.

nothing. I was in the storeroom.”

      I remembered at the trial, Upward had testified he’d served up some red-eye to King Bragg, and then gone to the storeroom to find a bung starter. The shooting had come in a burst when he was back there, and he was afraid to come out until things quieted, and then it was just a quick peek. King Bragg was standing there with an empty six-gun and there were three T-Bar men down, leaking blood and life.

      “King, he says he didn’t know anything, and first thing he knew, he was lying on the floor looking up at you and some others,” I said.

      Upward smiled. “He never was down.”

      “The jury thought so too.”

      “I heard all the shots, and a lot of breaking glass, and stayed low until it quieted. He was standing there holding an empty gun when I come out of the storeroom.”

      “Anything else happening?”

      “Sure, half the bottles on the backbar, they were busted and my best booze was draining into the sawdust.”

      “How come bullets was coming into the bar? I thought King Bragg was at the bar when he shot them T-Bar men.”

      “How should I know? Bullets fly all over the place.” Upward was getting annoyed. “All this because Queen batted her big eyes at you in the night?”

      I got to feeling sort of dumb, and started to make excuses, and thought better of it.

      “Think what you want,” I said.

      Upward, he was enjoying himself.

      “Did King Bragg start to reload?” I asked. “Get out of here? A man with an empty gun, he’s pretty quick to shuck the empties.”

      “I’m tired of the palaver, Cotton. You find something else to tell me, and I’ll find something else to tell you.”

      I tipped my hat and left, with Sammy Upward staring at my back. The sunlight felt good. The two witnesses were gone, and Upward said he didn’t see the shooting. King Bragg said he was knocked out and lying on the floor; but Upward said King was standing with an empty gun in his hand. Upward said a bunch of his bottles got busted; the court testimony was that King Bragg was shooting from the bar into the rest of the saloon. It sure was a puzzle.