Yankton

Chapter 6

Chapter 6 The Outfit

After a few more days Montana and Melonie realized I was all I said I was, I honored my agreements and had no dark motives towards them,. Slowly they let down their barriers, and we began to work together. One of the things I wanted to do was to teach both of them how to shoot, shoot the marine corps way , so I introduced then to my "arsenal." Both women happened to be sitting at the table chattering away, when I entered and placed my M1A, .45, and M4 on the table in front of them. "You ladies are looking at some incredible firepower laying there, the amount of lead I can throw downrange is incredible. Furthermore these weapons aren't black powder, they all fire what's called smokeless powder developed around the late 1890's and perfected ever since". Pointing to the ACOG scope on my M1A, I continued. "That is a called a ballistic reticle scope, with that, I could sit up on that mountain overlooking Deadwood almost a mile away and blow Swearingen's head off, Christ! They wouldn't even hear the shot. That shotgun fires semi-automatically as does that pistol, fast as you can pull the trigger. It's chambered for three inch twelve gage shells, ought and double ought buckshot, I can blow three men completely apart with that. I'm not trying to frighten or even impress you I'm just making you aware of another aspect of modern life, a darker, but sometimes necessary part of it. I want both of you to learn how to really shoot, I mean really learn to shoot, our lives may depend on it. I'm debating on whether to return to 2013 and get you two modern weapons, but on the other hand the professor warned me about bringing too much stuff back from the future, but there are some pretty good weapons available in this time, the 1860 Spencer comes to mind, the Sharps fifty caliber is another one, I guess we'll just have to stroll into town and visit the local "toy" store, er ah I mean the gun shop."

With all of the settling in we were doing I had overlooked my guitar, it was still in it's case in the time machine's chamber with all the ammunition and buckets of rations, so that evening I brought it out and sat there tuning it up. Both women were immediately interested in the fact that I could play it. "I'm a pretty fair singer as well," I stated, "I do back-up work for a couple country western bands back home, but I play other stuff as well, here, let me show you. With that, I sang "Take me Home Country Roads," "Some Days are Diamonds," and "Rocky Mountain High." I must have been pretty good as both women clapped vigorously. "There's three more that have always been my favorites. They were originally done by a guy by the name of Marty Robbins who died before I was born, but my dad was a big fan of his, and I guess he sorta passed it along to me." I then proceeded to sing "Ballad of the Alamo," "Big Iron," and "Cowboy in the Continental Suit." This brought more very positive results, I then asked, "Any of you play the piano or anything?" Melonie spoke up, "I play," "And I sing," added Montana. "Well," I replied, "Since we don't have a radio or TV, guess we'll just have to get a piano up here and entertain ourselves."

The next day we walked down the hill into town, I kept my eyes open for the slightest hint of trouble, and although I was pretty sure word had gotten out about what I had done to Swearingen, nobody gave us any s**t about it. As we strolled along, Montana nudged me and said, "If you want to meet Dora, there she is across the street there." I chuckled, "Well let's pay our respects then." Negotiating the mud bog of a street, we made our way over to where Dora DuFran was standing with one of her "Girls." Montana introduced me to Dora, "Dora," said Montana, "I'd like you to meet Mr. Brian Yankton, he's heard all about you and would like to make your acquaintance."

Dora turned to me and studied me for a moment, then cautiously remarked, "Interested in me or my girls?" I blushed and replied, "Actually ma'am I've heard about the things your doing for some of the young ladies about town and I admire you for that, would you be interested in a donation on my part, I always put my money where my mouth is." I pulled out a twenty dollar gold piece and handed it to her. She stared at the coin in her hand then looked at me, then Montana. "Is this on the level?" "It is Dora," said Montana, "You would do well to have this man on your side, in case you haven't heard, Brian is the one who rescued miss Bishop here from Swearingen and allowed me to finally leave his employment as well." She then smiled and said, "I did hear something about that. Well Mr. Yankton, stop by my place sometime soon I'd like to talk with you further." "I will be most happy to oblige ma'am." As we continued on down the street, Montana said, "She likes you Brian, you've just made a powerful friend, don't abuse it.

While making our way down the street, I couldn't help but notice the unusually large number of saloon' and dance halls. I said to Montana and Melonie, "In my time there's only a fraction of these kind of places, no dance halls anymore, and the saloons are now called either "bars," or taverns, and the state license's them through liquor license's and regulations." Right now a plan was forming in my mind, but I held my tongue. Montana received quite a number of greetings from who I assumed were former customers, and fans of her's, she would usually smile and sometimes wave, and from time to time mutter under her breath. We came to a decent sized gun shop, "H. Ellsworth Proprietor." Stepping inside was like an antique arms collector's idea of heaven, he had everything, I think I even spotted an old Kentucky flintlock. For some reason I decided to play the asshole, so when Mr. Ellsworth asked me if he could be of assistance, I said. "I'm looking for a particular type of rifle." "Well I have all types for all needs, could you detail your requirements?" I grinned and replied. "Well the rifle must be able to fire full automatic, chamber a 5.56 round, have a detachable magazine, and, oh yes come equipped with a Picatinny rail so I can mount an ACOG ballistic scope on it, oh yeah, I want that barrel to be Chrome-Moly. Got anything like that in your shop?" Mr. Ellsworth looked at me like I had worms crawling out of my ears, and I think was just about ready to throw me out of his shop when I quickly said, "I'm sorry sir wrong century, seriously though, I'm looking for something along the lines of an 1860 Spencer, or perhaps a Sharps .50 caliber, I see that you carry a fine line of revolvers as well, I think we can do some business."

"Well sir, as a matter of fact I do have a fine looking Spencer carbine," Taking it out of the rack, and handing it to me, I carefully looked it over, peering down the barrel, as well as inspecting the action, he wasn't kidding, this rifle was in very good shape. "How much?" I asked "Twenty-five dollars sir." "How about twenty," I countered. "I looking at a couple other guns here , I see a Winchester over there, and, oh what's this a Remington Sporting rifle, and what caliber," I asked. "It is sir, and the caliber is .44 I looked at the rifle, thinking of it as a "training" rifle for the women. "How much for this fine specimen ?" "Twenty for that one," replied Ellsworth. "Uh, sir," he added, "I have a very nice "Trapdoor over here if you're interested?" I glared at him, "Those damn trapdoor's were what got Custer and his whole command killed up on the "Little Bighorn," I said, "Now unless the one you have was used in that engagement with documented proof, I'm not interested." He redeemed himself, when he handed me a Winchester model 1873 carbine chambering a .44-40 cartridge. We dickered a bit more, and when I bought several boxes of ammunition he knocked almost twelve dollars off the deal'

Before we left, Ellsworth spotted my Colt and pointed to it. "Sorry Mr. Ellsworth, I said, I can't let you see that, however, I suspect we will continue to do business in the future, perhaps at some point I will show it to you. One more thing, do you get Colt salesmen in here?" "Occasionally," he replied. "Tell them then, that when they come out with their double actions next year, you have a customer ready to buy. Remember, a Colt Lightning, with a 3.5 inch barrel chambered for the .38 cartridge, good day sir." As we carried our arsenal down the street, Montana asked, "What are you going to do with all these guns ?" Why shoot them of course," I replied. "I'm going to teach you and Melonie to shoot like marines with that rolling block as well as the Winchester. Depending on how accurate these things are I plan to take them with us when we go into the field. Oh! I almost forgot, do any of you know how to ride a horse?" Montana shook her head, Melonie said, "only sidesaddle." "Well," I replied, "Guess that situation will have to be rectified as well."

Both women started to protest, "I know women riding horses other than sidesaddle is deeply frowned upon, but too damn bad, this little "partnership" is going to be mounted, we'll even learn to shoot while mounted, I'm not the least bit concerned about nineteenth century decorum, ladies, I'm more concerned with staying alive. In my time no woman rides sidesaddle anymore, I don't think they even make sidesaddles. This outfit is going to be properly equipped, and trained, dead marines aint sorry, they're just dead, now let's get back to the cabin."

After we ate, I spread a piece of a raggedy blanket over the table and laid the rifles on it. "I'm about to teach a nice little block of instruction dealing with the proper cleaning of weapons. I will strip them down as much as they can be, then you ladies will learn how to properly maintain your weapons." Montana almost mutinied at that, but I was able to make her finally see reason, so for the next three hours, we cleaned rifles.

Both women grumbled and complained, but did as I requested. As we worked, an idea came to me causing me to mutter, "Crap! Why didn't I think of that before." "What's the matter?" asked Montana looking up at me. "I just thought about a friend of mine who would be just the guy to have in this little outfit. He was a Navy corpsman in my unit, best damn medic I've ever worked with, or even met. Bronze star with oak leave clusters, uncommon valor in the face of the enemy, got the navy cross as well, pulled a couple guys out of a burning Humvee, while under fire, we never saw anything like it. Anyway, I think he'd be just the guy to teach you medicine Melonie, I know you'd like him." "What's his name?" she asked, "Mark Sedgwick, when I go back in a day or so, I'll call him."

The next morning, Montana hit me right between the eyes with news that she wanted to go work for Dora. "I was up half the night thinking about this Brian," said Montana, as she sipped her coffee. First of all, I'm a w***e, it's what I do, it's all I know. Dora's a good woman, she deals with a slightly better class of "customers," I might be able to talk her into letting me pick and choose, I'll also be able to deal cards there as well." I studied her for a moment, then replied, "Put me on the "record" as "strongly disagree, but I'm not your boss, I…" ""Don't get me wrong," quickly injected Montana, "I'm not dropping out of this partnership, you have things I need, but I think I can be more useful to this partnership working for Dora, but here's the main thing Brian. "As I understand it, you can take gold coins and such back to your time, and they double, even quadruple in value…Lot's of money, lots of 2013 money, money you can't bring back here and spend. From what you've told me, it's all paper money , well that certainly wont get you anywhere around here, might as well try and pay with confederate dollars.

By now Melonie had joined us, and was agreeing with Montana's logic. "What I'm thinking is this," She picked up a small leather case containing several bottles of aspirin, Ibuprofen, Midol, a couple large tubes of Neosporin first aid cream, and a bunch of condoms. "I can sell these medical supplies to Dora her girls will love it. You buy these things, along with anything else that will work for me from your time, with that money you make. I buy these things from you with gold coins, it's the only way I can see this thing working." I sat there thinking about her proposition, "Cheer up Brian," she said, "I'll be around, and like I say, I'll be able to keep you informed of things going on around here, you did say you wanted a scout , well, here I am." There wasn't anything I could say, she had a valid point. "After I get dressed we'll all go see Dora, you too Melonie, Dora's not a white slaver like Swearengen, she won't kidnap you."

Two hours later, we were coming up the steps to Dora's place, Montana knocked on the door, and when a well dressed young lady answered, Montana said, "Tell Dora Montana and Brian Yankton are here to see her." She closed the door, then opened it again a couple moments later, "Please come in and have a seat, Madam DuFran will be with you in a moment." As we sat down, Montana said, "Let me speak with her first." While we sat there both Melonie and I looking rather nervous, w***e houses weren't places I normally frequented, and I could tell miss Bishop's sense of propriety was making her very uncomfortable as well. Finally Dora entered followed by three or four of her "working girls." "Montana, Mr. Yankton, welcome!" Spotting Melonie, she asked "And who might you be?" "My name's Melonie Bishop ma'am." "She's the young lady who I rescued from Swearingen, ma'am," I said. Dora expressed a wicked smile on her face, and replied, "Had a change of heart? I can always use fresh "talent." Montana jumped in with "Uh miss Bishop is part of our partnership, she just came along for something to do madam DuFran, however it is I who has come seeking a place here."

Dora then smiled, and laughed, "I'm sorry miss Bishop, I meant no offence, well then Montana, shall we go into my office and talk, Kitty, would you see that our guests have something to drink and are comfortable." With that, she and Montana disappeared into another room. I looked over at Melonie who looked close to tears, and patted her arm, 'Chill out Melonie, don't be so uptight about these people, they're just trying to make it in a damn tough world. In my time, being around "soiled doves" wouldn't bother most women your age one bit." By this time Dora's "staff" were coming downstairs to see who the visitors were. "Greetings ladies! What's shaking?" This brought gales of laughter, as they made themselves comfortable, apparently it was too early in the day yet for customers, although I was pretty sure they thought we were. Dora's "girls," for the most part all seemed rather plain looking, however there was a couple that were rather good looking. Continuing my jibes, I announced, "Sorry to disappoint, but miss Bishop and I aren't here looking for a threesome, or any "girl on girl" action, just waiting for Montana to finish talking with your boss." At that comment, Melonie glared daggers at me, but I just shrugged it off.

Finally Montana came out and beckoned me to join her. I felt like I was leaving Melonie to the wolves, but she was just going to have to get used to being around all sorts of people.