“Ain’t none of it like that.”

“Oh, no one in town really thinks it’s like that,” he said. “Not really. They like to put the justify on it. They all know that old slattern of a wife wasn’t attacked by nobody, and the horse you took come back home. Ain’t no one really thought you killed your pa, though that’s what they’re putting on the wanted poster.”

“Wanted poster?”

“Yeah. They wrote out your general description, making heavy note of them ears, and wrote on it what they say you done. They’re offering one hundred dollars for you.”

“Who’s they?”

“Seems some of the townfolk got together and chipped in for a reward. It don’t say on the poster that half of that goes to the sheriff, but it probably does. That’s solid money, son.”

“I better run then,” I said.

“I wouldn’t do that. Not just yet. They wouldn’t expect to find you at my place. If we play our cards right, no one will know you’re here. Give it some time, then you can be on your way. Again, you may not be safe here, but you’re safer than being on the road. I don’t get much in the way of visitors too often, as I’m not well liked.”

This confused me. He seemed as affable a man as I ever met. So affable that at first I hadn’t trusted him.

“I got different views on things than they do, and that upsets them enough to think I’m strange, and maybe crazy, and probably dangerous. I am dangerous, you know.”

That last part, about being dangerous, I thought might be his way of joking.

“You think Ruggert will give up looking for me in a piece?” I said. “Actually, it’s me ought to be looking for him after what he done to my pa.”

“I’d get that vengeance out of your head. There might come a time, but this wouldn’t be it. Let me tell you about Sam Ruggert. Told you me and him served together, but I didn’t tell you how it was with the pair of us. He was a fellow that latched onto folks. I don’t mean me. I sensed all the time I knew him that he had an outlook that could be discomforting, so I kept my distance. Thing is, Sam don’t like to hear no.”

“Who does?” I said.

“He don’t like it a lot. He’s one of them that if he wants something, like a woman, and she don’t want him, he takes it in his head that they got them a connection anyway, even if one never existed. He takes to following her around. When she puts him off, that just makes it stronger for him. Before the war there was a very nice woman that lived in town, and Sam took to her. She didn’t to him. He wouldn’t leave her alone, and things got pretty bad. One day he came to her house and broke in. Turned out, though, there was three men walking in the street in front of the house, and they seen him run in. They dragged him out and whipped his ass. It took all three. Sam is rough as a cob.

“The woman was foolish-kind, though, said it was all a misunderstanding, and it was written off, as lots of his acts were written off in these parts. It was determined to just be his way, so to speak. Well, his way was ugly. About a month later that woman disappeared. No one could lay it on Sam, but there were those among us who thought he had done away with her.

“Few years went by, and there was more incidents like that, though maybe not as open. But it got so anyone Sam fixated on ended up dead or missing, and that included wives. No one could nail Sam to the wall on it. It wasn’t just women, though. There was the first owner of the livery where Sam tried to get a job but was turned down. He kept coming back, wouldn’t take no for an answer. That seems like a good work ethic at first, but in time you need to know the difference between if you’re going to get a job or if you aren’t. He didn’t know that difference. Eventually he seemed to take the hint. But near a year later that liveryman was found beaten to death, lying up in a ditch at the back of town. I figured Sam for it, and some others did, too, but nothing could be proved. It’s not like with colored folks, where you don’t have to prove it. With a white fellow you do. You see, he nursed that grudge for a year, and it wasn’t nothing other than that man not having a job for him. By this time Sam had got his growth, and it was a solid growth. He wasn’t one to be contradicted, and people around town grew to fear him.”

“You, too?”

“I’m not always smart enough to be scared when I should. Besides, Sam knew if he bothered me the undertaker would be wiping his ass. What you see sitting before you is a contented farmer with a chicken dinner in his stomach, but what I am is a man not to be trifled with. Follow me?”

“Yes, sir,” I said, though I wasn’t sure I did.

“We went to war later, being from the same part of the country. We ended up together. Not like my boy, who ended up as part of the Virginia bunch of soldiers that got pounded at Gettysburg, which is where his watch got stopped. But me and Sam went together. I was lucky he never fastened himself to me in any way, and he seemed fearful of me. Which was a good way for him to be. During the war, though, he gained him some skills, which was mostly always falling to the back of the line during a big battle or faking a wound or some such. He did get fastened on this one young man, though, and wanted to be friends with him in the worst way. I think it was because that young fellow came from a good family, and Sam imagined himself being elevated to a higher position by association. Least I think that was what was on his mind. That boy may have been young, but he was a wise one. He kept Sam at arm’s length.

“That didn’t set right with Sam. Pretty soon he was following that boy around in camp, hanging with him in battle, even if the boy made it to the front lines, which he always seemed to do. As I was saying, before he got interested in that kid, Sam had nothing to do with the front lines. Yet it wasn’t any good. Sam couldn’t make the connection he wanted, whatever it was, and that boy told him off right in front of a bunch of us. About how he wanted Sam to get off his ass, cause he didn’t need no set of tail feathers or some such. He dressed Sam down mighty strong. That was his undoing.

“One night we camped, and the next morning they found that kid facedown in the latrine we had dug. Back of his head was split wide open, like with a camp ax. No one seen it happen or knew who done it. There was an attempt to investigate, but it was wartime, and we were on the move by midmorning. On we went, and on we fought, then it was the end of the war, and we all went home.

“So Sam, he’s put a brand on you in his mind, same as them others, and my thinking is he won’t let go. He’ll keep on coming or send someone to keep coming after you if he can’t.”

“No one is that loco,” I said.

“He is.”

“Then I ought to go back and kill him. Put an end to it.”

“You haven’t a chance. Ought to stay right here and work for me for room and board. I’ll pick up a thing or two you need when I go to town. I’ll teach you how to take care of yourself. Use a gun. Ride a horse like a real rider. We’ll make it a better horse than the one you rode in on. A better one than the one you was going to steal. Even then you should go on and forget Sam. In these parts even the people that hate him will hate you more because there’s coffee in your color. Here’s another thing, son. You don’t need to go back for him, because he’ll come for you. It might take some time, but he’ll sniff you out eventually. When you least expect him, there he’ll be. But for now, this place is as good a place as any, and you got me for backup. All that said, there’ll come a time when you should move on. Let him look for you then. You got to lead a man like that out into deep water and drown him.”

“I had a chance to actually do just that, and I didn’t,” I said.

He nodded, remembering my story.

“Well, son, what’s it going to be? And if you’re wondering why I would bother, it’s because I need the help around here, and I haven’t a good word for Ruggert.”