“Wait here,” Boggs repeated.
DuPont seethed with anger as he waited outside the ranch office.
A moment later Boggs reappeared. “You can go in now.”
DuPont glared at him, then went into the office where Kennedy and O’Neil waited.
“What was that all about?” DuPont demanded, pointing back toward the door.
“What was what about?” O’Neil asked.
“Having that no-good coyote tell me I had to wait to see you. We’ve been doin’ business a long time ’n I ain’t never had to wait before.”
“Yes, well, our operation has grown considerably larger since we first started,” O’Neil said. “And no doubt, Garrett and I have made many new enemies. Mr. Boggs is looking out for our safety, and it’s more efficient to inform us of every visitor. Please don’t take it as a personal affront.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t like it is all.”
“I’m sure it can be somewhat troublesome, but in the long run, it shouldn’t interfere with our business. Speaking of which, what is the purpose of your visit?”
The angry expression on DuPont’s face fell away to be replaced by a smile. “We done it. We put some Circle Dot cows on Conway’s ranch, just like you said.”
“Good, very good. Now we shall be able to make the charge of cattle rustling against Conway, and if everything works out as it should, we’ll be able to acquire the Spur and Latigo,” O’Neil said.
“Ever since making an ally of Matt Jensen, Conway has been our biggest obstacle. I’ve no doubt but that once we get rid of him, the rest of the valley will fall right into our hands,” Kennedy added.
“We’ll handle it the same way we did with Andrews,” DuPont said.
O’Neil raised his hand. “It’s best that you not give us any information in advance. Do whatever you must do, then tell us afterward.”
DuPont chuckled. “Yeah, I know. Some people just don’t have the stomach for what needs to be done. That’s why you have me.”
“Indeed,” O’Neil said.
DuPont glanced back toward the office door. “What I don’t understand is what you need with him.”
* * *
It didn’t take long to find the ten Circle Dot cows and return them to Circle Dot range by pushing them through the break in the fence.
“This here ain’t no natural break,” Ed said, holding two wires in his hand. “If it had been a natural break, why, there wouldn’t be these here two wires the same length.”
“You’re right, Ed. The wires were cut.”
“What I don’t understand is how come the wires was cut ’n all that happened was some cows got in, but there didn’t no horses get out,” Haverkost said.
“Because the purpose of the cut was to bring the cattle in, not steal horses,” Matt explained.
“What? Why the hell would somebody do somethin’ like that? I mean if rustlers done this, it don’t make no sense to give you cows,” LeRoy said.
“I think we’ll find out soon enough,” Matt said.
* * *
“I’d feel better if you would stay here for a few nights,” Hugh said when Matt returned to report that the Circle Dot cattle had been found and removed. “As a matter of fact, I wish you would give up your room at the hotel and just move in with us until all this is over.”
“I don’t know that I should do that, seeing as I’m now the acting sheriff and I have no deputy.”
“I’ll be your deputy,” LeRoy said.
“Yeah, make LeRoy your deputy,” Jake said. “He’ll be a good one.”
Matt looked at the older of the two newest ranch hands. “LeRoy, do you have any experience?”
“Yes sir, I done me some deputyin’ up in Buckhorn, Dakota,” LeRoy said.
Matt smiled. “All right. LeRoy, raise your right hand.”
LeRoy did as asked.
“Do you swear to do as good a job as you can?” Matt asked.
“Yeah.” LeRoy chuckled. “Is that it?”
“It’s good enough for me,” Matt replied.
The others headed to the bunkhouse
“He’s asleep,” Lisa said a moment later, coming back into the keeping room.
Only Matt remained. “I expect that, right now, that’s probably the best thing for him.”
“Would you like a piece of apple pie? I baked it for Hugh, but . . . this happened,” she added in a tight voice.
“Yes, that would be nice. Thank you.”
Through the open door, Matt watched Lisa cutting two pieces of pie, then pouring two cups of coffee. He got up and walked into the kitchen. “You can’t carry all that by yourself. Let me help.” He reached for the cup, and his hand came in contact with hers.
She had a quick intake of breath, and jerked her hand back.
“Sorry,” Matt said.
“No, don’t be silly. You didn’t do anything. It’s just that—” She didn’t finish her sentence.
“Lisa, are you going to be all right with me staying out here for a while?”
“Yes, of course. I . . . why shouldn’t I be all right?”
“It’s just this thing that has come up between us.”
“Nothing can happen,” she said quickly. “Nothing must happen.”
“Nothing will happen. I promise you.”
Lisa’s eyes filmed over with tears. “I don’t know what this is. I love Hugh. Oh, Matt, I love him with all my heart. I don’t think I realized how much I did love him until this happened to him.”
Matt took her hand in his, and she didn’t fight him. “I don’t know what it is, either”—he smiled at her—“but I have no doubt that we will be able to deal with it in such a way that neither of us will ever feel shame.”
“Yes,” Lisa said, returning his smile. “Yes, I know we can.”
Chapter Thirty-four
Matt and Lisa had just finished their pie and coffee when they heard the sound of approaching horses.
“Who is that, do you suppose?” Lisa asked.
“I don’t know, but I’m sure we’re about to find out.”
The sound of the hoofbeats stopped just outside the door.
“Conway!” a voice shouted in the night. “Conway, you cattle-rustlin’ lowlife! Get out here!”
When Matt looked through the window, he saw four riders. Two of them were carrying flaming torches, which allowed him to identify them all. He had seen them most recently in court, facing the charge of lynching. Pulling his pistol, he stepped out onto the front porch.
“What do you want, Greene?”
“What . . . what are you doin’ here?” Greene asked, startled by the unexpected appearance of Matt Jensen.
“I think I had better ask you the same thing,” Matt said. “What are you doing here?”
“I’ll tell you what we’re doin’ here. We just happened to be ridin’ by, ’n damn if we didn’t see ten
Circle Dot cows right here on this ranch. And in case you don’t know it, Mr. Kennedy ’n Mr. O’Neil own the Circle Dot now. Them cows bein’ here on this ranch means that Conway musta stoled them. And bein’ as we’re railroad detectives ’n tryin’ to protect people like Mr. Kennedy ’n Mr. O’Neil from bein’ rustled, we’ve come here to uphold the law.”
“You just happened to be out for a ride at ten o’clock at night?”
“Yeah, we was just out for a ride ’n we happened to see them ten cows, like I said.”
“That’s very interesting because earlier today there were ten Circle Dot cows here, so we took them back. I thought perhaps they had just wandered onto the property, which they could have done because the fence had clearly been cut. How is it that you know the exact number of cows that were here, even though they haven’t been here since early this afternoon? Do you think it might be because you and your friends put the cows here?”
“Now why we would do somethin’ like that?” Greene asked.
“You did it so you would have a reason to lynch Hugh Conway just like you lynched Jim
Andrews and his wife.”
“They warn’t really married, so she warn’t really his wife. Anyhow, what we done wasn’t no actual lynchin’. You was in the courtroom same as me, ’n you heard what the judge said. He said there warn’t no lynchin’.”
“According to the witness I talked to, you, Walter Toone, Asa Carter, and the Mason brothers put a rope around Jim and Mary Ella’s necks, tied the other end to a tree limb, then pushed them off a rock. If that isn’t lynching, what would you call it?”
“That . . . that ain’t the way it was,” Greene stammered.
“Oh, I’m pretty sure that is the way it was. And now you are all here, the same bunch of you. Well, that is, all of you except for Asa Carter. He isn’t here because I killed him. I also killed Shardeen, and I killed the three so-called railroad detectives who murdered Dusty and Harley Mack and burned the Pollard family’s house.”
“Why are you tellin’ me ’bout all the people you’ve kilt?” Greene asked.
“I’m telling you this so you will know I’m serious when I tell you I’m about to kill all of you.”
“You ought to learn to count,” Moe Greene said with a confident smirk. “They’s four of us ’n only one of you.”
“Wrong!” a strong voice said from the darkness near the bunkhouse. “There are four of us, too, ’n none of us have our hands full carrying a torch.”
The expression on Moe Greene’s face turned from confidence to fear, and he looked back toward the sound of the voice. There he saw Sanders, Patterson, and Haverkost, the three of them faintly illuminated by the bubble of golden light projected by the flaming torches. All three were holding guns in their hands.
“Uh, well, if it’s true that there ain’t none o’ them cows here now, then I reckon it could be that maybe we have made a mistake,” Greene said, his voice tight with fear.
“Leave, now,” Matt said as he cocked his pistol. The double metallic click was loud in the night.
“We’re a-goin, we’re a-goin’,” Greene said, holding out his hand as if by that action he could push Matt away. “Come on, fellas. We, uh, might have made a mistake here.”
The four riders turned and began to ride away.
“You might want to see how fast you can get out of gun range,” Matt called out, and the four horses broke into a gallop.
Laughing, Sanders, Patterson, and Haverkost went over to join Matt, just as Lisa stepped out of the house.
“Where’s Gabe?” Matt asked.
“He’s back in the bunkhouse. We figured since nobody is supposed to know anything about him yet, it would be best if we kept him out of sight,” Leroy said.
“Good idea,” Matt agreed.
“You don’t think they will be back, do you?” Lisa asked anxiously.
“Not hardly,” LeRoy said with a little laugh. “I think we put the fear of the devil in ’em.”
“Yeah, I think we did, too,” Ed said. “But I also think it might be a good idea for one of us to stay awake all night, just to make sure they don’t come back.”
“Oh, would you do that, Mr. Sanders?” Lisa asked. “Thank you. I would be ever so grateful.”
“Gentlemen, I think the fun is over for the night,” Matt said.
“I reckon so,” Ed said, then he laughed. “They sure as hell skedaddled when you told ’em to get out o’ gun range.”
Ed and the other two men started toward the bunkhouse as Matt and Lisa went back into the main house.
“Good night,” she said. Barely waiting long enough for his reply, and avoiding any physical contact, even if it was accidental, she hurried quickly into the bedroom where Hugh, blissfully unware of the entire encounter, was sound asleep.
Matt, who had brought his bedroll in, lay it out on the floor and within minutes was asleep.
Rongis
The next morning, Matt rode into town, where he stopped by the newspaper office to visit with Art Walhausen.
“What you should do is ask Judge Briggs to issue an injunction,” Art said.
“A what?”
“It’s a court order that would prevent any of the Regulators from coming onto Hugh Conway’s property.”
“The same judge who let those murderers go, and who levied a postmortem tax on the Circle Dot so that Kennedy and O’Neil could steal the ranch? Is that the judge you’re talking about? Art, you and I both know that Briggs isn’t likely to do that, and even if he did do it, it wouldn’t stop them. Briggs’s court is a joke.”
“I know, but in this case we aren’t appealing to Briggs’s court as much as we are to the court of public opinion.” Art smiled. “And in the court of public opinion, I am the judge.”
* * *
“Why should I issue such an injunction?” Judge Briggs said in reaction to Matt’s request. “The purpose of the Regulators is to provide all the ranchers protection against stock rustling, and in order to do so, they must have freedom of motion. Your request is denied.”
“All right,” Art said with a smile as they left Briggs’s office. “Now my court will be in session.”
Two days later, Art’s “court of public opinion” was convened by way of an article that appeared in the Gazette.
Regulators Make Late-Night Visit
To the Spur and Latigo Ranch
WOULD-BE LYNCH MOB TURNED AWAY
BY ACTING SHERIFF MATT JENSEN
Two days ago the same men who lynched Mr. and Mrs. Jim Andrews paid a visit to the Spur and Latigo Ranch. The expressed purpose of their visit was to hold Mr. Hugh Conway to account for the alleged theft of ten Circle Dot cows. But when they arrived at the ranch and made their spurious accusation, they learned that there were no such cows on the ranch.
However, while there were no cows present at the ranch when they arrived, there had been ten cows on the ranch earlier. Those cows had been discovered by Mr. Conway, who, in his attempt to turn them away from his ranch, was shot from ambuscade.
Later, even in the pain and shock of having been shot, Hugh Conway, showing the type of person he is, directed his hands to return the errant cattle to the Circle Dot range. As circumstances developed, however, the cattle weren’t on the range as the result of innocent wandering, but had been put there as an act of perfidy.
Moe Greene, Walter Toone, and John and Lem Mason arrived at the ranch in the middle of the night, attempting to justify their nocturnal visit by making the claim that ten Circle Dot cows were on Spur and Latigo range. There is no doubt but that the cattle were “seeded.” In other words, the cattle were put onto Mr. Conway’s land for the express purpose of giving Greene and those with him the excuse to bring out the lynch ropes just as they did on their earlier visit to the Andrews home.
To the benefit of the Conway family, and for the good of all decent people everywhere, Greene and his outlaws, for there is no other way to describe them, were met by Acting Sheriff Matt Jensen, Deputy Sheriff LeRoy Patterson, and good citizens Ed Sanders and Jake Haverkost. Any idea that these evil people had of repeating the crime of lynching innocent people was thereby thwarted.
In his capacity as acting sheriff, Matt Jensen petitioned Judge John Briggs to issue an injunction that would prevent Moe Green and his associates from trespassing upon the property of innocent ranchers, but the judge refused to do so.
Judge Briggs must learn that he is a servant of all the people, not just the wealthy few who can afford to influence his decisions.
“Yes, of course I read your article,” Cheatum said to Walhausen. “Everyone in town read it, and it’s all anyone wants to talk about.”
Art, Travis Poindexter, Ernest Dean Fawcett, and Frank Edmonston were in the Pair O’ Dice, and Cheatum had come over to their table to join them.
“What I’m wonderin’,” Poindexter said, “is when is the snake in the grass goin’ to close your paper down?”
“He can’t close it down,” Ernest Dean Fawcett said.
“What do you mean, he can’t close it down? He’s a judge, ain’t he? I reckon
he can close it if he wants to,” Poindexter said.
“The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution says that Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of the press,” Art said.
“What does abridging mean?” Poindexter asked.
“It means I can print whatever I want, and neither Judge Briggs nor anyone else can do a thing about it.”
“Damn! That’s great!” Edmonston said. “I wonder when they come up with that!”
“They came up with it in 1787, when the Constitution was written,” Art said.
While he was lecturing the others in the Pair O’ Dice saloon on how the constitutional right of freedom of the press limited what Judge Briggs could do about the newspaper article, Matt was in the office of the very man they were discussing.
“I’m going to find out who shot Hugh Conway, and bring him or them in and put them in jail. When I do this, I will have your support, won’t I, Judge?”
“You are the acting sheriff, Mr. Jensen,” Judge Briggs said. “You bring the suspect in, and if there is enough evidence to indict, we will hold a trial.”
“Like the last trial?” Matt asked.
Judge Briggs shook his head. “If you are talking about the hearing that was held with regard to the alleged lynching, I’m sure you know that wasn’t a trial. If you recall, there was insufficient evidence to bring about an indictment.”
“Oh, yes, I remember that there wasn’t even a trial,” Matt said. “Believe me, I do remember.”
“My hands were tied, Mr. Jensen. There are certain restrictions and impositions that put restraints upon my ability to act.”
“And who puts those restrictions on you, Judge? Is it DuPont? Or is it Kennedy and O’Neil?”
“Mr. Jensen, you are bordering on contempt,” Briggs said.
“I’m just bordering on contempt? Damn. I thought I had done better than border on contempt.”
Briggs was still fuming when Matt left his office.
Chapter Thirty-five
“Hello, Matt, I was hoping you would show up,” Art Walhausen said when Matt stepped into the Pair O’ Dice after leaving Judge Briggs’s office.
Die with the Outlaws Page 24
