MacCallister: The Eagles Legacy: The Killing by William W. Johnstone, J. A. Johnstone Read Free Book Online Page A

Jayhawkers, got away.
    When the war ended, most of the soldiers were able to go home again to pick up their lives from before. But Elmer couldn’t, because he and many of the men who had ridden with Quantrill and Bloody Bill Anderson were not considered soldiers.
    It didn’t seem right. The men who rode with Doc Jennison, whose personal depravities equaled anything anyone who ever rode with Quantrill did, were regarded as heroes. But Elmer became a wanted man, unable to reenter society. As a result, he continued to ride with Jesse and Frank James. Then, after the debacle of the Northfield Raid, Elmer, who was nursing a bullet wound in the thigh, left the outlaw trail so he could heal up. Once he was healed, he decided not to go back on the trail. Instead, he went west.
    Elmer became a wanderer after that. He spent a year with the Brule Sioux, where he took a squaw, and then left after she died. Then he went to San Francisco and, trying to rescue a Chinese prostitute, ran afoul of the Tong. He killed two Tong members and, to escape retribution, found his way to a sailor’s hall. There, though he had never been to sea in his life, he signed on to the Harriet Sutton , a clipper ship bound for the Orient.
    It had been quite a ride for Elmer since then, including a long period where he had lost his soul and nearly his life, only to be rescued by Duff MacCallister. He had been a loner for as long as he could remember, and it was good to have a friend like Duff.

Chapter Five
     
    As Elmer stood at the bar in Fiddler’s Green, nursing his beer and wrestling with his thoughts, he became aware that someone at the opposite end of the bar was staring at him. It was a young man wearing a black hat with a silver headband, from which protruded a small red feather. He was also wearing a pistol, with the holster hanging low on his right side. The man was slender, with dark hair and narrow, obsidian eyes.
    When he realized that Elmer had caught him staring, the young man tossed his drink down and wiped the back of his hand across his mouth. Then he turned to face Elmer.
    “Hey, you, old man.”
    Elmer turned toward him, and by way of greeting, lifted his beer.
    “Would you be Elmer Gleason?” The tone of the young man’s voice was anything but friendly, so Elmer didn’t answer.
    “Didn’t you hear the question? I asked if you are Elmer Gleason.”
    “I’m Gleason.”
    “They tell me you rode with Jesse James. Is that right, Mister—Gleason?”
    The young man set the last word apart from the rest of the sentence, and said it with a sneer.
    Again, Elmer didn’t answer.
    “You know what? I don’t believe you rode with Jesse James at all. I think that’s just a lie you’ve been spreadin’ around, hopin’ it would make people think you are somebody.”
    Elmer picked up his beer, then walked around behind the bar. He sat the beer down on the bar and looked at the young man.
    “It ’pears to me like you ’n me got started on the wrong foot,” Elmer said in as friendly a voice as he could muster. “Suppose I buy you a drink. What will you have?”
    “I don’t want nothin’ from you, Mr. Outlaw,” the young man. “Is there a price on your head for riding with Jesse James? If there is, how big is the reward? I might just collect on it.”
    “I don’t think there is any paper out on me,” Elmer said.
    “You don’t think? Well, Mister, that might be the truest thing you have said so far. You gotta have a brain to think, and since you don’t have no brain, then you don’t think.”
    Elmer sighed and shook his head. “Doesn’t look to me like I’m goin’ to be able to get onto your good side, does it?” Elmer said.
    The boy chuckled. “Now, that there is a good one,” he said. “Mister, maybe you don’t know this, but I ain’t got no good side for you to get on. Most especially with old, cowardly outlaws like you.”
    “What’s your name, boy?” Elmer asked.
    “The name is Clete. Clete Wilson,” the boy