The two voices separated themselves from the front row. One belonged to a tall, raw-boned red-haired man with a weak and unimpressive beard. The other was shorter and thicker, with a dense black beard, wearing a Colt on a gun belt over bib overalls.

“You callin’ us liars?” the red-haired man said.

He carried a short-barreled breech-loading cavalry carbine. The people immediately around them moved away.

“Watch Chauncey,” Virgil murmured.

Chauncey had been leaning against the frame of the big front door, sheltered from the rain, watching the a ctivity.

“What you are saying, sir, is untrue,” Laird said.

“I say you are a back-shooting, barn-burning, gray-bellied coward,” the red-haired man said. “Anybody gonna tell me no?”

“I am,” Chauncey said.

“Who the hell are you?”

“General Laird is a gentleman,” Chauncey said. “He is not a murderous thug. He is not going to descend to a street fight with you.”

“And you?” the man with the black beard said.

Chauncey straightened lazily from the door frame and ambled out to stand maybe five feet in front of the two men.

“I am a murderous thug,” Chauncey said.

There was silence. Chauncey’s ivory-handled Colt, sprinkled slightly with raindrops, seemed to gleam in the low, gray light.

“If you’d like,” Chauncey said, “you get to pick where I shoot you.”

“Chauncey,” General Laird said. “I appreciate your support. But this is a democratic process. We cannot have people killed.”

“I’m not running for anything, General,” Chauncey said.

“You are with me,” General Laird said.

“Yessir,” Chauncey said. “I am.”

He smiled at the two hecklers.

“’Nother reason to vote for General Laird,” Chauncey said. “He just saved your lives.”

VIRGIL AND I were having breakfast in Café Paris when Allie came in with a tall woman in a fancy dress.

“Since you’re not willing to eat my cooking in the morning,” she said, “I decided to join you.”

Virgil and I both stood.

“Please do,” Virgil said.

“This is Amelia Callico,” Allie said. “Her husband, as you know, is chief of police here. She’s been dying to meet you.”lay

We both said we were pleased. Mrs. Callico tipped her head slightly and made the faint hint of a curtsy, and we sat. She looked around.

“How charming,” she said.

“Yes, ma’am,” Virgil said.

“Do many women come in here?” she said.

“Mostly men,” Virgil said.

“We ladies lead such sheltered lives,” Amelia said. “Unless the men take us, we never go anywhere.”

“Lady can’t be too careful,” I said.

“Virgil and I met here,” Allie said. “I was alone and they wouldn’t give me biscuits, and he stepped in.”

“How gallant,” Amelia said, stressing the second syllable.

“Virgil was the marshal here then,” Allie said.

“I understand that he was,” Amelia said. “And what do you do now for work?”

“Odd jobs,” Virgil said.

“For some of the local saloons,” I said.

“How nice,” she said.

“Covers the cost of breakfast,” Virgil said.

“I’m sure,” Amelia said.

“That’s a beautiful dress, Amelia,” Allie said.

“Yes, thank you. I had it made for me in New Orleans.”

“You from New Orleans?” Virgil said.

“Yes,” she said. “I am. What’s good here.”

“I’d stick with the biscuits,” Virgil said.

“That’s all?” Allie said. “Why do you come here when all you eat is biscuits? I can make biscuits for you.”

Virgil’s face didn’t change expression, but something in the set of his shoulders shifted, and I stepped in.

“We eat food that ladies wouldn’t like,” I said. “Sow belly. Fried pinto beans.”

“So, for lady food,” Amelia said, “biscuits is what they offer.”

“’Tis,” I said.

“Then that’s what I’ll have,” she said.

The Chinaman took our order and went to get it.

“I never understand why they are so silent,” Amelia said.

“It’s as if they hate us.”

“Mostly don’t speak much English,” Virgil said.

“Well, they should,” Amelia said. “They’re going to come here and live and take our money.”

“Sure,” Virgil said.

“I wanted to meet you, of course, because of my friendship with Allie,” Amelia said. “But also I wanted to suggest an opportunity for you and your friend to make money, and do yourselves some good.”

“Open a lady-food café?” Virgil said.

Amelia smiled. She had a very convincing smile.

“Perhaps,” she said.

She was a good-looking, full-bodied woman with a mass of reddish-brown hair piled on her head.

“As you know,” she said, “my husband, Amos Callico, is running for mayor of Appaloosa. I am convinced that it is only a first step. Indeed, I am utterly convinced that it is the first step on a path that will lead him, ultimately, to become the President of the United States.”

I could see that Virgil was trying to look impressed, and I could see that it wasn’t working.

“You will certainly make a grand first lady,” I said.

“Thank you, kind sir,” she said. “I am hoping that you both would wish to join us.”

“How would we do that?” Virgil said.

“Help us get the truth out,” Amelia said. “There are facts about our opponent that need to be known.”

“He ran in combat?” Virgil said. “He slaughtered women and children?”

“Yes, that and more,” Amelia said. “There is much in General Laird’s past that is shameful.”

“And you want us to tell people?”

“The truth must be the basis of any election,” she said.

“Beggin’ your pardon, ma’am,” Virgil said. “But how do we know it’s the truth?”

“No pardon needed,” she said. “You have my word that anything we tell you is the truth.”

“Fellas that fronted up to the general outside Reclamation Hall yesterday?” Virgil said. “They get their information from you.”

“Yes, and it is good information. But Laird has a man working for him…”

“Chauncey Teagarden,” Virgil said.

“Yes. He is quite intimidating.”

Virgil nodded.

“From New Orleans, too, you know that?” Virgil said.

“I did not,” she said.

“Small world,” I said.

Allie smiled at me nervously. No one else paid any attention.

“You figure Teagarden won’t intimidate me ’n Everett,” Virgil said.

“I’m told that nothing does,” Amelia said.

“And if you helped them now, think what it would mean to us,” Allie said. “As Mr. Callico moved on up the ladder.”

Virgil looked at me. I shook my head. He nodded.

“Nope,” he said.

“We will pay you well,” Amelia said.

“Nope.”

“Why not?” Amelia said.

“Me ’n Everett don’t like your husband,” Virgil said.

She sat silently for a minute. The she stood.

“He will be disappointed to hear that,” she said, and stalked out of the café.

Allie looked as if she might cry.