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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Sheriff And His Partner, by Frank Harris
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Sheriff And His Partner
+
+Author: Frank Harris
+
+Release Date: October 12, 2007 [EBook #23008]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SHERIFF AND HIS PARTNER ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+THE SHERIFF AND HIS PARTNER.
+
+By Frank Harris
+
+
+One afternoon in July, 1869, I was seated at my desk in Locock's
+law-office in the town of Kiota, Kansas. I had landed in New York from
+Liverpool nearly a year before, and had drifted westwards seeking in
+vain for some steady employment. Lawyer Locock, however, had promised to
+let me study law with him, and to give me a few dollars a month besides,
+for my services as a clerk. I was fairly satisfied with the prospect,
+and the little town interested me. An outpost of civilization, it was
+situated on the border of the great plains, which were still looked
+upon as the natural possession of the nomadic Indian tribes. It owed its
+importance to the fact that it lay on the cattle-trail which led from
+the prairies of Texas through this no man's land to the railway system,
+and that it was the first place where the cowboys coming north could
+find a bed to sleep in, a bar to drink at, and a table to gamble on. For
+some years they had made of Kiota a hell upon earth. But gradually the
+land in the neighbourhood was taken up by farmers, emigrants chiefly
+from New England, who were determined to put an end to the reign of
+violence. A man named Johnson was their leader in establishing order
+and tranquillity. Elected, almost as soon as he came to the town, to the
+dangerous post of City Marshal, he organized a vigilance committee
+of the younger and more daring settlers, backed by whom he resolutely
+suppressed the drunken rioting of the cowboys. After the ruffians
+had been taught to behave themselves, Johnson was made Sheriff of the
+County, a post which gave him a house and permanent position. Though
+married now, and apparently "settled down," the Sheriff was a sort of
+hero in Kiota. I had listened to many tales about him, showing desperate
+determination veined with a sense of humour, and I often regretted that
+I had reached the place too late to see him in action. I had little
+or nothing to do in the office. The tedium of the long days was almost
+unbroken, and Stephen's "Commentaries" had become as monotonous and
+unattractive as the bare uncarpeted floor. The heat was tropical, and
+I was dozing when a knock startled me. A negro boy slouched in with a
+bundle of newspapers: "This yer is Jedge Locock's, I guess?" "I guess
+so," was my answer as I lazily opened the third or fourth number of
+the "Kiota Weekly Tribune." Glancing over the sheet my eye caught the
+following paragraph:
+
+     "HIGHWAY ROBBERY WITH VIOLENCE.
+
+     JUDGE SHANNON STOPPED.
+
+     THE OUTLAW ESCAPES. HE KNOWS SHERIFF JOHNSON.
+
+"Information has just reached us of an outrage perpetrated on the person
+of one of our most respected fellow-citizens. The crime was committed in
+daylight, on the public highway within four miles of this city; a crime,
+therefore, without parallel in this vicinity for the last two years.
+Fortunately our County and State authorities can be fully trusted,
+and we have no sort of doubt that they can command, if necessary, the
+succour and aid of each and every citizen of this locality in order to
+bring the offending miscreant to justice.
+
+"We now place the plain recital of this outrage before our readers.
+
+"Yesterday afternoon, as Ex-Judge Shannon was riding from his law-office
+in Kiota towards his home on Sumach Bluff, he was stopped about four
+miles from this town by a man who drew a revolver on him, telling him
+at the same time to pull up. The Judge, being completely unarmed and
+unprepared, obeyed, and was told to get down from the buckboard, which
+he did. He was then ordered to put his watch and whatever money he had,
+in the road, and to retreat three paces.
+
+"The robber pocketed the watch and money, and told him he might tell
+Sheriff Johnson that Tom Williams had 'gone through him,' and that he
+(Williams) could be found at the saloon in Osawotamie at any time. The
+Judge now hoped for release, but Tom Williams (if that be the robber's
+real name) seemed to get an afterthought, which he at once proceeded to
+carry into effect. Drawing a knife he cut the traces, and took out of
+the shafts the Judge's famous trotting mare, Lizzie D., which he mounted
+with the remark:
+
+"'Sheriff Johnson, I reckon, would come after the money anyway, but the
+hoss'll fetch him--sure pop.'
+
+"These words have just been given to us by Judge Shannon himself, who
+tells us also that the outrage took place on the North Section Line,
+bounding Bray's farm.
+
+"After this speech the highway robber Williams rode towards the township
+of Osawotamie, while Judge Shannon, after drawing the buckboard to the
+edge of the track, was compelled to proceed homewards on foot.
+
+"The outrage, as we have said, took place late last evening, and Judge
+Shannon, we understand, did not trouble to inform the County authorities
+of the circumstance till to-day at noon, after leaving our office.
+What the motive of the crime may have been we do not worry ourselves to
+inquire; a crime, an outrage upon justice and order, has been committed;
+that is all we care to know. If anything fresh happens in this
+connection we propose to issue a second edition of this paper. Our
+fellow-citizens may rely upon our energy and watchfulness to keep them
+posted.
+
+"Just before going to press we learn that Sheriff Johnson was out of
+town attending to business when Judge Shannon called; but Sub-Sheriff
+Jarvis informs us that he expects the Sheriff back shortly. It is
+necessary to add, by way of explanation, that Mr. Jarvis cannot leave
+the jail unguarded, even for a few hours."
+
+As may be imagined this item of news awakened my keenest interest. It
+fitted in with some things that I knew already, and I was curious to
+learn more. I felt that this was the first act in a drama. Vaguely I
+remembered some one telling in disconnected phrases why the Sheriff had
+left Missouri, and come to Kansas:
+
+"'Twas after a quor'll with a pardner of his, named Williams, who kicked
+out."
+
+Bit by bit the story, to which I had not given much attention when I
+heard it, so casually, carelessly was it told, recurred to my memory.
+
+"They say as how Williams cut up rough with Johnson, and drawed a
+knife on him, which Johnson gripped with his left while he pulled
+trigger.--Williams, I heerd, was in the wrong; I hain't perhaps got the
+right end of it; anyhow, you might hev noticed the Sheriff hes lost the
+little finger off his left hand.--Johnson, they say, got right up and
+lit out from Pleasant Hill. Perhaps the folk in Mizzoori kinder liked
+Williams the best of the two; I don't know. Anyway, Sheriff Johnson's
+a square man; his record here proves it. An' real grit, you bet your
+life."
+
+The narrative had made but a slight impression on me at the time; I
+didn't know the persons concerned, and had no reason to interest myself
+in their fortunes. In those early days, moreover, I was often homesick,
+and gave myself up readily to dreaming of English scenes and faces. Now
+the words and drawling intonation came back to me distinctly, and with
+them the question: Was the robber of Judge Shannon the same Williams who
+had once been the Sheriff's partner? My first impulse was to hurry into
+the street and try to find out; but it was the chief part of my duty to
+stay in the office till six o'clock; besides, the Sheriff was "out of
+town," and perhaps would not be back that day. The hours dragged to an
+end at last; my supper was soon finished, and, as night drew down, I
+hastened along the wooden side-walk of Washington Street towards the
+Carvell House. This hotel was much too large for the needs of the little
+town; it contained some fifty bedrooms, of which perhaps half-a-dozen
+were permanently occupied by "high-toned" citizens, and a billiard-room
+of gigantic size, in which stood nine tables, as well as the famous bar.
+The space between the bar, which ran across one end of the room, and
+the billiard-tables, was the favourite nightly resort of the prominent
+politicians and gamblers. There, if anywhere, my questions would be
+answered.
+
+On entering the billiard-room I was struck by the number of men who had
+come together. Usually only some twenty or thirty were present, half
+of whom sat smoking and chewing about the bar, while the rest watched a
+game of billiards or took a "life" in pool. This evening, however, the
+billiard-tables were covered with their slate-coloured "wraps," while
+at least a hundred and fifty men were gathered about the open space of
+glaring light near the bar. I hurried up the room, but as I approached
+the crowd my steps grew slower, and I became half ashamed of my eager,
+obtrusive curiosity and excitement. There was a kind of reproof in the
+lazy, cool glance which one man after another cast upon me, as I went
+by. Assuming an air of indecision I threaded my way through the chairs
+uptilted against the sides of the billiard-tables. I had drained a glass
+of Bourbon whisky before I realized that these apparently careless men
+were stirred by some emotion which made them more cautious, more silent,
+more warily on their guard than usual. The gamblers and loafers, too,
+had taken "back seats" this evening, whilst hard-working men of the
+farmer class who did not frequent the expensive bar of the Carvell House
+were to be seen in front. It dawned upon me that the matter was serious,
+and was being taken seriously.
+
+The silence was broken from time to time by some casual remark of no
+interest, drawled out in a monotone; every now and then a man invited
+the "crowd" to drink with him, and that was all. Yet the moral
+atmosphere was oppressive, and a vague feeling of discomfort grew upon
+me. These men "meant business."
+
+Presently the door on my left opened--Sheriff Johnson came into the
+room.
+
+"Good evenin'," he said; and a dozen voices, one after another, answered
+with "Good evenin'! good evenin', Sheriff!" A big frontiersman, however,
+a horse-dealer called Martin, who, I knew, had been on the old vigilance
+committee, walked from the centre of the group in front of the bar to
+the Sheriff, and held out his hand with:
+
+"Shake, old man, and name the drink." The Sheriff took the proffered
+hand as if mechanically, and turned to the bar with "Whisky--straight."
+
+Sheriff Johnson was a man of medium height, sturdily built. A broad
+forehead, and clear, grey-blue eyes that met everything fairly,
+testified in his favour. The nose, however, was fleshy and snub. The
+mouth was not to be seen, nor its shape guessed at, so thickly did the
+brown moustache and beard grow; but the short beard seemed rather to
+exaggerate than conceal an extravagant out jutting of the lower jaw,
+that gave a peculiar expression of energy and determination to the face.
+His manner was unobtrusively quiet and deliberate.
+
+It was an unusual occurrence for Johnson to come at night to the
+bar-lounge, which was beginning to fall into disrepute among the
+puritanical or middle-class section of the community. No one, however,
+seemed to pay any further attention to him, or to remark the unusual
+cordiality of Martin's greeting. A quarter of an hour elapsed before
+anything of note occurred. Then, an elderly man whom I did not know,
+a farmer, by his dress, drew a copy of the "Kiota Tribune" from his
+pocket, and, stretching it towards Johnson, asked with a very marked
+Yankee twang:
+
+"Sheriff, hev yeou read this 'Tribune'?"
+
+Wheeling half round towards his questioner, the Sheriff replied:
+
+"Yes, sir, I hev." A pause ensued, which was made significant to me by
+the fact that the bar-keeper suspended his hand and did not pour out the
+whisky he had just been asked to supply--a pause during which the two
+faced each other; it was broken by the farmer saying:
+
+"Ez yeou wer out of town to-day, I allowed yeou might hev missed seein'
+it. I reckoned yeou'd come straight hyar before yeou went to hum."
+
+"No, Crosskey," rejoined the Sheriff, with slow emphasis; "I went home
+first and came on hyar to see the boys."
+
+"Wall," said Mr. Crosskey, as it seemed to me, half apologetically,
+"knowin' yeou I guessed yeou ought to hear the facks," then, with some
+suddenness, stretching out his hand, he added, "I hev some way to go,
+an' my old woman 'ull be waitin' up fer me. Good night, Sheriff." The
+hands met while the Sheriff nodded: "Good night, Jim."
+
+After a few greetings to right and left Mr. Crosskey left the bar.
+The crowd went on smoking, chewing, and drinking, but the sense
+of expectancy was still in the air, and the seriousness seemed, if
+anything, to have increased. Five or ten minutes may have passed when a
+man named Reid, who had run for the post of Sub-Sheriff the year before,
+and had failed to beat Johnson's nominee Jarvis, rose from his chair and
+asked abruptly:
+
+"Sheriff, do you reckon to take any of us uns with you to-morrow?"
+
+With an indefinable ring of sarcasm in his negligent tone, the Sheriff
+answered:
+
+"I guess not, Mr. Reid."
+
+Quickly Reid replied: "Then I reckon there's no use in us stayin';" and
+turning to a small knot of men among whom he had been sitting, he added,
+"Let's go, boys!"
+
+The men got up and filed out after their leader without greeting the
+Sheriff in any way. With the departure of this group the shadow lifted.
+Those who still remained showed in manner a marked relief, and a
+moment or two later a man named Morris, whom I knew to be a gambler by
+profession, called out lightly:
+
+"The crowd and you'll drink with me, Sheriff, I hope? I want another
+glass, and then we won't keep you up any longer, for you ought to have a
+night's rest with to-morrow's work before you."
+
+The Sheriff smiled assent. Every one moved towards the bar, and
+conversation became general. Morris was the centre of the company, and
+he directed the talk jokingly to the account in the "Tribune," making
+fun, as it seemed to me, though I did not understand all his allusions,
+of the editor's timidity and pretentiousness. Morris interested and
+amused me even more than he amused the others; he talked like a man of
+some intelligence and reading, and listening to him I grew light-hearted
+and careless, perhaps more careless than usual, for my spirits had been
+ice-bound in the earlier gloom of the evening.
+
+"Fortunately our County and State authorities can be fully trusted,"
+some one said.
+
+"Mark that 'fortunately', Sheriff," laughed Morris. "The editor was
+afraid to mention you alone, so he hitched the State on with you to
+lighten the load."
+
+"Ay!" chimed in another of the gamblers, "and the 'aid and succour of
+each and every citizen,' eh, Sheriff, as if you'd take the whole town
+with you. I guess two or three'll be enough fer Williams."
+
+This annoyed me. It appeared to me that Williams had addressed a
+personal challenge to the Sheriff, and I thought that Johnson should
+so consider it. Without waiting for the Sheriff to answer, whether in
+protest or acquiescence, I broke in:
+
+"Two or three would be cowardly. One should go, and one only." At once I
+felt rather than saw the Sheriff free himself from the group of men; the
+next moment he stood opposite to me.
+
+"What was that?" he asked sharply, holding me with keen eye and
+out-thrust chin--repressed passion in voice and look.
+
+The antagonism of his bearing excited and angered me not a little. I
+replied:
+
+"I think it would be cowardly to take two or three against a single man.
+I said one should go, and I say so still."
+
+"Do you?" he sneered. "I guess you'd go alone, wouldn't you? to bring
+Williams in?"
+
+"If I were paid for it I should," was my heedless retort. As I spoke his
+face grew white with such passion that I instinctively put up my hands
+to defend myself, thinking he was about to attack me. The involuntary
+movement may have seemed boyish to him, for thought came into his eyes,
+and his face relaxed; moving away he said quietly:
+
+"I'll set up drinks, boys."
+
+They grouped themselves about him and drank, leaving me isolated. But
+this, now my blood was up, only added to the exasperation I felt at his
+contemptuous treatment, and accordingly I walked to the bar, and as
+the only unoccupied place was by Johnson's side I went there and said,
+speaking as coolly as I could:
+
+"Though no one asks me to drink I guess I'll take some whisky,
+bar-keeper, if you please."
+
+Johnson was standing with his back to me, but when I spoke he looked
+round, and I saw, or thought I saw, a sort of curiosity in his gaze.
+I met his eye defiantly. He turned to the others and said, in his
+ordinary, slow way:
+
+"Wall, good night, boys; I've got to go. It's gittin' late, an' I've had
+about as much as I want."
+
+Whether he alluded to the drink or to my impertinence I was unable to
+divine. Without adding a word he left the room amid a chorus of "Good
+night, Sheriff!" With him went Martin and half-a-dozen more.
+
+I thought I had come out of the matter fairly well until I spoke to
+some of the men standing near. They answered me, it is true, but in
+monosyllables, and evidently with unwillingness. In silence I finished
+my whisky, feeling that every one was against me for some inexplicable
+cause. I resented this and stayed on. In a quarter of an hour the rest
+of the crowd had departed, with the exception of Morris and a few of the
+same kidney.
+
+When I noticed that these gamblers, outlaws by public opinion, held away
+from me, I became indignant. Addressing myself to Morris, I asked:
+
+"Can you tell me, sir, for you seem to be an educated man, what I have
+said or done to make you all shun me?"
+
+"I guess so," he answered indifferently. "You took a hand in a game
+where you weren't wanted. And you tried to come in without ever having
+paid the _ante_, which is not allowed in any game--at least not in any
+game played about here."
+
+The allusion seemed plain; I was not only a stranger, but a foreigner;
+that must be my offence. With a "Good night, sir; good night,
+barkeeper!" I left the room.
+
+The next morning I went as usual to the office. I may have been seated
+there about an hour--it was almost eight o'clock--when I heard a knock
+at the door.
+
+"Come in," I said, swinging round in the American chair, to find myself
+face to face with Sheriff Johnson.
+
+"Why, Sheriff, come in!" I exclaimed cheerfully, for I was relieved
+at seeing him, and so realized more clearly than ever that the
+unpleasantness of the previous evening had left in me a certain
+uneasiness. I was eager to show that the incident had no importance:
+
+"Won't you take a seat? and you'll have a cigar?--these are not bad."
+
+"No, thank you," he answered. "No, I guess I won't sit nor smoke jest
+now." After a pause, he added, "I see you're studyin'; p'r'aps you're
+busy to-day; I won't disturb you."
+
+"You don't disturb me, Sheriff," I rejoined. "As for studying, there's
+not much in it. I seem to prefer dreaming."
+
+"Wall," he said, letting his eyes range round the walls furnished with
+Law Reports bound in yellow calf, "I don't know, I guess there's a big
+lot of readin' to do before a man gets through with all those."
+
+"Oh," I laughed, "the more I read the more clearly I see that law is
+only a sermon on various texts supplied by common sense."
+
+"Wall," he went on slowly, coming a pace or two nearer and speaking with
+increased seriousness, "I reckon you've got all Locock's business to see
+after: his clients to talk to; letters to answer, and all that; and when
+he's on the drunk I guess he don't do much. I won't worry you any more."
+
+"You don't worry me," I replied. "I've not had a letter to answer in
+three days, and not a soul comes here to talk about business or anything
+else. I sit and dream, and wish I had something to do out there in the
+sunshine. Your work is better than reading words, words--nothing but
+words."
+
+"You ain't busy; hain't got anything to do here that might keep you?
+Nothin'?"
+
+"Not a thing. I'm sick of Blackstone and all Commentaries."
+
+Suddenly I felt his hand on my shoulder (moving half round in the
+chair, I had for the moment turned sideways to him), and his voice was
+surprisingly hard and quick:
+
+"Then I swear you in as a Deputy-Sheriff of the United States, and of
+this State of Kansas; and I charge you to bring in and deliver at the
+Sheriff's house, in this county of Elwood, Tom Williams, alive or dead,
+and--there's your fee, five dollars and twenty-five cents!" and he laid
+the money on the table.
+
+Before the singular speech was half ended I had swung round facing him,
+with a fairly accurate understanding of what he meant But the moment
+for decision had come with such sharp abruptness, that I still did not
+realize my position, though I replied defiantly as if accepting the
+charge:
+
+"I've not got a weapon."
+
+"The boys allowed you mightn't hev, and so I brought some along. You ken
+suit your hand." While speaking he produced two or three revolvers of
+different sizes, and laid them before me.
+
+Dazed by the rapid progress of the plot, indignant, too, at the trick
+played upon me, I took up the nearest revolver and looked at it almost
+without seeing it. The Sheriff seemed to take my gaze for that of an
+expert's curiosity.
+
+"It shoots true," he said meditatively, "plumb true; but it's too small
+to drop a man. I guess it wouldn't stop any one with grit in him."
+
+My anger would not allow me to consider his advice; I thrust the weapon
+in my pocket:
+
+"I haven't got a buggy. How am I to get to Osawotamie?"
+
+"Mine's hitched up outside. You ken hev it."
+
+Rising to my feet I said: "Then we can go."
+
+We had nearly reached the door of the office, when the Sheriff stopped,
+turned his back upon the door, and looking straight into my eyes said:
+
+"Don't play foolish. You've no call to go. Ef you're busy, ef you've
+got letters to write, anythin' to do--I'll tell the boys you sed so, and
+that'll be all; that'll let you out."
+
+Half-humorously, as it seemed to me, he added: "You're young and a
+tenderfoot. You'd better stick to what you've begun upon. That's the way
+to do somethin'.--I often think it's the work chooses us, and we've just
+got to get down and do it."
+
+"I've told you I had nothing to do," I retorted angrily; "that's the
+truth. Perhaps" (sarcastically) "this work chooses me."
+
+The Sheriff moved away from the door.
+
+On reaching the street I stopped for a moment in utter wonder. At that
+hour in the morning Washington Street was usually deserted, but now
+it seemed as if half the men in the town had taken up places round the
+entrance to Locock's office stairs. Some sat on barrels or boxes tipped
+up against the shop-front (the next store was kept by a German, who sold
+fruit and eatables); others stood about in groups or singly; a few were
+seated on the edge of the side-walk, with their feet in the dust of the
+street. Right before me and most conspicuous was the gigantic figure
+of Martin. He was sitting on a small barrel in front of the Sheriff's
+buggy.
+
+"Good morning," I said in the air, but no one answered me. Mastering
+my irritation, I went forward to undo the hitching-strap, but Martin,
+divining my intention, rose and loosened the buckle. As I reached him,
+he spoke in a low whisper, keeping his back turned to me:
+
+"Shoot off a joke quick. The boys'll let up on you then. It'll be all
+right. Say something for God's sake!"
+
+The rough sympathy did me good, relaxed the tightness round my heart;
+the resentment natural to one entrapped left me, and some of my
+self-confidence returned:
+
+"I never felt less like joking in my life, Martin, and humour can't be
+produced to order."
+
+He fastened up the hitching-strap, while I gathered the reins together
+and got into the buggy. When I was fairly seated he stepped to the
+side of the open vehicle, and, holding out his hand, said, "Good day,"
+adding, as our hands clasped, "Wade in, young un; wade in."
+
+"Good day, Martin. Good day, Sheriff. Good day, boys!"
+
+To my surprise there came a chorus of answering "Good days!" as I drove
+up the street.
+
+A few hundred yards I went, and then wheeled to the right past the post
+office, and so on for a quarter of a mile, till I reached the descent
+from the higher ground, on which the town was built, to the river.
+There, on my left, on the verge of the slope, stood the Sheriffs house
+in a lot by itself, with the long, low jail attached to it. Down the
+hill I went, and across the bridge and out into the open country. I
+drove rapidly for about five miles--more than halfway to Osawotamie--and
+then I pulled up, in order to think quietly and make up my mind.
+
+I grasped the situation now in all its details. Courage was the one
+virtue which these men understood, the only one upon which they prided
+themselves. I, a stranger, a "tenderfoot," had questioned the courage
+of the boldest among them, and this mission was their answer to my
+insolence. The "boys" had planned the plot; Johnson was not to blame;
+clearly he wanted to let me out of it; he would have been satisfied
+there in the office if I had said that I was busy; he did not like to
+put his work on any one else. And yet he must profit by my going. Were I
+killed, the whole country would rise against Williams; whereas if I shot
+Williams, the Sheriff would be relieved of the task. I wondered whether
+the fact of his having married made any difference to the Sheriff.
+Possibly--and yet it was not the Sheriff; it was the "boys" who had
+insisted on giving me the lesson. Public opinion was dead against me. "I
+had come into a game where I was not wanted, and I had never even paid
+the _ante_"--that was Morris's phrase. Of course it was all clear now.
+I had never given any proof of courage, as most likely all the rest had
+at some time or other. That was the _ante_ Morris meant....
+
+My wilfulness had got me into the scrape; I had only myself to thank.
+Not alone the Sheriff but Martin would have saved me had I profited by
+the door of escape which he had tried to open for me. Neither of them
+wished to push the malice to the point of making me assume the Sheriff's
+risk, and Martin at least, and probably the Sheriff also, had taken
+my quick, half-unconscious words and acts as evidence of reckless
+determination. If I intended to live in the West I must go through with
+the matter.
+
+But what nonsense it all was! Why should I chuck away my life in the
+attempt to bring a desperate ruffian to justice? And who could say that
+Williams was a ruffian? It was plain that his quarrel with the Sheriff
+was one of old date and purely personal He had "stopped" Judge Shannon
+in order to bring about a duel with the Sheriff. Why should I fight the
+Sheriff's duels? Justice, indeed! justice had nothing to do with this
+affair; I did not even know which man was in the right. Reason led
+directly to the conclusion that I had better turn the horse's head
+northwards, drive as fast and as far as I could, and take the train as
+soon as possible out of the country. But while I recognized that this
+was the only sensible decision, I felt that I could not carry it into
+action. To run away was impossible; my cheeks burned with shame at the
+thought.
+
+Was I to give my life for a stupid practical joke? "Yes!"--a voice
+within me answered sharply. "It would be well if a man could always
+choose the cause for which he risks his life, but it may happen that he
+ought to throw it away for a reason that seems inadequate."
+
+"What ought I to do?" I questioned.
+
+"Go on to Osawotamie, arrest Williams, and bring him into Kiota,"
+replied my other self.
+
+"And if he won't come?"
+
+"Shoot him--you are charged to deliver him 'alive or dead' at the
+Sheriff's house. No more thinking, drive straight ahead and act as if
+you were a representative of the law and Williams a criminal. It has to
+be done."
+
+The resolution excited me, I picked up the reins and proceeded. At the
+next section-line I turned to the right, and ten or fifteen minutes
+later saw Osawotamie in the distance.
+
+I drew up, laid the reins on the dashboard, and examined the revolver.
+It was a small four-shooter, with a large bore. To make sure of its
+efficiency I took out a cartridge; it was quite new. While weighing it
+in my hand, the Sheriff's words recurred to me, "It wouldn't stop any
+one with grit in him." What did he mean? I didn't want to think, so
+I put the cartridge in again, cocked and replaced the pistol in my
+right-side jacket pocket, and drove on. Osawotamie consisted of a single
+street of straggling frame-buildings. After passing half-a-dozen of
+them I saw, on the right, one which looked to me like a saloon. It was
+evidently a stopping-place. There were several hitching-posts, and
+the house boasted instead of a door two green Venetian blinds put upon
+rollers--the usual sign of a drinking-saloon in the West.
+
+I got out of the buggy slowly and carefully, so as not to shift the
+position of the revolver, and after hitching up the horse, entered the
+saloon. Coming out of the glare of the sunshine I could hardly see in
+the darkened room. In a moment or two my eyes grew accustomed to the dim
+light, and I went over to the bar, which was on my left. The bar-keeper
+was sitting down; his head and shoulders alone were visible; I asked him
+for a lemon squash.
+
+"Anythin' in it?" he replied, without lifting his eyes.
+
+"No; I'm thirsty and hot."
+
+"I guessed that was about the figger," he remarked, getting up leisurely
+and beginning to mix the drink with his back to me.
+
+I used the opportunity to look round the room. Three steps from me stood
+a tall man, lazily leaning with his right arm on the bar, his fingers
+touching a half-filled glass. He seemed to be gazing past me into
+the void, and thus allowed me to take note of his appearance. In
+shirt-sleeves, like the bar-keeper, he had a belt on in which were two
+large revolvers with white ivory handles. His face was prepossessing,
+with large but not irregular features, bronzed fair skin, hazel eyes,
+and long brown moustache. He looked strong and was lithe of form, as if
+he had not done much hard bodily work. There was no one else in the room
+except a man who appeared to be sleeping at a table in the far corner
+with his head pillowed on his arms.
+
+As I completed this hasty scrutiny of the room and its inmates, the
+bar-keeper gave me my squash, and I drank eagerly. The excitement had
+made me thirsty, for I knew that the crisis must be at hand, but I
+experienced no other sensation save that my heart was thumping and my
+throat was dry. Yawning as a sign of indifference (I had resolved to
+be as deliberate as the Sheriff) I put my hand in my pocket on the
+revolver. I felt that I could draw it out at once.
+
+I addressed the bar-keeper:
+
+"Say, do you know the folk here in Osawotamie?"
+
+After a pause he replied:
+
+"Most on 'em, I guess."
+
+Another pause and a second question:
+
+"Do you know Tom Williams?"
+
+The eyes looked at me with a faint light of surprise in them; they
+looked away again, and came back with short, half suspicious, half
+curious glances.
+
+"Maybe you're a friend of his'n?"
+
+"I don't know him, but I'd like to meet him."
+
+"Would you, though?" Turning half round, the bar-keeper took down a
+bottle and glass, and poured out some whisky, seemingly for his own
+consumption. Then: "I guess he's not hard to meet, isn't Williams, ef
+you and me mean the same man."
+
+"I guess we do," I replied; "Tom Williams is the name."
+
+"That's me," said the tall man who was leaning on the bar near me,
+"that's my name."
+
+"Are you the Williams that stopped Judge Shannon yesterday?"
+
+"I don't know his name," came the careless reply, "but I stopped a man
+in a buck-board."
+
+Plucking out my revolver, and pointing it low down on his breast, I
+said:
+
+"I'm sent to arrest you; you must come with me to Kiota."
+
+Without changing his easy posture, or a muscle of his face, he asked in
+the same quiet voice:
+
+"What does this mean, anyway? Who sent you to arrest me?"
+
+"Sheriff Johnson," I answered.
+
+The man started upright, and said, as if amazed, in a quick, loud voice:
+
+"Sheriff Johnson sent _you_ to arrest me?"
+
+"Yes," I retorted, "Sheriff Samuel Johnson swore me in this morning as
+his deputy, and charged me to bring you into Kiota."
+
+In a tone of utter astonishment he repeated my words, "Sheriff Samuel
+Johnson!"
+
+"Yes," I replied, "Samuel Johnson, Sheriff of Elwood County."
+
+"See here," he asked suddenly, fixing me with a look of angry suspicion,
+"what sort of a man is he? What does he figger like?"
+
+"He's a little shorter than I am," I replied curtly, "with a brown beard
+and bluish eyes--a square-built sort of man."
+
+"Hell!" There was savage rage and menace in the exclamation.
+
+"You kin put that up!" he added, absorbed once more in thought. I paid
+no attention to this; I was not going to put the revolver away at his
+bidding. Presently he asked in his ordinary voice:
+
+"What age man might this Johnson be?"
+
+"About forty or forty-five, I should think."
+
+"And right off Sam Johnson swore you in and sent you to bring me into
+Kiota--an' him Sheriff?"
+
+"Yes," I replied impatiently, "that's so."
+
+"Great God!" he exclaimed, bringing his clenched right hand heavily down
+on the bar. "Here, Zeke!" turning to the man asleep in the corner,
+and again he shouted "Zeke!" Then, with a rapid change of manner, and
+speaking irritably, he said to me:
+
+"Put that thing up, I say."
+
+The bar-keeper now spoke too: "I guess when Tom sez you kin put it up,
+you kin. You hain't got no use fur it."
+
+The changes of Williams' tone from wonder to wrath and then to quick
+resolution showed me that the doubt in him had been laid, and that I
+had but little to do with the decision at which he had arrived, whatever
+that decision might be. I understood, too, enough of the Western spirit
+to know that he would take no unfair advantage of me. I therefore
+uncocked the revolver and put it back into my pocket. In the meantime
+Zeke had got up from his resting-place in the corner and had made his
+way sleepily to the bar. He had taken more to drink than was good for
+him, though he was not now really drunk.
+
+"Give me and Zeke a glass, Joe," said Williams; "and this gentleman,
+too, if he'll drink with me, and take one yourself with us."
+
+"No," replied the bar-keeper sullenly, "I'll not drink to any damned
+foolishness. An' Zeke won't neither."
+
+"Oh, yes, he will," Williams returned persuasively, "and so'll you, Joe.
+You aren't goin' back on me."
+
+"No, I'll be just damned if I am," said the barkeeper, half-conquered.
+
+"What'll you take, sir?" Williams asked me.
+
+"The bar-keeper knows my figger," I answered, half-jestingly, not yet
+understanding the situation, but convinced that it was turning out
+better than I had expected.
+
+"And you, Zeke?" he went on.
+
+"The old pizen," Zeke replied.
+
+"And now, Joe, whisky for you and me--the square bottle," he continued,
+with brisk cheerfulness.
+
+In silence the bar-keeper placed the drinks before us. As soon as the
+glasses were empty Williams spoke again, putting out his hand to Zeke at
+the same time:
+
+"Good-bye, old man, so long, but saddle up in two hours. Ef I don't come
+then, you kin clear; but I guess I'll be with you."
+
+"Good-bye, Joe."
+
+"Good-bye, Tom," replied the bar-keeper, taking the proffered hand,
+still half-unwillingly, "if you're stuck on it; but the game is to wait
+for 'em here--anyway that's how I'd play it."
+
+A laugh and shake of the head and Williams addressed me:
+
+"Now, sir, I'm ready if you are." We were walking towards the door, when
+Zeke broke in:
+
+"Say, Tom, ain't I to come along?"
+
+"No, Zeke, I'll play this hand alone," replied Williams, and two minutes
+later he and I were seated in the buggy, driving towards Kiota.
+
+We had gone more than a mile before he spoke again. He began very
+quietly, as if confiding his thoughts to me:
+
+"I don't want to make no mistake about this business--it ain't worth
+while. I'm sure you're right, and Sheriff Samuel Johnson sent you, but,
+maybe, ef you was to think you could kinder bring him before me. There
+might be two of the name, the age, the looks--though it ain't likely."
+Then, as if a sudden inspiration moved him:
+
+"Where did he come from, this Sam Johnson, do you know?"
+
+"I believe he came from Pleasant Hill, Missouri. I've heard that he left
+after a row with his partner, and it seems to me that his partner's name
+was Williams. But that you ought to know better than I do. By-the-bye,
+there is one sign by which Sheriff Johnson can always be recognized;
+he has lost the little finger of his left hand. They say he caught
+Williams' bowie with that hand and shot him with the right. But why he
+had to leave Missouri I don't know, if Williams drew first."
+
+"I'm satisfied now," said my companion, "but I guess you hain't got that
+story correct; maybe you don't know the cause of it nor how it began;
+maybe Williams didn't draw fust; maybe he was in the right all the way
+through; maybe--but thar!--the first hand don't decide everythin'. Your
+Sheriffs the man--that's enough for me."
+
+After this no word was spoken for miles. As we drew near the bridge
+leading into the town of Kiota I remarked half-a-dozen men standing
+about. Generally the place was deserted, so the fact astonished me a
+little. But I said nothing. We had scarcely passed over half the length
+of the bridge, however, when I saw that there were quite twenty men
+lounging around the Kiota end of it. Before I had time to explain
+the matter to myself, Williams spoke: "I guess he's got out all the
+vigilantes;" and then bitterly: "The boys in old Mizzouri wouldn't
+believe this ef I told it on him, the dog-goned mean cuss."
+
+We crossed the bridge at a walk (it was forbidden to drive faster over
+the rickety structure), and toiled up the hill through the bystanders,
+who did not seem to see us, though I knew several of them. When we
+turned to the right to reach the gate of the Sheriff's house, there
+were groups of men on both sides. No one moved from his place; here and
+there, indeed, one of them went on whittling.
+
+I drew up at the sidewalk, threw down the reins, and jumped out of the
+buggy to hitch up the horse. My task was done.
+
+I had the hitching-rein loose in my hand, when I became conscious of
+something unusual behind me. I looked round--it was the stillness that
+foreruns the storm.
+
+Williams was standing on the side-walk facing the low wooden fence, a
+revolver in each hand, but both pointing negligently to the ground; the
+Sheriff had just come down the steps of his house; in his hands also
+were revolvers; his deputy, Jarvis, was behind him on the stoop.
+
+Williams spoke first:
+
+"Sam Johnson, you sent for me, and I've come."
+
+The Sheriff answered firmly, "I did!"
+
+Their hands went up, and crack! crack! crack! in quick succession, three
+or four or five reports--I don't know how many. At the first shots the
+Sheriff fell forward on his face. Williams started to run along the
+side-walk; the groups of men at the corner, through whom he must pass,
+closed together; then came another report, and at the same moment he
+stopped, turned slowly half round, and sank down in a heap like an empty
+sack.
+
+I hurried to him; he had fallen almost as a tailor sits, but his head
+was between his knees. I lifted it gently; blood was oozing from a hole
+in the forehead. The men were about me; I heard them say:
+
+"A derned good shot! Took him in the back of the head. Jarvis kin
+shoot!"
+
+I rose to my feet. Jarvis was standing inside the fence supported by
+some one; blood was welling from his bared left shoulder.
+
+"I ain't much hurt," he said, "but I guess the Sheriff's got it bad."
+
+The men moved on, drawing me with them, through the gate to where the
+Sheriff lay. Martin turned him over on his back. They opened his shirt,
+and there on the broad chest were two little blue marks, each in the
+centre of a small mound of pink flesh.
+
+4TH April, 1891.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Sheriff And His Partner, by Frank Harris
+
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