that his assumptions are correct. The soldiers are listed by name and the debt owed recorded along with a payment schedule of monies to be deducted from wages over future months. At an active, frontier post like this one extending such credit, Kohn imagines, could be a risk for the sutler. Men are killed or die by accident with some frequency and the sutler, thus, would take a loss on the debts of dead men but no robbing sutler worth his salt would do it if it were not profitable and Kohn sees debts of more than a month’s salary owed in the ledger. This seems startling to him at first and his pulse rises with the possible discovery but soon he realizes there is little to his theory to be found in these pages. He continues to scan the columns, flipping through the pages. The largest debt he sees is sixteen dollars, though this is only a dollar and a half more than the next largest. There are eight or nine soldiers owing thirteen odd and many more owing ten or less. He realizes that the fort has not been established long enough for the soldiers to have accrued debts so large as to be a motive for murder.
From the doorway, Jonathan says, “Things stop outside. They are standing down now.”
Kohn curses under his breath.
“The boys on they way back, Jewman. They gonna string you and the Injun up and feed you to the wolves, you black-hearted sonofabitch.”
“Shut your mouth or I’ll stuff that goddamned mallet in it,” Kohn says, opening the last ledger now. He looks over to Jonathan. “How long?”
“Not long. Or we fight again.” There is something in his voice that tells Kohn he would relish the chance.
Kohn quickly scans the names and the pages in the third ledger and is confused at first. Like the first book, this ledger lists individual purchases but they are almost always the same. He recognizes one name from the two previous ledgers and traces his finger along the lines to discover that the debtor had bought on the 19th of August: Whiskey and 1 hr, Martha. On another date: Whiskey x 2 jugs, 1/2 hour Martha, $14 total. Kohn realizes that before him is the debt ledger from the sutler’s off-post brothel. The debts here are, in many cases, larger than in the first two books. He smiles.
“I’ll be taking this one,” he says, closing it and slipping it into his tunic.
“I can’t collect out that one any goddamn way. They ain’t official owings. The rest I can collect.”
“These?” Kohn asks, standing, holstering his revolver, picking up the first two ledgers.
“Yeah, them. You gon’ go now or you gon’ stay and meet the boys?”
“Oh, I’d like to meet them, I would. Jonathan would especially, though none of you nativists have much in the way of scalps worth taking.”
“I’ll be seeing you again, Jewman.”
“I’ll be expecting it. You just get yourself better first and then we’ll have a fine old time. A dandy scrap.”
“You just leave them books there. And we’ll set a time and a place for you to meet your Jew god.”
“Sadly, we share the same god, smithy. And He does not give a penny fuck for you or me.”
“You just leave down them books or—”
“These books?” Kohn says again, holding them up.
“Yeah . . .” There is fear now on Sweetman’s face. Genuine worry for the first time since Kohn and Jonathan entered the shop. The smith knows what is coming.
“Here?” Kohn says. “Leave them here? Or what about here, bub?”
Kohn nods at the forge and smiles at the smith. From the doorway, Jonathan says, “They are coming now. Through the gate. His men.”
The smith says, “No, there ain’t no need for . . . you seen what you need to see. Just set them two books down and take the other. You—”
“Growing up, you know, Corporal, books brought me nothing but rum consternation. And now look at what they’ve brought you . . .” Kohn turns and works the forge’s bellows, bringing the fire to a roar. He then tosses the two ledgers into the flames and almost immediately they begin to smolder and then, in an instant, ignite in the intense heat.
“You fucker. You pig-fucker, I’ll—”
“You should have shown them to me like I asked, you fool. You’d be twenty sheets richer and still have the books. Live and learn, mein fraynd. Live and learn.”
Kohn resists the urge to knock the smith off the bench