Anyway, Giles Sans Pitié made quite an impression on him, because he appears in nine different verses, which is an awful lot when you’re being the Homer for five hundred worlds. Probably it was the steel hand that did it. No one knew how he’d lost his real one, but he showed up on the Frontier one day with a polished steel fist at the end of his left arm, announced that he was the best bounty hunter ever born, foaled, whelped, or hatched, and proceeded to prove that he wasn’t too far from wrong. Like most bounty hunters, he only touched down on outpost worlds when he wasn’t working, and like most bounty hunters, he had a pretty regular route that he followed. Which was how he came to be on Keepsake, in the Tradertown of Moritat, in Gentry’s Emporium, pounding on the long wooden bar with his steel fist and demanding service.

Old Geronimo Gentry, who had spent thirty years prospecting the worlds of the Inner Frontier before he chucked it all and opened a tavern and whorehouse on Moritat, where he carefully sampled every product before offering it to the public, walked over with a fresh bottle of Altairian rum, then held it back as Giles Sans Pitié reached for it.

“Tab’s gettin’ pretty high,” he commented meaningfully.

The bounty hunter slapped a wad of bills down on the bar.

“Maria Theresa dollars,” noted Gentry, examining them approvingly and relinquishing the bottle. “Wherever’d you pick ‘em up?”

“The Corvus system.”

“Took care of a little business there, did you?” said Gentry, amused.

Giles Sans Pitié smiled humorlessly. “A little.”

He reached inside his shirt and withdrew three Wanted posters of the Suliman brothers, which until that morning had been on the post office wall. Each poster had a large red X scratched across it.

“All three of ‘em?”

The bounty hunter nodded.

“You shoot ‘em, or did you use that?” asked Gentry, pointing toward Giles Sans Pitié’s steel fist.

“Yes.”

“Yes what?”

Giles Sans Pitié held up his metal hand. “Yes, I shot them or I used this.”

Gentry shrugged. “Goin’ out again soon?”

“In the next few days.”

“Where to this time?”

“That’s nobody’s business but mine,” said the bounty hunter.

“Just thought I might offer some friendly advice,” said Gentry.

“Such as?”

“If you’re thinking of going to Praeteep Four, forget it. The Songbird just got back from there.”

“You mean Cain?”

Gentry nodded. “Had a lot of money, so I’d have to guess that he found what he went looking for.”

The bounty hunter frowned. “I’m going to have to have a little talk with him,” he said. “The Praeteep system’s got a Keep Out sign posted on it.”

“Oh?” said Gentry. “Since when?”