Paper Sheriff by Luke Short

Author:Luke Short [Short, Luke]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Next morning the Sheriff's Sale of the boarding-house and its contents was held on the court-house steps before a dozen of the town's loafers and only one serious bidder. Mrs. O'Rourke, a scrappy, handsome, healthy widow, bid in at the lowest price the commissioners had agreed to accept and there were no other bidders. It was over almost before it began. Reese escorted Mrs. O'Rourke to his office, made out a check for the sum bid, watched while Mary Coughlin O'Rourke laboriously printed out her name, gave her the key to the house and the inventory of contents, wished her good luck and afterwards sat down to wait for Jim Daley, whom he had left in conversation with one of the spectators.

After the events of yesterday he wondered what this day would bring, and he hoped fervently that it would bring Will Reston. If Reston's bay had wound up at Con Fraley's, it was reasonable to assume that he had come out of the bordering brakes. If Reston could walk, surely he would have made one of the ranches close to the brakes. Surely too his first move would be to come to this office or send word for the Sheriff to come to him. If he was hurt and unable to walk, then he would surely die. It would take fifty men fifty days to search thoroughly the wild waterless canyons and caves and rimrock of that country. The County had no funds to pay for this broad search, and he had no right to ask for volunteers to give up the rest of the summer on the hunt for a man whom death perhaps had already silenced and whom the carrion birds would long since have disposed of. A live Reston, or word of him, must come to him, hopefully today, certainly by tomorrow. If he didn't come, then what? He didn't know.

Jim Daley, who had come straight from home to the court-house steps, had had no chance to speak with Reese, and now when he came in, he went directly to the chair beside the desk and eased into it.

"How's the back this morning, Jim?"

"You don't hear me whistling, do you?" Jim said wryly. Abruptly then he came to the point. "You find Orv or Buddy?"

"Buddy," Reese said. He told Jim of their reason for accosting Reston.

When he'd finished, Daley said, "Sounds harmless enough. Man sees a brand from a country he knows, he'd want to talk with the owner."

"Yes, but why did it have to be Orv Hoad?" Reese asked.

"Couldn't have been much of a visit for Orv. Perry said he asked for a beer twice and those were the only words he—"

Daley stopped speaking as Reese rose with such force that the swivel chair skidded back a few feet.

Now Reese hammered once on his desk with his fisted hand and said, "Jim, we missed it! It was there all the time and we missed it!"

"Missed what?" Jim asked blankly.

"Perry said Reston was mounted when Orv and Buddy came up to him.

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