Death & Texas by William W. Johnstone

Author:William W. Johnstone
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pinnacle Books
Published: 2022-01-12T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 11

“We’ve got two prisoners in the jail for attempted murder,” Malcolm Howard said. “What are we gonna do about it? We don’t have a judge, so what do we do with ’em—try ’em ourselves and sentence ’em to hang—or let ’em go, so they can try it again?”

“We can’t just let them go,” Marvin Winter responded, taking Howard’s remark seriously. “Because they’ll surely try something like that again, especially if they see they’re not gonna be punished for it.”

“Well, we sure aren’t set up to keep ’em in our jail for any length of time,” Percy Mitchell said. “The jail wasn’t built with that in mind, and we can’t afford to feed prisoners long term. We’ll just have to get word to the Texas Rangers to send somebody to pick ’em up.”

“Good luck with that,” Poss Rooks interjected. “I say hang ’em and we won’t have to worry about ’em causin’ any more trouble. We get a chance like this to get rid of two more of that bunch of rattlesnakes, that’s two more that won’t be takin’ potshots at us.” There were a few voices in agreement with Poss among the small gathering of merchants. However, there were some in disagreement.

“If we hang those two, then we aren’t any better than vigilantes,” Winter commented.

“Ain’t nothin’ wrong with that,” Poss came back. “Hell, ain’t no doubt they’re guilty. Might as well get on with the hangin’.”

“There wasn’t but one shot fired when Buford got hit,” Mitchell reminded them. “So maybe the one doing the shooting is the only guilty one, and we should let the other one go.” His comment caused some concern among them, since no one had considered that. “We’re trying to build a respectable town here, so we oughta be fair in cases like this,” he added.

“I see what you’re sayin’,” Horner said, “but the other one ain’t innocent of tryin’ to commit murder. So you can’t let one of ’em go free.”

“In most towns in this territory, those two would already be swingin’ from the limb of a tree,” Poss insisted.

“We ain’t gettin’ a helluva lot done here,” Ross Horner spoke up again. “Poss may be right, but Percy’s right about bein’ a civilized town. So, why don’t we appoint three of us to decide what to do with the prisoners, and whatever they decide, that’s what we’ll do.” His suggestion was met with general approval from the rest of them, and the review board was quickly voted on. Percy Mitchell, Marvin Winter, and Malcolm Howard were easily elected to try the prisoners.

With that issue tabled for the time being, there was another point of some concern for several at the meeting. It was Norman Freeman who brought it up. He got to his feet and, before speaking, looked around the room to make sure Cullen was not present. “Do we need to talk about this fellow McCabe? Does anybody know who the hell he is? Don’t get me wrong,” he quickly injected. “He’s cleaned

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