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of all people had been elected to the position of
keeping the peace.
    I made my way past people enjoying the cooler
air and received cordial hellos and introductions, which I
responded to in kind. I kept the conversations to a minimum and I
revealed as little about myself as possible.
    If these people only knew half of what I’d
been caught up in. That didn’t matter in the here and now.
    I needed a horse and some money and while I
was at it I would do my best to be the Marshal this town needed. My
life had no real direction or purpose to it so why not do something
meaningful and risk my life in the protection of others from the
rougher element of humanity such as myself.
    A wolf guarding the flock from danger so to
speak. I’d never fit in with the pack anyway. I’d always been a
loner.
    In the world of wolves they had a name for
such a loner, lobo. If a pack of wolves came across a lobo wolf
they would do their best to kill it, but lobo wolves didn’t go down
easy. There was always the chance that the lobo wolf might kill the
alpha male and take over the pack.
    In the end it was usually best to just leave
the lobo wolf alone, but men like wolves were always challenged by
those few who didn’t adhere to the law of pack mentality that the
majority of individuals found themselves constantly bound up
in.
    They should try being out on their own more,
I mused absentmindedly. They might take a liking to it.
    The town was already shaping up for me into a
visual representation of hierarchy. There was at least one roving
pack on the fringes of the herd represented by Doug Stryker.
    There were likely others, maybe even a few
lobos.
    The herd in town was more complex. You had
those filling their faces over at the café content to be led
wherever the best grazing was to be had. Then you had the store
owner Angus that kept to himself like a lone bull content to let
another boss the herd, while possessing of all perhaps the best
attributes for leadership.
    Thaddeus the blacksmith featured himself to
be the he-bull, but he lacked the mental capacity to lead the herd
well and the town as a herd seemed well led. So who was the unseen
hand directing the course of events?
    Edgar? I doubted it instantly. He had
intelligence, but he was more interested in discovering the story
than writing it.
    There were a lot of people I hadn’t met yet
and I had no doubt that the pieces of the puzzle would fill in with
time.
    Stopping my walk I listened to the sounds of
music on the night breeze. Surprisingly it wasn’t coming from the
dance hall saloon just up the street from me. I turned down the
side street beside me and the source of the sound became clear as I
saw a small church, which had light streaming from all its
windows.
    It was Wednesday. I turned back as I
acknowledged that the town had a significant element of faith to it
to be going at it like they were on a weeknight.
    Reaching main street I noticed I was beside
the general store. It was closed, but the hours indicated that it
closed early on Wednesdays. Angus therefore no doubt was a part of
the church fellowship.
    It only confirmed what I already thought of
the man. The preacher very well could be one of the leaders of the
community as was often the case in small towns.
    If he was though he wasn’t favored by the
main headship, as he would’ve been involved in the hiring process
and I no doubt would’ve been sworn in over a Bible. I stopped as I
thought deeply for a moment, Angus hadn’t been involved either and
I felt very sure that Thaddeus hadn’t had the bright idea or the
clout to make such a big decision on his own.
    I started walking again, maybe I was
overthinking it all. But the more I thought about it my hiring
seemed to originate from the darker element within the town.
    No one knew anything about me. So who would
leap at the opportunity of hiring a recovering snakebitten
individual?
    Someone who expected me to be an easy target
for execution if need be. I was also a