The Ripper of Storyville and Other Ben Snow Stories by Edward Hoch

Author:Edward Hoch [Hoch, Edward]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781885941190
Publisher: Crippen & Landru
Published: 2016-06-19T04:00:00+00:00

THE VANISHED STEAMBOAT

The business that brought Ben Snow downriver to New Orleans during the early months of 1902 had been successfully concluded, but he found himself reluctant to return West. The weather was pleasant and he’d made some good friends, including a riverboat gambler named Eddie Abilene who had a way with a deck of cards and a good story. It was Eddie who coaxed him upriver to Vicksburg in the spring when the threat of the annual flooding had finally subsided.

“Tell me about yourself for a change, Ben,” Eddie suggested one evening over drinks at a pleasant little café on the Vicksburg riverfront. “I’m always telling stories and all you do is sit there and listen.”

Ben Snow merely smiled. “I’ve gotten through forty-two years without talking about myself, Eddie. No reason to change now.”

But that wasn’t good enough for Eddie Abilene. “Fellow told me yesterday you’ve got quite a reputation with a gun. I never even knew you to carry one.”

“That’s just talk. A story got started in my younger days that I was Billy the Kid. It’s a tough reputation to live down—or live up to, for that matter.”

Eddie’s eyes narrowed. “Billy the Kid’s been dead for twenty years.”

“You know it and I know it, but there’s a lot of folks who haven’t gotten the word. And he’d be just about my age if he was still alive.”

“But you are fast with a gun?”

“I used to be, when I carried one. But that was in Texas, and Mexico, and the Indian territories. I don’t need one on the Mississippi.”

Eddie Abilene let his blue-velvet coat fall open to reveal the little Derringer under his arm. “I’m never without one on the river. Sometimes the cards don’t turn out right for some people and it makes them mad. You know the steamboat River Ridge? It’s docked a few miles downriver now.”

“I’ve seen it.”

“I was on her last year on the run up to St. Louis, having a friendly game of poker with three strangers. One of them was losing pretty heavy and when I beat out his full house with four jacks, he went for his gun. His name was Jericho Jones and he was fast. Put a bullet through my coat before I even had my gun out. Then I missed him on the first shot and hit a big mirror behind him. The glass broke and came down on top of him. If that hadn’t put him out of action, I don’t know what would have happened.”

Ben tried to backtrack on the conversation to remember how the subject of riverboat gun battles had come up, but he finally decided Eddie was just talking. “When are you shipping out again?” he asked.

“I don’t know. When I need money, I guess. Vicksburg’s a good little town but there’s not much happening here.”

As if to prove him false, a fight erupted on the dock at that moment. Three or four men were involved, and Ben could hear shouts and see them moving in the darkness.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.