There they were, the Duncan McGuire Gang, wanted for murder, theft and rustling.  Bounty hunter Jake Colter observed them carefully from his hiding place.  Presently they were pawing over the booty they’d stolen from a wandering wagon train, which included a sixteen-year-old girl.  Fellow bounty hunter, Billy Ray Cooper, was crouched nearby waiting for Colter’s signal.  Colter was contemplating the best course of action he should take: he could let them have their way with the girl then attack.  They’d be relaxed and easier to subdue.

The decision was made for him when a fresh faced young man jumped out in front of the gang, leveled his shotgun in their general direction and shouted, “Alright, nobody move!  Throw up your hands.”

Instead, the gang members tried to rush him.  Taking a step back, the young man tripped over a log, his scattergun went off, literally cutting the man in front of him in half.  Some stray buckshot hit another owl hoot before being tackled by Cooper.  Cooper leapt from his hiding place and they both tumbled into the bush.

“Jackpot,” Colter hissed.  Colter raised his Hawking rifle and plugged one of the gang members who tried to draw his pistol.

The two remaining outlaws made a mad dash for their horses.  As one of them tried to climb onto his horse, Colter appeared behind him, grabbed him around the neck and buried his knife deep into his back.  The other managed to climb onto his horse and take off.  Colter drew his pistol and shot him out of his saddle.  It was all over in less than three minutes.  Colter let the man he was holding up slip to the ground and stepped back to survey the situation.  All of the Duncan McGuire Gang was dead.   He helped Jackpot to his feet and boxed his ear.

“Yowch,” Jackpot yelped.  “What was that for?”

“What the hell did you think you were doin’, ya dern fool,” Colter snarled.  “Pullin’ a fool stunt like that.  You tryn’ ta git yerself killed?”

“Fer yer information, Jacob, I was tryn’ ta see if we could take ’em alive,” he shot back.  “Seein’ if we coulda avoided all this,” he said gesturing to the carnage aoround him before stalking away towards the terrified girl.

Cooper emerged from the bush wiping his knife on his pants.  Jake turned towards him trying to take his mind off of Jackpot for a moment.

“You all right,” Cooper nodded.  “The other one,” Jake asked already knowing the answer.

Cooper smiled, “He ain’t goin’ nowheres.”  Then he nodded to where Jackpot was comforting the scared girl.  “Why do you put up with him, uh?  He almost botched the whole job.”

Jake shrugged.  He honestly didn’t know why he put up with Jackpot: he talked too much, had a habit of constantly stumbling into every conceivable situation and called him by his full name, Jacob, despite several threats to the contrary.  They’d first met when Jake was hunting down a horse thief.  He’d tracked him down to a crooked card game in some hole in the wall town.  It was pretty obvious that the dealer was cheating and Jackpot called him on it.  The cardsharp went for his gun, but Jackpot managed to slash his wrist with a stiletto knife he had hidden up his sleeve.  At the same, the cardsharp’s partner (who also happened to be the man Colter was looking for) leapt from his seat, drawing his gun.  Acting on instinct, Jake raised his own gun and fired, shattering the horse thief’s diaphragm.  They’d been inseparable ever since.  Jake had gotten so used to Jackpot’s seemingly endless chatter, that he’d really miss it if he left.

At present, Jackpot was trying to comfort a scared and very on guard young woman, and he couldn’t blame her: kidnapped, menaced and almost violated, Jackpot wouldn’t be too trusting either.

“Don’t worry,” he said soothingly, keeping his hands where she could see them.  “I’m not gonna hurt you.”

She looked at him warily, clutching the front of her ripped dress.  Jackpot thought she looked like a rabbit ready to bolt.  Realizing he wasn’t getting anywhere, he walked back over to his horse and pulled out some spare clothes and handed them to her, turning on the charm.

“These ain’t exactly the latest fashion’s from Paris, but there a lot more dignified than what ya got on now,” he smiled reassuringly as she tentatively took his offering with one hand, still clutching her torn bodice.  “Names Jackpot by the way,” she gave him a quizzical look and he gave a short laugh.  “Well, my ma called me Lucky as I’s the only boy outta an army of girls, but I changed is to Jackpot so’s people’d take me seriously.  What’s yers by the way?”

“Dammit Jackpot,” Colter thundered as he heaved one of the dead gang members onto a horse.  “Quit talkin’ ta that girl and give us a hand.”

Jackpot scowled, then turned back to the girl and said gently, “Just change over there, and give me a holler if’n there’s and trouble awright.”  The girl nodded and stepped behind some trees to change while Jackpot sauntered over to help Jake and Cooper with the bodies.  “Ya know, Jacob,” he drawled.  “Ya might at least try and use some social niceties.  Ya never know how for ya’d get.”

Jake flinched slightly at the sound of his full name and drowned out the rest of Jackpot’s chatter as they finished loading their ‘cargo’.

The trip to town was surprisingly quick, with Colter leading the team, Cooper bringing up the rear and Jackpot riding with the girl.  She’d stuck like molasses to him ever since they’d met and Jake wondered what was going on with those two.  He quickly shook it off as the two had just met and they’d be leaving her with her family on the outskirts of Sweet Water.  Besides, Jackpot always had away with the ladies.

They dropped her off with her family as planned then headed for the Marshal’s office in town.  Jake, Cooper and Jackpot climbed the steps of the Marshal’s office, passing a sleeping deputy in a chair beside the door.  They saw that the marshal had his arms around a redheaded woman pinning her between him and the desk.  She giggled uncontrollably as the Marshal whispered in her ear.  Jake knocked on the already open door and the two lovebirds broke apart.

As the red head straightened herself out the marshal said, “Yes, thank you Miss Shannon, I’ll get right on that.”

“Thank you, Marshal Cain,” she said formally.  “The sooner the better.”

The bounty hunters tried to stifle a laugh at the veiled suggestion.  As she walked out the door she cast them a stern look.  Colter stiffened.  His mother had given him looks like that, and they were never good.  When she was gone the marshal enquired, “Can I help you gents?”

Shaking off Miss Shannon’s look Colter said, “Sorry to interrupt marshal, but we got the McGuire gang outside and we’re here to collect the reward.”

Marshal Sam Cain went out and examined each of the dead men.  When he was finished he turned to the bounty hunters, “Almost all of these guys have been either shot or stabbed in the back,” he observed.

“Well, there backs were the only thing facing us at the time,” Jake said defensively.

Cain just sighed and turned to his deputy, who was still asleep, and yelled, “Barnett!”

Deputy Barnett jerked awake and fell off his chair.  Quickly scrambling to his feet, Marshal Cain gestured towards the macabre caravan, “Take these men to the undertakers then drop the horses off at the livery.”

“Yes sir,” Barnett mumbled chastely.

Back in his office, Cain rummaged through his desk until he found a wanted poster for the gang. 
“Here you go,” Cain said.  “Five hundred dollars for the gang.  I’ll let you divide it amongst yourselves.”

After arguing over how to split the money, Jackpot came up with a solution, “Look Jacob, you take two hundred.  Cooper, you take two hundred.  And I’ll take the rest.”  Jackpot handed the money out and stuffed his share into his pocket.  Colter and Cooper gave him a suspicious look.

“What,” Jackpot exclaimed.  “I ken double, mebbe triple, this on the poker tables in half an hour!”

Cooper and Colter shook their heads and turned to each other.

“Well, Jake,” Billy Ray said shaking his hand.  “It’s been great working with ya.”  Turning to Jackpot, he gave him a withering look and walked away.

“Great, have a nice day Bill,” Jackpot said pleasantly, waving good-bye.  Then under his breath, still smiling, “I hope your horse throws you into a cactus bush.”

Colter threw him a glance as they turned towards the saloon.  “Don’t tell me you never thought about stickin’ a bur in his saddle,” Jackpot shot back.  “Lord knows, I wanted too somethin’ fierce durin’ these past coupla weeks.

Jake grumbled something unintelligible.

Jackpot continued, “You know what you need is, Jacob, is to lighten up.  An’ the best way ta do that is get yerself a woman, and I don’t mean one of them two dollars and ones either, I mean a real woman.  Like that one with the dark eyes and brown hair I saw you getting’ cozy with in that town we stopped in a while back, what was it called-”

Colter threw him a dangerous look as they entered the saloon.

“Right, got it, ‘Jackpot mind yer own goddamn business’,” the gambler conceded before ingratiating himself into the nearest poker game, while Jake sidled up to the bar and ordered a drink.

Jake pondered Jackpot’s suggestion and wondered if paying Sorrell a visit wasn’t such a bad idea.  They hadn’t seen each other in a long while and really had been a rough couple of weeks.  His pondering was interrupted when Jackpot shouted, “Jacob, lookout!”

A shotgun blast echoed around the room as Colter threw himself sideways onto the floor.  The whiskey bottles in front of where he’d been sitting exploded after the buckshot slammed into them.  Drawing his pistol Colter rolled to facing the door and fanned three shots at the figure standing behind the swing doors.  Jackpot rushed up to Colter’s side and helped him up saying, “You awright, Jacob?

“Yeah,” he grunted and stalked over to the door to see who tried to kill him with Jackpot close on his heels.

Jake burst through the doors to see the dead eyes of Billy Ray Cooper staring back up at him.

“What the hell was that all about,” Jackpot exclaimed.  “I mean, I know you and Cooper weren’t exactly friends, but why would he want ta go an’ shoot you?”

“I think I know,” Marshal Cain announced as he walked up to the two drifters, with Deputy Barnett not far behind.  Cain held up a wanted poster that read: 

WANTED FOR MURDER
JAKE COLTER
REWARD $10,000
DEAD OR ALIVE

Jackpot whistled, “Hell, fer that kind of money, I’d be tempted to try and take you in,” then quickly added, “But I wouldn’t.”

Colter ignored him.  “Where’s it out of,” he asked practically.

A Federal bounty went no higher than $500, and that was for murder.  The railroad and other freighting companies were known to offer bounties up to $5000, but that was for a live prisoner and returned stolen property.  This bounty was private and personal.  The marshal new this too.

“It came outta Benton,” he answered.

“Benton, Benton,” Jackpot repeated until it dawned on him.  “Say isn’t that where-”

“Yes,” Colter snapped.  Jackpot shut his mouth.

“Barnett,” Cain ordered.  “I want you to take Colter to the jail and lock him up.”

“Now wait a minute,” Jake began, but Cain cut him off.

“No, you listen.  Every jasper, gunman, wannabe bounty hunter and money hungry cowboy who’s seen this is gonna be after you and isn’t gonna care much who gets hurt along the way.  I’m locking you up for yer own good and to make sure nobody in my town gets hurt in process.”

Once he snapped down on his anger, Colter conceded to go with Barnett, however reluctantly.  Although Jackpot had a feeling the big scattergun Deputy Hamilton was toting had more to do with Jacob’s compliance than Marshal Cain’s argument.  Sam, meanwhile, got a couple of men to take Cooper’s body to the undertaker’s.  Jackpot ran to catch up with Sam.

“Marshal, Marshal Cain,” he called

When he caught up with Sam he asked, “What’re ya gonna do?”

“I’m headin’ out to the Pony Express station to send a telegram to the sheriff of Benton to let’em know I have Colter and that I’ll be bringing him to trial.”

“You cain’t do that,” Jackpot said desperately.  “You take’ em in and he’ll hang fer sure!”

“Judge Underwood’s a fair man,” he said evenly.  “He’ll give Colter every chance to defend himself.”

“You don’t understand-”

“Look,” Cain stopped walking.  He was getting annoyed.  “If you know something, come to Benton and testify.  Now if you’ll excuse me, I have things ta do.”  Sam mounted his horse and rode off towards the station, leaving Jackpot in the dust.

In the jail, Colter was trying to get used to being on the other side of the bars.

His mind kept drifting to a year ago in Benton when he’d been paying Sorrel a long overdue visit.  Sorrel was a barmaid and part-time prostitute at the Blue Bird.  They had been childhood sweethearts until their lives had taken different paths, but fate kept throwing them back together.  They’d even talked about getting married when they got tired of being alone or too old to keep doing what they were doing.  The present mess he was in was due to an incident that had happened on his last visit.

Jackpot had already retired for the evening with one of the young barmaids, leaving him and Sorrel in an isolated corner talking and enjoying each other’s company.  Unfortunately, Seth Underwood, the arrogant son of the local judge, had got it in his head the Sorrel was his.  And when he tried to force the issue, Jake had done the only thing he could do and gave Underwood the whoopin’ he had coming for twenty years.  Afterwards he tossed Seth out on his ear into the mud.  Turning his attention back to Sorrel, he did not see Underwood burst back inside, gun in hand, and shot Jake in the back.  Colter collapsed to the floor painfully, rolled over and instinctively returned fire, hitting Seth in the groin.  Sorrel and Jackpot had gotten him fixed up after he passed out.  The wound turned out not to be serious.  He decided to leave town and let things cool down, so with a quick good-bye him and Jackpot took off.

Well, he thought ruefully, things obviously had not cooled down.

He did not like the idea of someone else settling his problems, so he resolved to go to Benton alone and sort this mess out.  First, though, he had to get out of jail.  Colter called the deputy over and as soon as he was close enough, Jake punched him squarely in the face.

Barnett’s head snapped back and he took two steps backwards.  He stepped up to the bars and opened his mouth to say something, but suddenly his eyes rolled up into his head and he collapsed to the floor.

Jake took the keys from Barnett’s belt, opened the door and stepped out of the jail.  He checked to make sure the deputy was all right and turned to leave only to walk right into the woman who brought the prisoners food.  Jake did a double take.  That was no woman; it was Jackpot – in a dress!  Their sentences overlapping, they cried.

“What are you doing in that get up!?!”

“How did you get out?” 

Seeing the unconscious deputy, Jackpot went first, “I came ta bust you out. I picked up the dress from the mercantile and the food from the café.  When I showed up with the prisoners’ meal, I was gonna knock out the deputy and set you free.  The horses are waiting just outside.  And here I find you have the indecency to already have escaped,” he finished, getting angry.

“You look good,” Jake said lamely.

“Ya think so?  It doesn’t make me look wide in the hips?”

Jake groaned, “C’mon!”

“Hold it,” Jackpot put the food tray down and shucked off the dress.  Then he began piling the food into his arms.

“What are you doing?”

“Hey, I went to a lot of trouble ta get this meal and the least you can do is eat it!”  Jackpot shoved the food into Jake’s grasp as they shot out the door.

When Sam returned from the station and an extended visit with Miss Emma Shannon found Barnett coming too.  He rushed over to the hapless deputy and hauled him to his feet.

“What happened,” he demanded. 

Barnett meekly recalled everything.

"Dammit deputy,” Cain scolded.  “What did I tell you about wearing the keys when we have a prisoner.  You leave them in the desk, and take them with you if you hafta leave the jail.”
Sam raced around the room as he spoke, collecting a rifle, shotgun, an extra pistol and ammunition before exiting the building.  Barnett followed and saw Cain mount his horse.

“Where’re you going,” he asked, hopelessly confused.

“After ‘em of course,” Cain snapped.

“D’ya want me ta come with ya?”

“No.  You stay here,” Sam was still angry with Barnett.  He didn’t trust him to look after things right know, so he said he’d ask the station master, Teaspoon Hunter, to do it instead before taking off after the fugitive regulators.

Benton, Kansas Territory

Judge Eugene Underwood smiled pleasantly as he watched his eight-year grandson scurry off to the kitchen, his arm laden with the rewards of the day.

“Did you have a pleasant day, suh?” Underwood’s Negro butler asked dutifully as he took his took his coat.

“Yes, as a matter of fact, I did,” he answered pleasantly.  He had taken his grandson out fishing for the day.  Work had prevented him from spending time with his own son and he was determined to try and make up for that.  Thinking about Seth had caused his happy mood to quickly replace with a shroud of sadness.  It had almost been three years since Seth had been killed in a seedy barroom brawl.  The judge wasn’t sure where he had gone wrong, but he had made a mistake with somewhere.

Shaking off his self-pitying thoughts, Underwood turned back to his butler.  “Do you know where Mrs. Eleanor Underwood is?”

“Ah believe she’s on the balcony, suh.  Shall I fetch ‘er for you suh?”

“No that won’t be necessary.”

“Very well, suh.” The butler nodded and returned to other duties.

The judge found his wife asleep on the balcony couch with a book on her lap.  Underwood touched her shoulder and she woke with a start.  One look in her eyes and he knew what she’d been dreaming about.  It was the same dream she had been having for a year.  The details would change, but the outcome was always the same.  The judge sat down next to her and put his arm around her.  “How did you do it this time?”

Eleanor Underwood smiled grimly.  “I think I was clawing his eyes out this time.”

“You can’t keep doing this to yourself.  It ain’t healthy.”

“How can you say that,” Eleanor glared at her husband accusingly.  “Is it wrong for a mother to avenge her murdered son on the man who killed him?  Who murdered him in a bar fight over some whore!”

Eugene Underwood simply sighed and tightened his hold on his wife who was on the verge of hysteria.  The need for revenge had burned out of him a long time ago.  He wanted to grieve.  He wanted to move on with his life.  He wanted to be the father to Bobby he couldn’t be for Seth.  When Eleanor calmed down he broached the subject of the bounty.

“I stopped by the sheriff’s office today,” he began slowly.  “Dooley showed me the poster you asked him to circulate.  Is it really such a good idea to offer that much money for just one man?”

It wasn’t and he knew it.  That much money made men, good and bad alike, do crazy things.  Things that could get innocent people killed.

Eleanor shrugged and droned.  “If it bring Seth’s killer in faster, all the better.”

Underwood gave up.  There was no reasoning with Ellie anymore.  Days gone by they would go for long walks and talk endlessly about all sorts of things.  That was one of the qualities he had fallen in love with many years ago.  But now all she cared about was Colter, he consumed her every moment.  Underwood changed the subject to the day he had spent with their grandson, hinting that it might do her some good to spend some time with him.

“By the way, where is Prudence?” Underwood asked about hid daughter-in-law.

Ellie stiffened.  “Probably Brody Colton.  Flat on her back!”

Actually, she was on her hands and knees.  Deputy Sheriff Brody Colton was taking her to hights she didn’t think existed.  When they’d finished, they lay down next to each other in the after glow.

Colton gazed down at the woman lying next to him.  Long black hair cascading down her shoulders that contrasted dramatically against her pale skin.  Bright green bedroom eyes, high cheekbones accentuated by a full mouth.  To top it off, Prudy had a body that was made for loving.  It was to bad her late husband had never learned to appreciate it.

Prudence opened her eyes and looked up at her lover’s face.  It was ruggedly handsome face with a full neatly trimmed mustache and framed by short curly brown hair.  As she ran her hand through the thin hairs on his muscular chest, she asked,  “What are you thinking about?”

Brody smiled.  “The day we met.”

Prudence smiled at the memory.  Brody had been a buffalo hunter back then, just off the trail.  Covered with dirt and grit, he was in desperate need of a bath and a shave.  The attraction had been almost instantaneous.  For Brody it was obvious, he hadn’t seen a white woman in weeks.  For Prudy it was less obvious.  He was filthy and unshaven and from where she was standing, he wasn’t the least bit appealing.  But for some reason, she couldn’t take her eyes off him.

They met the next day and Prudy was shocked at the change.  Brody had bathed, shaved, gotten a hair cut and some clean clothes.  Not only that, but he was the new deputy sheriff.  He was an old friend of Sheriff Dooley’s and had been asked to give him a hand.  There had been an instant spark of attraction between them, but Brody had backed off slightly hearing she was married.  They had entered into a very formal friendship.

After her husband’s death, he had offered his condolences to what he believed was a grieving widow.  It was then he learned the truth about Seth and Prudence Underwood’s marriage: their parents had arranged it.  Prudy had gone through with it mostly because she loved her father and respected the judge.  She didn’t love Seth but thought over time she would learn to love him.  A few months into the marriage, she discovered she was pregnant, even though Seth spent little time with her, preferring to be with his whores.  As soon as Robert was born they began sleeping in separate rooms.  They formally detested one another and Seth spent almost no time with Bobby.

Three weeks after Seth’s death, Prudence decided to attend a dance despite the objections of her mother-in-law who emphatically stated she was supposed to be in mourning.  She spent most of the night dancing with Deputy Sheriff Colton.  That was also the night their affair had begun.  They hadn’t meant for it to happen, it just did.  Brody had offered to walk her home, both of them slightly tipsy (they both now suspected someone had spiked the punch).  They had started kissing madly and one thing led to another and here they were.

Suddenly there was a loud knocking at the door.  At first they tried to ignore it, but when the knocking became more insistent, Brody called out in an annoyed voice, “What!”

“Brody.  It’s me, Lee Ramsey.”

Lee Ramsey was the youngest of the sheriff’s deputies and the only one Brody genuinely got along with.  Any other time he’d have welcomed a talk with Lee, but not now.  “What do you want?”

“I need ta talk to you!”

“Can’t it wait?”

“Its important.  I’m here on sheriff’s business.”

Groaning, Brody slipped out of bed and slipped on a pair of pants.  He opened the door just enough to see Lee and block the young deputy’s view of the room.  Brody growled, “Well.”

Ramsey swallowed, he knew Colton had a woman with him and normally he wouldn’t have disturbed him.  “Sheriff Dooley sent me.  He wants to all his deputies right now.”

Brody sighed.  “I’ll be there in five minutes.”  Brody lived in a boarding house across the street so it wouldn’t take him long to get dressed walk to the office.  Lee nodded and left.  Brody shut the door and turned his attention back to his woman.

Prudence was already out of bed and getting dressed, standing in front of the mirror.  She smiled sympathetically saying, “Duty calls.”

Brody nodded and finished getting dressed.  He turned his attention back to Prudy who was dressed in her bloomers and chemise, standing in front of his full body mirror, and just stared at her.

Sensing she was being watched, she looked over and saw Brody closely scrutinizing her.  “What?”

“Are you feeling all right?”

“Of course.  Why wouldn’t I be?”

“I don’t know.  You just look … different.”

Prudence laughed.  “Is that a good thing?”

Brody shrugged.  He kissed Prudy on the neck.  He wanted to talk to her about entering a formal court ship.  Sneaking around was fun and all, but it got tiring after a while.  He left promising to broach the subject with her tomorrow.

When Brody left, a worried expression crossed Prudy’s face.  She bit her lip turning sideways to examine herself in Brody’s full-body mirror.  She slid her hand across her abdomen and thought, not for the first time, that she was in the family way.

Colter and Jackpot had snuck into town early the next day.  They split up as not to draw attention to themselves.  Chief Deputy Sheriff Cliff Slater immediately caught the gambler/bounty hunter.  Slater had gotten his position by buttering the people and he used his position to further his own goals.  Sheriff Dooley didn’t trust him with good reason.  He owned two of the deputies and had his eye on the sheriff’s job.  If Slater could capture the judge’s son killer that could put him in good standing with the judge, or at least Mrs. Underwood.  But he had to find him first and Jackpot knew where he was.

“Cliff,” Jackpot said cheerily.  “So how’ve ya been?  Great.  When did you start wearin’ a badge?  Well was nice talkin’ to ya, but I gotta go.”

Two more deputies grabbed him before he could get away.

“Oh come on, don’t tell me about that little incident in Willow Creek, are ya?”

Jackpot had slashed Slater’s wrist when he tried to pull a gun on him after accusing him of cheating at cards.  A short time later, him and Jacob met.  Slater answered him with a punch to the gut.  Jackpot doubled over.

“Okay,” he coughed.  “You are still sore about Willow Creek.”

“Where’s Colter,” Slater snarled.

“Colter,” Jackpot acted like he’d never heard the name.  “We parted company a while back.  Ain’t seen ‘im in months.

Slater punched him again.  Only the deputies holding Jackpot up stopped him from collapsing.

“I ain’t in the mood fer yer bullshit,” Cliff growled.  “Now where is he!”

“Alright, that’s enough,” a voiced droned behind Slater.

Jackpot smiled painfully, “Marshal Cain.  Good to see you again.”

“Sam Cain,” Cliff hazarded.  When Abel nodded, Cliff sneered, “I heard of you.  Gunslinger turned lawman.  Yer a long way from Sweet Water.”

Cain shrugged, “But that’s my prisoner.”

“Your way outside yer jurisdiction.”

Cain cocked his shotgun.

Slater waved the deputies away, then said in a low voice, “This ain’t over.”

“I’ll be waitin’.”

As soon as Slater and the other deputies were gone, Jackpot turned to Sam and said gratefully, “Much obliged for your help marshal.”

Cain answered him by whacking him across the back of his head with his rifle butt.

“What was that for,” Jackpot said indignantly, rubbing the back of his head.

“That was for breaking my prisoner out of my jail.”

“I did not,” he said as he climbed to his feet.  “He’d already escaped by the time I’d got there.”
 Sam rolled his eyes, “So where is he?”

Jackpot shrugged his shoulders.  He honestly didn’t know.  But he had a good idea.

Presently, Jake Colter was climbing the balcony of Sorrel’s house, in an undignified fashion.  Halfway up he began to wonder why he just didn’t knock on the front door.

Sorrel was sitting in front of her vanity when she saw a movement behind her through the mirror.  She spun around in here seat and saw Jake Colter leaning against the door panting.  Sorrel jumped up from her seat and threw her arms around his neck.

“Jake,” she breathed.  Pulling back to look him in the eye, she asked incredulously, “What are you doing here?  Don’t you know that dried up old bitch put out a - ”

“I know,” he said shortly.  “Found out after Billy Ray Cooper tried to collect.”  He briefly recollected what happened in Sweet Water.  “I ain’t spending the rest of my life on the dodge.  I came to turn myself in.”

Before either one of them could continue somebody from outside shouted, “Come on out Colter.  We know you’re in there.”

Jake rushed over to the window and peeked outside.  He saw Sheriff Dooley with a small posse that included Marshal Cain and Jackpot.  Jake’s traveling companion caught his eye and offered him a helpless shrug.  After Marshal Cain had rescued him from Deputy Slater’s “interrogation” they’d gone to Dooley’s office and bullied it out of him.  Slater’s pounding he could handle, but he couldn’t stand up to Dooley and Cain’s experienced glares.  Not like it mattered, Dooley already knew Colter would try and see Sorrel.

“Tell yer deputies ta put away their guns, and I’ll come out,” Colter called back.

“Throw out your guns first,” Dooley said after thinking over Jake’s request.

Jake thought about Dooley’s offer and shrugged.  If things got ugly, he knew Sorrel had a few weapons hidden in the house he could use.  He slowly removed his gun belt and tossed it outside.  “Now you.”  Dooley nodded and waved his deputies to put away their guns while Jackpot collected Jacob’s.

As expected Dooley didn’t lower his scattergun, but Jake knew he wouldn’t shoot unless forced too, and Jake was hardly in a position to do anything.  As he turned to leave, Sorrel grabbed his arm.  He took here hand and said with a smile,  “See you at my trial.”

Anywhere else the trial could have been rigged.  After all the man he had been forced to kill was the judges one and only son.  Fortunately, Eugene Underwood never let his feelings get in the way of his duty and listened with detached emotions.  With Sorrel backing his story, the judge was forced to rule Colter’s actions as self-defense and dismissed the case.

After the trial Underwood walked over to where his grandson and daughter-in-law stood with Deputy Sheriff Brody Colton.

When Jackpot and Sorrel came over to congratulate Colter, the air exploded with gunfire.  One ball caught Jackpot in the arm while Sorrel collapsed into Colter’s arms.  Sam looked around frantically to where the shots were coming from.  Colter also reached for his gun only to remember that they were in the sheriff’s office.  Brody shielded Prudence with his own body and saw Cliff Slater and his cronies trying to finish off Colter.

Drawing his Remington, Brody called.  “Slater.”  When the crooked deputy instinctively turned, Brody plugged him the chest.  Sam picked off the remaining deputies.  Seeing things weren’t going the way she hoped Eleanor Underwood pulled out a gun of her own and fired at Colter.  The shot whizzed passed Jake’s ear and entered Jackpot’s skull, killing him instantly.

The judge, sheriff and Marshal Cain struggled to subdue Eleanor Underwood.  The judge eventually managed to wrench the gun from her hands.  She glared at him and shrieked, “How could you?  How could you!  He murdered our baby and you set him free!”

Her shrieks eventually faded into hysterical sobs and the judge just held her as a crowd slowly gathered around them.

Colter held Sorrel as a dirty red stain spread over the back of her dress.  His voice was shaky while he talked reassuringly to his lady, “Don’t worry.  It’ll be all right.  Just hold on.  We’ll get you to the doc and fix you up good as knew.”  He continued talking even after her eyes closed for the last time.  He looked over for Jackpot only to find him lying in the dirt with a hole in his temple.  Tears filled his eyes as he clutched Sorrel’s limp body to him.

The two people closest to him were buried the following day.  The only attendees were Jake, Sam, the preacher and the gravedigger.  Jake was numb to the preacher’s word, only thinking that now he was completely alone.

Sam walked up to Jake and said.  “For what it’s worth I’m sorry.”

Jake made no indication that he had heard Sweet Water’s marshal.  When the preacher had finished, Jake tossed a handful of dirt on his friend’s coffins.  Hardening his soul he then mounted his horse.  He’d seen a poster for a man called Adam Hall, wanted for horse theft and manslaughter; reward $200.  First and foremost he was a bounty hunter and he had a job to do.