As soon as the stores opened up, Caleb went to the post office to send out telegrams to as many lawmen as he could reach, while Luke took it upon himself to contact several important town officials personally. By late morning, both men had been to several locations in Stevensville—including the fairgrounds—telling the locals to come to church that night for a secret meeting, after everything was closed down.
Word spread quickly, and by the time Luke and Caleb had spoken to more people than they could count, it was almost time to go to the meeting. Caleb left to go to the church while Luke stayed behind near the horse barn. He waited until he was certain that they’d left. This meeting could only be held in secretif the apparent horse thieves had gone to their hiding spot in the woods.
It had gotten dark hours before, and Luke was exhausted, but he couldn’t relax just yet. This was one of the most important things he had ever done during his time as the sheriff in this town.
As he rode toward the gloomy church building, it looked completely deserted. There was no horse or carriage in sight.
This didn’t look promising.
Stepping toward the back door, Luke was almost surprised to be greeted by the priest himself, who welcomed him with open arms—quite literally—when he silently rushed him inside the presbytery, quietly shutting the door behind him.
Luke felt a little awkward and thought that he needed to say something, to apologize for his absence, but the clergyman didn’t give him enough time, anyways. Instead, he lit a small candle and guided Luke through the sanctuary, leading toward the nave.
Luke was nervous and agitated. He didn’t know what to expect. He worried that nobody had come to this meeting and that the entire church would be empty.
It wasn’t.
When the priest stepped in front of the altar, he held his candle up high, and the single flame illuminated the large room enough for Luke to see.
The church was packed—one might sayup to the rafters. Luke saw faces tightly lined up in all of the pews, in the aisle, and along the outside walls on both sides, all the way to the big entrance door. People sat there waiting in the dark without making a single hushed sound.
Luke was overcome by such gratitude and awe he almost choked. He had not expectedthis. Speechless, he looked around, deeply moved as he nodded to several people in the crowd.
“So! What is this secret meeting about?” an older gentleman somewhere in the middle asked with a half-whisper. “I’m late for my supper!” Quiet laughter and snickering went through the rows, and the initial tension was broken.
“Thank you all for coming,” Luke began solemnly. “I appreciate every single one of you.” Then he turned to the priest. “We can light some candles, it’s safe now.”
“What does that mean?” a woman exclaimed. “Were we not safe before?”
While only very few candles were lit, Luke began to explain the current situation. Given that most of the townsfolkknew about the persistent problem with the raiding horse thieves and murders in the region, he didn’t find much resistance. Everybody was keen to help and to better the situation for the good of all of Stevensville and its surrounding residents.
“We followed a group last night,” Luke explained. “We suspect them to be the gang members involved with the main criminal activity around here. Some of them are taking part in the horse auction, and these horses might be the ones that were stolen during the last attack near the Fallon Ranch.”
“Scumbags! We need to stop them!” someone yelled, clearly outraged. Others joined in.
“How do we do that, if there are so many of them?” another worried-sounding woman asked. “We can’t go after them like a wild mob with pitchforks and pickaxes!”
“Why not?” a younger man asked as he stood up from his place in the middle of the seating area, looking around. “Why the heck not? They don’t deserve to be treated kindly!”
Several voices piped up, all talking over each other. Some were on the woman’s side, but most were in agreement with the young man.
“We need to raise an army to bring them down!” another one yelled. “I’m in! Sign me up, Sheriff!”
“Whenever you need me, Sheriff! Just let me know where and when!” someone else exclaimed.
“Hallelujah!” came from somewhere in the back. “May the Lord bless all these fine young men!” That comment earned overall agreement from the entire gathering.
And just like that, Luke watched in awe as numerous men, young and old, stood up or raised their hands to confirm their commitment to help. Looking at the overall number, he was more than impressed by the willingness of these people to step in.
“Yeah! When are we going after them?” a person in the back yelled.
“We should get them the day before the horse auction,” Caleb said as he stepped next to Luke. “We can’t risk them disappearing after that.”
“That would be the day after the dance.” Luke nodded, then he spoke to the congregation again. “I needed to see if we had all of your support first. Now that it’s confirmed, we will come up with a well-thought-out plan on how to proceed. We might have additional support from several other lawmen in the territory as well. If it’s all right with Father David, everybody who will join us on the night when we go to capture these criminals should come back here around noon on the day before the horse auction.”
A large part of the people agreed, once again.
As quiet as these people had been on Luke’s arrival, the louder they were when they left. Apparently, most of them parked their horses and carriages inside and behind surrounding buildings. Caleb had done a great job in instilling in them that this was a secret meeting, but on their way out, a lot of them voiced their opinions and outrage about the news that the horse thieves were still around.
