Denver Draw by Robert J. Randisi Page B

would think that was funny,” Doc said to Bat moments later.
    “Oh, I can change it if you—”
    “No, no,” Doc said. “What’s it matter? My reputation can’t get any worse than it is right now. Let it stand.”
    “Okay,” Bat said. “I’ll let you know as soon as I have it in my hand. Shouldn’t be more than a couple days.”
    “That’s fine,” Doc said. “By then I’ll be ready to move on. By then I’ll also have some of this young man’s money to take with me.”
    “Oh-ho, that sounds like a challenge,” Butler said. “I’ll see you in the Bonanza tonight, my friend.”
    “Bring plenty of money,” Doc said. “I’ve been takin’ it easy on you until now.”
    “This sounds like a game I’m gonna stay out of,” Bat said. “I’ve got some rounds to make, boys. If you’ll excuse me.”
    “See you later, Bat,” Butler said.
    “Much obliged for the information, Bat,” Doc said, “if not the, uh, extra smudge on my rep.”
    “Glad to be of help, Doc.”
    Bat left Butler and Doc Holliday there on the boardwalk.
    “He’s a good friend to Wyatt,” Doc said.
    “Seems to me Wyatt’s got a lot of good friends,” Butler said. “How does he rate that?”
    “He’s an honorable man,” was all Doc said then, “I’m going to continue on walkin’.”
    Butler had the feeling Doc wanted to walk by himself and think.
    “I’ve got some things to tend to myself,” Butler said. “I’ll see you later at the Bonanza.”
    “I look forward to it.”
     
    “We just have to catch Holliday off by himself,” Frank Pennington told the others.
    “How do we do that?” Waldo asked.
    “We watch him.”
    “When?” Seth asked.
    “Startin’ now,” Pennington said. “Today.”
    “How do we do that?” Deke asked.
    “Well, Jesus,” Pennington said, “do I have to tell you everything? We all get out there and look for him. Whoever finds him will have to find the others.”
    “How do we—”
    “We go out in twos,” Pennington said. “Seth, you’re with me. Waldo and Deke, you go south of town, Seth and I will go north.”
    “Why don’t we just start at his hotel?” Seth asked as the other two left.
    “At this time of the mornin’ he’s bound to already be up and around,” Pennington said. “Come on, we got things to do.”
    “Hey,” Seth said, “if we find him first, we can just take him. Why do we need Waldo and Deke?”
    “We’ll see,” Pennington said. “Let’s just decide that when the time comes, okay?”
     
    Butler spent the afternoon checking on his horse, cleaning his guns, looking at some new boots, and then going back to the Bonanza to make sure there were new decks for the game that night. He didn’t know how many men would sit at the table with him and Doc, but he knew it would eventually come down to them. Except for Bat Masterson, there didn’t seem to be another poker player in town who could play with them at the same level.
    So far he’d found his stopover in Trinidad both entertaining and dangerous. Where else would he have been able to meet Doc Holliday and the Earps? And being introduced to them by Bat Masterson had immediately put him on the inside. Wyatt had been impressive in both size and demeanor. Doc, while not physically imposing, was an imposing presence, nevertheless. As for Virgil, he’d found himself feeling sorry for him. But he didn’t know if he would have been able to face the prospect of a future with one arm as courageously as Virgil was.
    And, in the short time he’d been there, he felt that he and Bat had become friends—even more friendly than he’d gotten with Jim Masterson in a much longer time period in Dodge. The only man he’d come away from Dodge feeling he was friends with was Neal Brown, and he had no idea what had become of him after Dodge City.
    Butler was sitting at a table playing solitaire with a fresh deck when men started entering, bellying up to the bar and surveying the place to see what was going