anything Smoke had ever seen-considering the cumbersome weapons he was using-Parnell I dropped the first sawed-off to the ground and drew the left hand shotgun. The third barrel was reduced to splinters.
“I’m impressed,” Smoke said.
“I’m proud of you, Brother!” Fae said.
“I love you!” Rita yelled.
Hardrock looked close at Parnell and shook his head. “Furst time I ever seen a wolf blush!”
Twenty-Three
“Feel like trying out the new general store?” Cord asked Smoke.
“I thought you’d never ask. I forgot to pick up some tobacco last time in.”
“Ah ... Parnell wants to go along. I refuse to call him Wolf. I just can’t!”
Smoke laughed. “I can’t either. Sure, if he wants to come along. I notice he’s been in the saddle for the last week. He’s turned out to be a pretty good rider.”
“Man is full of surprises. And speaking of surprises, I’m told that we’re all in for a surprise when we see what’s happening, or has happened, to Gibson.”
“Yeah. I hear there’s even a paper.”
“How about your boys?”
“I ordered them to stay close to their ma. They’ll obey me.”
“I’ll put on a clean shirt and meet you out front.”
Cord, Smoke, Parnell, Lujan, Beans, Del, Charlie, and Ring rode into Gibson. A wagon rattled along behind them to carry the supplies back, Cal at the reins. At the edge of town, they reined up and stared in disbelief. The once tiny and sleepy little town was now a full three blocks long and several blocks deep on either side. Many of the new stores were no more than knocked-together sideboards with canvas tops, but it was still a very impressive sight.
“This spells trouble, gentlemen,” Lujan said.
“Yeah,” Charlie agreed, standing up in his stirrups for a moment. “You bet your boots it does.”
“I fail to see how the advancement of civilization, albeit at first glance quite primitive in nature, could be called trouble, Parnell stated.
“That town ain’t filled with nothin’ but trash,” Charlie told him. “Hurdy-gurdy girls, tin-horn hustlers and pimps, two-bit gunslingers, slick-fingered gamblers, and the like. It’s dyin’ while it seems to be growin’. As soon as this war is settled, one way or the other, ninety-nine percent of them down yonder will pull up stakes and haul their ashes. Town will be right back where it started from.”
“How about the one percent that will stay?” Parnell questioned.
“Good point,” Charlie agreed. “Wolf, you stay on top of things down yonder in that town. They’s gonna be a bunch of people eyeballin’ ever move you make. And you gonna get called out. Bet on it.”
“I am aware of that,” the schoolteacher turned gunfighter said. “I am ready to confront whatever comes my way. ”
“Me and you, Parnell,” Beans said, “will have us a cool beer in one of them new saloons. Check things out.”
Parnell glanced at him. “I detest the taste of beer. However, I might have a sarsaparilla.”
The Moab Kid returned the glance. “You go sashayin’ up in a saloon in the middle of a bunch of hardcases and order sodee pop, Parnell, you better be ready for trouble, ’cause it’s shore gonna be comin’ at you.”
“I am aware of that, too.”
“Let’s go,” Smoke said.
The men rode slowly toward the now-crowded street of the West’s newest boom town. The news of their arrival spread as quickly as a prairie fire across dry grass. In less than a minute, the wide street had emptied. No one wanted to be caught in the middle of agu nfight, and that was something that everybody knew might be, probably was, only a careless word away.
As the men rode past the Pussycat, Charlie cut his flint-hard eyes to a stranger sitting on the boardwalk, his chair tilted back. Charlie smiled faintly.
Gonna get real interestin’ around here, Charlie thought.
Ring reined up in front of Hans and dismounted. “I shall be visiting Hilda,” he told them. “I will come immediately if there is trouble.”
Cord, Del, and Cal pulled up in front of the new gener store. “Which one of those new joints are you boys going try?” Cord asked.
“How about Harriet’s House?” Parnell asked. “That sounds quite congenial.”
“Oh, I’m sure it will be,” Beans said. “Harriet always runs a stable out back.”
“Well, then, that will be a convenient place for our horses.”
“A stable of wimmin, Parnell,” Beams told him. “For hire.”
“You mean ... I ... ladies who sell their ... ?”
“Right, Parnell.”
