“There was three or four customers in there when this all started,” Travis said. “They come runnin’ out into the street. I seen ’em and asked what was goin’ on, and they told me.”
“How long ago?”
“Hell, not more’n a minute or two ago,” Travis said. “I yelled over at Troy, then we came down here.”
“All right,” Titus said. “Let’s get down there.”
Maggie’s place was at the opposite end of the street from the city marshal’s office, but by the time Titus and his two brothers, both of whom were his deputies, were halfway there, they could hear what was going on.
They could hear the angry exchange of shouts between men and women.
“Go away!” a woman called.
“What do you mean go away? Our money’s as good as anybody else’s money!”
“I wouldn’t split the sheets with any of you if you paid five times as much as the others.”
“You whores better get down here now! You got one minute to get down here,” another man’s voice shouted. “We got Maggie. We’ll start cuttin’ her up if one of you don’t come down.”
“Go away!” the woman’s voice shouted again.
“We’ll go away after we’ve had our fun.”
There was a crowd gathered around outside Maggie’s place, and Titus had to push them aside to open up a path so he and his brothers could get inside. When the three of them were on the porch, Titus placed his finger over his lips in a signal to his brothers to be quiet. Then he looked in through one of the windows.
He saw Ray Clinton sitting on the parlor sofa. Ray was a very big man, at least six feet four inches tall, and weighing well over two hundred pounds. Cletus Clinton was standing at the foot of the stairs, yelling up at the women. Ray and Cletus Clinton were sons of Ike Clinton, whose La Soga Larga ranch was the largest spread in Bent County. Titus also recognized Deke Mathers and Lou Reeder, who were two of the cowboys who rode for the Clintons.
Cletus was holding a bottle and he turned it up for a long, Adams’ apple-bobbing drink before he shouted again.
“I’m not teasin’,” he said. “If one of you whores don’t get down here in the next minute, we’re goin’ to start carvin’ Maggie into little pieces.”
Titus looked around the parlor for Maggie, but didn’t see her.
“Any of you see Maggie?” he asked the other two, speaking quietly enough not to be heard. “I don’t want them to start cuttin’ on her when we go in.”
“I’m down here, Marshal,” a woman’s voice said.
Turning, Titus saw a heavyset, bleached-blond woman standing just behind the hydrangea bush. She was holding a handkerchief to a cut on her face, though there was very little blood on the handkerchief, and, when she pulled it down, he saw that the face wound was light.
“They’re so drunk they think I’m still in there,” she said. “They didn’t see me leave.”
Titus looked in through the window one more time, just to make certain none of them was holding a gun.
“All right,” he said to Travis and Troy. “Are you boys ready?”
“Ready,” Troy said, pulling his pistol.
“Say when,” Travis said. He was also holding a pistol.
“On the count of three,” Titus said. Then he counted aloud. “One, two, three!”
Titus pushed the door open quickly; then he and his two brothers rushed into the parlor.
“What the hell?” Cletus said, turning toward the front door as the three lawmen burst in. “What are you —”
For a moment, it looked as if he was going to reach for his gun, but before he could do so, Titus Calhoun stepped up to him and brought his pistol down sharply on Cletus’s head. Cletus went down.
“What did you do to my brother?” Ray shouted angrily, getting up from the couch.
“Easy, there, big man!” Calhoun said, swinging his pistol toward Ray. “You’re too damn big for me to pistol- whip. I’d have to shoot you.”
“No,” Ray said, sitting back down and putting his hands up. “No, there ain’t no need for you to be doin’ anything like that.”
“Get Maggie in here,” Titus ordered.
Travis stepped out on the front porch to call out to Maggie. When she came inside, she was no longer holding the handkerchief to her face and the cut, such as it was, was no longer bleeding.
“Did they do any damage to your place?” Marshal Calhoun asked.
Maggie looked around the parlor, then shook her head. “Nothin’ that I can see,” she said.
“Which one of them cut you?”
“I’m not sure which one it was,” Maggie said. “But I think it was him.” She pointed to Deke Mathers.
“I didn’t do no such thing!” Mathers said.
“Or it could’ve been him,” she said, pointing to Reeder, “Or him,” she added, pointing to Cletus, who was just now beginning to get up.
