Beerboy and shizac were noticeably absent from the trail of people floating down the American River in makeshift ferries and misshapen planks of wood. Neither were the liquor proprietor and the card expert was to be found in the streams of people walking alongside the river.


"Maybe... They are drunk!" said duncs, assuredly. The others kept quiet, fearing the far more sinister. They did soon however find something quite sinister in nature.

shizac crawled towards the now immobile crowd with the most unusual addition to his wardrobe -- besides sociology_boy's velvets and silks, that is. An ax adorned the Ranch Hand's neck, plunging deep into his vertebrae. His screams were muted; his pains too great to properly express with noise.

And as he crawled, a silhoutted-figure appeared from behind the card player. Without so much as a warning, a shot rang through the California air. The sound of the bullet piercing heart would have to suffice as verbal represenation of shizac's pain.


beerboy walked towards his prey, ready to pounce with his knife if need be, as shizac continued to crawl.

He looked up, his poker face capturing the attention of all present.

"I protected you, beerboy. I saved your life. And this... This is how you thank me? Some... Sheriff... You... Are." He had expired.


mego approached the card player, removing the axe from shizac's dead body. He showed the axe handle to the crowd. "See this handle? See this name? I'm Big Richard, and y'all outnumbered. If y'all want to live, you betta listen to me."

He turned to beerboy, extending a hand in friendship. "It was almost as though you were working with us, as though we were friends or some such. I thank you, but I never asked you to kill them estaters. If you want to live, you'll forget all about the axe, and you'll give us free alcohol for life."

beerboy, bulletless and powerless, took off his shirt. His sheriff's badge was pierced to his skin in the most inhuman way. Outlaw Eon Bleu tore it off.


"Badges? Badges? Ha!"

Her laugh was more hoarse and uncultured than even Big Richard's. The disgraced Sheriff fell to the ground in pain.

mos stepped forward. "Please, if you care to be so kind or even as fucking decent as Dashwood and Benjamin fucking Franklin in a brothel, do not submit your sovereignities and concepts of self-fucking governance to this excuse for foul-smelling shit." The Cowboy Mayor was exercising his vocabulary. "Necessary it is fucking not to submit to these... These... Cocksuckers!"

foglai the Prospector shut him up with an pickaxe tossed between the eyes. Amul Muzz the Prospector made sure duncs the Cowboy didn't try to make a run for it.


mego once again addressed duncs and beerboy.

"Like I said, if yer asses wanna live, you'll do what I say. I say... You work at the saloon, beerboy, and you forget that you were ever a sheriff. Amul Muzz and foglai here will take duncs back to New Orleans. When you arrive, you'll tell them everything is fine, and you'll fill the saloon with nice young talent. Yeah. Nice... Talent. Amul Muzz!"


Amul Muzz was preoccupied with pretending to be a Mariachi. He quickly ceased his singing, switching his fingers to a slow bolero.

"You ruined my soliq... soli... My monologue! Where was I? Outlaw Eon Bleu here is going to melt yer badge into bullets. The Li'l Peter will be a two-bullet, one-saloon town... Or you get the axe."

Amul Muzz and foglai led duncs off to jhvh1's ship.


"Now, if you'll be so kind as to GET, Miss EB and I have some celebrations in order."

The Prospectors Win!

---

Cowboys
duncs
sociology_boy
mos


Sheriff
beerboy

Town
tamp
jhvh1
eightysix
JewyPEZ
Todomanna

Theolypse

Ranch Hands
graham
shizac

Big Richard
mego

Prospectors

Leezurd
Amul Muzz
foglai

Outlaw
Eon Bleu

---

Prizes

Trivia: 235 days, New York Herald, The Cricket Saloon - foglai

Sestina: shizac

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Day 1
Day 2
Day 3

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http://groups.google.com/group/stinkygrammer - Prospector Google Group
http://groups.google.com/group/hanks-woody - Cowboy Google Group

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For those of you wishing for more mafia, if you can make it to IRC channel #semafia on irc.esper.net, we are playing minute mafia.