Law and Order by Gordon Young Read online

  Adventure, February 18, 1919

  ATE WORTH’S mother died one

  and for the next ten theft would be

  storm-swept night on the way up

  punished more severely than murder. “A K from the Horn; and three months pouch don’t pack a gun”—and, of course, after her father also died. He had bought could not protect itself.

  the one-story, frame general store on

  Men in red shirts and cowhide

  Montgomery Street, and, having been boots-came down from the mines fleeced in the deal, gave himself up to weighted with gold; and the boats to

  worry and typhoid. Kate, three thousand Stockton were jammed with greenhorns

  miles from kith and kin, was alone in San who thought themselves leaving plenty of Francisco in the Spring of ’49. Three margin by not believing more than half of months had been time enough for her to what they heard. Most of them believed have met the man she loved; so with equal the wrong half.

  gentleness she refused proffers of

  There were good men and women

  homeward-bound fare and the privilege of in the city, but the dance halls with bars becoming the mistress of any one of and gambling-rooms adjoining, and the numerous shacks and tents. Most people that filled them, were in the emphatically she refused Fash Roberts, foreground. Men died nightly and were and he said that he would make a corpse of buried as they fell, being put away in the any man whom she did marry.

  little cemetery amid the sand-dunes with a Those were mad, bad days. The

  wooden slab to mark the spot against the

  “Hounds” had not yet become the “Society Judgment Dawn.

  of Regulators,” and the loot and massacre After the funeral of her father Kate

  of the Chilean quarter were to follow. went back and opened the store, then sat Honest men had not yet joined together herself on a bale of blankets and cried.

  and flung a noose over a rafter—there

  And soon there came a dapper little man were no convenient trees—as the symbol with a short black beard and long black of the Vigilantes. Those things were to hair, neatly trimmed, with threads of gray come; but for twenty years each man in it; and he wore a long black coat and a would be expected to protect his own life broad-brimmed hat; also a neat black bow-

  Adventure

  2

  tie.

  Will Denison was only a lad, a big

  “Have I the honah of addressin’

  boyish fellow barely across his twenties.

  Miss Worth?” he asked, bowing low.

  He had come into the store one day to buy

  “I’m Miss Worth. Yes.”

  a shoulder of ham, and Kate had sold it to

  “I’m Colonel Sutherland. Colonel

  him; and the next day he came to buy a J. G. Sutherland of Geo’gia. And am I

  half pound of nails; and the third he

  co’rect in unde’standin’ that youah late wanted some cheese; and the fourth he

  bereavement has left you without a male wanted— well, it made no difference what relative to offah his protection?”

  he wanted, for after that he quit pretending

  “I’m all alone, if that’s what you

  to want anything but to talk to her, and mean,” Kate said.

  now he was gone with a partner up to the She thought the little man mountains to make his fortune, and somewhat ridiculous, but she rather liked whether he made it or not he had promised him. And well she might, for he more or to come back in a month to see her; and less pompously, but gallantly, laid himself the month was up and he had not come.

  at her service and at the same time put her

  “Will Denison. Yes, ma’am. I

  at ease by saying that he was married and knoaw ’im. A fine boy. A Geo’gia boy—

  had a daughter of about her own age, and from Jasper County. His mother’s aunt

  that both daughter and wife were on the married a Washburn, and one of the

  way to San Francisco; and that he, Washburn girls married a third cousin of reflecting on how he would wish some

  my wife’s. So you might say that Will was gentleman to keep a careful watch on his a connection’ of mine. Yes, ma’am. You own daughter if God in His wisdom see the Washburns—”

  brought such a bereavement upon her, had And having gone somewhat into

  thought that he would merely inform Miss the genealogy of the Georgian families Worth that there was one man upon whom Colonel Sutherland at length came back to she could call for help, money, or advice.

  protest against Kate’s remaining in the It happened that Colonel store alone at night.

  Sutherland heard that Fash Roberts, a

  Kate resisted the offer to put

  brother of Sam, leader of the Hounds, had herself under the wing of the wife of some declared his intentions of forcing himself friend of his, and explained that she was upon Miss Worth whether or not he was

  not alone. Tony, the half-caste Spanish agreeable to her.

  boy of about sixteen who had helped her Colonel

  Sutherland

  mentioned

  father, would sleep in the front of the Fash, and Kate admitted that she was store. The colonel strongly objected to any afraid of him.

  such arrangement. It conflicted with his

  “A low-down houn’ dawg!” idea of what was due to women; and as pronounced the colonel, and he promised Kate, by being engaged to Will Denison to settle with Fash at once.

  was more or less a member of the

  Kate begged him not to arouse Sutherland family, he protested. But she, Fash. He was dangerous. His brother was being of a temper that is not easily

  the head of the rowdies. There would be changed, listened respectfully and was of trouble. And she told the colonel of the the same opinion still. It was, she said, boy, and the colonel sat attentively and only in the daytime that Fash Roberts

  nodded sympathetically.

  bothered her. He would not dare to come

  Law and Order

  3

  at night. Besides, Tony would protect her.

  friends to continue their poker game

  Colonel Sutherland left and went

  without him, and, putting his long-barreled down the street. He went in and out of revolver into the holster under his black every saloon that he came to; a little coat, he sauntered down through the town, bantam of a man, immaculate in black and up Montgomery Street, and unperceived

  white, and big fellows in red shirts stared by any one slipped into the shadowed side at him and poked each other in the ribs; of Worth’s general store.

  but there was something in the colonel’s Kate would perhaps have been less

  eyes and also in his tranquil manner that restless on her hard bed at the back of her kept the humorous remarks that followed store if she had known what watch was

  him from being loud enough to reach his being kept in the shadows outside.

  ears. He was looking for Fash Roberts and The lawless young town of San

  he found Sam.

  Francisco did not really wake up until

  “Mr. Roberts, suh,” he said, around midnight, though the roar of voices tapping that notorious bully on the arm.

  and clash of oaths and hysterical laughter Roberts glared down contemptuously. “I of women who sought miner’s gold, rang have been lookin’ for youah brother, suh,”

  through the streets from dusk till dawn; said the colonel, “but I will say to you, and scarcely a night passed without the suh, that if you have any brotherly feelin’

  crack of a gun—and men shot well in

  for him you will, use youah infl
uence, suh, those days.

  to keep him away from Worth’s store.”

  Shortly before midnight a man

  Sam Roberts was drinking with a

  with long strides came down the street.

  part of the Hounds, and these friends Colonel Sutherland stepped back, merging rather expected that the redoubtable Sam himself against the board side of the store.

  would bash the colonel’s head or shoot The man stopped at the door, banged

  him straight-off, and call on them to bear heavily, insistently. Colonel Sutherland witness that it had been done in self-jerked at the lapels of his coat and with defense. But he did nothing of the kind.

  quick pats adjusted his bow-tie: that was He glowered down at the straight, calm as much agitation as he ever permitted little man, then turned away with elaborate himself.

  carelessness as he growled:

  “Who you?” called the nervous

  “Don’t bother me. I’ll pay the thin voice of the Spanish boy.

  funeral expenses and—” he looked the

  The colonel could hear distinctly.

  colonel over from his polished boots to his The store was not only built of one

  well-brushed black hat—“and if it’s yourn thickness of board, but these were full of it won’t cost much for lumber!”

  knot-holes.

  The Hounds burst into laughter at

  “Tony, this is Denison. Will

  this jeer at the colonel’s diminutive body; Denison. Where can I find Kate?”

  but the colonel, unruffed, bowed slightly Tony swore in joyful relief and

  and said—

  shouted: “She here. I call her.” Kate came

  “Ve’y well, suh.”

  flying, with a blanket wrapped about her Then he walked away.

  and with her hair in disarray.

  They called each other ecstatically

  IT HAPPENED that shortly after ten by name as the door was flung open and o’clock that evening the colonel left his across the sill they leaned in an embrace;

  Adventure

  4

  nor did they pay any attention to Tony, and he made a vicious remark, a malicious who hung a lighted lantern above them—

  remark, too coarse to be even intimated, he foolishly thinking they needed light.

  but one designed to insinuate that the The boat from Stockton, Will difference between Kate and the dance-Denison explained, had just come in; and hall girls was merely one of hypocrisy.

  on the way down he heard of her father’s Denison whirled about, his fists

  death, and he had come—not expecting to clenched to strike; and Kate cried:

  see her—but hoping to learn where he

  “Fash! Don’t shoot—please!” Now

  could find her. He and his partner had Denison was a boy who minded his own

  located a mine. It looked good. He business; and he had said that men who couldn’t stand it any longer from her, so packed guns were inviting trouble. There he came.

  were a few sensible youngsters like him

  “No, no, Will!” she protested as he

  among the Argonauts, but at that moment started to step inside.

  his pacificism seemed the height of folly,

  “Why?” His face was a blank for Fash held a gun almost against the surprise.

  boy’s stomach.

  “You mustn’t come in. I’m alone.

  “I’m minded to salt you down with

  It wouldn’t be right.”

  lead and powder an’ give you to the

  Will understood, but he did say—

  undertaker to pack away,” said Fash. “Git

  “There’s Tony—”

  out o’ that door an’ let a man git in!”

  “He-doesn’t count.”

  “No!” said Denison defiantly,

  “Let’s go right now and get squaring his shoulders and backing into married,” said the resourceful young man.

  the door as though to block it with his

  “But—” she protested hesitatingly,

  dead body if need be.

  feeling more that she ought to find an Then there slipped around the

  excuse than wanting to find one.

  corner a little shadow of a man, and a cool, Then she remembered Fash soft voice said, but not pleasantly—

  Roberts: he had sworn to shoot the man

  “Mr. Fash Roberts, suh!”

  she married.

  Fash, cunning gunman that he was,

  “I can’t, Will. Not tonight. Oh, did not wheel at once, but jumped clear to boy, I love you! I do. But don’t be the, other side of the door—so that foolish!”

  Denison would not be behind him—before What Colonel Sutherland may he turned; and in the vague light of the have thought of himself for eavesdropping lantern he recognized the colonel and

  on this tender scene is something that he recalled the warning that had been given never revealed; but it is highly probable through his brother.

  that he approved of Kate’s maidenly

  “The distance, I should judge, suh,

  discretion.

  is fifteen paces,” the colonel said softly, Then came the interruption. A man

  clearly, ominously. “I shall count three, had approached unperceived. Perhaps he and at the third count you are at liberty, had slinked along so as to come close

  suh, to fire!”

  without being seen. Anyway he was right The slightest of pauses: in that

  on top of the lovers before they were fragment of a second Kate tried to scream, aware that he was near.

  but her throat was closed so that she could He laughed scornfully, hoarsely, only whisper, “Don’t,” and clutch at the

  Law and Order

  5

  boy, who was rather bewildered at the

  visible; no words were spoken; but

  rapid development of the drama.

  almost—nay, entirely unconscious of why

  “One!

  Two!”

  they were doing it, men began to edge

  Fash

  fired.

  behind Roberts and his Hounds to back

  “Three!” continued that inexorable

  them up, and behind the square-shouldered voice; and at the count of three Colonel little colonel who had brought to them the Sutherland pushed back his long black report of Fash Roberts’ death—long coat and with one gesture drew and fired.

  deserved, but delayed because each man in Fash Roberts lurched drunkenly to

  that rough land was a law unto himself.

  the ground, dead.

  The idea of men banding together to

  Five minuses later and before the

  punish some one or to defend that

  news had spread that far from mouth to punishment was new. There were officers, mouth, Colonel Sutherland quietly edged of course, but these were Hounds, bullies, his way amid the crowd in the bar where grafters. But the colonel’s lone slight Sam Roberts and his fellow Hounds were figure, a figure of calm dignity, struck drinking.

  upon their subconsciousness in some

  “I regret, suh,” said the colonel as

  unanalyzable, unrealizable way, as a figure his fingers touched the bow of his neat, of justice.

  black tie, “to be the bearer of the news that And as Sam Roberts glowered

  youah brother is dead!”

  around him, struggling for words to

  Silence fell on those near enough

  answer, he became aware that there were to hear, and the silence spread like a ripple no spectators in that room. Times had

  as when a stone drops into a pool, until all changed with the click of a second: men in the room stood shuffling closer and had become partisans, and significantly straining to hear the answer that would the quietest men, the ones with the

  come.

  grimmest faces and narrowed, unwavering It came coarse, blasphem
ously, eyes, were holding their gaze demanding to know who had done it.

  challengingly against his own face.

  “I, suh!” said the colonel, his hands

  “Didn’t I say I’d pay the funeral

  at his side, his voice low and quiet.

  expenses!” Roberts growled, bluffed,

  Then it was—then and there in that

  beaten, smashed, into a sorry jest over the riotous bar filled with hard, bearded, red-cold, blood-stained body of his brother shirted men—that the demarcation because he was suddenly afraid of a little between lawlessness and stern justice was man in black who stood for honor and for first definitely drawn. No chalk-line was justice.

 

 

  Monte Herridge, Law and Order by Gordon Young

  Thanks for reading the books on GrayCity.Net