by Max Brand
To the theory of the thing they had been entirely unresponsive, but to the chance to play a game, and a new game, they responded instantly.
“Besides,” said Judge Lodge, “I’ll act as the judge. I know something about the law.”
“No, you won’t,” declared Riley. “I thought up this little party, and
I’m going to run it.” Then he stepped to the stump and sat down on it.
8
DENVER JIM WAS already heartily in the spirit of the thing.
“Sit down on that black rock, Jig,” he said, taking Gaspar to the designated stone as he spoke, and removing the noose from the latter’s neck. “Black is a sign you’re going to swing in the end. Jest a triflin’ postponement, that’s all.”
Riley placated the judge with his first appointment. “Judge Lodge,” he said, “you know a pile about these here things. I appoint you clerk. It’s your duty to take out that little notebook you got in your vest pocket and write down a note for the important things that’s said. Savvy?”
“Right,” replied Lodge, entirely won over, and he settled himself on the grass, with the notebook on his knee and a stub of a pencil poised over it.
“Larsen, you’re sergeant-at-arms.”
“How d’you mean that, Sinclair?”
“That’s what they call them that keeps order; I disremember where I heard it. Larsen, if anybody starts raising a rumpus, it’s up to you to shut ’em up.”
“I’ll sure do it,” declared Larsen. “You can sure leave that to me, judge.” He hoisted his gun belt around so that the gun butt hung more forward and readier to his hand.
“Denver, you’re the jailer. You see the prisoner don’t get away. Keep an eye on him, you see?”
“Easy, judge,” replied Denver. “I can do it with one hand.”
“Montana, you keep the door.”
“What d’you mean — door, judge?”
“Ain’t you got no imagination whatever?” demanded Sinclair. “You keep the door. When I holler for a witness you go and get ’em. And Sandersen, you’re the hangman. Take charge of that rope!”
“That ain’t such an agreeable job, your honor.”
“Neither is mine. Go ahead.”
Sandersen, glowering, gathered up the rope and draped it over his arm.
“Buck Mason, you’re the jury. Sit down over there on your bench, will you? This here court being kind of shorthanded, you got to do twelve men’s work. If it’s too much for you, the rest of us will help out.”
“Your honor,” declared Buck, much impressed, “I’ll sure do my best.”
“The jury’s job,” explained Sandersen, “is to listen to everything and not say nothing, but think all the time. You’ll do your talking in one little bunch when you say guilty or not guilty. Now we’re ready to start. Gaspar, stand up!”
Denver Jim officiously dragged the schoolteacher to his feet.
“What’s your name?”
“Name?” asked the bewildered Gaspar. “Why, everybody knows my name!”
“Don’t make any difference,” announced Sinclair. “This is going to be a strictly regular hanging with no frills left marabout’s your name?”
“John Irving Gaspar.”
“Called Jig for short, and sometimes Cold Feet,” put in the clerk.
Sinclair cleared his throat. “John Irving Gaspar, alias Jig, alias Cold
Feet, d’you know what we got agin’ you? Know what you’re charged with?”
“With — with an absurd thing, sir.”
“Murder!” said Sinclair solemnly. “Murder, Jig! What d’you say, guilty or not guilty! Most generally, you’d say not guilty.”
“Not guilty — absolutely not guilty. As a matter of fact, Mr.
Sinclair—”
“Denver, shut him up and make him sit down.”
One hard, brown hand was clapped over Jig’s mouth. The other thrust him back on the black rock.
“Gentlemen of the jury,” said his honor, “you’ve heard the prisoner say he didn’t do it. Now we’ll get down to the truth of it. What’s the witnesses for the prosecution got to say?”
There was a pause of consideration.
“Speak up pronto,” said Sinclair. “Anybody know anything agin’ the prisoner?”
Larsen stepped forward. “Your honor, it’s pretty generally known—”
“I don’t give a doggone for what’s generally known. What d’you know?”
The Swede’s smile did not alter in the slightest, but his voice became blunter, more acrid. From that moment he made up his mind firmly that he wanted to see John Irving Gaspar, otherwise Jig, hanged from the cottonwood tree above them.
“I was over to Shorty Lander’s store the other day—”
His honor raised his hand in weary protest, as he smiled apologetically at the court. “Darned if I didn’t plumb forget one thing,” he said. “We got to swear in these witnesses before they can chatter. Is there anybody got a Bible around ’em? Nope? Montana, I wished you’d lope over to that house and see what they got in the line of Bibles.”
Montana strode away in the direction of the house, and quiet fell over the unique courtroom. Larsen, so pleasant of face and so unbending of heart, was the first to speak.
“Looks to me, gents, like we’re wasting a lot of time on a rat!”
The blond head of Cold Feet turned, and his large, dark eyes rested without expression upon the face of the Swede. He seemed almost literally to fold his hands and await the result of his trial. The illusion was so complete that even Riley Sinclair began to feel that the prisoner might be guilty — of an act which he himself had done! The opportunity was indeed too perfect to be dismissed without consideration. It was in his power definitely to put the blame on another man; then he could remain in this community as long as he wished, to work his will upon Sandersen.
Sandersen himself was a great problem. If Bill had spoken up in good faith to save Sinclair from the posse that morning, the Riley felt that he was disarmed. But a profound suspicion remained with him that Sandersen guessed his mission, and was purposely trying to brush away the wrath of the avenger. It would take time to discover the truth, but to secure that time it was necessary to settle the blame for the killing. Cold Feet was a futile, weak-handed little coward. In the stern scheme of Sinclair’s life, the death of such a man was almost less than nothing.
“Wasting a lot of time on a rat!”
The voice of Larsen fell agreeably upon the ear of his honor. Behind that voice came a faraway murmur, the scream of a hawk. He bent his head back and looked up through the limbs of the cottonwood into the pale blue-white haze of the morning sky.
A speck drifted across it, the hawk sailing in search of prey. Under the noble arch of heaven floated that fierce, malignant creature!
Riley Sinclair lowered his head with a sigh. Was not he himself playing the part of the hawk? He looked straight into the eyes of the prisoner, and Jig met the gaze without flinching. He merely smiled in an apologetic manner, and he made a little gesture with his right hand, as if to admit that he was helpless, and that he cast himself upon the good will of Riley Sinclair. Riley jerked his head to one side and scowled. He hated that appeal. He wanted this hanging to be the work of seven men, not of one.
Montana returned, bringing with him a yellow-covered, red-backed book. “They wasn’t a sign of a Bible in the house,” he stated, “but I found this here history of the United States, with the Declaration of Independence pasted into the back of it. I figured that ought to do about as well as a Bible.”
“You got a good head, Montana,” said his honor. “Open up to that there Declaration. Here, Larsen, put your hand on this and swear you’re telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. They ain’t going to be any bum testimony taken in this court. We ain’t going to railroad this lynching through.”
He caught a glistening light of gratitude in the eyes of the schoolteacher. Riley’s own breast swelled with a sense of vir
tue. He had never before taken the life of a helpless man; and now that it was necessary, he would do it almost legally.
Larsen willingly took the oath. “I’m going to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, damn me if I don’t! I was over to Shorty Lander’s store the other day—”
“What day?”
“Hmm! Last Tuesday, I reckon.”
“Go on, Larsen, but gimme nothin’ but the facts.”
“I seen Jig come into the store. ‘I want to look at a revolver,’” he said.
“‘The deuce you do! What might you want to do with a revolver, Jig?’ says Shorty. ‘You mean you want a toy gun?’
“I remember them words particular clear, because I didn’t see how even a spineless gent like Jig could stand for such a pile of insult. But he just sort of smiled with his lips and got steady with his eyes, like he was sort of grieved.
“‘I want a gun that’ll kill a man,’ he says to Shorty.
“Shorty and me both laughed, but, when Shorty brung out a forty-five, doggone me if Jig didn’t buy the gun.
“‘Look here,’ says he, ’is this the way it works?’
“And he raises it up in his skinny hand. I had to laugh.
“‘Hold it in both hands,’ says I.
“‘Oh,’ says he, and darned if he didn’t take it in both hands.
“‘It seems much easier to handle in this way,’ says he.
“But that’s what I seen. I seen him buy a gun to kill a man. Them was his words, and I figure they’re a mouthful.”
Larsen retired.
“Damagin’ evidence, they ain’t no question,” said Mr. Clerk severely.
“But I can lay over it, your honor.”
“Blaze away, judge.”
Larsen took the oath. “I’m going to show you they was bad feelings between the prisoner and the dead man, your honor. I was over to the dance at the Woodville schoolhouse a couple of weeks ago. Jig was there, not dancing or nothing, but sitting in a corner, with all the girls, mostly, hanging around him. They kept hanging around looking real foolish at him, and Jig looks back at ’em as if they wasn’t there. Well, it riles the boys around these parts. Quade comes up to him and takes him aside.
“‘Look here,’ he says, ‘why don’t you dance with one girl instead of hogging them all?’
“‘I don’t dance,’ says Jig.
“‘Why do you stay if you won’t dance?’ asks Quade.
“‘It is my privilege,’ says Jig, smiling in that ornery way of his, like his thoughts was too big for an ordinary gent to understand ’em.
“‘You stay an’ dance an’ welcome,’ says Quade, ‘but if you won’t dance, get out of here and go home where you belong. You’re spoiling the party for us, keeping all the girls over here.’
“‘Is that a threat?’ says Jig, smiling in that way of his.
“‘It sure is. And most particular I want you to keep away from Sally
Bent. You hear?’
“‘You take advantage of your size,’ says Jig.
“‘Guns even up sizes,’ says Quade.
“‘Thank you,’ says Jig. ‘I’ll remember.’
“Right after that he went home because he was afraid that Quade would give him a dressing. But they was bad feelings between him and Quade. They was a devil in them eyes of Jig’s when he looked at big Quade. I seen it, and I knowed they’d be trouble!” Lodge then retired.
“Gents,” said his honor, “it looks kind of black for the prisoner. We know that Gaspar had a grudge agin’ Quade, and that he bought a gun big enough to kill a man. It sure looks black for you, Gaspar.”
The prisoner looked steadily at Sinclair. There was something unsettling in that gaze.
“All we got to make sure of,” said the judge, “is that that quarrel between Gaspar and Quade was strong enough to make Gaspar want to kill him, and—”
“Your honor,” broke in Gaspar, “don’t you see that I could never kill a man?” The prisoner stretched out his hands in a gesture of appeal to Sinclair.
Riley gritted his teeth. Suddenly a chill had passed through him at the thought of the hanging noose biting into that frail, soft throat. “You shut up till you’re asked to talk,” he said, frowning savagely. “I think we got a witness here that’ll prove that you did have sufficient cause to make you want to get rid of Quade. And, if we have that proof, heaven help you. Montana, go get Sally Bent!”
Gaspar started up with a ring in his voice. “No, no!”
In response to a gesture from Sinclair, Denver Jim jerked the prisoner back onto the black rock. With blazing blue eyes, Gaspar glared at the judge, his delicate lips trembling with unspoken words.
Sinclair knew, with another strange falling of the heart, that the prisoner was perfectly aware that his judge had not the slightest suspicion of his guilt. An entente was established between them, an entente which distressed Sinclair, and which he strove to destroy. But, despite himself, he could not get rid of the knowledge that the great blue eyes were fixed steadily upon him, as if begging him to see that justice was done. Consequently, the judge made himself as impersonal as possible.
9
SALLY BENT CAME willingly, even eagerly. It was the eagerness of an angry woman who wanted to talk.
“What is your name?”
“A name you’ll come to wish you’d never heard,” said the girl, “if any harm comes to John Gaspar. Poor Jig, they won’t dare to touch a hair of your head!”
With a gentle voice she had turned to Gaspar to speak these last words. A faint smile came on the lips of Gaspar, and his gaze was far away, as if he were in the midst of an unimportant dream, with Sally Bent the last significant part of it all. The girl flushed and turned back to Riley.
“I asked you your name,” said his honor gravely.
“What right have you to ask me my name, or any other question?”
“Mr. Lodge,” said his honor, “will you loosen up and tell this lady where we come in?”
“Sure,” said the judge, clearing his throat. “Sally, here’s the point. They ain’t been much justice around here. We’re simply giving the law a helping hand. And we start in today on the skunk that shot Quade. Quade may have had faults, but he was a man. And look at what done the killing! Sally, I ask you to look! That bum excuse for a man! That Gaspar!”
Following the command, Sally looked at Gaspar, the smile of pity and sympathy trembling on her lips again. But Gaspar took no notice.
“How dare you talk like that?” asked Sally. “Gaspar is worth all seven of you put together!”
“Order!” said Riley Sinclair. “Order in this here court. Mr.
Sergeant-at-arms, keep the witness in order.”
Larsen strode near authoritatively. “You got to stop that fresh talk,
Sally. Sinclair won’t stand for it.”
“Oscar Larsen,” she cried, whirling on him, “I always thought you were a man. Now I see that you’re only big enough to bully a woman. I — I never want to speak to you again!”
“Silence!” thundered Riley Sinclair, smiting his hard brown hands together. “Take that witness away and we’ll hang Gaspar without her testimony. We don’t really need it — anyways.”
There was a shrill cry from Sally. “Let me talk!” she pleaded. “Let me stay! I won’t make no more trouble, Mr. Sinclair.”
“All right,” he decided without enthusiasm. “Now, what’s your name?”
“Sally Bent.” She smiled a little as she spoke. That name usually brought an answering smile, particularly from the men of Sour Creek. But Sinclair’s saturnine face showed no softening.
“Mr. Clerk, swear the witness.”
Judge Lodge rose and held forth the book and prescribed the oath.
During that interval, Riley Sinclair raised his head to escape from the steady, reproachful gaze of John Gaspar. Down in the valley bottom, Sour Creek flashed muddy-yellow and far away. Just beyond, the sun gleamed on the chalk-faced cliff. Still high
er, the mountains changed between dawn and full day. There was the country for Riley Sinclair. What he did down here in the valleys did not matter. Purification waited for him among the summit snows. He turned back to hear the last of Sally Bent’s voice, whipping his eyes past Gaspar to avoid meeting again that clinging stare.
“Sally Bent,” he said, “do you know the prisoner?”
“You know I know him. John Gaspar boards with us.”
“Ah, then you know him!”
“That’s a silly question. What I want to say is—”
“Wait till you’re asked, Sally Bent.”
She stamped her foot. Quietly Sinclair compared the girl and the accused man.
“Here’s the point,” he said slowly. “You knew Quade, and you knew John
Gaspar.”
“Yes.”
“You know Quade’s dead?”
“I’ve just heard it.”
“You didn’t like him much?”
“I used to like him.”
“Until Gaspar blew in?”
“You’ve got no right to ask those questions.”
“I sure have. All right, I gather you were pretty sweet on Quade till
Gaspar come along.”
“I never said so!”
“Girl,” pronounced Riley solemnly, “ain’t it a fact that you went around to a lot of parties and suchlike things with Quade?”
She was silent.
“It’s the straight thing you’re giving her,” broke in Larsen. “After
Gaspar come, she didn’t have no time for none of us!”
“Ah!” said his honor significantly, scowling on Sally Bent. “After you cut out Quade, he got ugly, didn’t he?”
“He sure did!” said Sally. “He said things that no gentleman would of said to a lady.”
“Such as what?”
“Such as that I was a flirt. And he said, I swear to it, that he’d get
Gaspar!” She stopped, panting with excitement. “He wanted to murder