I watched Street lumber up the stairs toward Rosie’s suite at the rear, and knew that he’d have Crayfish in tow when he returned. But it took a while, and when Crayfish showed up, Street wasn’t with him, and I found myself wishing I’d come a few hours later. Crayfish was buck naked, walking down them stairs to the parlor. Bare-ass naked and yawning.
“Well? This better be good,” he said.
It ain’t easy being sheriff sometimes, and this was one of them. Somehow, he was forcing me to think up what I wanted to say.
“I’m here to tell you that no one wears sidearms or carries any sort of weapon at the hanging tomorrow. Any of your men are carrying, my deputies will throw them into my jail and they’ll stay there until they pay the fine for disturbing the peace. And it’ll take a month before I’ll give them their sidearms back. Get that?”
Crayfish, he just scratched his hairy chest with his hairy arm. “Good luck,” he said, and smiled.
“You got the word,” I said.
He yawned. “You shouldn’t have got me up. Now I’ll go pester Rosie, who likes her beauty sleep, and the whole day will be off to a bad start.”
He started up the stairs, and I watched his skinny butt vanish, and got out of there.
Next stop would be the hotel. I started up Wyoming Street, and I swear there was a mess of eyes focused on me, stares coming at me from shadowed doorways, windows, alleys, and from the plank walks in front of the stores. I never felt so looked-at in all my days. That was all right. Let them see the law walking up Wyoming Street. Let them know the law was still keeping the peace in Doubtful. For the moment anyway. That was the thing about this day. Peaceful one moment, but what about the next?
Still, it was sunny and cheerful, so I walked past all them lounging riders and gunslicks, and pretty quick I was at the hotel. I found Admiral Bragg and Queen in the dining room, like I’d hoped. They was just finishing up so I headed for their table.
Queen gave me a cold stare and lifted that chin of hers a notch or two. This was the other Queen, the one when her pa was ruling the roost. I didn’t see the slightest nod, not the smallest signal that she remembered the night before, and the hug, and the tears she shed that flowed down my cheek.
“Want to talk to you, Mr. Bragg. Tomorrow, I’m forbidding sidearms at the courthouse square and anywhere else in town. We’re gonna keep the peace here. Any rider wearing a sidearm or carrying a weapon, he’s going to get pinched by my deputies and kept in the jail until he pays a fine for disturbing the peace. And it’ll be thirty days before he can collect his guns.”
“Are you quite through, Sheriff?”
“And that goes for you too. It goes for Crayfish Ruble. It goes for anyone in town. My job is to keep the peace, and it’s going to be kept.”
Bragg smiled. “Except for the violence done to my son. When the peaceful noose peacefully ends his peaceful life.”
“That’s justice, and it’ll be done proper, and there’ll be no arms on anyone in this town. And now you’ve been told. So see to it.”
“Thank you, Sheriff. Your advice is always entertaining.”
Queen was staring at me. And this time, there was no ice in it, only something close to tears. I nodded slightly.
“I think it is a good idea,” Queen said.
Her father stared at her, his face reddening, steam rising in his boilers.
“Bullets have a way of finding the wrong targets,” she said. “Please, Mr. Pickens, do what you can.”
Well, I pretty near had a fit. Her sticking to her guns, and her pa looking like the safety valve was gonna blow on his boilers.
He smiled suddenly. “She takes after her mother.”
“Mr. Pickens is doing everything he can—for us!” she snapped.
That done it. He arose swiftly, yanked her up, and steered her toward the rooms in back.
She refused to budge, and he dragged her across the dining room and finally out the door.
Our eyes locked just as he propelled her into the lobby, but in that split second I saw something I can’t rightly put words to. Sorrow and triumph and iron will, I guess.
“Now then, what were you saying, Sheriff?” Bragg asked.
“I’m saying that if you or your men disturb the peace in Doubtful I’ll lock you all up, you especially, and toss out the key.”
He smiled at that. He grinned so wide he bared some teeth, and then patted me on the shoulder.
“Give it a try, sonny boy,” he said.
Meanwhile Queen, she was roaring back into the dining room, and headed straight for me, and before her pa could collect his wits and drag her off again, she came right up and kissed me square on the cheek. Then she stood there, daring her pa to have himself a heart attack.
“I’ll deal with you later,” he said to her.
His fist knocked me flat on my butt. I wasn’t looking for it. I wasn’t trying to get in the middle of a family fight. I come up hot and piled after him, but he was ready with a kick to my groin and some moves that told me that this man had some serious training. But I didn’t care; I was young and hot and went after him until he pulled my .44 from its holster, and then I was so mad I knocked him across the room, spilling tables and chairs, and landed on him just about when he was getting his arm around to point my piece at me. The shot hit the ceiling. Someone screamed. I got the best of him then, and twisted his hand until he dropped the iron, and then yanked him up and
