Man From Boot Hill

by Marcus Galloway

  “That wasn’t the same,” Joseph said bitterly. “Not by a long shot.”

  “It was brought about differently, but killing is killing. The men who killed your wife and daughter deserved to die. It’s only right that you got to take the first shot at them, eye for an eye, just like the Good Book says.

  “I spent years of my life digging through the same pile of shit until it was all dug up and the men that wronged me got what they deserved. More than once, I wondered what it would have been like if I would have just turned my back on it all and got on with my life when I still had the chance. Turn the other cheek, just like the Good Book says,” Nick continued with a wry grin. “It’s too late for me. I spent years healing up and gunning down anyone who even talked about that Committee. From there, I kept living by my gun because it was all I knew. I’ve been like that since I was old enough to shoot straight. But you haven’t.”

  As he listened, Joseph’s eyes darted from Nick to the two men behind him. They were still too frightened to move, and if they tried or so much as flinched, Hofferman and his shotgun were there to change their minds.

  “You have every right to be angry,” Nick said. “And you always will. What happened was terrible, and the men that hurt your family deserved what they got. Folks are hanged for stealing horses. Hell, I arrange the parties they throw afterward. Sometimes, killers get away just because they’re smarter than the men trying to hunt them down. I know both sides of this argument too damn well.”

  “So what?” Joseph said with a little less venom in his tone. “I’ve killed, so I guess I’m no better. Is that it?”

  Nick shook his head. “You could have let the law take a run at these men, but you didn’t. I don’t really blame you for that. The men you killed, as bad as they were, will haunt you. I tried to give you some time to simmer down and have second thoughts, but you kept going. I can’t blame you for that, either. You’ll carry this with you your whole life, but these two boys here,” Nick said, pointing behind him, “they didn’t have a damn thing to do with what happened to you or your family.”

  “They would’ve hurt this family right here.”

  “Maybe, but they didn’t. I’d wager you can live with putting bastards like this one down,” Nick said, gesturing toward Dutch’s body as if it was a dung heap.

  “I couldn’t have lived with myself if I didn’t,” Joseph replied solemnly.

  “What about this boy here?” Nick asked while stepping aside to let Joseph look at Ross. “He wasn’t there that night. He doesn’t know you. Kill him and you’ll be stepping into some territory that you don’t want to get into. You’ll lose sight of the man you were and you’ll become a killer without any bit of righteousness behind you. You’ll be a stone’s throw from the assholes who drove you to this. You’ll be an outlaw, and there’s no angels for outlaws. Those words become truer to me every day. Maybe you should think about them before you get so far into hell that you won’t be able to find your way out.”

  Although Joseph didn’t say anything, the fire in his eyes was dimming a bit. Nick stepped forward until he bumped his chest against the end of Joseph’s rifle barrel.

  There was no fire in Nick’s eyes.

  There was no emotion whatsoever.

  There wasn’t even a flicker of humanity when Nick took his modified Schofield and pointed it directly between Ross’s eyes. It was that same icy glare that had gotten Nick further in his days as a bad man than whatever gun was in his hand at the time.

  “I could pull this trigger right now, send this boy to his Maker and sleep just as well as if I’d spent the day picking daisies,” Nick said evenly. “I’ve spilled too much blood for another few drops to make a dent anymore. All it would have taken to keep me from losing so much of my soul was for someone to tell me when to stop. Every man is entitled to his justice. You’ve gotten yours. Now…stop.”

  The longer Joseph stared at Nick’s face, the more he felt like he was looking into a cold, bottomless pit. He couldn’t hold that gaze for too long and when he finally looked away, Joseph felt as if he’d been shaken out of a fever dream. The anger was still inside of him, but it no longer had the teeth and claws that had been ripping his guts apart.

  When he let out his breath, Joseph felt as if he’d been holding it for weeks.

  “Put the gun down, Nick,” Joseph said. “It…it’s over. This is all over. I just want to get back home.”

  Nick holstered the Schofield and lowered his head. Even after Joseph had turned and walked toward the house, Nick kept his head down and his eyes open as the coldness slowly worked its way under his skin.

  THIRTY-FOUR

  The ride back to Ocean was quick and quiet. Although Joseph told Nick a bit about the son who was waiting for him to return, he didn’t ask about anything from Nick’s past. After what he’d already heard, it was obvious that he didn’t want to hear any more.

  That suited Nick just fine. He enjoyed listening to the few words that Joseph had to say. Those words were enough to show that Joseph was a changed man. There was a shadow in his eyes, but not the genuine darkness that had been there before. More important, Joseph preferred to talk about the future rather than the past. Joseph sometimes bowed his head in reflection as if thinking about his wife or daughter.

  They rode into Ocean early one afternoon. Rain from the night before had left the grass wet and green. A few flowers bloomed here and there, but most of the flowers they could see were already cut and lying at the base of a few tombstones. The graveyard smelled of warm air and freshly turned soil.

  Joseph asked Nick to stand with him next to the specially carved markers of his wife and daughter. The two carved angels were still looking at each other as if no time had passed, and Joseph looked down on them as if he were peeking in on a private conversation between mother and daughter. Nodding once, he turned to Nick and said, “Sammy should be here with me.”

  The expression on Joseph’s face, shadows and all, was a good sight for Nick’s sore eyes. He led the way to his cabin, anxiously awaiting his own reunion with Catherine.

  When they got there, however, they found the cabin’s windows broken and its door knocked off its hinges.

  “What in the hell?” Nick snarled as he swung down from Kazys’s back and ran to the doorway. His gun was in his hand before he even knew his arm had moved. When he saw the mess that was inside, he stormed into the cabin in search of an excuse to pull its trigger.

  “Good Lord,” Joseph said as he took a step through the doorway. “What happened here?”

  “I don’t know, but Catherine’s gone.”

  “What about my boy?”

  Nick wheeled around to look at Joseph as if he didn’t know whom he was referring to. He then blinked a few times and dropped his gun back into its holster. “I don’t know. There’s nobody here.”

  “By the looks of it, there was a hell of a scuffle. Is there any blood or…?”

  As Joseph’s unfinished question faded away, Nick took a slower, more careful look around. “No. There’s no bodies. I don’t see any blood. In fact, it looks more like someone tore through here just for the hell of it.”

  “Maybe they were looking for something.”

  “Where did you tell your son to go if Catherine didn’t agree to look after him?”

  Joseph snapped his fingers, already turning to go outside. “His uncle’s place. I’ll take you there.”

  Nick practically flew out of the cabin and onto Kazys’s back. He and Joseph raced through town.

  They had nearly left Ocean’s limits again before Joseph reined his horse to a stop.

  “This is the place,” Joseph said.

  The moment Nick’s boots hit the dirt, his hand was resting upon the grip of his pistol. His eyes darted to and fro, looking for any suspicious movement or any face that he didn’t like. When the door to the little house swung open, Nick planted his feet and prepared to draw the Schofield. The face he saw, however, was far from threatening.

&nb
sp; “Pa! You’re home!” Sam shouted as he rushed outside.

  Nick didn’t relax until he saw Catherine step through the door. Fixing her hair, she smiled and started to say something, but couldn’t make a sound before Nick ran to her and swept her up into his arms. She laughed and tried once more to speak. This time, she was cut off by an urgent kiss.

  “Well, well,” Catherine gasped, once she had a chance. “It’s good to see you, too!”

  For the next few moments, all Nick wanted to do was hold on to her tightly, pressing his face into her hair and nuzzling her neck. Once he’d filled his lungs with the sweet scent of her, he allowed himself to loosen his grip.

  “I thought something happened to you,” he said.

  Catherine winced and asked, “You were at the cabin, weren’t you?”

  “Yes. What happened?”

  “Someone came into town and made that mess,” she replied while shaking her head. “It’s not as bad as it seems. Sam and I weren’t even there at the time.”

  “Who did it?”

  “I don’t know who it was. The sheriff says he was probably just after money or food.”

  “Sheriff Stilson saw him?”

  She nodded. “He saw more of him than I did. In fact, he ran him out of town.”

  “And you weren’t hurt?” Nick asked. “Or the boy?”

  Catherine looked over to where Joseph was swinging his little boy around and happily wrapping him up in his arms. “We weren’t hurt. Sam was so lonely after you and his father left that I thought it best to bring him here. Seeing as how you two were probably headed for some trouble, it seemed best if I stayed with him to make certain we were safe until you two got back. It is just Alice here by herself, after all. Sam’s uncle had some business in Sacramento.”

  Nick looked toward the front door and saw a thin woman with short black hair for the first time. Alice was so skinny that she looked like she could be snapped in half by a strong hug, but her smile was friendly enough and she waved to Nick the moment she made eye contact with him.

  “Before you ask, I also brought the shotgun,” Catherine whispered.

  “You’re one hell of a woman,” Nick said while brushing the back of his hand against her cheek.

  She smiled at him and patted his hand. “I’m glad you realize that.”

  As the wagon rattled up to the sheriff’s office, Stilson opened the door and ambled outside. His thumbs were hooked over his gun belt and he nodded with mild surprise when he saw who was driving the noisy rig.

  “Sorry, but I don’t have any deliveries for you today,” Stilson said.

  Nick set his brake and climbed down. “I’m on my way to my parlor and wanted to stop by and have a word with you about what happened to my home.”

  The sheriff raised his hands and said, “I did what I could. By the time I got there, most of the damage was already done.”

  “I don’t intend on being cross with you. I wanted to give you my thanks.”

  At first, Stilson looked at the hand Nick offered as if it might reach out and slap him. He grasped it hesitantly at first, but then responded amicably when Nick shook it in friendship.

  “We’ve never been good friends, but I wanted to tell you I appreciate what you did.”

  “Just doing my job.”

  “Can you tell me what happened?”

  Stilson walked around as if he was inspecting the wagon. “It was lucky that I was making my rounds when I heard the noise. I thought it was someone’s roof collapsing or maybe a horse got a burr under its saddle and was kicking in a wall. Turns out it was your door getting kicked in. Far as I knew, you were nowhere to be found, so I went and had a look for myself.

  “I saw two of them as I rode up to your place,” Stilson explained as he tapped his foot against one of the wagon’s wheels. “One of them bolted before I could even bring my horse to a stop. The other took his sweet time coming out, even after he saw me, but walked away from your cabin soon enough once he saw I wasn’t just some nosy neighbor.”

  “Did you get a look at them?”

  Stilson walked over to examine Rasa and Kazys as if he intended on purchasing the horses. “One of them might have been the fella that me and Miguel found in the graveyard that night when the Van Meter place was raided. Come to think of it, I’m almost certain it was him.”

  “Jesus,” Nick muttered as he felt a knot tighten in his stomach. “And the other one?”

  “Didn’t recognize him,” Stilson replied while checking to make sure the bridle was secure on both horses. “But he was a different breed from that first one. The fella that ran first, the one that was in my jail, was skittish and moved like he was hurt or scared out of his mind.”

  Nick kept quiet, but knew that J. D. was both of those things the last time he’d crossed paths with him, on the Silver Gorge trail.

  “The second one was still around after I’d taken a look inside your cabin. I thought I might have to take a shot at him since he didn’t clear off your property right away.”

  “What happened?”

  Shrugging as he walked around to examine the other side of the wagon, Stilson replied, “He asked where you and your missus were.”

  “What did you tell him?” Nick asked, while silently dreading what the answer might be.

  “I said you both had moved on.”

  Nick’s eyes snapped back into focus and he fixed them upon the sheriff. “What?”

  “I said you and Catherine were in a rush to get out and that’s exactly what you did. I made up some story about how folks were talking that you two just up and left without packing more than some clothes and food into a few carpetbags. The more I told them,” Stilson said, chuckling, “the more I started believing it, myself.”

  “What made you think to tell a story like that?”

  “There was just an opportunity, I guess. Nobody was home and the damage was done, so I spun the first yarn I could and hoped it would be enough for them to move on. There wasn’t anyone inside your place, so I just figured on getting him to leave of his own accord.

  “Men like that are like stray dogs. You show ’em there ain’t nothing to gain from being somewhere and they’ll stay gone. Don’t you worry, though,” Stilson added. “I bowed up and chased him off, just to be certain.”

  Nick could imagine it hadn’t taken much to chase off J. D. If Dutch sent another gunman along for the job, however, it was probably a man who didn’t frighten so easily.

  His inspection of the wagon completed, Stilson wound up standing next to Nick with his arms crossed. “That fella from my jail was off like a shot. That other one, though…he wasn’t in no hurry. He left, but he made sure I knew he was leaving of his own volition. He seemed pretty happy with himself, though. My guess is that he didn’t have any trouble believing what I told him.”

  As Nick listened, he also didn’t have any trouble believing what Stilson told him. In fact, the only reason for those gunmen to think Stilson was lying was if they already knew better. If that was the case, they would have known where to find who they’d been looking for. Since Catherine wasn’t harmed or even rattled, Nick could only conclude that those two gunmen were long gone.

  “I think you might have saved my wife’s life,” Nick said. “And the life of Joseph’s son right along with her.”

  Stilson shrugged. “I did my best.”

  THIRTY-FIVE

  When Nick returned to his cabin, his wagon was fully loaded. The top was covered by a tarp, which was strapped down to keep all the things secured in the back. Catherine busied herself that entire day with cleaning up and putting their home back together. That evening, she fixed Nick a dinner that was more like a banquet and served it to him at his regular table in the back of her restaurant on Ninth Street.

  Although the cabin was still a mess, they spent the night there enjoying each other’s company in their own home. They didn’t notice what was broken or what shelves still needed to be straightened, since neither one of them spent much
time out of the bedroom.

  Catherine woke up to an empty bed, threw a robe on and searched for Nick. She found him outside, staring up at the stars that were scattered overhead like a mess of silver dust. He wore his rumpled trousers with the suspenders hanging loosely from the waist. The scars that crossed his naked back and chest showed up like streaks of water in the shimmering starlight.

  “Why are you up?” she asked. “What time is it?”

  “It’s late,” replied Nick. “That’s all I know.”

  Stepping in front of Nick, she leaned back against him and nuzzled in close until she felt his arms wrap around her. “After all we’ve been doing, I’m surprised you have the strength to get out of bed.”

  “I wanted to soak in as much of this place as I could…before I left.”

  Nick could feel Catherine shrink a bit in his grasp. Her head lowered, but quickly came up again so she could look up at the sky. “Why would you want to do that?”

  “You don’t sound surprised.”

  “I’m not. Actually, I’m just surprised you let me see you before riding off. I always feared waking up one night and having you just be…gone.”

  “You’ve been through so much just to be with me,” Nick explained. “And just when things seemed to be settled, this happened.”

  “But it didn’t happen to us,” Catherine said sharply. “You took it upon yourself to ride off with Joseph. I think it was a good thing, and Joseph seems like a whole different man now that he’s back, but this was your choice. It’s over now,” she said, gripping Nick’s forearm. “We can get back to the way it was.”

  “Do you know how close you were to getting hurt? Jesus, Catherine, I didn’t even know those other two were coming back here. They could have…” Nick trailed off as the terrible speculations ripped through his mind. Not wanting to put a voice to those images, he just said, “…and I wouldn’t have even known until it was too late.”

  “There’s always something bad that can happen, Nick. If anything, you should have learned that from Joseph. Bad things can happen just like good things can happen. There’s no way to know what’s coming next or when it’ll get here.”