Folks at Phandalin don't rightly know from where Domingo Santana hails. Most assume he come from back East a ways. You can kind of hear it in his voice a bit. It's hard to pick up though. Of course, Old Dom ain't never spoke about it, which was fine enough so long as he kept to himself.
Only thing that ever did get folks tongues wagging was when he would knock back one too many. Never hurt nobody, mind, but it just seemed like the man was hurtin' something fierce. You know that quiet? The real tense one that surrounds a man thinking bad, hard thoughts? He'd get that about him, and it was damned unsettling.
When he was sober, he employed himself as a mapmaker and a hunter. Did better than you'd might think. He made a fair bit of coin mapping out game trails, and warning folks off monster holes. He'd take on other jobs when pickings was slim, but never seemed to make much of a deal of it.
Yeah, no one thought too much of Old Dom until the Hogan Gang came to town. Bounty hunters, or so they claimed. I'd lay good money that they was 5 times worse than anyone they ever hauled in. They came into the saloon every now and again. Real rowdy bunch. Drove off the other patrons and were too rough with the ladies. I tried telling them off and got a broken arm for my trouble.
That's when Dom walked into the saloon from gods knows where. Ain't seen him in a couple weeks. I assume he was off mapping some place somewheres. But that don't matter. Like I said, he walked in and took a look at me writhing on the ground hollering all sorts of colorful language.
Dom got into that tense quiet, only this time he was sober.
"Get out," he told them.
They just laughed. There were five of them, and only one Dom.
"Get out. Not gonna ask again."
This time they drew iron. And I -- I don't rightly remember what happened after that. I was sort of driftin' in and out of consciousness at the time. Big pain will do that sometimes. I do remember a lot of noise, and then Dom asking me if I was okay. I do remember him calling for the Sheriff and the Doc. Dom waited there with me the whole time.
Sheriff tried to lock up Old Dom, but me and the girls set him straight. Dom didn't pick no fight, he just ended it. A few of the Hogan Gang was still breathing, but they hauled tail out of there as soon as they could. Bastards even stole my horse. I was a wreck. Broken arm was one thing. But no way I could feed my family without a horse.
I guess Dom heard me. He comes around my home about a week later with my horse and a couple ounces of lead rattling inside him. Me and the Misses patched him up, and asked him what happened. He gave us a look, and we knew we was better off not knowin'.
We never saw no sign of the Hogan Gang no more.