Barlowe Station

Billy Briggs is certain based upon the state of the animals and the signs in the troughs that they were all fed yesterday. They're getting hungry again of course, and might trust a stranger bearing corn.

"… reckon no more than a day ago, if even!" he calls again, and then tries to approach the horse to see her condition. He brings a food offering, so as to ease the transaction.

Briggs is able to feed the horse and the pigs, they will allow it.

"Well, they ain’t scared none." he says. "Can’t see too much else wrong with the place." he says to himself then, and simply makes sure the animals have enough to eat and drink.

"Thank you for checking the place out," Ruby says, suddenly in the entrance of the barn. "I would have felt guilty for a whole day if something were to happen to you. Why do you think a small station like this has some pigs? There can't be that big of a demand for bacon for one lone station manager, right?" She walks into the barn and walks up to the horse to give it a rub while its eating.

Crouchin' down, Dillon tries to make sense of them tracks...

DD counts as many as twenty sets of prints, many barefoot. Some lead to the outhouse, but most look like they head back to the station platform.

That there is an interestin' question, Ruby. Maybe they was feedin' the pigs to somethin' else. Somethin' with claws. Maybe whoever belongs to all them footprints got on the train? I gotta say, them claws, well they got me mighty troubled. And why are they barefoot? Beats the hell outta me."

Kane works the tobacco in his mouth. "Well, let's think about all this. What do we got? We got a horse in the barn fed yesterday, and pigs, we got pigs. We got twenty or so footprints headin' to the platform from the shack. We got a bullet that likely sunk into someone or something. Ain't no robbery cuz I got the lockbox. Oh yeah, and maybe a few of 'em took a piss in the outhouse. Did I miss anything? I mean if they got on the train, we ain't never gonna catch 'em."

"A whole day?" Dirt says, with a grin. "That’d be too much, ma’am, believe me!"

Then he wonders on the pig question. He hadn’t even doubted it for a second, truth be told.

"Might be the man keeps pigs to pass the time. Not much else to do out this way, and trains come through but once in a while." but then Victor makes his suggestion, and it’s a grimmer suggestion than Dirt would hope for.

Besides the Marshal here, there ain’t none of us lawmen. Maybe we ought to rustle up some help to go chasing down them tracks? Men with badges on their shirts, I mean."

Standing, Delilah adjusts her hat, sighs, and puts her hands on her hips, listening to the banter between her companions.

"Seems like they... made off with him? Back t'wards the tracks. Maybe wrestled him onto a train?" she says more to herself than anyone else. She doesn't react to being called a Marshal again, but she does point at the outhouse, and respond to the question of the livestock.

"Some of them made a trip to the loo, there. We should have a look, just to be sure. And Folks raise animals way out on their own all the time. Raise 'em for the meat, or sellin' the offspring can be good business if the parents are good stock."

"Or women with badges on their shirts," Ruby responds to Dirt with a hand on her hip, looking at Delilah. "But why abduct a station manager from such a small place in the middle of nowhere? And not even leave a ransom note? Something about this just doesn't feel right." When talk comes up about the loo, Ruby decides she should be at least a little proactive. "I'll check out the loo. I need to use it anyway." She saunters over to the outhouse and listens at the closed door.

"Don’t disagree. Strange business here," Delilah says, edging closer to Reyes as she checked out the outhouse, backing her up. At the same time, she tries to put eyes on the engineer, see how he’s makin’ out.

"It ain't for the money else they woulda taken the lockbox so I wouldn't expect no ransom note. We should bust it open, doncha think?"

He adds, "Sure, Ruby, go check out the loo, as Delilah calls it. But hold yer nose and be careful in case you get pulled down into it." Kane wasn't sure why he liked antagonizing Ruby. Maybe it was because she frowned on his tobacco use or maybe because she was a snake oil saleswoman. He wasn't sure.

Kane whips out the Colt he took from the shack and fires at the lock box that he had set on the ground.

Entering the outhouse it smells, and worse than normal for an outhouse. Definitely not a pleasant atmosphere. Still, a person's gotta do what they gotta do, no matter the stench.

A Notice check might provide more information.

Ruby peers around the interior, especially the seat where she was about to sit.

The stench from beneath smells of more than just waste. The distinct smell of death lurks below!

Ruby also determines that the boards of the seat are loose.

Dillon jumps a bit when the .45 goes off, and suddenly her own long-barreled .44 Colt is in her hand -- quickly.

"Snakes alive, Victor Kane, warn us afore you do that!" she admonishes him before approaching the now closed outhouse, pistol still out.

"You okay in there, Ms. Ruby?" she calls out. "Smells awful rank, even from out here..."

Inside the lockbox, Kane finds a lot of assorted coin and small bills. If he takes off his boots to count it, he'd reckon it would be $250.

"Let's just say I'm glad my unmentionables were already down otherwise I would've soiled myself from that gunshot!" comes an agitated muffled voice. "But yes, I'm ok, other than that! Who was that? I'm going to dose their next drink with my special Woman Spurned concoction!" After a few moments of silence Ruby says, "It smells like death in here. I think something is hidden under the outhouse. Some of these boards seem loose too!" She swings the door open after making herself proper again.