III
THE RISE OF GINGER GILLETT
His real Christian name, or first name, as they put in the United States, was Robert, but no one acquainted with the West would for one instant imagine that so insignificant a word could survive the contrast with his hair. A man with brown or black locks might have been called Bob, but a red-gold head and a blazing beard mean that a man's obvious destiny is to be called 'Ginger.' And he was called Ginger before his real name was known to any citizen of Painted Rock. For when Ginger Gillett 'struck' Painted Rock, he struck it hard, and was landed in the middle of a group with a broken arm, a cut forehead, and all his senses knocked 'galley-west.' It was a remarkable incident in the history of the City, and one which led to great improvements in the tone and conduct of affairs in that particular portion of Texas. They often spoke of it in Painted Rock, and invariably related the history to any stranger. They told it me, for instance, within twenty-four hours of my reaching the place, and I owned, as I stood liquor to those assembled in the American House, that it was a romance.
Pillsbury told the yarn, and told it fairly well, for Pillsbury had seen a great deal of the West and knew life. He was a gambler, and reckoned honest. He never killed anybody if he could help it, and was thus known to be peaceful and on the side of law and order.
"Ginger Gillett don't trouble me none," he said. "I'm for Ginger every time. The Marshal of thishyer City hez to be a man, and he wuz sent here by a special Prov'dence, or I know nothin' of Prov'dence, boys. I play a fair game: I love honesty and righteousness. There's nothin' betwixt the lids o' the Bible that's down on faro. The word's never mentioned from Genesis to Revelations, for the Pharaoh that is spoke of so frequent was not a game of kyards but a king. A gospel-sharp told me so. Ginger knows that, and he knows men will hev a game. It's natur', natur' straight. There's more peace to play faro sence Ginger ran the hull show. The man's a fool that thinks a fair-minded, honest gambler don't want peace. I'll tell you how Ginger kem here. It wuz a row-mance, a fair row- mance. I see him come myself. I wuz down to the Deepô when he arrived by special freight. Tom, I'll hev another, I guess."
We leant on the bar and listened. All but myself had heard the story a thousand times, but life is dull in the West unless things are booming, and the love of a story is a part of life.
"’Twas a sizzling hot mawnin'," said Pillsbury, "and ten years ago, and Painted Rock when it's hot is hell in a mug without water. A dozen of us was loafin' at the Deepô. We'd come to see the West-bound express go through, and she was an hour behind the schedule along of a burnt trestle the other side of Sweetwater. 'Twas so hot when she got away that we stayed, put under the shade, cussin' about the flies and the sand, and sich-like, when a freight comes bumpin' along, a freight that hed been side-tracked to Sweetwater to let the express pass through. None of us paid no attention, for I wuz showin' him that was City Marshal then (Green his name was, Ben Thompson shot and killed him over to San Antone) how to rise up the four Jacks outer'n the pack. And bump, bump kim along the freight, and suthin' went wrong with a switch, and the old freight took the wrong track and bumped into a no-thoroughfare, so to speak, and stopped up agin a sandbank with a jerk. And nat'rally the kyars played hell and piled themselves up, but luckily for us on the platform they deecided to fall the other way. But before they fell the door of a box car, which was crumpled up like as if a bull hed charged an empty kerosene-can, bust open, and suthin' inside spanged Ginger right in among us, spoiling my trick and upending ole Green among a pile o' lamps, where he cussed very blasphemous, enough to hurt the feelin's of a strict atheist. And me, I stretched out Ginger flat and diskivered a broke arm, and I plastered up a cut in his open countenance you could have hid a ten-cent seegar in, and presently he kem to and smiled, like as if he was sure confused, and said suthin'."
And Pillsbury paused to drink.
"And what did he say?' I asked.
"You'll admire to hear," said Pillsbury, "you'll fair admire! He says in a fierce whisper, 'Partner, who slung me off the train?' And I says, 'Ole man, his name's Prov'dence, and he's hard to beat.' And he replies as he faints away, 'What's his other name?' And ole Green hears him, as he waz pickin' broke glass out of the seat of his pants very tender, and he says, 'I reckon this ginger-headed stranger introduced to Painted Rock so sudden is somewhat of a man, or he wouldn't be for stowin' the whole name and deescription of Providence away in his mind till he's well agin.' And he says, 'Pillsbury, what with glass and oil I'm not fit for activity, so I'll look after the ginger-headed arrival what bucks up agin destiny, while you goes and digs out the engineer of this freight.' And that's how Ginger Gillett struck Painted Rock, and how ole Green took to him and started him upon a risin' path wot has led him to bein' City Marshal in this noble and rising City in the south of the Panhandle. I tell you it's a fair row-mance. A row-mance is wot it is, worthy of print."
"I'd admire to hev Ginger Gillett's life wrote up," said Jack Gray. "It would ekal, or a'most ekal, the story of the James Brothers."
"And on top of that, it would be much more moral and improvin'," said Pillsbury. "The James, and you hev to own it, was a devastatin' crowd, and peace never flourished where they abounded; but since Ginger's took hold of Painted Rock, we've had peace for weeks at a time, whole weeks with never a gun pulled, and difficulties smoothed over that in bigger cities than this would hev led to a boom in coffins and coffin fixin's. Why, I've not hed occasion to as much as look at a man crooked for a'most a month. The moral improvement in Painted Rock hez no parallel since Dodge City secured havin' the railroad by becomin' moral in a week by city ordinance; which led to cruelty to gamblers. Sudden improvements ain't no good. Ginger's gradual with everything but an immediate disturbance, and he's makin' law and morals popular where I never reckoned to see 'em stood for an instant."
He turned to me.
"You bein' a stranger, and likely from the East, which lets on to hev a monopoly of virtue, will see nothin' in Painted Rock to excite uncalled-for remarks if it was to occur in Boston. And the man that says different ez a liar."
The rest of the citizens there assembled said Pillsbury was no liar, but far more truthful than usual even in that moral city. And the meeting adjourned. Thereby I lost the rest of the story of the rise of Ginger Gillett till I had had the honour of being introduced to him. As a matter of fact I introduced myself without ceremony on the occasion of Keno Gedge arresting his own son before a killing had time to take place. As the riot happened in the American House, Pillsbury was in it of course, and when I came back from the gaol to which young Gedge had been conveyed, he went on with the interrupted history.
"Now, as a tender-foot," said the moral Pillsbury, "you have a remarkable objec' lesson in the misuse of drink and guns and language in this late lamentable breakin' out of young Gedge. Young Gedge hears that some gent has been lettin' on that he don't play fair with his father. That's the first sad step to disaster. Young Gedge chews on this, and findin' it remarkable dry chewin', washes it down with liquor. Without slanderin' them that sells liquor, I may go so far as to state tolerable free that all liquor sold in Painted Rock doesn't soothe the irritated child of nature like soothin' syrup. So young Gedge gets his gun and goes huntin' for the loose-lipped gent wot said he did his father over money matters; and carrying a gun thataway is dry work, and it was obvious to me when the boy come in and talked very free that in less than nineteen minutes and three-quarters by the clock over Bailey's store he would opine the first man he saw was good enough to shoot at. I took counsel with myself and the bar-keep, and sent for Keno himself. And likewise, I own, I sent for Ginger Gillett too. The rest you know. Young Gedge pulled on Ginger and shot his own father. Let's hope Keno will get well, for if he doesn't it will lie heavy on his son. Although the whole affair has not eventuated in the way I reckoned, I don't blame myself. The reesponsibility lies on young Gedge and Ginger. I think I was tellin' you a day or two back how Ginger came here, and in what dramatic sort he lit among us, like a hawk on a June bug."
"You were," I said. And I went on to say that there were two rocking-chairs vacant on the verandah, and that I trusted he would drink a John Collins with me and go on with the tale there and then.
"Well, I don't mind if I do," said Pillsbury.
He took a drink and resumed the history.
"As I let on, he was fair bust up that first appearance of his, and it took him some time to knit up his arm and get strong again. And all that time he stayed in ole Green's house, and Green loved him, fairly loved him in spite of the glass in him which worked out for weeks afterwards. It appeared, so Green said, that Ginger hed hed severe trouble over a girl in Mizzoura who loved some other chap better. And whether Ginger killed him or not I can't say. Green didn't know, but he opined that the intrusive lover was not calculated to shine as a professional beauty after Ginger had got through with him; and he said Ginger should be a son to him, which was curious, for Green had a son, and by no means was much of a father to him save in the matter of cowhidin' the boy, which led to young Green shiftin' camp and goin' to Arizona. And when Ginger was fit he ran around with old Green and jined in his business, and got very popular by reason of his ways. I reckon he soon got over the melancholy that rose up in him at the thought of the Mizzoura gal; for, as you may hev noticed, a bright red head and a yaller beard inspires great interest in women for some reason deep in nature with which I hev no sympathy, although I'm one of them that admires Gillett. I admire him in spite of his redness, and the women-folk seem to admire him for it, which is redik'lus, but deeply natural as aforesaid. And Green said openly that when he quit this mortal sphere and the Panhandle of Texas, Ginger was the man to be City Marshal. Now the truth is, and I would have stated it to Green himself, that he was not the highest and most shining sort of Marshal himself. He was too easy with everybody, and he loved sleep a whole lot. A City Marshal in Texas should be awake eighteen hours out of twenty-four, and off en twenty-four, takin' what rest he can when peace blooms rarely. But Green liked the blankets, and it took a powerful deputation to get him out of 'em. I went around to his shack one night no later than one o'clock, and interviewed him through the window with regard to two toughs that had come into the town from El Paso, on an occasion when all our best men was away at Sweetwater for a trial that was on there. And Green let on that he reckoned it would do the town good to be shook out of its calm a bit, and that he would attend to the matter in the morning. And next morning he triumphed over my mournful prognostications because the two toughs was dead, havin' come to words as to whether Painted Rock was a poorer town in spirit than some other town they'd been playin' up in, which was very trying to hear, but I was disabled with a stab in my right arm. And they actuly shot each other, and the argument was undecided. But, as I was sayin', Green nominated Ginger as his successor, and there was a party for him, the women bein' keen on him I must say. But his rival, who was named Keeley, had a large followin' like'ise, and if it had come to votes it would have been a narrow squeak as to which came out on top. However, there was no real votin' on it, and it was through me there wasn't. For when poor old Green was done up at San Antone by Ben Thompson, that met his fate in —84 at the hands of King Fisher and M'Coy, me and Ginger pooled our brains, so to speak, and it was me that got him in. You see, Ginger was from Mizzoura, and Keeley was Texas to the finger-tips, and that was agin Ginger. And the women made the men jealous mebbe. Anyhow, as I said to Ginger, it was a matter that shouldn't come to votin'.
"'How'll we avoid it?' asked Ginger.
"'Easy,' said I; for, you see, I knew the town and its nature better than he did. And in the silent hours of the early mornin' I'd evolved a plan to get him in. I wanted him, for Keeley was too much in with the deadly new respectable element that was down on gamblers. The gospel-sharp was for him; and out of four law-sharps, three said Keeley every time.
"And therefore I eelaborated my scheme to Ginger, and he said whatever happened he'd stand by me so long as I played a straight game. He knew me. And I arranged a little private gatherin' of them that favoured Ginger in place of Green, and I put the kyards face up on the table that would win the game. And then we started playin'. Did we run down Keeley? No, not by a Standard Oil tank-full! We went round sayin' that Keeley was a fine man, and a real son o' Texas, and as hard as they were made, and an elegant fit for the post-hole left vacant by the uprootin' of poor ole Green. But we said, likewise, that Ginger, though from Mizzoura, was perhaps a leetle better as a man. I said publicly that I reckoned that if it came to a wrastlin' match between the two that Ginger could down Keeley. 'Not but that Keeley's a stout man,' I said. And Gedge let on that Ginger could shoot quicker and straighter than Keeley, though there was few, if any, in Painted Rock that could ekal him. And the result of this was that the hull town was presently standin' around in groups holdin' animated and fierce discussions as to which was the best man of the two. And the office of City Marshal bein' vacant, and each candidate eager to please, there was little interference with disputes, and the death-rate threatened to jump like that of flies at the first norther. And me and Keeley's prime supporter had words on Main Street, and then I played four aces and the joker, so to speak. Said I, 'My son, I've a hundred dollars in my pocket that's yellin' to be yours if Ginger can't down Keeley in the plaza and take him to the calaboose and lock him up single-handed.'
"'By gosh!' says he, 'I've a hundred shriekin' like the American Eagle in the blue sky o' freedom that Keeley can do that same to Ginger Gillett.'
"'Shake hands on it,' says I. 'It's a bet!'
"And the crowd cheered, and started in bettin' there and then, till about twenty thousand dollars hung in the balance, and the excitement was extreme and wild. And who should come along right then but Ginger and Keeley, who was quite good friends, though nat'rally a little shy of each other just at that time. And the crowd runs to 'em and explains riotously how things was comin' up, and though Ginger was lookin' for something of the kind, Keeley warn't, and showed some surprise at what had transpired in the interim of his takin' two drinks with two admirers.
"'There's millions on you, Keeley,' said the boys that was backin' Keeley; 'we've put our last dollar on you. Can you down Ginger Gillett in the plaza and tote him to the calaboose?'
"'Can I what?' asks Keeley, some confused. And seventeen explained to him at the top o' their voices, and the sport in him woke up, and he let on, modestly enough, that he'd do his best.
"And Ginger let on that he also would do his best. And the town struck work, and the stores shut up, and it was like as if the Fourth of July had been sprung on us in April, and everyone talked, and the bars was full, and the womenfolk came out to see,—Painted Rock buzzed like a hive of bees. I never see the like. But I was busy, for it had to be arranged, and me and his chief supporter did it, and we drew up regulations for the Roman combat in the plaza with a view of obviatin' any difficulty hereafter. And our rules for the circus was roughly these:—
"First. The combat will take place in three days, so as to avoid trainin', seein' that we want the nat'rally best man.
"Second. The trouble will commence in the exact measured middle of the plaza at two p.m., in ordinary clothes.
"Third. The combatants may carry guns, but they must be unloaded and only usable as clubs.
"Fourth. Knives forbidden; biting and gouging likewise, as ladies will be present.
"Fifth. If either fails to lock up the other, points will be allowed and the struggle resumed on the followin' day.
"Sixth. If the fight ends in a draw, the combatants will draw lots and the loser will leave the town for a month.
"Seventh. After winning the winner will pay loser's fare to Fort Worth, and loser will undertake to stay there one month.
"There was other rules which I disremember, and me and Ed Smith (Keeley's chief supporter) and the doctor was made umpires. And I can tell you we had some business to transact. For it soon got put around the country what was going on, and every cowboy within sixty miles came in howling and hot to see the show. The town, bein' excited and generous and sportin', put up barriers at the public expense around the locality in the plaza where the fight was to be, for we reckoned it was goin' to advertise Painted Rock some and no mistake. And then the day came, and Ginger and Keeley and me and Ed Smith and the doctor (his name was Whalley, and he died of drink later) stepped out into the plaza, like as if we was toreadors in a bull-ring, and the crowd shouted something prodigious, and swayed till the barriers cracked. And the windows was full, and so was the roofs, and the roof of the gaol was packed likewise. And I said, 'Gentlemen, Mr. Keeley and Mr. Gillett, shake hands.' And they shook hands, and made a fine sight, two real good men with their eyes like coals and all ready. And Ed Smith, who warn't goin' to allow me to do all the oratin', said, 'Now, gentlemen, at the word "Go" you will endeavour to arrest each other for the sake of law and order.' And then the doctor he chipped in and said, 'Go!' And the trouble began at two sharp, and it began perfectly curious. For Ginger smiled, and he said, 'Mr. Keeley, I'll trouble you to come along with me this fifty yards to the calaboose!' And Keeley replied, 'I was just goin' to ask you the same. How surprisin'.' And they circled about each other like dogs, and us umpires retired a few paces and stood. And all of a sudden they grabbed each other, and the dust flew violent. You may hev noticed that the dust in the plaza is mighty thick and red and light. For a whole minute we could hardly see these two gladiators circusing round like a teetotum; and then there was a bigger cloud and a thud, and when the dust laid a bit the two was on the ground with Keeley on top. And the Gingerites groaned, and the Keeleyites yelled, and I felt some sick myself. But of course this was no more than the openin' of the drayma; and how was Keeley to take Ginger unless he could get up? That's what I said to Smith when he let on that my hundred dollars was as good as in his pocket. I said 'As good as in hell.' And then the dust flew again, and when it settled Ginger was on top, and the crowd yelled again. And now I could see that all Ginger wanted was to get up while Keeley was down. But Keeley was a tolerable hold-fast, and it took Ginger half an hour by the clock to work free, and when he did he was mighty dishevelled, with scarce a button to him. But at last he scratched himself around till he was nigh free, and then those that was for him yelled, 'Give him the butt of your gun, Ginger, and stiffen him!' and I'm not sayin' they weren't right. But just as he got his gun out Keeley made a mighty twist and got hold of it, and chucked it a good ten yards away. And then Ginger spoke. He said, 'All right, my son, I can do without it.' He rose up on his knees, and the next moment he flew over Keeley and Keeley was on top, and then Keeley's friends yelled for him to give Ginger the butt of his gun. And the next news that emerged from the sand-storm was Keeley's gun, and it hit Ed Smith on the shin so's he howled. And now they was without weepons, havin' only their hands, and the bettin' on the Texan was risin', for it seemed hard for them to believe a man from Mizzoura could handle a Texan in his native dust if they did weigh about equal. Nevertheless I took all Smith's bets, for I had faith in Ginger. I didn't believe he could be tired; and now it was three o'clock, and the dust stuck to 'em, and they was as red as paint and as an Indian, most horrible to see. They lay mighty quiet, embracin' each other for nigh ten minutes; and then Ginger began movin', and I caught his eye, very hopeful too. And I could see he was goin' for some curious kind of a holt, quite beyond me. But once agin he got on his knees, and then down he went with his arm across Keeley's bull-neck, and he choked him till he was somewhat in want of breath; and then he got his arm right into the back of his coat, and down till he grabbed the waist-band of his pants, so that Keeley's head was under his arm. Then he took a kind of cross in-and-out hold of his legs, and he rose up with Keeley and waddled twenty yards towards the calaboose wdth a wild hurricane of yells goin' on. Then Keeley's coat split right down, and Ginger lost his holt and Keeley fell on his knees. Then for the first time Ginger played cunning. You see, the great scheme was to get the other man to the calaboose, and it stands to reason that the easiest way to get any man to do what you want is for him to want it. So Ginger gasped a bit, and fell back towards the calaboose, and Keeley rose up and rushed him, and though Ginger hit him he grabbed holt again, and they was within five yards of the open big door. And the crowd broke out of its barriers right then, and there was a rush for us, and we yellin' to keep 'em back. But presently they settled down solid, leavin' nothin' but a straight run-in to the gaol, and in the clear space Ginger and Keeley tryin' to heave each other off their feet. And me bein' next to Ginger, I said, 'It's now or never. Ginger;' and I dessay my words got home to him in the riot, for now he had a good holt, and he threw Keeley and fell on him kerflummix and knocked the wind plumb out of him, till the under dog was like a squashed peanut. And Ginger grabbed him quick by both wrists with him on his back, and he dragged him right inside the calaboose yard before Keeley knew what had happened. I tell you the boys yelled till I thought the roof would fly off, for the excitement was tremenjus, and the money at stake highly considerable for so small a community. And now Keeley suddenly began to take more interest in the matter in hand, for he grabbed Ginger by the ankle, and Ginger went down like a pithed steer and shook himself up pretty considerable. But there's no give in to Ginger, and the rollin' circus recommenced in the yard, each man bein' determined to thump the other one's cabeza on the pavement in order to introduce more simplicity into the tangled proceedings of the court. And I dessay, though you are a tender-foot here, as I understand you've travelled some, you may hev noticed that there must be an end to any game, and that in a fight to a finish it's likely to come sudden just about the time that them without real experience is lookin' for a draw. Now the cowboys—as is mostly young fools fitted with mesquite leggin's, a gun they can't use, and conceit that nobody else can—was yellin', 'A draw, a draw!' But I knew better, for I saw Ginger's eye still like a burnin' match in a dark night, and Keeley's prophetic of sad failure, like a man with one blown-out match and a seegar unlighted on the prairie and far from home, and I knew Ginger was goin' to be City Marshal just as sure as I know four aces and the joker from a bobtail flush. And the scheme bein' to knock a hard skull on a harder rock, I foresaw that the collidin' cabeza was goin' to be Keeley's, and all I begged of Ginger in my mind was jedgment not to fracture it. And I must say he jedged it to a nicety. I heard the crack, and I heard Keeley sigh, and then he lay there like a very peaceful citizen who has been drinkin' more than he can carry. And Ginger rose up and took him in his arms as if he was a little child, and carried him into his cell and laid him down like as if he was Keeley's mother. He came out and locked the cell as a matter of form, and the rule we made, and then unlocked it and said, 'Doctor, would you be so good as to investigate the damage done, which I much lament though unavoidable?' And with that he took a seat on a bench, and the doctor presently reported that Keeley would have no more than a headache. And the boys cheered Ginger for Marshal, and Ginger clinched the popularity he had justly earned in a community of thorough sports by borrowin' the hundred dollars I took out of Ed Smith's sack, and puttin' it in as his contribution to a collection for the loser to spend in his trip to Fort Worth. And there is no doubt that Keeley enjoyed that trip, if what the boys from Fort Worth say is true, as I believe. But the next day Ginger was made Marshal, and he's a good one, as you know yourself from what you saw of him just now in that little difficulty with young Gedge."
"Did he pay back that hundred dollars, Mr. Pillsbury?" I asked incautiously.
Pillsbury looked at me.
"He'll pay it back when I ask for it," said the gambler. He added, with apparent inconsequence—
"The City Marshal in a city like Painted Rock is the man that keeps the balance between them as holds to the past and them as considers trade is everything. With them I do not agree."