Clint left the Stockman Hotel, while Arliss Morgan decided to have an after-breakfast drink. He also said he had some business to conduct in a part of the hotel that was a “private club.”
“I’ll get back to you on this as quickly as I can,” Clint said.
“I will be over at Dave’s place playing poker each night this week,” Morgan said. “You can find me there. I’m going to have to work on purging myself of this tell.”
As Clint left, he was thinking: If the man purged himself of his belly, he’d have a better chance of losing that tell.
On his way back to his hotel he passed a woman who reeked of sex. It wasn’t that she smelled like it. It just immediately came to mind when he saw her. She belonged naked in a bed, not walking down the street, and not doing whatever it was she was going to be doing the rest of the day. She had long, auburn hair, full, thrusting breasts, and men and women alike watched her as she walked by. She ignored them all, however, except for Clint. As she passed him she locked eyes with him boldly, and when he looked back to watch her walk away she was also looking back at him. Another time, another place, he might have gone after her…
As Diane looked back over her shoulder, she saw that the man was looking at her as well. Some other time, she would have grabbed him and dragged him to a hotel. He wasn’t like the other men in town. He walked different, wore his gun different, and he looked at her different.
As they went their separate ways, she wondered: Who was he?
As Clint turned away from the woman, he almost walked right into Dave Hopeville.
“Dave,” he said. “Sorry.”
“What’re you lookin’ at?” Dave asked.
“That woman. See her? Walking away?”
“Oh,” Dave said.
“What? You know who she is?”
“Even from the back.”
“Who?”
“That’s Diane Morgan.”
“Morgan?”
Dave nodded.
“Banker Morgan’s wife.”
“She is thirty years younger than him.”
“At least.”
“I can see why the women on the street look at her the way they do.”
“And you already know why the men are lookin’ at her,” Dave said.
“Must be tough for a man that age to keep a woman like that happy.”
“Money helps,” Dave said.
“But money isn’t everything.”
“Well, I don’t envy Arliss Morgan bein’ married to her.”
“You’re probably the only man in town who doesn’t.”
“Don’t get me wrong,” Dave said. “I’d like to get her out of that dress as much as the next man, but I wouldn’t want to be married to her and have the problem of keepin’ her happy.”
“You might have a point there.”
“Where are you off to?” the saloon owner asked. “Or coming back from?”
“Back from breakfast with Morgan.”
“Ah,” Dave said. “Did he make you an offer?”
“You know about his game?”
“Most people in our business do.”
“Well, I’m not in your business,” Clint responded, “so it was news to me.”
“I figured he’d be interested in you as a bodyguard of some kind. Am I right?”
“You’re right,” Clint said, not bothering to fill the man in on the rest of the offer.
“Well, if he offered you a bundle, hold him up for more and take the job,” Dave said. “It’s probably not his money anyway.”
“What do you mean?”
“There’s some talk in town about him and his practices at the bank,” Dave said.
“Like maybe he’s using bank money?” Clint asked.
“To fund his gambling,” Dave added. “You played with him. He’s terrible at it.”
“Yes, he is.”
“In fact, I’m on my way to the bank now. I’ll see you later tonight?”
“I’ll be in,” Clint said.
He headed back to his hotel, wondering if the hundred thousand that Morgan was putting up for the game belonged to the people of Virginia City.