I have to get back to Tombstone and meet with Edison,” said Roosevelt, getting to his feet. “How long will you remain here?”
“I leave tonight,” answered Geronimo.
“How will I find you if I need to confer with you?”
“Holliday knows.”
Geronimo didn't say another word, but somehow his warriors knew to bring Roosevelt's and Holliday's horses and weapons, and shortly thereafter they were heading back to Tombstone across the parched landscape.
A single hawk, riding the hot thermals, circled overhead. Finally it swooped down, diving directly toward Roosevelt. When it was some thirty yards away its wings turned to flames, the same flames Roosevelt had seen at the ends of War Bonnet's arms.
“Soon!” promised the hawk, and vanished just before it reached him.
HOLLIDAY, ROOSEVELT, AND MASTERSON sat on cow hide furniture in Edison's living room. Edison himself emerged from a kitchen, bringing them coffee on a copper tray.
“Ned will be here in a few minutes,” he announced. “He's just finishing up some work in his lab.”
“I don't want to sound unduly nervous,” said Roosevelt, “but I have to ask: Is it safe to sit here with my back to a window?”
Holliday chuckled at that, and even Masterson smiled.
“Have I said something funny?” asked Roosevelt, trying to hide his irritation.
“Theodore, nothing inimical can get within a quarter mile of the house without my knowing it—on land or in the air. Pull your gun and take a shot at the window in question.”
Roosevelt frowned. “Shoot at the window?” he repeated.
“That's right.”
“Stand back, Bat,” said Edison. “Just in case.”
Masterson got up and walked to the center of the room as Roosevelt pulled his pistol out of its holster, took aim at the window, and fired. The bullet flattened against the window and careened off very near to where Masterson had been sitting.
“Well, I'll be…” said Roosevelt, obviously impressed. “That's truly remarkable, Thomas.”
“I developed it about two years ago,” answered Edison. “The problem is, I haven't found an inexpensive way to make it. It's effective, but it's exorbitant. I use the glass only on the house. Oh, and of course on Ned's next door.”
Roosevelt leaned back on his chair. “Well, that assuages one worry.”
“Just one?”
“You've been out here for three years. I've never seen a manifestation of magic until today.”
Edison smiled. “I view it as a different scientific system. The effects can be startling, even frightening, but it obeys laws, just as science does. The trick is to find out what those laws are and to learn how to negate or contravene them.”
“Maybe we can get you together with Geronimo,” suggested Roosevelt, picking up a cup and sipping his coffee. “You're both on the same side, so perhaps he can educate you in his system's laws.”
“He'll never do it,” said Holliday firmly.
“I agree,” said Masterson, lighting up a cigar.
“But—” began Roosevelt.
“Trust me,” said Holliday. “I know him better than any of you. We were his enemy until a few months ago. We're still not his friends, just a perceived inevitability. He's not going to turn over any secrets to any of us, and especially not to Tom.”
Roosevelt turned to Edison. “Do you agree with that appraisal?”
Edison nodded his head. “Doc's summed it up. We're not his friends, and we're not his allies. We're an inevitable force that he's willing to accommodate, nothing more.”
A burly, balding man entered the room from the enclosed passageway that joined the two houses together.
“Hello, all,” said Ned Buntline. “How did the meeting with Geronimo go?”
“The spell's still in effect,” said Roosevelt.
“Figures,” said Buntline. “He didn't send for you just to say, ‘Here, Theodore—the continent's yours.’ What does he want from you?”
“You're very perceptive,” remarked Roosevelt with a smile.
“If he was going to lift it without something in return, it'd be gone already. And if he just wanted someone killed, he'd never send for you when Doc was already obligated to him for springing him out of that jail in Leadville.”
“That's what I'm here to discuss,” said Roosevelt. “Ever hear of someone or something called War Bonnet?”
“No,” said Buntline and Edison in unison.
Roosevelt spent the next few minutes describing the huge apparition.
“What can he do?” asked Edison. “Which is to say, what are his powers?”
“I don't know,” answered Roosevelt. “In fact, I don't know for a fact that he has any, other than the strength that goes with that physique.”
“Oh, he's got them, all right,” said Edison. “If physical strength was all they wanted to imbue it with, they could make it the king of the grizzlies, huge and invulnerable.” He turned to