Dolan kicked up dust with his foot.

He was not walking anywhere in particular, but out reflecting all that had transpired in the last two months. He rubbed his right forearm, which ached still. Sauntering into the Pharmacy he grabbed a copy of the Las Vegas Gazette from the rack near the door of the establishment.

Had he wandered astray and fallen into a hole knocking himself out cold? Reading the headlines, he felt he was in the wrong time.

Dolan wanted a drink and wished that Murphey had been in town to meet. Everything he read validated his belief that that faction being led by Tunstall (the Regulators) were in the wrong. However, he could not shake the feeling that the situation had gotten so wildly out of hand, that it led to him questioning his own actions.

“HEY—are you gonna buy thet or just keepin mekin’ it wrinkled and smudged?!”

The proprietor rested the barrel of his sawed-off on the counter, muzzle out toward Dolan. His eyes bulged and his lips looked dark and surly.

“Pologies, friend,” said Dolan as he reached into his pocked for a note.

“Say, aren’t you thet James Dolan of The House?”

“Thank you friend,” Dolan shifted out of the premises, somewhat ashamed for the dealings to which he had began to be associated. Folks talk, any good businessman had to keep reminding himself of that fact; it was those in whose drama he had gotten himself entangled, namely Sheriff Brady and that justice J.B. Wilson, who could not seem to get that straight. They concerned their affairs with notions of their own corrupt morality. On the contrary, Dolan did not believe Tunstall’s murder was necessary, and it certainly would not be desirable for his business. His financial interest in the area made him question the motives and tactics of that over-zealous officer of the law, Brady, whose actions only seemed to cement the district into an irrevocable feud. Bad for business. There were even rumors that the British Minister had been issued a written notice and was looking into sending at attachment there.

Then you had Brady’s letter to the Gazette doing quite the opposite of cooling off his and Murphy’s profile in the public eye. It only fomented opposition and further courted the cold hand of death in a saga that was already terrible for business. It all ought to have been left alone.

Dolan continued down that dusty road, in search for a place to tie another one on.