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pleasure, ma’am. I’d be honored to escort you.”
    She stood and smiled sweetly. “Spoken like a true gentleman of the South.”
    He offered her his arm and proudly led her to the door…after leaving a silver dollar for her meal at his insistence.
    ***
    Red River and Billy were just starting through the entrance of the Wish-Key when the doors sprang open from the other side and a flying body landed hard in the street and rolled through the dust and horse leavings toward the center. An instant later a six-foot wrangler with a full black beard burst through waving a Navy Colt in his right hand. “Ain’t no hombre gonna crawfish on a bet with Gil Matters. You’ll pay up, by God, or I’ll send you to hell with Lincoln!”
    Red River brushed Billy back against the wall with a sweep of his hand and forced the lad back to a safer position.
    As Matters stepped into the street the doors sprang open again and cowboys filled the boardwalk to watch the action.
    The gent in the dust slowly rose to his feet and silently brushed the grime from his suit. As he rose, Red River recognized him as the Kansas City buyer, Orrie Gates.
    â€œShouldn’t we do something?” Billy asked quietly. “That fellow ain’t hardly a match for that big guy in a tussle.”
    Red River shook his head. “No, sprout. It ain’t none of our affair and I got me a feeling that Mr. Colt is going to even the odds right quick-like.”
    Billy’s eyes went wide as he turned back to the street. “No kidding?”
    â€œThat big gent is so drunk I doubt he can hit a bull in the ass with a single tree,” Red River said. “But, old Gates there, he’s sober as a judge and wise enough to know he can’t whip this feller. When the shooting starts, keep your head low.”
    â€œI said pay up, gott damn it,” Matters cursed as he staggered a few steps forward and waved the un-cocked revolver before him.
    Gates flung back his coat, drew a short-barreled Army from his belt and threw a shot wildly into Matters’s right foot.
    Matters yowled like a cat caught under a rocking chair and sent a shot toward the moon as he fell butt first into the street.
    Gates threw another shot into the dirt next to Matter’s holster, then stepped back as Matters cursed again and carefully aimed his revolver at the buyer’s nose. A second later the shot sounded and Gates’s eyes went wide as he realized that it was a clean miss and he was unharmed.
    Gates made for a horse trough on the far side of the street. As he retreated, Matters studied the hole in his boot for a while before standing.
    As the shooting angle changed, the crowd scattered to get well out of the line of fire. Red River grabbed Billy by the shirt collar and made a quick retreat around the corner into the alley.
    A bullet followed shortly and the corner exploded into splinters.
    Billy examined the hole carefully with his finger before Red River pulled him back. “Get your head down! This ain’t over yet.”
    Matters hopped forward on one foot and sent two more rounds into the horse trough. Each round was returned by Gates as he crouched behind the trough and threw his shots wildly toward Matters without looking to see if he was hitting anything.
    Then there was silence. Both combatants had emptied their guns. The boardwalk cowboys realized that it was safe to rush Matters and put an end to the affair before any more buildings got shot up. No less than five of them overwhelmed and forced him to the ground. Gates stood dumbly, his face as pale as a sheet, the smoking Army limply held in his hand. He turned meekly, dropped his revolver and threw up his dinner on the far boardwalk.
    The law arrived and settled the matter in short order. Matters was carried to the doctor’s office and Gates was tossed unceremoniously into the town jail—an oversized windowless outhouse with a chain and padlock holding the