Hard Ride to Wichita by Ralph Compton, Marcus Galloway

surprised she still didn’t tan your hide and then come after me.”
    â€œShe . . . she said that . . .” Luke had to pause to take a breath. Keeping his head down, he said, “She told me that if that fella was any sort of spiritualist at all, he would have known in advance that he was gonna be robbed. For bilking good folks out of their money, he got what was coming to him.”
    â€œShe once told me something along those lines,” Red said. “After I got caught trying to steal one of the Johanssens’ cows.”
    Luke turned just enough to look at him and see Red smirk. “The sheriff did his part to scare me. He even put me in his jail cell, but I was only . . . what . . . ten years old?”
    â€œThereabouts.”
    â€œHe scared me good. I’ll give him that much. My mother and yours came down to bring me home. While the sheriff was talking to my mother, your ma took me aside and told me how what I did was wrong. But, more than fearing the law, she told me I should fear divine retribution.”
    Luke’s brow furrowed. It wasn’t the first time he’d heard those words, but they struck a chord at that moment.
    â€œShe told me,” Red continued, “that folks always get what’s coming to them. Good or bad. It might take a while and it might come in strange ways, but what they do always comes back to them. I never forgot that.”
    â€œThen how come you kept stealing?”
    â€œâ€™Cause I figured it was already too late for me.”
    â€œWe’re a bit young to be thinking such grim things.”
    Red nodded. “And we’re also too young to be giving up on our lives. It’s time we started them. That’s what I’ve had in mind for a while now.”
    â€œThat so?”
    â€œYep. Thought I’d join the army. Soldiering is a good career and it gets me out of Maconville.”
    â€œPuts you on a battlefield,” Luke told him. “Most men that see those fields either don’t live to tell about it or leave a piece of them there. From what I’ve seen in the newspapers, they’re usually mighty big pieces that get left behind.”
    â€œLike what you’re proposing is so much less dangerous?” Red scoffed.
    â€œAt least I’d be fighting and dying for my own cause and not someone else’s.” He reached out to put a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “Don’t pay attention to what I just said. I think that’s real honorable of you, Red. You’ll make a fine soldier.”
    â€œI sure will. After I get back from Wichita.”
    â€œThat’s my job to do,” Luke said. “You’ve got yours.”
    â€œWe’re brothers. We fight together. We ride the same trails.”
    â€œAnd what if I’m making a mistake?”
    â€œThen we make it together.” Red placed his hand on the side of Luke’s face. What seemed like a tender gesture quickly took a more familiar turn when he pushed Luke’s face to one side as if he’d slowly slapped him. “Besides, you don’t think it’s a mistake. Otherwise, you’d never do it. You’re too smart for anything less.”
    â€œThis isn’t your fight.”
    â€œIf you believe that, then maybe you’re not so smart after all.”
    â€œI don’t want you getting killed on my account.”
    â€œYou don’t have any say in the matter,” Red said. “I’m coming along with you whether I’m riding beside you or following you all the way to Wichita.”
    â€œAll right, then. I’m too tired to argue anymore.”
    â€œCome along home with me. If folks know where we’re at, they won’t watch us so hard and we can skin out of town that much easier come the morning.”
    Luke nodded and followed his friend back to the Connover place. Once there, he received some heartfelt condolences from Red’s