Booty for a Badman (3 page)

"You stay with him, you hear? You ain't much account, either, but give you seasoning and you will be. Fact is, if you'd been a woman back there on that trail I might have been less of the gentleman, but you haven't grown up to a man yet."

She had the prettiest blue eyes you ever saw, and she looked straight at me. She was mad, but she was honest, and behind those blue eyes she had a grain of sense.

"You may be right," she admitted, "although I'd rather slap your face than agree. After what I have been through these past few days, that dirt floor would look very good indeed."

"Ma'am, when my time comes to marry, I hope I find a woman as pretty as you--and with as much backbone."

Leaving her talking to those officers, I went to the counter with my gold and checked it in with Hardy in the names of those to whom it was credited, to Jim Hodge, Willy Mander, Tom Padgett--and to Mrs. Jack Walker, whose address I supplied.

"And I've got a hundred dollars coming," I said.

Hardy paid it to me, and I put it in my pocket. More money than I'd seen since the coon went up the tree. Then I went outside like I'd promised, and Bill Squires surprised me. He was sure enough waiting.

He shot at me and missed. I shot at him and didn't.