Episode Four - A Tale of Two Cowboys Part One
From Black Country Role Playing Society
Narrated by Tony "Quickdraw" Hart
I arrived in Deep Gulch, it was pretty much as I expected a one horse flee bitten town.
I left my horse at the stables (never to be seen again) and headed straight for the saloon. This place only had the one saloon, talk about robbing the miners. The establishment was pretty much the same as all over, how to rob the poor as fast as possible. The whores leered down from the balconies showing their wares and enticing punters, a Mexican bar man was wiping glasses with the dirtiest rag he could find. I ordered a whisky and looked around trying to get the feel of the place, a man leapt on a midget and started pummelling his face, the poor guys nose exploded cheers went up around the place. The guys around me were chanting a name I can only assume the victors.
“I wager that the little guy will win this fight” pretty soon I had guys falling over themselves to place a bet, once I had enough and all was set, I pulled my colt from my belt and gave the big guy a flesh wound on his right arm. Seizing his advantage the small guy started pummelling the other one. I raised my glass to the losers amongst jeers of cheat; wanting to avoid a confrontation I thought it best to buy a round of drinks for them all. Sipping my whisky I noticed a man in a fine cut suit walking down the stairs like a fish out of water, he came down and administered to the guy I shot first,. The guy obviously feeling better started to call me names so I gave him four bucks for a whore and he instantly forgot me. The Doc’s work was neat and fast and I couldn’t help wondering what he was doing here, so at the first opportunity I asked him.
“Why Sir my name is Dr Simon Finnely, my friends call me Si and I’m just passing through making a living on the way.” He said in a thick Scottish accent.
A poker game was just about to start when Simon expressed an interest to me so I signalled over that we wanted to play. I made the guys put the whore money into a hat so they couldn’t gamble it away; this makes life easier as they won’t shoot you in the back if they are humping a maiden upstairs. They all thought this was a nice gesture on my part, survival I call it. The first hand was friendly only for a couple of bucks and we soon had our first drop out, then the stakes got a bit higher and another folded and left soon their were only three of us left, the doctor myself and obviously a gambler. The gambler wanted to raise the stakes to fifty bucks, no problem we paid and played, I lost so did the doc. I suggested we made it real interesting maybe hundred bucks. The gambler didn’t flinch called over to the bar keep for his spare funds, I lay down my hundred and the good doctor rummaged through his wallet to find his hundred. A hush fell upon us, as all eyes watched this high stake game, I won.
“Well god damn it boy” The gambler roared and left, I waited normally they return brandishing weapons wanting their money back. He did return, with a fine pair of silver pistols. “Boy I got a proposition for you, you play me for all the money I lost against you for these fine one of a kind hand crafted pistols.” I quickly appraised their worth and decided they were worth far more than I had won. So in fairness I put four hundred dollars down, my estimated value. “Boy, I like you, now let’s play”
Once more silence descended and all eyes focused on us, my cards were awful, he seemed to have a good hand but I had to bluff. Then we saw each other, he was bluffing too I had the slightly better hand and won. “That’s everythin’ I owns, gods damn, bluffin’ bastard” He stormed out ignoring my calls so I leapt up and set after him leaving everything behind. The doctor made sure no one touched anything. I quickly caught the old timer up. “Listen Sir, I feel mighty bad for your loss, let me give you a hundred bucks for the guns”
“Son that be a mighty fine offer, let me get you a drink”
We returned to the bar where he loudly told everyone what a gentleman I was, how he would play cards with me anytime. This suits me fine, you can rob a man once, but if you rob a man, give him some of his belongings back, and you can rob him forever.
I asked Si if he would join me for dinner. Over dinner we discussed many things and I found out that the doctor was looking for his sister. Apparently he and his family had recently come over and brought a farmstead. They were working on the land when Indian’s attacked, Si was knocked out pretty much as soon as it started, his father was scalped they found evidence but no body and his sister had vanished without a trace. The local Sheriff said the Indians had probably taken her with them.
This didn’t sit quite right with me, Indians would be mighty far out of their land, why scalp the old man and not the Doc. I’d got nothing better to do, so I offered to help the doc in his quest. He readily agreed and we made plans to return to the farmstead and investigate for ourselves. I bade him goodnight and went to see the Pony Express, I told them we wanted to get to Dry Gulch as fast as possible, so we would be glad to take any mail that needed to go. They gave me fifty bucks and promised a further fifty when we got there. The journey was pleasant and I enjoyed camping out under the stars, the company was good, the doc was very easy to get along with.
We arrived at the homestead and started to poke around, the recent memory of what happened got the better of the doc and he broke down uncontrollably. I thought it best to look around on my own, found a skeleton in a suit, best to keep that to myself until the doc got better control of his emotions. I couldn’t really find anything else, we rode to the town and took lodgings at the bar. Doc went to bed and I went to see the undertaker. He was a wily old man and kept trying to measure me up, but after some gentle questioning I found out that; from time to time that Indian’s would pass through, though rarely they attacked. He suggested I ask the sheriff, well I was going to but you never know how bent a law officer is. Turns out the sheriff was drinking in the saloon. Well after much discussion the sheriff only knew as much as everyone else. Si got up and we ate dinner. The next morning after breakfast, Si wanted to have another look at the farmstead, he was quiet on the journey over there and I suppose he was getting his mind right. We poked around a bit and I felt he was ready to look at the corpse. It was his fathers’ body and it looked to him like an Indian job, we found a tomahawk, its markings were distinct and I had seen them before, so now I knew which tribe we were looking for. They would have been well off their normal course, but not unbelievably so.
We set off west, every outpost and town we passed through had seen or someone had seen the Indians, but as far as we were told they did not attack anyone else. Eventually our course led us to Dodge city, where once more we heard tales of the Indians, although here their course had changed and we were catching we were only a couple of days behind. Their course change put them in the direction of Tombstone, which also had a Poker tournament. Information or rumours were abundant here about those Indians, so Si and I decided to part, I would head of to Tombstone on the express coach and he would follow a couple of leads for more information. We were hoping to get in front of them. We agreed to meet up in Tombstone three days after I arrived. I bade Si farewell for now and boarded the express.
Cut back to falling rocks and a glimpse of Si’ tied to a chair in a gun boat.
On to Episode Four - A Tale of Two Cowboys Part Two
Back to The BCRPS Bandoleers o' Bandits Campaign page.
