Sam Bowden had spent the morning nervously pacing back and forth the large ranch house. He’d drunk what seemed like gallons of coffee and as a result he nerves were set on edge. He felt as restless as a rattler caught on a hot rock.
Every now and then he had gone outside and looked around, at the men carrying out the chores their respective jobs detailed but he had talked to no one and soon went back inside. It puzzled him to think what his father was doing in Squaw and he couldn’t rightly understand why the old man had forbid him to leave the ranch.
Sure he had the trial coming up but that was all a formality. There were no witnesses, no one would dare come forward and even say they had seen him with the girl. It made no sense him following the agreement to be confined to the ranch until the law cleared him. Not now that Masters had gone loco and gunned down Steve McCraw.
His father had been insistent though and Sam knew there was little point arguing with his father.
If the old man said night was day then the only course was to agree with him.
When he saw the two men, Josh Redford and Ted Dryer, ride in he ran from the house with such speed that he almost tripped himself on the stoop. There was no sign of his father, only the two riders, and they were not the same two who had rode out with the elder Bowden during the early hours.
‘Howdy,’ he shouted. ‘Where’s my pa?’
‘Still in town,’ the speaker was Josh Redford, a tall sinewy man who had proved himself an able worker in his five years at the ranch. ‘Sent us out to get you.’
‘Well that’s more like it.’ Sam said and ran a hand through his unruly hair. ‘I’ll get my horse and you two can tell me just what the hell’s going on in Squaw.’
The men on horseback exchanged a glance that Sam didn’t understand but he had not the time nor the inclination to ponder on it. This was more like it; he’d go loco sitting out here twiddling his thumbs, not knowing what was going on in town. It was far better to be where the action was.
~*~
Jessie was finding it hard to concentrate and she knew that she was losing the children’s attention. Hardly surprising given that the text in the book she was reading was making no sense to her, words came from her mouth in a jumble and she wasn’t taking in anything of what she read.
Several of the children were growing restless and were whispering amongst themselves, growing bolder when their misdemeanors went unnoticed by their teacher. Soon they were openly chattering while Jessie’s voice became a monotone, ignored and unheard, drifting on and on around the small classroom.
‘Children.’ Jessie said, firmly and put the book face down on her desk. She took up a piece of chalk and turned to the blackboard.
The children fell silent for only the briefest moment before they started whispering to each other. Jessie had to shout to bring them under control and the schoolteacher glared at the children. ‘One more disruption,’ she said. ‘And someone will be punished.’
‘There’s a man at the window.’ Tommy Cooper, a small boy with wire rimmed spectacles and a thick tuft of ginger hair that seemed to burst upwards of his head like the feather of some medieval knight.’ Yelled, excitedly. ‘He was looking at us.’
Jessie frowned. ‘Get on with your lessons,’ she said and went to the door. Her hand paused briefly on the handle and she steeled herself to deal with whatever Bowden had in mind for her now.
It wasn’t Bowden nor any of his men outside, but Em Tanner.
The old timer stood by the door, looking sheepish.
‘Wanted to see who you had in there.’ He said.
‘The children, of course.’ Jessie answered; relieved to see it was the old man and not one of Bowden’s thugs. ‘This is a school after all.’
‘It is that.’ The old man scratched his head and spat tobacco juice onto the ground. ‘You know where Cole is?’ He asked.
‘No,’ Jessie shook her head and looked up and down the street. ‘Not really.’
‘Clem Bowden’s in town.’
Jessie nodded. ‘I know.’ Even now she could see several of his men milling about outside the jailhouse. They didn’t appear to be taking any notice of the old man and schoolteacher and simply slouched against the wall, seemingly in their own little world.
‘He’s up to something,’ Em said. ‘He’s holed himself up in the jailhouse and I just saw two of the big shots from the cattle company go in there. Don’t like the smell of this one little bit.’
‘What do you think it all means?’ Jessie asked, leaning closer to the old man, she cast her eyes across the street but Bowden’s men were still in their own world.
‘Don’t rightly know,’ Em said. ‘I’m not kin to the mind of a rattlesnake. But I wager it ain’t going to be good news.’
Jessie didn’t know what the purpose of this conversation was but she trusted the old man. He and Cole had been close friends for a many years and he had stood beside him, been willing to fight by his side against the Bowden crew, which counted for a lot.
Especially as he was the only one in town who had offered a single iota of support to the sheriff.
‘I’ve got to go back inside,’ Jessie said, hearing the children start up again. The more bold of her students had their noses pressed up against the window, trying to see what was going on.
‘Come over to my place after school. We’ll talk then.’ She said.
That seemed to please the old man. He nodded. ‘Reckon I’ll hang around outside here for now,’ he said. ‘Make sure none of Bowden’s lot come over and bother you.’
Jessie smiled. ‘Thank you.’ She went back inside to calm the children who having taken advantage of her absence were now making more noise than a buffalo stampede.
~*~
Sam Bowden was seething.
He had arrived in town over an hour ago and had gone straight into the jailhouse to see his father. But the old man had been busy with two men from the cattle company and had promptly ordered him to wait outside, he would be summoned when he was ready for him.
Sam hated the way the old man would often belittle him like that in front of others, treating him like he was still a buck toothed kid.
‘Treats me like I was five years old sometimes.’ Sam complained but none of the men, being more than a little customary to his rants, paid him any notice. He jumped off the boardwalk and kicked up dust.
One of these days he was going to show his father what kind of a man he really was.
A further hour passed before the two businessmen left the jailhouse and Sam was summoned in to see his father. He watched the two men cross the street, annoyed that they had ignored him as they left, and then went inside and slammed the door behind him.
‘Father I—’ Sam but his words trailed off to nothing as his father tossed a tin star at him. He caught it and turned it over and over in his hand as if it were hot to the touch.
‘Put it on.’ The old man said.
Sam looked first at the badge and then at his father. ‘What?’
‘You think you’re a man, son?’
Sam looked at his father. ‘I’m nigh on thirty, pa.’
‘I don’t mean in years, son.’ Clem Bowden reclined in his chair and smiled. ‘I mean in here.’ He tapped a hand against his chest. ‘Where it counts.’
Sam stared at the badge, unsure of what was going on . ‘I’m a man.’ He said.
‘I don’t think you are. I think you’re somewhere between grass and hay.’ Clem said and stood up, hands behind his head, he arched his back to work out a few kinks. ‘But now the time to become a man so put the badge on. Or are you deaf as well as stupid?’
Sam pinned the star to his chest. ‘What’s this mean?’
‘It means you’re now sheriff.’ Clem said.
‘Sheriff!’ Sam grinned. He didn’t know what kind of joke the old man was trying to pull. ‘You’re sassing me.’
‘No sass.’ Clem said, his voice firmer. ‘You’ve been voted and seconded by two highly respected members of the cattle company. This is an emergency situation and it is within the town’s powers to elect a lawman without the usual rigmarole.’
‘But—’
‘There’s no better choice.’ Clem said, ignoring his son’s protests. ‘Cole Masters framed you for cutting up that whore and when things didn’t go his own way he shot the man who replaced him as sheriff. You’re going to bring him in, dead,’ a long pause before Clem added: ‘Not alive.’
Sam could see what his father was getting at and he had to agree it sounded a solid plan. With Masters dead they could paint events any which way they wanted. With enough witnesses the judge would think Masters had been a rogue sheriff. But how the hell he was supposed to take Cole Masters down was beyond him. Each and every time they had clashed heads in the past it had been he that had ended up behind bars, cooling it off in the jailhouse.
Cole Masters was many things but he was no pushover.
‘You’ll raise a posse and go after Masters.’ Clem said. ‘I’ve sent for two men to go with you and ensure Master’s dies.’
‘Men? What men?’
‘Let’s just say they help me out from time to time.’ Clem said. ‘I’ve used them before when I’ve found myself in a tricky situation. They’ll be here by dawn and you’ll leave directly.’
Sam nodded. He knew of the men his father spoke. He’d never met them as such but he was well aware of how his father dealt with his enemies. In the past he had seen men ride into the ranch and spend hours in the office with his father before vanishing to carry out whatever orders they had received. Nothing would ever be mentioned of their visits and this was the first time he had ever heard his father actually talk of them.
‘I’ll get Masters.’ Sam said, bravado evident in his voice.
The plan was simple but beautiful in its brilliance. When the judge arrived for Sam’s trial he would find the accused now the sheriff. And not only that but the hero who had gunned down the mad dog Masters, a man who had not only shot Steve McCraw, the man who had replaced him as sheriff, in cold blood but also the real perpetrator of the whore killing.
Cole Masters had slaughtered the whore and had tried to set him (Sam) up for the fall.
‘You’ll be there at least.’ Clem said.
Sam ignored the implication in his father’s words and he looked at the badge on his chest. He paced the office and stared at the cells where only a day ago he had been imprisoned awaiting the arrival of the judge.
Funny how things worked out.
‘Listen to me,’ Clem said, shortly, his voice taking on a harder edge. ‘You make sure you pay mind to these men. Do what they tell you.’
‘I’ll be leading the posse?’ Sam said, his inflection making it a question.
Clem ignored him and said: ‘They won’t take orders from you but they’ll do what I tell them. They’ll kill Masters and you can take the credit.’
‘I’m the sheriff, though.’ Sam reminded his father. ‘Surely I’ll be leading any posse that goes after Masters.’
‘Don’t be a fool,’ Clem said. ‘For once use the brains you were born with. You’re sheriff in name only because it suits our purpose. But when this is all over, when the judge has gone satisfied that justice has been done, we’ll have a long overdue talk.’
‘Yes, sir.’ Sam said. At that moment he resented his father more than ever but he was smart enough to know that he had to go along with the plan. And he had to give the old man credit; it was a good plan.
A damn good plan.