shot Billy Higgins there was just him and me. Nobody was close enough to hear
what was said.”
Well, we talked a while, and he asked a sight of questions, but after that
neither of us had much hope. That feud was ten years out of my mind when I met
those men in Yuma, and the name Higgins meant nothing at all to me.
So here I was in jail, and Laura Sackett, who’d been the cause of the deaths of
at least three good men, was walking free.
After the captain left I sat on my cot and stared at the blank wall, trying to
see my way clear, but nothing came to me, so finally, tired as I still was, I
rolled over on the cot and went to sleep.
When I opened my eyes again it was nigh on to sundown and the jailer was at the
door. “Lady to see you,” he said.
“All right.” I got up, staggering with sleep and trying to get my bearings. This
would be Dorset, I figured. Only it wasn’t. It was the last person in the world
I expected — Laura Sackett.
She turned to the jailer. “May I talk with my brother-in-law alone?”
When the jailer had gone, she turned those big blue eyes on me.
“I never expected you to get back,” she told me coolly, “but I am glad you did.
Now I can see you hang, with my own eyes.”
“Now that isn’t what you’d call neighborly,” I said, determined not to let her
get any more satisfaction than I could help.
“I only wish Orrin could be here to see you hang,” she said, staring at me. “And
Tyrel … I hated him the most.”
“Maybe that’s because you couldn’t fool him,” I said. “But ma’am, do you really
want to see me hang that much? I never did you any harm. Never even saw you
until I came up the trail from Yuma.”
“I want to see you hang, and I will. I only wish I could see Orrin’s face when
he gets the news.”
“Maybe you will see him,” I said. “Orrin’s a right good lawyer. If he can be
free of his duties that long, I’ll maybe get him to defend me in court.”
She did not like that. Orrin was a mighty impressive figure of a man, and he
could talk. He had the Welsh gift for talking, and she knew how persuasive he
could be.
“He’ll never get here. If you send for him I’ll get Arch Hadden to kill him.”
“Arch? So that’s why he was in Mexico, a-hunting me? I wondered how he knew we’d
be there, when we were so all-fired careful that nobody knew.”
“Yes, I sent them after you. And I’ll send Arch after Orrin, if he comes here.”
“So Arch is in town, is he?” That was something to consider, and of a sudden
those prison walls began to seem as if they were crowding in on me. Arch Hadden
would know I was in jail, and he would come for me. I glanced at that high-up
window, and was suddenly glad it was so small and so high up.
“Send for Orrin. I would like that. I will have him killed.” As she spoke it
seemed to me there was something in those blue eyes that looked mighty like
insanity.
“You mistake Orrin. He won’t kill easy, and Arch Hadden never saw the day he
could draw with Orrin.”
I was talking to the wind. She didn’t hear me and would have paid it no mind if
she had, for I knew she had no such idea as them drawing against each other. She
meant a rifle from a hilltop at some stage stop, or something of that kind.
After she had gone I studied about it a mite, and then called the jailer.
“You get word to Cap’n Lewiston, will you? I got to see him.”
“Sure.” The jailer eyed me thoughtfully. “Did you really shoot that Higgins
feller?”
“If you were lying out in the glare of the sun, and you were gut-shot and dying
and the Apaches were shooting flaming slivers of pitch into your hide, wouldn’t
you ask to be shot?”
“That the way it was? I heerd he was an enemy of yourn.”
So I explained about the old Higgjns-Sackett feud. And I said again, “But I
haven’t given thought to that fight in ten years, Besides, when a man’s hunkered
down on a ridge alone, and the Apaches are around him, do you think he’d waste a
shot to kill a man the Indians were sure to get?”
“No, sir, I surely don’t,” he said.
He went away then, and I was alone until the door opened and Dorset came in. She
was carrying a plate all covered over. “The lady over at the Shoo-Fly sent
this,” she said. She lifted her chin defensively. “I didn’t have any money or
I’d have brought something for you.”
“You’ve done enough. How about you and your sister? Have you got a place to
stay?”
“With the Creeds. They’ll be coming to thank you. Dan Creed said he’d bust you
out of here if you wanted.”
“I’ll stay. Maybe I’m a fool, but no Sackett aside from Nolan ever rode in
flight from the law.”
We talked for a spell, and then she left. The jailer returned, but he’d not seen
hide nor hair of Captain Lewiston. Lieutenant Davis had been walking out with
Laura Sackett, so he had avoided them.
Alone again, I did some right serious thinking. Tampico Rocca and Spanish Murphy
were dead. Battles probably was, but even had they been alive there was nothing
any of them could tell that would speak for me, because when I shot Higgins I
was alone. I’d been a fool to mention it to Laura, but it lay heavy on my mind,
and at the time I figured her for family.
What really stood against me was that I’d shot a man who carried the name of a
family against which my family had feuded. The man had been wounded several
times before, but there was only my say-so that the Indians had done it. The
pitch-pine slivers was Apache work, nobody denied that. But the way the talk was
going made it seem as if I’d taken advantage of Apache trouble to kill an old
enemy, and a thing like that is hard to down.
Billy Higgins had a sight of friends around Tucson, and nobody there knew me
except by name. A good part of the talk going around was carried on by
Lieutenant Davis, who believed whatever Laura told him.
Two days passed slowly, and I just sat on my cot, and played checkers with the
jailer. One thing had changed. That jailer never went off and left me alone any
more, and he kept the door to the street locked.
The sheriff was out of town, and wasn’t due back for a week, and I began to get
the feeling that the quicker they tried me the better. If they didn’t hurry,
some of those boys outside might be figuring on a necktie party. I began to wish
for the high-up country away out yonder, where nobody goes but eagles and
mountain sheep. By the wall outside the cell I could see my own outfit — my
saddle, bridle, and saddlebags, my rifle and pistol belt. I wanted a horse
between my knees, and a Winchester.
Dan Creed came to see me. The jailer knew him and admitted him without
hesitation. “You’d better let me get you a gun,” Creed said when the jailer had
gone back to the office. “They’re surely figuring on stringing you up. I’ve
talked until I’m blue in the face, but they pay me no mind. They say, ‘Sure, he
brought your youngsters out of Mexico. You’d speak for him no matter what kind
of a coyote he is.’ ”
“What else are they saying?”
“Well, they say they’ve only your word for it that the Apaches were still there
when you shot Higgins. They say when the Injuns pulled out you just figured to
be rid of another Higgins.”
Lewiston, who seemed to have been my friend, was gone. Even if I could get word
to Orrin and Tyrel, they were too far away to do much good. It began to look to
me as if my number was really up.
In matters such as lynching there’s always toughs who are ready for it, and
there are always people who don’t want to be involved. There are men who would
stop such things, but it takes a strong man who will make the attempt. I’d never
expected to be on the end of the rope myself, although anybody who packs a gun
runs that risk.
Again night came, and outside I could hear the mutter of voices, and angry talk.