Lost Man's River(239)

That’s a big country down there, so Carr must of had a rough idea where he was headed. But why he would take that hard overland journey is a mystery, unless he was aimin to make sure that there weren’t no bodies layin out in the Shark River savannas where turkey buzzards might find ’em, maybe draw some Injuns that was out huntin. Wouldn’t want to go in there by river in case he might run across the Hardens, who was out searchin for them bodies, too. The difference was, the Hardens had nothin to hide. They was searchin for sign along the edges of the creeks in broad open daylight. They wanted to find their boys, take ’em home for burial. I reckon Carr wanted to bury ’em for good right where they lay.

Them Hardens had a heavy cross to bear, and we all felt bad about it. Lee Harden lost his oldest boy, and Earl did, too. Earl could be likable, but he was hard. All his life, he seemed kind of discontented, and he complained a lot as he grew older. Rounder than Lee, a little shorter, but not fat. Lee was a big man, and he looked real tough and craggy with that ax-scarred face, but he was easygoing, he could laugh at himself, which Earl could never do. All the same, nobody messed with Lee, because when he drank, he had that dangerous temper.

For a few years, Lee come up to Everglade and haunted them young Carrs. Never harassed ’em directly, just anchored his boat in the river off Carrs’ fish house. Couldn’t shoot ’em only on suspicion—though men done a lot just on suspicion, back in them days! Never called out, never said a word, like he was studying on what to do and had probably come to the right place to do it. That big boat anchored out front was Lee’s way of saying that Carrs and Hardens had unfinished business, and it might of been what caused one of ’em to crack.

Well, the truth finally come out, like Sally says. The Carr boys said they never meant to shoot, they was just nervous, and when Wilson Harden heard somethin and reared up under his miskeeter bar, a gun went off. They claimed they thought the Harden boys was up and shootin so they fired—a pure case of self-defense, to hear Carrs tell it. They admitted they run down Roark in the swamp, admitted they was shriekin at each other, tryin to decide what they should do, because Roark Harden wasn’t likely to forget what he had witnessed.

Those Harden boys was angry wild young fellers, no doubt about it, but Walker Carr’s boys, they weren’t angels neither. One of ’em was always fidgetin his eyes, and I reckon he’s still doin that today. Got so you always had to watch what was laying around loose—life weren’t never that way in the old days.

Whatever them Carr boys done or didn’t do, they are the ones who has to live with it, die with it, too. But it was a shame, the way they killed that poor young feller beggin for his life—that was the part that ate at Turner Carr. Said shootin Roark Harden while he crawled away was the worstest thing he ever had to do. Well, I sure hope so!

I won’t speak for Owen Carr, but I known Turner all my life and I don’t believe he ever bragged about that killin. Nosir, he was real upset and very close to tears just in the tellin of it—this was two years later! Told me that all they wanted was their coonskins, and how when one boy got shot by mistake, they went ahead because they could not leave a witness. I warned young Turner that he better keep his mouth shut, pray for forgiveness, but he could not stop talkin—not braggin, the way Sally tells it, only talkin, like confessin his sins over and over was his only hope of getting shut of what they done.

After the news got out, the whole Bay hunkered down, expectin trouble. The guns come out every time them Harden men come up from Lost Man’s, and them young Carrs was pretty hard to find.

Outside of their family, most people took that coonskin story with some salt. Roy Thompson who married my cousin Ernestine, he fished with Lee Harden for some years, and fished with one of them Carr brothers, too, so he heard the inside story from both sides. Roy Thompson told me he did not believe them Hardens stole no coon hides. Whether he’d say that to the Carrs, I just don’t know.

What it comes down to, the Carr boys knew that no matter what, the community was behind ’em. There weren’t no law south of Caxambas, that was understood by everybody, Sheriff included. Carrs knew they could take the law in their own hands, like was done with Guy Bradley and the Rice boys and Ed Watson and a lot of other men who come to a bad end down in this country.

Like I say, Earl and Lee was tough old boys, and crack shots, too. Robert Harden was an old feller by that time, might not of known what he was shootin at but could still hit it if you got him pointed in the right direction. Even the women in that clan were as handy with shootin irons as they were with hoes. Besides that, they had Webster Harden, who usually finished what he started, and a feller named Watson right next door who could shoot as good as any of ’em and maybe better. Altogether, that was not a gang you would want to mess with.