MacCallister: The Eagles Legacy: The Killing Read Online Free Page B

Fiddler’s Green, he stepped up onto the porch and pushed his way through the batwing doors to go inside.
    “Duff!” someone shouted, and, just as they had done so at the White Horse Pub back in Scotland, all the patrons of Fiddler’s Green began crowding around him.
    After a universal greeting, Duff settled at a table in the back corner, where he was joined by R.W. Guthrie, Fred Matthews, and Charley Blanton, editor of the Chugwater Defender. These were some of his closest friends. He counted Biff Johnson as one of his friends as well, but because Biff owned the saloon, and because it was particularly busy tonight, he was unable to find time for much more than occasional short visits.
    The men had dozens of questions, and Duff answered all of them as best he could. He told them about Scotland, and about his visit with old friends in the pub there. He did not tell them about visiting Skye’s grave at the cemetery. That was something that seemed a little too personal to discuss.
    “Hey, you, piano player!” one of the cowboys at the bar called. “Play ‘The Gal I Left Behind Me.’”
    The piano player complied, and the cowboy and two of his friends sang along.
    After the song, the piano player started to play something else, but the drunken cowboy yelled at him.
    “I said, play ‘The Gal I Left Behind Me.’”
    The piano player repeated the song, and again the three drunken cowboys sang along.
    When the song was over and the piano player started to play something else, once more the drunken cowboy called out.
    “Play ‘The Gal I Left Behind Me’!”
    This time, the request was greeted with groans from others in the saloon, and the cowboy pulled his gun.
    “By God, I aim to sing some more,” he said.
    Now the saloon grew quiet as everyone looked on in concern as to what was about to happen.
    “Now, that I got ever’body’s attention,” the drunken cowboy said, “I’ll say it again. Piano player, play ‘The Gal I Left Behind Me.’”
    “Drop that gun, Woodward,” Biff Johnson said.
    When Woodward and the others glanced toward Biff, they saw that he was holding a double-barrel twelve-gauge shotgun leveled at the drunken cowboy.
    For a long moment, the scene could have been a staged tableau, with all the principals holding their places. Then, slowly, a smile spread across Woodward’s face and he put his pistol back in his holster.
    “Sure thing, Mr. Johnson,” he said. “Me ’n Case ’n Brax here was just havin’ a little fun singin’, is all. But if you don’t like our singin’, why, I reckon we could go somewhere else.”
    “I think that would be a good idea,” Biff said.
    “Come on, boys. Looks like they don’t appreciate good music here.”
    The two cowboys with him laughed, as the three left the saloon. Within a moment, the saloon was back to normal.
     
     
    When Duff left the saloon and started back toward his ranch later that night, he again passed by the front of Meghan’s Ladies’ Emporium. The apartment over the shop was dark now.
    Meghan was standing at the front window of her apartment as Duff rode by. She felt a sense of joy that he was back, coupled with a sense of disappointment that he had not called upon her. But, she knew that Duff was a man of great propriety and never would have subjected her to any possible gossip about receiving a male visitor after dark.
    Two days later
     
    As had become their normal custom after a hard day of working, Duff and Elmer Gleason were sitting on the front porch of Duff’s house.
    “Elmer, ’tis thinking I am that tomorrow I’ll ride into Cheyenne,” Duff said.
    “You’ll be back come Saturday, won’t you?”
    “Aye, I am thinking that I will be. But what is so important about Saturday?”
    “They’s the Firemen’s benefit dance at the Dunn Hotel Ballroom on Saturday.”
    “Aye. Being as I’ve been gone for two months, I’d nearly forgotten about that.”
    “Maybe you forgot it, but you can be certain that Miss Parker