the back.
'Bring those horses up here.' Em said it to no one in particular.
When Dobie and Ned and I led the mounts up, I heard Lloyd ask Em if he should go get our horses. Em shook his head, but didn't say anything.
Lloyd said, 'Shouldn't we be getting out to the stock, Em?'
'We got time. Neal's watching the cows,' Em reminded him. 'The man that was with Butzy spread his holler if there were any others out there. They'd be halfway to Santa Fe by now.'
He turned on Gosh impatiently. 'Come on, get 'em mounted.'
I picked up one of their saddles from the rack and walked up behind Gosh, who was pushing the three men toward the horses.
'Look out, Gosh. Let me get the saddles on before you get in the way. You can't throw 'em on with your arms behind your back.'
Gosh twisted his mouth into a smile and looked past me at Emmett.
There was a wad of tobacco in his cheek that made his thin face lopsided, like a jagged rock with hair on it. He shifted the wad, still smiling, and then spit over to the side.
'You tell him, Em,' he said.
Emmett looked at me with his closed-up, leathery face. He stared hard as if afraid his eyes would waver. 'They don't need the saddles.'
Gosh swatted me playfully with the end of rope in his hand. 'Want me to paint you a picture, Charlie?' He laughed and walked out through the wide entrance.
Gosh didn't have to paint a picture. Ben Templin dropped his cigarette. Lloyd and Ned and Dobie just stared at Emmett, but none of them said anything. Em stood there like a rock and stared back like he was defying anybody to object.
The boys looked away and moved about uncomfortably. They weren't about to go against Emmett Ryan. They were used to doing what they were told because Em was always right, and weren't sure that he wasn't right even now. A hanging isn't an uncommon thing where there is little law. Along the Pecos there was less than little. Still, it didn't rub right--even if Em was following his conscience, it didn't rub right.
I hesitated until the words were in my mouth and I'd have had bit my tongue off to hold them back. 'You setting yourself up as the law?'
It was supposed to have a bite to it, but the words sounded weak and my voice wasn't even.
Emmett said, 'You know what the law is.' He beckoned to the coil of rope Gosh had hung back on the boards. 'That's it right there, Charlie.
You know better than that.' Emmett was talking to himself as well as me, but you didn't remind that hardheaded Irishman of things like that.
'Look, Em. Let's get the law and handle this right.'
'It's black and white, it's two and two, if you steal cows and get caught you hang.'
'Maybe. But it's not up to you to decide. Let's get the law.'
'I've already decided,' was all he said.
The stable hand crept up close to us and waited until there was a pause. 'The deputy ain't here,' the old man said. 'He rode down to Lincoln yesterday morning to join the posse.' He waited for someone to show interest, but no one said a word. 'They're getting a posse up on account of there's word Bill Bonney's at Fort Sumner.'
He stepped back looking proud as could be over his news. I could have kicked his seat flat for what he said.
Gosh came back with two coiled lariats on his arm and a third one in his hands. He was shaping a knot at one end of it.
Earl Roach looked at Gosh, then up to the heavy rafter that crossed above the three horses, then Jack's head went up too.
Gosh spit and grinned at them, forming a loop in the second rope.
'What'd you expect'd happen?'
Jack kept his eyes on the rafter. 'I didn't expect to get caught.' 'Jack's always smiling into the sunshine, ain't he?' Gosh pushed Earl Roach toward his horse. 'Mount up, mister.'
Roach jerked his shoulder away from him. 'I look like a bird to you?
You want me up on that horse, you'll have to put me up.'
'Earl, I'll put you up and help take you down.'
When he got to Butzy and offered him a leg up, Butzy made a funny sound like a whine and started to back away, but Gosh grabbed him by his shirt before he took two steps. Butzy looked over Gosh's bony shoulder, his eyes popping out of his pasty face.
'Em, what you fixin' to do?' His voice went up a notch, and louder.
'What you fixin' to do? You just scarin' us, Em?'
If it was a joke, Butzy didn't want to play the fool, but you could tell by his voice what he was thinking. Em didn't answer him.
Gosh finished knotting the third rope and handed it to Dobie, who looked at it like he'd never seen a lariat before.
Gosh said, 'Make yourself useful and throw that rope over the rafter.'
He went out and brought his horse in and mounted so he could slip the nooses over their heads, but he stood in the stirrups and still couldn't reach the tops of their heads. Emmett told him to get down and ordered Ben Templin to climb up and fix the ropes. Ben did it, but Em had to tell him three times.
Before he jumped down, Ben lighted cigarettes and gave them to Jack and Earl. Butzy was weaving his head around so Ben couldn't get one in his mouth. Just rolling his head around with his eyes closed, moaning.
Gosh looked up at him and laughed out loud. 'You praying, Butzy?' he called out. 'Better pray hard, you ain't got much time,' and kept on laughing.
Ben Templin made a move toward Gosh, but Emmett caught his arm.
'Hold still, Ben.' He looked past him at Gosh. 'You can do what you're doing with your mouth shut.'
Gosh moved behind the horses with the short end of rope in his hand. He edged over behind Earl Roach's horse. 'Age before beauty, I always say.'
Butzy's eyes opened up wide. 'God, Em! Please Em--please-GCo honest to God--I didn't know they was stealing the herd! Swear to God, Em, I thought Perris told Jack to sell the herd. Please, Em--I--let me go and I'll never show my face again. Please--'
'You'll never show it anyway where you're going,' Gosh cracked.
Earl Roach was looking at Butzy with a blank expression. His head turned to Jack, holding his chin up to ease his neck away from the chafe of the rope. 'Who's your friend?'
Jack Ryan's lips, with the cigarette hanging, formed a small smile at Roach. 'Never saw him before in my life.' His young face was paler than usual, you could see it through beard and sunburn, but his voice was slow and even with that little edge of sarcasm it usually carried.
Roach shook his head to drop the ash from his cigarette. 'Beats me where he come from,' he said.
Ben Templin swore in a slow whisper. He mumbled, 'It's a damn waste of good guts.'
Lloyd and Ned and Dobie were looking at the two of them like they couldn't believe their eyes and then seemed to all drop their heads about the same time. Embarrassed. Like they didn't rate to be in the same room with Jack and Earl. I felt it too, but felt a mad coming on along with it.
'Dammit, Em! You're going to wait for the deputy!' I knew I was talking, but it didn't sound like me. 'You're going to wait for the deputy whether you like it or not!'
Emmett just stared back and I felt like running for the door. Emmett stood there alone like a rock you couldn't budge and then Ben Templin was beside him with his hand on Em's arm, but not just resting it there, holding the forearm hard. His other hand was on his pistol butt.
'Charlie's right, Em,' Ben said. 'I'm not sure how you got us this far, or why, but ain't you or God Almighty going to hang those boys by yourself.'
They stood there, those two big men, their faces not a foot apart, not telling a thing by their faces, but you got the feeling if one of them moved the livery would collapse like a twister hit it.
Finally Emmett blinked his eyes, and moved his arm to make Ben let go.
