Antebellum BK 1 by Jeffry S.Hepple Page A

Uncle Sam.”
    “ Are you aware that there’s no judge and no jail here?”
    “ No. I didn’t know that, but it don’t matter. I ain’t gonna trust no Mexican jail again. This time I’ll haul yer carcass across the river.”
    “ There’s no judge in Laredo either.”
    “ I’ll bet that the Laredo sheriff would be glad to put ya in his jail until the circuit judge comes around.”
    “ I sincerely hope you’re wrong.”
    “ Turn around and face the wall. Hands behind yer back. Lean in.”
    “ I won’t be able to ride with my hands manacled.”
    “ Not to worry. You’ll be chained to the mule so as you can’t fall off.”
    “ You’re in for a big disappointment again, Josiah.”
    “ You ain’t gonna bribe your way out of no Texas jail, William. Not when I tell em how much yer hide’s worth, delivered to a judge.”

July 30, 1849
    Waco Village, Texas

    T he sign above the door of the log cabin proclaimed it to be the village office. Inside, three well-dressed young men were busy shuffling paper. They pointedly ignored the bedraggled-looking man until he spoke up loudly. “Is this here the Mayor’s office?”
    “ It is,” one of the dandies replied haughtily.
    “ I’d like to see him.”
    “ Have you an appointment?”
    “ No. How do I get me one?”
    The young man went to a desk and dipped a steel-nib pen in the inkwell. “Your name?”
    “ Josiah Whipple.”
    The clerk began to write but was interrupted by a booming voice. “Josiah Whipple doesn’t need an appointment.” Thomas Van Buskirk appeared from a back office, extending his hand toward Whipple. “We hadn’t heard from you in so long we were afraid you’d gotten lost out there.”
    Whipple shook his hand. “Naw. I never go anywhere’s special, so getting’ lost ain’t even a possibility.” He waved his hand at the rutted street outside the dirty window. “So you’re the mayor of this here new metropolis?”
    “ Indeed. It’s changed some since you sold it to me.”
    “ Yup. You cut down all the pretty oak trees and put up a bunch o’ ugly buildings.”
    Thomas chuckled and led him into a small, cluttered office. “Sit down and tell me what you’ve been up to.” He took a seat behind his desk and waited until Josiah was settled. “Did you stop by the ranch?”
    “ Well, if the truth be told, I didn’t know you, or this new town, was even here.”
    Thomas sat back waiting for him to explain.
    “ I come along this way a-lookin’ for yer brother William.”
    “ William? We heard that he was captured and hanged.”
    “ He was captured by me but the crooked Laredo sheriff hung some vagrant, claimed the reward and took a bribe from William t’ boot.”
    “ How did he manage to hang the wrong man without you knowing?”
    “ They took William out through the back door of the jail while the Sheriff had me busy fillin’ out a slew o’ forms. I didn’t get outside ‘til the hangin’ was about to start. By then there was a fearsome crowd and I couldn’t get close to the front without startin’ a fight. The prisoner climbed the gallows with his back to me and they put a hood over his head before they turned him around.”
    “ Are you so sure it wasn’t William?”
    “ Positive. The way it happened made me plumb suspicious. But I didn’t say nothin’ to the sheriff; I just laid low ‘till after the buryin’. Then I come back in the night and dug up the body. It weren’t yer brother. Not even a close match.”
    “ Did you do anything about the sheriff?”
    “ Shot the bastard dead. His deputy too. Then I confiscated the reward and the bribe money that William paid. You ain’t seen William, have ya, Tom?”
    Thomas shook his head. “I doubt he’d come here, Josiah. He knows that I’d turn him in.”
    “ You didn’t turn him in the last time you seen him.”
    “ That was long before he shot Charlie and it was up on the Edwards Plateau, hundreds of miles from any peace officer. My choices at that time