The Law of a Fast Gun Read Free

train whistle was much louder now, and the puffing of the steam engine could be heard quite near.
    Jesse went back to the horses, where he scattered all of them but the ones he and Kincaid were riding.
    “You couldn’t do it, could you?” Kincaid asked.
    “Let’s get out of here,” Jesse said without answering him directly.
    As they rode away, they could hear the train braking behind him.
    One year later
    The victorious Union Army was encamped in a five-acre field just outside Independence, Missouri. The field was dotted with white tents and red, white, and blue flags. To the south of the field, in an enclosed area, nearly one thousand men, former soldiers of the Confederacy, were being detained until their repatriation.
    “Hey, Yank! When you goin’ to let us go home?” one of the detainees shouted. “You done said yourself that the war was over.”
    “When we get all of you Rebel trash to sign the oath of loyalty,” the Union sergeant answered. “But if it was up to me, I’d just keep ever’one of you right there in that pen for the rest of your lives.”
    “Yeah, well if it was up to me, we’da never surrendered,” the prisoner called back.
    “Sergeant,” someone called. “Send the next twenty men over here.”
    “Yes, sir,” the sergeant answered. He counted out twenty. “You men,” he said, pointing to a couple of tables, behind which sat Union officers. The tables were flanked by armed guards. “Go over there and take your oath.”
    “Then what?” one of the men asked.
    “Then you’re free to go home. Or wherever you want to go,” the sergeant said. “Just so long as you don’t bear arms against the U.S. government ever again.”
    For the rest of the morning groups of twenty were marched over to the tables where the oath was admitted. The group Jesse was in was taken over at about noon.
    “You fellas get in line there, and listen up to what the captain has to say,” a sergeant ordered.
    “Men, the generosity of the United States government knows no bounds,” the captain began. “Even though you have taken up arms against us, we are a forgiving people. In a couple of minutes I’m going to ask you to take an oath of loyalty to the U.S. government. Once you take that oath, you are free to go.”
    “Will I be a’gettin’ my rifle back?” one of the men asked.
    “No. Officers may keep their sidearms. All other weapons are confiscated.”
    “But, we’ll be a’needin’ them weapons for huntin’ and sech,” the man said.
    “You should have thought of that before you took up arms against your country,” the captain said. “All right, now, step up to the table, one at a time.”
    Jesse was third in line, and close enough to the table to hear what was going on.
    “What is your name?” the captain asked the first man.
    “Sergeant Ken Waters.”
    “You aren’t a sergeant anymore, Mr. Waters. The Confederate Army no longer exists. Who were you with?”
    “I was a Confederate,” Waters replied.
    “You were all Confederate trash. I mean who was your commander?”
    “First one and then another,” Kincaid said. “I don’t know how you Yankees did it, but we moved around a lot.”
    “Did you ever ride with William Quantrill, Bill Anderson, Quint Wilson, Jesse Cole, or any other irregular unit?”
    “What if I did?”
    “I’ll ask the questions, Mr. Waters.”
    “No, I never rode with any of them.”
    “Very well, hold up your right hand and repeat after me. I, state your name.”
    “I, Ken Waters.”
    “Swear that I will never take up arms against the United States government again, and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to same, so help me God.”
    Waters repeated the oath.
    “You’re free to go, Mr. Waters.”
    “What about lunch?” Waters asked. “You fellas haven’t fed us any lunch yet.”
    “You are a free man, Mr. Waters,” the captain said. “You are no longer our responsibility.”
    “But I don’t have any money or anything. I don’t even