Chapter 10 – Epilogue
Matt Dillon sought a bed after leaving the prisoners and late rounds in the hands of Chester and Shiloh. However, it wasn't the narrow bed in his room. It was Kitty Russell's large bed. After what had almost happened the couple needed the comfort they found only in each other's arms. The one official act he performed before joining Kitty was to send a telegram to Fort Dodge requesting use of their stockade to accommodate 13 more prisoners the following morning, Friday April 14, 1871. He waited five minutes, just long enough to receive a reply granting him permission.
Leaving the sleeping redhead, Matt dressed as quietly as he could and headed down the hall to the backstairs of the Long Branch. He needed to be in his office before the town awakened. Within a half-hour, he, Chester and Shiloh were riding into the rising sun with their prisoners, leaving the Dodge City jail empty until some drunk decided to call his poker companion out or shoot up one of the saloons just for the fun of it. Matt knew it wouldn't be long until that sort of thing happened several times a night. The town was already starting to fill up with spoilers attracted by the soon to arrive increasing numbers of Texas cowboys. The Texans would be out for a good time after spending three months with nothing but dust and temperamental longhorns. He only hoped Dodge remained relatively quiet until after the trial of the Scanlon gang.
The marshal got his wish. Less than two weeks later he watched from the top step of Doc's office, where he'd been having coffee with Kitty and Doc, as a small cavalry troop escorted 13 men to the Long Branch to stand trial. Bill Pence had already admitted the judge and jury. Now that their marshal had returned those newly courageous citizens bore witness to who committed the murders, many assaults, flagrant robbery, including the bank, and who ordered it when he didn't take care of it himself. Even a few outsiders arrived by stage or train to testify to the crimes perpetrated by the gang in other towns, counties, states and territories. Matt and Kitty's testimony about Scanlon's attempted rape, taken with all the other witness accounts, left the jury, made up of Ford County farmers and ranchers who'd experienced nothing more than having their weapons confiscated for the duration of their stay in town, little to discuss. They'd barely begun their deliberations in an upstairs room before they were back in their chairs with a guilty verdict on all counts.
Since the ten prisoners who would live needed to be housed somewhere until they could be transported to serve their time in Leavenworth, they were remanded back to Fort Dodge. The judge, after conferring with the War Department and the governors of the states and territories that felt the sting of the gang's crimes, decided the three condemned men should hang on federal land rather than in a town such as Hays or Dodge City. Fort Dodge was closest. While the rest of the gang awaited the arrival of the prison wagons from the federal penitentiary on Thursday April 27th, the ultimate sentence was carried out against Burt Scanlon, Hank Jones and Jake Garner.
Three evenings later Matt and Kitty looked forward to their last hope for an uninterrupted night together for months to come. While not the first, the largest so far of the Texas outfits was camped across the Arkansas River waiting to drive 1,000 head of cattle to the stockyards by the train depot, get paid three months hard-earned pay at $30 a month and found and spend it as rapidly as possible drinking, gambling and enjoying the girls who worked in the places known for titillating entertainment. Matt, with Chester's help, would soon have his hands full staying alive while keeping as many of them as possible from killing each other and the hangers on that fed off of them. Simultaneously Kitty and her partner Bill would be running themselves ragged, hoping they took in more than their customers destroyed.
The young couple enjoyed an interruption free Sunday evening at the start of the annual season that allowed Dodge City to thrive. They ate a leisurely supper at a corner table in Delmonico's before Matt escorted Kitty to the Long Branch to face the evening crowd. He even kept his promise to see her later, joining her, Doc and Chester for beers and conversation in the quiet mostly empty saloon. After quickly checking doors were locked and no noise came from where it shouldn't to complete the late rounds Matt sent his yawning assistant to his cot in the office. Alone and through for the night Matt climbed the back stairs to quietly make his way to one particular door. He knocked softly to let her know he'd arrived and without waiting for a response turned his key in the lock.
"You should try this whiskey I ordered for special customers," she said handing him a glass of caramel colored liquid as soon as he'd locked the door and hung his hat and gun belt on the pegs by it.
"The marshal in this town might object if you hand this out privately too often," he replied after swallowing his mouthful of the sipping whiskey and following it with that boyish grin she loved.
An hour later they settled in for the night. In unison the couple turned to dim the lamp on the nightstand on either side of the bed before turning toward each other to embrace, their mouths joining in a soft kiss. That first kissed led to other deeper kisses and a frenetic bonding that was repeated until both were tired enough to fall into a deep sleep.
The next morning Matt, Kitty, Doc and Chester were finishing breakfast in Delmonico's when Roy Hoffmann rushed to their table yelling for Doc to come quickly. All four raced after the farmer to Ma Smalley's, Doc arriving a few minutes later, not just because he moved slower. He also had to grab his medical bag from his office. While Kitty, Ma and Lydia assisted with the birth Matt and Chester watched the father to be pace Ma's parlor from one end to the other. Two hours later a smiling grandmother came from the room assigned to Roy and Clarissa.
"Roy, you're the father of a healthy boy. Both mother and child are doing well. Go, meet your child!" Lydia ordered her still anxious younger son. "Marshal, Mr. Goode you'll have to wait your turn."
"Lydia, that's one of the hardest things for those two to do," Kitty remarked as she and Doc joined them in the parlor while Ma made her way to her kitchen to fetch coffee and cookies. "The only reason they didn't follow Roy is babies make them nervous. It reminds one of them in particular about a certain legally binding ceremony," she added, giving Matt a smug smirk as she moved to his side.
"No need to explain them to me. I've had my share of dealings with men," Lydia retorted. "If you're too impatient to wait for the christening to learn my grandson's name, it's Carlton Philip. Roy and Clarey chose to name him for his grandfathers while you, Marshal Dillon, rid the town of the latest batch. When I first arrived here I thought Kitty was trying to whitewash an ugly community that more than lived up to its reputation. After witnessing the havoc wrought by the Scanlon gang before seeing them brought to justice with a minimum of violence, I find there's a grain of truth in both what Kitty said during our stage trip and in Dodge City's reputation. I'm happy to call it home."