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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 2126367" data-attributes="member: 8530">Chapter 105 “Three Saloons Revisited,” January 11th, 1882Ruby and Jake see Maggie Whipple half a block away coming down Fremont Street in the direction of the El Parador.  Ruby comments to Jake, "I don't think I can take her right now, Jake. Because I really do want to kill somebody." He gets up, takes a few steps forward and greets Maggie.  She says, "Well hello Jake, hello Ruby. Kate asked me to come over here a little early tonight, is she around?" "I haven't seen her in a little while, but I know she's here somewhere." Jake points over his shoulder with his thumb. "Go on in."Ruby doesn't even look up as Maggie walks past her.  "You know Jake this town was supposed to be different and the only thing different so far is you..." "I don't know about this town being different. Perhaps we can make it different. And if not, well let's just take enough cash out of here so it doesn't matter." Jake opens the paper again. "Who else advertises in this rag. Let's hit Baxter in the wallet, shall we? Perhaps those advertisers can be convinced to move over to Chumbley's paper, hmmm? It would get awfully expensive for a saloon that's not making money to be the only source of advertising for a low circulation rag like this." Jake continues to thumb through the paper. "Besides suffering from the competition maybe folks might hear about the other troubles at the Palace. You know, the watered down whiskeys, the cheatin' at the gambling tables, and that Suzie woman with the clap." Jake flips another page. "It's a tough world out there." "Jake," Ruby smiles, "You are just wicked. I guess that is why I like you," she says squeezing his arm. Jake looks at the two page interior spread of the paper, the front page consisting only of the headline and story and the back page being the ad for the Palace. Of the two interior pages, there are five stories, which collectively take around a page interspersed with seven ads of various sizes. The largest ad, taking around one-third of a page, is for the Gay Lady Variety Hall and Saloon; there is a quarter page ad for Frye's Harness Shop and Bootmaking; three one-eighth page size ads for Cook's General Store, Drover's Livery and the Promise City Cooper Shop; and lastly two very small three-line classifieds for the Breakheart mine looking for mine workers and Lester's Funeral Parlor looking for casket makers/grave diggers.Ruby interrupts, "Let me tell you about my day. I was going to wait for Kate but who knows where she has run off to." Ruby tells him quickly about healing the bird, but mostly about the magical items that Mr. Gonzales identified for them. "Your duster will be ready tomorrow. I think Sonoma should have the piccolo. Mr. Gonzales said it would be best in the hands of someone like her or myself and I'm certainly not taking the time to learn how to play that thing. I HATE studying. And the chime could be handy if we want to carry it around. Course, we could always try to sell it.""You certainly are learning some astounding things." Jake says with some admiration. "I think I got my fair share of loot already. I'm happy to let them decide about the others. Think you can go back inside." "I'm not sure I'm learning as much as stumbling. I think I should be worried about what I stumble on at the least opportune time." Ruby pulls her dagger out of the porch. "Heh," she says embarrassed as she puts it back. "Yes we can go back inside. We'll let Kate and Nanuet decide about the other items. I think it's time to get ready. I really don't feel like singing though." She stands up and offers Jake a hand. "At least I got a new dress to wear," she smiles.Meanwhile, Chester is thinking, “I hope everything's OK out there. I'd better go out and check. With that Chester walks outside to the porch. "How are you feeling, Ruby?"  She answers, "Oh I'm a bit rattled but I'll be ok. I guess I just forget the paper was coming out today." She tries to change the subject, "Are you coming to the Lone Star tonight?"  He replies, "That's good to hear. I can come to the Lone Star tonight. Will you be singing?" "I suppose so, even though I'm just not in the mood,” she answers.  As Ruby, Jake and Chester come back inside Maggie approaches them, holding the floor-stomped paper in her hand. "Oh Ruby, I was hoping to catch you before you saw that awful rag! What dreadful lies, that Parker Baxter knows no shame. Don't let it bother you, Jeff Mills has already told Angela Young not to try to sell any of that trash in or near the Lone Star and Al Brower is doing the same at the Comique. And if anyone tries to bring a copy inside Tom wants the staff to confiscate it and refund the person their nickel." She turns to Maggie. "Thanks," she says quickly and walks away.Jake says, "Maggie, if any of these businesses that advertise in this rag are friends of you or Tom's get them to move their ads to the Tombstone paper. You need to let Baxter feel the pain of his lies everywhere you can." She takes a look at the interior advertisers and says "Helen Cook over at Cook's General Store is a friend of mine, so I can talk to her about it. Cook, hmm, are you at all related to her husband Zeb?" "I doubt it but who knows." Jake replies hoping he has no relatives here.Jake catches up with Ruby and brings her to a corner of the Cantina. He speaks quietly to her. "You want to hurt Adair? Do it a dollar at a time. Every dollar at the Lone Star doesn't go to the Palace. You go up on stage all depressed and let some customers slip away, he wins. I know you are not going to let that happen." Jake pushes her chin up gently. "Hmmm?"  "Now, if you decide to act on any of the suggestions I made, remember to leave no trace. Get others to do the dirty work, unknowingly is better. Don't leave any track back to you. Ok? And those ideas are just round one. There's more." Jake gives her an evil smile. "I guess I'd better be nice to you then so I can hear them," Ruby smiles back and kisses Jake before heading upstairs.  Ruby leaves her friends behind to go get ready for the night. She figures to get to the Lone Star early so she can have a few drinks. She wonders where Kate is but knows she won't be late for work. She takes out her new green dress and puts it on. It is a bit more revealing than some of her other dresses but she laughs to herself as she thinks that it certainly won’t hurt business. She takes a deep breath, takes Jake's advice by putting a smile back on her face and sweeps back downstairs. Jake whistles when he sees Ruby come down the stairs. "Green. I knew green would be right." He walks around looking her over. "You make it hard for a boy to get any business done. I have to meet some folks, but I'll make it over to see you later this evening. I may even get some of that other business done." He says with a grin and turns to Chester. "Take good care of my girl, OK soldier?" He pats him on the shoulder. Chester turns, relieved that Jake has changed the subject. "Sure, Mr. Cook. But I don't think she needs taking care of. Do you, Ruby?" "I'm so glad you approve," Ruby says twirling around for Jake and Chester. "Now go get your business done and make sure to make it so I can sing you a song." She hooks her arm though Chester's and smiles at him. "Let's go."  Jake exits and heads over to Drover's Saloon.  She turns to Chester and says, "I'd like to get a drink when we get there."  Chester comments, "You look very nice. Let's go. You don't want to keep your fans waiting." "My fans, huh.. are you one of them Chet?" she asks while pushing her hair back. He stammers, "Er. I haven't heard you sing yet. Um, what I mean is..." Attempting to change the subject, he asks, "Think this Adair will try anything tonight?" "Didn't you hear me sing last night? Oh I guess you did take a walk, didn't you?" she laughs. "I won't put anything past Adair, he is a sleazy fellow." "And Chester, a girl ALWAYS likes to be taken care of.." she says while squeezing his arm a bit.  Chester grins, "Charmed, Miss. This'll start tongues wagging. You'll do fine, just put that newspaper business out of your mind."   Chester escorts Ruby to the Lone Star. He bows grandly and says, "Break a leg." Ruby and Chester make enter the Lone Star. When they get there Ruby gets behind the bar and pours them two whiskeys. "Care to make a toast?" "Ahem. To Miss Ruby West: May all your dreams come true." He sips at his whiskey. "Well isn't that sweet. I'll drink to that," she says raising her glass and drinking it down. "I hope you'll keep an eye out for any suspicious activity. Jake used to do that for us but now he is just too busy.. to keep his eye out that is, for me and Kate."  Chester replies, "I'll try. Speaking of Mrs. Kale, do you know where she is?"Teddy Whipple and his fiancée Alexsis come down from upstairs and the Lone Star. Tom and William Whipple both say "Goodnight" to the two with the senior Whipple adding "Try to stay out of trouble." Teddy and his girl then depart out the front door.  Tony Lucky has four people at his table and starts up his poker game. There are around fifteen customers in the bar at this point. Tom Whipple comes over to the table with Ruby and Chester and says "Miss West, would you know if that Indian friend of yours might be around tonight to help out? After what happened last night I don't want to leave the kitchen unguarded at any point and Jeff and I can alternate in there, but there might be times when we're both needed out here."Ruby turns to Tom. "I'm sure Nanuet would be interested, especially since Sano... well, he would be interested. Chester would you be a sweetheart and run back to the Lone Star and ask him? And to answer your question, "she turns to Chester, " I don't know where Kate is and she is getting late, so maybe you can check for her too while you are there?"  Chester interrupts and looks to Tom and says, "Excuse me, I could help out. My name's Chester. I helped Jeff with the uninvited guest last night, so I'm involved already.""Oh, you're the soldier Jeff told me about. Sorry that I missed that, I was rather busy out here. Sure, you'd be fine instead of the Indian, I just think an extra guard may be in order. We may not have any trouble though, after what you guys did to Bob Skull I imagine Adair may think twice about direct confrontations. He'll probably try more indirect stuff like he did in court as well as that trashy rag of a paper that came out today."  Ruby exclaims, "Oh now why didn't I think of that! Of course, Chester would be a great addition to the Lone Star, if even for a night. But maybe with the recent trouble you could use them both? I know I would feel more comfortable."Tom replies, "I don't know that I could pay for both. I'm already paying for one more employee than usual with Louise. That plus one guard is an extra eight dollars out of my profits, I don't think I could afford twelve, not with all of the construction expenses."  She answers, "Well then it is up to you. Chester is here already and he can more than handle the job but we can get Nanuet if you'd like. Just remember that you are going to have more and more people coming to see the show and eventually you will need to hire more people."  Chester asks, “Wouldn't the money from the extra patrons be enough to cover for both me and Nanuet? Anyway, he isn't here yet, so where should I be?" Tom replies "Jeff is in the kitchen right now. Go see him and he'll show you where the weapons are kept."Thanks, Mr. Whipple. Excuse me." Job Kane arrives and heads over to his table. Tom looks at his pocket watch and says "Quarter to eight. I hope Kate and her Louise friend arrive soon."  Chester goes to the kitchen and greets Jeff. "Hi, me again. Mr. Whipple wants me to help guard the Lone Star tonight, what with the trouble from Adair. He said you'd show me where the weapons were kept. I have my own revolver on me, so we don't need to be worried about that."  Jeff replies, "How's it going, Charlie?" "It's Chester," the ex-soldier replies.  Jeff answers, "Oh right, sorry. Let me finish with this, then we can get ready for any problems." Mills says "Well, in the evening this place has been known for its gambling and drinks. There hasn't been much call for food once the supper crowd leaves, and they've been staying away what with Maggie taking a few days off."  Mills shows Chester where he's hidden extra ammunition and where the shotgun is near the door. He also opens the back door and shows Chester a rope attached to the side wall that runs up to the roof. He says "When I was up there earlier I rigged a surprise. If we get any other unwelcome visitors out this door one tug will teach them they're not very welcome around here." Kate had been careful not to muss her hair when she changed her dress. It had been a hard day, and there was still a night to get through. Maggie should be here soon to tell her about her wonderful night last night, and she was the new owner of a ranch. Things weren't all bad. She took a deep breath and went downstairs.  "Maggie." Kate walked over and hugged her friend. "I'm glad to see you. Let's have some dinner. I want to hear all about your night at the El Parador."Maggie replies "I think we have a bigger problem." She hands Kate the newspaper and says "Tony had picked up a copy at his boarding house and brought it over. Tom is furious. His father just laughed it off once he saw the full-page ad for the Palace on the back. He says that he's seen similar tactics used against him back in Denver. I hurried over her hoping to arrive before Angela Young came by selling them but was too late. Ruby already saw it and appears to be very upset." Kate took a moment to read Baxter's article. "Anyone with any sense will know that this story is biased and untrue. He even claims Ruby and Jake are married. I've never seen two people less likely to be married." She turned the paper over. "The Palace, of course. I don't wonder that Ruby's upset. She seems to be able to tolerate many things, but lies about her aren't one of them. But she won't give Adair the satisfaction of letting it affect her.  Have a seat with me and tell me about last night, Maggie. Ruby will cool off, and I'll have a talk with her later." Kate sat down with Maggie and kept an eye open for Conrad Booth's arrival.Maggie tells about the long conversations she had with Dorita, learning how to cook Mexican food, and hearing the lively sounds of the Cantina through the kitchen door. She says that she is amazed at all the things that Dorita and done in her life and the stories of Texas prior to the arrival of the Spanish and other Europeans. She is also amazed at how well read Dorita is despite her rather rudimentary skills with English. "Kate, she can read both Greek and Latin. She doesn't believe in their deities and yet knows all the stories and can hold her own in a debate about the religion.""This is a most remarkable family, and I'm glad you got the chance to get to know them. Mr. Gonzales, Dorita's Grandfather, is a very educated man. I'm sure he made sure that Dorita and Sonoma received the best education he could provide. Dorita is a very open-minded woman, and very intelligent. We could both learn a lot from her.  I have come to care for this family very much. I'm sure you can see why I was reluctant to leave."  Kate stays and talks with Maggie for a while, but only picks at her dinner. She is still hoping Conrad Booth will come in, otherwise she will have to run over to the Long Branch to see him.Across the room, “So are you going to court me or not?” Sonoma says with a big smile to Nanuet. Nanuet smiles at the question from Sonoma, his face reddening but less than usual. The thought of having a female companion seems to be less nerve wracking for Nanuet as time goes by.  She says, “I need to umm... change for work then maybe you can meet me after?” "Ah yes you need to change for work. I need to prepare for my journey tomorrow, and then after that I will be by to see you after work. Be safe until I see you again my emo'onahe monevata vehpôtse (beautiful young flower). With that, Nanuet kisses Sonoma softly and gives her a tender gentle hug. He leaves the El Parador and heads out to the stables. He prepares his and Sonoma’s horses for the next day's journey hoping that she will come with him to see the Apache.  After caring for the horses he relaxes at the grove for a while playing with Maska. He also works on turning his piece of buckskin into serviceable moccasins.Jake goes into Drover's Saloon looking for Morand, Seawell or any of his mining partners. Mitchell Berg, Zack Morand, Tempel Morand, Patrick Seawell, Torvald MacNaulty, Ralph Elliott and Humphrey Lewis are all seated at a table with an eighth chair reserved for Jake. They welcome him to the table as Vera Blake brings him a frosted mug full of beer.  "Well this is a treat!" He raises his mug. "To your perseverance and success", and then quietly "Sorry I missed out on this last night, but those two who shot you on the ride in yesterday won't ever be shooting anyone again."  Elliott laughs and says "Well, some of us missed it too. We were too busy getting patched up by the Doctor, who wouldn't let us leave afterwards. This is the first chance we've had to all get together." They continue various toasts. Seawell then stands up and says "Friends, new and old, I wanted this chance to talk to all of you. I don't want there to be any hard feelings with my three former partners so I thought I'd explain to you what I did." He turns to Elliott and says "Ralph, you've been a good leader for our quartet but you made one big mistake. You cut us a bad deal with Fisk from the onset. I knew from the very beginning there was silver way up the mountain but also knew it would be damned costly to get out. For the first four months I kept hoping we'd find an easier way to get at it but that didn't happen.  Guys, it's going to be very expensive to get that ore out. I figure it will cost at least 25% of the ore's value, possibly as high as 40%, in which case we'd we working for nothing according to the original deal. By renegotiating with Fisk you three are now guaranteed to make a healthy profit. As for my deal with Fisk, I played him like a violin. I agree with Morand here, that Fisk was responsible for trying to kill us and decided that the best payback was to hit him in the wallet. The key was the deals with both bank accounts and one account feeding the other. He doesn't realize it yet, but I can now legally keep him from ever seeing a penny of profit from your Fisk Mountain Mine. I can take and use all of his 30% share on the mining expenses for the Fisk-Seawell Gold Mine, as long as trustee Hubbard certifies the expenses as being legit. And they will be, the property I identified does indeed have gold, but getting at it will be more difficult and costly than at your mine. We may never see any profit from it. That's why I've set up some other mining deals with Zack Morand here. They're a bit riskier, but that's okay."  "Why didn't you cut us in on any of that?" MacNaulty asks. Seawell replies, "Family reasons. You all know my family background. My father retired from the Army as a Colonel. Retirement hasn't suited him well, especially since my mother died. I plan to offer him a job as a mine manager, but knew that your personalities wouldn't mesh with his management style. He's career military and believes in strict military discipline whereas you guys are more....carefree. It's best that we separate our business ventures. But guys, I still plan to be friends. I've signed away all profits from your mine but will still be happy to give you free advice whenever you need it.  And you Mr. Cook. You've inherited three good but rather eccentric partners and one snake in the grass in Fisk. I wish you luck with all four.""To a fruitful partnership." Jake offers as another toast. "Did the first batch of ore get processed successfully? And how did the content compare against your expectation?" Seawell says, "Hubbard was shocked. It came out to a full eight percent silver content, highest the Breakheart ever did for a single load. Then again, we had blasted down a good ten tons of rock and only loaded up the ones that look best. Of course the downside to that is that word is already spreading around town about our claim.  So the total amount after processing deposited into the bank accounts comes to a little over $ 9,000 worth of silver. That gives us all more than enough cash to get these mines up and running.” Jake says, "Let me know what needs to be done to get rolling, and what gets distributed." He raises his glass again. Jake says, "I'd like to close on the transportation contract. Let's agree on the pricing without the additional security and I'm agreeable to fund the temporary extra transportation security as a rider. Do you have folks you wish to use for that or are you looking for staff or even a lead for it? If you are that soldier boy who rode with us yesterday morning might be interested. And for a while I am personally going to take continued interest in putting those outlaws that attacked us out of business." "Seemed like a good man, I'm fine with that" Elliott states. Zack Morand agrees to the previously agreed upon price for transportation with Berg taking down the notes of these details. To the miners. "I'm assuming you now don't need the wagon, since I'm in charge of transportation? Perhaps Morand Cartage is in need of a good wagon to haul ore from Fisk Mountain?" Zack says "With all the business Seawell and I are planning I certainly will. It'll take several weeks to get new ones out here so that wagon will be like a gift from the gods. I took a look at it earlier, the wagon is in great shape but the real treasure there is the horse team. Well worth the $ 1,500 price for the lot.Jake replies, "Good. We are off to a fine start. I'll arrange to deliver it into your hands tomorrow. Just let me know when we can make the transaction.  "Is there anything else we need to do tonight?" Jake asks. "I'll be around town if you need me. I have a few other loose ends to clear up.”  Jake finds out where the wagon is currently parked.  He gives it a thorough searching for any hidden spots the outlaws may have stored something valuable.  Then he heads over to the Long Branch Saloon. If Conrad Booth is between games he'll speak to him. Otherwise he'll inquire about bounty hunters with the bar tender.Back at the Cantina, after a time Sonoma appeared in her guise as "Louise" and there was no more time to wait. I must have missed Mr. Booth. "It looks like it's time to go. I'll see you later on tonight, Maggie." Katherine had a moment of anxiety about the fancy dress and seemingly valuable clip in her hair, but decided for this night she wouldn't worry. There were more important things to worry about.  She gave her friend another hug and then joined Sonoma for the walk over to the Lone Star.</blockquote>

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