In the morning Robert has ridden off, leaving a note that unfortunately has been rained on over night. They wonder how he will catch up with them again, and Cady notes that if she thinks about him, she can feel a pulling sensation at her tattoo. They conclude he'll find them again easily.
Scouting the farm, they find that the chickens seem to have returned to normal. Cady finds a rooster egg and dung-hill in the rooster house, and decides that's where the cockatrice came from. They loot the house a bit, taking some keepsakes and traveling money for Minnie, and food for themselves. Then they leave a note and head back to the railroad.
"It's not right that roosters should be layin' eggs." - James Crowell
At the stage stop, they find five Black River regulators who are plenty surly and not too bright. They try to explain, and the regulators seem to decide that they can bring in the PCs for the crime no matter what actually happened, and since the PCs seem to be crazy, they'll bring them in dead in the wagon. The leader draws and the Undertaker does as well (faster than anyone else) before Bart leaps in and manages to defuse the situation with some quick words. They agree to ride with the regulators to the Black River / Denver Pacific junction to sort things out, but by the time they get there a day later, they're all good friends and things are considered sorted. Maybe it's because the group shares their just-looted food.
At the junction, Elder Tanner sends a telegram to Minnie's family in Ohio and one to the Mormon mission in Denver, before hopping on the train and taking Minnie to Denver to be sold into Mormonism. Or maybe rescued by the Mormon church. One or the other. The rest of the group waits for him overnight, Cady and Bart winning five dollars off the railroad workers.
Then they follow the pull of the silver coin charm to the southwest for a day and a half, which brings them to the tiny farming town of Whynot Gulch on the Colorado / New Mexico border. There they resupply and are startled when most people seem to be pushing them to ride on (except for the saloon keeper, who urges them to stay the night). Crowell notes the surprising number of fresh graves in the tiny graveyard. Tobey badgers from the general store owner that for the past two full moons someone has died - been torn apart - each night of the full moon. The heroes pledge to help, quickly deciding that the signs clearly point to a werewolf. [The group also finds out that the local preacher, Malachi, died some months ago. We're not sure how significant this is, but he's named, so we pay attention. -LB]
Since it's the full moon again, they decide to bring in the local farms for protection, and manage to do so for each farm but the Kirklands, where Bart is run off by Mr. Kirkland Sr. Mr. Kirkland Jr. is also there, but mostly drunk (his wife having been the first victim). Around dusk another stranger rides into town - Santiago OReilly, the New Mexico Tornado! Or so he informs everyone. Cady flirts with him some, and everyone else determines he's more goof than gunslinger. Also during this time, Crowell has had some silver bullets made by the bemused blacksmith.
They set up to wait for the werewolf. The New Mexico Tornado stands in the middle of the street, ready for the mysterious stranger. The heroes more sensibly go to shadowy porches and a nearby roof, except for Cady who decides to help be bait. Around midnight, Tobey and Bart spot a rifle-carrying stranger just outside of town, and indicate that to the Tornado and others on the ground, but he flees rather than confronting the Tornado. Half an hour later he's back, but better concealed, and this time the two lookouts decide not to mention him.
About then the werewolf (yep, they guessed right) suddenly appears and jumps Cady, who tries one of the spells on it to no effect. Everyone else opens up on the werewolf, knocking it down and then blowing its head off (that shot from, of course, the Undertaker). The beast turns back into a human, though without a head it's hard to tell who it is. The mystery is solved when the mysterious stranger strides in and turns out to be Mr. Kirkland Sr. The werewolf was his son. A few months ago he wrote to say he was feeling strange, but by the time his father arrived he had already succumbed and started killing. Kirkland Sr. shot the werewolf a few times, but he wouldn't stay down, and couldn't be restrained either. He's clearly sad about the whole thing, but more stoic than a mesa, so it's not easy to see. He and James bury his son quickly. The towns-folk don't really figure out who the killer was, and don't connect Kirkland Sr. to the mysterious stranger, so they're happy that the situation has been resolved. [Elder Tanner is not so happy, and gets quite drunk on two drinks that night. -LB]
LB: Speaking of pulling legs, there was a bit at the beginning with Cady asking Elder Tanner about Mormons. It's right friendly of them to send around the young men, as advertisement-like. And you get to marry lots of 'em, so as to get into Heaven? One of these days I'll manage to taunt someone who gets offended, and then I'll get a chip for it!