The Promise

14. What did you say?

Rango held his breath. Suddenly, there was a rustling beside the hut. He looked at the window. There was silence again. He narrowed his eyes. Somebody was outside. He felt it.
He winced when a shadow appeared behind the window and looked inside. The person cleaned a part of the window glass and looked into the room again.
Rango's eyes grew wide.
Roscoe!
The shadow disappeared again. Footsteps were hearable around.
What did he want? Vengeance?
He swallowed. Whatever he wanted, it wasn't good.
He looked around. For a moment he didn't know what to do. Regardless of whether they saw him as a part of that gang or not, it wasn't good for him that they will find him here.
"Bill! Bill!" Rango screamed. "Wake up! All!"
Bill rolled himself on the other side in his bed.
"Are you listening to me?!" Rango asked nervously and swayed on the chair. "Wake up..."
Suddenly the door opened and coyotes came in. There were screams. Bill jumped out of his bed, but the coyotes threw him on the floor. Rango felt how someone loosed his bonds and strong hands grabbed his shoulders. Shortly afterwards he found himself on the wooden floor, and strong grabs held his hands on the back.
"On the floor!" Someone screamed.
Rango pressed his eyes together when someone held a lamp in his face.
After a while, there was silence again. Only exhausted breaths were hearable.
"Stand up! Will you hurry up?!"
Rango yelled in pain when one of the coyotes pulled him up brutally.
He looked next to him where Chorizo stood with lifted hands.
"Hands up!" A coyote yelled at Rango. Immediately he did.
"What do you want?" he heard Bill's annoyed voice.
"Roscoe will tell it to you, fatso. Off you go!"
They pushed them out of the room into the kitchen. Roscoe stood in the middle of the room behind the table, where an oil lamp shined.
Stump still held his stuffed rabbit in his hands.
Kinski raised his eyebrows. "So that's the reason why you can sleep so well?"
Stump hid it under his shirt. "That's mine!"
"Well, sorry for the interruption of sleep," Roscoe said snootily. "Did you sleep well?"
"What do you want?" Bill asked annoyed.
"Tzz, why so angry? Did you get up on the wrong side of bed?"
"Shut your mouth!" Bill interrupted him. "You want the money from stagecoach? Forget it!"
"By no means," Roscoe said. "That's old hat. I'm looking for another thing which you stole me. Again."
Bill looked at him like a schoolchild who forgot his answer. He narrowed his eyes.
"What do you mean? You have the money from the train. What do you want more?"
Roscoe sneered. "Yes, indeed. I have the money and the valuables from the passengers. But I'm still missing something."
"Our heads?" Bill asked sarcastically.
Roscoe grinned. "Maybe that too, but no... something else."
Bill and the others looked at each other. Bill's eyes stopped on Rango.
"What monkey business have you been getting up to?!"
Rango didn't understand. "Uh... nothing. Really nothing."
Roscoe raised his eyebrows. "Search them! Body check!"

Grudgingly, Bill and the others took off their clothes and the coyotes searched every part of them. At least they could keep their underwear, but the coyotes scanned every millimeter. Roscoe took the opportunity to collect their weapons to make sure, that they make no resistance.
"No, that's mine!" Stump protested when they wanted to take away his little plushy.
When they searched Rango's clothes, one of the coyotes stopped looking.
"Sir!"
Roscoe came closer and the coyote gave him a folded together paper. He unfolded it and scanned it.
He held it in the air and looked at Bill. "See? Don't tell me, you didn't know it."
Bill looked at him with disbelief. "Are you kidding me? Are you really looking for an old, little paper?"
Roscoe clicked his tongue warningly. "Don't press your luck! Well, come to think of it, you lose your rest of luck in this second. Don't you really know what it is?"
"A cheat sheet?" Bill asked sarcastically.
Roscoe laughed bewilderedly and shook his head. "William, William, William. I'm disappointed with you. You have no knowledge what your men doing."
Bill growled. "He is not from us! He is an idiot!"
"A stupid idiot," Roscoe said. "Are you?"
He went to Rango and lifted his head with his gun.
Rango swallowed heavily, when the coyote boss pressed his gun barrel on his chin.
"I know nothing," Rango said. "Really! What do you want? What is this paper? I had no idea! He gave it to me without saying a word."
"This old owl. He was always an idiot like before."
"What have you done with him?" Rango asked hoarsely.
Roscoe grinned. "He didn't suffer long."
Rango grew pale.
The coyote released him. He turned around and paid his attention back to the paper in his hands.
"What's written on it?" A coyote asked. "Does it guide to the big bucks?"
"Shut your trap, Killy!"
The others looked at each other. "Bucks?" Kinski asked.
"You mean money?" Chorizo was speechless.
"That's none of your business," Roscoe said annoyed. "Although... well, you will kiss the earth in grave soon anyway."
"What is it? What is it?" The coyote, who asked before, and pried the paper out of Roscoe's hands.
"Killy!"
But Killy didn't listen to him and read:
" M1N3 – 2 – L – #-..."
He stopped. "What does it mean?"
Roscoe wrested the paper. "How many times shall I tell you, wait until I order what we will do!"
There was silence. Roscoe cleaned his throat. "Well, back to you. I can just say, it's very valuable. An old secret in Dirt."
Bill snorted with disgust. "Shit! It wasn't a rumor."
Roscoe raised an ear. "What did you say?"
"Nothing!" Bill said quickly.
"Don't talk rubbish! You know something, don't you?"
Bill avoided his glance.
"You shall clean your ears. I said nothing."
Roscoe narrowed his eyes. This damn Gila monster made him sick.
"Stan. Did you hear anything?"
Stan, a one-eared coyote, nodded. "Yes, Sir. He said something."
"What about you?" Roscoe asked Stump, Kinski and Chorizo. "Did you hear anything?"
They looked at each other. Then they looked at Bill.
"Eh... I didn't listen before," Stump said. The others nodded.
Roscoe's glance wandered to Rango. "And what about you? What did he say?"
Rango looked at Bill unsurely. Bill narrowed his eyes warningly. Rango's eyes fixed the floor.
"What's your problem?!" Roscoe asked annoyed.
Rango took a deep breath. He didn't forget Bill's torture to him. The chameleon lifted his head and gave Bill a frosty look.
That's for you, damn monster!
"Uhm... not sure," he began. "I think he said something with rumor. He mumbled. But I think it was "rumor"."
Bill clenched his teeth. If looks could kill, Rango would be dead several times.
Rango snorted softly. If something happened in Dirt, he deserved it.
Roscoe drew his revolver and looked at it thoughtfully. He came closer and lifted Rango's chin with his gun.
"You don't like him, do you?"
Rango narrowed his eyes. Roscoe sneered. "Nor me!"
He turned around and hit his revolver in Bill's belly. Bill moaned loudly and kneeled on the floor with pain in his face.
"I don't like secrets around me!" Roscoe said warningly.
"And you?" Roscoe said to Kinski. "What about you? Do you like secrets?"
Kinski said nothing.
"And you?!"
Stump pressed his stuffed rabbit closer on his body. "I'm as innocent as an Easter bunny at Easter."
Roscoe clenched his teeth. "You make me all sick!"
He took a deep breath. "Alright. We will make a little journey. Maybe you will come cleanlier in head. Lead them off!"
With these words, Roscoe went outside. After Bill and the others had put on their clothes again, the coyotes guide them out of the hut, while Stump hid his stuffed rabbit under his hat.