[Gideon Johann 01.0] Last Stand

by Duane Boehm

  “You’re up early,” Gideon said.

  “I’m going with you this morning,” Ethan said.

  “Ethan, that’s not necessary. Sheriff Fuller and I can take care of it. You have been through enough and the last thing Sarah needs is for something to happen to you now. Just let me handle it.”

  “Gideon, I’m either going to watch that son of a bitch die or he is going to have to look me in the eye when he surrenders.”

  In the old days, Gideon had usually been able to talk Ethan into coming around to his point of view, but looking at Ethan’s determined posture, he knew there was no chance on this day. “I guess you deserve the satisfaction of that. Let’s have some of your coffee and eggs then. I sure hope the food don’t kill me before I get DeVille,” Gideon said with a wink.

  ∞

  The sun was starting to pinken the sky in the east when they rode up to Sheriff Fuller who was waiting for them near Frank DeVille’s ranch. “I see you brought reinforcements,” he said.

  “He wouldn’t listen. I tried to get him to stay,” Gideon said.

  “Let’s go get him,” the sheriff said as he turned his horse and headed toward DeVille’s house.

  DeVille had had a fitful night of sleep. He was so wound up worrying about everything going right with the picking up of the ransom and Sligo killing everybody at the cave that he could barely close his eyes. Several times he had almost walked to the bunkhouse to find out if Sligo had learned anything in town, but each time he convinced himself that if there had been any news, Sligo would have busted down his door knocking.

  Just before dawn, he got up and dressed. He was too nervous to eat and instead drank a glass of scotch to calm himself. With the drink finished, he walked into the bunkhouse, struck a match, and lit the lamp on the table. The two new ranch hands were asleep in their bunks, but there was no sign of Sligo. In fact, he could see no sign that Sligo had ever returned from town.

  He tried to remember the new men’s names, but was at a complete loss as to what they were. “Hey, you two,” he called out. “Where is Sligo?”

  One of the men roused from his sleep, looking around groggily before focusing on DeVille. “He wasn’t back by the time we turned in. I guess he never made it back,” he said.

  DeVille started to feel weak and wanted to sit. Sligo might annoy the hell out of him, but he was way too dependable not to have returned without something having gone astray. His mind raced on what could have gone wrong and what next to do. He couldn’t just run off and leave everything he had spent his life building. His only option, he decided was to go to town and see what had happened to Sligo. If Sligo or the other two had implicated him, he would get the best lawyer in Denver for his defense.

  He saddled up and started the ride to town. As the sun’s first rays lit the land, he saw the three riders coming his way. He could not recognize them, but knew it had to be Sheriff Fuller, Gideon, and someone else. Knowing that somehow he had been found out, he realized that they were coming to lock him up like a common criminal. The thought made him claustrophobic. He was having trouble breathing as if he were suffocating. He needed to run and he turned his horse around, putting his spurs to it.

  Ethan spotted DeVille first, pointing him out to the other two. “He spotted us and is running,” he said just as DeVille took off.

  “I wonder where the fool thinks he is going,” Sheriff Fuller said. “Boys, you’re going to have to go get him. I can’t ride that hard anymore. Be careful.”

  Without speaking, Gideon and Ethan both put their horses into a lope, content to keep DeVille in sight until his galloping horse wore down. After a few minutes, they could see DeVille’s horse start to slow. He was no longer gaining ground on them.

  “He’s headed towards the mountains. Must be going to take cover and make a stand,” Gideon hollered to Ethan.

  “I hope we catch him before he does,” Ethan hollered back.

  DeVille looked over his shoulder, cursing himself for running his horse so hard. The riders were now gaining rapidly on him. There was no cover for another half mile where the mountain started. He kicked the horse hard in the ribs and it took off in a gallop again, but was so winded that it started slowing back down almost immediately.

  Ethan and Gideon put their horses into a gallop, closing distant between them and DeVille quickly. Ethan’s mustang, Pie, was a faster horse than Gideon’s Buck, and he started to pull away. DeVille pulled out his revolver and shot as Ethan closed to within fifty yards. The bullet missed, but Ethan moved Pie directly behind Deville so that he would have to turn sideways to fire another shot. It was the first time that he had ever been fired upon and it seemed as if his heart started racing as fast as the pounding hoof beats. Ethan started to reach for his rifle, but hesitated. As much as he hated DeVille for what he had done, he could not bring himself to shoot him. He grabbed his rope and made a lasso as DeVille fired again. Pie flinched, almost causing Ethan to lose his balance, and for a moment he thought that the horse was shot, but it kept on running. He was directly behind DeVille now and he said a prayer that all his years of roping would pay off as he let the rope sail before another shot could be fired. The rope settled over DeVille as Ethan pulled his horse up hard. DeVille flew off the back of his horse, landing hard on his back and bouncing a foot into the air.

  Ethan jumped down ready to pound Frank into submission, but DeVille did not attempt to rise. As Ethan neared him, he could see blood coming from Frank’s ears and mouth while his body trembled all over. He walked in front of DeVille and they made eye contact just as Gideon ran up to them. “Why did you do this, Frank? You had everything. What more could you have wanted?” Ethan asked.

  DeVille spit out blood. “You win,” he said, closing his eyes and going still.

  Gideon reached down and touched Frank’s neck, feeling for a pulse. “He’s dead,” he said quietly.

  Ethan kicked at the dirt and walked around in a circle. “I hated the son of a bitch and wished him dead, but I didn’t want to be the one to do it,” he said.

  “You tried to take him in. I would have shot him anyway, if you hadn’t been in my way. No need to blame yourself, Ethan. It’s poetic justice, I believe,” Gideon said.

  Chapter 30

  Gideon and Ethan rested the horses thirty minutes before hoisting DeVille, with considerable effort, across the back of his horse. It took both of the men to stand the large body up beside the horse. As Ethan held him, Gideon ran to the other side and pulled as Ethan lifted to get him across the saddle.

  “That was more work than catching him,” Gideon said.

  “I hope I’m never part of any of this again,” Ethan said. He was still trying to come to terms with having been the cause of DeVille’s death. Touching the body forced him to fight off gagging.

  “I know. Let’s get back to the sheriff. I imagine he wonders what’s going on,” Gideon said.

  They found the sheriff napping under a tree near where they had left him. He roused from sleep at the sound of the horses. “You had to kill him, I see,” Sheriff Fuller said matter–of–factly.

  “I see that you were beside yourself with worry about our wellbeing,” Gideon said.

  “I knew Frank was no match for you two. He never was and I knew he wouldn’t be now,” the sheriff said.

  “He did all the shooting. Ethan roped him, but the fall killed him anyway,” Gideon said.

  “Serves him right. He and his daddy were a lot alike and they died the same way. Kind of ironic. Let’s get back to town,” Sheriff Fuller said.

  As they rode into Last Stand, the people on the streets stopped and whispered at seeing Frank DeVille’s ignoble body hanging over a horse. Most of them had had some dealings with him and few had come away happy about it. Some of the people followed them down the street where the sheriff left the body with the cabinetmaker that doubled as an undertaker.

  “I want to go see Doc to check Sligo’s condition,” the sheriff said as they hitched the horses in front
of the jail.

  The smell and sound of Hank moaning hit the three men when they walked into the doctor’s office. Ethan had to will himself not to throw up on the spot. He had smelled some bad things in his life, but nothing compared to the smell coming out of Sligo.

  “Good morning, gentlemen,” Doc Abram said.

  “Good God, Doc, what is that smell and how do you stand it?” Sheriff Fuller asked.

  “That is the smell of intestines leaking everywhere. Pleasant isn’t it?” Doc said and looked at Gideon.

  “Do you have something that you want to say to me?” Gideon asked tersely.

  “You should have killed him instead of this. You are better than that, Gideon,” the doctor said.

  Gideon first instinct was to defend himself and make his case, but he knew the doctor was right. “I know,” was all that he said.

  “What happened with DeVille?” the doctor asked.

  “He died falling off his horse when we were chasing him. I think it fractured his skull,” Sheriff Fuller said.

  “It’s hard to imagine owning all that DeVille did and coming up with a foolish plan like this. Greed makes a man blind, I guess,” Doc said.

  Ethan nodded at Sligo. “What about him?” he asked.

  “He’s delirious now and I doubt he’ll come out of it again. The one good thing about not killing him on the spot was that before he got bad, I questioned him some more. He knew he was dying and I think he wanted to clear his conscience. Mary saved Benjamin’s life. The plan was for Sligo to kill Walter, Jasper, and Benjamin this morning. He also confessed to killing Mary’s husband, Eugene,” Doc said.

  Between the smell and the thought of how close he had come to losing his son, Ethan had to get out of the office. He rushed outside, sitting down on a bench. Unable to hold his emotions in check any longer, he started to cry. The sobs racked his body and he looked around to see if anybody was watching him. He wasn’t even sure why he was crying, but he could not stop. The ordeal had finally caught up with him and now that it was over, it all had hit him right between the eyes.

  Gideon walked out and sat down beside Ethan. He didn’t say anything, just took off his hat and ran his fingers along the brim.

  “I’m sorry,” Ethan managed to say.

  “You don’t have anything to apologize about to me. If I had just been through what you have, I would be crying to. I just learned how to do it again myself. Kind of cleans out the poison, I think,” Gideon said.

  Ethan wiped his nose on the back of his hand and chuckled. “Gideon Johann crying. Now that would be something. Gideon, do you ever think how crazy life can be? A little boy is out exploring against his mother’s wishes and finds a man half–dead and that man turns out to be his father’s best friend that has been missing eighteen years and then weeks later that man saves that little boy’s life. Like you said, a perfect little circle. And Mary – this community never did her right, including me. We all turned our backs on her when Eugene was killed. They weren’t from here and didn’t matter. I knew what we did was wrong and I didn’t do enough to make a difference. A preacher should be the conscience of the community. If anybody should have cared less about what happened to anybody around here, it would have been Mary and yet she did God knows what to save Benjamin’s life. It is all so overwhelming,” he said.

  “Mary saved Benjamin. I just retrieved him. You could have done it same as me,” Gideon said.

  “I doubt that. I would have hesitated and lost the advantage.”

  “I don’t think when it comes to Benjamin that you would have hesitated. You would have been just fine.”

  “All the same, I’m glad I had you to take care of it,” Ethan said.

  Gideon leaned back, stretching out his legs and crossing them while resting his hands on his stomach. He blew out a breath of air, puffing up his cheek as the air escaped. “That day I cleaned my mother’s grave site, I was finally able for the first time to say out loud what I had done all those years ago and then I was able to tell Abby. My confession was such a relief to finally share. And now you are the other person that deserves to know,” he said and looked around to make sure that no one was in listening distance. “I killed a boy about Benjamin’s age running through the brush when I thought we were being attacked. I’ve been running from it ever since then. It has haunted me and chased me all over the West.”

  Ethan didn’t say anything as he thought about what Gideon had been going through all of those years. His mind went over it slowly and methodically until he felt he fully grasped it. “Gideon, I’m sorry that you had to endure that. It must have been a terrible burden to carry and I wish that you had come back here sooner. Maybe we could have helped you years ago,” he said.

  “It doesn’t matter now and I don’t think it would have helped anyway. I think now was the right time to come back. Kind of like fate, maybe,” Gideon said.

  “So have you put the past behind you and are you ready to start a new life?”

  Gideon uncrossed his legs and crossed them back again with the opposite leg. “I don’t know yet. The last few days have been such a whirlwind that I don’t know if it is still chasing me or not. Just hard to say,” he said.

  “I hope and believe it has released you. Like you said, I think fate had to play into this. While it will never bring that little boy back, saving Benjamin had to be redemption for it. I believe it has to be God’s plan. It’s time to forgive yourself and make a life,” Ethan said.

  Sheriff Fuller walked out of the doctor’s office and slowly inhaled a big breath of air. “That’ll ruin your appetite for a while. You boys might as well go on home. This is over with until Walter’s trial. I’ll let you know when the judge gets to town,” he said.

  Gideon stood up and pulled off his badge, handing it to the sheriff. “Won’t be needing this anymore,” he said.

  “Thank you for all that you did. I don’t know what I would have done without you. I’m too old for this job and I know it. If you decide to stay around, I would be willing to retire and let you take the job. It’s time for a younger man,” the sheriff said.

  “I don’t know what I’m going to be doing next, but I appreciate the offer. I’ll keep it in mind,” Gideon said.

  “Let’s go home. Maybe I can talk Sarah into cooking us a late breakfast where the eggs aren’t so chewy,” Ethan said.

  Sheriff Fuller placed his hand on Ethan’s arm as he started to walk towards his horse. “Don’t beat yourself up about what happened out there. You tried to bring him in and it just didn’t work. I think we should just say that he fell off his horse. It isn’t a lie and that’s all anybody needs to know.”

  Ethan nodded his head solemnly and mounted his horse. “We’ll be seeing you, Sheriff.”

  The day was warming, getting near noontime, as they headed out of town. The horses kicked up puffs of dust as they trotted at a leisurely pace down the road towards home. They had ridden a few minutes when Gideon pulled Buck to a walk. “Slow down,” he hollered at Ethan.

  “What’s the matter?” Ethan asked.

  “I wasn’t finished with our conversation when the sheriff interrupted us,” Gideon said.

  “What is it?” Ethan said as he fell in beside Gideon.

  “Did you ever meet Abby’s niece, Joann?” Gideon asked.

  “Sure. She came to church every Sunday with them when she visited for the summers. She also came over with Abby and Winnie to visit Sarah a few times. Sweet girl,” Ethan said.

  “I just found out about her when Abby tracked me down for Benjamin. This feels so strange to say, but she is really mine and Abby’s daughter,” Gideon said.

  “Oh, my God,” Ethan said as he formed a mental picture of the girl, going over her every feature.

  “I know,” Gideon said. “It’s something that I never imagined. As if there hasn’t been enough going on, I learn that I am a father.”

  “Now that I know, I can see the resemblance. She has your crazy blue eyes. What do you think abo
ut it all?”

  “I don’t know. I would like to see her if she felt the same way. She knows the truth about all of it.”

  “You still love Abby, don’t you?” Ethan asked.

  “You know, Ethan, that first day that she came into Benjamin’s room, I didn’t even recognize her, but that voice echoed through me and made me feel things that I didn’t know were still alive in me. I guess that’s a long way around saying yes. I wish she would have written me during the war and told me that she was carrying our baby. It would have changed our lives. Of course, I could have come home after the war too,” Gideon said before falling silent.

  They continued riding along at a walk. Ethan was trying to get used to the idea that Abby and Gideon had a daughter together. He wondered if it were possible for there to be any more surprises still left to unfold. “So what’s next?” he asked.

  “I don’t have a clue, Ethan. I don’t have a clue.”

  “What do you think that I should do to help Mary out of the life that she lives?” Ethan asked.

  “Short of getting me, or some other cowboy to marry her, there is nothing that you can do. It’s too late for that,” Gideon said.

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Well, she can’t go work in a store now. No woman in these parts would set foot in it, and they sure as hell wouldn’t let their husband go in,” Gideon said.

  “But I got to do something for her,” Ethan said.

  “Ethan, it’s too late. You are right that you and everybody else should have done something a long time ago, but that time has passed. Mary is to blame, too. She made her choice. Did you know that she is so good with math that she helps that old German that runs the place do his books? I don’t know why she didn’t try to get a job as a clerk with somebody,” Gideon said.

  They rode on in silence for a minute while Ethan mulled over things. “I take it that you know Mary pretty well then?” he asked.

  Gideon made a sad smile. “Yes, Ethan, I know her pretty well. She’s a good girl, profession aside, and a smart one too. She’ll find her a man that takes her out of that job one of these days. I just don’t think it’s me,” he said as he put Buck into a trot. “Let’s get back, I’m hungry.”