back to civilization

[Leo Tanner]

     "Now Leo, the story I'm going to tell you is about a man who had a special dream," his mother had begun.  "He dreamt of getting seven special envelopes and each one was sealed shut with a special wax stamp.  Do you know what was in those envelopes?"
    "No ma'am" was all he had to say but it sounded like it was going to be interesting.
    "Well son, I suppose you could say they were invitations.   The Good Lord saw that the world needed changing and he welcomed who and what was necessary to set it right."  She then proceeded to tell the rest of the story.  Leonard never forgot it.

    He realized that he had been running the horse too hard for too long and brought Quatro to a halt.  As he dismounted the numbness in his posterior wore off quickly.  He patted the horses head and thanked him for his ruggedness.  If Leonard was this sore, Quatro must have really been feeling it.  He untethered one of the water bags and said, "Sorry boy, this is all you can have for now".  He was thirsty too and took a few pulls out of his canteen.  Then he paced around to stretch his legs and went over the story again as he did so.

    The town he was headed back to had been land that was taken by the minors and settlers by way of a federal land grant.  "Conquest Leo," his mother's voice whispered.  Once established, evil men had come to take it for their own.  The minors and settlers had tried to fight back.  "War Leo".   As a result the town had begun to die and the mines stopped producing due to lack of willing labor.  "Famine Leo".   Then came Leonard himself.  And what the fat Mexican had called him on two separate occasions rang in his head.  The spooked and nervous bandit from Nogales had called him Death.  Twice.  And he had realized that the fat man spoke true.  Leonard couldn't remember a time when it hadn't been a part of his life.  He never asked for it, it was just always there since the afternoon his father had made him shoot that mad dog.  "You may not like the part you're handed."  Leonard looked skyward and muttered, "Thanks fer the fancy invitation Boss".

    Now as he was set to continue his ride back to Lily, he knew what would come next.  The good people who stood up for their beliefs in that little town would suffer for it in some way.  "They're called martyrs Leo", and then there would be destruction.  The story mentioned a great earthquake and Leonard knew all about the ways to make the ground tremble.  He'd watched the demolition men do their work at the mines.  And finally, the seventh invitation would be for Cyrus.  He would return with his writ to reestablish the law in that town and bring in a new era of prosperity.

    "Yep," he thought, "Mama was right on the money".  Then Leonard synched up his gear and continued on, praising the pale horse he road the whole way.          

[Lily Lockwood]

     The night was black without the moon, all of the townspeople were in their prospective homes sleeping but there was still a slight disterbance in the air, there was one horse in the livery that whinnied as the dew was just settling in.

    Lily was sleeping soundly, dreaming of riding her horse as a young girl back home in Georgia at her family's ranch when suddenly a crackling noise woke her.  She was still groggy when she looked over to her left where the sound came from.  It was the sound of a match striking to light a pipe.

    "Lily" was what he said in his heavy deep yet quiet voice.

    "Stan?"  Lily asked in a quiet and gentle voice.  He was sitting at the table next to her bed with his leg crossed looking at her as he drew in a breath of smoke.

     "Don't you say a word until I say, do you understand?", the man said.  Lily nodded yes as she sat up wthout taking her eyes off his face. "I guess ya didn't expect to see me so soon, now did ya whore."  Lily didn't say a word, she now saw that he had a large hunting knife in his hand and as he began to clean the edge with his finger he said, "You know I should be very upset with you right now but instead, I figure you think I'm of the ignorant type but I'd bout ta show you otherwise.  I just happen to know that Lou had an envelope fer me and that now you have it.  I spect you already know what it's about so lets cut to the chase."

    Lily couldn't move, she knew her gun was under the pillow but she didn't dare go for it. 'I can't give it to him'   she thought to herself, 'I'd better hear him out and then deal with the consequences when I have more help.'  If she was still breathing in the morning.

    "Now, this is what's gonna happen," Stanley said as he gazed at her with the look of a gambler.  "I understand why you don't want ta give me the envelope, you wantin' to fix up yer town an all.  But, I'm tellin' you now that you aren't gonna be the one who suffers if'n I don't get what I want.  I will see the look on yer face when all the people you care about are the ones who I will be makin' pay.  You'll know how ta make it all stop and me go away, it's yer decision.  Now you think on it and I'll be back fer yer answer in twenty-four hours."  Stanley stood up and walked toward the door, turning to look back, his last words were, "If you still decide not to comply with my request, you'll become nothin but my personal whore again, and that's a promise."  He quietly shut the door and was gone.

    Lily began to cry and then jumped up, locked her door, grabbed her gun and sat down at the table.


   

[Lucky Irish Tom]

Several people wanted to hear Cyrus' story about how the little mining town was coming back to life after Lou's demise. Most had never suspected that Lou had been deliberately keeping the mine in a downed state by paying their main surveyor to have the men waste their time on weak veins of ore. 

The Sheriff and the judge had a lot of questions about Leonard and why Cyrus felt he would make a good lawman. Once Cyrus had sufficiently explained all that he knew that judge drew up a paper explaining that the town should really have a town council or mayor to make the formal appointment of the Sheriff. Cyrus thought on this as he ate the first real meal he'd had in days. He knew that as popular and well thought of as Lily seemed to be it  was unthinkable that she would have a place on the town council, women just didn't hold such positions, however there was no denying that she would be a major influence on what the town did. Cyrus chuckled to himself, it had been several years since he had thought of the collection of buildings around the Grey Goose as a town, but if anyone could bring that place back to life it was Lily.

Cyrus went to the room he rented in town to get a night's sleep in a real bed before heading back.  As he drifted off to sleep he prayed that Leonard's feeling of trouble and Lily in danger was just his being overtired and that nothing serious would happen before his return.

[Lucky Irish Tom]

Stan rode back to camp after his late night visit to the Grey Goose. He called to Cole and Charlie and they spoke over a breakfast of beans and bacon and coffee. "the little whore was lying to us and I told her I would be back to get the payroll schedules."  "Now that Lou is out of the picture everyone's cut will be larger."  "What has been happening in camp while I was gone?"

Cole spoke up first, "Amos and Seth found some reliable men who are interested in making some easy money." "Some have already arrived along with some of the men you sent out to the towns to gather information, so we have about 20 men in camp and when the others arrive we will have about 30 to 35 total."

Charlie then spoke up, "We have been putting the information our men gathered together, some of it is kind of sketchy so it is good to hear that we might be able to recover the information Lyle gathered.  We have enough weapons and dynamite to take care of anything we encounter.  We should have no problem following your original plan, Stan, of breaking up into three seperate raiding parties so we can hit those payroll wagons quick and hard. Once we have the schedules it shouldn't be a problem."

Stan looked at the two men, "Cole I want you to pick out ten good men. Tomorrow you and I and those men will ride back to the Grey Goose and if Lily doesn't give me what I want I intend to start killing townsfolk and burning buildings until she sees it my way.  I want you and those men backing me just in case she manages to find someone with enough backbone to stand with her."  "Now let me see what information we have already."