Sabrina's Man (28 page)

“I expect it's going to take you in this thing, Judge. I'll be depending on you.”

Parker turned and walked away.

Her father turned back to Waco. “So you're Waco Smith. I've been looking into your character. Asking around, you know. Way I hear it you're a rangy wolf with long teeth and whiskers of metal shavings. Scare little children in the night, do you, and make the girls scream and run for cover? That's what they say. What's the other side of you?”

Waco replied, “Isn't any.”

“Well, just as well you think so then.” Her father had an ability to make decisions about people. When he did, he seldom changed his mind and almost never made a mistake. “I know you feel bad about your friend Marshal Longstreet.”

“He was straight. Never let a man down. Never broke his word.” Waco shuffled his feet then said, “Well, I don't guess you'll be needing me anymore.”

“Oh no, you're not getting off that easy, Smith,” her father said calmly. “We're going to get that girl of mine back, and you're the one who's going to have to do it. I can't go because I can't sit on a horse and can't shoot. So let's make some plans.”

“Come on into the café. I imagine you're hungry.” They all went inside, and for some time they discussed the possibilities.

Finally her father said, “There's nothing else we can do now. I know you're both dead tired. So let's eat, and then I'll get you a room here, Waco.”

“No need spending your money on me, Mr. Warren.”

“Got more money than I have good sense. You're going to do this job. I want you to be fresh. You go get some rest. When you get up in the morning, we're going to get together and decide what to do. I'm going to ask the good Lord for an answer, and if you know how to pray, you might do the same.” He got up abruptly and walked away, her mother following him.

As soon as they were gone, Waco stared after him, saying, “He's quite a fellow, your dad. Is he always like this?”

“Yes, he's the kindest man I've ever known, but it's taken something out of him. Mother's suffering, too.”

Waco's expression suddenly went grim. “The best thing would be to get twenty marshals and throw a chain around that bunch.”

“But what would happen to Marianne? Could she get hurt?”

“She can get hurt any way we go about it, but you're right. The first sign of something like that, and LeBeau's going to threaten to kill her.” He looked at her and saw her weariness. “You're worn out. Go to bed.”

“All right, but do you think we have another chance, Waco?”

“Always a chance,” he told her. “Your dad said something about praying. He's a praying man?”

“Yes, he is, and my mother, too. Do you ever pray, Waco?”

“No, wouldn't be right.”

“Not right? What do you mean?”

“A fellow like me, I never think of God, never do anything for God, then out of the blue I start beggin'. Seems pretty small to me.”

Sabrina chose her words carefully before she spoke. “I think all of us have to reach some point where the only thing we can do is ask God. Until we get there, we're pretty likely to stay stubborn— at least that's what I've been. I'm turning in. We have a lot facing us tomorrow.”

“What do you think about this fellow Waco, Sabrina?”

“Think about him? Why, I don't know.” She had come to her father's room early in the morning to talk to him, and now he said, “Well, you must have some thoughts, girl. You trusted him enough to go gallivanting around the desert with him.”

“I—don't really know, Dad. He's a strange man.”

Charles Warren knew this elder daughter of his. She never had acted like this about a man before, and her difficulty in speaking of Waco Smith made him want to ask more, but he decided not to press her. “Well, I've discovered one thing. He's tough as a boot heel. Far as I know he's not vicious.”

“He's had a hard life,” Sabrina said. “I think if he'd had more chances, he would have made something out of himself. He's very quick. Not educated, but he knows things. He's what you used to call ‘country smart.' ”

“He's quick-witted all right. You know, he looks kind of like a wolf. His eyes are sharp, looking right through you.”

“I dread the funeral. I don't do well at funerals, but I've never lost anyone that I was close to like I was to Silas.”

“Well, funerals are never happy affairs.”

Waco accompanied the Warrens as they left the hotel and went to the small, weather-beaten white church. The funeral was heartbreaking.

The minister was a well-built man with greenish eyes and curly blond hair. He had known Longstreet for many years, and he preached a sermon about how wonderful it was that Silas Longstreet had stepped from one world into another one. “In an instant's time,” he said, “he stepped from earth to heaven. And however many problems he had, he doesn't have them anymore.”

The mourners left the church after the sermon, went out to the cemetery, and gathered around the grave. “Would you care to say a few words, Judge Parker?” the minister said.

Parker cleared his throat. “I'm not a preacher, but I am a believer, and I want to say something about Silas my friend. Well, that's what he was to me. He was more than a marshal, you know. He had a hard job, and he always did his duty, but even when he was doing the hardest things, he stood by the way of Jesus Christ. He was a faithful servant, and his greatest desire, as he told me many times, was to stand before God and to be with his faithful wife, Lottie.” He hesitated and then looked around the crowd. “One of the last things Silas said to me before he went on this trip concerned some of you standing here. He was worried and concerned about your souls.”

The preacher then read Scripture, and the wooden coffin was lowered.

Waco turned and left, but Sabrina caught up with him. “I've cried myself out, Waco.”

“I wish I could cry. I know I'd feel better.”

Waco heard someone call his name, and he turned to see Judge Parker approach him. The tall man's face was grave, and he said, “I didn't want to call any names in public, and it was you, Waco, and Miss Sabrina here, that Silas was concerned about. Before he left, he asked me to pray for you, and if I had a chance to give you an encouragement to turn to the Lord.”

“How kind of you, Judge,” Sabrina said. Tears filled her eyes again. “He was such a good man.”

Waco escorted the Warrens back to their hotel. He began to walk a bit aimlessly down the street. He was hard hit by the death of Silas Longstreet, and his grief was mixed with a bitter, fiery anger against LeBeau. He finally encountered Heck and said, “I don't think a posse will ever catch up with LeBeau.”

“No, he's pretty sharp. When he sees a bunch comin', he'll kill that girl or threaten to.”

“Somebody's got to pay for Silas,” Waco said, then turned and walked away without another word.

Later in the day, Charles and his family were seated on the front porch of the hotel.

“There comes Waco,” Sabrina said. “He has that serious look on his face. He's thought of something.”

“You think so?”

“I know that look, like he could bite an iron spike in two. He's stubborn about things like that.”

“Hello, Mr. Warren. Mrs. Warren. Sabrina.”

“Sit down. Tell us what you've been doing, Waco,” Charles said. Now he saw what Sabrina meant about the steady look on Waco Smith's face. His features seemed to be set in metal somehow. There was a dark preoccupation in his face, and Warren saw that he was a man taller than the average, heavier boned, more solid in chest and arms. His life, perhaps even the life in prison, had trimmed him lean. Exposure to rain and sun and cold had built within him a reserve of vitality. Warren knew without being told that never in his life had he known real peace.
There is a sorrow shining through this man
, Warren thought,
guiding him into strange ways
.

“I've been thinking, and I have a plan for getting your daughter back.”

Instantly all three members of the family straightened up. “What is it?” Sabrina asked quickly.

“Well, we've talked about how it's hard to sneak up on LeBeau. He's ready for that. But you know if somebody was there on the inside, a member of the gang, well, he could make a chance to get your daughter away, Mr. Warren.”

“Are you thinking about yourself?” Charles Warren spoke sharply.

“I can't think of anybody else,” Waco replied offhandedly. “I know LeBeau. All he really knows about me is that I've had my share of run-ins with the marshal. As a matter of fact, we rode together for a while. He trusted me then.”

“That will be pretty dangerous,” Mr. Warren said. “If they found what you're there for, they'd kill you in a blink. You think he knows you were in that shootout when the marshal got shot?”

“No, it was dark. I didn't say anything. I was hid real good.”

Sabrina said plaintively, “Waco, how could you do it? I mean, even if you were there, they'd be watching you. They'd be suspicious, wouldn't they?”

“They're suspicious of everybody, that bunch is.” Waco shrugged. “But like I say, if I was right there, I could make a chance for Marianne. They'd ride out sometime and leave just a man or two with her. I might be one of those men they leave. Then I'd just take Marianne and ride out with her.”

Silence fell over the group, and every face except Waco's was troubled. After a while Charles Warren said, “I've thought of everything in the world, but not one idea that would have a chance. Maybe, just maybe, this one would, but it's dangerous. I'd pay you for it though. Real well.”

Waco did not act as if he had heard.

“How could the rest of us help? You can't go out alone.”

“Better that way.” Waco looked at Sabrina and said, “So if you agree to it, I'll pull out as soon as Gray Wolf comes in. Probably a couple more days.”

“But we've got to make a better plan than this,” Sabrina protested. “You propose just to disappear into the desert. You can't get in touch with us. We won't know what's happening.” The vehement flow of words stopped, and her eyes narrowed.

Charles Warren knew his daughter's determined expression. “What's going on in that head of yours, girl? I know that look.”

“I just had an idea, but I'll have to think about it.” She got up suddenly and left without another word.

“Well, there she goes. We've seen her look like that before, haven't we, Caroline?”

“Yes, we have.”

“I don't know what she'd be able to think about in this kind of a situation.” Waco shook his head. “Anyway, I'll see you again before I leave.”