God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.” –Ecclesiastes 3:11, NLT
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Yep, life sure has its quirks, either that or ol’ slewfoot has a weird sense of humor. I’m a-thinkin’ that it’s the latter. However, in reality, I know that God has everything under control, so I wasn’t frettin’ any. I had hoped for the diner to clear out some before I accosted the man I thought might be Hal Thornton when another man, wearing a fur-lined cap and fur coat walked in with a sneer on his face. He moved over to the other side from Teeter and Thornton.
My mind flashed back through the years when I had been in this same situation. I couldn’t recall the names of the men at that time, but three men faced me in the same situation. My problem was the two tables between where folks were sitting. One table was conscious that something was stirring, but the other was in their own little world, slopping down biscuits and gravy and a portion of pork chops.
I left the Greener on the table, whispering to Doc as I went by, “Use it if you have to.” Then continued on toward where Teeter was sitting. Out of the corner of my eye I saw that the man to my right in the fur had taken off his coat and was now pulling out a chair to sit. Good, that would slow him down some if it came to gunplay.
Teeter, bah, I didn’t give him no mind, he was a tinhorn. Yet, I was aware that tinhorns sometimes get what some would call luck. “Lord,” I prayed silently as I approached the table. I gave Teeter a nod, then turned my attention to the other man. He was by far the most dangerous…except the unknown in the fur.
My thumbs were in my gunbelt, showing no threat and that I was in no ways afraid of him. “Your name Hal Thornton?” I asked bluntly.
He looked up with a sideward glance as I was standing directly to his left. “Who wants to know?”
“First off, I do,” I notified him, “then I received a message from Marshal Blasco and he’s mighty interested as well.”
A little smile appeared on his unshaven face. “Checkin’ up on the strangers in town, are you, Marshal?” he replied, then sighed before answering. “But, no, I’m not the man you thought I was.” The smile disappeared.
“Do you have a name?”
“Oh, I could be Puddin’ Tain or maybe John Brown,” he said, a smirk appearing on his face. He was beginning to irritate me. He saw my irritation, causing his smirk to increase, “but I ain’t neither of them. Might be the Durango Kid,” he said with a chuckle.
That was it. My hand flashed out slapping him on the side of the face. “Don’t push it, Mister. Just give me a name!”
It was his turn to be irritated, but he was at a disadvantage if he wanted to draw his gun since he would have to fire across from himself.
“Marshal, you had no cause to do that!” bellowed Teeter.
Without looking at Teeter I pointed with my left hand warning him, “You best stay out of this.”
The stranger reached up to feel where my hand met his face. “Marshal, the name is none of your concern. Now leave me alone.”
I took one step behind him, “Get up! You’re under arrest!”
“What!” he blurted, “you can’t…”
He didn’t get the words out before I pulled my pistol and thumped him just above the ear. “I can, and I did.” I glanced at the man with the fur hat, pointing my gun at him as I did. He relaxed, then I spoke to Teeter. “Under arrest for suspicion.”
I went back to my table, not looking at either fur-man or Teeter to put on my coat. I grabbed the Greener, then went back to the stranger on the floor. “Teeter, all he had to do was tell me his name. Do you know it?”
Teeter’s right hand went up to the side of his head in reaction. “Short, Josiah Short. You’re in trouble now, Forrest. His brother is Luke Short.”
I had heard that Short was living in Buena Vista for a time, and talked to him once there. Last I heard he was back in Dodge City. I met the man several years ago driving cattle up the trail, and I knew of his reputation, but the fabricated ones and the real person.
Reaching down, I started to grab this Josiah Short by the collar and drag him off to jail, when there came a scream from the kitchen, a shot…