Saga of Sam JonesChapter 5
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I had been too involved to pay much attention to the war news. I saw where the Rough Riders had landed in Cuba on June 22 and had seen some action two days later on June 24, fighting at some place called Las Guasimas. There were no casualty figures yet, but the reporter said there were at least sixteen men dead and a half hundred wounded, some severely. It was reported that about 950 of our troops had met 1200 of the enemy, they waiting and entrenched, with us eventually routing them, sending the enemy back to Santiago.
It was exciting reading until you paused to remember that among those troops were our own native sons. We now had to wait for the casualties to have names.
The prosecutor who was trying my prisoners was hounding me for the reports of what happened the day of the bank robbery. I couldn't see why he needed such detail, but then he was new and inexperienced. This was the first case he had where there were people who died in the commission of a crime. He didn't want to foul it up. I went back and rewrote my reports and handed them over to him.
It took an extra day, because one of the eyewitnesses was out of town. Cindy had returned to work at the bank and this time she moved up into the deceased Phil's position as teller. To get her report I suggested we meet at lunch at the Seldon House. We were out in public and we concentrated on the business at hand. There was an undercurrent of something not defined between us, but we never went there.
I had informed the prisoners that they would have about two weeks to live when they surrendered. By the time the judge was able to set a date, the prisoners actually would have a month if they were sentenced to die. I would be terribly disappointed if they weren't. In years past, they would have been tried in town and immediately taken out and hung. Now they would be transferred to the state prison for the sentence to be carried out.
When the man named Tyler learned that he wasn't immediately going to be tried, he asked me to contact his "old woman," to say good-bye for him. "Just write Daisy a letter, she'll get someone to read it to her." I did more than that. I traveled to their home, which consisted of just a shack. She was working in a garden plot and she had a sow and some piglets in a fence around to the back. I had seen poor many times, but not such as this.
"Daisy Tyler, ma'am?" She looked up at me as I rode in by the garden. "I'm the sheriff and I've got your man in jail over to Ryeback. He wanted me to come tell you."
"I heard about that. A neighbor come by and read me what was in the paper. You going to hang him?"
"He hasn't had a trial yet, but I expect that's what will happen."
"He treated me good and wanted to treat me better. Guess this is some my fault. I shouda' clobbered him with the skillet when he started talking about robbin' a bank, but didn't think of it."
"A man makes his own decisions and is responsible for his actions."
"I guess."
"You want to go visit him? I'll pay your fare there and back."
"I don't have nobody to look after the pigs. They's all I got to keep body and soul from starving."
"You must have a neighbor. Tell him you'll give him a shoat if he'll do it until you get back. You might be gone two-three weeks."
"Maybe he'd do it for five pounds of sausage. That's what I make out of them pigs. My sausage is purely famous around here. Can I ride pillion so's I can go see?"
It wasn't long before I had the woman up behind me hanging onto my coattails and we went down the road a half mile. She made the deal, but by that time it was late and I'd missed the last train. "Bunk here if you want. You can lay on the bed." The house was poor, but I could see the woman liked clean. I kicked off my boots and made ready for sleep. She lay down on the other side.
It was quiet and then she spoke, "You the sheriff that had his wife done in? If you be, why you being good to me?"
"I'm the sheriff and I did lose my Jessie. Your man and me talked some. I don't think your man is minding much he has to die. He did wrong and he knows he has to pay for it, but he was worried about what is going to happen to you. That tells me he isn't all bad. I did have a few minutes with my wife to say good-bye. It made me think your husband might want a little time to talk to you. He doesn't even know I came down here to see you."
"I don't figure your reasoning, but I thank'ye."
Troubles come to some people more than they do others. I walked the woman down the hall and opened the cell so she could see her husband. I heard her crying as I closed the door and returned to my office. Now I had the problem of where to put her up here for the time to decide his fate. I couldn't leave her in the cell with her man. The town would be up in arms if I even thought about doing it. I certainly couldn't have her at the ranch with me. I'd figure it out before nightfall.
I missed seeing Cindy in the bank window every time I stepped out of the jail. Before, I could wave to her and no one would think anything of it. I went down the street to the general store to thank the owner for being solicitous of Jessie as she lay dying. "Glad I was where I could be of help, Sheriff. Maybe it kept her alive long enough so you could say good-bye to her."
"Could be. I wanted to thank you anyway." As I was coming out, I met George and Bertha coming into the store.
George was beginning to show his age and was moving slow. "How's things out at the ranch?"
"Making do, same's always. Wish we could find a body to help, but nobody wants to work with pigs no more. When's the trial for them murderers?"
"A couple more weeks. It'll be quick when it happens. I'll be glad when it is over. You know, I've been on both sides of the law. I'm thinking on not running for sheriff again. When a sheriff gets to feeling sorry for his prisoners, it is time to hang up the saddle and quit riding."
"You feeling that way?"
"More and more. I went and got the wife of one of the prisoners because he asked me to. Pitiful case. Dirt poor they are and he saw a way out by robbing a bank or so he thought. Now look at their situation. He's going to hang and all she's got left is a garden spot and a sow pig to keep her body together."
"Happens and I can see your point about quitting. Sam, I was awful close to Jessie and I wake some nights remembering her. Where's the justice in it all?"
"I don't know, George. I just don't know."
Lunchtime, I went down to the diner and got feed for my prisoners. "Put up another bait. I got Tyler's wife there with him. I'll pay for that myself. The county don't have to."
When I went down to pick up the leavings of dinner, Ryan had nothing to say. Daisy was all cried out and worried a bit about what her future was going to be without him. "I hope my sow is all right. I had her for three years and she is almost my friend. Pigs is friendly animals. They git a body to feeling they are almost human, you being around them long enough."
It hit me, why didn't I think to ask George if Daisy could stay with him and Bertha until her ordeal was over?
I went out to see if he had left town yet and flagged him down just as they were backing away from the feed store with a load of feed. I put it up to them and Bertha came into the jail to see Daisy. Twenty minutes later I handed her up on top of the feed sacks. She had the promise she would have a horse to ride in to see Ryan until he was taken away. George had taken some talking to, but I said Daisy was no way to blame for Jessie's death and he came around to my thinking.
Tyler was thankful. "Sheriff, you ease my mind. You're doing things that will buy your way into heaven, I just know it." I just shook my head and was warmed by Tyler's words.
They didn't warm me when I reached the ranch. Gramp was around and Martha was here in the house with him. The bunkhouse was full of cowhands. Keith Brannigan was still manager of the ranch. He had never found a woman, and I don't know as he looked very hard after Cindy turned him down. I felt alone though, without Jessie. No, not alone, just empty.
The newspaper said our troops had gone into battle on July 1. They were overwhelmingly victorious, both on Kettle Hill and then the high one, overlooking Santiago, named San Juan. Several battle pictures were published. One clutched our hearts. Prominently displayed was Buddy Kershaw's silver, chased rifle on the ground next to a dead trooper. We searched the casualty list and couldn't find him listed. Neither was his name listed as wounded. We just knew Buddy would not be without his favorite weapon. It held sixteen rounds and the new Krag-Jorgensons, only five.
There was only a seed of hope left for us. Mary Eustis gave us another seed of hope, if you will.
"I would know if one of us should die. Be more worried about the sickness and disease that is running through them in that terrible climate. I did give the three men from here a powder to ward off the sickness. If they followed my directions, they will come home to us whole."
We could only hope and wait now. On July 3rd the US Army was in Santiago where they could fire on the Spanish fleet in the harbor, which was soon defeated.
Felicity, who had never returned to school after her mother's death, was living with her grandparents, John and Miss Sylvia Comstock. She spent much time with her other grandmother, Sarah Seldon (Wilcox) as well. Just about devastated over the loss of her mother and paralyzed with worry over Samson being in harm's way, she made a trip out to see Judith with me as escort.
Cindy was out to the horse ranch already and planned on staying the night with her sister. Felicity whined and cried all through supper until finally Cindy was fed up with her.
"Felicity, shut your mouth. Judy and I lost our mother when we were fifteen. We hardly remember our father. You had Jessie to love for eighteen years. We both loved her as if she was our mother and sometimes as our sister. Judy lost one husband and may have already lost another. There is no report of anything happening to Samson and the war is just about over and he will be coming home soon.
"Think about your father. He lost his parents early and has just lost his wife. This is the way things are. You love someone and if they die you go on and maybe you will find another. That is for us women to bear. Go back to school. That is what your mother would want and if you could speak with Samson, he would tell you the same.
"Sam misses Jessie just as we all do. You know what he has done to get his mind off his misery? He went and found the wife of the prisoner who was instrumental in your mother's death. He lets her spend time with her husband who is going to be sentenced to death in a couple of weeks. And yes, he is going to hate to transport that prisoner down to the state prison."
"What about the wife?"
"You'll meet her if you go out to your grandfather's. Your dad found her a place to stay and George befriends her, even though it was her husband who killed your mother. Jessie at one time was his daughter-in-law and loved. The woman is around forty and pretty dried out from being poor for so long. But there is hope for her. Women in this day and age are still a commodity out here in the west with a lot more men than women. Some man will come along and see her and just maybe her next husband will be better for her than the last one.
Maris
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