Dance with the Devil by Victoria Wilcox

Author:Victoria Wilcox
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781493044726
Publisher: TwoDot
Published: 2019-06-15T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

SWEETWATER, 1878

THEY LEFT THE HORSES WITH A LIVERY STABLE OWNER IN THROCKMORTON County, then took the stage north across the Texas panhandle to Fort Elliott, two-hundred-fifty miles away, where the new Dodge City and Pan-handle Line took on passengers. It was a long, hard trail even by coach— forty hours from Fort Griffin to Fort Elliott over roads so rough and rocky that the horses had to be changed out every twenty miles and the passengers arrived bruised and exhausted. Most travelers were thankful for the chance to layover a day or two at Sweetwater, close to Fort Elliott, before continuing on across the Indian Territory to Fort Supply and Dodge City, another grueling two-hundred miles away.

Sweetwater was the closest thing to a town that there was along the Dodge City Trail, with one general store, one dance hall, a scattering of saloons, and a combination restaurant and boarding house with a Chinese laundry next door. But though the Chinese laundry seemed like a sure sign that Sweetwater was about to boom and turn into a real little city, the truth was that the boom had ended when the buffalo had died out, and Sweetwater would never be anything more than what it was—just a collection of dirt-floored, sod-roofed adobe buildings huddled together in the windy, treeless waste of the Texas panhandle.

The only memorable thing about the little town was that it had been the scene, two years back, of the tragic killing of a pretty dance hall girl named Mollie Brennan. Mollie was the favorite among the “Seven Jolly Sisters,” the saloon girls who entertained the soldiers and the buffalo hunters who visited the town. But being popular in a God-forsaken place like Sweetwater could be a dangerous thing, and Mollie Brennan had the misfortune of getting caught in a fight between two of her beaus: a soldier from Fort Elliott named Melvin King, and a young buffalo hunter and teamster called Bat Masterson.

Corporal King had a jealous streak, along with the mistaken notion that Mollie was his special girl, and when he learned one night that she was over in the dance hall entertaining one of the buffalo hunters, he loaded his six-shooter and went looking for a fight. If what he’d heard was true, and Masterson was trying to seduce Mollie and steal her away, Corporal King meant to do something serious. When he got to the dance hall and found his pretty Mollie dancing close in Bat Masterson’s arms, he put his pistol into play without asking any questions.

Mollie caught sight of the soldier just as his thumb hit the hammer and she screamed and turned to throw herself between her partner and the bullet that was aiming for him, hoping perhaps that Corporal King wouldn’t shoot if she were standing in the way. But the soldier was a fast draw and a quick shot, and he’d already pulled off his round before he saw Mollie spin herself into his line of fire. It was

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.