Unfortunately, this obligation comes at the worst possible time for Jerry. This pistol has a very colorful and tragic legend behind it that each person Jerry encounters in pursuing it illuminates in greater detail. This beautiful pistol had been created by a gunsmith as a wedding present for a dashing young prince who was take the gunsmith's daughter in marriage. The gunsmith wanted the pistol to be a perfect firearm for the prince so he makes several public test firings of it. The townspeople gather to witness its glory but each test firing ends horribly.
Apprentices die firing it and citizens are killed by stray bullets.
This gun, for all its aesthetic perfection, just cannot be fired without killing the person using it. The pistol's legend gains national prominence after the wedding of the prince and gunsmith's daughter ends tragically upon the pistol being finally presented. The fable of the pistol is used as a metaphor for fate in this story. Jerry retrieves the pistol from the hard-drinking Beck during a Mexican Independence Day celebration. While Jerry is calling back home to his boss to report Beck's death, his car is stolen along with his .45 and the antique pistol.