"Revenge, Renewal and the Promise of a New Year" (Boot Hill/D&D)

[Silver Moon]

Chapter 90 “Jake Cook, Silver Baron”, January 10th, 1882:

Jake walks up behind the ogre and gives a loud "Ahem." "What do you want tough guy?" the half-ogre comments to Jake. With a growl, Chester spins around and charges the ogre. The half-ogre is taken by surprise and knocked off his feet, falling onto the ground with Chester on top of him.

Jake watches the half-ogre soldier knocked to the ground. "Now there's a surprise." Jake takes a step back. "Me, tough guy? Hardly. Now if you two are done playing around." Jake pauses in the unlikely event they stop to listen to him. "I need you," he points to the half-ogre, "to get back to the work my tax dollars are paying for, and you," he points at Chester, "to be doing the work I paid you for." Jake walks around the other side of them. "Look, I have nothing but respect for soldiers of all races, but the local judge might not feel the same way, and well, I don't have to tell you about the army brig now do I?"

Chester has his fist cocked, but drops it when Jake talks. He and the soldier release each other. The half-ogre stands up and manages to shove Chester off of him. "This cowardly weakling isn't worth the effort." the soldier exclaims and then turns and walks off in the other direction. Chester stands and dusts himself off. "Sorry, Mr. Cook. I don't like getting pushed around." Sheepishly he says, "Good luck in your meeting." "Well that ill mannered brute deserved much worse. Unfortunately, I need you at the moment. So you'll have to wait until another day to pound him silly." Jake helps dust Chester off. "You are going to have to figure out a way to deal with those soldiers, you won't hold down a job in jail. Come on."
Jake and Chester head over to Berg's office.

Ruby dries off her pants to the best of her ability. As they walk to Mary Kelly's she decides that walking around in wet leather pants was not half as fun as she thought it would be. Ruby and Kate enter Kelly's. Mary is still there and surprised to see Ruby again. Ruby introduces the two of them and chats with Mary while Kate tries her dress on to get fitted. Mary tells her the dress will be ready on Thursday after 5. They thank Mary then the ladies head back to the El Parador to see Mr. Gonzales.

Jake and Chester arrive at Berg's. Seawell, MacNaulty, Berg and Fisk are already there. The paper signing starts off well, with all of the documents regarding the new ownership and responsibilities with the Fisk Mountain Mine clearly stated. Hamilton Fisk reads the papers over very carefully before signing. He raises an objection to a clause in one paper “This says that each partner from the net monies derived from the ore deposited at the First National Bank of Promise City. I use Condon’s Bank.”

Seawell states, “But the United States Government does not, and they are the primary buyer of the silver. If we don’t use the bank that they do we have to arrange for the transfer of money ourselves. It’s safer just to keep it in one place.” "Is that acceptable Mr. Fisk?" Jake adds, " It reduces your cost that way. And regularly scheduled transfers are less secure than irregularly scheduled ones you arrange." Fisk agrees and signs all of the papers regarding the Fisk Mountain Mine. The papers are then passed to Jake to review. Jake reviews the papers in great detail regarding his and his associates’ agreements.

Once the Fisk Mountain Mine paperwork is completed Fisk and Seawell then look over the paperwork for the Fisk-Seawell Gold Mine Company. Hamilton Fisk reads it all over carefully, asking an occasional question of Berg, who specifies that the forms and verbiage was transferred from copies of other mines in town and shows some of these to Fisk for comparison.

Fisk raises objections to a clause regarding another bank account at the First National Bank that names Mitchell Berg as its trustee. Seawell states “Look, you’re paying for mine excavation and I’m responsible for transportation and security. Unless you want both of us to be constantly having to hand over money for every single expense every day for those things it is best to have an account that our designated mine manager can access and a trustee to review the expenses for appropriateness.”

Fisk says “Well I don’t trust Berg, and this states that neither of us can access the funds.” Seawell stays “That account isn’t for the profits, it’s only for day-to-day expenses. You have the reputation for being an aggressive gambler. I don’t want our manager to be unable to purchase something he needs because you withdrew the money to play a hot hand.” Fisk begins to lose his temper at that and exchanges some heated words with Seawell.

Berg intervenes and says, “Stop this gentlemen. The solution is easy. Pick another trustee who both of you trust, preferably someone who knows something about mining.” Fisk says “How about Elton Hubbard?” Seawell says, “He would be fine, or Hubbard's chief clerk Earl Hogan. But I insist on a fixed salary for the trustee's time, not a percentage of the profits.” Fisk agrees, and they come up with a $ 50.00 a week trustee fee. Seawell asks MacNaulty to go see if Hubbard is available to join them, and if not to ask for Earl Hogan. Berg suggests that since Fisk normally uses a different bank than the First National that a transfer is set up to replenish the trustee account from his First National Bank account from the other mine. “Why is that necessary?” Fisk asks. Berg says “It’s not, if you’re willing to constantly move money whenever the gold mine manager needs.”

Fisk reluctantly agrees, but wants some restrictions placed on how much money can be transferred each week. Seawell suggests, “How about no more money can be moved than was withdrawn the previous week unless you and I both agree, and that all expenses need to be approved by the Trustee as legitimate expenses at market rates for the mining extraction, transportation and security?” Fisk agrees to that. The remainder of the paperwork is very straightforward. Elton Hubbard arrives and agrees to be the trustee of the Fisk-Seawell Gold Mining Company for the fee of $ 50 per week.

Outside after the signing Jake gets the miners together and suggests they get the wagonload of ore ready to travel and the Chester will see it over to the smelters if one of you will go with him and give instructions. He tells Chester about the men who have been helping to watch it, and that they can help him. "But first come back to the Cantina for something to eat," Jake tells Chester, "and then get that wagon over to the smelters."

Seawell points out that the smelter will be closed in an hour so if they plan to get it there today they had better do it right away. Jake then asks the men what they had planned for security at the mine itself. They reply that they have know idea. Seawell says he had a few ideas but he's no longer associated with the mine. Jake says "I'd like to get those others here tonight to celebrate, but I don't know if it is OK to leave the mine unguarded. I'd be willing to make arrangements to get them here if they can leave." MacNaulty suggests that some of the men from Brown's Ice House who have been helping guard the wagon would probably be willing to take a shift guarding the mine. Seawell points out that now that the papers are signed they have far less to worry about.

Dorita informs Ruby and Katherine that her father is not around, that he had to go off into the desert to look for something that he needed. She tells them not to worry, that Pedro and Estaban went with him. "Oh," Kate said, disappointed. Much as she had been dreading today's lesson, she had been looking forward to talking to the old gentleman about what had happened.

Dorita then asks what they would like this evening for supper. "Um, dinner. Whatever you have is fine, Dorita, I'm sure. I don't have much of an appetite today, really." She realized she hadn't eaten since the early breakfast, but she didn't want to now either. "We're supposed to meet the others in a little while and have dinner all together. "Well, Dorita, what do you have on hand? What looks good? We need a special dinner tonight. We, well, I, am having a bad day so far and Jake, hopefully, is making good business deals. Plus someone we know got engaged. So let's have a nice dinner." "Don't spread that around," Kate leaned over and whispered to Ruby as they sat down. "People will ask who got engaged."

Kate asks, “How do we pass the time now, Ruby?" Ruby takes Kate's arm and leads her to a table. "How about I teach you some cards? It's always a good way to pass the time." Kate says, "I suppose it won't hurt to at least understand the game." Ruby sits with Kate and teaches her the basics of how to play poker. She doubts Kate will be good at the "poker face" and bluffing but actually respects the fact that she is so honest she probably wouldn't even think of cheating at cards.

Sonoma comes to the women's table with a basket of rolls she leans over to Ruby. With a smile she says,
"Just to let you know my great grandfather doesn't look kindly on his little birds holding grudges, so I wanted to let you know I'm not mad at you for shooting at me. However it is looked down upon to take out one of your apprentice sisters with a gun... a spell maybe but a gun no.” Ruby replies, “Oh Sonoma, I am very sorry about that. I really didn’t know it was you! And I wouldn’t take you out with a spell or a gun. I guess I need to learn a little more about magic so that doesn’t happen again. I hope you really do forgive me…”

Poker was actually a fairly simple game to learn. After a few hands Kate had the basics down, and her mind began to drift. She began notice the hearts, how red they were. Her hands felt shaky. Ruby had ordered a drink from Dorita, and Kate was beginning to regret not joining her. "Ruby," she said quietly. "This morning with the coach.... I know if we hadn't defended ourselves those men would have slaughtered us. But I still feel.... how do you live with knowing you killed someone? I think I did. Nanuet and I did for certain and I can't stop thinking about it."

Ruby lays her cards down and put her hands on Kate’s. "You said it. If you didn't kill them they would have killed you. I know it's a hard thing for you to fathom but it is really simple. Out here there is no discussing and doing things the fair way. It's you or them. And there isn't good and evil it's just people doing what they want. Who you think is the good guy may not be. Look at the Earps, they are the law but they do what they want. You see what happened to Maggie and got her and Tom in all that trouble? That's happened to me too and it could very well happen to you. I don't mean to scare you but you have to be prepared and not trust anyone and mostly you have to be able to defend yourself. So to answer your question, you don't think about it. Because then you won't be able to live with yourself. You realize that you comes first."

Kate replies, "I can't live like that. You can't trust everyone, but I have to trust someone. And I can't just stop thinking about it. All day I've been trying. And it works for a while until everything is quiet and then it creeps back in." They then notice the arrival of Jake and Chester. Kate stopped as Jake and Chester came in, taking the chance to wipe away the tears that were threatening. She squeezed Ruby's hand and searched for a smile as Dorita brought their dinner. "Thank you," she said quietly. The men join them at the table and Dorita brings out a plate full of beef and Spanish rice cooked up using an old Mexican recipe of hers. Sonoma says, “I think I had better bring more plates you are all eating yes?”

Chester tips his hat. "Good afternoon, ladies. How was your day? Well... other than almost being robbed, that is." Ruby says, “Oh it was just dandy. By tomorrow all the papers will be reporting that I am now a prostitute working at the Lone Star.” Chester says, "You what? You don't strike me as that kind of girl, Miss West. I'm not, Mr. Martin, which’s the point. She proceeds to tell him about the incident at the Lone Star, her run in with Mr. Adair and the whole trial. Chester replies, "That's terrible. Job Kane was defending himself, yet got a worse sentence than the other guy. That doesn't sound like justice.

Dorita had been delivering food to an adjacent table and picked up on that snippet of the conversations. She goes over to Ruby and says "I hear about trial, you not prostitute, you said so at trial. Last week you and Kate tell newspaperman what to print and he printed it. Why you not do that now?" Kate reminds Ruby that Chumbley would still be in town since the next stage to Tombstone won't be until the following morning.

Ruby says, "Yes, I had thought of that, but I figured that Mr. Baxter wouldn't be as easily influenced and with one paper printing it the other wouldn't matter. I suppose it is worth a try." Kate says, "Remember the night Job was arrested? Baxter got a forceful lesson in what doesn't go on at the Lone Star. I wouldn't worry too much about him." Ruby says, "Alright, if we have time after dinner we go find Chumbley."

Ruby turns back to Chester and says, “Well, other than that? We went and visited a friend’s ranch nearby and I went shopping. Like my new pants?” She stand ups and shows them off. He says “I you don’t want people thinking that you are a prostitute, although I'm not sure the pants will help you out there. But they look good." But thanks for the compliment," she says smiling at him.

Ruby asks, "And how was your day? Besides almost being robbed.? How did your business go Jake?"
Chester says, “My day. Hmm. Well, I got fired from the mine for lateness, but then Mr. Cook introduced me to Mr. Condon at the bank. So now I'm a guard there. And he mentioned something about doing mine security for him. Plus I got reminded why I left the service. Some half-ogre sergeant took offense to my being in town. We had a brief scuffle, leading to my less-than-proper appearance." Ruby can see a few tears in his shirt. "So it's been an eventful day for both of us."

During the dinner Jake nods to Ruby and indicates outside. "Excuse us a moment." Jake heads out the door without waiting for her. As she rushes to catch up with him, he surprises her outside by grabbing her at the waist with both hands and lifts her into the air. He spins her around but is unable to keep his balance and falls to the porch with Ruby sitting on top of him. He is laughing. "What is wrong with you?" Ruby blurts out while catching her breath.

"Whew." Jake stops laughing but the smile has not left his eyes. "You are sitting on one of the part owners of the Fisk Mountain Mine." Ruby leans forward over Jake, putting her hands on the ground on both sides of his head. "Should I fetch a doctor or have you done completely crazy? What are you talking about and how did you manage that?" she says with her smile growing wider.

"I am now a junior partner in the Fisk Mountain Mine. How did that happen? Like everything else, be in the right place, think on your feet, talk fast and have a boot full o' luck." Jake can't seem to wipe the 'cat with a mouse' grin off his face. "It's really not that big a deal, and it is unlikely to make me rich. But it is a few dollars, and probably enough so I don't have to do jobs like the bank. Gods it was fun though! Let's go back inside and I'll tell everyone most of the story." As they get up off the ground. "I still have some work to do tonight, but later we celebrate!"

"Well, I'll have to give you a proper congratulations later then when we celebrate. I look forward to it. But for now, this will have to do." She gives him a small kiss on the cheek. "Good job. That luck is really working out for you, huh?"

Over dinner Jake explains how he accidentally came upon the miners in trouble, helped them out and how they asked him to become their business agent in the upcoming negotiations with Fisk. He also explains how the negotiations came to an impasse over transportation and how he came to be a partner in charge of transportation. He conveniently leaves out any parts that make him appear to have manipulated the situation.

Jake also describes briefly the deal with Seawell and Fisk on the gold mine. Especially Seawell's belief that speculators will drive up land prices quickly. "I should still be able to sell the wagon, I'll handle that and get everyone involved their share." And as an after thought Jake adds, "Oh, and I stopped in to see Wyatt Earp today. I tried to put him on the trail of Billy Claibourne and the Cowboy gang."

"You've been busy," Kate smiled. "No wonder we never see you. I guess you'll be sticking around Promise City for a while then?" "Ruby, Nanuet, Sonoma and I went out to see Flint today. Sonoma said he'd need about 200 acres to really support cattle. We're going to check in the morning to see if the land between his claim and the Apache lands are available, and how much we might be able to purchase between myself, Nanuet, and Flint. Sonoma thinks most wouldn't want it because of how close it is to the Apache territory."

Jake says, "You could take a couple of those dead outlaws, stick arrows in 'em and leave them out on the land. That'd help drive the price down." He looks around the table as everyone turns to look at him. "What? Why do you always look at me that way?"

 

[Piratecat]

I dunno; it's as good a plan as any.

 

[Silver Moon]

Chapter 91 “William Whipple’s Terms”, January 10th, 1882:

Kate chuckled. "I don't think we have time to go looking for dead outlaws. If what you say is true, there may be those who'll try that land near the Apache anyway. Oh, and speaking of dead outlaws." Kate dropped her voice. "Curly Bill's body is in Flint's cave, the Apache brought it to him. The want us to collect the bounty and get them some supplies with the money." Chester raises his eyebrows at this, but doesn't say anything. "Wouldn't we have to go to Texas for that?" Ruby asks furrowing her brow.

Nanuet says, "Somebody would. The Deputy Sheriff said that there is a bounty hunter from Texas in town, so he might be willing to." Kate asks, "Is there any way we can find out what the bounty is before we approach him? I assume he would pay us and then take the body in and get reimbursed. I wouldn't trust a stranger to take it for us and bring back the cash. I'm sure he would pay us less than the bounty, but it would save us the trip." Nanuet replies "I don't know. Sheriff Hunter said that the bounty hunter was staying at the Long Branch Saloon and that his name was Irby Cole. That was last Saturday so he might not still be there."

"So, " Jake starts a sentence and lets it hang a bit, "does anybody want to take a ride tonight with me and bring some miners back from the mountain?" He takes his hat off and runs his hand through his hair and puts it back on. "I mean, how many more outlaws can there be? I'm not absolutely sure I'm going yet, but probably." Ruby comments, "I would like to try out my new pants. but how long would that take?"

Kate says, "I think I've had enough of being shot at for today. I'd like to rest a while before we go over to the Lone Star. I'm tired." Kate pushed away her plate of food, still nearly full. Ruby leans over to Katherine and whispers, "Is everything alright? You barely ate a bite of food... plus what we were talking about earlier..." Katherine could see a look of concern on Ruby's face.

Just as the meal is coming to a close Maggie Whipple walks into the El Parador. She approaches the table and says that she needs to speak privately to Katherine, Ruby and Jake. Katherine whispers to Maggie "I think we should bring Sonoma too. She was in the bathhouse and overheard our conversation. It's okay, we can trust her." They excuse themselves and head upstairs with Maggie to Katherine's Room.

Before leaving, Jake leans over to Chester. "Can you go find MacNaulty and get that load of ore over to the smelter? And get him to talk to the guys that have been helping him out and see if he can hire them to guard the mine for tonight. MacNaulty and the rest of us can ride out and bring back the other miners as soon as you get back." Jake gives him his trademark slap on the shoulder. "Thanks!"

Chester replies cheerfully, "Sure thing, Mr. Cook. Are you still going to be here?" Chester leaves the Lone Star and heads over to where the wagon is being loaded. "Good evening, Mr. MacNaulty. Are you almost ready to get this to the smelter?" "Yeah, we're just getting the last of it in now." Chester takes him aside and nods his head toward the others. "Great. Do you trust them? Because Mr. Cook wants you to hire them as guards for the mine tonight. Then we can go out to relieve the miners there." "Aye, lad. I can trust 'em. Is the going rate fine?" MacNaulty rejoins the workers and talks things over with them. He calls out to Chester, "Let's get over to the smelter now."

Up in Kate’s room, Maggie says, “Father arrived on the stage along with Cousin Teddy and Teddy's girl Alexis. Tom and I spoke to Father about our plans and Tom presented his idea.

Father is very being difficult. First of all, he said that if our Lone Star were actually a success then we wouldn’t need any free labor from him and Teddy to build the next floor. He said that he doubts that either Tom or I could run our Saloon without the other one, so splitting us up would be detrimental to this business’s long-term success. He said that while Teddy is a good Faro dealer he has no managerial ability and would make a poor partner to me for this business. Lastly, he said that if or when Tom ever does come back to Denver he expects it to be as a business partner, with ownership of at least 25% of the business. Father estimates that his Denver Lone Star is worth around $ 20,000 so Tom would need to have saved up $ 5,000 to buy into the business.”

“So father essentially shot down Tom’s idea. But my brother had spent the previous few hours mentally preparing for a life with Flossie and he wasn’t going to take no for an answer. He’s been so miserable this past year and wasn’t going to let another setback keep him and Flossie apart. So he countered every one of Father’s objections by accepting them as challenges. Oh Katherine, I was so proud of him. Tom has never stood up to our Father.

First, he told Father that we could put on the third floor without needing any of his or Teddy’s help. Then he told Father that he and I are each equally capable of running our Lone Star Dance Hall and Saloon without the other and that we would be happy to show that to him during his visit here. Tom then said that he would be able to find me a capable partner for this business and that he would sell his share of the Lone Star to that partner. Lastly, he said that combined with what he has already saved up he would be able to come up with the $ 5,000.

Not to be outdone, Father came back with an unrealistic deadline for all of that to take place. He said that he if he’s not needed for the construction he will plan on leaving Promise City next Monday. By then he expects to see the third floor built; to have seen Tom successfully manage the Saloon from tonight until Thursday night without me; to have seen me successfully manage it from Friday to Sunday night without Tom; for Tom to have found a partner who he deems acceptable to sell half of the Saloon to; and lastly to have the full $ 5,000 raised by then.

Tom thought for a few minutes and then countered by pointing out that last year it took a month for them to put on the second floor. Tom said that he wanted quality workmanship and refused to rush to finish in it less than a week and thereby have it turn out to be less than perfect. Father is a perfectionist so it would be hard for him to argue against quality work. Tom figured that would extend the deadline then for all of Father’s terms.

Instead, Father only cut back on the construction requirement but kept the Monday deadline for everything else. He said that by Monday morning the third floor construction had to have been started, with all materials purchased and a detailed plan and timeline laid out for its completion by no longer than a month from now. Thankfully Father will permit Tom to leave before it is finished, since last year Jeff Mills showed himself to be a very competent construction foreman.”

I’m not sure exactly what we’re going to do about raising all of that money. We currently have around $ 1,600 saved up, but I imagine that we’ll need to spend quite a bit of that on construction materials and hiring laborers for the construction. Flossie has around $ 800 saved up for her and Tom to use. Tom estimates that the Lone Star is worth around $ 4,000 so his half of the business would be valued at around $ 2,000.

Tony Lucky and Jeff Mills are both unaware of the true nature of mine and Tom’s relationship and neither of them have any money. But Job Kane figured it out a while back and we knew that before today Job Kane had a fair amount of money saved up. So Tom approached him about buying into the Lone Star but after paying that hefty fine he had very little left.

And Tom really can’t approach anybody else around trying to sell his share of the business to since his running away with Flossie has to be perceived by as a surprise move, otherwise I won’t be able to petition Judge Isby to have our marriage annulled due to abandonment. I hate have to ask you guys but Katherine had made the suggestion to me yesterday. Would any of you have any money and perhaps be interested in becoming my business partner?"

Silence follows. Sonoma is the first to speak: "Ms. Wimple. I am confused. Your father is demanding all of these things of you and your...hus.. um... brother, however don't the two of you own the Lone Star? Is he a silent partner or has he given you capital that you haven't repaid? If not he has no rights to make demands such as he is on either of you. This man although blood is not treating you as family, he is treating you as property something to own and control at his convenience.

As I see it you have two choices. You can continue to allow a man who is treating you very badly to continue to rule your lives or you can become the people you came out here to be and run your own life. If your father has given you money to start the Lone Star find a way to pay him back with the same interest he would have made in the bank and be done with it. You have both proved yourselves here and have one of the best places in town. Do not let a man who does not wish the best for you destroy your life."

Maggie pauses and says "My, you are direct aren't you. Sonoma right? I see you've given this subject some thought, perhaps because your parents own a Saloon as well and you've had similar thoughts of your own life. I agree with most of what you have said and if Tom were happy staying here I would just tell father to leave. But it is his dream to own Father's business in Denver. I do not wish to deny him that. Father has dictated some terms that will be difficult to achieve, but I believe that with help from my friends and employees we can accomplish them and a week from now my brother and I will finally be happy as will be my best friend."

Jake speaks up next, "So you are looking for partners you can work with that can come up with $2000? What else do you expect from your partners and what could they expect in return?" Jake ignores the slightly disappointed and embarrassed looks from Katherine that he appears to be only worried about the money.

Maggie gives Jake a stern look and says "There is no reason to take that tone with me Mr. Cook. It was Katherine's suggestion that you three might be interested in investing in the Lone Star.” Jake replies, "Ah, well I don't mean to be abrupt. If you want business partners, then we need to be able to talk business." He shrugs and looks at Katherine. Maggie says, “If you would prefer I would actually just need a short-term loan, of only a week. Once Tom is gone I would be able to approach one of the bankers in town about a loan and then I'd be able to repay you."

"So... are you looking for a loan or would we be partners?" Ruby asks. Ruby and Kate had already had this argument about helping Maggie. Ruby hadn't believed that Maggie and Tom would actually come to them, they had not known them long enough to trust them. And Ruby was extremely hesitant to do anything with her money that she couldn't get it if she needed it quick. Just that morning she had put money in Jake's bank, something she had not done in years, and that alone was a tremendous step. Ruby was going to wait to see what everyone else thought.

Kate says, "I'm sorry, Maggie. I didn't mention the idea to Jake because I didn't think you or Tom thought much of it. I think Jake has been doing business all day, and is in the habit of speaking plainly. But he is right that before we enter any kind of arrangement, we should know what our expectations of each other would be. Today I entered into an informal arrangement to invest in a ranch, and I can't go back on my word. But I should be able to split what funds I have between the two. No matter how much money we have, I doubt we'll be able to buy 200 acres, even if it's available."

Kate sat down on the bed and pulled Maggie down with her. "It's been a long day for you," she said gently, slipping her arm around Maggie's waist. "I'm sure the talk with your Father was stressful, and all these questions are coming at you a bit fast. Let's start slowly. Would you prefer partners, or would you rather own the Lone Star in your own right?" Tears well up in Maggie's eyes, her posture droops and she starts to move towards the door sobbing "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have bothered you with my problems." Kate watched helplessly as Maggie headed for the door, at a loss for what to do now.

Jake moves over to Katherine and whispers in her ear, "We have more resources available. There were other items brought out of the caves." Jake then steps away without looking at her reaction and sits on the edge of the bed. Ruby saw the hurt look on Kate's face, which bothered her more than Maggie's tears.

"Hold on," Ruby said while jumping up and walking over to Maggie. She sighed, "We didn't say we wouldn't help you, right Jake. Kate's idea is a good one." Ruby shoots him a look. "I'm not sure that we will have all that money but we will try to come up with it." Jake says aloud to no one in particular, "Heh, we are pretty resourceful. I'm sure money is not a problem if we really think hard enough about it." Ruby takes Maggie's arm and leads her back to the chair. "What do we need to do and when?"

Maggie says "Well, the only thing that we need to do right now is make sure that Tom has a successful night while Father is watching. And I can't help with that, I have to stay away so that Tom can show he can do it without me." "Tonight I'm guessing?" Ruby says. Kate interjects "I think Jake was planning on bringing some friends into town tonight. I'm sure he could recommend the Lone Star as a good place to spend their evening. Why don't we discuss the money situation tomorrow?"

Kate reached out and took Maggie's hand. "And I never want you to feel bad for bringing your troubles to me, you understand? It's a pleasure to help. Now, do you have any recommendations for us tonight?" She replies, "Father will be watching Tom the next three nights. I really hope that Job has good nights at the table. Tom needs to prove to father that he can run a successful gambling establishment." Ruby exclaims,
"Well, then we'll have to make sure your father sees that you can, right? Don't worry Maggie it will be fine." Once again Ruby was repeating fairy tales that she didn't believe in, but hopefully Maggie would.

 

[Silver Moon]

Chapter 92 “The Education of Maggie Whipple”, January 10th, 1882:

'Why don't you let us rest so we can be prepared for later then?" Ruby says. Kate adds "And you should rest too. You're going to have a busy three days when it's your turn." She looked over at the others helplessly. "Where will you be tonight, Maggie?"

She replies "I don't know. I haven't thought about it. Right now I have to go hire somebody to replace me a the Lone Star for the next three nights, with me gone It will be down a combination piano player and waitress and cook."

Sonoma speaks up "I can do it." "What?" Maggie exclaims. The young elvan woman replies "I can do it. Just tell me what you need done." She then says "And I won't tell your father what I think of him." Sonoma continues "And as for where you'll be, you will be here doing some of the work that I normally do." Maggie says, "Oh, I don't think that I could work...here." "THEN FIND SOMEONE ELSE!" Sonoma snaps back.

Jake laughs a little at the look on Maggie's face and says, "Look, let me know later on what you all are thinking about this. I have some business to attend to. I guess I'll see you at the Lone Star later tonight. Ruby if you want to come for the ride be down stairs in a little while." He leaves Katherine's room and heads back to his own. When he leaves he has his shotgun, both pistols, extra ammo and the notorious leather duster. He heads down stairs and waits for Chester and MacNaulty to come back.

"Ladies," Ruby says diplomatically, "let's be nice now shall, we?" She turns to Maggie. "We will all be going out of our way to help you and Tom, Maggie, and there really is no reason why you can't work here. Sonoma is a very capable chef, waitress and musician and maybe we'll even get her up on stage to sing with me and that will certainly draw the men's attention. You are doing yourself a disservice by not using her help." Ruby pauses and tugs at her now dry pants, "And besides, think of working here as an grand adventure that will broaden your horizons..."

Ruby runs downstairs to see Jake before he leaves. “I don’t think I can go with you tonight, Maggie is going to need us to be on time I think.” She sighs, “Not sure what or why I got myself into this whole Saloon business but I did…”

"Ruby's Lone Star." Jake pretends to be looking up at a sign over the Saloon. "It does have a nice sound to it." Ruby gives him a look. She starts reaching down the front of her dress. “Listen I wanted to give you the money you left at Lacey’s today, your change….”

Jake holds out both hands in a stopping sign and says, "No, no, I wanted to buy you a new dress and whatever else." He wags his finger at her, "You bought me a horse with gear and I told you I pay my debts. Besides I got the better deal." Ruby says, "How do you figure that, I didn't pay that much for the horse?" "All you get is to see me riding that thing," He folds his arms across his chest. "I get to see you in that new dress."

“Then I guess you’ll be pleasantly surprised as I bought three new dresses, which will be ready tomorrow, plus these pants,” she spins around showing them off, “and riding clothes and a new leather jacket…wow I got a lot! I also got some pretty new uh, lacey, satiny things, that go under the dresses, those you can see later. ” She says with a sly smile. “Hey, what’s your favorite color anyway?” "Red. But a green dress would match with your eyes and be just the thing for your hair." He says and reaches out and touches the edge of her hair.

“Please be careful, I won’t be there to stop any run away coaches this time.” Ruby has a look of concern on her face. She gives him a kiss then says, “So promise me, please, you’ll try to be careful and not do anything foolish…” "No coaches tonight, just horses. And I'll be careful. No promises on foolish though" he finishes with a smile. Alright Jake, I'll see you later!" She says over her shoulder as she walks away, flipping her hair. Geez, I can't spend every minute of every day worried about someone, she thinks.

Back upstairs, there the tension in the room with Kate, Maggie and Sonoma is thick enough to cut with a knife. Kate says, "I know what you're thinking of, Maggie. Let me assure you, I wouldn't live here if this weren’t a good place. Dorita and Pedro are kind and generous, and from what I've seen it doesn't get wild here. Especially on a weeknight.

And I know how you feel about, well, Ladies of a Certain Profession. You know that I feel very much the same way, but since I came here I've had to open my mind to a few things. To these women, it seems really just another profession. And if I were to refuse to even speak to them, I would miss knowing the very sweet girls who live under this roof, and perhaps the chance to understand something that I so far cannot.

Sonoma is more than capable of filling in for you and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised here. And you'll get to see how others run their business, which is always a valuable experience. If you're amenable, why don't you go on downstairs with Sonoma and she can show you what you'd need to do."

Maggie exclaims, “But Katherine this hotel employs prostitutes! You may be able to dismiss that but I cannot. Prostitution is a vile and disgusting institution that is nothing more than another type of slavery. It is dehumanizing towards women, forcing them to take Aphrodite’s most precious gift and corrupt it in the indulgence of men’s every whim. It is wrong to make women parade around in little to no clothing and be forced to spend time in the act of fornication. Harlots are made to fulfill every vile request of any man that may desire them, oblivious to any diseases or hygiene problems that the man may have. And all so that some rich saloon owner can line his own pockets with most of the money that changes hands.”

Sonoma waits for Maggie to finish her rant and then replies, “Mrs. Whipple, you have very accurately described what goes on over at the Palace Saloon. Most of what you said is also true of the Long Branch and Gay Lady. However, it bears no resemblance to what transpires here at the El Parador.

The women who rent rooms here do not work for my parents they work for themselves. They are always appropriately attired while in the Cantina. They are not forced to do anything or be with anyone who they do not wish to. We provide them with a clean and safe place to work and will permanently bar from this establishment any person who attempts to mistreat them.

Your choice of the word ‘dehumanize’ is very interesting, as we are not human. Wood elves tend to view sexuality from a different perspective than you humans do and it is inappropriate for you to apply your human standards to us. Do not judge us until you get to know us. Katherine's suggestion is a good one, I think three days here would certainly help to expand your outlook.

And while we are on the subject of race, what other employment would you suggest for my friends? You own a business here in town. If one the wood elves who works here had approached you for a job at the Lone Star would you have hired her?” My friend Angelica has a four-year old son to support as well as a two-year-old daughter living with her mother that she also supports. Both of the other women whose profession you disapprove of send the majority of the money they make back to her families in Mexico, who would otherwise starve without it. Would you have people live in poverty rather than make their own choice in life?

Maggie has no immediate response. Sonoma says, "Come, let us go speak to my mother. If you still have a problem with being in the Cantina with my friends then you could stay in the kitchen which would free my mother up to wait on the tables."

"Go on down, Maggie, and see for yourself." Kate kissed her on the forehead. "We can talk again when I get back from the Lone Star tonight." As Maggie and Sonoma left, Kate leaned over and whispered quickly to the young wood elf. "She has been under enormous stress, and she's very close to breaking down completely. I know because I've been in the exact same situation. Take her ranting with a grain of salt. It's about her world coming apart, and she's wrapping herself in what she thinks she knows, trying to protect herself."

Sonoma nodded and closed the door. Katherine sighed deeply and changed into a simple skirt with the barest hint of a bustle and a plain blouse. She pulled a dark shawl over her shoulders and curled up in the chair by the window. A few minutes later there was a knock on her door.

Ruby heads up to Katherine's room. She knocks on her door. "Kate? Are you here? I'm going to take your advice and see Chumbley. Do you want to come with me? And even if you don't come with me I'll need help getting ready tonight. Will you help?"

"I'm here Ruby," Kate called out, tired. "Come in if you like. I think you can handle Chumbley. Just let me know when you're back and I'll give you a hand." "Alright, Kate, I'm just going to go then. Try to get some rest." Ruby isn't sure she should push the issue with Kate. If Kate wanted to talk she would. Kate dabbed at her eyes, picked up Tom's picture and wrapped herself more tightly in her shawl.

Nanuet waits for Jake outside already saddled up with rifle in hand. "Mr. Jake, I am starting to enjoy your company. I am ready to ride with you again." Nanuet looks over his shoulder and between two buildings you can see the outline of a canine like creature and the light reflecting off a pair of intelligent eyes. "Ready Maska?'

Chester returns from the stamping mill. He tells Jake "We got there in time. Hubbard brought the load in and got it ready for processing then locked up for the day. It will be the first load processed when they start up again tomorrow morning." Chester then laughs and adds "And it felt great for his clerk to see me coming in with a load of valuable ore on the same day that he fired me." Chester gets his horse. Grant Keebler gets three other horses from the El Parador stable for himself, Samson Hill and Will Hickey to ride. The six of them (and the wolf) ride out of town to the northeast. Chester reloads his weapons before the group leaves for the mine. He rides alongside Jake, "Mr. Cook, about how far is it to the mine?" Jake answers, "Five miles by horse over mountain roads, figure 1 to 2 hour’s round trip."

Ruby's first stop looking for Chumbley is the Alhambra. She finds him there eating his dinner alone. "Hi!" She says chipperly to him, sitting at his table. "Did you enjoy the trial today?" He says "Oh yes, Miss West, it was very interesting. I had heard about 'Hanging Nat' Isby but had never seen him in action before! The circuit judge that handles Tombstone isn't nearly as strict. Imagine, getting five years just for shooting at Wyatt Earp! And your friend getting a year just for trying to toss out a drunk! Remind me never to cross paths with that judge as a defendant.

I'm really glad I stuck around. I had originally planned to head back to Tombstone this morning but stayed the extra day for court. I'm glad I did, I still had thirty-five papers left and managed to sell them all to the crowd on their way out of the Comique. I also picked up six more advertisements today. We may need to expand the paper from eight pages to twelve at this rate."

She replies, Yes, he certainly did seem strict didn't he? Poor Job, what horrible lies were said about him today. I can't believe that judge would believe such things! And what that girl said about me, I cried all afternoon about it. Why would anyone be so mean? But I was thinking, since your paper always prints the truth, maybe I could help straighten out the story..."

"Plus, I think I can help you with another story, a big one I'm sure. But first why don't you tell me what you were planning on printing about trial."

Chumbley says, "Oh, you don't have to worry Miss. West. I plan to print just the full testimony of the Earps and the Judge, after all, they are all public officials and there should be a public written record of what they say. Beyond that, I was just going to paraphrase what the defendants said. I don't think it's necessary to print the rest of it.

I would never go printing any lies about you. I also wouldn't print those lies and gossip about the Lone Star. After all, Mr. Whipple was one of the first people to buy an advertisement from me for the paper. It was an ad about you in face. You know, I should probably check in on him again to see if he wants to place another one. Now, what is this big story?"

"Well, I am relieved to hear that you won't be printing anything about any "new" profession of mine, you know I'm only a singer," she says smiling. "Well, did you hear about the stage coach that ran into town today? I was on it. I could tell you what happened, if you're interested that is." Chumbley is extremely interested and orders up drinks for both himself and says, "Please tell me what happened? I especially want to know about how you managed to lose the horse team but still ride down Main Street."

"Well, we were being chased by some extremely bad people, maybe even some members of," she looks around then whispers, "the cowboy gang." Ruby proceeds to tell Chumbley about what happened, leaving out anything incriminating, and tells of how brave and strong MacNaulty was and how heroic Jake was for almost sacrificing himself to save them and how in the end Ruby climbed underneath the stage and how they all steered it together.

"And the Earps are extremely angry over the near death of Morgan and are fairly sure they know just who was behind the attack and will be delivering justice in a timely manner." "Oh but Chumbley, even though people know I was on the coach, please don't say I told you all this. I know you only want to print the truth, so I figured I would tell you but I don't want any bad men after me."

Chumbley thanks Ruby for the information and says that he will be certain to leave her name out of the story. His final comment is "If you still have those twisted rifles drop they by before I leave tomorrow morning. I'm sure my editor will want to see them, he may even want to get an artist to draw them to print in the next edition.

Ruby heads back to the Cantina. It is still a little early to get ready so takes a nap, not wanting to bother Kate. When she awakes she grabs everything she will need to get ready and heads to Kate's room. She knocks on the door and Kate lets her in.

"Kate, thank you for helping me get ready tonight. I want to look extra special. I'm going to wear my favorite dress, my red one," she throws the dress on Kate's bed. "And I want to do something different with my hair, plus get the knots out from this morning. You're really sweet to help me, you know." Ruby starts getting undressed and Kate quickly turns her back. Once she has underclothes on she says, "Ok, you can turn back around now," with a laugh. "Let's do my hair."

As Kate is doing her hair Ruby cautiously asks, " Is everything ok with you? You seem out of sorts."

Kate kept pulling the brush through Ruby's hair, carefully working out the knots. "Everything's as ok at it ever is, dear. It's just been a very long day with no chance to rest. I needed time to sit quietly and think, as much as would rather avoid thinking about what happened this morning. I hate that I helped kill someone, and even worse, I used magic to do it."

"Yes, we have had some very busy and, let's just say, exciting days lately. But Kate," Ruby turns to her friend, putting her hand on hers, "you did what you had to do. Listen there are other ways to get out of trouble. But sometimes you get into a situation and it’s your only choice, the other person isn't willing and there isn't anything you can do about it. You are a genuinely good person and I'm sure it's eating you up, having to kill someone. I don’t like having to kill someone either, you saw me the day at the caves. I try to avoid situations like that at all costs. So maybe we should try to make that a plan from now on, huh? And maybe you can work with Mr. Gonzales on some spells that will help with that.” Ruby turns back to facing forward. “Can you put it up or something? My hair that is.”

"Yes, I can put it up." Kate worked quietly; smoothly pulling Ruby's hair back from her face and pinning it up, but letting the hair in the back hang in loose curls. Her own twisted and tucked style would be out of place on Ruby. She left a few tendrils to curl around Ruby's face. "There," she said, handing Ruby the small mirror. "That should do."

"Oh Kate, you did a great job! Now help me with my corset please." She stands up and when Kate comes towards her Ruby hugs her tight. "I thought you might need that," she smiles. "Now, let's make this tight shall we? I want to be extra tempting tonight." Kate starts tugging on her corset. Ruby had the feeling Kate was used to the constraints of corsets, among other things. "Did I tell you Jake is taking me out tonight? To celebrate his silver mine deal."

"I hope some place beside the Palace is open after the Lone Star closes," Kate laughed. "Hold on to something Ruby, this isn't going to be comfortable." Ruby took hold of the doorknob, and Kate put her knee against Ruby's back side and leaned all her weight back, pulling on the corset strings until they could go no tighter. "Now let's get your dress on and get going. I feel like playing the piano."

Ruby and Kate make their way downstairs. Sonoma is in the main room of the Cantina waiting on a few tables. From the kitchen they hear the voices of Dorita and Maggie. The room is fairly crowded. Jake, Nanuet and Chester do not appear to have returned yet.

They see Riley, who hasn't been around much the last two days. He is sitting by himself at the bar drinking a glass of whiskey. Ruby approaches Riley. "Anymore strange dreams Mr. Riley?" She takes a seat next to him. "Or any luck finding your friend?" No, I've been wandering around the hills for the past few days looking for him. Saw at least a dozen men out riding around up there but there don't seem to be any Apache anywhere.

"Yeah it must be tough to find someone out in the desert. I still think Nanuet is your best bet. You should ask him to help you." Ruby pauses. "Interested in coming out to the Lone Star tonight?" "Sure, one saloon is as good as another," is his response. "Great. We'll be leaving in a little while or you can just meet us there, either way we'll be glad you did."

 

[Silver Moon]

Chapter 93 “Fetching the Prospectors", January 10th, 1882:

During a portion of the ride out Jake moves his horse along side Nanuet's so the can speak somewhat privately. "So Indian, I've been noticing that Sonoma is responding to your, how can I put this, overtures. It looks like things are well with you two. I'm happy for you. If you were to someday ask her to be your wife would your own people be displeased because she isn't of your tribe?"

He replies, "Yes, Sonoma and I are also forming a personal bond. She is a lovely girl and smarter and wiser than her years. She has a fire that burns within her also, very inspiring. My people would not have a problem. I am from a small tribe and as things began to change recently" he pauses, clears his throat then continues "and we were forced to leave our lands we have mingled with other tribes to survive. Mostly the Apache, but others as well. I think they would welcome her warmly."

Jake says, "Sonoma certainly is a willful one. There is a fire in that girl, no doubt about it." Nanuet answers, “That she is. I have never spent much time with women, I must admit. My role as a scout and a warrior had me spending many days away, mostly on my own. Her will is strong but it is also straight. She and her family are good people, they work hard and they see the world with open eyes."

"I've been meaning to ask you," Jake is looking off the trail aways at an animal moving just at the edge of sight, "If you weren't around should I be worried about your wolf?" He eyes the wolf warily. Nanuet knows bringing the wolf closer to the horses is not the best idea, but he explains to Jake "The wolf is my companion, a linked spirit. She and I have a bond and she is much smarter than the average animal. I figured her company could prove useful to us, she has a keen sense of smell and another pair of eyes doesn't hurt either. Don't worry, she won't harm you. Unless I tell her to of course." Nanuet attempts to wink, but shows that the gesture is uncommon to him with the result being a poor imitation.

Jake asks, "What are you going to be doing with yourself? When you are not getting me out of a mess that is." Nanuet chuckles, then speaks slowly, "I am still not sure. Life on a reservation is not one that I am willing to participate in. I know I am not welcome most places I go, but when I spoke with Ms. Katherine today out at Flint's mine she made me think. I should not allow people to judge me without knowing me. I have decided to try and live amongst people, here for now. Kate and myself have also discussed buying up some more land with Flint and trying our hand at ranching. I have worked with horses before and know them well. I think that is the path I will walk. And Sonoma will require a lot of my attention as well and I think she would like to stay near her family."

Jake asks, "What was it you and Sonoma were trying to tell me about earlier today at the bank?" Nanuet thinks for a moment, trying to remember what Sonoma had mentioned. "Oh yes, as things were um, winding down, Sonoma had gone back and searched the mens' bodies. She found a new $20 bill on each one of them. She figured that someone must have made a fairly large withdrawal recently and paid those men that morning. We were wondering if you noticed anyone doing that kind of business at your bank." Jake says, "I didn't see one prior to our encounter with those outlaws. I wonder if the banks keep any track of serial numbers...." He doesn't finish the thought out loud.

The ride out to the mine turns out to be uneventful, but then again, so was the morning run. Jake is especially careful riding through the section with the winding hills. They arrive at the mine site and get a warm greeting by Humphrey Lewis and Ralph Elliott who ask Jake for the details of the negotiations. Jake shares all the details of the day’s negotiations, and the ride back to town as well. He also explains that Seawell wishes to have a drink with them and explain his side of the story. "All in all gentlemen, I think you are in a better position now." How could they not be, he thinks, with me as a partner.

As they get the horses ready for the ride back Jake talks to Chester Martin. "You're not in the army any more. You need to start thinking for yourself and tell others what to do instead of waiting to be told. That is if you want to make something more substantial of yourself beyond a bank guard. Think about it. You're a capable fellow. I'll throw what opportunities I can your way, but you have to be willing to take a risk and stretch yourself." He pats him on the back. "Let's get these miners back to Promise City, eh?"

Chester says, "I'll think about it, Mr. Cook. But it isn’t easy. I need structure, I guess. That's one of the reasons I joined the Army. I'm ready to go." Chester strides over to the miners, "OK, gentlemen. It's time to get back to the city. Are you ready? It'll be easier while the sun's still out." The trio that rode out with Nanuet, Jake and Chester stay at the site to guard it. The two that worked at Brown's IceHouse pass their horse on to Lewis and Elliott to ride back. Grant Keebler keeps his horse a the site with him.

The five start to ride back just as the sun begins to set over the mountains and hills to the west. Jake adjusts his hat and tries to settle into the saddle, "Alright Chester, you rode this trail earlier and you are the soldier boy so tell us what to do to get back in one piece. Ok?" “Well, I'd have a lot more people to start wit'." Chester laughs. "First one of us, probably me, should ride ahead of the group. That way, I can scout ahead. If I get attacked, the rest of you would have some warning. Other than that, keep your eyes and ears open and your weapons ready."

Chester moves ahead of the party about a hundred feet and maintains his position relative to the group. The first two miles go fine over the rocky but fairly open terrain. They then reach the mile with the curvy road around various hills. The sun has now set and it is beginning to get dark. Chester continues to maintain his lead in the front of the group. Chester notes the dying light and shortens his lead to about 50 feet. He also draws his Remington with his left hand. He tells himself, “If I wanted to spring an ambush this is where it would be. Be ready.”

The five of them continue to ride slowly and cautiously now that the light is receding. Chester continues to lead them. Jake speaks quietly here and there to the other three in the back, but nothing long or serious. Jake keeps looking around side to side, front and back. He watches Nanuet's face as well, thinking he'll start to notice trouble before I do. They follow the familiar trail, and though Jake imagines many ambushes ride continue to be uneventful.

The five men are little less than a mile from town, almost to the point where the stagecoach had reached the mountain base. As they pass the hill that Jake, Ruby and Flint had maneuvered around to get to the main road to town a rifle shot rights out. It came from the right, from the direction of the hill. He then sees a flash as another shot rings out from the hilltop and Ralph Elliott's horse falls to the ground.

Jake immediately takes in the surroundings. The hill has small trees and shrubbery over it and whoever fired the shot most likely has some cover on the top. The road trail they are on turns left around 200 feet ahead and if they reach that they will then merge onto the main road to town and probably be out of the line of fire. But in the meanwhile, other than some larger rocks off to the left, that could provide enough cover for a man but not a horse, there is nowhere else to hide.

Jake rides over to where Elliott fell and puts his horse between them and the hilltop. He hops off the horse, "Elliot, are you alright?!" Nanuet wheels his horse around and spurs him to where Jake and the down horse and rider are. "No time now, they have higher ground and cover. Let's get him to town. Here, lift him up and put him in front of me on my horse. No time to waste! The rest of you ride! Quickly towards town, GO!" Nanuet unslings his rifle and shoots in the direction of the attacks.

Jake quickly complies with Nanuet's commands and does what he can to get Ralph Elliott onto the Indian's horse. The he climbs onto his own, trying to stay low and race towards town. Elliott says that he is okay, just shaken up. He quickly climbs up onto Nanuet's horse. The four men ride on, with Chester firing some shots up behind them. Before the get the 200 feet ahead and behind the bend four more shots fire from the hilltop. Two strike the roadway, one hits Jake's horse but gets imbedded in the saddlebag and barely breaks the skin on the animal itself. The other one strikes Humphrey Lewis in the lower leg but he keeps riding as though nothing had happened.

The men make it to the roadway and start to head to town. They get no more than a tenth of a mile when they see a large group of men taking up the road immediately ahead of them. The four humans cannot make out in detail who these people are but can see that they are blocking the roadway.

These men have a horse drawn wagon with them that is stopped on the road and pointed in the direction of Promise City. In addition to two men on the wagon Nanuet can make out four mounted riders and three pack mules fastened to the back of the wagon. Two of the mounted riders and one of the men in the wagon are holding rifles and pointing them back in the direction of Nanuet and his friends. Nanuet notes that there are enough fair sized trees on both sides of the roadway to afford some degree of cover if necessary.

Chester rides back to the group. "We need to get under cover quickly. I can't tell whether these are more bandits or not. Is anyone good at sneaking around? If anyone is, I'd like to try to get closer to them so we can figure out." He rides to the left behind the trees. He dismounts and gets his Spencer from the saddle holster he bought earlier. The ex-soldier advances as quietly as he can, putting a tree between him and the wagon. Chester calls out, "Who are you? What are you doing on the road?"

Two very large and powerful looking rifles swing in Chester's direction, one from a man on horseback the other from a man in the wagon. One of the men on horseback says "What are we doing on the road? It's a public road isn't it? We're on our way to Promise City. We stopped when we heard gunfire. What is going on back there?" Chester lowers his weapon. "We just got ambushed back there and one of us got wounded. I'm lowering my rifle now. Can you do the same?"

He replies, "Probably a good idea for you to if you don't want shot. Until we know who you all are and what's going on we'll still keep ours out if it's all the same to you. Maybe you did get ambushed but that doesn't mean we're going to let that happen to us too." "I don't blame you. My name's Chester Martin. I'm staying at the El Parador in town. What can I do so we can all get into town, before whoever is after my people catches up to us?"

Nanuet looks to Jake who seems to be unusually silent. He hears Chester speak and lowers his rifle and echoes his new companion. "We are all men who live in town. We mean you no harm. We were ambushed and I have one man without a horse and another man shot who needs to see a doctor. Please let us pass." The voice yells back to Nanuet "Well, first of all you can tell us who you are and why somebody is after you. You say you have wounded? Bring them forward and we can put them in the wagon. All of your group can come forward too but you'd better not have any weapons out when they approach us. And how much further is it to the town?"

Chester can now see this group better. All six men seem to have a military bearing about them although there is no evidence that they are currently enlisted. The horses also look to be the type used by U.S. Cavalry units although the saddles are civilian and not military issue. He recalls that cavalry soldiers who receive honorable discharges are given the option of purchasing their own horse from the government. He sees that the wagon is fairly well packed up although a tarp covers most of whatever is inside. Based upon the fact that they have pack mules with them he tentatively concludes that they are ex-soldiers turned prospectors.

"This is taking too long. If it goes bad I'll create a distraction." Jake whispers to Nanuet. With that he nonchalantly moves the duster clear of his right holster and walks quickly leading his horse towards the wagon and the men. "OK, I'm coming out." He shows his right hand out to be empty as me moves quickly towards them. "Town is less than a mile away." He tells the men as he approaches. "Me and my friends are mine owners and coming back into town. There are shooters on the hill just out of sight." Jake keeps moving and watches the guns in front of him warily.

The leader of these men says "You say you have wounded? We can carry them in our wagon. Get your group up here, there's safety in numbers and if anyone takes a shot at my group they'll come to regret it." "I am coming forward as well." Nanuet booms as he slings he rifle over his shoulder, holding one hand high as he uses the other to guide the reigns, trying to keep both hands in sight.

"I have a second rider on my horse with me as well, his horse was shot and went down." Nanuet then turns to the other riders, "Mr. Humphrey, if you can continue to ride you should listen to them and get to their wagon." As Nanuet gets behind Jake he says in a quite, low voice "These men are or were soldiers, I am not sure they will take kindly to me." "Don't worry, I'll stand by ya." Jake says quietly back. "Just don't offer to marry one o' their daughters." He snickers. Nanuet smiles in response to Jake's chuckle, but says to no one in particular "I never understand white man's humor."

As Nanuet gets closer one of the men on horseback says "Captain, it's an Indian!" One of the other men says "Calm down Burritt, I can see. He's with the others, probably their guide." Nanuet raises his arms higher. "I am an Indian, but I have no weapons in hand and don't wish to cause any trouble. I am indeed a ranger and guide of these parts." Another man speaks up, apparently the leader of the group, and says "Put you man in the wagon and let's move on."

Nanuet does what he can to comply with the man's orders, all the while trying not to turn his back to any of these men. He helps Humphrey Lewis into the wagon and waits for any further instructions. "He's in, we're ready to move."

Chester slings his rifle onto his back. He grimaces. More ex-soldiers. I hope they haven't talked to Gamble recently. "I'm coming out as well." He goes back to the miners and tells them what's going on. Then Chester gets his horse and leads it out into the open. "The others are behind me." If they let him, he walks up to the man in charge. "Captain, it's nice to meet you. Chester Martin, at your service."

The one who had been addressed as captain orders two of the men to fall further back and guard their rear. Jake, Nanuet and Chester note that the driver and two rear guards appear to be in their twenties while the other three men looks to be in their forties. Chester rides over to Jake. "Mr. Cook, these gentlemen look like they've left the Army recently. They may even be prospectors."

Chester also notices that the three younger men and the once called Captain are carrying the current U.S. Army issued firearms while the leader of the group and the other older man have a combination of non-regulation civilian firearms and some older model military weapons. The Captain replies "Pleased to meet you Mr. Martin, names Andrew Mizner. I'll handle the rest of the introductions once we know we're safe."
They proceed on towards town with minimal conversation.

 

[Silver Moon]

Chapter 94 “Conrad Booth, William Whipple, and Louise”, January 10th, 1882:

The gambler Conrad Booth is sitting by himself at another table having supper. Katherine remembers that Booth runs a gambling table over at the Long Branch Saloon, the saloon where the Texas bounty hunter Irby Cole had been staying. Katherine took a deep breath and walked over to Booth's table. "Mr. Booth? I'm Mrs. Kale. How do you do?" she asked politely. "I understand you run a table over at the Long Branch?"

Why yes Mrs. Kale, we met a few days ago when Dorita insisted that you bring your money over to my vault. I indeed run a table there. I would be more than happy to let you play tonight. A beautiful woman is always welcome at my table. I'll even spot you $ 50 in chips to get you started." Katherine laughed. "I only learned to play poker three hours ago, Mr. Booth. I don't think I'm quite ready to play professionally." She nodded toward a chair. "If I may?"

Booth nodded and she sat. "I should have remembered you, of course. I've met so many people in the last two weeks that they're all beginning to blend together. I wondered if you could answer a question for me. I understand a man named Irby Cole was staying at the Long Branch last week. Would he still happen to be there?"

He replies, "Yes, there's a Texan named Cole staying there. I wasn't sure if that was his first name or last. The Long Branch doesn't rent out rooms but he's an old friend of one of the girls there, Hildy Jackson, and has been sharing her room. I haven't had much interaction with him, he's been playing poker each night, but at Norman Wilkie's table. I did talk to him about Arcade's Gang. He's in town to try to get the reward Hubbard posted for them. I told Cole he was wasting his time, that Arcade's Gang left two months ago and weren't the ones who killed Hubbard's men.

Listen, even though you don't know the game you're still welcome to sit at my table. I'm sure you'd bring me good luck. After all the accusations flying around in court today you may want to skip going back to the Lone Star, I imagine it won't be a very pleasant place to be tonight what with the Whipples fighting with each other. We have a piano at the Long Branch too and I'm sure that Dooley Wilson would be willing to share it with you."

Across the room, Ruby keeps her eyes on Kate talking to Mr. Booth. They had thrown him out of the Comique today after the trial was over, saying he was barred, probably for cheating at cards. Ruby thought of Jake and wondered where he was, it was getting late. Ruby glances back over, decides Kate can handle herself, and orders a drink.

Kate replies to him, "You're very kind, but I think I should go to work as usual. I would hate for Evan Adair and Miss Foreman to believe they made any kind of impact with their lies. Perhaps Sunday evening when I don't work I could stop by and observe your game, if you can wait that long for your luck?" she laughed. I hope you won't mind my asking, and you don't have to answer of course, but why aren't you allowed in the Comique?"

He answers, “They say I was cheating at cards but the real reason is that I made the mistake of giving an answer to a question. A man at the table commented on my name and asked if I was any relation to the man who shot President Lincoln. I said that I was a very distant relative and had never met the man. Turns out that both the man at the table and the Comique's manager Warren Watson were both Illinois Republicans and strong supporters of Lincoln. The next thing I know I'm accused of cheating and am barred from the place."

"I'm sorry to hear that. I've never cared for people who place their anger on the undeserving." Katherine paused a moment, finally realizing why Conrad Booth had looked so familiar. "When I was a little girl, my parents took me to Booth's Theatre in New York City to see Edwin Booth perform Shakespeare. It's where I first learned to love theatre. Unless I'm very much mistaken, your relation to the actor is far less distant."

He chuckles. "You are very perceptive. I'm Edwin Booth's illegitimate son. I was born out in California in 1853, a mere nine months after Booth had been in San Francisco on tour. My mother was a pretty teenage girl who worked at the theater as a costume seamstress. When I was born she was still enamored with the actor and was certain he would return to her at the completion of his world tour and marry her so she gave me his last name. Obviously that didn't happen, he's now on his second marriage to other women.

I only met the man once, around eight years back. I was twenty and went to his theater in New York. He gave me an audience but did not believe I was his son, even though I was the spitting image of photographs of him at the same age. He had no recollection at all of my mother, not that I'll ever tell her that, she still believes he will some day come back to her.

He assumed I was only after his money and that was the year he was in extreme financial difficulty and lost his theater. I've continued to follow his career. He is now successful again, having converted his New York residence to become the Players' Club. Last year the newspapers all printed the story of Billy the Kid dying in my house and my name and occupation were mentioned in most stories. I was hoping that he would read that and contact me, but I guess that was just wishful thinking."

She says, "I don't know how he could have doubted you. A fifteen-year-old memory was enough for me to discover it. Forgive me for saying so, but I'm certain you weren't the first person to claim to he his son or daughter, and probably not the only one who was telling the truth. But really, your face is your proof. Perhaps it was wishful thinking, but I for one am a firm believer in those kinds of thoughts. Someday you might see your father again, and if you're lucky he'll have his eyes open.

“Do you always tell strangers your secrets? Or just the ones you think might be lucky?" He says, "Actually I've never told that to anyone else in Arizona. But it was in response to your direct question and if I go around lying how will I ever be able to regain a reputation for honesty? I'll make you a deal though. You keep my secret and I'll keep yours." Kate's eyes widened a bit. "I'll respect your confidence, of course. But what secret of mine do you have to keep?"

Booth lowers his voice to a faint whisper and replies "Why the secret that you and old Mr. Gonzalas are having a relationship. It's been rather obvious the way you two look at each other.” Katherine turned a deep red but found she chuckling at the sheer absurdity of it. "Having a relationship? You're teasing me, you must be. That's not common gossip is it?"

He replies "No, just something that I noticed. I've dined here twice a day for the last fifteen months and it's amazing what you can deduce by just by being in the same place and being observant. You two really need to be more careful and discreet. I'm sure Mr. Adair would love to spread something like that around town. The age different wouldn't be the problem, it would be problem of the mixed race relationship. If you don't believe me just ask Jeremiah Peck over at the brick yard."

Booth then says, “Most people would assume it to be your typical May-December romance, but I see that you are still in mourning and I doubt you would be looking for anything like that yet. So I assume what you have is a teacher-student relationship and that he is teaching you to be a wizard like himself."

She whispered back. "Dorita trusts you, so I'll trust you as well.” He says, “Dorita trusts me to a point. She still suspects there might be some truth to the card cheating allegation so I doubt she would ever let me gamble here. That's fine as far as I am concerned. I come here to dine in peace and gambling here would prevent me from being able to do that.” Kate says, “Mr. Gonzales is a kind gentleman with unusual skills to pass on, and I've always been an eager student." He answers, I wish I had an aptitude for that. A few spells would really help my card game, as I suspect it does for another gambler in town. But then again that would be cheating.

Kate says, "I find you full of surprises, Mr. Booth, and I'm rather glad I came over to speak with you. I think I will come over to the Long Branch on Sunday." He says, “That would be a true pleasure. Sunday's are their quiet day but I still manage to get in a few games of cards each evening. The Long Branch is one of the nicer saloons in town although some of the clientele tend to be a little rougher around the edges than those at the Lone Star. Your friends would also be welcome there too, they do not have racial restrictions. The saloon's only rule is that you must check your firearms at the bar. I think you'd like the saloon owner, she's also named Kate.”

Kate says, "It seems wrong to have to sneak to visit my friend. I consider each member of the family here to be my friends. Why should the old gentleman cause any more gossip than Dorita, Pedro, or Sonoma?" She shook her head. "But you're right, of course, and I take your warning. I should let you finish your dinner, and it's almost time for me to leave. I'm sure you can introduce me to everyone worth knowing over at the Long Branch." She stood up and offered her hand. "I'm sure I'll see you tomorrow, Mr. Booth. I've enjoyed our talk." He takes her hand and kisses it. He then looks into her eyes and loudly says "Parting is such sweet sorrow." Then in a softer voice "Of course, that exchange may get some other gossip circulating."

Kate went over to Ruby and told her she'd forgotten something upstairs, and then went up and put on the bustle pillow before she went back downstairs to Ruby. Sonoma heads op to Katherine’s room and knocks "Katherine are you there? "Yes, Sonoma," she said, just as she was adjusting her skirt from belting on the bustle pillow. She stepped over and opened the door. "Come in, dear."

Sonoma opens the door and closes it right behind her Kate sees that her Great Grandfather has been assisting her in disguising herself as she now appears to be a very beautiful white skinned human however she is still dressed as she normally would be to work at the cantina. "I assumed that Mr. Wimple would never accept the idea of a wood elf being employed by Tom and Maggie. I also don't want people to believe that I'm working somewhere else and causing a problem for my parents because of it, however I don't believe that I have anything that would be appropriate to wear. "What should I do?"

"Wear something of mine, of course. I'm not much bigger than you, really." Kate opened her trunk and pulled out a white blouse and dark brown skirt. "The skirt might be a little long, but it would only take me a few moments to tack it up with needle and thread, and tomorrow I can sew a new hem on the bottom. You'll need a new name, as well." Sonoma answers, “As far as names go I'm Mexican remember? My full name is Maria Francesca Dorita Eldora Justina Louise Isabella Consuella Sonoma Figueres. Do you think any of those will do?” Kate states, "I'm sure Louise would do just fine. And don't forget, the owners of the Lone Star's name is Whipple. Although I don't expect you'll need to say it often."

Sonoma changes quickly and sets up her hair in a very simple pulled up bun that changes her appearance quickly you would really need to know who she was very well to recognize her Now to get rid of my accent. She pauses and then states “What will you be drinking tonight? Can I get you something else?” Kate is amazed to hear a perfect Bostonian accent coming out of Sonoma’s mouth "So do you think I can pass?" she says with a wink and a smile. Kate answers, "Absolutely. I think you could pass in Boston. Let's go downstairs and join Ruby, Louise. That's going to be strange." The ladies left Kate's room and she locked the door behind her.

Ruby wonders what is taking so long as she drinks her whiskey, She is anxious to get to work and get it over with. It had been a long time since she went out and just had some fun and she was looking forward to celebrating with Jake.

On the way downstairs ‘Louise’ says, “I will need to go into the kitchen before we leave and let Maggie know who I am. It should be interesting as I am not truly sure how she will take the change in my appearance nor how to introduce myself to Tom. I will also need a story of how I have come to town without showing up on the stage and why I know you. This is becoming more complicated by the minute” Kate says, "This town is small enough that everyone knows everyone, isn't it? Could we say that you rode over from Tombstone yourself, and that I met you there over the three months I lived there?"

Ruby sees Kate walking with a strange women. They approach her. "Hi Kate... and you are?" she says looking over the unfamiliar woman. "And where is Sonoma? We need to get going soon." For a moment Kate was about to remind Ruby how Mr. Gonzales had helped Nanuet, but she wouldn't remember. "Why don't we go in the kitchen and I'll tell you all about it." Kate then added to herself “And pray Maggie doesn't have a magic prejudice.” Ruby is confused but follows Kate into the kitchen. "What's going on?"

Kate put a smile on her face. "Dorita, Maggie, I hope everything is going well back here. Sonoma wasn't sure how your father would react to having a wood elf working in the Saloon, so we made a few modifications." She moved over and slipped her arm around Maggie's waist. "So this is Louise, who rode over from Tombstone to bring me a few small items I left in my rooms there. She has graciously agreed to do me a favor and stay for a few days to help out at the Lone Star."

"I didn't know you had a friend from Tombstone coming, where is she staying?" Ruby says questionably. "Won't Sonoma be mad about not working at the Lone Star?" "This is our Sonoma, Ruby," she answered, giving Maggie a little squeeze. "Sometimes heaven finds ways to help us when we need it most," she said quietly to Maggie. "I'll take care of everything, you don't need to worry."

Dorita and Sonoma exchange a few sentences with each other in Spanish. The younger elf turned human then says in the Boston accent "I'm ready. We should be going." Ruby had a confused look on her face but wasn't going to argue. "Should we get going soon? That way you can show Louise around and show her what to do." Kate says, "I'd hoped to wait for Jake, but it's getting late. Let's be on our way."

The three women make their way over to the Lone Star Dance Hall and Saloon. It is a few minutes after 8:00 PM so they are running a little late. They arrive to find the place is busy. Poker games are already running at both Job Kane and Tony Lucky's tables. Tom Whipple is standing behind the bar and instead of wearing his usual work shirt he has on a suit and bow tie. Jeff Mills is busy waiting the tables. A well-dressed young woman who they have never met is seated at the piano playing some tunes and doing so rather badly. At the sight of the women Tom walks out from the bar and approaches the piano. He tells the woman "Our regular musicians have arrived now Alexsis, you can turn over the keyboard to her."

Before any of the women can get to work Tom escorts all three of them over to another table to introduce them to his father. The resemblance to Tom is quite noticeable, with the same stocky build, round-shaped face and blue eyes. Rather than having just a mustache like Tom the senior Whipple has a neatly cropped beard as well. His hair is the same medium-brown color as Tom and Maggie's although he beard and sideburns are a slightly darker shade hinting to the fact that he probably applies something to dye it darker rather than having it turn white. He dressed in a nice suit, with a western style tie, a pair of Colt revolvers on his gunbelt, and a rather elaborate cowboy hat on his head.

Ruby extends her hand to the man. "Ruby West, Mr. Whipple. Enjoying your stay in Promise City so far?" The elder Whipple takes Ruby's hand and kisses it, stating in a Texas accent "My pleasure to meet you Miss West, I've heard that you have a voice that melts mens souls. And I've only been in town a few hours but it is always good to visit with my son." "My, Mr. Whipple, aren't you the gentleman? Thank you for the sweet compliment, I only hope I can live up to your expectations. I'll have to sing extra special in your honor tonight."

Slick, this one, Kate thought to herself as he greeted Ruby. But he raised Tom and Maggie, so there must be more to him than this. "I'm Mrs. Katherine Kale, sir. How do you do?" she asked politely. "Quite well young lady. It is my deepest pleasure to meet you. I hear that you are a master of all of classics and that your piano playing is among the best in this town. My deepest condolences over your recent loss. I lost my own spouse to illness a few years back as well and it is indeed a difficult situation to recover from."

"Thank you. The last months have been very difficult. It was quite a shock, as his letters had given no hint of any return of his ill health." Kate paused for a moment and took a deep breath. "May I introduce Miss Louise Baker?" Kate gestured to Sonoma. "She's agreed to help us out for the next few evenings." "A pleasure to meet you my dear," William Whipple states and as he tips his hat in her direction. He then turns to his son and says "With so many attractive and respectable women working for you it is no wonder that the other saloons in town are becoming afraid of their competition."

"Oh, you can believe they are Mr. Whipple. Now Kate, if you're ready, why don't you show Louise around and then we can start some entertainment." Kate smiled her goodbye to Tom's father and took Sonoma over to the bar. "There's not really much to know that you don't already. You've waited tables much longer than I have. Jeff Mills and Tom tend the bar. Usually Maggie and I trade off playing and serving, but since you don't play I'll probably be at the piano most of the night. Just let me know if you're having trouble or need a break, and I'll come help you." Katherine then sat down at the piano and began to play for Ruby.

Sonoma looks at Kate as she heads to the keyboard shaking her head to herself she thinks "she may never have seen me play in the week she's known me but does she really think that we have just kept a perfectly tuned instrument in the Cantina as a decoration?"

Sonoma scouts the room and takes in the surroundings following the traffic pattern that will allow her to make the most of her time. She notes which people are drinking heavily and adjusts to make sure that she hits their tables more often keeping mugs filled and suggesting the food that is more abundant verses what the kitchen is running low on. She is fast competent and in this saloon she has no trouble not only keeping up with the orders but predicting them as well

around 9:00 PM and Ruby finishes up her first set. Tom Whipple brings her and Katherine over to the table where Tony Lucky has just called for a break and introduces her to his cousin Teddy, who looks very much like a male version of Maggie. Katherine sees four men enter and sit at one of the tables. She knows these men all too well, as the are the worst 'pinchers' in the place, even attempting it after she had the magical bustle in place. Sonoma approaches their table to take a drink order.

Kate excused herself to Teddy and hurried over to meet Sonoma on her way over to the table. "Watch out," Kate whispered in her ear. "These men are pinchers. I'm sure you've had to deal with that sort of thing before, but I have a little extra defense against that if you'd rather I took care of them." Kate chuckled. "A bit of magic that makes it quite unpleasant for anyone who tries it."

“Ok if you want to take the order and I'll hit the stage,” Sonoma replies. With that she takes off the apron she's been wearing and sits at the keyboard she starts playing a fairly challenging classical piece that works perfectly as background music to the conversations going on throughout the saloon.

Kate took a bit of perverse pleasure in the pained faces of the "pinchers" as they lost the chance at their new quarry and discovered that she continued to wear the bustle pillow. She made certain the men had their drinks and took care of the rest of the room as she listened to Sonoma play. She got the feeling it was lucky for her that Sonoma was already employed, or Kate might have been out of a job.

When the piece ended, Kate approached the piano. "Your mother told me a tenant left the piano and no one at the Cantina played it. I should not have assumed that meant no one could. Please, feel free to play as long as you like. No one will care to hear me anymore," she laughed. The young woman replies, “Oh Kate I'm not that good I just haven't played in a while. And you know exactly how to keep up with Ruby which is something I don't envy you in the least.”

 

[Silver Moon]

Chapter 95 “Outlaw Hunting”, January 10th, 1882:

The horsemen all reach town without any further problem from outlaws. "Chester go tell the Marshall what happened!" Jake shouts to the ex-soldier. Jake turns to his elf companion and says "Nanuet, let's get these guy's to the doc." As they ride over with the newcomers Jake's expression is not pleasant as he says to Nanuet, "A fella could start to take this personal."

They arrive at the Doc Eaton's and the younger men help Humphrey and Elliott into the building. Jake looks to Nanuet and says, "Do we let this pass tonight, or do we head back there on foot and DO something about this?" Nanuet looks at Jake with fire in his eyes. Nanuet replies, "You have to ask? I am not enjoying being shot at any more than you, and if you are going to be doing business with this mine we need to make sure it's safe. I am ready when you are Mr. Jake!"

Chester spurs his horse to the Marshall's office. He leaps out of his saddle and races for the entrance. *Bang, bang, bang* "Marshall!" Marshall Earp shouts from inside, "What is it?" "Marshall, me and some others just got ambushed in the hills outside of town. Ralph Elliott and Humphrey Lewis are hurt. We took them over to the doctor's."

Nanuet and Jake head back to the El Parador and stable their mounts. They take any extra firearms and ammo that they can carry from their saddle bags and head back out towards the ambush site. Maska who was waiting just outside the lights of town lopes alongside the trail silently. They look for a spot to get off the trail and begin to discuss their tactics. "I couldn't see how many, but we will need to get alongside or behind them. They have the advantage with cover and higher ground, so we need to equalize it with surprise."

Chester returns to Doc Eaton's with Marshall Wyatt Earp and the Marshall heads inside The six men who rode to town with there are still outside of the office. The man leading the group of men asks Chester where a good place in town would be to stay and also to get a drink.

"I'm staying at the El Parador on the corner of Fremont and South. Another good place to try would be the Paradise City Hotel one block west on Allen and South. As far as drinking, there are a lot of saloons in town, but I recommend the Lone Star on Allen and Main. Thanks for helping us back into town, Mr. ..." Chester trails off, hoping the man would give him his name.

"Billy Comstock," he tells Chester. He then gestures to the two other older men and says "And these are two long-time friends of mine, Andrew Mizner and Elisha Whittemore. We met back during the War Between the States where we were in the Fifth Iowa Cavalry. Elisha and I retired from the Army a while back but Andrew is still active in the service."

Mitzner speaks up "I'm currently a Captain serving at Fort Stanton in south-central New Mexico Territory. My Colonel Dudley was kind enough to grant leave to me and three of my men to join up with my old friends." He then introduces Chester to Corporal Harrison Grier and Privates Gabriel Chapman and Charles Brookings. “Thank you for the suggestions. We'll head over to that hotel right now. If you're around that Saloon later I'll buy you a drink.”

"What a coincidence, I used to be a scout in the Fifth Cavalry out of Fort McPherson, Nebraska. It's nice meeting you gentlemen. I hope to see you at the Lone Star later. Good evening." Chester tips his hat, then goes inside the doctor's office to check on Humphrey. Seeing that he'll be fine, Chester tells Earp, that if the Marshall needs a statement later, he'll be over at the Lone Star.

Leaving the office, Chester lights a cigarette. He walks his horse back to the stables at the El Parador. He removes the saddle and brushes its coat. After taking care of his mount he goes back to his room, where he drops off his rifle and reloads his pistol. Then Chester strolls over on South and up Allen to the Lone Star.

Back at the Lone Star, Sonoma gets up from the keyboard and puts her apron back on "Play time is over I have drinks to serve." She smiles at Kate and heads out into the room swinging by the bar first to pick up 5 glasses of beer and heading to a table that will be ready to reorder at her arrival. Along the way she checks the rest of the room for dishes to clear and seeing if she needs to refill anyone else's food while she's at it

Job Kane's table decides to take a break. It appears that Neil Cassidy is having a very good night. Job introduces himself to Sonoma and orders up some food for the players at this table. Just as Katherine and Ruby are getting ready to play another set Ruby stops abruptly and whispers to Katherine "I just heard some noise coming from the kitchen. Everyone except Maggie is here in the main room and she's back at the El Parador." Sonoma also heads to the kitchen, not because she heard anything but to fill the food order for the table.

Sonoma opens the door to the kitchen and a puff of black smoke billows out into the main room. She sees that flames are coming out of a metal bucket on the floor beneath curtains of the window in that room and that the curtains have caught fire. The side door to the back alley is slightly ajar. Sonoma grabs the rinse water bucket that is at the doorway and tosses it onto the bucket that seems to be the origin of the fire. She then grabs the soup pot that is on the stove and douses the curtains enough to pull them down and dump them in the soup pot which she quickly covers with the wash basin

Katherine was heading over to the kitchen just as Sonoma opened the door. She saw the puff of black smoke come out and rushed after the other woman. Sonoma already had the fire out and the curtains ripped down by the time she arrived. There is a soot covered metal bucket under where the curtains had been and the side door is ajar. "Thank goodness you were here, dear. Did you see anyone?" Kate pulled the derringer out of her blouse and ran for the door and into the alleyway.

Sonoma exclaims, “Kate be careful this was defiantly set!” Sonoma takes a quick look at the kitchen making sure the fire is out then she goes over to Ruby, "Sing distract them otherwise this entire thing is going to be blown out of proportion keep the customer distracted quick!" Sonoma goes back into the kitchen and looks for Kate as she begins to pull things together again airing out the kitchen so the burning smell doesn't head into the saloon. Ruby looks quizzically at Sonoma. "What's going to be blown out of proportion? What did you find in the kitchen..." her voice trails off as Sonoma is already gone.

Kate heads into the back alleyway looking around. She doesn't see anyone. She heads east for thirty feet and gazes into the long wide back alley of the ten business of the city block between Main, Allen, Sierra and Fremont Streets. She looks specifically towards the Palace Saloon in the northeast corner, the Lone Star being in the southwest corner of that block. There are a few people gathered near the Palace Saloon's outhouses, but she has no way of knowing how long they've been there or from what direction they came.

Ruby looks around for Kate and when she doesn't see her she goes into the kitchen. Coughing and fanning the smell out of her face she looks around and sees the open back door. "Oh Kate," she says no one in, shaking her head. "Sonoma, can you please do some singing? I’m going to find Kate before she gets herself into trouble." She heads out the door.

Sonoma takes quick stock of the kitchen. She grabs a bowl and shakes some flour sugar salt baking power and dried fruit into it she dumps in a couple of eggs and milk and makes up a quick batch of fried biscuits. She piles these on to a plate and heads to the bar there she sprinkles them with some rum and lights it on fire, bringing it to the elder Whipple's table in a flaming display of food that Sonoma hopes will cover the smell of burnt curtains from the kitchen.

"Damn," Kate muttered. She immediately rejected the idea of asking the men if they'd seen anything. Even without evidence she was certain someone connected to the Palace had started this. Kate kept her eyes open as she made her way back down the alley and into the Lone Star just as Ruby was coming out. She made sure no one was nearby, then pulled Ruby in and shut and locked the door quietly behind her.

"What we need are some guards. I don't want to leave this room empty, but I don't want anyone back here alone either. Someone did this on purpose." She stepped over to the door and motioned for Tom Whipple to come into the kitchen. "Someone set a fire back here, Louise says deliberately. I didn't see anyone out in the alleyway, but I'm certain it was someone working for Evan Adair. We need some guards back here. I'd go get Jake, but he went somewhere earlier and isn't back yet. I think I should go get the Marshall. This is getting ridiculous."

"Wait! Tom this is all my fault, maybe I should just leave. I didn't think it would get this serious and they would try to burn down your Saloon." Ruby sighs. "I can find a job somewhere else and you can be safe then."

Tom tells Ruby she is being silly, that it isn't her fault that Adair is a jerk.
He then answers the question about the Marshall, telling Ruby and Katherine "No, we don't get the Marshall. He would call this to everyone's attention and Louise already covered for the fire so that nobody noticed. My father is very impressed so far, let's not ruin it. I'll cover the bar myself for the rest of the night and leave Jeff out here in the kitchen. He hates to cook but he's actually not half-bad at it. I'll go talk to him."

Tom leaves and a few minutes later Jeff returns, carrying with him the shotgun that is normally kept under the bar. He props it against the wall within reach, puts on Maggie's apron (which looks rather comical on his large wide-shouldered muscular frame) and says "I think you two had better start the music up again before the patrons wonder where you are."

Sonoma begins singing from the floor as she travels the room refilling beer glasses and collecting the dirty as she goes. She times the song so that as she is ready to finish she is at the kitchen door heads in and tosses the dirty glasses in the sink. She looks at Ruby and Kate and says "I need you on the floor. I can get the kitchen up and running and run the drinks at the same time, but I need you to keep the people in there from wondering what is going on. Now get out of my way and let me work" Both Kate and Ruby see shades of Dorita as Sonoma begins to quickly make the kitchen her own, pushing Jeff Mills out of the way.

"All right, Louise." Kate shook her head and took Ruby's arm to lead her back out. "Tom's right. You leaving won't stop Adair now. He has a bee in his bonnet about having some real competition, and I think enough people know it that he won't give up just because you leave. So go up there and let's see if we can't put him out of business." Kate sat down at the piano and started playing energetically.

Ruby knows it is her fault, that if she hadn't turned down Adair and then slapped him this wouldn't be happening. Of course, Tom didn't know that and she wasn't going to tell him. And it wasn't getting late and Jake wasn't here yet, Ruby was trying hard not to worry. She walks over to the stage and decides to immerse herself in singing so she wouldn't be thinking about anything else.

Chester enters the Lone Star Dance Hall and Saloon. It is rather crowded, with around forty-five people inside. Two poker games are going on. Katherine is at the piano playing for Ruby who is on stage singing her heart out. One of the men at the bar finishes up and leaves, making a barstool available for Chester.
Chester whistles in amazement. He darts to the bar, snagging the stool before someone else could get it. Once he settles in, he takes a look around the room to see if Jake, Riley, or Comstock and his friends are there. Seeing no one he knows other than Ruby and Katherine, he orders a beer and watches the show.

Several miles away, Nanuet and Jake headed well off the trail and to the north. Since the road was to the south of the hill and they departed to the southwest they decided to go beyond the hill and then double back from the northeast. They climbed the hill, finding the spot near the top where two shooters had lied down. Nanuet did a quick check in the area, finding some food scraps as well as the place where the men went to relieve themselves. He also found a spot where it appears that they had bedded down the previous night. Jake gathers up the shell casings and concludes that weapons used were a high-caliber carbines.

Nanuet estimates that the men departed shortly after the attack but were apparently on foot so they still might be in the area. "Well I know it has been a long day, and I am not sure how far you want to take this. They can't be all that far away, and I should be able to track them well enough, Maska too. Who knows how far they are going or if they returned to a camp with more men. I am willing to track them if you are Mr. Jake." "Let's keep going" Jake says as he puts a couple of empty casings in his pocket. "I'm following you."

Nanuet and Maska follow the trail of the men with little difficulty. The sky is clear and with Nanuet's ability to see in the dark he had no trouble using the light of the moon and stars to trace the tracks. Maska has no trouble finding the trail. It continues east down the hill and to the northwest lower corner of the mountain where they rode the stage down that morning. Nanuet stops when they reach a section that intersects with a number of horse tracks but he concludes that the tracks are half-a-day old, probably from that morning.

He relocates the tracks of the two humans, which circumnavigate around the northern edge of the mountain. They walk for the next 45 minutes with Nanuet noting that the tracks continue to get fresher. They reach the far end of the two-mile long mountain at the northeast corner where an almost shear 200 foot high cliff stands. The tracks end at the mouth of a cave. Nanuet notes that there are older human and horse tracks there as well entering the cave but not exiting, which he estimates to be two or three more humans and a total of five horses.

Nanuet and Jake take a few minutes and listen for voices or activity, and then quickly peaking and looking for light. Nanuet and Jake make their way into the cave. The cave curves and there is a 'T' intersection ahead lit by candlelight. They see a man sitting in a chair along the wall at the corner of the intersection.

He is apparently on guard duty, a shotgun lying across his lap, but is not being very attentive at the moment. He is in the light and they are still in darkness so he can't see them yet. They do they see that his head keeps going through a series of nodding movements indicating that he wants to fall asleep but is trying to stay awake. They also see an empty bottle of whiskey below the chair that may be a contributing factor to his current impairment.

Jake reaches down quietly and draws his hunting knife. He moves quietly to the edge of the light. Then he springs the last few feet to the sleeping outlaw and attempts to plunge the dagger into the man's neck and snatches the shotgun off his lap. However, the man was not totally asleep and snapped to a more alert state as Jake began his leap. The man's reflex action was to lift up his arms in front of him, while still holding the barrel of the shotgun with both hands. As Jake's dagger plunges the man twists the gun to the left, deflecting Jake's stab and causing the knife to cut against the man's shoulder for only a minor wound.

The guard jumps up, still startled, and his reaction is to reach for his wounded shoulder. He retains the hold on his shotgun however as his chair falls over and makes a loud clatter. Nanuet runs forward while pulling his knife and attempts to silence the now alert man with a slash to his throat. Nanuet is successful. He and Jake wait to see if anyone responds to the sound of the chair falling. Maska bares her teeth and stands watch over the nearby hallway, her keen eyes cutting through the darkness.

Nanuet checks the two sections of the intersection. The wider tunnel has both horse and human tracks going down it while the other has only human tracks. Jake tosses the large man to the floor out of the intersection back the way he and Nanuet came in. While he is setting the chair back up, Jake whispers, "Quick, give me his hat and coat." Jake moves the candle so that it won't illuminate his face sitting in the chair, and quickly dons the large coat over his own. He stuffs his hat under his coat, drops the dead outlaws hat on his head and assumes the position the man was in, including the shotgun across the lap.

Nanuet searches the man and finds his wallet which has $ 54 in cash include a brand new crisp $ 20 bill. Nanuet and Jake wait a few minutes and listen. Apparently the others are not alerted to the noise. Jake offers the outlaws shotgun to Nanuet and retrieves his own. "One down, four to go. Which way now?" Jake keeps the outlaw's large coat and hat on.

Nanuet checks the tracks. He says there only two fairly recent sets of tracks, both coming from the narrower hallway and back to this spot. One ends here, so would have been made by the man who was in the chair. The other set heads down the wider hallway in the direction of the horse tracks. Nanuet silently points down the wider hallway holding up one finger then pointing at the tracks. He puts away his knife and unslings his loaded rifle before he silently makes his way down the hallway leaving room for Jake if he wishes to pass him. He continues until he hears anything or sees a light source. Maska stays behind the pair of men watching their rear.

Jake trails his Indian friend down the passage trying to be quiet and following his queues. Although he is still carrying the shotgun in his left hand, he has drawn the long barreled pistol in his right and cocked it quietly.

In a short while he gets to a curve and the residual light from the candle fades. Crap, he thinks, can't see a thing. Jake holsters his pistol and heads back for the candle leaving Nanuet to go on without him. He takes the candle and walks slowly back to the curve and waits there for a moment and listens. Then he continues on slowly on the opposing wall of the passage from where Nanuet walked, shotgun in one hand and the candle in the other. He stops and listens frequently.

Jake approaches Nanuet with the light. Nanuet has stopped at a 'Y' intersection, unsure of which way to continue. With the candlelight he is able to check the tracks, concluding that the man actually went both way. However, the track to the right shows him going away and coming back, the tracks back being a bit heavier. He then continued on down the left-hand corridor which is the direction of the older horse tracks. Jake waits behind for a minute letting Nanuet get out of the light, and then follows slowly behind and listening.

Nanuet heads to the left, trying to move as silently as possible. He thinks about just screaming and charging down the hallway just to break the tension but his rational thoughts prevail and he continues to sneak down the tunnel looking for the enemy. They are now carefully making their way down a side corridor of the cave following a fresh set of tracks.

The tracks continue for another seventy feet as the corridor turns towards the right and slopes downward. Jake and Nanuet reach a section that appears warmer and far more dry than the tunnel had been before then. They both notice that several of the wooden beams supporting the tunnel roof show signs of dry rot and splitting and one point where a new beam has been propped up to support a section where the main beam has collapsed. They see that the corridor widens and opens into a brightly-lit chamber ahead.

Nanuet stops and waits for Jake. As soon as he has enough light to continue without it, he puts down the candle and draws his long barreled revolver. He approaches Nanuet but on the opposite wall of the passageway and they are looking and listening.

They reach a chamber approximately twenty feet in diameter with a short corridor leading to another chamber on the opposite side. The light is coming in from the other chamber. Near the entranceway is the body of a horse, the left side of the neck, front leg and torso riddled with wounds from a shotgun blast although it is a single short-range shot to the head that apparently killed him. Nanuet concludes that the animal was killed within the last few hours. The shotgun wounds appear to be a half-day or so old while the head wound was recent.

"What do you think, Mr. Jake? Guns a blazing?" Nanuet says trying to be funny. He quietly gets his shotgun ready. Jake shakes his head and thinks, “I just don't understand Indian humor.” Nanuet motions to Jake that they each move along opposite sidewalls. Jake nods and they do. They get near the opening to the other chamber and first listening and then Jake quickly takes a peek and pulls his head back in.

The larger room is irregularly shaped, approximately sixty-by-thirty feet in size with pillars make of stacked rocks supporting the center. It appears to be lit by some form of magical light. Near the entranceway to this room are five saddles, a pile of saddlebags, leather reins and horse blankets. At the far right side of the room is a section of the room with a dozen hay bales that a crude chicken wire and wooden fence has been constructed around.

Three horses are standing alongside the left side of the room eating from a single bale of hay. A trough of water is near them and two large metal pail-type containers are on the ground near the trough.

On the right side of the room twenty feet from the entranceway is a young man, currently grooming a single horse probably in his late teens, wearing western-style clothing. He is facing the entranceway but his not noticed Nanuet or Jake yet, being preoccupied with brushing the coat of the animal, which is standing between the man and the entranceway. The only thing in the man's hands are the horse brush and comb but the horse is blocking their view of the man's belt so he may be armed.

Jake and Nanuet do what they can to determine if there could be any other men in the room before taking action. They try and do so without being noticed. They conclude that that only ones in the room are the young man and the horses. "A kid..." Nanuet shakes his head. "Should we try to lure him out?" whispers Nanuet. Jake just shrugs. Since they can't see if there are any others in the room, Nanuet tries to move silently into the room, while not being seen. He stays behind the horse, along the wall.

Nanuet closes to within around eight feet of the man without being seen by him. The horse however now notices him and starts to react. Jake steps into the room only part way, exposing only the dead outlaws coat and hat. He whistles and motions for the boy to follow him and leaves the room. Nanuet uses his handle animal to immediately calm the horse. He stays still, hoping the boy will follow Jake, and that Jake has a plan. The young man says softly "Coming Lenny". He starts to walk the horse back towards the other horses and then stops suddenly when he sees the Indian in the room.

 

[Silver Moon]

Chapter 96 “Taking Out the Trash”, January 10th, 1882, 9:30 PM

Ruby finishes up the set and calls for a break. There is a loud round of applause from the room. Several dozen people go up to the tip cups deposit some bills, coins and one hotel room key. Around a dozen people exit the saloon at this point and Tony calls for another break at his poker game.

Tom's Cousin Teddy joins up with his girl Alexis, who had been mangling the piano at the start of the night, and says, "Let us take a crack at that." He sits at the keyboard and begins to bang out some fast paced bar songs while she takes to the stage and starts singing the lyrics in a lively alto voice. While her talents with musical instruments apparently leave something to be desired her singing voice is extremely good and she soon has the half the patrons singing along with her.

'Louise' makes her way out from the kitchen carrying two platters with an array of cooked foods on them. She then begins to circulate around the tables serving food bringing drinks and all the while singing a full counterpoint to the songs being sung on stage in a clear soprano that is slightly lower than Ruby's voice. Katherine hearing this realizes that if she could get the three of them to actually sing together it would be a concert like this town had never seen before... provided she could get cousin Teddy off the keyboard before he killed it

Katherine put the tip cups behind the bar, slipped into her apron and got busy helping Sonoma. This was the biggest crowd yet, and Sonoma was a great help. Kate tried to keep an eye on her, watching for any tricks she could pick up. If the crowds were going to keep on like this, it would be more than she and Maggie could handle.

Despite the incident in the kitchen, Kate found herself smiling at the thought of Evan Adair grinding his teeth in a half-empty saloon. With all the beautiful voices singing in here, she wouldn't be surprised if no one made it past the Lone Star's door to the Palace. Kate took care of the table of "pinchers" and spent several minutes just trying to keep up with the orders. She also noticed Mr. Martin come and breathed a sigh of relief. If he was back safely, Jake and Nanuet should be as well. When she had a chance she stopped by the Elder Mr. Whipple's table. "I hope you're enjoying your evening. Do you have everything you need?" He indicates that he is fine.

Billy Comstock and his two same-aged friends Mizner and Whittemore arrive at the Lone Star and sit down at one of the recently vacated tables. Chester gets off his stool and walks over to them. "Glad you fellows could make it. Mind if I join you?" Comstock replies, "No, go right ahead, Mr. Martin. Have a seat." Chester says, "So, what brings you to Paradise City, if I may ask?" The three men exchange glances, unsure of who will answer. Elisha Whittemore finally says, "We're going to be doing some hunting up in the mountains."

Billy Comstock adds to that "Actually, it's a hunting contest. An old rival of mine will be along in a few days. Back fifteen years ago I lost a title to him in a hunting contest and so I've been waiting a very long time for this rematch. We figured it wouldn't hurt to get here a few days early to familiarize ourselves with the territory." “That's an interesting reaction”, Chester says casually then says, "Oh, hunting what? Bison or bighorn sheep?" Comstock replies "I'm not sure actually, my rival knows the details of this hunt and was a bit vague in his telegram. But I wasn't going to pass on the chance to win my old title back."

"That's odd. I guess he didn't want you to have an advantage by being able to study the prey." Chester gets Kate's attention as she walks past. "Mrs. Kale, have you seen Mr. Cook or Nanuet? I thought they would've ended up here by now." She replies, "Not yet. They did return with you then?" He replies, "Yes, ma'am. We got ambushed again on the road back from the mine. A couple of the miners got wounded, but then we ran into these gentlemen who brought us back to town." Chester gestures toward the men, who tip their hats to Kate. "Last I saw, they were at the edge of town while I got the Marshall. I didn't see them at the doctor's, so I thought they'd be here. Where else could they be..." His voice trails off. "Uh-oh. They may have gone looking for the guys who shot at us."

Kate closed her eyes for a moment and sighed. "That sounds like them. I think Jake is getting tired of being shot at, and they would have taken the opportunity to go after them without endangering anyone else." She looked around the busy Saloon. "I wish there was something I could do, but I can't leave here, and I doubt we could find them anyway, the fools. I'm glad to see you return unhurt, Mr. Martin. Gentlemen, thank you for helping my friends get back safely, even if they did run right back out. Your next round is on me."

Katherine scanned the room, looking for Ruby. Even more than she, Ruby would want to go looking for them. But she had the right to know what was going on. Kate slipped over to the bar and whispered in Ruby's ear. "Mr. Martin says he, Jake, and Nanuet got back alright, but they were ambushed on the road back again. Jake and Nanuet have shown up here yet. Mr. Martin thinks they may have gone looking for the men that shot at them."

"He thinks or he knows?" Ruby sighs. It didn't really matter either way; she knew they had gone back out. Jake and Nanuet were both impulsive types. Ruby replies nonchalantly, "Oh well then, we don’t know what happened and there is nothing we can do about it anyway, right?" She pauses and looks around the busy room. "It's hot in here, I’m going outside for air." Ruby pauses again. "Plus it looks like she has the stage under control," as Ruby glances at the stage. "Please come and get me if you need me." Ruby walks outside and sits on the porch of the Lone Star. So much for her brilliant plan of not worrying.

Chester watches Kate speak with Ruby, then Ruby leaving the Saloon. "Excuse me, please. I need to do something. He gets up from the table and goes over to Kate. "If you want, I can try looking for them. I have a fair idea of where they would've started looking. Is Miss West worried about them?" Kate answers, "She didn't say so, but I think she is. I don't think it's a good idea to go running off on your own to find them. Whoever's been doing the shooting has seen you now. You might want to go speak to Miss West though. I'll need her back in here soon." "I'll go do that," he replies.

Chester walks out the door to the porch. "Miss West? Mrs. Kale needs you back in there. I hope Mr. Cook and Nanuet are OK." "Already? I just got out here." Ruby pauses and sighs. "I hope they're ok too, Mr. Martin, I really do." Ruby rises from the porch and starts to head back inside. As she passes Chester she puts her hand on his arm and smiles. "You can call me Ruby, Mr. Martin." "And you can call me Chester, Ruby. They seem to be able to take care of themselves."

Alexis and Teddy finish up their set and she raves at the applause that follows. A crowd begins to gather around Job Kane's poker table as a high stakes hand has developed. Katherine thinks that she hears Jeff Mills talking out in the kitchen to somebody. Katherine walked back to the kitchen and peeked in the door. "Everything alright back here Jeff?" Katherine sees that the back door of the kitchen is open and that Jeff is standing in the doorway and pointing the shotgun at somebody. She hears the tail end of Jeff's sentence "....don't believe you for one minute."

Ruby walks inside and sees Kate standing at the kitchen door. Walking up to her, "You needed me?" Kate looked back and whispered to Ruby. "There's something going on back there. Let's be quiet." She slipped in the door and pulled out her derringer as soon as she was out of sight of the patrons. Kate made sure Ruby had noticed the precaution and then moved slowly to where she could see whoever Jeff had at the other end of his shotgun. "I'm tired of being quiet, Kate. It's been too long a day." Ruby walks right into the room and gets near Jeff. "Is there a problem? You need some help Jeff?"

Jeff Mills has the shotgun pointed at a man standing six feet away. The man is dressed in a light tan suit with a white shirt and western style tie. He has on a derby-style hat the same color brown as the western boots on his feet. A single-action Colt Peacemaker is hanging from the man's gunbelt. Jeff says "He came back to the scene of the crime. I caught him trying to break in." "I was just taking a walk through that alley. That ain't against the law!" the man exclaims.

Ruby exclaims, "Jeff, what do you mean break in And why do you think it was this guy?" Jeff answers, "A number of reasons. First, he works at the Palace Saloon as a gambler. Second, he was touching the doorknob to our back door when I heard the sound and opened it. Third, he's Evan Adair's best friend and roommate. And fourth, he's known for playing crocked games so I wouldn't believe one word that he says."

"It certainly doesn't sound like you were just 'taking a walk in the alley.'" Kate said calmly, the derringer clearly visible. "What do you recommend for someone who gets 'lost' in alleys Jeff?" Ruby asks, "Should I get the Marshall and let him straighten this out?" Jeff replies "I'm tempted to jus shoot him right here and now. That'll teach Adair to leave our place alone." Ruby states, "I'm all for it. All you had to say was the name Adair. Have fun."

Kate says, "As tempting as that is, I don't think he's worth wasting the ammunition on. A beating might suffice. So you're Adair's roommate? The man owns an entire Saloon but he needs to share?" The man says "I'm his bodyguard. I go where he goes." "Yeah, so where is he?" Ruby says with narrowing eyes... He answers, "Safe and sound back at the Palace. He was over here last week so he's already used up his quota for slumming."

"Jeff, give me that gun so I can shoot him myself..." Ruby says walking up to Jeff. Mills replies "Sorry Miss Ruby, I wouldn't want you to dirty your pretty dress on scum like this one." The man protests "The other lady suggested getting the Marshall. Maybe you'd better do that before you get your boss Whipple in even more trouble."

Back inside, Chester had sat back down at the table. "Sorry about that. What did you hunt last time? Anything challenging?" Comstock replies "Well, the big hunt was fifteen years ago when I was chief of scouts at Fort Wallace. I would hunt buffalo meat for the Army. I got really good at it and got the nickname of "Buffalo Bill". This other guy showed up, William Cody, and he was also using that nickname. So I filed protest. My friends all said that I was Cody’s superior as a buffalo-hunter. So a match was arranged to determine whether it should be "Buffalo Bill’ Cody or "Buffalo Bill" Comstock.

The hunting ground was fixed near Sheridan, Kansas, and quite a crowd of spectators was attracted by the news of the contest. Officers, soldiers, plainsmen, and railroadmen took a day off to see the sport, and one excursion party, including many ladies came up from St. Louis. Referees were appointed to follow each of us and keep a tally of the buffaloes slain. I was mounted on my favorite horse, and carried a Henry rifle of large caliber. We both rode side by side until the first herd was sighted and the word given, when off we dashed to the attack, separating to the right and left. In this first trial Cody killed thirty-eight and I got twenty-three. We had ridden miles by the time we were done and the carcasses of the dead buffaloes were strung all over the prairie.

Luncheon was served at noon, and scarcely was it over when another herd was sighted, composed mainly of cows with their calves. The damage to this herd was eighteen and fourteen, in favor of Cody. In those days the prairies were alive with buffaloes, and a third herd put in an appearance before our rifle-barrels were cooled. Unfortunately Cody saw it must sooner and got a head start. To add to the spectacle Cody pulled off his saddle and bridle, and advanced bareback to the slaughter. That closed the contest. Score, he had sixty-nine to my forty-eight. He won fair and square so Cody was dubbed "Champion Buffalo Hunter of the Plains. He's used that nickname ever since. He wired me last week challenging me to a rematch. I couldn't let that pass." Chester comments, "No, I can see why not. Riding bareback sounds like taunting."

"Louise" floats around the room filling drink orders checking on customers and making sure that the senior pain the father is well taken care of the drinks are flowing freely but Louise realizes that she needs to get back to the kitchen stove for a bit to make some more food for her serving platters and she needs to get Ruby back on stage to slow things down a little so that she can keep up with the room

At the standoff out back, Ruby notices the guy reaching for his gun. Ruby starts muttering to herself as she picks up a frying pan. She turns suddenly, hitting the guy in the head with the frying pan while she finishes the spell, hoping one or the other will work.

The skillet strikes the man squarely in the head as he reaches his right hand down onto his gun. Jeff sees the movement but cannot shoot the shotgun without getting Ruby in the blast. As Ruby simultaneously utters the final word of her incantation she sees the man's eyes suddenly cross and he collapses onto the ground in from of her and Jeff. Mills looks down at the skillet in her hand and says, "You're pretty handy with that thing. Maybe I should find a new line of work, you make a better bouncer than I do."

"A girl does what she can, Jeff," Ruby says smiling. "Now let's get this jerk out of here. He can sleep it off next to the outhouse." Jeff says "Not our outhouse. He's worse than what we allow customer to leave there. And I'm not sure how smart it would be for me to be seen carrying him back towards the Palace." "Yeah, probably not too smart to be seen carrying him.

As Ruby slammed the pan into the man’s head, Kate ran back toward the door into the saloon proper and peeked inside. He was probably bluffing, but she couldn't think of any trouble Tom was in right now." She checked quickly to make sure all was fine in the saloon. “Huumm, Kate, what do you think," Ruby yells across the kitchen. Kate turned her head back as she was opening the door. "I don't know Ruby. If we can't drag him away, can't we just leave him lay there and lock the door?" She turned back to look through the door into the main saloon for any signs of trouble.

"I don't think we can leave him here with no one watching. And then what do you do with him when we wakes up?" Ruby ponders the question. "Kate, why don't you ask Chester? Maybe he has an idea? My area of expertise has already been used," she says with a smile, looking at the man out cold. Kate turns back into the room. "Jeff, how do you get rid of the trash? Any large barrels, boxes we could haul him out in after a while? The rubbish seems an appropriate place for him."

"I need to get back out there. I'll send Mr. Martin. Ruby, you should come back out as soon as you can. We don't want the patrons knowing there's something wrong." Kate went out into the main room and found Chester. "Would you mind stepping into the kitchen? Miss West would like to speak with you." Katherine then went over to the piano and started playing an energetic classical piece, hoping the crowd would enjoy it until Ruby could come back out and sing.

Chester comes to the kitchen. Ruby explains that the guy tried to break in so she hit him with a frying pan and now he needs to go sleep it off, and that Kate suggested in the trash. "I have to go back out and sing, can you help Jeff take care of him?" Chester says, "Sure thing, Ruby. Why'd he try to break in during business hours?"

"Why does anyone ever break in? To cause trouble. He's a friend of that Adair guy, the one who caused all the trouble for me today at the trial. They are jealous that the Lone Star does so well and that I wouldn't come and work for them. I don't know what he was trying to get at but he was pulling a gun, so be careful. Thanks sweetie," she says as she winks and turns on her heel to go back out and sing.

Chester says, "You're welcome." Chester takes the gun out of the man's holster and removes the bullets. He puts it back into the holster. "OK Jeff. Where do we put him after we toss him in the trash?" Jeff smiles and says "You know. The Hooten family raise hogs up on the northwest end of town......" Chester comments, "Nice thinking. Now, can we carry him all that way, or do we need a wagon or cart?"

Jeff replies "You grab one arm I'll get the other. Just drape it over your shoulder. It will look like we're just helping a buddy home and if anyone asks we'll just say he had too much to drink." "Let's go. I'll get the left." Chester and Jeff take the man to the Hooten farm. "Hmm. Let's put him into the pen, face-up, of course. That'll teach him not to break into places."

Sonoma is glad to have the kitchen to herself again and makes up several more trays of food. Katherine and Ruby have the place almost enthralled with their very impressive music. The facial expressions of the woman Alexis vary as she watches Ruby - from awe to jealousy.

Jeff and Chester head north up Allen Street and then cut through the alleyway west between Hudson's Bakery and the Silver Dollar Saloon. They continue west behind all of the businesses on the south side of Sierra Street until the reach Pine Creek. They then follow the creek north to the Wooten place. The pigsty has six hogs inside it wallowing in the mud. "Woah. This place sure smells bad. Into the pen he goes. Won't he be surprised when he wakes up. Oh, and let me do something with this." Chester takes the empty revolver and tosses it in the opposite end of the pen.

Ruby is more concerned about Jake and Nanuet than ever. As the time goes by she gets more and more upset. She gets up on stage and again tries to immerse herself in her singing to forget her worried thoughts.

Katherine tried to enjoy playing, but there were too many other things going on. She was worried about Jake and Nanuet, worried about Jeff Mills and Mr. Martin, and worried about what Evan Adair would try next. This was twice already, and they had barely been there two hours. She realized that no one had been about to tell Tom Whipple what had happened in the back yet, and she didn't even know how it had gotten resolved. The saloon seemed too crowded with too much going on. At least in a couple more hours this long, long day would be over and she could sleep.

When she sees Sonoma pass close by with a tray of food, she motions for her to come over with her head. Kate speaks as quietly as she can and still have Sonoma hear. "Mr. Martin said Jake and Nanuet got back to town alright, but they were ambushed on the way back. Since they haven't shown up here, we think they went back to track down the shooters. I thought you'd want to know."

Chester and Jeff head back by way of the Promise City Hotel, as Jeff now needs to change his shirt, as the other got splattered with mud. He says that he normally has a room at the Lone Star but had to temporarily relocate to make room for the visiting Whipples. On the way out Jeff introduces Chester to Eric Lee Smith, the owner of the hotel. Smith says "Oh yes, I think I saw you earlier today at Condon's Bank."

They arrive back shortly after 10:45 P.M. Job Kane's table is now done for the evening. The whole saloon is talking about the back-to-back high stakes hands that were played. In the first Neil Cassidy won a pot of over $ 300 and in the second Job took in a pot almost as large. The game stopped because all of the other players were broke and nobody else in the place feels up to the challenge of those two. Neil Cassidy is now sitting at a table with Tom and William Whipple and Tom is busy negotiating prices for lumber and other building supplies to build the third floor.

Katherine and Ruby wind up their current set of music when they see that Chester and Jeff are back. Cousin Teddy takes to the keyboards again as his fiancée hits the stage. Rather than singing she goes into a wide-stepping dance routine choreographed to the lively tunes that Teddy provides.

Katherine tries to not listen to Teddy's mediocre playing, and definitely avoids watching the dancing as she goes back to serving drinks. She hadn't been under the impression that Tom's guests would be doing any entertaining while they were here. Katherine went over to Mr. Martin and Jeff. "Did you take care of everything?" Jeff smirked. "We took him someplace just like home." Kate looked at him quizzically. "We left him in a pigsty," Jeff grinned. "That's perfect," Kate laughed. "I love it. Certainly where the trash belongs. I'm glad you're back."

Kate made her way over to Job Kane. "It's nice to have you back, and having such a good night. A little busier than when you were here last." Job replies "Yeah, and tonight was especially challenging. Tom really needed Neil to be a in a good mood for the lumber negotiations and your friend Jake really blew it last night. Jake had a good night, but at Neil's expense. Tonight we both managed to have a good night though so Tom should get the prices he needs.

The important thing though is for William to be convinced that Tom can handle himself in negotiations, which looks like that is happening. You may want to go over there and make sure that Neil has everything he needs as far as drinks and food. That woman Louise has done a good job of that up until now but she's back in the kitchen again."

"I'll take care of it, and I'll have a word with Ruby to be pleasant to him. Most gentlemen seem to enjoy a conversation with her. Of course, they're already negotiating, I'm not sure there's much she can do now."

Katherine went over to the table and waited for an appropriate moment. "Gentlemen, Mr. Cassidy, is there anything I can get you? You must be hungry after that game." After she got the tables orders, she made sure to walk near Ruby. "Tom's negotiating for the lumber, if the chance presents itself, you might stop by and pay a bit of attention to Mr. Cassidy." Kate felt her face flushing. Even a week ago it wasn't a suggestion she would have thought to make.

Ruby glances over to Cassidy. "Sure Kate, I can do that," Ruby says with a smile, albeit a distant one. "How did Chester and Jeff make out?" When she sees Tom and Neil take a break from their negotiations Ruby approaches Neil. "Mr. Cassidy? Are you busy or can you join me for a drink at the bar?"

"Happy to enjoy the company of a pretty lady Miss. West. Had me a good night at Job's table, close to $ 200 more than when I started, just like last Friday with Mr. Cook. At this rate I might be able to retire from the lumber business!" They head over to the bar and he orders drinks for both of them. He asks "So, what is it that brings such a lovely young woman as you to this backwards corner of the universe?"

"Well, Mr. Cassidy, you flatter me," Ruby says blushing. "And you seem to be very skilled at the poker table, so maybe you can get your wish... to retire that is." "Me? I think I was meant to come here and work at the Lone Star. I mean, I've met some very interesting people," she says smiling at him. "How about you? Have you been in Promise City long?"

He replies, "Nobody's been here long Miss West, silver was only discovered here two years ago. I grew up in the timber business, my father and grandfather have a sawmill back in Ohio. I realized that lumber would be needed in these parts.

Went to Tombstone first, silver was found there a few years earlier, but the forests near there had already been bought up and they already had a sawmill by the time I got there. Hung around there for a while and am glad that I did. Once silver was found here so I high tailed it out here. The hills were crawling with speculators looking for silver but I was looking for trees. Bought all of the best hardwood within ten miles. If you want lumber you see me, if you ask me it's as good as silver. And after you take it from the ground it even grows back if you're willing to wait long enough."

Ruby laughs, "Mr. Cassidy, you certainly know how to take advantage of a situation. I respect that in a man." She pauses checking the door before continuing. "We're going to be building here you know, at the Lone Star. I'm sure Tom will be asking for your help. I mean, who else would be go to," Ruby flips her hair. He says, “Well it's a brick building so he'll be needing bricks as well as timber. But the brickyard owner also plays here, last night in fact. Didn't do too well at Cook's table but he had a good game at Tony's afterward."

Ruby says, "But enough of business. How long have you been playing poker? You are really good." He says, "You flatter me. I'm not really good, I'm occasionally good. Tonight just happens to be one of those occasions. Although I do owe you an apology. This is the fifth night that I'm been enjoying your wonderful singing voice but I've been too preoccupied with poker to ever wander up to the glass by the stage and show my appreciation. Please accept this as a belated oversight." He slides her a $ 10 bill.

"Mr. Cook did do well last night, that is true. And I am sure you don't give yourself enough credit when it comes to the cards." In a teasing tone, "Now, Mr. Cassidy, a girl could get insulted to hear that poker was more enthralling then her singing. But I will take this," she reaches for the $10 bill, touching his hand as she takes it, "as your apology, and hope that you will sometimes consider stopping by not just for the poker but for me as well." She takes the $10 and sticks it down her corset. "I don't want to keep you from your game. Thank you for sharing a drink with me, I hope it won't be the last."

Cassidy excuses himself and goes back to the table with Tom. Ruby glances around the room. Kate is busy tending tables, especially to the elder Mr. Whipple and Sonoma was still in the back, cooking and singing. Ruby decides to continue her break outside. She again sits on the porch in the cool night air, trying not to worry. And not doing a good job of that.

 

[Silver Moon]

Chapter 97 “No Honor Among Thieves”, January 10th, 1882, 9:30 PM

Jake hears the boy stop. He cocks his pistol and looks over his shoulder ready to react quickly. Nanuet points his gun at the boy and makes a be silent motion. Then he nods his head out of the room, towards Jake. When Jake sees Nanuet's weapon come up he turns and points his at the boy too and comes into the room. "Easy son. You don't need to get hurt." A look of panic crosses the boy’s face. He glances from Jake to Nanuet. He then looks over in the direction of the horses. "Don't hurt me, I'm just the stable hand" he exclaims.

Nanuet watches very carefully for any signs that the boy will pull his gun. If he does, she will shoot, as long as he won't hit Jake. "Ok then, sit over here," Nanuet points to the wall. "Jake, get him tied up," he says quietly. While Jake is tying him, "So how many more of you are there and where are they? Tell us or we find out on our own and they all die."

Seeing that the boy doesn't immediately try to draw his pistol from his gunbelt Jake starts walking towards him slowly, leaving the shotgun leaning against the wall. "Now son very slowly put your hands in the air." As the boy gets them higher in the air, "Now turn half way around just as slow." Jake gets up close and removes the gun with his left hand. The boy says, "There were four more with me, but one of them is now dead."

Jake checks him for other weapons after tying his hands with some leather straps from the pile. "Four others? Who died and how?" He answers, "Reb Wiley died a short while back. He was shot up pretty bad. Two of the others are pretty bad hurt too." Nanuet walks over to Jake and while watching the room, he whispers, "He is lying, I recognize his shirt. He is one of the riders from earlier today." "Boy, do you know who I am?" Jake asks him with a cold, icy stare. He answers, "I don't know nothing mister, I'm just a stable hand. I take care of the horses for those guys." "You lie! I say we shoot him!" Nanuet says. "Then we worry no more about getting shot by him."

Jake look at the boy's pistol smells it and checks it for signs of being fired recently. And for how well it is taken care of and how much it's been used. It hasn't been cleaned in a while but seems to have had quite a bit of usage. It has also been fired very recently. Jake holster's his weapon, puts the boy’s gun in his right hand and cocks it. "You don't lie very well. Was it worth the $20?" Jake points the pistol between his eyes. "Don't kill me mister!" he exclaims.

Nanuet starts moving silently to check out the rest of the room. Jake says, "You shot at us this morning. You were on the hill tonight shooting again. I bet you have a brand new $20 note on you to pay for it all. You picked the wrong crowd to be with, and picked the wrong folks to shoot at. And all you can do is whine at me. You are a loser boy." Jake licks his lips. "Give me a reason not to." He says, "I don't know what you're talking about with any hill. I've been here since this morning taking care of the horses and the wounded. You want my money? It's in my shirt pocket."

"Heh" Jake snorts a little laugh. "I intend to get every one of those new $20 bills plus the man who handed them out. I wasn't looking for your permission." Jake moves the gun to his left hand, pulls his knife back out of his book. Cuts the shirt pocket with his knife, letting the bills fall to the floor. He uncocks the pistol and sticks it in his belt. He yanks the boy to a standing position and spins him half way around so he is facing away. "You aren't very clever either, you could have at least offered to tell me who was trying to have me killed."

"Offer....what deal do you want to make?" he says. Jake notes that of the bills on the floor there are four new $ 20 bills rather than just one. "I could be wrong, but I'm betting you are a worse scum sucker than I first thought." Jake quickly thrusts the knife between those particular ribs and up that immediately kills a man. As he falls to the floor, "The offer, is tell me before my patience runs out..." Jake picks up the $20s off the floor. "No honor among thieves they say." He wipes his knife on the dead man's trouser leg. "I could be wrong though." Jake searches him.

Nanuet says, "Mr. Jake, took you long enough. Let's go." They make their way over to the other side of the cave. Jake unties the leather straps and throws them back in the pile. "Bad image to leave behind." Nanuet laughs. "Why you care what gets left behind? We will take care of all of them right now. No more talking, let's take care of this problem once and for all. Keep the ladies safe, you know?" He says smiling.

They head back to the T intersection and continue down the narrower corridor. It continues for another 120 feet. There are several side passageways but none of them show any fresh tracks. The trail of tracks reaches a point where they now follow a side corridor rather than continuing on the main one. They reach a section where a wooden doorway has been constructed, the side of the hallway outside of the doorframe having been blocked with stones. The door is shut and there do not appear to be any locking mechanisms.

Jake looks at Nanuet and shrugs. He listens a moment. Not hearing anything he starts to move stones away from the door. Nanuet helps him. Part way through he comments quietly to Nanuet, "Wish I brought along somebody to do this part." When the stones are clear enough to open the door Jake says in a whisper to Nanuet, "Your vision is better, you get where you can see." Nanuet positions his rifle and gets ready to look in. Jake draws his long barrel pistol and tries to open the door.

On the opposite side of the door is an oval shaped chamber approximately twenty by thirty feet in size. A single candle atop a wooden chest in the middle of the room lights it, the candle almost burnt down to the stub. There are eight army cots set up in the room, three of which are currently occupied.

None of the three men are awake and all appear to be rather wounded, too wounded to have been able to push open the door with the rocks in place. One has his arm dangling over the side of the cot with a pool of blood beneath and he may be dead. The other two appear to still be breathing. The men on the cots are wearing shirts and pants but no boots, belts, hats or other possessions.

"That is where he got the other three $20 bills I am guessing." Nanuet whispers to Jake. He points out the 3 men on the cots and then backs out so that he can speak to Jake. "How does that expression go, shoot first ask questions later? Or do we want to try and get some information from them first?" Nanuet checks the body of the one he suspects is dead, confirming that to be the case. The man appears to have bled to death from a chest wound.

Nanuet takes a good look at all three men. He recognizes the dead one and one of the wounded as men who he had shot and Katherine had simultaneously hit with beams from her magical wand. The one of these who is still alive has a bullet wound his arm that does not appear to be a mortal one. The third man is wounded far more severely, apparently from a shotgun blast. He looks back at the two who he had caused injury to. Both of these men were the ones who Katherine had spent this day agonizing over causing the deaths of. It is now apparent that both survived the attack and that the one who bled to death would probably still be alive if he had received proper medical attention.

"Looks like I guessed correctly about the other one." Jake says quietly to Nanuet. "I'd sure like to have some information. Should we give them a chance to redeem themselves? Even if we don't, just doesn't seem right to have them fester and suffer. Perhaps it would be better for you to help them to the happy hunting grounds." Jake steps back into the room and asks, "Anybody awake?"

The one with the shoulder wound begins to move, groaning out "Who..who's there?" The other one does not move at all. The shotgun wounds are really deep and have gone too long without proper medical attention. The wounds dig deep into the entire left side of his body. Jake thinks he recognizes the ripped up and bloody clothing that the man is wearing as one of the two men who he fired his final shotgun at from the morning’s stage.

Nanuet walks into the room behind Jake. "Too many people have died today, let's take these guys in and let the authorities deal with them. We will have an easier time getting to the bottom of it if we can get some information from them." Nanuet walks up to the waking man. "Be quiet or you will be forever silenced. Only speak when we ask you to. We are the men that you shot at today, and you will regret it, even more so if you don't cooperate now. I am going to look over your wounds and do what I can. Just stay quiet."

Nanuet looks over the man with the shotgun wounds and attempts to determine how serious the wounds are. "Jake, tie these men up so that we can ensure our safety before I heal them." As Nanuet waits for Jake to tie up the seriously wounded man, he checks the severity of the wound on the man who is awake. Once Jake is done Nanuet takes one of the 3" stones from his necklace and heals the mans wounds. After that he goes back to the man with the arm wound and begins a chant in his native tongue. He does a short ritual dance and then places his hands over the wound and watches it heal. Once this is done he will recheck the wounds and see that they are sufficiently healed.

Nanuet says, "You men will come with us and will answer questions. The first question is how many of you were here in this cave.” The one who was near death is healed but appears to still be too weak to move much. The other one appears to be in much better condition and answers the question saying, "I haven't been outside of this room since we got here, I have no idea where any of the others are. Three of us were wounded and this was the closest hideout to where we fought." He then looks at the remains of the candle stub and says "One of them was helping tend to us. He lit the candle before he left, so I guess that would have been a few hours ago."

Nanuet’s second question is “How many companions do you have who are not here now and may come back?" He replies "I don't know. They may not come back at all. There were twenty-one of us this morning but you managed to kill six of us during the chase. We never saw what happened with the other six who rode off down the mountain when we split up near the top. After the battle there were nine of us left on the mountain top counting me and the other two wounded. Our leader assigned two of them to get us wounded to this cave to recover. I have no idea what happened to any of the others after that."

While listening to the answers he mentally checks in with Maska and if everything is OK he calls her to his side. She communicates back that she is currently guarding the outside entrance to the cave that he and Jake entered but will come if that is his wish.

"I think we are going to regret this..." Jake says quietly to Nanuet. He then speaks louder telling the man,
"Seems like the guy who lit that candle had no intention of ever coming back, there was a pile of rocks in front of that door. He was just waiting for you to die." Jake stands in front of the man and looks down at him. "I'm not to happy that you took shots at me and my friends, but I want to know who paid you to do it and what they told you to do? Maybe you can transfer some of my anger."

"They left us here to die? Bastards!" The man pauses for a few minutes and says. "The leader was Pinto Joe Weems. He used to ride with the Koonz brothers but is now freelancing on his own. He rode into Galeyville last night around midnight with wad of money and offered twenty dollars to the first twenty men who would help him out. Didn't take him long to get the volunteers. The job we were hired to do was guard the road next to this mountain and make sure that no miners working to the northeast made it to Promise City today. A few if the guys didn't take to the idea of killing. Weems convinced them that the miners would just be held hostage in this cave until tomorrow. Once you shooting instead of stopping the stage that changed everything."

Jake asks, "How about you partner, how did you take to the idea of killing?" He answers, "Well I could lie to you and say I was one of those who objected, but after this Indian went and saved my life I think you deserve the truth. At the time I really didn't give it all that much thought either way. While I was lying here in this bed I regretted that I agreed so quickly. Risking my life sure wasn't worth a lousy twenty bucks. Heck, risking my horse's life wasn't worth that.

As far as killing is concerned, I've done it before when I had to but I get no pleasure out of it. If we could have stopped you folks without any shooting that would have been fine by me. And I wouldn't have gone along at all with the plan if I'd known that there would be women on that stagecoach. We were told it was miners we were to stop, not ladies." Jake asks, "So why would the two that locked you guys in here to die go up the hill tonight and shoot at the miners? Or maybe they were looking for somebody in particular to shoot?"

He answers, "I couldn't tell you, but the agreement was to keep the miners from town today not just this morning. I've been in here since the morning and they haven't exactly shared any further information with us. Look, we told you what you wanted. Are you going to let us go now? We're grateful for what you did so you won't have to worry about us bothering you ever again."

Nanuet pulls Jake aside and whispers. "Don't know if that Pinto guy is dead. He is the only way we to get more information. How do we know we can trust them if we let them go? They did try to kill us." Jake answers, "We don't know." Jake smiles a sly smile. "Life's a gamble."

He tells the man, "I don't see how turning you over to the Marshall is going to do us or you any good. I'm not a vengeful man towards those that just make a mistake." Jake stares hard at the man who had the shoulder wound. "It seems to me you have been at least somewhat honest with us. Though I figure you still owe us. Let's just leave it as goodwill." Jake puts his hand on his gun. "But my goodwill only goes so far, and I don't accept two mistakes." He walks over towards Nanuet. "If you wanted to pay some of your debt to us, and perhaps earn some cash as well..." Jake pauses, "...I would pay for some proof of who put Weems up to it. You aren't a friend of his are you?" He replies, "No, I just knew who he was. And I'm not thrilled about being set up. Don't know who gave him the money though and I don't really know Galeyville that well or Promise City at all."

"Are you a friend of this one?" Jake points to the other outlaw Nanuet had cured. "Are you going to take care of him? The man replies, "Never met him until last night. I wouldn't trust him if I were you though. The guy riding alongside him that got killed by the same shotgun blast that he was hit with was his brother. You might be better off bringing him to the Marshall."

Jake asks Nanuet, “What do you think Indian, we can leave him his horse? Though I wouldn't stay here long. Either Weems or the Marshall will be along any time I expect." Nanuet answers, "Fine, we leave him his horse. But if we see him again we shoot on sight." Jake tells the man, “Ok, we'll let you go. But stay put for a bit so we can make sure there are no others."

Nanuet and Jake go back and gather up what is valuable from the 'stables'. Jake examines the magic light source to see if it can be taken. They get the horses ready and get them to the outside. They strap and tie the wounded man onto one of the horses to pull it along behind them. They leave the other man behind along with one of the horses.

The ride back to town takes about an hour, with them arriving at the Marshall's office shortly after 11:00 PM. Marshall Wyatt Earp takes the prisoner in jail and appears to be almost elated when Jake says tells him that the man was one of the people responsible for shooting his brother, and that three of his friends are lying dead in a cave two miles away. Jake also mentions the name Pinto Joe Weems, who Earp has heard of but has never actually met.

Jake takes Nanuet's hand and shakes it. "Well done Indian. Once again you were there when I needed you." He pats him on the back. "I'm headed to the Lone Star." Nanuet replies, "I think actually that I may join you. We have earned a few drinks today. We managed to catch a few bad guys and stay alive ourselves. This was a long day, and I'm parched."

At around 11:15 PM Tony Lucky's game wraps up and people begin to leave for the evening. Teddy and Alexsis head our to take a walk around the town together. Ruby continues to sit on the porch as patrons file out and exchanges pleasant greeting with her, especially Mr. Cassidy. Billy Comstock and his friends say goodnight to Chester and thank him for his company. Kate and Sonoma work together to clean up the table while Tom and William Whipple chat with the few remaining stragglers.

With Teddy and Alexsis gone, the place feels more like the Lone Star she knows and Katherine and Sonoma had the place cleaned up in no time. She wondered about Maggie's night and hoped that the El Parador hadn't been too big a shock to her sensibilities. And that Dorita hadn't been troubled to the point where she was sorry she'd agreed. "We'll be going back to the El Parador soon," Kate told Sonoma. "Then I'll walk Maggie back. Thank you so much for coming, I don't know what we would have done without you." Kate then walked over to the piano and began to play some of the simple German folk songs she'd learned as a child, and tried not to worry that Jake and Nanuet had still not been heard from.

Nanuet notices the people filing out of the Lone Star and walking about on the streets. "I hope Miss Ruby is glad to see you, and not upset that we spent the evening out and about." "I hope she's glad to see me too." Jake gives Nanuet a sidelong glance. "The thought had occurred to me that she might have expected us earlier. Live for the moment though, eh?" Ruby is just about to head back inside for Tom's end-of-the-night employee wrap-up when she sees Jake and Nanuet turn the corner from Fremont Street onto Main Street heading in the direction of the Lone Star.

 

[Silver Moon]

Chapter 98 “A Night on the Town”, January 10th , 1882, 11:30 PM

"Jake!" Ruby runs down the street up to Jake and practically jumps on him, giving him a big, tight squeeze of a hug. Then she pulls back and punches him in the arm. "You made me worry about you," she says pouting. She looks to Nanuet. "Are you ok at least?" She looks them both over and since they seem to be ok she continues, "Mr. Martin said you two were foolish enough to go back out to the hills at night, alone and that you got ambushed or something..." Ruby stops her thought midstream and hugs Jake again. "I thought you were going to stand me up, for our date that is..."

"I wouldn't miss our time for anything." Jake says smoothly. "A couple of those outlaws were shooting at us again when we were riding back. One them even hit my saddlebag! Well Nanuet and I decided we had enough and didn't want to leave them wandering about to be shooting at our lady friends. So we chased them down and made arrangements so that they won't be doing that again. So, don't worry there wasn't even any more shooting." He rubs his arm a bit in mock suffering. "I owe him a drink, the man is parched. I'm sure that Tom won't mind us having one little drink while you all close up." Jake turns Ruby around and heads them into the Lone Star.

Nanuet smiles at the couple glad to see them happy together. "Yeah, we are fine. Thinking about getting a few drinks before calling it a day. Think that will be OK?" "Of course it will, it'll be fine..." Ruby says as Jake gently pushes her back towards the Lone Star. Katherine heard familiar voices behind her as Jake and Nanuet entered and sighed, but didn't turn around. She finished the piece she was playing and opened the door to the kitchen.

"They're back," she said to Sonoma. "And they seem to be fine. They'll be surprised when they see you." Kate then went back into the main room and filled four glasses of whiskey. She gave one each to Jake, Nanuet, and Ruby, and drank the other herself. Then she put her hands on her hips and stared the men down. Jake takes the whiskey, raises the glass and says "Cheers." He then turns to Nanuet and says, "I'm not an expert in these matters, but I do believe Mrs. Kale is sending us a message." Jake smiles but does not expect it to be returned right about now. Feebly, "I guess we should expect a message from Sonoma as well."

William Whipple expresses concern about the human and Indian who wandered in after closing time. Tom does some fast thinking and says, "They came her not to safely escort the ladies back home. After all the attention these ladies have brought we can't be having them walk around town at night unchaperoned. Come on, I'll introduce you."

The two men come over to the table and Tom says, "I would like to introduce you both to my father, William Whipple. Father, this is Jake Cook. He is currently courting Miss West. He fancies himself as a gambler.” Jake smiles and keeps his poker face on, not betraying his thoughts. He fancies himself a gambler indeed, Jake is tempted to mention to older Whipple that his son fancies himself a saloon owner. Hermes, why do I put up with his bull dung! He makes eye contact with Ruby but says nothing. Ruby catches Jake's look and tries not to laugh. Tom was pushing his luck with this whole helping them thing when it came to Jake and that was not a smart thing to do.

Tom continues, “Last week he was kind enough to fill in for me while Job Kane was unavailable. He's no Job Kane but he did bring in over $ 40 to the Lone Star's coffers on one of those nights while keeping Job's regular customers from going elsewhere." "Pleased to meet you Mr. Cook," William states, extending his hand for a firm handshake.

Tom then turns to Nanuet and says "And this in Nanuet. He takes care of the horses for Mr. Cook, Miss West and Mrs. Kale. He has done some odd jobs for me, including getting back the money that some low-lives stole from the ladies tips cup last week when everyone was temporarily distracted by a high-stakes hand at the tables. He's offered to help put on the third floor." "Hello" William states with a skeptical tone in his voice. Everyone notes that he does not offer a handshake to the Indian.

Nanuet looked at the man, certainly recognizing the lack of a handshake. He remembered the brief conversation he and Kate had out at Flint's ranch and decided that here was an opportunity to exercise his new philosophy. He swallows hard, takes a deep breath and then speaks. "Hello Mr. Whipple." Nanuet faces Mr. Whipple and bows his head slightly in a greeting. "Your son has a nice place here, you should be proud. We just got back into town and thought we would stop in for a few moments, see how the ladies are doing and see if we could help with anything. Looks like all is well. Care to join us in a drink?"

Whipple reluctantly sits at the same table with the Indian. Kane and Lucky come over to join them. Job says "I had a good night" as he hands over $ 43 to Tom. Tony says "Me too," and hands Tom $ 23. Tom says "Another good night at the Lone Star. I managed to get a good deal on the lumber. Nanuet, I'd appreciate it if you could stop by the Cassidy Lumberyard tomorrow and help bring it over here." Nanuet replies, "Of course. What time would you like it here?"

Ruby asks, "Uh, Tom, do you need us here anymore? Looks like the place is cleaned up. It's getting late and we should be getting home." "I think we're all set," Tom says. He tells Nanuet "Stop by Cassidy's mid-morning to see if the load is ready." As they get start to get ready to depart 'Louise' walks out of the kitchen. Despite the transformation into a 'human' form both Nanuet and Jake recognize her.

Jake quickly looks around the group and no one seems surprised to see her looking different, except for possibly Nanuet. He hopes Nanuet remembers what he told him about white man's daughters. Nah, Jake thinks I hope he doesn't remember. He tips his hat to Sonoma , gives her a nod and a smile and goes with Ruby out the door. "Courting?" Ruby laughs to Jake, "What is he nuts? I hope it isn't going to be like this all week..."

"Hey, I reminded you all earlier that if something happened to old man Whipple Tom would get his saloon." Jake says with one eyebrow raised and a smirk. “You ARE bad." Ruby admonished him but not without laughing. She then takes Jake’s hand and leads him into the Gay Lady Saloon. When they arrive inside they are surprised at how busy it is for the later hour. The bar is packed, the card tables are going strong and the famous Madge Duprey is still singing. Ruby and Jake squeeze their way up to the bar and order some whiskeys. Ruby turns to Jake and holds up her glass.

“Here is to you and your new business venture, Mr. Cook. May it bring you much success and wealth!” They both drink their whiskeys down and then order another. While they wait for their drinks to show up Ruby pulls something out of her pocket. “I have a surprise for you so close your eyes and no peeking! ” Jake does what he is told. Ruby takes his hands and holds them out, putting the red velvet lined, silver playing card holder in them. “Ok you can open them now! I found it today when I was out shopping. What do you think?” she asks with a smile. As Jake looks it over, "It's so you don't forget about me when we're apart."

“Very nice. I like it, thanks." Jake takes out a new deck he is carrying with him and places it in the case. Holds it up a moment before putting it away. Teasingly, "So now I'll be distracted when I'm with you and when I'm playing poker."

Then next round of drinks shows up. Ruby holds hers up, “And here is to us, and a promising night. I want to win lots of money at cards, maybe get some dancing in, but definitely…” she pauses and looks Jake right in the eyes, “Get so drunk we can’t keep our hands off each other…” She clinks their glasses together again and drinks the whole thing. She looks at Jake questioningly. “You’re not going to drink to my toast?” she asks with a pout. Jake drinks down half his glass. "You don't need to get me drunk to get your wish." With a small smile and a twinkle in his eye he continues. "Now if you want to play poker keep drinking like that, but if you want to win at poker you need to slow it down a bit." While he looks the room over he says, "It's been a while since I did any dancing, but I probably haven't forgotten how."

“I would figure someone as charming and dashing as you would be a wonderful dancer.” Ruby looks around, “And I hope to find out.” She pauses to adjust the satiny strap of her red dress that keeps falling off her shoulder. How do you know that I don’t do better at cards when I’m drinking? I don’t think you’ve played me yet, Mr. Cook, not really anyway. I’m really not half bad, although not nearly as good as you are. I believe it was something about you not wanting me to steal your wallet?” Ruby arches her eyebrow then laughs. “Care to make a wager? I know you’re a gambling man. We’ll bet on who does better tonight.” Ruby pauses to think it over for a few moments. “I’m not sure…you have something in mind to play for?”

Jake rubs his beard and grows a crooked half smile on his face. "A promise." She looks at him questioningly. “What sort of promise, Mr. Cook?” Ruby moves a little closer waiting for the answer. Loser makes a promise to the winner. Simple." He replies enigmatically. Ruby thinks it over. Jake was being vague on purpose and she knew it. What could he ask for if she lost anyway? “Sounds like you got yourself a deal,” Ruby stretches out her hand to shake Jake’s.

While they are waiting for a table to make space for them to play they sit and talk. “So, where were you before you came here to Promise City and why did you leave?” Jake looks down at his drink before looking back at Ruby. "Most recently? I was in Tucson. I had taken the train down from Santa Fe. Pretty typical for me, find some odd work, and then a place to play poker. Often the honest tables don't want me because I win a little too much for the smaller houses, so I have to move around. Plenty of dishonest tables to play at. I can often cheat better than they can. So I get chased off, either because I get caught, or they get tired of being out cheated. So after while there are a bunch of guys looking for me. Poker players who lost too much money, tough guys hired by the poker houses, angry men whose woman wasn't faithful to them; when enough of them are looking for me I just move on. It didn't take long in Tucson."

Ruby smiles at Jake and sighs. “I know what you mean. I’m always getting chased off too. Not usually for being caught with a wallet, mind you. You want to know what happened the last town I was in?” She doesn’t wait for Jake’s answer before she continues, “I was singing, and dancing some, and some man who thought he was important got a little too attached. Actually, he was the mayor and he told his wife he was leaving her for me. Now I didn’t have anything to do with it, I never told him I was interested in him but he didn’t care. They never care what I think.

So anyway, she sent her brother after me, but he decided I would be a good trophy for himself instead. So the mayor’s wife got so angry that her husband and brother were fighting over me that she got all the women in the town to shun me, I couldn’t go anywhere without someone whispering, wasn’t allowed in any stores and half the patrons weren’t allowed in the saloon anymore because their wives said they weren’t. So I left. Came here to Promise City and decided to stay out of trouble. A lot of good that’s done me so far.” Ruby sighs again. “So what’s the moral of that story Jake? Don’t fall in love with me; it will only turn out bad for the both of us.” Ruby looks away, avoiding Jake’s gaze.

“Hey, look there is room at the table now. Let’s go play cards.” They walk over to the table and make sure no one is sitting at the empty spots. Before they sit Ruby turns to Jake and gives him a kiss. “All’s fair in love and poker, right?” she asks with a grin. "Fair?" Jake replies. "I don't remember anything about fair. Who do you think you're talkin' to?" “I’m talking to you, Jacob Alistair Cook. Now at least pretend to be polite and give me a shot at winning that promise,” Ruby winks before sitting at the table.

Jake pulls out the chair for Ruby and whispers in her ear as she sits, "I am polite. I am not pretending. You don't fool me one bit about not knowing poker. And if you win, you'll know that I didn't let you. That way if you do you'll enjoy it more," he pauses, "Constance." Jake moves over to his chair and sits down. “I knew I should have lied about my name…” Ruby smiles.

The table is full and the game is draw poker. Very quickly Jake determines that the dealer is experienced and won't be an easy mark, but there are others at the table. Scanning the other players he sees one man is up considerably, another looks to be up a small amount and the third is down a moderate amount with a hungry look to make it back. Jake decides that he will first go after the man in the embroidered shirt with the hungry look, and then the cocky looking one with the bushy mustache who is up. During the first few hands he checks the cards carefully for 'nicks' and makes sure only the dealer sees him do so. They lock eyes and nod amicably.

It does not take Ruby long to become a distraction, albeit a pleasing one. Jake watches her bat her eyes, move her hair, provide a steady stream of charming banter and most elegantly sneak her chair back just enough that she has to lean a bit too far forward to collect her winnings. He is suitably impressed. If I get the hungry looking man out fast, thinks Jake, it still may be early enough for fresh money. He sets to work. Jake waits until the man with the hungry look has a hand he is betting on, and overbets his own hand that he knows will lose. But only a little bit of money. Just enough to keep him in the game. Jake again intentionally loses a couple of small hands to others overbetting his own hand. From then every time the hungry man has a betting hand and Jake has good cards, Jake draws him along making him up his bet in moderate but steady increments trying to clean him out fast and hard. In a short amount of time the man with the pock marked face that was up a little is out and all of his money is now in the hungry man's pile. Jake is up a little as is the cocky looking man who is twirling the ends of his moustache. Everyone else is down a little.

A miner who has been watching Ruby in her bright red dress joins the table. He smells rather strongly of whiskey. Someone will have his money Jake thinks; at least he'll enjoy the view while loosing it. Jake starts again working on the hungry looking one, figuring everyone will be focusing on the miner. The miner takes a seat next to Ruby and moves his chair closer to hers. The faster I get his money, the better she thinks, he stinks. Ruby concentrates on distracting him, which turns out to be extremely easy. The rest of the table wins hand after hand from him. At one point he leans close to Ruby and breathes on her and tries to touch her shoulder so she slaps him. He seems to enjoy it and everyone at the table laughs.

As far as Ruby could tell Jake was concentrating on the man with the embroidered shirt. Ruby decides she will concentrate on Jake. She watches every hand and how he bets and if he has any giveaways. Maybe it was all the drinking she had done or maybe the fact that he wasn’t paying attention to her, but she couldn’t figure him out at all. He catches Ruby looking at him and he smiles at her. She gets distracted but then sets her mind back to figuring him out. A saloon waitress comes over to deliver drinks. Jake puts up a $5 tip and she leans her low cut dress way forward to receive it. Jake starts to put it in her cleavage, but sees the girl’s expression change as she looks across the table. "Ah." Jake says and instead puts the money in her hand. He doesn't need to look up.

Some of the hands start to get serious, particularly between Jake and the guy with the embroidered shirt. It doesn't take long and the man with the embroidered shirt is out and the miner has lost most of his money. Jake looks to have doubled his stake, Ruby is about even, the man with the bushy mustache is up about $70 dollars from where he was when they sat down and has the largest pile and the dealer looks to be about even. A shady looking type with a blue shirt, maybe a gunslinger, replaces the man with the embroidered shirt? Ruby decides to leave him alone, just in case. And she also decides to stop getting distracted by Jake and play some real cards.

Jake has been watching the cocky looking man with the bushy moustache expressions and reactions and trying to match them to his cards. For this one Jake thinks, go for the big wins. He's up and feeling lucky, and may take unnecessary risks. And I don't have to be nice to him to get him to come back. Jake smiles a nasty smile inside. Quickly the stakes rise. The miner is soon out of the game and expresses his pleasure at losing to such an intriguing table. He walks away and sits back at the bar. Nobody comes to take his empty seat.

Jake suddenly has the most money on the table winning $50 each from the man with the blue shirt and the man with the bushy mustache. The shady guy looks peeved about something. Ruby again considers chatting with him but decides against it. The hands have been large and wild and she only looks to be slightly ahead of where she came in but manages to keep from the large wins and losses that Jake and the others are going through.

In the next few hands Jake goes right after the cocky looking man with the moustache. The man loses $180 dollars in just three hands and Jake is surprised when the dealer and the man in the blue shirt each pickup a hand from Jake. Jake lost over $100 but is still up just shy of double his starting stake. Ruby had dodged losing any in those hands and is up about $17. The man in the blue shirt is up $100 and the dealer picked up $140. Jake is scratching his beard and not looking pleased.

A few more hands go by and Ruby thinks Jake is bluffing his way to a big hand after losing some small ones. So does the man with the bushy mustache. Both are wrong. Jake takes the man’s last $40. With no one coming to replace him the dealer calls a break. Jake tips him $10 and Ruby hears him apologize for the rough play. "We'll step out so you can have some new money come in." By Ruby's count since they sat down the dealer is up around $125, the man in the blue shirt is up $120 and Jake is up $150. Sadly, she notes she is down $4. She guesses the three that left broke lost around $325 all together.

Ruby hooks her arm though Jake’s as they walk over to the bar. “Damn Jake, you beat me pretty easily huh? I guess I’m going to have to request some private poker lessons from you. I didn’t think I was that bad. Must be your lucky hat, that or all the drinks.” "Beat you? You broke even. And with crappy cards." Jake squeezes them between the tables. "I did warn you about the drinks."

Ruby giggles, then continues with a small smile. “Yes, do did warn me about the drinks. Well, I guess I owe you a promise then, what’s it going to be?” She looks at him with a cocked head and the same small smile as she leans her elbows back against the bar. Jake looks surprised. "I hadn't meant the winner gets to pick the promise. You'd be a fool to agree to that." Jake sees the expression change on her face, "I mean, I wouldn't expect... you know... um, not a fool." He covers his eyes with his left hand. "I only open my mouth to change feet."

Ruby responds with arched eyebrows, "What did you mean then? That I can promise you whatever I choose? That isn't a real stretch is it? Call me a fool if you want but I thought we were playing for something real. Besides, did you really think I would agree to something that I didn't want to?" That could have gone better Jake thinks to himself. "Don't go thinkin' I don't take you seriously... or a poker bet. Fine." He leans in close to her, buying time to respond. "I want you to promise me" he says slowly and clearly, "that you don't leave me behind without a goodbye toast of Kentucky Bourbon. You bring the bourbon and I get to make the toast."

“Leave you behind?” Ruby asks quizzically. “You mean tonight? I’m not going anywhere without you…” her voice starts to trail off as she thinks about what Jake said and her expression changes from confusion to understanding. “Oh you mean leaving….” She says looking down and kicking the barstool next to her. She did figure the promise would be something much less serious and it was only now occurring to her how Jake felt about her trip from Promise City. She looks back at Jake, putting her hands on his face, stares him straight in the eyes and whispers, “I promise I won’t leave you without a goodbye toast of Kentucky Bourbon. I will promise you that. Do you believe me?”

"Yes." he lied. At least I believe that you believe it tonight, he thinks to himself, and that is good enough for now. The singer comes off her break and starts up another lively New Orleans style tune. ”Oh the music is back, time to dance! But first another quick drink.” They order another round of drinks. “It’s your turn to make a toast,” she says expectantly. "To the most tantalizing woman in the Arizona territory" Jake lifts his glass. "There is only ONE Ruby West." “And you have her attention all to yourself…” she whispers. Ruby smiles warmly at Jake then has her drink.

Ruby and Jake make their way over to an open spot in the room. Jake looks around, “I’m not sure there is dancing here.” “So?” Ruby replies taking his hand. Jake smiles, “Ok, then…” and swings her around. They dance around laughing, not caring what anyone was thinking of them. Jake spins and swings and dips Ruby with her smiling and laughing the whole time. Finally she gets tired and she backs up against a support beam, breathing hard. “I think we can say you haven’t forgotten how to dance. That was fun.” Ruby stands there smiling as Jake moves in closer. He takes her wrists and pulls her closer to him. “Come here, we’re not done yet…” Ruby doesn’t object to Jake’s request. She wraps her arms around him, under his jacket and puts her head on his shoulder. He puts his hands around her waist and holds her close. They dance like that for a while, barely swaying back and forth. Finally Ruby lifts her head and looks at Jake.

“I’m really glad you asked me to celebrate with you tonight.” Ruby’s straps have fallen off her shoulders again but this time Jake slowly slips them back up for her. "I'm not accustomed to have somebody to celebrate with. It's a new experience for me. I am liking it." “Me too,” Ruby whispers in his ear. She closes her eyes and waits for a kiss.

At that inopportune time the whiskey soaked miner decides he doesn’t want to wait anymore to dance with Ruby. He walks over to the two of them with only a slight stagger and taps Jake on the shoulder, "My turn," and attempts to push Jake out of the way. Jake gently spins Ruby around putting himself between the larger man and Ruby. He smiles and says to the miner, "Sorry, this is not a good time for that. A private moment if you don't mind."

But the man is insistent. "I think I have waited long enough." He then pushes Jake aside rather roughly. Jake's first reaction is that his hand moves towards his holstered Colt but he checks that after he hears the sharp intake of breath from Ruby who saw his hand move. The man appeared not to have even noticed and tries stepping in between them. "Hey." Jake says to him, "I tried to be polite." and tries to grab his arm and pull him around. The man is much stronger than Jake and shakes his hand off and then turns surprisingly fast and swings his meaty fist at the much smaller Jake Cook. Jake ducks just in time, but the man knocks his hat off. "You're gonna wish you hadn't done that." Jake mumbles, feints a left hook and hits the man square in the stomach with a right.

The man makes a sound "Oooph." but doesn't seem badly hurt. 'Or I'm gonna wish I hadn't done that' thinks Jake. Ruby had seen many a fight over her, but this was the first time she cared about someone involved. She steps forward, between the miner and Jake, as the man, standing himself up straight after Jake’s punch, is turning redder by the second. “Listen, sir, we were just having some celebrating tonight, you understand don’t you? You seem like a nice guy and all…” He steps towards her and she takes a step back, right into Jake. The smell of whiskey is stronger than it was before and he was starting to look mean. “Listen, missy, first I’m gonna beat up this guy,’ he points to Jake, ‘And then I’m gonna have a dance with you whether you like the idea or not. Now get outta my way.” He takes Ruby’s arm and roughly pushes her to the side.

“Hey…” she starts but before she can get any further the guy is rushing Jake, his fist landing on Jake’s jaw. Jake goes flying back, spinning around, catching himself face down on the nearest table. The guy starts moving towards Jake. “Jake!” Ruby yells when the miner is almost on him. “Sorry guys,” Jake says to the men at the table as he steals their bottle of whiskey, spins around and just in time breaks it over the miners head. The miner looks dazed and Jake jumps off the table and starts to move away. Suddenly the miner grabs Jake’s arm. “You thought you were in trouble before, pretty boy, just wait ‘til I get through with you now.” Jake can see the guy means business.

Before he can do anything Ruby takes a tray and smacks it over the guy’s head, sending him into the table, his weight sending him right though it. “Come on Jake!” Ruby yells, grabbing his hand. They start to run out when she stops suddenly. “Wait!” She lets go of Jake’s hand and starts running back towards the guy. She can see he is trying to get up and is almost successful. She grabs Jake’s hat off the floor and runs back to him grabbing his hand. Jake throws a $20 bill at the bartender. “Sorry about the mess, and buy those men another bottle.” Jake pulls another $20 and waves it in front of the bartender, "No lawman needed?". The man nods and snatches the bill. As they run out they hear the bartender, “Don’t worry about it, this guy does this all the time…”

They keep running down the street until they get out of breath and finally stop. Jake laughs and shakes his head, leaning up against a building. “What did I say about you and trouble?” “Me? You’re the one who threw a punch at that guy!” She moves closer to him, reaching out to touch his face. “Oh, but doesn’t that hurt?”

He puts his hand gingerly on the side of his face. "I've had worse." He moves his jaw and winces. "Ow." “Poor Jake,” Ruby says softly, “You know, I’ve had plenty of men fight over me before, but none ever fought for me. You sure know how to win a girls affections.” He reaches out and puts his arms around her, leans in close and says, "Next time I'll just buy you flowers."

Ruby smiles. “Flowers work.” She kisses him gently so she doesn’t hurt him and then takes his hand. “Come on, tough guy, let’s go home so I can thank you properly for coming to my rescue.” Ruby leads Jake back to the El Parador. It’s late so it is quiet and the only people in the Cantina are Pedro and Dorita, standing behind the bar cleaning up. “May I have some ice, please?” Ruby asks leaning on the bar. Dorita looks at Jake, shakes her head and goes into the kitchen, returning with ice wrapped in a towel. Ruby takes the ice and turns to Jake. “Ready?” Jake scoops her up and carries her upstairs as she laughs the whole way. Dorita and Pedro look at each other, shake their heads and laugh. “Jóvenes unos.” (Young ones)