From off on one of the high points, there were now a couple of rifle shots. We looked in that direction, and a minute later Ilya galloped down to speak excitedly to Rostov. Rostov then sent him back where he’d been on lookout, slapping his pony on the rump to speed him on his way. Turning to us he said, “Some of Verushki’s men had circled and were coming in from the far south side to examine our camp. They didn’t make it.”
“The two shots?” Shad asked.
“They wounded one man and shot another’s horse out from under him.”
“That,” Old Keats said dryly, “is really nifty.”
Shad nodded. “It is. An’ this is the time, right now on top a’ that, t’ send our men in just like we planned, big as brass an’ twice as shiny.”
“Yes,” Rostov agreed. “But after the incident this morning, today will be an even more difficult time.” He paused. “My four men will be Lieutenant Bruk, Kirdyaga, Vody and Yakov.”
Rostov moved back to speak to his men and Shad thought hard for a moment. Volunteers were suddenly out, and he was considering which of us he would send.
At last Shad said, “The four of us who are goin’ are Old Keats, Big Yawn, Shiny an’ Link.”
The other three, without a word one way or the other, started to get ready. But Shiny just stood without moving, staring down at the ground.
“Well?” Shad said.
Shiny cleared his throat slightly and looked up at Shad. “They been hangin’ our friends an’ we just shot one a’ them. Maybe dead, maybe not.” He hesitated. “An’ now, with all that trouble goin’ on, some a’ us cowboys an’ some cossacks’re supposed t’ ride into that town big as life.”
Shad didn’t answer, waiting for him to go on.
“I hate t’ remind ya’ about this again”—Shiny frowned—“but me an’ Link ain’t exactly typical.”
“Nobody said ya’ were,” Shad told him flatly. “Get mounted.”
As Shiny moved resentfully off, it occurred to me that Yawn wasn’t exactly typical either. He was by far the biggest man in our outfit, like Kirdyaga was among the cossacks. And it further occurred to me that next to Sergeant Nick, Vody and Yakov were the biggest and toughest-looking men among them. So Rostov had chosen the three roughest, most spine-chilling customers in his whole outfit to go into town with Bruk on this particular day.
Shad and Rostov were both stacking their small going-into-town decks with the largest, meanest-looking, most untypical men they had. And in favor of Shad’s decision making, Shiny and Link were not only Negro, but both of them topped six feet and weighed in at a long way over two hundred pounds. In addition, if you didn’t know them, and therefore know how gentle they really were, they just happened to look as fierce as wet wildcats.
The four men now led up their horses, and Shiny said quietly, “Me an’ Link goin’ ’cause we’re niggers?”
“Partly,” Shad said.
“Hell, boss!” Shiny grumbled as he and the others swung up on their horses. “You’re gettin’ rid a’ your fuckin’ misfits!”
“Who you callin’ a misfit?” Big Yawn growled.
But right then Shad had already grabbed the bit on Shiny’s mare Ginger, so that she wasn’t about to move without getting her jaw broken. And the funny thing was that as he did this he wasn’t even mad so much as he was kind of saddened. Holding Ginger motionless he said quietly, “Ya’ feel that way, get off. I’ll send somebody else.”
But Shiny wasn’t yet quite ready to get down. He sat in the saddle, frowning vaguely, as though he had a feeling he’d done something wrong but didn’t know exactly what.
Keats, who had mounted to lead the others off, turned and spoke with more anger than I’d ever heard in his voice before. “Shiny!”
Every eye there jerked around to him, and he went on as hard as before, every word slamming against Shiny like a clenched fist. “You think Shad’d send you ’cause you’re a nigger? Who went night b’fore last?”
Shiny’s gaze winced and narrowed under those battering words.
“You’re goin’ ’cause you’re a good man an’ thank God black! You an’ Link’ll be outstandin’ as hell! Like Big Yawn here, who’ll stand about a foot an’ a half taller than anybody there!” Keats took a quick, angry breath. “Shad’s sendin’ you three with me ’cause he thinks you’re the most all-round impressive bastards t’ go along on this first, hard day!”
Shiny’s low voice just barely hung on. “Won’t do nothin’,” he muttered, “made t’ feel like a dumb, black nigger sonofabitch.”
For some reason, Shiny was really hurting, and we all looked at him, puzzled.
With a frowning, genuine innocence, his brother, Link, said, “Nobody’s made me feel like a dumb, black nigger sonofabitch.”
As one of the chosen three, uncomfortable, and with nothing better to say just then, Big Yawn rumbled, “Me neither.”
Slim was quiet but about equally as sore as Old Keats. They both felt that Shad’s fairness was in question. “Civil War’s finished these fifteen years, Shiny. Slavery abolished an’ all. An’ you still think, either way, whether you’re picked or not picked, you’re bein’ picked on!”
Rostov’s four cossacks were mounted and waiting, and it was easy for them to see that we had some kind of problem, so Shad cut it short. He twisted the bit in his hand just slightly, so that Shiny’s mare was damned ready and willing to back away and sit down. “I told ya’ t’ get off, Shiny, and I’ll send somebody else.”
“Easy, boss, ya’ might hurt her.”
“I won’t hurt her. I’ll just get on the saddle when you finally get off.”
And then, with Shiny’s mare Ginger about to be forced down on her haunches, Shiny said the damnedest thing to Shad. “Did you ever say I was a dumb, black nigger sonofabitch?”
“No! But I’ll say it right now, you dumb, nigger sonofabitch!”
Somehow that suddenly turned things around. Shiny said “Okay” in such an easy way that Shad damnere let go of Ginger’s bit, and she reared back up to a full standing position.
Knowing Shad the way I did, I couldn’t see any reason for it, but Shiny repeated the question. “You never said that?”
“I just now did!” Shad told him flatly, still holding the bit and controlling the mare.
I looked at Shiny, who knew that Shad couldn’t tell him anything but the truth. And for maybe the first and the last time I had a brief, fleeting look then into Shiny’s mind, which was both at once so smart and yet so innocent, and even more, so terribly hardened, that it would be the first to collapse under a gentle pressure of kindness.
And Shad, not trying to be kind, was so. “If you an’ me don’t know what the hell we’re talkin’ about,” he said gruffly, “then there ain’t no goddamn sense in the whole world. So what are you talkin’ about a dumb, nigger sonofabitch for?”
Shiny had a hard time asking. “Am I goin’ into that town as a nigger or as a man?”
“That’s up t’ you.” Shad’s quiet voice still cut hard as an ax. “And don’t never question me on that again. Because if ya’ have t’ ask about bein’ a man, then you already said the answer.”
Shiny took this in, and understood. “Boss,” he said, “if you don’t let go a’ that bit, it’ll be harder’n hell for me t’ ever make it t’ town with them fellas.”
Our other three men now moved off to join the cossacks, who were starting up over the hill toward Khabarovsk.