“Kin ya split a playin’ card edge-on?” She stared at him; that sounded impossible. He smirked. “Annie Oakley kin. Every time.”

Well, if the famed sharpshooter could do it without the aid of sylphs, surely she could manage it with magical help! “I will try that too—in practice,” she promised. He laughed.

“We kin work in whatever ye manage t’get up, jest let me know when ye wanta change yer act. Cap’n wants ta know what ya wanna call yerself. He says it cain’t have no more letters’n Ado Ellie,” Ned continued. “We’re repaintin’ her sign fer ya.”

She stroked Lebkuchen’s neck while she mulled that over. “Ellie” was not all that far from “Giselle,” so it would make sense to keep that part of the name. She considered the names she knew from Karl May’s books. “What about Rio Ellie?” she asked.

“That’ll do!” Ned crowed, and scuttled off, his bowlegs making his gait very comical.

By the time she had finished her trick-shot routine, she was feeling as if she had all this business of being on display well in hand.

But then came Captain Cody’s idea—target-shooting at the gallop with handguns. Initially, she hadn’t objected; she’d seen how easily Cody and the other men handled their revolvers when they were firing blank cartridges during the battles with the Indians and the bandits.

But now that she was faced with the task, she was liking the idea less and less. She mounted Lebkuchen, Ned handed her the weapon, and that decided her. The only “pistol” she had ever shot wasn’t hers, and it wasn’t anything like the Colt “Peacemaker” revolvers. They were extremely heavy. And the moment she took one in her hand, she knew that even with the sylph’s help, if she tried to shoot one from the back of a galloping horse, she’d probably injure or even kill someone.

“No,” she said, firmly, handing the revolver back to Ned and getting off Lebkuchen.

Cody looked down at her from atop Lightning. “No?” he echoed, his moustache drooping with sudden disappointment.

“Not merely no,” she repeated. “Absolutely not. Lebkuchen is not accustomed to having me shoot from her back. I have never shot from a walking horse, much less a galloping one. I’ve never shot a revolver in my life, and if I try this insanity, someone will end up with a bullet in him—or her. I do not think that bleeding customers will encourage more ticket sales.”

Cody sighed theatrically. “Ado Ellie did—” he began, and was interrupted by someone from the company.

“You been eatin’ loco-weed!” called a little bantam of a man in a cowboy’s outfit. “Ado Ellie never did no such thing, an’ yer a consarned liar, Cody Lee!” This was followed by jeers and a great many rude noises from some of the others in the crowd. Little Fred pushed himself to the front and stood just under Lightning’s nose, shaking his finger at the star of the show.