“Well, Mister, you’re goin’ to have to get good just real fast, ’cause I’m callin’ you out,” he said.
“Now I must confess that it is I who am confused. I have no idea what calling me out means.”
“It means I’m goin’ to give you a chance to draw your pistol ag’in me. Me’n you’s goin’ to settle this little disagreement we got.”
“I have no desire to engage you in a gunfight,” Duff said.
“What if I put a bullet in that bag of pipes you got there? Would that give you a desire to draw?”
“Oh, I don’t think I would like that very much,” Duff said.
“Well, that’s what I’m a’ goin’ to do,” Roy said. “I’m goin’ to put a bullet right through that bag of pipes, and then I’m a’ goin’ to put a bullet right through you.”
As Roy’s hand dipped toward the pistol in his holster, Duff threw the beer mug at him, hitting him in the nose.
With a cry of pain, Roy interrupted his draw and put his hands to his nose, which was now bleeding.
“You son of a bitch! You bloodied my nose!” Roy shouted in anger. Once more his hand dipped toward his pistol, but as he started his draw this time, Duff, who immediately after tossing his beer mug had drawn his own pistol, pulled the trigger, putting a bullet through Roy’s hand.
“Ayiieee!” Roy shouted, jerking his hand back. “I thought you said you wasn’t good.”
“I said I could not draw quickly, I did not say that I could not shoot,” Duff said. “I am, in fact, considered to be a rather superior marksman with a handgun.”
“I wouldn’t if I were you!” Falcon called loudly. “Drop it!”
Looking toward Falcon, who had just come back in, Duff saw that he was holding a gun in his hand. He also saw that Billy Ray had drawn his own pistol. At Falcon’s call, Billy Ray dropped his pistol to the floor.
“That’s more like it,” Falcon said. “Piano player?”
“Yes, sir.”
“I’m sorry about this, I was very much enjoying your piano music. But I’m going to have to borrow your piano for a while.”
“Borrow my piano? Whatever do you mean?”
“Open up the back.”
With a look of confusion on his face, the piano player did exactly as Falcon asked.
“Now my friend and I came in here for a nice, quiet drink. It’s too late for it to be quiet, but we can still have the drink. Only, I don’t want to worry about any of the rest of you getting the idea that you might want to shoot one of us. So, this is what I want you to do. All of you, bring your pistols up here and drop them into the back of the piano.”
“What? Are you crazy? I ain’t goin’ to do that!” one of the other men in the saloon said.
“You have three choices, my friend,” Falcon said. “You can either bring your pistol up here and drop it in the back of the piano like I asked you to, or you can walk out of here right now.”
“That’s only two choices,” Billy Ray said. “What’s the third choice?”
“The third choice is I’ll kill you where you stand,” Falcon said, coldly.
“Damn, Billy Ray, I think he means that,” one of the others said.
Grumbling, every customer in the saloon, one by one, walked up to the piano and dropped his pistol into the back.
“Hey, I can’t play the piano now!” the piano player complained. “How’m I going to make my tips?”
Falcon pulled out a twenty-dollar bill. “This ought to cover your tips for the rest of the day.”
“Gee, Mister. Thanks,” the piano player said.
Chapter Eighteen
Duff’s room overlooked the street from the top floor of the Inter-Ocean hotel, a three-story brick building on Central Avenue. Though still fully dressed, Duff lay in bed, using the bedside lantern to provide enough illumination for him to read in his guidebook about the area he was going to homestead.
These plains have an average width of forty miles, and are one hundred miles in length. They comprise an area of over two and a half million acres and are regarded as one of the richest grazing areas in the country.
When Duff thought of the vast distances he had encountered here in America and compared it with Scotland, he couldn’t help but be amazed. He had left behind two hundred acres and that was considered a very large holding. With a mere stroke of his pen, he would now control twenty-six hundred acres, with access to another ten thousand acres. The sheer size of it boggled his brain.
When someone knocked on his door, Duff put the book down on the bedside table, then walked over to the door. Opening it, he saw Falcon standing in the hall.
“No,” Falcon said, shaking his head. “Don’t ever do that.”
“Don’t ever do what?”
“Don’t ever open the door like that,” Falcon said. “Always ask through the closed door who it is. Never stand behind the door while you are inquiring, and open it only partially until you are satisfied with whoever is on the other side.”
