Well, it seems that the mine is trying to clean up the place a bit since I took off on that last Mustang Roundup down south a ways.
I don't know if it will ever work though, I cannot figure out where they are going to put all of this trash.
Couch's Snake Pit is still filled up with the same basher trash that have been dirtying up the town for the past couple of years and Doc Jim has opened up a place in the back room that he calls the Procto Palace.
He sure keeps busy servicing all them weirdo's that Couch brings in. I have no idea what he does there, but I would bet a fifty dollar gold piece on a pair of deuces that it ain't no good for a regular cowboy.
Couch bought some newfangled contraption with some long hoses on it that are hooked to some kind of pump that runs down to the outhouse. Nobody but Doc Jem and the rest of them snakes know what the thing does, but it sure doesn't look like a lot of fun to me or pretty much anybody else in town.
While I was on that last ride I stopped into this here place down south called Las Vegas. There was only a couple of gambling parlours with saloons in them in the whole place.
They was named The Golden Nugget and another wild looking place named after some old guy called Binion's.
The whole town doesn't seem like much to me, just a dry dusty place out in the middle of the desert that I doubt will ever be much of town. There sure isn't much to see down there and the nearest waterin' hole is about twenty miles away down in this place called Black Canyon. There was talk about putting in some sort of water storage place called a reservoir in a few years but that is going to take a lot of work and I doubt whether anybody would move out there just to live in such a god forsaken place.
Anyway while I was wetting my whistle over at the Golden Nugget I laid eyes on one of the prettiest filly's I have ever seen. She called herself Diamond Lil and was real busy gambling with all the drifters that happened to come through the saloon. She was all dolled up in the finest silk dress I have ever seen.
The thing was covered with all these sparkly things she called rhinestones. She told me that she had a whole wagon full of them dresses and I was so impressed that I sat down to play a few hands of poker with her.
Well, a few hands turned into an all niter and half the next day. We was playing poker, shooting the breeze and sipping some of the finest whiskey I have ever tasted.She tells me that she grew up out east back in Dan'l Boone country in this little town in Kentucky. She told me about all these Whiskey Distilleries scattered all over the county. Then she told me that most of those counties around there is dry and I had no idea what she was talking about.
She told me that the whiskey they made there had to be put on wagons and sold across the county lines or even the state line. I was incredulous and asked her how in the world they stayed in business.
Well, come to find out, she had known this here fine southern gentleman named Jim Beam and was out about the country peddling his whiskey. She had three whole wagons of the stuff and I was a hopin' that she was about to take a shine to me like I did to her.
So I spent the better part of two days tellin' her about the Comstock and all the folks that lived up in the hills around the mine.I told her about Judge Software, Red, MT, Couch and the dirtballs that hang around his place, I told her about PHX and most of the rest of the folks and she was right impressed with the sounds of it. I warned her about the rattler's a hanging around and how they was always trying to jump claims. She told me that no rattler has ever gotten close to her and from the way she handled herself I could see that she meant business.
So Diamond Lil decided that she would come to the Comstock and see what the place was all about. She did take a shine to me I guess 'cause she wanted me to ride with her entourage back home.
Now this is where I was really impressed.Diamond Lil had a wagon made up for her back in this town she called New Orleans, 'cept she pronounced it Nah'lens and it was fancier than Bob Allens undertakers wagon. This wagon had all kinds of sparkly things all over it and Lil told me that a lot of it was made from this stuff that came from someplace named Austria. She called it Austrian Crystal and it sparkled like a whole field of Comstock Gold in the June sun.
I ain't never laid eyes on something that fancy, but that was just the beginning.
Diamond Lil had 7 wagons all filled with all kinds of stuff and the three wagons filled with that Jim Beam Whiskey. She also brought along a bunch of girls that she had found while she had been traveling. They was some real nice looking girls too. They had names like Suzy Boomers, Big Betty's and another girl that went by the name of the Midnight Cowgirl. They was all fine lookin' and they all was happy to get moving to a better place than that Las Vegas hellhole.
So we all got to The Comstock and everybody in town came out to see what all the hubub was about. They was a shoutin' from the rooftops that ol' Thunder's brought back a dame.
We hit town and the partying started and ran for three days. There was all kinds of hell being raised and even ol MT was out on another wild one. Him and PHX was drunk for the entire time and they even closed up their general store just so they could keep partying.
I gotta say that Lil could handle her liquor though, She sipped and sipped all night long and I never once saw her even look a little bit tipsy.
So after all the drunks slept it off Lil decided that she should open up her own place.
The only place that could possibly hold all the folks that she brought with her was the old opera house that was owned by Bugs just before he passed on. There was some kind of a legal thing going on with it and the Clown got together with a bunch of them rattlers and was tryin' to steal it from MT as Bugs named him as the sole heir to his claim.Software had been working on the claim for quite some time and was busy in PHX's library trying to find some law that wouldn't allow the Clown to get the opera house.
So one fine Thursday afternoon when Software was holding court Lil got all fixed up and went into the court to contest the legal proceedings. Lil brought up how Couch and the Clown and the rest of them scumbags was bringin' down the property values and they could not be trusted with a place as fine as the Opera House. She argued and argued with them rattlers in court all in front of old Software all morning.Then she asked to see the Judge in his chambers. She gave old Software a steely eyed look that would make any cowboy this side of the Pecos River stand up and take notice.
So off they went.
They was back there in that anteroom for well over three hours and then they came out. Software was all red faced and looking like he had just had his hat handed to him. I ain't never seen Software look like that and I doubt if I ever will again.
He sat back down at the bench, looked at the rattlers, then looked over at Lil, then back at the rattlers and slammed down his gavel saying that the claim they filed was not legal in the State of Nevada and sold the Opera House to Lil for a price to be agreed upon by her and MT.
Well MT was so happy that he was not going to have to turn over the Opera House to the rattler's that he looked at Lil and told her she could buy it for twenty dollars and three cases of that Jim Beam Whiskey.
Lil reached into her purse, pulled out a bright shiny twenty dollar gold piece and handed it to Software. She looked at MT and told him that he could drink all the whiskey he wanted for the next six months at her place and she wouldn't charge him a dime.
You would think MT died and went to heaven judging from the look on his face. His smile was so big you could see all the gold molars he had.
That was the end of the court case and Lil was now the proud owner of the Opera House.
I found out later that Lil had known Software back when he was a Riverboat Gambler going up and down the Mississippi river. Evidently he had gotten himself into some real trouble involving the Mayor of New Orleans and the mayor's wife.I found out they was a fixin' to hang Software and Lil had stepped in and saved him from getting his neck stretched. I guess the Mayor's wife was messin around all over at the time and them being from down south the mayor wasn't too keen on finding a naked man with his wife.
So the mayor had the New Orleans sherrif throw Software in jail on a bunch of trumped up charges and they was going to hang him in the morning.
Now, being as sharp as she is Lil also had some information about the Mayor and had worked out a trade.
Software lit out of that town on a horse he borrowed from Lil and never returned it or paid for it so he was given the choice of facing the prospect of having her tell all the folks in the Comstock that respected Software what kind of a checkered past he really had.
I don't know if it would have mattered to the folks up here, but Software enjoyed his position as a judge and didn't want to hurt that image.
Lil and PHX got along real good and all the girls that Lil brought with her were not your typical barflies. Lil went into the General store that PHX and Tom owned and bought up all the hammers and nails and cleaning supplies they had in the place. She put her crew and a few of the other locals around town to work and the Opera House was back to looking like a real nice place.
She hung up this chandelier that was made out of more of the Austrian Crystal and ain't no one ever seen anything so fancy outside of San Francisco.
Them girls started teaching all the men in town how to read and write. I never would have thought it was possible myself. But they was a determined bunch.
There was gamblin' and dancin' and all kinds of fun going on over there at all hours of the day and night. Lil kept a tight rein on the place too. There was the normal amount of swearing going on, but there was no way she would let any of Couch's sleazy pukes into the place.
Of course them rattlers was a screamin' and yellin' all the louder. Lil just looked at them and told them that they had no idea what was really going on around the Comstock and they should just go over and stay with couch and his Procto Palace.
So Thunder and Lil have been seein' each other for a while now and it looks like something may work out here.
Time will tell and I'll keep you all informed about how things are going.
Thunder
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