Small things can set big happenings in motion.
    Actually Brian was not any longer as small as most of the townsfolk loved to remember him. He was taller than Michaela and almost as tall as Sully. But he was shorter than the boy sitting on the bench just outside Dr. Mike's clinic.
    As the day drew to a close, Brian's work for the Gazette was over, and he strolled down the main street with the pride of having done his job well. When he saw the boy on the bench, he stopped. Toby was the second or third son of Miss Bella, Miss Alison's hired hand. Very dark-skinned, with the beautiful exotic eyes of his mother, he was Brian's age, yet looked older. He sat with his chin in his hands, brooding. 
    Brian approached him warily. Toby always reminded him of Anthony. He was bolder, and of course he was bigger... but who could say how that unlucky child would have grown up, given the chance?
    "Hi, Brian," called Toby, dispelling his gloom.
    Brian approached. "Hi, Toby," he answered cautiously. "Whatcha doin' here? You sick?"
    The boy laughed. "No, no, 'course I ain't sick," he said. He lowered his voice. "Can you see that?"
    Brian followed his gaze. The porch of the Gold Nugget was empty.
    "What?"
    "There. The saloon."
    "What about it?"
    "Ever been in there?"
    Brian thought the question was weird. Years before, he had worked for Hank to earn Taffy's ownership. Then there was the time he had played in the saloon with Uncle Teddy. And then other occasions, small errands and the like. "Sure," he said.
    Toby looked at him with more respect, and Brian was proud, though surprised that it took so little. "What's it like?"
    "It's alright, I guess. Lotsa smoke."
    "No, I mean... how 'bout the girls?"
    Brian shrugged. "They're just girls."
    Toby looked disappointed. He stared at the doors of the saloon, his head tilted to catch the melody the piano was playing. Brian was surprised. For him the Gold Nugget was just Hank's place, but for Toby it seemed to hold all the enchantment of a distant, bizarre country, full of mystery and promises.
    "Hey, Brian," said the boy dreamily, "wanna get in there with me?"
    "In the saloon? What for?"
    "I wanna see what it's like."
    "Aren't you with your mother?"
    "Ma's at the Mercantile. She'll be there 'nother half hour, if I know her. Come on!"
    "Really, I don't know -"
    "If you don't come, I'll go alone."
    Brian couldn't find anything enticing in the Gold Nugget at that moment. Yet he didn't want to break that fragile bond with the other boy, and besides, he felt sort of protective towards him. "All right, let's go see," he capitulated.
    They crossed the street, Brian casually, Toby plunging his hands into his pockets like grownups did in his opinion. Brian pushed the swinging doors open and his throat started aching immediately because of the smoke. For a moment, coming from the early spring sun, they saw nothing but noisy, laughing shadows. Then suddenly the din quieted down.
    Brian blinked. Everybody had turned to look at them. At the bar, Hank was staring with lifted eyebrows and an ironic grin.
    Toby elbowed Brian, and they started towards the bar. Hank kept looking expectantly at them. "So what can I do for you, my dear sirs?" he said loudly. Some laughter.
    "Somethin' to drink," said Toby, his voice shaking a little, even forgetting to look around in search of the girls.
    "Sure," nodded Hank. "Milk? Or you prefer lemonade?"
    "Scoop up some mud from the road," said someone in the crowd.
    Toby turned sharply. Brian was all but tearing off his hair. Couldn't his friend foresee something like that? He peered in the crowd, but could not make out the faces under the hats.
    "You're too young to drink here," Hank said in a low voice. "Get out."
    "All right," said Toby, heat rising to his cheeks, "then we'll just listen to the music. Ain't too young for that."
    Someone laughed. "Better do what he say, nigger," someone else said.
    Brian stiffened. He grabbed Toby by the arm. "Let's go," he urged in a whisper.
    "Now?" Toby answered coldly. "Wouldn't dream of it." He was shaking with fear and fury, but he leaned against the counter and tried to look comfortable.
    Brian felt a prickling at the back of his head. He turned, and Hank was staring at him intently. "Get him out, Brian," he said softly, "'fore somethin' real bad happens."
    Brian clenched his teeth. In the crowd the ugly comments continued, but as long as they stopped at that... He looked once again at Hank, and Hank nodded earnestly. He probably knew his patrons.
    Brian took a deep breath, then grabbed Toby and pushed him towards the door. "Hey, what..." The other boy was strong and could have resisted him, but maybe his moment of defiance was crumbling under the venomous stares of the men. They had reached the door unharmed, when Brian felt a violent push on his shoulders and found himself flying out of the saloon, landing painfully on the steps with his knees, rolling forward and hitting the dust, to the echo of laughter.
    Subjected to the same treatment, Toby plunged down beside him. He had barely found himself sprawling in the main road, that he was already springing again to his feet and turning back to the saloon. "No, Toby!" cried Brian. Furious, the boy threw himself in. Just a few seconds, then he flew out again, careened on the steps and fell back in the dust, lying still.
    Brian's heart felt like it had been squeezed. He got up on his knees and bent on Toby. Now the boy was moving, he didn't seem to be hurt, apart from some blood in his face. He pulled himself up to a sitting position, stunned. It seemed he had got away with a punch.
    Jake was running towards them. "What's the matter? Brian!"
    Brian got up. His knees hurt, but he couldn't care about that. "Jake!" he cried. "Help me get him to the clinic!"
    Toby was weakly complaining that he was all right. Jake looked down at him with disapproval, lifted his gaze to the saloon doors where Hank had appeared, then grasped the boy's arm and, with Brian's help on the other side, dragged him unceremoniously to the clinic.
    Dorothy had appeared too. She covered her mouth. "Oh my God, what happened?"
    "Call Ma, Miss Dorothy!" cried Brian. "I think she's at Loren's!"
    They entered the clinic and made Toby sit on the examination table. Michaela arrived in a moment, checked at a look that Toby did not look bad and Brian was all right, then set to work. Dizziness was fading, and the boy was able to keep himself up. He spit some blood on the floor. "Ain't nothin'," he grumbled. "Bastard took me by surprise."
    "Hank?" exclaimed Michaela, horrified.
    "No, not Hank. One of those cowhands, didn't know him."
    Jake nodded. "They're in town with the cattle. Troublesome. What the hell did you two think you were doin'?"
    Toby lifted his head proudly. "I got a right to enter the saloon whenever I please!"
    Jake scowled at him. "You're too young."
    "But Brian's not!"
    While she salved Toby's livid cheek, Michaela threw a reproaching glance at Brian.
    "That's another matter," said Jake. "Brian's a little fox. He shouldn' t either."
    "That ain't the reason, eh, Mayor Slicker?" whispered Toby bitterly.
    Jake lowered his eyes grumpily.
    
    Daniel strode down the street, appalled at the idea that somebody could hit a kid. He swung the doors and looked around in the murk. No wonder that Toby hadn't been able to give a useful description of his aggressor. Sometimes Hank's saloon looked like a circle of Hell. "So, who was it?"
    Nobody answered. Hank took a deep draw from his cigar and looked at him with lowered eyelids. "Can't say senseless things before drinkin', Sheriff," he said, as if "Sheriff" had been a bad word. "Have a glass, it's on the house."
    Daniel came up to the bar and purposefully ignored the glass of watered-down stuff Hank was handing him. "You know perfectly well what I'm talkin' about, Lawson."
    "No," said Hank, all innocence.
    Daniel turned around on the crowd. "Come on, whoever hit that kid, show your face. Or are you a coward on top of it all?"
    Silence and some snickering.
    "Maybe he's in the back with the girls," pointed out Hank. "Wanna go check, Sheriff? You might learn somethin'."
    Daniel stared at him. Stalemate. He turned once again towards the cowhands. "Just what I thought. You don't deserve the name of men. I'm too big to take on, ain't I?"
    A man lifted his eyes from the table he was playing on. "We gotta start with the cattle early tomorrow, Sheriff," he said in an icy voice. "Otherwise we'd show you who's a man."
    There was nothing else to be drawn out of them. Daniel stalked out, fuming, followed by Hank's low laughter.

    Bella gave a solid push into Toby's back, urging him out of the clinic. He looked at her reproachfully. "But Ma, it wasn't my fault!"
    "Sure," she growled.
    "We got a right to go where we please. You 'n' Pa always tell me that."
    She sighed. "We also tell you to use your head, silly," she said in a softer tone. "There's a time to speak an' a time to be silent. You coulda gotten yourself into big trouble."
    "What's the point if it's easy?"
    Bella looked at him with rueful affection. "True. But you're young. Please, wait to be of age for gettin' into trouble again, all right?"
    Grace and Robert E were waiting for them in the street, along with some inhabitants of Shantytown. Dora Mae pushed through the crowd and ran to embrace her little brother. "Toby, you alright?"
    He nodded gruffly, squirming under his tall sister's effusions.
    "What you gonna do now, Bella?" asked Robert E.
    "Little fool here needs a lesson," she answered.
    "You ain't gonna beat him, are you?" asked Grace, alarmed.
    "Never raised a hand on one of my children, Grace," she said sternly. "But I gotta let him know he can't take on the world all by himself."
    "Ya punishin' him fer doin' what we should all do," said another man beside Robert E.
    Bella looked at him sadly. "No, for disobeyin' me. Come, Toby." She urged him on towards the wagon, followed by Dora Mae.

    When Michaela entered the saloon it was dinner time, and there were more people sitting at the tables with a good T-bone than gathering around the bar. She earned some whistles and laughter anyway, which left her unruffled. "I need to talk to you, Hank," she said, her voice ringing.
    Hank sighed. "Somehow I saw this comin'." He straightened up, nodded at his bartender and motioned Michaela towards the back. He let her into his private parlour with a small table and some chairs, made her sit down and leaned on the wall. "So?"
    "You've seen who hit Toby," she said. It was not a question.
    "What if?"
    "You have the moral obligation to denounce him."
    Hank laughed. "I have the - Come on, whatcha talkin' about?"
    "Daniel will just keep him in jail for one night and give him a fine. It's the law, Hank."
    He shrugged. "All this for a punch."
    She stared at him, horrified. "Hank! How can you talk like that? Hitting a boy! I know you would never stoop that low, and I don't understand how you can excuse it!"
    Hank shook his head and went to sit before her. "I can excuse it," he said slowly, looking closely at her, "'cause it was nothin'. No, don't go on. They coulda covered him with pitch an' feathers. Or chased him 'cross the woods. Or hanged him." He held her shocked look. "I know their kind. That crazy kid been lucky to get away so easy."
    "Would you have let them do it?" asked Michaela in a low voice.
    Hank shrugged. "Ain't the point. The point is, you really think I could tell you who hit the kid? People're safe here. Would ya reveal your patients' secrets to everybody?"
    "That's quite another matter!"
    "No, it ain't. It's a matter of trust. I can let everybody in here 'cause people trust me. Hell, I can let you in here, I know nobody would try to get near you, 'cause they know I'd kill 'em. You want me to break this trust once? I could never get it back, Michaela."
    She looked at him with grudging understanding. "So what, Hank? Shall that man get away with it?"
    "He has already," Hank answered.

    Sully, Brian, Matthew and Daniel were waiting outside the saloon. The boy was holding Katie by the hand and reassuring her that the cuts on his knees were nothing bad.
    "What should I have done, Sully?" the sheriff was saying. "Arrest 'em all?"
    Sully shrugged in frustration. "This kinda things always happened. They always will." He lifted his head as Michaela came out. "So?"
    She shook her head. "Nothing. Hank says he can't break the trust of his clients."
    "I'll give him the trust," said Daniel, "I'll have him close the saloon tomorrow, for a coupla days. Next time he'll be more careful of what happens inside it."
    "Good luck," said Sully, bitterly. He nodded a goodbye to Daniel, then gathered his folks and went towards the wagon. Matthew was staying with them for dinner: the day after he was starting with his cattle to ride for some days towards the spring pastures and check the work of his hired cowhands, so he wanted to spend his last evening in Colorado Springs with his family. He had already checked: Toby's offender was not one of his.
    "Pa," Brian said timidly, sitting down in the back.
    Sully turned. "Yes, Brian?"
    "You ain't gonna punish me?"
    "No, I ain't."
    "But Bella's gonna punish Toby. It ain't right."
    Michaela started the horse. Sully said, "Brian, that's between 'em. I think you did nothin' wrong. I only want you to think about what happened today an' draw your conclusion."
    "Shall I write it down?"
    Michaela finally laughed. "No, Brian! Just think about it. There are no easy answers. What you both did was right... yet it turned out wrong, it worried Bella and us and it probably was no use. Should you not have done it?" She sighed. "I don't know."
    Katie, worried by the discussion and by the gloom of her brother, wriggled out of Matthew's arms and snuggled close to Brian, pointing again at his knees as if it was a secret between them.
    "It's all right, Katie," he said, finally smiling.

    The morning after, Daniel waited for the cattlemen to be out of town, then he went to the Gold Nugget to have a good private talk to Hank. He calmly swung the doors and walked up to the bar. "What happened yesterday was unjustifiable, Hank," he said to the man who leaned on the counter, blowing smoke rings. "There mustn't be no places in town where it ain't safe to go for a kid."
    "What if there are?" said Hank without looking at him, sniffing critically at an empty glass.
    "There shouldn't be. Think about it. You have a son, haven't you? What if it had been him?"
    Hank stared at the glass without seeing it. He turned on Daniel a look that made him go cold inside. "That's life," he said. "Now, please, Sheriff, will ya get out? I need to check my accounts."
    "You'll do it with the saloon closed, Hank," Daniel said. Hank didn't react. "I'm sorry, but I just can't tell myself 'that's life'. I have to do somethin' about it, it's my duty. A crime was committed here; the culprit didn't step forward an' you won't help me, but I can't let it go unpunished. I don't wanna damage you too much. Saloon's closed till tomorrow mornin'."
    "Yeah, sure," said Hank.
    "I ain't jokin', Hank."
    "Neither am I."
    The conversation had evolved in low tones. Unaware, the few morning customers kept getting glasses from Hank's bartender, drinking them at the bar or sitting down at a table, flirting with the girls, having a quick round of poker, paying and getting out.
    "All right, folks," Daniel said aloud, "saloon's closed. Finish what you doin' an' get out."
    People stared at him. Some did leave quickly. Some threw a look at Hank and went on with their business. Some went away just because they felt the electricity in the air. Hank was admiring it all with a lazy smile.
    "Cut it, Lawson," said Daniel. "Tell 'em to get out."
    Hank looked straight at him. "Make me."
    Daniel nodded slowly, exasperated. "Very well. Hank Lawson, you're under arrest. Follow me." He went behind the counter and grabbed him by the upper arm. Hank stiffened, and looked at his hand as though he wanted to bite it off.
    "Hank, don't be a fool," said someone from the entrance. Seeing the customers run away, a little group had gathered on the porch. On the door stood Sully and Jake.
    "Don't need your help, Sully!" snapped Daniel, annoyed. If people started to think he wasn't able to do anything without his friend's support, it was the end of his attempt to enforce a vestige of law in Colorado Springs.
    Unfortunately, that seemed just Hank's thought. He looked at Sully - and at Jake, who was expressing Sully's words with the darkest glare he was capable of. He grinned in scorn at Daniel, lifted theatrically his hands and let himself be led across the hall. Daniel threw a look at the moustachioed bartender who had followed expressionless the exchange. "When I come back I want to see this place cleared up."
    They went out in the sun. Hank seemed to be drawing the deepest amusement from the whole situation. Michaela had appeared on the clinic's threshold and stared worriedly at the scene, then followed the crowd, quickly rejoined by Sully.
    Daniel opened the cell and firmly pushed Hank in. "Till tomorrow mornin'," he said. Hank just stared at him with contempt, then sat down on the bench and made himself comfortable.
    His reaction incensed the sheriff even more. He felt Hank was pulling his leg. He felt he was mocking his role - and since he was not inclined to retaliation, he felt helpless. He hung the keys on his belt and strode out.
    The townsfolk were gathered around the jail. "There's nothin' to see," he said, knowing it sounded lame. "Get back to your business."
    The crowd dispersed, until only Sully and Michaela remained.
    "You need a deputy," Sully stated quietly.
    Daniel shook his head. "It would be of no use with him, Sully. I don't know - we seem to have gotten on each other's nerves since my arrival in Colorado Springs. I just don't know how to take him. I act as reasonably as I can, an' he still locks horns with me."
    "You didn't trouble to win his respect, Daniel," said Michaela sadly.
    The sheriff looked at her. "But Dr. Mike, it ain't a question of respect. He must obey me, 'cause I'm the law."
    "Don't be surprised, then." She turned and went back to her clinic.

    During his whole stay in the cell, Hank didn't say a word. When Daniel came to open the door on the following day, he just stretched, gave one of his smirks to the sheriff and strolled away to re-open the Gold Nugget.
    Brian was coming out from Loren's Mercantile to bring a ream of paper to Miss Dorothy before hurrying to school. He saw Bella and Toby stop their wagon in front of the store. The woman got down, gave him a scathing look and got inside. Toby was following her.
    Brian stopped him briefly. "Is it bad?" he asked in a whisper.
    The other boy shrugged. "Not really. Ma got me to help her with Miss Alison's farm, so now she's free to stay some days with her husband up at Fort Skunk while we're mindin' her fields an' cattle." He smiled. "Ain't worse 'n choppin' logs for the Shantytown carpenter."
    Brian smiled too.
    "Toby!" boomed his mother from inside.
    "Yes, Ma..." he said, turning to go.
    Just at that moment, a thunder of hooves made them look back. Two strangers were coming into town. One was a stout, bearded man with a shining star on his jacket. The other stared sullenly at the neck of his horse.
    The lawman stopped in front of Daniel's office. When Daniel came out, he saluted him with two fingers to his hat. "Marshal McDivitt, from Soda Springs," he introduced himself. "Cattlemen gone already?"
    "Yeah, they started yesterday."
    "Damn." McDivitt gave a look to his companion. "Gotta give 'em back one of theirs."
    "Can't have gone too far with the cattle," Brian called, getting closer. "I know the trail. You still can reach 'em easy..."
    Someone was pulling his sleeve. Toby whispered in his ear, "That's him, Brian!"
    "What?"
    "That's the man who hit me. I'm sure, now that I see him."
    Daniel had noticed the exchange. "Who's this man, Marshal?" he asked.
    "Raised a ruckus two nights ago in Soda Springs. Shut him in the cell for the night. Said he was a cowhand - didn't wanna turn him loose 'fore checkin'."
    "Two nights ago?" Brian exclaimed with a perplexed frown.
    "What's the matter, son?" the marshal asked.
    Brian shook his head. Daniel regarded him just as quizzically, then turned to McDivitt. "'Fraid I'll have to detain him," he said. "He's guilty of hitting that kid in the saloon."
    The marshal looked disdainfully at Toby. He shrugged. "Suit yourself. All I want is to have him outta my town." He handed Daniel the reins of the horse, saluted and was off in a cloud of dust.
    The man looked sheepish. Daniel dragged him down from the saddle. "You were at the Gold Nugget two nights ago, before goin' to Soda Springs, weren 't you?" He grabbed him by the collar. "Ain't so cocky anymore, now that we 're one to one? It's you who hit the kid!" The man shot a contemptuous look at Toby, but remained silent. Daniel pushed him towards the cell. "You were a fool to leave the saloon an' get yourself into trouble in another town. Had you simply started off with the others, you'd'a gotten away with it."
    The man could stand it no longer. "I didn't leave the saloon!" he exclaimed. "Damn barkeep threw me out."
    Daniel stared at him. "What?!"
    "Yessir. Just grabbed me an' kicked me in the dirt from the back door. I was so pissed off that I got my horse an' went to Soda Springs, to find a decent place for a man, with no niggers or their friends..."
    "Shut up!" cried Daniel, slamming the metal door. He turned the keys, then looked at the equally astonished Brian and Toby.
    Bella was shouting from the Mercantile. Toby ran after his mother's voice. Brian, his ream of paper still in his arms, sped off in the opposite direction, taking the short cut through the livery and Grace's Cafe. Daniel walked to the bend of the road and stood there, hands on his hips, not quite knowing what to think. On the threshold of the Gold Nugget, Hank was silently looking out. When he saw Daniel, he simply nodded, then stepped back into the shadows.

The End