The Western Justice Trilogy

by Gilbert, Morris

  He quietly opened the door, which was unlocked, and saw a woman wearing a dirty robe standing. She whirled to face him, and he drew his gun and mouthed the words Shut up! She turned pale and backed over against the wall. He looked at the bed and recognized Pye. He had heard the description and saw the ragged scar going down the left side of his face and down his neck. Pye was mumbling something, but his eyes were closed.

  Going over to stand beside him, Riordan reached down, grabbed him by the collar, and pulled him upright. He put the muzzle of his gun to Pye’s head and said, “You’re under arrest, Pye. You’re coming with me.”

  Pye woke up and started to holler, “Hey, there—”

  But Riordan slapped him with the barrel of his gun and pointed it at his head. “You’re going, dead or alive! Just one more bit of noise and it’ll be dead. And I’m not particular. Now, get out of that bed.”

  Pye scrambled out of the bed. He was obviously drunk.

  “Put on your boots.” Riordan watched him put on his boots, and at the same time he took Pye’s gun and shoved it into his belt. “We’re going now. You make a sound, and I’ll kill you.”

  Pye was rapidly sobering up. He saw the gun in Riordan’s hand. He had heard of how Riordan had put a bullet exactly in the middle of Alvin Darrow’s eyes. He swallowed hard and nodded.

  They went down the stairs, but by the time they got to the horses, the woman had stuck her head out and was screaming, “There’s a marshal here!”

  Riordan said, “Pye, get on that horse.” He waited until Pye mounted, and then he got on his own horse. But even as he did, the bat-wing door of the saloon flew open and five men came out. They lined up before Riordan, and one of them said, “I’m Henry Beecher. Turn that man loose, or we’ll make a dead man out of you.”

  “I’m Riordan, Beecher. I’m taking him in.”

  “You’re a dead man!” Henry Beecher’s eyes seemed to glow in the darkness.

  “That’s the one that killed Alvin Darrow, Henry,” one of his men said. “He’s plenty fast.”

  Beecher shook his head and smiled. “He’s smart. He sees he’s outgunned. Isn’t that so, Riordan?”

  Riordan drew his gun in a flash of movement, and it was pointed right at Beecher’s face. “You make one move or one of your men makes a move, and I’ll kill you, Beecher. And then I’ll take some more with me.”

  “You can’t bluff me.”

  “Go for your gun, Henry. See if I’m bluffing.”

  Beecher’s eyes opened, and he saw the expression on Riordan’s face and the gun pointed at him. The muzzle was entirely steady.

  One of his men yelled, “He’s bluffing!”

  “No, he’s not bluffing!” Henry exclaimed. “He means it. He’d die, but so would some of us. Not worth it.”

  Riordan smiled. “That’s smart, Henry. Now you get on a horse.”

  “You’re not arresting me.”

  “No, I’m not, but you’re my free pass to get out of here with my prisoner. You go with me until we’re clear of the town, and then you can come back.”

  Beecher grinned sourly. “I’m supposed to trust you?”

  “It’s that or some of us are dead. I give you my word, you’ll be the first. I give you my word also you can come back as soon as I’m clear with my prisoner.”

  “Don’t do it, Henry,” one of the men said. “He’s lying.”

  Henry studied Riordan and finally said, “I think he’s got us.” He advanced, got on one of the horses, and said, “You boys wait here.”

  Riordan kept his eye on the men watching him and was aware that other men had come out of the saloon and were staring at him. He put himself on the far side of Beecher and Pye and said, “Let’s go.”

  As they left town, Riordan was careful to keep his two prisoners between him and the men on the sidewalk. He felt the muscles of his back tighten as he rode out of town, expecting a bullet. None came.

  They reached the town limit, and he said, “Spur those horses.” They rode at a fast gallop and rode for five minutes. “This is good enough.” They all pulled up, and Riordan said, “You can go back now, Henry.”

  Henry turned and stared at Riordan as if he were viewing an alien species. “You know I can’t live with this, Riordan. I have to pay you back or I’ll be laughed out of the Territory.”

  “You take your shot, Henry. I’ve got nothing against you, but if you come after me, better make sure you do a good job of it.”

  Beecher suddenly laughed when he saw that he was out of danger. “All right, Marshal, I’ll be seeing you.”

  Riordan watched him go.

  Pye said, “He’ll kill you. I hope he does.”

  “I expect he’ll try. Now, we got a hard ride. Let’s go.”

  Henry rode back and found his crew milling around.

  “Let’s go get him,” Hack Wilson said. “There’s plenty of us to get one man.”

  “No, that would be too easy.” Henry was silent for a time. Finally he smiled evilly and said, “I’ve got to think of a very special ending for Marshal Riordan. Something that will hurt him worse than a bullet…”

  The ranch seemed to come alive as Riordan rode in with his prisoner. He dismounted, and they all gathered around him, Ringo keeping an eye on the prisoner.

  Hannah was one of them. She came and put her hand out. “You’re safe,” she whispered.

  “For a while, Hannah.”

  “How’d you do it, Riordan?” Frank asked. “Nobody ever got one of the wild bunch like this.”

  “Well, I had a little help from Henry the Fox,” Riordan said. They demanded to know his story, and he said, “It wasn’t all that much. Ringo, you and Ned put Pye here under guard.”

  They went inside, and Frank said, “I don’t know what you did, but if you made a fool out of Henry, he won’t forget.”

  “That’s what he told me, but he can’t kill me but once, can he?”

  “Don’t say that!” Rosa said sharply. “You must be hungry. I’ve got some stew and beans on the stove. Sit down. The rest of you leave.”

  Rosa fixed him a meal, beans and a tender chunk of beef and fresh biscuits. She watched him as he ate. She sat down across from him and said, “I’ve said some hard things, but you did what I asked. You brought in the killer.” She put out her hand, and he took it. She stared at him with a strange look in her eyes. “No man has ever kept his word to me or did what he promised. I guess I can always remember you as being one that did, Riordan.”

  Riordan was aware of the warmth and the strength of her hand. “You know, as I was bringing Pye back, I was thinking about you.”

  She stared at him. “What about me?”

  “Well, there was a touchy situation, and the thought came to me that if they killed me, I would never see you again, and it made me sad.”

  Suddenly she smiled, and her face relaxed. She put her other hand down and held his prisoner. “You have your moments, Riordan.”

  PART FOUR

  CHAPTER 18

  Caleb Riordan sat in his favorite easy chair, staring across the room. His eyes were fixed on an ormolu clock. He was not studying that object but was merely giving deep thought to his son Faye.

  It was a hot day. The windows were open, allowing a slight breeze to come in and stir the flowers that Eileen had set in the window. From far off came the sound of servants laughing as they trimmed the yard and worked in the flower beds.

  None of this entered into Caleb’s thinking, and finally he shook his shoulders together in a gesture of helplessness and looked over to where Eileen was sitting on a divan, knitting. “Eileen,” he said, “Faye never writes to me.” He had not intended to say this, but it had been on his mind for some time now. When Eileen looked up at him, he said defensively, “It seems like he could write his father once in a while.”

  Eileen smiled slightly and ceased knitting. She studied Caleb and finally said simply, “You two were never close, Caleb.”

  Caleb gave her a sharp look and shook
his head. “No, we weren’t.”

  “None of us were really close to Faye,” Max said. He was wearing a pair of blue trousers, highly polished shoes, and a snow-white shirt. “I should think he would be considerate enough to write to us, though.”

  Leo looked up from the book he was reading. “Well, Max, I’m not really expecting a letter from him. I didn’t pay much attention to him while he was here, and I suppose he thinks I haven’t changed.”

  “He may be sick or hurt,” Caleb said. “Surely he’d write if he were.” He suddenly straightened up in his chair and passed his hand over his thick hair in a gesture of despair. Then he said, “Eileen, he writes to you.”

  “Yes, he does. He tells me a great many details of his work there.”

  “Well, why don’t you read the letters to me?” Caleb complained.

  “I didn’t think you’d be interested, dear.”

  Shaking his head, Caleb growled, “He’s wasting his time out there playing cowboy.”

  “I don’t think so,” Eileen said calmly. “I believe he’s doing something he thinks needs to be done.”

  “But he can never make any money out there riding around on a horse. He’s never done anything a man should do at his age.”

  “That’s right. He never makes any money,” Leo said.

  “And he could, too. He could come to work at the factory.”

  The men waited, but Eileen went back to her knitting.

  Finally Caleb got up and left the room, his back stiff with displeasure.

  The carriage stopped, and Caleb and his two sons got out and started up toward the steps that led to the wide front porch. Caleb had put in a long day at the factory and was surprised when he saw a distinguished-looking man leaving the house. He was tall, well dressed, and had a pair of sharp black eyes.

  “Who is that, Father?” Leo asked.

  “Never saw him before.”

  As they passed, the man nodded pleasantly and said, “Good afternoon.”

  “Hello,” Caleb said. He wanted to ask the man who he was, but that seemed somewhat rude. He turned and watched him go into a landau carriage, and as the man rode away, Caleb shook his head. “I don’t like strange men coming to the house.”

  They went inside, and Eileen met them with a smile. She kissed Caleb on the cheek, having to reach up and pull his head down, and said, “Did you have a good day, dear?”

  “It was all right.” Caleb waited for Eileen to say something about the visitor, but she simply began chatting about what she had been doing. Finally Caleb could not refrain from saying, “We met a fellow coming out of the house. I didn’t know him.”

  “Oh, that was Mr. Samuel Steinbaum.”

  The men all waited for her to say more, but she didn’t. Finally Caleb said, “I don’t believe I know him. What was he doing here? Is he selling something?”

  “Not at all. I asked him to come. You go along and wash up. We’ll have dinner early tonight.”

  “But why did you ask him if he isn’t selling anything?”

  “He’s the director of the Mellon Museum of Art.”

  “Well, why did he come here?”

  “Why, I invited him.”

  Leo said, “That’s unusual, Mother. You don’t usually invite people that we don’t know.”

  “I’ve exchanged letters with him several times, so I thought I’d invite him and we could talk.” She laughed and said, “Are you jealous, Caleb?”

  “Don’t be foolish! I would like to know what he was doing here, though.”

  Eileen shrugged her shoulders and said, “It concerns Faye’s work.”

  “What work?” Leo demanded.

  “Why, his painting, dear. I asked him to come and give me his opinion of Faye’s paintings.”

  All three men stared at her, and it was Caleb who finally demanded, “Well, what did he say?”

  “They couldn’t be worth much,” Leo shrugged.

  Eileen pulled a slip of paper from her bodice. “Here’s his offer on the paintings that he looked at.”

  Caleb stared at the paper fixedly. He did not speak. His mind seemed to be moving rather slowly. “The first one says, ‘Woman With Small Girl—-four hundred dollars.’” Looking up, he blinked with surprise and said, “I remember that painting. If I remember right, Faye painted that in two days.”

  “That’s right. Not many young men make four hundred dollars in two days, do they, dear?”

  “Let me see that list,” Max said. The two brothers flanked their father and read down the list. They named off the paintings that they remembered and finally looked at the figure at the bottom, the total offer.

  “Why, this adds up to five thousand dollars!” Leo declared.

  “Yes, that’s good, isn’t it? Mr. Steinbaum wants to have a one-man show of Faye’s work. He’ll handle it all for a fee of ten percent.”

  “You think people will buy the kinds of paintings Faye does?” Max asked dubiously.

  “Well, Mr. Steinbaum says painting in Faye’s style by artists with not half his talent are selling very well.”

  All three men were speechless. Finally Max said, “Two hundred dollars for one day’s work? Why, that’s more than I make.”

  “Yes, I suppose it is.” Eileen smiled. “Mr. Steinbaum thinks Faye has a brilliant future. He wants to act as his agent.”

  Caleb could not take his eyes off the list. He ran up and down it with a steady gaze, trying to find something wrong with it.

  He was interrupted when Eileen said, “I need some money, dear.”

  “Of course. Will twenty dollars do?”

  “Oh no, I need a lot of money.”

  Caleb had always been generous with Eileen where money was concerned, and she very seldom had to ask, for he saw to it that she had spending money at all times. “What do you want that costs so much? Some new furniture?”

  “No, I’m going to Fort Smith.” Eileen smiled as the shock registered in all three men’s faces. “Faye needs to hear about this wonderful news—-and I need to see him. I miss him so desperately.”

  Caleb’s thinking seemed to have slowed down. He would not have been much more surprised if Eileen had said, “I’m going to the moon.” The idea of her going west never had occurred to him. “Well,” he said abruptly, “we’ll both go.”

  “Let’s all of us go,” Leo said. “I’d like to see this world he’s thrown himself into full of cowboys and guns and rattlesnakes, I suppose.”

  “Right,” Max said. “We need a vacation.”

  Eileen was pleased, but she asked, “What about the factory? Who’ll take care of that? You can’t leave your work.”

  “My manager Charles can handle it. He knows as much about the place as I do.” He stared back at the list and said, “I’d like to see these pictures.”

  Eileen was pleased. “Yes, of course. All of you, come on. I’ve still got them out on display.”

  “I really need to go to Forth Smith,” Hannah said.

  “Why would you need to go there?” Riordan asked. The two were standing on the front porch. Riordan had come in to get something to drink, and she had joined him.

  “I need to send a telegram to my superior in the church.”

  “I’ll take you.”

  Rosa had been standing in the doorway and had turned to leave, but then she abruptly stopped and said, “I’ll go with you. Boog Powell and Pye are going to hang for killing Blinky. I want to see it.”

  Ringo had arrived to stand beside Riordan just as Rosa spoke. At once he said, “I’m going, too.”

  “All you want to do is go get drunk,” Riordan smiled. “You stay home and behave yourself.”

  “No, I’m going with you. I don’t think you understand Beecher, Riordan. He knows people all over the Territory are talking about how you rode right in big as life and took away one of his gang. He’s like a snake, Riordan. He may be quiet, but he’ll strike when you least expect it. Your life’s not worth a dime as long he’s alive.”

 
; Riordan put up some argument, but Rosa said, “We’ll take Zack and Ned with us. That’ll be enough to handle Henry the Fox. I hate that name!”

  “I think he sort of likes it,” Ringo said. “Takes pleasure at being seen as some kind of a hero, which he is to a lot of people.”

  “A hero?” Hannah exclaimed. “Why would they admire a man like that?”

  “Well, that’s the way it is out here, Miss Hannah.” Ringo shrugged. “They admire strength and courage, and you have to admit Henry’s got those two qualities.”

  In the end, they took the whole crew except for two men.

  They arrived in Fort Smith late Saturday afternoon. Hannah sent her telegrams and then joined Riordan and Rosa at the hotel for dinner. The hands spread out to various distractions. Rosa knew they wouldn’t be seen again until it was time to go home.

  Rosa noticed that men recognized Riordan. She heard one of them whisper to a companion, “That’s Riordan. They say he’s as fast as lightning with that gun of his.”

  This both pleased and disturbed Rosa, for she knew that Ringo was right. That Beecher would never rest until he got his revenge.

  Rosa and Hannah shared a room. After they were ready to go to bed, Hannah said, “Are you really going to that hanging?”

  “Yes, I am.”

  “I don’t know why you’d want to see such a thing.”

  “They killed one of my men who was liked a great deal and who had done nothing to deserve it. The poor fellow didn’t even get to live his life out. Call it what you want. I want to see justice done.”

  There were three men to be hanged, and a crowd, as usual, had gathered.

  Riordan stood beside Rosa and nudged her arm with his elbow. “Look up at the window on the second floor. That’s Judge Parker,” he said. “It’s a way he has, so I hear. He watches every hanging from that window.”

  “Why would a man enjoy a hanging?”

  “I don’t think he does. At least that’s what the marshals all say. They say he sees himself as an agent of the government dealing out justice, but he hates the hangings themselves.”