‘Howdy, Walt. I didn’t expect to see you out an’ about today. Ain’t this the day you’re usually elbow deep in ink?’
Walt Newsome flashed Dwight an unaccustomed grin. ‘Good afternoon, Marshal. Yes, as a matter of fact, I usually am. Not today, however.’
‘No newspaper this week?’
‘Oh my, yes. Yes indeed. The Headland Courier will be issued promptly on time, as always.’
Dwight cocked his head to one side, a hint of a smile playing at the corners of his mouth. ‘What’d you do – write this week’s news last week?’
Walt chuckled. ‘Not hardly. It would be convenient to be that prescient, to be sure, but I’m afraid I’m not. No, I finally had a circumstance of great fortune. I hired a pressman who actually knows what he’s doing.’
‘Is that so? How’d you happen to find him?’
Walt shrugged. ‘Just one of those random vagaries of fortune, I presume. He simply came strolling into the newspaper office one day and asked if I had any need for an experienced typesetter. I was, as you said, elbow deep in ink at the time and pushing like the devil to get things done on time, so I hired him. He jumped right in, as if he had been on the payroll a long while. He set type faster than anybody I have ever seen. Excepting myself, of course. Then he went right about setting up the press as if he had been doing it for years.’
‘Wow! I’d guess that doesn’t happen very often in your line of work.’
‘You have most certainly gotten that right! It has never, ever happened to me before. But please understand I am not complaining.’
‘What’s his name?’
‘Mac. Well, his name is Jarvis McCrae, but he just goes by Mac.’
Dwight’s expression became markedly more serious. ‘When did all this happen?’
‘Oh, nigh on to three weeks ago.’
‘Hmm.’
‘What do you mean, “Hmm?” That sounds like something ominous, the way you said it.’
Dwight shook his head. ‘Yeah, well, I’ve already heard about this guy. He stopped Belinda on the sidewalk the other day. Wrangled himself an introduction that made her plumb uncomfortable.’
‘Did he offend her?’
Dwight shook his head. ‘Naw, not really. Just seemed pretty forward. Backed off when she told him she was promised.’
‘Well, then, I don’t see what the problem is.’
‘It just seems like a strange coincidence. That’d be just almost the same time another new guy in town came along lookin’ for a job. He hired on with Virgil. Virgil says he’s one o’ the best carpenters he’s ever hired. Then this guy hires on with you. Then there’s that new guy I heard about at Glendenning’s Hardware store. Another well-educated guy, it sounds like. I ain’t met him yet, though.’
‘You don’t say. A veritable outpouring of qualified laborers fortuitously descending upon our humble municipality, it would seem.’
Dwight ignored the sarcasm. ‘So it would seem,’ he muttered.
‘Well, perhaps that is the manifestation of one of the phenomena of being a boom town. The word does get around, you know. Those who have special aptitudes and are in need of employment just naturally gravitate to such places.’
‘So do a lot of other folks,’ Dwight countered. ‘I’d check out the fella’s background pretty careful, if’n I was you.’
‘Oh, come, now, Marshal!’ the newsman rejoined, his eyes dancing. ‘Don’t be such a pessimist. Surely you believe the Almighty to be capable of sending us special blessings in times of need.’
‘The Almighty can do as he pleases,’ Dwight conceded, ‘but I’ve noticed from time to time that he seems to allow some o’ the devil’s helpers a lot looser rein than I’d like.’
‘Indeed, that seems to be true. By the same token, that’s what keeps newspapermen such as myself in business, so it’s hard for me to complain. On the other hand, perhaps that’s why he has placed you in the position of protecting us vulnerable souls from those of such ilk,’ Newsome teased. ‘Why, Marshal, you may very well be the instrument of the Almighty himself, sent as a protecting angel for the humble hamlet of Headland!’
Dwight chuckled in spite of himself. ‘Well, now, an angel’s one thing I ain’t never been accused o’ bein’ afore.’
‘Then you must consider this a banner day, Marshal.’
‘Either that or a day when that there stuff on this street’s some deeper’n usual.’
Newsome laughed aloud. ‘Why, Marshal! Are you accusing me of unduly spreading fertilizer where no productive crops are likely to grow?’
‘That is your business, ain’t it?’
‘Oh, come now, Marshal! How can you say such a thing? Everything in the Headland Courier is always and foremost of a strictly verified and factual nature.’
‘Yeah, well, if you say so.’
‘You will be especially interested in the lead news item in this week’s edition.’
‘Is that so?’
‘I’m sure you will find it fascinating at the very least. It will be the first announcement the general public will have seen of the veritable rolling fortress that is about to emphasize the prosperity with which Headland has been endowed of late.’
Dwight frowned. ‘You’re puttin’ a story about that new stage in your newspaper?’
‘Why, of course I am, Marshal. The new Concord Armored Stagecoach that Wells Fargo has deemed us worthy of meriting in the transport of the considerable valuables from the mines and the return transport of the equally considerable payrolls of that same enterprise is news of the first magnitude.’
‘You’re runnin’ a news item about that new stage in your newspaper?’ Dwight asked again, sounding even to himself as if he were his own echo.
‘Precisely. Complete with dimensions, weight, and a full description of all the security that will accompany its circuit.’
Dwight’s expression as well as the sudden flush of his face made his displeasure abundantly clear. ‘Now why in the Sam Hill would you go and do that?’
‘Because it’s news, Marshal. It’s news. The Headland Courier is in the business of news. It is, after all, a newspaper.’ He said it again, heavily emphasizing the word ‘news.’ ‘News paper. That’s what I do.’
‘But that’s just invitin’ every highwayman and would-be outlaw to have a crack at it! You’re puttin’ the lives of everyone on that stage at risk.’
‘On the contrary,’ Newsome argued, ‘by detailing the invulnerability and the security precautions of that most remarkable conveyance, I am virtually guaranteeing that nobody will be foolish enough to make any attempt at robbery.’
‘I doubt that. Publishin’ all that information will just seem like an out-an’-out challenge to a lot o’ guys.’
Newsome shrugged. ‘Well, then, should that be the case, they can’t say they were not well warned of the consequences of their ill-advised attempt to accomplish the impossible.’
‘And how many guards are gonna get shot in the process?’
‘That would certainly be an unfortunate eventuality,’ Newsome conceded, ‘but such considerations must not hamper the ethical obligation of a newspaper to publish all relevant and pertinent news.’
‘That sounds like nothin’ more than a highfalutin way o’ sayin’ you’re gonna publish every bit o’ gossip you can dig up.’
‘Merely a matter of semantics, Marshal. What one man may consider as gossip another considers to be news. I do carefully ascertain the factual nature of what I publish. You will be interested in knowing that I personally interviewed both Hiram Birdwell, the President of the Headland Land And Mineral Bank, and Clem Adkins, the General Manager of our local branch of Wells Fargo, and I will personally attest to the factual accuracy of everything in the aforesaid news article.’
Dwight sighed with a mixture of anger and resignation. ‘Ain’t gonna be any good come of it, mark my words,’ he warned.
He continued to scowl at the back of the newsman as Newsome walked down the street. He was not at all sure whether the knot in the middle of his stomach was anger at Walt, or a premonition of things to come. ‘Maybe both,’ he muttered. ‘Maybe both.’