I stayed near waiting for the Judge to be finished with Deputy Case. I wasn’t too worried that the Judge wouldn’t be able to take care of himself, if Case decided to try and do something to the Judge. I watched as the men came to clear the body of the dead man off the floor. No one seemed to know his name.
“What is wrong, Senor?” asked Elfego. “You are scowling.”
Turning my head to look at him, I gave a small smile. “I just sent a man to his Maker and I don’t even know his name. That don’t seem right, but what was causin’ the smile was the fact that Knaught knows his name.”
Elfego got the same grim look on his face. The few people left in the church quieted down. I knew they were hoping to soon get this over with and back to their place of business. It seemed that Case had been with the Judge for quite a spell when the door opened and he walked out followed by the Judge who stood at the entry to the little office. He pointed toward a man and motioned him forward.
I looked at Elfego who said quietly, “I do not know his name, but he is a butcher. His meat market is next to the grocery.”
Case stopped in front of me as he was exiting the room. “Can I have my gun back?”
His pistol was stuck in my waistband. I pulled it out emptying the cartridges and gave it to him. He didn’t say anything more, just placed the gun in his holster and with somberness walked on out. Elfego followed him.
It seemed that the preacher had finished with Mr. Farnsworth so I walked over to talk with him. “Sorry about the blood on the floor, Preacher.”
“Most of it will scrub out, but it’ll give me a good sermon illustration. Something along the lines that when you accept the blood-washing of the Lord Jesus it can never be scrubbed away,” he said, then smiled. “It may be morbid, but it’s a shame it didn’t happen at the altar. A blood-stained altar might get the attention of some of these lukewarm parishioners.”
He left me to go speak with the few that were left sitting on the pews. He patted a couple of the men on the shoulder, another laughed at something he said. This seemed to be a good man. An hour later the last man was interviewed by the Judge and signed his deposition. The Judge motioned for me to come to the preacher’s office.
Holding a stack of papers, he waved them at me. “Go arrest Anton Knaught!”
It was then that I saw a badge lying on the desk. “Mr. Case resigned as deputy,” came the words of the Judge. “He turned state’s evidence and gave me his badge.”
We both heard someone approach and saw Elfego leaning against the side of the door. He was courteous enough not to enter unless invited and didn’t want to interrupt our conversation.
We looked at him. “Senior Judge, Senor Marshal, the Deputy, he leave town. I have no horse to follow.”
“That’s all right, son. Thank you for taking the initiative to follow him,” remarked the Judge.
Elfego looked up at me, a puzzled look on his face. “This inichitive, what does it mean?”
I clasped my hand on his shoulder. “It means you’ve done a good job.” I turned to the Judge. “This is quite a young man.”
“Go arrest Knaught. I’d like to have the trial in two days,” reported the Judge.
“Knaught left, remember?” Elfego reminded me.
“If he’s not in his office we’ll wait for him there,” I replied. “You ready?”
“Si,” then he hesitated. “What about Marshal Udall?”
The Judge and I glanced at each other. “The Marshal will be taken care of in due time.”
Elfego seemed all right with that, he turned toward the doorway. “Let’s go, Senor Marshal…”