“Damn!” Albert said, looking at his boss. “How come we miss all the fun, Mills?”
Mills was dabbing horse liniment on yesterday’s jaw bruise and ignored the question.
“You know, Smoke,” Hugh said. “You really can’t keep those men chained up to that tree.”
“Why?” Smoke asked, scratching the little dog behind the ears.
“Because they’re human beings and as such, have basic rights accorded them by the Constitution.”
Mills smiled. He’d already gone over that with Smoke. He would have gotten better results by conversing with a mule.
“Greeny didn’t think much of the rights of those people he killed up in Canada, Hugh. Lebert didn’t give a damn for the rights of those women he kidnapped and raped. Augie didn’t have anybody’s rights in mind when he tortured a man to death.” Smoke held up several wire replies. “It’s all right there. Deputies will be coming for Lebert and Augie. Royal Canadian Mounted Police will be here for Greeny. And I’m going to hang the punk back yonder in the cell.”
“I ain’t done nothin’!” the kid squalled. “You ain’t gonna hang me!”
“Oh, yes, I am, kid. I say you were the one who
killed that poor man back up the trail. I say you was the one who raped and killed those poor little girls. And that’s what I got you charged with. You’re gonna hang, punk.”
Winston started to protest. Smoke held up his hand. The cell area was behind and to the right of the main office, and the kid could not see what was going on, only hear, exactly how Smoke had planned it.
“Ever seen a hanging, kid?” Smoke called.
“No!”
“It’s a sight to behold, boy. Sometimes the neck don’t break, and the victim just dangles there while he chokes to death. Eyes bug out, tongue pooches out and turns black . . .”
“Shut up, damn you!”
“. .. Fellow just twists there in the breeze. Sometimes it takes five minutes for him to die . . .”
“Darmn you, shut up!” the kid screamed.
“Awful ugly sight to see. Plumb disgusting. And smelly, too. Victim usually looses all control of himself . . .”
The kid rattled the barred door. “Let me out of here!” he yelled.
“. . . Terrible sight to see. just awful. Sometimes they put a hood on the victim—I’ll be sure and request one for you—and when they take that hood off—once the man’s dead—his face is all swole up and black as a piece of coal.”
“Jensen?” the kid called, in a voice choked with tears.
“What do you want, kid?”
“I’ll make a deal with you.”
Smoke winked at Mills and the others. “What kind of a deal, kid?”
“I know lots of things.”
“What things?”
“We got to deal first.”
“You don’t have much of a position to deal from, boy. Your trial is coming up in a couple of days. The jury’s already picked. And they’re eager to convict. Folks around here haven’t seen a good hanging in a year or more. Gonna be dinner on the grounds on the day you swing. Did you hear that hammering a while ago?”
“Yeah.” The kid blew his nose on a dirty rag.
“What was all that racket?”
“Fellows building a gallows, boy. That’s where you’re going to swing.”
“I told you I’d deal!” His voice was very shaky.
“Start dealing, boy. You don’t have long.”
“Don’t let Greeny and Lebert and Augie know nothin’ about his, Marshal.”
“You have my word on that.”
“I’m ready when you are.”
Smoke looked at Mills. “He’s all yours, Mills. You wanted it legal, you got it legal.” He smiled. “This time.”
“Needless to say, we won’t tell the kid that hammering and sawing was a man building a new outhouse.”
“He might not see the humor in it.”
“Get your pad and pen, Winston,” Mills said. “Let’s see what the kid has to say.”
In exchange for escaping the hangman’s noose and that short drop that culminated in an abrupt and fatal halt, the kid—his name was Walter Parsons—had quite a lot to say. He said he didn’t know nothin’ about Lee Slater and Luttie Charles bein’ related, but they was close friends . . . or so Lee had said. But the gang was hidin’ out on Seven Slash range. East of the ranch house and south of the Alamosa River. Wild country. They was plannin’ to rob the miners and the stages carryin’ gold and silver and Luttie was goin’ to handle the gettin’ rid of the boodle end of it.
How many in the gang?
The kid reckoned they was about fifty or sixty. He didn’t rightly know since they wasn’t camped all together. But it was a big gang.
How many people had the kid robbed and raped and murdered?
Bunches. Used to be fun, but now it was sort of borin’. All them people did was blubber and slobber and beg and cry and carry on somethin’ awful. It was a relief just to shoot them in the head to shut them up.
“Disgusting!” Mills said, tossing the signed confession onto Smoke’s desk. “I have never in my life heard of such depravity as that which came out of Parsons’ mouth.”
“You relaxing your stand on hanging now, Mills?” Smoke asked.
He received a dirty look, but Mills chose not to respond to the question.
“What are you doing to do with the kid?”
Mills shook his head. “I don’t know. I can’t allow the return of that vicious little thug back to a free society. That would be a grave injustice. The judge is going to have to decide that issue.”
“He’s never going to change.”
“I know that,” Mills said. “It’s a dreadful time we live in, Smoke.”
“It’s going to get worse, Mills. Count on it. Now, then, what about Luttie?”
“We can’t move against him on just the word of a common hoodlum. We’ve got to have some proof that he is, indeed, a part of this conspiracy. How about Greeny and Lebert and Augie? Have they agreed to talk?”
“You have to be kidding. Those are hardened criminals. They’ll go to the grave with their mouths closed. They’re not going to assist the hangman in their own executions.”
“When will the deputies and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police come for them?”
“They said as soon as possible. Probably in a week or so.”
“I’ve got to move the kid out of here and up to Sheriff Silva’s jail. For safekeeping.”
“All right. Why not do that now and as soon as the kid is gone, I’ll pull those three scumbags in from the tree.”
“I would hate for a supervisor to ride by and see them chained out there,” Winston said.
Smoke shook his head. “I’ll be sure to take them some tea and cookies the first chance I get.”
At Smoke’s insistence Mills sent four of his men out early the next morning, taking the kid to the county seat and to a better and more secure jail. They would be gone at least three days and possibly four.
Smoke took down all the sawed off double-barreled shotguns from the rack and passed them around. “Clean them up, boys, and load them up. Don’t ever be too far away from one.”
“Are you expecting trouble?” Mills asked. “From whom and why?”
“Yes, I’m expecting trouble. From whom? Either Lee Slater or his brother . . .”
“His assumed brother,” Mills corrected. “Yes. I see. They could not want the three we have here talking and implicating either of them. Now I see why you insisted on sending more men than I thought necessary to the county seat with Parsons. I thank you for your insistence, Smoke. Parsons would be the more likely of the four to crack—as he did.”
Smoke nodded his agreement as he loaded up the sawed-off with buckshot.
