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"I see"

"I uns," he said "But once they were out of the country, well, that was an end to it I was out of guns, and so I was out of the gun business"

I went to the bar and got another Coke This tie of leot back to the table Mick said, "Nohat un business, that's what put o on and tell it?"

"I don't know"

"When we sit together, you and I, the stories roll"

I sipped my Coke The leun"

"Not un and I happen to have one I don't think you'll shoot me, or hold up the bar with it"

"It's not likely"

"So you owe ood story"

"Well," he said, "now that's another thing entirely"

I sat there and told hi the way he held up a hand and drew a short horizontal line in the air, and Burke chased the last few custo down the bar When he started putting the chairs up on the tables Ballou told hio, that he'd see to the rest of it Burke turned off the lights over the bar and the ceiling lights and let hi the padlock Mick locked the door from inside and cracked the seal on a fresh bottle of whiskey, and I went right on with ain at the sketch of Motley "He's a bad bastard," he said "You can see it in his eyes"

"The man who drew the picture never even saw him"

"No matter He put it in the picture whether he saw hiave it back to ht"

"Elaine"

"I thought so I didn't recall her naht it ood wo time then"

"Years and years"

He nodded "When it all started," he said "Yourit now?"

"Yes"

"Did you?"

I'd left that part out, but I couldn't see any reason to hold it back "Yes, I did," I said "I got a lucky shot in and he went out cold He had a glass jaw You wouldn't remember a boxer nahts looked fixed The ones he lost, that is He'd be way ahead, and then he'd get tapped on the jaw and go down like a felled steer Of course you'd never fix a fight that way, but the averagepowers don't reach that far Bob Satterfield, now his is a name I've not heard in years"

"Well, Motley had Satterfield's jaw While he was out I stuck a gun in his hand and squeezed off a few rounds It wasn't a coes more serious so that he'd draw a little jail tiured she'd stand up"

"You thought that well of her"

"I still do"

"And rightly so, if she did stand up Did she?"

"Like a little soldier She thought it was his gun I had a throith istered pint-size automatic I used to carry around just in case I palmed it and pretended to find it when I frisked hiun But she was there to see ers around it and shoot holes in her plaster, and she still went in and swore he'd done the shooting and he'd been trying to kill ned it when they typed it up and handed it to her And she would have sworn to it all over again in court"

"There's not many you could count on like that"

"I know"

"And it worked He went to prison"

"He went to prison But I'ot out he's killed eight people that I know of Three here, five in Ohio"

"He'd have killed more than that if he'd spent the past twelve years a free ave hiets I broke so back in my face"

"What else could you do?"

"I don't know I didn't take a lot of ti to instinctive on ed inside and I'd do what it took to put hih, I don't think I'd do it that way"

"Why? All because you gave up the drink and found God?"