Back to Camp

Mid-afternoon Ernie, Tom and Dick ride into their base camp where Herman and Clyde are waiting for their return.  The three men dismount and remove their saddles, blankets and bridles from their horses.  They stake the horses out in areas where they can graze.

Herman is the first to speak, “What did you find out?”

Tom replies, “There is no sheriff and won’t be one for at least three to four weeks.  The town has two men coming from Nevada for interviews and isn’t planning to talk to anyone else until they meet these dudes.”

Clyde says, “So we have three to four weeks to make our move before there is any official law in town.”

“It looks that way,” said Ernie.”

“Clyde and I were thinking while you were away.  In a couple of days we want the three of you to go back into town and do a robbery.  We want to see what kind of local citizen action that generates.  It will tell us a great deal about how much resistance we could face if we rob the stagecoach.  We are wondering if they would form a posse to come after us.  We also need to find out when the money run comes in.”

Dick replies, “We should have something planned before we leave camp so the three of us know what we intend to do and there is no foul up.”

“Good idea,” says Herman.

Feeling Things Out

After lunch, Tom, Ernie and Dick walk over to the saloon.  As they enter through the bat wing swinging doors they notice there is no one inside of the saloon except the bartender.  They walk over to the bar.

“The lady in the restaurant told us the owner of this place is on the town council.  Will you be that person?” says Tom.

“Yes, I am on the council, what can I do for you?”

“We came into town to see if the sheriff’s position is still open.  We heard you didn’t have a sheriff when we were up in Salt Lake City,” remarks Ernie.

“Right now it’s not filled, but we have two candidates coming in from Nevada and until we meet with them we aren’t speaking with anyone else.”  Jake doesn’t have a good feeling about these characters.

Joshua Returns

Meanwhile in Carson City the telegraph office’s delivery boy brings a message to the sheriff’s office.

Todd reads it and says, “Well I’ll be damned.  Listen to this Lenny," and he goes on to read the message.

Lenny says, “I never thought we’d hear of Tyler Martin again.  Damn it sounds as if he’s done real well for himself.  Good for him.  What do you want to do Todd?”

“The interesting thing is we’ve given the city council ninety days to find a new sheriff.  We have four deputies here besides ourselves, so we could take the time off to meet these dudes from Silver Lake.  If Tyler recommended us, I suspect it would be a good fit for us.  I’m getting tired of deputies who do nothing and whine and cry. 

Getting the Names

Returning to the table Tyler said, “The last time I spoke with these men was when I lived in Nevada.  They were the law in Carson City.  Todd Sherman was the sheriff and Lenny Baker was his deputy.   Whether or not they are still there is what you need to find out and possibly they might be looking for a change.  I sensed both of them were getting the itchy feeling of moving on because Carson City was getting to a size they were uncomfortable with.  The trouble is that was almost two years ago and they could be anywhere right now.”

“We’ll send a wire to the sheriff’s office in Carson City and see what we come up with.”

“Joshua, did Peter get the council to raise the pay level of the lawmen?”

“He told us what you said and we voted on it knowing we need to do something before real trouble develops.  It was approved.”

In Silver Lake

Inside of Maggie’s, the two women are hugging each other.  Maggie has tears in her eyes.  “I am so happy for you,” Maggie says.

“Tyler is so happy he is beginning to treat me like someone who is going to break.”

At that moment Tyler enters the restaurant.

“Well look who it is the new expectant papa.”

Tyler turns bright red from the attention.

Maggie walks over to Tyler and gives him a hug.

“Lunch is on me as a special present.  Have you told Jessica yet?” 

“No, I wanted to see you first and then to stop over to the boarding house.”

“Jessica is going to be as happy for you as I am.  My god woman, of the three of us you are riding high.  You caught a good man and now you are going to have children.”

Council Meeting

When everyone is seated, Peter begins.  He explains how Jake came to the hotel this afternoon and described what one of his customers saw through the window and where his remarks led.  

“Jake do you want to add anything to what I said?”

“No, I believe you covered everything just the way I told you.”

Randy says, “So why are we sitting here in an emergency meeting?”

Henry remarks, “Sounds to me like you expect this bunch to rob the bank.”

Doc Keller asks, “Didn’t we discuss that the building of a bank in town could cause robbers to try and steal the money? And cause havoc of unknown proportions.”

Jeff replies, “Yes, we did discuss it and I am the first to say we have been lax in creating a plan to insure our monies are safe, because we have been hoping to hire a sheriff.”

Joshua continues the conversation, “You expect one lawman to stand up to a gang of five or more.  I don’t think that is realistic.”