Chapter 10, Part Two

David Carnegie rode through Clear Creek, watching for faces he would recognize from his stays years earlier. He saw a few, but they did not recognize him, for he had only visited three times, and had never stayed long. This was just as well with him. Better to be in a town where no one knew him. The next thing to do was get a look at the Sheriff. Was it the same one they’d had years before, or was there a new man in town? David had to know, so he went into a hotel dining room across the street from the Sheriff’s office, requested a seat where he could see the street, because, as he put it, “he was expecting someone.” His request was granted, though he never saw any man with a badge go in or out of the Sheriff’s office while he was eating. After he got done, he stepped outside and joined an old-timer sitting in front of the hotel. After two hours of listening to the old-timer talk, he was rewarded for his suffering through the tales of the past. A man wearing a badge was riding down the street. As David peered at the man, trying to catch any clues to whether the man was the Sheriff himself or a deputy, he reminded himself to stay unseen, and tugged at the brim of his hat a little to hide his eyes. The law officer did not notice him, but the old-timer called out to the man. David quickly bowed his head and pretended to study his hands, taking note of the old-timer’s farewell to the lawman, “See ya later, Sheriff.”

A sigh shook David’s body. He was safe, for the moment. If the Sheriff was still in the town, at least he was no longer Sheriff. Which meant the next thing he had to check was the house.

Chapter 10, Part One

I had no idea, on that bright spring day, that all the forces which would combine to confront me with the greatest challenge of my life were gathering outside my little town. They were numerous and deadly. The names meant nothing to me at the time. I had no idea that only a week earlier, the man I would soon be hiring as my new deputy, David Carnegie, had been let out of jail for crimes related to a bank robbery ten years earlier. I did not know that a gambler, his brother Leland, would try to hoodwink more than forty outlaws while attempting to gather almost six million dollars. I didn’t know that a man who had a grudge against for something I thought was history would repeatedly try to kill me, and not in a kindly fashion at that.

I was simply concerned with getting another deputy. I put the posters up in all the normal places, in front of the general store, the jail, the saloon (reluctantly). On a whim, I put one on a tree in front of my house.

~

The reunion was not what would be termed enthusiastic. Closeness not a thing the men of the Carnegie family valued, except perhaps Mike, the youngest brother. David, the gunslinger, was out of prison, and the task they had to accomplish was known to all as they met him. Well, all except for David’s uncle, Tad, who had telltale liquor bottles strewn around and was sleeping off another night of partying at the nearest saloon. David remarked upon this.
“He still holds his liquor. Doesn’t look a bit more wasted than he was.”
“He’s good for nothing. Waste of money if you ask me.” This from Bill.
Leland and David cast a glance towards one another, neither willing to say what they were both thinking. Mike studiously gazed into the fire, having just finished cooking the excuse for breakfast, some pancakes. They were burnt, as usual, and Bill spat into the fire.
“Burned ‘em again, kid.”
“Better ‘n the slop they feed you in that jail… that stuff tastes like a shoe compared to this.”
Bill grunted disapprovingly. An awkward moment.
“So, what have you all been… what have you been doing the last ten years.”
Leland began to respond. “The usual.”
“Waiting.” Bill again, with a glower in David’s direction, which was met with an even glare.
“Not breaking me out…”
“What did you want? Us to all get arrested, somebody get shot, names get known?”
“Just a little loyalty, that’s all.”
Bill snorted in indignation.
“To you?”
Indignant or not, Leland spoke.
“Enough. We know why we’re here, just say it. The jabbering won’t get us anywhere.”
Bill and David paused, staring at Leland. It was not usual for Leland to say much, except within the family, so it was not him speaking that surprised them, but the unusual force with which he spoke. After a moment, Bill fairly roared at David.
“I want the money, I want to get out. Now.”
“You’ve gotta give me time.”
“No time!”
“Then no money.”
Bill was again glowering, a powerless roaring lion. Leland interjected again.
“All right, David, what do you need?”
David paused, thinking for perhaps the first moment in the conversation.
“I’m gonna go see the place where I put the money. Might be able to get it out quick, might not. Might not even still be there. It’s always possible that someone else found it.”
“It’d be just like you not to hide it good enough…”
“You were the one who wanted me to hide it, Bill. Give me the job…”
“Don’t you dare call me Bill…”
“…and let me do it my way or do it yourself. Bill.”
The silence hung in the air for what seemed to Mike to have been a minute. Leland quietly riffled a deck of cards. Tad slept on, undisturbed by his brother’s quarrels with his nephew.
“What’s it gonna be?”
Bill gave no reply.
“Well, since we’re agreed. I’ll be going into town today. I’d be obliged if you gentlemen held your places here at camp.”
Bill suddenly jumped, as if stung.
“I am your father, boy! Stop right now, or I’ll stop you myself!”
David stopped. Did not turn.
“I don’t hardly think you’ll try to stop me.”

With that, David Carnegie hopped on his horse and rode off. Leland dutifully riffled his cards one more time.

Chapter 9, Part Two

The eyewitnesses said they had never seen anything like it. Jack Miles drew and shot so rapidly that a blink would not have only missed the draw, but the shot one immediately succeeding the first. Yet, in that short blink, one would have also missed Jack Miles dropping to his knees, letting the gun hit the deck, and grabbing his wrist, numb from the shock. For the first shot was not Jack’s, but Tim’s. A bystander remarked that the victor of the duel must have known beforehand when Miles was to pull his gun, because he could not have possibly reacted that fast. Tim Wheeler had no comment.

He took Jack Miles back to the town of his crimes, and saw him hanged. Shortly thereafter, Tim Wheeler, the friendly, affable, talkative farmboy mysteriously transformed into the only man to have ever outdrawn the most feared man in the country became Sheriff of a little town in the middle of Missouri.

The time had come for the small-town sheriff to meet a man with a grudge as large as New York City.