Old Nippers, he cocked one of them woolly brows and snorted.
“McGuffey Readers, fifth grade,” he said. “Here’s what you do. Read the Territorial Code. Get someone to help you with the big words. Now get that blue bottle back to Upward and apologize to him for poking around in there. And get yourself ready for a hanging, because that’s what’s going to happen in a little while. You understand, Sheriff?”
“I guess you ain’t gonna postpone it any.”
“No, and if you pester me again, I’ll probably speed it up.”
I escaped from there. Them fumes was giving me a headache. It sure was nice outside, where the air was fresh. That reminded me. I hadn’t looked in on Critter for a few days, and I’d better get over there before he had a fit.
He was in his stall at Turk’s livery barn, just like always. When he seen me coming, he kicked the gate. I thought I’d been shot. He put a rear hoof into that wood so loud it sounded like a cannon. Then he did it again, splintering the planks some, by way of greeting me.
“I guess you been missing me,” I said.
He kicked the side of the stall and snorted. Then he kicked again just to make the point.
“I guess I better back you out before you kill me,” I said. I wasn’t going in there when he was feeling a little unhappy. So I opened the stall gate, expecting him to pile out of there, but he just stood there, his ears laid back, his head turned just enough to keep an eye on me. I knew what he wanted. He wanted me to slide in beside him, so he could kill me.
“If you don’t want to come out, I’ll just shut the gate on you,” I said.
He hammered both walls with his hooves, and then reared up and piled his front hooves into the head of the stall, for good measure.
That brought Turk. “Judas Priest,” he said. “Give me a new barn when it’s over.”
“He’s a friendly nag,” I said. “He just takes it personal when he’s penned up.”
“Well, take him somewhere else.”
I turned to the hoss. “Critter, you’re dog food,” I said.
Critter sighed, and backed out quietly.
“It takes some persuading,” I said.
“That horse should be shot,” Turk said. “You owe me.”
Critter yawned. Turk stared, itching to get his knife and slit Critter’s throat, but then he wheeled away.
“Critter, you gotta stop annoying people,” I said.
Critter licked his chops and waited, while I brushed him down and threw a blanket and saddle on him, and bridled him up. The truth of it was, I just wanted to escape town a bit. It was getting so I didn’t want to hang around Doubtful, and maybe a good ride would quiet me down some, and maybe quiet Critter too. I was strung tight as a piano wire, and maybe Critter was reading that in me. He was pretty quick to pick up how I was feeling, and truth to tell, I was so tight-strung that I didn’t know how I’d get through the next two days, and maybe the next week because I didn’t know how I’d feel after dropping that boy, who might or might not be guilty. Truth to tell, I was feeling real bad. I never thought when I took the sheriff job I’d be dropping people off a gallows and my hand would pull the lever that would send them to hell. It didn’t seem the same as meeting someone in a fair fight. It just seemed real bad, and it was gnawing at my gizzard all the time now.
I took Critter up Wyoming Street, and he was so happy he was prancing along. But then Sammy Upward came bounding out, and I reined up.
“Hey, you leaving?”
“Just for some air. This town’s tight as a drum.”
“I got a prowler.”
“A prowler? Something get took?”
“Well, maybe.”
“What’re you missing?”
“Just some stuff—nothing to worry you about. But if you see anyone poking around my bar, let me know quick, eh?”
“You’re missing something, Sammy. I gotta know what it is and what it’s worth.”
“I’m not missing a damned thing,” Upward said. “I just got some suspicions, is all.”
“I can’t look for something I don’t know what it is, or why it was took.”
“Forget it. Just some loose bar stuff.”
“Well, I’ll keep an eye out for loose bar stuff, Sammy.”
“I shouldn’t have bothered. It was nothing,” Upward said, and ducked inside.
Now that was sure saying something to me. He wasn’t owning up to what was missing, and that was real interesting to me.
“Well, Critter, that was like a confession,” I said. “Sammy should’ve just kept his trap shut, but he didn’t think of that.”
Critter, he just yawned, and headed for the open country up the road. He sure was one happy horse. It was a fine June day, not too hot, and he was kicking up his heels and thinking thoughts about mares, but that was all he
