Doctor Who_ The Gunfighters - Donald Cotton [37]
‘So open it,’ suggested Ringo, pleasantly; and he leaned across the bar to light a cheroot from a match struck on Charlie’s unshaven jowl.
‘Now see here...’ Charlie was beginning, when the flaring lucifer illuminated the pale and intellectual, pock-marked physiognomy before him. And, with no pleasure at all, he recognised it.
‘And fetch me a double, straight,’ continued Ringo, completing his esteemed order.
‘Yes, sir, Mr Ringo – right away! Double, straight, coming right up, sir...’ and he busied himself about the matter, to the accompaniment of a certain amount of tooth-chattering.
‘How come you know my name?’ asked Johnny, cautiously.
‘Why, Mr Ringo, I guess near about everybody... I mean, well, I sure enough heard about you, sir...’
‘What have you heard?’
Careful now, Charlie, careful... Don’t tell him that, for God’s sake!
‘Well now, sir, seems to me it was only last night a couple of boys was askin’ after you...
’long around
midnight, it was...’
‘That so? And who was they?’
‘Far as I remember, sir, it was Ike and Billy Clanton.
Maybe you know ’em?’
‘Can’t say I do. What was they askin’?’
‘Well,’ – he lowered his voice – ‘they was sayin’ as their Pa would give you five hundred if you’d throw in with ’em against Wyatt Earp...’
‘Against the Marshal? Then you can tell ’em I take seven hundred for a law-man.’
He calculated that with the extra two, he could maybe get himself the complete Orations of Demosthenes, in genuine Morocco...
‘Surely will, Mr Ringo – it’ll be a pleasure! An’ shall I also tell ’em as you’ll be ridin’ out there? I mean, I can easy draw you a little map, showin’ you where the ranch is...’
‘In my own good time I’ll maybe go...Say I got business of my own to settle first. Personal business, with Doc Holliday.’
‘You have? Well now, excuse me, Mr Ringo – an’ of course I know it ain’t nothin’ to do with me – but I reckon that’ll suit ’em jest fine; ‘cause they’re layin’ for Holliday too!’
Ringo spat like a cobra. ‘Then here’s another thing you can tell ’em, boy: tell ’em, Holliday’s mine! I ain’t trailed him all the way from Fort Griffin, to have some bunch of uneducated hoodlums foul it up! Understand me?’
‘I certainly do, Mr Ringo – an’ I’m sure they’ll be happy to accommodate you there! Why, they missed him only yesterday, in this very bar!’
‘Holliday was here?’
‘In a pig’s ear, he was!’
‘What?’
‘Just an expression. Why, he shot down the late Seth Harper, right where you’re standin’ now! Then he lit out o’
town with his two fancy women, same as though all the devils in hell was after him!’
‘One of ’em is! So who’s his company?’
‘There was two of ’em, like I say. Pert little party, name of Dodo Dupont – who’s a singer. And an older girl, called Kate, who’s somethin’ in the same line; when she ain’t otherwise occupied, if you follow me, Mr Ringo.’
‘I hear you real fine. Mind tellin’ me if this here Kate also goes under the name of Elder?’
‘Sure does – or leastways, always has. Now I hear, she’s about to change it. She’s fixin’ to marry Holliday, she tells me.’
Uncharacteristically, Ringo slopped his drink. ‘That truly so? Fetch me another of those, an’ fast! In fact, you’ll oblige me by leavin’ the bottle.’
‘Why, certainly, Mr Ringo – and it’s on the house!’
‘Never supposed no different. What’s your name, boy?’
‘Charlie, sir...’
‘Then, here’s lookin’ at you, Charlie...’
Charlie wished he wouldn’t.
Ringo drank off a half-tumbler; and for some reason, felt better. Kate could rot in hell, for all he cared. In fact, he’d prefer it.
‘Thank you, sir. Why, I jest cain’t wait to see the Marshal’s face, when he hears you’re goin’ against him, Mr Ringo!’
Ringo forgot about Kate and her prospects for the moment.
‘You plannin’ to tell him, maybe?’
‘Well, of course not, Mr Ringo! I was only sayin’...’
‘Charlie, Charlie,’ sighed Ringo, sadly, ‘I know your kind. You say too much...’
‘No, sir; I won’t say nothin’ to nobody!’
‘Now, ain’t that the truth, Charlie?’ Ringo agreed – and shot him