Right around 9 o’clock I went to the stock barn and exchanged my release for three hundred and twenty-five dollars in greenbacks. I had held longer amounts in my hand but this money, I fancied, would be pleasing out of proportion to its face value. But no, it was only three hundred and twenty-five dollars in paper and the moment fell short of my expectations. I noted the mild disappointment and made no more of it than that. Perhaps I was affected by Stonehill’s downcast state.
I said, “Well, you have kept your end of the agreement and I have kept mine.”
“That is so,” said he. “I have paid you for a horse I do not possess and I have bought back a string of useless ponies I cannot sell again.”
“You are forgetting the gray horse.”
“Crow bait.”
“You are looking at the thing in the wrong light.”
“I am looking at it in the light of God’s eternal truth.”
“I hope you do not think I have wronged you in any way.”
“No, not at all,” said he. “My fortunes have been remarkably consistent since I came to the ‘Bear State.’ This is but another episode, and a relatively happy one. I was told this city was to be the Chicago of the Southwest. Well, my little friend, it is not the Chicago of the Southwest. I cannot rightly say what it is. I would gladly take pen in hand and write a thick book on my misadventures here, but dare not for fear of being called a lying romancer.”
“The malaria is making you feel bad. You will soon find a buyer for the ponies.”
“I have a tentative offer of ten dollars per head from the Pfitzer Soap Works of Little Rock.”
“It would be a shame to destroy such spirited horseflesh and render it into soap.”
“So it would. I am confident the deal will fall through.”
“I will return later for my saddle.”
“Very good.”
I went to the Chinaman’s store and bought an apple and asked Lee if Rooster was in. He said he was still in bed. I had never seen anyone in bed at 10 o’clock in the morning who was not sick but that was where he was.
He stirred as I came through the curtain. His weight was such that the bunk was bowed in the middle almost to the floor. It looked like he was in a hammock. He was fully clothed under the covers. The brindle cat Sterling Price was curled up on the foot of the bed. Rooster coughed and spit on the floor and rolled a cigarette and lit it and coughed some more. He asked me to bring him some coffee and I got a cup and took the eureka pot from the stove and did this. As he drank, little brown drops of coffee clung to his mustache like dew. Men will live like billy goats if they are let alone. He seemed in no way surprised to see me so I took the same line and stood with my back to the stove and ate my apple.
I said, “You need some more slats in that bed.”
“I know,” said he. “That is the trouble, there is no slats in it at all. It is some kind of a damned Chinese rope bed. I would love to burn it up.”
“It is not good for your back sleeping like that.”
“You are right about that too. A man my age ought to have a good bed if he has nothing else. How does the weather stand out there?”
“The wind is right sharp,” said I. “It is clouding up some in the east.”
“We are in for snow or I miss my guess. Did you see the moon last night?”
“I do not look for snow today.”
“Where have you been, baby sister? I looked for you to come back, then give up on you. I figured you went on home.”
“No, I have been at the Monarch boardinghouse right along. I have been down with something very nearly like the croup.”
“Have you now? The General and me will thank you not to pass it on.”
“I have about got it whipped. I thought you might inquire about me or look in on me while I was laid up.”
“What made you think that?”
“I had no reason except I did not know anybody else in town.”
“Maybe you thought I was a preacher that goes around paying calls on all the sick people.”
“No, I did not think that.”
“Preachers don’t have nothing better to do. I had my work to see to. Your Government marshals don’t have time to be paying a lot of social calls. They are too busy trying to follow all the regulations laid down by Uncle Sam. That gentleman will have his fee sheets just and correct or he does not pay.”
“Yes, I see they are keeping you busy.”
“What you see is a honest man who has worked half the night on his fee sheets. It is the devil’s own work and Potter is not here to help me. If you don’t have no schooling you are up against it in this country, sis. That is the way of it. No sir, that man has no chance any more. No matter if he has got sand in his craw, others will push him aside, little thin fellows that have won spelling bees back home.”
I said, “I read in the paper where they are going to hang the Wharton man.”
“There was nothing else they could do,” said he. “It is too bad they cannot hang him three or four times.”
“When will they do the job?”
“It is set for January but Lawyer Goudy is going to Washington city to see if President Hayes will not commute the sentence. The boy’s mother, Minnie Wharton, has got some property and Goudy will not let up till he has got it all.”
“Will the President let him off, do you think?”
“It is hard to say. What does the President know about it? I will tell you. Nothing. Goudy will claim the boy was provoked and he will tell a bushel of lies about me. I should have put a ball in that boy’s head instead of his collarbone. I was thinking about my fee. You will sometimes let money interfere with your notion of what is right.”
I took the folded currency from my pocket and held it up, showing it to him.
Rooster said, “By God! Look at it! How much have you got there? If I had your hand I would throw mine in.”
“You did not believe I would come back, did you?”
“Well, I didn’t know. You are a hard one to figure.”
“Are you still game?”
“Game? I was born game, sis, and hope to die in that condition.”
“How long will it take you to get ready to go?”
“Ready to go where?”
“To the Territory. To the Indian Territory to get Tom Chaney, the man who shot my father, Frank Ross, in front of the Monarch boardinghouse.”
“I forget just what our agreement was.”
“I offered to pay you fifty dollars for the job.”
“Yes, I remember that now. What did I say to that?”
“You said your price was a hundred dollars.”
“That’s right, I remember now. Well, that’s what it still is. It will take a hundred dollars.”
“All right.”
“Count it out there on the table.”
“First I will have an understanding. Can we leave for the Territory this afternoon?”
He sat up in the bed. “Wait,” he said. “Hold up. You are not going.”
“That is part of it,” said I.
“It cannot be done.”
“And why not? You have misjudged me if you think I am silly enough to give you a hundred dollars and watch you ride away. No, I will see the thing done myself.”
“I am a bonded U.S. marshal.”
“That weighs but little with me. R. B. Hayes is the U. S. President and they say he stole Tilden out.”
“You never said anything about this. I cannot go up against Ned Pepper’s band and try to look after a baby at one and the same time.”
“I am not a baby. You will not have to worry about me.”
“You will slow me down and get in my way. If you want this job done and done fast you will let me do it my own way. Credit me for knowing my business. What if you get sick again? I can do nothing for you. First you thought I was a preacher and now you think I am a doctor with a flat stick who will look at your tongue every few minutes.”
“I will not slow you down. I am a good enough rider.”
“I will not be stopping at boardinghouses with warm beds and plates of hot grub on the table. It will be traveling fast and eating light. What little sleeping is done will take place on the ground.”