CHAPTER SEVEN
Rebecca had not visited the Lucky Chance or any other saloon since arriving in town, but that afternoon she decided that she would go to the Lucky Chance and meet her mother for the first time. She debated as to whether or not she should change into more appropriate garb before she went, but decided that if she went dressed as she is now, she would draw less attention than she would if she went in a dress.
As she got there, she saw a crowd gathering in front of the saloon, and she hurried forward to see what was going on. There were two soldiers standing out in the street in front of the saloon, and another man standing on the saloon porch looking down at the two soldiers. This was a civilian, dressed all in black, with a low-crown black hat, ringed with a silver hatband. He was also wearing a pistol, hanging low in a silver-studded holster. He had close- set, dark beady eyes, and a face that was so drawn it looked as if the skin was stretched over the skull itself, with no cushioning flesh. He was smoking a long, slender cheroot and he took it out; then, as he expelled a long stream of smoke, flipped the cheroot away.
“You soldier boys picked the wrong man to call a cheat,” the man in black said.
“You dealt an ace from the bottom of the deck, Mister,” one of the soldiers said. “What else would you call someone who does that but a cheat?”
“This is what I want you two soldier boys to do. I want you to say, ‘Mr. Lovejoy, we’re sorry we called you a cheat. But we are sore losers and lyin’ bastards. ’ You do that, and I might let you live.”
“Frank, look at their holsters,” a bystander said. “They’re army holsters. Both of ’em has got the flap down over their pistols.”
“That’s right. Makin’ them draw wouldn’t be fair, would it?” Lovejoy said. “All right, let’s make this fair. You two boys draw your pistols and hold them down by your side. I’ll leave my gun in my holster. When you see me start my draw, why you can raise your pistols up and shoot.”
“What? You’re saying draw our pistols first?”
“That’s what I’m saying.”
“Don’t do it, Ernie,” one of the soldiers said. “There’s somethin’ fishy about this.”
“Everyone here heard him, Jimmy,” Ernie said. “He said we could raise our guns and shoot him soon as we see him startin’ his draw. And the way I figure it, we’re in too deep now. This here feller ain’t goin’ to let us go without a fight.”
“I don’t feel good about it,” Jimmy said.
“It’s our only chance,” Ernie said, opening the flap over his pistol then pulling it, slowly deliberately, so as not to startle Lovejoy. Jimmy pulled his pistol as well.
“You boys ready?” Lovejoy said. “Remember, as soon as you see me start my draw, you can raise your guns and shoot.”
Ernie and Jimmy stood there with their pistols in their hands, staring at Lovejoy.
What happened next caught everyone by surprise. In a move as quick as the wink of an eye, Lovejoy drew his pistol and fired twice. Both soldiers went down without so much as a twitch of their gun hands.
Rebecca watched in horror as the drama played out before her. She looked back at the gunman and saw him standing there, holding his still-smoking pistol as he looked at the bodies of the two soldiers that were sprawled out in the street. The look on the gunman’s face was one of Satanic glee. He had actually enjoyed the shooting.
“I ain’t never seen nothin’ like that before in my life!” someone said loudly.
“I’ll bet there ain’t nobody in all of Kansas who can shoot like that,” another said.
“All of Kansas. Not even in all of the country,” still another said.
“You folks come on back inside,” Lovejoy said, finally putting his pistol back in his holster. “I’ll buy a round of drinks.”
Nearly everyone who had witnessed the shooting rushed through doors into the Lucky Chance Saloon to take advantage of the free drinks. Rebecca walked out into the street and stared down into the faces of the two dead soldiers. They were both very young, and she wondered about them. Did they have family somewhere, thinking about them? If they did, at this very moment, these two young men would still be alive to them. They would have no idea that their brother, or son, was now lying dead in the dirt and among the horse apples of Front Street in Dodge City, Kansas. Rebecca found the thought that their families, wherever they were, still believed them alive at this moment, to be very disturbing, and she turned away to fight against the tears that had welled so quickly.
When she did so, she saw two women standing on the front porch of Wright’s store, both wearing long, gray dresses and cotton bonnets which they had tied down over their ears. They were looking on with as much horror as Rebecca felt, and she wondered if they, like she, had been inadvertent witnesses to the shooting.
She heard loud, boisterous talk coming from inside the saloon, and for a moment she almost changed her mind about going in. But, she had come this far to meet her mother, and she wasn’t going to back away now. Gathering herself as best she could, she pushed through the bat-wing doors and went into the saloon.
It wasn’t until that very moment that she realized she had never been in a saloon before, and she felt very self-conscious. What would the others think when they saw a woman come in here?
Then she realized that the others wouldn’t see a woman. She had passed herself off as a young man for over a month now, spending twenty-four hours a day with a crew of trail cowboys. And in all that time, not one person had ever suspected her to be anything other than what she presented herself to be.
Most of the saloon patrons were standing at the bar, gathered around the gunman, who was obviously enjoying the accolades being heaped upon him.
There was only one person who was not gathering slavishly around Frank Lovejoy, and he stood at the far end of the bar as if putting as much distance between himself and the others as possible.
“Come on, Billy, come on down here and join the rest of us,” someone called. “Didn’t you see what your brother just done?”
“I saw him kill a couple of soldiers,” Billy said.
“It ain’t like he didn’t give ’em a chance. He let ’em stand there with their guns already in their hands,” someone said, retelling the story to those who, because they had seen it, needed no retelling.
“He pushed the fight,” Billy said. “He didn’t have to push the fight.”
“Pay no attention to my little brother, boys,” Frank said. “If it ever comes to a time where he actually has to discover what he is made of, it will like as not be all feathers and shit,” he said.
The others laughed.
“Come on, Billy. I would think you would be proud of your brother.”
“Why should I be proud of him? Should I be proud because he killed two young men who were serving in the army, protecting the rest of us? No, thank you. That isn’t something I care to celebrate.”
“I think Frank is right. Forget about Billy. What do you boys think about what we just saw? I mean Frank commenced his draw, even after them two soldier boys already had their guns in their hands. All they had to do was raise up their hands and shoot, but they couldn’t do it in time. When we tell folks that, they ain’t goin’ to believe it. But it just all goes to show how fast Frank Lovejoy really is!”
“I ain’t never seen nothin’ like it,” another said.
“They had their guns in their hands. Can you believe that?”
The accolades dismayed Rebecca, and she found an empty table as far away from the bar as she could. Looking toward the back of the bar, she saw three young women who were dressed rather seductively, and she wondered who and what they were.
Whoever they were, they were obviously as disgusted with the tributes and homage being paid to Frank Lovejoy as was Rebecca herself, because their faces reflected their disapproval. Then one of the young women, seeing Rebecca, came over to the table where she was sitting. Putting her hands down on the table, she leaned forward to show as much decolletage as she could, and Rebecca was surprised by it, until she realized that the young woman thought she was a man.
“Hello, honey,” the young woman said. “You are new here, aren’t you? I don’t believe I’ve seen you in here before. Come up with one of the trail herds, did you?”
“Yes,” Rebecca answered. “I got here a couple of days ago.”
“And you’re just now getting around to visiting us here at the Lucky Chance? Well now, my feelings are hurt.”
