Then her rifle was snatched out of her hands, and she was engulfed by the crowd of her fellow showmen and friends, hoisted on their shoulders, and paraded around the camp like a conquering hero, with everyone cheering and singing “For she’s a jolly good fellow!” until they ran out of breath. And only then did they carry her to the Army Camp and let her down in front of one of the fires, where Captain Cody was waiting with a glass and a particular bottle she recognized.

That was when she came very close to fleeing. Because that bottle . . . that bottle held the Captain’s cherished whiskey from America, and it was something she had no desire to experience after sniffing its potent fumes. Beer was one thing, even schnapps, but this? She was absolutely certain that it would remove the skin from her tongue, throat and probably stomach.

But the gleam in Cody’s eye, and the grins on the faces of everyone else, convinced her there was no escaping this particular “honor.” I’d better face it and get it over with, she thought with mingled dread and resignation. So when Cody poured a glug of the gold-colored stuff into one glass and handed it to her, and did the same for himself, she accepted it.

Cody held the glass over his head, signaling he wanted silence, and got it. “Today,” he proclaimed. “Our very own Ellie showed herself the equal, maybe even the better, of Miss Annie Oakley. There ain’t nothin’ Miss Annie kin do that Miss Ellie cain’t. So! I call fer a toast! I give you the deadliest shot on this here continent! To Miss Ellie!”

“To Miss Ellie!” came back the reply as a roar of approval, as she solemnly clinked glasses with the Captain. And steeling herself, she threw down the entire shot in one gulp.

It didn’t quite remove the skin from her tongue and throat, but it certainly felt as if she had gulped down a mouthful of fire, not liquid. Somehow she managed not to choke or gasp, although tears started up in her eyes as some of the cowboys pounded her back in congratulations. Fortunately, a moment later, Rosa thrust a stein of beer into her hands, and with gratitude she quelled the fires in her mouth and throat with its familiar bitterness.