A Mask & a Mirror

 
Capo II
    A
It happened in New Boomtown
         D               A
     It happened in the bar
     D 
The boys had just come in from
               E
     pitching pennies at the stars
     A
And with them was a stranger, with
        f#m
     a grey wolf at his side -
 (f#m)              E              A
I can't recall his name now if I tried

This handsome rake starts chatting up
     this woman he calls John
Saying, "Honey did you miss me? How
     have you been getting on?"
Well she whipped out a mirror
     and she pointed it his way
And damned if his whole face didn't melt away

Chorus:
    D
I swear I wasn't drinking
            A
     I'm a working girl like you
           B
There's an innocent woman in the county jail
           E
     And there's no telling what the Sheriff will do
      D
They say she killed a gambler,
            A               F#
     But I tell you it's a sham:
           D                       F#
There's a mask and a mirror on the barroom floor
                B        E     A
     And that thing was not a man!

The air around the stranger
     was suddenly a blur
And when it settled down,
     that handsome rake looked just like her!
The grey wolf howled like a whistle-stop -
     sparks flew from his coat -
And he went right for that doppelganger's throat.
Well, by this time you'd surely think
     that I was past surprise
But John grabbed her guitar case,
     yelling, "Don't look in its eyes!"
Then she drew out a sword -
     it was made of glass I guess -
I thought, "God, who's going to clean this mess?"

CHORUS

She cried, "O demon lover,
     you'll not play me false again!"
She thrust the sword clean through
     the doppelganger's heart - and then -
The stranger disappeared -
     a mask fell to the floor -
And the sheriff's men came bursting through the door.

 D
Late that night, I heard a noise
                A
     above the hooting of the owl:
           f#m  
It was that old grey wolf trying to drag
            E
     that glass sword away through the chaparral!

CHORUS