While Mark and I was riding into town we came across a strange man, who appeared to be drunk  He was sitting on top of a huge boulder with the words "Help" written on it with a bottle in hand, he was feeling pretty good.  Mark and I was surprised.  We've never saw anything like it before.  "What are you doing up there?" I asked the man.  "I am imbibing from this bottle of balm," said Winslow.  "Are you in trouble?" I asked.  "A negligent amount," said Winslow.  "Well waitin' out here for help in the middle of nowhere, you could sit there the rest of your life."  Winslow said he figured someone would pass by the rock, otherwise it wouldn't be there.  He told us his drunken mule died of delirium tremens.  Mark and I sat there laughing at him.  He was a comical fellow.  He said he towed his wagon three miles and then the wheel broke.  Mark asked him what he did then.  He said he found himself a large branch and then he beat his wagon within an inch of it's life.  I asked him what he was going to do now.  He remarked....."Finish this bottle of balm. And then I may select a larger branch and continue to beat that wagon, or I may get some smaller branches to make some new spokes."  He then grabbed a ladder he had placed on the rock.  Now we knew how he got there and how he was getting down.  As he was getting down he almost fell.  I caught him in time.  I introduced Mark and myself to him.  He told us his name was Winslow Quince was his name, sign painting was his game.

I went to see if I could fix his wagon.  No wonder the wheel broke; he had railroad rails in his wagon.  I asked him where he got them.  He said he found them.  I told him he should give them back to the railroad.  I braced his wagon enough in skid fashion so we could get Winslow into town and have Nils make him a new wheel.  We hooked Blueboy to his wagon and Mark drove Winslow's wagon.  He enjoyed his ride with Winslow and found him quite entertaining.  Mark asked him if he traveled unarmed.  Quince told him that he didn't and he got out his rifle.  As he was showing it to mark it went off and spooked the horse.  I asked him what he was doing.  He said it has a hair trigger.  I told him to put it away before he spooked my horse out from under me.  He then asked Mark to get him another bottle out of the back of his wagon. 

When we got to town Winslow thanked me and wanted to give me a pocket watched left to him by his great granddaddy.  I told him he didn't owe me a thing.  He said he didn't want to insult me by offering me money.  He then gave me a pair of silver plated rowel spurs for Mark.  He said they were worn by General Robert E. Lee at the Boston Tea Party.  He said he never wears spurs and they were left to him by his great-great granddaddy.  I thanked him and told him I was sure he wouldn't waste them on his horses and that I was sure he would save them for barn dances.  We then shook hands and parted ways.

Just then Nils came out of the livery stable and asked Winslow if he lost his horse.  He said he hadn't, but he found him a wagon.  Winslow told him he would trade him the wagon for two horses.  Nils said he might give him one horse.  Winslow said he didn't have a saddle.  Nils asked him what he would do with two horses.  He told Nils he'd give him a horse for the wheel for his wagon.  "But I own the wagon!" Said Nils.  "Well if I rode out of here with my horse pullin' my wheel and your wagon happened  to come along I couldn't help that could I?" Asked Winslow.  "Say if you've got any money I'm gonna enjoy doing business with you," said Nils.  They went into the stable to dicker more. 

Mark & I went to see Micah.  He asked how our trip went.  I told him it went well, that we had gotten top price for our twenty head.  He told us about the string of murders.  He showed us the wanted poster.  He said that Richard Tucker was bushwhacked.  He was a wealthy rancher about a hundred miles from here.  His watch and money was stolen.  There also was a woman killed about fifteen miles closer.  They robbed her of a ladies locket watch.  Shebson was mending fences on foot.  He was unarmed; he didn't have two dimes to rub together.  They shot him in the back just for his boots.  It sounded like the murder was working his way towards North Fork.  Micah said they were closer then that.  He said that Curtis and Barnes were working for the railroad gang laying track.  They were unarmed and paid off in newly minted coins.  He asked if we ran into any stranger along the way.  I told him about Winslow but thought him not to be the killer.  The only thing he's kill is a bottle.  I told him we had seen Matt Larsen when we hit Santa Fe.  He didn't know Larsen was back in the territory.  He asked me about Quince.  I told him he was peddler and certainly not a threat to anybody.  He said he was going to send out a wire on Larsen then he'd by me a beer.

Winslow got his horse and his wheel.  He wanted to pay Nils by painting him a sign.  Nils told him he didn't need a sign.  Winslow wanted to trade the railroad rails for the price of his stuff.  He told Nils he could make horseshoes out of it.  "Horse shoes I got, money I haven't," exclaimed Nils.  He paid Nils in gold coins.           

Mark was setting outside on the water tough.  I could see something was on his mind.  I approached Mark and asked him what was on his mind.  Mark was questioning the fact that Winslow must have been pretty close to the railroad.  He also thought about the man whose boots were stolen, he wondered if he had spurs.  And about the other gun in the wagon that he saw when he was getting a bottle of balm for Winslow.  I told Mark the case against Winslow was all circumstantial.  "Mark.....do you think Mr. Winslow is a killer?"  "He could be, he was there!" Exclaimed Mark.  "So were we," I told him.  Mark couldn't figure out why he didn't tell us about his gun.  I told him maybe Winslow was thinking the same things about us that he was thinking about him.  "Ahhhhh.....do we look like a couple of bushwhackers?" Asked Mark.  I told him bushwhackers don't always look like bushwhackers and this was all circumstantial, nothing really positive.  I told him to look at Winslow and ask if he thought Winslow was the kind of man that would do this.  "Like you said Pa.....he doesn't look much like a bushwhacker."  "You mean that one more piece of evidence against him," I asked.  "I'm just repeating your words," said Mark.  

  Winslow had gone to the hotel to get a room.  He tried his best to flatter and con Lou.  But we know Lou isn't outsmarted that easy.  He described the room he wanted and Lou told him that would be the presidential suite and it would be two dollars a day in advance.  He then tried to negotiate his room for a sign.  Lou told him that she only had the sign for two months and wasn't interested.  He then offered Lou a ladies pocket watch in exchange for a weeks lodging.  He told her it was worth twenty dollars.  She told him six dollars—three days.  He then pulled out the pocket watch he tried to pay Nils with.  Lou told him eight dollars for the men's watch, six for the ladies watch.  That would be fourteen dollars and would pay for the week.  He asked her to direct him to the local vintner, the nearest balm constructor.  She told him if he wanted his balm a glass at a time that they serve gentlemen there.  He wanted to buy it in quantity.  "It is better to have more and not need than to have less and want," said Winslow.  She told him how to get to Sweeny's saloon.

I was on my way in to see Lou when Winslow was on his way out.  "Welcome home," said Lou.  I told her it was good to be home, especially with all the trouble on the trail.  "Don't tell me you were worried about me," I said.  "It was the bushwhacker I was worried about," said Lou.  She asked me if I noticed anything new.  I noticed the watch and asked her where she got it.  She said she did it herself and she fussed with her hair.  "You a watch maker now?" I asked.  She told me that Winslow gave it to her for a weeks lodging.  She asked me if there was something wrong.  I wasn't sure. 

As Winslow was on his way to Sweeney's he ran into Micah.  They talked for a bit while Micah hung up the wanted poster.  After Micah went back into his office Winslow took down the poster.

He also tried to get Sweeney to take a sign for fifty-eight dollars worth of balm.  Sweeney wanted cash only.   "I've never run into such a money grubbing community," said Winslow.  He then took a man's diamond ring out of his pocket.  He told Sweeney it was genuine and worth one hundred dollars.  Sweeney then took the ring and was going to see if it would cut the whiskey bottle.  Winslow told him to take it to the local jeweler as he took the bottle from Sweeney's hands.  Sweeney took the ring and left.  Winslow told him he would mind the store for him.

Micah had gather up all the items that Winslow had traded with.  He laid it all out on his desk.  Everything was accounted for.  I told him he should be looking for Matt Larson.  Micah said he thought Winslow thought he would be here and gone from North Fork before the news hit here.  He told us about how Winslow took the poster off of his bulletin board.

Just then Winslow came strolling into Micah's office.  He said he was glad to see he had collected up all the trinkets.  He suggested that Micah keep them because he felt they were legal evidence.  After Micah arrested Winslow for the murders, he came to the conclusion that Larson was the guilty party.