"Her Majesty awakes, huh?" "Cocksucker's gonna grace me with his fucking presence this morning." "Fucking Magistrate Clagett will impart to me the attitude towards the settlement of him and his fellow lying fucking thieves at the territorial legislature of Yankton." "How fucking much it's gonna cost us to get annexed when they sign a treaty with the fucking dirt worshipers, huh?" "How hard is the legislature gonna squeeze our balls with regard to our title and properties, huh?" "I don't want to talk to these cocksuckers, but you have to." "In life, you have to do a lot of things you don't fucking want to do." "Many times, that's what the fuck life is- one vile fucking task after another." "But don't get aggravated." "Then the enemy has you by the short hair." "It'll be different after the annexation." "That's all." "There's nothing to be afraid of." "Everything changes." "Don't be afraid." "I can hope- those'll be appearing on a regular basis." "No." "No?" "How's your arm?" "It's all right." "Don't fucking try doing away with yourself again, huh?" "Good morning, gentlemen." "This is Ellsworth, who found the gold on your claim." " How do you do, Mr. Ellsworth?" " Pleasure." " And this is Sophia." " Pleasure, Sophia." "I'm grateful for your expertise and keen eyesight." "Luck's what you want to congratulate me on, Mrs. Garret." "Till you decide how you want develop it," "Ellsworth can spend time enough at wages on your claim to sustain your ownership." "I nod as if I understand what you just said." "He'll explain it all to you." "Might we have a word, Mr. Bullock?" "I'm certain Mr. Ellsworth's are very capable hands, but I hope you're not disassociating yourself from my affairs." "I already got my impression of this fellow, Mrs. Garret." "This meeting's how you form yours." "I see." "Then we compare notes and decide how you proceed." "Fine." "Toward a future point when you tell me my thinkin's so consistently wrongheaded it's a waste of your valuable time having to deal with me." "In any case, I know you have many claims on your attention." "A couple." "Thank you very much." "I'd lean more on what I felt about this fellow than what I saw." "Late as usual." "I just comes from the creek, Mr. Farnum." "Washin' my pants." "A habit to cultivate." "And under a rock down there, I found other pants of mine I thought I'd lost." "But seein' as I gets drunk and on occasion shits myself," "I figured that must be how I lost 'em in the first place." "I imagine you making your way from the creek, rolling into the lobby when all others are abed, bare-ass naked with shit streaming down the backs of your legs." "Sir, no." "It must have been the night that Mr. Hickok was killed." "Now I recall that Mr. Hickok... he gives unto me a letter for me to put in post, but what with all the hullabalo and me gettin' drunk," "I forgot about the whole thing." "Until I found my pants." "Do you think I'm gonna touch that?" "No, uh, I didn't get my pants wet, nor did I soil the letter when I soiled myself." "That's the miracle of it, sir." "So I'm to believe that's a letter written by Wild Bill Hickok just before his murder by the coward McCall?" " Just minutes before, sir." " Addressed to whom?" "His wife, sir." "Well, I only hope you haven't opened it." "No, sir." "At least that eliminates tampering from the list." "Of what, sir?" "Crimes in which your inebriation and sloth as my employee has implicated my hotel, which I will attempt to shield you from in the course of trying to extricate myself." "I didn't mean to extricate you, sir." "I" " I didn't" "Just give me the confounded letter!" " And none of this hangdog look." " Sir." " Not a word of this to anyone." " Yes, sir." "Mr. Utter." "Hearty congratulations on your new venture." "Take a while to find out if those are what's in order." "Being this is the first day of my enterprise," "I wore this frock-coat." "Very flattering." "You don't think it looks stupid?" "Not to me, no." "Mr. Dority all of a sudden stumbled, and in- in grabbin' at scrub to steady him," "I saw a color beneath." "Ain't you a little doll." "She's formed an instant attachment." "Well, anyways, I'm glad to keep your title good workin' the surface, but the quartz outcrop we found- you're not gonna know how rich your strike is until you sink some shafts." "Now, I ain't expert prospecting' that way." "I'm a man who works in creeks." "Thank you for telling me so." "Not bein' impertinent, your people gonna help you with this?" "My brother and my father are aware of my situation and my husband's parents." "I have no idea as to the prospect of their involvement." "Well, blood don't always prove loyalty." "But you're gonna need some people on your side, Mrs. Garret, 'cause I believe you got a big one on your hands." "I believe Mr. Bullock's on my side." "No question about that." "And I believe you are, too." "Excuse me." "I was among them found that little girl." "I'm glad to see her doing well." "I'm Alma Garret." "How do you do?" "Ellsworth." "Charlie Utter." "Come in." " Yes, sir." " You see this?" ""Utter Freight and Postal Delivery Service. "" "That's what happens when you drop a fucking stitch." "What stitch did I drop?" "I did." "This freight and delivery service should've been opened by Persimmon Phil" " as a cover for his other activities." " He's dead." "I know he's dead now." "Well, if you don't know, nobody does." "I should have brought in a replacement, is my fucking point." "Well, you'll know better next time." "The direction of my thoughts- with the sustained fucking stupidity that you're exhibiting," "I hesitate to voice them- is that you might want to train for Phil's former position." "Al." "I have hoped for this conversation ever since you give me that Indian head to hide." "How'd it go with Johnny?" "I have just fled my own office in horror at his fucking dimwittedness." "Well, Persimmon Phil was no genius." "I know." "And Johnny, so eager." "I know." "Was it not my fucking idea to ask him?" "There's a minimal standard, he'll be in the wilderness." "You gotta be able to sustain a thought." "You gotta be able to remember fucking instructions." " His Honor." " Oh, yeah." "Hold fast your valuables." "Hey, Al." "Any reason I can't share with Dan the proceedings of the talk me and you just had about me taking over for Persimmon Phil?" "Yeah, keep Dan in the dark." "Have a seat, Your Honor." " Hey, Johnny." " Dan." "What's new?" "I want to know how the camp stands with the legislature." "And don't give me this, um," " "On the one hand, on the other hand. "" " All right." "Just say, "This is the way I think it's gonna be,"" "'cause this several- hands fucking shit don't help me." " I'll boil things down." " Go ahead." "Let's assume for the sake of conversation that there's a new treaty with the Sioux peoples." ""People," that's what we're calling those cocksuckers now?" "That's the way things are headed?" "Assuming the new treaty, the hills will be annexed." "The territory respects the statutes of the Northwest Ordinance, which state that a citizen can have title to any land unclaimed or unincorporated by simple usage." "Essentially, if you're on it and you improve it, you own it." "But, what complicates the situation is that the hills were deeded to the Sioux by the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty." "This could mean that the land occupied by the camp doesn't fall under any statutory definition of unclaimed or unincorporated." "So who needs to get paid?" "Signs of conciliation and willingness would weigh in the camp's favor." "But just as important is the presence of a ad hoc municipal organization that would enable the legislature to say" "Deadwood exists, we don't have to create it." "It would be disruptive if we did." "The community's already organized, not legally maybe, but certainly informally." "Why not let's give this informal organization the blessing of legal standing?" "What's the right fucking number for the legislature?" "There's a lot of gold out here, Al." "To define "right" in this environment is very liable to be an ongoing process." "What I'm prepared to do is make a list of names and a preliminary guess at some numbers." "I should tell you as well that a warrant's reached Yankton charging you with murder in Chicago, Illinois." "As the settlement's status changes, you want to address that." "I could help with that too." "How much is that gonna cost me?" "$5,000." "If you don't mind, I'll continue writing." "Good morning, Miss Jane." "Yeah, hello." "No one croaked today." "Tommy's still fucking sick and the doc will be back" "I guess whenever he fucking feels like it." "See your fucking eyes are still playin' tug o' war." "Well, this is the one to look at." "Left arm still useful as an old man's dick?" "Do I smell strangely to you, Miss Jane?" "What?" "Do I have a strange odor about me?" "What is that, your clever way of saying you smell whiskey on my breath?" "No." "If either of your fucking eyes takes me for hiding" "I'm drinking again occasionally, it's sadly mistaken, so desist from any clever odor references." "I thought the smell might be coming off the creek so I went into the hills last night but it followed me there too, as if my, uh, as if my flesh were rotting." "I, uh- do I look like a man taken from his own grave?" "God damn you, don't start talking crazy to go with everything else." "Also, when I read the- the scriptures," "I do not feel Christ's love as I used to." "Oh, is that so?" "That is too bad." "Join the fucking club of most of us." "Let me tell you something, Preacher." "I see you skulking around when the doc comes in." "You're trying to hide your fucking eyes, trying to hide your fucking arm." "You're a fucking mess." "And I am in the process of wearing out my own fucking welcome in this camp." "And I wouldn't expect to be around here much longer for people to be disgusted by so they don't notice what the fuck is going on with you!" "And you need to think about some of these things and raise your nerve to consult with the doc!" "God damn you!" "Spilling my cleaning water too, Minister!" "Up." "Thank you, I'm fine." "You're fine." "I am off duty." "You're on duty." "You can go fuck yourself!" "Al, what are you doing out?" "Clearing my head." "And if I blink when I speak, that's because I just got fucking fleeced." " What's going on?" " Be at my joint in two hours." " We're forming a fucking government." " Yes, sir." "Merrick!" "Jesus Christ." "Hey, Merrick!" "Cocksucker." "Shoot." "Thank you, sir." "Good luck out there." "I believe it's time to send for my wife and boy." "Treaty coming with the Sioux." "Where the fuck is Merrick, huh?" "!" "We don't know." "Well anyways, this is it." "What we spoke about before, this puts it to the test." "All right." "Informal municipal organization." "Not government." "No, that would mark us rebellious." "But structure enough to persuade those territorial cocksuckers in Yankton that we're worthy enough to pay them their fucking bribes." "We're to meet to discuss putting this organization together." "Is that what you're saying?" "Centuries of fucking inbreeding attune him to the necessities of the times." "Two hours, my place!" "Did a fucking good job here." "Your room's put back together." "That ain't my room anymore." "Cy needn't have done for them kids that way." "Not in your room, not in the way he did for them." "I'm getting outta here, Eddie." "Are ya?" "I'm going to open my own place." "Good for you, honey." "Have you saved money?" "I got a way to work it." "I know you'll get a long way away from here first." "You think I have to?" "Cy told me he'd help me open a place here." "He promised he'd keep his distance." "Good." " Is he around?" " Asleep." "There's a meeting in my place in a couple of hours he'll want to be awake for." "All the pillars of the fucking camp." "You mind?" "You could use some rest." "I could use a clean conscience." "So could we all." "Blah!" "Where the fuck have you been?" "!" " As you see." " As I see, what?" "At my storage cabinet, replentishing needed supplies." "Be over in a couple of hours." "We gotta form a government for the settlement." "Who does?" "Us!" "You and me." "Come to me in a vision!" "You stupid bastard." "Anyways, I'm going to look for a place." "Eddie." "Swearengen's called a meeting." "Two hours." "Where's Joanie?" "Out looking for a place." "Good." "'Cause I told Joanie I'd back her in having her own joint." "That's what she said." "Something on your mind, Eddie?" "You fucked me up, Cy." "The shit you did to those kids, there's no angle to it." "That shit wasn't just about those kids, Eddie." "You need to sit there and tough your way through your problem." "Just keep shuffling your cards and let your tie hang down till you feel better." "I want to come to that meeting." "Do ya?" "Come ahead, Eddie." "Put the cards down, tighten your cravat and come on if it'll cheer you the fuck up." "Mornin'." "Good morning." "I'm opening this business." "Well, good luck." "Thank you." "I'm Charlie Utter." "I'm Joanie Stubbs." " How do you do?" " How do you do, Charlie?" "Ooh, I was out of breath, but now I'm better." "Are you off someplace?" "Uh, you need an escort or the like?" "No, I'm more or less just walking around." "What do you think of this frock-coat?" "Very well fitted." "I had it made up in Cheyenne." "I'm one for a good appearance and all, but it's a little out of my path." "If you would have made me guess," "I would have said it's not your usual garb." "And I'm a considerable hand at the freight business, but far as leasing this building before knowing what the traffic's gonna bear," "I don't know what possessed me." "See, I- I do well in a camp or a settlement or a township, but that don't make me a camp or a settlement or a township type." "This is the attire for that type of type." "Anyway, you're wearing it today." "You're right." "I'm sorry for running on about it." "I'm looking for a piece of property to start a business on." "That's what I'm doing out." "I see." "And what sort of business you looking to operate?" " BrotheI." " Uh-huh." "Well, uh, I'll tell you what, this camp here, it seems like it's got some legs under it." "I'm just a whore, though." "I mean, I run the whores for this man, but far as being ready to run a place and stand up to all you have to stand up to," "I" " I don't know what got into me." "I'll tell you what, something's ready for you to do something, don't seem to matter if you're ready or not." "Better lift your skirts and... jump, huh?" "That's what's coming to me to be true." "I'm surprised you're not at that big town meeting." "Uh, yeah, well, I'm, uh" "I'm heading over there shortly." "Uh, I prefer to appear late to that type of thing." "Bella Union, where I work, is bigger but I guess being that it's Mr. Swearengen's meeting, that's why they're having it at The Gem." "Yeah, that's- that's why it's located there." "Yeah." "It's awful nice to meet you, Charlie." "Well it's good to meet you, too, Joanie." "Take care." "I'm going to The Gem." "I'm heading on." "I'm heading for The Gem." "Hooray for you." "Reverend is laid down trying to hide another seizure." "Ain't you clever to see through the subterfuge." "I been letting it go, but if the idea is for you to drink more and more till I say something," "I am hereby officially saying" "I wish you would stop fucking drinking." "I have no fucking idea as far as you saying one fucking thing about anything I do or don't, far as drinking or where I stand or nap" " or any other thing concerning me." " I see." "Or go or leave or don't or when." "All right, Jane." "So you can go fuck yourself." "And don't try and hasten anyone anywhere, 'cause everyone follows their own fucking pace, and don't try and fucking hasten them." "And you happen to be fucking overlooking that you think it's just one day after another with the same fucking seizure as if it happened the week before." "And that just shows how much you fucking know and what you pay attention to." "God damn you!" "What do they pay you to hold that building up?" "Charlie Utter of "Utter Charlie and Freight. "" "It's enough to get you off with a position." "I'm in a position, you eternally meddling cocksucker." "Yeah, leaning forward, shit-faced drunk." "I am talking about nursing the plague." "Fucking tent operation." "Caring of the sick in the fucking tent!" "How about bullwhacker of the fucking freight between Deadwood and Cheyenne?" "No." "How about supervisor, mail delivery?" "Go away, Charlie." "Or any fucking thing else you want to do." "Go away!" "Congratulations on being a big fucking deal." "No one's any big fucking deal, Jane." "And all them offers stand." "I've seen you in some stupid fucking outfits in my time, but that one takes the prize." "I think that this month we're gonna try raspberry leaf." "Thanks, Doc." "Young lady, anything to report with your privates?" "Nah." "All right." "Meeting outside when you're done, Doc." "All right." "Thanks, Doc." "In a case like yours I wouldn't know what else to prescribe." "All right." "Whose idea was them pears and fucking peaches?" "I figured since we had 'em for the plague meeting..." "Shows good thinking and initiative." "Ladle 'em out at various intervals on the fucking table, Johnny." "Yes, sir." "I'm declaring myself conductor of this meeting as I have the bribe sheet." "If I'm excluded, say so, Al." "Don't leave me to die the death of thousand cuts." "Sit down, Tom." "Don't subject me to death by water torture." "Take a seat, Tom, and toss whatever book you've been reading on the fucking yellow peril, huh?" "I just opened across the way." "Was I supposed to attend?" "Well before I can answer that question," "I better know who the fuck you are." "Charlie Utter." "Of "Utter's Freight and Postal Delivery Service. "" "Nice sign blocking my fucking view." "Take a seat." "Had a lovely advert in today's "Pioneer. "" "So, US government's negotiating peace with Spotted Elk, Red Cloud and other leaders of the heathens." "Thank you, Johnny." "The heathens will get money to give up the hills, and the hills'll be annexed to the territory." "First notice of our cost to avoid getting fucked in the ass by those legislative cocksuckers was just handed to me by Yankton's toll collector, who suggests also our best case in keeping title to the claims, property and businesses is to start up now" "a kind of an informal governing organization that'll be recognized by the territorial cocksuckers and given legal status when the territory is annexed." "Since we'll all have proved ourselves civilized sorts that don't only wear our pants to cover our tails, hence the fucking meeting." "Do the bribes come out of our pockets?" "Hmm?" "The hell you must have gone through talking to that leech." "Hereafter, you let me take my fair share" " of the weight in those conversations." " Yeah, thanks, Cy." "Well, couldn't our informal organization levy taxes on the settlement to pay the bribes?" "Say to license businesses?" "Wouldn't that spread the burden?" "Will women who pay the license fees have the same right to operate brothels as men?" "What's that got to do with the price of fish?" "Our proper order of fucking business is to make titles and departments before the territorial cocksuckers send in their cousins to rob and steal from us." "Well who fills the various positions?" "Pick the names from a fucking hat as far as I'm concerned." "I'd like to be mayor." "Objections?" "Mayor." "Wouldn't a good use for an informal organization with temporary appointees be providing a few services to the camp?" "Mayor?" "Well, provide a few services and use the lion's share of revenues to pay the bribes." "More than providing services to 'em, taking people's money is what makes organizations real, be they formal, informal or temporary." "There's a piano outside." "Piano?" "When Tolliver opened up across the way, you said we needed a fancier piano." "You ordered one." "You want me to abandon the fucking meeting to bring in a new piano?" "Well, I'm just telling you it come in from Montgomery Ward." "Yeah." ""Any big arrival, notify me immediately. " You said that." " Yeah, yeah, yeah." " Well, um" "Floor's open for levy suggestions and nominations for department heads." "Self-nominations are permitted." "Sorry." "We lack a gavel." "Doc?" "Who's gonna be comptroller?" "Well, um, elections?" "Will we have some elections somewhere down the road?" "This is temporary, right?" " Yeah, ad hoc." " Ad hoc." "Ad fucking hoc." "Free fucking gratis." "Can we just get on with the fucking meeting?" "Timid, ha." "Hardly, sir." "My own strong personal impulse was to offer my name for office, but a fourth estate, independent in name and fact from the operations of government is of the essence of a free society." "I've got to find early occasion to put the mayor off his pedestal." "Don't do it with no mud." "Did you wait a day before you ordered that fucking thing?" "Boss, you specifically countermanded my waiting and asking again when you gave me the order to get it." "What fucking revenue is being generated by those hoople-heads gathering around that cocksucker and yodeling about their fucking points of origin?" "The shine'll wear off." "My fucking head." "All that organizing businesses?" "Aw, 25 cups of coffee and too much circulating in the fresh air." "You chaired piss out of that meeting this afternoon." "That still don't get you off the hook about that piano." "Before I'd told a story on myself like the doc did," "I'd have just said, "Thank you for the nomination, but I decline being health supervisor. "" "They buy bodies to do their research." "Doctors, they cut 'em open and study 'em." "All the less reason for saying you've been arrested for grave robbing." "Seven times." "Anyways, good for you volunteering for the post." "If I had known then they wasn't gonna have a sheriff," " I'd have never raised my hand." " I don't follow." "I only raised my hand 'cause I didn't want to be sheriff." "It's all temporary, anyhow." "That's right." "And ad hoc." "Did you happen to notice at The Gem that one girl we rode back with from Mr. Garret's funeral?" "Trixie, isn't that what she said her name was?" " Who'd been helping with the child." " Yeah, I noticed her." "Much as she'd taken to helping with that little one." "Big pull to that, going back to what you know." "You think she's pretty?" "Very." " Take some air." " Yes, sir." " Evenin'." " Evening." "Some meeting, huh?" "Congratulations on your new post." "Oh." "And for your freight business." " Thank you." " Okay." "Evening, Charlie." "Evening." "How much time you think that" "Fire marshal obligation's gonna take?" "More or less as much as your health commissioner, huh?" "How about that doc?" "Grave robber." "Anybody else felled from them canned peaches?" "Not to my knowledge." "Why, you feeling poorly?" "Well, um, it's- it's easing up some." " Evening." " Evening." "I've wondered how things were with you... and Mrs. Garret and the child." "I expect they're well." "I know she struck lucky at her claim." "And how are you, Trixie?" "As you see." "Earning the greasy eye from my boss for idle chatter." "Can I buy you a drink?" "I'd rather you didn't." "This isn't the place for you." "So you say." "If you insist on my embarrassing myself, have it not where I'd want you to see me." "Come see me then." "He don't permit our making calls out." "Come to our store." "Come buy a broom." "I don't want what I can't have, Mr. Star." "All right." "If I did come," "I'd buy an axe, a hammer and a saw." "All fully stocked." "And we never ask the purpose of a customer's purchase." "Our mayor." "Oh, Mayor!" "Doctor." "I'm gonna have a look at you." "All right." "Don't turn your head away, Reverend." "Being sick ain't nothing to be ashamed of." "Look at my finger." "I apologize for the smell." "What is it that you smell?" "As if I've died." "You emit no such odor." "I smell my flesh rotting." "It isn't rotting, Reverend." "Your flesh does not smell." "You've not died." "You're having organic changes in your mind that's making you believe these things." "Do you understand me?" "Formerly, Doctor, when the word took me as I read scripture, people felt God's presence through me and that was a great gift that I could give to them." "Now the word does not take me when I read." "Nor do I feel Christ's love." "Nor do those who listen hear it through me." "All right." "This is God's purpose." "The not knowing the purpose is... my portion of suffering." "And is there any pain competing with the not knowing?" "I'm not in pain." "There are new smells I smell." "And there parts of my body I can't feel, and His- and His love." "And you want to continue like this?" "As long as He wills, this must be my part." "To be afraid, as well." "Well if this is His will, Reverend," "He is a son of a bitch." "Good night." "Good night, Doctor." "Hey, Eddie." "Hey, kid." "How'd it go?" "All right." "And I got me a four-bit room." "Play your cards right, I'll tell you where." "Hi, Cy." "I was afraid I'd lost you to the heathens." "How was that meeting?" "All right." "We were organizing for annexation until Eddie cracked his fucking mouth." "What'd it turn to then?" "A joint like ours, Joanie, what are we selling?" "Walk through this door, it's a new start." "Come on in, try your luck here." "Of course, we know the percentages being the percentages, you play long enough, your luck ain't gonna get no better here than anywheres else." "Maybe it's 'cause we're in a brand new camp." "Since we arrived, certain people that are near and dear to me seem to have bought into our own fucking line and now they're trying to get me to go along." "But I can't." "See, Joanie, 'cause I'm a big boy." "Now I'm ready for..." "Eddie and me to have a little chat." "I did look around for places, Cy." "Good, I wanted you to." "I want to go ahead and do what we talked about." "Good, honey." "With your eyes wide open." "Eddie Sawyer." "Can we keep this short?" "Sure, Eddie." "If he finds you a 12-year-old farmboy to have some fun with, is that short enough for you?" "I never did that and you know it." "All this crap about what is and isn't natural, whatever does it for a fella is what does it, ain't that right?" "I never did that." "But did you ever want to unbutton some farmboy's Dentons and get yourself some relaxation?" "That's what I'm asking." "Take that boy you spoke up for up in Joanie's room the other day." "I spoke up for not torturing that boy." "Well, what you spoke for and what you would have wanted to do if it was just you and that corn-fed in that room alone is what I'm inquiring about the difference between." " A dry hole, Cy." " Aw, you could work that out." "You just use some spit on that or lard." "17 fucking years and I never saw a look on your face like I saw up there in that room the other day." "Including when I had to smack some girl around." "I was never in a room with you before where you was gonna kill somebody." "I do not make judgments." "I gave that up a long time ago." "All I want is for us to get along better, Eddie." "So every time you open your mouth in public," "I don't have to worry about what the fuck's gonna come out!" "So let me get you some fucking kid to fuck in the ass or mouth or suck his prick or let him fuck you!" "Fuck you, Cy." "Fuck you." "Now, now." "That's where I draw the line." "Friend or no friend, and us wanting to get along better or not," "I want you to go up into Joanie's room, which I" "I gather she don't want to go into no more." "I want you to go up there and think this thing through." "Imagine yourself up there with that boy like the other day, only this time it's just him and you." "And I want you to figure out what it is that you want." "'Cause next time we see each other," "I want you clearheaded, and understanding yourself." "The old Eddie that knows the percentages and how to play 'em, and whatever a man does away from the table is his own business." "I want you cheerful and ready to help me with my work or I don't want you coming the fuck out!" "Hmm?" "You finish your shift and you go up there to Joanie's room and you think things through." "All right, Eddie Sawyer?" "!" "Do we understand each other?" "Why didn't you volunteer for something at that meeting?" "Why didn't you put your hand up?" "Might've kept you from being such an evil cocksucker." "Say hello to the new fire marshal." "I'm getting out." "Goodbye and good luck." "Wait on it until you ain't exhausted, Jane." "Maybe you'll change your mind." "Direction of this entire camp makes me sick, and it bores the living shit out of me." "Well working hours like you've been working would get anyone out of sorts." "And you helped a lot of people." "Sent a dozen men out with their plague sores healed to go back to getting 'em on their Johnsons." "I will not be a drunk where he's buried." "And I cannot stay fucking sober." "So you... and every human being on earth- past, present and future can drink mare's piss." "Believe I'll just have well water." " Shut up, Charlie." " All right." "If the subject comes up, explain to Bill." "All right, Jane." "All right." "Tell them over at livery I" " I'm good for the mount." "Do not fucking worry about me." "And inform Hostetler at the fucking livery you saved his fucking life." "All right." "And do not worry about getting paid back." "Check the mail, Charlie, and you will find soon proper payment." "All right, Jane." "Check with Utter Mail and Charlie Freight!" "All right." "Since last our eyes were upon each other, lo," "I hope you've earned me $5." "No." "I" " I gave the lady your note, sir." "She says to come ahead, but to knock low as the little one's asleep." "Thank you." "Thank you." "Thank you, sir." "Evening." "Good evening, Mr. Bullock." "Sophia's asleep." "So I was told." "Sorry for calling so late." "I'm to see Ellsworth in the morning and wondered what I should say." "Ellsworth seemed very competent and trustworthy." "He suggested that until the extent of the quartz deposits could be proved, he could prospect the creek on my claim each week to keep my title active." "How'd that plan sound to you?" "I feel it's exactly the way to proceed." "All right then." " Won't you sit down?" " Thank you." "Would it improve your opinion of me if I told you I was Commissioner of the Board of Health?" "How wonderful." "I suppose." "It's to put the camp's best foot forward as far as being taken into the territory." "A number of men took positions." " I see." " Farnum's mayor." "How horrifying." "I wrote to my wife today." "Did you?" "About her and my boy coming to the camp." "You have a son as well?" "They're in Michigan with her people." "My thinking was with the treaty coming, annexation, the camp would be settling down, a safer place." "Yes." " Any other sons or daughters?" " No, that's it." "My brother was in the cavalry." "He was killed two years ago." "I'm sorry." "Anyways." "I'm glad you got along with Ellsworth." "Well, thank you for all your help, Mr. Bullock." "Sure." "And congratulations on your new post and the prospect of your family rejoining you." "Thank you." "Good night, Mrs. Garret." "Good night." "May I ask why you spoke of your brother?" "My wife was his widow." "My boy is their child." "I see." " Good night." " Good night." "Boy,BuddyBone, you can blow a mean horn there."