The Gun-Hand's Revenge, Part I

I. When Sullivan ‘Reno’ Richards rode into the small, northern Utah town of Stillman, he’d been unemployed going on three months since he’d left his job as a hired gunhand. He’d turned in his badge to the agency when his brother Samuel had been killed, and after settling things with his family, he’d rode off to put to work his skills. Reno would see that real justice was done, he’d find the bastards who had done the deed, and though his family looked down on it, Reno was good at making bad folks bleed. His father had disowned him for this fact, Samuel had been his favorite child, the man had expanded dad’ baking empire way out west in the great desert wilds. Dad had no respect for a ‘mere gun-hand,’ and wouldn't speak to Reno to this day, but Samuel had not shared these beliefs, and nothing ill of his brother did-say. For that understanding, Reno now rode, to the only hotel in this small town, he’d sworn to his family that he would put poor Samuel’s killers in the ground. When settled in he went down to the bar, ordered whiskey and took the sounds in, listening for gossip that could be a clue, when a young stumpet walked right up to him. She said,”Hello, my name is Meredith, and I can tell from the look of your eyes that you must be one of Samuel’s kin, you should know I was to be his wife.” Reno looked at this woman in great surprise, he had not heard Samuel planned to wed, so he said to her,”I am his brother, I came as soon as I heard he was dead. “I’m here to take care of his affairs, though I fear it might take me a while, I understand he held the mortgages of half the ranches within fifty miles.” She smiled,”I’m glad somebody came out to take care of the things left behind. If you would like, I can take you out to the grave where my poor Samuel lies.” He nodded solemnly, and they walked to a plot laying behind the town’s small church, the dirt was still fresh, the stone not yet done, there’d been no time to finish the work. Reno asked then,”How did it happen?” Meredith frowned, and then told hit the truth: “Bandits bushwhacked him, in the back-country, They took everything, even his shoes.” Reno just nodded, took down his broad hat, said,”I hope that the sherriff is on it. My brother and I sometimes disagreed, but he did nothing deserving of this…”