When he left the stable, it was way too early for supper, so he took the time to stop in the general store to pass the time of day with Betty Benton, Chad Benton’s widow. Chad had been killed by the same man who shot Frank Bowen. Betty was glad to see him again and introduced him to her brother, Phil, who had come to help her run the store. Like Grover, they could not remember having seen any strangers during the last several days. He left them without telling them the whole story behind his trailing the two men, only that they were dangerous. He made one more call before going to supper and that was in the Gold Nugget Saloon. He was met with the same response as everywhere else he had checked, with one exception, and that was the fact that there was a new saloon in town. Back off the main street a little way, the saloon was called the Capital City Saloon. The folks at the Capital City were not friendly with all the other merchants in town, he was told. He decided to pay them a visit in the morning, for it was suppertime by then and he had told Sophie Hicks he hoped to show up.

* * *

Sophie was engaged in a casual conversation with two young men at a table near the front door of the dining room when Hawk walked in. She laughed delightedly at something one of them said. Hearing the door open, she turned to see Hawk and interrupted her chatting only long enough to greet him politely and say, “Sit anywhere you like, Hawk.”

He didn’t know that he had any right to expect anything more than that, so he had to question why it seemed to disappoint him. It registered in his mind that she hadn’t called him John, calling him simply Hawk, like everybody else. It seemed blatantly impersonal. Then he scolded himself for thinking they were better friends than that. At first glance, he guessed the two young men she was talking to might be cowhands from one of the ranches close by. Suddenly feeling out of place, he quickly found a chair at an empty table and sat down with his back to that table. Seeing him from the kitchen door, Martha poured a cup of coffee for him and brought it to him. “Evenin’, Hawk,” she said. “Glad to see you came back to eat with us. You’re in luck tonight. Betty Benton got in a barrel of dried apples and Sophie got enough of ’em to make a couple of apple pies.”

“Well, that surely sounds to my likin’,” Hawk said. “I’ll have whatever you’re pushin’ for supper tonight.”

“Beef stew,” Martha said. “I’ll fix you up a plate,” she called back over her shoulder, “and I’ll set a slice of that pie aside to be sure you get some.”