Slocum 420 by Jake Logan Page A

wasn’t surprised by the news. Dave Anderson was the one who had most of his slash wounds on his back and shoulders. They were ugly, but didn’t get much past the bones protecting his vital areas. Edgar Fuller was the man who’d received most of his wounds on the front of his body. Although his rib cage might have protected some of his innards, his belly was soft and exposed to some of the worst damage. Slocum was no doctor, but he knew a life-threatening wound when he saw one and poor Edgar had plenty of them.
    â€œAs for any accusations being leveled at Rob Ploughman,” Womack continued, “you men can just put those to rest. He did his best to save two lives by getting them loaded onto his cart and bringing them here despite the danger that he was in.”
    Slocum nodded along with most of the rest of the crowd. It wasn’t until things had settled down around the camp that he’d even caught the cart driver’s name. He stored it away in the back of his head for whenever he got the chance to buy Rob a drink.
    â€œI know the question on everyone’s mind is what exactly happened to those two men out on Fall Pass,” Womack said. “I’m here to tell you that that’s exactly what I intend on finding out. All I know for certain about what happened . . . all any of us knows for certain . . . is that those men were brutally attacked. I’m sure that doesn’t set well with many of you and I guarantee it sets with me even worse! I intend to find out what happened to my men and our friends, and I’m not going to wait around to do so!”
    That sparked a loud chorus of cheers from the crowd. Slocum shared the sentiment, but stood by quietly to wait and see where Womack was headed next.
    â€œFirst of all,” Womack said, “I will see to it that someone is sent out to put an end to that vicious killer, whether it be man or beast. I’ve already spoken to Sheriff Krueger and he assures me he’ll be looking into the matter.”
    Although some of the men in the crowd were glad to hear that, most were either quiet or voiced some discontent. Slocum was one of the quiet, albeit discontented, ones.
    Seeing that he’d already lost a good portion of his admirers, Womack added, “Rest assured, if I don’t get some sort of satisfactory course of action from the law, I will take matters into my own hands!”
    Once again, the majority of the crowd was back on Womack’s bandwagon. Many of them even shouted to be a part of whatever their boss had in mind. Slocum, on the other hand, remained quiet. He was uncomfortable at what he was fairly certain was a spur-of-the-moment statement from a man who was just trying to regain the favor of a bunch of discontented workers.
    Womack nodded and motioned for quiet, which he got almost immediately. “For the moment, I ask that you men just go about your jobs and keep the wounded men in your prayers. As soon as I have anything else to report, I’ll let you know by either calling another meeting like this one or posting it on the board outside my office. Now I’m sure you all would like to get away from this mill for the day so I’ll see you tomorrow, bright and early. I appreciate your time.” With that, Womack tossed the crowd a wave and hurried into his office so he could shut himself in.
    The crowd grumbled among themselves before slowly making their way for the doors. From what Slocum could hear, most of what was being said was in Womack’s favor. There were still plenty of rumors being passed around, which wasn’t a surprise. The only way to keep folks from telling stories about one another was to knock their heads together hard enough to put them to sleep. When they woke up and started wondering about who’d put them down, they would have to be knocked again.
    Slocum started looking for a relatively clear path to the door through the mass of workers when he