“I spoke with the judge this morning,” Belmond said. “Bail has been set at twenty dollars each for the four men.”
“Twenty dollars?” Calhoun said. “Bail is set for twenty dollars?”
“For each of them.”
“That’s preposterous!” Calhoun said. “It should be at least five hundred dollars apiece.”
Belmond shook his head. “It’s not your place to set bail. Pay the man, Mr. Clinton.”
Clinton counted out four twenty-dollar gold pieces, then put them on the desk in front of the checkerboard. “Whoever is red has a jump here,” he said, pointing to the board.
“Sheriff Belmond, you know damn well that twenty dollars is not an equitable bail for these men,” Calhoun complained.
“Like I said, it’s not for you to decide. Now, let the men out.”
After a long, angry glare at Belmond, then a surrendering sigh, Calhoun walked to the back of the jail cells. A moment later, he returned with the four men. Two of the men had their left eyes blackened, and swollen shut.
“What happened to you two?” Clinton asked.
“Ask that big son of a bitch,” Clyde said, pointing to Falcon. “He laid his pistol upside my head for no reason, and without warnin’. I wouldn’t be surprised if this wasn’t about the same thing he done to Cletus, if you think about Cletus’s black eyes.”
“Clyde is correct,” Clinton said. “You seen my boy’s eyes, Belmond, you know what they look like. Looks to me like this fella enjoys bullyin’.”
“They were resisting arrest,” Calhoun said.
“Resisting arrest? What does resisting arrest have to do with MacCallister?”
“I made him my deputy,” Calhoun said.
“That’s sort of convenient, isn’t it?” Belmond asked.
“About as convenient as having bail set at twenty dollars, I’d say. Anyway, as I said, they were resisting arrest.”
“We wasn’t doin’ nothin’ of the sort,” one of the other prisoners said.
“You’re the one they call Jesse, aren’t you?” Calhoun asked.
“Yeah, that’s me.”
“Well, Jesse, I say you were resisting arrest, and I have got half the town as witnesses who will swear that you were. So, if you want to take this all the way to court, I’m willing to do so.”
“Shut up, Jesse,” Belmond said. “That goes for the rest of you, too. Don’t say another damn word, or I’ll throw you into jail myself.”
“I was just—” Jesse began.
“You was just nothin’,” Belmond said. Then to Calhoun: “They have now been bailed out of the city jail. That ends your responsibility toward them.”
“Then get them out of here,” Calhoun growled. He looked at the four men and at the smug expressions on their faces.
“I reckon you don’t have as much power as you thought you did, huh?” Bart said to the marshal.
Calhoun held up his index finger. “Here’s how much power I have, sonny,” he said. “If ever I see any of you in my town again, I will throw you in jail again.”
“For what?” Bart asked defiantly.
“For breathing without permission,” Calhoun said pointedly.
“What about our guns and such?” Virgil asked. “You plannin’ on givin’ ’em back to us?”
“They’re hangin’ over there,” Calhoun said, pointing to four pistol belts, handing from nails protruding from the wall.
The four cowboys recovered their guns, then looked over at Ike with huge smiles. “Hey, Mr. Clinton, can we stop by the Hog Waller for a bit before we get back home?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Just get on your horses and get back to the ranch, or leave your horses—they’re mine, remember—and go off on your own. But we ain’t stoppin’ by the Hog Waller.”
Falcon had been quiet during the entire episode, but after Clinton, Belmond, and the four men left, Falcon spoke up.
“You’re going to have trouble with those men,” he said.
Calhoun chuckled. “Hell, I’ve already got trouble with them.”
Falcon shook his head. “No, I mean real trouble.”
“You goin’ to talk or play checkers?” Calhoun asked.
The two men returned to their checker game. Calhoun won that one, Falcon won the second one, and they were on the third set to determine a winner for best two out of three.
