A Story In The Wild West

Part 3: The Lucky Man

POV: James

   I set out from Salt Lake City, heading south towards where my old town was. I ride on my house, with a rope around my burro intending to sell it to buy my self a weapon I can use once I get to those murderers.
   After riding for 2 hours or so, I see a small town that I never saw before. I ride slowly in, tipping my hat towards strangers to show I meant no harm. I stop near the sheriff to ask a few questions.
   "Y'all got anyone who'll trade a burro for a gun?" I say, motioning to the donkey tied up behind me.
   He looks at me for a while, trying to figure out my intentions, before answering with, "I think Ol' Billy's looking for one of them animals." He says finally, "You'll find him in the saloon."
   "Thank you sir." I nod at him, and he replies with a similar nod. I ride over to the saloon, and tie up my two animals securely, as I hear a lot of loud shouting and screaming going on inside. I walk inside to see most of the saloon's attendance surrounding one table, shouting various blessings and profanities.
   I cautiously walk over to the bartender who has been staring at that table the whole time, making me wonder if he's even noticed me. He is a tall pale man, old, with a thick, full white beard and matching white hair.
   I clear my throat, to get his attention.
   "Shh." He stops me, "Sorry," He turns to look at me, as if he had forgotten his manners, "One moment please sir." He then turns back to the table.
   I turn to look at it as well, to see what all the attention is about, when there is a sudden roar and half of the building is praising God and the other half is cursing Him.
   Suddenly the whole room goes quiet, with nothing but a few whispers being spoken.
   "I said double or nothin'!" An angry man yells, as if repeating it.
   "Look," Another man says in what sounds almost like a pleading tone, "I don't want to take all of your money, you still got your family to take care of!"
   "I think I know why." The angry man says, "It's 'cause you're scared of me!"
   The other man sighs before saying, "Alright, let's do it again."
   The crowed roars it's approval as they are seen passing dice around and apparently getting ready to do another round of whatever game they are playing.
   "What're they playing?" I lean over and ask the bartender, who looks at me gleefully and answers,
   "Morla!" He turns back to watch the table as he explains, "It's a game where you roll your dice, and see who can get the highest numbers possible."
   "And why are there so many people watching them play it?" I ask the question that I've been wondering all along.
   He looks at me like I am insane before realizing I just got here and answering, "Because young Dave there hasn't lost a single game all day!!" He yells and then roars with laughter, returning his attention to the dice game.
   I watch from then on in silence, as the man described as young Dave sits at one end of the table. He has remarkably Mid-Short, light brown hair, clean-shaven, with an unexplainable look of victory.
   On the other end, was a man whom I hear to be Warren, he is a deputy in this town. He has a small mustache filling in the position between his mouth and nose and nothing else, he has relatively long hair, light brown, as if from Indian decent. He looks mad, face covered in determination, as if he would accomplish his current task if it was the last thing he did.
   I see them both, staring at their hands, shaking the dice. Suddenly they let go, and the different colored dice scrambled across the table. After a few moments of silence, Warren jumps from his chair, shouting angrily.
   "You cheated me didn't you!?" He fumbles for words to try and prove that he didn't lose fairly, "I- You have fake dice! They're loaded dice I tell you!" He followed with a long string of profanities and insults.
   After it all finishes, young Dave gets up and comes next to me, to talk with the bartender. However, before he manages to get here, I begin a conversation with the man.
   "So," I say, bringing our attention on each other. "I'm looking for someone who goes by the name of Ol' Billy."
   He pauses before answering me, "What do you need him for anyways?"
   "Well, y'alls good sheriff told me that he was looking to buy a burro, and I'm trying to sell one."
   He reaches over the counter to shake my hand, and says, "The name's Billy Trosee, folks 'round here call me 'Ol Billy."
   I take and his hand and shake it firmly, replying, "Pleased to meet you, want to come out and look at it?"
   "Sorry, no can do." He replies, his face grimaced. "You see I'm constantly busy here, I ain't got no time to spare." He moves over to where the person named young Dave is sitting. "But if you wait a while I can have one of my sons look at it."
   "Alright, thank you sir." I say, taking a look around the building as he speaks with the winner of the dice game. I head outside to check on my horse and burro, and find them both safe and secure, right where I left them.
   "See you later Billy!" Dave yells to someone still inside as he exits the building. He walks past me and stops all of a sudden. He turns to look at me and asks, "You wouldn't happen to know where a town named High Point is would you?"
   I stop and stare at him for what feels to be a full minute before finally answering. "Yes!" I practically scream, "I am heading there now, how have you heard of it?"
   "My brother went over there looking for gold, and I'm going to visit him now."
   I suddenly get very sad and realize I have to tell him what happened, so I do, "Something happened..." I say, fearing his response once he hears the news.
   "Good or bad?" He asks, as if he couldn't already tell by my face.
   "Well," Then suddenly I see two guns on his hips and stop. I can't risk my life if he finds out his brother is dead and shoots me. I will have to tell him later. So I quickly think of something and cover my mistake. "We never actually found that much gold."
   "So y'all lied?" I can hear him getting irritated.
   "Not quite, more like everyone exaggerated how much gold was there for mining."
   He frowns as he responds, "I see..." An awkward silence hangs around until Dave finally breaks it, "So when are you heading out? I'd be happy to accompany you."
   "I was hoping to trade my burro for a gun and then head out in the morning."
   "Alright, well I'm assuming you need a room at the inn?"
   I nod in response,
   "I'll pay for your room, just meet me at the edge of town in the morning, South side."
   "Okay!?" I yell after him as he rides off, confused as to why he decided to pay for my room. Shortly afterwards, before I have time to do much else, a young man comes out of the saloon and introduces himself as Billy's son.
   "My name's Joshua." He says, shaking my hand, "And I help my father run this saloon." He sees my burro and looks at it. "That's your burro?"
   "Indeed it is." I respond, walking towards it.
   "Hmm..." He hums as he is thoughtfully inspecting it, "I'll pay you thirty-five for it."
   "Actually I was hoping to trade for a firearm of some sort."
   He turns and looks at me. "What you need one of those for, anyways?"
   "Well I'd like to be able to defend myself." I say, somewhat sarcastically.
   "Yeah, wouldn't we all..." He says, but I cannot tell if he was joking or not. "I'll tell you what. You give me the burro, and I'll go get you a nice old revolver from the back, an ammo belt, and I'll give you enough rounds to fill it all."
   "Make it two guns and deal." I say, knowing my burro is worth more than that.
   "We don't have another revolver to spare." He looks away in the distance while thinking. "Aha!" He exclaims, "Will a rifle do?"
   "Along with the revolver, yes."
   "Of course." He pauses, "I'll be right back with your equipment, sir." Then he runs off back into the saloon, and I'm left alone next to my horse and burro. I stand there alone for five or ten minutes, look around, kicking dust around, until he shows back up
  "Sorry I had to find it all." He says as he puts down an armful of equipment that he is trading for the burro. I walk up to him and start examining it all. I find one revolver, a Smith and Wesson, and another, a rifle with a manufacturer I did not recognize.
   I also find a gun belt as promised, and a large amount of bullets, to fill my belt and guns. I thank him we exchange items, and I head to the inn after loading up the items into my saddle.