Tiger by the Tail 
	
	Chester Goode stepped up on the boardwalk.  The sky was a gorgeous dry summer blue, the air was fresh and cool and full of the smell of wild honeysuckle, and he felt like he was ten years old.  Someone had drawn a hopscotch grid on the planks and impulsively he hopped through it on his bad leg.  Coming to a stop at the end, he scooped up an imaginary piece of rock and smiled.  
	“Chester, what are you doing?” Kitty Russell asked from behind scaring Chester so he nearly leapt into the Long Branch’s balcony.  
	“Land sakes Miss Kitty,” he puffed and nervously ran a hand through his hair.  
	She grinned impishly, “Wanna play?”
	“It’s a little kid’s game.  Besides, I don’t have a buckeye with me,” Chester admitted.  
	“Then how about walking me to see Matt.  I suppose he’s stuck in that office on such a beautiful day?” she clucked and took Chester’s arm to cross the street.  Happily, they walked arm in arm.  
	Halfway across, Kitty was yanked from behind and pulled out of Chester’s light grasp, “Hey!”
	The smell of Hank Groat was enough to make a skunk take offense. Rancid breath curled Kitty’s nose up, “I hear you’ve got the best puss in town.  Why are you wasting it on a boy who can’t give it to ya proper?” 
	Kitty’s right hand hit him with a loud thwack, but his head was so piggish he didn’t even feel it.  Chester stepped up to him, “Hank Groat, you leave Miss Kitty alone!”
	“I’ll leave her alone, if she gives me some,” he sneered and leaned in close.  “I’ll bet your mama did a fine job teaching you all the tricks.”
	Kitty’s left hand backslapped him, but she could have been swatting flies for all the good she was doing.  Groat twisted her arm to drag her down and left himself open to Chester’s punch.  With a roar he twirled Kitty off into the hitching post and struck Chester hard enough to knock him a good five feet.  Chester got up only to be punched several more times and knocked down.  Kitty rushed over to try to help and got flung back in the street.  Grabbing the first thing she could find, Kitty started to beat on Groat with a washboard from the nearby dry goods store.  When that didn’t seem to work she used her fists.  She was in such a fury that she didn’t see Matt Dillon grab Groat to try to get him to stop.  She kept beating on him.  Matt let go of Groat and grabbed Kitty before she laid into him again, “Hold it Kitty.” But the two kept heading for each other and he shouted, “HOLD IT!”
	“You dirty, filthy, yellow pig!  You ain’t fit for a hog wallow. I’m gonna claw your eyes out!” she screamed as loud as she could while Dillon tried to hold her back.  He was having a hard time.  She was wiry and stronger than she looked.  He also didn’t want to hurt her.  Groat watched with a smirk, “That’d be just like one of your kind.”
	Kitty lunged at him and Matt nearly lost his grip, but pulled her back to him, “Come on, come on, hold it now, take it easy.  What’s happened here?”
	Chester was definitely worse for wear, “Well, he was bothering Miss Kitty.  He just came up to her and started…”
	“What’s she parading around the street for?” 
“I just stepped outside for a breath of fresh air, but you kill all the air around you,” Kitty defended.  	
“You ought to be strung up bothering a woman like that!” Chester exclaimed.  
Dillon advanced on Groat, “Get outta here Groat, before I kill you.”
Groat snorted, “You mean it don’t ya Marshal.  You’d kill me.  Good thing you’re wearing that gun.  You’d better keep on wearing it too.”
“You all right?” he asked trying to see if she was injured or anything.  
“Yeah.”
He looked at Chester, “How about you?”
“Filthy animal like that shouldn’t even be allowed in town,” Kitty cried. 
“All right come on over to the office and we’ll have Doc take a look at you,” he instructed and led Kitty and Chester back down Front Street.  He sent a boy to fetch Doc and bring him to the office and tried to calm Kitty down as they walked, “Now are you gonna tell me why you were trying to beat that man to death?”
“I told you, he’s a filthy yellow pig,” she spat.  Matt had never seen her so worked up before.  She was known to keep her end of a catfight if she had to, but she’d never been involved in an out and out street brawl.  Matt glanced at her mussed hair and dusty clothes.  She looked mighty pretty anyway.  Chester’s limp was distinct behind them and Matt glanced back to his handy man.  Chester was definitely the recipient of the worst end of the fight.  “You sure you’re okay Chester?” 
“I’ll be all right Mr. Dillon,” he answered hanging his head till they got to the office.  
Pouring a basin of water, Kitty started to wash up and then saw how filthy she was and decided it might be best to just take a whole bath.  Her clothes would need to be cleaned as well.  Luckily it wasn’t muddy out so she just had a lot of dust in the velvet skirt.  Brushing her hair out a little with Matt’s comb, she did as well as she could.  “Chester can you tell me what sparked this melee?”
“That Hank Groat.  He said some awful things about Miss Kitty,” he said.  Kitty’s eyes started blazing again, “He insulted Chester too.”
“Oh, well that’s not nothin’ to be concerned with,” Chester replied and hung his head while they waited for Doc.  “It is so!” she insisted and said to Matt, “When you finally decide to put that Groat in jail, just you let me know.”
“I’ll be sure to keep it a secret,” Matt said with a laugh.  She advanced on him and he backed up into the table.  “Don’t come any closer. You pack a mean wallop!” he commanded.  
“Huh?” she asked confused and he rubbed his right cheek to let her know he got a good taste of her strength himself.  
“I hit you?  Oh Matt, I’m sorry, I was so busy trying to get that pig I didn’t even know what I was hitting,” she apologized and came up to check his cheek.  He didn’t even have a slap mark anymore.  “I must not have done much damage, there’s no bruise anyway.”
“It still hurts,” he insisted and then said, “On the inside.  I think I bit my cheek.”
“Oh, poor baby.  Guess you won’t want to drink any whiskey for a while,” she decided.  
“No, probably won’t,” he answered but smiled at her through dark lashes, “Doesn’t mean I can’t come visit though does it?”
She smiled demurely, “I suppose if you have to arrest me for being in a brawl or something like that.”
“Yeah, something like that.  You fight pretty good Kitty.  Next time I need any backup I’ll have to think of you,” he complimented and couldn’t help but grin at her.  She was quite a woman, smudged face and all.  He knew that’s why she appealed to him.  She had the right combination to make her both a tiger and a kitten in one body.  But he knew what it took to get her to purr, and when she did, they were both content.