Dominion: Partners. (Four)

 

The rain lessened slightly, long enough for him to make his way down the wooden sidewalks of Grove street until he reached a building with a Board and Lodgings sign, he opened the door, and cautiously stepped inside the softly lit room. A middle-aged well-dressed woman, her long auburn hair rolled up in a bun, there was a look of elegance to her, she softly patted her way across the room, and took her place behind the front desk. She placed her eyeglasses on the bridge of her nose, 

"May I help you with something?" She asked.

He approached slowly.

"My name is Elias Crowe, ma'am, Marshal Gauge said that you might have a room to rent me for a couple of days. while I conduct business."

"Well Mr. Crowe, we can certainly accommodate you, it'll be two dollars a night, and we do have a bath house out in the back, baths are 50 cents, and one meal is included with the room. If you'll follow me, I'll see you to it." She said.

He changed his clothes, and taken a bath and a shave, and later in the evening Hetty Granger called him down to dinner, he and two other guests sat down to a dinner of hearty beef stew with freshly baked biscuits with a bottle of fine red wine. A thin older gray haired gentleman who sold household goods to local merchants such as cooking pots and pans, plates, bowls and cutlery, they were also joined by Shelby's newest schoolmarm, who was just settling in after she'd arrived a day earlier on the noon stage, they continued exchanging small talk until an hour after dinner when a young man came into the dining room holding two envelopes addressed to Elias Crowe. One was from Blind Dog Butler, the other was from Marshal Elgin Gatewood it read: "Elias, I've been summoned back to Hastings, be careful out there my friend. The Forge Brothers are near Thorneridge. Your Friend Elgin." 

The 2nd letter read: "Meet me at the Broken Spoke in one hour, I have information that you might oughta know. ~Blind Dog~" 

Elias walked to the end of the street, lights fading around him in most shop windows, but the massive two-story building that housed the Broken Spoke Saloon, he walked in, and his eyes began scanning through the room until they came to rest at a single table in the corner sat the man they called Blind Dog Butler, a short stocky fellow, in a black and tan suit, and a black derby perched on his head, he had a professional air to him and most folks thought he looked more like a retired banker than a gunslinger, but the army colt carefully tucked away in the pommel holster hidden beneath his long coat, told a different story entirely. Elias stopped in front of the table, Butler looked up at him over the top of his spectacles.

"Why hello Elias, I heard that you were after those Church brothers, so I figured you were heading this way." Butler said in a slightly high-pitched southern drawl.

"Butler? what are you doing here?" He asked.

"Well, Marshal Crowe, I have some news you just might be interested in hearing, if you choose to sit I will pour you a drink and tell you a story." Butler answered. 

Elias sat down and watched silently as Blind Dog poured them both a whiskey. He studied him carefully.   

"I believe I have heard, Marshal Crowe, that some old friends of yourn were seen recently up South Dakota way. In the vicinity of a town called Jericho, I do believe." Butler said.

"Friends? of mine? In Jericho? I've been to Jericho many times, rough place, what friends? and where exactly did you hear this?" Crowe asked. 

"Well Marshal, as you may or may not have heard, I have spent the last five years in an unfortunate place called Irongate Prison in South Dakota, about a month before my release, I received word, that Bloody Bill Longcoats, Ezekiel Kettles and a little backshootin scoundrel named Linus Sixsmith who has been traveling in their company. They seem to have designs on killing one US Marshal Elgin Gatewood." Blind Dog said.

"And why would you share this information with me now Blind Dog? I mean, you were never a pillar of any community yourself, to begin with." Crowe said.

"Well, let's just say Marshal Crowe That while I was in Irongate Prison, I had a lot of time to reconsider my life choices, and I figured well, seeing as how the only tool I was ever good with is this here army colt, I would use it to try walking the other side of the fence. Look, the way I figure it, it's really quite simple, I'll ride with you to deliver those bodies, then we can head over to Thorneridge, that's where the Forge brothers and that Stanhope feller are from, so that would be a good place to start, then we can go see what Bloody Bill and his two pals are really up to." 

The thought of him riding with a known outlaw, reformed or otherwise, didn't quite sit right with Elias, but he'd decided to let it play out and see where it went. They talked on through the night about, where they would find Bloody Bill Longcoats and his accomplices, it was then that Elias learned that Linus Sixsmith was the reason behind Blind Dog going to prison. The story went that Blind Dog had crossed paths with Linus down a little boomtown in South Dakota called Saltlick, and Linus and his two riding buddies pulled an unsuccessful bank job, and even though Blind Dog didn't do anything, the local sheriff thought he was part of the gang, and he somehow got blamed for it, and did five years in Irongate prison. 

The next day Marshal Gauge true to his word sent the telegraph, and it didn't take long for them to get an answer, five hours later in fact the received word that the bank manager of Kindred Bank and Trust had already received word from Willwood, that Elias Crowe had already killed the Church brothers and was on his way to Shelby with the bodies, so the manager was on his way to Shelby, with two deputy sheriffs in tow, they would pay the bounties and claim the bodies and take them, back to Gaston. which left Elias and Blind Dog to concentrate on the Forge Brothers and William Stanhope. The Next morning Elias received the bounty and he and Blind Dog headed out to Thornridge, they rode along King's Trail before heading south down into Diamond pass before they pushed on to the town of Thornridge. If anyone there knew that they were looking for the Forge's or William Stanhope, finding allies wouldn't be easy.

~Scratch. A.B.T. Copyright © 2025~