the Lonely Men (1969)

by L'amour, Louis - Sackett's 14

  We drew up, and I turned, standing in my stirrups to look back.

  "It might be the Haddens," I said. She glanced at me. "After you finished with them? What you didn't get, the Apaches got. You took two of them, I'd swear.

  Maybe three."

  Well, maybe. I wasn't making any claims. I never was one to file notches on a gun ... a tinhorn trick.

  "Shall we try for it?" I said. "It's closer than the border. And the border never meant anything to an Apache except that south of it he was free of the American troops."

  "We can scout it," Dorset answered. She swung her pony and headed toward the fire.

  The yellow sky faded into gray and velvety dark. Even before we came up to it, I could see it was an Army fire ... it looked big because there were three of them in line. It was a Cavalry troop of maybe forty men. We pulled up and I hailed the camp.

  "Howdy, there. Is it all right to come in? There's a woman and a child with me."

  Silence ...

  It was a long moment, and I guess somebody was trying to make us out with field glasses, though now there was not much light.

  "All right," came the answer. "Ride in. Ride carefully."

  I knew that voice. It was Captain Lewiston. Lieutenant Jack Davis stood beside him.

  Lewiston looked from me to Dorset Binny. He tipped his hat "How do you do, ma'am. We have been worried for you."

  "I'm all right. Thanks to Mr. Sackett."

  "Did you come upon any other youngsters, Cap'n?" I asked. "Harry Brook and the Creed youngsters?"

  "They're here, and they're safe. That's why we waited for you."

  We walked our horses into camp and swung down. I staggered when I hit ground, and Lewiston was beside me. "Here, man, you'd better sit down."

  "Got to care for my horse. You take the lady and the child, Cap'n, I -- "

  "No." Lewiston's tone was suddenly stern. He turned. "Corporal, take this man's horse. See that it is cared for just as mine is. The others also."

  He turned back to me. "Sackett, I regret to inform you that you are under arrest."

  Me, I just looked at him. "For crossing the border? Cap'n, Laura Sackett told me her son had been taken by the Apaches."

  "She has no son!" Davis spoke sharply. "Sackett, that's a damned -- "

  Lewiston's voice cracked like a whip. "Lieutenant!"

  Davis stopped, his face flushed. "I tell you, Captain, this man is -- "

  "Silence! Lieutenant Davis, I suggest you inspect the guard. Whatever needs to be said to Mr. Sackett, I will say."

  Davis turned on his heel and stalked away. "Forgive him, Sackett. He's young and I'm afraid he's smitten by Laura Sackett. He is very proud, and he feels he must defend her honor."

  "Let him defend it, Cap'n, but keep him away from me. Him being new to the country I might not shoot him, but I am afraid if he said what he started to say he'd be shy a good many teeth."

  "There will be no fighting. You seem to have forgotten, Sackett. You are under arrest."

  Well, I just walked over to the fire and sat down. Then I dug into my gear which had been dropped there and got out my cup. Reaching for the pot, I poured coffee.

  "All right, Cap'n," I said, "you tell me about it. Why are you arresting me?"

  "You are under arrest for murder. You are under arrest for the murder of Billy Higgins."

  "Higgins?"

  "We found his body out on the Yuma road. He had been shot in the head."

  "Among other things," I said, "the Apaches wounded him, and then they shot him full of splinters." "But you killed him."

  "That's right, I did." Carefully, with several men standing about, I told him what had happened that day. Some of it I'd told him before, back in the Shoo-Fly when he told me about Kahtenny.

  "He begged me to shoot him. Under the same situation I'd have done the same, more than likely."

  "Perhaps." Lewiston looked hard at me. "Sackett, is it not true that your family feuded for years with a family named Higgins? That you hunted each other and killed each other on sight?"

  "That was over years ago," I said. "Anyway, I ain't been back in that country since the war. As for this Higgins, I never gave it no thought. It's been a good while since I've had any cause to think of it."

  "Nevertheless, Billy Higgins is dead, killed by your bullet. I have to warn you, Sackett, the story is out, and there's considerable feeling in Tucson. Higgins had friends there."

  "But I tell you, I -- "

  "Don't tell me. Tell the jury." He walked away from me, and I sat there by the fire, a-staring into it. I'd run a long way. I'd fought some hard fights. I'd stood off the Apaches and the Haddens, and now here I was, arrested for a crime that was no crime, but a crime they could hang me for.

  And there was only one person in Tucson likely to know about that old Higgins-Sackett feud.

  Laura Sackett ...

  Chapter 18

  You can take it from me that no jail cell is a place for a mountain boy. I was raised up where folks looked to the hills, only up where we came from you hadn't chance to look much higher, we were that near the top of the ridge.

  This cell they put me into had one small window, too small for me to crawl out of, and a door that was as barred as could be. When I heard that door clang shut I wasn't at all happy. Only thing I knew, I was going to catch up on my sleep, and at least I could eat. And right about that time I was hungry enough to eat an old saddle, stirrups and all.

  Captain Lewiston was my first visitor. He came early in the morning, and brought a chair into the cell with him. He also brought the company clerk.

  "Sackett," he began, "I want you to give me the whole story, in your own words.

  I want to help you if I can. Right now the people are divided. Some want to hang you for killing Billy Higgins, and some want to give you a medal for saving those youngsters."

  So I gave it to him. How the bunch of us, unknown to each other until then, had banded together to ride to Tucson.

  The story of our fight with Kahtenny's Apaches I repeated for him, as I'd told him the whole story before, except the part about me killing Billy Higgins, which I didn't like to think on. Then I told him about my meeting with Laura Sackett, and her story of the lost boy.

  "This much I have learned since your departure," Lewiston said. "Laura Sackett was divorced from your brother, and your brothers and her father had been deadly enemies."

  "If I ever heard of that, I'd forgotten. We Sacketts were never much on talking of troubles when we were together. It never does any good to go worrying your thoughts about things gone by."

  "I approached her last night about your story," Captain Lewiston said. "She denies ever mentioning a child to you, or giving you any cause to ride into Mexico."

  I just looked at him. It was no use to say she was lying, although she surely was.

  "As a matter of fact, she says you ran away to Mexico for fear somebody would discover you had taken advantage of an Apache attack to kill Higgins."

  "Those boys I was with knew better. Why else would they come with me?"

  "I am afraid that won't help you at all. I believe you told me that they are dead."

  "I buried Rocca with my own hands. Spanish Murphy was finished off by the Haddens. By their own say-so. John J.... well, I guess he never made it that far."

  "You have no witnesses then?"

  "No, sir. Nary a one. You see, Cap'n, none of those men saw it anyway. When I shot Billy Higgins there was just him and me. Nobody was close enough to hear what was said."

  Well, we talked a while, and he asked a sight of questions, but after that neither of us had much hope. That feud was ten years out of my mind when I met those men in Yuma, and the name Higgins meant nothing at all to me.

  So here I was in jail, and Laura Sackett, who'd been the cause of the deaths of at least three good men, was walking free.

  After the captain left I sat on my cot and stared at the blank wall, trying to see my way clear, but nothing came to me
, so finally, tired as I still was, I rolled over on the cot and went to sleep.

  When I opened my eyes again it was nigh on to sundown and the jailer was at the door. "Lady to see you," he said.

  "All right." I got up, staggering with sleep and trying to get my bearings. This would be Dorset, I figured. Only it wasn't. It was the last person in the world I expected -- Laura Sackett.

  She turned to the jailer. "May I talk with my brother-in-law alone?"

  When the jailer had gone, she turned those big blue eyes on me.

  "I never expected you to get back," she told me coolly, "but I am glad you did.

  Now I can see you hang, with my own eyes."

  "Now that isn't what you'd call neighborly," I said, determined not to let her get any more satisfaction than I could help.

  "I only wish Orrin could be here to see you hang," she said, staring at me. "And Tyrel ... I hated him the most."

  "Maybe that's because you couldn't fool him," I said. "But ma'am, do you really want to see me hang that much? I never did you any harm. Never even saw you until I came up the trail from Yuma."

  "I want to see you hang, and I will. I only wish I could see Orrin's face when he gets the news."

  "Maybe you will see him," I said. "Orrin's a right good lawyer. If he can be free of his duties that long, I'll maybe get him to defend me in court."

  She did not like that. Orrin was a mighty impressive figure of a man, and he could talk. He had the Welsh gift for talking, and she knew how persuasive he could be.

  "He'll never get here. If you send for him I'll get Arch Hadden to kill him."

  "Arch? So that's why he was in Mexico, a-hunting me? I wondered how he knew we'd be there, when we were so all-fired careful that nobody knew."

  "Yes, I sent them after you. And I'll send Arch after Orrin, if he comes here."

  "So Arch is in town, is he?" That was something to consider, and of a sudden those prison walls began to seem as if they were crowding in on me. Arch Hadden would know I was in jail, and he would come for me. I glanced at that high-up window, and was suddenly glad it was so small and so high up.

  "Send for Orrin. I would like that. I will have him killed." As she spoke it seemed to me there was something in those blue eyes that looked mighty like insanity.

  "You mistake Orrin. He won't kill easy, and Arch Hadden never saw the day he could draw with Orrin."

  I was talking to the wind. She didn't hear me and would have paid it no mind if she had, for I knew she had no such idea as them drawing against each other. She meant a rifle from a hilltop at some stage stop, or something of that kind.

  After she had gone I studied about it a mite, and then called the jailer.

  "You get word to Cap'n Lewiston, will you? I got to see him."

  "Sure." The jailer eyed me thoughtfully. "Did you really shoot that Higgins feller?"

  "If you were lying out in the glare of the sun, and you were gut-shot and dying and the Apaches were shooting flaming slivers of pitch into your hide, wouldn't you ask to be shot?"

  "That the way it was? I heerd he was an enemy of yourn."

  So I explained about the old Higgjns-Sackett feud. And I said again, "But I haven't given thought to that fight in ten years, Besides, when a man's hunkered down on a ridge alone, and the Apaches are around him, do you think he'd waste a shot to kill a man the Indians were sure to get?"

  "No, sir, I surely don't," he said.

  He went away then, and I was alone until the door opened and Dorset came in. She was carrying a plate all covered over. "The lady over at the Shoo-Fly sent this," she said. She lifted her chin defensively. "I didn't have any money or I'd have brought something for you."

  "You've done enough. How about you and your sister? Have you got a place to stay?"

  "With the Creeds. They'll be coming to thank you. Dan Creed said he'd bust you out of here if you wanted."

  "I'll stay. Maybe I'm a fool, but no Sackett aside from Nolan ever rode in flight from the law."

  We talked for a spell, and then she left. The jailer returned, but he'd not seen hide nor hair of Captain Lewiston. Lieutenant Davis had been walking out with Laura Sackett, so he had avoided them.

  Alone again, I did some right serious thinking. Tampico Rocca and Spanish Murphy were dead. Battles probably was, but even had they been alive there was nothing any of them could tell that would speak for me, because when I shot Higgins I was alone. I'd been a fool to mention it to Laura, but it lay heavy on my mind, and at the time I figured her for family.

  What really stood against me was that I'd shot a man who carried the name of a family against which my family had feuded. The man had been wounded several times before, but there was only my say-so that the Indians had done it. The pitch-pine slivers was Apache work, nobody denied that. But the way the talk was going made it seem as if I'd taken advantage of Apache trouble to kill an old enemy, and a thing like that is hard to down.

  Billy Higgins had a sight of friends around Tucson, and nobody there knew me except by name. A good part of the talk going around was carried on by Lieutenant Davis, who believed whatever Laura told him.

  Two days passed slowly, and I just sat on my cot, and played checkers with the jailer. One thing had changed. That jailer never went off and left me alone any more, and he kept the door to the street locked.

  The sheriff was out of town, and wasn't due back for a week, and I began to get the feeling that the quicker they tried me the better. If they didn't hurry, some of those boys outside might be figuring on a necktie party. I began to wish for the high-up country away out yonder, where nobody goes but eagles and mountain sheep. By the wall outside the cell I could see my own outfit -- my saddle, bridle, and saddlebags, my rifle and pistol belt. I wanted a horse between my knees, and a Winchester.

  Dan Creed came to see me. The jailer knew him and admitted him without hesitation. "You'd better let me get you a gun," Creed said when the jailer had gone back to the office. "They're surely figuring on stringing you up. I've talked until I'm blue in the face, but they pay me no mind. They say, 'Sure, he brought your youngsters out of Mexico. You'd speak for him no matter what kind of a coyote he is.' "

  "What else are they saying?"

  "Well, they say they've only your word for it that the Apaches were still there when you shot Higgins. They say when the Injuns pulled out you just figured to be rid of another Higgins."

  Lewiston, who seemed to have been my friend, was gone. Even if I could get word to Orrin and Tyrel, they were too far away to do much good. It began to look to me as if my number was really up.

  In matters such as lynching there's always toughs who are ready for it, and there are always people who don't want to be involved. There are men who would stop such things, but it takes a strong man who will make the attempt. I'd never expected to be on the end of the rope myself, although anybody who packs a gun runs that risk.

  Again night came, and outside I could hear the mutter of voices, and angry talk.

  There was no telling if it would come to more than talk, but lying on that prison cot in the darkness I wasn't willing to bet on it.

  Suddenly, from out of the darkness outside my window, a voice spoke. "We're going to get you, Sackett. We're going to see you hang!" My feet swung to the floor, and I was mad clear through. "Come an' get me, Yellow Belly," I said.

  "I'll know your voice when I hear it. You just come asking, and you'll get it!"

  There was a grate of boots on gravel, and a sound of retreating footsteps.

  Suddenly I realized that I was no longer tired. I'd come to this place physically exhausted, but now I'd had three good days of rest, and I was ready.

  I got up and went to the bars.

  "Jim!" I hailed the jailer. "Come running! I got to see you!"

  There was no answer, and I yelled again.

  There was still no reply. But I heard a mutter of voices.

  The jailer was gone, and they had come for me.

  Chapter 19

/>   Tucson was for the most part a town of law-abiding citizens. I knew that, and so did that crowd out there. The trouble was, would those citizens get here in time to help me? I knew what those men outside wanted most was quiet, but I aimed to see they didn't get it.

  Getting up from my cot, I gave a look around. There was nothing there that would make a weapon except the frame of the cot, which was of half-inch pipe. So I just wrenched the cot clear of the wall, breaking it enough to unscrew two sections of it, one about seven feet long, the other an end piece that was about three feet in length, with an elbow on it.

  Standing both pieces close by, I waited. Outside I could hear somebody by the window, then the door from the outer office opened into the prison section. Men came crowding through, and I could see others in the office.

  I stood up then. "You boys huntin' something?" I spoke careless-like. "If you are, you've come to the wrong place."

  "We're a-goin' to hang you for killin' Billy Higgins."

  "I killed him -- he asked me to. In his place or mine, you'd have done the same."

  I could smell the whiskey on them. This bunch had been drinking to get up the nerve to come after me, but they were tough men nonetheless. I heard somebody fumbling with keys, and knew there was no time to lose.

  "I'm going to tell you once, and that's all," I said. "You boys get out of here, an' get fast."

  They'd come without a light, and it was dark as a pit in there. They hadn't figured they'd need a light to take me out of the cell, and they didn't want to draw any more attention than need be. I was only one man and they were twenty.

  "Look who's givin' orders!" somebody said. "Get that lock open and let's get him out of here!"

  Now, there's a time for talk and a time for action, and I never was much gifted with oratory. I picked up the long pipe, and when I heard them trying to get the key into the lock I gripped that pipe with both hands shoulder high and, holding it tight, I jammed it between the bars. At close quarters and in the dark it was a terrible weapon. The passage outside the cells was narrow and they were packed in tight.

  With all the power that was in me, I jammed that pipe into the crowd beyond the bars. I heard the crunch, then a horrible, choking scream.