A few dollars more in Albuquerque.

[Shane Lawson]

January 15th, 1880
13 Miles South-East of Albuquerque, New Mexico Territories

The Sun was begining to drop down in the western skies of the New Mexico Territories this wind-swept Thursday Afternoon. This area outside of Albuquerque was desolate shrub brush for the most part, flanked to the east by a range of mountains. For the most part the area was unpopulated except for those who had a reason not to be found. And as such a small band of men had done just that, they'd taken shelter in the Arizona wilderness far away from the prying eyes of the law or any would be Bounty Hunters. The Hall Gang as they'd dubbed themselves was lead by Galen and Dennis Hall, Brothers who'd given up on a legitmate life and turned to robbing Wells-Fargo Stage Coaches, along with two friends of theirs. Just two weeks ago they'd hit a Wells-Fargo Stage Coach leaving Albuquerque, they'd killed the Driver and wounded the man riding shotgun, making off with $600 Dollars in Gold Coins. Subsequently A reward of $300 Dollars had been posted for the capture of those responsible, plus a percentage of the recovered money. The wounded shotgun rider had pretended to be dead after being wounded, and was able to give a description of one of the robbers after he'd removed his face mask. Though a bit vague, it was enough for some enterprising Bounty Hunter or good citizen to go off of, but the Halls weren't to concerned, they'd even ventured to town a couple of times since the heist with no problems!

A round of laughter erupted on the makeshift porch of the shack the men had long ago erected for shelter from the fierce winds and storms that swept through the lands. Jake, one of the men that was part of the gang had brought a hefty amount of liquor with their 'booty' and they were having another round of celebration. Outside of petty crime? This was their day job, drinking, trading lies and jokes basiclly. "Heard there was a Marshal and a couple Bounty Hunters sweepin' through looking for us." Jake remarked, taking a swig from his bottle. All of the alcohol was the cheapest rockgut imaginable. Dennis laughed, "Wouldn't
worry me so much if it weren't for Galens dumbass." he pointed out, jabbing a finger towards his brother. "Fuck you, You're the one that shot the bastard.. Should've made sure he was dead." They all started laughing again, clearly not to concerned about the whole situation. Just then Willie came through the door, with a bottle in his hand."Ah, Those yellow bellys wouldn't want to come ag.." his words were cut-short by a sharp hiss and a scream as Willie fell backwards through the door, dead before he even hit the floor. For a split second the other men were confused as to what happened, but a split second later there was a tremendous rumble that almost sounded thunder echoing through the hills and mountains. "Get Down!! Galen yelled as he hit the deck, recognizing that it was the sound of a very powerful rifle shot. All three of the remaining men were soon on the ground, with their pistols drawn as they tried to see where the shot had come from. "What the hell was that?!" Jake cried.

"Sounded like a Buffalo Gun to me, that sucker must be up there somewhere." Galen said gesutring his pistol towards the general Mountain area about 500 yards south of them, he wasn't the smartest man by any means but he knew the sound of a Buffalo gun at long distances.. "What we gonna do?" Dennis asked his brother, knowing that they were kind of in a delicate position. "Screw you guys, I'm getting the hell out of here!" Jake chirrped as he bolted from the deck of the porch and tried to make a run to the otherside of the house where the horses were tied up, but before he even got four feet another snap-hiss was heard just as the bullet ripped into his chest, dropping the man to the ground. "SHIT!" Galen cried, the fear obvious in his voice. "The reward is for someone alive right? " Dennis quipped, figuring that either this guy wanted one of them alive, the others dead OR it was just some lunatic trying to kill them all and steal their loot, either way? They had to get out of here fast regardless, but doing that was going to be damn tricky..

[Shane Lawson]

Some 440 yards away looking down the long black barrel of his Sharps Model 1874 the shooter squinted a little as he lined his sights up on a third individual, he exhaled softly before lowering his rifle and breaking his aim. The reward was for the robber alive, in this instance? he was going to bring two men in in hopes of a slightly more handsome reward. The other two men were expendable, he knew this by the research he'd done before coming out. The two shots he'd made weren't to impressive in his belief, as the Vernier tang sight on his rifle was marked up to 1200 yards, and he'd shot targets a mite further before today. The rifle was a work of art to him, and possibly his most precious possession on God's Green Earth truth be told. A short time after the model had been introduced, he'd ordered the rifle custom replace his previous Sharps rifle. But this rifle? It was fully trcked out with a 34" Long Heavy Octagon barrel that improved accuracy at long ranges, double-set triggers, pistol-grip and a cheek rest and chambered in the .45-110 Caliber. It was definitely an improvement over his old rifle, despite it costing him a small fortune at the time. Since then it'd made more then its cost back out on the range, It'd been a handy tool during his days as a Texas Ranger during tricky gun battles and dealing with parties of Indians at long ranges. Now this rifle was his money maker, if the reward called for wanted dead or alive? He had no problem bringing them in dead, a clean shot at 1200 yards was easy money and no personal risk to him. But in this instance his quarry was wanted quite alive, a little roughed up maybe but still breathing. That always complicated matters.

And the gunmen? Shane Lawson, Former Texas Ranger, turned Bounty Hunter who'd also made a bit of a name for himself during the Civil War for his shooting talent, especially at long ranges. It'd even lead to a legend about a shot he'd taken at extreme ranges against a Union Officer on Horse back, whether it was true or not was anybodies guess and he wasn't telling either way. The war wasn't something Lawson talked much about to anyone, It'd been an event that'd changed and scarred him forever and it was a part of his past he wanted left buried. But that was how most of his past was now, buried in the graveyard of memory. His days as a Texas Ranger were among them now, It'd only been a couple years since he'd left the Rangers to try and track down his brothers killer but often? It seemed like a lifetime ago. Lawson laid his rifle on the canvas sock he carried the rifle in to protect it during long rides across the lands. Moving to his horse he reached into a leather pouch and withdrew a long cylindrical tube made of brass, commonly referred to as a sighting scope or telescope!

Lawson held the scope up and peered through it, scanning the area that until just a few moments ago he'd been 'shelling' with his rifle. It seemed quiet, he could see one of the men trying to crawl off the porch but no matter. Taking two men would be a bit more difficult, but it was still quite possible. Lowering the scope, Shane silently considered his options and choice of tactics before stowing the delicate device away again. The best option was wounding one of the men and making the other beg for mercy, which was quite possible. Bending down he picked his rifle up again, pulling the breech lever it ejected the metallic cartridge which Lawson returned to his cartridge belt so that the spent casing could later be reloaded and reused. Plucking a fresh cartridge from his belt he inserted it into the breech, and chambered it. But for the moment he wasn't going to be picking anyone else off, as his action of folding the tang sight down showed. He slipped the long rifle into its carry scabbard mounted on the left side of his horse, and picked up a few of his other things before mounting up and riding down the mountain ridge at a healthy gallop.

Back down at the shack the Hall Brothers were still cowering under cover, having not made it more then a few feet from their original positions. "Maybe he's gone.." Dennis postulated but was too afraid to pop his own head up to see if his theory was correct. "Hell if I know.. I know we just can't hide here on the floor all goddamn day.." Galen said falling silent he quickly looked over his shoulder, then his other before spying his hat that'd fallen off his head when he hit the floor. "I got an idea." Galen reached for his hat, and then hung it on the barrel of his pistol and slowly held it up, offering it as a sacrifice to the heavens. After a few moments of utter silence, he finally built up the courage to slowly sit up and when he didn't lost his head he laughed nervously. "I think he's gone lets go.."

"Damn straight brother!" Dennis scrambled to his feet with his pistol drawn, just like his brother and at first they were relieved by the fact that noone had shot them, but then they noticed a mounted figure in the distance about ahundred yards from the shack. "What the hell?" Galen squinted, trying to see who or what was out there. "Don't make another move!!" A voice bellowed from down range. "I have you in my sights, and I WILL kill you.." Again the man yelled causing both men to freeze dead in their tracks. "Goddamnit, what now?" They both knew if this guy could hit them without them seeing him that he could definitely plug them at this range! "Screw him, he'll shit his pants if we shoot back.." Galen whispered, his Colt Model 1873 Peacemaker in hand. "On three?"

"On three.. One.. Two.. Three.." Simultaneously both men opened fire with their revolvers, aiming down range but with little hope of hitting the target so far away with their limited skills. No sooner had they opened fire, when a high powered rifle bullet ripped through Dennis's thigh and dropped him to the dirt with a cry of agony. "Dennis!" Galen cried before turning and running around the house to avoid getting shot himself. "Don't leave me! Galen you bastard!" In the distance the rider had put the long-rifle away and began galloping towards the shack.

Lawson knew there was a chance that the man could die from such a shot, especially if it nicked a artery but he was primarily after Galen, who was the one described in the wanted poster. But that begged the question, how'd he known who to shoot all this time? Simple, Lawson had done a bit of digging, first by going to the local brothel and asking a few prostitutes if anyone had been in bed bragging about any sort of crimes, that'd gotten him Jakes name. From there he'd watched Jake, found out who he knew, paid them off and then connected the dots between the other four men. The other thing that helped him was that both Halls wore either bright red or blue shirts that helped him identify them at range. It'd been detective work, pure and simple and after a week of digging and watching he'd made his move. Riding up on the shack, Lawson pulled the Colt Double-barrel shotgun from its scabbard on the right side of his horse and cocked one of the hammers and brought the butt up to his shoulder, holding the weapon single handedly.

As he rode up on Dennis the man tried to make a grab for his six-shooter before he realized the shotgun was trained on him. "Ah-ha! Touch that hog-leg and I'll burn you down.. " Lawson warned him, the Shotgun trained perfectly on its intended victim. "I honestly don't give a shit whether or not I kill you right here before God, I rather take you in alive but the choice is yours." The man fell silent for a moment, hoping that maybe he could stall this guy long enough for his brother to get away or get the drop on him. And even if he took him in? There was no evidence connecting him to the crime.. was there? "Alright, easy.." he stammered, bleeding significantly from his leg as he held his hand up. Dismounting his horse, Lawson quickly retrieved the revolver and threw it into the weeds. He didn't want to come back on this guy and get shot by the revolver he forgot he still had. A quick examination suggested he had no where to hide another revolver, pocket pistol? Maybe, Knife? Sure.. But not a pistol atleast and that he could handle easily enough."Now lay there and bleed." he instructed him while backing away slowly before ducking into the shack. The first thing he saw was the small Wells-Fargo strong box siting open in one corner of the room. "Bingo.." he murmured to himself, realizing there was a back door as well. Carefully clearing the two rooms he crept up on the back door and realized there was a back porch, silently as he listened he could hear the creaking of boards as someone tried to tip toe to the other side, apparently Dennis's brother wasn't so cowardly.

Taking his time Lawson was able to judge the close where abouts of the person as he snuck up to the door, likely going to try and get the drop on him. "Don't think so.." he murmured as he ducked up against the wall, waiting for the other man to make his move. And make it he did, Galen lept into the room and before he knew it the butt of Lawsons shotgun met up with Galens face and knocked his lights out cold. When Galen came around again he groaned a bit before realizing he was shackled and seated on his horse, which almost resulted in him falling out of the saddle! "Goddamnit! Who are you?!" he growled, before realizing Lawson was by his brother wrapping a cloth around his leg to help control the bleeding. "Your lucky, seems to be a flesh wound, nothing more.. Doubt it damaged any arteries.. Then again I'm not a Doctor and I might be wrong, and you might be dead in ten minutes." He said to the brother while ignoring the other. "Now off your ass." Helping the man up he soon helped him into the saddle of the other horse, both of which were soon tied to Lawsons own horse. "You guys are truly armatures you know?" he said mockingly as he loaded the remains of the Wells-Fargo job into a saddle bag, about $440 remained to his estimation and the thought of keeping it was amusing, robbing robbers would certainly be an easier job then going through the trouble of capturing and then dragging these jokers back to town but that wasn't his style. "I've seen some pretty halfassed crews in my time.. But you all made it easy." he chuckled, the mocking certainly not sitting well with his prisoners. They'd handled themselves poorly, blew the money wildly, bragged to whores and then faced with real danger? They were quite cowardly.

"And what are you?! Some coward who can't face a man, face to face? You're nothin' but a yellowbellied coward with that rifle."[/b] Hall ranted, stuggling against his restraints but Lawson had taken care to secure the mans belt loops to the saddle, he might fall over and sprain something, but he'd not fall and hit the ground atleast. "No, I'm the man about to collect three hundred dollars." he laughed as he pulled himself into the saddle. "I hope an arkansas hillbilly becomes the mother of your children! May your dick rot off and die!"[/b] and so on and so forth, the one mistake on Lawsons part was the fact he hadn't gagged the two insultive men and for the next hour and a half it was a long way back to Albuquerque..

[Shane Lawson]

January 15th, 1880
Albuquerque, New Mexico Territories

The Jail cell door made a thunderous noise as it closed on the short-lived outlaw career of the Hall Brothers who'd been brought in by a Texas Bounty Hunter named Shane Lawson. At the local
Wells-Fargo Office the man was collecting his reward for a job well done. "I must say Mister Lawson, Job well done." Mister Hoffman assured the rougher looking man before him
as he counted through the recovered gold coins a second time. "$440 remaining, I'm surprised you were able to recover any of the money at all." The man quipped, having figured all of the money would've either already been blown or hidden away better. "Well, their loss is your gain right?" Lawson said with a bit of a shrug, It was more money for him and thats all that mattered really. Hoffman smiled. "You're right.. I just don't see how you found them so quickly, we only had a partial identification on one of the men, let alone a name.. Yet you found who they were and where they were and brought them in together! Brilliant my good man, brilliant!" The man laughed a bit, glad that atleast these two wouldn't be bothering their coaches anymore. Lawson smirked little. "It's not that difficult if you know when and where to ask the right questions." He retorted with a certain aura of confidence hanging over his head, he knew he was good at what he did and wasn't afraid of pointing that out. But he had his father in large part to thank about that as he'd taught his son much about his time as a Texas Ranger, and then Shane had furthered refined his 'detective' skills as a Ranger himself.

"You make it sound easy." The man responded teasingly as he reached into his desk drawer, withdrawing a stack of bill. "The reward was for three hundred.." he trailed off as he shuffled out the appropriate amount of bills. "Plus ten precent of the recovered money, thats another sixty six.." More money was shuffled out before Lawson raised his finger. "Oh, I forgot to tell you.. There were two other members of their outfit, but.." Shane shook his head. "Didn't make it." Despite the grim nature of that fact, he remarked about it rather nonchalantly. Hoffman stared at him for a moment, then nodding. "That's worth another twenty I suppose." While glad these outlaws were locked away or dead, he wasn't about to hand over a reward that'd surpass the recovered sum of money!

"That's $386 for you Sir," He said as he offered Lawson the money, this wasn't the first time they'd done business and he hoped it wouldn't be the last. Graciously Lawson accepted the money and slipped it in his leather wallet. "Many thanks Mister Hoffman, Its so much more pleasant doing business with you then some people." The rewards posted by small towns were sometimes quite difficult to collect on and had lead to more then one 'dispute' during his time as a Bounty Hunter."Well enjoy that while it lasts Mister Lawson, It seems our board is clear." Hoffman told him as he stood up from his desk, circling around his desk and leading Lawson back outside. "The Halls little robbery brought the atteion of quite a few would be bounty hunters, and course the Marshals.. Though you might've beat them all to the punch on this occasion, they were still able to bring in some of the other dregs that have been an annoyance to us." And indeed the bulletin board outside was devoid of all but two wanted posters, and some other bulletins that'd been posted. Hoffman removed one of the posters, as it was the one relating to the halls. "What about that one?" Lawson asked as he jabbed a finger at the sole remaining poster on the board. "Jimmy Bales?" Hoffman laughed a little. The poster detailed a $100 reward for the capture of Jimmy Bales for the crime."Bit of a misfit, he's been involved with a number of different gangs trying to rob trains, stage, coaches, banks or whatever else they can think of.. Not to successfully though I might add."

Lawson considered the bounty as he looped his thumbs through his belt loops. Hoffman looked at him, seemingly amused. "He's more of an annoyance then anything, but he wounded one of our veteran drivers awhile back and having a misfit like him getting away with his petty crimes is just bad for our image you know? I figured he'd be to small for your tastes." Shane shrugged the remark off. "It's still a hundred dollars," Despite having a sizeable warchest from the bounties he'd collected on and jobs he'd worked, making more money was the only other drive he had left outside of finding the man who'd murdered his brother, and that trail had gone cold months ago. "Well, we received word from our offices in Lost Haven that he'd been sighted in those parts.. Easy money if you're interested, hell.. Just turn him in at one of our local offices and we can handle the transport back here." Lawson spared Hoffman a momentary glance, perking his brow. "Lost Haven? The next big Western City So they say." He remarked doubtfully, Lawson had seen more then a few boomtowns go bust and he'd already visited Tombstone Arizona once before, and he couldn't see much of a future outside of their silver strikes. "I'll believe it myself when it happens, It's pretty rough and rowdy.. But they forget to mention that fact to potential investors before they shell out their money." Both men laughed a little knowing it was true. "Not much better then Tombstone from the sound of it, could be a fun weekend adventure though." he quipped, "Well, Whatever you do, Good luck and becareful Mister Lawson." Hoffman offered his hand and a smile.

"Thank you Mister Hoffman, very much." Gladly accepting the mans hand in a firm handshake. "I'll try to keep my ass from getting shot off, Have a good day." With pleasantries exchanged both men went their separate ways. The decision to take this bounty up wasn't based soley on the reward, places like Lost Haven were useful in turning up rumors or snippets of information on people of all walks of life. Perhaps there he might find out more about the whereabouts of his brothers killer. Shane would enjoy one more night in Albuquerque to get a bit of rest and relaxation in before setting out the following morning on a long journey that'd take him to Lost Haven, Arizona.