[Texas Rangers 03] - The Way of the Coyote (33 page)

Rusty stepped between the two men. "I said one is enough. You'd better get on your horse and ride. There's a bunch of state police comin' around the courthouse."

Farley did not appear to believe him until he heard the captain shout. He gave Clyde a poisonous look. "All right, Shannon. But whatever you need him for, you better take care of it quick, because I'll be back."

He ran to his horse. He spurred out between two buildings and was gone. The captain called for his men to get their horses, but it would take them a few minutes.

A few minutes was all Farley Brackett needed.

Rusty reached down and took hold of Clyde's collar. "Get up from there. You're goin' over to the courthouse with me and sign some papers."

Clyde had quit sobbing. He resisted Rusty's strong pull. "I ain't signin' nothin'."

"You will. I know where Farley's goin'. Mess with me and I'll take you to him."

Andy knew that was a bluff, but he kept a straight face. Rusty too, could play the trickster.

Reluctantly Clyde got up onto wobbly legs. "You wouldn't do that. You wouldn't turn a man over to somebody like Farley."

"I will if you don't dot every i and cross every t just like Judge Burmeister tells you."

It took about an hour for the judge to write out the deed and for all parties to sign it. Clyde's signature was shaky but legal. Done, Rusty said, "Judge, after I get the place cleaned up, I'd like you to come out and see it. We'll barbecue a hog."

"That would make me glad, Private Shannon. Glad indeed."

Rusty and Andy escorted Clyde to his horse. Clyde was still in shock, his gaze roaming up and down the street as if he expected Farley Brackett to come charging back any minute. He asked, "What we goin' to do about Buddy?"

Rusty said, "The county will take care of the buryin'. If I was you I'd leave before Farley shows up again and buries
you
. I wouldn't stop runnin' 'til I got to Louisiana. Maybe even Mississippi."

Farley had ridden westward. Clyde reined his horse eastward and put him into a lope. Andy doubted that he would slow down until the horse was exhausted. He said, "I hope we've seen the last of him. And Farley, too."

Rusty said, "You never know."

Up the street a wagon arrived, driven by a black farmhand. Bethel Brackett sat beside him. Rusty watched them. "Looks like they're headed for the doctor's. I expect they've got Mrs. Brackett in the wagon."

"That's the way I figure it."

Rusty made a thin smile. "That Bethel's a nice-lookin' girl but a little light in weight. Maybe you'd better go see if you can be any help to her."

Andy nodded. "I think I'll do that." He trotted up the street.

Rusty held the deed tightly in his hand. Watching Andy speak to the girl, he was reminded of Josie Monahan. Soon as he caught up doing what was needful around the farm, he would write Josie a letter.

He might even take it to her himself.

B
y the December election of 1873, the disenfranchised Confederate veterans had regained the right to vote. Two to one, they chose Richard Coke over the longtime reconstruction governor, Edmund J. Davis, a basically honest man who had been given too much power for his own good or the good of the people of Texas. Davis for a time rejected the results and maintained that the election was unconstitutional. As the inauguration date approached in January 1874, Davis held out, refusing to relinquish his office. For several days armed groups from both sides jockeyed for position in and around the state capital, threatening but never quite coming to violence.

Barricaded in the capitol building, Davis twice telegraphed President Ulysses S. Grant, begging for military force to keep him in office. Grant refused, advising him to give up the struggle. Davis did, finally, and a new era dawned in Texas.

A new constitution was written, guaranteeing that no governor ever again would have dictatorial powers. The Texas Rangers were reorganized, stronger and more efficient than ever before.
* * * THE END * * *

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[02 Nov 2011] Proofed/formatted and converted for mobi by Dino