"Yeah, okay, I see that, but what about Dyer's original idea of, what do they call it? Oh yeah, framin' the rancher with stolen cattle?" Marley start out, "I liked that idea real well, and so did you all, but we got off talking about stealin' for ourselves."
"That's what I was sayin', we get a man on the the range, rope the night man and cold cock him. The we can move some in and move some out, whatever we wanna do." Dyer explained. "We might be so kind as to fix the man's wire while we're at it."
"Yeah, now that thar's an idea what'll work. Fix the man's wire, thet's rich!" Toole added, the men laughed. It would add insult to injury.
"Oh sure, that would work really well!" Case stated. "They'd know they were hit, but, with the wire fixed might be hard to try and trail the herd we take. But stickin' less than we take on his range, and with a hint dropped in town, well, we'd have Guyer and his Territorial Marshal's runnin' all over the county and gettin' nowhere fast, 'cept maybe for arrestin' the rancher til they get it all figured out. It won't take long, but in the mean time it could have ranches at each others throats.
There was a pause as they all let the idea digest. "It could start a range war and that would cover what we'd be doing just fine." Case said with a smile. "Yes sir, might just cause enough trouble to make life easier for us doin' what we do."
"The law is the law."
"Mining's not everyone's choice of hobbies, it just happens to be mine."
"Ya know Marshal, seems kinda odd to me that they didn't take the whole kit and cabootle. I mean, was I rustlin' cattle, it'd be all 'er nothin'!" Culverson stated. Which gave thought to the other men as well. Why? "And not jest shootin' my night man? Strangest thing I've ever been involved with."
"Don't hardly seem right ta just steal part 'o the herd. I mean it was all right there fer the takin'." McNue added. "and no killin', that is odd!"
"Seems to me there's some sort of plan in the works, but I have no idea what it is." Speed said, trying to piece together a motive for why only part of a herd was taken, why the raiders didn't kill the night man. "We need to pick up the trail, I know your boys looked long and hard, but maybe something was overlooked."
"Could be," Culverson agreed, "Some small thing they missed, don't seem likely, but it's nigh onta possible given the time that passed before the boys got out there, hard searchin' fer tacks in the dark so they waited."
"There might'a been an ambush set too, never know." Cook offered.
They rode the rest of the way without further conversation. Culverson led them to where the cattle had been driven off his range and broke the silence. "We'd been slow ta fence this area, our own fault."
"Plain to see the way the went, tore up ground, bark missin' offa the trees. Signs a plenty." McNue said as they followed the trail through the trees until the reached dry river bed of rock and sand where they stopped, looking up and down in the hopes of figuring the direction the rustlers had taken.
"Your man would have said something had there been any sign, we can split up and follow the bed both directions." Speed said, knowing this would be an all but futile effort.
"The law is the law."
"Mining's not everyone's choice of hobbies, it just happens to be mine."
"Marshal? I ain't so sure there's any need of wastin' the time troublin' ourselves with lookin', if my boys couldn't find sign nor track then there ain't none to be found. But they had the place cased, that's for sure. The knew how to get at the herd, trouble is, why not take the lot?" Culverson was quick to admit.
"Agree with you as to why only a part of the herd an' not the whole sheebang!" Cook offered. "Just don't make no sense."
"No it surely doesn't." Speed agreed. "There really was nothing to stop them from taking the entire herd, not one man alone. Not doubting the night mans resolve, or courage. No sir, he did get one and that's saying something."
"Bad news is, they had yer place scouted out, knew the weak points, where the cattle were, so why they left you anything is beyond me, Don't think I ever seen the like. I mean, it's usually all 'er nothin'" McNue added.
"Well, flappin' are jaws ain't gettin' us no wheres. I imagine the other places have been scouted as well. Gettin' a hunderd head ain't makin' 'em no money." Hooker observed. "There's a bigger plan behind alla this, and that's whot we by God need ta figger out!"
"You're right Joe, we need to get on to the other ranches, least ways the smaller spreads. Nobody's going to try the Evergreen, or the Lost Lake, they got too many men between them and Lost Lake would be a nightmare to raid!" Speed stated flatly. "It's the little outfits that stand to lose from this deal."
"I wanna thank you men fer comin' out." Culverson said earnestly, "Gotta say that we need to get on to the other spreads, see if they know anything, seen anything recently that could be the rustlers scoutin' out their places."
"Speed wheeled his horse around, "Let's get to it then.
Storyteller / Shared NPC
Now Boone Dawson was one to do a through job of gathering information, which meant that he was liable to talk with anyone that might have information or an opinion on whatever it was he was after. In this instance, Mister Case Steelgrave, and while he had talked with a number of folks, the information and opinions he had gathered so far had been on the ambivalent side of things, or, smack dab in the middle.
There were those too who were new in town and they had no opinion one way or the other so their opinions were discarded out of hand. He did like what he was hearing from some of the businessmen in town, though they too went pro and con on the question. So he approached the boarding house, one of his last stops on his list. He walked up to the door and rapped on it, awaiting someone to answer it.
" ... - - - ... "
So he approached the boarding house, one of his last stops on his list. He walked up to the door and rapped on it, awaiting someone to answer it.
Hector was just getting to an interesting part of an article in The Telegrapher about Alexander Graham Bell's latest experiments with sending multiple telegraph messages over a single wire using different harmonic pitches. The results were interesting. Not unsuccessful, but rather too successful: as the year wore on Bell would drop the idea of sending multiple morse code messages: but use the new apparatus to develop the telephone.
The article, rather than hail the new invention, was more saddened that the multiple telegraph had been dropped. Either way, Hector threw the journal down in disgust as someone hammered on the front door.
"MA!!!!... 'MIMA!!!!... damn." They were both out. Maybe one of the guests would run down and answer it... No. Damn. Oh well. It might be an attractive young lady, like that Irish nurse he opened the door to a couple of months ago.
He lolloped out of the parlour and down the hall to the door and opened it. Not exactly an attractive young lady: some ugly old feller with a moustache! Still, he'd better look after business.
"Hullo! Lookin' for a room?" he asked simply enough.
Storyteller / Shared NPC
"Well no, I can't say as I am, but perhaps some information, if you could. The name's Boone, Boone Dawson and you see, I'm looking for a fella that I run onto a while back who said he was from here, was County Sheriff, or was going to be. Name of Case Steelgrave." Dawson explained. "So you see, the man said he had some business connection and he'd be glad to help me out was I to get up this way, well, here I am."
He looked to the lad, who looked plenty smart enough, so far he'd have to tell Case he was not exactly Mister Popular in town. But what he knew of people, with the right persuasion they could have a change of mind. Then again, he was not too sure of Case's real motives for this questioning of the townsfolk about him.
"Danged if that ain't the plan!" Toole exclaimed. "We'd have them ranchers an' the law dogs runnin' in circles lookin' fer stole cows and the men ta blame it on!"
"Yeah, an' they'd be thinking another gang was pullin' some of the jobs, but thet ranchers was also stealin' from their neighbors, 'specially with the fences bein' mended so there'd be some time before they could mount a search fer us." Dade added.
"I like the part about settin' up the other ranchers, that'd keep the law busy, maybe too busy to mount much of a real investigation." Dyer observed. Have 'em runnin' in circles, an' that opens the chance to pick 'em off, if we want."
"Now killin' 'em hadn't crossed my mind, but we could. Not sure what that would do for us, unless you meant Guyer and them two outta Helena." Case offered. To him the ranchers were almost his life blood, that is, until Walt Shannon turned up. But how long was that going to last? "We got us some thinkin' to do on this to make it work as best as possible. The killin? That can happen any time, no rush on that. But boys, I got me a plan for Marshal Guyer."
" ... - - - ... "
"Well no, I can't say as I am, but perhaps some information, if you could."
Hector frowned and said nothing. What was this feller after?
"The name's Boone, Boone Dawson and you see, I'm looking for a fella that I run onto a while back who said he was from here, was County Sheriff, or was going to be. Name of Case Steelgrave."
The young telegraph operator visibly started on hearing the name of the man that this Boone Dawson was looking for.
"Case Steelgrave!?" he yelped - but it was an unusually quiet yelp, which in itself was telling. "Jesus Mister, what you looking for him for?!" he asked, a little concerned for the stranger's safety.
Dawson explained. "So you see, the man said he had some business connection and he'd be glad to help me out was I to get up this way, well, here I am."
"A business connection with Case Steelgrave?" Hector repeated, somewhat dumbly. The young man was a Kalispeller, born and bred, and he'd lived through Case's questionable tenure as nearby Whitefish's Town Marshall, he had no illusions as to the moral standing of the tall gang leader. For those very reasons he wouldn't want to be heard bad-mouthing the dangerous criminal.
"Er, you'll probably find him at his Pa's place, Evergreen, big ranch Nor'West of here." was about all Hector dare say, and he'd probably be fretting for the next week as to whether he had said too much, even with that scanty information!
Storyteller / Shared NPC
"Now ain't that somethin'? He never said nothin' 'bout no big ranch. I mean I sorta assumed maybe some sortta mine'n proposition he was goin' on about. Maybe cattle, that sortta thing. Well goes ta show ya that sometimes there just ain't this fella willin' ta help ya out. Seems I been bamboozled, well it was a real purdy ride up here." Boone lied. the boy was unwilling to say anything, another common thread with folks.
"Well, thanks, son. Guess I got my answer about this fella." Boone said as if that had been the last straw in a life of disappointments. "Reckon I'll be headin' south."
" ... - - - ... "
"Now ain't that somethin'?"
"It is?" queried Hector.
"He never said nothin' 'bout no big ranch. I mean I sorta assumed maybe some sortta mine'n proposition he was goin' on about. Maybe cattle, that sortta thing. Well goes ta show ya that sometimes there just ain't this fella willin' ta help ya out. Seems I been bamboozled, well it was a real purdy ride up here." Boone lied. the boy was unwilling to say anything, another common thread with folks.
"Well, sure, yeah, that's where he usually stays when he's about, his Father owns it." Hector stammered, unsure whether he'd said the wrong thing and soured some deal Case had going. Not a healthy thing to have done. "I don't know anything about mines, but you could ask Marshall Guyer: he's a regular expert on all the ore deposits around these parts." he offered helpfully.
"Well, thanks, son. Guess I got my answer about this fella." Boone said as if that had been the last straw in a life of disappointments. "Reckon I'll be headin' south."
Seems like Hector had said the wrong thing, and he didn't want to get in trouble for it.
"Well, say, don't do that Mister. Er, why not stay here the night and I'll send word to old Mr Steelgrave to say that you're here and looking for his son, maybe he can help. We're kinda full, but we can kick my sister out of her room and fit you in." he offered helpfully.