"Jud Low was eighteen years old, from the East, and as green as could be when is father decided to pull up stakes and set them on the Oregon Trail. Not far from Abilene, Kansas, the two were put out of the wagon train after Jud's father got into an argument with the wagon master. The father and son headed south.
Not long after, Jud found himself alone and on foot, his father having frozen to death during a cold winter night. He made his way south and stumbled onto a small cattle ranch, finding himself a job and a great friendship. When his new friend is murdered and robbed, Jud finds himself forced to become a man sooner than he'd expected to."
"Me and Beacher rode south from my cabin in the general direction of Cairo, Illinois. I remembered Pop saying there was a horse-shoe bend in the river as it turned back north. It was still and always shallower, easy to cross and not too many tree snags, as most of them would pile up on the south side of the bend. Wagons had been crossing there for years and it was a lot safer than other places. Beacher had a compass he had gotten for his birthday one time. Heck, the only thing I ever got for a birthday was a good swift kick in the back-side from one of my older brothe"
"US Marshal Sam Bass, the first black marshal, was living an easy life. He'd retired from riding the trails and chasing outlaws, and was comfortable with just being Judge Isaac Parker's right hand. While at the saloon one evening, he met up with a traveling whiskey salesman, who offered to sell him two guns.
When Bass saw the old Colt .45, its bluing gone and the nick in the barrel, he knew it was the exact same gun he'd been told was evil by a voodoo queen some years back. All of a sudden, Sam found himself being visited in his dreams by the same voodoo woman, telling him to take the gun and give it to a Texas Ranger by the name of Beacher Tolbert. Sam decided that once he'd fulfilled that mission, he'd move on to New Orleans and settle down."
"That got me to thinking. What if Beacher remembered my name was Horton, not Tolbert? And, what would he do if he found out I had shot my superior officer and deserted the Army? I was probably reported missing in the Indian fight and presumed dead. A lot of them fort Captains left missing men on their pay roster and collected the wages themselves. They considered it as their retirement fund. They'd just give the pay master a nice raise and if he didn't want to, they'd just reassign him to the next Indian raid."
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