CHAPTER THIRTEEN
We were back in Dodge. It was almost one o’clock. I had eight
hours to figure out a solution to Jackson and Howard’s spat, or else a range
war would break out, with all the cowboys on one side and all the ranchers on
the other. I’d been a part of a few and they were always bloody and useless.
The fretting made me forget Clay Richards and Rance and the rest. But when we’d
rode back in, Shiloh had spotted me and reminded me that his boss, Mr. Green,
was waiting for me over at the town hall. I felt like cursing, but he had the
little runaway with him so I thanked him instead. Chester and I dismounted and
hitched our horses in front of the jail then walked over towards the town hall.
“You sure you
want to go in there, Mr. Dillon?” asked Chester. “Oughtn’t we be tryin’ to
figure out –“
“I expect it won’t take long, Chester. Besides, we need to
talk to Pepper, and he’ll be in there with the rest of them.”
“You want me to go in with you, Mr. Dillon?”
“Ah, no,” I said. “No, Chester, you better wait outside.”
“Okay, sir,” said Chester. “What d’ya think they’re up to,
anyway?”
“Well, Green told you it was a businessman’s meeting, didn’t
he?”
“Yessir.”
“Then I expect they’re worried about business.” We reached
the town hall door. “Here we are. I’ll be out shortly.”
“Yessir.” Chester took up a place leaning against the wall.
He took out a wad of slippery elm from his shirt pocket and fitted it neatly
inside his lower lip. He started chewing. I went inside.
Inside were several of Dodge’s leading businessmen – Green,
Howe, Hightower, Gremmick, Pepper, Witherspoon, Torpe, Summers, Denton, and the
rest of them. They were all working themselves up, muttering and grumbling and
nodding at each other. I walked in wearing my undertaker’s coat. Warm as it
was, it had the pleasing effect of shutting them up.
Mr. Green came forward a little hesitantly. He managed the
Dodge House, the city’s main hotel and restaurant. It was the only place folks
from out east felt comfortable in Dodge City, because Green was from Boston and
ran the place just like they did back home. I’d never been to Boston. I
wondered if everyone there was like Green – nice suits and real friendly, but
not too much spine. He was a man famous for not wanting trouble.
As the one who
had invited me, he obviously felt he had to take the lead. “Hello, Marshal,” he said.
“Mr. Green,” I said, touching the brim of my hat.
“Gentlemen.”
They muttered their hellos but kept their eyes on the wall,
or on the floor, or on my badge. This wasn’t looking too good for me.
“Well, Mr. Green?” I said. “I don’t have a lot of time. You
asked me to come here.”
Green coughed and said, “Well, ah, yes. We all did, Marshal.
Mr. Pepper, ‘n Mr. Howe, and, well, all of us. Practically every man who does
business in Dodge is here.”
“Uh-huh,” I said. “Not Howard, but he’s a little busy. And I
don’t see Rance. He says he does business here.”
Howe stepped up then, much more confidently than Green. He
was a Kansan. “He sure does! That’s what we want to talk about.”
“Well,” I said. “Go ahead.”
Green coughed again. “Well, ah, we – we’ve had a meeting,
Marshal, and, ah, we’ve decided you’ve gotta go easier on these cowboys when
they’re in Dodge.” He seemed relieved to have gotten it out.
“Oh,” I said. I waited a moment, then said, “Why, gentlemen?”
Green looked around. It was Howe who answered. “We can’t
afford to lose all that business. That’s why.”
The other men muttered their agreement, but this time they
summoned up the nerve to look at me as they did.
“There’s always some trouble the first day or so when a herd
reaches a city,” I said. “All I have to do is buffalo a few of the wildest and
gradually the rest of the cowboys calm down a little bit.”
Green said, “But they won’t stand for your sluggin’ men and
throwin’ them in jail.”
More mutters of agreement. It wasn’t so much that they were
looking at me now, as looking through me. All the way to the bank.
“Nobody got killed last night, did they?”
Green shook his head. “Well, that’s not the point.”
“According to the law,” I said, “it’s a pretty good point,
Mr. Green.”
Howe chimed in. “The law’s a fine thing, Marshal. But we’re
also interested in business.” The mutters again.
I bit back my first answer to that. “You’re scared because
one hard-headed trail-boss has threatened you, Howe. They’re not all like
Rance, you know.”
“There – there’s no use arguin’, Marshal,” said Green,
spurring himself on by balling up his fists and letting them go again and
again. “We got our minds made up. You’re just too rough with those men.”
“Uh-huh,” I said. “Tell me something, Mr. Green. Would you
like to run this town?”
Green blanched as his courage disappeared. “Why, why, why, no
– ‘course not. No, not me. But, well, we thought maybe if you kinda – leave
Dodge alone ‘n do your work in the country – like this thing with Mr. Howard.
That’s what we need you for. You deal with them cowboys out there. Then, for
town, we’ll hire somebody the cowboys’ll – take to a little better. Ah, you
know what I mean.”
I nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, I do. Good thing for me I’m employed
by the government, isn’t it?”
“Oh, now, Marshal,” said Green. “We’re just makin’ a
suggestion, sorta…”
“Oh yeah, sure, sure.” I looked around at all of them, and
this time none of them met my eye. I turned back to Green. “You know what, Mr.
Green? You’re all actin’ like fools.” They didn’t like that. At least, from
what I got from the mutters, they didn’t sound like they agreed with me. “Yeah,
yeah, it’s true. And there’s only one way you’re gonna learn. Well, gentlemen,
I won’t make anymore arrests in Dodge City until you ask me to. It’s your town
and you can blow it right off the map if you want to. Good day.”
I turned and walked out and left the door of the town hall
open to let in the flies. That showed them.
