The Bartender swaps out your half bottle for a full one as he pockets the silver. "I'll bring out something to your table. I keep an assortment of things for paying customers. anything else you need before I fetch it?".
"Lookin' to meet up with a pair of fellows who came through here a couple days ago, part of a trail party. They were gonna look into maybe laying in some extra supplies, you seen a pair of gents from out of town who rode in recently? Cowpokes?" says Winona. She brandishes one more silver dollar and wiggles it between two fingers.
While the bartender is contemplating Winona's silver, Flying Eagle speaks up, describing their general appearance (height, build, hair color, etc.).
Zack gives a cheery nod and does as Winona bids, finding a table. Anyone looking closely would note that although it seems random, his choice of table is not the one closest to him but is the one that allows the best view of the room, fewest blind spots and close to an exit (door for preference, but a dive through the window is a lifesaver on occasion).
Not a man to let someone else do all the paying, Zack holds up a couple shiny pennies of his own. "As the lady says, we're looking for some of our own. Seems they were due back and never made it."
The Bartender slides the coins into his pocket "Your boys are in jail." He looks ahead and lowers his voice "supposedly for busting up my place, but that didn't. It was Marshal Wilcott and his boys. There're Socrates Gault's men. He runs a big gang outside of town, I hear he works for Black River. The old Marshal tried standing em down when they got here, and came down with a bad case of lead poisonings. So Gault installed ,Dalton Wilcott as the new Marshal. You'll want to be careful around him friends"
Winona nods and waits for Zack to return. Taking in what the bartender said, she says to Zach, "One of the other fellas should go see if anyone in town suddenly made a beeline to the Marshal's to let him know that a bunch of riders just showed up. I 'spect we'll see the Marshal or his deputies in a few minutes here."
With a nod to the bartender, Winona wraps a hand around the whiskey bottle and says, "Thanks for the local news. We've heard of Gault, sounds like real trouble. Did, uh, the Marshal give 'em a sentence? Are they gonna be in the hoosegow for a day or two, or do they need to pay a fine, or is he planning to have their necks stretched?"
Zack nods in line with Winona's way of thinking, but he has a couple questions of his own. "They killed a lawman, huh? And this new Marshall, Wilcott, is he a real lawman, or just a tough with a badge?" Zack would prefer not to shoot someone with legitimate authority (unless he has no other choice) but he has no qualms about taking down someone who's just impersonating the law.
He shakes his head. Seems like everyplace they've turned recently, there's a Gault causing problems. Somebody should probably do something about that, is his feeling.
The Bartender shakes his head at Winona "Nothing like that, I suspect he'll let your boys go if someone pays for the damages. How much those are, you will have to ask him'
He goes back to looking busy as he responds to Zack "I done told you he is one of Gault's henchmen. The only badge he has came off the last Marshals corpse"
Winona nods to the bartender and brings the bottle and a handful of shot glasses to the table. She sets them down carefully and drags out a chair for herself.
"Well, you all heard the man. Fellah took the badge by executing the previous marshal, and the town's now shakedown central for the Gault gang. Sounds pretty cut and dried. We gotta get our cowpokes out of the hoosegow."
Zack's eyes narrow slightly, although his sunny expression remains largely unchanged. "So they done killed a lawman, huh? Seems to me someone should do something about that." He nods at Winona's words. "Let's go."
"Do we want to just get our cowpokes out, or take on the whole Gault gang, or just take out Gault, or what? If we just want to free our comrades, do we do whatever the 'marshal' says, like pay a fine, or break them out? If you two are thinking of bringing the current 'marshal' to justice or death, then we'll probably end up facing the whole gang, which the bartender said was 'large'." Flying Eagle says in a whisper so nobody else can hear.
Winona pops the top off the bottle and pours out a shot and slides it in front of Zach. She leans in to whisper a bit.
"I was thinkin' if we bail out the boys we can send them riding back to the herd and out of harm's way before we have a confrontation with the false marshal. If he goes down in a hail of gunfire, we'll get the money back anyway."
Zack gives an imaginary tip of the hat to Winona, nodding along with her suggestion. "I was minded to think the exact same thing. No harm in getting bystanders out of harm's way. Of course, that assumes he's willing to let them go peaceably. But why don't we go and find out?"
"Killing the 'marshal' will certainly bring Gault's gang down on us. I would suggest that we ambush the gang wherever they're hiding, then take down the marshal. But yes, let's talk to him about getting our men out of jail."
After you eat and drink your fill you make your way down the street. The "jail" doesn't seem much like a jail, its a simple building with bar-less windows, the front door ajar and a crude painted sign that reads "MARSHAL. Pushing your way into the room, it takes a moment for your eyes to adjust from the bright noon light, the room is pretty simple, you see a man in a brown suit with a derby hat and his feet upon the desk and two other gunslingers sitting near in chairs. In the back of the room you can see your missing hands chained to the floor and sitting on a bench, they look bruised and worse for wear.
The Man at the desk addressed you with a slow and surly voice. "what can I help you with, strangers?"
Being an Indian, Flying Eagle will let the others speak in case this guy is prejudiced against him.
Zack gives the ersatz marshal and his two companions a nod and friendly smile that they don't deserve (as the others have pointed out, getting their friends out from any potential crossfire is the priority). "Well howdy there, good sirs. We came looking for our friends who we understand have gotten themselves into a fine mess here in your good town. We were hoping that there might be some easy way to resolve this and get them out of jail and out of your hair."
The friendly, peacable smile doesn't leave his face. You catch more flies with honey, after all.
The man in the brown suit looks at the two hands chained to the floor. "Those boys there? Well, see we have a little problem here. Those fellows got drunk and busted up my favorite waterin' hole. Me an the boys had to take them into custody, for the good ol the town of course. For we can let them go we would need some restitution for the local establishment. You seem a reasonable soul, I say $50 dollar a head oughtta do it" he says with a smile. The other two men seem to take you in and stand along the back wall, its clear they too are keeping line of sight nice and open.
Zack gives a low whistle at the amount, but his smile doesn't waver - for now. "Seems mighty steep - if these boys caused 100 bucks of damage between them to that bar, I didn't notice it when I was in there just now. Maybe you wrote them numbers down wrong?" He's open to paying a fine, but not to blatant extortion. He hopes the man will reconsider.
Rufus ambles over and takes up post outside the office, listening to what is going on.
He continues to keep an eye on the street.
Winona spreads her hands in a conciliatory fashion and says, "We're all just some cow-pokes, not really rollin' in dollars. But I'm sure we can make an arrangement that's agreeable, better that we scrounge up a little bit of money and make our apologies and get out of your way, right? Something is better than nothin', and if the fine's more than we can rustle up, we may just have to leave empty-handed, which would be unsatisfying for everyone."
He smiles at Zachary "Oh I am sure I recall the numbers, really made a mess they did. $50 a head seems cheap really cheap doesn't it boys?" He says looking at the other two men who grin and nod "sure does boss" one of them says.
When Winona speak he seems to think for a bit and nods to her "Well there missy, you may be just cow-pokes but those boys back there said you where driving a couple thousand head of cattle. You don't move that many cattle without cash on hand. You folks are being reasonable, so I suppose we could forgive the boys for say $35 a head. That's barely more than the cost of a saddle. They simply did too much damage to go any lower. He leans back in his chair "So just head on back and tell your trail boss he will just have to pony up the fine for his boys mischief"
Winona touches the brim of her hat and says, "That's mighty generous of you, sir. Lemme just confer with my fellow cowhands here, we might actually have enough in our pockets to handle this right now an' get the boss to repay us when we get back."
She steps back and gestures Zack and the others into a huddle.
"I actually have about eighty-two dollars on me, but waving around some cash seems like a great distraction if we're planning on just plugging these miscreants."
Zack thinks about Winona's idea, before giving a slow shake of his head. "Between us we can surely rustle up the cash. I think you had the right of it though, ma'am, it'd be better to plug 'em only once our friends are right out from under the crossfire." He gives a tight smile. "We can take it back off em once they don't need it any more. So really, it's more in the nature of what you might call a loan."
He turns back to the waiting ersatz marshall and his thugs, with a generous smile. "Gentlemen, I do believe we have a deal. Care to release our friends now?"
Flying Eagle joins the huddle, and hearing what Winona and Zach are planning says in a whisper "I say again that killing these guys now will bring Gault's entire gang down on us for sure. Better we take down the gang first, far away from town, and then come back for these guys."
Keeping out of sight of those inside, Rufus goes back to the horses and waits to see what's going on.
If these sheriffs are bad, me not being seen with them, might give us a measure of surprise if things need to be discussed with lead again.
The Marshal and his men keep and eye on you, its clear the two standing men have their hands in easy reach of their guns. The Marshal Nods to one of his men "As soon as you pay the fine". Once you pony up the money one of the Men unchain the hands.
"Now y'all have safe travels. You boys stay out of trouble now" The Marshal says, now standing behind his desk.
Winona counts out the money and hands it to the ersatz Marshal with a winning smile.
"I'm glad we could work that out. Thanks so much, Marshal. We'll get our boys out of town so this can all be put behind us."
She waits patiently for the Marshal or his men to let the two hands out of the cell, then gestures for them to join the little band and head outside of the jail.
You make it out without any issue, but the Marshal and his men are watching you. Once out, you think of the Horse issue, both men road to town on horses and if asked will tell you they were hitched in front of the saloon. An area that is currently lacking in Horses. You could always double up and ride back like that.
"Now, $35 for the each of you was bad enough, but a good horse is worth $150. I'm starting to get really mad at those guys..."
Zack gives a good-natured shrug. "Just take the marshal's horse, is my advice. He won't be needing it for much longer, and I'd hate for him to get out of town before we're done with him."
"And if we get seen, they have a legitimate right to call us "wanted", and shoot us down for no reason. No thanks. But *after* the marshal's dead..."
As the party walks by, Rufus asks
Corrupt as expected ?
Zack gives a shrug and an easy smile. "No more than we expected."
You ride doubled up and camp over night, the wind is cool and the air almost gives off a feeling of dread that leaves you shivering, but not from the cold. The next morning you head out toward the meeting ground and close to evening you arrive. You think, the camp is a mess very few steers remain , the chuckwagon is missing, Abby's tent is in shambles. Abby and John Hold rifles as you approach. Behind them on the ground you make out four bodies. Luke seems to have his arm in a makeshift sling as he sits near the fire.
Abby runs up to you as you ride in " Gault's raiders struck this morning! we put up a fight... She says trailing off as she looks back toward the bodies. She wipes tears from her eyes "Their were too many of em. A few of us held up in the cotton woods over there, but they ignored up and took everything. They took Bill, Javier and well everyone left alive"
"Ok. I guess our next move is clear then..."
Zack's expression doesn't falter much as he looks around at the chaos, although he gives Abby a compassionate look. "Are you hurt, ma'am? Is anyone else requiring medical attention? I'm not what you might call a highly-trained sawbones, but more of my patients survive than don't; leastways, as far as I can make out." This isn't really a moment for levity, but this world of steel-eyed death will get you down if you let it, and he does his best not to allow that.
Once that's done and everyone is bandaged up, he gives a look around. "Welp, we been dancin' round them Gault boys a mite too long now, if I may be so bold as to express an opinion on the subject. In my view they're in definite need of a lesson on the finer points of property rights - or more particular, why their mommies shoulda told 'em that stealing is wrong."
Abby points to Luke. "Luke took a grassing hit but the other are past medical help" she says Tearing up. Among the Dead are Owen, Alfred, Antonio and Perry. Nothing you can do for them, although it looks like a few went down hard.
Luke had seen better days and seems to have a limp, but the wound in his arm isn't a bad one and had been clean. "That bastards got 30 gunmen or better' He says when you talk of going after him "I know y'all are hot stuff, but maybe we outta ride to the next Exposition and hire some gunmen of our own. Bill said its near by"
"Agreed. With that many opponents, we'll need a lot of extra gunfire. Which direction do we go?"
Addressing himself to everyone, he says "I can try to heal some of your wounds by contacting my ancestors' spirits if needed."
Damn them yellow bellied dogs Hit the camp while we are gone.
He ensures all the loops on his belts are full.
What do we need to get before we go exchange lead with those fellows
"About 20-30 gunslingers. Hopefully Gault's gang hasn't spent their riches, so we can offer our hired guns a portion of his loot..."
So, we go get some additional gun hands, and then we go hunting. I can live with that. Maybe afterwards, we go after that crooked sheriff??
Luke picks up where he left off "Exposition is the next town northeast of us, six hours maybe less if we push it. It should have a telegraph office at lest. We should be able to reach out for hired guns from there at lest" He cocks his head at Rufus mention of a sheriff "what crooked sheriff?"