The Sheriff

The sun is at its zenith but the town is devoid of any folks who use to walk the wooden boards of the shop front, nor are there any horses or wagons on the four street leading to the town square. Its like a ghost town but this is no ghostly area as its folks are all watching behind closed shutters and in between gaps of the planks. The only person who can be seen on the boardwalks is a lonely man with the repeater rifle in his hand as he leaned on the pillar that holds up his sign of authority. The Sheriff leaned the rifle against the pillar while he reached for his vest pocket and extracted the unlit rolled tobacco piece. He placed the piece to his parched lips, and then reached for the box of match in his pant's pocket. He took out the box and searched for the stick that will light his rolled piece. But the flame was put to his rolled piece by the person who is now standing next to him.

"Thanks." The Sheriff muttered to his assistant, Murphy Kane; previously a drifter and now deputy Sheriff. Murphy is a tall man with a slimmer look than his age. He is dressed like a gambler which is what he is when he is not drifting between saloons or towns. Today, he is standing beside the man who holds the authority in this town named Bradley Town after its founder who died on the same street he build. The founder is dead with a bullet hole in his chest caused by the man who is sitting inside the Sheriff's cell now. Micheal Bradley, an elderly man who made his money with a good foresight for cattle land and some years ago, a pioneer to start a new town before the railways hit the edge of town. But Micheal never get to see how his town will grow as he was gunned down in cold blood by a drunkard and spoiled brat named Billy Keel. Billy in his state of intoxication walked out of the bar and shot the elderly man who was going to his shop where he now sells stakes of the land around the town. Billy denied shooting the man and he claimed he saw a dark speck of the devil behind the old man. He insisted that he shot the shadow to save the old man, but it was the old man who finally laid on the ground.

The Sheriff saw the shooting and managed to disarmed the drunken man. He hauled the drunken man into his office and threw him to the cell. By then, Doctor Meade has seen to the old man and proclaimed him dead. It did not take long for the mob to be summoned and they came calling for the head of the man who killed the founder of Bradley Town. It was led by the man he called the Pastor. But Mr.Thomas Grinley is not a man of the cloak but a devil in the disguise of a land baron who wishes to take up the lands around Bradley Town. He is a rich man who walks with a pair of gunfighters at his side. Mr Grinley never pack a gun and always claimed he detest them. But he is not here for the land but against his rival, the father of the drunkard; Retired Major Sebastian Keel. Major Keel owns a large spread for his cattle to graze and he takes offence to the man who buys up the good spread where the water sources are. The two disliked each other and if not for the Sheriff, there would had been a range war by now.

But since the dispersal of the mob by the Sheriff and his dedicated assistant on the promises that a proper justice would be carried out when the County Judge comes a calling next week. But this is ranch country and the best justice is a set of ropes or a fast gun. But the later is held by the Sheriff with three of his challenger laid at Boot Hill. The Judge arrived today at noon by carriage but the word out was the Keel's would not let anyone judged their kins except themselves. The Grinley' does not believed in man's justice but the real justice of the land which is guilt shall be decided by the rope. If the person survived, the said justice would not let the man dies.

The Keel's came in and took their place at the Steer Horn across the Sheriff Office this morning. The Sheriff counted like about fifteen riders including the old man himself with the patriarch of the family, Mrs.Keel and her nurse, Nancy. The ladies came to the town in the horse drawn small hansom brought in from the East. It unusual for the ladies to patronize the Saloon but today is not a normal day. The Sheriff can see the Patriarch seated at the window as she gaze at him with her cold stare from across the street.

The Sheriff shifted his looks to the Locked Horns; the rival saloon where the Grinley gang of ten fighters sits with their employer. The Sheriff saw them strolled down the street earlier an hour ago and he was concerned that they would be going to confront the Keel's but instead they went to the other Saloon. What surprised the Sheriff was the accompaniment of the daughter of Thomas Grinley. He wondered why the lady would accompany her father on such a day and at the possibility of being shot in the ensuing gun battle.

But Murphy tapped his right forearm to tell him the Judge's carriage is in from its run from the last town. The judge does not travel alone as in this line of works, he does need protection too. He rode in with his personal guards of three gunfighters. But the Judge is no feeble old man of the law books as he is also a rifle man with a good eye for the head. He is not nicknamed the fighting Judge for his conquest at the Court but on the ambush he survived on.

The Sheriff sighed on the relief of the Judge's arrival as it means he has four more guns to back him up besides Murphy. He did asked the folks to back him but they feared the guns and more to it, he is paid by them to take the fall in situation like this.

"Judge Stevens, welcome back. We have a case for you." I help the old man to dismount from his horse. At his advance age, he can still outride most of us on the open range. The Judge stepped up to my office front board walk. He stood there for a while and then turned to look at the opposite Saloon. The Sheriff followed his stare to across the street at the lady who stands outside the bat wings of the Saloon. The Judge on seeing the lady there, turned to walk over to greet the older lady. They both walked over and on approaching the Sheriff's door to the office, they stopped.

"Sheriff, Mrs Keel and myself would like to step in alone to talk to her grandson. I want you and the rest to stay here." He gave the Sheriff the look that tells him if he wants to be the Sheriff after today, he would not counter that request. The Sheriff nodded and let the two of them go in to see the accused.

It was an hour of waiting with the two rival groups all standing at the boardwalks of the shops now, eyeing the Sheriff and his peers as their fingers twitched for the trigger. The Sheriff in his thoughts was in the mind to raise his rifle and placed two shots in Grinley as he detest that person presence here or anywhere else.

It was the shot that they all heard from inside the office of the Sheriff. The Sheriff reacted by drawing his gun on the two group as his men all did the same. The two groups did not draw their guns but their hands are hovering over it.

"Don't try anything stupid, boys. I am going in and will see what is the issue. And then I will tell the outcome. So stay easy, boys. No one else will get hurt." The Sheriff can see the tension in them towards him and his men, but they are drawing their guns. He then motioned to his men to lower their weapons while he slowly inched his way back to the door of my office. He saw the Judge holding Mrs.Keel in his arms and consoling her.

"Judge, what happened?" The Sheriff looked to the jail and saw Billy laying on his side with his head bleeding. There was a gun in his right hand and its looked like he did it himself.

"Billy reached for my gun when we were talking to him. He does not want to be hanged so he shot himself with my gun. I can bear witness to the situation and would put it on record." The Sheriff went over to the jail and looked more closely at the dead man. Then he walked out to the waiting crowd outside.

"Billy shot himself in suicide. He did not want to stand trail and be hanged." The Sheriff let the father of the dead man passed me but he stopped Miss Grinley.

"Miss Grinley, you are not allowed go in. Not kins, and you ain't his." But she slapped the Sheriff.

"I am his fiance. I agreed to marry him to end the rift between the family. But now he is dead. There won't be a marriage anymore. Let me go." He had to as she was already running to the jail.

It was the next morning when the Sheriff met the Judge at the hotel room where the Judge was staying. The Sheriff sat at the chair watching the Judge packed his personal effects.

"Sheriff, thank you for the preparation to the dead man. I would need to be In Townley by noon tomorrow as they have another case for me to decide. But I would not be back again, I am retiring after that case and be moving to the East for my retirement.

"Judge, why did you do it? Was it because of Mrs Keel or you seen the new way to carry our your new reform justice now? I respected you but after the incident with Billy Keels, I wondered if you are truly impartial in your judgment." The Judge paused at his packing and looked to the Sheriff.

"You are too good to be a small town Sheriff. You should had joined the Pinkerton or the Rangers. Are you going to take me in, Sheriff? I doubt so. I know you too well. You want to know why before you decide to turn me in or not. I will tell you, but please hold my shoulder holster. We do not want another suicide now." The Sheriff took his gun along with the shoulder straps. The Sheriff can see the Judge take a seat on the bed and then reached for his pipe. He did asked the Sheriff if he mind but proceeded to light the pipe to smoke it.

"I shot my grandson on the request of his grandmother. Yes, Billy Keel is my grandson; the son of my bastard son. Mrs.Keel as you know her was my lover when we were younger. But she was forced to marry Keel when I was in the East studying for my law. Little does the new husband knew the she was carrying my son. But he is an arrogant bastard who never loved her a single day of his life. She endured him for my son and then now she sees her grandson about to be hanged for a crime he done in his drunken state. He was like his grandfather but in actual fact he was celebrating the news of Miss Grinley accepting his proposal of marriage. The marriage would had healed the rift between the families and strengthen them against the bastard Bradley. You don't know Micheal Bradley was a traitor to his state. He build this town as he was here first but he holds the best tract of land around here. He was going to used them as staging ground for the Mexicans bandits to attack us and forcing us to leave by selling low prices. Grinley knew which is why he came to this town to offer loans to the other smaller spread. He also bought up the ones who wants to sell. Keel does not know as he thinks that Grinley was cornering him hence the rift. But Martha knew all about it. She also loaned her money to Grinley to do his acquisition. She got her grandson to court the girl and all was set to work until the curse of the family came around. The bottle of whiskey took the young man to see the wrong action to be taken. He regretted and knows he is to hang for sure. Martha cannot afford to see her grandson hand so she grabbed my gun and shot him. But how can I judged a lady I love and see her hang for it. I have been a Judge and I have wield the hammer for many cases. Every time I sentenced a man to die by the hanging rope, I have added more to my sins and maybe this is the retribution of my action. It has been been always my mind including the day I left her with my child to be the lawyer causing her to marry the mad man. Its also my mind that I became the fighting Judge; the bane of all those committed crime. But for the first time in my life, I had to let my heart decide for my action. I looked at my love and I cannot do so for her. I cannot placed her in same cells that I put others; my heart could not permit to do so. I know you may not understand as I did not then in the many pleadings I heard in my cases, but now I know there are more than criminal intents when sometime someone takes an act of crime. Yes, I placed the gun in Billy's hand. If there are to be any arrest, please take us both of us in." The pipe in his hand fell to the rug as he sat there looking very forlorn.

The Sheriff got up and stepped on the smoking rug. He picked up the pipe and cleared the leftover tobacco into the spitton by the bed. He then placed the pipe into the bag alongside with the other personal effects of the Judge. He reached for the Judge jacket and walked over to the old man.

"Come along, Judge. Your men are waiting for you to go to the next town. You still got one more case to complete before you retire." The Sheriff helped the older man with the jacket and helped to carry the bag.

"How did you know, Sheriff?" The Judge still stand there looking at the Sheriff.

"Billy is left handed and the gun was in his right hand. And the shot was on his right side of the head. But he is buried now. And the case closed." The Sheriff opened the door and walked out of the hotel room.

Three months later, the Sheriff buried Murphy when he was shot in the back by a bad gambler. The Sheriff looked at the grave of his trusted assistant. He then took off his Stetson hat and said a few words to his friend.

"Murphy, you are a good man and assistant. We been through the worse with the war between the Grinley and Keels. As you can see their numbers lies next to yours, but you one lucky bastard to take the last available plot. When its my turn, they laying me by the new hill so we won't be able to see each other as often. You take care, pardner." The Sheriff out on his hat and walked out the cemetery.

He came upon Miss Grinley who is holding a bouquet of flowers. She is still dressed in black since her father's death in the showdown with the elder Keel. They both died from their wounds and the Patriarch has called off the war. She had then sold the spread to the Grinley's Bank and left for the east. The Sheriff watched the lady walked past him and went over to the tombstone of Billy Keel. She laid the flower there and walked past him to her carriage. Not a word was spoken nor was any needed.

"Sheriff, we have reports of those Mexican bandits at the old creek. They are all waiting for you. We got them cornered now and they can't run away now. Maybe this time we can get rid of them for good." The Sheriff nodded and he walked to his trusty steed and mount it. He rode after his new assistant., Peter Bradley; the surviving son of Micheal Bradley.

He rode past the new apple orchard that he has personally planted. Maybe this town will see new apple's soon as the old rotten dies off. At the moment, he felt proud to be the caretaker of the old and new orchard.