“He used to call us that, when I was little,” James said. “His little deputies, remember?”
“I remember,” Matthew said. “Ma used to tell him not to even think about it.”
“Well,” Thomas said, “he’s gonna have to think about it now, ’cause we’re all he’s got. And we got a right to avenge Ma’s death, just as much as he has.”
“Even me?” James asked hopefully.
“Even you, James,” Thomas said. “You’re a man growed, just like we are.”
“So what do we do, Thomas?” Matthew asked.
“We go to town,” Thomas said, “and we don’t give Pa a choice.”
“We stand up to him?” Matthew asked.
“That’s what we do.”
“We ain’t never done that before,” James said.
“Well, we’re gonna have to do it now,” Thomas said. “We got to be together on this. Matthew?”
The middle brother took a moment to think, then nodded and said, “Yes.”
“James?”
“Oh, yes,” the younger brother said without hesitation.
“Then let’s go to town, boys.”
The three boys had just pinned on the badges they’d found on top of and inside the desk when their father walked into the office.
“What have we here?” he asked.
“Deputies, Pa,” Thomas said.
“Three of us,” Matthew said.
“We heard what was happening in town,” James said. “You need us, Pa.”
“And we deserve to go along,” Thomas said. “She was our mother. We got a right to avenge her death.”
Dan Shaye studied his three sons. They all stood as tall as he, Matthew even taller and bigger. They all wore guns. He knew that Thomas could shoot. He knew that Matthew’s size and strength made him deadly in a fight. James was nineteen, though. He could not shoot like his older brother, nor could he fight like Matthew. But he had the same rights as the other two boys.
“Pa?” Thomas said.
“My three deputies,” Shaye said. “Your mother would kill me for pinning those badges on you.”
“You didn’t pin ’em on us,” Thomas pointed out.
“We pinned ’em on ourselves,” James added.
“Yeah,” Dan Shaye said, “yeah, you did.”
In truth, Shaye had already decided that his only course of action was to take his sons along, after first deputizing them. They had never gone against another man in a fight, never killed another man, but he had no choice. If he was going to catch up to the Langer gang and make them pay for what they had done to Mary Shaye, he couldn’t go alone.
“You boys have to do what I say, when I say.”
“We will, Pa,” Thomas said.
“Every step of the way,” Shaye added, “no questions asked.”
“We will,” Matthew said.
“James?”
“Yeah, Pa?”
“You’ll have to do the cooking.”
James smiled and said, “Right, Pa.”
Shaye stepped forward and spread his arms wide. The three boys stepped forward and all four embraced briefly, but powerfully.
“Let’s go and get outfitted, then,” Shaye said. “Like somebody just told me, it’s the least this town can do.”
4
The Shaye men spent the rest of the day outfitting themselves with clothing, weapons, food, and horses. In every store they entered they received nothing but cooperation, but no one dared look any of them in the eye.
The clothing they bought had to be good for warm or cold weather, whichever way the trail took them. The food had to be carried between them, because Shaye didn’t want any pack animals slowing them down. Jerky, bacon, and beans would make up their diet for as long as the hunt took.
Shaye allowed the boys to go and buy the clothing and food without him, but he accompanied them to buy weapons and horses. Thomas carried a new Peacemaker and was able to shoot very well with it. Matthew had an old Navy Colt, and James did not have a gun of his own. Shaye obtained for Matthew and James guns identical to their older brother’s, and they all got the newest model Winchester. All four of them got a new horse for the hunt, picked more for stamina than speed. None of the boys complained about leaving their own horses behind.
“The hunt” was what they were calling it. They did not pretend that it was anything but, because when you hunted, it was understood that you intended to kill your prey.
“I want the three of you to understand something,” Shaye said to his sons later that night, when they were in the Red Garter Saloon. Their presence had killed business for the night, since no one wanted to be in the same room with them—not after the funeral and the sheriff’s unsuccessful attempt to gather a posse. The only other people in the place were the bartender and two saloon girls.
“What’s that, Pa?” Matthew asked.
“We’re not going after these men to bring them back,” Shaye said. “We’re going after them to kill them.”
“Won’t that get you in trouble?” James asked. “I mean, you bein’ the law an’ all?”
“It could get us all in trouble,” Shaye admitted. “We’re all representing the law, but more than that, we’re representing the husband and sons of Mary Shaye. In my book, that’s even more important.”
“To us too, Pa,” Thomas assured him.
“You haven’t killed anyone, you haven’t even ever shot at anyone,” Shaye said. “That’s all going to change.”
“We know that, Pa,” Matthew said.
“Are you ready for it?”
“Sure we are,” James said enthusiastically.
“I don’t think you are,” Shaye said, filling four shot glasses with rye from a bottle he was holding, “but by the time we catch up to them, you will be, because you’re all going to get your education on the trail.”
He picked up his glass and his sons emulated him.
“Here’s to the memory of Mary Shaye,” the father said, and the sons lifted their glasses and joined him in downing his toast.
“Now you boys better get off to bed,” Shaye said. “No more drinking tonight. You’ve got to be sharp in the morning.”
“What about you, Pa?” Thomas asked.
“I’ll be along,” Shaye said. “Go on, do as I say.”
Thomas stood and his brother followed his lead. As they went out the door, Shaye poured himself another glass of rye.
Later Dan Shaye stood in the moonlight at his wife’s grave, still holding the bottle.
“I have to take them with me, Mary,” he said to his dead wife, “if only because I don’t know if I’ll be coming back. I sure have a better chance of coming back with them than without them, though, don’t I?”
He took a drink from the bottle and then tossed it away, still half full. He wasn’t foolish enough to get drunk the night before the hunt started.
“I’d swear to God that I’ll try my best to keep them safe, but I’m kind of mad at God right now, so I’ll just give you my promise. I’ll keep them safe, and I’ll kill the murdering bastards who took you from us.”
