Sheriff Tucker

by Laszlo Endrody

  The two dead men had 22 dollars on them. I collected all of the guns and took a shirt off one of them for Moses, as well as a pair of boots. One had an open holster that I took for myself, and a vest that might fit someone. Then we buried the two in the same hole that Martha’s field-hand dug.

  We went back in to town, with the little girl riding behind me on the horse. The colonel saw me coming and came out to enquire about the whole situation. He said that Martha told him that the boy really did not participate in the robbery, he just held the horses.

  “Well, he belongs in jail for a while so he doesn’t end up like his friends,” I said sternly. “Maybe it’ll teach him a lesson.”

  I handed colonel the money. The two horses were still in front of the jail. I took Martha’s little girl, Clara, over to the doctors to see her mother and brother, then over to my house to play with Mary.

  I checked with the grocer and he told me that a farmer was coming for the horses. He told me, “I put this one on the 60-acre list. Even the one dollar is kind of steep right now, but the county is going to need some income from somewhere to pay their new sheriff.” He told me that the grain had been ordered, and that wheat and corn were the same price, so I got half and half. I also got two tons of oats just in case we needed it. I asked him when he needed the money. He told me we had to pay the railroad when we picked it up.

  “We will need some wagons to pick it up. It is about ten miles to the station, but it is a good road. Everybody with horses will have to come and help haul it in,” said the grocer.

  Martha was over at the house when I went home to eat. We all had leftover lamb stew. The two girls were talking, then Mary came in and said, “Didn’t you lose your left hand trying to catch a cannonball, Uncle Dave?”

  “That’s right,” I agreed. “You didn’t want me to catch it with both hands, did you?”

  “No, but instead of trying to catch it, you should have ducked,” she stated and then giggled.

  “How can you be so nice one minute and so deadly the next?” Martha asked her.

  “This war was definitely not my idea. I wanted to be a school teacher,” I told Martha.

  Martha came over and kissed me on the cheek and said, “Thank you for showing up when you did.”

  “I’ll show up again if I get kissed.”

  “Sweet dreams all of you. I am staying at the doctor’s,” Martha told us and left.

  I thought to myself, “Where did this school teacher business come from? Is my memory coming back little by little?”

  The next day was Sunday. I took some food to my prisoner and asked him if he wanted to go to church; he didn’t. He wanted to know what we were going to do with him. I told him that I didn’t know, and it was up to the judge when he arrived.

  “How old are you?” I asked.

  “Fifteen.”

  “Who were those other two?”

  “One is my brother,” the boy said. “He rode with Quantrill in the war.”

  “Did the other one ride with Quantrill too?” I asked.

  “I don’t know.”

  “Anymore in your gang, boy?”

  “They are in Missouri,” he stated.

  The next morning a bearded man rode in leading an extra horse. He rode up and asked me, “Are you the sheriff?”

  “That’s me,” I answered.

  “Are my son’s in jail here or something?”

  “What is your name, mister?”

  “McGregor,” he replied.

  I went over to the door and called in, “Hey boy, is your name McGregor?”

  “Yes, that’s my dad out there.”

  “Would you like to talk to your son, Mr. McGregor?” I asked. “Just leave your guns out here sir and you can go right in and talk to him.”

  “I don’t leave my guns anywhere, Sheriff. What is the bail for my sons?”

  “We only have one son of yours in there and the bail is twenty dollars, sir.”

  “It would be a whole lot cheaper just to shoot you, Sheriff,” he smirked.

  “You know, Mr. McGregor, you are not a foolish young kid. Why don’t you talk to your boy first?”

  “Dad!” the boy cried, “Don’t tackle him, don’t do it, Dad.”

  McGregor was facing me with a shotgun across his saddle. He would have to bring it around to shoot me. Then he moved, my first shot was for his right arm and the second would have been dead center, but it was not needed. His shotgun fell and he grabbed at his arm.

  “Get off that horse, Mr. McGregor!” I shouted.

  Danny was up the street heading towards us. I told him to take all of the saddles out from the jail cell and stack them in the office. As soon as he did that, I disarmed Mr. McGregor and escorted him inside the jail. I told Danny to get the doctor. The doctor came in and went to the cell and looked at his arm.

  “Let’s take off your shirt, Mr. McGregor,” the doctor said. He studied the arm and told McGregor that he would have to take the arm off.

  “Take off what?” McGregor asked in disbelief.

  “Your arm,” the doctor repeated.

  “Danny, unsaddle those horses. Bring the saddles and guns in here,” I instructed.

  I told him to take the horses over to the store so that the law-abiding people could make a living.

  There was a lot of arguing about the arm between McGregor and the doctor, so I went in and told McGregor that losing an arm was not the end of the world. The doctor told him that if he didn’t take the arm off, he would be dead within three weeks. My deputy came in and wanted to know if I needed him. I told him no, but I appreciated his concern.

  “Since you are here, I will have you reload my reload my gun,” I told him.

  McGregor called out for me. I went in and he told me that he had two young beautiful daughters north of town on a wagon, “Could you send someone to tell them to come into town. I want to see them.”

  “John, how about you ride out that way and tell those girls to come in to town,” I ordered. “If you see any men folk around that wagon, come in and get me. Don’t go any closer and don’t take any chances.”

  John saddled up and went out. A half hour later he came back and told me the girls were coming.

  “Thank you, John. You better go, you’ll be here tonight.”

  The girls pulled up with their wagon and came in and I directed them in to their dad’s cell. I left them alone to talk. I went out and looked over their wagon. It was fixed up for the two girls to live in, that was all. The wagon was old but in good shape. They had two good strong horses. I noticed on the wagon tongue that it could be used for a four-in-hand.

  John came and relieved me around suppertime and I went home. I told the girls to take their wagon around the corner and nobody would bother them. No visitors were allowed at the jail at night.

  In the morning, I made coffee and went in to McGregor’s cell and took him in a cup.

  “Do you need something for the pain, old timer? Believe me, I know what you are going through,” I sympathized. “Losing an arm off is not the end of the world.”

  “What do you got against Jeff there?” he asked.

  “Jeff was in the wrong place at the right time with his big brother who sliced off part of a little boy’s finger and then tried to work on the little boy’s mother with his knife. The little boy is over at the doctors now,” I told him.

  He looked disgusted. “Is this true, Jeff?” he asked.

  “It’s true, Dad,” Jeff replied as he looked down at the floor.

  “Jeff, you are going to cut some wood with Dan,” I ordered. “We are going to need wood for the jail. I want to show this town that you are a nice young fellow, so they will turn you loose.”

  “Do as the sheriff says, Jeff,” McGregor advised.

  “Where were you heading, McGregor?” I inquir
ed.

  “Buffalo hunting,” he stated.

  “Is there money in buffalo?”

  “There is money in hides,” he answered.

  Dan came to work and I told him that there was an old dead tree about half a mile down the road on the right. I instructed him to take Jeff with him to cut it down, using the big saw, for firewood.

  “You boys ever cut down a tree?” I asked.

  “Yes,” they answered.

  “I will bring you boys some lunch,” I told them. “Well McGregor, let’s go over to the doctors so we can take care of your arm.”

  We walked over to the doctor’s house and Martha was still there.

  “Martha, why don’t you take your boy over to my place and make yourself at home,” I suggested. “The doctor will be operating on Mr. McGregor here and it will probably be unpleasant.”

  “Alright David,” she replied. She helped her son get his shoes on and they left.

  Shortly after, I left too. I went by the girl’s wagon and told them that their Dad was over at the doctors.

  “Does that doctor know what to do?” asked the little one.

  “Well, he didn’t operate on my arm, but I think he is a good doctor,” I assured her.

  “We hope so,” she said.

  “How would you girls like to do me a favor?” I asked.

  “What do you need?” the older one asked.

  “Take some food out to the boys. They are cutting a tree down for firewood. Then have the boys hobble the horses out there so they can graze.”

  “Alright,” the girls agreed.

  I told them to come over to the house and we would fix up some food. Martha was still there and Mrs. Bailey was in the kitchen fixing something for young Mike and some coffee for Martha.

  I asked Mrs. Bailey, “Would you please feed these pretty girls too? When they’re finished eating, they are going to take some food out to the boys cutting the firewood.”

  Mrs. Bailey told me, “We also needed firewood.”

  “I know, I have Danny working for me and Jeff is cutting for the jail,” I assured her.

  Mrs. Bailey told me that she had to use a smoked loin, and I told her that was fine. Martha asked me if I could lend her a horse and I told her yes. She told me that she was leaving the children with Mrs. Bailey and she was going out to clean up her house and see how her servants were taking care of everything.

  I went over to the jail and got Jeff’s horse and threw a saddle on it. I still could not cinch it up, so I walked the horse over to my house and let Martha do it. The colonel saw us and came over and asked how little Mike was. Martha told him he would be alright.

  “How is your prisoner, Sheriff?” he asked me.

  “One is out cutting wood for the jail and the other is getting his arm cut off. By the way, I am not charging McGregor with anything. He is a highly independent man and just mishandled things. He is paying for it now. I don’t know if Martha wants to charge that boy with anything or not,” I told the colonel.

  “Martha told me he did not do anything,” the colonel said. “How about the horses?”

  “The horses belong to them,” I replied.

  “Two are out at the Wood’s place,” he told me.

  “Let the Wood’s work them until McGregor needs his horses. This one is the boy’s horse, so we will have to give it back to him.”

  “At least we are getting some land plowed in this county. Things are looking up a little bit, Sheriff.”

  “That’s better than not looking up at all.”

  “What will these folks do when the old man is turned loose from the doctor?” the colonel asked.

  “Probably go on their way.”

  Chapter Seven

  I went out to Carl’s place and got another deer for the cobbler and one for us. I went by where the boys were working, and they were all eating. The horses were hobbled and grazing with their harnesses still on, and the traces crossed on their backs. The boys were doing well. I told Jeff that his father was at the doctors and he would be able to see him tonight.

  Carl had two deer hanging. He also had the sheep hide to take in. He told me that when the seed got here he would have to harrow again.

  “How am I going to do that?” Carl asked.

  I told him we would work something out. As my teams freed up, I moved them out to Martha’s. Moses and Martha’s field-hand were doing the plowing. Then the seed arrived, and I hooked up my wagon and sent Moses with the mules to pick up Carl’s wagon. I asked the McGregor girls if we could use their wagon for a couple of days. I got Jeff to drive theirs, and Danny drove my wagon.

  I asked the storekeeper to order all the county horses in with wagons to pick up seed. Carl came in with Moses, so I told Carl to go with Jeff and load all the seed that he needed. Then he would come back and load another for town. I did the same with Moses and sent a load out to Martha’s and the rest to town. I took the money over to the storekeeper and he paid the railroad.

  I just shuttled the grain to town, mostly the corn. Most of the other wagons brought in one load and then took what they figured they needed and went home with it. Finally, all the grain had been delivered or was in the warehouse.

  McGregor was not getting better, so our doctor sent for another doctor to look at him. They told me that McGregor was not going to make it. I invited his older two children over to the house; I wanted to talk to them. All of us had dinner and then I told them that the doctor didn’t think that their dad was going to make it. Somehow his system was off, and he was not getting well. The kids were shocked.

  The next morning, I went out with Jeff and we shot three deer. We loaded two on Jeff’s horse and one on mine and then walked back to town. We dropped one off at the cobbler’s and one at our house and I took one over to the doctor. Jeff skinned it out and cut it up into big chunks and took it up to the doctor’s kitchen. McGregor was awake, so I told him I wanted to talk with him.

  “Jeff, sit here on the other bed, you can talk to the doctor later. But I wanted to talk to you as soon as I could. The doctor tells me that you will not recover. You have this poison in your system that will take your life. What I would like to know is if you have a family where your children can go?”

  “No,” he told me.

  “Besides being sheriff, I have three teams that I keep busy. This country is short on horses and you have two good teams that I could keep busy for you. Your children could move in with me and we could be partners. I have a little girl too, so your younger daughter could go to school with her. I talked to the lady whose boy got cut up by your other son and asked her to drop all charges against Jeff.”

  “Well, this is hard news, Sheriff,” he told me. “I must talk to my oldest daughter to see what she says.”

  “Before I go, I want to give you my word that I would never take advantage of your children in any way and I will be as honest with my business dealings with them as I can be. Should your children want to go off on their own after your oldest is eighteen, I would not stand in their way. Ask for me if you want to talk to me,” I stated.

  “Alright, Sheriff, thank you for your concern.”

  I went back to the house and Mary and Martha’s little girls were at school already. I asked the McGregor girls their names and the oldest one was Elizabeth, they called her Liz; the youngest was Vicky, short for Victoria. I told Vicky to come with me and we would go to the store.

  “How about going to see your dad, Liz?” I asked. “He wants to talk to you.”

  When we got to the store, I bought a set of school books and a comb for Vicky. Then we walked over to the school and went in. Martha was there and she asked, “Who do we have here?”

  “This is Vicky McGregor,” I said. “She will be coming to school here, teacher.”

  I went out to Martha’s to see how the plowing was going, and then
I went out to the Smith’s place and saw that he was seeding winter wheat. The birds were getting a lot of the seed, so I sent Jeff out there with his team and told him to harrow. Every night Jeff came in with his horses and wagon and went to see his dad.

  The two girls were very quiet. Liz was always in the kitchen helping. They slept in Mary’s room and Mary moved in with me. I went to see McGregor and he was very feverish and in a lot of pain. I told the doctor that I would like to talk to him before he left us. Liz went to see him three or four times a day, and Jeff was there every night and every morning. Vicky wanted to see her dad too, so I took her with me and surprisingly his mind was clear.

  McGregor shook hands with me and said, “My kids are your partners. Please take care of them.”

  “I will do my best,” I promised.

  We went to the store and bought enough material for two more dresses and a shirt for Jeff. I rode out to the Smith’s and Jeff was staying up with Carl on the harrowing; one more day and Carl would be finished, same with Jeff. Carl wanted to know what he owed for the harrowing. I asked him how many sheep he would butcher this year yet. He told me probably two or three.

  “How about hides?” I asked. “Can you give me the hides for coats, I have three more kids.”

  “Sure, you will have them before the cold weather,” he assured.

  Chapter Eight

  McGregor died in his sleep Sunday morning. After the services, we buried him. The minister gave a nice talk about hanging up our guns. The children were crying and the whole town was there.

  Other than my big mare, my whole outfit was out at Martha’s. We had the McGregor wagon out there with us. We camped out for a couple of days and shot some deer for food. Martha had her servant girl make a big stew and that was what everybody had; she had milk for the kids.

  Work was going well. I took Martha and the kids to school and we camped out again. The second morning I gave a carbine to Jeff and Danny and we went out looking for deer; we found five grazing in a meadow.