The wedding whiskey had barely settled in Eli Dawson's belly when the stranger rode into town.
He came at dusk, a silhouette cut from shadow and bad intentions, his horse's hooves kicking up dust that hung in the air like gun smoke. The man wore a duster too heavy for the season, the collar turned up high. A hat pulled low. A pair of Colts strapped down tight.
Eli felt the weight of his sheriff's star against his chest as he stepped onto the boardwalk. Across the street, Lena paused in hanging the new *Ledger* sign, her hand drifting toward the rifle leaning against the doorframe.
The stranger reined in his horse outside The Silver Flask. When he looked up, his face was all hard lines and older scars.
"You Dawson?" His voice was gravel wrapped in barbed wire.
Eli rested his palm on his revolver. "Who's asking?"
The man smiled. It didn't reach his eyes.
"Name's Gideon Holt." He spat tobacco into the dirt. "I hear you killed my brother."
A hush fell over the street. Somewhere, a saloon piano missed a note.
Lena's rifle clicked as she thumbed back the hammer.
Eli exhaled slowly. Roderick Bell had never mentioned family.
Gideon's gloved hand hovered near his gun. "Now I reckon we got two choices. You can draw first—"
"Or?"
The outlaw's grin turned feral. "Or you can start running."
---
### **The Ghost of Silver Star**
Holloway slammed the jailhouse door behind them. "Bell had a *brother*?"
Eli spread the wanted posters across the desk. Gideon Holt's face stared back from half a dozen, each more notorious than the last. Cattle rustler. Train robber. The man who'd burned down the governor's ranch in '78.
Lena traced the $5,000 bounty with her finger. "He didn't come for mourning. He came for payback."
Outside, the town had gone quiet as a graveyard. Miners hurried home. Shopkeepers barred doors. The Silver Flask emptied like someone had yelled *smallpox*.
Eli checked his revolver's load. "How many men did he bring?"
Holloway peered through the window. "Just him. But that one's worth ten."
A knock at the door.
All three guns came up as Josiah Pike slipped inside, his face ashen. "He's at the church."
Eli's blood turned to ice.
"Said he wants to see you," Pike whispered. "Alone."
---
### **The Devil's Bargain**
The church doors creaked like a gallows rope.
Gideon stood at the altar, flipping a silver dollar across his knuckles. The coin caught the last red light bleeding through the stained glass, painting his face in blood-colored shadows.
"Knew you'd come." He didn't turn around. "Lawmen always do."
Eli kept his hands loose at his sides. "This between us, Holt? Or you planning to burn the whole town?"
The outlaw caught the coin, held it up. "See this? Same silver my brother dug outta these hills. Same silver you stole." He turned slowly. "I want it back."
"The mine's played out."
"Not the mine." Gideon's eyes gleamed. "The *cache*. Roddy always kept a reserve. Hidden somewhere even his men didn't know."
Eli frowned. Bell had died without revealing half his secrets—but a hidden fortune?
Gideon drew his left-hand Colt, spun it, and offered it butt-first. "Help me find it, I ride out at dawn. Refuse…" The threat hung in the air like powder smoke.
Somewhere outside, a baby cried. A mother hushed it.
Eli reached for the gun.
---
### **The Hunt Begins**
Lena nearly shot Eli when he walked into the jailhouse with Gideon Holt at his back.
"Have you lost your *mind*?" she hissed.
Holloway already had his Winchester leveled. "I'll drop him where he stands."
Gideon chuckled, hands raised. "Now, Judge. That ain't neighborly."
Eli stepped between them. "Bell hid a fortune. Enough to rebuild this town twice over." He met Lena's eyes. "Or enough to make Holt disappear forever."
The outlaw winked. "Long as I get my cut."
Lena's finger whitened on the trigger. "And when he turns on us?"
Gideon's smile faded. "Lady, I may be a bastard, but I keep my word." He nodded to the *Ledger* on the desk. "Hell, write it up. Make it official."
The clock ticked.
Finally, Holloway lowered his rifle. "If this goes sideways, I get to hang him."
Gideon tipped his hat. "Fair enough."
---
### **The First Clue**
Bell's old office smelled of dust and greed.
Gideon kicked over the desk, splintering wood. "Roddy always was a dramatic sonofabitch. Left clues like some dime novel villain."
Eli pried up a floorboard. Nothing. Lena sifted through fireplace ashes. Then—
"Here." She held up a scrap of ledger paper, the edge charred. *"'Where the first strike fell'*… That mean anything?"
Gideon went still. "The original mine shaft. The one that collapsed in '65." He grinned. "Roddy *would* hide it there. Poetic bastard."
Outside, the wind picked up, howling through the canyon like a thing alive. Somewhere in the dark, coyotes yipped. Or maybe they weren't coyotes at all.
Eli holstered his gun. "Let's go."
The hunt was on.
---