“The name is Shaw. Clyde Shaw.”
“Be ye gainfully employed, Mister Shaw?”
“Say what?”
“Do you have a job?”
“Oh, uh, no, not at the moment. I was workin’ down at the livery, but I got into a fight with the boss’s brother- in-law, so I got fired.”
“Do you seek employment?”
“Yeah, I reckon so. I reckon it depends on what it is, and if it’ll pay anything.”
“Suppose I hire you as my deputy, Mr. Shaw. You can help me hunt down MacCallister.”
“Hunt him down? I don’t know. You bein’ from Scotland and all, maybe you don’t know how big this country is. Hell, he could be anywhere between here and California.”
“
“You do? Where?”
“He is going to Colorado, where he intends to look up a kinsman of his, named Falcon MacCallister.”
“Falcon MacCallister?” Shaw replied.
“Yes. Do you know him?”
“I’ve heard of ’im. Hell, near ’bout ever’one in the West has heard of ’im.”
“What have you heard of him?”
“He s’posed to be about the best with pistol there ever was. Better’n Wild Bill Hickock, they say.”
“Maybe when he was younger. I am told that he is nearly fifty years old now,” Malcolm said. “How fast can an old man be?”
“I don’t know. Like I say, I’ve never met him. Onliest thing is, I’ve heard of him.”
Malcolm made a waving motion with his hand. “It doesn’t matter anyway. Duff MacCallister is the one who is wanted by the law. He is the one we are going after, and I dinnae think you will have to worry about him. I know the man, and I know he has no skill with the pistol.”
“You’d hire me, you say?”
“Aye. As my deputy.”
“And what would that pay?”
“I’ll give you twenty-five dollars now, and seventy-five when the job is done,” Malcolm said.
“I ain’t all that good with cipherin’. How much is that?”
“That is one hundred dollars. And, I will buy all the meals along the way.”
Shaw held up his glass. “Drinks, too?”
“When it is appropriate,” Malcolm said.
Shaw tossed his drink down. “Mister, you just hired yourself a deputy.”
“MacCallister! MacCallister! We are coming into MacCallister!” The conductor called it out repeatedly as he passed through the car, then he left by the back door to continue on through the train.
Duff sat up in his seat and ran his hand through his hair. He could feel the train slowing and as he looked through the window he saw the buildings of the town. This town was not that different from all the other small towns he had passed through for the last week, except for one very notable exception. The train passed by a life- sized bronze statue mounted on a cement pedestal. A large plaque attached to the pedestal read:
James Ian MacCallister.
OUR FOUNDER.
“Folks, this is MacCallister,” the conductor said as he came back through the car a moment later. “We’ll only be here for fifteen minutes, so if you leave the train and this isn’t your destination, don’t wander too far.”
This town that bore Duff’s surname was the final stop of his six-day journey from New York. It was here that he would look for his kinsman.
Duff had thrown his sea bag in the overhead bin, and as soon as the train squeaked to a complete and rattling stop, he stood up and pulled the bag down. As he started toward the front of the car he saw a young woman with a small child at her side, struggling to retrieve her bag from the overhead bin.
“Here, lass, would ye be for allowin’ me to get your grip for you?”
The young woman smiled at him. “Yes, thank you,” she said.
Duff took her bag down, then, carrying it and his own sea bag, followed her out of the car.
The arrival of trains in MacCallister was still enough of an event to draw several citizens out, for no other reason than to see the trains arrive and depart. Falcon reread the telegram as he stood on the depot platform.
OUR SCOTTISH COUSIN DUFF MACCALLISTER WILL ARRIVE IN MACCALLISTER ON THE MORNING TRAIN ON SATURDAY AUGUST 7 STOP PLEASE MEET HIM AND EXTEND ALL HELP HE MAY NEED STOP LETTER TO FOLLOW STOP ANDREW
Only three people stepped down from the train: a man, a woman, and a child. The man was carrying two bags and the woman was talking to him, suggesting to Falcon that it was a husband and wife.
“Ruby! I’m here!” a man called, and the woman took one of the bags from the man who had stepped down
