Stringfellow’s mistake was that he only cared about the governor.If he’d known the sheriff of Lawrence was inside that house, he wouldn’t have driven his men into a slaughter like this. But the loyal Border Ruffians, already given their orders, launched a bold assault.Bang!Bang! Bang!Gunshots tore through Pawnee’s uneasy silence.In the scattered houses around them, people waited for the racket to end without even daring to light their oil lamps.“Goddamn!”“How many men are in there, anyway?!”The Border Ruffians outside, trying to time their entry, ground their teeth.Every man who went in came back out dead. Tonight, the governor’s house felt more like a tomb.With someone lying in wait at every hole they’d punched, the night was actually the worst time to attack.“We go in when the sun’s up.”In the end, the leader of the group called off the intrusion.The Border Ruffians dug in around the house and waited.And a short while later.Bodies started being shoved out the windows from inside. When each one hit the ground with a dull thump, the Ruffians growled like «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» they were about to have a seizure.“Son of a bitch.”“So we just handed them weapons for free, is that it.”While the Border Ruffians were venting their rage,a single figure among the pile of corpses outside twitched. The movement was so slow that no one noticed as that figure inched his way free of the heap.‘I’ll show you what an ambush really is.’Until dawn.The night was plenty long enough to deal with them.Melted into the darkness, Max watched their vigilance slacken.Meanwhile, the Jayhawkers waiting inside the house just chewed their lips and stayed quiet. Finally, one of them broke the silence.“He really did kill them all by himself, right? If anybody here thinks he got one of ’em too, raise your hand.”“……”“Shit. He actually did kill them all by himself. The stories were true.”In every one of their heads, the image of Max shooting played back on an endless loop.The way his hands moved when he fired with both revolvers was so uncanny it was almost grotesque.Normally you’d use your thumb to pull the hammer back and cock the gun. But this lunatic crossed his hands back and forth, sometimes using his forearm, sometimes smashing the guns against each other to cock the hammers—putting on a little miracle show.And that wasn’t all.“You saw him throw the gun when he ran out of bullets, right?”“And the way guns just kept coming from somewhere. I don’t even know how many he was carrying. Next thing I knew he’d whipped out a fresh one and started firing again.”“I think I counted at least five.”They all nodded.The sight of Max shooting like a man possessed had been shocking enough to shut every Jayhawker’s mouth.As if that weren’t enough,what he’d said while they were tossing bodies out the house had been even more shocking.—I’ll step outside for a bit. You hold this place.—!With that, he let himself drop out the window like another corpse.“He’s really out of his fucking mind…”Max had vanished in a burst of intensity. While his actions circled around in all their minds, Downey spoke up.“…What’s gonna happen to me when he gets back?”“You’re fucked, that’s what.”“Yeah, why the hell did you fall asleep?”Downey hung his head and sighed.“Shit, how does some Oriental bastard fight that well.”“Whoa, whoa. Still stuck on the Oriental thing, huh.”“You still haven’t got your head on straight.”The others shook their heads at Downey’s words. One of them clapped him on the shoulder.“Just apologize as soon as you see him. Doesn’t seem like he’s got a bad temper except when it comes to fighting.”“…Hnh.”“If you apologize, he’ll let it slide. Just put on the most sorry face you can manage.”Downey gnawed at his thumbnail and stared at the door. Then he made up his mind.When Max came back, he’d spit out an apology first thing.The governor, for his part, had prepared a shelter in the cellar just in case. His secretary, his treasurer, and the servants were all gathered down there, waiting for this to be over.But once the gunfire stopped and the house went quiet, drowsiness washed over them. They’d been nodding off one by one for about two hours when—Clack.The sound of the front door opening made the governor flinch awake. Shaking off sleep, he tensed and listened to the situation above. That was when one of the Jayhawkers’ voices drifted down.“Hey, earlier, I’m sorry abou—”Thud!“I told you I don’t let a man slide when he blows a watch.”Thud! Thud!“……”The governor and those in the cellar swallowed hard and exchanged looks.It sounded like Max was beating one of his men. They wavered, unsure whether to go up or not.Still, there was one thing they could guess, short as the time had been.‘So he really did take out all the men outside by himself.’If he hadn’t, a man like Max would never be making this kind of racket right now.—What should we do, Governor?—…It’s not exactly the best time to go up, is it? We’ll go up when he calls for us.Thud, thud.But the sounds they’d thought would end quickly went on for quite some time.And after a while,with a squeal of hinges, the cellar door opened and Max poked his head in. He broke into a wide grin.“It’s over. You can come up.”“…That last enemy of yours must’ve been your own man, huh.” ****Before sunrise, the Jayhawkers dragged all the bodies Max had killed into a heap in front of the governor’s house.“Every damn one of ’em’s got a hole in his neck. Guess he came in from behind and shoved the knife in like this.”“This one looks like he died taking a piss. Look how shriveled up he is.”“Maybe that’s just how big he was to begin with.”They stared at the marks on the corpses and argued over how Max must’ve taken each man down. The more they did, the more respect they felt for him.While the Jayhawkers were clearing the bodies, Max sat down next to Downey, whose face was a swollen mess, and held out a cigar.“I got a little heated back there.”“……”“Thing is, I’m real touchy about guard duty. My family, on that one… tch…”“S-So y-you ha-had a fa-family like that.”‘That’s bullshit, kid.’Max had grown up an orphan. There was no family in his story.He drew deeply on the cigar, exhaled smoke, and went on.“Well, yeah, you blew the watch, but you snapped out of it fast and returned fire. That was good. You shoot pretty well, too. Who taught you?”“M-My fa-father was in th-the m-militia in the W-War o’ In-Dependence.”Downey’s cheeks were so puffed up it was hard to make out his words.Max patted his shoulder and stood.“We’ll talk more some other time.”“Mm.”From the corpses they recovered 23 revolvers and 5 rifles.While the Jayhawkers shoveled the lot into crates, the governor prepared to leave Pawnee.“So I’m only staying in Pawnee three days and that’s it.”“You’ll come back someday, won’t you?”“Hard to say if that day will ever come.”The governor glanced over at his secretary and treasurer. Busy packing, they didn’t look much different from servants at a glance.But they were both elites, graduates of prestigious universities back East.“I don’t really know what kind of sin those two committed. Thanks to me they’re losing their jobs just like that.”“If they’ve got the ability, they’ll land on their feet somewhere.”“Whoever the new governor ends up being, I hope he hires the both of them.”‘A new governor, huh.’Max rubbed at the stubbly jaw where his beard was starting to come in.Kansas split in two between slave state and free state.Two legislatures born to match.To settle who was the real one, more blood would have to be spilled.In a situation like this, jobs didn’t matter.There’d be no shortage of public officials swept away in the coming purge.Once their preparations to leave were finished, the youngest of the Jayhawkers, Tucker, spoke up to Max.“So where are we going now?”If the mission to guard the governor wasn’t over yet, the destination would change depending on Max’s choice.Max looked over the Jayhawkers and answered.“Lawrence. That’s the only place we can go.” ****It was the place where the free-state cause was concentrating its strength around its own legislature.The end of this mission to protect the governor was to bring him personally to Lawrence.“Ohh! The governor’s come here himself!”“Welcome to Lawrence, Governor!”“You’ve been through hell to get here!”People surged forward, cheering.The governor, flustered, wore a bewildered expression.‘Why are they reacting like this?’He’d been worried somebody might throw a rock at him. He hadn’t expected a reception like this.Of course, there were some cold eyes mixed in.It only looked like the cheering folks stood out more; for all he knew, there might actually be more of the other kind.Suddenly, Max’s words came back to him.—Just make your line clear. What the historians write down is something you build from here on out.—Isn’t it too late? Everyone’s going to curse me.—Then you need to look only one way. You’ll definitely find people who’ll support you.The governor glanced back at Max and quietly raised his thumb.Confidence welled up, and the convictions that had gone hazy sharpened again. The dullness in his eyes cleared, and they flashed as he turned to the people.“I, Andrew Reeder, will fight to my dying day to make Kansas a free state!”It would take that much effort to change suspicious eyes. Andrew Reeder meant to burn out the last of himself here in Lawrence, which had become the beating heart of the free-state cause.“Welcome back, Sheriff!”“You’re back!”Even from outside the office, Fitch and Joe Jim Junior rushed to greet Max.“You holding up all right?”“I’m good as new!”“What am I, invisible?”Fitch shoved her face in close, hovering around him.Then she caught sight of the five gloomy-looking men standing behind him and flinched back.“Wh-What the heck. I thought the mission was over.”Max turned his head and glanced back.“Seriously, why are you all still standing there?”“Are we allowed to go? You have to give us the dismissal, you know.”“Oh.”Max let out a short laugh.“Mission’s over. You’re dismissed. Good work, all of you.”“Ahem. Well then, we’ll see you around.”Like men whose tension was finally draining away, they rolled their necks and loosened up their bodies.They’d be staying in the Jayhawkers’ tent camp. Just as Downey was about to head that way, he turned his head and asked Max:“So what are you going to do now?”The Jayhawkers all turned to look at Max too, apparently curious.“What else would the sheriff of Lawrence be doing.”“So you’ll always be here, huh. Then we’ll see you again.”Downey gave a casual wave.He turned and walked off toward the camp with the Jayhawkers. As they receded into the distance, Fitch narrowed her eyes and spoke.“Sheriff, what did you do out there with them? The way they were looking at you just now, it was like looking at Junior here.”Max glanced at Junior.Those intense eyes were drilling into him.‘Between the Jayhawkers and these two, the picture’s more or less complete.’The wheels of history would roll on their own.Lawrence had gone fully into a political phase. And soon, troops would begin to gather here on a whole different scale.That meant the time when Max could just run around stirring things up on his own was over.The time had come to start building a force of his own in earnest. ****The new legislature Lawrence had proclaimed sent slave-state men into a fury.In an unprecedented situation where two different Kansas constitutions—deciding whether the territory would be slave state or free state—were being drafted in two different places, the slave-state side reacted with vicious opposition.And Franklin Pierce, the Democratic president backed by the South, decided to dismiss Governor Andrew Horatio Reeder from office.Stripped of his post and now a private citizen, Reeder took to the square, veins bulging in his neck as he began to speak.“All the world knows how the slave-state advocates threatened me and rigged their elections! The fact that a president dancing on the strings of filthy slave-state interests has thrown me out does not mean he has broken the conviction burning inside me! Europe has already abolished slavery, and the fools who can’t read the signs of the times stand exposed! What we must do is plain! To resist and to fight! To win Kansas as a free state and keep it that way, my friends!”The fact that Lawrence’s public square took shape at all owed a great deal to Andrew Reeder.You don’t scrub away “land speculator” and replace it with “hardline abolitionist” overnight.As if begging future historians to listen, he did not miss a single day of speaking.This gave him an advantage as well.Even though he’d joined the cause late, he was able to drive himself into the very center of Lawrence’s politics.While Andrew Reeder was shoring up his own position, James Henry Lane paid a visit to Max’s office.“I’d heard your office was crawling with people, but it’s oddly quiet.”“Oh, they’re all out exercising.”“Exercising?”To be precise, training. Fitch, Joe Jim Junior, and the five young Jayhawkers were all sweating at the usual training ground Max used.“So what brings you here?”Lane sat down on the sofa and spoke.“They say they’re gathering Border Ruffians over in Missouri.”“How many?”“From what I hear, over two thousand in just one place.”“So they’re putting a real structure around them.”“Which is why…”Lane fixed his eyes on Max and slowly let the words out.“What do you say to taking charge of the Jayhawkers and training them yourself?”

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