It was Ward, and he wasn’t alone. Wash Keogh was with him, and they both looked worn to the bone. “Don’t worry, Wash,” Ward was saying. “They’ll be fed and put up just fine.”
“Talkin’ about the livery?” Jason asked.
Ward nodded, and Jason added, “Yeah, don’t give your mare a second thought, Wash. They know what they’re doin’. I let ’em see to my Cleo all the time. And this,” he said, waving toward Rafe, “is undoubtedly the reason Ward rode out there to fetch you. Wash Keogh, meet Rafe Lynch.”
Rafe took a step forward and held out his hand. Wash looked leery, but he moved forward, too, took it, and gave it a shake. “Can’t say as how I’m pleased to meetcha, Rafe. I don’t know yet.”
“That’s understandable, Wash. I’m real pleased to meet you, though.”
Wash’s face scrunched up. “You are? Why come?”
“Are you kidding?” asked Rafe, incredulously. “Why, you’re famous! I been hearin’ about Wash Keogh this and Wash Keogh that since I was a kid over in California!”
Wash stood up a little straighter, and the dust on his shoulders shifted, cascading to the floor. “Californy, you say?”
Rafe nodded. “Yes, sir! Don’t know how much of it was the truth once it got to us, but if even half of it was right, you’re a whatchacall, a living legend!”
“Imagine that!” Jason said softly—just loud enough to keep the story going and Rafe talking. He figured that Rafe was just shining-on Wash, but it was sure winning Wash over. Even Ward, leaning against the wall, looked a tad awestruck. It was as if he were seeing Wash in a whole new light!
“Imagine that!” Wash echoed, in a rare grammatical moment that lasted that—only a moment. “All the way to Californy! Jason, I’m famouser than I thunk! And wait till you see . . .” He dug down into his pocket. “I found it afore the dust storm kicked up. Ain’t she a beaut?”
He held up the rock, and just the sight of it staggered the other three men. They all stood there for a few moments, not knowing what to say.
And then Rafe said, “Is that for real, or did you have it painted up to fool us?”
Jason punched him in the arm.
But Wash said, “Nope. Found ’er ’bout thirty feet from where I was diggin’, almost took me a piss on it, as a matter’a fact, and I spent the next couple’a days tryin’ to figure out where the hell she come from. Ain’t she a beaut?”
“That she most certainly is, Wash,” Jason said, then tentatively held out his hand. “Can I hold it?”
Carefully, Wash put the turkey egg of a nugget into Jason’s hands. The gold was surprisingly heavy, but felt cool, very cool, to the touch. A few thin veins of milky quartz ran through it, but it was primarily solid gold. Anyway, so far as he could tell. He didn’t know how long he stood there, transfixed by it, but then he heard Wash say, “Jason?”
Reluctantly, he handed it back. “Man!” he said at last. “That’s really somethin’!”
Ward held out his hand next, and like Jason, seemed mesmerized by the huge nugget. And then Rafe broke in, “May I?” and took it from Ward.
“Good Lord,” he said, turning it over in his hands. “This is one more thing to add to your legend, Wash. And something for Jason and Ward to tell their grandkids about, just that they touched it.” He handed it back to Wash. “Seems to me a thing like that ought not be melted down. Ought’a be on display in a museum or somethin’. What do you think, Jason?”
Numbly, Jason felt his head shake no. “Don’t ask me. It ain’t mine.” And then he gave himself a little, shivery shake to bring himself out of it. He stood up straighter and said, “Wash, you’d best get that thing up to the bank and get it put in the safe. And I mean now! There’s people in town who wouldn’t mind guttin’ you for it.”
Everybody looked at Rafe, of course, but Jason said, “Get real, boys. He ain’t wanted for robbery.”
“No, just murder,” Ward added flatly.
“Aren’t you off the clock?” Jason asked.
“I reckon,” Ward answered after a moment, and he looked at Jason as if Jason had lost all sense of reality.
“Don’t worry, Ward,” Jason said with a reassuring smile. “I ain’t lost my marbles. Why don’t you walk Wash on up to the bank, then head on home and get some sleep. You look like you could use it! And tell Megan hello for me?”
Most of the worry drained out of Ward’s face, Jason noticed, and he said, “All right. See you tonight, buddy.”
Ward made his exit with Wash Keogh in tow, and Rafe turned toward Jason. “Don’t suppose we know where Sampson is, do we?”
“Not a clue.” Jason walked back around his desk and slouched down into the chair. He hadn’t noticed before, but his leg was killing him. “Figured I’d take a walk on over to the saloon first, and check it out. I know he was in there last night—well, I suspect that I know—but he hadn’t left before we finished playin’ cards and went to bed.”
Rafe was staring out the window. “Who’s that? Don’t believe I’ve seen him before.” He pointed toward the hitching rail across the street, where a well-dressed, dark-haired man was just dismounting.
Jason shook his head. “Never seen him before. Might be a cardsharp, lookin’ for a game.”
“Maybe. Maybe not.” After a short pause, Rafe, ever impatient, asked, “Were you goin’ across the street?”
Jason hauled himself out of his chair. Some people were worth a lot less than others, and right now, he felt at the bottom of the heap. He limped to the door, grabbed his hat off the rack, and settled it on his head. “I’m goin’,” he announced, and stepped out onto the boardwalk. And immediately realized that he had to piss like a
