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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 1903038" data-attributes="member: 8530">Chapter Fifty-nine, “The Death of Thomas Kale”, Sunday, January 8th, 1882:Jake and Ruby enter the Oriental Saloon. A man with light eyes, dark hair and a handlebar mustache is behind the bar. "Are you James Earp?" Ruby asks. The man replies "No, I'm Buckskin Frank Leslie, can I be of service to you?"  Ruby says, "Actually we need to see James. Is he around?" He replies, In the back room. Have a seat, I'll go get him." Leslie steps away from the bar but keeps the door open and continues to watch them out of the corner of his eye. Thank you!" Ruby says as he walks away. She looks over to Jake. "I hope your plan works..."   They head over to a table. Jake didn't show any visible reaction to Leslie's name, but he has heard it before. He recalls reading an account around two years earlier of someone named Killian who caught Leslie in bed with Killian's wife. Leslie killed Killian, got acquited claiming self defense, and then married Killian's wife.A man with sharp piercing eyes, a receding hairline and a brushy mustache soon joins them. The resemblence between him and his brothers is very apparent.  He sits at the table looking carefully at both of them, and says "May I help you?" "I hope you can Mr. Earp. My name is Ruby West and this is my friend Jake Cooke. We were told you might be able to give us some information about a friend..." Ruby took a deep breath and whispered, "Thomas Kale?" He gives Jake a stern look then back to Ruby and says "Let's take a walk".Earlier, Chester had thanked the clerk as he took the ticket in hand. He notes the present time on his pocket watch. It's never good to be late, he thinks to himself. I just hope I can find work in this Promise City. It's tough when you don't want to work for the railroads. The flare of a match provides some warmth as Chester lights a cigarette. The ex-cavalry sergeant buys a copy of theTombstone Epitaph and sits down to read. He notices a story about the Oriental Saloon being bought by a Mr. Joyce. After he finishes reading, he walks around town for a bit to get a feel for the town. At lunchtime he remembers what he read in the paper about the change in ownership at the Oriental. Maybe with a new owner, the food will be better than usual to make a good impression. Sitting down to lunch, he notices someone come out from the back to sit a table where a couple sat. Hmph. Probably complaining about their soup being cold. After a brief conversation, all three leave in a hurry. Well, that's interesting. I wonder what the story there is. Outside, James Earp gestures to an alley and says to Jake "Not on the main street. You may be trying to make a statement with that coat but I don't want to get caught in the crossfire. Ringo had a lot of friends around here." Crap, thinks Jake. He thinks I'm wearing Johnny Ringo's coat. Maybe I AM wearing Johnny Ringo's coat. Crap. Crap. It took Ruby a moment to realize what Earp was saying. That could be trouble, she thinks, if any of "Ringo's" friends showed up. And she realized that she forgot to tell Jake what she found out about the coat. She would when as soon as she had the next chance. Earp then says, "Look, I've heard about what you Cartwrights did over in Galeyville yesterday. Take some advice, leave Tombstone and go back to Nevada while you're still alive. You're in over your heads here." "So did Bill Claibourne show up here yesterday?" Jake asks. James says "Haven't seen him. Was he involved with this too?" Jake tries to determine how much of what James Earp has been telling them is true. The vocal tone and body language make it appear that he is being truthful but he has a great poker face, so might not actually be. Jake says, "Claibourne was one of the rustlers yesterday, as far as I know he lived through it. I could have killed him and didn't. Maybe that was a mistake. You know how it is, we tried to resolve some issues without putting hammer to powder, but once the bullets started flying...." Jake pauses. "Figured that was how you knew about it, from something he would have said in town. How did you find out?" James Earp replies, "No big secret actually, Deputy Brekenridge was told the whole story by one of you Cartwrights. He in turn shared it with my brother, the Marshall, who told me. It will be in the newspapers by tomorrow, so then everyone will know. That's why I suggested that you head back to Nevada now while you still can." Ruby turned to Earp. "So tell me, did you know Tom Kale?"  He looks around to make sure that nobody else is around and says "Nice man. I liked him. I dealt Faro to him the night that he died. He was very excited about his wife coming out here. Drank a bit too much that night though and made a comment that he shouldn't have." Earp points to a corner in the alley where two building meet. "They found him dead right over there two hours after that, a knife sticking through his back." Jake says “And would you be willing to tell us what Mr. Kale's ill chosen words were?"James says "Don't remember them exactly, but they weren't too complimentary. Six of us were at the table that night, I was dealing. Clockwise from right we had Colby Tucker, Tom Kale, Buckskin Frank Leslie, Johnny Ringo and my brother Morgan. Everyone but Frank had been playing for three hours at that point and Frank joined us once he closed up the Saloon to the other customers. So it was around 2:00 AM or so and the booze had been flowing rather freely. Kale ran into string of good luck and won several hands. Ringo tried to bluff him out on one, he could be really intimidating when he wants to, but Kale was in too good a mood to be bothered by him. When Ringo showed that all he had were a pair of threes Frank burst out laughing and called him stupid for trying that. Kale made the mistake of joining in with an insult of his own. Now, Frank and Ringo go way back and work together on odd jobs, so Ringo will take some kidding from him, but not from a skinny easterner like Kale. Ringo drew his gun and threatened to shoot him right there. Kale then backtracked and tried to say his comment wasn't aimed at Ringo but at Morgan, who had also bluffed on that hand. Ringo backed down but now Morgan was worked up, but I managed to then calm him down. We played for a half hour more then the game broke up. I figure Kale was up around $ 75 at that point. Before dawn a drunk stumbled over the body in the alley and started yelling. He looked like he had been dead for a couple of hours at that point. He also didn't have any money on him. The drunk was searched be had didn't have the money and also had an alabi for up until then. My brother Virgil, the Town Marshall did a thorough investigation but there was nothing linking anyone specifically to the murder. I personally think Ringo did it, he killed a man once just for refusing to drink with him. But Virgil pointed out that Kale was drunk and had a wad of money, so anyone could have done it. We decided it best not to upset poor Mrs. Kale more than necessary. Since Kale had been sickly when he arrived Tucker told her that he had had a relapse and died. We figured that would be the end of it." Ruby takes a small step behind Jake, takes his hand and squeezes it. She turns her head away from Earp so he can't see her face. This was about the worst news they could have gotten about Kate's husband. She would be horrified to know he had been drinking and gambling too much and that's what got him killed. She didn't want to show Earp how upset she was so she just kept her face away from him and let Jake do the talking.  Jake squeezes Ruby's hand back but doesn't betray any emotion on his face. Jake rubs the back of his neck and shakes his head. "We didn't intend to get in the middle of this, but I guess it is a little late now. Given the relationship between the cowboys and your family, what kind of support might we get from any of your brothers if there was trouble?"Earp replies, “Probably none. They only have jurisdiction in the two town's they are Marshalls in, and if you're foolish enough to stick around either one of those then you're just asking for trouble, so why should they risk their lives on your behalf? Personally, I'm glad you took out Curley Bill, Johnny Ringo and the McLaurys. That Cowboy Gang was on a collision course with my brothers and it was only a matter of time until they a gunfight erupted. I had my share of that type up trouble back when I was a Deputy Marshall up in Dodge City, and know that no good comes from it. The Cowboy Gang may still have a few suspected gang members around to deal with, like the Clantons and I imagine Buckskin Frank there, but with the ringleaders gone they should be easy enough to contain. But your style of vigilante justice just makes things worse. You stirred up enough trouble yesterday, no point in sticking your nose into this Thomas Kale matter, especially since you've already killed the man I think was responsible. Just my opinion though, do what you want, it's your funeral."“I'm not well known for being on time anyway, " says Jake with a wry smile, "perhaps I can be late for my funeral too. Thanks James. When everyone's done shooting at me maybe I'll stop in for a night 'buckin' the tiger' at your table."  Earp replies, "Actually, I'd prefer not to see you again. The person you should probably fear the most is Buckskin Frank Leslie, he knew Ringo best. I'll try to keep him from leaving the Saloon for as long as possible." They wait for James Earp to go back inside. Then Jake curses and takes off the coat and looks at it inside and out again, "Does this thing have a sign on it! Blast it all. I don't think he would have known we were involved without it. At least from what he said.   Ruby says, “Something occured to me when Earp was talking about the jacket. I forgot to tell you something about it. I do that a lot," Ruby blushes. "Anyway, it is magical. Manu... well, someone told me that is had protective qualities to it. So it might come in useful, someday. Maybe just not around here." "This is bad news, about Tom. Going up against Morgan Earp is not somthing I had on my to-do list. And neither is telling Katherine what really happened. Poor Kate. She won't be happy."  Jake rolls it up tight and puts in under his left arm. "Let's head over and see Big Nose Kate and get out of here. We should try and stay out of sight as much as possible until we understand what in Hades is really going on here."</blockquote>

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