shoulder, 'Tell me, mister. Where you planning to go after you-?'
'Well now! What's this I see?'
'Sir?' Matthew returned to the room, his stomach cold.
'As I live and breathe! A Ringo Kid book! They all got the same gaudy covers.'
'You read the Ringo Kid?'
'Time hangs heavy when you're locked up in a stinking punishment hole. A man'll read just about anything.' He tossed the book aside and stretched out on Matthew's bed, dangling his boots over the edge and tipping his hat down over his eyes. 'I've read more'n forty books a year for twenty years. A thousand books!'
'You were in prison for twenty years?'
'Give or take. Not all at one stretch, of course. I used to take little vacations. Just to break up the monotony, you know. But my prison years are behind me. I'm out for good, and the world better practice trembling!' He laughed as he scratched his nose with his thumb.
'How'd you get all those books in prison?'
'The screws gave 'em to me,' Lieder said, his hat still over his eyes. 'They gave 'em to me because of my warm and winning manner, and also because they were scared of what I might do to them. Sugar 'n spice. That's how to handle people, boy. Keep them off balance with sugar and spice. Sweet and smiling one minute, and the next thing they know you're holding the jagged top of a tomato tin to a guard's throat and asking him if he's ever seen the foam and bubbles a man makes when he tries to scream through a slit gullet. That's how I got books. By being the baddest thing those guards ever met. That's the way it works in this world, boy. If you're just a little bad, they beat you and punish you. But if you're huge bad, then they back away in awe and ad-mir-ation. It's the same way with stealing. If you're going to steal, steal big. A man who steals bread for his kids ends up on a chain gang, making big rocks into little rocks. But if you steal big, really big, then you are praised and emulated, like the Rockefellers and the Morgans and the Carnegies of this world. Of course, men like that don't break the law. They make the laws, so their stealing is called 'enterprise' and 'high finance.' When it comes to stealing or being bad, you got to do it big to be respected.' He chuckled. 'But I'll tell you one thing. You won't get much respect reading that Ringo Kid garbage.'
'Garbage?'
'Shit like that will rot your brains, kid.'
'Mr. Anthony Bradford Chumms is the best writer there ever was.'
'Is he the one that pissed out the Ringo Kid books?'
Matthew's jaw tightened. 'Mister, I better tell you that I particularly like the Ringo Kid books, and I really hate to hear anybody bad-mouth them.'
Lieder tipped his hat up with his thumb and looked out from under the brim with a menacing scowl. 'Well now! Is that so?'
Matthew straightened his shoulders. 'Yes, sir, that's so.'
Lieder's scowl flattened into a grin. 'Well, I'll be damned! I will be god-good'n-damned! You remind me of myself when I was your age! You got guts, boy!' He let his hat fall back over his eyes and lay back. 'But I'd sorely hate to see you end up sitting in the middle of the street, trying to hold those guts in with your hands, all because you'd made the mistake of crossing a crazy, vicious old bad-ass like me.' He lifted his hat again and winked.
'I ain't meaning to cross you, sir, but I… well, I don't want to hear any bad things about the Ringo Kid books.'
Lieder's eyes flicked from one of Matthew's eyes to the other. Then he laughed and sat up on the edge of the bed.
Matthew couldn't help glancing down to assure himself that the canvas sack wasn't sticking out, then he turned away, as though still angry, and went back out onto the porch. He could feel a tingle up his spine when Lieder didn't immediately follow him out as he had hoped he would, so he lifted his voice to be heard inside the office. 'You say you're out of prison for good this time. How do you know they won't catch you again?'
'I can't let 'em catch me again,' Lieder said from the bed. 'There's been people killed, so if they get their hands on me… But the forces that brought me to Twenty-Mile won't let 'em catch me. And you know why?' A grunt in his voice revealed that he was rising from the bed. 'Because I have a mission to fulfil. A sacred Mission. Did you ever hear tell of a book called The Revelation of the Forbidden Truth?' He was standing in the doorway behind Matthew.
'No, sir.'
'Now there's a book. It changed my life. It illuminated my path and gave my days a purpose. That book made me-' He stopped short and changed the subject. 'Tell me, boy. Have I met everybody in this fine, prosperous town of yours?'
'I couldn't say. I don't know who you've met.'
'Well, there's you, fine young man that you are, despite reading garbage-whoops, sorry! And there's that all-mouth-no-balls schoolteacher. And the four Swedes down at the boardinghouse. And that Jew over at the store.' He stepped out onto the porch and sat next to Matthew on the step. 'Then there's that snide-mouthed pimp who runs your whorehouse.'
'Mr. Delanny?'
'That's the one. A lunger, from the look of him. And there's his peg-leg helper. And the three holes he keeps for the miners. That's all I've met. Is that the whole town, son?'
'Just about. Except for Professor Murphy. He sells hot baths and shaves to the miners when they come down.'
'Professor Murphy! Well, now! You figure the good Professor keeps any guns?'
Matthew shrugged. 'Beats my two pair. You can ask him yourself when he comes to the hotel for his dinner. He always eats at the hotel.'
'Is that so? You know, I'll bet anything that the Professor is going to insist on turning over his weapons in the cause of peace and public order. And, who knows, he might also insist on heating me up a nice deep bath. Oh my, do you wonder if a long hot soak will feel good? It will feel good. Hey, you know something, kid? I like you. You're smart and you got grit. I took a shine to you right from the first. This sorry excuse for a town ain't no place for a smart kid with grit. You play your cards right, and maybe I'll take you on as one of my apostles. What do you say to that?'
'Well… I don't rightly know…'
'I ain't promising anything, y'hear? But if you keep your eyes and ears open and let me know anything that might interest me and… well, who knows? You just might get a chance to kick the dust of this one-dog town from your heels and follow me into the glittering world of frolic, adventure, and sin! How do you keep yourself, boy?'
'Sir?'
'How do you earn your bed and beans?'
'I help Mr. Kane up to the Mercantile. And do chores for Mr. Stone over to the Livery. And I clean up Professor Murphy's place. And I make breakfast for the folks over at the hotel, and sweep up and stuff.'
'Lord bless and console us, it sounds like you do all the work in this town!'
'You can say that again,' Matthew said with bitterness.
'Well, tomorrow morning you can make three extra breakfasts. Big 'uns! But not too early. It's been a long, long time since my followers had any woman-meat, and do you wonder if we're going to indulge ourselves tonight? We are going to indulge! In-dulge and out-dulge and over-dulge! That's one reason why I'm collecting all the town's hardware. A man ain't his most alert when he's indulging, and I would be sorely embarrassed to have someone kick open a door and catch me in mid-indulge, if you see what I mean. Picture me! Butt-naked and nothing in my hand but my hose! I'd have to point it at the intruder and say, 'Bang-bang, you're dead!' Oh hey, here's a hoot! What if this intruder shot the gun out of my hand!? Whoo-ee! Now wouldn't that sting!' He spluttered with laughter. 'Sting! Sting! Sting! Oooo!' After he caught his breath and wiped tears from his eyes, they continued to sit side by side on the steps, looking across the street toward the mountains without talking. Almost like two friends.
'You know, Mr. Lieder, you're a real scary man.'
'That's true,' he admitted, pressing the last tear out of his eyes with the heel of his hand.
'I'm surprised Mr. Delanny let you stay at the hotel.'
'Oh, he wasn't exactly tickled pink. But his druthers don't matter, because I have chosen him to be my Example Nigger.'
