Texas Showdown by Elmer Kelton

Author:Elmer Kelton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates
Published: 1969-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

The sheriff poked his head through the door of the Two Forks Bar & Billiard Emporium. Looking around quickly, he spotted the two men seated at a small table. He stared a moment, his heavy fingers gripping the doorjamb. At length the tall man spoke to him. “Come on in, Erly. Wondered how long it would take you.”

Sheriff Erly Greenwood moved solemnly, his sun-browned face pinched into a frown. He halted two paces from the table, gave the red-bearded man a quick glance, then gazed at the other. “What you doin’ here, Macy?”

“Havin’ a drink. Share a little sunshine with us?”

“You was in the pen, Macy. How come you out?”

“I was turned out. Got all the proper papers right here in my pocket.” He tapped his shirt. “Care to look?”

The sheriff nodded. “Maybe I better.” His frown deepened, and his moustache worked a little as he read. “You didn’t serve out all the term they gave you.”

“Good behavior, Erly. Surprise you I could behave myself?”

“Damn sure does. I figured you’d get in a fight and some other prisoner would stomp your brains out. Hoped so, as a matter of fact.”

“But here I am back in Two Forks, like a bad penny.”

“I want you out, Macy. Have your drink, get your horses fed, then ride on out. I don’t want to ever see you again…not in this town, not in this country.”

Macy Modock studied his half-finished drink, a little anger flaring before he quickly forced it back. “Erly, if you’ll read that paper a little closer you’ll see it says I done paid up all I owe. I can come and go as I please, here or anywhere else. And after all, I’m a property owner in Two Forks. I come to see about my property.”

“After ten years? That old saloon you had is half fallen in. Kids broke out all the windowlights the first week you was gone. Wind took off most of the shingles, and rain has done the rest.”

“The land it sets on is mine. I come to see after my property. There can’t nobody quarrel over that.”

Erly Greenwood shifted his weight from one foot to the other. His jaw worked, but it was a while before any words came out. “Macy, we’ve had a nice quiet town here the last few years.”

Modock nodded. “You’re puttin’ on some belly.”

“Just you listen to what I tell you. If you’ve come to settle up any old scores, I won’t have it.”

A hard smile came to Macy Modock’s thin, cheek-sunken face. “I got no grudge against you, Erly. You just done what you was told. The boss man snapped his fingers and you jumped. That’s how it always was, them days. He still snappin’ his fingers, Erly?”

Anger leaped into Erly Greenwood’s face. “He’s a good man, Macy. Anything he done to you, he done for good cause. If you’ve come back to raise hell…”

Macy Modock glanced at his red-whiskered companion. “Like I told you, Owen, things ain’t really changed. The years go by, people get older, but everything else stays the same.

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