“I was lucky to get this spot on a back street, as it was. I didn’t have the money to buy anybody out on Main Street. But I’m doin’ all right since I got Loretta workin’ the floor,” Mutt said with a nod of his head to the bored-looking woman sitting at a table watching them. “She does all right when the evenin’ crowd comes in, sells a lotta whiskey for me.” Having ridden with the two brothers before, he was sure they were this far from Wyoming for a good reason, so he asked point-blank, “Who’s after you boys?”

“What makes you think anybody’s after us?” Booth said, and winked at Jesse. “Me and Jesse just wanted to see how an old bandit like you was makin’ out tryin’ to run a saloon, knowin’ you as good as we do.”

“Is that a fact?” Mutt huffed. “You boys wouldn’t be up this way if you wasn’t on the run. Who can I expect to be showin’ up here lookin’ for you? You ain’t had a fallin’-out with the rest of the boys, have you? When I left Wyomin’, Trip Dawson, Tater Thompson, and Blue Davis was ridin’ with you. Ain’t they with you no more?” He looked from one brother to the other, waiting for the truth. His suspicion was that Booth and Jesse had somehow double-crossed the rest of the gang.

Booth shrugged. “I know what you’re thinkin’, but it ain’t like that. All three of them boys are dead, and they all got killed by the same man. Trip was the last one he got, and that was Trip’s fault. He went plum loco, wantin’ to shoot it out with him, so the son of a bitch shot him.”

Mutt shook his head, thinking of the fast gun that Trip was. “Where was that?” Booth said it was at Bodine’s on Wolf Creek. “Bodine’s?” Mutt responded. “Ain’t nobody killed that ornery old goat yet?”

“Not since a couple of days ago,” Jesse quipped. “But there ain’t no tellin’ now, since me and Booth ain’t there to protect him.”

“Who the hell is this feller that’s got you on the run? A marshal or some other lawman?” Mutt asked.

“No, he ain’t no lawman,” Booth answered. “Me and Jesse figure he found out about a job we pulled that was a pretty big payday, and he’s thinkin’ he wants to get some of it.”

“Just one man?” Mutt found that hard to believe. “And the two of you can’t take care of one man?”