The Cowboy with the Tiffany Gun by Aaron Latham

Author:Aaron Latham
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2008-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Pyg made a point of entering the big dining room of the Exchange a few minutes late. By doing so, he hoped to avoid milling and chatting with the other members of the Panhandle Cattlemen’s Association. He already knew that many of them considered him and his ranch to be traitors. Some thought him little better than a nester himself, since his Home Ranch had made a pact with the hated homesteaders.

They were all seated around the long table when he walked in. All talking ceased. He stumbled, but then he regained his balance and continued to an empty seat near the bottom of the table. No one greeted him. He smiled at them all, out of tension rather than friendliness. He didn’t notice anybody smiling back.

“You asked fer this here meetin’,” Will Lee said accusingly. He added curtly: “Whaddaya want?”

Surprised by the bluntness of the question, Pyg blurted: “A quarantine. I’m here to make one last appeal. I mean—”

“To help who?” Lee interrupted.

“All of us, everybody.” Pyg realized he was turning a bullet over and over with his fingers and thumb. He hoped he wouldn’t drop it and wished it were silver.

“Ever’body? Nesters, too?”

“It’s in all of our interest.”

“We was just talkin’ ’bout that before you come in—late.” Will Lee paused. “Mebbe you can answer us a question we been debatin’: Whose damn side’re you on?”

Pyg hadn’t known the question would come so soon, but he had anticipated that some version of it would eventually be asked. And he had done his best to come up with an answer.

“We’re on the side that’s against the fever,” he said in a barely audible voice. “I hope that means we’re all on the same side, but I’m not sure. Please enlighten me.”

“‘Enlighten’?” said Lee. “You hear that, boys? Hear how he talks. Thinks he’s too good fer the likes of us. Ain’t he grand?”

Pyg got up and walked out of the room. He was alone again.

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