Keenly interested, Will stared at his friend. “I’m listening.”
“Old Cullen’s been in a few scrapes. More than a few, if you want to know the truth. And he always comes out on top. According to Cullen, that’s because he’s perfected his fast draw.”
“You mean pulling out a revolver and getting it on target quickly?”
“That’s exactly what I mean. You remember when we started the war, nobody carried a revolver.”
Will nodded.
“Well, now you see them all the time,” Benny said. “Used to be, back in the war, men carried them in their saddle holsters. But now, they’re shoving them through their belts like you.”
“But not you.”
“No sir, not me,” Benny said. “Got a holster for my belt. I can get my gun into action faster that way. Especially after practicing.”
“Practicing what, exactly?”
“That’s what Cullen showed me,” Benny said, “and it’s what I’m fixing to show you.”
An hour later, when they came walking around the pines to rejoin the others, Will was soaked with sweat, and his hand was tired from drawing the Colt over and over and over.
“Thank you, Benny. That was amazing. I’m already twice as fast as I was.”
“You keep practicing, you’ll be twice as fast again. And if you get yourself a holster, you’ll be even faster.”
“I’ll do that,” Will said. His mind was buzzing. It had never occurred to him, just as it had never occurred to most men of his time, that developing a quick draw would make him so much deadlier.
But that was obvious now… and made him wonder just how fast he could get. He was already as quick as Benny. If he practiced a little every day, there was no telling how fast he would be.
“Cullen says times are changing,” Benny said. “He says someday soon, every man west of the Mississippi will have a gun on him at all times. A handgun, not a rifle. Cullen says things’ll get bad quick for a while. Gunmen will rise. All because they’re fast. Then, over time, other folks will catch on or start carrying shotguns. But the point is, you don’t want to get caught unawares after folks start practicing and building up their speed. You want to speed up your draw now, so you can live long enough to see how things go. Especially with all the trouble you’re having back home.”
Will had explained his troubles with Pew and Sully and mentioned that the bluebellies might even come after him.There was one thing he hadn’t mentioned yet, not wanting to speak the man’s name in front of the riders, some of whom might have mixed loyalties.
Will stopped his friend shy of camp, where the others were talking and packing up and getting ready to ride.
“You know Jafford Teal?” Will asked.
Benny frowned. “Man’s a scoundrel. Meaner than a cottonmouth. What about him?”
“He burned out my wife’s family.”
“I’m sorry to hear that, Will.”
“Killed everybody but my Maggie. She wasn’t home when they burned the house, otherwise she’d be dead, too. Stole their horses, too. Maggie’s father had a nice stable of fine thoroughbreds.”
“That’s where Teal got that beautiful horse of his, then,” Benny said. “I’d wondered. I’m awful sorry that happened, my friend. Teal is a demon in cav boots.”
“Yes, he is. I hear he’s in the Thicket.”
Benny nodded.
“You ever see him?” Will asked.
“Once. We brushed up against him and his boys. Tense moment. Could’ve gone either way. But nobody unloaded. Guess it was an enemy of enemy thing. We both hate the bluebellies, after all. But if I’d known that he’d burned out your wife’s family…”
“No way you could have known, my friend. Any idea where he is down here?”
Benny shook his head. “You can’t go after him anyway, Will. He’s got eighteen or twenty men riding with him, and they’re all hard as nails. Every now and then they’ll lynch a scalawag or take a crack at a bluebelly, just to say they’re fighting the good fight, but mostly, they’re just robbing common folks. Point is, they’re a bad bunch. And you go looking for Teal, you’ll have toface all of them. That would be a death sentence—even for you, Will, even if you got your quick draw down. There’s too many of them, and they’re ready to kill, every last one of them.”
