Booth glanced at Jesse when the stranger walked in the door. He didn’t have to be told that the man was Billy Crocker. Jesse nodded in response to Booth’s unspoken signal. Billy paused to look the room over. His gaze stopped for a moment on the two men sitting at the table in the back corner next to the kitchen door before continuing. Fred Futch, the bartender, nodded and said, “Evenin’, Billy.” Billy responded with a nod, then proceeded toward the kitchen with the swagger of a man confident in his ability to master any challenge anyone might offer. Both Jesse and Booth gave him a nod when he walked past their table. His manner was typical of most gunslingers who believed themselves faster than any other man with a six-gun. He was reminiscent of Trip Dawson, with the exception in the way he wore his .44. Billy wore his in a double holster with the handles forward.

He didn’t return the nods from the two brothers as he stepped inside the kitchen door to inform the cook that he was ready for his supper. His father was in the kitchen, talking to Cora, and he answered for her. “She’ll fix you a plate,” Mutt said. “First, I want you to talk some business with those two fellers settin’ at the table.”

“What about?” Billy asked. “I’m hungry.”

“Won’t take but a few minutes, and it’ll damn sure be worth it,” Mutt said. “That is, unless you’ve come into a lotta money I don’t know about.” Billy responded with nothing more than a bored shrug of his shoulders. “Come on in here for a minute,” Mutt insisted. When Billy walked on into the kitchen, Mutt took hold of his elbow to make sure he had his attention. “That’s Booth and Jesse Corbin settin’ at that table out there. You’ve heard me talk about ridin’ with them before I went on my own. They’re two of the meanest men the devil ever put on this earth, so you need to keep that in mind. I think they’re settin’ on a lotta money from some job and they’ve got some jasper on their trail they need to get rid of.”

“If they’re so mean, why don’t they get rid of him?” Billy was inclined to ask.

“This jasper’s pretty slick, so they ain’t been able to corner him, but he’s already shot three men that was ridin’ with ’em. I told ’em they’d be smart to hire you to do the killin’, figurin’ somebody he don’t know could get close to draw him out. Oughta be a nice payday for you.”

“All right,” Billy said. “I’ll talk to ’em.”