Colonel Starbottle's Client

In a sweltering Calaveras outpost, flamboyant former politician‑lawyer Colonel Starbottle lounges amid warped planks and a humming fan, his sharp wit still ready to slice through courtroom chatter. The heat‑battered office, with its glittering tin sign and the faint clink of a sugar‑lemon glass, sets a vivid backdrop for a tale that mingles frontier law with a dash of old‑west bravado. When a gaunt stranger named Jo Corbin steps through the doorway, his uneasy grin hints at a desperate need for legal counsel.

Corbin’s uneasy confession—he claims responsibility for a murder tied to the mysterious Tom Frisbee—throws the Colonel’s practiced composure into a lively dance of curiosity and moral calculation. As Starbottle balances his theatrical courtroom flair with the stark reality of a potential crime, listeners are drawn into a tension‑rich first act that marries humor, suspense, and the colorful idiosyncrasies of a bygone California frontier.