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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 3700151" data-attributes="member: 8530">Chapter One-hundred-eighty-six, “Grant Porter’s Revelations”, Friday, June 16th, 3:45 P.M. Doctor Eaton arrives at that time to collect his three children.  Tad excited starts to tell him about meeting the Goddess Diana and being given seeds to plant.  Rebecca stops Tad, stating, we can talk about this when we get home.   Doctor Eaton approaches Kate and asks, "Was one of your guest speakers the Goddess?" Kate replies, “No Doctor, but she did stop by to check on me today.  I had some regrets about some of my actions and she came to reassure me.  I expressed some concern; your children seemed to be in awe of me and I am still only an ordinary woman.  Just extraordinarily blessed.  So Diana revealed herself to them and spoke with them." The Doctor replies, "Then it is good that I brought them here this afternoon, perhaps it was she who caused me to do so." Kate answers, "Perhaps, although I think it more likely she took advantage of your decision rather than caused it.  She doesn't tamper with our thoughts. I hope your meeting wasn't too difficult." He states, "It's not over yet, we took a break so that the members could attend the trial this afternoon.  We'll resume afterwards.   But things will be different, Anse and Rebecca King collected the bodies of their son and nephew and left.  They then got into a shouting match with Judge Isby over his decision to not charge Arcade's Gang with the deaths.   It ended with them withdrawing their ranch from the township of Promise City.  That will also terminate their financial support of my school." She nodded and sighed.  "I suspected they would decide to leave, I'm sorry your school is caught up in it.  I can't say I had any affection for the Kings but no one should ever have to bury their own child." He states, "Don't concern yourself about the school just yet Mrs. Kale.  I have the weekend to organize next week's lessons.   Several of the student's parents have valuable skills, so I should be able to plan out at least three days.   Then come Wednesday, the newly elected Town Council can decide what to do about the education in this town." Kate answers, "Your students couldn't be in better hands.  In fact, I'd hoped in a few weeks after everything has settled down you might agree to take on one more student.  I picked up my nursing skills rather piecemeal, I'd very much like some formal instruction if only to be sure I won't accidentally do any harm.” He replies, "You and I both hope for things to settle down, and yes, I would be happy to enhance your medical training, Thank you again for watching the children, I should be getting them home." "They were a pleasure to have here," Kate answers and turned to the children and said goodbye, asking them to say hello to their mother for her.  "Thank you for bringing them.  I'm sure I'll see you later." Eaton and his children depart.   Mollie Caudell comments to Kate, "Who was that man?  He looks a lot like Doctor Eaton but he sure doesn't sound like Eaton." Kate smiled.  "I know, I'm still waiting for the other shoe to drop.  For something to happen and have the family go back to hating me.  But their experience in the church last weeks seems to have opened their eyes." Mollie says, "If you ask me I'd say it was that spell that the Priestess cast upon him at that election meeting.  Ever since then he's been a different man." Kate says, "He did look like he'd just walked over his own grave.  And then, after at least one god spoke through the Priestess he didn't believe in, he gets to actually meet another and find out she believes in all sorts of things he didn't.  It must be a hard thing to wrap ones mind around." The teachers got the room cleaned up and Mollie and Meghan were on their way. Kate spent the time waiting for Conrad getting a few moments with Ginnie, which were harder and harder to come by these days. Just before Conrad arrived she ran off to Mary Kelley's and Kate was ready to go when he arrived. Conrad takes Kate by the arm and they make the short walk one block west to the Promise City Town Hall, arriving at five minutes until four. The building is rather crowded at this point with at least one-hundred-fifty people in attendance, including all of the dwarves from the Last Ditch Mine and their German friends employed by Count von Zeppelin. The Judge and Bailiff arrive and the Court is called to order at 4:00 P.M. The Marshal and his Deputies then escort in three of the four accused, namely Icabod Shackelton, Kirby Watkins and Jason Snavely. Alongside the men is a slim clean-shaven man in a suit with short dark hair, apparently their attorney. Chester whistles in surprise at the size of the crowd. He nudges Eddie. "They really came out in droves for this." Eddie whispers back, "These guys did try to burn down half the town, Chet. Who do you think their lawyer is? I haven't seen him around before." Chet says, "Beats me. Probably some shyster from Galeyville." Across the room Conrad softly mutters "I don't believe it!" He then hurries over to Chumbley and the two whisper a short conversation to each other. Conrad then returns to Kate and sits down beside her, still shaking his head in disbelief. "My dear, what is it? That man? No one is brilliant enough to help them get away with this," she whispered. He whispers back, "It's not that, it's just that……the hooded riders are being defended by John Wesley Hardin, the most notorious gunslinger the west has ever seen. Chumbley says he studied law behind bars the last five years and passed the bar exam upon his release from prison. He was the only lawyer in town other than the regulars, who couldn’t defend them due to conflicts of interest.“ Judge Isby says, "Mr. Snavely, Shackelton and Watkins will be defended by Attorney J. W. Hardin of Texas. I have granted him dispensation for this trial to practice law in the Arizona Territory. Mr. Hardin, do you need any more time to confer with your clients?" The Attorney says in a soft-spoken voice, "A few minutes if that is alright with you Sir." Isby says, "Proceed. Marshal Berg, if you could go get the Porter boy now?" "Yes Sir," Berg says and departs. "That's not the voice I expected," Kate said. "But I suppose his voice isn't what he usually did his talking with.” She looked around the crowded room. "Seems the only time most of the town is together is for trials. We have a few too many of them here." Conrad replies, "I imagine that Monday's will be even more crowded as a lot of reporters are coming to cover the Poker Tournament and will be sticking around to see what Wyatt Earp's fate will be. But once that is done with we should hopefully be seeing the last of these trials." Kate answers, "I hope so. Less trials very likely means my life is quieter. And I have enough to worry about with all my new admirers." Minerva rides back into town in time to see the crowd gathered in front of the court house. She hitches Shadow to a post and works her way through the crowd to Chester. "What's going on here? They're not trying Earp yet, are they?" Chester says to her, "No, not yet. We've got the riders on trial first. Apparently the former outlaw John Wesley Hardin is defending them." Marshall Berg returns with young Grant Porter also accompanied by the boy's father and Doctor James Eaton. They go to the front of the room and sit on the opposite side as the three accused. Judge Isby calls the court back to order. He says, "I will be treating Mr. Porter's case differently than the other three. He is a juvenile, and furthermore, two of the other gang members were his school teachers who therefore had opportunity to apply undue influence on the boy." Hardin stands and says "I object your honor. The boy is sixteen years of age, which is the age that this town has recognized him to be a legal adult. Furthermore, he is even registered to vote." Judge Isby says, "Your objection is noted, however are you disputing the fact that both Mr. Shackelton and Mr. King were both his assigned teachers and were therefore in a position to greatly influence the boys actions?" Hardin says, "Yes sir, if the town recognizes him to be an adult he was responsible for his own actions." The Judge calls Doctor Eaton to take the stand. He says, "Doctor Eaton, you were the third teacher at Grant Porter's school and therefore in a better position than anyone to gauge the relationships. How would you characterize the situation?" Eaton says, "Ashley King took it upon himself to be the boy's mentor. They were inseparable whenever Grant wasn't at his father's shop. I for one was not comfortable with the relationship and truly feel that undue influence was involved, that the boy was coerced." Hardin gets up to cross-examine Eaton but is unable to get the surgeon to change his opinion or state anything to the contrary, the closest he gets being to have Eaton confess that he does feel pity for the boy. Kate cringed. A teacher's position should never be used in that way. The responsibility was to teach the child how to think for themselves, not teach them what to think. Judge Isby invites Hardin to retake his seat and also cautions the Attorney "You will be provided an opportunity to cross-examine Mr. Porter after he is finished answering my questions but until then I do not want to hear any outbursts from you or your clients. Is that clear?" Hardin indicates that it is. Grant Porter takes the stand. Judge Isby asks the boy to describe in his own words everything that he knows about the actions of the Hooded Riders, starting from the inception of the group. Kate took Conrad's hand and a deep breath, then sat up straight to listen. Grant says "The group started up shortly after Ashley King shot and killed Colin Hunter and Nicholas Thayer". That revelation leads to much commotion in the courtroom and the Judge pounds the gavel to restore order. Chester coughs when he hears Grant and then mutters to himself, “That's a bold thing to say under oath.” Kate remembered her own encounters with Ashley King, and his interest in Minerva. She looked at Conrad and remembered his warnings and wondered what he thought of this. Judge Isby says, "King told you about that?" Grant says, "No, but he missed school that day and the next day had his arm bandaged. I just found out what happened just a few days ago at the farmhouse. He was telling Snavely and that Galeyville guy, John." The Judge says, "Please continue." Grant says, "King had been riding from town back to his own ranch the night before when he spotted Wyatt Earp. He followed Earp, who it turns out was following a trail left by Thayer and Ordway. According to King, Earp got careless and rode into an ambush, Ordway killed his horse and Earp fired back and caused Ordway to fall dead from his perch at Earp's feet. Earp then got on Ordway's horse and rode off. Figuring whoever Ordway was with would have heard the shots King didn't want to get caught in a crossfire so found a place to lay low a quarter-mile away. He heard somebody shouting Ordway's name from higher up the mountain but they waited until the first light of dawn to climb down to investigate. The two who came down were Thayer and Hunter. At that point in time there were only two political parties running for office and both of those two were in the opposing party, so King saw it as too good an opportunity to pass up, especially with Earp's horse lying dead there to pin the blame on him. So King took careful aim and shot them both. What he didn't count on was that sharpshooter Vaughn Palmer to be up the mountain watching, and King then took a bullet in his arm. He got away then, with Vaughn continuing to shoot at him. King rode up to Dos Cabezas, bribed some guys there to vouch for him having been playing poker there all night, then took the stagecoach to Wilcox towing his horse. When he got there he found a doctor to patch him up. He then rode back to Promise City that night." They'd heard so many different things about had happened at that mine-head that Kate wasn't sure how seriously to take this testimony. She filed it away in her mind to compare with everything else later. The Judge asks, "And how did that lead to the formation of the hooded riders?" Grant replies, "He told Shackelton what he had done, who felt that the ends justified the means and any act was necessary to keep the cattle rustlers from taking over the town through elected office. They decided that the campaign needed to continue, with the Palace Saloon their next target. In the next few days they rounded up others who felt the same way. King also went to Galeyville to get his cousin Luthor, who had been hiding out there since there was a price on his head. Luthor and his friend John had experience with munitions." Isby asks, "Why were you recruited?" Grant says, "Because I had access to certain ingredients from my father's apocathary shop that Mr. Hudson needed." "Mr. Hudson, the baker?" Isby says. "Baker and alchemist," Grant replies, "He had been mixing up magical potions for King and Buckley for years, but his suppliers had dried up." Kate ponders that it Seems like everyone here knew how to do just a little magic. Kate shook her head and wondered how many others of her neighbors had talents. Chester thinks, When this trial is over, Judge Isby's going to have a bunch more to start. At this rate, we'll need a bigger jail. Isby says, "So they organized this group. Had this actually been long in the planning?" Grant Porter replies, "Apparently yes. King had previously commissioned Claude Buckley to steal him some horses since the riders wanted to remain anonymous. Buckley's men then took up surveillance on two of the smaller ranches, the Phillips Ranch and the Perez Ranch. They rustled the horses from the Phillips Ranch but also continued to watch the Perez Ranch, which we later used as our headquarters after the attack on the town." Kate whispered to Conrad, “Not my ranch? Perhaps the early warning from Wyatt about Thayer's men had spared us the attention.” Judge Isby says, "How did the Last Ditch Mine get targeted?" Grant says, "It wasn't until the newspaper came out stating that the Dwarf had enough votes to win. Shackelton wasn't going to let a non-English-speaking non-human ever become mayor. Ashley also thought that a dry run would be good since he was going to have to be in church instead the next morning during the attack on the Palace." The Judge says, "And the targets were the Palace Saloon, Fly's Photo Studio, the Papago Cash Store, the Morand-Seawell Mining Office, Driscoll's Tannery and the Hoover Memorial School?" Grant replies, "No, I only heard mention of the Palace, Papago and Tannery, those were the ones affiliated with the Liberty and Freedom Parties. A few of the gang members improvised that morning with the others. Ashley was actually mad about that, as it implied that the Law and Order Party might have been responsible since they were the only party not effected." Kate whispers to Conrad “So the school had not been a planned target.” It still wasn't clear whether her presence there was why the dynamite was thrown into the school, but somehow she felt better just knowing violence against herself and Ginnie had not been planned. Judge Isby says, "And after Mr. Snavely and Mr. Allman were arrested and jailed, how did they go about escaping?" Grant says, "That was the easy part. While the trial was going on the Marshall's Office and Jail were unoccupied so Ashley just went in and hid the Turn to Gas potions in the cells." "They were locked? How did he get in?" the Judge asks. Grant replies, "Ashley had a set of keys, Marshall Hollister gave them to him over a year ago." Isby looks up to Marshall Berg and says, "That set of keys has not been recovered. Let's get Dick Lockmeyer to go re-key those locks today, and add a padlock and chain to each just to be double-sure." Kate was surprised there hadn't been more problems with prisoners if King had a set of keys. The Judge inquires about taking over the Perez Ranch. Grant says, "That wasn't totally planned either, that was just where Snavely and Allman rematerialized. Since they had scouted it out before they knew it was lightly populated and where to get clothes and weapons. They hid their faces and captured the Perez family. Allman then came and got the rest of us. We alternated who was there, since most of us had obligations here in town. Ashley and I would ride out there each morning before school to collect Mr. Shackelton. That is what we were doing this morning when Arcade's Gang barged in." Kate leaned into Conrad and whispered so softly she wasn't sure even he would hear. "That ranch is so close to us, we should have realized something was wrong there." He whispers back, "Don't blame yourself, there is that hill in between." The Judge says, "Thank you Mr. Porter. Mr. Hardin, would you like to cross examine the witness?" He stands and says, "Not at this time, but I will need time to confer with my clients. Could I request a recess?" The Judge says, "That would be in order. I call a half-hour recess. We are adjourned until them. Marshal Berg, please escort the three prisoners and their attorney back to the jail. Everybody else remain seated until they have left the room." The Marshall and deputies do as they were instructed. On the way back to jail, Chester asks, "You gents have anything to say for yourselves? Anything at all that will keep you from swinging from the gallows?" Hardin says, "Do you have a law degree Deputy? If not, then I think it best if you let me be the one to discuss options with my clients." Chester says to Hardin, "No, Mr. Hardin. I don't. But you don't know Judge Isby well, do you?" Hardin replies, "I know that he is the fairest of all Judges who I have ever met and he has earned by respect. What more do I need to know than that Deputy?" Chester replies, "He's fair, that's for sure. He's also severe in his judgments." "Most fair and honest men are," Hardin replies. They get back to the Marshal's Office. Hardin says, "I need some privacy while I confer with my clients. If you could lock us all in the cell and stay on the opposite side of the room I would appreciate it." Chester looks at Berg, who says, "That's your right, Mr. Hardin. First Deputy Martin has to check you for contraband. We've had a few men escape from here via magic potions. You understand, don't you? Now, if you don't mind." He replies, "I understand and expected as much, which is my I left my revolver back in my hotel room." Berg motions Chester over to Hardin. Chester says, "This won't take long." He pats down Hardin, looking for potions, wands, rings, and the like. He appears clean. He talks to the men, the conversation with Kirby Watkins becoming very animated at times as the prisoners apparently aren't altogether happy with the strategy he is proposing. As he walks closer to each, getting with in a foot of the man while maintaining eye contact they each back down and submit. Berg whispers to Chester "Are you watching the body language? He may be a soft-spoken man of average build, but he's letting his reputation speak for him. Watkins is the only one of those three who dares to stand up to him, and even he is wavering." They eventually finish and Hardin says, "We are ready to head back."</blockquote>

Verification