The Whippoorwill Trilogy - Sharon Sala Page 0,244

Letty said and started toward the cabin, then stopped and handed Eulis the rifle. She sensed the unfolding drama, but trusted Eulis enough to deal with whatever needed to be done.

She was heating up the red-eye gravy when Eulis and the stranger came inside.

“Have a seat,” Eulis said, and pointed to the chair he usually sat in.

The man had dropped his hat near the doorway. His hair was wet and slicked back from his face, and Letty could see that he’d tried to remove most of the dust from his clothes. But when she slid the plate of food in front of him, and then set down the cup of steaming coffee and a spoon, she saw his hands were shaking.

He looked up at her then, his eyes swimming with tears.

“I thank you, kindly, ma’am,” he said softly.

She nodded. “Sorry we don’t have any regular cutlery for you to eat with. We ordered some from back East, but it will take a spell to get here.”

“Ma’am, it’s been so long since I’ve eaten with anything but my fingers, I’m not sure I remember my manners.” Then he added. “This sure looks good.”

Letty turned away so that he would feel comfortable enough to start eating, then glanced at Eulis, who arched an eyebrow, and then shook his head slightly. She was going to have to wait for answers to her questions.

No one spoke as the stranger ate, although Letty filled his coffee cup more than once.

T-Bone had followed the men as far as the doorway, and was now lying across the threshold with his head inside the cabin, and his backside out on the stoop. Letty couldn’t figure out if the pup was intent on keeping an eye on the stranger, or on the biscuits he was eating.

It wasn’t until the man had sopped up the last bite of red-eye gravy with the last bite of biscuit that he bothered to look up. At that point, he had the grace to be embarrassed.

“That was just about the best food I’ve ever eaten,” he said. “I can’t thank you enough.”

“You had to be hungry to say that,” Letty said. “I’m just a passable cook, and Eulis here will be the first to tell you so.”

Eulis grinned.

“Now, Letty… I don’t say nothin’ bad about you. Ever.”

At this point, he leaned forward, fixing the stranger with a cool, studied look. “I might be willing to put you to work.”

Letty saw relief wash over the stranger’s face.

“But not in the mine,” Eulis added.

Letty frowned, and so did the stranger, but it was obvious he wasn’t going to be picky.

“That’s fine. Whatever you need me to do I’ll be—”

“I know who you are,” Eulis said.

The man went still. An expression came and went on his face that set the hair to rising on the back of Letty’s neck. She glanced toward the doorway, wondering how long it would take her to get to the rifle before the man could get up from his chair.

“But you don’t remember me, do you?”

The man frowned as he shook his head.

“About six years ago, you rode into a little town out in the Kansas territory called Lizard Flats. Three cowboys were hassling a drunk out in the street in front of the White Dove Saloon, taking turns shooting at his feet to make him dance.”

Letty froze. She remembered the incident all too well, and to her shame, also remembered that no one had bothered to try and stop it.

Still frowning, the man glanced at Letty, then at Eulis.

“Yeah, so what?”

Eulis leaned across the table and then offered his hand.

“That drunk was me. I never did sober up enough to thank you then, but I’m doin’ it now. I don’t need to know how you come to this point in your life, but I know when I owe a man a favor.”

The man stared at Eulis for the longest time, as if trying to place that overweight drunk with the wild hair and beard, to the man sitting before him. Finally, he nodded.

“You should know that trouble has a way of finding me.”

Eulis shrugged.

“Ain’t no one in this house about to point the finger of blame. Now down to business. I reckon you heard that Letty here discovered herself one hell of a gold mine, or else you wouldn’t be here.”

“I heard.”

“Here’s the deal,” Eulis said. “I need a guard. You’d be on the site day and night. This here cabin would be where you stay, and we’d keep you grub-staked