Shooting For Justice by G. Tilman (top 100 novels txt) 📗

“We have ten patrol deputies and ten jailers. The only deputy other than me with supervisory powers is Jason Hinkley. He’s the chief jailer. Running a jail takes a lot of work with repairs, food, and staffing. Whenever you want, I’ll take you over for a look-see. We have a firing range and a garden over at the jail. I guess you know it’s just outside of town on a couple acres.”

“Let’s plan to go over first thing in the morning for a tour and to meet Jason and whoever he has on duty,” Pope said.

“I have some personal stuff to take care of over the next couple of weeks, Bill. A lot of the weight will stay on your shoulders like it has been since the sheriff’s accident. Sarah and I have to move from San Francisco, get a house near here, and get a church marriage added to our nuptials.” The sixty-year-old nodded with understanding and sympathy. He would not want to have to cram a lot of things in the short period of time the new sheriff allotted himself.

Pope sat down in his new office and drafted letters to Hume, Morse, Brewster, Lincoln, Conkling, and President Arthur thanking them for their supportive telegrams. He advised he was sworn in today and ready to begin enforcing the law.

He went to San Francisco later in the day and met with Hume, who still seemed a bit miffed at his leaving. Pope turned in his badge and a shotgun Sarah had checked out of the armory. He went on to several jewelers until he found one which would craft a sheriff’s badge for him. He chose a five-point star with balls on the end of the points. It would have Sheriff across the top of the circle in the center and Marin County, CA below. He chose to have it hammered out of a gold Mexican cinco peso coin like the Texas Rangers used. The jeweler promised to have it sent to him via none other than Wells Fargo within a week. In the meantime, he had his deputy US marshal badge in case he needed to show authority or make an arrest.

Pope gave some thought about how he would approach the job. First off, he would wear a suit, except on a long trail. His experience suggested a California sheriff was a bit more formal than one on the frontier.

He would use his single action Colt .44 with a smaller revolver as backup in an inside the waistband holster. He chose a .44 Webley short, barreled Bulldog revolver, infamously carried in a longer version by Custer seven years earlier, and Garfield’s assassin two years earlier. It was not a bad backup, short range weapon and oddly accurate for a short firearm. Pope decided to wear it on the left under his vest.

Remembering the horrendous recoil of Sara’s pistol grip-only sawed-off ten gauge, he picked up a used Greener twenty-gauge and had the gunsmith saw off the barrel several inches in front of the fore stock and the butt just behind the pistol grip. It would be a lighter, but friendlier gun to shoot. Like the heavier one, she could carry it in a large purse.

Hume had told him he wanted to meet with Sarah about assignments and reporting schedules during the coming week. He seemed to ignore she was on holiday. Pope would ask her to check on his new badge at Marks and Co. in San Francisco while in the city.

The following day, he and Sarah went to the Presbyterian church in San Rafael and planned a small wedding for ten days hence. Sarah was Protestant but did not bother to tell Pope which particular denomination. Pope believed in God, but most of his religion from his grandfather was slanted to Indian beliefs. They kept quiet about all of this and planned the service with the pastor without any theological discussion.

Within a week, Sarah had met with Hume in San Francisco and Israel Pope had received a low-ball offer on the ranch. After discussing the offer with his grandson, he decided to accept it without countering. It was in gold, which had a lot of appeal. Further, it was more than enough to buy the adjacent hundred acres and build a cabin for Pope and Sarah as a wedding gift.

Sarah returned with a portfolio full of cases for primarily Marin and Sonoma Counties. Most were investigating the validity of lawsuit claims against Wells Fargo. One was a stage robbery at the farthest end of her territory. Hume, who did not seem to be angry with Sarah, said he reserved the right to expand her territory whenever needed.

Both Sarah and Pope knew what he was doing was slipping one more experienced detective into Hume’s and Morse’s longstanding case against Black Bart. The robber had been single-handedly robbing Wells Fargo stages since 1877 and was the only blot on the reputation of the two great detectives.

Sarah also brought Pope his new gold Marin sheriff’s badge from the jeweler.

Israel and Millie Pope left for the ranch to be present at the closing. He took the gold and, at his grandson’s suggestion, converted it into a negotiable bond. He folded it up and stuck it inside the top of his long johns, somewhere a robber would be unlikely to look for it. He would convert it back to close on the adjacent woodland when it closed several days later.

While the senior Popes were gone, Sarah and Pope met with a local builder. He gave them the price on building a two-bedroom log home with a tin roof. It would have a main room, a storage cupboard, a privy out back and a well. Pope decided to save money and build his own stable for Caesar and a horse for Sarah. The builder would also clear any trees necessary to use a horse-drawn drag to scrape a primitive road in from the main road.

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