Read Online Confessions of a Gunfighter by Tell Cotten - Free Book Online Page B

did.
    I let out my breath and squeezed the trigger. The pistol bucked in my hand, and the pine cone exploded.
    “Not bad, not bad,” Kinrich walked up beside me. “You can shoot, that’s for sure. But what you’ve got to learn is to be smooth, like this.”
    Soon as he said it his hand flashed, and his first shot sent a pine cone flying upwards into the air. It landed, and a split second later Kinrich shot again. This time he blew the pine cone to bits.
    I was very impressed.
    “That’s the best shooting I’ve ever seen!” I exclaimed.
    Kinrich grinned that boyish smile of his.
    “Yeah, I know. But, it’s just my normal.”
    I could only shake my head in wonder.
    Kinrich continued.
    “You see, Button; what you’ve got to learn is to look at what you’re shooting at instead of the gun. Like pointing your finger, you have to be able to aim and shoot from the hip. In most gunfights you won’t have the time to aim with your eye going down the barrel.”
    All day I practiced.
    I was used to aiming all slow like, and at first I was clumsy as I tried to shoot from the hip. My shots were a might wild, and Kinrich stayed well behind me.
    But I kept on practicing, and even Kinrich was impressed with how quickly I took to the idea.   
    “You keep improving like that over the next few months and you’ll be as fast as anybody,” Kinrich told me. “Your Pa was right. You’ve a way with guns, that’s for sure.”
    “Think I’ll get as fast as you?” I asked.
    “You mean if you keep on practicing every day?” Kinrich smiled.
    I nodded.
    Kinrich frowned as he thought on that.
    “No, probably not,” Kinrich finally said. “Course, being fast is only part of it. There’s a lot of fellers out there that can draw fast when they’re shooting at pine cones. It’s a lot different when you’re shooting at a man.” 
    “Tom Benson wasn’t a pine cone,” I replied.
    Kinrich looked surprised.
    “No, he wasn’t,” Kinrich said, and he had a funny look on his face.
    Another thing I was good at was following and reading sign. Kinrich took me out often for tracking lessons, and during those four months I became an expert tracker. 
    At first me and Kinrich tracked things down together. But then Kinrich started riding out an hour or so ahead of me, and he would make me track him down.
    At first he left easy trails to follow, but as I improved he made it more difficult. Many a time I would lose him, but at the end I got to where I could even trail him over rock surfaces. 
    Kinrich also taught me how to tell the difference between shod horses and Injun ponies, and also how to tell if those horses were being ridden by a man or a woman, or even a child.
    Kinrich told me often that I was learning fast. 
    “You’re getting real good with that six-shooter, Button,” he told me one day. “One other thing you might do is to always try and keep your gun hand free. Learn to do everyday things with your other hand, that way your gun hand is always ready if you need it.”
    That made sense, and I started right then trying to do just that. At first it was awkward, but as time went on I finally got used to it. And then, before I knew it, whenever possible my gun hand hovered real naturally above my gun handle, always ready.
    There was one other thing that Kinrich taught me, and that was playing cards. Kinrich had a real love for the game of poker, and every night we would sit around and play. 
    At first he taught me how to play honest, but after I learned the basics Kinrich really taught me how to play. Kinrich showed me every trick he knew, such as stacking a deck and how to deal cards off the bottom.
    I learned fast, and it wasn’t long until I became a very good poker player.
    Looking back now, I can see just how much I changed during those four months.
    When I first ran into Kinrich I was only a boy, alone and scared in a man's world. But Kinrich taught me a whole lot, and I grew up quick. I no longer felt alone, and I