The Killing Season by RALPH COMPTON Page A

newspaper with the wanted notice on Atchison’s desk. Without wasting words, he explained events leading up to the shooting in Springfield, renewing his claim of self-defense.
    â€œIf there are no charges against you,” said Atchison, “then you are within your rights, demanding that this offer of a reward be withdrawn. It is indeed illegal. A telegram to the county clerk in Springfield should determine that. You are welcome to wait in the outer office.”

CHAPTER 3
    Uneasily, Nathan waited, considering the possibility that the sheriff in Springfield had yielded to pressure and made him a fugitive. Could Atchison, excusing himself to send a telegram, be summoning the law to arrest Nathan Stone? But within half an hour, Atchison beckoned Nathan back into his office.
    â€œThere are no charges against you in Springfield,” Atchison said. “Court records call the killing justifiable homicide. This office will issue an order to the sheriff in Springfield, and he will notify the parties involved that their offer of a reward is illegal, and is to be withdrawn immediately.”
    â€œSuppose they refuse to abide by that order?”
    â€œSomeone will have to take them to court,” Atchison replied.
    â€œYou mean I—Nathan Stone—will have to take them to court,” said Nathan.
    â€œOf course,” Atchison said. “The state will prosecute, but only when formal charges have been filed.”
    â€œSo if they ignore your order and refuse to remove the price on my head, it’s up to me to file charges and take them to court. What will the court do, spank them?”
    â€œYour sarcasm is not appreciated,” said Atchison stiffly. “Found guilty, there would be a severe fine. At least fifty dollars, I’m sure.”
    â€œThen send your court order,” Nathan said. “I’ll go on keeping my guns handy and an eye on my back trail.”
    Nathan departed in disgust, returning to the livery where he had left the horses and Cotton Blossom. He had but one consolation, and that was that he had seen the notice of the reward only in the Kansas City Liberty- Tribune. But Kansas City was a “jumping-off place” for anyone heading west, and that damning reward notice might hound him wherever he rode. Nathan was only a few miles from St. Louis, and he decided to go there. While he was still miles away, he could hear the bull-throated bellow of steamboat whistles, and it brought memories of those pleasant days in New Orleans, with the McQueens.
    Finding a livery, Nathan saw to the care of his horses. Then he and Cotton Blossom went looking for a hotel or rooming house. Nathan chose a rooming house not far from the riverfront, with several cafes and saloons nearby. He had no trouble finding copies of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat and the Kansas City Liberty- Tribune. These were a week later than the issues he had read in Kansas City, and he wanted to see if the reward notice appeared in either paper. First he fanned through the Globe-Democrat and then the Liberty-Tribune without finding the offending advertisement. However, in the Kansas City paper, he found a piece that grabbed his attention. One of the James gang had been captured and had sworn that neither the James nor Younger gangs had shot and killed Bart Hankins during the failed bank robbery of February 13, 1866, in Gallatin, Missouri. Now the Hankins family had hired the Pinkertons and had posted a ten thousand dollar reward. Hankins had been the first of seven men Nathan had tracked down and slain, keeping the oath he had taken on his murdered father’s grave. 5
    â€œDamn it,” said Nathan aloud, “the glory seekers were bad enough. Now this.”
    At first he could see no way the Pinkertons could tie him to the killing of Hankins, but his mind wouldn’t leave it alone. By God, there was a way! The Pinkertons had enough influence to gain access to military records and thus might learn