Chapter 22: Showdown

A few nights after the set to with Herm Larkin I heard a loud hammering on the back door. I hurried to see who it was, Pa right behind me. The first thing I saw when I opened the back door was a glow in the southern sky. Next my eyes focused on our neighbor, Jake Emerson. He exclaimed, "It's the place your Pa bought you for a marriage present. Y'all's house an' th' barn an' all th' out buildings is ablaze."

The first words out of Pa's mouth were, "Anybody hurt?"

"Naw, my old lady says she heard a car go drivin' by fast just afore she saw th' blaze. It appears someone set it all afire on purpose."

I looked at Pa and saw he was right back at me. "You think that Herm Larkin did it, Pa?"

"That's exactly what I'm thinkin', son,"" he answered, a grim look on his face.

"You all got Herm Larkin mad at you? Why did you do such a thing?" Jake looked from one to the other of us. When he asked that, I knew he hadn't heard about what happened in town

"He doesn't want me to run for sheriff." Pa sounded as calm as could be.

"Well, if he don't want y'alls runnin' for sheriff, you better not run. The man is mean; he is real mean I hear. People get hurt runnin' afoul of him."

I laughed and told him, "Pa and I kind of whupped up a storm on him and his two bodyguards."

The first I knew Ma had joined us was when I heard, "Don't say 'whupped, ' David."

Pa laughed and said, "Martha helped some. She knocked that Herm out cold with her purse." He didn't try to keep the pride out of his voice.

"Y'alls jokin' ain't you?" Jake's eyes were round with amazement. He just couldn't believe anyone would be brave enough or foolhardy enough to go up against Herm Larkin and his crew of toughs.

"Well, Walt, you're livin' real dangerous, y'all know it for sure."

"Thanks for waking us up. We had better head over there and take a look at things. If it was Larkin who set the fire, he did us a favor, right, Davy?" Pa was all but laughing out loud.

"Yes sir, he truly did," I agreed and explained to the mystified Jake, "I was going to burn the whole place down to the ground anyway." There was so much termite infestation none of the wood was worth saving, even for firewood."

"Thanks again, Jake. Davy and me will head over there right now." He kissed Ma and we hurried out to the old Ford truck. I cranked while Pa slid in and set the spark and throttle. Like Old Faithful, it started right up. We could have taken the sedan, but there were tools on the back of the truck.

We were at my place in minutes. The flames had begun to die down. I felt anger and some sadness at the same time. We were going to do this anyway, burn it all down, but to have someone do it in such a way was an expression of contempt my heart did not want to leave unanswered.

We got out and looked around. "Whoever set this fire was thorough," Pa said. "I can't figure out why anyone would set this on fire except for a diversion." His eyes widened, he slapped his forehead and he yelled, "Quick! Back in the truck! Your mother!"

I grabbed the crank and gave it a hard twist and jumped in the truck. Pa had it moving before I slammed the door shut. He opened the throttle up all the way and intently steered toward home. It seemed to take forever. Just as we pulled up into the yard we heard a shot and a yelp, followed by a scream.

Pa killed the engine and jumped out. On the back porch a man's crumpled body sprawled, lying unmoving. Dog was growling and barking and frenziedly throwing himself at the back door, attacking it as if he had gone crazy.

"Dog!" I yelled, "Back off." He stopped and looked at me. Then turned back toward the door and began growling. Pa shoved the door open and heard Ma yell, "Stay out, he has a gun!" There was the sound of a slap and a muffled cry from Ma.

An enraged Dog blazed through the door past Pa and roared his attack. We heard another gunshot. Pa ran into the kitchen in time to see Dog clamp down hard on a stranger's gun hand. He nearly bit all the way through the wrist. The next scream was his.

The man released Ma and grabbed the injured wrist with his good hand. The hurt hand hung loose. Dog had crushed the wrist bones with those powerful jaws of his. Pa reached the intruder and struck him once in the face. Nothing more was needed. Dog started to growl again. The growl turned to a whine and he fell over on his side.

"Dog!" I cried and knelt down beside him. Blood oozed from his side. He had another wound on his flank. I looked up at Pa and said, "We need to get him to a vet."

"You go, Davy, I'll stay here with your Ma and these two. If either of them come to they are going to answer some questions. Take the new truck. You can lay your dog out in the back.

"Wait," Ma said, "Let me bandage those two wounds. It might keep him from bleeding to death. "Ma rubbed salve on the two wounds and ripped up a pillow case and used it to bind Dog's wounds. Dog moaned as she touched his injuries, He licked her hand once and lay back down on his side.

I hurried to get our newest stake side truck. I threw gunny sacks on the bed of the truck for a pallet and carried dog out and placed him on them. I drove straight to the veterinarian's clinic. He lived in the rear.

He came to the door and directed me to take Dog directly to his operating room. By the time I carried Dog to the clinic door it was already open. I tried to be gentle as I carried Dog from the truck and laid him down on the operating table and stood back. He moaned and looked up at me. I patted his head and reassured him everything would be okay.

Doc Connors looked Dog over and told me, "Your pet is mighty lucky. The wound on his haunch is only a scratch, messy but not too severe. The same for the wound in his side The bullet struck a rib and cracked it. With a good, tight bandage he'll be like new in no time The other wound is a graze and should heal inside a couple of weeks. What happened?"

"That low down Herm Larkin's men set fire to the house and barn at my new farm Pa bought me to lure us away. They tried to kidnap my ma and failed. Dog here may have killed the first one and he almost chewed the wrist through on the other. His hand was just hanging on by a thread."

"Well, your father has my vote and everybody else I can influence. He's just the man to be sheriff. Why does he want to be sheriff, anyway?"

"He doesn't," I answered and paid him. I left a very puzzled vet behind as I loaded Dog back into the truck.

I drove slow and careful so as not to bump Dog around any more than I absolutely had to. It was almost daybreak when I drove into the yard. There were two strange sedans in the yard. I parked by the back door and unloaded Dog onto the back porch. When I entered the kitchen I saw Pa in handcuffs and four policemen from Woodman standing there. Ma was sitting at the table looking wary.

"What's going on here?" I demanded.

"You're under arrest," one officer said as he reached for me.

Instead of arguing or submitting I grabbed him and pushed him into two of the others. Pa swung his big right foot and kicked the fourth one in the crotch. As the man fell, Pa kicked him in the head. I did a body slam on the three in a heap of arms and legs.

As I jumped back to my feet I drop kicked the one starting to get up in the face. The other of the two remaining pulled a gun and I stopped dead still. He leveled the gun, aiming at my face when Ma struck his wrist with a stove poker. He grunted and dropped the revolver. Pa made fast work of the last one by kicking him in the head.

"Davy, get these things off of me and let's pay finished to this whole mess." Pa's face was white with two red splotches on his cheeks. The veins were standing out on his temples and there was nothing but pure black rage in his voice.

I fished through one man's pockets and came up with his key. As soon as I unlocked the handcuffs, Pa cuffed two of the downed policemen together. He hogtied the other two separately with binding twine from the small roll on the back porch.

"Let's throw them in the back of the new truck," he ordered and grabbed the handcuffed two, dragged them out of the house and loaded them non-too gentle. We returned to the house and got the other two. I threw my burden up into the truck bed and stepped back. Pa heaved hard and when he stepped aside I put the end gate back in place and latched it tight.

"

Where are the other two?" I asked.

"The chief of police was out here. He carted the first two back to town. He's part and parcel of this whole mess. We are going to call on him and get this finished off right and proper.".

"Wait while I get my purse," Ma called from the back door.

"Hon, you ought to wait here until this is all over. It's safer," Pa tried to ague with her.

"Walter Hansen, those people accosted us in town and again they broke in here at my own home and assaulted me. That monster dog of Davy's saved me. In fact he saved all of us. I am not going to stay home like some weak ninny."

"Okay, Hon, go get your purse. I guess you will be safer with us." He climbed into the truck on the driver's side and Ma came hurrying out, carrying her lethal purse. I handed her in and got in on the outside. Pa drove us into town at his usual speed. We headed straight to the police station.

As soon as we pulled up in front of the police station Pa headed inside. Ma followed him and I unlatched the tail gate and lifted it down. I grabbed the one Pa had thrown in last and lugged him inside in time to hear the chief of police say, "Now I mean it, you are under arrest."

I walked up behind him and relieved him of the gun in his belt holster. "No we're not, you are." I hit him alongside the head with his own gun. I must have swung harder than I thought because he dropped like he had been pole axed. I stuck his gun in my hip pocket.

Pa grabbed a big ring with four heavy keys on it. He motioned to me to drag the chief back into the holding cells. There were three cells in the back of the police station. Pa opened the first one and I dragged the fat carcass in. I was breathing hard from the exertion. Pa dragged the one I had lugged in from the truck back toward the open cell door. I hurried out for the other one who was hogtied. Ma stood by and watched.

I cut him loose and told him, "You make one false move and I'll break both your legs and leave you on the sidewalk, understand? He nodded. "Go into the station and get in the open cell."

Pa dragged the two who were handcuffed together off the truck and let them fall to the pavement. "You two follow your friend. One false move and you're dead. This is all going to end right now, today."

A moment later Pa came out of the police station. His angry grin held no humor. "Since we don't know how many spare keys there are out, your Ma decided to make things difficult. She poured some rubber cement they had in the chief's desk into the keyholes. My wife is an amazing lady."

Ma looked self-satisfied as she got into the truck. She told us. "A nasty boy daubed rubber glue in the principal's office door when I was a young girl. It ruined the lock." I laughed and pa shook his head in admiration. Then I re-latched the end gate and we headed for the Bid A Wee Cafe for some breakfast.