Of Masques and Martyrs by Christopher Golden Read Free Book Online Page A

were moments out here, in this little town, with so many people who loved me and so many of nature’s gifts to man, moments that were so close to perfect that if one more little girl with a ribbon in her hair had smiled at me, or one more young man had told me his little boy wanted to be a great scout . . . well, God would’ve had to bring me home to heaven right then, because nobody deserves to be that happy on Earth.”
    When he looked at her again, Allison was biting her lip and her smile was gone, replaced by a frown of sadness and sympathy. She pulled him to her with one hand, and, in unison, they held their coffee cups out to either side to keep them from spilling.
    Her chin on his shoulder, she whispered to him, “Every time I think I understand you, you surprise me a little more. Crass as can be one minute, the soul of eloquence the next. They don’t make men like you anymore, Colonel. They truly don’t.”
    Will smiled to himself. “I love you, Allison,” he said.
    They kissed then, and when she returned his profession of love, her words were muffled by the joining of their lips. When they looked up again, the sun had almost cleared the horizon, and the temperature had risen several degrees.
    As Will sipped his coffee again, Allison said, “This is harder for you than you expected, isn’t it? We can go anytime you want, you know.”
    “Yes, much harder,” he answered. “And we’ll go soon. Let’s just sit a spell, while I try to decide whether I really want to go see the ranch, or even go into North Platte.”
    A few minutes later, Will poured Allison the last of the coffee. He’d already decided to drive the Jeep into town, at least to try to get a decent breakfast.
    “It’s beautiful out here,” she said. “Really it is. I understand why you loved it so much when . . . before.”
    “There are so many memories out here for me. So much I can’t remember, too,” he replied. “Fort McPherson used to be not far from here. It was a different world when I first saw it, when I was stationed there. A different world entirely. No cars, no planes, no television. No fax machines or cell phones or nukes. For better and for worse, it was a much simpler life. Just people, trying to get by day to day, with only one another for company.
    “The first time I set foot here was in May of 1869. I was guide then to the Fifth Cavalry, and we were on the trail of Tall Bull, a vicious Indian warrior—but no more so than the rest of us. I wasn’t fool enough to want the Indians dead because they were Indians, or because they didn’t pray to God. The finest, most generous, most trustworthy friends I ever had were of Indian blood, and I employed as many as I could, hoping to keep them from wallowing in the sorrow of their lost tribes. But back when I was a scout . . . well, they were the enemy then, and that was all that mattered.
    “Still, it was a fine time, when the Fifth rolled into Fort McPherson. I fell in love with it straightaway. My friend Lew had a saloon in town. Bartender there was Texas Jack Omohundro, who’d trailed three thousand head of Longhorn up from El Paso. I think a lot of that McMurtry fella’s writing is influenced by Texas Jack’s exploits as a young man.”
    Will laughed then, and smiled widely and warmly for the first time.
    “We went to the circus that first stay, too. Dan Costello’s Circus, I recall. Stole a lot of ideas from Dan when I started the Wild West Show. But, then, hell, I stole from them all.”

    Allison looked at Will and sipped the last of her coffee. She was worried about him. As hard as she tried to keep her concern from showing, she couldn’t help it. He loved her, she knew that, and because of it she didn’t expect him to do anything rash. But the events of the past few years had taken a horrible toll on him.
    When he was still human, Allison knew, Will had been adored by millions around the world. Controversial though his reputation might have been, his charisma