Leonard said, “Let’s just lay in a bit taday, so long as things are covered downstairs. Got some things I want ta show ya. Then maybe when the Marshal comes fer his evein’ meal you could show him up here so’s we can talk a bit before our little trip”. He was finishing up his breakfast and had taken on a serious tone after indulging himself in the meal.
“Why Leonard James, I thought ya were only speakin’ with me these days”, Lily said with an exaggerated drawl.
“For the most part ma dear lady, but I been thinkin’ an I really need ta speak with him fer his own good. I guess ya could say it’s been buggin’ me.”
“Oh, that reminds me”, Lily said as if she had forgotten something important. “He has a question for you too. Wanted me ta ask ya this mornin’”.
Leo looked at her and said, “Well since I need ta talk ta him, we might as well let him ask it himself”. Lily looked a bit put off by this, but she didn’t understand that questions asked by a law man could easily be lost in translation. The way the words were spoke, the expression on their faces and every “hmm” and “I see” could mean something. He had no idea what the Marshal was wanting, but he just assumed to find out from the horses mouth. “It’s nothing against you darling’,” he said. “Just figured you an’ I had better ways ta spend our time, an’ like I said, I’ll be getting ta know him a bit better later”.
Lily looked at him with a crafty smile and replied, “I’m sure ya got things figured just right Sugar. So what was it ya’ll wanted ta show me?”
“Well, as ya know” Leonard spoke, “Yer gonna be here holdin’ yer own fer a spell. I wanna make sure yer prepared as best as can be. Bring over that side ba side an let’s see how ya load it.” This isn’t what Lily had expected, but did as he asked. She picked up the old shotgun and held it straight out then broke the barrels toward the floor over her wrist. “That’ll do ya fine fer shootin crows, but not when yer in trouble,” he said. “And there ain’t many crows around here.” He then showed her a quicker method of clearing the barrels and reloading. “Practice that when ya get bored,” he smiled and handed it back.
“Now ta another thing,” he went on, “I would have had another pistol ta give ya, but I gave it ta another man just outside this town. At the old busted up livery back aways”.
Lily listened close now and asked, “Who, why?”.
“When we met I was in a bad way. He had every chance ta rob me, kill me er turn me in. He didn’t do any of that. He looked desperate himself an just watched over me through the night, all I’d done fer him was give him a smoke. I have no idea where he was headed but he knows my name.” Lily looked at him, not sure of where Leonard was headed with this. “What’s important is that you keep an eye out fer a man carrying a brass Confederate issue pistol. He looks like…” Then Leonard recounted what he remembered he saw the night in the old stable outside of town. “Now don’t go dropping ma name ta every new stranger that comes ta town, fer God sake please, but if ya see a man who fits the description, tell him you’re waitin’ on me and tell him I haven’t fergot the promise I made him swear when I gave him that gun.”
Lily nodded. Again she asked, “Why?”
“Cause if it turns out I’m a bad judge of character, those words should keep ya safe until I get back.” Then he smiled at her and added, “He’s lookin’ fer a horse”.
Lily smiled back and said, “But he’s got no money”. This was not a question. She was sharp.
The rest of the day floated by in that dreamy way some days do. Leonard forgot about his impending meeting with Cyrus for the time being and Lily Lockwood forgot about her new responsibilities. She knew just how to handle the wounded man while making him feel like a whole man none the less. Nobody bothered them. At last they watched evening fall over the desert sky out the double hung sash that was positioned next to the bed.
“ I imagine your new friend will be about soon looking for his supper,” Lily finally said.
“Yes, I s’pose he will,” Leo responded, “Better prepare ta greet him”.
Lily raised herself from the down mattress and said quietly, “Thank you Leonard James”.
He was already thinking about just what to tell the Marshall.
Not long after, he couldn’t be sure how long, Lily peeped into the door and said, “Leo you have a visitor”. Leonard motioned with his hand and Lily opened the door wide and let Cyrus in. “Have ta check on things downstairs”, she said. “You two have a nice talk”. And then she was gone leaving the men alone.
Leonard had gone over his speech in his head several times. He even had considered placing his pistol under the sheets, but he knew the tin star was sharp enough to notice the empty rig on the night stand. He also knew that this town was behind the new owner of the Grey Goose, and anyone who did anything that hurt her in any way would never make it out alive. Leonard hated being so cynical but it was second nature by now. “Evenin’ Marshal” he said.
“How ya feelin’?” Cyrus asked.
“Fit as a fiddle, I got the strings ta prove it.” Leonard gently patted his left hip, “but we need ta talk before we go off on any grand adventure”
Cyrus said, “That’s what the lady was sayin’. Said it sounded like you were worried about me”. The old lawman smirked when he said this.
Leonard came back at him with, “It just seems fair fer me ta give ya some details that might make a difference out there”.
“I thought you didn’t like to tell stories, son.”
“Some who want me will have no problem with you at all, so we don’t need ta talk about them. Some, on the other hand, won’t care who you are if we should cross paths. Before I start, I’d like ta know what it is that you wanted ta ask me”.
“Oh,” Cyrus said, “she didn’t already tell you? I thought maybe she would have mentioned it”.
“She was going ta, but I figured since we had other matters, I’d hear it from you. She’s got enough on her mind right now.”
“Well it’s fairly simple,” the Marshal said. “ A man here in town tipped me off that the men we shot were coming back here. I offered him a reward if it was true. It was. I would have left if it hadn’t been for him. He is due one hundred dollars for steering me right. I don’t have any reason for coming back here, and thought you might and was wondering…”.
“You was wonderin’ if I’d bring this man his money”.
“Well yes, that’s the long and short of it”, Cyrus replied. “He’s an end of the line drunk and not fit for travel. If Lily trusts you, he’ll trust you. His name is Arthur Trent, I’ll introduce you before we leave, he’s not hard to find”.
“OK,” Leonard said. “Guess it’s perty clear I have every intention a comin’ back here. I’ll do it so long as you take what I have ta tell ya about me an don’t ask about anything else. Also, if need be, ya use that badge a yers ta keep me outta trouble”.
“So you are wanted?” Cyrus asked. “I haven’t seen any posters with your face on them.”
“Not so far as I know, but that’s the part I’m gonna leave out, ‘cause like I said, it won’t cause you any trouble other than having ta collect the whole reward yerself. The reason I wanted ta talk ta ya has ta do with other folks I may have gotten a little riled along my trip out west. I’m not talkin’ about lawmen with posters, I’m talkin’ about some very bad men.”
The Marshall was now showing genuine interest. “Go ahead Leo. It seems you have my well being at heart.”
Leonard started, “Ya ever hear of kid called Max Ryemoor from back in the plains? Featured himself a bounty hunter?”
Cyrus thought and said, “I heard a story once, thought it was a joke. The kid was an amature and caused enough trouble that a group of professionals got together to put a price on him to get him out of the way. Trouble was no one thought he was worth more than two dollars,” the Marshall laughed at this. “Last I heard, something happened to him and he went off his rocker. I guess he hasn’t been much trouble since.”
“I happened ta him” Leonard said. “And if he ever gets his mind right again, I’ll be the first person he goes after,” Leonard held up his left hand palm out and touched his thumb to his middle finger about half way down. “Ya ever see a scar like this?”. He then used his right hand to point out another scar two thirds the way up his palm, “Or this?” Leonard then closed his left fist and Cyrus could see that the two marks would be perfectly lined up in this position.
“It looks like you grabbed a hold of something very hot, but it also looks like there was some other damage as well. What is it?”
“Marshall, it’s a reminder of the luckiest day of ma life. One of them things that never should have happened. A story usually not worth tellin’ cause nobody but little kids would believe it. Max was the only witness an’ it turned him inta a raving loon. I figgued that when he ran off the first thing he’d do was get religion. I certainly was tempted to.”
“Go on,” Cyrus said.
“Well we run inta each other somewhere before the desert. I was havin’ a rest an’ I saw him ride up. Thought maybe I was on his land. Trails out there aren’t marked very well. I didn’t want ta get him excited so I stood up ta greet him. He had a rifle and it was already pointed at me. He stopped about ten yards away an I put ma hands up an tried ta smile. He didn’t. He said he had an idea of who I was an that he was gonna take me in ta find out fer sure. I told him he was makin’ a mistake an he said that I was the one makin’ the mistake. Said I should be worth just as much dead as alive. Said the town he was takin’ me to wouldn’t fuss none if he had the wrong man so long as he didn’t expect them ta deal with me. He woulda kept my things an dumped me out in the prairie fer whatever critters were hungry.” Leonard paused a moment and studied the scars on his hand.
“That’s when it happened. I had no choices. Max had me point blank an his finger on the trigger. All I had was the idea that if he missed I could gun him down before he could reload. That er a misfire, but there was nothing else ta hope for.” He looked at Marshall now instead of his hand. “So I reached. He fired the rifle instantly. Without even knowin’ it I did this,” and Leonard made a side sweeping motion with his left hand as if he were swatting a fly. “Instead of ma chest caving in, ma arm was yanked back and took the rest of me with it. I went ass over tea kettle an ended up laid down on ma face. Ma hand hurt so bad, I almost wished I was dead. He came over and rolled me with his boot. I looked at him an he seemed confused. He was expectin’ a hole that weren’t there. That’s when I forced the fingers of this hand open. We both saw it at the same time. I caught it.” Cyrus raised an eyebrow.
Leonard allowed, “I figure it was one part weak charge an 10 parts er more of blind luck. I just looked at it an started laughin’ the way ya do when there’s nothin’ else ta do. The kid just said, ‘No no no,’ I reached fer ma gun again an he had no time ta reload. Even if he’d been carryin’ a pistol he’d a been dead. He turned an ran fer his horse, tripped in a chuck hole an went down. His rifle flew outta his hand. He tried ta get up an one of his boots got stuck in the mud. He yanked his foot out without it an managed his way to the nag he was ridin. Meanwhiles, I’m laughin’ even harder between watchin him ride off half barefoot an lookin’ at ma hand. He started yellin’ an hollerin’ that, ‘No no no!’ an then, ‘It ain’t right!’. I let him go an took his rifle. I traded it some time later fer supplies. I imagine if Max can put one straight thought tagether after that, it’ll be ta come get even. I’m sure it’s nothin’ ta worry about but ya never know.”
The Marshall said, “That’s quite a story son”.
“I reckon it is. That’s the first time I ever told it out loud. There may be some others ta worry about too.” Lenard then told Cyrus the account of the Mexican bandits. Hearing this story made him wince several times. It was terrible.
“Well Leonard concluded, I don’t know what the final score was on that one. Some of them may very well still be alive. I only had one bullet each and it was dark. I know the leader is dead cause I drug him out of there and took him with me until I could stop and get ma things off him. Wouldn’t be surprised if some of the others weren’t hit by their own men tryin’ fer me. But then again, ya never know, it happened fast.”
Leonard quit talking then and just looked at the Marshall. When Cyrus was sure that was the end for now, he said, “I think we’ll be OK, you’ll just have to be twice as careful coming back alone”.
The ex-soldier nodded and said, “It’ll be worth it”.