“It’s the derndest thing, Floyd,” I leaned into the bar with my hands wrapped around the sweating beer mug, narrowing my eyes for effect. “Homesteader just outside o’ town lost 20 heifer, but I happen to know they’re marked where no one would think to look: a tiny star brand on the back of the right foreleg.”

Floyd, wiping down a glass and checking on the other customers, seemed completely disengaged, but obliged me with a low grunt in response.

“Now who would be dumb enough to take all that beef without givin’ ’em a decent twice over?” I shook my head and stared into the beer head, as if somewhere in my mug lie the answers to the foibles of man.

Secure an Advantage
Shadow 1 + Community 1 + Action 5 = 7
Challenge 2 & 9 = Weak Hit
Take +1 Momentum

After a moment, I barked in laughter and sloshed a good portion of my beer over the floor. With a stealthy glance to the side, I spotted my mark flinching, and looking straight ahead with a thousand-yard stare, a straight line where his lips used to be.

The young rooster had strutted into the Lone Star not long after sundown, and pulled up a bar stool just a few down from mine. He was a clean-cut fellow with expensive boots and light curly hair.

I waited until he ordered his shot of rye before putting on my best drunken lawman act.

Now that he had taken then bait, he would be in a rush to move the cattle, and easier to track.

Floyd, however, was even less impressed than before. He frowned and moved to grab the mop and bucket at the back of the bar.

No matter, I would tip him well on my way out the door as I followed the man that I knew to be my cattle thief.