Miss Morgan

Fifty-Five

July 1899
-Ivy-

"John, Ivy, Bill, Lenny. You lot come with me, we got business to take care of." Dutch barks over all of us by the campfire.

We obediently pack up our weapons and ammo before mounting up and hitting the trail.

"What are we doin'?" Bill finally asks.

"We're makin' our move on Bronte." Dutch explains. "Bronte stands between us and our future. We need the money from that bank and Bronte has the entire town in his pocket. He has to go."

"Understood." Bill nods.

"Anyone got a problem with that? Ivy? John?" Dutch glares at us.

"Why would we?" I ask. "You seem to be insinuating somethin' I'm unaware of."

"I know what you two have been up to and I need you all with me, not against me." Dutch growls.

"No one here is against you, Dutch." John speaks up.

"We've lost good people recently," I add. "We're not against you, Dutch, we're nervous. We've all had a lot thrown at us with losing Mac, Davey, Jenny and Sean, with O'Driscolls finding us and trying to kill Kieran, that setup where Colm almost killed Arthur, with Pinkertons breathing down our necks, and Bronte stealing Jack and setting us up at the station. It's a lot to process, that's all. We trust you and that's why we're still here."

"And that is exactly why we are eliminating the Bronte problem once and for all." Dutch huffs and leaves it at that.

He leads us to a small village out in the dark swamps where he introduces us to an older black man with one white eye. Apparently Dutch and Arthur helped him find his friend so now he's agreed to give us a ride on a skiff through the swamp to Angelo Bronte's mansion.

We wait on the dock for Arthur to join us.

"So, Dutch... what's Tahiti like anyhow?" Bill asks.

"I have no idea... but I hear it's paradise." Dutch answers with a sparkle in his eye.

Bill snickers. "That's what they said about the West... and look how that turned out."

"It's men... like Mr. Bronte... like Mr. Cornwall... that ruined the West." Dutch explains. "That ruin everything."

"So... there's no folk like that in Tahiti?"

"There's folks like that everywhere... but in Tahiti, to my understanding, folks feed 'em to sharks, rather than make them kings."

Bill cackles. "That would be paradise."

"Exactly." Dutch smiles.

Arthur walks up the porch and joins us, the old wooden boards creaking beneath his boots.

"Arthur, there you are. Come on." Dutch's smile fades into a look of determination and we all pile onto the skiff. "Thomas, let's get going."

Thomas pushes us from the dock. "Right you are."

Crickets and cicadas chatter among the trees in the darkness as Thomas paddles us along the murky waters. Bullfrogs croak and alligators hiss. I don't especially like being so close to the gators out here anyway, but now at night, it's much more terrifying. I'll fight a hundred armed men before I fight a gator.

"Hey, Bill..." Dutch breaks the silence. "You were a sharpshooter in the cavalry weren't you?"

"What?"

"When we get there... maybe you could help with the suppression fire." Dutch suggests.

"I never said I was no sharpshooter." Bill furrows his brow.