tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-44884306024593530652024-03-08T15:26:56.996+09:00The Lady With The Dark GlassesWho is this strange woman who frightens everybody but the town drunk?Mark K. Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13049998079571823584noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4488430602459353065.post-75597729071448745662011-02-26T12:33:00.004+09:002011-05-07T23:01:03.939+09:00Author's NoteThis is a shorter story than my others, running to about 27 typed written pages. <em>The Lady With The Dark Glasses </em>will make a little more sense to those who've read <em>River Bend, </em>but even if you haven't read that one, I think you'll enjoy this one. I hope so.<br />
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Mark K. LewisMark K. Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13049998079571823584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4488430602459353065.post-15438570166197342192011-02-26T11:16:00.029+09:002013-02-20T22:47:36.864+09:00The Lady With The Dark Glasses<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It was a little strange to see a woman riding alone into a town.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Several people had to take a second look to make sure it <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">was</span> </i>a female simply because she was wearing a gray, flat-topped hat, pulled low over her brow, and apparently had all her hair piled under it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was hard to determine her age, but she was young.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The dark green coat and white blouse—which looked like a man’s shirt—also were a bit deceptive; they were loose and thus showed no form to her chest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the Kelly green riding skirt gave her away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was cut with a slight flair, with side pockets and a front flap opening.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No self-respecting man would be caught dead in one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Brown boots completed her attire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Almost.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The strangest thing about this female, however, and the item that got the most notice, were the round, wire-rimmed dark glasses she wore.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her eyes were completely hidden behind those opaque lenses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>True, it was a warm, sun-filled late morning in the town of <place w:st="on"><city w:st="on">Magic</city></place>, but still, such glasses were extremely uncommon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, most people had never seen any before.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Chinese had had reasonable facsimiles for centuries, as well as the Italians, but they were rare otherwise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not unknown, but…rare.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>As she directed her tall, black Appaloosa slowly down the dusty street, she didn’t seem to be looking at, or for, anyone in particular.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was hard to tell because no one could see her eyes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She did scan the town, but there was nothing unusual about Magic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Typical false-fronted buildings—mostly unpainted—containing the usual variety of shops which served a ranching community of a few hundred souls in the rolling plains of the northern cattle country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nice place, nice people, totally non-descript and ordinary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Except for one interesting fact.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Magic was a very rich town.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It didn’t show in appearance, but there was money here, and a lot of it.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The rider stopped and didn’t even bother hitching her horse to the rail in front of the hotel, which was on the corner of <place w:st="on">Main</place> and C Streets.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A couple of men walked by and gave her a once-over, but she ignored them and went into the building.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A faded blue and yellow carpet covered most of the floor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The stairs were on the left, and a restaurant announced itself in the back right of the building.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The hotel was as non-descript as the rest of the town.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">She walked up to the counter—and did not remove the dark glasses she wore.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I’d like a room,” she said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Preferably in the back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ll probably be here a few days, but I’m not sure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ll pay for three, and if I need to stay longer, I’ll pay for more.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The desk clerk was female, and older, with her graying hair tied back in a bun, but she seemed sprightly enough.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was wearing a name tag that read “Elaine.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She stared at her customer with interest, but said nothing except, “Two dollars and fifty cents per day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That includes breakfast in the restaurant and a fresh pitcher of water every morning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Baths are extra and only at night.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’ll change the bed sheets once a week if you stay that long.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Noticing the young woman’s dusty clothes, she said, “We have laundry service as well, but that’s extra, too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Would you please sign the register?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The visitor did so, and handed the woman $10.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Make it four days so we won’t have to bother with the change.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“All right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Your room is number 8, up the stairs, last room on the left.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Elaine handed her new lodger a key.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“The restaurant opens at 6 AM and closes at 9 PM.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Convenient,” the young woman said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She had not smiled the whole time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Where’s the livery?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“At the end of </span><span style="background-color: white;">C Street</span><span style="background-color: white;">, that way,” Elaine said, pointing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Only about three blocks.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was having a hard time keeping her eyes from looking at the register.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">What is this strange woman’s name?</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>“Let me know if you need anything else.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Her visitor only nodded, stuck the key in a pocket, and headed back outside.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Elaine watched her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The young woman easily mounted her horse and expertly maneuvered it back into the street and then in the direction of the town stables.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Elaine was mesmerized, and observed her till she disappeared from sight<span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">She never took off those glasses…</i>Then, remembering her curiosity, she read the register.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The woman had signed it, “Jane Smith.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jane took care of business at the livery in a short time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The stable handler, an old cuss named Cooter, was lonely.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And curious.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Too curious.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Where ye from?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“West,” Jane replied as she took her saddlebags and rifle from the back of the horse.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Just passin’ through?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Yes.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Where ye headed?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Nowhere.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Somewhere.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Anywhere.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Never heard of that place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Planning on stayin’ in Magic awhile?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“A short a time as possible.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>By this time, Cooter was scratching his chin, but he was also busy uncinching the horse and getting ready to stable him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But he had one last question.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Where’d ye get them specs?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mighty peculiar, if you don’t mind me sayin’ so,” he asked her.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Found them on a dead horse in the middle of the desert.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She handed him $5.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Give him the best and if I owe you more when I leave, I’ll pay you.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Yes’m,” Cooter said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jane walked off, saddlebags over her left shoulder, rifle in her right hand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cooter had seen all kinds in his 65 years, but this one might be the most bizarre yet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He spoke to her horse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I’ll bet she ain’t married, is she…”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The horse didn’t answer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But as Cooter watched her walk away, he said thoughtfully, “Awfully good-lookin’ woman, though.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">Awfully</span> </i>good-lookin’…”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Yes, she was, and Dale Conyers noticed it right off.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was a young cowboy who figured himself pretty swift with the ladies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, he thought he’d make the acquaintance of this new, lovely visitor to Magic, and perhaps show her around some.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And get rewarded for it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As she was walking down the boardwalk to the hotel, Dale came up to her, smiled, touched the brim of his hat, and said, “Those saddlebags look heavy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ll be happy to carry them for you.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jane looked at him—at least, he thought she did.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He couldn’t see her eyes behind the glasses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But her head was turned in his direction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Sure,” she responded, and swung the saddlebags off her shoulder.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The bottom bag hit Dale in the shin and he winced, and then she dropped it on his foot, and he yelped and jumped back.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Woman, what have you <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">got</span></i> in those things?” he asked her as he reached down to rub his shin.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This time Jane smiled, but it didn’t appear to be a friendly I’m-glad-to-meet-you smile.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Gold,” she answered.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Maybe I better carry them myself.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And with that, she hoisted the bags back to her shoulder and walked away.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jane put her belongings in the hotel room.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She pulled a book from one of her saddlebags and went outside.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She saw a chair against the wall and sat down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And she sat there…all afternoon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The book was open, but if anyone had been real observant, they would have noticed that she rarely turned a page.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Was she reading the book?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Who knows?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nobody could see her eyes…</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She sat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some people walked by and glanced at her, but nobody said anything to her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People across the street looked at her, then went on their way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Folks thought it was a little peculiar—no, a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">lot</span> </i>peculiar, a woman wearing dark glasses sitting in a chair in front of the hotel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><place w:st="on"><city w:st="on">Reading</city></place>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Apparently.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But if anyone had been real observant, they would have noticed that she rarely turned a page…</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>About dusk, around six o’clock, Jane got up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She walked down the street to the Magic Café.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She took a table in the back, facing the door, and ordered some chicken, mashed potatoes, and milk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She ate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She left the restaurant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She went back to her hotel room.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Nobody saw her the rest of the night.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The next morning, maybe 8 o’clock, Jane re-emerged from the hotel and walked down to the café again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Still wearing the dark glasses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The restaurant was almost full, and people stared at her when she came in, but the table she had eaten at the previous night was empty—almost as if it were <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">her</span> </i>table and nobody dared to eat there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After a plate of ham and eggs, she arose, walked down to the hotel, and up to her room.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A few minutes later she emerged…with a book in her hand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She sat in the same chair as the day before in front of the hotel.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And she sat…ostensibly reading the book.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The close observer would have noticed that she rarely turned a page…</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>People walked by…but nobody said anything.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jane sat, said nothing to anyone, either, and…read her book…</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Except the close observer….</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>By noon, she was the talk of the town.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As noted, Magic was a small place and everybody knew everybody.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And everything.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thus, everybody knew when there was a stranger in town.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Normally, it didn’t matter too much, but <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">this</span> </i>stranger…</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“She just sits there, reading that book…”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I’m not sure she’s even reading it…”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Why is she wearing those dark glasses?...”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Do you think she’s a female outlaw hidin’ her face so’s nobody’ll recognize her?…”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Naw, she’s not even wearing a gun…”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Dale Conyers says she’s got gold in her saddlebags, and he’s got a bruise on his shin to prove it…”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Did he see the gold?...”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Well, no, but he said those bags were sure heavy…”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Oh, Conyers wouldn’t know a bar of gold from a bar of soap…”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Well, she’s got something heavy in there…”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Lots of books?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe she’s a schoolteacher…”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“You’ve got to be kidding.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No schoolteacher ever looked like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">that</span>…</i>”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Why is she just sitting there?...”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Why don’t you go ask her?...”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Uh…why don’t you?...”</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Well, because I don’t want to know…much…”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>By mid-afternoon, there was someone in town who <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">did</span> </i>want to know.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sheriff Camp Zane was…interested.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And not necessarily because Jane was such a lovely female.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You see, the Magic Town Bank was right across the street from the hotel—right where Jane could see what time the bank opened and closed, who entered, at what time, when they left, etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Somebody <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">had</span></i> suggested that she might be a female outlaw…</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Zane watched her from down the street, rubbing his jaw.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">She doesn’t LOOK like an outlaw…</span></i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But he was a pretty good lawman and he knew that there did exist women bandits—Belle Starr and Pearl Hart being the most notorious, though not the only two, by any means.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Sheriff Camp Zane had other problems on his mind and he didn’t need this headache, too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it was a headache that he was going to have to deal with regardless.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">But he thought he’d wait another day…</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">Maybe she’ll leave tomorrow morning…</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><br />
</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jane Smith knew that the sheriff was watching her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And she figured people were talking about her.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She didn’t care, either way.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And she didn’t leave the next morning.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><br />
</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She had done the same thing the second afternoon she was in Magic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>About dusk, she had gone and had supper at the Magic Café, and then disappeared into her room for the night.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The next morning—the morning Sheriff Zane hoped she’d leave but didn’t—she had breakfast at the café, went to her room, got her book, and plopped back down in her chair in front of the hotel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She had never removed the dark glasses.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Maybe she was reading the book.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Except anyone who was observing her closely…</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Sheriff Camp Zane was one of those who was.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">She hardly ever turns a page…</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></i>He sighed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">I guess I better go find out…</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><br />
</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></i>“Howdy, miss,” he said, coming up to Jane.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She looked up at him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or at least her head turned towards him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Good morning, sheriff,” she replied, and cordially enough.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Do you…mind if I sit down?” Zane asked her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was another chair a few feet away.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Free country,” she replied, and looked back down at her book.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He pulled up a chair next to her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Nice morning, isn’t it.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it was.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not too hot, lots of sunshine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But…</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Not if you like clouds.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>That answer kind of threw the sheriff. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Well, I reckon that’s true.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most folks seem to prefer the sunshine, though.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Get more done that way than when it’s raining.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Well, I reckon that’s true.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jane was looking down at her book.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She actually turned a page.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“What are you reading?” Zane asked her, sort of leaning over to look at the book in her hands.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jane closed the book and set it on the sidewalk beside her. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She…turned her head…towards the sheriff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was a ruddy faced man, probably 40, with brown hair and a brown mustache that had a little gray in it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His blue eyes were clear and rather severe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jane answered him, “As you well know, Sheriff Zane, since you’ve been watching me ever since I arrived, I’m not reading anything.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>That wasn’t what Zane was expecting, either.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“So you know my name.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I hope I’m not the only one in this conversation who does.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Oh, no, I…know my name quite well, thank you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I just don’t remember us getting acquainted anywhere before.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“We’ve never met, Sheriff Zane, but I make it a point to know who the local law is.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Oh?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And why is that?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jane turned her head back toward the street.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“In case I need a public privy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The lawmen always know where they are.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Zane gave her a perturbed look and tried again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Is your name really Jane Smith?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Something wrong with my name?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Well, no, it’s just...a little peculiar.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I would think Jane Smith is one of the most common female names in the country.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Zane was getting a little exasperated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“That’s not what I meant.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She looked back…in his direction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Then what<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> <span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">did</span></i> you mean, Sheriff Zane?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The lawman was tired of this shuffle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Miss Smith—if that’s your real name—what are you doing in Magic?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think you realize, as the local sheriff, I’m pretty interested in new people who come through, especially when they distract the whole town—as you’re doing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And especially when they sit across the street from the bank all day long.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jane turned her head again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Yes, that is the bank over there, isn't it. Creative place for one. Main street, middle of town...”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Quit playing games with me, Miss Smith.” </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Her head…back in the sheriff’s direction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Sheriff Zane, is it a crime in this town to sit in front of the hotel with an open book in one’s lap?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If so, it’s a very strange law.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it’s not my fault the bank is across the street.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Complain to the banker.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tell him to move it if you don’t like me sitting across the street from it.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Zane looked away, more exasperated than ever.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He sighed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“No, Miss Smith, it’s not a crime to sit here with an open book in your lap.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Then I’ve broken no law?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“It’s not what you’ve done, Miss Smith, it’s what you <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">might</span> </i>do that concerns me.”<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"></i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“And just what do you think I <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">might</span> </i>do, sheriff?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Get lost on the way to the public privy?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">would</span> </i>be a crime.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She turned her head back to the street.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“No, that would be a disaster.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He looked at her and didn’t bother responding to her sardonic remarks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“The Cutler gang has been operating in this area for several months now, Miss Smith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They haven’t hit our town yet, but, frankly, I expect them to.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve wired the head of the territorial Rangers about it, but apparently he’s just blown me off.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Haven’t heard from him, or seen hide nor hair of any of his people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe you’re here as an advance scout for the Cutlers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It wouldn’t be the first time a gang has used a woman for that purpose.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“When was the last time?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Zane was so peeved now he was about to pop.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I don’t <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">know</span>, </i>exactly, when the last time was—“</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Can you give me one example?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Oh, for crying out loud.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The sheriff had had enough.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He stood up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I don’t know who you are, Jane Smith, but I’ll be keeping my eyes on you—“</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“You’ll have to stand in line among the male population of this town to do that, sheriff.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Not surprisingly, Zane was getting angry at this smart-mouthed female.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“How long are you going to be here, Miss Smith?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Until I leave, Sheriff Zane.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not a minute sooner and not a minute later.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Try to make it sooner rather than later, please.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And Zane walked off.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jane’s…head…followed him as he crossed the street.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then, she reached down, picked up her book, opened it, and started reading.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>At least, her head was pointed in that direction…</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Who is she, sheriff?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bill Akers, a city councilman asked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“She hasn’t been here two days and she’s got everybody spooked.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I don’t know who she is, Bill,” the sheriff replied.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Says her name is Jane Smith, but I don’t believe that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t have a wanted poster on her, or any woman matching her description.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or any woman, period, for that matter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She’s got the smartest mouth on her that I’ve ever heard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’d love to slap her teeth down her throat.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Is she scouting for the Cutlers?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“That’s what I’m afraid of.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dodge Cutler would use his own mother for a scout if he needed to.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But he shook his head in doubt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“But this woman…she seems awfully… independent?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Strong willed?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Uncontrollable?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He shook his head again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I don’t know, Bill, but I find myself hoping she’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">not</span></i> working for the Cutlers.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He stared thoughtfully in Jane Smith’s direction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Something tells me she’s more dangerous than any of them.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Ye wanta play some checkers?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Shore oughta beat sittin’ there not readin’ that book.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>By the next morning, there was only one person in town who wasn’t scared to death of Jane Smith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was a toothless old codger named Judd Sartain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He’d been around since Noah built the ark and he was harmless.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All he wanted was a bottle, which he always seemed to carry with him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But he never seemed to be drunk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nobody in Magic paid him the least bit of attention.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jane looked up at him—in his direction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Sure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It will be the most exciting thing I’ve found in this town yet.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Judd chuckled and rolled a water barrel over, then pulled up the chair the sheriff had sat in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From seemingly out of nowhere, he produced a warped, faded, stained checkerboard and a box of checkers.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I’ll take the black ‘uns,” he said, “since they’s one missin’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t rightly like red nohow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Reminds me too much of Injuns.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“You don’t like Indians?” Jane asked, placing her checkers on the appropriate squares.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Well, some of ‘em is ok.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“The dead ones?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Them kind shore don’t hurt nobody no more.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Dead white men don’t, either.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Judd started to respond, but he didn’t quite know what to say to that, so he just let it pass.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Nickel a game?” he asked, with a grin.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Dime,” Jane replied.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Judd frowned.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That was a little higher than he wanted to go, but he shrugged.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">If’n I can’t beat a woman, I ain’t got no business playin’ anyway</span>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>“’K.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dime it is.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>So they started playing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Judd talked a lot and asked Jane a lot of questions, but usually received an answer that told him basically nothing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He got a little flustered, too, especially since he was losing almost every game.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“You don’t say much do ye, woman?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I talk when I have to.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Judd grinned.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Oooo-whee.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A woman that don’t talk much.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Will ye marry me?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t rightly care if ye can cook and clean or not, just as long as ye know how to keep yere trap shut.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Even Jane smiled at that one.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>About mid-afternoon, they were still going at it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jane was $1.50 ahead so far, and Judd suspected that the few games he <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">did</span> </i>win were solely by her grace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>School must have been out because a young teenaged boy came and stood on the street near the edge of the sidewalk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was looking at Jane.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Judd growled at him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Git on home, Lance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We don’t need yore help none.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Lance ignored Judd, like everybody else in town.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He spoke to Jane.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Are you really an outlaw, ma’am?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They’s some in town who say you are.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jane smiled, still looking at the checkerboard—or in that direction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“There’s some out of town who might say that, too.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Lance wasn’t sure exactly what that meant, so he responded, “Well, if you’re an outlaw, how come you aren’t wearing a gun?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“How do you know I’m not?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I may have one under my hat.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The boy wasn’t buying that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He looked at Jane skeptically.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Nobody wears a gun under their hat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can’t draw a gun from there.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then he got excited.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I’ll bet if Allie Summer or one of the Rangers was here, you’d skip town in a hurry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I saw Allie Summer draw one time, and he was the fastest—“</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Judd was getting perturbed; he had just crowned a third king for Jane.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Boy, hush yore mouth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You ain’t never seen Allie Summer in yore life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He ain’t been through here and you ain’t never left town.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I have so, you ugly old fart.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pa and I went to <place w:st="on"><city w:st="on">Rapid City</city></place> onct and Allie Summer was there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He gunned down two outlaws so fast nobody even seen him draw.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Saw,” Jan corrected.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Huh?” Lance replied, not understanding.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“’Saw him draw,’ not ‘seen’.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Hmph,” the boy responded.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“You’re as bad as my momma.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then, “I’ll bet you’d leave town if Allie Summer came, wouldn’t you, outlaw?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jane was amused.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Probably.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I hear he’s ugly and mean.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Yeah, he is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Almost as ugly and mean as that old goat you’re playin’ checkers with.” He looked closely at Jane.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“You’re awfully pretty, ma’am, to be an outlaw.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Thank you.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Why do you wear them dark glasses?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everybody wants to know and I want to be the one who tells ‘em.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jane made a triple back-jump that wiped out the rest of Judd’s checkers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He grunted in disgust as she replied to Lance, “Well, Lance, you go tell everybody that if I didn’t wear these glasses my eyeballs would fall out.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Lance’s eyes got big for a second, then he gave her an annoyed look.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“You’re just funnin’ me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Your eyeballs wouldn’t fall out.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“They wouldn’t?”</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“No, of course not.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“They did the last time I took my glasses off.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Right then, a lady appeared who apparently was the boy’s mother.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She gave him a sharp swat on the behind and said, “Lance Lawrence, you get home this instance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What did I tell you about talking to people…like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">them</span>?” </i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And she gave Judd and Jane a snooty look, grabbed her son’s hand, and led him off.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Aw, mom, we never get no outlaws or anybody interesting in town…….”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s all Jane heard.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>After a few moments, Judd muttered, “Sorry, Miss Jane.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I ain’t too popular around here.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She actually smiled at him…in his direction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Then I’m hanging around exactly who I want to hang around with, because I don’t want any company.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And Judd grinned.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Me, neither.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What’s that I owe ye now?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>$1.30?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jane laughed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“$1.60, you old cheat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No wonder you don’t have any friends.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Ok.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>$1.60.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m just lettin’ you win, you know that don’t ye, ‘cause I’m such a gentleman.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I don’t know about the letting me win part, but you <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">are</span> </i>the only gentleman I’ve met in this town so far.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And Judd’s chest puffed out at that one.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>They continued playing checkers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When it got close to dinnertime, they had some more guests.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dale Conyers, the man who had wanted to carry Jane’s saddlebags when she first arrived in Magic, and a couple of other cowboys saw Judd and Jane from across the street.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Look at that,” Dale said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was slightly inebriated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Old Judd’s playin’ checkers with that new whore in town.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>One of his buddies, Giff Charles, wasn’t too bright.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“How do you know she’s a whore, Dale?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Dale gave him a disgusted look.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Why else would she be hiding her face behind those glasses?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That didn’t make sense to Giff, but he figured Dale knew what he was talking about.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Let’s go, boys.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And he headed towards Judd and Jane.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Where we goin’?” Giff asked the other man, Jeff Naver.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I think he wants to hit up that woman again.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Apparently “hitting up on women” was one of Dale’s favorite pastimes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So Giff and Jeff followed Dale.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Having crossed the street, Dale put a foot on the boardwalk, leaned against his leg, cocked his hat back on his head, and smiled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Howdy, again, ma’am.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You’re sure lookin’ fine this evening.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jane didn’t look…in his direction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Thank you,” is all she said.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“You’re welcome.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Can’t you find anything better to do than play checkers with that worthless old drunk?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Come with me and I’ll show you what a real good time is.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jane moved a checker.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Judd chortled with glee and made a double jump, to which his playing partner responded with a triple jump.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Still not looking up, Jane responded to Dale, “No and no.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Well, I’m mighty disappointed, ma’am,” Dale said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“This town has got lots of things to see and I’d like to show them to you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m a real nice fellow once you get to know me.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jane didn’t bother answering.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Dale was persistent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Can I ask you a question?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jane replied, “I don’t know, can you?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Judd snickered.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He caught it whether Dale did or not.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Why do you wear those dark glasses?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“The sun hurts my eyes.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“The sun isn’t out right now.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“The moon hurts my eyes.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“The moon isn’t shining, either.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She glanced at him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Your face hurts my eyes.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Judd hooted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Giff laughed and Jeff smiled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dale gave his friends a nasty look.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was losing big, he knew it, and he didn’t like it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Jest ignore ‘im, Jane,” Judd said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“He’s always lookin’ fer trouble.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He’ll go away in few minutes if you pay him no mind.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I don’t remember talking to you, old timer,” Dale said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Watch your tongue or I’m liable to cut it out of your throat.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Judd wasn’t intimidated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Wasn’t talkin’ to you, neither, Dale.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I doubt this here lady wants to talk to you, either.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Dale snorted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Are you sure she’s a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">lady</span></i>?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">lady</span> </i>I know would hang around a drunken bum.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Oh, but she <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">is</span> </i>a lady, Dale, not that you’ve ever seen one in the kind o’ places you go. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I reckon her bein’ a lady an’ all is why she won’t pay no ‘ttention to you.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Neither Judd nor Jane had looked at Dale.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They continued to calmly play their game as if there had been no interruption, or if they were simply having a nice conversation with a congenial visitor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dale was getting flustered.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Giff and Jeff were behind him several feet, just watching.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Maybe I ought to give you a good whippin’, Sartain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That might sober you up some and help you keep your tongue in your mouth where it belongs.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He started to move forward.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Just stay where you are, Dale,” Jane said, still with her head towards the board.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I don’t really think you want anybody to get hurt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Especially yourself.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Dale snorted at that one. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Oh, the little lady thinks she’s tough, does she?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, maybe after I teach Sartain a good lesson, I’ll just turn you over my knee and teach you one, too.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And he mounted the sidewalk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Judd glanced at Jane.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Don’t, Dale,” Jane said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She had looked at the cowboy only the one time, and that very briefly, and she didn’t seem the least bit afraid of his threat.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Something in her voice stopped him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was a little uncertain now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“And just what are going go to do, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">lady</span>, </i>if I grab this old sot and work him over some?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He found out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Before he even saw her move, Dale was staring face-to-face with Jane Smith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And she had a knife at his throat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Maybe I’ll check and see how much blood you’ve got in your body.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And whether it’s red or yellow.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Dale swallowed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was looking into those dark glasses now with the tip of a very sharp blade pricking his skin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It wouldn’t take much effort for that knife to be deep in his throat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those dark glasses were…frightening.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There were just…staring at him, and there was no movement from Jane otherwise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was obviously waiting on Dale.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Lord, I ain’t never seed any livin’ thang move that fast,” Giff said from behind Dale, with a hefty measure of awe in his voice.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jeff was impressed, too, but he was also somewhat amused.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Come on, Dale, I want to see you turn her over your knee, like you said you would.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or maybe your blood <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">is</span> </i>yellow.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"> “Shut up, Jeff,” Dale said, but he was still looking into those sightless glasses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was trying to see the eyes behind them but he couldn’t.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the knife hadn’t moved.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He didn’t have much choice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Now…now, listen, lady.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m just havin’ a little fun, that’s all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wasn’t really going to hurt Judd.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He knows that.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Judd snorted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“No, I didn’t know that. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You shore had me fooled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe you better whup that little lady first.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He grinned.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Go have your ‘fun’ somewhere else, Dale,” Jane said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I don’t like having my checker game interrupted by a loud-mouthed pile of horse manure.” </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“What did she call him?” Giff said to Jeff.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jeff was still being entertained by the whole thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I think she called him a loud-mouthed pile of horse manure.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Giff laughed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I think that’s funny.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A loud-mouthed pile of horse manure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I gotta remember that one.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Dale didn’t see anything funny about it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He had his hands raised and out to his side.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“All right, we’ll go.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You don’t need to get so huffy about it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I’m not sure you and I are finished yet, woman.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He backed slowly away and almost slipped and fell when he backed off the sidewalk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More laughing from his buddies and a grin from Judd.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jane just turned and sat back down in her chair.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But she had a parting word for Dale.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“You better hope we <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">are</span> </i>finished, buddy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Next time I might not be in such a happy mood.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then she looked over at the cowboy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“And if you so much as blow your nose in the direction of Judd Sartain, I’ll slice you into more pieces of cheese than an army of rats could eat in a month.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She went back to the checker game.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Giff and Jeff had stopped laughing and were looking at Jane thoughtfully.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dale was angry, humiliated, and embarrassed, but he had enough sense about him to realize that he’d better leave this one alone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Come on, Dale,” Jeff said, taking him by the arm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I don’t think she wants to talk to you anymore.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Dale scowled, but let his friend lead him away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Judd glanced at Jane as she took another of his checkers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“That was pretty slick, ma’am, even if I do say so myself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would have had to hurt him if’n you hadn’t cut in.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jane looked…in Judd’s direction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not quite as quickly as her, but still faster than most men, a knife appeared in the old man’s hand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He smiled.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jane smiled back…</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><br />
</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The fun wasn’t over for the evening.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a Friday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A few minutes after the incident with Dale, the checker game broke up with Judd owing Jane $2.70.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She went to the café to eat, and he went home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After her dinner, it was dark and Jane headed back to the hotel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was intercepted by a man—dark suit, white shirt, dark hat, dark hair, dark mustache—a gambler from head to toe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jane looked at him…or…in his direction….</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I’ve seen you playing checkers,” he said to her, without preamble.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Would you like to be involved in a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">real</span> </i>game?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jane knew what he was suggesting, of course.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I don’t have much money.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“We’ll keep the stakes low.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She made a “why not?” motion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“When and where?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“8 o’clock.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Double Nickel Saloon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That way, two blocks.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He pointed.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I’ll be there if I don’t get a better offer.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The gambler smiled, a rattlesnake smile.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I hope you don’t.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He touched the brim of his hat, his eyes still on Jane’s glasses, and then walked away.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jane watched him a moment, then went back to her hotel room.</span></div>
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</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She entered the Double Nickel at precisely 8 o’clock.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was a momentary silence, but only that brief moment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She got a lot of looks, of course, but everyone in town knew who she was.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Kinda surprised to see her here,” one fellow at the bar murmured to the man next to him.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I think Davies invited her to a poker game.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“That might be interesting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wonder if she’s as slick with cards as she is with that knife o’ hers.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The news about Jane’s confrontation with Dale Conyers had spread through town like a wild fire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most people were glad to hear of it because Dale wasn’t too popular.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it only raised more questions about the lady with the dark glasses.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I wonder who she is,” the first fellow said, staring at Jane thoughtfully.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I wonder if we’ll ever find out,” was the response he got, to which he grunted an agreement.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jane walked directly over to the table where Dick Davies, the gambler, was sitting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: white;">The gambler saw her and smiled his rattlesnake smile of welcome.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Ah, the lady did come after all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Welcome, Miss Smith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This should be an entertaining night.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m usually surrounded by three ugly men when I play, and tonight I have the blessed fortune to gaze upon beauty such as I have not seen in awhile.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You do wish to join us, don’t you?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jane simply nodded.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"> There were three other men playing, but Davies looked at the man directly across from him and said, “You were just leaving, weren’t you, Snyder?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Snyder took the hint.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Yeah.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yeah, I was, Mr. Davies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pleasure playin’ with you.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He stood, made a motion of farewell to Jane, and went over to the bar.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Please sit,” Davies said to Jane, motioning to the now empty chair.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She sat down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Bret,” Davies said to a man standing by, “we have a new player.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let’s have a new deck of cards.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Bret produced one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Davies, still smiling, put the unwrapped, unopened box of cards in front of Jane.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I’ll give you the privilege of opening them, Miss Smith—it is Miss, isn’t it?—and you can even have the first deal.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“What’s the game?” Jane asked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“And the stakes?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Five card draw.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You said you wanted low stakes, and that’s fine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Say, a dollar ante, and $50 raise limit?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>That wasn’t necessarily low, but Jane agreed to it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She pulled a small stack of bills from her pocket, tossed $1 into the middle of the table, and opened the deck of cards.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She tossed the two jokers onto the floor, then bent the cards in one hand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They appeared to slip, and, like a covey of quail, when flying and fluttering in all directions.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She smiled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course, nobody could see if it reached her eyes or not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Oops.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Clumsy of me.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Davies appeared momentarily perturbed, but he quickly returned to his smiling self.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Well, it’s a new deck and very slick.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Yeah.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I guess so,” Jane responded, and she let the men at the table pick up the cards.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>They were all collected…handed to Jane…</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And the game was on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Dick Davies was a professional gambler.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jane Smith was crackerjack smart.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was obvious from the get-go that she wasn’t a professional, but she seemed to have this uncanny knack for knowing when to do just what.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She probably won less than 25% of the pots, but as any gambler will tell you, it’s not how many pots you win, it when you win them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Oh, you can play for all the small pots and have a good night that way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But you’ve also got to have nearly all the good hands to do that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that’s not generally going to happen with four players around the table.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Nobody could read Jane’s eyes, of course, and there was absolutely no pattern to her play.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes she would draw one, two, three, or no cards.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes she’d play the hand where she drew none, sometimes she would fold it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And do the same with every other draw she made.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was simply impossible to tell, from the number of cards she took, or didn’t take, what she held in her hand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that frustrated Dick Davies who made his living by reading the patterns of other players.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But if somebody had two pair, and bet high on it, Jane would drop down three of a kind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If a player had a straight, she’d have a flush.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once Davies thought he really had her; he had four kings, a monstrous hand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jane stayed in after drawing two cards.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The gambler bet high and even asked her, “Would you like to raise the limit?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just for this hand?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He could have been bluffing, or he might have been testing her.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jane seemed indifferent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Sure, why not?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The other two players dropped out quickly and the pot ended up being over $500 when Davies made the final call.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He had a smile of triumph when he showed his powerful hand and got some “oohs” and “aahs” from the crowd of spectators who had gathered around to watch this fascinating poker game.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His smile turned to horror when Jane displayed a straight flush.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“You drew two cards to get that?” he asked, as she raked in the cash.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jane just smiled, and from that moment on, Davies was convinced she was cheating.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">Nobody is as lucky as she’s been tonight…</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></i>The other two players weren’t very good, but they seemed to win enough pots to be able to stay in the game.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Davies was winning the most, but Jane was close behind him, and most of the pots she won came at his expense.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And he didn’t like that at all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><br />
</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Things got really interesting right after midnight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There were about 30 people around the table watching, some of them standing on chairs so that they could see.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everyone was curious to see this strange woman and her curious poker habits.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And they especially liked seeing her win pots from Dick Davies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He had never been able to win a big pot from her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was frustrating him more and more as the night went on.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He thought he finally had her, though, in the second hand after midnight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He held four aces.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jane had drawn two cards, and while Davies was convinced now that she had been cheating all night—though he couldn’t figure out how—he watched her extremely closely and her hands never left the table or touched any part of her body.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And she hadn’t been the dealer for this hand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She would have to have been <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">awfully</span> </i>lucky to draw something stronger than four aces.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The other two players dropped out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The pot went to the limit and Davies raised beyond it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If Jane noticed—which surely she did—she didn’t say anything.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She simply raised him $50.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Davies raised her $100 and she raised <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">him</span> </i>$100.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had put no limit on the number of raises in a hand, so the two players kept on until the pot exceeded $1,000.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One could have heard the proverbial pin drop in that saloon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The audience was mesmerized and many of them were probably holding their breath—at least as long as they could.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Finally, it looked like Jane had bet nearly all of the money she had, so Davies simply called her, and then smiled when he showed his hand—four pretty aces.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Can you beat that, sweetheart?” he said with a triumphant sneer.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jane leaned over and looked at his hand; it would take a straight flush to beat him, and since she had drawn two cards, the odds were astronomically against her.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But sometimes a player is just…lucky.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But then, Jane wouldn’t have bet like she did without a pretty pat hand…</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>There was, however, a more serious problem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Well, well,” she said as she started to show her hand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Isn’t this interesting?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She laid the cards on the table.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Not only did she have a straight flush—<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">she had a royal flush</span>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>Which meant, of course, ace high.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Which meant, of course, there were five aces on the table.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Interesting, indeed.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>If the room had been quiet before, it was now an absolute cemetery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every eye in the saloon was trained on that table, looking at those five aces.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And then, slowly, those eyes began to shift, first to Dick Davies, and then to Jane Smith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And those two were staring at each other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, in Jane’s case, she was staring in Davies’ direction…</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The gambler spoke first.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His voice was low and menacing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I knew it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve known for a long time that you were cheating, woman.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This proves it.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Does it?” Jane answered calmly.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Yes, it does,” Davies replied forcefully.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And then, he pulled out his gun and pointed it right at Jane’s face.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was a collective gasp from the others in the saloon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“And I want my money back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All of it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Which means every dime you’ve got.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“And if I don’t give it to you?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are you going to shoot me down in cold blood?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Davies sneered.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“What do you think, boys?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Reckon I’d be prosecuted for shooting a thief, someone who has been stealing from me all night long?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>There was some head scratching.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Normally, even though they didn’t like him, these men would have been on Davies’ side against a cheater.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No, he probably wouldn’t get in trouble for killing a cheat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But…</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I don’t know, Dick.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She’s a woman…”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“A thief is a thief, regardless of the birth certificate,” Davies replied.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jane had simply been sitting there, watching and listening. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her hands were under the table.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I’d like to say a couple of things,” she said.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“You’d better say your prayers, woman,” the gambler said, cocking his pistol.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Either that, or that you’ll give me my money back.” </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>As if not hearing him, Jane said, “First, I’ve not admitting to cheating.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I won’t admit it because I haven’t cheated all night long.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mr. Davies, why don’t you show us what you’ve got in your inside coat pocket?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The one you’ve been pulling cheroots out of all evening.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Davies, who had been chain smoking the little cigars, got a very nasty expression on his face.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Secondly,” Jane said, “I’ve got derringers in both hands under this table.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One pointed right at your gut, Davies, and the other…a little of south of that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If I so much as see your finger tighten on that trigger, you’ll be howling and tweeting at the same time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You’ll either be dead…or dead.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Davies was gritting his teeth, he was so angry.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“You’re bluffing.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jane smiled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“You want to bet on it?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Davies’ ire was so great now that his hand was shaking; he might have missed Jane if he fired.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The solution was found when a brave soul said, “Let’s see what you’ve got in your coat pocket, Davies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then we’ll know who’s been cheating.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The gambler cursed, then rose out of his chair, pushed men aside, and left the building in a rush.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The men in the saloon watched him, then all heads turned back to Jane.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I reckon that answers the question, don’t it, ma’am.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I reckon it does,” Jane said, standing up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She did a quick money count.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“This is what I came in with,” she told the other men who had been playing..<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“You boys can divide the rest of it.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“But that’s not right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You won that money, fair and square,” one of them said.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jane smiled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Did I?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe I did cheat a little bit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The money’s yours.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I don’t believe for a minute that you cheated, miss.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Thank you,” Jane replied.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the men parted like the <place w:st="on">Red Sea</place> as she walked towards the door and left the saloon.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><br />
</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Everybody in the saloon was staring at the door through which Jane had just existed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Who is that woman?” somebody asked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I ain’t never seen nobody, male, female, or neuter, who’s that cool.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was getting cold just standin’ close to her.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Yeah, she could freeze hell, all right.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Sure was glad to see her put Davies in his place, though.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That feller is a cheatin’ sidewinder if’n there ever was one.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Always knew he cheated, but never could figure out how he done it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I reckon that woman spotted it right off.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“The cheroots.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Who’da thunk he was pulling cards out of his tobacco pocket?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Reckon that woman was cheatin’, too?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She kinda hinted she mighta been.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Nah, I don’t think she was.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But if’n she was, she’s mighty good at it.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Yeah, better’n Davies.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I wonder if them two will ever meet again.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I don’t know, but I wouldn’t bet against the woman if they did…”</span></div>
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</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Dick Davies had never been so utterly humiliated in all his life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He had been exposed for the cheat that he was—and nobody had ever caught him at it before.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now, he’d have to leave Magic, which hadn’t been in his plans because, as noted earlier in this tale, there was a lot of money in that town and he wanted his share of it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, he could never show his face in that saloon again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or any other saloon in town, for that matter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He’d have to ride before sunup.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And it was all <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">that woman’s</span> </i>fault.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>So he had one thing left to do before quitting Magic for good.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">Revenge…final and complete…</span></i></span></div>
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</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He waited in a dark alley not far from the Double Nickel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was in the direction of the hotel, so he figured Jane would pass that way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And he was right.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It being a Friday night—early Saturday now—the town was still loud and boisterous.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Double Nickel had been quiet during the spellbinding poker game, but the rest of the town had been as noisy as ever.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So Davies figured nobody would hear the little derringer he would use to kill Jane Smith.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>From the alley, he peeked around the corner of a building and saw her coming.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He melted back into the darkness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Davies had enough pride not to dry gulch anyone, and he fancied himself enough of a gentleman to especially not do it to a woman.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So when Jane stepped down from the boardwalk and came even to where he was standing, Davies spoke.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Little lady, I think you owe me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t you?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jane turned towards him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I wondered where you’d be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I figured it would either be this alley or the next one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Close enough to the town noise.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Davies, who had his derringer aimed at Jane, raised an eyebrow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“You were expecting me?” </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Of course.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Davies, you’re a cheat, a fraud, a thief, a liar, a scumbag, a partridge in a pear tree, so why wouldn’t you be a murderer, too?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You’re holding a losing hand now, too, mister, so fold before you lose it all.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Davies’ anger soared again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Woman, you’ve paid your ticket to hell, but I’d like to know one thing before I put you out of my misery.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“What’s that?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Who are you?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘Jane Smith’ is as fake as I’ve ever heard, and I always like to know the names of the people I kill.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Instead of immediately responding, Jane simply reached up…and took off her glasses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She put them a front shirt pocket.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Does that answer your question?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>There was enough light streaming in from the street for Davies to see.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He froze, because he saw the most terrifying thing he’d ever seen in his life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Oh, my God,” he muttered.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Those were the last words he ever spoke.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Two derringers, sounding like one, sent two bullets—straight into Dick Davies’ eyes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He only hissed and sighed as he slowly toppled to the ground, dead.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jane shoved the derringers back up her sleeves and then put her glasses back on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She walked over to Davies, who had fallen onto his back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She reached down and pulled an Ace of Spades from his inside coat pocket.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="background-color: white;">Dropping it onto his chest, Jane Smith turned and walked to her hotel room.</span></div>
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</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She was sitting in her chair in front of the hotel the next morning “reading” her book when Sheriff Camp Zane walked up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He stood over her.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Without preamble, he said, “Somebody shot and killed Dick Davies last night.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Dick who?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Don’t be coy with me, Miss Smith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m in no mood for your smart mouth this morning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You know who Dick Davies is--was.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You played poker with him last night.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jane looked up at the sheriff—in his direction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then back down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Sit down, Sheriff Zane.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Looking up will give me a crick in the neck.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Zane gave her a disgusted look but pulled up the chair nearby.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Now,” Jane said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Tell me what happened.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m dying to know.”<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I just told you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Somebody killed Dick Davies last night.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“And that bothers you?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Yes, Miss Smith, it bothers me very much.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Davies may not have been the salt of the earth, but I do not tolerate murder in my town.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“How do you know it was murder?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“He was shot twice…once in each eye.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Oh, and he had an Ace of Spades lying on his chest when he was found.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“That makes it murder?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Miss Smith, it’s my understanding that you and Dick Davies had a very serious disagreement last night in the saloon.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Yes, we did.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But we solved it.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Oh?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“He left the saloon.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I see.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And you left shortly afterwards.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is it possible that he was waiting in the alley for you to come by and you shot him?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jane shrugged.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“That’s possible, I suppose.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s also possible that he was waiting in the alley for somebody else and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">they</span> </i>shot him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, Sheriff Zane, it’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">possible</span> </i>that he was waiting in the alley for you and that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">you</span> </i>shot him.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Zane ignored that last comment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“But you are the only one who had a disagreement with Davies last night.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jane looked at sheriff—in his direction--with a “get real” expression on her face.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I’m sure Davies had no other enemies in this world,” she said sarcastically.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“But I have a question for you, Sheriff Zane.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“What?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“When you found Davies’ body, did he have a gun in his hand?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>A pause.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Yes.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Then please explain to me how you know it was murder and not self-defense.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Especially if, as you say, Davies was the one waiting in the alley to ambush somebody.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Zane had been had and he knew it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But he also knew he’d never really had a case to begin with.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was worth a try to see what he could shake out of this woman.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the best answer he could give was, “The gun could have been placed in his hand by…his murderer.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Once again, Jane cast a disbelieving look towards the sheriff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then she looked back down at her book as if the conversation was about over.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“You’re a better lawman than that, Sheriff Zane.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You have no proof that I, or anyone else, murdered Dick Davies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And from what I could tell, the world is better off without him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Go clean up your street and get on with policing your town.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And be thankful that Dick Davies won’t be causing you any more problems.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Zane stood up, an angry expression on his face.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“When are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">you</span></i> going to quit causing me problems, Miss Smith, by leaving Magic?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jane looked up at him again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Sheriff Zane, I have caused you absolutely no problems—zero—that you or the people of this town haven’t brought upon you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I haven’t come close to committing a crime in this burg and yet you’ve got ants in your pants just because I’m sitting here reading a book or playing checkers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m not going anywhere until I get good and ready to, and I’ll be the one who decides that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now, is there any part of that you don’t understand?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ll explain it again, if necessary.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Zane’s face was as red as a beat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I know you’re the one who killed Dick Davies last night, Miss Smith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A lawman <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">knows</span>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>I doubt I’ll ever be able to prove it, and it might have been, and probably was, self-defense.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I’m still watching you, very closely.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And if you’re still here when the Cutler gang shows up, I’m going to throw you in jail with them, I don’t care if I’ve got any evidence or not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know that’s why you’re here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a front for them.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He paused, and looked at Jane, his face hard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“A lawman <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">knows</span>.</i>”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He turned and walked away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jane watched him for a few moments, then made a face, and looked back down at her book.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“He’s almost intelligent,” she muttered to herself.<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Judd showed up a few minutes later.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Checkers?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Sure, why not?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This book is awfully boring.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“How do ye know?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ye ain’t got past the first page yet.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Oh, shut up, you old goat,” Jane replied with a smile, and Judd snickered.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>They started playing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Judd spoke up casually, “I hear ye put Dick Davies six feet under last night.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Well, somebody did.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do you think the world will miss him?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Lordy, no.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Somebody shoulda done it a long time ago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was a rotten, cheatin’ sidewinder if’n there ever was one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Zane gonna toss ye in the hoosegow?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Not without any proof, he’s not.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“He’s really not a bad feller.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He’s just gettin’ some heat from some of the town money about you sittin’ here in them dark glasses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bank president’s a fat slob with a wife who’s a fatter slob than he is, but she’s got her nose into ever’ social activity in town, and if she don’t like somebody, she lets her hubby know about it and he translates that to the sheriff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You’ve gotten under her skin.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He grinned.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I know she wishes she looked like you, too.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jane made a checker jump.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I won’t look like this forever.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 20 years, I might look like her without the money.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She turned her face in Judd’s direction and smiled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Or worse yet, in 40 years, I might look like you.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Judd harrumphed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Shoot yerself if ye do.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jane laughed.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Betsy Langer was the fat slob bank president’s wife Judd had been talking about.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her husband hadn’t gotten her the satisfaction she wanted, so she went directly to sheriff <place w:st="on"><placetype w:st="on">Camp</placetype> <placename w:st="on">Zane</placename></place> herself.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“When are you going to run <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">that woman</span> </i>out of town?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">That woman</span> </i>was the way she always referred to Jane.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Mrs. Langer, I can’t do that unless she breaks the law.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And she hasn’t done anything wrong.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“What do you mean?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She killed a man last night.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">should</span> </i>be in prison.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why don’t you do your job?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You know that there is an election coming up soon, and if you won’t do your duty, then the citizens of Magic will elect a sheriff who will.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Zane was trying to remain patient.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He couldn’t stand this woman, but then, nobody else in town could, either.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that included her husband, who everybody—but his wife—knew was having an affair with the fat slob schoolteacher.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The sheriff responded, “I don’t know, for sure, that she killed him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There were no eyewitnesses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And even if she did, more than likely it was self-defense.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just be a little patient, Mrs. Langer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She’ll leave before long.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s just one of the trials the Lord puts us through in life.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Betsy Langer figured herself to be a strong, church-going Christian woman, so Zane thought he’d try to appeal to that side of her nature.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Didn’t work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“The Good Book says, ‘The Lord helps those who help themselves.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">expect</span> </i>you to do your duty and get <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">that woman</span> </i>out of town.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Today, if not sooner.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And with that, she turned with righteous piety and left his office.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Well, the Good Book doesn’t say “the Lord helps those who help themselves”; Algernon Sydney was apparently the source of that quote, but Zane didn’t know that and it wouldn’t have done any good if he <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">had</span> </i>known it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">How do you reason with the unreasonable?</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>The threat about him losing his job in the next election was no idle one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Malcolm Langer was probably the richest man in Magic and had bought more than one sheriff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He had supported Zane in the previous election, but the sheriff tried to be fair to all and not be the tool of the banker.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But when Betsy Langer wanted something….</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">When is…that woman…going to leave?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Surely she won’t stay much longer…</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>As it turned out, Jane Smith was to be the least of Sheriff Camp Zane’s problems that day.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Dodge Cutler was the oldest brother, and thus the acknowledged leader of a band of cutthroats known simply as the Cutler gang.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was all family—three brothers and two cousins.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The brothers were all born in <state w:st="on">Kansas</state>, and so they had the names Dodge, <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Abilene</place></city>, and Ellsworth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The two cousins were born in <state w:st="on">Texas</state> and called Concho and <place w:st="on">Pecos</place>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They’d been outlaws for quite a number of years, but no court could pin a crime on them that would stick.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Witnesses had a way of disappearing before they could testify.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That was a well-known fact and one of the reasons why they had never been to prison.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No witnesses, no evidence, no conviction.<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></i>They operated within about a 700 mile radius of Magic, give or take a few miles either way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For some reason, they had never hit Magic, but the two brothers, especially <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Abilene</place></city>, were getting antsy to do so.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Dodge, there’s a lot of money in that town,” <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Abilene</place></city> said to him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I’ll bet that bank is overflowing with cash.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We could wipe that place out and spend the rest of our lives in <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Paris</place></city>.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Concho grunted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“<city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Paris</place></city>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Who wants to go to <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Paris</place></city>? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wanna go to <state w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Texas</place></state>.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Nobody’s keepin’ you from it, Concho.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I’d like to go to <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Paris</place></city>,” Ellsworth said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I hear they got the prettiest women in the world over there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And all that French wine….Mm-mm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yeah, if’n that bank’s got enough dough to let us live high on the hog in <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Paris</place></city>, I say let’s get after it.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Dodge had been thinking about Magic, too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Things had been kind of slim for the Cutler gang the last few months and so a big hit would be nice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Yeah, I think it’s time we paid Magic a visit.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>They had been doing a few small jobs within shouting distance of Magic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sheriff Camp Zane had heard about it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He figured it was only a matter of time—a short time—before the Cutlers descended upon his town.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He had wired Captain W. T. McConnell, head of the territorial rangers, but had gotten no answer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was more than a little disgruntled about the lack of response.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Why doesn’t McConnell send someone—<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">anyone</span></i>?” he murmured to himself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"Riley or Dunston, maybe Scotsworth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They’re good men and would be a big help.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Who I’d really like to have, though, is Allie Summer, but I’m sure McConnell’s got better things for him to do than come out here to the backside of nowhere.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I hear he’s got eyes that would scare the feathers off an eagle.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The sheriff sighed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He knew he was no match for the Cutler gang.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And he knew nobody else in town was, either.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">What am I going to do when they show up?</span>...</i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></i>He was going to find out very soon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, that very day…</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Somebody saw them a couple of miles from town.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And hightailed it into Magic.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Sheriff, I just saw the Cutler boys and they’re headed this way.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Zane sighed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“How far out?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Fifteen minutes.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Thanks, Reed.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“What are you going to do, Sheriff?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I’m going to do my job, Reed, that’s what you folks pay me to do.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">And I’m liable to get killed doing it.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Reckon we ought to tell folks they’re coming?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I mean, you don’t want anybody to get hurt do you?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>While Zane was thinking on it, the question was answered for him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Somebody else came riding into town, shouting, “The Cutlers are on their way!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Cutlers are coming!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Be here any time now!”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>That created mass panic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There were screams and shouts and people running every direction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mothers picked up their children and ran down the nearest side street.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Stores began to close immediately and window shutters were pulled down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Within three minutes there wasn’t a living soul in sight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A scrawny dog trotted down the street, tail between its legs, whimpering.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The wind picked up a bit, coming from the east—the same direction as the Cutlers—as if it, too, were hastening a retreat.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>From his office window on </span><span style="background-color: white;">Main Street</span><span style="background-color: white;">, Sheriff Camp Zane watched the scurrying to and fro by the people of Magic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He had never really expected any help from the townsfolk, but he had hoped.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A hope that ended in vain.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>With another sigh, he walked over to the gun case, unlocked it, and took out a double-barreled shotgun.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He checked to make sure it was loaded.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From inside his desk drawer, he pulled out several cartridges and stuck them in a pocket.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Colt on his hip was loaded and ready as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He left his office and went out to meet his fate.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>For the umpteenth time, he wondered why the town fathers of Magic wouldn’t provide him a deputy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">Well, that would only mean two of us getting killed, I reckon…</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jane and Judd were playing checkers when the news of the pending arrival of the Cutler gang reached Magic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Silently, Jane watched the reactions of the people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Judd looked at her.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Miss Jane, I reckon those folks have got a pretty good plan, scatterin’ like they are. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Them Cutlers is almighty mean, and maybe the best plan is jest to let ‘em come, take what they want, and maybe they’ll leave without hurtin’ nobody.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jane made a face.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Well, they sure aren’t going to hurt anybody if they can’t <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">find</span> </i>anybody.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She looked back at the checkerboard and made a move.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Well, what I meant was,” Judd said, “maybe we ought to, uh, let the storm pass, too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Especially you.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He shook his head.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I’m a-feared what them boys might do to a good-lookin’ woman.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jane nodded and pushed her chair back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I’m going to go upstairs to my room, Judd. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You go on to wherever you feel is safe.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Judd figured that Jane intended to hide out in her room.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He didn’t especially think that would be the safest place, but he didn’t figure he could talk her out of it, either.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Besides, he wanted to be out of sight, too, when the Cutlers arrived.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, he responded, “Ok.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ll see you when they’re gone.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jane just nodded again and went into the hotel.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She came back out about two minutes later and stared at a ghost town.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Shaking her head in what appeared to be disgust, she stood outside the hotel and leaned against a supporting post.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She crossed her arms over her chest…and waited.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In a few minutes, she heard some horses riding in from the east.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They didn’t appear to be in a big hurry, and as she looked in that direction, she saw five men, their horses in a slow trot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were looking around, as people are wont to do when they ride into a new town.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Ain’t nobody here, Dodge,” <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Abilene</place></city> said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Maybe the place is a ghost town, about to dry up and blow away.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He laughed.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“No, this place has got people,” Dodge replied.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“They just didn’t send out the welcome wagon to greet us.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then he spotted Jane leaning against the post at the top of the stairs that led to the hotel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Well, well, what do we have here?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He led his horse over to where Jane stood and the other men followed him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She considered them for a few moments, just as they were doing her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dodge appeared to be the oldest, but probably wasn’t 30 yet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He had curly black hair that twirled out from under his brown hat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not a bad looking-man, medium height and build.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But there was danger in his blue eyes.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The other four men were of varying sizes and shapes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Abilene</place></city> was tall and lean, Ellsworth about Dodge’s size, but a little heavier, and the two Texans were both slender and pale—which Jane thought was strange, given their outdoor profession.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were both blonde headed, though.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All five men were examining Jane—and with obvious relish.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Dodge leaned on his saddle horn and pushed his hat back on his head.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Howdy, ma’am.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are you the welcoming committee?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or maybe the sacrificial lamb?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He chuckled and the other men laughed as well.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jane smiled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not a friendly smile. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Maybe,” is all she said.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"> Not quite sure what that meant, Dodge asked, “Where is everybody?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is there a picnic outside of town?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The place seems kind of deserted.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Before Jane could answer, Concho spoke up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Hey, boss, there’s the bank right across the street.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Dodge gave him an annoyed look.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I saw the bank, Concho.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know where it is.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Well, I just wanted to make sure…”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Dodge turned back to Jane.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She spoke.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“That’s the bank, all right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Only one in town.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You boys wanting to make a deposit?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“No, more like a withdrawal,” Dodge replied, grinning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And he got some more chuckles from his men.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Folks around here might not like the kind of withdrawal you have in mind.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Do you think they’ll do anything about it?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jane shrugged.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Don’t know.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m just passing through.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t have any money in there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sheriff might object, but I don’t know if anybody else would.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Dodge narrowed his eyes at her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The woman didn’t seem to be too intimidated or afraid of them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the glasses were what he found of immediate curiosity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Why do you wear those dark glasses?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Can’t rightly say I’ve ever seen anything like them.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Well, they protect my eyes.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“From the sun?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“That.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And anything else I don’t especially want to see.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Snakes, buzzards, lizards, other nauseating vermin that bother me.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Dodge had a hunch he knew what she meant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Are they protecting your eyes right now?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Yeah, they are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But not well enough.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He sneered at her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ellsworth spoke up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Is she talkin’ about us, Dodge?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>His older brother didn’t answer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was still trying to figure Jane out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Who are you, lady?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I assume you know who we are.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I know who you are. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I’m supposed to tell you that there are some rats on the other side of town waiting for you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More of your kinfolk, I think.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“You got a sassy mouth, woman.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If me and the boys had a mind to come down there and…get better acquainted with you…what would you do?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jane smiled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not her friendly smile.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“You’re welcome to try.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He snorted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Do you think you could stop us?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She was still smiling.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“You’re welcome to try,” she repeated.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Let’s go get her, cousin,” <place w:st="on">Pecos</place>, one of the Texans, said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“There’s nothin’ I hate worse than a smart-aleck woman.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She needs to learn her place.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But Dodge was studying Jane very closely.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was somewhat amazed; she showed absolutely no fear at all, and that didn’t compute to him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“No, not yet, <place w:st="on">Pecos</place>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You’re right, she needs a lesson in manners, but later, not now.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He said to Jane, “We’ll be in town awhile, and we’ll look you up.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He grinned wickedly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Might be fun.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Still smiling, Jane replied, “Might be.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And with a wave and another set of up-and-down looks at Jane, the men rode off deeper into town.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“It might be fun if I was another rat,” Jane muttered under her breath.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She looked at her pocket watch and had an irritated expression on her face.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She was still standing there five minutes later when another man, dark blonde hair, blue eyes, rode up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Still irritated, Jane said, “It’s about time you got here.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He was a little annoyed at her attitude.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I can’t drop everything and run every time you get your tail in a crack.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I’m not in a crack,” she replied.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I just thought you might like to join in the fun.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Are they here yet?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Arrived about 10 minutes before you did.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Well, that was good timing, wasn’t it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How many of them are there?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Five.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Tough looking bunch?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I wouldn’t underestimate them.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Where’d they go?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jane pointed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“That way.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“What about the law in this town?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Good man, but this one is way over his head.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Any help from the hoi polloi?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Not a bit.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The man nodded and turned his horse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I’ll be around.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Don’t forget to load your gun,” Jane called after him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She saw him smile and he waved.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She shook her head, but smiled herself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She hadn’t been especially worried before, but she admitted to herself that she felt a whole lot better now.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><br />
</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Sheriff Camp Zane was standing outside his office, just waiting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He saw the five Cutler men as they rode slowly towards the center of town.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He walked out into the middle of the street, holding the shotgun in both hands.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dodge and his men saw him, and about 50 yards shy, hitched their horses to a rail and started walking towards the sheriff.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>About 20 feet away from Zane, the Cutler men stopped.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Howdy, sheriff,” Dodge said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His hands were hooked on his gunbelt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He had a reputation for being lightning quick and deadly with his pistol.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Nice town you got here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No people or nothin’.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The others laughed.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Cutler, I’ll give you a chance to ride on out of here right now,” Zane said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I wouldn’t normally do that with a gang of thugs, but I’m in a good mood today, so you boys pack up and head out, and we’ll call it even.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can go be somebody else’s problem.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Now, wait a minute, sheriff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We just got here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’d like to patronize some of your fine merchants with a bit of our hard earned money.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You don’t want to deprive your businessmen of customers, would you?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>As if on cue, Pecos hollered out, “Oooo-doggies!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dodge, you ought to come see this fine saddle this feller’s got for sale.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was standing in front of a leather goods store.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“He wants 50 bucks for it, though.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Awful proud of it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe I can convince him to give it to me for free.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He laughed and his brother did, too.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Get your men and get out of here, Cutler,” Zane said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Before I arrest all of you.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“And what would you be arresting us for, sheriff?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“You’re wanted in every territory from here to Mexico and from California to New York, too, I imagine.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Now, sheriff, you know we’ve never been convicted of anything.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Besides,” and here he walked up closer to Zane, “do you really think you could arrest all of us?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">any</span> </i>of us for that matter?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Pecos wasn’t paying much attention to the conversation out in the street.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I think I’ll go inside here and see what else this guy’s got for sale. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You want to join me, Concho?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“In a minute, Pecos.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I want to watch this lawmen eat some dust.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Suit yourself,” Pecos rejoined, and, finding the door locked, he forced it and went inside.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Zane cast a glance in Pecos’s direction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“That’s breaking and entering, Cutler.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s a crime.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Cutler gave the sheriff a fake smile, and then a half bow, extending his hand towards the leather shop, “inviting” Zane to walk in that direction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Then why don’t you go arrest him?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The sheriff really didn’t have much of a clue as to what to do, but he said, “I think I’ll do just that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That will be one down, and before the day is over, I imagine the rest of you will be in jail, too.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He headed towards the leather store, but before he’d gotten near the sidewalk, Cutler’s other three men had him surrounded, standing about 10 feet from him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dodge Cutler himself hadn’t moved and was about 20 feet away again.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I don’t think my boys want you putting Pecos in jail, sheriff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I know they don’t want to go themselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tell you what.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You get on back in your office and stay there for, say, three hours, and then we’ll be gone from your town.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How does that sound?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just three hours.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“You’ll have the bank and every other store in town robbed by then, Cutler.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Probably.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But you’ll be alive, something not likely to happen if you try to stop us.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Zane started to lower the shotgun towards Dodge, but quick as a flash, he had three pistols pointing at him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Might be a good idea if you keep that shooter aimed at the birds, sheriff.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then, with a smug expression on his face, he said, “I’m going to be real, real nice to you, sheriff, since this is our first visit to your wonderful town.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m going to have my boys tie you up in your office and blindfold you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That way you won’t see anything we do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">do</span> </i>know what happens to people who see what we do, don’t you, sheriff?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Yes, the sheriff knew.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As noted earlier, eye-witnesses to the doings of the Cutlers didn’t usually live long enough to tell anyone what they’d seen.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I can’t let you do that, Dodge,” Zane replied, his voice strained.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“So you’d rather die?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I’d rather die defending my town than live with the shame of letting you ransack it under my nose.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Tsk, tsk,” Cutler said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Such stupid bravado, lawman.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But have it your way.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And he pulled his gun and aimed it at the sheriff…</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Then a voice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Sheriff, can you tell me where the public privy is?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can’t find one anywhere.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Everybody turned towards the voice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jane Smith was standing—rather, leaning—against a support post across the street.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Zane’s face went hard, but something strange struck him, too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">She just saved my life…at least for the moment…</span></i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He spoke to Cutler.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Did your lady do a good job scouting the town out for you, Cutler?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She’s been nothing but a pain the whole time she’s been here.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Dodge Cutler looked from Jane to Zane.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An eyebrow went up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“My lady?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Never saw her before today, sheriff.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He looked back at Jane.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“But you can certainly be my lady if you want to, honey.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As soon as I take care of some business here, you and I will go down the street and have a good time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ok?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Hmm, I don’t know.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She started walking towards the group.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“What do you think, Rob?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And right then, Pecos came flying backwards out of the leather goods store with a shout.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He landed flat on his back right at the feet of his brother.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Cutlers were dumbfounded, and stared at the Texan, who was lying unconscious on the ground.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The man who had ridden in after the Cutlers and talked to Jane walked out of the store.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Well, it’s your choice, Allie, but you never struck me as the kind who liked to roll around in pig slop.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Zane and the Cutlers looked slowly, back and forth, from the man who had tossed Pecos out of the leather shop to the woman who had stopped her approach about 20 feet away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“What did you call her?” Dodge Cutler asked, in a tense voice, to the man.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Get those ugly glasses off, woman, would you?” the man at the shop said.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And Jane Smith removed her glasses.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Everybody stared at her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, except the man at the leather store.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Uh oh,” Abilene Cutler said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Boss, we got problems.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> The eyes behind those glasses were known by every outlaw and lawman in the territory. </span>Dodge looked at the woman carefully.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Are you really Allie Summer?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’d heard she was a woman, but I didn’t believe it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But then…those eyes…”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Sheriff Zane’s peepers were as big as saucers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“You’re Allie Summer?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“You can call me Jane.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“And who are you?” Dodge asked the man at the leather store.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Rob Conners.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Oh, my mother’s grave….” Ellsworth muttered.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Cutler’s men were seriously unnerved now, but they still had four guns pointed at the sheriff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Don’t let ‘em get to you, boys,” Dodge said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“We’ve still got the sheriff surrounded.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’ve got four guns and they’ve only got two.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I don’t even see a gun on the woman over here.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Quicker than he could blink, he saw one in Allie’s hand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Aimed at his heart.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And then, another voice spoke.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Actually, they got three guns.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>All eyes—including Allie’s and Rob’s—followed the voice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From the roof of the building beside the leather goods store, Judd Sartain was pointing a rifle, rock steady in his hands, at Dodge Cutler.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“And just who are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">you</span></i>?” Dodge asked him.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Major Judd Sartain, 4<sup>th</sup> North Carolina Rifles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Shiloh, Antietam, Chancellorsville, Fredericksburg…and a few others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Never missed a Yankee that I aimed at, and I don’t aim to miss the one I’m aimin’ at right now, neither.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Dodge Cutler was becoming a little desperate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was now he and his men who were surrounded.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“We’ve still got your sheriff,” he repeated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was all he could think of because it was the only card he had.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And it wasn’t much of one anymore.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nobody had noticed, during all the introductions, that Sheriff Zane had lowered, cocked, and pointed his shotgun—at Dodge Cutler.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He spoke.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Let’s make that four guns, shall we?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yeah, maybe I’m in the middle of all this, Cutler.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But both barrels of a shotgun unloaded into a fellow don’t leave a whole lot for the dogs to lick up.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Cutler’s face turned ugly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He spoke to Allie.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“We’ll take some of you with us, Ranger.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Do you really want to go that bad, Cutler?” she asked him.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He looked into her eyes—and froze.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And shivered.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And melted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“All right, all right,” he said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“We’ll ride out of here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just let us get on our horses and we’ll go.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can have your town, sheriff, and we’ll leave you alone.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“No deals, Cutler,” Allie replied.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“No deals.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She looked at Conners for a moment, and he nodded.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And a split second later, it was all over.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Four shots, sounding like one, echoed down the streets of the town of Magic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Four men cried out and arched their backs, trigger fingers immobile, their life force rapidly draining away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Abilene fell, then Ellsworth, then the Texan, Concho.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The last to hit the ground was Dodge Cutler himself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His last vision was of…ice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>A vision he took with him to hell.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The eyes of Allie Summer.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The first to react was Judd Sartain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Dad blame it, woman, I didn’t even get a chance to shoot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You and Conners got ‘em all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hey, there’s still one down there on the groun’ unconscious.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Can I have him?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He meant Pecos, whose life had been spared because he <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; mso-highlight: yellow;">had</span> </i>been unconscious.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Judd was grinning, though, so everybody knew he was joking.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Sheriff Camp Zane was still standing in the same place, now surrounded by four dead bodies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was a bit dumbfounded himself. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He looked from Allie to Rob Conners.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Needless to say, I’m glad you two showed up.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then, to Allie.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I never knew…why didn’t you tell me?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Sheriff, I’m sorry, but if it had gotten around that I was in Magic, or even headed this way, the Cutlers would never have come.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Captain McConnell got your wire and sent me when he knew Dodge and his thugs were in the area.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But we had to do it on the sly, and I had to wear those glasses because my mother cursed me with these eyes.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Eyes that were the color of ice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And they had indeed frozen many an outlaw.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Allie was actually half Cheyenne and half Scandinavian.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All of her features, except her eyes, she had gotten from her Cheyenne father—especially her long, straight, silky black hair.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Norwegian/Native American combination produced an astoundingly beautiful woman—and one as quick as a rattler, as silent and invisible in the forest as a panther, and as wily as a fox.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most people who had heard of her, but hadn’t met her, believed she was a man—or didn’t believe she was a woman.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But her eyes had a longer reputation than Allie herself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>”If you see eyes that would freeze hell, then get ready to go there…” was the motto that was beginning to make the rounds among the miscreants in the territory.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Zane shook his head, mainly in wonder.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“And I thought McConnell was just ignoring me.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“No.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’ve wanted these guys for a long time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’re glad you wired, so we knew where they were.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The sheriff looked at Rob Conners.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I’ve heard of you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Best gun in the territory.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are you working for the Rangers now?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“No.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Allie gets lonely so she wires me occasionally to come keep her company and bail her out.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Allie grunted at that one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“It makes him feel good to feel wanted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nobody else would have the….”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I won’t repeat what she called Conners.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Judd had joined the group now, grinning from ear to ear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“That was the most fun I’ve had since the war, even though you didn’t save one for me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Still, it was nice to do somethin’ other than play checkers.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Well, we appreciate your help, Judd,” Sheriff Zane said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“You certainly made things easier by adding your gun to the mix.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Major Sartain, huh?” Allie said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then, with a smile, “You knew who I was all along, didn’t you.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Yeah.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No momma would ever name their son ‘Allie,’ so Allie Summer had to be female.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Besides, I seen you over to Culver City onct.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You blowed away Tank McAdams.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Slicker’n snot.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He looked at Zane.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“McAdams was pointin’ a gun at her and hers still in her holster.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But he never got a shot away.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He looked at Rob Conners.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Are you that fast?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I hear ye are.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Allie looked at Rob and they smiled at each other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Well, I’ll tell you this, old timer,” Allie said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I’ll never test him.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The people of Magic were starting to come out of the woodworks now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pecos Cutler had woken up and was staggering to his feet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“You can have this one, sheriff,” Allie said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“We don’t want him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He’s defanged now, without Dodge and the rest of them.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Well, I’ll hold him till the judge gets here next week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bryer’ll give him a nice room, for a long time, at the expense of the taxpayers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the territorial prison.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Pecos had regained enough of his senses to object.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Why?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I ain’t done nothin’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can’t hold me.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Zane smiled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Oh, yes, I can.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“What fer?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Breaking and entering.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Allie laughed.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>There wasn’t much more to say or do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The sheriff took control of the local matters as the town came back to life, buzzing over what had happened.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rob and Allie headed towards the hotel—he, to get a room for the night, she, to stay for one more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On their way, a teenaged boy came running up to Allie.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Are you really Allie Summer?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I knew it the whole time, but I didn’t want to tell nobody, since you was using a fake name an’ all.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“’Were’ using, Lance, not ‘was’.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And she smiled again.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Oh, ok, ok.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What difference does it make so long as people can understand me?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then he held out a piece of paper and a pencil.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Can I have your autograph?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I mean, if you don’t mind.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Allie made a face at Rob, who was having trouble not laughing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Well, I guess so,” she said, and signed the paper.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Do you want his, too?” she said, motioning to Rob.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Nah, he’s nobody important.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now, if Rob Conners ever comes through town, I’m gonna get his autograph.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I seen Conners draw one time over at Pine Mountain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Boy, he’s fast.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t think he’s as fast as you, though, Allie…”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Allie Summer and Rob Conners were smiling at each other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Well, I’ll tell you this, young man,” Rob said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“He’ll never test her.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">The End</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; mso-tab-count: 1;">Allie will be back, folks. Whether she brings Rob Conners with her again, I don't know yet. It's up to her. I'm certainly not going to argue with her.</span><br />
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For those of you who have not read any other of my stories, Allie Summer first appeared in <em>River Bend, </em>which is a sequel to <em>Whitewater. </em>Rob Conners was in both, and they are also in <em>Return to River Bend.</em><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; mso-tab-count: 1;">Mark Lewis</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; mso-tab-count: 1;"><a href="mailto:mklewis929@msn.com">mklewis929@msn.com</a> </span></div>
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Mark K. Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13049998079571823584noreply@blogger.com