CHAPTER 10
“Good,” Lon Blake said when he walked in the door at the sheriff’s office. “I’m glad you’re both here. I wanted to let you know you might have some trouble comin’ your way. I just came from Jake’s Place and Ada’s pa and her two brothers are settin’ over there right now, eatin’ breakfast.” As he suspected, the news was enough to capture the attention of both sheriff and deputy. So, he went on to tell them what conversation he had heard between Trask and Jake. “No,” he answered when Buck asked if they had made any threats of any kind. “They didn’t know for sure that you had Ada locked up ’cause they looked pretty surprised when Jake told ’em. But they didn’t throw no fit or nothin’. They even sat there and ate their breakfast.”
“’Preciate you lettin’ us know,” Buck said. He looked at Flint. “I reckon we’d both best hang around here for a while, since jailbreaks seem to run in that family.”
Lon jumped. A loud thud suddenly came from behind the jail.
“That’s just Nolan Carson unloadin’ some lumber for the wall back there,” Buck assured him. “I’ll be damn glad when he gets it built, too.”
Flint walked over to the door and looked across the street to get a look at the three horses tied at the rail. He wanted to be able to recognize them, just in case they showed up somewhere later where they weren’t expected.
“Well, I just wanted to let you know they were in town,” Lon said. “I guess I’d better get back to the stable now.” He hurried past Flint, who was still standing in the doorway.
“’Preciate it, Lon,” Flint told him as he went by him.
Although in a hurry to leave the jail, Lon couldn’t resist one question of Flint. “Ada’s pa said you snatched her right outta the outhouse. Is that right?”
Flint shook his head. “I snatched her on her way back from the outhouse. It wouldn’t have been polite to snatch her out of the outhouse.” He closed the door after Lon left then went back to talk the situation over with Buck.
Ada and Ralph were just finishing up their breakfasts, and Nolan Carson was ready to start on the reconstruction of the wall.
“Should we tell Nolan to hold off for a while till we see if there’s any trouble from Trask?” Flint asked. “Nolan might not like the idea of gettin’ caught in the middle of something.”
“I reckon we can tell him what’s goin’ on, and he can make his choice,” Buck said. “Trask and his sons ain’t broke any laws in Tinhorn, so we ain’t got any reason to bother ’em. It might be that they’ll decide to visit Ada, and there ain’t no law against that.” He couldn’t resist japing Flint. “’ Course, they might be in town to make a complaint against you for kidnapping.”
They decided it best to at least let Nolan know of the possibility of some form of trouble, if Trask and his two sons came to the jail to visit Ada. Nolan thought it over for a few minutes, then said that maybe, if he stayed, it might let them think the numbers were equal and discourage any notions of attempting to spring Ada.
“That’s up to you,” Buck told him. “I’m just sayin’ we ain’t got no idea what’s on her pa’s mind. Accordin’ to what Lon said, they didn’t even know for sure that Ada was here in jail. If I had to take a guess, I’d say they won’t try anything this mornin’, since they ain’t had time to plan anything. If they’re thinkin’ about bustin’ her out, it’ll more likely be at night. And if they do, I hope they ain’t gonna try it with dynamite again.”
“Amen to that,” Flint responded.
Nolan continued the work he had just started that morning, and began nailing his corner posts together. Flint collected the breakfast dishes from the cell to return to Clara’s Kitchen whenever he or Buck felt it wise to go to dinner then stood by the front door, watching Jake’s Place through the glass panes.
It wasn’t long before Flint said, “Okay, they’re leavin’ the saloon now. They’re not climbing into the saddle. They’re leadin’ their horses over here.” He remained there until he saw them tie their horses in front of the sheriff’s office and start for the door. Then he moved over to the front corner of the office where he would be behind anyone standing in front of the desk talking to Buck.
Trask opened the door and walked in cautiously as if entering an enemy camp. He glanced at Flint standing in the corner, then back at Buck sitting behind the desk. Vike and Kyle filed in, as wary as their father, nervously looking from Flint to Buck. Flint speculated that any little spark would set them off like the dynamite their sister had planted.
Trask stopped a few steps short of Buck’s desk and asked, “Sheriff?”
“That’s right,” Buck said. “I’m Sheriff Jackson. What can I do for you?”
“You’re holdin’ my daughter in the jail,” was all Trask said in answer.
“Well, that’s a fact, if your daughter is Ada Tubbs,” Buck told him. “She’s being held on a charge of dynamitin’ this jail and creatin’ the jailbreak of two prisoners. That’s against the law, so she was arrested for it.”
“I come to take her home,” Trask said. “’Cause you snuck into my home and kidnapped her. You broke the law. You ain’t got no right to do that outside this town.”
“That’s not entirely true,” Buck came back with a ready answer. “Every town sheriff or marshal is lawfully permitted to form a posse to go after people who have committed crimes in their town. Don’t matter where they are. So, I’m afraid your daughter will have to answer for her crimes.”
“There weren’t no posse that came to my home,” Trask objected. “It was one man that snuck in and grabbed my daughter and ran off with her.”
“I’m sorry, but I have to disagree with you, Mr. Trask. It was a posse that came across your daughter and arrested her. It was just a one-man posse, but it was a posse.”
Trask started to sputter a little at that, especially when the sheriff called him by name. He didn’t think the sheriff knew his name. Buck got up out of his chair then, well aware of the intimidating factor of his big powerful body, especially in close quarters like those in the small office. His shoulders seemed as wide as the desk. Flint was impressed as well.
“Is there something else I can help you with, Mr. Trask?” Buck asked.
“Can I see my daughter?”
“Why, sure you can,” Buck said at once. “You and your sons, too. It oughta make your daughter happy to know you came to visit her. You can go right through that door there.” He pointed toward the cell room. “’Course, you’ll have to take those guns off and leave them here in the office until you’re ready to go.”
There was a moment of hesitation on the part of all three of the Trask men.
“That’s just standard procedure in any jail,” Buck said. “The deputy and I will go in to watch you while you’re visitin’ with Ada. Nothin’ against you. Just standard procedure.”
After a long pause, Trask finally started unbuckling his gun belt. “I reckon it’ll be all right, boys,” he said to his sons, who were equally nervous about giving up their weapons. “Just standard procedure,” he repeated.
Once they were disarmed, Buck led them through the cell room door, announcing, “Ada Tubbs, you’ve got some visitors.”
Like everyone else entering the cell room for the first time since the explosion, Trask and his sons were stopped in their tracks upon seeing the tremendous opening where a wall once stood.
Amused by their reaction, Buck said, “That’s a sample of your daughter’s handiwork.”
In shocked surprise, Ada, still sitting on her cot, got to her feet, having before ignored Buck’s announcement that she had visitors. She hurried to meet them, stopping once again at the edge of the dividing canvas. “Papa, what are you doin’ here?”
“We come to see you,” Trask answered. “You give us a terrible fright when you disappeared. It took us a little while to figure out what happened, but we finally found you.” At that moment, Ralph walked out to stop even with the end of the curtain as well.
Trask recoiled and demanded, “Sheriff, what’s he doin’ in the cell with my daughter?”
“Ask her,” Buck answered. “She’s the one who used the dynamite on the back window and left us with only one cell.”
“It ain’t fittin’ to put a woman in a cell with a man,” Trask charged, genuinely upset. Even though Jake Rudolph told him in the saloon that both prisoners were in the same cell, it had evidently not really registered in his brain. Seeing them in such close quarters had a much stronger impression. “Somethin’ oughta be done about this,” he complained.
“Something is being done about it,” Buck said and pointed to Nolan out back. “Just as soon as we get that wall built, we’ll have two cells again. Until then, we’ve done the best we can to give your daughter some privacy.”
Ada left the edge of the curtain then and walked all the way over to the cell wall where her father and brothers were standing. “There ain’t nothin’ to worry about, Papa,” she said, trying to calm him down. “That’s Ralph Cox on the other side of the curtain. He was Jed’s partner and he ain’t had nothin’ but respect for me. Matter of fact, it’s almost like I’m in a cell by myself.”
Trask calmed down a little then.
“Besides, I can handle myself when it comes to men.”
“You be extra careful. He might be nice right now, but most men start to lose their good manners when they’re locked up close with a woman as pretty as you are,” Trask said, obviously not seeing her through the eyes of other men.
“How you makin’ out, Ada?” Kyle asked, no longer able to keep silent.
“Are you makin’ out?” Vike asked with a chuckle before she could answer.
“Watch your mouth!” Trask scolded. “Show some respect for your sister.” Starting to become riled up again, he mumbled, “That damn over-sized sheriff rides right into my yard and steals my daughter.”
“It weren’t the sheriff, Pa,” Ada whispered. “It was that deputy, Flint Moran, that come and took me. It was him that killed Jed, too. He was the one that ran Jed and Ralph down when I busted ’em out of here.”
Standing closer to the back edge of the old cell room floor, Flint had a feeling that his name had been mentioned when Trask suddenly turned and glared at him for several long seconds.
When he turned back to his daughter, Trask whispered low, “I ain’t gonna stand for this. I’ll get you outta here, if I have to use some more dynamite to do it. You just do the best you can till I do. It might be best to wait a couple of days to let ’em get to thinkin’ I ain’t gonna do nothin’. We’ll take care of that deputy while we’re at it. Come into my yard and steal my daughter. That’ll be his last mistake.”
Buck gave them another twenty minutes, then announced, “All right, visitin’ time is over. If you come on back to the office, you can have your guns back.”
“Don’t you worry, honey,” Trask whispered to his daughter. “I’ll take care of you.”
“We miss you, Ada,” Kyle said in leaving. “Can’t none of us cook worth a damn.”
Flint brought up the rear and followed them out of the cell room. He was aware of Liam Trask’s accusing stare at him as he buckled on his gun belt. Then both Flint and Buck stood by with a watchful eye until the Trasks had filed out the door, got on their horses, and rode toward the north end of town.
“Well, that was downright homey, weren’t it?” Buck said. “A family reunion right here in the jail. I think they’re gonna plan another one and they ain’t gonna invite us. What do you think?”
“I think the three of ’em are crazy as hell—make that the four of ’em—and they’re gonna try to bust her out of here. I’m thinkin’ I might better bring a couple of blankets from my room and bunk here at night. I think it’s best for both of us to be here. I’m gettin’ damn tired of these people breakin’ outta jail. If Ralph goes with ’em, it’ll be the second time for him.”
“I’m afraid you’re right,” Buck remarked. “Maybe we’d better move Ada to that storeroom behind Harper’s. It’s a helluva place to shut somebody up in, but if they find out she ain’t here no more, maybe they’ll give up.”
“If they make a raid on the jail and she’s not here, not only do they fail to free her, but they’ll give us reason to go after them and clean ’em out for good,” Flint suggested.
“We ain’t got a jail big enough to hold ’em,” Buck reminded him.
“I forgot about that,” Flint admitted. “I reckon we’re gonna have to work with the U.S. Marshal Service, or the Texas Rangers.”
“We shoulda been in touch with them before this,” Buck said. “I think I’ll at least let ’em know what we’re dealin’ with, so if they wanna give us some help, they would know what is goin’ on.” He shook his head as if perplexed and frowned. “Why the hell didn’t you just let Jed and Ralph have those two cows? I swear, I need a drink of whiskey.”
Flint realized it was the first time he had heard Buck make that statement. He hoped it was further proof that Buck was making an effort to gain control of his dependence upon alcohol. The big man was doing a commendable job of hiding the agony he was evidently suffering. Flint was sure the constant hammering underway by Nolan Carson was not helping Buck’s condition.
“Looks like Trask and his boys rode on outta town,” Flint said, “so I guess we don’t have to worry about ’em for a little while. I think I’ll take the breakfast dishes back to Clara’s and then I’ll get my horse outta the stable, just in case I need him in a hurry.”
Buck thought that was a good idea, so Flint took the tray of dirty dishes and headed for the dining room. Once they were returned, he went back down the street to the stable.
Seeing him, Lon Blake went out to meet him. “I didn’t hear no gunshots, so I reckon that fellow Trask and his boys didn’t cause no trouble.”
“Nope,” Flint replied as he went to the corral gate. “They just visited Ada for a little while, then rode outta town.”
Seeing Flint, the buckskin gelding ambled over to the gate to greet him. Flint slipped his bridle on the horse, then opened the gate and led him out.
“You reckon they’ll be back to break that woman outta jail?” Lon asked.
“Hard to say,” Flint answered as he threw his saddle on Buster, “but I expect we’ll deal with it, if that’s what happens.”
Back at the sheriff’s office, he found the door locked and no sign of Buck when he looked through the glass. His first thought was that the sheriff might have gone to his quarters to get that drink he had sworn he needed earlier. Instead of unlocking the door and going inside, he went around to the back where Nolan was working and asked, “Did the sheriff say where he was goin’?”
“Yeah,” Nolan answered. “He said to tell you he’s gone to the telegraph office.”
That was good news. Anywhere other than his quarters for any reason, meant Buck was still putting up a fight against the bottle. “How’s the construction comin’ along?” Flint asked Nolan, just to pass the time of day.
“Well,” Nolan answered, “like I told Buck, there’s gonna be some delay on account of the sidin’. I’ll finish the stud wall today, but I can’t get the heavy sidin’ to close it up, for maybe a week is what they told me.”
“You can’t get regular sidin’ at the lumber mill?” Flint asked, finding it hard to believe.
“Well, yeah,” Nolan replied, “regular sidin’, like you’d put on your house, but the sidin’ that went on the jail was heavy, almost twice as heavy as regular sidin’.”
Flint nodded, thinking he had a pretty good idea why Buck went to the telegraph office. He had mentioned the possibility of advising the Special Ranger Company’s office in Tyler of the situation in Tinhorn. Stepping up onto the cell room floor, Flint walked past the prisoners, and went into the office. He unlocked the front door then sat down to wait for Buck to return.
It wasn’t long before the sheriff walked in the door. “Did Nolan tell you about the sidin’?”
Flint said that he did, so Buck continued. “I wired the Rangers office in Tyler and told ’em about our problem with the jail, and I asked if they could send a couple of men down here to transport our prisoners back to Tyler. I waited around a while, and they came right back to me. They said all their Rangers are out after a gang of cattle rustlers over near Fort Worth and said if we transport them to Tyler, they’d take ’em into custody and hold ’em for trial.” He shook his head and bit his lip. “I wanted them to get that woman outta my jail. The two of us could transport her and Ralph to Tyler. It ain’t but a one-day trip, but we can’t both be gone from here.”
“I expect I could take ’em to Tyler,” Flint suggested. “And I expect I’d better do it right away, so I can be back here by the time Trask and his boys decide to make another visit.”
“I don’t know, Flint, those two might be hard to handle for one man. Maybe we oughta just send Ada up there and leave Ralph where he is.”
“I’m just thinkin’ how much easier it would be, if the cell was empty,” Flint said. “We’d take those canvas curtains down, so anybody could see that it was empty and there wouldn’t be any reason for anybody to try to blow it up again.” He could see that Buck was thinking it over, so he added, “I could even bed down in there to take care of anybody snoopin’ around at night.”
“You know, we still have the option of lockin’ Ralph up in that storeroom behind Harper’s. Then you wouldn’t have anybody but Ada to transport,” Buck suggested. “We can bring him back here after Trask finds out Ada’s gone.”
“That sounds like a good plan to me,” Flint said. “But we’d better get Ada ready to go. It’s almost dinner time already and it’s twenty-six miles to Tyler. I don’t wanna get there too late to turn her over to the Rangers.”
“Tomorrow mornin’,” Buck decided. “I’m willin’ to bet Trask ain’t gonna show up here tonight. I’ll tell John Harper we’re gonna get that room ready with a cot, some water, and a slop bucket today. You pick up the horses in the mornin’, and we’ll get Ada ready to ride. Start you off with plenty of time to get to Tyler. They’ll want some papers with my signature, listin’ the charges against her, and I’ll write them this afternoon. You still up for the job?”
“Oh, yeah,” Flint answered casually. “Ada and I have traveled together before, and I’m sure this ride will be just as pleasurable as our first trip.”
“I reckon I don’t have to tell you to be careful. You know she’ll be lookin’ for the first opportunity to make an escape.”
Flint agreed. “Matter of fact.”