Blue-Eyed Devil

58

THE RAIN when it arrived was everything it promised to be. It came down, slanted by the wind, hard and cold and steady. The Callico election rally that had been scheduled for Main Street was moved inside the saloon at the Boston House, with Callico standing on a chair near the bar and half the Appaloosa police department ranged along the outside walls.

“I promise you safe streets in Appaloosa, and open saloons, and more of the same kind of money and development that has been flowing in through my efforts these last months.”

Wearing a slicker buttoned to his neck and a confederate cavalry hat pulled down over his eyes, General Laird pushed into the saloon. Chauncey Teagarden came behind wearing a slicker, too. He kept his unbuttoned, holding it closed with his left hand until he got out of the rain. The two men stood in the crowd toward the front of the room.

“My opponent, who, incidentally, has just arrived in the room,” Callico said, “will tell you he is qualified to lead because he has been a military man, a commander. Albeit of a rebel power? Don’t we then have the right to ask what he commanded his soldiers to do? Would that not tell us what kind of civic leader he might make? Recently some of my supporters spoke publicly of his pusillanimity at Ralesberg. Of his brutality toward woman and innocent children, as he fled the field of battle.”

Beside me, Virgil said, “‘Pusillanimity’?”

“Cowardice,” I said.

“My supporters,” Callico said, “decent, honest men, both of them, were confronted by General Laird’s hired gunman in an attempt to repress the truth.”

“Ain’t that ‘suppress’?” Virgil said.

“I’d use ‘suppress,’” I said.

“And you went to the U.S. Military Academy,” Virgil said.

“So I must be right,” I said.

Virgil nodded.

“But the truth will not be repressed,” Callico said. His voice was loud now, and up a pitch. His face was red.

“The commander was a coward at Ralesberg,” he shouted,

“and a coward at Tyler Creek. His victories were against unarmed women and children who had the misfortune to be in the path of his retreat.”

As Callico talked, the general worked his way through the crowd until he stood right in front of Callico. He’d taken off his gloves and held them in his right hand.

“You lie,” he said.

His voice sounded like the crack of a bullwhip.

He stepped one step closer and reached up and slapped Callico across the face with the gloves in his right hand. It almost knocked Callico off the chair he stood on. He made a move toward his shoulder holster and stopped himself and got stabilized on the chair.

“Mr. Teagarden is my second,” the general said. “I will meet you anywhere. Pistols or sword.”

“A duel?” Callico said. “You’re challenging me to a fucking duel?”

“I am,” the general said.

“A goddamned duel,” Virgil murmured to me. “The general’s got some sand.”

Callico glanced across the room.

“Sergeant Sullivan,” he said. “Take this man into custody. Use any requisite force.”

Virgil looked at me.

“ ‘Requisite’ means necessary,” I said. “Required.” Virgil nodded. Sergeant Sullivan and five policemen assembled in a small squad and pushed through the crowd to General Laird, standing in front of Callico. Chauncey Teagarden moved slightly to the side of the group and looked at General Laird.

“Chauncey takes them on,” I said. “We gonna help?”

Virgil stared at the scene silently.

Then he said, “Yes.”

I had begun to carry the eight-gauge again as tension had begun to develop in town. I nodded, picked up the eight-gauge from where it leaned against the wall, and moved slowly along the wall to get myself opposite Virgil, so we’d have a nice crossfire if we needed to shoot.

Chauncey saw me move. He nodded his head slightly and looked at General Laird.

“General?” he said.

Laird shook his head.

“Not yet, Chauncey,” he said. “It may come to that. But not yet.”

I think Callico saw me move, too. He looked at me for a moment and then at Virgil for a moment.

“You are charged with assaulting a police officer,” Callico said. “You will be taken to jail and held for hearing.”

I saw Chauncey move his shoulders slightly, as if to loosen them.

“My lawyer will bail me out in the morning,” the general said. “Not yet, Chauncey.”