Chapter 16
It took until well after dark for Nick and the other Barkley men to get the survivors of the fight to Millertown and help, or jail, whichever applied. Jarrod and Heath kept the former slaves safe, getting them secure in Wright's house. The women made food for themselves and the men and the children. Jarrod and Heath patrolled the grounds much as Wright's men had always done, only now, they were watching carefully in case Wright came back.
He didn't.
When Jarrod and Heath heard horses coming, they met up at the front door. There were more than a dozen riders. A couple of them carried torches – Nick was one of them. In a moment, Nick handed the torch off to another man and dismounted.
"Everything taken care of?" Jarrod asked.
"Yep," Nick said with a grin and joined them. "We've got three men wounded, but none dead. Wright lost seven men, three dead. The rest gave up and are sitting in jail in Millertown. The sheriff finally got the message."
"Did you wire Mother and Audra?" Heath asked.
Nick nodded. "I told them we were all right and would be back in a day or two. You got any food left around here?"
"Lots," Heath said. "The women have been cooking everything in sight. I don't think this place has seen a bigger party in years."
Nick laughed and waved the men in. The torches were extinguished, and soon the Barkley men were following Nick inside. The men heard Mrs. Linklater cry, "It's another Barkley!" when she saw Nick. Heath and Jarrod laughed as the rest of the men went by, the people inside laughing and cheering, and before long, the party and the food were all spilling out of the house and into the yard, with lamps and lanterns lit everywhere.
Nick came back out with a plateful of food. "Have you two eaten?" he asked his brothers.
Heath solved the problem by taking part of the sandwich Nick had on his plate.
"In a bit," Jarrod said.
"Best you get some food in your belly, or you won't be finding anybody anywhere," Nick said.
Jarrod came back out of his thoughts and smiled. "Did you leave me anything to eat, Nick?"
"Might be a bit of roast beef, or maybe an egg or two," Nick said with a grin.
Jarrod went inside to get something to eat. Nick and Heath both looked out at the party in the yard. "We got awful lucky today, Nick," Heath said.
"I know it," Nick said. "That battle was almost as bad as Sample's farm."
"Sample's farm didn't have a cavalry charge," Heath said. "Our men who were hurt – they all okay?"
"Yeah," Nick said. "Nothing too serious."
After a while, Jarrod came back out with a plate of food, mostly beans and some bread. "You didn't leave me much, Nick. But the ladies are baking some cakes."
"Yum, cake," Nick said.
"We need to talk to these people tomorrow, see where they want to go," Jarrod said.
"You know," Heath said, "there's still a ranch here to tend to – cattle and milk cows and chickens."
"That's your department, Pappy," Nick said. "Legalities and things. Who gets the ranch now."
"I know," Jarrod said. "I'll get to it once we know the people are taken care of. Shouldn't take too long to get a receiver lined up to take care of things. You can milk the cows in the morning, Nick."
Nick gave a fake sneer.
Jarrod laughed. "I already talked to Sheriff Linklater. The animals will be taken care of in the morning. The milk cows can go with the woman who's been tending them, and the chickens can scratch for themselves until somebody comes to take them."
"Cattle and horses?" Nick asked.
"Yeah, there's a problem," Heath said.
"I talked to Sheriff Linklater about that," Jarrod said. "He'll talk to one of the ranchers closer to Done In, see if he can get him to come get them until the receiver decides what to do with them. We'll do the best we can to see there's something of this place left to compensate these people in the end."
Nick and Heath looked at him. There was something weary in his voice. He looked both happy and unhappy at the same time. "What's bothering you, Pappy?" Nick asked. "This all worked out pretty darned well."
"Except we don't have Wright," Jarrod said.
"He's finished, Jarrod," Heath said. "We may have to settle for that."
Jarrod shook his head. "No. He's mine. I'll have him."
Nick and Heath looked at each other. Jarrod was drifting off into his head. "Jarrod, you'd better watch that considerable temper of yours," Nick said.
"My temper is fine," Jarrod said. "I'll have Wright, sooner or later, and I'll have him behind bars."
"That may be pretty hard to do," Heath said. "We don't have a clue where he went."
"Wanted posters," Jarrod said. "And I have contacts in a lot of places. I'll find him."
Nick and Heath looked at each other again. Jarrod was off on another one of his crusades already, and while they couldn't fault him for this one – especially since they knew all about it from the get-go – it still troubled them.
Jarrod idly left the porch, walking down into the yard, talking to the Barkley men down there and to the other people laughing, eating, enjoying themselves. Nick and Heath watched him.
"How are we gonna keep Jarrod on the straight and narrow about Wright?" Heath asked. "He might go after him."
"He might," Nick agreed. "We'll keep an eye on him. If he tries to go off on his own, we'll just have to haul him back in. Or go with him."
Heath gave a little grin. "That's what I was hoping you were gonna say."
"Jarrod might not be too happy to hear me say it," Nick said. "But let's just see how things go over the next few weeks. Maybe we'll get lucky and somebody will turn Wright in before Jarrod can go off on a tear."
"Sometimes he gets just a bit too eager to right the wrongs," Heath mused.
"Maybe," Nick said, "but I do kinda like our Pappy the way he is. I don't want to change him." And he smiled.
Heath chuckled. "Yeah, I'm with you on that."
Epilogue
All of the people enslaved by Wright, including David his cook, decided to go back to Done In. Dr. Lane was pretty amazed, as were the Barkleys, but everyone decided that they wanted to go home, and they wanted to make Done In new again.
"So, we're renaming it," Jarrod read from the letter he received from Sheriff Linklater, smiling big and happy. "Our new name is 'Revived,' and we aim to make our sad little town a happy and prosperous place again."
"Oh, that's wonderful," Victoria said. Her leg was still wrapped heavily so she was stuck on the settee, but she was getting used to it.
"I hope they make it," Heath said. "They're right fine people."
"I think I'll head down that way in a week or so and see how they're doing," Jarrod said. "Maybe see what kind of businesses they plan to be starting up, make an investment or two."
Nick came in the front door about then. "Jarrod!" he yelled.
In his thinking chair, Jarrod winced. "Right here, Nick. You don't have to yell."
"He always yells," Audra said. "He's not going to stop now."
Nick came in and handed a telegram to his older brother. "You may want to yell when you read this. It's from your police sergeant friend in San Francisco. You didn't mention you contacted them about Daniel Wright."
"No, I contacted a lot of people," Jarrod said as he unfolded the telegram. "I didn't think I needed to mention all of them." And then he read the telegram. His eyes lit up, his mouth went open, and then he clenched the telegram in his fist with a, "Yes!"
Nick grinned. "The police in San Francisco picked up Daniel Wright trying to get a ship down to Mexico."
"No wonder nobody could find him heading south overland," Heath said.
"We guessed wrong," Nick said. "Jarrod guessed right."
"No, I just covered more of my guesses than you did," Jarrod said, and he sighed a big, relieved sigh.
Victoria smiled. "Perhaps you'll sleep better now."
"We've all heard you prowling around in the middle of the night," Audra said.
"I'm sorry," Jarrod said. "I thought I was being quiet."
"Talking to yourself like that?" Heath said. "I don't think so."
"I was talking to myself?" Jarrod asked.
"Yes," everyone said together.
"You often do that when you're thinking out loud," Victoria said.
"Well, that's a habit I'll break, starting now," Jarrod said. "Daniel Wright is locked up. That makes me a very happy man."
"When you told me about the slaves who came running to the Union army during the war," Audra said, "I knew you'd be seeing this through until you got that man in jail."
Jarrod and Nick both pictured times back east, years ago. "It wasn't like we were able to do much for those people back then," Jarrod said. "They were saving themselves. It's just good that this time, we could do something. We could really help."
"And I'm proud of every one of you," Victoria said. "It was well worth my broken leg and a broken buggy when it led to righting a terrible wrong."
"We always need to be watching, though," Heath said. "There are more Daniel Wrights we gotta be ready for."
"We will be," Jarrod said. And he looked at his brothers and nodded.
They nodded back.
The End