by Lilah Rivers
“But that’s just the problem,” Barton said, “nobody seems to know from season to season just what land is theirs.”
Saul turned to Parker. “You’re in charge of that, Parker! Can’t you get rid of those losers once and for all?”
“No, Mr. Decker, I can’t … and I’ve tried every which way to do it.”
“Then what on Earth am I paying you for?”
“Things are getting more complicated every year,” Parker said. “Land claims are pouring in, a lot of it comes down to discretion, frankly.”
Josh repeated, “Discretion? Whose discretion?”
“Well, actually, mine,” Parker said before turning to Saul. “But I have to stand by these decisions in court, and I have an obligation to be judicious and reasonable, or I’ll lose my position.”
Saul said, “You’ll lose a lot more than that!”
A heavy silence settled in the little parlor before Parker said in a very calm, measured tone, “I have other people to answer to, and they’ll descend upon Barnock, upon every city in Nebraska, in the name of the laws they serve. You can’t buy everyone, Mr. Decker.”
“I don’t need to buy everyone,” Saul said, “only my enemies.”
Josh and his father glanced at one another, and the guilty look in his father’s eyes told Josh that the elder Callahan had heeded his son’s words.
Barton said to Saul, “The herds really are much larger than we’d ever discussed with the homesteaders. Perhaps they have a reasonable point.”
“Perhaps they do,” Saul said. “But I don’t care to hear any more of it.”
“Mister Decker,” Barton said, “Saul … my son, while very brash, certainly, he does have a point. We’re all much closer to one another, and to the homesteaders. Otis here, his business depends on the people of Barnock. But what you’re suggesting could bring war to our streets, pit brother against brother.”
“Enough of your histrionics, Barton!”
“He’s not being histrionic,” Josh said. “You have wealth and power enough to remain above the local fray, but none of us do. With all due respect, Mr. Decker, our family integrity is on the line, our name and our reputation! We’re the ones who have to look into the homesteaders’ eyes and lie to them on your behalf!”
“You’ve said enough! I don’t even know why I welcomed you into my house. By rights you should be waiting with the other servants.” He said to Barton, “And you, Callahan; if you can’t control your own family, how can I imagine you could control a whole town full of homesteaders?”
“My son is a good man,” Barton said.
“And I’m not,” Saul said, “is that what you’re implying?”
“Not at all,” Barton responded. “But since we are so much more closely involved than you, Mr. Decker, we can tell you, and we’re here to tell you, that they won’t be stalled much longer. They’re getting ready to take measures.”
“Measures? What measures?”
“Barbed wire,” Parker said, “trip trenches.”
“Barbed wire,” Saul repeated, puffing on his cigar. “That’s quite an extreme choice.”
“They don’t feel that they have any choice,” Barton said.
Saul snapped back, “Then what choice will they be giving me?” He seemed to give it some thought, puffing on that cigar, swirling the brandy in his snifter.
Otis held his hands out to calm the others. “Let’s all just unwind a bit, take a step back. It’s a complicated issue, and we all have a lot on the line —”
“We all,” Josh repeated. “Where is the Archer man, who represents the homesteaders?”
“This isn’t that kind of meeting,” Otis said, “per se.”
“Then what kind of meeting is it?”
Barton said, “That’s enough, Josh.”
Otis said, “I think it’s enough all around. If we want to avoid further conflict, it’s important for both sides to show some willingness to bend.”
Saul sneered. “Bend ... very well,” he went on with a sigh, “Parker, you put a hold on any further land claims.” Josh was about to speak, but his father’s cold glare stopped him. Saul also clearly took note of Josh’s near outburst. “We’ve little enough land as it is, and it’s just temporary. That will relieve the pressure on the local homesteaders and ranchers alike. Once we’ve got the matter settled, we’ll open the land up again.”
Parker looked like he wanted to object just as much as Josh did, but instead the corrupted land official simply nodded, as if he had no choice and knew it.
Saul said to Barton and, by extension, to Josh, “I’ll wrangle the leading ranchers in the area, remind them of our obligations to our fellow Americans, the homesteaders. I’ve no real authority over them, so that’s about the most I can promise.”
“And what if the ranchers don’t take your reminders seriously?”
Saul smiled. “Barton, I have ways of being persuasive when I need to be. I’ll handle the problem to the best of my ability. If you would like to pursue some other remedy, you may of course feel welcome to do so.”
A long, threatening silence passed, Barton and Josh absorbing the sad stares of the other men. Barton finally nodded and said, “I’ll take this back to Archer and the homesteaders.”
Saul smiled. “If you would be so kind.”
Chapter 12
Riding back to Barnock, Josh couldn’t get his mind off the events of the meeting in the hour before. He’d spoken out of turn after being told not to, and he knew his father was brimming with anger over it. Barton wasn’t speaking, and Josh knew it was because if his father began a diatribe, it would surely carry him away. As he often did, Barton waited and digested and was cautious before stepping forward to speak, even to his own son.
What was most striking was the absence of Elroy Archer or his sons. Josh had expected a private meeting with Saul Decker only, to bring him the news of the meeting with the homesteaders. But having Otis and Parker there, the land agent and the town’s de facto mayor, told Josh that Saul was not dealing fairly with Archer and the homesteaders; probably not with the Callahans and the ranchers as well.
There was more going on than was apparent, Josh felt certain. And it didn’t take much imagination to put together a scenario in which Saul was turning all factions against the others. It was true that he had enough wealth and power to survive any local clash, no matter how gruesome it may be. The more we all suffer, Josh realized as he thought it through, the more he profits! The homesteaders are driven from their land? That gives Saul Decker and his cowboys all the land they need. And if the homesteaders make a go of it and some local ranchers have to suffer, that would present less competition for Decker himself.
But short of an all-out war, there were other benefits to Saul Decker in having the ranchers and homesteaders locked in an ongoing struggle just to survive. Josh had looked into the matter and had heard rumors of individuals and corporations registering multiple homesteads, and officials being bribed to allocate lots outside of surveyed settlement areas.
He’d seen and heard with his own eyes and ears private industrialist Saul Decker instruct government land agent Parker Bristol how to do his job, to block new claims for Decker’s own benefit. The official was corrupted, there couldn’t be any doubt.
Then there was Otis Remington, who was as reasonable then as he had always been according to what little Josh had ever seen of him. His needs were clear; to keep the peace in a town where war would cost him most of his clientele. True, others would come, but a man like Otis was more likely to want things to remain as they were, with him happily servicing a town filled with hard-working and reasonably paid men.
But he also owned a saloon and had his hands in all manner of dubious goings-on in Barnock and in surrounding areas. There were rumors of his sponsorship of local road agents, involvement in his own corrupt dealings with the government. Nobody could be sure, but there were stories of him holding great swaths of land across the Midwest.
One thi
ng Josh felt certain about was that the three men were stalling for time. Saul Decker didn’t seem at all interested in backing the ranchers off the homesteaders’ land, and Parker Bristol’s efforts would only go further to repel new homesteaders and jar loose the ones who remained on their dwindling lands.
The more Josh thought about it, the more it struck him that not only was Saul Decker disinterested in helping the homesteaders, he might actually want to encourage the war that seemed as if it was inevitable. With Saul’s machinations in place, Josh was certain that it would be.
And what worried him more was that Saul was ready to let Barton and the entire Callahan family absorb the ire of those who would suffer most from Decker’s greed and corruption. When it came to blows, Saul Decker would be far removed, but the Callahans would have to face that violence head-on.
And it was more than just violence. Josh knew in his heart that Saul accepted the truth of the Callahan position; that reputations and friendships were on the line. So even if the Callahans weren’t wiped off the face of the planet, they would be held responsible for Decker’s doings, and that was by a carefully calculated design.
Josh thought to mention it to his father, but he knew the response he was likely to get. His father was remaining quiet on the ride home, and Josh was grateful for that. He’d earned a rebuke, and he was just as glad to make the return trip without having to bear its burden.
But when his father said, “About the meeting,” Josh knew what was coming.
“Pop, I’m sorry, but —”
“I don’t doubt your sincerity or your dedication, Josh. I am your father, and I love you very much; I know you love me. But that is not at issue; in fact, it’s because I love you that I must now bring something to your attention … something that will be painful for you to hear.”
“I know, Pop; you doubt my judgment. But there are times when discretion can work against the greater good! Isn’t that Parker Bristol quite discrete with his acceptance of bribery from our so-called friend Saul Decker? Isn’t that saloon owner discrete enough in the way he goes about preserving his own continued success?”
After a well-considered silence, Barton said, “You disrespected me, and that I cannot abide. You also cost me Saul Decker’s respect —”
“The respect of a criminal, a conman!”
“A powerful man in our family industry, Son! While we are embroiled in all this struggle for power, do you think it wise to mark us as dissidents, as rabble-rousers, as targets? Don’t forget your mother and kid brother. We both have responsibilities to them. You endanger us all with this rebellious streak. For their sake if not for my own, I’m begging you to stand down; keep silent, and let me handle the negotiations.”
“Pop, I — “
“Forget my request,” Barton said, “consider it a demand, a command.”
“Pop—”
“Under threat of the most grievous penalty,” Barton said, his voice low and slow and cruel, “you will obey me.”
Chapter 13
Pastor Brookes Robinson stood before the congregation of Barnock, Nebraska. Standing portly and clean shaven at the dais, he gestured and pointed as he read from the Book of Isaiah, a vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah son of Amoz saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
“Hear me, you heavens! Listen, Earth! For the Lord has spoken: ‘I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its master, the donkey its owner’s manger, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.’”
Bella sat with her father, mother, and brothers, somewhere near the middle of the sanctuary.
“Woe to the sinful nation, a people whose guilt is great, a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption! They have forsaken the Lord; they have spurned the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on him.”
Bella did not look around her, but she felt certain that their good and holy pastor had chosen that scripture because he knew of the tensions growing among his own flock. He was clearly trying to impart the Lord’s lessons to them, the ones they needed most to hear.
“Why should you be beaten anymore? Why do you persist in rebellion? Your whole head is injured, your whole heart afflicted. From the sole of your foot to the top of your head there is no soundness, only wounds and welts and open sores, not cleansed or bandaged or soothed with olive oil.”
And one family among all the others stood out in Bella’s mind and heart. The Callahans sat several rows in front of the Archers. Longer in town, they had a more prestigious place in the pews, one Bella felt they’d deserved. But it put their son Josh directly in Bella’s perspective, and that proved a challenging distraction in such a holy place and at such a crucial time.
“Your country is desolate, your cities burned with fire; your fields are being stripped by foreigners right before you, laid waste as when overthrown by strangers. Daughter Zion is left like a shelter in a vineyard, like a hut in a cucumber field, like a city under siege.”
Bella knew that the pastor’s words were well chosen. It was true, the tides of war were rising around their little town, threatening to drown them all, wash all of Barnock from the face of the Earth.
“Unless the Lord Almighty had left us some survivors, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah. Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom; listen to the instruction of our God, you people of Gomorrah! ‘The multitude of your sacrifices what are they to me?’ says the Lord. ‘I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats. When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts? Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations; I cannot bear your worthless assemblies. Your New Moon feasts and your appointed festivals I hate with all my being. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them.’”
Bella knew that the Lord’s words, coming to them in the voice of their happy and pleasant pastor, were harsher than her neighbors were used to hearing from him. But the times required hardness and harshness, authority worthy of leading those wayward people.
“‘When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you; even when you offer many prayers, I am not listening. Your hands are full of blood! Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong. Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.’”
But Bella thought about Josh, about her own new feelings for him. She feared for their purity, for her own possible transgression. She knew the cause of the fatherless and the case of the widow, but she doubted her understanding of the scripture. Is this God telling me to go forth and procreate, as my mother said? Am I the widow yet to be, whose case needs to be pleaded? Is my unborn child the fatherless of which the Bible speaks here?
“‘Come now, let us settle the matter,’ says the Lord. ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good things of the land; but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.’ For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
Yes, Bella thought and prayed, protect us from our own sins, our own failures and frailties. We are but little things, Lord, and You are great. I will always be your faithful servant, Lord.