“And you’re the gun-hand called Smoke.”
“That’s what I’m called.”
“You boys plannin’ on stayin’ long?”
Smoke turned his dark eyes on the sheriff and let them smolder for a few seconds. “Long enough.”
The sheriff had seen more than his share of violence; he had seen more shootings, knifings, and hangings than he cared to remember. He had known, and known personally, men of violence: Clay Allison, Wild Bill, and others who were just as mean — or meaner — but never gained the reputation. But something in this young man’s eyes made the sheriff back up a step, something he had never done before. And he silently cursed that one step.
“I heard what happened to Casey,” the sheriff spoke in low tones. “Nothing like that is going to happen in this town. Don’t start trouble here.”
Smoke suddenly smiled boyishly and disarmingly. “You don’t mind if we buy some supplies, have a few hot meals, and rest for a day or two, do you, sheriff? Take a hot bath?”
“Speak for yourself on that last part,” Preacher said.
“Confine yourselves to doing that,” the sheriff said, then brushed past the men.
“That lawman’s salty, Smoke,” Preacher observed correctly.
“But he backed up,” the young man replied.
“Yep. They’s something ’bout you that’ll make a smart man get away from you. And that worries me, some.”
“Why?”
“Might mean I ain’t too smart.”
They stabled their horses and told the stable boy to rub them down and give them grain. They went across the street to a small cafe and had steak, boiled potatoes, and apple pie for twenty-five cents apiece.
“These prices,” Preacher opined, “this feller’ll be retired in a month.”
As if by magic, the cafe had emptied of customers with the arrival of the buckskin-clad men. But when the regular diners — who, Smoke observed, ate for fifteen cents each — saw the pair meant no harm, the cafe once more filled with diners.
“Coffee’s weak,” Preacher hitched, as he sucked at his fourth cup.
“Any coffee that won’t float a horseshoe,” Smoke said grinning at him, “you’d claim was weak.”
“True. What’s your plan this time?”
“Check in at the hotel, then get some chairs and sit out front, watch the people pass by.”
“Wait for them to come to us, eh?”
“That’s right.”
“And ifn they force our hand, the sheriff can’t bring no charges agin us for defendin’ ourselves.”
“That is correct.”
Preacher ordered another piece of apple pie and another cup of coffee. “To be so young, Smoke, you shore got a sneaky streak in you.”
“It’s the company I’ve been keeping for the past four years.”
“Might have something to do with it, I reckon.”
For two days Smoke and Preacher waited and relaxed in town, causing no trouble, keeping to themselves. Smoke bathed twice behind the barber shop, and Preacher told him ifn he didn’t stop that he was gonna come down with some dreadful illness.
The mountain man and the gunfighter were civil to the men, polite to the ladies. Some of the ladies batted their eyes and swished their bustled fannies as they passed by Smoke.
“You boys sure takin’ your time buyin’ supplies,” the sheriff noted on the second day.
“We like to think things through ’fore buyin’,” Preacher told him. “Smoke here is a right cautious man with a greenback. Might even call him tight.”
The sheriff didn’t find that amusing. “You boys wouldn’t be waiting for Ackerman to make a move, would you?”
“Ackerman?” Smoke looked at the sheriff. “What is an Ackerman?”
The sheriffs smile was grim. “What do you boys do for a livin’? I got a law on the books about vagrants.”
“I’m retired,” Preacher told him. “Enjoyin’ the sunset of my years. Smoke here, he runs a string of horses on his ranch up to Brown’s Hole.”
“You’re a long way from Brown’s Hole.”
“Right smart piece for shore.”
“I ought to run you both out of this town.”
“Why?” Smoke asked. “On what charge? We haven’t caused you any trouble.”
“Yet.” The sheriff’s back was stiff with anger as he strode away. The man knew a setup when he saw one, and this was a setup.
But his feelings were mixed. He owed Ackerman and his bunch of rowdies nothing — they were all troublemakers. Ackerman swung no wide political loop in this country. And there were persistent rumors that
