Rufus Hull

Rufus was born in 1858 in the Nebraska Territory to a poor family. The 4th of 6 children, Rufus had to fight to get his share in the family. But he was always a devious sort, and leaned more on trickerey than fists.

As a boy he would run games of dice with the help of his much larger, and slower older brother Conner. This went on until they caught a miner passing through to Wyoming cheating. In the scuffle that followed Conner was stuck and the miner was killed. Despite being cleared of wrongdoing, after all, they were protecting themselves, Conner was shaken and wanted nothing more to do with the game.

In the spring of 1872 he left home to find his way in the world. He talked a traveling Judge into taking him on, first as a page running his errands and documents, then on as a clerk to learn his trade as a lawyer. By 1879 he had moved to Topeka Kansas and had established a small but thriving legal practice. It was then that he met and married Tabitha Candlewood after a short courtship.

Their marriage didn't last long, and produced no children. Shortly after their wedding Tabitha came down with her first of many cases of Pneumonia. In an attempt to treat her they sold his practice and moved west to Nevada for the dry climate. Unfortunately, she passed en route.

Grief stricken and in an unfamiliar city Rufus fell back into his childhood habits of gambling. He slowly burned his nest egg off, drinking and taking small losses here and there at dice and the poker tables. He drifted across the southwest until 1883 when he found himself sharing a cabin on a train with an old man.

Grizzled and coughing into a dark brown stained handkerchief, the old man introduced himself as Duncan Slope, and told him that he could see where he was headed. That Rufus would be in the ground before he was. He pressed a worn copy of Hoyle's Book of Games into Rufus’s hand, and told him that the lessons there will help him center himself again.

Rufus traveled with Duncan for the next 6 months, learning the basics of being a Huckster and relishing developing new skills. After Duncan gave up the ghost Rufus set out for Brimstone, looking to establish a new law practice, and stretch his new found abilities in the rough and tumble town.