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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 2816667" data-attributes="member: 8530">Chapter Twenty-four, "Dinner and Stories with the Partners", Friday, May 26th, 1882: After breakfast, Jake leaves Ruby to visit the telegraph office and to enjoy the day with Jane while he attends to some 'business'. Though earlier than is his want, Jake gets Red to the lawyer and they finalize the paperwork making Jacob Cooke a partner in the meeting house. Red returns to the meeting house without Jake, who has other plans to finish before dinner. Jake leaves the lawyers office with an air of pleasant determination, a spring in his step and a mental list of items rolling around in his head. He traverses the shops of Tuscon for hours, searching, examining, questioning and negotiating. Many hours later with his feet tired and his wallet $314.25 lighter he returns to the meeting house, satisfied. The delivery boy hauls the empty trunk, large enough to contain all his attractively wrapped purchases, into the building. "Richard, could you arrange to store this for me and keep it secret from Miss West? There will be eighteen packages delivered to my attention here shortly, please have them placed in the trunk without Miss West knowing as well. They are surprises for her when we return home." He is feeling very good despite his stomach grumbling with hunger and his tongue complaining about lack of suitable drink. Once the trunk is put away Jake sets about finding some company, food and drink, but not necessarily in that order. After Jake leaves at an ungodly hour Ruby falls back into bed to continue her vacation. Late morning she finally rises and dresses, then finds Jane. They enjoy a casual brunch before heading to the telegraph office, where Ruby, unconcerned about privacy this time, sends another telegram. Upon hearing of the new office set up, this one goes directly to Promise City. After that the girls head back to the Meeting House where they spend the afternoon rehearsing for tonight's show and tomorrow night's ceremony. Ruby discusses her other gown choices with Jane, who concurs that her red and black gown and her green gown are both nice enough for the evenings festivities, which disappoints Ruby as she always loves to get new dresses. Jane leaves Ruby at the bar to go speak to the kitchen about dinner. Ruby enjoys her time with Mr. Grappini and a bottle of fine champagne, waiting for something else to divert her attentions. Jake comes upon two of the three items he was looking for and decides that will do. "There is my girl. Mr. Grappini a fine glass of whiskey please. How did the day go? Are you and Jane all prepared for tonight?" Ruby's lip form into a large smile as she turns to face Jake. "Hi darling. The day was great, although I missed you. Jane and I practiced for tonight and a little for tomorrow night. Should be a lot of fun, I'm excited. But that reminds me," she reaches out an arm for a cuddle and sips at her champagne with the free hand, "Do you not want me to help Jane tomorrow night?" Jake, who had not even been thinking about the upcoming ceremony, suddenly loses his boyish grin. "Since WE are certain that only good ol' Jake goes to BED with the pretty redhead, I should not have a problem with it. You know I will not lie to you; I am not particulary fond of you sharing your nakedness with other men. Besides a bit of jealousy, it leads to no good. The primary reason I was angry last time was that you told me you would not, and then did anyway." He downs the whiskey the Italian gave him and taps the bar with the glass, getting his attention. "However, I know it is meanful to you. I personally enjoy it, I cannot lie about that either. Does it cause any more trouble for us than you flashing that pretty smile or your suggestive singing to a bunch of drunk patrons? This boy is not smart enough to know. Do what you feel is right, and no deceit." Jake accepts the refill from the bartender with a nod. Before he picks up the glass he reaches out and grabs the front of Ruby's dress with a finger and pulls her in close to his face. "If you perform the seductive dance for the worshipping masses, I expect it to be worth my while," he says and ends with a kiss that lingers for several long moments. Ruby enjoys every second of the kiss and the closeness of Jake, letting him be the one to finally pull away from her. She doesn't let him go far. "I don't even know if Jane wants me to dance, or sing, but if she does," she puts her hands on his face and looks deep into his eyes, "You can truly believe this time it's all for you. I promise you with all my heart. And if you didn't want me to, I wouldn't, and would not be sad about it." She is quiet for a moment, letting her words sink in. A devilish smile appears on her face. "You know what? I'm starving and it's time for dinner. I hope Mr. Patrick or Jane shows up soon. But while we're waiting," she closes the small gap between them, wrapping her arms around his neck, "Why don't you tell me what exactly would make my dancing worth your while..." "Heh, and pit my meager imagination against one inspired by the goddess Aphrodite? I think that is exactly the point." Jake chuckles and his mood seems to have lightened. Ruby laughs too. "You know, Mr. Cook, one of these days I'm going to run out of ideas. Then what are we going to do?" She kisses him again but out of the corner of her eye spots Mr. Patrick. "Good evening," she calls out to Red. "I hope you're coming to tell us dinner is ready. We're both starved!" He replies, "Indeed it is, back to the owner's dining room. My friends and co-owners Richard as well as Father Blackstone will be joining us for the meal." They head upstairs to find place settings for all of them. T-bone steaks, sliced potatos in a cheese sause, garden salads, and honey-coated carrots await. Ruby smiles with glee as she sits. "This looks wonderful!" She waits for the other to sit before she begins to eat. "So what did you do today Mr. Patrick, anything interesting?" Red replies, "Jake and I met with my attorney and made his partnership official." They are joined by the other two who Red had mentioned. He looks to Jake and Ruby and says, "You've both already met Richard, I would like to also introduce you to Father Joseph Nickolas Blackstone." "Just call me Joe," the man offers. Red waits until they are all seated and for wine to be poured. The waiter then departs, leaving the six of them alone. Red says, "I wanted all of you here for this toast, as of all of the partners of this establishment you are the only ones I have a long history with. Each of the other partners were hired by my associates Mr. Allister or Mr. Van Horne. Each of you other three gentlemen I knew long before I ever set foot in the Arizona Territory. To old friends and future partners." Ruby raises her glass of champagne high. "And to new friends too," she adds before sipping her agreement. "So," she places her glass down, "Joe, I've heard you are a priest of Hermes." She deliberately does not look at Jake. "What kind of things does a priest of Hermes do?" He replies, "The usual, healing, services, things of that nature. My parents were proud of my going into the priesthood but disappointed in my choice of a patron deity. The god of thieves, gamblers and liars just doesn't carry that much respect. I found that true of the church hierarcy too, them seeing Hermes as just the messenger of the gods and treating me accordingly. After several years of useless clerical positions I rebeled. I demanded a better position or else I would quit. They decided to let me quit. But unlike my colleage here Mr. Grappini, I was never defrocked, so I can still officially perform priestly duties. I first met Red when we were working the same Mississippi riverboat. I had taken the position of the boat's physician, as I could perform healing and they liked the idea of having a priest of gamblers on board." Red interjects, "When Mr. Allister and I got the Water Hole Saloon going here in Tucson we needed to hire trustworthy folks as guards. I figured I wanted at least one of the guards to also have healing skills and immediatley thought of Joe. Took me a while to track him down since he wasn't assigned to any church, but in hindsight I'm glad that I did." Joe says "Yes indeed. I never imagined an opportunity to carry on the works of Hermes as is now before me. This is what I was led to do." "And profitable too," Richard interjects. Ruby laughs, "The profitable part never hurts. It's great you found what you really should be doing. Seems Red here, with Jane's help, brought a lot of people to what they were always meant to do. That's pretty deep if you think about it." Joe very sincerely interjects, "Let's also not forget Mr. Allister and Mr. Van Horne, they too deserve much of the credit." Jake catches enough of a reaction from Richard to that comment to confirm that the man has indeed already deduced the true nature of the secret identities. Red says, "Well of course, but I haven't known them nearly as long as the rest of you. Richard and I met around seven years back in Chicago. Saved my life then and more than once since." Richard says, "We met when I was the bouncer in a floating gambling barge alongside Lake Michigan. A thief was on the verge of getting caught and decided to try to throw off suspition by accusing Red of being the thief." Red continues the story saying, "Richard took us both into custody to try to sort it out. The other guy didn't hold up well to questioning and drew a gun, a massive 45-calibur job hidden in of all places a false compartment in the man's wooden leg. Richard managed to push me out of the way just in time or my head would have been blown clean off." Richard laughs and replies, "He gives me far too much credit, I was merely trying to push him out of the way to give myself a clean shot." Red says, "Uh huh, and what about the time a year later that you warned me off in Saint Louis? I would have been killed for sure then." Richard says, "Just passing on some information to an old acquantance. I knew the lay of the land there and you didn't. Besides, you repaid me the favor last year in Dallas." "That's what old friends do," Red replies. Ruby enjoys listening to the old 'war' stories. "Hey Red, you got any stories you want to tell about you and Jake here? I'd love to hear some. It takes a lot of needling to get facts out of this one," she points to Jake with her thumb. Red says, "I don't know that he'd appreciate my telling. But here's one for you, takes place in Columbia, Missouri, a town in the middle of the state. We had been gambling in Kansas City together for a while when I received an invitation to high-stakes tournament back in Saint Louis. The quickest way to get there was along the Missouri River, which connects the two cities crossing the state in roughly an east to west route. But at the docks in Boonville we got wind of the fact that the County Sheriff was waiting to arrest us for a past indiscretion the following day downriver in Jefferson City. So we skipped out on the boat and got on an overland stagecoach east. Well, this Sheriff was no fool and when we didn't show up in Jeff City he sent telegrams out looking for us. We spent a couple of days in Columbia, deciding to split up and rejoin a few days later once the coast was clear. I wound up hiding out with a local tomato farmer and schoolteacher named Lewis Hansbrough. A very nice man, who proved to be an excellent math tutor, taught me things I new knew before about mathematics. Jake spent those days merchant named Tom Walton, a nice enough guy but he really had no head for business. Jake wound up giving the man lots of ideas on how to make his store more profitable. We wound up missing the poker game altogether and returning to the relative safety of Kansas City." "Stories, huh," Jake says tapping his lips. "Alright, how is this one... long before I met Red." Jake sits upright in his chair from the familiar slouch. "I had bought into a back room game at a sleazy tavern called the Pewter Mug in a small town near Fort Wayne. Looking back now, I should have been surprised they let a youngster like me into the game. That should have warned me off, but then I was itching to show off my poker skills. I was still pretty green at poker, but had already learned to palm cards and was not too bad at it. This night, I discovered, there was not one but two of the other five players cheating in this game. I’m not talking nicking cards or dealing from the bottom; they were holding cards off the table and swapping them for cards in their hands. The three fellows not cheating were tough looking gents, and I who had recently turned seventeen was the only one at the table not carrying a side arm. It did not take long for most of my stake to end up in the hands of the two cheaters, and I needed to do something in an attempt to break even. So I palmed an ace out of an otherwise poor hand. No one noticed. So I palmed another. I was waiting for a pair of anything figuring I could add the aces, bluff big, take one pot and retire. Wouldn’t you know, I drew two aces. So I asked for two cards and hid my discard of three. From there it was easy enough to add my other two aces in and palm the extra card. I figured I would leave the table with the extra card and most of my stake back calling it a lesson learned. It would not be that simple for me that night. All six players stay in. The man to my left raises, and all around the table we call with my call using my last dollar. The cheater on the left two seats over proudly displays his cards, four aces. I just about panicked trying to decide whether to run or to put on a show. Act disappointed, throw my cards on the floor, stomp out the door, and then run like my life depended on it. Remember I always tell you watch the eyes? Well I look around the table and I notice that the other cheater has not put his cards down, his eyes have a scared look and a bead of sweat has broken out on his brow. Maybe I’m saved! Quickly, I place my cards face up on the table in a stack only showing the four of clubs and hiding the aces below and say, Damn I’m out, how close were you, feller? and point to the man, the only one who was still holding his cards. Everyone looks to this man and there is a brief tense moment where not a word is spoken. Suddenly a man to my right lashes out and knocks the sweating cheater's cards to the table. Everyone looks down at the second set of four aces! There is an intake of breath from some folks who were watching. In a flash hands are moving to holsters and I dive to the floor. As I am falling I have the forethought to make a grab at the table and over it comes towards me. There is shouting and three guns shots. Then there is more shouting, men and furniture moving, the acrid smell of gun smoke and more gun shots. I grab a handful of money just dodging a bloody man who falls nearly landing on me. I yell, “Behind you” and bolt for the door as more gun shots erupt. I ran and ran and ran until I was far out of town that night. Shaking with fear and cold I slept under some fir trees. I had lost about half my money and all my appetite for gambling in Huntington for a little while." Richard says, "The common thread in all of these stories seems to be a strong sense of self preservation." Jane adds, "Yes, but also a trust of friends. I think there is a promising future for our venture here." Red turns to Jake and Ruby and says, "Now, when I saw you at the festival you were planning an expansion of the Lucky Lady. How is that coming along? I'm asking becuase I'm thinking that a regional poker tournament might soon be in order. I wouldn't want to host it here given the private-club nature of the establishment. But I wouldn't mind if some of the partners got to see how various Arizona high-rollers play before we considering inviting any of them here." She replies, "It's done actually and it looks great, very classy a real Saloon. Plus we're going to open soon as the nicest hotel in Promise City to boot. A poker tournament would be so exciting! I'd love to have it at the Lucky Lady, that is, if I actually do decide to leave here," she laughs. "What did you have in mind?" Red replies, "Basically it would be an invitation only event with an absurdly high entrance fee with half of the money as the main prize. Invite people from all of the major Arizona communities and maybe a dozen or so from other western states and territories. Cap it at, say, thirty players. That would be five tables of six players plus the five dealers. Have it start on a Friday night and run until the wee hours of the morning then pick up again the next day at some point early in the afternoon and run from then until it is over. I assume that Mr. Cook and Mr. Kane of the Lucky Lady would both deal, I'd pass on letting Mr. Lucky if I were you. Promise City has a few other good dealers but your competitors may not be willing to let you use them. I'd also suggest using Cornelius Van Horne as a dealer, he's established a name for himself in the territory so would add credibility and a draw to the tournament. You may also want to use the two main dealers and partners here, Mr. Stevens and Mrs. Osborn, but that would be your choice. As players drop out you would decide when to consolidate tables and rotate dealers. Some of the other partners here would also go along to keep a close eye on things. How does that sound?" "Heh, sounds pretty good." Jake chuckles, "When is there a bad time for a poker game?" Red laughs and replies, "Lots of times, usually when you've lost a fortune, are being shot at, or both." "Now you are splitting hairs. If I stopped playing poker every time someone took a shot at me I would never get to play." Jake gives him a wink. "As far as I am concerned, I say we do it. We can plan the details later."</blockquote>

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