A Slight Detour
Matt Dillon, already a week late, was a passenger on the stage leaving Brookville, a small town between Salina and Ellsworth, accompanied by a bewildered, grieving boy of eight whose ill mother had just passed and whose father was being escorted back to the state penitentiary in Lansing. If it weren't for the distance and the boy's age he would have used the funds the government provided for the assignment to buy a couple of cheap horses. Truth be told, he'd rather have delivered Henry Trivett who'd been convicted of robbing Bodkin's bank and wounding the elderly teller Elroy Parker to Lansing entirely on horseback.
Trivett, a real piece of work thought the only thing wrong with his attempted armed robbery was Marshal Dillon arrested him as he ran out the door, the smoking gun still in his right hand. In the mind of the unkempt, burly man of just over six feet all lawmen were the cause of such failures and deserved to be put out of their misery by any means possible. Knowing how his prisoner felt, Matt couldn't take a chance being alone on the trail with him for 340 miles. Besides, even though the cattle season was over, Dodge City, the town he called home, needed the law's presence. His assistant Chester Goode would do his best but couldn't be expected to keep an eye on things for a week or more unless there was no other choice. Consequently, the lawman escorted his prisoner by train as far as Leavenworth, renting horses to ride the remaining ten miles to Lansing, cutting the travel time to a single day.
That was yesterday. This morning he reckoned as he ate his breakfast, having paid his hotel bill, all he need do to get home tonight was make his way to the stable to retrieve the two rented horses and ride to Leavenworth in plenty of time to catch the 10 AM westbound train. He should be back to Dodge in time to make his late rounds. Instead his plans were thwarted. Just as he was savoring a final cup of coffee that wasn't made from week-old grounds in anticipation of his return home, the warden joined him at his table.
"Marshal, glad I caught you. I've a favor to ask. The government already approved the necessary funds."
"What do you want me to do Jenkins? It seems Washington's already decided I'm helping out."
"A model prisoner's wife is in the last stages of consumption and won't live much more than a couple days. I doubt Hack Patterson would have tried robbing that stage if he weren't so desperate to find some way to keep his Martha alive longer. In any case, once he was convicted Patterson finalized the arrangements for his eight-year-old son Peter to live with his aunt and uncle on their farm ten miles east of Dodge while he serves out his five-year sentence. Takin' the boy to Dodge will just delay some."
"Who's the family? I most likely know them."
"Mr. and Mrs. Rod Gilbert. When Cora Gilbert heard her sister was sick, they offered to take the boy after his ma passed. They'll be expecting a wire alerting them you're bringing the boy."
An hour later Matt reluctantly sent his own telegram to let Chester, Doc and Kitty know he'd be delayed at least several days. Instead of leaving Lansing alone to catch and ride the morning train west from Leavenworth through to Dodge City alone, he'd travel with three others only as far as Brookville to meet up with young Peter.
During the first leg the two guards and Patterson rode the prison wagon. One of the two horses Matt rented was tied to the back of it while he rode the other. The four men made it to the Leavenworth train depot by 9:55 giving Matt time to obtain a cash refund of the portion of the fare from Salina to Dodge.
Since he had every reason to get there and was surrounded on the train the three lawmen allowed Hack to sit without handcuffs or leg irons. They acted like four men returning home from a business trip to the big city during the five-hour 170-mile journey from Leavenworth to Salina. Matt used the conversation to learn what he could about the man whose son he'd soon be escorting and his feelings.
"Hack, Rod and Cora Gilbert are good people," Matt reassured the distraught husband and father as they prepared to disembark at Salina. "They'll do their best to see your boy over the rough patches while he gets to know them."
"Thank you, Marshal Dillon. I sense you're a caring man and will see to it Pete arrives not just safely, as your job requires, but reassured."
The men covered the remaining 12 miles of their trip in silence. Hack sat in a rented buggy with Charlie, the older but stockier of the two guards, who drove, while Matt and Bill, rode their rented horses on either side. They'd already eaten a late dinner or early supper in Salina at four so they rode directly to the two-room house on the only back street in the tiny town of Brookville Patterson rented for his family since he sold their farm a month before he tried to rob the stage half a year ago.
A week later Matt, having sent off wires to Chester, Kitty, Doc and the Gilberts, emerged from the Brookville combined stage depot and telegraph office to await the only stage heading for Dodge in the next five days. Instead of getting back late on the sixth by train and alone he'd finally make it home with a lad in tow on the 15th, barring delays, spending at least three of those days on a stage. Too bad the government funds, including the refund and whatever spare money he carried, weren't near enough to pay for man and boy on the much faster train.
Pete clung to his father as they watched the stage that would take them on west arrive. Matt hated to pull the lad away from his remaining parent, but Hack had to go back to prison and Matt couldn't delay his return home any longer. As the coach pulled away, Pete stared out the window at the buggy and two horses heading in the opposite direction, doing his best to hold back the tears. He'd cried when his ma was buried, but he wasn't about to cry when only he and the big marshal taking him to live with the aunt and uncle he'd never met and a stranger were on the stage. Instead he asked a question.
"Mr. Dillon do you think Aunt Cora and Uncle Rod will like me? I mean they know my pa robbed that stage as it went past our farm, but he only did it for money to help Ma get better. They won't hold what he did against me, will they?"
"Kid, if they're good people they'll understand your pa had no choice and accept you as kin even though he failed," the man sitting across from Pete said. "Ain't that right, mister?"
