In wild country like this a man has no appeal but to that consideration, and when he fights against force and brutality, he must use the weapons he has.
“Take Joe Rugger now. He rode in here with a lot of mighty mean, shiftless folks. He broke with them and came over to us when we were short-handed. He knew when he made that choice that it might be the death of him.
“Ma’am, I’m not an educated man, but I’m trying to make up for it. Thing is, when folks started to live together, a long time ago, they worked out certain laws, like respecting the rights of others, giving folks the benefit of the doubt, sharing the work of the community … that sort of thing. ‘ “Cap and me figured to start a town, and we wanted it to be a good town where there would someday be women-folks walking the streets to and where youngsters could play. And you know something? We’ve got our first citizen. We’ve got Joe Rugger.”
“I never thought of it that way.” She said it grudgingly, and she riled me.
No, ma’am, folks don’t,” I said with considerable “People who live in comfortable, settled towns with law-abiding citizens and a government to protect them, they never think of the men who came first, the ones who went through hell to build something.
“I tell you, ma’am, when my time comes to ride out, I want to see a school over there with a bell in the tower, and a church, and I want to see families dressed up of a Sunday, and a flag flying over there. And if I have to do it with a pistol, I will.
This time I riled her. She walked away stiff-like, and I could see that I’d said the wrong thing.
When I finished my coffee Joe came out to stand guard, and I went back and ate some venison and some sour-dough bread dipped in sorghum molasses.
Cap looked a sight better. His eyes were brighter, and there was color in his faded cheeks. ‘Well, Cap,” I said, “I never had any doubt. You’re too mean and ornery to die like this. Way I figure, you’ll die in a corner just snapping and grabbing and cutting around you. You’ll die with your teeth in somebody if I know you right.
“Now you hurry up and get out of there. Joe and me are getting almighty tired of you laying up while we do all the work.” “How are things?”
“Sober. Looks to me like those folks have started to settle down to think things out. Time I went over and had a talk with them. Time to make a little medicine.” “You be careful.”
“I’m a careful man. Time comes to run, I ain’t afraid to run. When I ride down there this morning, I’m going for a showdown.” “Wish I could go along.”
“You set tight … I think they’ll stand for reasoning now. I plan to get them to sit down and contemplate. And if they can’t cut the mustard that way, they’ll get their walking papers.” “All of them?”
“Shucks, there ain’t no more than forty.”
With my Winchester across my saddle, I rode down. They saw me coming, but I was walking
my horse in plain sight and they waited for me.
With the exception of that fat man who had come with Kitch to our camp, I saw nobody I knew until Ab Warren came outside. He was not wearing a gun.
“You men have moved into a town site staked and claimed by Cap Rountree and myself. You took it on yourselves to occupy building sites we had laid out. You taken our timber. Last night you found out a little of what trouble can be. Now I’ve come down here to arbitrate this matter, and I’m going to do it right here in my saddle.
“When Cap and me moved in here, we had an election. He became mayor and I became town marshal by popular acclamation. It was popular with both of us.
“As Cap is laid up, I’m acting mayor as well as marshal. I am also the town council and the vigilante committee, and any time during these proceedings that anybody wants to challenge my authority, he can have at it. We’re going to have a town here. I think it’s to be a rich town; but rich or poor, it’s going to be law-abiding. Any who aren’t ready to go for that had better saddle up, because until get some constituted authority (I wasn’t real sure what “constituted” meant but it sounded mighty good), I am going to run it with a six-gun,”
“Whoever has occupied that building will move out, starting now. That is to be the general store, ; and Joe Rugger has a lease on it.”
The fat man spoke up. “I’m in that building, and had it built.”
“Who paid for the lumber?
He hesitated, then blustered. “That’s no matter.
found it here and we—” “It belongs to Cap and me. We valued it at one thousand dollars. Pay for it here and now, or get out of the building. As for the work involved, you can charge that up to poor judgment on your part, and know better next time.”
“You can’t get away with that!”
“You’ve got ten minutes to start moving. After that I throw things out—you included.”
Ignoring him, I looked the others over. They were a bunch of toughs for the most part, although here and there were some men that looked likely.
“We’re going to need a saloon—a straight one. And we’re going to need a hotel and an eating house. If any of you want to have a try at it, you’ll get cooperation from us.”
The fat man was the leader, I could see that, but he was red-faced and mad, not sure of how much backing he would get. Several had pulled out already. Kitch and his partner were dead. Ab Warren was here to tell them how that happened.
Suddenly a burly, unshaved man stepped out of the crowd. “I cooked for a railroad construction crew one time. I’d like to handle that eating house.”
“All right, you trim that beard and wash your shirt, and you’ve got thirty days to prove you can cook grub fit to eat. If you can’t, you get somebody who can.”
A slim young fellow who looked pale around the gills, like he hadn’t been west long, spoke up. “I’m a hotel man, and I can also run a saloon. I can run it honest.”
“All right.” With my left hand I took a paper from my shirt front. “Here’s the plan Cap and me laid out. You two study that and choose your sites. When you get your plans made, you draw straws to see who builds first; the other helps, and turn about.”
It was time to settle things with that fat man. Somebody was speaking low to him and I heard the fat man called Murchison.
“Murchison,” I said, “you have about three minutes to get started. And this time I don’t mean cleaning out that building. I mean down the road.”
“Now, look here—”
My horse walked right up to him. “You came in here to ride rough-shod over what you thought was a helpless old man. You showed no respect for the rights of others or the rights of property. You’d be no help to a town. Get on your horse and start traveling.”
Pushing my horse forward another step, I backed Murchison up. The appaloosa stepped right up on the stoop after him.
“I’ll be back,” Murchison said angrily. “The Bigelows are in Silverton.”
“We’ll hold a place for you,” I said, “right along-side of Kitch.”
Ab Warren stayed. Murchison rode from town that morning and about fifteen men rode with him.
There was a Texas Ranger one time who said that there’s no stopping a man who knows he’s in the right and keeps a-coming. Well, I’ve often been wrong, but this time I was right and they had to pay mind to me or bury me, and mine is a breed that dies hard.
In the days that followed, other folks began to drift in. The second week a rider came, and then two wagons. Claims were taken up along the creek and one man drove in about thirty head of sheep which he started feeding along the moutainside. Joe Rugger got his store going, Allison his hotel, which he started in the big gambling tent that had been abandoned. Briggs ran a good eating house. Nothing fancy, but simple food, mighty well-cooked. Aside from beef and beans, he served up bear meat, venison, and elk.
We saw nothing of the Bigelows, but we heard aplenty. Tom and Ira were the two we heard most about. They were suspected of holding up a stage near Silverton. Tom had killed a man in Denver City, and had been in a shooting in Leadville. Ira was a gambler, dividing his time between Silverton and some other boom camps.