I've a been sitting here for a week and they only excitement is wearing out a deck of cards by shuffling.
No poker games.
No fights.
No gunplay.
No Yankees a getting lynched.
Guess that’s what happens when you get civilized and got a good Marshal in town.........
A few years back I had drifted back up from Mexico. Just across the border was this small frontier spot with no law. Cantina was owned and operated by Juggs. Now she wasn’t called Juggs because of the bottles she kept her homemade brew in. She was called Juggs because of the double GGs!
Low down blue belly Carpetbaggers a drifting in would be met with open fists or 45s depending on the day. No use in getting a good rope stretched! Knuckles would continue to play his piano right thru the fracases without missing a note. And the Chinaman kept whatever valuables he found on them for his burial costs.
Even on a slow day you could just lean back and watch Jugg’s jugs juggling.
Life was good.
Then a Yankee called Chiseler rode into the area and started stirring things up. Claim jump here, a good old Southern boy coming up missing there.
Well us regulars had had just enough of this here Chiseler. We ain’t a going to have no Yankee a doing that and getting away with it!
Jugg’s kept passing the drinks until we was well fortified, we saddled up and rode to met this here Chiseler head on!
Well Chiseler had the same idea about us. While we was a scouting for him, he surrounded the Town and cut the telegraph lines coming out of town.
It took a couple of days before the telegraph lines were back up and communications with the outside world was restored.
Life in town resumed. A few more Carpetbaggers lost at fist-a-cuffs or were slow on the draw so the Chinaman buried them with the rest. Juggs jugs were still juggling.
Life was good.
I rode out to investigate rumors of a Yankee train shipment of gold about 4 days North. Turned out the rumor was true, good thing I brought that pack mule along. I was headed back to the Cantina when I heard that there hadn’t been any word out from the Cantina for several days!
Noticed something was wrong when I saw the town off in the distance. Telegraph poles were all catawampus, smoke rising up from Town and the Chinaman swinging from a tree.
Well I took the load off the pack mule and buried it under the Chinaman’s tree. Checked my ’66, load 6 in the Colts and gallop into town.
Looked like I had missed a fierce battle. Livery and General store were burnt to the ground. From the shell casings looked like the last stand was fought around and in the Cantina. I figure what ended the battle was a few sticks of dynamite that knocked down the West wall and most of the Cantina’s roof.
A few of the bodies were my Cantina padres, majority were strangers. I couldn’t find Jugg’s body anywhere so I’m a thinking she escaped with her jugs intact.
I never did find out what happened that day, did hear that Chiseler left the state soon after.
Now I spend my time between running down rumors of Yankee gold shipments and a looking for Juggs. I have ridden back to that Cantina once… perhaps Juggs… only to find a toothless old hag cooking for a few Mexs.
War of Northern Aggression. A few mercenary jobs down Mexico way. No Cantina, no Juggs. Hardly any challenge left for the acquisitioning of Yankee gold shipments. Pinkertons always looking in the wrong places for me. I ride into Cas City only to find it’s all civilized, with law and temperance.
What a middle aged Confederate former Captain to do?
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