Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 3189934" data-attributes="member: 8530">Chapter One-hundred-nine, “Tournament Plans“, Friday June 9th, 1882, 9:00 P.M. Most people take no notice of the smell. The stronger scents of tobacco smoke, human perspiration and spilled beer are far more noticeable. The busy sights and sounds of the saloon all conspire to distract attention away from anything so subtle.  Not so with the gambler known as Silver Jake Cook. He always pauses a brief moment to enjoy the sound and faint but distinctive smell of a fresh deck of cards being opened. Tonight was no exception. The rip and snap of bridging a fresh deck of cards was like music to his ears, the smell of the card stock as he made the first shuffle was like balm for his soul, and the sharp feel of unworn cards in his hands made is arms tingle with life. Politics may be raging outside the doors of the saloon, foul creatures may be flying through the dark night, outlaws were in their secret camps planning their next dastardly deeds, his woman was who knows where, and yet Jake was able to find solace in his small oasis at the poker table. He knows it is only for a little while and he accepts that willingly. For that little while he loses himself in his work. He takes a sip from his glass. Ah, the smooth taste of fine crafted whiskey. A genuine smile takes control of his lips, "Gentlemen, shall we ante up and be about the reason we are all sitting here tonight?" Smiling heads nod, coins land in the center of the table and cards flow smoothly from the deck in the young dealers hands. Ah, there is much right in the world.The game flows smoothly for the next two hours, with Alfredo Garcia and Ned Walters eventually dropping out and being replaced at the table by Forrest Morand and Emery Shaw. As Neil Cassidy had predicted to Chester, he is in a lucky mood this night, and by 10:00 PM is up over $ 100. The next winner is Forrest Morand, up around $ 35 followed by Jake who is ahead $ 15. Cassidy's smile then vanishes from his face. He gestures and exclaims, "Oh crud, look who came back." The table turn their heads in unison towards the doorway. Standing there is the large and imposing figure of Mr. Cornelius Van Horne at the door of the Lucky Lady. He is attired in a three-piece robin’s egg blue suit with white silk shirt, a blue-and-white paisley print silk tie, and white top hat. In his hand is his cane with the gold tip on the bottom. Thom asks Van Horne if he has a gun to check and Van Horne replies in his thick Georgia accent, “Good man, I would not stoop to something as pedestrian as carrying firearms. When I am present in establishments such as this I rely upon good people such as yourself for my personal protection.”Jake sighs. "Alright folks, no need to be alarmed. Take a short break and I will be right back. No need to be concerned, I will handle this."  "Michael," Jake says striding quickly to the bar, "I believe the esteemed Mr. Van Horne enjoys bourbon. It is alright Tom, it is not his stick that folks here worry about." Jake does not chuckle at his little jibe.  "Welcome, sir, what can we do for you this evening?"Van Horne exclaims "Ah, my good Mr. Cook. I would like to speak to both yourself and Mr. Kane regarding the logistics of the upcoming poker tournament that I have scheduled for this establishment.”  Jake says, "Yes, I heard about that from my good friend Mr. Adair. I understand it is in the newspaper too. Job is in Wilcox right now, I am sure he will be surprised."  Van Horne says, "Sir, I am just exercising a prerogative of my new status as a partial owner of this establishment. I know that you were rather drunk that night in Tucson but you do recall loosing one-fifth of your ownership to me don't you?"  "There is nothing wrong with my memory, nor am I suggesting I do not honor my debts. We would be pleased to support your prerogative as our newest partner." Jake places his hands on his hips, "We are more accustomed to discussing our plans with our partners before publishing them in the newspaper. Make yourself at home, sir, while I go back to my game. Bad business to keep your customers waiting. You and I can talk a little later if you care to." Jake walks back towards his game but stops and turns, "Since Job is away, partner, his table is open. Feel free to startup a game if you can find some players. It is not every day Promise City has a chance to play at a table with the famous Cornelius Van Horne." Jake indicates towards Job's table and then goes back to his game.Van Horne gets a glass of Bourbon from the bar and sits down near the stage where he listens attentively and watches appreciatively the performance of Miss Clarisse Townsend. He sits for the next hour watching the show, only getting up once to order a refill on his drink and at the same time placing a $20 bill in Miss Townsend's tips cup.   Chester noted with some interest Van Horne entering and speaking with Jake. The gambler leaves his mind when Clarisse begins to sing. A twinge of jealousy flares up when Van Horne drops the tip in the jar, but it passes quicklyJake goes back to his game and pointedly ignoring the large southerner while they are playing. When the game finally breaks up after Clarisse has finished singing, Jake gets himself a fresh whiskey and approaches Van Horne. "If you would care to handle some business, you have my attention." Jake points to a table away from the remaining patrons and bustle of cleanup.Van Horne replies, "I prefer to keep my business matters discrete than to discuss them in a public saloon. Would there maybe be somewhere more private we can meet Sir?" Once behind closed doors Red maintains the Van Horne illusion but changes his speaking voice back to the normal voice belonging to Patrick O’Brien. "Good job Jacob my boy with being short with Van Horne, keep it up, we don't want Adair to get suspicious. He's planning on playing in the tournament in spite of the ridiculously high entrance fee that I've set. He wanted me to host it at his place instead but I pointed out that he couldn't what with it being the Freedom Party Headquarters, which prevents other candidates and potential players from going there. But I'll be housing several out-of-town high rollers there for the weekend, so he'll still be able to make a buck out of this. Word is that Burton Lumley, Neil Cassidy and Conrad Booth are also interested in playing, so we might need to have six tables to accommodate three-dozen players instead of the thirty I had originally planned for. So, I was wondering if you or Mr. Kane wanted to participate in the tournament as players or dealers. Adair is hoping that you'll play so that he can win the remainder of this saloon away from you, as if the $ 30,000 grand prize isn't enough!""Despite the fact that it is a good business opportunity and I ought to support it as a dealer, I would rather be a participant. It is not the money so much as the challenge."  Red replies, "That's fine, and you would still benefit financially as part-owner of the host saloon. Since I went with the very high entrance fee of $ 3,000 I decided to invite high-rollers from all over. Thus far I’ve sent out fifty invitations with a plan of getting a total of thirty players. I’ll need at least twenty players just to break even, given the advertised $ 50,000 in prize money. That breaks down as $ 30,000 for 1st place, $ 15,000 for 2nd place and $ 5,000 for 3rd place. I’ve also budgeted another $ 10,000 for expenses, around half of that for dealer and security salaries, the other half for participant expenses based on twenty players. As part of the gambler package I’ll be covering all food, beverage, lodging and travel expenses from the time they leave Tucson on Thursday or Friday until they return to there on Monday or Tuesday. After negotiating deals with the railroad, hotels in Tombstone and Wilcox, the two stagecoach companies and hotels and restaurants here I figure will be around $ 175 a participant for expenses for the non-tournament hours and another $ 75 each for food and beverages consumed at the Lucky Lady during the tournament. For participants living in town we'll wave the $ 175 since they won't be needing the transportation and lodging, but they'll still have to put in the rest of the $ 3,000. My plan is for that if we have more than twenty participants there will be a profit. Obviously there is some variable cost as the number gets bigger, the need for more dealers for instance plus the costs associated with each participant, but most of each incremental entrance fee would be split evenly between myself as the organizer of the event and the saloon acting as host." Jake shrugs and grins, "Alright, I could suffer along with the money too. I cannot speak for Job on that matter. We will have to wait until he returns."  Van Horne states, "Well, the tournament will begin at 2:00 PM on the Saturday June 17th and run until sometime between midnight and 2:00 AM. If it is still going on then we will resume at 2:00 PM on Sunday and play until it is concluded. I will be one dealer and my business partners Mr. Stevens and his sister Mrs. Osborn will deal as well. I’ve assumed you and Mr. Kane would be the fourth and fifth dealers, but your playing instead works fine, better than fine if it gets under Adair's craw. I still have another week to round up another dealer or two. Our old friend Bradford Rhinehardt still deals up in Kansas City and we might also be able to track down our Mississippi Riverboat associate Lancelot Knight, assuming he still goes by that alias and not his real name of Gerry Stickney.""Sounds fine," Jake emphasizes the next word, "partner," and punctuates it with a grin. "I will leave my intentions regarding playing unspoken. If we get enough dealers, then I am in the pool." Jake just cannot keep the smile of his face. "Gods, I love to play poker."   Red replies, "We both share that passion. And on the subject of passion, I assume that you got the note that I left for you last night. Jacob me boy, I’m not sure that you are aware to the extent that the death of your business partner Niles Hoover has had on that girl of yours. Jane thinks it is the culmination of all the emotional events from the past few months with Hoover’s demise being straw that broke the camel’s back. At any rate, Jane recognized that Ruby was on the verge of a total emotional collapse. Jane therefore thought it best for Ruby to stay with us instead of rushing back to Promise City as she had planned to. So last Friday, the date of Ruby’s birthday, we let her sleep in until after the final trains for Tombstone and Wilcox had left that could have gotten her on a stagecoach back to Promise City in the evening. Let me assure you, Ruby was madder than a wet hornet when she found out what we had done and expressed her displeasure to us with a long string of colorful language, including several adjectives, a few nouns, and one verb that I had never heard before. So that night we did our best to make it up to her with an elaborate and well attended birthday celebration at the Three Gods Meeting House. That was followed by a private celebration upstairs attended by only the three of us and my partner Richard. Ruby opened up a number of presents from us, including the one that you had spoken to Jane about, a combination elixir and salve that when combined with a special incantation from Jane would permanently remove all traces of scars from Ruby’s body. Jane emphasized to Ruby that it the present was from you. She then opened her final gift, a well-worn package that had been sent from back east. It turned out to be a dress from her grandmother. It also included a note which Ruby shared only with Jane and not myself or Richard. That prompted them to discuss whether a trip back east was warranted. Ruby was hesitant, fearing that her parents might hear that she was nearby even though the grandmother actually lives in a different community than them. Jane assured Ruby that they could keep the visit a secret and that she would protect Ruby from any potential parental abduction. Richard agreed to go along as well on the trip as well as added protection. Jane then clinched the deal by offering to take Ruby on an expensive shopping spree at all of the finest stores in Manhattan once the visit with the grandmother was concluded. They all left the following day. I debated writing to let you know but I thought that you would sleep better thinking her safe with us in Tucson instead of off on some wild adventure. Two days ago, on Wednesday, I received a telegram from Richard. He says that the visit with the grandmother went well. They are now on the shopping trip in New York City and he says they will return when either Jane runs out of money or when the stores run out of merchandise. Richard is unsure which of those events will occur first at the rate they are buying things.”Jake's expression is neutral while he listens to Red. The only betrayal by his face is when he hears that Ruby's scars will be healed. "I am pleased she is safe at least." He just looks at Red for a while, only his eyes betraying that there is a deluge of thoughts and emotions going on behind them. "Since the day I met her, I have been expecting her to run. That is what she knows, that is what she does. It would be different if we needed to run. She may think that we did. She thinks she is running from Promise City." Jake sighs. "I am no stranger to running myself. I like to think I knew why I was running. I worry that Ruby is really running from her friends, and especially me." Red gives him a questioning look but does not speak. "She is terrified of being dependent on anyone and everyone. When things get tough, she becomes fearful that those she has let into heart will die and break it. That is why she runs. I could chase her, and we could run from trouble to trouble for a while before I woke up some morning and discovered her gone. Gone because she finally understood why she was running and who she really needed to leave behind. I want very badly to be wrong about this, but I fear I am not." Jake stands. "The difference with me, Red my friend, is that I am willing to have my heart broken. These past months in Promise City are more precious than gold to me, every day was worth the mess that will be Silver Jake Cook on the day he learns that Ruby West has left him behind."Red is silent for quite some time after hearing that. He replies, "Well Jacob, I honestly don't know if she is running or not. What I do know is that I wired Richard back, thanking him for the update and letting him know that the Poker Tournament will be held here at the Lucky Lady on Saturday, June 17th. If she is going to return I would expect that we see her by then.”  Jake nods. "Enough of that talk. It is good to see you old friend, or should I say hear you, eh?"  They talk for a while before Red must go, not wanting to raise any more suspicions.</blockquote>

Verification