Give My All to Jessie (Third in Outlaw Series)

Chapter Three

"Life is the cruelest kind of teacher. It gives us the test before finally presenting us with the lesson"

"Thank you, sir." Langly said that evening as the lawman slid a tray of food through the opening in the bars of Langly's cell.

"I've never had an inmate be so polite." the lawman said with amusement and Langly shrugged.

"I was raised to have respect." he replied. Though today had taught him a valuable lesson on who deserved his respect. The lawman walked away and Langly carried his tray of slop to the cot in the corner and sat down. The shock was wearing off and in its place was anger and fear. Anger that his uncle had left him that way and fear because he was now alone.

Three months he had to stay in this cell. That's what the lawman had told him anyhow. He knew he could get bailed out sooner but there was no way he was going to ask his mama or pa for that money. He didn't want them knowing he was in jail because that would kill his poor mama.

Langly took a bite of the sludgy looking stew and grimaced. He had a feeling he was going to be losing weight while he was locked up in here. He realized then that he hadn't said his prayer before taking a bite but frankly right now he didn't see that much to be thankful for. His leg still burnt like fire even though the doc had said it was just a graze and nothing to worry about.

Thinking of that made Langly remember the time he had shot Marston in the arm when his mama had been sick and Marston had come back after months of being gone. Langly had been scared to death that he'd killed the man but Marston had shrugged it off and acted as if it were nothing. If his pa could be that tough then so could Langly.

Langly stomached what he could of his horrible dinner and then sat the tray on the table and laid back on his cot with his hands folded behind his head. Maybe tomorrow he could get the lawman, Deputy Yawn, to give him some of his books out of his saddlebags to read and help pass the time. Langly chuckled at the mans name.... Yawn. Nothing like warning people about your personality flaws at the same time as you introduced yourself.

He heard the big door to the back of the jail open and then there was the deputy.

"I'm here for your plate kid and it's lights out." he said. "You know I could let you out of here sooner if you'd tell me who was robbing that bank and where I could find them." he added and Langly handed him the tray. Langly was more tempted to rat out his uncle than he had ever been tempted by anything in his life but he knew he couldn't. Langly was a better man than that.

"I already told you that I know nothing." he replied as he turned his back and walked back to his cot. The lawman sighed and shook his head.

"They left you for dead." he reminded him.

"I know that, sir, I don't need to be reminded." The deputy just ran his free hand over his wrinkled face and then walked away, turning off the lone kerosene lamp in the hallway. Langly lay there in the darkness and listened to the sound of the doors to the jail being locked and he could hear the deputy whistling as he walked away down the road.

Langly wasn't sure how long he lay there. It could have been minutes or it could have been hours. Betrayal was a painful pill to swallow, he decided. He had known that his uncle was a mean man when it came to most people but he had thought deep down that the man cared about him. He supposed that's what Jeremiah had meant when he'd said that Langly trusted too easily. He'd never make that mistake again, at least not where his backstabbing uncle was concerned.

Langly was beginning to drift off to sleep when he heard a hissing outside the barred window on the wall across his cell. He listened closely but didn't hear anything else so he just assumed it was nothing. He closed his eyes again and the again he heard the hissing.