I had to make some decisions real fast.
I shook the judge until he finally rattled awake and sat staring at me silently.
“Write that thing.”
He collected himself a moment, and nodded. His hands shivered and shook like one of them belly dancers, but he set to work, and made them wobbly letters and words, while I watched real sharp. Then he eyed me, dipped the nib into the well, and signed the thing. He eyed the clock and added the time to it, and handed it to me.
“They’re coming,” I said.
“Who?”
“Crayfish and his bunch. They’re armed. They got my deputies off somewhere, so I’m holding the fort.”
He sighed. “I’ll talk to them. In your hands is a legal stay of execution, pending a review.”
“The boy ain’t free to go?”
“He might be. But I’m going to see whether Carter Bell sober says the same thing as Carter Bell lit up. Maybe later today.
I sure didn’t know what the old goat was talking about, but it didn’t matter. In a moment, King Bragg’s life would change.
I tucked the stay of execution into my pocket. It felt light as air. It made me feel real light, like a ton of hemp rope was lifted off my shoulders. I’d tell the boy that he was off the hook. It’d all work out. Nippers sure wasn’t gonna let the kid hang now.
I heard the bunch collecting outside the door, and then someone yelled. I knew that voice. It was Plug Parsons, who was probably leading this bunch, while Crayfish hung back a little.
“Open up, Sheriff. Open up, and you won’t get hurt,” Parsons said. “We’ve got some business to do.”
THIRTY-TWO
I turned to the judge. “You stand back, over there,” I said. “I’m going to open that door, and there might be some lead flyin’ through.”
“You’d open up to them?”
“I don’t know what they want. They’re armed and violating my order. No guns in Doubtful this day. And if they’re up to no good, I’ve got to put a stop to it.”
“It’s dangerous,” Nippers said.
I nodded. A man wearing the badge has to put himself in harm’s way now and then. I waited until he shuffled off to one side, over near the jail door, and then I lifted the bar and opened up.
They didn’t have any weapons pointed at me, at least for the moment. But there was plenty of fingers hovering over holsters, and itchy eyes.
There must have been fifteen, twenty of them, all T-Bar men. And Plug Parsons was leading the pack, and standing in front. Crayfish was there, but at the rear, like he wanted to be as safe as he could get. I saw Carter Bell back there some, but most of those fellers were simply T-Bar riders and gunslicks. I thought maybe I knew what they had in mind, which was an early hanging just to make sure it got done, before crowds around the gallows might change things.
I looked the lot over, but it was Plug Parsons who caught my eye. He was standing there, solid as a bull, wide as a beer barrel, and smug as a bridegroom.
“Where is he?” Parsons asked. “We’re going to push this necktie party ahead, just so nothing much goes wrong today. The law won’t mind.”
“There’ll be no hanging today,” I said. “I got a stay of execution right here, signed by Judge Nippers. You fellers go on out to your ranch and call it a day.”
That sure rocked them back on their heels.
“A stay? What are you talking about?” Crayfish yelled.
“There’ll be no execution. There’s new evidence the boy didn’t do it. And that’s what the judge is going to be looking at. Now go home. You’re all violating my order. No guns in Doubtful today. So get out, before I get a little pissed off.”
They sure were taking their time absorbing that, but I wasn’t seeing anyone turn around and walk away, neither.
“What evidence?” Crayfish yelled.
“That’s for the judge to look over. But there’s a witness sprung up.”
Carter Bell looked pretty solemn, but he wasn’t shaking in his boots neither. Still, Crayfish had three lying witnesses: Bell, Parsons, and my friend Sammy Upward, the sneakin’ bastard that slid them knockout drops into the boy’s booze. I looked for him in that mob, but he wasn’t there. This was all T-Bar men.
Things seemed to teeter like that for a moment, and I thought maybe they’d pull out, but then Axel Nippers himself showed up beside me, huffing and puffing and trying to control the shakes from a hard night of sipping.
“Here now,” he bellowed. “You quit this place. There’ll be no hanging on this day. I’ve heard new evidence and I’ve issued a court order. I’m holding a hearing in my chambers in one hour, and I want every witness who testified at the trial there. That includes Parsons there, and Bell there, and you fetch Upward too. I’ll expect you there, and I’m going to be asking some questions and you’d better be giving me the right answers, or you’ll be facing the music.”
