chickens. At the window of a rather nice building that he recognized to be the home of Reverend Gascoigne, the tulle curtains parted to reveal a woman’s face, so luminous with her blonde hair let down, that he froze on his saddle to the point that his surprised Quarter Horse turned her neck and flinched.
Piqued by a sensation of unspeakable emptiness somewhere between his diaphragm and throat, William Pill took his reins in hand. He signaled a trot, eager to get back to Long Road, and his horse, mane in the wind, started to pick up speed. That’s when the click of a gun barrel engaged nearby.
“Stop there or I’ll shoot!” yelled a man, rushing over without losing sight of his target in the middle of the road.
The newcomer obeyed in good faith. He had recognized the marshal despite his heaviness and wrinkles. Was it possible that Robert McLeann would have remembered him?
“Get off your horse and approach with your hands up, Willie the Faker! We’ve got a lot to catch up on, the two of us . . .”
Knowing the unreliable trigger of the type of firearm being pointed at him, he did as he was asked. This McLeann, with his migraine-inducing integrity and respect for procedure, had always amused him.
Seated behind the office desk, gun lowered, the marshal had to admit his blunder while unrolling the Certificate of Merit personally signed by General Zachary Taylor.
“If it weren’t for your name and birth date written out, I might believe that you won this in a poker game from some other heroic fellow!”
“I won it with my own blood!” Pill replied with a certain emphasis, exposing the nasty scar on his shoulder. “And if you were only equipped with a telegraph, like all respectable sheriffs are, you could avoid these unfortunate mistakes . . .”
“That’s not going to prevent me from sending a request for information on your record first thing tomorrow by post!”
Pill laughed, one eye on the closed saloon door through the window, the other across the road.
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