What makes you so damn dumb anyways?”
Tom Dorra looked angry and upset. “You’ve got no call to talk to me like that. Sam Boylston’s just another one of those nice clean little lawyer fellas.”
Judge Billy tilted his swivel chair back and looked at a far high corner of the room. “Been around a long, long time. Seen a lot of them come along. Don’t you get twitchy thinking on that free drink I offered. You set and listen. Might help you some day. Got any idea why Lydia Jean run for cover? Tell you what I think, big Tom. She’s trying to see if she can slow him down some, make him look around and see folks instead of things, and like the fella says, get him to learn to stop and smell the flowers.”
“Do you honest to God know what you’re talking about, Judge?”
“Won’t work, of course. Not with Sam Boylston. He’s in a dead run. Can’t stop. Won’t stop. Scared to stop. That’s the way the big ones are. He ain’t real big yet. But he’s moving as fast as you’ll ever see. Twenty years when he’s Bix’s age about, line ’em up side by side, Bix Kayd is dime-store goods, a clown-man. You can feel the power in Sam’l. He’s got the stillness, hearing all, seeing all, tucking itaway. When you ragged him some about Lydia Jean, I seen something look out of his eyes at you, something I wouldn’t fool with.”
“You’re scaring me to death, Judge.”
“Me, I won’t last long enough to see him as big as he’s going to get. But he’s a-going to own this whole Valley, as just a first step. Oh, not by title and deed, but there won’t be anybody with land worth in six figures on up stupid enough to cross him. What he wants done gets done. And tucked back in his brain is the memory of how you did him today. He won’t come after you just to pleasure himself. He can’t waste his time on earth like that. But one day there’ll be money he can see on the far side of you, and he won’t go around you. He’ll go right over the top of you, stompin’ as he goes, and you won’t be a person to him because nobody is real to him but Sam Boylston. If I was you, I’d start thinking on cashing ever’thing in and moving far enough away so he won’t likely come across you.”
“Billy, what’s wrong with you? The land my great grand-daddy settled is smack in the middle of my holdings. I got friends close and true in six counties. Nothing Boylston can ever do to me, a little lawyer-man like that!”
“Lydia Jean may slow him a little bit for a little time, but then he’ll come on faster than ever. He thinks he’s like everybody else. It’s just he don’t have any softness slowing him down. God knows I ain’t got much, but what I got makes me smaller than I could have been. You got more than me by far. But if Sam Boylston had a thing to gain by rendering you down into cooking oil, he’d stoke the fire, boil you good, skim the fat into a bucket and tote it off. It saddens me thinking you’re the last Dorra going to own land in this county, and I might live long enough to get brought down with you if I’m standing too close, so we’ve come to an end of drinking together, and now it’s time we start winding up all the things we’re into together, so let’s start dickering on who buys who out of what and for how much.”
“You got to be kidding, Billy! Your old brain is cloudy. I got a bad case of the shorts. Do that, and you’ll be running me out of some prime stuff, and you damn well know it. We been friends a long time.”
Judge Billy Alwerd blinked and smiled like a lizard on a rock. “All of a sudden being friends with you is too dangerous, Tom D. Anything you want to take over, I’ll take back mortgages, but I’ll discount ’em right off. We’re going to be arms length all the way.”
Tom stood up and leaned over the desk and said, “Do me this way, and I’ll crack your spine, old man!”
“I will. And you won’t.” He chuckled. “In a manner of speaking, boy, what’s
Tom Dorra looked angry and upset. “You’ve got no call to talk to me like that. Sam Boylston’s just another one of those nice clean little lawyer fellas.”
Judge Billy tilted his swivel chair back and looked at a far high corner of the room. “Been around a long, long time. Seen a lot of them come along. Don’t you get twitchy thinking on that free drink I offered. You set and listen. Might help you some day. Got any idea why Lydia Jean run for cover? Tell you what I think, big Tom. She’s trying to see if she can slow him down some, make him look around and see folks instead of things, and like the fella says, get him to learn to stop and smell the flowers.”
“Do you honest to God know what you’re talking about, Judge?”
“Won’t work, of course. Not with Sam Boylston. He’s in a dead run. Can’t stop. Won’t stop. Scared to stop. That’s the way the big ones are. He ain’t real big yet. But he’s moving as fast as you’ll ever see. Twenty years when he’s Bix’s age about, line ’em up side by side, Bix Kayd is dime-store goods, a clown-man. You can feel the power in Sam’l. He’s got the stillness, hearing all, seeing all, tucking itaway. When you ragged him some about Lydia Jean, I seen something look out of his eyes at you, something I wouldn’t fool with.”
“You’re scaring me to death, Judge.”
“Me, I won’t last long enough to see him as big as he’s going to get. But he’s a-going to own this whole Valley, as just a first step. Oh, not by title and deed, but there won’t be anybody with land worth in six figures on up stupid enough to cross him. What he wants done gets done. And tucked back in his brain is the memory of how you did him today. He won’t come after you just to pleasure himself. He can’t waste his time on earth like that. But one day there’ll be money he can see on the far side of you, and he won’t go around you. He’ll go right over the top of you, stompin’ as he goes, and you won’t be a person to him because nobody is real to him but Sam Boylston. If I was you, I’d start thinking on cashing ever’thing in and moving far enough away so he won’t likely come across you.”
“Billy, what’s wrong with you? The land my great grand-daddy settled is smack in the middle of my holdings. I got friends close and true in six counties. Nothing Boylston can ever do to me, a little lawyer-man like that!”
“Lydia Jean may slow him a little bit for a little time, but then he’ll come on faster than ever. He thinks he’s like everybody else. It’s just he don’t have any softness slowing him down. God knows I ain’t got much, but what I got makes me smaller than I could have been. You got more than me by far. But if Sam Boylston had a thing to gain by rendering you down into cooking oil, he’d stoke the fire, boil you good, skim the fat into a bucket and tote it off. It saddens me thinking you’re the last Dorra going to own land in this county, and I might live long enough to get brought down with you if I’m standing too close, so we’ve come to an end of drinking together, and now it’s time we start winding up all the things we’re into together, so let’s start dickering on who buys who out of what and for how much.”
“You got to be kidding, Billy! Your old brain is cloudy. I got a bad case of the shorts. Do that, and you’ll be running me out of some prime stuff, and you damn well know it. We been friends a long time.”
Judge Billy Alwerd blinked and smiled like a lizard on a rock. “All of a sudden being friends with you is too dangerous, Tom D. Anything you want to take over, I’ll take back mortgages, but I’ll discount ’em right off. We’re going to be arms length all the way.”
Tom stood up and leaned over the desk and said, “Do me this way, and I’ll crack your spine, old man!”
“I will. And you won’t.” He chuckled. “In a manner of speaking, boy, what’s
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