Free Sunset Trail by Wayne D. Overholser Page B

inaugurated in Kansas?”
    “Which quote do you have in mind?” Wyatt asked.
    “The best one,” Henry said. “ ‘The people are greater than the law or the statutes, and, when a nation sets forth its heart
     on doing a great or a good thing, it can find a legal way to do it.’ I think that’s the way it goes.”
    Wyatt nodded. “Correct. Yes, I plan to use it. You know, Tom, these Amity people are doing a worthwhile thing and they’re
     doing it themselves. Dugan says they’ve borrowed the money to build the dam and dig the main canal, and they’ve already started
     work. Any of us, Populist or Democrat or Republican, would approve of it.”
    “Sure,” Henry said, “but it gravels me that they asked you to make the speech and then they tell you it has to be non-political.”
    “They wanted the governor of the state of Colorado,” Wyatt said, “and they invited him in spite of his being a Populist. They
     have land to sell. This will give them free publicity and it will do the same for me.”
    “But you won’t get a damned vote out of it,”
    Henry said hotly. “They may even shoot you before you leave town.”
    Wyatt smiled. “Oh, come now, Tom. You don’t really believe that.”
    “They might,” Henry said doggedly. “You’ll have a hostile audience. Even Dugan admitted that.”
    “Matt Dugan is an honest man for a banker,” Wyatt said. “Cussing me and shooting me are two different things. On the other
     hand, I know some men in Denver, rich men, who would shoot me if they could figure out a way to do it and not get caught.
     The interesting part of it is that they honestly think they would be saving the state by removing me before I bankrupt it.”
    Henry swore under his breath. “It doesn’t make any sense, Governor. We did not bring on the Panic of 1893, but we get the
     blame for it.”
    “I know,” Wyatt said wearily. “If I could have persuaded the legislature to give me what I wanted, I could have prevented
     some of the suffering that took place, but you know what happened.”
    Henry was silent for a moment, his worried gaze fixed on Wyatt’s face, then he burst out: “Governor, you can’t go to Amity
     tomorrow.”
    Wyatt smiled. “Are we back on that again?”
    “Well. . . .” Henry swallowed. “I mean, you’re scheduled for a speech in Colorado Springs the day after tomorrow. It’s going
     to be nip and tuck if we make it. We’d better send word. . . .”
    “Tom, when did our relationship reach such a low point that you have to lie to me?” Wyatt asked. “You take care of the scheduling.
     You’ve done a good job up to now. I find it hard to believe that suddenly you find you’ve committed a grave error just as
     we are about to arrive in Burlington.”
    Henry stared at his hands that were fisted on his lap. “I guess I’m a coward, Governor. I wanted to spare you this and I kept
     hoping that something would happen that would prevent you from going to Amity in the morning. I guess I’d better show you
     a letter that came today.”
    Henry reached into his inside coat pocket and drew out an envelope and handed it to Wyatt who glanced at the address. The
     words Tom Henry, Secretary to the Governor, Denver, Colorado, were printed in pencil. He looked up. “Tom, we’ve had death threats before, if that’s what this is.”
    “Go on,” Henry said. “Look at it.”
    Wyatt shrugged and took the folded sheet of paper from the envelope. He had always looked upon any death threat as the work
     of some crackpot who thought he could be scared into withdrawing from the race. He refused to think this was anything else.
    The message was printed in pencil on a sheet of cheap tablet paper similar to the kind any child would use in school. Wyatt
     read: Plans are complete to murder Governor Wyatt in Amity when he arrives to speak on Dam Day. It is too late now to call it off, so see that he does not come.
    “I know,” Henry said when Wyatt looked at him.
    “I should