Madigan by R. Howard Trembly

Author:R. Howard Trembly
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Southwestern States, Action & Adventure, Mystery & Detective, Westerns, Fiction, Suspense, General
ISBN: 9780887391989
Publisher: Creative Arts Book Company
Published: 1999-11-01T02:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

Madigan watched as Talley led the horses into a well-cleaned stall out of sight of the casual passerby. He had no reservations about leaving the buckskin and packhorse with the old marshal. They would be well taken care of, no doubt, and he was glad to have the opportunity to meet this once-legendary lawman of a day that Madigan was sure was fast coming to a close.

Rights of citizens to carry a gun for their own protection had already been taken from them in some of the eastern cities like New York, although most men still carried them hidden under their coats.

And Madigan had to admit that the basis for the law wasn’t altogether bad in some places--places where a strong lawman did a good job of protecting the townspeople. Trouble was, there just weren’t many places where a few men could protect the whole. And Madigan, like many of his breed, feared that in the end it would be the law-abiding people that lost out to the politicians that would take all from them.

Disarming the population just made it easier for the crook to steal from, and murder, the honest men and women. Yet, deep down in his heart, he knew the day was coming where the honest men and women carrying a sidearm would be a thing of the past if something wasn’t done to prevent it. Madigan hoped it would not come within his lifetime.

“By the way,” Madigan asked, “where did you learn that trick of tying the trigger back?”

“There was a time when I was young and ornery enough to bite a rattlesnake. Got somethin’ in my head in those days, and a person would be hard put to change me from it.

“Some Texas drovers came to town at the end of a drive and got all liquored up. Most of the time the trail boss kept ‘em out of trouble, but not this time. A real hard case outfit this bunch was.

“Couple of the boys got into it with one of the men from town. If I remember right, he was just crossin’ the street when, for no other reason than pure meanness, one of these hombres started a fight with him. It came to fist and before you know it, the drover was down for the count and everything should have been over. ‘Cept the drover and his friend didn’t see it that way. They ambushed the townsmen and shot him in the back. Good man he was, too. Had a wife and child and was respected.”

The old lawman looked Madigan straight in the eye. “Now I’m no bleeding heart, but after I jailed these murderous cutthroats I started hearing talk of lynching my prisoners.

“Didn’t give a damn about the jailbirds, it was the good townspeople I was worried about. Lynching’s bad business. If they were to get caught and have to go before the wrong judge, they’d stand a chance of gettin’ the noose themselves.

I decided to get the prisoners to the county seat for trial, but it was a full day’s ride and there was only one of me to do the job.

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