James Henry Lane’s reappearance.Max reached out his hand for a shake.“How have you been?”“So-so. I’ve heard the stories about you. You’ve pulled off some tremendous things.”“The stories are exaggerated. Are you alone?”“I’ve things to settle at home and plenty to do, so I came alone today.”After the Leavenworth polling-place affair, Lane sold off all his property in Indiana and settled in Lawrence.Lane looked at Fitch standing beside Max with a puzzled expression.“Her teaching contract ran out. So she’s going to try being a deputy sheriff.”“A woman deputy sheriff in a frontier town.”Lane knit his brow. He looked at Max and asked:“Are you serious?”“Nothing’s decided yet.”“At this rate, it’s only a matter of time before Lawrence becomes famous for something else.”An Oriental for sheriff, a woman for deputy.Lawrence was a place where abolitionists had gathered to settle. Lane didn’t want that meaning diluted in another way.“Anyway, see you around.”“Understood.”Arms crossed, Max watched Lane’s back as he walked away. The question was just how far he should intervene in what would happen next—And what he could gain from it.Meanwhile, Fitch’s cheeks were puffed out in anger.“So a woman can’t be a deputy sheriff, is that it!”“Looks like not yet.”“You don’t think that way too, do you?”Max looked at Fitch for a moment, then shook his head.“Of course I don’t, but other people will. At times like this there’s only one way.”“...Show it with skill, like you?”“Skill or whatever else. If you want recognition, ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) you have to put in the work.”Fitch chewed her lip and turned Max’s words over.Thanks to Max, she’d become a deputy sheriff, but the townspeople wouldn’t accept her.They’ll whisper behind my back instead.Not because people were bad.To them she was just the odd schoolteacher who had helped the militia.But she could change their perception.Just like Max did!Clenching her fist, Fitch set her face in grim resolve and returned to the office. ****There was some opposition, but Fitch became Lawrence’s deputy sheriff.It all came down to one sentence from Max:— If she can’t do the job, we’ll fire her.Thus decided, Fitch’s weekly pay was $7—five dollars less than Max’s.A precarious post she could lose at any time.The three newspapers in Lawrence all covered the story.As Lane feared, the town’s fame grew by the day. And as time passed, Fitch felt only more anxious and on edge.There were no cases in which to prove herself.“It’s damned quiet. Doesn’t anything ever blow up in this town?”“Maybe you’re the goddess of peace.”“Is that actually why?”Why Lawrence was quiet—or rather, why Kansas was quiet—was because today was revote day.Free-state folk were watching the eleven polling places like hawks, while the slave-state side did nothing.Regardless of the result, the legislature’s composition favored the slave state.“I’m going out for a bit.”“Oho, time for our sheriff to work out. Off you go.”Leaving a pouting Fitch behind, Max stepped out of the office.A little ways from town, Max spent three or four hours here every day on exercise and shooting.He began with distance running, moved heavy stones, and didn’t skip the guerrilla drill of hoisting a log tied to a tree up onto his shoulders.Flesh and muscle filled out, and he grew taller. His body was far better than before.On the way back to the office after training—At the town entrance, two wagons came into view. Household goods piled high: new settlers at journey’s end.“A—an Oriental?!”“I’m the sheriff of Lawrence.”“Really?”They looked amazed—and doubtful—at an Oriental sheriff.It would take time to strip away those tinted glasses.The newcomers stole glances at Max and went to the committee to inquire about the lands they would stake out.As time went by, such scenes became routine. For those crossing from free states, Lawrence was more attractive than other towns. ****The revote result was that abolitionists took eight of the eleven seats. It looked like a sweeping win, but it was meaningless.The Lawrence town committee despaired and fumed at the reality.“Where on earth was the governor, and what was he doing, that he crawls out only after the voting ends?”“I thought he’d up and died somewhere—pity he didn’t.”“Ahem. That’s a bit much.”“Honestly, wouldn’t it be better if we replaced the governor while we’re at it? He’s useless.”He hadn’t stopped the fraudulent election, and he’d only implemented a partial revote, so he was a governor who did what suited the slave state.The joke was that the slave state hated him too.After all, he’d held a revote.Chairman Charles calmed the room and spoke.“Cursing the governor won’t change anything now. Let’s move on. The governor says he’ll convene the legislature on July 2 in a place called Pawnee. I suppose they’ll try to make a Kansas constitution.”When the federal government proclaimed Kansas a territory, the region was required to go through the steps of forming a government.As with a nation, each state of the Union necessarily needed a constitution.And in that constitution, slavery or freedom would be defined.Governor Andrew Reeder—so as to write that constitution—had convened the legislature in a random spot called Pawnee.“Not even Lecompton, but Pawnee? I don’t know whether to be pleased or not.”“Supposedly he chose it because it’s free from slave-state influence.”“In any case, isn’t that saying he’ll make that place the capital? What about Topeka?”At the committee’s mention of Topeka, Holliday’s dark circles grew darker still.He couldn’t begin to grasp why that damned governor wanted to make Pawnee the capital.At this rate it’s all going up in smoke.Charles and Holliday closed their eyes.The chamber sank into futility and despair; voices dwindled.Max’s gaze went to Lane.Lane rested his chin on his hand, deep in thought.His dilemma was when to employ the free-state armed group, the Jayhawkers.If the Border Ruffians gave a pretext, he would use that as justification for a massive counterattack.Or, even without that, if any trigger arose, he intended to deploy the Jayhawkers.And now—Max was about to create that trigger.“May I say a word.”The committee’s eyes turned to Max.Aside from town matters, he rarely weighed in; curiosity rose.“Let’s hear the sheriff.”Chairman Charles, Holliday, and Representative Lane all fixed on Max’s mouth.“As you know, the legislature will draft laws to make Kansas a slave state. And the governor likely means to make a place called Pawnee the capital.”“Hm. That’s the way things stand. So—your thought?”Max looked around the room and spoke.“Refuse that legislature, and seat a new legislature—elected here in Lawrence.”Thump.For a moment, shock swept the chamber.“T—that’s rebellion, isn’t it?”“The Union won’t leave us alone!”“Sheriff, even so, that’s a step too far.”The committee recoiled, but a few eyes glittered.Charles, Holliday, Lane.Only when Max saw their faces did he realize afresh: in a corner of their minds, they had already considered even this.Only—the matter was so big they hadn’t said it aloud.“Let’s hear him out to the end first.”At Chairman Charles’s words, the murmurs died down, and Max continued.“Think of this town’s founding purpose. The free-state people made Lawrence, and they’ll defend it to the end. Who doesn’t know the legislature was formed by a fraudulent election? From the slave-state side it’s ‘rebellion,’ but will the free-state side see it that way?”Max swept the room with his eyes and put weight into his voice.“If we show our conviction in action, we’ll draw ever more support.”“Huh. If this goes wrong, this town could vanish.”“Don’t speak lightly because it isn’t your skin.”Slave or free—An outsider—an Oriental—either way, it wasn’t his affair.The committee drew a line between the sheriff and this business. Not because they disdained Max, but because the word rebellion inspired fear.As the committee pushed back against Max’s words, Lane spoke.“I won’t oppose it unconditionally. You just said the town could vanish—then what reason is there for Lawrence to exist as a slave-state town? We came to make a free state; we didn’t come to become part of the slave state.”Silence fell for a moment.“As the sheriff said, what matters to us is the conviction we had when we first came to this town. Our job is to keep it.”With Lane lending weight to Max’s words, there were only small whispers—no further rebuttals.Chairman Charles and Holliday fell deep into thought. So did Lane, who had just spoken.The thinking that had been blocked by the word rebellion finally found momentum to move forward.There won’t be a conclusion today anyway.Time to think and wrestle with it would be needed.When the session ended, Chairman Charles called Max aside. Holliday and Lane came as well.Chairman Charles addressed Max.“You know you dropped a bomb today, right?”“I do. But as I said, I don’t think it’s rebellion.”“Well, as you said, it looks different depending on where you stand. But you’ve overlooked one thing. If the governor actively brands us rebels, we’ll have to fight soldiers.”“We could be hit before the free states can lift a finger to help.”Representative Lane sided with Chairman Charles.The most important factor at this point was the wavering governor. As governor he held military authority; that made it worse.“If he keeps trying to please both sides, fine. But pressure from the slave state will be fierce. He could call out the troops.”Holliday spoke with a furrowed brow.The fear of rebellion was the army’s intervention.All the more so if they didn’t yet have full-throated support from the free states.“So because we don’t know the governor’s intent, we can’t act easily.”“In reality, yes.”Bitterness showed on Chairman Charles’s face as he answered. But Max smiled and went on.“I think we can find a way.”During the period Governor Andrew Reeder was absent—For well over a month—where had he been, and what had he done?“Do you know?”“You’re saying you know what no one knows?”“Choose your words carefully.”Lane folded his arms and stared at Max.No ill will—just Lane’s way of showing he was curious.“The absent governor suddenly convened the legislature in a place called Pawnee. What does that tell you?”“...That he has some relationship with Pawnee?”“Saying it’s removed from slave-state influence is an excuse. The legislature’s composition favors the slave state; in that case, the current Lecompton—packed with slavery advocates—would be safer, wouldn’t it?”“Hm.”Hard to agree entirely, but a plausible supposition. While they were all thinking about ties between Pawnee and the governor, Max turned to Lane and spoke.“I’d like you to handle this, Representative Lane.”“You want me to go to Pawnee and find out?”“It’s only my guess, but we should trace the governor’s assets.”“If assets, then land.”Absurdly enough, the very reason Governor Andrew Reeder would later be fired by the President was this.The charge was illegal land speculation.Andrew Reeder, as a land speculator, owned 1,200 acres in the town of Pawnee at ninety cents an acre.Max urged Lane to find evidence and use it to threaten him.

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