The Man From Eagle Creek
Chapter Twenty Three
Bat Masterson came up as the two stood there in the shade.
"Heard you two had some excitement Tom, did Charlie lock'em up?"
"Yep, he said he'd let'em go in the mornin' after they'd slept it
off."
"That's Charlie, he's a fair man, but he's gonna make sure they
follow the law. Tom the talk over at the Long Branch when I got
there was that you took them both with one fist to the man's rib
cage, is that right?"
"Well, he swung wide and left his whole belly wide open, it was
easy to take his wind out."
"Bat, that ain't all either, Tom had his gun out with his left
hand before the other man could even turn to face him. Hell I was
standing just behind Tom and on his left side and I didn't see
that Colt come out."
"That's the same thing I heard just a few minutes ago too Cal.
Tom you may have just made a reputation for your gun hand just
now. Word gets around town quick of a fast gun. Folks like to
tell stories of gunfights and fast draw gunslingers," Bat told
him.
"I don't need any tall tales told on me, I was just doin my job,"
Tom said as he eased off the porch into the street.
"Need them or not, you gonna get them now Injun," Bat told him.
"I need a cool drink of water, I'll be right back," Tom said as
he walked across to the Dodge House.
"That's one man I'd never want to face me with his guns or his
fist." Cal told Bat.
"You think he's really that good with his fists?"
"He ducked under that man's left and hit him so fast, not many in
there even knew what happened."
The story about the arrest of the two cow hands in the Long
Branch wasn't long in spreading across town and across the
tracks. No one really knew the new deputy's name but it didn't
take long for that to be the next news to be rumored and
whispered over the streets of Dodge.
Before the day was over, everyone that kept up with the rumors
and gossips about Dodge City, knew the tall deputy was named Tom
Cooper from up in the Dakotas. They also knew about the wagon
ambush over near Pratt and the shootout at the livery stable in
Kansas City.
Someone had overheard a conversation between two sheriff's
deputies and told their friends of another shootout up in
Nebraska where two men lost their right arms in a gunfight with a
tall Injun named Tom Cooper. Soon the stories of a half breed
with a fast gun hand were spreading all over Dodge and even to
surrounding towns as people traveled across Kansas.
-------------------------------
Sam Wilson and his friend Bo had gone down to Arkansas City,
Kansas looking for work after they'd taken care of the man
responsible for the loss of their right hands. The injun that
they had paid to help track down Tom Cooper had left for parts
unknown after they split up in Omaha.
It had just been a stroke of luck they had ran upon him anyway.
Sam and Bo were bitter as hell about their loss of their
gunhands, at the hand of Tom Cooper and were asking everyone if
they knew his whereabouts.
One day in St. Joe, they were talking and spouting off about
being willing to pay fifty dollars to anyone that could help them
hunt the man down. The injun known only as `Breed' heard the
story, he told them he had seen the man that they spoke of.
They hired him on the spot to track Tom down.
Breed had heard some folks talking about a Tom Cooper breeding
his big stud at some local horse stables and did a little
snooping around. It wasn't long before he found someone willing
to tell where he might find his friend Tom Cooper. Since the two
were Injuns, it was just assumed that one was friends with the
other.
The three had followed him down to Kansas City but missed him by
a day when they saw the papers about a shootout in a stable
between some bank robbers and a injun gunfighter. They got wind
he was headed up to Atchison but didn't know he was on a train.
They were a week behind him and didn't know it until one day
Breed was in Omaha and saw Tom and his horse get off a train with
a young girl riding with him. He knew it had to be him, they had
heard many descriptions of that big Palomino horse and the tall
injun that rode him with no bridle.
Breed watched the injun and the girl ride out of town headed
north and quickly got Sam and Bo out of the saloon. They trailed
the big horse for a day and that night came upon the lake where
the two had made camp.
-----------------------------
Breed was now sitting in the back door of the tent saloon on the
south side of Dodge, he was drinking from a bottle of cheap
whiskey. The barkeep had given him the bottle for cleaning the
place up a bit and moving all the stinking garbage father away
from the back door of the tent.
Breed could hardly believe what he was hearing, these men were
all talking about Tom Cooper like he was alive. He knew himself
that Tom Cooper was dead, he saw Sam and Bo each stick a knife in
his chest as he slept.
Despite the half bottle of rot gut he had in his belly, he was
nearly sober by the time he had all the details.
Breed slipped out of the tent and hid his bottle under some
garbage. He walked across the tracks, staying behind all the
buildings along Front Street until he came to the livery stable.
Breed walked through the stable looking at all the horses when he
came to a stall and saw something that made his blood run cold.
There stood the big Palomino stud that belonged to Tom Cooper. It
had to be true then, Tom Cooper was alive and here in Dodge City.
Breed slipped out the back of the livery stable and ran behind
the buildings again to where he had stashed his bottle. He drank
half of what was left, then ran to his horse and left town headed
south and east.
He didn't know where Sam and Bo were, but he did remember them
saying something about heading over to Arkansas City, Kansas down
near Indian Territory.
Tom got his drink of water at the Dodge House and walked down to
the livery stable to check on his horse. The big horse smelled
him even before he came to the stall and was tossing his head and
stomping his front feet as Tom walked up and opened the door to
the stall.
He stayed with him for a while, then patted his neck and walked
back over to the sheriff's office to see where Cal and Bat were.
He never saw the half breed slip from the stable just as he
walked in to check on his horse.
Cal was sitting in the sheriff's office talking with Charlie
Bassett when Tom walked in.
"Sure took you a long time to get a drink, did you go all the way
down to the Arkansas River?" Charlie laughed.
"I walked down and checked on my horse, he don't like being away
from me for long at a time."
"Charlie, you should see those two sometime, I'm telling you
they're a team. Tom can talk to that horse and he'll listen just
like he knows what Tom's saying."
"He does," Tom smiled at them.
Tom and Cal were walking back to the south side of Dodge just
before dark.
"Tom, have you ever seen a woman without clothes on?"
"Yep, why would you ask a question like that?"
"Well I haven't and I'll be eighteen in a few days.
"I just got to thinking too, here I am almost eighteen, done
killed two men with a shotgun, wearing a badge as a lawman and
walking the hard side of Dodge City, Kansas. I sure hope I live
long enough to see a woman without her clothes on. Hell while I'm
hoping, I hope I live long enough to marry some woman and have a
house full of kids."
"You will Cal and I'm gonna see that it happens. Stop all that
worrying about things that'll happen when the time comes. We got
things going on that'll need your full attention."
They were standing next to a hitching rail in front of the tent
that once housed the original saloon in Dodge. The sign had been
painted over, but the paint was dried and cracked. Hoover's could
be made out under the paint. There was only an hour of daylight
left and business was picking up on the south side. Tom nodded
toward the tent and the two lawmen walked through the doorway
where the tent flaps had been tied back to make a square opening.
They stood one to each side of the opening and looked over the
crowd. There were coal oil lamps burning overhead and along the
makeshift bar. Card games were going on at two tables. Cow hands
were drinking warm beer or sipping whiskey. There was garbage and
spit puddles all over the dirt floor.
Tom saw the shadow of a man slip out the back of the tent and he
felt the hair on his neck bur up. He slipped out the front and
down the side of the tent being careful of the tent stakes. There
at the back standing in the dim light was an Indian. He was
drinking from a bottle of whiskey and didn't see Tom as he came
up behind him. Tom eased the barrel of his .44 into the man's
ribs.
"Hold real still and you won't die."
The Indian lowered the bottle from his lips and turned real slow
to look in the face of Tom Cooper. The near empty whiskey bottle
slipped from his hands as he felt the hard barrel of the Colt
between his ribs.
"I hear tell that you may be looking for me injun, is that
true?" Tom asked as he pushed the barrel deeper between his ribs.
"I not know you, I am called `Breed' and I come here only to get
whiskey."
"Walk out here with me Breed, if you try anything I'll kill you
and take your scalp," Tom whispered.
Breed was scared. For the first time in his life he was scared
of another man. Something in this man's voice sent his skin
crawling, the hair on his neck and his arms stood up. He felt
cold and alone.
Tom made him walk back between the tents, he kept the Colt
nudging him as he walked.
Cal stood looking back between the tents where Tom had gone, then
he saw the two come out into the dim light of the few lamps on
the street.
"What you got there Tom, is this the injun you were looking
for?"
"Cal, get your gun on this snake while I check him for a knife,
kill him if he even moves."
When Tom had checked his legs and under arms for a knife, the
three walked back across the tracks and up to the sheriff's
office. Charlie and Bat were there with their feet propped up on
the desk when Tom and Cal brought the injun in the office.
"What you got there Tom, is this the injun you been looking
for?" Charlie asked.
"I got a good reason to think it is Charlie, figured I better
bring him up here to ask a few questions."
"Put some irons on him Cal and let's all just have a sit down
talk with this injun," Charlie said.
Cal cuffed his hands behind him and then took a pair of cuffs
and latched him to the cell door.
"Breed is his name, so he says," Tom said.
"Breed what you doing in these parts of Kansas?" Charlie asked.
Breed looked at the four men and didn't speak.
"We can do this in a friendly way, or we can do this in a way
that won't seem so friendly, the choice is yours," Tom said, as
he looked at Breed.
"I reckon you best tell the sheriff what he wants to know," Tom
added.
"I come here for whiskey," he answered.
"Where are your friends Sam and Bo?" Bat asked.
This caught the half breed off guard and he looked from one to
the other of the four lawmen.
"I don't know the names."
"Yes you do Breed and you better tell us now what you know, or
you'll be the one that hangs for the murder of that girl back
south of Omaha," Charlie said.
"He's right Breed, Sam and Bo have already told us they paid you
to kill Tom here and you killed that girl by mistake," Bat said.
"Sam and Bo killed Tom Cooper, I only took them to his camp, I
know nothing of a girl," Breed blurted out.
"No one killed Tom Cooper, he's standing here before you Breed,"
Charlie said.
Breed looked at Tom, he knew when he felt the gun in his side
back at that tent, that there was something about this man. How
could a man have two knives in his chest and live.
"Did you see Sam and Bo stab Tom Cooper's bedroll that morning?"
Sheriff Charlie Bassett asked.
"I did, they pay me fifty dollars and I left."
"Where are they now Breed?" Tom asked.
"They camp south of Dodge by the river, they come here
tomorrow," Breed said.
"Lock him up Cal, I've heard enough," Charlie said.
"Tom I reckon your hunches were right about the ones that killed
the girl, we'll be waiting for them when they get here," Charlie
added.
"Thanks to all of you, I feel some better now but will never
rest `til Sam and Bo are tended to," Tom said.
The next day a little before noon, Bat, Tom and Cal were all
leaning against a hitchin' rail at the south end of Dodge when
they saw a man ride up and slip from his horse. His right arm was
stumped off at the elbow.
Tom slipped in between the horses and laid the barrel of his
Colt under the man's jawbone as he tied his horse to the rail
with his one hand.
"Move and you're a dead man," Tom jerked the hand gun from Bo's
holster on the right side with the butt of the gun sticking out
for a left hand draw.
"Where's Sam, Bo?" Tom asked.
"Don't know no Sam, what's this all about?"
"You're under arrest for the murder of a girl named Sally Mae,
the girl you killed by mistake when you thought you were stabbing
me in that bedroll."
"I don't know nothin about a girl or you either," Bo denied what
he heard.
Cal and Bat were beside Tom now.
"That's not what Breed said, he's waiting on you up at the jail
now Bo," Bat told him.
"Where's Sam," Tom asked again.
"I don't know, he had to shit back there behind the first tents,
I came on in to get a drink," Bo spoke with his head down in
defeat.
"It was all Sam's plan to get back at you, he told me he was
gonna kill me if I didn't help him and Breed. I didn't want to be
there."
------------------------
Sam Wilson had walked down behind the tents to shit, he squatted
all hunkered down with his gun belt hooked over the stump of his
right arm. He looked up over the pile of rubble and garbage to
see two lawmen walking around the tents. They were looking over
the dumps of garbage with their hand guns drawn.
Sam fell forward, his breeches still down around his boots. He
lay on the ground and pulled his breeches up, his gunbelt still
hooked over the stump of his right wrist. He fell forward and the
stump of his wrist pushed into the dirt, making a shallow hole.
Sam crawled through the garbage and rotting stench until he was
hidden from the lawmen. He ran to his horse and pulled himself
into the saddle with his left hand and rode south out of town at
a slow trot.
Cal and Tom searched all through the piles of stinking garbage
but didn't see Sam.
"Tom look at this," Cal said as he stood between two piles of
trash.
Tom walked over and saw a fresh pile of shit and what looked
like where someone had crawled from there over between two tents.
He had a good notion of who it was. Bo had told them Sam had to
shit. Looked like maybe Sam had dragged his foot through his own
shit as he crawled away. Tom saw the shallow hole where something
had been pushed into the dirt. The same as he had seen back where
Sally Mae had been killed. Tom felt a cold chill, he knew now
what it was. This was made with Sam's stumped off wrist.
"I figure he's gone, but we'll still look in all the tents and
shacks just in case," Tom said.
When the judge came through and held trial, the jury of twelve
men took only an hour to bring the verdict back on both men.
After hearing the lawmen tell about the confessions of Bo and
Breed and the story Tom told of the events and evidence at the
murder scene, the two men pleaded for mercy of the court.
Bo was convicted of murder and was sentenced to ten years. Breed
was convicted of abetting in the act of a murder and sentenced to
four years. Both men were taken to the state penitentiary to
serve their sentences.
Tom still didn't feel that Sally Mae's death had been avenged,
he had one more man to settle up with before he could let it
rest.
"Tom what do you and Cal have planned now that two of the men
have faced the judge? Are y'all gonna ride on out or stay on a
while?" Bat asked them a couple of days after the trial.
"Well Bat, I'd like to stay on and be your deputy when you get
elected sheriff, but I reckon we'll be ridin' on in a week or
so."
"I thank you for your confidence in me getting elected this
fall, but from what I can figure, it's gonna be a tight vote,"
Bat laughed.
"I know a bunch of folks think a lot of ol' Larry Deger, but I
just got a good feeling about you Bat, you're gonna be sheriff of
Ford County, Kansas," Tom told his friend.
--------------------------
The `Dodge City Times' carried an article on November 24th 1877
that read in part:
"Larry Deger only lacked three votes of being elected Sheriff of
Ford county. His successful opponent, Bat Masterson, is said to
be cool, decisive, and a bad man with a pistol."
---------------------------
Charlie Bassett came in the office on a Monday after the trial
of Breed and Bo with a telegram in his hand.
"Tom, I got a telegram from a friend up in Hays this morning.
"Seems there's some trouble brewing between the cattlemen and the
German settlers out on the prairie. He was wanting to know if
there were any men I could recommend as agents for the cattlemen.
"You and Cal interested in going up that way?"
"What's your take on it Charlie, you think a man could make a
dollar or two there without being shot?" Tom asked.
"Well, I think from what he said, that there were folks cutting
the fences and all they wanted was for some good men to ride out
and kinda keep a watch on a big area west and north of town
some."
Tom looked at Cal.
"What do you think partner, you want to be involved in a range
war?"
"I'm with you Tom, I don't want to get shot over someone else's
troubles, but I reckon we could ride up that way and take a look
if you're a mind to."
"Charlie if your friend don't mind me being Indian, I reckon Cal
and me could maybe ride up and check it out."
"Good, I'll send him a telegram now, then write you a letter to
show when you get there."
Tom and Cal turned their badges in the next morning and Charlie
Bassett wrote a letter of introduction to Gale Fortenberry of the
Kansas Livestock Association.
There was one thing Tom wanted before he left Dodge City and that
was a handheld telescope. They found what he wanted at Charlie
Rath's General store. Tom had looked through one of these
telescopes once before and knew that out on the plains it would
prove to be very useful.
Though they were getting a late start, Tom and Cal left out of
Dodge City by mid morning headed for Hays. A little under a
hundred miles and Tom figured three days of steady riding would
put them there late Wednesday evening.
The two friends had bought some heavy drovers coats at the
General store and had them tied over the top of their bedrolls.
These coats were made of heavy waxed canvas material that was
waterproof and thick enough to keep the dust off too.
They let their horses run at a steady lope for a few hours before
they stopped at a creek to get a drink and let the horses rest.
"Cal did you get you some more shells for that scatter gun before
we left?"
"Sure did, since I'm not that good with my Colt I figured I
better stick with this old .12 gauge for a while. Tom, you reckon
I'll ever be as fast as you are with that Colt. I swear I ain't
ever seen a gun come out that fast and even the folks in Dodge
said the same."
"I never think about it Cal, I just do it and you can too with
some practice. Like Mr. Bill Cody told me, you don't always have
to be the fastest, but you better always be the best shot once
you pull your gun. We'll be on the trail probably three nights,
you need to take a few shots each time we camp. You can only get
better with practice, it don't just happen by itself."
The sun was less than an hour away from the horizon when Cal
pointed out a couple of small, rundown buildings off to the east
of the trail about two hundred yards. They rode that way and saw
what looked like an old buffalo skinners camp. There were a
couple of lean-to's and a broken down corral. There was plenty of
scrap wood lying around under the scrawny old trees.
A few scattered buffalo bones lay around, evidence of a time gone
by when the white man killed off all the buffalo in an attempt to
keep the Indian from roaming off the reservation.
They made camp here for the night, and while Tom gathered wood
for a fire, Cal walked out a ways and took some practice shots
with his Colt. He felt better about his gun handling now. He
could draw and hit his target almost every time. He was getting
faster pulling it out too, but he knew he'd never be as fast as
Tom. Not many men, if any, would ever be that fast.
They turned their horses loose and sat down by the fire. Tom had
strung some jerky across the fire on a small stick and they sat
eating the warmed up jerky and wondered about the range war they
were riding into.
"Tom I'm not sure I could shoot a man just because he was a
farmer, what do you think?"
"I reckon we'll just have to take a close look at what we are
ridin' into and a closer look at what they expect of us. I don't
mind keeping the peace out on the range, but I'm like you about
killing innocent folks that're just trying to make a living like
the rest of us."
"Charlie didn't say a lot about what we would be doing did he?"
"Nope, and that ain't like Charlie either. He usually makes it
kinda plain what's expected of a man. I reckon we'll find out all
about it when we get over to Hays though," Tom said.
"Yep."
Dark came and they were in their bedrolls with their heavy
drovers coats thrown over the top. The fire burned out some time
in the early hours of the morning and they woke before dawn to
break camp.
Tom and Cal rode most of the morning in silence, just
occasionally speaking to point out something, to the other.
They stopped again within an hour of sundown and made camp a few
yards from the trail, this time there were no trees, nothing but
open range for miles as far as the eye could see. Only a few
trees were dotted here and there and the prairie was as flat as a
table top.
They could see the windmill's sticking up in late evening sky as
they lazily pumped water to stock tanks or a homestead in the
distance.
Cal once again took some practice shots with his Colt. He took
some dead bushes and stripped the branches off, then lay them
across the top of another bush. He drew his Colt and shot, the
sticks would split and fly off into two separate pieces as the
splinters flew up in the air.
Tom watched this from where he sat back on his bedroll, he was
impressed with Cal's determination to be a good gun hand. He was
getting there too, with more practice he would be as steady and
true as most men with a gun.
They didn't even start a fire this night, the air was warm and
the drovers coats would be plenty to keep them warm under their
bedrolls.
The next day they were again up early, the skies had darkened
during the night. It looked like rain moving in from the
southwest.
They were in the saddle and moving at a good pace when the slow
steady rain started. The two young men had already laid their
heavy coats across the saddle in front of them and now slipped
them on and fastened them to keep the rain off.
They kept riding but had to slow their pace as the ground became
muddy and sloppy. They heard thunder in the distance and knew
there would probably be some heavy rain, maybe even some storms
soon.
Both were keeping an eye out for whatever they could see that
would provide some kind of shelter in case the storms were bad.
They came upon a small, dried up creek bed and decided to hole up
there until the storm had passed over.
They took their saddles off, then Cal tied his horse to a small
tree limb. Each man huddled down over his saddle and bedroll with
the heavy coat draped over him and his saddle.
The storm grew stronger and stronger, the wind and the rain came
hard at them. Whipping and snapping the heavy coat tail up and
down against the ground. Lightning flashed through the dark
clouds and struck the earth with a vengeance. Thunder shook the
ground and the very air they breathed as the low clouds continued
to roar and roll across the land.
Tom kept looking up over the short creek bank for any sign of
another twister like the one he saw a few weeks back. The heavy
rains kept up for what seemed like an hour before letting up
some. They could see light back toward the west and knew the
storm was passing over now.
Shortly after, the light rain stopped and they wiped the mud and
water from their saddles and saddled up again. They were soaked
even with the heavy coats and as soon as the sun came out they
pulled the coats off and felt warm again in the sun.
By noon the hot sun was beating down on the wet plains and steam
was rising from the moist earth. Waves of heat were shimmering on
the horizon as if the earth was baking in an oven.
The storm had covered a wide area of the Kansas plains and the
mud was deep and sloppy for miles along the trail.
The sun was at least three hours from setting when they came to
dry ground again. Rain was scarce in the plains, and even if it
meant seeking cover from a violent storm, the earth needed all
the rain that fell, before the dry months came and baked the
soil.
Tom and Cal stopped by a small river and made camp, they were
only a few miles from Hays and would ride in after daylight.
They stripped the saddles off their horses and stripped their
dirty clothes off as well, then waded out in the cool water of
the river to wash the dirt and grit off.
After another short meal of jerky and another round of practice
for Cal and his Colt handgun, the two friends stretched out in
their bedrolls on the warm sand.
Three hours after sunup the next day Tom and Cal rode into the
town of Hays, Kansas. There wasn't a lot of difference in this
town and the other small towns Tom had been to in the last month
or so.
The buildings were built of rough sawn boards with tall false
fronts above them. There were no more than fifteen businesses in
the town and they were split nearly evenly with about half on
either side of the wide dirt street through the middle.
The main east to west trail cut the town in half one way and the
main south to north trail cut the town in half the other way.
These were the only two streets in Hays with houses lining the
streets at either end of the main business district. The total
population of Hays at any one given time was no more than five
hundred.
For years Hays had been the end of the line for the east west
rail road. Now, construction was well under way to extend the
railroad farther west.
Hays, Kansas once had the reputation of being the baddest town in
the state of Kansas with the railroad workers and the cowboys up
from the trail herds.
Tom and Cal rode through the quiet town in the early part of the
day, they saw the sheriff's office and headed there first.
Tom opened the door and saw a deputy asleep with his feet propped
up on the desk, his hat pulled down over his face.
"I came to see the sheriff, is he out and about this morning?"
Tom asked waking the deputy.
The man jumped and his hat slid to the floor as he sat up.
"Damn, Injun don't sneak in here scaring the shit out of a man
while he's sleeping. The sheriff's down at the hotel getting some
grub, he'll be back here in a while I reckon. What is it that
brings you to Hays anyway?"
"I came here at the request of Sheriff Charlie Bassett down in
Ford County to see a friend of his by the name of Gale
Fortenberry, you got any notion where I might find him?"
The deputy looked Tom and Cal over good, noticing the guns tied
low on their hips.
"You come here to hire out yer guns to the cattlemen then, I
take it?"
"We came here to talk with Mr. Fortenberry. I've not hired on
with anyone, and my gun ain't for hire unless there is a badge in
the deal."
"Well you can wait outside, the sheriff'll be here when he gets
through feedin' his face," The deputy said as he slid down in the
chair and propped his feet back up.
Tom and Cal walked back out the door to wait on the sheriff.
"Tom, that deputy kinda talked like maybe they were hiring gun
hands instead of hiring peace officers, what do you think?"
"I think we'll have to wait and talk to the sheriff, then have a
visit with Mr. Fortenberry to see what all this is about. We sure
don't want to be known as having guns for hire."
"I agree Tom, if there's that much trouble brewing here, then
seems to me like it will be the farmers against the cattlemen. I
don't think I want to be puttin a gun against an unarmed farmer
no matter what the reason."
"We won't be Cal, you can bet on that."
Tom and Cal were leaning up against the hitching rail, talking
when they saw the sheriff coming, he was a medium built man with
a big belly. His gun belt and his pants were below his big belly
in front and looked as if the next step they would slip even
further down.
The sheriff was red faced and almost out of breath just from
walking from the hotel to his office.
"You fellers waiting to see me?" He asked.
"Yes Sir we are sheriff, I'm Tom Cooper and this is Cal Randal,
we came up here to Hays at the request of our friend Sheriff
Charlie Bassett down in Dodge."
The sheriff cut his eyes to the mens guns just as the deputy had.
"You here to hire out them guns your totin'?"
"We're here to talk to you and find Mr. Gale Fortenberry. We
haven't hired out to anybody, let alone hired our guns out."
"You look part injun, Mr. Cooper."
"Yes Sir I am," Tom answered and left it there.
"Well come on in and I'll send word out to Gale that he has two
more `gunhands' here in town. My name is Wade, William Wade."
"Sheriff Wade we're not gun hands, we were told that Sheriff
Basset's friend needed riders to help keep the peace out on the
plains."
"Well call it what you like, I call it gun hands. I wish I had
hired more deputies now instead of letting the cattlemen take
over the peace keeping. If you fellers don't like the deal you
get from Gale come see me, I might just get more involved in this
and hire you as deputies to make sure that both sides are
peaceful. If Charlie Bassett stands good for the two of you, I
reckon you'd be good enough for me too.
"Gale is a good man, he just wants everything to be like it was
when his dad was running things. There are more people here now
and we have a lot of German immigrants here that make a living
off farming. They've settled in and staked claims on land that
once was considered free range for the cattlemen.
"The cattlemen have taken their gripes all the way to the
governor, but he told them that the claims were all legal and the
Germans had every right to be here, according to The Homestead
Act. This hasn't set well with a lot of folks and they elected
Gale as their spokesman. I'm not so sure he wanted this but it
was pushed on him anyway."
Sheriff Wade woke the deputy and sent him out to the Fortenberry
Ranch to tell Gale that he had visitors in town.
"Sheriff we haven't had a cooked meal since we left Dodge, you
reckon they'd serve us down at the hotel?" Tom asked.
"Sure they will Mr. Cooper, tell'em I sent you if you get any
sass from them. It'll take a couple of hours for the deputy to
get out to the Fortenberry spread and back anyway."
Tom and Cal shook the sheriff's hand and walked their horses down
to the front of the hotel. They ate steak and eggs and Cal drank
coffee while Tom drank water.
"Tom, you reckon the sheriff is right and there's more than we
were told about this?"
"Well I don't think Charlie would lead us into something that was
outside the law, but we got a lot of thinkin to do about this I
reckon."