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HE WAY THE HANGING man’s eye sockets had been pecked clean, Bill figured he had been strung up for some time. It always perplexed Bill when a town’s sheriff left a body up like that, no matter what the dead man’s crimes were. And what was this man’s crime, wrong place at the wrong time? Hell, how was any of it—stealing, whoring, killing—justification to let a body rot at the end of a rope at the edge of town? Just didn’t make no sense. But, then again, figuring out the rationale for such things wasn’t high on Bill’s list. The sun was high when Bill rode his horse, a simple beast named “Chuck”, through the dusty town of Casper, Montana. Casper had the usual trappings of a frontier town. The wooden sidewalks creaked under foot, and the clapboard buildings sported signs advertising “Casper Apothecary” and “Brown’s General Store.” Bill secured Chuck to the hitching post outside the Silver Dollar Saloon. Two swinging doors opened in comforting uniformity as the town drunk, or what Bill took for the town drunk, came stumbling out. The man was dressed in a white shirt, that had not
been white for some time, and a leather vest that was also severely scuffed and stained. His skin had a yellow pallor, which was a shade lighter than his stained teeth. The smell that emanated from the inebriated miscreant was akin to that of the eyeless hanging man. “Liquor and the noose make slobs of us all,” thought Bill, as he side-stepped away from the drunken man’s stumbles. The drunk burped loudly, then cast his bloodshot eyes up at Bill. “Say, fella,” the drunk said, “you wouldn’t happen to have a few extra coins, would ya? I could—” The man interrupted himself with another uncouth burp, the stale fumes practically visible in the hot sun. “I’m afraid I don’t,” said Bill, tipping his hat up, so the brim moved away from his ice-blue eyes. “But I hope you find the help you need.” Bill turned back toward the saloon doors, leaving the drunk to totter down the wooden sidewalk. Bill pushed the two doors back and entered the dimly lit bar. To no surprise of Bill’s, the Silver Dollar was practically empty. He had heard that Casper was a
