The Gunfighters

by Michael Cebula

About the Author: Michael Cebula's short stories have appeared in a variety of publications, including FlameTree Press's mystery anthology, Murder Mayhem. He is at work on his first novel.

Excerpt

When the smoke cleared and it was plain that both gunfighters were down and not liable to get back up again soon, the townspeople came out from their hiding places and gathered around where the two men were lying in the middle of the street.

Doc Sanderson stood over the younger gunfighter, a skinny rumor of a boy barely out of his teens who called himself Deadeye Danny. Sanderson rubbed his mouth and shook his head but offered no further appraisal. The crowd was hushed, waiting. In no apparent hurry, almost as if he enjoyed making them wait, Sanderson shuffled over to where the older, stouter gunfighter lay, a man new in town and known only as Harris. In contrast to the fair-haired young gunfighter cursing and squirming and staining the dirt with his blood not far away, Harris was still, his set mouth and narrowed eyes the only sign of the considerable pain he had to be suffering. Doc Sanderson turned his head and spit in the street.

“Well?” the mayor asked.

“Well, what?” Sanderson said. “Gut shot, both of them. Nothing I can do for them now.”

“Once again your expertise has proved in-valuable,” the mayor said. “With those holes in their stomachs and their guts spilling out everywhere, I wasn’t quite sure how to diagnose it.” He picked up Harris’s revolver and shook his head. “All this over a spilt beer. Well, hell, let’s get them out of the way, at least. How do you expect to get a wagon through here with two men laying in the middle of the street like that?”

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