On the way to Bisbee for The General’s birthday, we stopped in Tombstone and discovered cowboys and lawmen congregating near the O.K. Corral. None of them looked like Val Kilmer or Sam Elliott, but that was okay with me.

The courthouse nearby was filled with artifacts and history. I was particularly drawn to a room-sized safe with a lead door, since a similar safe makes a brief appearance in my novel. (It contains an enchanted musical instrument, as vaults of its kind so often do.)

Perhaps I should not have been meddling with the courthouse safe.

The gallows were just outside, and The General could do nothing to help me.