"I could use yer help, Miss Sarah, ta know what ta put on it...besides elephants an' giraffes, an' people. What kinda people they got at th' circus?"
"Well...there's acrobats and dancers, as well as clowns. There's also a number of different performers doing a myriad of things but it depends on the circus as to what they are," Sarah replied.
She thought for a moment about the animals that Tully had asked about, "As for the animals, it's really hard to explain what an elephant or a giraffe looks like. The best option is to see if we can find a book with photographs or drawings so you can see for yourself and learn to draw them from those. It's too bad we don't have a lending library in town but I am sure there would be someone who would have a book or two that we could borrow. I will make enquiries and see if I can find one."
@ [Bongo] Flip
" ... - - - ... "
"So, what do you think of being part of our committee with Tully, Phin, Sarah Thornton-Carlton, and I? Won't be a lot of meetings, but we will be having them. I won't lie about it, there'll be a lot to get done once we get word on the circus, that's what we want most of all."
"Oh boy, you can count me in all right!" Hector grinned enthusiastically. He knew Mr McVey and Miss Sarah Hyphen-Hyphen, as Arabella called her, would be ideally placed to pull this thing off... but what was that other name he had said?
"Hold on... did you say that that wildcat Tully Nevada is involved in this?!" he blurted in surprised tones. "Marshal... that girl's feral! I mean, I'm pretty sure she's dumb as a stump, I'm not sure what good she's going to be to a committee." the young man pronounced rather arrogantly. "Oh well, I guess she can make the coffee while we intelligent people are deliberating. If she even knows how to do that!"
He knew that Frances Grimes had a lot of good things to say about Tully Nevada, but Franny was a goodie two shoes who only ever seemed to say nice things about anybody. The blind girl probably thought Elias Steelgrave was just 'misunderstood'.
"The law is the law."
"Mining's not everyone's choice of hobbies, it just happens to be mine."
"Why yes, Miss Tully Nevada is donating some art for posters, and, it was her idea about the circus." Speed informed him. "The girl's come a long way from the days of hiding from people, sleeping under porches." McVay had done wonders with the young woman, having her help out in the office, and then too, Mrs. Thornton-Carlton had done her part in all of this.
"Tully is far from feral, Hector. There's been some reason, perhaps something from her past that had made her so shy and reclusive, but that is changing, you'll see." Guyer added, "The idea of this whole thing is to get the community together to celebrate Kalispell, which is all of us, and you, you can be a big part of the whole shootin' shebang!" Things were looking up, and all they needed was a positive response from the circus people.
The next thing would be the fireworks, once the circus was secured. That would come from the San Francisco area. There was a large Chinese presence there, and they were experts in the manufacture of fireworks. That cost might not be so bad, but then what did he really know about prices for much of anything, other than land and minerals? He would soon find out.
Javia
" ... - - - ... "
Hector, who was always a bit of a creep toward authority figures, nodded vigorously at the Marshall's veritable hagiography of Miss Nevada.
"Gee, sorry Marshall, seems I got her all wrong!" he said ingratiatingly, but secretly he remained to be convinced. The lawman probably just found her grubby, waif-like looks irresistible! Something of a draughtsman himself, he imagined that the scruffy-looking girl's 'art work' probably consisted of some badly scrawled stick-figures, and if she was no longer sleeping under porches she'd probably graduated to door-steps.
"I'll get this off straightway, and run round personally when I get a reply!" he gushed.
He just hoped that when the next meeting of the committee came round, he didn't have to sit next to the smelly looking vagrant girl.
"The law is the law."
"Mining's not everyone's choice of hobbies, it just happens to be mine."
"Good, the sooner we know the better. I mean we can likely get by with a medicine show, but a circus, a real circus would just about as special as it could get. Folks'd flock here from miles around for it, and the town would make some money off of it." Speed proclaimed. "The hotel would be full, and any rooms your Ma might have would be filled for sure. So the sooner we know where we stand, the sooner we start putting this whole thing together!"
And the waiting on that telegram would be hard, as excited as the Town Marshal was about the whole thing. It would be as spectacular as he said it would be, and folks would come in from miles around for it, and cash would flow through the hotel, the Lickskillet, the Boarding house, and any rental cottages that were available.
"I've got stuff to get done that doesn't concern this idea we have, so I'll see you whenever you get the response. Just remember, not a word to anyone, Hector. Be seeing you." With that, Guyer left the telegraph office somehow confident that all of this was going to fall into place for them.
" ... - - - ... "
"I've got stuff to get done that doesn't concern this idea we have, so I'll see you whenever you get the response. Just remember, not a word to anyone, Hector. Be seeing you." With that, Guyer left the telegraph office somehow confident that all of this was going to fall into place for them.
"Okeh, so long Mr Guyer. I just hope it's good news when I bring it!" Hector farewelled the lawman and then got busy sending the message, which with his speed didn't take more than a few seconds.
Then he pushed himself back in his chair and tried to get back to his erotic daydreams, but unfortunately everytime he tried to think of an attractive girl like Amnesia or Clara Lutz, somehow the image of that awful Tilly Nevada kept popping up in his mind and he gave it up as a bad job, reaching instead for the latest Telegrapher magazine.
He found an interesting article on telegraph poles and read for a while.
"Well...there's acrobats and dancers, as well as clowns. There's also a number of different performers doing a myriad of things but it depends on the circus as to what they are," Sarah replied.
Tully nodded slowly, her creative imagination swirling at the possibilities laid out for her. Now, to figure out what some of them were! Dancers, she knew, of course, and she'd heard of clowns, but wasn't sure how to draw one. As for 'acrobat', she had no idea what that was, except maybe someone who hung upside down from the rafters?
She thought for a moment about the animals that Tully had asked about, "As for the animals, it's really hard to explain what an elephant or a giraffe looks like. The best option is to see if we can find a book with photographs or drawings so you can see for yourself and learn to draw them from those. It's too bad we don't have a lending library in town but I am sure there would be someone who would have a book or two that we could borrow. I will make enquiries and see if I can find one."
"That'd be real nice," Tully murmured, smiling. "There's some pictures in th' ad in th' paper, but I'm not sure which is which, nor what colors they are." At that, she gave a mischievous grin. "I think elephants should be pink! An' a purple tiger!" Everyone knew there weren't pink nor purple animals!
Alice was at the Mining office and had agreed to meet Speed there. He did not disappoint. It was a luncheon engagement after all, but more than that, there was the morning's discussion of the Founders Day event to relate to her and get her ideas on it as well.
He came through the door in a rush, "Morning, sir." Ada Fetterman greeted him, "She's upstairs." He continued on to the stairs taking them two at a time until he topped out in the rather small living quarters they shared. "You're not going to believe what was going on at the newspaper office this morning!"
Alice smiled as he went on barely taking a breath. "No I don't suppose I would, but then with Phin McVay, anything could be possible. So, do you want to tell me right this minute, or after we get to the Lickskillet?"
"Well, it will have to be here and now because we're not saying a thing to anyone. The discussion with Phin, Tully, Addy, and Mrs. Thornton-Carlton." He began, "Was about a Founders Day celebration right here in Kalispell. We're looking into getting a circus, and hopefully some fireworks from the Chinese over in 'Frisco."
"Well, then you have had a busy morning. And I like the idea. Something like that could go on for a week! A circus, a real one, not a medicine show with some emaciated animals, but the real thing?" Alice asked him, not quite ready to accept the idea as something McVay would be a party too.
Speed grinned, knowing Alice might not accept that something like that would come out of that office. "Tully, that blond young woman working there it was her idea and well, it just took off. I sent a wire to a Circus to get information as to the cost and dates available."
"There's good idea, but Hector Wigfall keeping a secret? Seriously. That would likely be a first for him." Alice mused, "And dancing, a big barn dance with food, and all those things that one would find at a county fair too?" She wanted to know.
"We hadn't discussed all of those things, but a dance, that's in the works, already have a band offered to play, so there's a start. Lots to get done for this thing if we can get things organized, and the circus. Yeah, a lot to do yet, but I believe it will happen, that we'll get real lucky, and get all of it!"
"The law is the law."
"Mining's not everyone's choice of hobbies, it just happens to be mine."
"This idea of Miss Tully's just sort of took off before we even realized it." Speed said, excitement still in his voice.
"Speed, it is a great idea. It is something that the whole town can be a part of! You have to do what you can to see this through," Alice said enthusiastically. "And I need to get out to the Pikes and see that baby. Have you said anything to him yet about this 'Founder's Day' celebration?"
"He's not in 'til later, I'll fill him in then and maybe we'll have word on the circus by then." Was the reply. "He'll be all for it, I'm sure of that." Then he paused and looked at Alice, "Uh, you're not plotting to get Emiline to get Prontop, 'erf Barnabas to fund this thing are you?"
"Me? I'm going out there to see baby Wheeler." She said defensively, "And maybe tell her about this idea of yours, is that alright?"
"Like I was going to stop you?" He asked with a smile. "I know they could fund the whole thing, but that's not what I want, i want to get Kalispell involved with funding it. But, I see you you have your own ideas about things and are bound to do just what you want."
" ... - - - ... "
Hector Wigfall might not have been the most perfect specimen of humanity, he had his faults and flaws like the rest of us, but when he put his mind to a job, he did it efficiently and thoroughly. Take this message to the Circus folk -he didn't just send it off into the aether and leave it to its own devices: he nursed it all the way to its final destination; he harried his fellow operators along the way, he nagged operator number 3 in Helena, who nagged the next operator along the line and so forth.
It wasn't long before he was running along the Main Street of Kalispell holding a telegram in his hand, failing signally to conceal the massive grin on his face.
Even the needle in a haystack search to actually find the town Marshall and give him the thing didn't dull his excitement: not at the Marshall's Office - '"Try the Mining Office" - not there. "He's upstairs but can't be..."
Hector ignored Ms Fetterman and bombed up the stairs with a series of loud thumps under his boots. He burst in on Miss Fletcher and the Marshall who, luckily, were engaged in nothing more exciting than a mundane discussion about finances of the 'Big Event'.
"It's here!!!" he yelped, shoving the missive into Henry's hand, before he remembered to doff his cap to the lady, with a belated "Miss Fletcher."
He tried to look innocent, as if he had no idea what was in the telegram from the Circus folk, although it was only logical, as the person who had decoded the beeps and blips as they had come in, that he must know.
