“Where’s it look like we’re goin’?” Billy replied, his voice showing his irritation. “Me’n my friend here is a’ goin’ in there to get us a drink, if it’s any of your business. Which it ain’t,” he added.
“Oh, but it is my business,” the ugly little man said. “You see, there don’t nobody go into any buildin’ in this town without I let them.”
“Well, now, that’s a hell of a thing,” Billy said. “How come that is?”
“I don’t let nobody in without I see their coupon. Let me see your coupon.”
“Coupon? Now, just what coupon would that be?” Jeff asked.
“You did come through a toll gate, didn’t you? The road leadin’ into town has a toll gate down across the way, and you can’t get through unless you pay the toll. Once you pay the toll, you get a coupon that says you can pass. My job is to check to make certain that ever’one who comes into town has that coupon.”
“Ha! Well, there you go then,” Jeff said. “We don’t have no coupons, ’cause we didn’t come in by no road.”
“Then that’s even worse,” Butrum said. “That means you come across Denbigh land. So I’m goin’ to have to charge you for that, same as if you had paid the toll like you was s’posed to. That’ll be a dollar apiece.”
“What?” Billy replied with an angry shout. Are you tellin’ us you expect us to give you dollar apiece just to go into the saloon and have us a drink?”
“I not only expect you to give me a dollar apiece, I intend to collect it. Now, hand it over.”
The man who had identified himself as Ollie Butrum stood barely over five feet tall, and though he was scowling at the two cowboys, the scowl looked like nothing more than the petulant expression of an angry schoolboy.
The idea that a man so small had just told them that he intended to collect a dollar from each of them struck Billy as funny, and he laughed out loud.
The expression on Butrum’s face grew angrier.
“You find that funny, do you?”
“Mister, ain’t you got somethin’ better to do, like sweepin’ out a saloon or muckin’ out a stall? I mean, what do little fellas like you do to make a livin’ anyway?” Billy asked.
Now the expression on Butrum’s face changed from a scowl to a caustic smile. “Funny you should bring that up, cowboy. I kill people for a living,” he said.
“What?”
“Maybe you didn’t catch my name. It’s Butrum, Ollie Butrum.”
“Is that supposed to mean something to me?” Billy asked.
“I take it that you aren’t from around here.”
“We’re from Texas,” Billy said. “And in Texas, scrawny little shits like you know their place. Now get out of the way before I knock you right on your ass.”
Butrum stepped back from the steps, and his smile broadened, but still, there was no mirth in his expression.
“You want to fight me, do you, cowboy?”
Billy looked over at Jeff. “Which one of us is goin’ to teach this little feller a lesson?”
“Billy, wait, I don’t like the way this is goin’,” Jeff replied.
“Better listen to your friend, Billy,” Butrum said.
“Who told you you could call me by my first name?” Billy asked. “I sure as hell didn’t.”
“If we’re goin’ to fight, let’s get to it,” Butrum said.
“There’s two of us, only one of you,” Billy said. “So I’ll give you your choice. Which one of us do you want to fight? And I sure hope you choose me.”
“Oh, I want to fight both of you, cowboy,” Butrum replied.
Billy whooped out loud. “Both of us? You want to fight both of us? Mister, your scrawny little ass couldn’t handle one of us. Why would you want to fight both of us?”
“Oh, I’m not talking about that kind of fight,” Butrum said. He stepped back a bit, then let his arm hang so that his hand was near his pistol. “The kind of fight I’m talking about is permanent.”
“Gunfight?” Billy said, surprised by the announcement. “Wait a minute. Are you telling me you are wanting to have a gunfight over a dollar?”
“Two dollars,” Butrum said. “One from each of you. Now, you give me the dollars, like I said, and I’ll let you live. Otherwise, I’ll kill both of you and take the dollars from your dead bodies.”
“Mister, you are crazy,” Billy said.
“Billy, I told you, I don’t like the looks of this. Let’s give him the dollars,” Jeff said.
“Don’t go gettin’ all scared on me now, Jeff. This little feller is as full of it as anyone I’ve ever seen.”
“I don’t like this. I got me a bad feelin’. Let’s just give him the dollar and be done with it.”
“Two dollars,” Butrum said. “Each.”
“What do you mean two dollars each?” Jeff said. “You said one dollar each.”
“It cost you a dollar apiece to come into town, and it’s goin’ to cost you a dollar apiece to leave town, and you
