We all sat and thought about that. Callico nodded slowly.
“Don’t want no trouble from you boys,” he said.
“Don’t plan to give you none,” Virgil said.
Callico looked at me.
“Me, either,” I said.
“I’ll hold you to that,” Callico said.
Virgil stood.
“Nice meeting you,” he said.
He looked around the room at the four policemen.
“And you fellas,” Virgil said.
He turned and left, and I followed him.
On the street, I said to Virgil, “We’re gonna have trouble with him.”
“I believe we are,” Virgil said.
2
VIRGIL’S HOUSE hadn’t changed much in the time we’d been away. Allie and Laurel cleaned it up as soon as we arrived back in Appaloosa, and we moved right in. I bunked with Virgil in one bedroom, and Allie slept with Laurel in the second.
All four of us were sitting on the front porch sipping whiskey in the early evening while it was still light, when a tall, thin man with a big mustache walked up the front path. It was Stringer, the chief sheriff’s deputy.
“Ev’nin,” he said.
“Stringer,” Virgil said.
“I’m down to pick up a prisoner, heard you folks was back in town. Thought you might be drinking whiskey.”
“Sit,” I said. “Have some.”
Stringer adjusted his gun belt a little and sat.
“Allie,” Virgil said. “You remember Deputy Stringer.”
“I don’t recall us meeting,” Allie said.
“You was with the Shelton brothers,” Virgil said. “Probably thinking ’bout other things.”
Allie nodded.
“At the train,” she said.
“That’s me,” Stringer said.
“How do you do,” she said to Stringer, and made a small curtsy.
“Glad you’re well,” Stringer said. “Who’s this young lady?”
“Her name’s Laurel,” Virgil said. “She don’t say much. Laurel, this here is Deputy Stringer.”
Laurel looked at Stringer and nodded slowly and made her small curtsy. Then she went to Virgil and whispered to him. He whispered back. She whispered again.