The Tragedy of Reginald King, Part Vi
VI.
Reg looked from the dinner table,
heard the door take a hard pounding.
Jolene frowned, said, “He sounds sober…
He’s much worse when he doesn’t drink.”
But Reg knew what this required,
good men stood up for their women,
no longer a sulking bandit,
he knew he had to go face them.
“Are you sure you want to do this?”
she asked as he grabbed his gun-belt.
He said, “That man is a problem,
I won’t have him make our life hell.”
He walked slowly out of the door,
the three men there looked quite surprised,
Reg saw a cold, familiar glint
in the glare of Lautaro’s eyes.
He was a tall and lanky man,
in that one way somewhat like Reg,
Reg stood before his lover’s foe,
the two of them on a knife's edge.
“So the boy comes to die,”he said,
idly stroking his long chin.
Reg said, “You are now welcome here,
so walk out the way you came in.”
The man just gave a laugh at that,
his hand flashed down straight for his gun,
Reg acted quickly on instinct,
and he turned out the quicker one.
Lautaro grabbed at his sternum,
then with a strange croaking collapsed,
the other two men looked on shock,
then both of them ran away fast.
Jolene came out behind him,
gasped when she saw the lifeless man,
Reg said, “I tried to dissuade him…
but he never gave me the chance.”
It wasn’t long before lawmen
came out to see what had gone down,
Reg just sat against the corral,
his face covered with a deep frown.
He’d sought so hard to escape this,
and once more he had chosen to kill,
when he saw the sherrff approach
he couldn’t help but feeling ill.
Was this where it came falling down?
Where his sordid past was found out?
“It’s self-defense,”the sherrif said,
“This is one case where there’s no doubt.
“I know you’re probably shoken up,
this kind of thing can hurt you deep.
but you did nothing wrong,”he said,
“Still, I think distance you should seek.
“Lautaro had some cousins here,
they might put their mind on revenge.
Maybe it’s best to go lie low
for a while, then come back again.”
“I’m not one for running, sheriff,”
said Reg, then Jolene tugged his arm,
saying, “Please, Reg, he tells the truth,
for me you should not come to harm.”
He tried to object one more time,
but her eyes pierced deep to his soul.
the sheriff said, “We’ll keep her safe,
even his cousins aren’t that bold.”
He sighed and look upon Jolene,
said, “One year, no more, I’ll be back.”
She kissed him on the cheek and said,
"I'll be looking forward to that.”
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