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down on the table. “So,” she said in a low voice, her eyes boring into Carl’s. “Now you’re an expert on Smoke Jensen and you think what he did when he shot my brother and your friend was all right?”
    Carl shook his head. “That’s not what I’m tryin’ to say, Sarah,” he said, a pained expression on his face as he tried to make himself understood. “It’s just that I don’t think it went down like everybody in Pueblo seems to say it did.”
    Macklin gave a short, harsh laugh. “Yeah, Sarah,” he said, his voice dripping with scorn. “Carl here thinks this Jensen is so quick with a handgun he could draw and put five or six slugs in Johnny an’ his friends ‘fore they could even get a shot off, even though they already had their guns out.”
    Sarah shook her head and turned her gaze back to Carl. “Is that really what you think, Carl?”
    He nodded, leaning forward and putting his elbows on the table as if by getting closer to her he could make her believe what he was saying. “You got to see him draw to believe it, Sarah. The man is fast as greased lightning.”
    â€œSo was Johnny, Carl. You know that,” she said, her eyes beginning to tear up at all this talk about how her brother got shot and killed.
    Carl shook his head, sorry he was making her sad but determined to make his point. “No, Johnny wasn’t in Jensen’s class, Sarah. Johnny was quick, all right, but Jensen is as fast as I’ve ever seen, bar none.”
    Now it was Sarah’s face that flushed as she leaned across the table toward Carl until their faces were inches apart. “Well, it really doesn’t matter, does it?” she said in a bitter tone. “Whatever happened that day in Pueblo, Smoke Jensen put lead in my brother and then he walked away like it never happened, and for that we’re going to kill him!” She hesitated, and leaned back to take a sip of her tea before adding, “Unless you really have lost your nerve like Mac says you have.”
    Macklin threw his napkin down on the table. “Now you’re talkin’, Sarah. I say we go look for him and get this over with right now.”
    Jacoby didn’t answer her accusation; he just looked at her with lovesick eyes, knowing he’d probably lost any chance for her to ever think of him in a favorable way again.
    Sarah sighed and shook her head, a thoughtful expression on her face. “No, Mac. I want this done right. When I put the fatal bullet in Smoke Jensen’s heart, I want to be looking in his eyes while I do it, and that is going to take some planning.”
    Macklin’s eyes widened. “Sarah, you can’t be serious. Carl’s right about one thing. From what everybody around here says, Jensen is snake-quick on the draw. You wouldn’t have a chance goin’ up against a man like Jensen face-to-face.”
    She smiled and took a delicate sip of her tea. Her eyes had a mischievous twinkle in them. “Not if he didn’t know I was coming after him,” she said softly.
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    After Sarah finished her meal and left the café, warning the boys not to approach her in public but to leave a message in the mail slot at her boardinghouse when they needed to speak, Macklin shook his head.
    â€œThat little filly’s gonna get in a world of trouble the way she’s goin’ after Jensen,” he said, a sour expression on his face.
    Jacoby, who had to struggle whenever he was around Sarah not to let his feelings for her show, nodded in agreement. “Yeah, an’ if anything happens to her while we’re supposed to be watchin’ out for her, her old man will have our hides nailed to his barn door ‘fore the week’s out.”
    Macklin leaned back in his chair and slipped the Colt from his holster. He held the gun down out of sight from the waitress and opened the loading gate, checking the