gun.”
“No, Virgil Earp took it from me. Said there was an ordinance against carrying guns in Tombstone.”
“That doesn’t seem to stop a lot of people.” she said.
“No, it doesn’t, does it?”
“Aren’t you afraid? To be without your gun, I mean. Those cowboys that you shot have some pretty nasty friends.”
“Like Curly Bill and Johnny Ringo?”
“And Ike Clanton and the McLaury brothers: she said.” I see you’ve already heard of them”
“Yes. Bat Masterson warned me about them”
“And you’re not worried?”
“Well, yes. I confess I am, a little. But the law’s the law, isn’t it? And I’ve only just arrived in town. I don’t want to get on the wrong side of a man like Virgil Earp. His brother, Wyatt, already seems to have taken a dislike to me.”
“Oh, that sounds like Wyatt, all right.” she said. “Wyatt’s very protective of his brothers. And to him, any man who wears a gun and uses it the way you do means trouble. And wait till you meet Morgan.”
“Oh? What’s he like? He a lawman. too?”
“He’s a shotgun guard on the Wells Fargo stage. You’ll know him when you see him. Those three Earp brothers look as alike as peas in a pod, but they’re all really very different. Virgil is the steady one. He’s calm- tempered and looks to avoid trouble if he can. Wyatt’s steady, too. I guess, only in a different way. If there’s trouble, he doesn’t waste too many words. He’ll buffalo you with his six-shooter just as soon as look at you “
To “buffalo” someone, Neilson remembered, meant to get the better of him in some way, usually by force. What Jenny was referring to was Wyatt Earp’s penchant for braining miscreants with the barrel of his gun and knocking them unconscious. In a Wild frontier town like Tombstone, it was nothing more than sensible law enforcement. Why give a man a chance to draw his gun if you can crack his skull first and avoid all the unpleasantness?
“And as for Morgan,” Jenny continued, “he’s real hot tempered and can be quite a handful when he’s been drinking. He hangs around with that Doc Holliday a lot. Wyatt and Doc are close friends too, which seems a little strange. I guess, seeing as they’re so different Wyatt doesn’t drink at all and Doc drinks quite excessively. When him and Morgan have had a few too many, watch out!”
“I’ll try to remember that.” said Scott. “May I offer you some wine?”
“Oh. thank you. no.” She hesitated. “Well, maybe just a smidgen? It goes to my head so.”
Scott smiled and signaled the waiter for another glass.
“Anyway,” Jenny went on. “Morgan? He only gets riled when he’s had a few too many, but that Doc Holliday, he’s got a real short fuse. You wouldn’t think it to look at him, him so frail and sickly and coughing all the time-he’s got consumption, you know-but he’s a real killer. They say he’s one of the deadliest men with a six-shooter in the whole Southwest.”
“Really? You seem to know a lot about the people in this town.”
She blushed and looked down. “You must think I’m an awful gossip.”
“No. I don’t. Just that I’m new in town and it’s useful to hear such things. Might help me stay out of trouble.”
“Seems to me like you’ve already found some. With Slim and Jack, I mean. Not that anybody’s going to miss them overmuch. They were rustlers, you know. Real troublemakers.”
“I gather there’s a lot of rustling going on around here,” Neilson said.
“
Oh, yes. And there’s a lot who don’t mind it. They can get their cattle and their horses cheaper when they’re rustled up from Mexico. Or from one of the bigger spreads around here. People don’t ask a lot of questions when they’re getting a bargain. Course, the big ranchers, they don’t like it one bit, but they don’t have all that much to say about it. The rustlers don’t bother the smaller ranches and they usually get a real welcome there. And they never cause much trouble in town, either. At least they didn’t until lately.”
“Oh? What changed things?”
“Well, there’s a lot of money in this town right now. It’s growing bigger every day. And that’s a lot of bullion going out on the two stage lines. That can be real tempting for some people who don’t have too many scruples.”
Jenny downed her “smidgen” of wine in one quick gulp and held her glass out for more as she spoke. Scott refilled it.
“So you’re saying the town’s attracting a bad element?”
“Oh, there’s no doubt about that! Sheriff Johnny Behan? You run into him yet?”
“No, I can’t say I have.”
“Well, you ask me, he’s one of them. He’s a real handsome man, though his hair’s thin on top, and he goes around like he’s God’s gift to women. He’s good friends with Ike Clanton and his bunch. And his deputy, Billy Breakenridge, he’s not much better. Sadie calls him Billy Blab, because he talks so much and is real full of himself.”
“Sadie?”
— Oh, that’s right. you wouldn’t know her. Actually, her name is Josephine, but her middle name is Sarah so her close friends call her Sadie. She used to be Johnny Behan’s girl, only now she’s with Wyatt and there’s been bad blood between the two men ever since. See, her daddy paid for her to build this house in town when she was engaged to Johnny, only now Johnny’s on the outs with her and she’s with Wyatt, but Johnny owns the lot the house is standing on and one night, he came to, try and dispossess her. Only Morg was there and he knocked Johnny clear off the front porch.”
“Sounds like things keep jumping around here.” Neilson said, with a smile. He refilled Jenny’s glass as she held it out again for another smidgen. “I just might stick around a while.”
“What brings you to Tombstone, Scott? If you don’t mind my asking, that is.”
“No. I don’t mind. I came looking for some friends of mine. Only I found out they’d been killed. Maybe you knew them. Ben Summers. Josh Billings and Joe McEnery?”
“Oh. My, yes!” she said. “They were friends of yours? It was an awful thing, what happened. They were real gentlemen, all three of them, always so nice and so polite. Never pawing at you like a lot of men do. Ben and Josh were always friendly, but Joe was kind of sweet on me. He used to sneak over sometimes to see me, when the others weren’t around. See, they were all supposed to be saving up to buy a ranch together out in Oklahoma and he didn’t want the other two to know that he was spending any of it on me.
“I see,” said Scott. What he hadn’t wanted them to know was that he was going to a hooker. That son of thing was against regulations, though it was known to happen. Observers were only human, after all, and long-tem postings had their hardships.
“You don’t approve of me.” she said.
“No. I wouldn’t say that. A girl has to make a living. I’d say that Joe McEnery had good taste.”
She lowered her eyes demurely. “It’s sweet of you to say that, Scott.”
“Did you see Joe often?”
“Every now and then.”
“Did he ever say anything about anyone in town he might be worried about? Someone he had trouble with, perhaps, or someone new in town who looked suspicious to him?”
“Well, he did ask some questions, once or twice,” she replied. “He seemed curious about that Mr. Drake and a few others.”
“Mr. Drake?”
“Oh, well, he had a room right here in this hotel, but he checked out and left town. Nathan Drake, his name was, a rich man from hack East somewhere. He came out here looking to make some investments, like a lot of people do. He wasn’t interested in silver, I don’t’ think, just property, only he didn’t find anything here that suited him. Then there was that Mr. Stone, from San Francisco. Joe was curious about him, as well. He’s a gambler and you can find him most nights in the
Oriental or the Alhambra He’s new in town, only came in a few weeks ago. And Zeke
Bailey. Joe asked about him, as well. Zeke’s a gunsmith, works for Mr. Spangenberg at his shop over on
