Law Rustlers
by W. C. Tuttle
Author of “The Devil’s Dooryard,” “Sun-Dog Trails,” etc.
Me and “Hashknife” Hartley sets there on our broncs and spells outthe old sign, just like it was the first time we ever seen it. The goodLord only knows why we’re back at the old sign. Willer Crick don’t meannothing to us. Glory Sillman lives, or did live, on Willer Crick, buther name ain’t never figured in any of our conversations since the daywe fogged away from Willer Crick.
We kinda left that part of the range in a hurry that day; left asurprised bunch of folks watching our dust, while a couple ofenterprising bad-men went home to get patched up and another bunchthrowing lead at the wrong parties, just because said parties had a grayand a roan horse.
No, Willer Crick has been a closed incident to us. Not that we’resilent folks, ’cause we ain’t. I can talk the bark off a greasewood, andHashknife Hartley—man, he’s a conversationalist. It’s kinda funny thatwe never talked about the Willer Crick folks, ’cause they sure are worthtalking about. Sol Vane, who does the lawin’ for the Crick, Jim Sillman,one of the Council of Three, old Ebenezer Godfrey—they’re onegoshawful layout.
Of course Ebenezer Godfrey is dead. Jim Albright and Pete Godfrey,his illegal heirs, are dead, we think, but there’s a plenty of thatmisguided tribe left. Ebenezer was killed by Pete and Jim, ’cause theold man wouldn’t die soon enough for one of them to get visible means ofsupport, in order to marry Glory. The old man was hard-boiled enough tohang on to life until he could will everything he owned to me andHashknife. Willer Crick, being a closed corporation, didn’t accept meand Hashknife to any great extent.
They stole old Godfrey’s body in order to establish what Sol Vanecalled “corpus delectable,” but we got it back, or rather hid it again.We buried some dynamite in the front yard and Sol, Pete and Jim dug intoit, thinking we had planted the old man there. Sol lost all his hair andall we could find of Jim and Pete was a hat with the crown gone.
Me and Hashknife weathered considerable storm, but there wasn’t nouse in defying the lightning too much, so we got out by the skin of ourteeth, with a Winchester rifle and a vest-pocket derringer.
Me and Hashknife cut cards to see which of us would marry GlorySillman, accept five hundred dollars in place of a wife and then leavethe country. This was to save Jim Sillman from the law of the Crick, andwould also allow Glory to go outside and get educated like a humanbeing. Willer Crick had a peculiar law. It seems that they rules that agirl has to stay on the crick until she gets married. After she’s hookedup she can leave. Of course, they means to make her marry one of theirown bunch, but their law don’t specify that. It also seems that the sinsof one of the family is visited upon all the rest of that family.
Jim Sillman explains that everything he owns is on the crick, andthat if Glory breaks the law they’re liable to take away his property aspunishment. Kind of a weak way of looking at things, but we can’t allthink alike thataway. He offers us five hundred dollars cash if one ofus will marry her. This gives her the right to pull her freight out ofthere and also saves him from their locoed law.
Glory don’t want a regular husband, and it’s a cinch that me andHashknife ain’t noways hankering for a wife, but it’s a sporting chanceand we takes it. We never collected that five hundred for the simplereason that the “uncle,” who was financing the law-breaking scheme,turned out to be the sher