King of Spades (34 page)

The blue swallows flittered back and forth over the black mob.

Ransom slowly wyed his black head around as he watched the wild flight of the swallows. Then, blinking, he searched through the far-off granite peaks.

“I would like it very much if we here in Western America could somehow show the world what it means to be truly civilized. And to do it without much need for busybody law. An occasional people's court, and that's it.”

Ransom next looked down at the face in the coffin.

“I shall have done my duty as a citizen of Deadwood and
as an officer of the court of justice if I can help you reach a verdict in this people's court that shall enable us, every one of us, to be more courteous, more patient, more free. Such a verdict will be worth more than all the gold we find.”

Ransom yet once again touched a hand to his right eye.

Magnus abruptly stepped down off his stump and began to work his way toward the front. His black eyes were suddenly smoked over and his large liberal lips worked in his white beard. Despite his bad back he moved through the crowd in acrisp courtly manner.

“Yes, we here in Deadwood, where life and gold are so much exposed, we are all miners here together in the Black Hills of the soul.”

Magnus pushed past the collapsed tin shop. As he did so, he spotted a mud nest. It was stuck to a portion of the north wall of the tin shop, which was still standing. In the nest were two little baby swallows. Their little beaks rested on the edge of the hardened mud like yellow-edged arrows set out for display.

Clemens' eyes turned a dreamy blue. “It is better that ninety-nine possible guilty ones should escape than that one innocent man should suffer.”

A shadow enlarged along the west wall of the gulch.

Clemens' voice turned singsong. “There were ninety-and-nine that safely lay in the shelter of the fold. But one was put on the hills away, far off from the gates of gold, away on the mountains wild and bare, away from the tender shepherd's care.”

Sighs moved through the black crowd.

But Maule wasn't taken in. “Good Lord, John,” he broke in, “how can you stand there reciting such sentimental drivel in behalf of a fiendish killer, a devil incarnate, who took the life of a beloved wife and a coming child? Don't you understand that out here we worship the loyal wife and the innocent child?”

Clemens had a merciful blue smile for Maule. “Clifford, your approach is always so moral. So terribly moral. Your cold sense of justice is almost enough to make one wonder.”

Maule flashed Clemens a furious look, then appealed to the judge. “Objection, Your Honor.”

“On what grounds?”

“I object on the grounds that the last several remarks of the defense counsel are irrelevant, immaterial, and not germane to the issue at hand.”

“Objection sustained.” The judge shifted positions. The democrat creaked under him. He gave Clemens a pair of narrowed eyes. “In the nature of his role as prosecutor, Mr. Maule may very well appear to have a cold sense of justice. However, the court recognizes that his notion of justice is also of value to society.”

“Thank you, Your Honor.”

“And proceed with the questioning, please.”

Clemens nodded. He turned to address Ransom. “Did I understand you to say that you did not know your father?”

Ransom sighed. “I have it coming.”

“You're not answering my question.”

“Better that we both should die.”

“Ah, then you did know your father?”

“I don't think I've ever even had a nightmare about him. That I can remember.”

“You have never seen him then?”

“All I know for sure is that I'm never going to get out of this. Thank God.”

“Then you had no father?”

“And the sooner the better because I'm of no good to anyone.”

“You've never had anyone then who was like a father to you? Even like an uncle?”

“Sam Slaymaker was. He was like a father to me. He found me on the prairie out of my head and almost dead. He
took me under his wing and brought me up.” Ransom heaved a deep sigh. “But then Sam was killed. And the first thing I knew I found myself killing the man who killed him.” Ransom heaved another deep sigh. “It was like I had to do it. Like I couldn't stop it.”

“Go on.”

Ransom slowly put both of his hands to his head. He spoke very softly, almost whispering it. “My whole life … you know, it's been a case of where when I see one fellow shooting another, I've got to step in and shoot the killer. Like I've been ordered to.”

“Been ordered to by who?”

“I don't know. That's just the trouble. I can't remember.”

“Try and think now. Who?”

Ransom shook his head. He was exhausted. His eyes closed. “Look. I have it coming. That should be enough for all of you. Let me die like a man.”

2

Magnus stood below the judge, hat in hand. He raised his hand for attention.

Judge Todd spotted the hand. “Yes?”

“May I have a word with the prisoner?” Magnus' husky voice barely carried. “I'd like to ask him a few questions.”

Judge Todd cocked a hand to his ear. “A little louder, please.”

Magnus repeated his request. “If it please the court.”

“By what right?”

“As a friend of the court, amicus curiae.”

“Old man, this is a trial. Not a shouting bee around a cracker barrel. Life and death are at stake here.”

“I know. It is to that point I speak.”

“Do you know the prisoner?”

“That's what I mean to find out.”

Judge Todd grunted impatience. “Look, sir, this is not a missing person's bureau. What the court wants to know is, can you shed any further light on this murder?”

“That's what I also mean to find out.”

“What's that? Speak a little louder.”

“I'm sorry, Your Honor, that I am in bad voice. I was shot at years ago. One pellet happened to rip into my throat. It's never been the same since.”

Ransom up on the salt barrel behaved as if he hadn't heard. He went back to staring at the granite peaks.

Judge Todd glared down at Magnus. “Old man, just what is your business here with the court?”

“I am looking for my son. I found trace of him in Cheyenne. Then I heard he'd gone on to Deadwood here.”

“What's that got to do with the matter here before the court?”

“Let me ask the defendant a few questions and then perhaps it will become apparent to the court.”

“What do you do? What's your profession?”

“I am a physician and surgeon.”

Again Ransom seemed not to have heard. Ransom watched the two blue swallows flitter over and through the black crowd.

“You have a license to practice medicine?”

“I do.”

“Ah, then you didn't come here to strike it rich like the rest of us.”

“Your Honor, I shall have struck it rich if I find my son.” There were tears in the corners of Magnus' eyes.

“And your name?”

“Magnus King.”

“Then the name of the son you're looking for should also be King? If he goes under his right name?”

“Yes, Your Honor. Alan Rodman King. Though we mostly called him Roddy.”

“Well, now, but the name of this young man here is Earl Ransom.”

“So it appears.”

All of a sudden, Ransom broke in clearly. “You know, it's a funny thing, but if you'll look around you, you'll notice that the father is never talked about much. It's always the mother and child.”

Judge Todd stared across at Ransom.

Ransom went on, still speaking very clearly. “I noticed that with Sam. He never talked about his father.” Ransom's green eyes opened wider. “For everybody I guess the last person you ever get to know is your father. He is the true alien.”

Judge Todd chewed his lips to himself a moment, then turned to Maule. “You have no objection to Dr. Magnus King asking the prisoner a few questions?”

“If he is a doctor, none.”

Judge Todd turned to Clemens. “And you?”

“No objection. We're all here to discover the truth.”

Judge Todd stared down at Magnus for a few moments, finally said, “You may proceed, as a friend of the court, amicus curiae.”

Magnus cleared his throat, harshly. “Your Honor, can I first direct a question at the bench?”

Judge Todd bristled. The spring seat on the democrat bounced under him. “Why the bench?”

“May I?”

“Proceed.”

“May it please the court, I should like to ask this question: Since Deadwood is still not legally a part of the United States of America, by what authority do we try this man?”

“By what authority? Why! we take it upon ourselves to do this so that we may protect ourselves. Why! the very earth itself suffers when we persist in living in sin upon it. You know that.”

Magnus touched his white beard, and nodded. “All right, fair enough.”

The two blue swallows continued to fleet about against the looming dark hills.

Magnus took up his stance at the foot of the salt barrel. “Son?” Magnus tried to make his voice sound like in the old days back in Sioux City. “Son?”

An awakened lizard abruptly looked out of Ransom's green eyes. “Where the carrion is there will the vulture be.”

“Roddy?”

“Doctors. Lawyers. Politicians. Undertakers.”

A shudder rippled up through Magnus' slight frame. Then he got a grip on himself. “Roddy, don't you remember me, your dad? Roddy?”

“High-toned tapeworms crawling around in the belly of the country.”

Magnus lifted all of himself into his black eyes. “How about a great big cow pill, Roddy?”

Ransom looked across at Judge Todd. “It's hard. But fair. So go ahead.”

Magnus spoke as loud as he could, breaking through the unnatural husky scratch in his voice. “Woman, if you don't admit it, here and now, before God and my son, that you're a bad woman, bad! goddam you, I'll take a club to you.”

Judge Todd, and Maule and Clemens, and everyone, stiffened astounded.

Ransom's green eyes half closed. “I'd give anything never to have gone to The Stinging Lizard.”

Maule interrupted. “Your Honor, isn't all this a bit far afield?”

Judge Todd studied to himself for a moment, his eyes closing.

Maule continued. “It's not pertinent to the issue that I can see.

Judge Todd's eyes slowly opened. “The court finds it instructive. This is a hard case. The questioning may proceed.”

Magnus rose on his toes and filled his voice with tender yearning. “Hi, son. Play some bad with you.”

Maule almost blew up. “Play some bad with you? What kind of nonsense is that, may I ask?”

Troy Barb trained his shotgun on Magnus. “Oh, no you don't.”

Judge Todd cast a wondering eye on Magnus. “Explain.”

“Your Honor, by bad I mean badminton. It's what my son and I used to play together.”

Maule nibbled at his large lips. “Oh.”

Judge Todd glimmered down at Troy Barb. “You can go back to guarding the prisoner, Mr. Barb.” Then Judge Todd said to Magnus, “You may proceed.”

Once more Magnus filled his voice with utmost yearning. “Roddy, don't you really know me? Because I know you. You're my son Roddy.”

No answer.

“Roddy, what do you do when you catch a man sneaking around window-peeking?”

Ransom spoke almost automatically. “Let go with both barrels.”

A pinched agonized cry escaped Magnus. “But you must be careful and not hit Mother, son.”

“Hit Mother?” Ransom flashed a look at the white face in the pine coffin. “Why, I shot and killed my wife.”

“Roddy, don't you remember at all that your name was once Alan Rodman King?”

“Just the same, I sure learned a lot from The Stinging Lizard.”

Another strangled sound of anguish broke from Magnus. “So do we all.”

“Let's get it over with, judge. I have it coming.” Ransom grabbed hold of the noose and dropped it around his neck
again. “Somebody kick the barrel out from under me. C'mon!”

Judge Todd stared across at Ransom for a moment, then said, “Guard, remove the rope.”

Troy Barb wasn't sure he should let go of his shotgun. “Ain't we almost done, judge?”

“Remove that rope!”

“All right, Your Honor.”

Troy Barb climbed up on the salt barrel and removed the noose; then stepped down and resumed his position, shotgun cocked.

Ransom blinked. And again he touched thumb and forefinger to his right eye.

Magnus wept. “Roddy, don't you remember our Uncle George Worthington's picture hanging in the sitting room? And about our Grampa Worthington in England? And all the Kings? And what they meant to us? And how the old earls all used to wear a monocle?”

Eyebrows in the black crowd arched up like teetering hairy caterpillars.

Ransom held his head to one side. “Sometimes it's just like an old dream is trying to dream in me again. And then I've almost got it.”

“Yes, Roddy, yes.”

“What a headache I've got. By the Lord, how it hurts.” Ransom again put both of his hands to his head.

“Son, son, oh my son, try and remember. Nightmares don't lie.”

Ransom's eyes became sunken. “Tight papers.”

“Try and remember, Roddy.”

“Booted cowboys and painted ladies.”

“Son, son. Don't you recognize me at all? I'm here to help you.” Magnus' back cracked with pain. “Let me drink that bitter cup for you. Please, son.”

“It's always so dark out.”

“It's me, your dad!”

“I better skip the country.”

Troy Barb lifted his shotgun an inch. “Oh, no you don't, you wife-murderer.”

“Down, Mr. Barb,” Judge Todd growled. “Proceed, Dr. King.”