The King of Santa Fe Session Two
The card game at the Homestead Inn had come crashing to a halt, as Diego Carter, under the prompting of Francisco Castellanos, a rival to Homestead’s owner William Moyer, had let off a box of firecrackers.
The patrons of the Homestead Inn were on the war path. Diego had been spotted, but dived into the icy cold creek and doubled back to outsmart them, losing his hat in the process.
Diago met back at Francisco’s Mexican Bar, grabbed a bottle of whiskey and headed to bed. Francisco shouted after him, “Hey, man! We've got a lot of people coming to your sermon tomorrow, Founder’s Day is going to remember your words!”
The next day, Dutch is in town getting supplies for Danny and the homestead, and he spots a familiar face. Bane, Bane the psycho, Bane the merciless, Bane who should be, by all accounts, six feet under. An ex-gang member of his and trouble.
Dutch follows him, seeing him shake hands with Howard Ross outside the Grand Hotel and meet up with a group of around ten men, who are managing a series of wagons bearing the logo of NMMC, whoever they are. Dutch pulls his hat down, finds a chair and observes from the cover of shade.
Danny wakes Diago, who’d crawled into bed in the early hours and with Aida, his niece, they head into town. Danny confides in Diago that he’s received a letter from NMMC, asking him to vacate his mining claim up on the slopes of Elk Mountain. They have said they’ll take questions in town today, but why today of all days? Founder’s Day is sacrosanct!
Diago bids Danny and Aida good day and heads off to his sermon, the theme is “Beware of False Prophets” he bumps into Mary-Lou, a devout follower of Father Carmody, a rival and very successful preacher in the town of Steaming Rock. She hands him a leaflet, an invitation to another sermon, this time with Carmody, but the subject is the same: “Beware of False Prophets”. Mary-Lou smiles sweetly as Diago picks his bottom jaw off the floor and crushes the pamphlet in his hand. With a steely determination, he heads off to the mound behind the Mexican bar. True to his word, Francisco has pulled together almost thirty of his patrons. Diago feels emboldened and gives the speech of his life; there is clapping and many of the congregation come up to him afterwards, shaking his hand and even dropping a few coins onto the collection plate.
Deputy Cody is keeping an eye on Ross and his boys; they are knocking back the liquor and generally getting rowdy. At the same time, Michael O’Sullivan, his lender, is pressuring him to sort out a spot of gambling, although he’s quite taken with a shooting competition being arranged later in the day. At last, Cody wanders over, standing next to Ross. Cody offers a suggestion that they ramp down the excitement a few notches. Harris smiles, without looking at Cody, he takes a few bills and pushes them into Cody’s top pocket, “We are here to make this town rich, deputy, and we are going to need lawmakers that are on the side of progress. Don’t worry about my boys, I’ll vouch for them; they’re just letting off a little steam.” Cody tips his hat and goes back to his office.
Harris’ boys approach Winston, who’s set up a table of three-card monte. Bane approaches wins a little on the first hand, then, with some expert card cheating from Winston, loses big on the next, leaving in disgust, knocking the table over in the process. Winston scrambles to pick up his winnings.
As Danny and Aida wander down the street, Mayor Bertrand comes running out of the hotel, “They stole my whiskey! Deputy! Deputy Cody!!” Bertrand approaches Cody as the others gather round. He points a shaking finger at Ross and his band, explaining that they’ve taken a couple of crates of whiskey from The Grand Hotel. There have also been an increasing number of reports of their behaviour, so Bertran calls an impromptu town council meeting in the Grand.
The meeting is in session. Bertrand takes control. He suggests that he approach Ross and, as businessmen, they strike a deal, for a modest sum, he’ll ask Ross and his fellows to pack up and leave town. Danny, Dutch, Winston and others think a man like Ross will just take and take if they show weakness. Instead, Danny suggests a show of strength, gather up the townfolk, make a stand, show them that Steaming Rock can’t be brought.
The crowd claps, shouts encouragement, and William Moyer takes out his pistol and brandishes it, to more cheers. Danny’s confident smile belies a wind whirring as he thinks of a plan to make this work and puts to one side the terrible danger he may have put these people in.
Mayor Bertrand looks incensed by this turn of events and storms off, determined to reclaim his position as the founder and leader of Steaming Rock. He thinks, “This Founder’s Day is going to go down in the history of Steaming Rock.”