One of the mounted men was dressed in fringed buckskin, his shoulder-length hair and bushy black beard the badge of a frontier already passing swiftly into history.
One of the mounted men was gay and hiding it. 
mnli hypothesis: One of the mounted men was gay and hiding it.  premise: One of the mounted men was dressed in fringed buckskin, his shoulder-length hair and bushy black beard the badge of a frontier already passing swiftly into history.