"You sure that's him?"
"Looks like him...that's what the feller in Eagle Bend said...rough looking. Tracker, they call him."
"You recognize the other feller?"
The younger man shook his head, studying the lean, black clad man, walking beside the man they suspected was worth a bounty. "Never seen 'im afore." He cleared his throat and put on his best smile and stepped out to meet the woman crossing the street toward them. "Excuse me, ma'am?" he said tipping his hat. She looked at him, wary at first but his young face and his manners put her off guard. It always did. "Ma'am...I'm new in town...looking for someone...that feller in black, there," he said and her expression changed. She looked none too pleased.
"Larabee? Whatever you want with him, young man, you leave it be. Man's the devil himself."
"Uh, sorry, ma'am. Guess he ain't who I'm looking for. I'm looking for a man named Hiram Sikes?" he said, pulling the name out of his hat.
She was little mollified. "Don't know that name. You might check in with the sheriff. Or over at the paper..."
"Thank you, ma'am," he tipped his hat again. "I'll do that."
She gave him another suspicious look and continued on her way.
"Larabee's got a reputation," his companion said. "Gunslinger."
His companion turned to watch the two men enter the saloon, both of them turning to survey the street behind them in perfect sync, one checking west, the other east. For a moment, the tracker's eyes lingered on them and he leaned over to say something to Larabee. The other man's gaze snapped up.
Green eyes studied him intently and a flicker of a glance showed him calm blues ones giving him an equally thorough scrutiny. He felt a flutter in his stomach and thought a cloud passed overhead.
The younger man dropped his gaze and turned away, suddenly interested in the goings on at the Livery. "Might want to take a pass on this one, Caleb," he said quietly.
"It's five hundred dollars, Jed. Dead or alive. We can wait until dark."
"Yeah, but only if it's him that's dead or alive," Jed said quietly, but when his companion moved away, never looking back, Jed moved with him. He glanced back once to see the two men still watching, standing close. "Might cost more than that."
Caleb only grunted. They'd wait until dark.
The End
