SILVER CITY— Wearing a button-down, blue Polo shirt, pleated khaki slacks, ostrich-skin boots, and peering at a computer screen inside a local bank, Ty Bays doesn't look much like his childhood hero, John Wayne. But make no mistake: Bays is a cowboy. It's not his clothes or his office that give him away; it's his two-toned face. From the bridge of his nose to his Adam's apple, Bays is sunburned. His forehead is white as a bleached bone. Sure enough, resting on a cabinet behind him is a straw hat. But it's a going-to-town hat, with a feather in it....