Again I observed all the oppression that takes place in our world. I saw the tears of the oppressed, with no one to comfort them. The oppressors have great power, and the victims are helpless.”
–Ecclesiastes 4:1, NLT
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I walked as a man on a mission. It was half a dozen blocks up to the Glass Slipper. I decided not to go up Blair Street; that would give notice that I was on my way if McGinnis had anyone watching. I had just turned the corner when the wind picked up. Between the buildings I felt a rush swirl around me, then on down the road picking up debris, dust, and anything else that might be on the ground.
Now I wasn’t much into omens, but I had experiences with strange occurrences in my life. Was it just natural, or some sort of supernatural phenomenon that blew past me? I stopped at the corner leading onto Blair Street. The Glass Slipper was up at the end of the block. It was there the thought struck me–why didn’t I wait to get more help? Then I caught myself smiling, who else was there besides Charlie and a deputy scared of anything that moved.
Omen or not, the wind made me think of a time, when a rushing, mighty wind came upon those disciples in the upper room. A wind that signified the coming of power. It caused me to think of Parson Chapman praying for me at that moment, and I had to chuckle slightly as I whispered a little prayer. “All right Lord, let’s get this done.”
I didn’t hurry up the street. It was cold enough that the doors were shut on most of the businesses of vice. There were no hawkers or drunks around, just miners that were going in and out of the establishments, and one lone marshal.
Since the outer doors were shut I couldn’t look inside the saloon. I tried peering through one of the windows, but to no avail. Pausing to look at my situation, I tried to imagine what it looked like inside. Was the bar in front of me, or to one of the sides? Where would McGinnis be? At a table, in an office, and what of this hot-shot Kid Mallow? I could blast out the window, that would get everyone’s attention, but it might also hurt innocent bystanders. Ha, that is if anyone in this place was innocent.
At that moment there were three miners coming down the hill just finishing off their shift and were headed into the Glass Slipper. I would just ease in with them. I felt the breeze again around my neck as I joined them to enter. One of them nodded at me, to which I returned a nod.
Another one said, “Now only one beer tonight, Levi,” admonished one of the miners.
“Why’d yuh bring us to this place?” grumbled the man identified as Levi.
“Closest one to the mine,” came the answer.
The man who had greeted me grunted, “What difference does it matter?”
I walked in with them, stopped at the entrance while they went on up to the bar. I wanted my eyes to adjust and look over the people in the room. The bar was in front of me with tables in front, I counted seven–lucky number or so some say. To the right of the bar was a room, could be an office and leaning at the bar in front of the door was a young kid–Mally maybe? Scanning the room I saw another man seated to my left, doing nothing but watching the crowd. I’m sure there were more in the room if what Tanner had told me was correct.
Time to introduce myself…