Chapter 20: Final Changes

Suddenly the bank phone rang. The judge answered it, "Hello?" He turned toward Harley and said, "It's for you." It was Ellie.

"I'm not going to ask how you tracked me down. What is it?"

"Some colored boy came to my house and told me to get you to come home. There are all sorts of people prowling around. He said his friends are going to 'demobilize' them, whatever means."

"Thank you, Ellie; I'll go home right now." He hung up the phone and turned to the judge, "You explained to me about the word 'siege' in one of the explanatory lessons you have given me on the English language.

Well, it seems 'siege' is what my home is under. If you two will take those crates to the judge's house for him, and lock them up, I shall go home." He spoke very clearly and very slowly as if he didn't have a care in the world.

The judge was worried. "Harley, my friend. In the short time I have known you I have come to think of you as a friend, a good friend. Please be careful."

"Sorry, Judge Mack, the time is past for me to be careful. Now is time for another of your words, 'decisiveness.' God help the son of a bitch in my way tonight. He walked deliberately out of the bank, got in his car and began driving. He placed the shotgun on the seat beside him. One handed, he broke it open and checked to see if it had loads. He snapped it shut, lay it back down and concentrated on his driving.

When he was a short ways away from his house he was stopped at a roadblock. He pulled up and asked, "What's up?"

A man came up and leaned on the open window. "Just turn your pretty car around and get out of here. Harley recognized the speaker and the speaker recognized him at the same time. It was the larger of the two railroad men who had tried to rob him at the hotel when he first moved in with his wife and child.

Harley moved faster and grabbed the man by the neck with his left hand and cocked his right fist and hit him three times as hard and as fast as he could. He let go and his victim dropped. He grabbed the shotgun, opened the car door and stepped out of the car and walked to the group of men clustered at the barricade. "Who's in charge here?" he asked in a conversational voice.

"I am," a dark form came up to him. Harley dropped the man with the barrel of the shotgun.

"Who's in charge now," he asked.

"I am," another voice said. "And I have a gun pointed right at you.

"Well, I guess makes it almost even," Harley replied, "I have a sawed off shotgun pointed at you loaded with what they call locally 'pig shot, ' just a tad smaller than deer shot. Now if you shoot me, I'm going to get most of you." The sound of the hammers being cocked made every man in front of him flinch."

"You Duran?" a voice asked.

"I am, and who are you?"

"I have a railroad warrant for your arrest, charging you with theft of railroad property. Now this is a legal posse and I am giving you one chance to surrender. Afterward, you will be shot."

"Interesting setup here, I'm the chief of police of this town and the acting sheriff. Railroad authority does not extend past railroad property. Also, I doubt the legality of your posse. How do you plan to take me? If I go down, I get at least half of you with this old greener. By the way, the last I saw you were under arrest for grand theft. Did the railroad let you off the hook?" There was no answer.

"Surround him and rush him. Get him." a voice shouted from one of the cars parked at the barricade.

"Dat's going to be hard to do. I think we just got the rest of you folks just now. Harley heard the sound of a struggle and a skinny man who stood about five nine was dragged by the big black man Harley had ordered hired.

"Why did you wait so long, Leo?" Harley asked him.

"Aw hell, I just likes watching white people fight amongst themselves." he grinned.

"Take them over to my house. I want to get to the bottom of this right now." He led the way, and the captives, the ones able, were marched into Harley's living room. The four unconscious ones were dragged along and dumped unceremoniously inside on the floor.

As soon as they were all inside, the black guards positioned themselves all along one wall, guns pointed at the floor near the captives' feet, Harley asked the skinny man. "You the boss of these clowns?"

"Yes I am. And you are in deep trouble." The man looked up at the much larger Harley Duran in disdain.

Harley cuffed him up alongside the head and he fell to the floor. "Naw, you got it all wrong. You're the one in deep trouble. I haven't decided whether to have my friends kill you outright, do it myself or just arrest you for loitering and make you scrub the floors of the police station for thirty days."

The smaller man jumped back up, whirled and kicked high at Harley's chin. Harley caught the foot and twisted. There was a dull "snap." and the man screamed as his ankle broke. He fell white faced to the floor and glared his hatred at Harley. "Little man, I have very fast reflexes. Lately I have been continually on my guard. You're pretty fast for a shrimp, but still pretty slow."

"Now I want to know what you are doing here with these clowns from the railroad. You are either from Greater Western or you're one of Lester Beaudine's associates. Which is it?"

"Go to hell."

Harley deliberately stepped on the man's ankle and bore down. He screamed and fainted. "Hon, get a pan of water and throw it in our guest's face."

"How'd you know I was back of you?" Ida Marie asked.

He grinned, "I smelled you. I'd know my wife's smell anywhere. You still rub roses behind your ears." He smiled as the others gave him strange looks.

"Oh, don't mind us, my wife and I are real close." He grinned and Ida Marie brought a washbasin full of water in and threw it in the slender man's face.

Harley looked down at him. "You proved you got guts.

Now let's see if you have brains, who you with?"

"Go to hell." the man grated.

"Nope, no brains." In one fast step he was upon the man. He stomped down on his unbroken ankle. It broke.

"Now I'm tired of being a nice fellow. I'll break your back next and then your elbows. You will talk to me or else you will be so badly damaged you will never recover. Now talk to me or become crippled for life."

"I work for James Stanley of the Greater Western Development Company, you sadistic savage. You will pray for death when he finishes with you."

"Boy, you're behind the times. Jimmy Stanley is locked up in my jail with a bullet hole in him. My personal assistant, a sixteen-year-old lady took his clothes off him and took his weapons away from him. She added both his little twenty-two crotch derringer and his ankle gun and holster to her collection."

Suddenly the sickening truth came crashing down around Greater Western man. He was alone and this big man would either make him talk or kill him. "What do you wish to know?"

"Why you people have made so much trouble for me and this town, for starters. Then why you people want this woman's property," he nodded toward Viola

Clanton. "This is Missus Clanton there."

"Oil," he said, "It's all about oil. Those farms south east of here are sitting on a great pool of oil. The other property was for the agricultural needs of the company."

Harley turned to the big black man, "Take these fine examples of Oklahoma manhood over to the county jail and dump them in. The front door is open and the keys to the place are in the desk unless someone stole them. Lock them up. I have an appointment with the governor in the morning.

"I do believe we can put an end to the whole mess. I'll pay you and your friends for tonight's work some time tomorrow after the governor leaves." He smiled and then added, "You start patrolling the Sand Bar tomorrow. Now if anyone asks, you are just thrilled to death to serve the wonderful white people of this community.

There were the expected laughs and contemptuous remarks. "One more thing, Has the bank foreclosed on any property down there on the Bar?

"Yeah, 'bout half of it."

"I believe I can help those folks get all their property back. If I am able and if any people come around to buy, tell them to see Judge Mack. There may be oil or minerals down there. We'll sort it out later." The big black man nodded and his friends herded and carried the prisoners out. After a few moments, there was the sound of car engines starting and then silence, after they drove off.

Ida Marie told her husband, "I'll call Leroy and ask him to bring Ida Mae home. I slipped out with her and left her with him and Cassie, when those nasty people began to show up. We walked out the back and across to the house over there. I called Leroy and he came got us. I sent Buttercup with them. I didn't want her to get hurt."

Harley said, "Missus Clanton. You can move back home in the morning if you'd like. I'll get you some money tomorrow to live on. I'll also have a well drilled out there for you. It won't cost you anything. The bank will pay for it, and another house, as well. You go to bed and tell your husband." The woman left in shock.

"Harley, where you getting' all the money to pay for this?" Ida Marie looked at him, puzzled and worried.

"Well, Hon, we found a big chunk of cash I figure was the Beaudines' and some belonged to Greater Western. A lot of good things are going to be done around here, a whole lot of good things." He gave her a hug and she went toward the kitchen to call Leroy.

"Harley, can we settle down now?" she asked from the doorway.

He crossed the room and hugged her, "I surely do believe we can begin to rest easy, Ida. I think it's all over but the name calling in court."

"In court? What are you talking about? What court? Are you in trouble again, Harley?" She stepped back and looked at him.

"No, Hon, but a lot of people are going to be suing to get their properties back. I am afraid we are going to make some rich men poor and a whole bunch of poor folks a lot richer." He grinned and hugged her. "The judge, Milt, Leroy and I are going to play Santa Clause on a grand scale."

The kitchen door opened and Buttercup came bounding through. A sleepy Ida Mae followed. Leroy was last. "I wanted to come over to give a hand but Ida said we should just keep little Ida protected. What all happened?"

Ida took her daughter to get ready for bed. Harley told what had happened at the bank, all the money and the last of the trouble at his house. "So, Leroy, a lot of people are going to get their farms back and some of them are going to come into a big wad of cash.

"The governor is going to have to act. He is going to be some ... what was the special word of yours a couple weeks ago? Discommoded, that's it. Yes, it is exactly what our esteemed governor is going to be, discommoded. You, Milt, Judge Mack and I are going to be appointed by the governor to make things as right as we can."

"Harley, how do you know the governor is going to do all this?" Leroy was very puzzled.

"Because if he doesn't, I shall ruin him and never look back. You don't know the trouble he is in right now. Even he doesn't know the trouble he's in. This state is a powder keg waiting to explode. You go on home and I'll see you in the morning. I'm tired."

Leroy nodded and left. Harley began to undress as he walked toward the bedroom door. He fell naked across the bed and was asleep. Ida Marie took one look at the solid mass that was her husband and went in the front room to lie on the couch. It was long and she was short. She was asleep in seconds.

The next morning Harley felt a hand slap his bare ass. He came up fast, looking for the threat. It was daylight "Harley, the governor wants to talk to you." Ida whispered.

Groggy, he stood and walked to the toilet off the kitchen. He didn't see the people at the table drinking coffee. There were gasps and spluttered exclamations he didn't hear. The door closed and the sound of a shower running was heard in the kitchen.

What he also didn't hear was a nervous Ida say, "He hasn't woke up yet. He has been under considerable strain."

A while later, Harley came out, head down, drying his thick mop of hair. "Now, Hon, what was you saying about that damned governor?"

He took the towel from his head, looked up and saw the people in his kitchen. The towel dropped and his fists came up, "Who in hell are you people?"

"I'm 'the damned governor, ' Mister Duran," a diminutive gray haired man said with amusement.

A man almost as big as Harley stepped forward and said, "Keep a civil tongue in your hayseed mouth when you address the governor. Fast as a striking snake,

Harley's right hand grabbed the speaker by the throat.

He lifted and kicked the man's feet out from under him.

As the big bodyguard fell, Harley kicked him in the head with the heel of his right bare foot. The man's head hit the wooden floor with a sodden thump and he lay still. "This is my home and you keep a civil tongue in your mouth." He turned back to the dumbfounded governor and said, "Let me get dressed and we can get down to business. You got a hell of a lot on your plate you don't even know about.

He began to leave when the phone rang. "Answer it," he told the woman in the party who had been watching him with intense admiration and appreciation.

He came back dressed in fresh khakis and sat down at the table across from the politician. The woman holding the phone said, "A girl named Ellie said there are some people from the state police who want the keys to the jail cell. They want the prisoners."

"Tell her I said to take the gun out of the right hand desk drawer and shoot anyone who refuses to leave."

"Wait." the governor said, "Let me talk to the men at the jail." He quickly rose and took the phone from the startled woman. She began staring at Harley with all the intensity she had when he was naked. The man on the floor began to stand.

Effortlessly, Harley lifted him to his feet and manhandled the dazed man out the door. "Go wait in the car." Harley told him.

"Mister Duran, what in hell is going on here? The young lady on the telephone had my people disarmed and backed against the wall in just the time she heard you say for her to get a gun. Would she really have shot to kill?"

"Governor, Ellie is a sixteen year old girl who has shot three men and killed one for sure in the last three days. She brained your pet snake James Stanley with a thrown revolver and later disarmed him by undressing him. Then she took his crotch derringer and his ankle gun away from him. She collects the weapons of the people she defeats. Her older brother is jealous of her and wants to become a policeman so he can start his own collection."

"Good God. Is everyone in this town insane?" the governor exclaimed.

"No Sir, they are fed up with the crime and corruption. Farmers have lost their farms to fraudulent foreclosures. Farmers have been shot in the night and their widows run off their own land. I have a family living in my two spare bedrooms that were illegally thrown off their land by a crooked banker and a corrupt sheriff's deputy.

"The people of this town, no, of this county have had their guts full. I confiscated a lot money. It came from gambling, prostitution and moon shining in these parts. I have it well hidden, along with Greater Western's ill gotten gains that were not on any books anywhere."

"There is still plenty of money in the bank. Send in a bank examiner, or maybe a crew of them. Make sure the bank is sound. I shall contact the daughter of the banker, George Teel, whom James Stanley murdered. She is probably the only heir. I intend to issue orders today that the bank is to do business as usual."