Read Chancy (1968) for Free Online Page A

have his hat on. I'll wait."
    There were plenty of folks around, and we stood together on the street, watching for somebody from the herd.
    Abilene looked bleak and weather-beaten. Much of the town was still showing raw, unpainted lumber, but there was a sense of pride showing up, and folks were busy painting and planting, trying to make things look better.
    The folks along the street looked to be from everywhere, lots of them foreigners--German, Scandinavian, and Polish, with a sprinkling of Britishers. Some of the people wore homespun, many wore jeans and chaps, but there were plenty of store-bought suits too, and some fine tailored clothes. Nobody liked his clothes creased in those days--that was the mark of the shelf, and the tailored suits were never creased.
    Gamblers, cattle buyers, and local businessmen dressed mighty well, but even the cowhands in off the range put on their best, whatever it was. Nobody wore range clothes to town if he had anything else, unless he was working.
    There were a few farmers in their wagons, usually with their wives and youngsters. Most of them wore flat-heeled boots and suspenders, and they didn't have much to do with the cowboys. The old honkytonks in Fisher's Addition had been closed, and the houses were licensed, like the saloons.
    It was a lesson to a man just to stand there and watch folks go by; it was the well-dressed men to whom folks paid the most mind.
    "How you figure to get your hat?" Jim asked.
    "Why, I'll try to get it without trouble. But if they want trouble, they're going to get it."
    He gave me a sharp glance. "You know how to use that gun?" He lit a cigarette. "If you aren't almighty good with it, you'd better not open the ball, believe me. Andy Miller is good, and chances are that man riding the black horse is just as good maybe better."
    "I can use it," I told him. "I don't know if I use it well enough I guess I've got to pay to find out." Then I added, "If there's gunplay, they'll have to start it. But I've got an idea that I can pull it off without a fight."
    "What do we do?"
    "We wait. Meanwhile we scout around and try to locate the herd."
    "Where were they going?" he asked. "Were they going to sell out here?"
    It was a question I should have asked myself, for what had they to gain by selling in Abilene? I was the one who stood to gain by that; and for all they knew, I might be dead. They might decide to sell out and call an end to it, but they might recapture their dream.
    "They were talking of a green valley somewhere out west," I said. "A place folks had told them about."
    Jim smiled. "Isn't that what we're all hunting for? A green valley somewhere?"
    Suddenly I saw him coming down the street--Wild Bill himself. He was a tall, finely built man with a drooping mustache. He wore a black hat, a black, tailored suit, and a red sash with pistols thrust behind it. He was walking in our direction, and I faced him squarely.
    He looked straight at me. I was a stranger, but there was no wariness in his eyes, only that cool attention he gave every man. I knew he was good. You could feel it. "Mr. Hickok?" I said.
    "Yes?"
    "Mr. Hickok, I'm Otis Tom Chancy. I'd like to talk to you for a minute."
    He glanced from me to Jim Bigbear. "Howdy Jim," he said quietly. "This man a friend of yours?"
    "Yes, he is."
    He turned back to me. "What is it, then?" Briefly, I explained about the bill of sale for the herd, how I'd been slugged, and my hat taken. I told him who the man was who'd done it, and about Andy Miller. And then I told him how I hoped to get my hat back. He listened, watching me carefully all the while. Then he said, "Why tell me all this?"
    "Because this is your town. You keep the peace here, and I'm a man who respects the law. If the man who did it wants trouble he can have it, outside of town. I wanted you to know I wasn't hunting trouble. But I want my hat back, and what's in it."
    "Have you any proof the hat is yours?" So I explained about that, and about the bill of