have a feeling that the world has a way of finding men like you wherever you hide.”
“There are important things to be done,” agreed Roosevelt. “Things that can't be done from Medora. Would you think I was crazy if I told you that someday I plan to open a channel through Panama, so our ships don't have to sail all the way around the tip of South America to get from one ocean to another?”
“If you plan to do the shoveling yourself, I'd say you were crazy,” answered Holliday. “Otherwise, I'd say that's a damned useful project.”
“And I have so many more, so many that we truly need.”
“Can I offer a word of advice, Theodore?”
“Certainly.”
“Forget the Badlands and New York. Go right to Washington, DC.”
Roosevelt uttered a hearty laugh. “The thought has crossed my mind.”
“Hang on to it,” said Holliday. “The country needs someone like you running things, especially if it's going to more than double its area.”
“I appreciate the thought, and I'll admit it has crossed my mind as well, but I've got things to do first.”
“And I've got one thing to do last,” said Holliday grimly.
“Hardin? Is there any word on when you can expect him?”
Holliday shook his head. “He could have been here two or three days ago if he'd just take some time off from all his killing.”
“What makes someone kill like that?” asked Roosevelt.
“Seriously?” asked Holliday.
“Seriously.”
“The fact that he can.”
“That's a hell of an answer, Doc,” said Roosevelt disapprovingly.
“It's an answer based on all the killers I've known, Theodore,” replied Holliday. “If you can't, you don't even get started. But if you can, and there's no one who can stop you, then you either kill when you have to, like me, or when you want to, like Hardin.”
“Do you remember the first man you ever killed?”
“I remember all of them, Theodore,” said Holliday. “That's not to say that they haunt me; they don't. Every last one of them is better off dead. But when a man puts his own life on the line to kill you, even if he's just some empty-headed punk kid out to make a reputation, you remember him. Sometimes you forget the details, and often you forget the reasons, since almost as often there weren't any real reasons, but you remember the faces, and usually the names.” Suddenly he smiled. “Do you remember who you beat in your New York elections?”
“Of course.”
“Same thing.”
“You are one of the most interesting men I have ever met, Doc,” said Roosevelt.
“Clearly your circle of acquaintances is too small.”
Roosevelt chuckled at that. “Well, maybe one of these days I'll return to public life and make it larger.”
“If you're too young to run for president, and I suspect you are by a decade, then perhaps you'll stay out here and run for governor, because if Geronimo keeps his word, we're going to need one.”
“He'll keep it,” said Roosevelt with certainty. “He's an honorable man.”
“I've always found him so,” agreed Holliday, “but never forget that he's an honorable man who's responsible for twenty times as many deaths as Hardin.”
“He's a warrior, protecting his people,” responded Roosevelt. “Hardin is just a killer, like…”
“Like me?”
“I was going to say like Billy the Kid.”
“A nice young man, in his way,” said Holliday.
“But you killed him.”
“You don't have to hate what you kill,” answered Holliday. “Johnny Ringo—or what was left of him, or what he'd become, or however you want to say it—was the most educated and interesting man I've met out here until you came along. But sometimes liking someone isn't enough.”
“What was it about them that you liked?” asked Roosevelt. “As far as everyone knows, they were cold-blooded killers.”
“Well, the Kid was,” agreed Doc. “But Ringo only became a killer when he was drinking, so I guess you'd call him a hot-blooded killer. Anyway, I could discuss Chaucer and Descartes and Cicero with Ringo, and I've never been able to do that with anyone else out here.”
“You never brought them up with me,” said Roosevelt.
“If you stay, we'd get around to it. We've had more pressing business. Anyway, Ringo was a fascinating man to talk to when he was sober.”
“And the Kid?”
Holliday shrugged. “He reminded me of someone.”
“Oh? Who?”
A smile. “Me.”
“So if Hardin actually shows up, you'll probably like him too,” suggested Roosevelt.
“Probably,” agreed Holliday. “And he'll probably like me too. But it won't stop one of us from killing the other.”
Holliday took another drink from the bottle.
“Well,” said Roosevelt, “I think I'd better be taking these weapons back to