When the stage rolled into town it brought two strangers.
A big woman with small mean eyes, a foul mouth and a taste for whiskey. A runt-like man, red-eyed with an indoor pallor and a need for a drink.
A couple clearly on close terms. Though not good terms, seeing as they arrived fist-fighting and biting and carried on cussing and swearing at each other as they scrambled out of the barely-halted stage and headed on over to the saloon.
A couple whose luggage was not much more than a carpet bag but who were clearly aiming to stay. At Adam Steele's place, to which they claimed they held title and had come to take over what was rightfully theirs.

GEORGE G. GILMAN (11 December 1936 - 23 January 2019) was a pseudonym created and used by the near-legendary Terry Harknett -- is so well-known to western readers for his Edge and Steele books, that he hardly needs any introduction. Arguably the most influential British western writer of the last 50 years, his tough, graphic, wise-cracking westerns are still in demand, even though almost twenty years have now passed since the last one was published.