Mankiller, Colorado

one.”

Biscuits looked up at him and laughed again. “You ain’t gonna try to reform me, are you, Bo? I warn you, it’s been tried before. Ask Reverend Schumacher. Hell, ask anybody in Mankiller. They’ll all tell you how worthless I am.”

“We’ll see about that.”

“You’ll get yourself killed. I warn you about that right now. You go to dependin’ on me, you’re takin’ your life in your hands.” Biscuits shoved to his feet. “Now, I got to go.”

Bo stood up. “You mean go and get a drink?”

“If I do, that’s my business.” Biscuits came out from behind the desk and stumbled toward the door.

Scratch moved to get in his way, but Bo shook his head and said, “Let him go.”

“Yeah, lemme go,” Biscuits said. “Don’t waste your breath tryin’ to save me, Scratch.”

When Biscuits was gone, Scratch looked at the door that had closed behind the sheriff and said, “That is one sorry-ass son of a bitch.”

“Right now, maybe.”

“He’s right, Bo. You can’t save everybody. Some folks are too far gone, and some just flat-out ain’t worth it. I reckon Sheriff Biscuits O’Brien may fall into both them categories.”

“We’ll see,” Bo said.

He sat down at the desk and spent the next few minutes going through the stack of reward posters he had gotten out of the drawer earlier, thinking that he might find a reward dodger on Finn Murdock or one of Murdock’s companions. There was nothing on Murdock, however, and none of the drawings on the other posters matched the three men who were now keeping Murdock company down at the undertaking parlor.

It was well after noon by now, and the Texans hadn’t eaten since breakfast at Francis O’Hanrahan’s dugout that morning. They left the office and walked over to the cafe. The lunch rush had cleared out a little, so they went to the counter and sat down on stools there. Lucinda Bonner came over to them, a slight frown on her face.

“What’s wrong, Mrs. Bonner?” Bo asked.

“I heard about that gunfight,” she said. “You killed four men?”

Scratch shrugged. “Seemed like the thing to do at the time, since they were tryin’ to kill us.”

“Oh, I know, you had to defend yourselves. I don’t fault you for that. I just hate to hear about more violence, and so soon after we hired you.”

“You hired us to clean up the town,” Bo pointed out.

“Yes, of course. But Mankiller already has a reputation for being a dangerous place. I mean, even that name…! I just wish there was some way to get rid of the troublemakers without having to…to…”

“Shoot ’em?” Scratch suggested.

“Well, yes.”

“We’ll settle things peacefully with anybody who’ll let us,” Bo said. “We would have let those four gunmen walk away a while ago. It was their choice not to. I reckon you’ve seen enough of life on the frontier, Mrs. Bonner, to know that sometimes the only way to deal with trouble is to meet it head-on.”

Lucinda nodded. “Unfortunately, that’s true. And you certainly didn’t waste any time letting everyone in town know that law and order has returned. I suppose that’s a good thing.”

“Have you thought any more about what we discussed earlier, about electing a town council and a mayor?”

“Yes, I spoke to Wallace Kane when he came back in for lunch, as well as Mr. Malden and Mr. Gaines. They’re all for the idea. I think we can get all the men who were here earlier for the meeting to run for town council, except for Francis O’Hanrahan, of course. He doesn’t live in the town limits. I suppose we can just pick one of them to be the mayor.”

Bo smiled. “Actually, I had something else in mind. I think you ought to be mayor.”

Lucinda looked shocked. “Me? But I’m a woman. I can’t even vote!”

“Maybe not, but I don’t see why that would keep folks from voting for you. You must know just about everybody in town, Mrs. Bonner. Most of them have probably eaten here at one time or another, and I would think the food here would be a good incentive for them to vote for you.”

“That’s hardly a reason to elect someone mayor,” Lucinda protested.

“Who came up with the idea of hiring Scratch and me as deputies?”

“Well…Francis really thought of it, but he and I discussed it before we brought in the other businessmen.”

“There’s proof that you’re devoted to improving the town and making Mankiller a better place to live,” Bo said.

Scratch grinned as he leaned his elbows on the counter. “You’re wastin’ your time arguin’ with this old varmint, ma’am. Once Bo gets an idea in his head, you can’t blast it out with dynamite.”

“That’s because I’m right most of the time,” Bo said.

“Well, there’s one thing you’re forgetting, Mr. Creel,” Lucinda said as her face grew solemn. “If we have an election, Jackson Devery won’t like it. He’s not going to just sit back and accept any threat to his power in this town. He’ll try to put a stop to it, and if he can’t do that, he’ll do the next best thing. He’ll run for mayor himself and try to get his relatives elected as the town council!”