Wyoming Slaughter Read Free Page A

You’re going to enforce the law to the hilt. At the stroke of midnight, Puma County will be freed from its prison of misery and crime.”
    Grosbeak was staring, a sprig of mistletoe in hand waiting to be attached to the kerosene lamp chandelier.
    â€œGive me the names of ten good men I can deputize, men who believe the way you do, then. No, make it twenty able-bodied men.”
    â€œI’m not going to rat on anyone, Sheriff. I’m a public servant, and don’t forget it.”
    This was going nowhere fast.
    â€œAll right, I’ll just pick twenty of the town’s top people and swear them in, and if they won’t swear in, they’ll get themselves a trip to my iron-barred parlor.”
    â€œAh, Sheriff, those men won’t be suited to the task. You want twenty good, law-abiding, God-fearing, prayerful cowboys for the task.”
    â€œThat don’t make a bit of sense. There ain’t any, Mr. Grosbeak.”
    Grosbeak scratched his chin foliage a little and eyed the overcast skies, then examined the mistletoe hanging from his chandelier.
    â€œYou’re a competent young man,” he said, “and I have every confidence you’ll enforce the law to a fare-thee-well.”
    â€œYou got me there, sir. I never read nothing about a frothy well.”
    â€œOh, forget it, Pickens.”
    â€œI keep trying to get myself educated, so I’d sure like to know about these frothy wells.”
    â€œA fare-thee-well is perfection. You are going to enforce county law perfectly.”
    â€œLearn something every day,” I said.
    There was no sense hanging around the courthouse palavering with supervisors, so I headed across Courthouse Square to the chambers of Lawyer Stokes, the town’s one and only attorney. No one ever called him by his full name, Tim-maeus Pharoah Stokes, but just Lawyer Stokes. I had always sort of liked the feller and had wanted to call him Timmy, but my ma used to warn me about being overly familiar.
    Lawyer Stokes had no receptionist and could usually be found reading law books or the King James Version, and that is how I discovered him. I removed my beaver Stetson and bowed and scraped a little.
    â€œWhat is it, Pickens?”
    â€œI got me the right to swear in a posse, if I want, and even if them folks don’t want to be sworn, right?”
    â€œAbsolutely.”
    â€œWell, I’ll be doing it then. I need me a posse New Year’s Eve to shut down the saloons. There ain’t one barkeep in town is gonna close up and toss the key away. They’re telling me they ain’t gonna obey the law and tough luck to anyone that tries to stop them.”
    â€œI see. Yes, that would keep the court dockets busy, I imagine. And since I’m the county attorney, I’d be pretty busy.”
    â€œWell, I’m sworn to uphold the law, and I’m gonna do her,” I said. “I’m going to get me a posse, and it’ll all be them fellers that pushed this law through, the dry law, so I’ll swear them all in and we’ll get her done. I guess I’ll start with you, Lawyer Stokes. I’m hereby swearing you in and telling you to report at eleven, New Year’s Eve, and bring your shotgun and plenty of bird shot that’ll clean off backbars real fine.”
    Lawyer Stokes stared, aghast.
    â€œI’m the county attorney, Sheriff. You can’t swear me in. I’m immune.”
    â€œShow me where it says that; read me the chapter and verse, Lawyer Stokes.”
    â€œWhy, there are abundant precedents, young man. There’s no need. I’ll tell you flatly I’m exempt, won’t show up, and not even a court order will budge me.”
    â€œLawyer Stokes, you lift your right hand and swear that you’ll uphold the law and follow the directions of the head of the posse, namely me.”
    Stokes removed his spectacles, polished them, and restored them to their resting place just above the vast