Read Chancy (1968) for Free Online Page B

sale. "All right," he said finally. "I'll be around."
    After he had walked on up the street, I looked at Jim. "You didn't tell me you knew him," I said.
    "Didn't figure it mattered. We were scouts for the army at the same time, a few years back. He's a good man."
    And just then I saw them.
    Three men came out of a saloon together: a short, thickset mar; with his vest torn in the back; a slender, wiry man with a still, cold face, reddish hair, and a few freckles; and a third one--tall, and good-looking in a rakish, hell-for-leather sort of way. And this one wore my hat.
    Jim Bigbear straightened up, blocking my view. "Don't look at them," he said. "That's Caxton Kelsey."
    Well, I didn't know the names of many folks in this part of the country, but I'd heard tell of Caxton Kelsey on my way to Santa Fe, and since. He was a gunfighter, and by all accounts a holy terror. He'd killed six or seven men that folks knew of, and he was accounted a bad man to tangle with.
    So I just stood still there, giving it some thought. I had used guns since I was old enough to hold one level and take aim, but I'd never considered myself a gunfighter or anything of the sort. I'd been around, I'd shot rifles at Indians when they attacked our freight outfits, but so far as I knew the only man I'd ever killed was that would-be sheriff back in the Territory. And I was smart enough to know I didn't qualify to hold a gun against Caxton Kelsey.
    But I wasn't about to give up all I'd lose if I didn't get my hat back. I didn't know what was between him and that redhead, and it was none of my affair. I just wanted my hat.
    Now, there's more than one way of doing things, and when a body can't come about it one way, he can do it another. Of course, the way I was thinking of might lead to shooting. All I could do was play my hand and keep my chips in the pot.
    We stood there, seeming to pay them no mind, and soon they crossed the street to an eating place. We watched them go in, hang up their hats, and sit down, and then I led the way across the street. As I did so, I saw Bill Hickok take the cigar from his mouth, flip off the ashes, and follow us.
    They were paying no attention when we came in, and I hung Kelsey's hat that I'd been wearing on a hook right alongside my own black one that he'd had. Then we sat down close by, and a moment later Hickok came in and crossed the room to a seat near the wall.
    We ordered coffee. We'd been sitting there maybe three or four minutes before Andy Miller happened to look around and see me. He leaned over and whispered something to Caxton Kelsey, who lifted his eyes and looked right at me and smiled.
    Yes, sir. He just looked at me and smiled, as much as to say:Well, here I am. What are you going to do about it?
    I just grinned back at him. "I've still got a sore head," I said to him.
    He was startled. I don't think he expected that, or anything like it. He shrugged and said, "Don't let it get you into trouble."
    "I'm not likely to. I'm a peace-loving man myself."
    I put two-bits on the table to pay for the coffee, and got up. "So much so that I'm going to leave you boys to eat in peace. Come on, Jim."
    Stepping over to the hatrack, I took down my black hat--my own hat.
    Kelsey sat up straight. "You've got the wrong hat,amigo . That's mine."
    "You had the wrong one," I said, still with a grin. "You just picked up the wrong hat back on the prairie. Now you've got your own back."
    He did not move, but he said in a quiet voice, "Put it down, kid. Put it down while you've got a chance."
    "What seems to be the trouble, gentlemen?" That was Bill Hickok.
    Now, I didn't for a moment figure that Caxton Kelsey was afraid of Hickok. He'd taken his own share of scalps, and he was a good man with a gun, but Hickok was standing about twenty feet back of Kelsey's right shoulder. Jim and me were about ten feet apart, and facing him.
    He was boxed neatly, but he was a warrior, and he knew when he was out of position.
    Before he had a chance to