Read Online The Case of the Deadly Desperados by Caroline Lawrence - Free Book Online Page B

“What’s the matter?”
    Without a word, Dan De Quille stood up & went to a stack of papers on a table beside the Washington Printing Press. He took a couple of sheets from the top & handed one to me & one to Sam Clemens. “We printed up a passel of these yesterday,” he said, “at the request of Marshal Bailey.”
    In my hand I held a wanted poster. There was a picture of a man on it. Above the picture it read: WALT DARMITAGE—ALIAS “WHITTLIN WALT.” Below the picture it said, WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE. And below that it said, REWARD $2,000.
    For the first time I saw the face of the man who wanted me dead.

Ledger Sheet 16
    THE WANTED POSTER in my hands showed an ugly man with pale eyes & a scar on his chin and a droopy mustache.
    It chilled my blood just to look at it.
    Then I noticed smaller type below the reward price.
    It read as follows:
    Whittlin Walt often travels with Dubois “Extra Dub” Donahue and Boswell “Boz” Burton. There is a reward of $200 for each of them.
    â€œ
Is that him?” said Dan De Quille. “Is that the man who murdered and scalped your parents?”
    â€œI only saw him from up above and from a distance, but I am pretty sure this is him.”
    Dan De Quille said, “They call him ‘Whittlin Walt’ because he likes to whittle pieces off his victims before he kills them and because he often quotes Walt Whitman as he does so.”
    I said, “Walt Whitman the poet?”
    Dan De Quille nodded. “That’s right. Whittlin Walt is the most feared desperado in the Territory. He is trying to take over this whole town. It is just like him to pretend to be a Paiute to stir up trouble. People are still skittish after the Indian troubles we had two years ago.”
    â€œDang my buttons!” Sam Clemens put his poster on the table. “A desperado named Whittlin Walt and his colorfully named pards strike in Virginia City. I mean Virginia. This is a Scoop, Dan. We’d better get those boys back in here and compose a new front page.”
    I said, “It wasn’t here in Virginia. It was down in Temperance.”
    Sam Clemens looked at Dan De Quille. “Temperance?”
    â€œLittle two-horse hamlet down in the Carson Valley by Dayton,” said Dan De Quille. Some of the blood had returned to his face. He turned to me. “Can you tell us what happened? Quickly and accurately?”
    I told them.
    They both took notes & when I finished, Dan De Quille put down his pencil & pad. He said, “So you were the only witness?”
    â€œYes, sir.” I folded the wanted poster carefully and put it in my medicine bag. I had to be able to recognize Whittlin Walt, in case I ever had the misfortune to meet him again.
    Dan De Quille said, “Does Walt know you saw him?”
    I said, “No, sir. He is after me for a Letter my parents left me.”
    â€œWhere is this Letter?”
    â€œA Soiled Dove named Belle Donne stole it off me, along with a twenty-dollar gold coin that belonged to my ma.”
    Dan De Quille’s pale cheeks grew pink. “I know Belle,” he said. “She has a crib down on D Street and she often dines over at the Colombo Restaurant about this time of day.”
    Sam Clemens looked at Dan De Quille from under his eyebrows. “Man is the only animal that blushes,” he said. “Or that needs to.”
    Dan cleared his throat and said, “I’d better go tell the Marshal what happened down in Temperance. We don’t want to start another Indian War.” He took a plug hat from the hat tree & looked at Sam Clemens, who was beginning to rearrange the little metal letters in their tray. “And don’t you dare print that story.”
    â€œNot print it? What do you mean?” said Sam Clemens.
    Dan De Quille said, “Whittlin Walt is the most sadistic and feared desperado we have seen in a long time. If you so much as put it in the paper that