Leaving Epitaph: The Sons of Daniel Shaye

23

Shaye watched as Matthew squared off against the larger, older man. He stood his ground and wasn’t about to back down. Whatever the original reason had been for the dispute—girls, drinks—it now appeared to be the older man’s embarrassment at having been bested in arm wrestling. Whether this was a good enough reason for his companions to go for their guns remained to be seen.

Shaye looked over at his youngest son, and James seemed to be in his element. He was now taking bets on who would win the fight, while Shaye would have preferred that he watch his brother’s back. He knew he would have to talk to James about his priorities when this was all over.

The two big men in the center of the room came together then. They grappled, and just when it looked as if they were going to wrestle, the older man unleashed a punishing right that hit Matthew in the belly. Matthew’s entire body seemed to shudder—and so did Shaye’s, as if he could feel his son’s pain—but the younger man did not back up. Instead he set his legs and launched a punch of his own, which landed on Lou Scales’s jaw. Scales had apparently expected Matthew to go down from the body blow, and as a result had left himself open for a counterpunch. His head rocked back, and before he could recover, Matthew moved in and threw a body punch of his own. Scales’s girth, which might have benefited him during the arm wrestling match if he’d used it correctly, was now of no use to him at all. His soft belly absorbed Matthew’s punch, and as all the air was crushed from his lungs, his eyes went wide and his face grew red. Matthew did not wait to see the response from his blow. He stepped back, measured the man, and hit him with a thunderous uppercut that rocked Scales’s head back, straightened him up, then sent him toppling backward until he slammed into the floor on his back. His leg twitched for a moment, and then he lay completely still.

Shocked to see Scales beaten by three punches, his friends were unsure what to do. They looked to Tim Daly and Pat Booth, who were their leaders, but they were as unsure as the rest. Watching them, Shaye knew they were going to make the wrong decision.

As their hands drifted to their guns he stepped forward and said, “Don’t even think about it!”

Suddenly, he was the center of attention. James turned away from the men he’d been collecting money from and looked at his father. Thomas stepped forward to stand with his father and Matthew. A moment later James joined them.

The ranch hands saw that their six to three advantage had now turned into five against four. They did not like the odds at all.

“It’s all over, boys,” Shaye said. “Pick up your friend and take him home. There’s no point in anyone getting seriously hurt over this.”

“Uh, Pa…” James said.

Shaye looked at his younger son, then said to the ranch hands, “Pay off your debts and then take your friend home.”

The five men were still unsure what to do, but another man had now entered the room, wearing a local badge rather than the Texas ones the Shayes were wearing.

“What’s goin’ on?” he demanded.

Dozens of men started talking at the same time, but Sheriff Stover spotted Shaye and his sons and walked over to them.

“Just a little misunderstanding, Sheriff, between my sons and some of your local hands,” Shaye said. “It turned into an arm wrestling match, and then a fight.”

Stover looked down at the fallen man and raised his eyebrows. Then he looked up at Matthew. “Your son put Lou Scales down?”

“With three punches!” James said proudly. “He beat him in arm wrestling, and then in the fight.”

Stover noticed the handful of money James was holding. “And there was betting goin’ on?”

“Just some friendly wagers, Sheriff,” Shaye said. “That’s not against the law, is it?”

Stover didn’t answer. Instead he looked over at Daly, Booth, and the others. “You boys better pay off your bets and get Lou out of here,” he said. “The rest of you go back to whatever you were doin’.”

Dora and Henri came running over to press themselves against James and Matthew.

“I might have figured you two were involved in this,” Stover said. “Always teasing those ranch hands.”

“It was Daly and them who started it, Sheriff,” the bartender said. “These three was just havin’ a drink and talkin’ to the girls.”

“Okay, thanks, Harve,” Stover said. “You might as well get back behind the bar.”

There was a lot of movement, shuffling of feet, shifting of tables and chairs, until the room looked almost back to normal.

“You boys figure on stickin’ around the saloon awhile?” Stover asked the three Shaye boys.

“They were just going to turn in for the night, Sheriff,” Shaye said. “Weren’t you, boys?”

“That’s right, Pa,” Thomas said.

“Yeah,” Dora said, “with us!”

“No, ladies,” Shaye said, “I’m sorry to say, not with you. Over to the hotel, you three.”

James disengaged himself from Dora, picked up Matthew’s hat, which had fallen to the floor, and handed it to his brother. Matthew stepped away from Henri and put his hat on. Shaye noticed he was moving kind of gingerly.

“You all right, Matthew?”

“A little sore in the ribs, Pa,” Matthew said. “He hit pretty hard.”

“We’ll take a look at it back at the hotel,” Shaye said, “decide if you need a doctor or not.”

“I’ll be fine, Pa.”

James moved around the room, collecting the remainder of the money that was wagered against Matthew, then turned to look at his father with a smile that died quickly.

“Uh, Pa—”

“I’ll take that, James,” Shaye said. “We can use it to buy some supplies.”

“Oh, uh, sure, Pa,” James said, handing the money over. “That was what we was figurin’, anyway.”

“I’m sure you were,” Shaye said. “Come on, boys. Let’s git.”

Matthew turned and waved good-bye to Henri, and then he and James went out the door, followed by Thomas.

“Won’t be anymore trouble, Sheriff,” Shaye said. “We’ll be gone come morning.”

Stover nodded, but didn’t say a word as Shaye made his way to the door, to follow his sons to the hotel.