West Of Dodge (Ss) (1996) (2 page)

Jim Rossiter knew how it was with Mike, for Jim had been through it, too. He had fought this same battle, and had, after a fashion, won.

He had punched cows, all right. And for awhile he had driven a freight wagon. For a time he had been marshal of a trail town, but always with a book in his pocket. First it had been Plutarch--how many times had he read it? Then Plato, Thucydides, Shakespeare, and Shelley. The books had been given to him by a drunken remittance man, and he had passed them along to Mike. A drunken Englishman and Jim Rossiter, bearers of the torch. He smiled wryly at the thought.

But he had won. ... He had gone east, had become a lawyer, had practiced there. However, memories of the land he left behind were always with him, the wide vistas, the battlements of the mesas, the vast towers of lonely cloud, the fringing pines . . . and the desert that gave so richly of its colors and its spaces.

So he had come back.

A scholar and a thinker in a land of action. A dreamer in a place of violence. He had returned because he loved the land. He stayed because he loved Magda Lane. That love, he had found, was one of the few things that gave his life any meaning.

And now Lonnie Parker was back.

Lonnie, who had given so much to Magda when she needed it, so much of gaiety and laughter. Lonnie Parker, who rode like a devil and fought like a madman. Lonnie, who could dance and laugh and be gay, and who was weak--that was Magda's word.

Rossiter, who was wise in the ways of women, knew that weakness had its appeal. There was a penalty for seeming strong, for those whose pride made it necessary to carry on as best they could although often lonely or unhappy. No one realized--few would take the time to look closely enough. The weak needed help . . . the strong? They needed nothing.

Sometimes it seemed the price of strength was loneliness and unhappiness . . . and the rewards for weakness were love, tenderness, and compassion.

Now Jim Rossiter stared down the dusty street, saw the bleak faces of the old buildings, lined with the wind etchings of years, saw the far plains and hills beyond, and knew the depths of all that loneliness.

Now that Lonnie was back it would spell the end of everything for him. Yet in a sense it would be a relief. Now the threat was over, the suspense would be gone.

He had never known Lonnie Parker. But he had heard of him. "Lonnie?" they would say, smiling a little. "There's no harm in him. Careless, maybe, but he doesn't mean anything by it."

Rossiter looked around the bare country law office. Three years, and he had come to love it, this quiet place, often too quiet, where he practiced law. He walked back to his desk and sat down. He was supposed to call tonight . . . should he?

Lonnie was back, and Magda had once told him herself, "I'm not sure, Jim. Perhaps I love him. I ... I don't know. I was so alone then, and he understood and he needed me. Maybe that was all it was, but I just don't know."

Jim Rossiter was a tall, quiet man with wide shoulders and narrow hips. He liked people, and he made friends. Returning to the West he had come to this town where he was not known, and had brought a new kind of law with him.

In the past, the law had been an instrument of the big cattleman. The small men could not afford to hire the sort of lawyers who could fight their cases against the big money. Jim Rossiter had taken their cases, and they had paid him, sometimes with cash, sometimes with cattle, sometimes with promises. Occasionally, he lost. More often, he won.

Soon he had cattle of his own, and he ran them on Tom Frisby's place, Frisby being one of the men for whom he had won a case.

Rossiter made enemies, but he also made friends. He rode miles to talk to newcomers; he even took cases out of the county. He was a good listener and his replies were always honest. There had been a mention of him for the legislature when the territory became a state.

He had seen Magda Lane the morning he arrived, and the sight of her had stopped him in the middle of the street.

She had been crossing toward him, a quiet, lovely girl with dark hair and gray-green eyes. She had looked up and seen him there, a tall, young man in a gray suit and black hat. Their eyes met, and Jim Rossiter looked quickly away, then walked on, his mouth dry, his heart pounding.

Even in that small town it was three weeks before they met. Rossiter saw her box handed to a younger girl to smuggle in to the box supper, and had detected the colors of the wrappings. He spent his last four dollars bidding on it, but he won.

They had talked then, and somehow he had found himself telling her of his boyhood, his ambitions, and why he had returned to the West.

Almost a month passed before she told him of Lonnie. It came about easily, a passing mention. Yet he had heard the story before. According to some, Lonnie had held up a stage in a moment of boyish excitement.

"But he didn't mean anything by it," she told him. "He isn't a bad boy."

Later, he was shocked when he discovered that Lonnie had been twenty-seven when he was sent to prison.

But others seemed to agree. Wild, yes . . . but not bad. Not Lonnie. Had a few drinks, maybe, they said. He'd spent most of the money in a poker game.

Only Frisby added a dissenting note. "Maybe he ain't bad," he said testily, "but I had money on that stage. Cost me a season's work so's he could set in that game with George Sprague."

The stolen money, Rossiter learned, had been taken in charge by the stage driver to buy dress goods, household items, and other odds and ends for a dozen of the squatters around Gentry. A boyish prank, some said, but it had cost the losers the few little things they needed most, the things they had saved many nickels and dimes to buy.

Yet, on the evenings when he visited Magda, he thought not at all of Lonnie. He was far away and Magda was here right now. They walked together, rode together. She was a widow--her husband had been killed by Indians after a marriage of only weeks. At a trying time in her life, Lonnie had come along and he had been helpful, considerate.

Now Lonnie was back, and he, Jim Rossiter was to visit Magda that evening.

It was not quite dark when he opened the gate in the white picket fence and started up the walk to the porch. He heard a low murmur of voices, then laughter. He felt his cheeks flush, and for an instant debated turning about. Yet he went on, and his foot was lifted for the first step up the porch when he saw them.

Lonnie was there and Magda was in his arms.

He turned abruptly and started back down the walk.

He heard the door open behind, then Magda called, "Jim! Oh, Jim, no!"

He paused at the gate, his face stiff. "Sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt." He heard Lonnie's low chuckle.

She called again but he did not stop. He walked down the street and out of town, clear to the edge of the mesa. He stood there a long time in the darkness.

Leaving the restaurant at noon the next day, he saw Lonnie Parker, George Sprague, and Ed Blick sitting on the bench near the door. They looked up as he passed, and he had his first good look at Lonnie Parker.

He was tall and pink-cheeked, and had an easy smile. His eyes were bland, too innocent, and when he saw Ros-siter he grinned insultingly. Lonnie wore two guns, and wore them tied down.

Sprague was a cold, silent man who rarely smiled. Ed Blick boasted of a local reputation as a gunman.

"That's him," Blick said. "That's the gent who's been takin' care of your girl for you, Lon."

"Much obliged," Lonnie called out. He turned to Ed Blick. "I seen him last night. He was just leavin'."

His face burning, Rossiter walked on. Mike Hamlin was waiting for him when he reached the office.

"Jim." He got up quickly. "You said when I was fourteen you'd give me a job. I'm fourteen next week and I'd sure like to earn some money."

Rossiter sat down. This had been his idea, and he had talked to Mike's mother about it. If Mike was going to college he would have to begin to save. "All right, Mike," he said, "get on your horse and ride out to Frisby's. Tell him I sent you. Starting tomorrow morning, you're on the payroll at thirty a month."

Thirty a month was more than any boy in Spring Valley was making. A top hand only drew forty! Mike jumped up, full of excitement. "You'll earn it," Jim told him dryly, "and when you show you can handle it, I'll go up to forty." He grinned suddenly. "Now get at it ... and save your money!"

During the week that followed he made no effort to see Magda, and carefully stayed clear of the places where she was most likely to be. He avoided mail time at the post office and began to eat more and more at home. Yet he could not close his ears nor his eyes, and there was talk around. Lonnie was to marry Magda, he heard that twice. He saw them on the street together, heard them laughing. Work was piling up for him and he lost himself in it. And there was trouble around the country. Ed Blick had returned to town from Durango, where he had killed a man.

Lonnie spent most of his time with Sprague and Blick. He had made no effort to rustle a job, but he seemed to have money. Once Jim saw him buying drinks in Kelly's, and he stripped the bills from a large roll.

Rossiter was working late over a brief when Frisby came to his office. He was a solid, hardworking man, but he looked tired now, and he was unshaven.

"Jim," he came to the point at once, "we're losin' cows. Some of yours, some of mine, a few other brands."

During the night Mike Hamlin had heard the sound of hooves. He had gotten out of bed in the bunkhouse and had caught up a horse. There was a smell of dust when he hit the grass country, and at daybreak the boy had found the tracks. At least thirty head had been driven off by four men. "They drove into the brush east of my place. When we tried to follow, somebody shot at us."

East of the Frisby place was a dense thicket of the black chaparral, a thicket that covered twenty square miles, a thorny, ugly growth of brush through which there were few trails, and none of them used except by wild game or strays.

A rider could see no more than a few yards at any time. It was no place to ride with a rifleman waiting for you.

"I'd better get Mike out of there," he said. "I don't want him hurt."

"Don't do it, Jim," Frisby advised. "You'd break his heart. He's might set on provin' himself to you. He sets up night after night with them books, but he figures he's got to earn his money, too. He's makin' a hand, Jim."

Frisby was right, of course. To take the boy off the job would hurt his pride and deprive him of the money he would need if he were going to college. As for the cattle ... Rossiter walked across the street to the sheriff's office.

George Sprague was standing in front of Kelly's smoking a cigar, and Jim was conscious of the man's sudden attention.

He had never liked Sprague, and never had known him. The man always had money, and he gambled, although he never seemed to win big . . . but he always had cash. He disappeared at intervals and would be gone for several days, sometimes a couple of weeks. His companion on these rides was usually Ed Blick. Now it was also Lonnie Parker.

Sheriff Mulcahy was a solid, serious man. A hard worker, intent on his job. "Third complaint this week," he said. "Folks gettin' hit mighty hard. Got any ideas?"

Rossiter hesitated the merest instant. "No," he said, "not yet."

Stepping out of the sheriff's office, he came face to face with Magda Lane.

"Jim!" Her eyes were serious. "What's happened? You haven't been to see me."

"The last time I called," he said quietly, "you seemed rather preoccupied."

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"Jim." She caught his sleeve. "I've wanted to talk to you about that. You made a mistake. You--"

"I think I made my mistake," he said, his voice tightening, "at a box supper. Some time ago." Abruptly he stepped around her and walked on.

A moment later, he was furious with himself. He could have listened . . . maybe there was an explanation. So many things seemed what they were not. Still, what explanation could there be? And it was all over town that she was to marry Lonnie Parker.

Saddling his horse, he rode out of town. The turmoil aroused by seeing her demanded action, and he rode swiftly. He was crossing the plains toward Frisby's when, far and away to the east, beyond the chaparral, he saw a smoke column. He drew up, watching.

The smoke was high and straight. As he watched, the column broke, puffed, then became straight^again.

Smoke signals . . . but the days of the Indian outbreaks were over. He turned in his saddle, and from the ridge back of Gentry he saw another signal. Even as he looked, it died out and was gone. Somebody from town was signaling to somebody out there beyond the chaparral.

Taking a sight on that first signal, he started toward it, passing Frisby's road without turning in.

There was only one reason of which he could think for a smoke signal now. Somebody in town would be sending word to their rustlers that the sheriff had been notified, or that he was riding. Probably the former. He, Rossiter reflected, was only a cow town lawyer, and not a man to be feared.

He rode into Yucca Canyon and followed it north, then climbed the steel dust out of it, skirted the mesa, and headed east again. He was high in the chaparral now, where it thinned out and merged with a scattered growth of ju- niper. Weaving his way through, he was almost to the other side when he came upon the tracks of cattle.