Chapter 4 – Maxwell's Specter
We rode all day, with Harper telling me more about her life and escapades with Danny Mills. I did my best to keep my eyes open for signs that we were being followed, but saw nothing to make me anxious.
I found us a place to camp for the night, one that was surrounded by Cottonwood trees and was relatively secluded, and we settled in for supper and sleep. Harper had finally grown quiet; I didn't know if she was sleepy or just tired of talking. I asked her a question that I'd wanted to ask since we first met. "You're awful young to be out on your own all alone. Don't you have family?"
I didn't get any kind of answer for several minutes – I thought maybe she'd fallen asleep. Then, so soft and subdued that I had to strain to hear her, she gave me an answer I didn't expect. "I'm not all alone. My Pa's the sheriff in Wilsons Corners."
Her father was the sheriff, and she was sleeping in the livery? What kind of a parent lets his seventeen-year-old daughter do that? "What about your momma?"
"Gone. Died when my sister was born. I was a little 'un, don't remember much about her."
"You have a baby sister?"
She nodded, but kept her face turned away from me. "Three years younger than me. She lives with my aunt in Santa Fe. I haven't seen her since I was six."
"Why aren't you two together?" It was a reasonable question coming from me; I was five and my brother seven when our momma died. Pappy never would have split the two of us up, even though I'm sure there were times he probably wanted to. It seemed really odd to split up sisters. I don't know why; it just did.
Another slow answer; I think she was trying to figure a way to make it sound reasonable and normal. "Pa's always been a sheriff. Said it was hard enough raisin' one baby, much less two. So Esme went to live with Aunt Millie. Ain't seen her since we came up to Wyoming for Pa to take the sheriff's job in Rock Springs. Then Wilsons Corners. We write back and forth, but it ain't the same as bein' together. Danny an me was gonna go to Santa Fe, until . . . "
"Until he got mixed up with Red Maxwell?" That part wasn't hard to figure out.
"Yeah."
"How'd that happen, Harper?" She'd started to tell me, but never finished the story. She probably didn't want to tell me now, but I needed to know just exactly what we were facing when we got to the prison.
"Danny knew how bad I wanted to see Esme. We was good kids, but Danny was always a little more wild than I was. He got a job workin' for old man Ferris, and that's where he met Red. I heard Maxwell was wanted by the law in Kansas, but I don't know what for. He was always drinkin' in town and gettin' in fights, and pretty soon he started draggin' Danny with him. They got to be pretty close, always hangin' out in town together, and Danny started drinkin' right along with Red. One Saturday night the two of 'em got throwed in jail, and Pa didn't want me around Danny no more. So I don't know how much talkin' Red had to do to convince Danny to try and hold up the saloon with him. It was a chance to get enough money for Santa Fe. And I wasn't around to talk him out of it."
I wasn't at all surprised. I know just how easy it is to get talked into something you really don't want to do. There was that time when I was fifteen . . . and I almost did the same thing. Just so I could take a girl to a dance. "What went wrong?' I asked her.
"Red cleaned out the cash drawer and shot the bartender. That wasn't supposed to happen, and Danny took a shot at Red, who dropped the money and ran out. Danny picked up the money and stayed with the bartender, till Pa got there and arrested him. I was at the trial – that's when I moved outta Pa's house. Bartender testified for Danny, but he got a year in prison. Said it was right that he should be punished for what he tried to do."
"And Red?"
"Red got clean away. Robbed a stage down in Lincoln County, got away with it. Killed the driver."
"And he knows Danny's gettin' outta prison."
"Yeah."
"And he thinks Danny's got the money from the saloon."
"Somethin' like that."
"And he's comin' after Danny to get it."
She finally turned back to face me. There was just the beginning of a tear or two in her eyes. "Yeah."
"Why didn't you tell me that to begin with?" I wasn't angry with her; I'd figured it out, or something like it, two days ago.
"I was afraid you wouldn't come with me, and I needed you. You ain't gonna leave me here, are you?" Her voice trembled just a little. She was sitting right next to me in front of the fire, and I reached over and wrapped my arms around her. There was no sound from her, but I could feel the sobs shake her. I held her like you'd hold a frightened child, until the shaking stopped.
"No, Harper, I'm not gonna leave you here. I agreed to go with you; I'm not backin' out." She laid her head on my shoulder and mumbled something into my shirt. "What was that?" I had to ask her.
"Much obliged," she muttered just a bit louder. "Wish my pa was like you."
Great. Twenty-five years old and she wanted her pa to be like me. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry, so I chose to ignore the remark. "Does he know about all this?" I unwrapped my arms slowly and she sat up straight. Her eyes were clear now.
"You mean the truth about the saloon? Yeah. Didn't make no difference to him. The laws the law, and Danny broke it. Don't matter that he wishes he hadn't. He knows about Danny gettin' out, too. Came by the livery a week ago to tell me, like I didn't know. Didn't tell him what I'd been savin' for, or what I was gonna do."
"So your pa, the sheriff, don't know that you're goin' after Danny?" She didn't answer me with words – just looked up at me with those big blue-gray eyes. That meant 'no.' "What's he gonna do when he finds out?"
"Nothin', he won't do nothin'. He washed his hands of me when I moved out."
"He cared enough to come tell you about Danny's release."
She shook her head slightly. "I don't think he was comin' to tell me, much as he was comin' to warn me. Kinda like 'watch out for Red.' Don't think it was much more than that."
"And when Danny's back in town? What then?"
"Depends."
That's when I heard it. It sounded like something crashing through the brush, at first, and I pulled my gun and waited. Red Maxwell? Somebody else? Harper heard it, too, and I'm not sure which one of us was more on edge. Just when I was about to jump out of my skin, a deer poked its head out of the trees, took one look at the two of us, and turned and ran back the way it had come.
Harper and I both burst into laughter. "Get some sleep," I told her as I holstered my gun. "I'll keep watch for a while."
Unexpectedly, she leaned over and kissed me on the cheek. "Thanks, Bart. I'll take over later." She laid down against her saddle and pulled a blanket up over her. I leaned back and watched her for a good long time, wondering just what it was gonna be like on the way back, when we had the unknown riding with us – Danny Mills. And Red Maxwell somewhere out there tracking us.