The Secret Saddle_Anna Troy's Emancipation

by Dani Larsen

Just then, four children burst in the front door.

  "Mama, we're hungry."

  "Okay. Why don't you all go sit on the back porch, and we will have a little picnic in a few minutes." She did not want her children around Jude.

  "Where all did you go in your travels? Did you see anything special?"

  "Oh, I went to a lot of places. Saw the Willamette Valley and went over the Santiam Pass. I worked for a supply company for a while, delivering goods to small towns. I spent a month or two in Salem, and worked for a ranch in southern Oregon for a while, but then decided to head on back here. If the police force needs any more help, I'd sure be interested in working with you."

  "I was surprised to see you when I went into the hotel. I think all the positions are filled right now, Jude, but you can always come in and fill out an application."

  "I just might do that. I was surprised to see you wearing a police uniform."

  "I'm just biding my time, trying to save some money, so I can buy a bigger spread, or maybe a dairy farm. The little place we had up in Keating just wouldn't support my growing family."

  Anna wanted to scream at George, and tell him to quit telling that man everything. She was upset that he now knew where they lived. She picked up the tray of sandwiches, she had just prepared for the children, and went outside to feed them, taking Bert's hand as she went out the door.

  Jude was smirking inside. Hanging around George and putting in for a policeman's job would be a good cover, for what he had planned. He was sure no one would recognize Sam McLoughlin, as it had been a good twenty plus years since he had been convicted in town, and the man was now sporting a long beard. Even the old sheriff hadn't recognized him when he had applied for a job at the saloon. He had used his new name, Samuel Miller. Jude thought about their trip coming back over from Salem, and he felt like laughing again at what the two men had gotten away with.

  Anna started shaking when George and Jude left the house after lunch. She sat down in her chair and prayed that the man wouldn't get hired as a policeman.

  Chapter Thirty

  "A Threat of Recognition"

  Jude and Sam had been in town for several months and were just lying low, trying not to get any unwanted attention. Jude had applied for a job with the police department, but nothing had come of it, so he was still working at the hotel. He didn't know that Anna had begged George not to give him a recommendation, so George had not written anything up when the Captain had asked him to. When he hadn't turned one in, the captain had asked him why not. George just told him his wife had never cared much for the man and had asked him not to write one, so he had done what she asked. George told him verbally that he thought Jude would be fine, as he had worked for several years for his father, and he had not ever heard him complain about him, but for some reason his wife had bad feelings about the guy. As there were no openings then the issue went away, but the captain put the man's application at the bottom of the pile on his desk.

  Sam had been prying information out of the Troy neighbors that came into the saloon. It was mainly the ranch hands that came in, not the ranch owners, so he could easily get info after plying them with liquor. The one man he got a lot of info from worked for a ranch in Durkee, just down the road from Pleasant Valley. The man's name was Duke, and he came in to drink at least once a week. Sam made friends with him and always asked him to sit at the bar.

  "Hey, Duke, how are things at your ranch?" Sam asked, as he poured the man a beer and set it in front of him.

  "Going good, Sam. Our ranch is doing fine. Several new calves this year, and the crops seem to be growing well. Anyway, old Tom seems very happy so I assume everything is good. Nobody has been laid off and we are all getting paid, so it must be good."

  When the man was on his third beer, Sam decided to see what he could find out about the neighboring ranch.

  "Isn't your ranch right down the road from the Troy Ranch?"

  "Yes, it is. That is a nice bit of land, that ranch. Why do you ask?"

  "I'm just asking because there was a feller in here a while back who was telling me some tale about some big thing that happened many years ago to the owners of that ranch. He said something about a kidnapping of one of the kids and a gold mine somewhere on the ranch. Do you know anything about it?"

  "I just know what I heard from some of the other cowboys. Seems there was a gang of no-goods who were after a gold mine that turned out to be on their land. That gang killed several Chinese who owned the land at the time. Someone said that Mrs. Troy was a friend of one of the miners, who as it turned out owned that land and deeded it to the Troys when he died. The gang leader kidnapped their little girl and tried to get the Troys to turn over the deed to the land as ransom for getting the child back. I heard it turned out pretty messy and ended up at the top of Lookout Mountain, where Mrs. Troy shot the gang leader. I don't remember his name, but they got their daughter back and kept the land and the mine."

  "What happened to the mine?"

  "They let relatives of their Chinese friend continue to mine it for at least ten years is all I know. I think they got all they could out of it, but I don't think anyone is working it now. I don't know if the Troys ever got anything out of it, I just know they got that thousand acres, and that was what they wanted. Their ranch takes up most of Pleasant Valley and is about two thousand acres, much of which they homesteaded. They are highly thought of in that area. Real nice people, I hear."

  "It sounds like they were lucky to get out of it without anyone getting hurt. The guy that was telling me about it said that the head of the gang had some fancy saddle with his initials written on it in silver, and that no one knows what happened to it. Have you seen anyone on any saddle like that?"

  "No, I can't say that I have, I've never heard anything about that. It happened a long time ago and way before my time. If there is a fancy saddle around there, I sure haven't seen it."

  "Are all the children grown and gone?"

  "I think the oldest three are. Anna was the one who was kidnapped. She is married to that policeman, George Hempe. They just moved into town a few months back. I heard they couldn't make it on the small farm they had. They've got a bunch of kids of their own. Jeremiah Troy married some girl named Blossom, and owns his own ranch, not too far from the Troy Ranch. Margaret up and married a guy name Becker and moved to La Grande. The two sisters, Fan and Zee, still live at home and help their parents run the ranch, The younger brother, Steve, went off to serve in that war in Europe that the U.S. got tangled up in. I don't know if he's back yet or not."

  "Do they have a bunch of ranch hands?"

  "Only a few now, I think. They hire extra help when their orchards need picking, and they hire a few more hands when it's time to round up the cattle. The family does most of the work on the ranch. I went to a barbeque over there once and got to meet them all. Nice people. I know Tom thinks they are anyway."

  "Interesting, sounds like they are good people."

  Sam had been paying attention to what Duke said and hadn't seen the old man come in. When he turned around, he realized that the old sheriff was standing by the bar, and had been listening to the conversation between him and the ranch hand.

  "What can I get you, old man? A shot of whiskey?" Sam looked closely at the old man as he poured him a drink and set it in front of him. He realized that the man was looking at him closely too.

  "Where is your money, old man?" Sam asked, as he looked down and continued to wipe down the bar. The man put some coins on the counter, but continued to stare at Sam.

  "What are you looking at, old man? Is something bothering you?"

  "I think I have seen you somewhere, Sam. Have we met before? You look awfully familiar to me."

  "Never seen you before you started coming into my bar, old man."

  "I never really looked close at you before. I can't place where I've seen you before, but I know I have. If I think long and hard about it, it'll come to me."

  Sam just looked at the one time
sheriff, and had a feeling that the old drunk just might remember where he had seen him before. He poured the man another drink and set it in front of him.

  "Here, old man, have one on me. I've never seen you before we met in here, so maybe you should stop trying to remember."

  The old man took his drinks and went to the table in the corner where he sat facing the bar, just sipping his drinks. Sam knew that the old sheriff was one loose end that he needed to get rid of, before the old man remembered who he was and said something to someone else.

  As usual, the man stayed in the bar until he was so drunk he couldn't walk. Usually, the other patrons insisted on throwing him out before the night was over, because he would start getting obnoxious and bother them, asking them to buy him drinks.

  Sam wanted to keep him there until closing, so he kept supplying him with liquor. At two o'clock, when Sam cleared out the bar, the old man was passed out with his head on the table. No one had paid any attention to him for several hours, because he wasn't bothering anyone.

  After he had done all his clean up, Sam locked all the doors, turned out all the lights, and opened the back door. Nobody was outside, so he poked the old man until he woke up enough to walk with Sam out the back door.

  It was really dark behind the tavern, and there was no moon out yet. Sam's horse was tied up in the back of the tavern, as he had brought him out of the stable on his dinner break earlier. He put the man in the saddle and his head flopped down as he passed out again. Sam walked the horse quietly around the dark houses and stores to the back of the Chinese Restaurant, where he knew the old man hung out and often slept, in an alcove behind the place. The restaurant was dark, as were all of the shops on that street. Sam pulled the man off of his horse and laid him down in the left corner by the restaurant. Sam walked his horse back to the back of the saloon and tied him up. He didn't want his horse to make any unwanted noises and wake up the neighbors. He went over to a case of empty wine bottles sitting by the back door and picked up a bottle and an old towel. On his way back to the Chinese Restaurant he used the towel to make the horse's hoof prints disappear. The old man hadn't moved. Sam had been very careful to watch every door and window, to make sure no one saw or heard him. Sam pulled the kerchief up around his face just in case someone should hear him and look out to see what was happening. The old man was lying on his side, so Sam turned him on his stomach, where the man snored loudly. He looked around one last time, and then lifted the wine bottle over his head and brought it down as hard as he could on the old man's head. There was a loud crack as the bottle met its target, and the man's head split like a melon. He let out a loud moan and then did not move. Sam was amazed that the bottle didn't even break.

  Sam stood in the shadows behind the restaurant and waited for any reactions to the loud noise the hit had made, but nothing happened. After about five minutes, he came out and turned the old man on his back, smeared some of the old man's blood on the cornerstone of the building with the towel, and pulled the man closer to that spot, before he walked slowly back to the saloon. He unlocked the door, went inside and washed off the bloody wine bottle, wiped it dry with a cloth, and put the bottle back in its crate. Then he washed out the blood on the towel, threw it in a trash can at the end of the street, and took his horse back to the stable.

  When he was finished and sure no one was watching him, he went to the hotel and walked quietly up the stairs. He rapped lightly on Jude's door and waited. Several minutes later, the door opened quietly and a groggy Jude answered the door.

  Sam slunk in and Jude quietly closed the door.

  "What's up? What happened?"

  "I was talking to a cowboy from Durkee, trying to get some information on the Troy Ranch, when I turned around and the old sheriff was listening. He was sober at first and kept saying he recognized me from somewhere. I couldn't take a chance on him telling anyone who I was, so I had to get rid of him."

  "What did you do?"

  "I got him drunk and let him pass out in the saloon. After I closed, I took him around to the back of the Chinese Restaurant and got rid of him with a wine bottle. No one heard me. I was very careful. Then I made it look like he fell down and hit his head. Hopefully, they will think it was an accident."

  "God, I hope so. I don't want anyone suspecting us of having anything to do with it."

  "I washed the bottle and returned it to the empty crate. Then I threw away the towel I used to put some of his blood on the cornerstone of the building with. I made it look like he hit his head there. Anyway, I think we are good. Let's just lay low and act like we don't know anything about it."

  "Did you find out anything about the Troy Ranch?"

  "Yeah, I found out who still lives there. The guy just told me the old story about the kidnapping and murder of the Chinese. There are two still at home, besides the parents; two grown daughters. The son could be coming home at any time. He's been over fighting the war in Europe. I think we are going to have to check out the place on our own. Let's wait until this thing dies down though."

  Sam got up, went to the door, opening it slowly, and when he heard nothing, snuck out and went back to his room.

  George Hempe was walking the streets of Baker City, when the Chinese owner of the Dim Sum Palace came running down the street.

  "Meester George! Meester George, come quick! We find the old sheriff dead behind our restaurant."

  George looked shocked, as normally all he had to deal with was taking drunks to jail, or settling arguments between customers and store owners. Baker City was a bustling city that had settled down in the last few years.

  "What happened to him, Li?"

  "I don't know, Meester George, but there is blood everywhere."

  "Li, would you please go to the Police Station and tell the captain, while I take a look?"

  "Yes, right away. Thank you."

  The man politely bowed to George, before he ran down the street toward the law enforcement office. George hurried to the back of the restaurant where he knew the old sheriff hung out most nights. When he got there, he saw several men standing around what he assumed was the body of the man who had been sheriff of Baker City for many years.

  "Everyone, please stand back."

  George spoke with authority and everyone took a few steps backward. The first thing he saw was that the man was lying on his stomach with his arms and legs flayed out beside him. There was a big gash on the back of his head and blood was clotted there, and there was a pool of blood under his face. George felt for a pulse even though he knew there wasn't one as the man was already in rigor mortis. He looked around and saw blood on the cornerstone of the building. It looked like the man was drunk and had fallen down, hit his head and died right there. He wondered why he wasn't on his back as the gash was on the back of his head, but thought maybe he hadn't died immediately and turned over trying to get up afterward. There was quite a bit of blood, so he thought that was a possibility as he heard that after a person died the blood quit flowing.

  "Did any of you see this man here last night, or anywhere else, or do you know anything about what happened to him?"

  "He is usually outside around nine o'clock, and I bring him a plate of food about that time, but he wasn't out here when I brought some garbage out around that time." Li's cousin, who was the co-owner of the restaurant, told George. "I checked again around ten thirty, just as we were closing up, and he wasn't out here then either."

  "I saw him at Ruby's Saloon about eleven last night, and he was drunk as a skunk. He was sitting at a table in the corner with his head on the table. It looked like he was out cold. I didn't pay much attention after that." One of the other men said.

  "Bartenders usually kick him out when he gets that drunk. Who was bartending?"

  "Sam Miller was on the bar. When I said something about the drunk in the corner, he just said, 'Oh, let him sleep it off'."

  George knew the speaker as a regular at all the saloons. He worked in the dry goods store, but went dire
ctly to a saloon when he got off work.

  "So no one here knows if he sobered up and walked over here, or how he got here?"

  They all shook their heads.

  "If any of you talk to someone who knows more about what happened here last night, I would appreciate it if you would ask them to come to the station and make a report, or just find me. Now, I think everyone should just clear out."

  Two men pulled up in a wagon to take the body away, just as the captain walked up.

  "What happened here, George?"

  "It looks like the old sheriff got drunk again, fell and hit his head, and then rolled over and died. There doesn't seem to be any witnesses to say any different. One fellow said he saw him at Ruby's last night, drunk and sleeping at a table in the corner, and no one seems to know any different. The man said Sam Miller was working the bar last night, so I'll go talk to him, and see if he remembers what time the old man left, or if there was anyone with him."

  "It sounds like just an accident, George. Let me know if you find out anything different, otherwise that is what I will write it up as. I guess you can take him away now, Mr. Philips."

  The undertaker had his assistant with him, and they lifted the man and put him on the stretcher they had brought with them, and put him in the back of the wagon. They covered him up with an old blanket, and then took him back to their place of business.

  George came in to talk to Sam right after he started his shift.

  "Hello, officer, what can I help you with?" Sam asked pleasantly.

  "Hi Sam, I don't know if you heard, but the old sheriff was found dead behind the Chinese Restaurant early this morning. One of the men there said that he was drinking in here last night, and that he saw him passed out at a table in the corner. Can you tell me if anyone was bothering him, when he left, and if he was alone?"

  "Yeah, he was in here, and as usual he had too much to drink. I felt sorry for the old man and let him sleep it off in the corner. We weren't that busy and didn't need the table, or I might have rousted him earlier. He stayed there all night. I got him up and gave him a cup of coffee, before I sent him out the door just before closing. He was still pretty drunk when he staggered out, but there was no one with him. Everyone had already left. Then I just closed up and went back to my room."