3
Lawman
Joshua longed for a father, and he was excited as a young boy when the town marshal, Dan Cooper, of the blossoming community of Flower Valley got serious about his ma. Marshal Cooper was tall and slender, maybe six-two and 190 pounds, but that was all muscle and sinew from all his years of hard work.
The marshal had high cheekbones, a prominent nose, and honest, intelligent hazel eyes that would bore daggers through anybody. Much older than Joshua’s ma, he had a little gray in his mustache, which was always well trimmed and ran full down in a point just past the corner of each thin lip. Like his hair, it was primarily dark brown.
He was not given to talking, just doing. Dan was a very harsh taskmaster on Joshua when he was growing up, but he was all man and he was bound and determined to make his stepson a man. He said the country was too unforgiving for him to go easy on the boy.
The thing Joshua remembered most about the only father that he ever knew was how good the man could fight, even though he was much smaller than some of the giant buffalo hunters and mountain men he had to arrest. Dan had actually taken a section of log weighing over two hundred pounds, shaved the bark off of it and the two thick branches that extended out for two feet, and sanded the whole thing, rounding the ends so they would resemble thick arms. Joshua would watch the man for hours on end tossing that log backwards, sideways, and various combinations thereof, working on numerous grappling moves.
Dan was also an incredible shot with pistol or rifle. He started Joshua when he was small and taught him first how to shoot a long gun. He learned to shoot with an 1860 Henry .44 repeater, and his stepdad gave it to him when he turned twelve years old.
It was a Saturday morning, and he handed Joshua the rifle with two bullets and an admonition: “Boy, you have two bullets. One is for emergency. The other is for a deer, turkey, antelope, elk, or bear. We need meat. Your ma packed you some fixings. Saddle up old Beau and get us meat. Come back when you have it.”
“Yes, Sir,” Joshua said and walked away from the grim-faced lawman, his shoulders back and chest puffed out.
It was scary when he had to spend that night in the woods by himself, but he thought of his ancestry and the mighty warrior who was his father. He finally tracked down a small doe, shot her, field dressed her, and returned home hoping for praise. Dan was proud of him, very proud, but would not show it. His mother was bursting with pride.
Dan said, “Good. Clean your rifle and sharpen your knife?”
“Yes, sir,” came the quick reply.
“Good,” the marshal said. “Give me the second bullet.”
Joshua got a sheepish look. “I can’t, sir.”
“Why not?”
Joshua replied, “I had to use both bullets. I missed with the first shot.”
“I told you the second bullet was for emergencies,” Dan said. “What if you had run into a grizzly or band of Crows on your way back?” He did not wait for an answer but said, “Out to the shed, Joshua,” grabbing the leather razor strop off the wall.
Before he gave Joshua his swats, he said, “If you point and cock a gun at an animal or a person, son, you shoot, and you do not miss. One bullet, one hit.”
Joshua Strongheart never forgot those words, “One bullet, one hit,” and subconsciously he touched his rear end every time he recalled the quote.
Dan never said words of sentiment or affection, nor did he praise Joshua, but a look of approval would make Joshua’s day. And the man sure did teach the young lad how to fight with his hands and his pistol and rifle, and more importantly, with his head.
One of the incidents that impressed the young dark-skinned cowboy was an event that at first scared him for Dan. Some of these big men that came into town to blow off steam looked like they were related to the buffalo they hunted they were so large, and some were very nasty and mean.
Three behemoth mountain men were drinking heavily in the saloon and soon were slapping customers around. One of the victims came to fetch Dan, and Joshua happened to be with him. He tagged along behind.
Each of the men had murdered before but had never been caught. With Joshua following, Dan walked briskly, with long, easy strides, to the family’s mercantile store. Joshua was very curious as to what would come next. Dan walked up to Abby, and she forced a kiss. Joshua grinned, knowing this man hated to show affection, but his ma would never let Dan get away with that where she was concerned. The marshal then walked over to a shelf of clothing and grabbed a pair of socks, and then to the hardware supplies along the far wall, where he grabbed a large wooden axe handle. Next, he went to a big jar of marbles and started pouring handfuls into one of the long boot socks. Joshua was still perplexed.
“Got these marbles, Abby, pair of socks, and this axe handle. Put them on our account. Gotta get back to work. See ya.”
Curious, she gave a half wave as he strode out of the store. He tied a knot into the end of the marble-filled sock while he walked, then stuffed it into the right pocket of the long tan duster he was wearing. Next, he slid the handle of the axe up his right sleeve, but it stuck out. He pulled it out and put it under his left arm, inside the long coat, squeezing it along his body with his left elbow and forearm.
Without hesitation, he stepped up onto the wooden boardwalk and into the saloon. He spotted the three giants in front of the bar, and one had lifted a woman of pleasure up in the air, taking his own pleasure at the very obvious abject fear showing on her painted face. That man looked at the others and laughed, a booming guffaw that seemed to echo from a deep cavern.
“Lookee, boys,” he mused, “a teeny little lawman come to arrest us!”
He laughed at his own joke and was joined by the others. Dan never broke stride and walked straight up to him. Off-balance, the brute dropped the red-haired tart on the rough-hewn bar with a thud and tried to gather his thoughts. He did not have time. The sock filled with marbles came out of the right pocket of Dan’s duster, swung around one time, and struck him with a louder thud on the left side of his jaw, breaking it and dropping him to the floor unconscious. Now Dan had one giant behind him and one in front of him, and they immediately closed in, but Dan had already untied the sock, and with his left hand he let the marbles fall to the floor behind him. That brute saw them too late and went down unceremoniously on his back with a thundering crash. In the meantime, Dan’s right hand grabbed the axe handle and raised it high, taking hold with both hands and now facing the third giant. The brute’s eyes opened wide as he saw the massive piece of wood coming down toward his head, and his eyes crossed looking up on contact, before rolling back as he fell to the floor unconscious.
The victim of the marbles had now regained his footing and was about to grab Dan from behind, when Dan shoved the axe handle straight backwards into the man’s solar plexus and heard the wind leave him with rush. Dan spun around and swung the axe handle upward like a butt stroke with a rifle, and it caught the three-hundred-pounder under his chin, snapped his head back with the force, and he, too, went down out cold.
Dan grabbed the woman and helped her down off the bar, saying, “Lucy, isn’t it about time you consider a different profession?”
She was so amazed and still frightened that she could not even speak. She just fluttered.
Dan said to the frightened, but now very relieved, bartender, “Fred, get some men and a buckboard and get these three down to the jail before they come to.”
Fred said, “Yes, sir, Dan, and thank you very much.”
Joshua was bursting with pride over the cool-headed way Dan had handled that crisis.
As if he was reading Joshua’s mind, Dan put his hand on the young man’s shoulder, spun him around, and said in a low voice, “When you are outnumbered, keep them off-balance and do the unexpected. Come on to the office with me.”
They walked out the door, Joshua half-running to keep up with the stern lawman’s long stride.
Joshua said, “Pa, how come you didn’t just pull your gun and arrest them?”
Dan said, “They kept their knives sheathed and guns holstered. Remember what I told you. If you draw a gun, use it. Don’t pull it just because you’re afraid.”
Joshua said, “I ain’t ever seen you afraid.”
“You just did, son,” Dan said, giving a slight grin, which hardly anybody ever saw from him. “You see the size of those three grizzlies?”
The stories of his biological father and the example of this man who stepped in were the male influences on Joshua as he grew into young manhood. They served him well.