Bad Day in Greenville by Alexander Frew

Author:Alexander Frew [Frew, Alex]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Robert Hale
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

The sisters, who were used to manual labour from tending their crops and drawing water from the well, dragged the stranger outside and set him down in the courtyard.

‘We’ll lock him up,’ said Katie-Jo. ‘Joe gave me the keys to his office, just so that there would be someone who could use them if trouble started and we needed to get in. I never thought I might have to use them.’

On the borders of a place like Greenville there was always some kind of movement. Seeing the light of their oil-lamp a tall figure, spare of build but with broad shoulders, came stepping over to them.

‘Can I help you, ladies?’

It was the young man whom Katie-Jo had suspected of being the would-be killer. She did not question him too closely but looked down at the man on the ground.

‘Yes,’ she answered, ‘you can help us take this miscreant to jail to have him locked up.’

Ty might have been young but he was strong. He picked up the prone body and carried him across to the sheriff’s office, where Katie-Jo opened up and lighted an oil lamp that hung from the ceiling. Ty set the man down on a cot in one of the open cells.

‘Looks like he’s got a head wound,’ he grunted, leaning over the body. ‘Doesn’t look as if it’s bleeding too bad.’

‘Then leave him be,’ said Katie, who had unhooked the keys to the three cells that were situated behind the sheriff’s office. She tried them until she found the right one, then clanged the door shut and locked it firmly. The young man turned to her.

‘Does this have anything to do with that young woman – what’s her name? – whom you have over there?’

‘Yes it does; he was trying to kill her.’

‘Was he!’

Katie-Jo saw a flash of real anger; for a moment she felt afraid because the man’s youthful features were contorted with fury. Then she saw that the anger was not directed at her.

‘That rattlesnake! I oughta go back into that cell there and finish the job you started. . . Miss. . . ?’

‘Katie-Jo.’

‘Ty is my name. I never heard anything so low in my life.’ The young man’s anger seemed so genuine that she was left in no doubt at all: he was rallying to the defence of an innocent, helpless woman.

‘I guess I got off on the wrong foot with you the other day,’ he said humbly. ‘I just wanted to go and see the woman who had been injured, to see if I knew her. I’m afraid I gave the wrong impression.’

‘Come to think of it,’ said Katie-Jo, ‘how is it that you are up and about this early in the morning?’

‘I guess I couldn’t sleep for thinking about what had happened,’Ty said, ‘and some bars around here are open all night. Guess I was going to get a skinful and try to get some sleep that way. So,’ he said, shifting tack, ‘who’s in charge of the kid?’

‘I am,’ Katie-Jo replied.

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