Ironhorse

112

We paid up at KK & Sandra’s and walked down to the livery stable to get our horses. When we got them saddled up, we walked them over to the general store. At the store we got ourselves outfitted for our journey back to Appaloosa. We bought ourselves enough supplies for a week. We got coffee, beans, bacon packed in bran, pemmican, Chollet & Co. desiccated vegetables, jerky, boiled butter, dried fruit, sunflower seeds, and some whiskey.

After we got ourselves rigged out good, we walked our animals over to Hotel Ark, where some of the Rangers were sitting out front on the steps, smoking cigars.

We tied up our animals and started up the steps. A young Ranger held out his hand for us to stop.

“Hotel is off-limits for the moment,” the Ranger said.

Hobbs spoke up as he was coming out the door of the hotel with Berkeley.

“Don’t even think about halting those men!” Hobbs said.

“Sorry, Mr. Hobbs,” the Ranger said, “governor’s orders.”

“Goddamn it, son!” Hobbs said. “The governor, his family, and me included would not even be alive if it weren’t for these men!”

The Ranger looked back and forth between Virgil and me. His eyes rested on Virgil.

“You Virgil Cole?” the Ranger said.

“I am,” Virgil said.

The Ranger just looked at Virgil for an extended moment, kind of an odd moment. He took off his hat and held it in front of him over his belly.

“You are the reason I became a lawman,” the Ranger said.

“That so.”

The young Ranger nodded slowly, kind of nervous-like. He was having a hard time saying what he wanted to say but did manage to get his words out.

“My... my father was the foreman on the Sweetwater Ranch in the panhandle who was killed by Bob Brandice, along with my mother. That was eleven years ago. I was twelve years old at the time. You hunted Bob down, near killed him, put him behind bars, and now you done away with him for good.”

Off in the distance I heard the whistle of the Southbound Express approaching Half Moon Junction: two long, a short, and a long blast, and I saw her walk out the door followed by her mother, father, and sister. She was wearing a pale yellow dress, obviously a dress she got from Rose, and even though the dress might not have been her taste and style, she looked beautiful. I could no longer hear the conversation between Virgil and the young Ranger as she looked past Virgil, past everyone, and rested her eyes on me. I could not hear anything other than the beat of my heart as she moved down the steps toward me. When she was close she reached out her arm and grabbed my hand. She turned to the Ranger talking with Virgil.

“Darling,” Emma said to the young Ranger as she hooked her arm in his, “these are the lawmen I was telling you about. Everett, this is my...”

Emma continued to talk, but her words faded away, and now all I could hear was the sound of the locomotive as it got closer to town. I kept looking at her as she was talking, but I wasn’t really listening. I guess I didn’t want to hear what Emma was saying. I could feel Virgil looking at me as Emma kept on talking, but I did not meet his eye.