The Coolidge examiner., 1931-08-14
CHAPTER III

CHAPTER III
| ONG before the end of that
l. first nightmarish day in Usage,
Sabra had confronted her husband
with blazing eyes. Il won't bring
up my boy in a town like this!'
1t had been a night and a day
fantastic with untOward happen
lngs. Their wagons had rumbled
wearily down the broad main street
of the settlement raw cash in
the prairie All about. on either
side. were wooden shacks, and In
dians and dried mud and hitching
posts and dogs and crude wagons
like their own. 1t looked like pic
lures Sabra had seen of California
in 40. They had spent that first
night in a rooming house above one
of the score of saloons that eniv-
ened the main street-PawhuSka
avenue. it was called. The street
stopped abruptly at either end and
became suddenly prairie.
The greasy food set before them
In the eating house sickened Sabra.
She Shrank from the Slatternly
bOld-faced girl who slammed the
dishes down in front of them on
the oilclOth-cOvered table. At this
same table with them-there was
only one, long board accommO-
dating perhaps twenty-sat red.
faced men talking in great rough
hn nj ianl
and absent-minded thOroughness,
shOveling potatoes. canned vegeta-
bles. pie into their mouths with
knives. Gin was terribly wide
awake and noisily unruly, excited
by the sounds and strangeness
about him.
Sabra had taken him up to the
bare and clean enough little room
which was 10 be their shelter for
the night From wide-eyed wake
fulness Cim had become suddenly
limp with sleep. Yancey had gone
out to see TO the horses. TO get
what information be could about
renting a house. and a shack for
the newspaper. A score of plans
were teeming in his mind.
You'll be all right" he had
said. "A good nights sleep and
everything'u look rosy in the morn
ing. Don't look so down In the
mouth, honey. You're going to
like it."
ITS horrible! It's-and those
men! Those dreadful men"
For my part. | had rather be
the first man among these fellows
than the second man in Rome"
He kissed her; was gone with
great fiirt of his coat tails. She
heard his light step Gathering down
the flimsy wooden stairs She could
distinguish his beautiful vibrant
voice among the raucous speech of
the other men below.
The boy was asleep in a rude box
bed drawn up beside theirs. Black
Isaiah was bedded down some
where in a little kennel outside.
Sabra sank suspiciously down on
the doubtful mattress. The walls
of the room were wafer thin
mere pine Stats with cracks be-
tween. From the street below
came women's shrill laughter. the
sound of a piano hammered hOrri-
bly,. Horses clattered by. Voices
came up in iocose greeting; there
were conversations and arguments
eXcrdciatingly prolonged beneath
her window. Yet somehow she
had fallen asleep in utter eXhaus-
ton. only to be awakened by piS
tol shots, a series of blOod-curdling
yells. the crash and tinkle of bro
ken glass. Then came screams of
women. the sound of horses galIOp-
ing. She lay there, covering. Gin
stirred in his bed, sighed deeply.
slept again. She was too terrified
to go to the window. Her shiver-
ing seemed to shake the bed. She
wanted to waken the child for COM
fort. for company. She summoned
courage to go to the window
peered fearfully out into the dim
street below. Nothing, No one in
the street. Yancey's bleeding body
was not lying in the road; no
masked men. Nothing again but
the clink of glasses and plates; the
tinny piano. the slap of cards.
She longed with unutterable
longing, not for the sweet security
of her bed back in Wichita-that
seemed unreal nOw-but for those
nights in the wagon on the prairie
with no sound but the rustic of the
scrub oaks. the occasional stamp
or horses hoOfs on dry clay, the
ripping Of a nearby stream.
1t was midnight when Yancey
came in. She sat up in bed in her
high-necked, lOng-sleeved night
gown. Her eyes, in her white face,
were two black holes burned in a
piece of paper.
"What was it? What was it?'
What was what? Why aren't
you asleep, sugar."
Those shots And the scream
ing. And the men hOllerfng."
tTn Re CoNTINUEDl