Slocum 421 by Jake Logan Read Free Book Online Page B

horse,” he said to her as they marched him down the boardwalk, he guessed to house him in the fort jail. The deputies looked around a lot, making sure no one was going to break him loose. The marshal led their horses, and he too craned his neck around a lot.
    They put him in a cell and acted relieved when he was uncuffed and they were outside the cell door locked by the guard. He asked the jailer if he could have some food, because he had not eaten any since the night before. The man acted stoic and said he would see. That meant nothing,
    Nothing came either. Stowe showed up with two good trade blankets, and they searched the blankets and him too before letting him in see Slocum. With an armed guard watching them, they let Stowe talk to Slocum from outside the cell.
    â€œThanks. This place is not overheated.” Slocum used one of the blankets to get under for a coat.
    â€œNo problem. I figured it was cold in here. Your damn bond is set at twenty thousand dollars. What in hell did you do?”
    â€œThat congressman’s boy shot a man named Trent in front of the Oxbow that first night I got back to town. I shot him before he shot me—self-defense. The stuff about me helping that Washington business is bullshit. That’s that colonel who thinks he will rebel against the U.S. government up at Fort Supply.”
    â€œA good lawyer is coming from Wichita. He will be here in three or four more days. Thanks for those Spanish coins Murty gave me. I’d never seen one of them before in my life. You and Freckles had some luck, huh?”
    â€œWe might have found it all.”
    â€œI’d heard about that deal for twenty years. I doubted it was even out there.”
    â€œIt was there but not in one place. They didn’t aim for you to find it easy, and I still don’t understand their plan to hide it.”
    â€œHow much did you have to dig up?”
    â€œOh, fifty acres.” Slocum shook his head and smiled. “No, not true—we got lucky is all.”
    â€œWell, we’ll work to get this sorted out. Freckles is handling the count tomorrow at the yard. She’s real businesslike. And she knows what is going on—she’s is damn upset they arrested you.”
    â€œTell Murty not to worry.”
    â€œI will. Sorry—I tried to bail you out, but that twenty thousand is just too steep. We will get it straightened out somehow.”
    â€œThanks, Stowe. Look out for her for me.”
    â€œI can do that.”
    Stowe left him. They brought his food at last: stale bread, some watery cold soup with a few chopped potatoes in it, and something they called coffee. He figured the fare would get no better. Being sent to a military prison meant either that they wanted to impress upon you the importance of not getting thrown back in or that they had no use for you because of the crime you had committed.
    He slept most of the night thanks to Stowe’s blankets. Lots of moaning and screaming went on—they kept the soldiers that went nuts in there too.
    The next day, they emptied his slop bucket and took him in irons before a federal magistrate. Some clerk read the charges against him and they swore him in.
    â€œHow do you plead?”
    â€œNot guilty on both counts. I have a lawyer coming, Your Honor.”
    â€œHe may come here too late. You are to be transferred to the federal court at Leavenworth, Kansas, for your trial shortly.”
    â€œYour Honor. There are several witnesses to this man’s death that are here locally who will make true statements about my shooting Miles Hampton in self-defense. How will I prove that over there?”
    â€œI can have a clerk take their testimony. However, at present you have no legal representative here.”
    â€œCan you hear them, sir?”
    â€œI will consider your request.”
    â€œThat lawyer is coming as quick as possible.”
    â€œThe federal prosecuting attorney had requested your immediate