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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 3131112" data-attributes="member: 8530">Chapter 182, “Ruby’s Bluff”, Sunday, March 26th, 1882, 9:00 PM Oh crap... Ruby stands silent and still for what seems like an eternity but is only a couple of seconds. She keeps her eyes on the dynamite while backing out of the room.   She calls down the hallway, "Uh, Jake, I think I found her..."  Jake quickly come to the hallway outside the liquor storage room. "Where is she?""She's in here," she replies, "And she's been very very bad." She leans closer to him and whispers in his ear. "Dynamite, four invisible sticks near the window with the fuse going out the window. I'm going to try to disarm it. You go get everyone out downstairs. Figure out what to do with those men. At least one of them knew this was going on. Get Chester to arrest them, the Judge wanted them anyway. I'm going to fix this problem," she nods back into the room and starts inside.  Jake stops her, grabbing her arm. Before he can speak she kisses him hard. "I know. Now go and don't let anyone interrupt me." She walks back in the room and grabs a couple of bottles of beer, keeping them nearby. She kneels in front of the invisible dynamite and says out loud, "I can't bring you any love if I'm dead, Goddess, so I hope you're watching out for me."  With that Ruby starts concentrating and tries to disable the dynamite bomb.  Jake starts down the stairs and then pauses, grabs the pups each by the scruff of the neck and heads down the stairs.  Ruby takes a deep breath in. If I don't get this done we'll ALL be dead... She ignores the gun fire and continues concentrating on the task, 'seeing' through the invisibility and working on unwinding the fuses on the dynamite.  It had been a while since she really dealt with a setup like this but she still could do it in her sleep. It was the being invisible part that was new but so far so good. She wipes some perspiration off her forehead with her arm and continues her work.Chester had followed the men over to the door. The bearded one tries the knob and finds it locked. "Hey, what's the idea he says." "Not too neighborly locking in the customers," the man with the balding head states. They continue to stand near the door and question Chester, who does not immediately reply. When Jake gets to the bottom he pushes the pups in the direction of the side door. "Tony, your game needs a break for a few minutes right NOW. Harry, take a bottle and refresh Tony's customers outside on us and don't let anyone else in that isn't a lawman.   Tony gets up and opens the side door. The puppies hurry out and his customers begin to as well. Harry grabs a bottle of whiskey and a handful of glasses and heads in that direction. The three men by the front door walk away from Chester and also move quickly towards the now open side door. Jake says, “Jeff! The marshal wants to question these men and would like your assistance."  Hearing that the tall man in the crew cut breaks into a run towards the side door. The beaded one begins to reach inside his shirt. The balding man turns towards Chester.   "Look out Chester!"   Not taking his eyes off the men, Chester yells to Harry, "Harry, go get Marshall Berg. If he's not at the office, check at his home."Jake fast draws his Colt and shoots the man reaching inside his shirt.  The shot misses the man by around two inches, the bullet striking the side wall. The man removes his hand, a cigar now in it, and exclaims "What the hell!"  "Sit down and keep your hands on the table." Jake tells him. "Marshall you want me to catch that guy?" Jake asks as he moves quickly across the room and out the door. "Jeff, keep them here and help the Marshall." Jeff Mills hurls the sawdust bag at the man running out the door and then grabs a whiskey bottle.  Jeff overthrows, missing the man but hitting Tony's player Jim Wolfe and knocking the man against the wall. The tall man with the crew cut makes it out the door but is still within sight.  Jake yells at the man, "Hey, you, the Marshall wants to talk to you!" and runs after him.Chester yells back. "Go. Bring him back here." He draws his six guns and trains them on the bearded man and the balding one. "Now just sit back down. You all are wanted for questioning by Judge Isby."   When Jake exits the side door of the Lucky Lady he spots the man on across Allen Street ducking into the alleyway between the rear door of the Gay Lady and Hudson's Bakery. Jake follows, expecting the man to continue west behind the buildings on Main Street and then head south towards the Indian Head Saloon. Instead, the man turns north at the rear of the Bakery. Instead of going into the Alleyway Jake stays on Allen heading north to the other corner of the Bakery. He catches a glimpse of the man heading towards the alleyway between the Silver Dollar Saloon and Barker's Photographic Studio, using the Silver Dollar's outhouse as partial cover. The man is forty feet from Jake as he begins to enter the alley between the rear of the two buildings and the outhouse.   Jake hollers at the top of his voice, "Marshall Barker, help us catch that man!" and moves towards him a few steps so the man will think Jake is following then cuts hard to continue to parallel his pathBack at the Lucky Lady, Ruby successfully disconnects all five fuses so that the fuses on the four individual sticks of dynamite are no longer connected to themselves or to the longer fuse. She looks at the boards over the windows, seeing that two of the four nails holding the plank where the invisible fuse cord goes through have been removed and the other two nails aren't fully in but have just been pushed back in place to hold the plank on.Ruby breathes a sigh of relief as she wipes the beads of sweat off her forehead again. She gathers the invisible dynamite, placing the invisible fuses in the band of her skirt. She realizes that the Mr. Foote could still be around but guesses that since he finished his job he is long gone.  She heads downstairs and surveys the scene. Mr. Wolfe is picking himself up off the floor looking dizzy. She approaches the two remaining men who are now sitting. "Let's get them tied up, shall we?" Niles, who is standing mouth agape, shotgun in hand, hurries over with some rope. "Where is the other one?" Jeff replies, "He ran out the side door. Mr. Cook followed him." Ruby took another deep breath to hide her concern and instead focused on the remaining two. "Jeff, would you do the honors?" As Jeff ties their hands behind their backs, Ruby slides onto the table between them. "Now boys, I am so disappointed in you. Here I am thinking you came to hear me sing and that we were going to be great friends," she says swinging her legs, "When all the while you were up to no good. Friends don't do that, now do they?"  Neither of the men answer Ruby, which makes a crooked half smile come to her face. "I see you have forgotten your manners.  Chester holsters his weapons, but remains standing. What is she talking about? They've been down here all night as far as I can tell. I'll let her go on.   Alright, let's start with this."   She holds up her hand, her palm flat, the two sticks of invisible dynamite being seen only by her. "Where did this come from?" she asks sweetly.Riff looks up at Ruby. "What are you crazy?" he laughs nervously, "There isn't anything in your hand." He turns to his friend then to Jeff. "I think she's had too much to drink." His friend the bearded man returns the nervous laugh. "I don't know what is going on here, but you're all crazy." Ruby smiles, then grabs Riff roughly by his shirt collar, pulling his face close to hers. She stares him in the eyes as she slides one invisible stick into his pants pocket then presses it to his leg. Then she whispers in his ear in a sultry voice, "Is that dynamite in your pocket or are you just really happy to see me?" She sits back with a satisfied grin, pulling the hair off her face. "I'm sure people will think you're crazy when you go running down the street claiming to have an invisible LIT stick of dynamite in your pants, don't you think?"  Beads of sweat now drip down his forehead. "So, why don't you start talking then. Because once you lose your usefulness that's exactly what's going to happen." She slides off the table, giving him a minute to think this over while she approaches Mr. Wolfe, who is looking very rattled as he pulls out a cigarette. "I'm not sure what happened to you, why don't you have a seat?" She pours him a whiskey and hands it to him, then lights his cigarette when his hands are shaking too much to do it himself. She takes another one and lights it for herself. She walks causally back over and sits again on the table between the two sweaty men, smoking her cigarette. She takes note that every time she puts her hand near the man's pants he flinches in his seat. "Problem?" she smiles innocently.   Ruby lifts her skirts up to her thighs, revealing her wine and beer soaked stockings. "Now look, I ruined my favorite pair of stockings while I was upstairs taking care of this problem. That makes me very mad," she says, suddenly pushing Riff back in his seat with her foot pressed firmly against his chest. "Start spilling."Riff is still acting very nervous. His bearded friend shakes his head "no". The bearded one says, "Lady, we're just ranchers looking for work. I don't know nothing about any magical dynamite. Is it a crime to come into a saloon to drink and listen to music is it? You folks are the ones who locked us in, we was just trying to leave."Ruby keeps her foot firmly in place. "I'd want to leave too knowing what was going on." She turns back to Riff. "Tell me about your friend, why don't you? The one who ran off." She pushes her foot just a little harder onto his chest. "You good friends?"  "Nah," he says. He gestures to his bearded companion and says "We're good friends, worked together for years. Just met those other two back in Galeyville. They was heading this way and it's safer to travel in numbers around these parts."She replies, "What other two? The man who took off out of here and..."   He answers, "Oh, he had a buddy, Rudy something. Didn't join us tonight, got the stuffing beaten out of him last night at the Palace against that Finnegan guy."  Ruby listens and watches carefully as the man answers her questions. "Rudy Foote that would be. Yes, I heard it was quite a fight. And what do you know about these new friends of yours? And speak up, Deputy Marshall Martin wants to hear what you have to say."  Chester nods and says, "If I like what I hear, I'll tell the judge you were cooperative. He'll go easy on you. Did Foote tell you why him and his friend were coming here?" Chester thinks, Where is Foote? I hope that he's still at the Palace and not looking for Jake.  Riff says, "Foote didn't come here, he stayed back at the camp. Still recovering from that beating he took yesterday."  Chester says, "Did you see the fight? That Finnegan's good. Who's idea was it to come to the Lucky Lady rather than the Palace? Friends of the fighters might have gotten free drinks there."Ruby shakes her head. Poor Chester is always the last one to know.  She interrupts Chester speaking, "Look, I don't think you're telling the truth." She pushes her foot a little harder into his chest. "And I'm getting bored sitting here. And," a evil smile comes to her face, "My cigarette is getting a little low. You'd better start telling me the truth. Who sent you here?"Riff replies, "It was Roy's idea to come here. Given all this hassle I wish we'd gone to the Palace instead. Look, Ambrose and I are leaving done, we've had it with this cow manure."  "Alright, have it your way." Ruby slides off the table and takes another invisible stick of dynamite, this time placing it in the bearded guys pocket. "Jeff, let's escort these men outside, I don't want to be cleaning up guts off the floor."  Riff stands up suddenly and reaches his tied hands around from behind his back towards his pants pocket in an attempt to pull out the dynamite stick.  Chester draws his Remington. "Whoa there. Let go of whatever that is and lower your hands, please."   Ruby exclaims, "It's dynamite, Marshal, and we're about to take a walk outside and blow these two to Hades, as they were about to do to us with the help of their new friends." Ruby continues with mock sympathy, "Sorry you two innocently picked the wrong friends." She continues, "And since these two have nothing to help us help them, well, it's the end of the line. Because I don't like it when people come into," she starts screaming, "MY SALOON AND TRY TO BLOW IT UP!"The bearded on is the first to break. He yells out "NO, don't kill us! We didn't do nothing, it was those guys. It was their plan! We were just going along for..." "SHUT UP YOU IDIOT!" Riff exclaims. "But 'Bama, they're gonna kill us! This is the guy who shot Pony!" Riff snaps back, "And you're gonna end up like Gifford if you don't shut your yap!"    Chester says, "'Bama, eh? You must be Riff McNally. Don't deny it. Though, I'd ask myself, which has a shorter fuse, the dynamite or Miss West.""And if you DON'T start talking you're going to find out what the inside of these fireworks look like!" Ruby yells, smacking the table with her hand.  She calms herself down and pushes her hair off her face. "Oh forget it. You're going to wish we killed you, you bastards. Instead I have a fate much worse in store."   She turns to Chester, "These two are worthless. Good thing Hanging Nate Isby is in town, we'll have some hangings just in time for next weekend's festivities." She laughs, "He probably won't even give them a real trial now that we know they've got nothing to share. That is, if they survive the night. As soon as Berg gets here let's take them to jail."Chester states "That's true. After what happened to Gifford, who knows what could happen in jail. Us marshals have been known to fall asleep while on duty." He pauses. "You might want to put out the dynamite now. We don't want to blow up the jail."  Ruby shakes her head again. "Chet, Chet, Chet, would I light the dynamite here in the Lucky Lady? That's what we are trying to avoid. I'm for taking these two useless men, if you can call them that, outside and lighting it with my few last remaining puffs. Judge Isby won't mind me saving him the hassle of pretending to have a trial. And then you won't have to worry about getting attacked over these two in jail." Ruby turns to the men, "But I really want to know one thing. Why does your boss Ringo think we're so inept? I mean, time after time we've been blowing you Cowboys to pieces and yet, he still persists in continuing to send you all here to meet your maker. So either he really has it out for all you Cowboys or he really thinks we're that helpless. What do you two think?" Ruby asks with a smile while moving the hand with the cigarette dangerously close to the bald man's pants.Ambrose exclaims "Ringo ain't around, he..." Riff yells "You shut up you idjit! They're bluffing! They ain't gonna hurt us."   Chester says, "Really? There are a couple dozen cowboys who'd disagree with you. If you could talk to ghosts, that is. But you both probably already know how long a snitch lasts in jail around here. We know you haven't spilled your guts, but does Ringo?" "No? Alright." Ruby turns to Jeff. "Where's the best spot, we can tie em up and blow em, up without hurting anyone we like. Perhaps we should leave them outside the Indian Head Saloon... Yes, let's do that." Ruby grabs the bald guy by the shirt. "You take that one. Marshal, up to you if you want to join us or not. Niles can follow us with that shot gun of his. Ready Jeff?"Chester scratches his chin with his free hand. "Is there a mine open at this hour? We could kill two birds with one stone. I'm sure someone would appreciate a free blast. Let's keep them separated." He whispers to Niles, "Let's walk slowly with Ambrose here. He's ready to talk. But not with Riff around."Glaring at Ruby Jake states, "Sorry Ma'am, that would be cold blooded murder. I'm afraid that you'll have to find somebody else to do that for you." He turns and exits the room through the door to the kitchen.    "Chester, you and Niles stay here with these two." Ruby hurries out to the kitchen and she catches Jeff by the arm. She whispers, "I'm only bluffing them Jeff. I didn't even put the fuses on the dynamite. It's here," she pulls the invisible fuses out of her dress, "Ok, so you can't see them but they're here. They have to go to the jail, but I'm trying to get them to talk before they get murdered by their own. I'm waiting for some other law person to take them to jail, I guess Chet isn't going to do it."Jeff replies, "Oh, well, it seems that Ambrose believes you, you sure had me fooled. Miss. West, please don't put me into situations like that again. I've been pushed around and manipulated by just about everyone I've known for the last eighteen years, including a lot of people I trusted. Miss. West, if either of those guys goes and tells the Judge that I was part of a threat to kill them then it'll be me seeing the gallows, not them. The Government has been looking for any excuse to string me up. Look, I've got to go think. I think I'll stay over at Job's place tonight instead of here.""Jeff," Ruby says softly, "We're not going to let anything happen to you. But understand something. They snuck in here and placed invisible dynamite in our liquor room. In case you don't realize, that would probably have incinerated the entire block and surrounding area, including all of us. We're just trying to end all this so we can ALL go on with our lives.  I didn't and would never ask you to commit a murder on our behalf. I was speaking to the bouncer of the Lucky Lady, not our friend Jeff. The Judge will know if they are telling the truth, and the truth is you AREN'T involved in any type of murder conspiracy." He says, "Ma'am, my duties as bouncer included stopping them and tying them up. Once they were secured and the building was safe I had done my job. Planning to blow them up alive...that's something else entirely."  Ruby thinks for a moment. "Do you have reason to believe that Judge Isby would harm you? You're not quitting are you?" She glances around, "And where the heck is Jake? He's better at this than I am."Mills replies, "Miss. West, Right not I'm not sure of anything. I need to go think. But Yes, Judge Isby has every reason to harm me, as does Deputy Sheriff Hunter. They've both been after me for ages, in fact Hunter's only here in this town because of me. They may not actually hang me, but they'd sure as Hades use that and anything else they can as leverage to try to get information out of me. And if I don't tell them what they want to know, which I won't, then a noose will probably be the result. It doesn't matter that these guys may be the Cowboy Gang, you saw Emery Shaw's reaction to me a week ago, it didn't matter who the opponents were."</blockquote>

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