Chapter 1 - Nathaniel and Napoleon

November 4th 1888: Somewhere west of Flagstaff in the Arizona Territory

Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway's engine number 271, a 4-6-0 Baldwin Consolidated locomotive, slowly chuffed its way through the rapidly darkening desert landscape. Two and a half hours earlier the train had put in at Flagstaff to resupply the tender, refill the boiler and give the passengers an opportunity to stretch their legs or purchase a meal from one of the dozen or so local vendors who had flocked to the station as the train approached. The train had been an hour behind schedule when it stopped and the twenty minutes it took to repair the return arm had only served to increase the delay. By the time the whistle sounded the sun was already low in the western sky.

Behind the coal tender was a single secure car filled to the rafters with baggage and mail. It had been locked at both ends and only the conductor seemed to possess the key, behind that were two coach class cars, twenty rows of barely padded bench seats filled with people, luggage and the occasional pet. The coach cars were crowded, loud and thick with a heady mixture of people, stale alcohol and tobacco smoke. An impromptu band had taken up residence at the front of the second car. A woman in a green dress with long red hair sings `Raggle Taggle Gypsy accompanied by a stout man in a bowler playing a tin whistle, a lanky young man with a fiddle and an older gentleman in a fine grey suit playing banjo. The people in the car are whistling, cheering, clapping their hands and singing along.



Nathaniel Cranston found himself pushed into a corner of the the car by an oversized Irish woman with four rambunctious children all under the age of 7, her husband had long since vanished into the first car with a couple of his mates. They whispered softly, so their wives would not hear, about a game of dice and how each planned to win enough to start their own farms in California. Nathaniel had begun pretending to be asleep in hopes that the constantly chattering woman would at last give him a moment’s peace.

Napoleon Cuauhtemoc is also in this car. Standing in the vestibule between cars he tapped his foot to the music and clapped along with the others. He’d spent the last few days dodging the trains conductor every time he came about to check tickets and pinching the occasional biscuit from the crew kitchen.. The conductor, a barrel chested Scotsman with an elegant mustache and thick accent, had caught a few glimpses of Napoleon but the young man had a knack for remaining out of sight at precisely the right moments.

Behind these two cars was a crew kitchen and a dining car which housed a dozen tables serving overpriced yet tasty meals. Most of the people in the coach cars took their meals from the vendors at the various whistle stops as the train rolls on. There are two communal washrooms in this car offering minimal personal privacy.

As the band reached the midway point in the song, three masked men carrying shotguns enter the second passenger car from the third, the lead man fires a single shotgun shell into the roof with a thunderous bang quickly silencing the revelers. A large chunk of the cars roof is reduced to sawdust and a child near Nathaniel begins to cry.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, this is a robbery!" the lead man in a grey Confederate style overcoat and brown cowboy hat says in a thick southern accent, "Now long as no one does nothing stupid and no one needs to get hurt!" He cracks the shotgun ejecting the two spent shells and loading two fresh ones.

The largest of the three men, a giant wearing a fur vest and battered bowler, moves confidently down the aisle. "My associate Mr. Carson aims to be relieving you of your valuables in an orderly fashion after which we shall depart and let you all off on your merry ways. I'd ask if there were any questions but as I doesn't aim to listen to them anyways I doesn't sees much of a point."

The large man points his shotgun at woman near the front of the car. "Little lady," he says in a deep voice with a tip of his hat, "if you’ll be so kind as to start collecting peoples wallets and jewelry, I’d be much obliged." He hands her an empty brown carpet bag and sets her moving down the aisle.

The woman glances at the gun, the bag, then the large, she gently brushes a wisp of hair from her eyes gives a small smile to the robber. "Sir, it would be no trouble at all."

1 - As the times are currently trying as heck for the best of us I’m not going to penalize anyone for being more concerned with the world than whether Lionel Hissybottom the 3rd was born under a full moon. Everyone gets 5.

2 - Napoleon is in a spot where he believes he is out of sight of the bandits, there is a ladder to the roof of the car but it is not between the cars but rather outside of the car just forward of the vestibule.

3 - You can do what you want, ignore the robber and get robbed, hide or intervene. To this moment in time everything is a "cut scene."

So 4 successes.

The fellow at the back is a young scruffy sort of fellow, long shaggy blonde hair is sticking out from beneath his hat and it has clearly been at least a week since his face has seen a razor. He’s wearing a grey confederate style jacket and is armed with a lever action rifle. He may have more weapons but you can’t be sure.

You know that the chap who fired into the ceiling is armed with a cut down shotgun, it’s not a fully sawed off scatter gun but it has definitely had the last 6-12" removed and appears to have a revolver holstered in his belt. He is also wearing a confederate style jacket with big black cavalry boots. He’s an older fellow, 40 plus, with grey hair, a mustache and impressive mutton chop sideburns.

The man closest to you is a brute of a man, 6 foot tall and pushing 250 pounds. He’s armed a sawed off double barreled shotgun cut down to about 12" long with the stock removed. He has a second shotgun in a cross draw holster about his waist and a revolver in a holster on his left thigh. His hair is dark and well kept and he has a carefully trimmed beard. He seems oddly placed with the other two who are clearly rougher looking (less well kept) individuals.

It appears that no one is paying very much attention to Nathanial as he squirrels his money into his hat. The overweight Irish woman next to him hikes up her skirt and puts a handful of bills into the top of her stockings. Then she gathers up her children to keep them out of the robbers way.

Glancing out the window he notices that the train has begun to descend into a gully or canyon, he can’t quite be sure it’s getting quite dark outside. Outside on the vestibule Napoleon notices the same thing, there’s a steep scrub covered wall on the right side of the train and a wide opening, 10 or so yards across, on the left.

The woman takes a deep breath as she slowly takes the carpet bag and then stands up. She’s blonde, quite pretty though her face is white as a ghost as she turns to face the many other occupants of the car, she holds the bag out as she walks to each person.

The large man clearly smiles beneath his mask.

Outside the window Nathaniel notices that the rail line has begun to drop down into a steep sided narrow valley.

"Much obliged, thank you, thank you, terribly sorry." The burly man says with each deposit into the bag. He seems terribly nice for a hardened criminal.

The woman nods to each person as she comes to them. In between the man's 'thank you's' she says calmly to him, "I don't mean to critique your thieving efforts, but why rob us? Why not rob the people in first class who have things worth robbing?"

The big man shrugs, "Not my job ma'am, apparently I isn't fancy enough to hit up the rich folk." He looks around the car, "No offense to ya'll and such."

Nathaniel notices that by the time they’re half way up the car now the train is now completely within the gorge, the big man glances out the window and apparently notices too.

"Pick up the pace little missie, we needs to be gettin' off soon."