Page 60

The Way West (1955)

quire wagons be capable of carrying a quarter more than their load, teams of drawing a quarter more.... Death for murder.... Thirty-nine lashes for three days for rape. . . . Thirty-nine lashes on the bare back for adultery and fornication (big-sounding words for something simple) .... Council to fix penalty for indecent language. ... Recommend train start at seven o'clock every morning and travel from ten to fifteen miles every day....
A long list, that made Summers snort once. Evans' attention strayed off, to Mack, to Fairman, to McBee, to Brewer, and off to one side, beyond the men, to the girl, Mercy McBee, who wore a red poke bonnet and stood, her eyes fluid above the pale planes of her cheeks, like a young doe that had heard a noise. Sadness in ~the face, or maybe only emptiness. A look to squeeze a man inside. In animals you knew what you'd get, crossing scrubs. Question was, did the scrubs cross or a good stud get in the pasture? More likely she was scrub, too, underneath. Thirty-nine lashes for fornication. That was a warning, aimed mostly by the married men at the single ones who'd been engaged to help out on the trip.
Brother Weatherby was wanting to add to the list, asking that the company go "on the moral code written by God in the breast of every man."
A little smile was on Tadlock's face. He knew better than to laugh, but he knew to smile, too, letting on it was best, if a little overdone, to give the preacher man some rope.
The man back of Evans muttered, "Make the old fool shut up. Wants to make the rules, and him without a pot to piss in."