Hal, Frank, and Howard began to cheer and shout and jump up and down. I didn’t join them. I was thinking only of Tom. It seemed like a long time before Seth came back to the rim of the cliff and tossed the coiled-up lariat over the edge. Tom grabbed the noose part. He had a little trouble getting it under his armpits on account of the other lariat, but he finally made it. He tightened the noose.
“Haul away!” he shouted as he waved at Seth.
Not until my brother was safe on top did I join Hal, Frank, and Howard in cheering and Jumping up and down with joy. Then we rode to the mouth of the canyon with me riding Dusty and leading Blaze. We arrived a few minutes before Tom and the others got there riding double on Seth’s and Danny’s horses. Parley looked a little pale but he sure didn’t act like a fellow who has just faced death.
“Where’s my coonskin cap?” he asked.
“Boy, oh, boy,” I said with disgust, “if that doesn’t take the cake. Tom just saved your life, and all you’re worrying about is your old coonskin cap.”
“I thanked Tom for saving my life,” he said, “Now
where is it?”
“At the bottom of the cliff where it fell,” I answered. And I’ll be a rooster that lays eggs if Parley didn’t jump
on Blaze and ride up the canyon to get his precious coonskin
cap.
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Danny watched Parley ride away and then looked at Tom. “Parley would be dead instead of worrying about his coonskin cap if it weren’t for you,” he said. “He told Seth and me when we got him on top that you reached him just in time. He said he couldn’t have held on tor more than a few minutes longer.”
We sat on logs talking about the rescue until Parley returned wearing his coonskin cap. He jumped off Blaze,
Tom stood up “We’ve got two things to settle before we start back,” he said. “First, we can’t tell anybody what happened today.”
“Why not?” I asked. “You are a hero and everybody should know it.”
“That would include our parents,” Tom said. “And the parents of every kid in town. And you know what that would mean. They would never let any of their sons come here to play outlaw and posse again, including us.”
We all agreed Tom was right and took an oath never to tell.
Parley pushed his coonskin cap to the back of his head. “Now, that is settled,” he said. “What was the other thing?”
Tom looked at me. “J.D., what time was it when I reached Parley on the cliff?” he asked.
“I looked at the watch like you said,” I told him. “It was ten minutes past two and Howard is my witness.”
Tom then turned to Parley. “The deadline for the posse to catch you was two thirty,” he said. “That means you lost the bet and owe me a dollar.”
“I didn’t bring a dollar with me,” Parley said, “because I was sure the posse wouldn’t catch me. I used that ledge to outwit the posse the other times I was the outlaw and thought I could do it again. I just lay there until the posse went
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farther up the canyon and then climbed down and came back here.”
“We go right by your place on the way home,” Tom said. “You can give me the dollar then.”
When we got to the Benson home Parley went into the house. He came out and handed Tom a silver dollar. Tom and I rode Dusty to our barn. We unsaddled the mustang and gave him a rubdown. It was time to start doing the evening chores when we came out of the barn.
“Know something, J.D.?” Tom said as he took the silver dollar from his pocket and began flipping it up and down in his hand. “This is a very important dollar,”
“Why shouldn’t it be?” 1 asked. “It is the first honest dollar you ever earned in your life.”
“I did work very hard for this dollar,” Tom said. “I think I’ll have it framed.”
I knew why he wanted to frame the dollar. It wasn’t to remind him that he’d saved Parley’s life. It was so when people said The Great Brain had never earned an honest dollar in his life, Tom could show it to them and prove they were wrong.
“Speaking of money,” Tom said as we reached the corral gate, “before we start doing the chores let’s go up to your room so you can pay me the quarter you owe me.”
“Boy, oh, boy,” I said, “you’ve got a lot of nerve asking me for that quarter we bet. If it hadn’t been for me the posse would never have captured the outlaw, and you would have lost a dollar to Parley and a quarter to me.”
“But the posse did capture the outlaw,” Tom said, “which means you owe me twenty-five cents. The trouble with you, J.D., is that you don’t play to win. You could have won the bet very easily.”
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“And just how do you figure that?” I asked.
“If I’d been in your shoes,” Tom said, “I would have pretended I hadn’t seen Parley on the ledge. Then I would have gotten dressed and followed the posse upstream, giving Parley the chance to outwit the posse.”
“But that would be cheating the sheriff and the deputies.” I protested.
“It was only a game,” Tom said. “And when you play any game play it to win and don’t worry about the other fellow.”
I knew right then life was just a game of outwitting the other fellow to The Great Brain. He wouldn’t reform until cows started laying eggs and chickens began having calves. I admit Tom did use his great brain to do good things like solving the train robbery and murder, giving kids a chance to see their first magic show, and saving Parley’s life. But his money-loving heart made him do bad things like swindling the fellows by betting he could ride Chalky and cheating them with his wheel of fortune.
Maybe the good he did with his great brain outweighed the bad he did with his money-loving heart. And maybe not. I don’t know. But one thing I did know for sure was that someday Tom would make the name of Fitzgerald famous. His great brain would make him the savior of his country or his money-loving heart make him the master confidence man of all time. And some day for sure our family would either be visiting Tom in the White House or in prison.
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