Louis L'Amour - The Lonely Men

He turned back to me. "Sackett, I regret to inform you that you are under arrest."

Me, I just looked at him. "For crossing the border? Cap'n, Laura Sackett told me her son had been taken by the Apaches."

"She has no son!" Davis spoke sharply. "Sackett, that's a damned -- "

Lewiston's voice cracked like a whip. "Lieutenant!"

Davis stopped, his face flushed. "I tell you, Captain, this man is -- "

"Silence! Lieutenant Davis, I suggest you inspect the guard. Whatever needs to be said to Mr. Sackett, I will say."

Davis turned on his heel and stalked away. "Forgive him, Sackett. He's young and I'm afraid he's smitten by Laura Sackett. He is very proud, and he feels he must defend her honor."

"Let him defend it, Cap'n, but keep him away from me. Him being new to the country I might not shoot him, but I am afraid if he said what he started to say he'd be shy a good many teeth."

"There will be no fighting. You seem to have forgotten, Sackett. You are under arrest."

Well, I just walked over to the fire and sat down. Then I dug into my gear which had been dropped there and got out my cup. Reaching for the pot, I poured coffee.

"All right, Cap'n," I said, "you tell me about it. Why are you arresting me?"

"You are under arrest for murder. You are under arrest for the murder of Billy Higgins."

"Higgins?"

"We found his body out on the Yuma road. He had been shot in the head."

"Among other things," I said, "the Apaches wounded him, and then they shot him full of splinters." "But you killed him."

"That's right, I did." Carefully, with several men standing about, I told him what had happened that day. Some of it I'd told him before, back in the Shoo-Fly when he told me about Kahtenny.

"He begged me to shoot him. Under the same situation I'd have done the same, more than likely."

"Perhaps." Lewiston looked hard at me. "Sackett, is it not true that your family feuded for years with a family named Higgins? That you hunted each other and killed each other on sight?"

"That was over years ago," I said. "Anyway, I ain't been back in that country since the war. As for this Higgins, I never gave it no thought. It's been a good while since I've had any cause to think of it."

"Nevertheless, Billy Higgins is dead, killed by your bullet. I have to warn you, Sackett, the story is out, and there's considerable feeling in Tucson. Higgins had friends there."

"But I tell you, I -- "

"Don't tell me. Tell the jury." He walked away from me, and I sat there by the fire, a-staring into it. I'd run a long way. I'd fought some hard fights. I'd stood off the Apaches and the Haddens, and now here I was, arrested for a crime that was no crime, but a crime they could hang me for.

And there was only one person in Tucson likely to know about that old Higgins-Sackett feud.

Laura Sackett ...

Chapter 18

You can take it from me that no jail cell is a place for a mountain boy. I was raised up where folks looked to the hills, only up where we came from you hadn't chance to look much higher, we were that near the top of the ridge.

This cell they put me into had one small window, too small for me to crawl out of, and a door that was as barred as could be. When I heard that door clang shut I wasn't at all happy. Only thing I knew, I was going to catch up on my sleep, and at least I could eat. And right about that time I was hungry enough to eat an old saddle, stirrups and all.

Captain Lewiston was my first visitor. He came early in the morning, and brought a chair into the cell with him. He also brought the company clerk.

"Sackett," he began, "I want you to give me the whole story, in your own words.

I want to help you if I can. Right now the people are divided. Some want to hang you for killing Billy Higgins, and some want to give you a medal for saving those youngsters."

So I gave it to him. How the bunch of us, unknown to each other until then, had banded together to ride to Tucson.

The story of our fight with Kahtenny's Apaches I repeated for him, as I'd told him the whole story before, except the part about me killing Billy Higgins, which I didn't like to think on. Then I told him about my meeting with Laura Sackett, and her story of the lost boy.

"This much I have learned since your departure," Lewiston said. "Laura Sackett was divorced from your brother, and your brothers and her father had been deadly enemies."

"If I ever heard of that, I'd forgotten. We Sacketts were never much on talking of troubles when we were together. It never does any good to go worrying your thoughts about things gone by."

"I approached her last night about your story," Captain Lewiston said. "She denies ever mentioning a child to you, or giving you any cause to ride into Mexico."

I just looked at him. It was no use to say she was lying, although she surely was.

"As a matter of fact, she says you ran away to Mexico for fear somebody would discover you had taken advantage of an Apache attack to kill Higgins."

"Those boys I was with knew better. Why else would they come with me?"

"I am afraid that won't help you at all. I believe you told me that they are dead."

"I buried Rocca with my own hands. Spanish Murphy was finished off by the Haddens. By their own say-so. John J.... well, I guess he never made it that far."

"You have no witnesses then?"

"No, sir. Nary a one. You see, Cap'n, none of those men saw it anyway. When I 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."