Chapter Two Three Seconds in Hope

Jack waited until the order became ash. Then he poured the ash onto the blank paper and pushed it toward Rusk. "Now that's a contract." Rusk's smile disappeared. "Boy, do you know who you're talking to?" Jack raised his eyes. "A man who isn't dead yet." The sentence fell like a hammer before a gunshot. Rusk's right hand dropped. Jack's hand did not move. It remained near his coffee cup. "Outside," Rusk said. "Street." Jack finished the coffee. "Fine." They walked out of the saloon. People scattered from both sides of the street. Women pulled children into houses. Eyes appeared behind curtains. The blacksmith's fire popped and hissed. A crow perched on a telegraph pole in the distance.