The Western Justice Trilogy

by Gilbert, Morris

  “Well, hard to say, but I think it has some truth in it.”

  “Tell me about how something bad turned out to be something good.”

  “The thing that I remember most was I was working on a ranch in Missouri, and the horse piled me up and broke my leg. I didn’t have any money. Didn’t really have a place to stay.” He smiled slightly.

  Raina saw the strength of his features and noted, as she usually did, what a strong character dwelled inside him.

  “I thought of that verse, but I didn’t believe it.”

  She leaned forward and put one of her elbows on the table and cupped her chin with her open palm. “Did you do what it said, give thanks?”

  “Well, I tried, but I felt like a fool thanking God for a broken leg. I couldn’t see anything to be happy about.”

  “So you didn’t believe.”

  “No, I didn’t.”

  “I don’t blame you. I couldn’t believe it either.”

  “Well, there’s some more to that story. A week later, when I was still laid up, the fellows I had been working with went out to round up some cattle. A bunch of Comanches caught them. Killed every one of them. Staked ’em out and tortured ’em. If I had been with them, Raina, I would have lost my scalp. I’d be dead.”

  “That’s a good story, but it doesn’t always turn out like that.”

  “No, not always. But you remember when we were in that cabin and I was so sick, and you was having to keep the fire going to keep us from freezing to death?”

  “I think of it a lot.”

  “Well, I bet if Grandpa had been there, he would have found something to thank God for. He was a thankful man. I think the last thing I heard him say was, ‘Be sure you thank the Lord for every blessing, Ty.’ He really meant it. I’ve never met a man like him before.”

  The two sat there talking while Ty finished his meal. Then he stood up, stretched, and said, “You got time to go for a walk?”

  “No. I’ve got to wash these dishes, and then I have to wash some bedclothes.”

  “It’ll be plum dark.”

  Raina wanted to complain, but she smiled and said, “Well, let’s just give thanks that I’ve got all these dirty dishes and all these dirty sheets and pillowcases.”

  Ty smiled slightly and shook his head. “I know it sounds foolish, but sometimes it works out okay. Just remember those times in that cabin. I do. I think I’d have died if you hadn’t been there to take care of me.”

  She didn’t answer but noted that he was studying her carefully. Moving back to the kitchen, she thought about what he said as she worked on the dirty dishes and then started on the sheets and the pillowcases. “That’s foolishness,” she muttered. “Being thankful for something bad—I don’t believe it.”

  Three nights later, one of the boarders, a small fellow named Kayo Flynn, tarried after the others had left. Raina was fairly sure that he was going to ask her to go out with him, but she had made a fixed rule not to date any of the men at the boardinghouse. They never gave up hope, but she knew that it was not a good idea.

  She was surprised when he said, “Something came up today I thought you’d be interested in, Raina.”

  “What’s that, Kayo?”

  “Well, I was ridin’ in, and I met a fellow out over by Juno Canyon. We got to talkin’. I’ve known him awhile, and I showed him the picture of your pa.”

  A ray of hope enlightened Raina, and she said, “What did he say?”

  “Well, he said he wasn’t sure. I’ll have the man come by and talk to you.”

  “Oh, that was thoughtful of you, Kayo. I still have hope of finding my dad.”

  “I don’t even remember my pa. I was an orphan. Grew up in an orphanage, but I do know this. He said the fellow was in jail, but you can go by and visit him and ask him.”

  For the first time in days, a small ray of hope illuminated Raina’s mind. She thought about it as she worked all day, and finally when she got the dishes washed from supper, she left without telling Mrs. Mullins. She knew very well the woman would find something for her to do, but she was disappointed when she got to the jail.

  The jailer, a tall, lanky man with deeply sunken cheeks, said, “You have to get Judge Parker’s permission to visit people in the jail, lady.”

  “I’ll do that. Thank you.” She went at once to the courthouse and found Heck Thomas sitting out in front whittling as usual.

  “Do you ever make anything out of those sticks you whittle on, Heck?” She smiled. She had learned to like the man. He had a bad reputation of being hard on criminals, but he was cheerful and said, “No, that gets too tedious. I just like to make shavings.” He was whittling on a piece of cedar, and the shavings curled off and fell to the floor around his feet. He kicked them aside and said, “What can I do for you, Miss Raina?”

  “I was told that I’d have to get Judge Parker’s permission to visit somebody in the jail.”

  “No, that’s usually the way, but we don’t have to worry about that. Who is it you want to see?”

  “His name is Charlie Dean.”

  “Sure. I know Charlie. We caught him sellin’ liquor to the Indians. Catch quite a few that way.”

  “Kayo Flynn said that Charlie told him he’d possibly seen my father.”

  “Well, I hope you’re right. Folks get lost out here in this part of the world.” Heck looked despondent for a moment. “No matter how many criminals we catch and hang, there’s always a new crop comin’ on. Some of ‘em are even women now.”

  “You’ve seen them hang women?”

  “Sure have. Judge Parker don’t show no favoritism to women. You go tell Frank Dillinger, he’s in charge of the jail, that I said that you could see Charlie.”

  “Thank you, Heck.”

  Raina left and went back to the jail. She found Frank Dillinger eating some biscuits that looked tough enough to kill an ox. “You must be hungry, Frank, to be eating that stuff.”

  “Well, it was all there was. What can I do for you, Miss Raina?”

  “I talked to Heck, and he said you could let me see Charlie Dean.”

  “Oh yeah. Come on. We’ve got a room. You don’t need to be goin’ down to where those no-good criminals are.” He led her to a room that had a rickety table and four chairs, all old and looking rather flimsy. “Wait right here, Miss Raina. I’ll get Charlie for you. Don’t pay much attention to what he says. He’s a world champion liar.”

  “Thank you, Frank. I appreciate that counsel.”

  Frank left the room.

  She sat down in one of the chairs carefully, lest it collapse. She had not waited more than five minutes when she heard footsteps, and the door opened.

  Frank and a small man, badly needing a shave and a bath, stepped in. The prisoner’s clothes were filthy.

  Frank said, “Well, here he is. Charlie, this lady’s got some questions for you. You answer her now, you hear me?”

  “Will that let me get out of here sooner?”

  “You never know. Be nice now. I’ll just be right outside the door.”

  As soon as Dillinger stepped out, Raina said, “I’m looking for my father, Charlie.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out the picture she had in an envelope. She removed it and said, “Kayo Flynn said you thought you may have seen him.”

  “Yeah, I remember talking to Kayo about that. He had a picture like this one.” Dean stared at the picture and said, “But no, this ain’t the man. One I met was older.”

  “Oh, this is an old picture. He’d be close to fifty now. What was the man’s name?”

  “Well, everybody just called him Eddie. He looked older than fifty though.”

  “Can you tell me where he is?”

  “I can tell you where he was. He’s with some sheepherders over near Brice Canyon. Here. If you give me a piece of paper, I can draw you a map, but you don’t want to be goin’ out there by yourself.”

  “It’s dangerous?”

  “You bet your bird it is! There’s guys out
there that would kill you for a quarter.”

  Raina found a scrap piece of paper and a stub of a pencil.

  Charlie Dean began to draw a map. “This right here is where we are in Fort Smith. You take the Old Military Road out of here for about ten miles. Then it divides, and you take the left fork. You’ll get up into the high country there, and somewhere in that area, that’s where I seen him.”

  Raina questioned him as closely as she could and asked everything she could think of. She didn’t feel encouraged because Charlie Dean kept insisting that the man didn’t really look like the picture. And besides, Frank Dillinger’s warning that Charlie was a liar kept flitting through her mind. “Well, I’d like to pay you, Charlie, for your information, but I don’t have any extra money.” A thought came to her, and she smiled. “I can cook you a pie though.”

  “Oh, that’s good. What kind?”

  “How about apple?”

  “My favorite! But listen, you have to get Heck or Frank to say I get it. Some of these guys in here would steal it from me.”

  Raina had a thought. “Could you possibly take me out there to this place? I don’t really know the country.”

  “Well, I’d be glad to, but I expect I’ll be in this jail for at least two or three months or maybe longer.”

  “Well, I’ll get that pie to you very soon, Charlie. Thank you for your help.”

  “Sure hope you find your pa. A woman needs menfolk to look out for her.”

  Raina left the jail and started back toward the boardinghouse. She thought constantly about the man called Eddie whom Charlie Dean had described. He had not been very optimistic, but she realized that the picture she had was made when her father was a young man no more than twenty-three or twenty-four years old, and living a hard life could have made it very difficult for anybody to recognize a picture.

  She worked steadily trying to think of a way to get to the man. She thought about asking Ty or one of the other marshals, but she held back. She told herself they were too busy with their jobs and probably wouldn’t want to help her find her father anyway. She tried to pray but discovered that she had no confidence in that.

  The next morning after breakfast, one of the boarders, Sam Terhune, came in late. “Could I have another one of them pancakes, Miss Raina?”

  “Sure you can, Sam, and some more bacon, too.” She brought in the bacon and the pancakes.

  He said, “I hear tell you been tryin’ to get someone to take you over to Brice Canyon lookin’ for your pa.”

  “Yes, I have, Sam. Could you do that?”

  “Well, I might could.” He grinned at her. He was a homely man, but she recognized the lust in his eyes, for she had seen it often enough in other men. “I would expect a little affection for my trouble.”

  Raina expected no more out of the man. He had a reputation as a womanizer. “Thanks a lot, but I’ll find another way.” She became depressed after that and went about her work without a smile, but then, Mrs. Mullins did not require smiles, only hard work.

  The sun was high in the sky when Ty rode in. He held the lines to a second horse on which a tall man covered in dust was mounted. “All right, Horace, you can get down now.”

  Horace Moore had his hands tied behind his back. He had tried to escape once, but Ty had roped him and jerked him off his horse. To make sure he didn’t run away again, he had put him back in the saddle and threatened to shoot him if he tried to get away again. With Ty holding the lines, they had come into town, and when they reached the courthouse, Ty found Heck Thomas just emerging.

  “Well, you got Horace this time, did you?” Heck said. He had a disgusted look on his face. “What’s the charge this time, Ty?”

  “He shot Leonard Hoskins’s cow. Not a very daring sort of outlaw, is he? You’re not Jesse James, are you, Horace?”

  Horace gave him a rough look but refused to say anything. “I want a lawyer,” he finally grunted.

  “Well, we’ll put you in the jail for a month or so, and then if you’re a good boy, I’ll see about getting you a lawyer. Hey Larry, take this bad criminal in and lock him up.”

  Larry Dolby shrugged and gave Horace a violent jerk on his arms. “Come on. I want to get you in there before you shoot somebody.” He dragged the prisoner to the jail.

  “Did he give you any trouble, Ty?” Heck asked.

  “No, he just smells pretty bad. That’s his worst crime, I think.”

  “Well, you were gone two days. Did you have trouble catchin’ up with him?”

  “He was hiding out over in the badlands. I was able to track him though. What’s going on here in town?”

  “Well, I know you’re interested in Miss Vernay, ain’t that so?”

  Instantly Ty looked up. “Yes, she’s a friend of mine. What’s the matter?”

  “Well, the thing is she’s got a lead on where her old man might be, over north of where those new folks moved in.”

  “You mean the Jordans?”

  “That’s the one. Probably nothin’ to it, but she’s been tryin’ to get somebody to take her out there.”

  “Well, she’s had a rough time. If you give me a couple days off, I’ll take her and see if there’s anything to it.”

  “Oh, the judge won’t mind. You just go ahead.”

  “I’ll need to get a horse from the remuda to take her with me. Can’t ride double.”

  “Oh, that’s fine. Pick a gentle mare. I don’t know how much ridin’ she’s done.”

  On second thought, Ty said, “You know, I don’t think we ought to keep anything back from the judge. He has a way of finding out things. I’d rather him say no up front than to get back and find him in one of his mad spells.”

  “He’s upstairs starin’ at the docket. Go ahead and ask him. He won’t care.”

  “Thanks, Heck, for telling me.” Ty ascended the stairs, knocked on the judge’s office door.

  When he heard someone say, “Come in,” he entered. He saw that the judge was sitting in his chair, but he had one foot without a sock or boot propped up on the desk. He was trimming his toenails with a pair of large tin snips, it looked like.

  “You better be careful, Judge. You might cut your toe off.”

  “I’ll take care of my own toes, thank you, Kincaid. What do you want?”

  “I just heard that Miss Vernay’s got a lead on her pa. I thought if it’d be all right with you, I’d take her out to the last place he was seen.”

  “What’s your connection with that young woman? You got anything bad on your mind for her?”

  Ty shook his head. “No, Judge, she did me a good turn before we came out here. I owe her something.”

  “All right, you can go. Get back as soon as you can. We got some fierce criminals roaming around. You ain’t got time to romance any young women.”

  “I’ll need a horse. Be all right if I take one of the spares?”

  “Yeah, pick her out one. Take care of that young lady and behave yourself, or I’ll put you where the dogs won’t bite you.”

  Ty smiled. “I’ll be careful, Judge. I know your reputation.”

  Raina looked up to see Ty coming in. He was dusty as if he had been out on a long ride.

  “You look like you need a bath,” she said.

  “I sure do, but I hear you need some help looking for some man out to the north.”

  Raina straightened up. “Yes, I heard about a man named Eddie. One of the men in jail thinks he might be my pa, but he’s not sure.”

  “Well, can you get off from work?”

  “I’ll have to. Why don’t you go get cleaned up and I’ll meet you?”

  “You just wait here. I’ll come by and pick you up. I’ll have to get you a horse. You can ride, can’t you?”

  “Of course I can ride.”

  “All right.” He smiled. “You better put some grub up, too. How far is this, you say?”

  “Well, maybe forty miles. The man wasn’t sure. I’ve got this map.” She took the slip of paper out of her pocket
and showed it to him.

  “Yeah, that’s a lot of territory to cover. We’ll have to camp out one night. Maybe two. We’d better get enough grub off of Mrs. Mullins.”

  “She’s not much for giving out grub, but I’ve saved some leftovers.”

  “I’ll pick up some more stuff at the store. You better bring your blankets, too.”

  As soon as Ty left, she started thinking how she would tell Mrs. Mullins. Finally she decided there was no easy way, so she simply went and said, “Mrs. Mullins, I think I may have found my pa. I’ve got to be gone for maybe two days to find out.”

  “Well, I can’t do without you that long.” Mrs. Mullins was frowning and in a bad mood. “If you can’t stay and do your job, I’ll have to get somebody else.”

  For a moment Raina thought about not going, but then the stubbornness that played a part in her character emerged. “I’ve got to go, Mrs. Mullins. I’ll get back as soon as I can.”

  “Never you mind. I’ve got a young woman who can do your work. Just have your room cleared out.”

  “All right. Thanks for the help you’ve given me.”

  “You’re not very grateful.”

  “Come on now, Mrs. Mullins. If you hadn’t had your pa around, but suddenly you might be able to find him, wouldn’t you go?”

  Emma Mullins was a hard woman. Running a boardinghouse for rough men did not bring out the gentleness in any female. She stared at Raina and said, “You can come back, but if anyone comes wantin’ a job, I’m gonna put ’em to work. I’ll take the best, her or you.”

  “I’ll try my best to get back. I’m gonna have to sleep out. Can I borrow a couple of your blankets?”

  “You be sure and bring ’em back, and make sure you wash ’em, too.”

  “Yes ma’am, I’ll do that.”

  Quickly Raina pulled out some groceries that she had saved in case she did make the trip, put them in a meal sack, and got the two blankets off her bed. She packed a few of her warmer clothes and then looked around. “I’ll have to come back for the rest of my things if Mrs. Mullins hires someone else.” Quickly she exited the house and sat down in a home-built wooden chair.

  Half an hour later, Ty came riding in, mounted on his buckskin and pulling a smaller horse. “Got you a good horse, Raina. Real gentle. Here, let me tie them blankets and that grub down.”