Dust Settled

Back when I was still a young man, the Harrison gang came into town. Our town never had much to it. Just a place for farmers to trade goods and drinks and tales. That was until the Johnson family found themselves a bit of gold in their creek.

Dr. Tally was the city's doctor, lawyer, and banker. He was the only learned man in town and the only one use to having more than a few pennies in hand. Still he didn't have no proper safe. He took that gold and locked it in his top desk drawer. It would only be a few days before the Doc could take the family to Carson City to meet a real banker and the town was made of good, trustworthy folk, so it seemed safe enough. But someone went and jawed about it.

The Harrison gang showed up the next morning aiming to take the town. There was over a dozen men all told, all looking like proper highway men, scarred, dirty, with spite in their eyes. Terrance Harrison was their leader. He was a ghoul of a man. Tall and broad, big old scar across the side of his neck like someone tried to behead him but didn't bring along a sharp enough ax. Everyone had heard of this mean old snake. Best in a quick draw for as many miles around that mattered. There were better but not quicker ways to execute your lawmen. He grabbed a boy by the scruff and told him to fetch the sheriff.

Eli Lucas was our sheriff at the time. He was always a gentle boy. Not the best shot or rider, but he was fair-minded and patient. Being our sheriff was more moving drunks out of the road and settling land disputes then chasing down bounties, so he seemed like the right sort for the work.

Nice kid, too nice to say no when they apprehended him with a tin star. His sister Maggie Mae tried to talk him out it. She was a sharp girl and tended to do most of the thinking between the two of them. Where Eli had always been gentle, Maggie had always been a bit wild. Riding off for days to do God knows what. Their father married her off young while a fella would still be tricked by her beauty enough to not see the rest. Still it all meant she knew more of this sort of thing than her brother.

Eli came out of the general store with Maggie on his heels. As they neared he had to throw out an arm to keep her walking all the way up with him. She relented when she got close enough to stare the gang in the eye. The conversation was short. With them all at the gate so to speak, there'd be no time for a posses or any other plan of attack. Quick draw was the only gamble where the town might live. Think Harrison thought himself a generous fellow, letting Eli play at a game he had no chance of winning.

Moments later there they were facing each other across the main square. Eli's hands were shaking like an old man's, he seemed as likely to grab his own belt as his gun. Still he had the determined look of a man about to have a just death. Harrison was smooth and solid. Even with all this scars and callouses, he looked as much a machine as his revolver. The two men looked into each other's eyes. Looking for the twitch giving away that the other might draw. Finally, it came. Shots rung and dust and smoke cover them both.

When it settled, the town gasped despite their better manners. Terrance Harrison was dead on the ground, shot having landed right between the eyes. The sheriff looked just as shocked as anyone that he was still standing, by angels or providence the good man won that day. Eli got a bit of a reputation as sharp shooter after that, and it was enough to protect the city from there on out. Gangs like the Harrisons weren't tempted enough by the our little bit of wealth to tangle with the man who collected on Terrance Harrison's bounty.

All was well which is why I never told anyone what I saw that day. Maggie Mae in the window of the cathouse. She had a demon in her and you could see it that day. Her hawk eyes were steely, focused on Harrison. I couldn't make sense of her being up there until she drew along with the boys. When the smoke cleared, she was in the street with her brother, doting on him like a woman suppose to.

We had a hell of a sheriff.