Morning in Nicodemus (6 page)

 
    “Virgil! Marcus!” Liberty cried as she ran through the yard into the soddy early in the morning a few weeks later. Goosie and her new goslings scattered, honking noisily as she ran through them. With an annoyed meow, Nicky jumped up on the shelf out of her way. Marcus was tying his boot laces. Virgil was still in his bed roll.

   Liberty grabbed Virgil and shook him. “Virge, Beauty is gone. She's not anywhere.”

   Virgil raised up, scattering his bedding. “What?”

   “Beauty's gone!”

   He grabbed his clothes. “She's probably gotten out. We'll find her.”

Marcus raced out of the soddy to the horse paddock. Liberty followed. Both Lady and Buck were standing quietly by the gate. Buck nickered when Marcus came near. In a couple of minutes Virgil dashed out of the soddy. He had pulled on his trousers and boots, but hadn't taken time to put on his shirt.

   Marcus was looking over their acres. “Are you sure she was here last night?” he asked Liberty.

   “Yes, I came out to pet her goodnight as I always do. I told her and Goosie to sleep tight.”

   “I saw her last night, too,” Virgil said. “All three horses were standing over in the far corner.”

   Before he finished speaking, Marcus was in the enclosure, walking around the fence to see where she had gotten out.

   “The fence isn't down anywhere,” he said.

   Virgil was studying the ground. Within the paddock the bare dirt showed where the horses had eaten the grass and paced the fence line. “There's too many tracks to see if she jumped the fence,” he said. After walking the perimeter carefully inside, he searched the outside. The grass was cropped close as far as the horses could reach through the fence rails, but after that few inches, the thick grass showed no recent prints.

   “She must have jumped the fence and run off,” Virgil said.

   “She's never done that before,” Liberty said. “She wouldn't leave.”

   “Something might have spooked her.” He caught Lady and slipped her bridle over her head. He jumped on her back. “I'll check with Martin to see if he's seen her.” When he saw Liberty crying, he added, “I'll find her. She's sure to be close around somewhere.” Though he said it to comfort his sister, he didn't believe it. He noticed that all the halters were still hanging on their pegs on the post. He grabbed a halter and tied it to his saddle. “I'll look for her, Lib. Don't worry. I'll find her. She just wandered off.”

   “Wait,” she called. “I'll get your shirt.” She ran to the soddy and was soon back with his clean shirt.

   “Thanks. Why don't you run down to the river and see if she's there? I'll check north.”

   Virgil spurred Lady. “I'll bring her home,” he yelled back as Lady galloped toward Martin's place. 

   When he reached it, Martin hailed him. “I see you sold your bay mare to Bruce Wallace.”

   “No, I didn't. I'm looking for her.”

   “Well, he come by here an hour or so ago on her. He didn't stop, just kept a-going down the road.”

   “Which way did he go?”

   Martin pointed east toward Nicodemus. “Toward town. Do you think he stole her?”

   “Looks that way.” 

   “He's had a hard time,” Martin said.

   “Haven't we all?” Virgil asked. He was tired of everyone justifying this scoundrel. He looked toward the soddy for Bethel. “Bethel home?”

   “No, she went over to Nicodemus. Jenny Fletcher has a sort of school going. Bethel signed up.”

   “I'll tell Liberty. She got some schooling in Kentucky afore we left. She'd like that. Maybe she can go too.”

   “I don't see why not.” When Virgil started off, Martin added, “I hope you find your hoss. Give Bruce a licking. We sure don't need no hoss thieves hereabouts.”

   Virgil nodded his thanks. Angrier than ever now that his suspicions were correct, Virgil couldn't help rejoice that Martin seemed friendlier. Like when he first arrived. Maybe he's looking more favorably on him. Anyway, he was pleased. But Bruce . . . He's downright mean.

   Virgil was soon in the town proper, if a few soddies and bare marked-out streets with chimneys showing where a dugout house was denoted a town. There had been some progress since he arrived a year ago. The Baptist Church had some permanent rock walls. On Washington Street he stopped Lady in front of Fletcher's general store. From there he could see most of the town. No bay mare. 

   Dismounting, and fastening Lady to the hitching rail, he walked behind the store and found Beauty tied to a post. 

   The mare nickered at Virgil. Relieved that she seemed fine, but getting angrier by the minute, he entered the store. 

   “Lander,” Zachary Fletcher, the storekeeper greeted him. He was standing behind the counter in the lighter area near the front. “I'm glad you came. Jenny said just this morning that if you came in to invite Liberty to her school she's starting up.” When Virgil kept looking around at the people in the store and to the back section that was dark, he asked, “Something wrong?”

   Virgil spotted Bruce in the back of the store, half-hidden behind some barrels. “Hi, Zach,” he answered without looking at the storekeeper. “Lib will be glad about the school if she can be spared from the work at home. Yes, something is wrong, and I've got business with that horse thief back there.” Turning from Fletcher, he called out, “Bruce Wallace, that's Liberty's mare you got tied up out back.”

   Bruce's eyes widened when he saw Virgil come toward him. He backed up almost knocking over a barrel. “I . . . I . . . ,” he stammered and looked around at the other men in the store who were all glaring at him. 

   “Yes,” one of the men said, looking out the back door where he could see the mare. “That there's Liberty's bay for sure.”

   “What're you doing with her,” another demanded.

   Virgil was hovering over Bruce, his face furious. “Tell me,” he commanded. “What're you doing with my sister's horse?”

   “I . . . I saw her running loose. I . . . I caught her for you.” Bruce's hand was trembling as he placed it under his chin over his right shirt collar.

   “You came to our place early this morning and stole her, that's what you done,” Virgil bellowed. 

   He grabbed Bruce's coat lapels and shook him. When Bruce did nothing, Virgil wanted to beat him, but looking around the store full of people and merchandise, he let go. Bruce fell to the rough floor. “You keep away from our place, you hear?” When Bruce tried to stand up, Virgil pushed him back down. “I'll thrash you good if I find you near us again.” He looked at all the people in the store who were watching him. “All these people are witnesses. You understand me?”

   “I was just fixing to bring her to you,” Bruce whimpered, nodding his head rapidly.

Fuming with anger he wasn't sure he could control, Virgil turned his back and walked out. Fletcher followed him out the back door. Seeing the storekeeper's startled face, he said as he untied Beauty and led her around to the front, “Sorry about the fuss in there.”

   Fletcher nodded as Virgil continued, “I'll tell Liberty about the school.” He put his foot into the stirrup, but before he swung his other leg over Lady's back, he asked. “Did you know that you've got a low-down horse thief working for you?”

   “Don't be too hard on him,” Fletcher said. “He might have found the mare running loose. Is that your halter on her?”

   Virgil hadn't noticed he was so angry. “No,” he said, “it isn't.” He slipped it off, handed it to Fletcher, and replaced it with the one he'd brought.

   “I'm giving him some work at the store. He's had a hard time. He ran away from some trouble at his home, and his family is in bad shape.”

   “That's no reason to steal Liberty's mare.” Virgil mounted Lady. Leading Beauty, he rode out of town at a gallop. 

   The expression on his face warned everyone to stay clear of him. Why had the men at the store let it go so easily? Horse stealing was a hanging offence on the frontier. He'd seen it happen. Surely they didn't believe Bruce's lame excuse that he found her running loose and was going to bring her back to him.

   This was one of the times when he regretted sticking it out in Kansas. Why hadn't he taken up Likes-to-Hunt's invitation to join the Osages on their summer buffalo hunt? It was just too hard here. He could handle the erratic and dangerous weather. He could even make himself do the hateful work in the fields, but to fight with fellow settlers? He saw again Bruce's face back there in the store. Even as Virgil was threatening to beat him and he was in real danger, Bruce's eyes showed a bit of glee as if he'd done one more thing to make the Landers leave.

   Well, we're not leaving. Pa's last letter said Ma was well and they would soon again have enough money for their train fare. Virgil had to hang on to that thought. They will come.

As he rode along the main road south out of town, he noticed two deserted homesteads. Bruce could file on either of them. And at last count, he'd heard there were already seventy farms in Nicodemus Township. When he first came there were 19,200 acres available. That meant 120 claims of 160 acres each available to homestead. Or about fifty still unclaimed. Why was Bruce so keen on getting the Lander farm? 

   Then he remembered Fletcher's comment. He'd not thought about Bruce's background before. So he had troubles. Didn't they all? That was why everyone came to Nicodemus. To live a better life. That didn't mean stealing other people's horses.

   When he got in sight of home, Liberty ran out to meet him. After petting her mare and cooing into her ear, she hugged Virgil. “Oh, thank you. Thank you. Marcus is cross because you had to spend all that time looking for Beauty because he wanted you to help him dig some more sod blocks for the folks' room. But I'm helping him. We'll soon have enough, so when they come they'll have their own room. Isn't that wonderful?”

   “Yes it is.” He then told her and Marcus that Bruce stole her mare.

Marcus shook his head sadly. “This community is built on togetherness and friendship and opportunity for those willing to work. Bruce is ruining all that.”

   “He claimed he found Beauty running loose on the prairie and he was holding her for us,” Virgil said.

   “Nobody would believe that,” Marcus said.

   “The men in the store didn't,” Virgil said, “though they didn't seem angry about it.”

   “We should run him out of the township,” Liberty said. “He's a bad one. We haven't had any trouble like that. Why, they don't even allow any saloons in Nicodemus. Why is Bruce so mean to us?”

   Her brothers had no answer to that. “Well, Martin seemed friendly enough this morning,” Virgil said as he ate the meal Liberty had kept for him. “Maybe he's finally okay with a Lander courting his daughter.”

   “Maybe,” Marcus said. Then under his breath he added, “At least one of us.”

   Liberty looked at him and then to Virgil who was swallowing the last of his coffee. She wondered about Bethel. Which brother would she choose and when she did, would there be trouble? Though she and Bethel were good friends, Bethel didn't talk about either brother except as friends. 

   Liberty's lips tightened. She refused to worry about that causing trouble in the family. There were already too many other problems.

   Since the afternoon turned cool, she built a big fire. In no time the soddy was almost too warm. The boys were hauling to the house the last sections of sod for the roof on the new room for their parents. Until they needed her help, she decided to tackle the mending she hated to do. Thinking about her parents' arrival, she smiled as she patched the hole in Marcus's trousers. Her patch didn't match, but she didn't care. At least she fixed the ragged hole so that it wouldn't get bigger or show his bare knee. 

   She heard a rustling in the sod roof above her. She ignored it at first, thinking the noise came from the boys stacking the sod by the completed walls of the new room. The prairie was full of noises. But the rustling became louder and was soon followed by a plop on the dirt floor in front of the closed door. Turning around, she saw a huge black snake, writhing and twisting from its fall. It raised its head looking straight at Liberty, its tongue flitting in and out.

   Liberty screamed. She seized the skillet, the only weapon handy, spilling the hot grease left from their meal. Though intellectually she knew the snake was harmless, she continued to scream. She was trapped, imprisoned in this earthen hole. The snake blocked the only door. She screamed again and again. 

   Virgil, holding his hammer as a weapon, pulled the door open. The snake turned to face its new foe. Virgil threw his hammer at the snake's head, stunning it. It lay quietly on the floor. Right behind his brother, Marcus used his grubbing hoe to chop the snake in two. 

   He scooped up the two parts and threw them outside. 

Virgil ran to Liberty, held her tightly in his arms, saying over and over, “It's all right now, Lib. It's all right, little sister. The snake's gone. It's gone.”

   Safe. She felt safe in his arms. Marcus was there beside them, concern on his face as he searched the ceiling for signs of any more snakes. Her brothers wouldn't let anything bad happen. She needn't fear anymore. She looked out the open door to the wide-open plains. The way was clear, no snake blocking it. She was free.