Outlaw Seal

by Kate Sheperd

  Earl said, “That’s old Smiley. Don’t mind him. He looks like he’s been through hell and back, but he doesn’t remember none of it.”

  If Jane had not been on a strange horse that she did not entirely trust, she would have grabbed at Earl’s knife, or one of his revolvers. Anger bubbled to the surface. The deception that he had practiced became clear to her at once. He had neither property or money. Despite how he looked, despite how he carried around two revolvers, despite the confidence with which he carried himself, he was poor as dirt. If she married him, she would be worse off than she had been as a schoolteacher.

  She found herself regretting the expense of the two train tickets, and the long wagon ride across the country. During the entire seven-day trip, she had been afraid that the man she had hired would take advantage of her. She had been a woman all alone with no one to call to for aid. He had been a man out in the wilderness with no one to observe him who could testify before a judge about what he had done at a later date. That he had not done so seemed a miracle to her. Those days of trepidation, of never being sure whether she was safe while asleep, now appeared to her as an ordeal that he had put her through. She blamed him for it. Everything that had happened to her since leaving a situation in which she had been respected and valued was his fault.

  He dismounted first, then helped her down. It was all she could not to fall on her face. She resented him for that as well. When she managed to right herself, she gathered all the strength that she had into her right arm. She slapped him as hard as she could. He reeled to one side. A wide red mark sprung up on his left cheek.

  He responded at once, without even thinking. He drew one of his revolvers, then cocked back the hammer. He held it in front of her chest. His eyes burned with a furious anger that had sparked up inside of him all at once. His front teeth bit down on his bottom lip so hard that a rivulet of blood ran down the side of his face.

  Despite the danger of being shot there and then, her own anger did not abate. Instead, it only grew. She resented him for daring to draw a weapon on her when it was he who had tried to defraud her. She thought that if it was she who had not the gun and not him, she would not hesitate to blow him away. She thought that she would discharge all of the bullets into his body, then keep pulling the trigger while the gun clicked away. Six bullets was not enough for him. He might, by some miracle, manage to survive that.

  She said, “You have deceived me, sir. I demand that you take me back to town at once.”

  The calm, resolute attitude that he had displayed before returned. The fire went out of eyes a little at a time. He lowered his gun so that it pointed at the ground, but did not put it back in its holster. He said, “It is true that I have led you astray. I promised you a large ranch with a significant stake. That is clearly not what you see. Therefore, since I do not wish to fight with a lady, I will tell you the truth.”

  Jane said, “Now that would be a first. Let’s hear it then.”

  He took a moment to compose himself. A deep breath passed in and out his mouth. He said, “I am what folks in polite society might call a fugitive from justice.”

  She clenched her fist tight, then unclenched it. White half-moon shapes appeared on her palm. She had come close to scratching his eyes out. A glimmer of reproach manifested within her. She had doubted the veracity of his claims. Now that they had all turned out to be untrue, she kicked herself for believing him so easily. She blamed him for that, too. It was all too easy for a deceptive man to practice upon the honest, trusting nature of others. Snake oil salesman did it all the time with their alcoholic elixirs. She had heard of carpetbaggers who gained unsavory reputations by traveling up and down the Mississippi River fobbing off useless items to people who knew no better. To her, Earl was not very different.

  She held to her white-hot anger. She had become so enraged that she felt sure that she would either force her to murder him, or she would murder him instead. She had enjoyed the life that she had before. The unease that she had about her future prospects in Texarkana paled in comparison to what she might face married to him. That future was filled with want, hunger, and poverty. She would no longer be able to spend her leisure time reading Seneca. She would have to beg for what scraps she could find, or else end up at the end of hangman’s noose as an accomplice in some heinous crime or other. She didn’t want to be hung by the neck until dead. She imagined it would be quite painful.

  She said, “That’s fine and dandy for you, Mr. Hubbard. But don’t you go thinking that I’ll have any part of any tomfoolery of yours. I won’t have it. I won’t.”

  She turned on her heel to walk away from him. Even though she had spent most of the ride over with her eyes closed, she found that she could not stand the sight of him any longer. She would find her own way back to Texarkana, even if she had to take a job mucking out stables to do it. She was determined to go on living without him and, more importantly, without any man in her life for as long as she lived. Spinsterhood, so she had always been told, was the worst outcome for a woman. Women were brought into the world to provide children and comfort to their husbands. A woman who did not fulfill that purpose was not one capable of earning respect. Everyone had said so. Yet, after her experience, she was determined to prove everyone wrong, even if it meant standing against the whole world to do so.

  He grabbed her wrist. She stopped dead in her tracks. She was on the point of slapping him again for daring to touch her when he said, “It’s not as you might think.”

  She wrenched her wrist away from him. She said, “It’s not? So tell me how it is then. Tell me how you became an outlaw by accident, or some such nonsense.”

  He looked her straight in the eyes. She found his gaze unsettling. She wanted to turn away from him. She found the desire to see whether he was lying more compelling.

  He said, “I had a family once. A mother, and a young sister. Not my father. He died working a coal mine out in Kentucky. After he died, my mother decided to bring us all out here. Might have been she figured that I was of an age where I could support the two of them with my earnings. I was seventeen at the time, almost a man. I certainly tried to do so. I tried my damnedest, even after Mr. Lincoln’s useless war ruined the country for young men everywhere. I worked at the First National Bank in town. Things were going well. I thought perhaps I had a future with the company. I didn’t have my letters, mind you, but I understood numbers well enough. I’ve always had a head for numbers.”

  Jane could not feel sorry for him being illiterate. A great many people on the frontier did not know how to read. Those that could not found someone else who could read them off letters and newspaper articles. She suspected that he had hired a clerk to read her letters out loud, then to write replies. That man, whoever he might be, had to know nothing of Earl’s past history. Otherwise, the clerk would never consent to scrawled out such scandalous lies.

  He continued, “The day came when my mother’s farm burned down. It wasn’t a big farm, mind you. We couldn’t feed ourselves on what we grew there, let alone any animals that we wished to keep. She wanted sheep. She never got the chance. She and my sister died in that fire. I was talking a walk through the country, as I was in the habit of doing on my days off. This was a Sunday afternoon. The bank had not opened that day. So after the morning’s church service, I had my whole day to myself. I had intended to walk where I would and return in the evening. When I saw the pillar of smoke from a distance, I hurried back as fast as I could.

  “It transpired that my mother had a life insurance policy. She had been paying money to someone at the bank. She didn’t really have it in her budget. None of us did. I don’t know exactly where she got the money from. Maybe she was whoring. Maybe she wasn’t. The result is that she had named my as the primary beneficiary on the policy.”

  Jane began to see where this was all going. She thought that, for someone who didn’t know how to read and write, Earl Hubbard spoke very well. She hoped that this wasn’t an attempt at deception too.
She said, “And then the sheriff got it into his head that you wanted that life insurance money.”

  “That’s right. The bank declined to pay before the sheriff had his say. I chose not to say anything about it. I just went right on working on the bank as best I could. I won’t say that I continued as though nothing had happened. That’s not precisely true. I wore black, and tried not to think of all the tragedy my family has been through. My sister, she was an innocent. She-”

  Earl choked back his tears. He pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes.

  Jane said, “Is it true, what they said?”

  It was a silly question to ask. If she believed that he would lie to her about at any time-which she thought might be the case-then there was no sense in asking him whether anything was true or not. Yet, she had blurted out the words before she knew what she was saying.

  He said, “They said I burned my own house to the ground to get at the insurance money. I don’t know that I will ever be able to figure that one out. I deprived myself of a house, a home, a mother, and a sister just for the sake of a few dollars. Might be there are some in this world who can do that, Miss Russell. I do not count myself amongst them.”

  She put her hands on her hips. Her anger was beginning to fade. Now, instead of clawing his eyes out, she only felt like kicking him in the shin. She said, “Then why did you send all those letters claiming to be something that you’re not?”

  He answered at once. That made her think that he wasn’t lying. Not about this, at least. He said, “I don’t know my letters. I might have told you that. I had to go to a man in the next town over-that’s a good twenty mile ride-to write down the words that I said to him. He didn’t know me from Adam. There are wanted posters for Earl Kittredge, of course-”

  “Your true name is Earl Kittredge?”

  “It is. I might have used a false Christian name as well, except then I wouldn’t have responded when someone called my name. You know how people turn their heads at once when they hear their name spoken, even if they’re not a part of the conversation? It’s like that for me. I wanted to react when anybody said my name, if ever they did.”

  “And? Did you? Did you react in that tavern of yours?”

  Earl realized then that he had been holding a pistol pointed at the ground for some time. He pushed the hammer back up, then holstered his weapon. He said, “I sure did. Funny thing is, I thought you were part of a honey trap. Do you know what that is?”

  She recalled the schemes that she had heard of in which women were used to flush out someone being sought by the law, or by a gang of criminals. No one thought that a woman might be doing anything untoward until it proved that she was. The phrase derived from traps that had been used to capture wild bears and other animals. She nodded without responding.

  He said, “That’s why I was so abrasive to you. I apologize for that.”

  Jane found it impossible to hold on to her anger when he said that. Though he had caused her to fall into an unwelcome circumstance, when she began to see him for what he truly was, she felt the first beginnings of sympathy for what he had been through.

  She still had one question lingering in her mind, though. She said, “If you are an outlaw, how is it that you let yourself be seen in town today?”

  “That was only on account of the letters I sent out. I wanted to see if anyone would answer them. Mind you, I’d never go out during the evening?”

  “And this man who was working the bar, Zebediah. He didn’t recognize you from any of the wanted posters or suspect that you might be using a false name?”

  “Zebediah knows my secret. He’s one of the few who does. He hasn’t reported me to the sheriff, not yet.”

  “And this other man that you were with? Who was he?”

  Earl held up a hand. He said, “Now I’m afraid that is none of your business. Suffice it to say that there are still people in this world who require my services even knowing who I am.”

  Jane decided to leave it at that. She had enough to verify his statements. If they were false, then she would have nothing further to do with him. If they were true then...she did not know what she would do.

  Chapter 5

  Sheriff John Farson was large, larger than Jane thought any man had a right to be. She was the tallest man that she had ever seen, by far. She had a fleeting thought that he might be a giant, or descended from a race of giants. He had long yellow hair that did not match her image of what a small-town sheriff ought to look like. He sat behind a desk that had one leg shorter than the other three. A lumpy gray rock had been placed under the short leg, but that only served to accentuate how poorly built the desk was. Jane had the impression of a man who cared more about whether things got done than whether he appeared to be getting things done.

  He stood up when he saw her. He said, “Good afternoon, miss. What can I do for you?”

  Jane entered the office with a purposeful stride that she would never used as a teacher. If there was anyone who could her out of her predicament, it would be him. He would know the right people who could help her find her way back to Texas. She said, “Have you ever heard a man named Earl Kittredge?”

  The sheriff put a cautious hand on his gun. He said, “Sure enough I have. He’s a scoundrel among scoundrels, that one. He burned his own house down, killed his own family, just to get at a little bit of insurance money. Turns out the bank didn’t let him have it, not after I had my say. Word is, he’s still hanging around these parts. He’s been an outlaw these past few years. If he ever shows his face in town, he’ll be find himself at the wrong end of a rope. I can assure you of that. If you ever come near that man, you best stay away from him if you know what’s good for you miss.”

  She thought then of the risk that Earl had been taking to show his face in town. She did not know how she had managed to evade capture. She imagined how it must been for him as he kept trying to find out whether anyone had even responded to his advertisement. The advertisement itself did not make sense to her, when she thought of the danger that it entailed. It would have been far more prudent for him to keep his head down or move out to another part of the country under an assumed name where he could start a new life as best as he could. He had not done either of those things. She wondered what he hoped to gain by risking a death sentence. She decided that she would ask him that exact question when she got a chance.

  She said, “Is that true, what he did? Burned down his own house and all?”

  An indignant expression crossed over the sheriff’s face. He said, “Course it’s true. No one else could have done it. Earl had a job at the bank then, mind you. He wasn’t at the bank that day. It was his day off. I remember the bank manager telling me that, clear as day, as if he just told me yesterday. Now Earl said he was out roaming the countryside when it happened. No one came forward and confirmed his story. He was all alone, you see. Coursewise, when it came time for his trial, he wasn’t all blubbering and crying. He just sat there still as stone. Didn’t say much. Seemed like he just wanted to get through the trial so he could get his money. So he was found guilty. Shame he ran away after he heard the verdict. He cheated the hangman out of a day’s wages.”

  Jane bit her bottom lip when she considered that Earl might really have been wronged. He had asked her to come to Nevada under false pretenses, yet would he have been completely honest if he hadn’t feared for his life and liberty? She had no idea whether he would or not. Possibly, she thought, he would not even have felt the need to send out an advertisement asking for someone to marry him. He might have been able to find someone to marry all his own, using his true name.

  She said, “A horrible crime.”

  The sheriff responded to what he thought she said, instead of what she intended to say. He said, “Indeed, positively infamous. He’s eluded us these eight years. But he can’t do that forever, not if he keeps getting more daring like he’s been doing.” He paused while he thought about he was saying. Then he asked, “May I inquire what your i
nterest in this case is, madam?”

  An excuse sprung to Jane’s mind at once. She found it odd that she wanted to leap to Earl’s defense so suddenly. It had not even been an hour before when she had slapped him, and had wanted to do worse than that. She hated to think of herself as changeable in that way, yet there it was. She felt sympathy-actual sympathy-for the man.

  She said, “I’ve seen the wanted posters around town. I thought I’d come in and ask whether he’s been seen. I haven’t been here long, but the feeling I get is that this country isn’t exactly safe.”

  He said, “That’s true enough, miss. About the country being dangerous, I mean. I also must confess that I haven’t seen you around here before. Are you new to Sawtooth perhaps?”

  She curtsied in front of him. This time, she felt less awkward doing so. She said, “Yes, as it happens. My name is Jane Russell. I’ve come up from Texas. I expect I’ll be around for a while.”

  The sheriff tipped his hat at her in acknowledgement. He said, “Well then, welcome to Sawtooth, Miss Russell. If I might give you a piece of advice before you leave?”

  Jane had turned her shoulder towards the door, intending to walk out of the office. She stopped and said, “What might that be?”

  “Don’t let yourself fall under the power of a generous man. He might seem like a blessing, like someone you can rely upon. But in the end, no matter how you might resist, you’ll end a whore. I’ve seen it happen thousands of times. You be careful now, you hear?”

  She said, “Yes, thank you sheriff.”

  As she left the office, she wasn’t sure whether she should be insulted by the implication that she couldn’t take care of herself or by the compliment that at thirty-nine years of age, men would find her attractive enough to pay for her services-such as they might be. She decided to take it as a compliment.