Louis L'Amour - The Lonely Men

"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.

There was no telling if it would come to more than talk, but lying on that prison cot in the darkness I wasn't willing to bet on it.

Suddenly, from out of the darkness outside my window, a voice spoke. "We're going to get you, Sackett. We're going to see you hang!" My feet swung to the floor, and I was mad clear through. "Come an' get me, Yellow Belly," I said.

"I'll know your voice when I hear it. You just come asking, and you'll get it!"

There was a grate of boots on gravel, and a sound of retreating footsteps.

Suddenly I realized that I was no longer tired. I'd come to this place physically exhausted, but now I'd had three good days of rest, and I was ready.

I got up and went to the bars.

"Jim!" I hailed the jailer. "Come running! I got to see you!"

There was no answer, and I yelled again.

There was still no reply. But I heard a mutter of voices.

The jailer was gone, and they had come for me.

Chapter 19

Tucson was for the most part a town of law-abiding citizens. I knew that, and so did that crowd out there. The trouble was, would those citizens get here in time to help me? I knew what those men outside wanted most was quiet, but I aimed to see they didn't get it.

Getting up from my cot, I gave a look around. There was nothing there that would make a weapon except the frame of the cot, which was of half-inch pipe. So I just wrenched the cot clear of the wall, breaking it enough to unscrew two sections of it, one about seven feet long, the other an end piece that was about three feet in length, with an elbow on it.

Standing both pieces close by, I waited. Outside I could hear somebody by the window, then the door from the outer office opened into the prison section. Men came crowding through, and I could see others in the office.

I stood up then. "You boys huntin' something?" I spoke careless-like. "If you are, you've come to the wrong place."

"We're a-goin' to hang you for killin' Billy Higgins."

"I killed him -- he asked me to. In his place or mine, you'd have done the same."

I could smell the whiskey on them. This bunch had been drinking to get up the nerve to come after me, but they were tough men nonetheless. I heard somebody fumbling with keys, and knew there was no time to lose.

"I'm going to tell you once, and that's all," I said. "You boys get out of here, an' get fast."

They'd come without a light, and it was dark as a pit in there. They hadn't figured they'd need a light to take me out of the cell, and they didn't want to draw any more attention than need be. I was only one man and they were twenty.