the Empty Land (1969)

by L'amour, Louis

  A few strong men might weld a city government, pass laws, stand firmly behind them, and bring law without gunplay if they moved quickly before things got out of hand.

  But not here not in Confusion. Matt Coburn knew the kind of men along that street, and he knew there was only one way to run this town now. You had to run it with a gun a gun you could use, and they knew you would use.

  Any slight move now, he was thinking, might jar the whole town into an explosive madness. There were a few men who could trigger the movement, and with some of them it might be unintentional. Most of those here wanted to operate lawlessly, but even their lawlessness must function within the pattern.

  "You like this town?" he asked Clyde.

  The Wells Fargo man shrugged. "They come and they go. I've seen a lot of towns, and I'll see a lot more. This is the Discovery town. It belongs to Felton, Cohan, and Zeller."

  "Then tell them to move quick or they've lost it," Matt said. "That bunch down there are ready to blow the lid off. Most of them will be sorry afterwards, but they'll do it."

  Felton and Cohan came along to join them, and Coburn explained about the fighters being recruited. "They've planned to jump the Treasure Vault."

  Newton Clyde lit his cigar. "I am the Wells Fargo man. If you have gold to ship, I will ship it. Wells Fargo does not build towns nor enforce the law . . . except along the stage routes."

  "What would you suggest, Matt?" Cohan asked. "A citizen's committee. Twelve to twenty tough, honest men who will stand their ground and will shoot if need be. Then an ultimatum. If legal action will not work, use lever action, administer your law with Winchesters. Start a local uplift society, and use a rope to do the lifting. I know this crowd, and they understand nothing else."

  "I don't believe that," Felton protested.

  "It's your town," Matt Coburn said. "You can believe what you like. Why don't you just walk down the street and ask Big Thompson why he doesn't behave? Ask him to hang up his guns and get a job."

  Felton flushed, and started to speak, but Coburn ignored him. "How many killings have you had so far?" he asked.

  "Eighteen," Cohan replied, "in thirty-some days. Not all of them right in town, though."

  "And how many robberies?"

  "Who can count them? Most of them aren't even reported."

  "We want no more violence," Felton said stubbornly. "There just has to be another way."

  "Men like Thompson and Gorman yes, and Willard & Kingsbury, for that matter just love people who don't believe in violence. It gives them a free hand because they not only believe in it, they use it. Ask Madge Healy."

  Several of the townsmen had gathered around them, listening. "What would you do, Cohan," Matt Coburn asked, "if somebody tried to jump the Discovery"

  "I'd fight. What else could I do?"

  "Undt me," Zeller rumbled. "I fight also."

  "There you are, Felton. There's two men for your committee." Coburn glanced around at Gage. "How about you?"

  "No," Gage replied stiffly. "Leave me out of it. I have seen these towns come and go. When I can no longer do business, I will leave. Why risk my neck for what will be nothing but a rubbish pile in a few years?"

  "Buckwalter?"

  `There will be another town. I have only one neck." "I'm a fool," Clyde said, "but I'll serve on your committee. Do it just to run that bunch out."

  "No," Felton insisted. "It is not necessary. This will all blow over. It'll settle down."

  Coburn shrugged. "Well, it isn't my affair. I am riding out of town. I delivered your gold, Felton. I will take my money and go."

  Clyde was staring at him, and so were Gage and Buckwalter. Cohan was about to speak, but he kept quiet.

  Felton took five gold coins from his pocket and put them in Coburn's hand. "Thanks, Coburn. You did a good job."

  Matt walked to the livery stable and led out his horse. Dandy Burke joined him. "You aren't going to take the job?"

  "Nobody has offered me the job, and I don't want it.' He picked up his saddle and threw it on the gelding's back. "That's a mean bunch down there, Dandy, maybe the meanest I ever saw. And there isn't much time."

  Across the street the huddle of men watched him. Clyde took the stub of his cigar from his lips and studied it distastefully. "There he goes, gentlemen. The only man who can bring peace to your town. The only man who can hold it together."

  "Nonsense!" Felton spoke sharply. "I started this town, and "

  "And you'll see the finish of it."

  Buckwalter spoke quietly. "I say hire him, Felton. Newt's right. If you don't hire him I am going to close down. I will load up and move out. I'd rather take a small loss then see all I own go up in flames."

  Felton could not believe him. He looked from him to Gage. "Are you serious? You really mean you'd pull out? Why, you've only just got herd"

  "Felton, you haven't been in his country long," Buck-Walter said. "Did you ever hear of Fessenden?"

  "No."

  "Fessenden started off about like this. The mines not as rich, not quite as many people there. They killed two marshals, and nobody else would take the job. For a few days the town got wilder and wilder, and then one night Peggoty Gorman wanted a drink and the bartender was down at the other end of the bar, so Peg walked around the end of the bar and picked up a bottle. Then he tossed another bottle to a pal of his.

  "The bartender saw what was happening and came running down the bar and grabbed at Peg, and Peg hit him across the face with the bottle. When the bartender fell, Peggoty kicked him a few times, and then he began tossing bottles to his friends.

  "I was there," Buckwalter added, "and I just eased toward the door, got out, and went up the street. Most of my stuff had not arrived yet, so I tossed what I had in the back of a buckboard. By the time rd done that the crowd had stripped the first saloon and started on the second. Some of them were ripping a store apart to take what they could; others had started on the dance hall. "I didn't try to get to the main trail I knew I'd be foolish to try. I just started up the slope behind the town on the trail to a claim. I warned the boys there, and drove on to pick up the trail on the ridge beyond. When I looked hack the town was in flames."

  "Why didn't they send for Coburn, if he's all that mighty?"

  "Oh, they sent for him, all right," Buckwalter said. "When he got there the ashes were still smoking. There were a couple of claims starting to work again, but the nearest mill was fifty miles away, and the nearest post office too. Nobody ever came back."

  Felton was silent. Everything within his nature rebelled at the thought of violence, of hiring a gunfighter to clean up the town, his town. There had to be another way. Moreover and he was honest enough to admit it he did not want Matt Coburn in town. Was it because of Laurie Shannon?

  "How about it, Dick?" Cohan suggested. "Shall we try to hire him?"

  "No," Felton said. "I will be the marshal. I will do it myself, and alone."

  They stared at him, disbelief in their eyes, and as they stared they heard the sound of Matt Coburn's horse riding over the ridge, away from town.

  Chapter 12

  Matt Coburn rode into the yard at the Rafter LS, and the first person he saw was Joss Ringgold. The old man nodded. "Howdy, Matt." He straightened up from the bridle he was mending, glancing toward the house. "Heard you had trouble down the trail."

  "Some." Matt swung down and tied his horse. "You boys been doin' any traveling?"

  "None to speak of. Free took him a ride over to Strawb'ry after strays. Didn't find any."

  "Seems unlikely cattle would stray off this range," Coburn commented. "You got good grass, good water." "Scarff rode in." Ringgold seemed to be Just making talk, but be did not know what was in the wind, and he liked Matt Coburn. Besides, he did not want any man shot in the back. "Told us he seen some of our stuff over that away."

  Scarf ... and the last Matt Coburn had heard of Scarf he was riding with Harry Meadows. He was quite sure in his own mind that the rider he had seen streakin
g it for Meadows' hide-out had been Free Dorset, and then he had seen Dorset at Strawberry. There was a pattern there somewhere, if he could only make it out. In any event, it looked as if something was going on between Dorset and Harry Meadows ... and Dorset wasn't seasoned enough for Meadows. So .. . ?

  Laurie Shannon appeared in the doorway. "Matt! I thought I heard your voice. What are you doing over here?"

  He grinned at her. "ridin' the grub line, Laurie. Figured you might have a cup of coffee for a driftin' man." "Surest thing you know. Joss, do you want a cup?" "Maybe later, ma'am."

  "Where's Freer Laurie asked..

  "Over to Horse Heaven, scoutin' grass. Ain't likely he'll be back before sundown."

  Matt sank into his chair, suddenly relieved. He did not want to see Freeman Dorset. He did not want to cope with whatever that young man represented. He simply wanted to rest.

  It was shadowed and cool in the ranch kitchen, and he liked the smell of the coffee, liked to see Laurie moving about. Slowly the tension went out of him. He ripped the coffee and felt his muscles relax. Only here did he feel at ease, only here could he completely let go. Whatever else Laurie Shannon had done, she had built a place of security and comfort.

  "How did you do it?" he asked suddenly. "Build this place, I mean?"

  She held the coffeepot in her hand, gazing out of the window. Then she shrugged a little. "It was what I wanted it is as simple as that. We had a home in Ireland, a lovely place. I never knew until later that we didn't own it ... it was only a tenant's cottage. We came over to the States when I was seven, and we settled in Pennsylvania, where pa worked in a mill. He was a wild Irishman, all right, but underneath he was quite canny. He saved a bit of money, brought us west, and then he worked on the railroad. After a while we went on to Oregon, where we had a farm. Ma died and I kept house for pa and my brothers, and then pa was killed in a logging accident.

  "The farm had come to be worth something, and the cattle too. We sold the farm and split the money amongst us, and I kept forty head for breeding stock. I moved more than once, and then I found this place ... and here I'll stay."

  She sat down opposite him. "Our first cattle were Durhams, then we bought a small herd of longhorns, and by the time I settled here I had some good mixed stock, as you've seen."

  She looked up at him suddenly. "What are you going to do, Matt? Are you going to straighten out their town for them?"

  "No."

  "Is it true that Madge Healy rode to Carson with you?"

  "Yes. There's a big outfit mine speculators who are trying to get some property away from her. Believe me, they picked the wrong girl"

  "What's she like, Matt? Is she beautiful?"

  'There's no doubt about that, I guess. Maybe you'd say she was striking. She's a lady, Laurie, but down inside of her she's tough as whipcord. She'll give them a fight."

  "Are you going to help?"

  "She didn't ask me. She's hired a gunfighter Pike Sides. He's mean, but he's a good man. And he will have to be. The other side are hiring gunmen they mean to make a fight"

  They went on talking until they heard a rider coming. 'That will be Freeman," Laurie said. "I want to talk to him."

  Matt looked up as she rose. "Don't bring me into it. Let it be."

  "I want to know what he's been doing," she said. "There were no strays over toward Strawberry, and I think he knew it By the time he got back he was so obsessed with his own thoughts he had forgotten why he went over there."

  "I know. Forget it"

  The rider came into the yard, swung down, and strode toward the door. His spurs jingled importantly. He rapped lightly, and entered when Laurie answered. Dorset stopped abruptly when he saw Matt Coburn, and his manner changed somewhat. "I come to tell you I'm quittin', ma'am. I got me a gun job."

  "I'll be sorry to see you go," Laurie said. "What do you want with a gun job, as you call it?"

  "Fightin's my business," he replied brusquely. "I've hired out to Ike Fletcher. We've got some gun-fightin' to do, and he's roundin' up all the good men he can get." Dorset turned to Matt. "Surprised he hasn't asked you." "He wouldn't dare," Matt replied quietly. "Ike Fletcher is a claim-jumper, a thief, and a murderer. If I were you, Dorset, rd just forget the whole deal."

  Dorset hooked his thumbs behind his belt. "You wouldn't talk that way to Fletcher," he said. "He's a mighty handy man with a gun." He paused. "As for that, so am L" don't doubt it," Matt replied, "but Ike Fletcher is recruiting men to jump claims that belong to legal owners. In particular, he is after claims belonging to Madge Healy."

  "So? If she can't hold 'em that's her lookout. She ain't nothin' but a "

  "Hold it, Dorset. Don't say another word."

  There was something in Matt Coburn's tone that chilled Dorset. He hesitated. There was a time, a few days ago, when he had worked himself up to a fight with Coburn; but now as he sat here in a quiet room, looking across at Coburn, somehow dominating the silence, Dorset was uneasy.

  Before he could reply, Laurie Shannon came over to him. "Here," she said, dropping coins into his hand, "now you can go, Freeman. And I'd rather you did not come back. I do not like men who hire their guns."

  "What about him?" Dorset snarled, suddenly giving way to anger. His voice raised a pitch. "What about him?"

  "I never hired my gun to anybody but the law," Matt said quietly. "There's a difference, boy. Now, if you won't take my advice and leave the country, stay away from Pike Sides. He'll kill you, Dorset."

  "Fat chancel" Dorset turned on his heel and strode out.

  "Well, I'm short-handed," Laurie said. "I don't need many men for this outfit, but I have to have two or three."

  "I know a man. He's good with a gun, but he's also a first-rate cattleman, and a good, solid man. His name is Tucker Dolan. I'll send him over." Matt paused. "He'll cover as much ground as two of Dorset, and not jingle his spurs so much."

  "Madge Healy, Matt are you in love with her Startled, he looked up at Laurie, then grinned. "I scarcely know the girl. We've seen each other a bit, but I never knew her to speak to until this trip."

  "That doesn't answer the question, Matt."

  "No, I'm not in love with her. I don't think I'm much of a catch for any woman, and Madge has troubles of her own."

  They sat for several minutes in silence. His thoughts kept straying back to Confusion. The town worried him, for he had a deep-seated aversion to destruction, and most of all, to useless vandalism. He knew what would happen over there. They would start as they had in other places with a little robbery and smashing-up, and they would end by setting fire to the town. It made no sense, for they would destroy much that was their own along with the hard work of others.

  He could stop it, he knew. But stopping it would be tough and bloody. They were not men with whom you could reason, for they understood only the law of the fist and the gun. He wanted no more of that and yet somehow he felt responsible.

  "We're all responsible," he said presently to Laurie. "Law and order is a job for all of us. If we shirk it long enough we will have anarchy, and all we've built will be destroyed. It is like building a beautiful building and then turning a lot of wild animals into it and letting them go.

  "This is the old war, the war of civilization against the barbarian; of peacefulness, order, and hard work against the heedless, the cruel, the destructive.

  "There was a time, right at the first, here in Confusion, when a firm hand could have kept the town under control. It's gone too far for that now."

  "Are you going back, Matt?" Laurie asked.

  He looked up at her, smiling wryly. "It's something in me, Laurie. I know I should stay away, but I hate to see it happen. That Felton now he doesn't like me, and I don't care much for him, but he represents something here. He's the new order in this part of the country. He stands for stability, for peace and order. You ought to latch onto him, Laurie. He'll be a big man in the country some day."

  "Look who's telling me!" She laughed at him. "Matt, don't
you remember? I'm wild Irish. I don't want a man who's stable and peaceful.

  I want a wild man." She looked right at him. "Like you, Matt"

  He felt himself flushing. "Me? You couldn't do worse, Laurie. You'd never know when they'd bring me home hung over a saddle.'

  "No? Come back and see me after you've been to Confusion."

  The town was quiet when he rode in. Again be went by the back trails, working around the arid slopes and canyons until he could come in over the top of the ridge to Discovery I. The first thing he saw was Dick Felton with a badge on his shirt.

  Coburn drew up and sat his saddle, looking from Felton's face to the star. "You've got nerve. I'll give you that, Felton."

  'Did you think I was afraid?"

  "McGuinness wasn't afraid, either," Coburn said. "He was a brave man, and he wanted to be a good marshal. There are towns where you might run them the way you want this one run, without guns and without killing. But this isn't one of that kind."

  "We will see about that," Felton said stubbornly. "Do you know Ike Fletcher?"

  Startled, Felton looked up. "What about him?"

  "He's coming in. He's bringing some paid gun-hands with him, and they're going to take over Madge Healy's claims. They're here to run her out of town, out of the state, out of business. Madge Healy has Pike Sides, and I don't know who else."

  Dick Felton stared down at the town, and there was a deep bitterness in him. He wanted this town to amount to something, he wanted it to become a monument to his name, a thing of pride. He resented Matt Coburn and everything he stood for, and yet at this moment he was honest enough to wish he had some of Matt's knowledge.

  He looked up at the man on the horse. "What do I do? I guess it isn't enough just to walk down there with a badge."

  "No, it isn't. Look, Felton, this is a specialized job. Not every man can do it you might be one of them. I'd take a shotgun if I were you. Go down there and tell them the law, and the first one who gives you any back talk or breaks a law, just give him the butt of it in the teeth. If he reaches for a gun ... shoot him."