The Jeweled Spur (27 page)

Novak looked up quickly, his mouth tightening. “You know as well as I do that Leona’s not lookin’ for the future. She’s one of these that lives for right now.”

Cody flushed, for he had thought the same thing. He had a great affection for his friend, but somehow the words had gotten on his nerves. “Why don’t you talk to her? If you think she needs religion, just go tell her.”

Suddenly Sam smiled. “Why, I’ve already done that.”

Cody stared at him and asked quickly, “What did she say?”

“Told me to mind my own business.” Sam grinned widely and said, “I get that answer a lot, though. Sorry, Cody. I didn’t mean to butt in, but—well, I think a lot of you. Wouldn’t want to see you get shipwrecked.” He turned abruptly and walked away. Later that day, Sam spoke with Laurie and told her of his conversation with Cody.

She shook her head, her eyes bright with anger. “He can’t see what she is. He’s so blind that he doesn’t realize that she’s like a black widow spider that eats her mates. She’s a man-killer, Sam, if I’ve ever seen one!”

“Well, I’ve never seen too many of that breed, but in that I guess you’d be right,” Novak said. He would have said more, but at that moment McGonigal came ambling up and said, “Laurie, you got a minute?”

Sam nodded, left, and Laurie said abruptly, “What do you think of Leona Aimes, Mac?”

If the question was a surprise to McGonigal, he did not show it. Something flickered in his eyes, but he merely came over and sat down across from Laurie. “I don’t think there’s much mystery to the woman,” he said. He was usually rowdy, but noticing Laurie’s mood, he held back his thoughts of Leona. Instead, he looked at her quietly, collecting his thoughts, and said, “You’re fond of the boy, aren’t you, Laurie?”

“Why—!” Laurie put her hand on her cheek, feeling it burn, and could not read his eyes. “He has problems, Mac. I don’t think he needs to compound them by getting mixed up with a woman like that.”

“Most men go around looking for a woman like that, at least before they’re married,” Mac observed. “She’s the kind that men want for a fling—but not for a wife. You’re not thinking the two are serious?”

“Oh, I don’t know.” Laurie bit her lower lip, a sign that
Mac had learned to recognize long before. “It’s none of my business anyway,” she snapped.

“You can fool other people, Laurie. You can fool me and you can fool your parents, but don’t ever try to fool yourself.”

Laurie glanced up at him, startled, and shook her head with a brief smile. “I could never fool you, Mac. You know me too well!”

McGonigal sat there admiring the young woman as always, not only for her clean, good looks, but for her sharp mind and bright spirit. She was a woman of purity, which he also admired, and he longed to say a word that would encourage her. Finally, he sighed, “Well, you and me, Laurie, we’ll get God’s ear—and we’ll talk Him into fixing that young man!”

Laurie stared at him. “Why, you can’t talk God into doing something!”

“Who told you that?” McGonigal demanded. Leaning back in his chair he shook his head at her regretfully. “You’ve been neglecting your Bible, girl! Don’t you remember that God told Moses He was going to destroy the Israelites after they made them golden calves? Do you remember that?”

“Why, yes. Of course.” When Mac got that look on his face, Laurie knew it was better to listen than argue.

“Now then, do you remember, darlin’, what Moses did? Why, he argued with God! All you have to do is read it. Even told God to kill him instead of the others.” A fine humor showed on the face of the small Irishman. “And he wasn’t the only one. Do you recollect when God told Abraham that he was going to destroy Sodom, and Abraham began to argue? You know, he said, ‘Suppose there’s a whole bunch of righteous folks in Sodom, would you destroy it?’ ”

Laurie leaned forward, placing her chin in her palm, listening. “And he kept arguing God down, didn’t he?” said Mac. “Until finally he got to if there were ten righteous men?

“You know, Laurie,” McGonigal said quietly, “I think Abraham could have saved the whole city if he had just gone a little further. Why, God would have saved that city for one
man if Abraham had just had enough gumption to keep on arguing!”

Laurie looked at him, her eyes serious. Her lips were firm as she thought about what he’d said, and she ran her hand across her dark hair. “Maybe there’s something to that, Mac. I remember the woman who had a daughter who was sick. You remember, she came to Jesus and asked Him to heal her, and you’re right, when He said no, she just asked again. Three times, wasn’t it?”

“That’s right, darlin’, and that just proves to me that God
wants
to be argued with. Why, He’s got stones if He wants to throw things, He’s got fish if He wants to count up in the billions, but who does He have to
talk
to? Angels and men! I guess He’s caught up on His talk with angels—but I noticed He likes mighty well to talk to men. And what a shame it is, we’re not quite so anxious to talk to Him!”

Laurie bit her lip, then shook her head doubtfully. “Mac, do you remember when Cody first came here? He was in trouble, but I lied to that detective—and so did you and Sam. That wasn’t right, was it?”

Mac shook his head, regret in his eyes. “No, it wasn’t. I think all three of us were taken off guard.”

“Do you think God has forgiven us all?”

“Did you ask Him to?”

“Yes!”

“Then that settles it,” Mac said firmly. “First John says if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. Don’t let the devil weigh you down with guilt, Laurie. It was wrong, but God always stands ready to take our sins from us. That’s what the cross is all about—not just sins in the past—but all our sins.”

Laurie rose and smiled ruefully down at the small figure, then put her hand over on his shoulder. “Do you think you’ll ever get me raised, Mac?” she asked.

He covered her hand with his own, saying, “You and me, we’ll back God into a corner, and He’ll have to do something
about that young man! We just won’t give Him any rest till He does, all right?”

“All right, Mac,” agreed Laurie.

****

Later that same afternoon Buffalo Bill and Nate Salsbury were walking through the arena. They had been talking about some dates that they had to meet down the road, when all of a sudden Colonel Cody stopped and said, “Look at that, will you, Nate?”

Salsbury looked over and watched. Standing over to one side of the arena was a young man spinning a rope. At first, he just made a simple loop that circled again and again, and then suddenly it began to rise up and down and around. Neither the colonel nor Salsbury had ever seen a rope obey the will of a roper as that one did. It seemed almost an extension of the man’s body. With a mere flick of the wrist, Jim Logan was able to turn the rope in any direction. “He’s not bad, is he, Nate?” whispered Colonel Cody.

“Not bad? With a little polish, we could use him in the show. Look at that!”

Cody, unaware of the two men, had gone to a platform that was used sometimes for some of the riding tricks. Clambering up on it, he began to make a circle with his loop, and as the two men watched, the loop got bigger and bigger. Finally, when it was spun out to its full length, Cody stood there with a forty-foot circle spinning around. Then slowly it began to grow smaller until it circled tightly around his body, and with a flourish, he gave it a twist as it rose in the air, then came to rest by his side.

“Logan—!” yelled the colonel.

Cody turned quickly and saw the two men approaching him. Both were smiling, and Buffalo Bill said, “I reckon you’re about ready to do an act, aren’t you? You got any more tricks like that?”

“I can do a few,” admitted Cody.

“All right,” Salsbury said with enthusiasm. “Here’s what we’ll do. We’ll introduce you as the lassoing sheriff.” His eyes gleamed as he began to spin castles in the air. “You were a sheriff in one of the toughest towns in the West, and you never even carried a gun.”

“What did I carry?” Cody asked curiously.

“Why, you carried a rope, and every time anybody gave you any problems, you dropped a loop on ’em and hauled ’em off to jail.” Salsbury grinned broadly, and Buffalo Bill was doing the same. Nate elaborated on the scheme. “You’re so fast with that rope that you cleaned up Tombstone. Every time a man drew on you, that rope was there to snatch it out of his hand or to rope his arms to his side. You’ll be the Roping Sheriff, Jim Logan.”

Suddenly, Cody had a picture of himself before thousands of people, but then blinked as he realized the possible danger that could bring. “I—I don’t think I could do anything like that, Mr. Cody.”

“Of course you can, my boy!” The flamboyant showman waved him off, saying, “Show us what you’ve got, and we’ll put you in the ring. Maybe even tonight.”

Cody tried to talk his way out of it, but the two men would not listen. Reluctantly, he showed them all his tricks, and within a few minutes they had worked out a brief routine. Convinced that they had another good act to add to the show, they slapped Logan on the back and walked out of the arena.

Later, he mentioned it to Sam, who said, “I think that’s great!”

“But somebody may recognize me, Sam!”

Sam burst out with a guffaw. “Recognize you? You’ll have on a fancy outfit, your hat’ll be pulled down over your eyes, and they’ll be a hundred feet away, most of them. How are they gonna recognize you?” He continued to talk, and finally Cody was convinced that it might work.

All afternoon he was nervous, but that night most of the other members of the show were caught off guard, because
neither Salsbury nor Colonel Cody had mentioned the new act to anyone. But when Colonel Buffalo Bill Cody announced, “And now, the Roping Sheriff of Tombstone, Jim Logan,” Cody swallowed hard, rode out into the lights, and for eight minutes, went through his routine. It included roping a gun out of the hand of one of the cowboys, roping four horsemen simultaneously as they rode in a circle, and the finale came when they turned Old Thunder loose, and he roped him by one foreleg, throwing him down again.

When he finished, there was a loud burst of applause, and as he got to the apron of the ring, he saw Colonel Cody. “Well, I don’t think you’re in danger of being replaced. Not by me, anyhow, Colonel Cody.”

“You did fine, my boy, fine! Come on and we’ll talk about your salary as a performer . . .”

****

New Orleans was the closest thing to a cosmopolitan city in the United States, with cultures clashing and melding together at the same time. As Sam, Cody, Leona, and Laurie walked through the French Quarter, Leona glanced avidly at some of the posters advertising the delights to be enjoyed inside the buildings. The streets were narrow, and iron balconies overhung even those narrow streets, almost blotting out the skyline. Finally, Leona said, “Let’s go in this one,” pointing at a particularly lurid poster.

Laurie took one quick look and shook her head. “Not for me,” she said.

Cody answered almost as quickly, “I don’t think so.”

“Are you two afraid of life?” teased Leona.

Cody looked again at the poster, shook his head, and said, “I don’t think that’s life, Leona.”

Leona stared at the pair then glanced at Sam. “What about you?”

Sam scratched his head, then grinned. “Well, I intend to
be a preacher one day, and how will I ever be able to describe one of these places of sin if I ain’t ever seen one?”

Leona was delighted. She laughed and took his arm, saying, “Come on, Sam. I’ll initiate you!”

Cody and Laurie watched them go in, then turned and continued their walk around the French Quarter. Finally, they walked back to the showground and stopped at the door to her tent. “How are things, really, Cody?” she asked quietly.

He looked down at her, the moonlight reflecting in her eyes, accenting the smoothness of her cheeks. “It’s better, Laurie. I feel like a man again.”

She smiled, and there was a gentleness in her that he liked. He admired, above all things, gentleness in women, having seen it in his mother, and having
not
seen it in Susan. As he thought about his courtship of the girl, he recognized that the mistake of his life would have been to marry her. Those thoughts flashed through his mind, but as he looked down, he was aware that Laurie was watching him carefully.

“Were you thinking of the last time I left you at night like this?” He shook his head. “I kissed your hand, remember that? And I felt like a fool—a Frenchman or something worse!”

Laurie looked at him, her voice barely above a whisper. “It was—sweet of you.” She wanted to say more, but somehow she did not know how to frame her thoughts. Perhaps it was because she did not understand the feelings that this young man brought to her. He was a fugitive with no future, everything in his disfavor, and yet to her, there was something about him that was appealing.

There was a quietness in the air, and Cody said with hesitation, “Could I—could I kiss you just on the cheek?”

Laurie took a quick breath and shook her head. “I’m not sure that it would be right, Cody.”

“Well, after all, we’re cousins aren’t we, sort of?”

He looked so boyish that she smiled. There was an innocence about him, despite his past, that she felt certain he would never lose. Some men grew hard and cold, but for
all that had happened to Cody, she sensed the warmth and compassion that lay below the surface of what he allowed the world to see. “I—I guess so.”

Cody put his hands on her arms, leaned forward, and kissed her cheek. He smelled the jasmine scent that she always used, and her skin was smooth beneath his lips. She turned her face toward him suddenly, her lips available, and without thought, he lowered his head and kissed her. He was shocked at the feelings that rushed through him, and he drew back quickly. “I—I guess being cousins isn’t enough,” he said. “I’m sorry, I won’t do that again, Laurie. Good-night.”

He turned and walked away, leaving her in the darkness. She stood there confused, pondering the mixed feelings she had about him. Finally, she went inside and went to bed.

Laurie woke up tired the next morning, having had a restless sleep. After breakfast she saw Sam, who came to her and said ruefully, “I’m glad you didn’t go to that show with Leona and me last night! I’m tellin’ you, I blushed like a girl!” He smoothed his dark hair and looked down at the ground thinking hard. Finally he looked up and said soberly, “I only stayed for about five minutes—and then I got up and left. It was—well, it was
impure,
I guess you’d say. Even for that few minutes I saw things that I can’t get out of my head. Went to bed and when I tried to sleep, they kept coming to me—clear as when I saw them with my eyes!”