Either the pistol or the woman’s screaming got the knot of onlookers stirred up. That spread to the other passengers up there. Everybody went scrambling at the same time, moving away from us like they were caught in a riptide. Most of them rushed the stairs, pushing and shoving at each other to be the first one down.
The four of us plus the two crewmen stood there like fools and watched them. The marshal let his gun drop to his side, though he didn’t put it in his pocket. Jimmy shook his head and smiled a little. I think he enjoyed seeing people being foolish. Made him feel smarter, I guess. The two crewmen looked at each other like they didn’t know what to do. Things had just moved too far out of hand for them. They forgot about us.
The logjam on the stairs caused some panic at its tail
