Caleb nodded. “Yes, sir, that’s what I’m sayin’ all right. Denbigh know’d that all of you would be in town for the funeral, so he told Meacham to take some men and burn down every house in the valley. So, that’s just exactly what Meacham done.”
The news spread quickly around the grounds, and men began to shout and curse as the women began to weep.
“The sheriff will for sure have to act now,” Dr. Purvis said.
“No, he won’t. You know Hightower as well as I do, and you know that that cowardly son of a bitch will find some reason not to do anything,” Jennings said.
“Well I’m not going to stand around palavering about it,” Killian said. “I’m going to go out and check my house.”
“No, don’t do that,” Matt said.
“What do you mean, don’t do that? Don’t you understand? It’s my house.”
“I know that it is your house, and I know that all of you are probably anxious to go check on your homes, but I’m going to ask you to trust me for awhile,” Matt said. “I want you to stay in town, find someplace for your wives and children to be for the night.”
“What do you mean, stay in town for the night?” Jennings asked. “How do we know you are not in cahoots with Denbigh? He burned our houses while we were in town. Who knows what he might do next?”
“Jennings, do you really think Matt is in an alliance with Denbigh?”
“I don’t know,” Jennings replied. “I don’t know anything about him.”
“Have you seen Butrum around lately?”
“Butrum? No, he’s dead, he …” Jennings paused in mid-sentence, then looked at Matt for a long moment. “Wait a minute. You are the one who killed him, aren’t you?”
“That’s right, he is the one who killed him,” John said, answering for Matt.
“All right, maybe you aren’t in cahoots with Denbigh. But why do you say we should stay in town tonight?” Jennings asked.
“Because I think it is time we did something about Denbigh once and for all,” Matt said. “I want everyonetomeetmeinfrontofMaPerkins’ Boarding House in an hour.”
“Uh-huh, and what do you have in mind? Are you going to plead our case to the sheriff?”
“No,” Matt said. “We aren’t going to need the sheriff for this. We’re going to take care of it ourselves.”
“What do you mean, take care of it ourselves?” Killian asked.
“Just what it sounds like,” Matt said. “For those of you who are willing to do it, we are going to take the fight to Denbigh.”
“Now you’re talking,” Donovan said. “Yes, sir, taking the fight to that son of a bitch is what we should have done a long time ago.”
“Ma Perkins’ Boarding House, one hour from now,” Matt said. “Now, you had better find someplace for the women and children to spend the night.”
“Let me have your attention for a moment!” Reverend Landers called out. “If any of you are unable to find shelter for the night, you are welcome to stay in the church!”
“Thanks, Parson,” someone called back.
“John, come with me,” Matt said as he started walking quickly away from the church grounds. Behind them, all the men had scattered to gather their families and to find shelter for them for the night.
“Matt, I’m all for this taking care of it ourselves,” John said as they walked briskly. “But I can’t help but wonder what happens afterward. There have been vigilante groups before in the Dakota Territory, and the governor has not looked upon them all that favorably. As a matter of fact, he hanged the leader of a vigilante group just six months ago.”
“We won’t be vigilantes,” Matt said.
“What will we be?”
“We’ll be the posse of a United States deputy marshal.”
“How?”
Matt took a star from his shirt pocket, showed it to John, then returned it. “I didn’t know exactly what I was getting into by coming up here,” he said. “So when I came through Denver, I stopped to see a U.S. marshal friend of mine and got myself deputized.”
One hour later, Matt stood on the front porch of the boarding house looking out over those who had answered his call. Lucy had Mrs. Black make a lot of coffee, and now she and Millie Bryce were passing out coffee to the men who were gathered on her front lawn. Kenny protested giving the coffee away free, suggesting that he could make a lot of money selling it, but he backed down when Lucy explained that, in this small way, they were making their own contribution to the fight.
“Gentlemen, I trust that all of you have found a place of shelter for the night,” Matt said. “I want you to get a good night’s sleep, because tomorrow morning we are going out to Prestonshire to arrest Denbigh, Meacham, Wilson, Carver, and anyone else who we find that was involved in killing Curly and Slim and in burning the houses.”
“What do you mean we are going to arrest them?” Byrd said. “How are we going to do that? Not even Tipton can do that.”
“That’s because Tipton is a city marshal,” Matt said. “And we—that is, all of you who will raise your right hand to be deputized—will be deputy U.S. marshals. Our authority has no boundaries.”
“Deputy U.S. marshals. Who are we going to get to deputize us?”
