Day 125 – Writing Exercise

Down the slope and across the valley, they rode

…

It was a cold day in hell, my father said.

Two men had come into town, men who didn’t look like who they were, murderers.

They said they were scouts for the railway.  We had been told a year before that the railways were going to be passing through.  Some people who owned land would become rich, the town would benefit with a rail head, station, hotels and more people.

Some liked the idea, most didn’t

They’d come to Stillwater Creek from the cities to get away from the hustle and bustle, only to find it wolfed follow them.

The two men visited all the farms along a specific path.  They asked about the other landowners.  It wasn’t until it was too late that someone realised they were looking for one specific person.

My elder brother: Mason Henry.

He was the one who was going to make the Henry name famous.  Study law, practise in the big city, then come home and hang a shingle in town.

Got the law degree, got into a large practise, got one case, and then came home.  Showed us the big city newspaper. Prosecuted the criminal, got him life in jail.  A success by any stretch of the imagination.

He didn’t tell us that he had fled the big city in fear for his life.  The family of the criminal put a price on his head, and he was lucky to survive the first attempt.  He didn’t tell us; the sheriff did, days after the so-called railway scouts arrived.

At that time, Mason was out doing a tour of the farms and ranches being courted by the railways, offering his services so the railway wouldn’t take advantage of them.

When he didn’t come home, we went looking for him, my father and I.  And found him, dead, with the horse standing guard.  Shot as he rode past Devils Range, between the Parson’s ranch and town.

The railwaymen had gone.

The sheriff called on any men who were available for a posse.  We started with twenty.  The Henry name meant something in Stillwater Creek.

The usual words about law and order and no shooting on sight or unless in self-defence, we set out.  It was three days ride to the nearest railhead.  There was nowhere else they could go, unless they were simply running.

Fifteen would ride the track.  Five of us were heading straight to Alabaster Springs, the railhead, in the hope that they believed they had got a head start. 

When we finally got Mason to Doc, he said he’d been dead no more than twelve hours.

There was hope.

…

We’d had our fair share of gunslingers passing through.  The Tuckers were among the first of the few land owners that came out when the West was new, and everything was up for grabs.

Others followed, like my family, the Henrys, and they lay claim to smaller tracts and smaller cattle ranches.  It was before fences, with rivalries and perceived injustices, and eventually the law found its way out, along with the start of a town.

It began with two hotels and a general store, a stable and then the stagecoach.  From there, a sheriff’s office and fences.  Disputes over water rights, and the Tuckers trying to run the new ranchers off their properties.

Tucker’s hands were more than cowboys; they were enforcers.  His leading hand had a reputation as a man who’d won a dozen shoot-outs on Main Street, the closest we ever saw a gunslinger.

The last gunfight I saw, not a month or two back, a card sharp was caught and called out.

We thought it was entertainment.

The sheriff called it murder.

Pa said the card sharp should have stayed on the Mississippi.  Ma said he would’ve died anyway.

The point is, talk of railways, more people moving out of the cities, and opportunists arrive every day.  The Tuckers had an investment in the railways, but their land wasn’t on the direct route, so they were buying up land, and those that wouldn’t sell had cattle rustled, cowboys beaten or shot, and the owners intimidated.

Pa knew who was ultimately responsible for Mason’s death, a message of what was going to happen to me and my older sister, Polly, but he was picking on the wrong people.  He tried going down the law path, but the law could be bought or replaced; it, too, was under threat from the Tuckers.

We were not selling, and we were going to prove that the Tuckers were the people responsible for Mason.  With or without the law.

That’s why Polly and I were in the group of five heading to the railhead.  Dad said it was to protect our interests; Polly said through gritted teeth she was going to kill the sons of bitches.

I said that that wouldn’t help find out who hired them.  I don’t think she heard me.

…

Polly was insistent that I learn to shoot.  Not just a rifle, which was a necessity when out herding and moving cattle, but a handgun, for emergencies.

Pa had taught Polly and Mason, even though Mason never liked the idea.  He had no problem with using a rifle; he helped with the cattle when he was home, and there were plenty of reasons for carrying a gun.  Ma said I was too young, so Polly taught me when we were away from the ranch.

I could use a gun.

I shouldn’t have to.

But it was there.

Just before we slowed down, the horses were just about all in from the mad dash, in sight of the town in the distance, and not far from the rail tracks heading back east.

Alabaster Springs was a big town.  When we were younger, it wasn’t much more than our town.  Now it was a city.  A long main street, several livery stables, half a dozen hotels, two with dancing girls, gambling, drinking, and trouble.

It had grown too quickly, and lawlessness outstripped the sheriff and his deputies, and the good intentions from the mayor, the council and law and order were lost in a tangle of land rights, personal power struggles, and property ownership disputes.

Not even the establishment of three churches and three upstanding ministers vigorously performing the Lord’s work could stop the tide of sin.  Pa said it was too little too late, and compared it to Sodom and Gomorrah. 

Pa said never to go there because a child who thought he was a man was still a child and wouldn’t get treated properly.  Or as Polly bluntly put it, a child or a man would be led down the devil’s path before he knew what happened.

We would find the railwaymen, catch them, and turn them in to the law.

…

Passing Jockheim’s Livery Stable, several sheets of the newspaper blew across the street, picked up by a gust. Once, it had been tumbleweeds.

It was late afternoon, and the sun was going down after a hot day in the saddle.  We were sore and tired, but the day, for us, was not over.

We had a plan.  Hotel by hotel, looking for the men.  We all knew what they looked like.  Who they were.  Faces etched in our minds.

The faces of murderers.

The horses moved slowly. Jackerby, a deputy, stopped first, hitched his horse to the rail outside the Northern Hotel.

A wave, he went in.

Next, Walters, a cowboy from the ranch next to ours, stopped, and did the same.  He went into the Wiseman Hotel.  There was a lot of noise inside, and as he stepped up onto the boardwalk, a drunk was thrown out onto the street.

It was a confronting sight.

A wagon came up behind us and nearly ran over him.

Samson, a new deputy, stopped at the Likerest Casino and Hotel. 

Three down, about a dozen or more to go.

Everyone, on the street, going in and coming out of the hotels, the stores or walking the boardwalk, carried guns.

It was very busy. A lot of men looked dangerous.

In the distance, the sound of cattle in the pens, waiting for the next train.  It was why so many men were in town.

A gun went off, and I jumped, and the horse reared, a little skittish.  Polly was beside me and leaned over to pay my horse on the neck.

Another man, a distance up the street, found himself face down in the street, muddy, churned up, and not a pleasant place to end up.

The gun followed him.

Polly shook her head.  Ma said it would be dangerous for her in a rough town with drunken men used to having their way.  Pa reckoned she could handle herself, but I was there to protect her.

More like it would be the other way around.

The Belvedere.  Supposedly classy.  Or so the advertisements in the newspaper, sent over once a week by stagecoach, said.  Fine dining, fine ladies, fine entertainment, genuine showgirls from back east.  Jack Belvedere, Mayor of Alabaster Springs, owned nearly everything; it was his city.

Pa said he was the personification of evil.

I could believe it.

He was standing outside his hotel, having his photo taken with two of his showgirls.

Polly and I had reached our first stop, hitched the horses and walked up the stairs outside the next-door storefront, the land office.  It was closed.

She brought her rifle.

Now that I was here, the plan of going to the bar and checking whether the two men were inside seemed impossible.

She stopped just as we were about to cross from the storefront boardwalk to the hotels.

“I see them,” she said.

The other end of the boardwalk.  Coming towards Belvedere.  When they stopped to talk to Belvendere, Polly disappeared after telling me to follow them.

She went down the alley and around the back.

I heard them talking.

Belvedere:  “You made good time.  The train will be here in two hours.  Go inside.  Tell Joe at the bar you’ve got a tab.  He’ll give you whatever you want.”

One said, “Thank you, Mr Belvadere.”

“No, Ned.  I should be thanking you for cleaning up what was about to be a big problem.”

He shook hands with them, and they went inside.

Belvedere, in cahoots with the Tuckers.  No surprises there.  He was part of their escape plan. 

I skirted my way around the photographer and Belvedere and went inside.  Just.  The bar was huge, one of several and packed.

The long bar down one side was crowded with men drinking, some in an intoxicated state, some with women hanging on to them, perhaps to keep them from falling over.  Certainly to keep plying them with drink.  Ma had a name for them.  I don’t think it was a good name.

I saw the two men head down the end, and they were met by several others.  A loud voice carried above the noise.  Larry Tucker.  Then I saw the brothers, Sam and Chuck. Not a good one between them.

Larry was the worst, the same age as Mason.  Tried to lead him astray, but Mason had no taste for drink and bullying, or shooting at innocents.  Harry Tucker had wounded several boys from surrounding ranches, covered by his father as shooting accidents while hunting.

They weren’t.  The boys treated him with contempt, where he expected fealty.  We all knew he was an idiot with a rich father.

“Well, well, well.”  Larry had seen me.

Not good.

Not in a bar.

Not after he’d been drinking.  He was a boy who couldn’t hold his liquor.  And that was dangerous.

“If it isn’t little Tom Henry.  Little fish in a big pond.”

He stepped out from the bar, a hand on the gun, a big gun, bigger than most.  Smirk.  Threatening posture.  Daring.  A blink and slight swaying movement.

A drink too many.

A touch too much courage?

A section of the crowd had gone quiet, waiting to see what happened.

“What are you doing here?”

Trying not to alert the two men, but it was a bit late for that.  They were on the alert now and looking worried.

Three men with guns.

But what the hell.  It was death or glory.  “Looking for two murderers.”

Harry Tucker laughed.  “You’re in the wrong place.  Nothing but law-abiding citizens in here.”

He looked around at the people who were now interested in this side show.  I saw several men by the door, closed up, cutting off the exit.

“And the two railway agents standing next to you at the bar?”

“Businessmen.  Buying land for the railway that will benefit not only the Henrys.”

“How does killing my brother fit into the plan?”

“I know nothing about your brother.  But if he’s dead, then he was obviously sticking his nose in where it didn’t belong.  Like you.  I don’t like you calling my friends unsavoury names, Henry.  Leave, or I’ll put a bullet in you.”

He drew his gun and pointed it at me.  It wavered in his hand.  It was heavy.

The next few seconds were a blur.

A gun went off, and I felt a bullet hit me in the arm, the force of it knocking me backwards.  Then several more shots, and as I was falling, I saw Harry go down, the two railwaymen drawing their guns and being shot, the other brothers trying to draw their weapons and being stopped by men behind them, then a gun shot three bullets into the roof and a man yelling, “The next man to fire a gun will die.”

Silence, after I finished sprawling on the floor, holding my arm that was hurting like hell, and bleeding.  I honestly thought I was going to die.  That’s when I passed out.

…

When I woke, it was in a hotel room with an old man leaning over me, looking at my arm.

“He’ll survive, it’s just a scratch.  It’s patched, you just need to change the bandage in a day or so.”

On the floor, there were three bodies.  The two railwaymen and Harry Tucker.  I didn’t shoot him or any of them.  I knew better than to draw a weapon in a place like that.

Belvedere was standing over them, shaking his head.

In the corner, a man with a sheriff’s badge and sporting a blackening eye was standing next to my sister, looking somewhat dishevelled.

Belvedere looked at her.  “Anytime you want a job working for me, just make yourself known to Joe.”

“I’m not a whore.” Her tone and manner dripped defiance. She scared me, most of the time.

“I mean, as a sharp shooter.  That was the most amazing display of shooting I’ve ever seen.”

“Pity she didn’t shoot you,” I said.

He swivelled around.  “Ah, the small fish speaks.”

“You paid them to kill my brother.”

“Correction, Tom Henry, that is your name, isn’t it?  Of course it is.  The family resemblance is unmistakable.  Are all of you Henrys this rambunctious?  I had nothing to do with it.  In fact, I told those stupid Tuckers it would bring nothing but trouble.  And here it is, on my doorstep.”

“You reap what you sow,” Polly said.

“I’m trying to build something here.  Not spend the rest of my life in jail.  Harry Tucker simply misinterpreted what his father said and took it into his own hands to get these two second-rate shooters to kill your brother.  Had you not turned up, I was going to hand them over to the law.  In fact, the sheriff is about to transfer them to Boot Hill.  I’ll send Tucker back to his father with an explanation.  Neither of you two nor any of the Henrys had anything to do with it.”

He looked at Polly.  “Take your brother home, tell your Pa he got caught in the crossfire.  Don’t come back any time soon, or you might get arrested.  Whatever you came here for is done.  Am I clear?”

I could see her thinking.

“It’s done, Polly, no matter what we think.  It’s done.  I’m done.”

She thought some more.  “I get my gun back?”

“Once you leave the city limits.  My deputy will escort you back to Springwater.  All of you.”

“Fine.”

The sheriff said, “I could lock you up for assaulting a sheriff, but I wasn’t wearing my badge, so you weren’t to know.  That’s a mean right you’ve got.”

She gave him a smile, but I didn’t think she was trying to be nice.

“Take them over to the jail house and get them to sign some paperwork, and a report to their father about what happened here.  An investigation into his son’s death has been carried out.  You know the details.” To a deputy by the door.  “Ride out and meet the posse.  Take them to the sheriff’s office.  Make sure they understand the circumstances.”

…

Back home, Pa was not a happy man.

The fact that Polly and I went into a bar, each carrying a gun.

The fact that the moment I saw Harry Tucker, I should have run.

The fact that Polly exercised summary justice in the two railwaymen/murderers.

The fact that I got shot by a Tucker.

The fact that we got caught.

The fact that we might never get the truth.

He was interested to learn what I heard between the railwaymen and Belvedere, but it wasn’t conclusive evidence. But at least he knew the Tuckers were trouble, and he had not prosecuted his daughter when they had sworn testimony that said otherwise. The report had a note from Belvedere himself; the Henrys had suffered enough.

The fact that Belvedere had outlined the facts of the case, and, according to him, Harry Butler had taken matters into his own hands and hired the railwayman to execute Mason, was as good an explanation they would get.

For that, old man Tucker apologised and said he would do everything he could to help the family cope with the loss.

Ma was particularly upset.

A parent, she told Polly, should never have to outlive their child.  Then she slapped Polly very hard for allowing me to go into the bar and for nearly getting me killed.

It was the only time I saw Polly cry.

Other than that, as far as I was concerned, the Lord should be satisfied his work was done.  And eye for an eye. Harry Butler for Mason Henry, though Harry was far from being the same man as Mason.

The Lord, it had to be said, worked in mysterious ways.

The railway came.  We made some money, not a lot, and in time, what happened at Alabaster nearly happened in Stillwater.

Except…

We had the foreknowledge of what was coming and stopped most of it dead in its tracks.

Polly, as if it were ordained, became the first Mayor. She married the sheriff she gave a black eye.

My arm still aches with the onset of winter, a reminder that we don’t always get what we want at the time; it eventually happens if you wait long enough.

…

©  Charles Heath  2026