stay here and be perfectly safe.
Do you grasp me?
” “Who are you?
” asked The General.
“That is a long story,” replied Bridge; “but if you chance to recall Dink and Crumb you may also be able to visualize one Billy Burke and Billy Byrne and his side partner, Bridge.
Yes?
Well, I am the side partner.
” Before the yeggman could make reply the girl spoke up quickly.
“This man cannot be The Oskaloosa Kid,” she said.
“It was The Oskaloosa Kid who threw me from the car.
” “How do you know he ain't?
” queried The General.
“Youse was knocked out when these guys picks you up.
It's so dark in here you couldn't reco'nize no one.
How do you know this here bird ain't The Oskaloosa Kid, eh?
” “I have heard both these men speak,” replied the girl; “their voices were not those of any men I have known.
If one of them is The Oskaloosa Kid then there must be two men called that.
Strike a match and you will see that you are mistaken.
” The General fumbled in an inside pocket for a package of matches carefully wrapped against possible damage by rain.
Presently he struck one and held the light in the direction of The Kid's face while he and the girl and Dopey Charlie leaned forward to scrutinize the youth's features.
“It's him all right,” said Dopey Charlie.
“You bet it is,” seconded The General.
“Why he's only a boy,” ejaculated the girl.
“The one who threw me from the machine was a man.
” “Well, this one said he was The Oskaloosa Kid,” persisted The General.
“An' he shot me up,” growled Dopey Charlie.
“It's too bad he didn't kill you,” remarked Bridge pleasantly.
“You're a thief and probably a murderer into the bargain--you tried to kill this boy just before he shot you.
” “Well wot's he?
” demanded Dopey Charlie.
“He's a thief--he said he was--look in his pockets--they're crammed wid swag, an' he's a gun-man, too, or he wouldn't be packin' a gat.
I guess he ain't got nothin' on me.
” The darkness hid the scarlet flush which mounted to the boy's cheeks--so hot that he thought it must surely glow redly through the night.
He waited in dumb misery for Bridge to demand the proof of his guilt.
Earlier in the evening he had flaunted the evidence of his crime in the faces of the six hobos; but now he suddenly felt a great shame that his new found friend should believe him a house-breaker.
But Bridge did not ask for any substantiation of Charlie's charges, he merely warned the two yeggmen that they would have to leave the boy alone and in the morning, when the storm had passed and daylight had lessened the unknown danger which lurked below-stairs, betake themselves upon their way.
“And while we're here together in this room you two must sit over near the window,” he concluded.
“You've tried to kill the boy once to-night;
but you're not going to try it again--I'm taking care of him now.
” “You gotta crust, bo,” observed Dopey Charlie, belligerently.
“I guess me an' The General'll sit where we damn please, an' youse can take it from me on the side that we're goin' to have ours out of The Kid's haul.
If you tink you're goin' to cop the whole cheese you got another tink comin'.
”
