Kait got sick again which delayed my workout schedule which makes me forget what day it is. That is my excuse for the late Bannock post.

Detail of Saint George and the Princess of Trebizond by Pisanello (1436-1438)

They made quite the parade as the followed the voices. Felicity gripped the pistol in her hand, the deputy had his nose buried in his sleeve trying to staunch its flow, Laure juggled the heavy metal chains and Schroeder was left trying to put as much distance between his suit and the man’s fluids.

As they went, the speaking grew louder and louder. They rounded the general store to see a raised wood platform. A noose dangled ominously in the centre, the long bar capable of stringing nearly seven bodies at a time. It spoke to the town’s need to prosecute thieves and hinted at just how profitable their mining was.

Sheriff Plummer took the centre, addressing the gathered crowd. Behind him stood the accused. Felicity expected him to be screaming his innocence profusely but he had some distant look in his eyes as if he’d long accepted his fate. Ranger Hayes stood steely by his side, holding the rope bounding the outlaw’s hands and slowly twisting it in his gloves.

But the most dissatisfied individual on the stage was Nicolai himself. His fine suit of extravagant silk was beginning to darken along his pits and Felicity guessed it wasn’t just due to the heat. The magnate seemed to regard all the men on the stage with equal suspicion and disgust. Felicity slipped Schroeder’s pistol into the waist of her pants and took the manacles from Schroeder’s hand. She motioned for the sharpshooter to take a position before handing the restraints to Laure.

And that is when they heard the sheriff speak.

“My fine folk of Bannock, too long have we toiled beneath the fear and savagery of bandits and murderers. For too long have our children and businesses been ravaged by evils of lesser men. The crimes of this Mr. Hopkins are too numerous to mention. They extend far beyond a simple bridge or missing crate. They’re the monthly losses of good ole Malcolm trying to keep enough together to provide us with our simple basins and hoes. They’re the nights little Annie has to go hungry because Mr. Truestone can’t afford a simple loaf of bread with his wages snatched from impenetrable safes!

“But my people of Bannock, I – Sheriff Henry Plummer – have strove to end this suffering. I have cast far and wide in search of these outlaws. Endless hours and nights we’ve spent in our hunt. We would not let the fathomless expanses hide this villain. No dark hole was dark enough to keep him from justice. It was my duty, nay, my pleasure to serve you fine folk who toil daily to keep this the finest town on the frontier!

“Throughout the entire trial, this despicable Mr. Hopkins refused to speak a word against the heinous charges laid against him. He refused to acknowledge the terrible price he’d extracted from your hard labour. He didn’t defend his actions after the news of the destruction of the Glorious Belt Bridge. He would make a mockery of our systems and our justice. For that, only the heaviest punishment can be afforded. Only the graces of the Lord and his divines can judge the true weight of his sin. All we can do is hasten him to those white walls and golden gates. Let those of nobler spirit than ours see fit if he holds a place in the Kingdom or if he’s to be turned out to the Wilds amongst the untamed that he so embraces.

“If there be any man who finds our process unjust, then let him speak. Else bring the outlaw forward so that he may face divine retribution for the suffering he has wrought!”

Sheriff Plummer turned, motioning at the man and the noose. As Ranger Hayes forced him forward, the outlaw’s boots echoed against the wood boards. But another sound broke over the solemn silence. A great applause thundered through the proceeding, causing heads to turn and voices to whisper. Felicity stepped forward, the crowd parting to let her applause and clanking prisoner through.

At first the sheriff turned, a look of confused amusement on his face. But when he saw his deputy barely dressed with hands shackled and split shirt stained from his bloody nose down turned in embarrassment, the fat man’s smile waned.

“Remarkable speech, sheriff. I reckon, perhaps, you misjudge your place as humble lawman. You be better suited for the high halls of coastal magistracy with their double talk and betraying smiles.”

“What’s the meaning of this!” he huffed, his whiskers bristling. “You best have a good explanation for this depravity towards my fellow!”

Felicity ignored him, fetching the letters from her pocket and holding them proudly as she turned to address the crowd.

“I ask you, fine folk of Bannock, with your marauding bandit captured where is your stolen goods? Where are these riches that would drag your distant and uncaring magnate to your door?”

Nicolai seemed to stir at the barb but curiosity simmered his anger. However, as she approached the stage, two of Plummer’s men moved to intercept. She paused as they drew their weapons but when they made to take the letters, she pulled away.

“Let her pass.”

Nicolai’s voice broke the momentary tension. The goons turned to the sheriff who cast a quick glance at the Ranger. Felicity’s fingers unconsciously drifted towards the borrowed pistol.

At last, the sheriff nodded and Felicity began to climb the platform. The wood clattered beneath her boots as she took the steps two at a time. Sheriff Plummer looked absolutely fuming but raised not a word as she drew defiantly before him.

“Now what this about?” Nicolai demanded. Felicity held up the letters but didn’t turn from the sheriff.

“I hazard that, despite the cajoling of our good sheriff, he was unable to procure the location of your missing ore. And should Dirty Hopkins have elected to speak, I reckon he’d profess ignorance for any robbery of your line. But why would he when clearly the court arraigned against him ain’t no greater than a pony show with little interest in either truth or justice?”

A murmur rose from the gathered townsfolk. The sheriff eyed them warily before turning upon Felicity.

“Are you saying this man is no outlaw? You who brought him back to us, wounded by your own rough handling?”

“I make no claim towards his character,” Felicity spat. “He is both craven and merciless. If those be your charges then you can hand me the rope and I will string him myself for all those that have perished by his hand. But if my people are to die, it won’t be in vain.”

“This is a farce,” the sheriff said. “Remove her!”

Felicity turned to Nicolai but he didn’t immediately object as the sheriff’s boys came to her side. The two men that had intercepted her earlier flanked Laure, taking the deputy’s chains from her hands. Felicity pulled her coat free, turning to the Ranger as they snatched for the papers.

“The only farce is putting a scheming ne’er-do-well in charge of doling out justice! Your deputy has already confessed your sins, sheriff. Your plot’s been revealed.”

The sheriff turned to his manacled man, and his heavy gaze caused the sniffling deputy to cower further. But a shift was certainly affecting the crowd. No doubt the deputy had worn his fearsome mask in his dealings with them. This half undressed, soiled and simpering fool was a shade of the scarred lawman.

“I know not what tortures you’ve enacted upon him nor even what purpose you insinuate of my nature.”

“Murder and theft as well as an untamed scheme to bring ruin to the very folk you preach and preen before. In my hands I have correspondences with your buyer for the ores you stole and seek to pin on this man! These fetched from your desk beneath the direction of that blubbering caitiff.”

“I-I’m sorry, boss!” the deputy pleaded. “She… she is an untamed. Near slit my throat…!”

Laure kicked him unceremoniously to the ground, strangling his voice in a great cloud of dirt. He snivelled at the people’s feet as her guards pulled her roughly away. The sheriff rounded on Felicity.

“Salacious lies! Who are you to challenge my authority? You’re just some honour less bounty hunter preying on the weak and needy for your coin. Hand me those papers!”

“I think I look first,” Nicolai finally said.

“Sir, we should not entertain these deluded claims. No doubt she is in league with Hopkins himself and this is some scam to discredit our efforts and play you the fool!”

The sheriff snatched at the papers but Felicity dodged his hands. However, the sheriff’s men were many on the platform and were fast upon her: pinning her arms behind her back and claiming the documents for their leader.

“See here!” Nicolai cried.

But as he stepped forward, hands fell to weapons. The magnate’s look was as hard and steely as his office’s facade. But in that moment, it was clear he was outnumbered. His hired lawmen turned not to him but the sheriff. And their posturing was clear.

“Come now, sir Nicolai. Your gracious patronage has brought peace and order to this town. Let us do our duty and deal with these outlaws.”

“Sheriff Plummer…!”

But Nicolai held his reply as the sheriff’s men drew their guns.

“This will all be over soon,” Plummer cried. “Order will be restored to Bannock. Even if we must string up Hopkin’s conspirators as well!”

“Truly?” Felicty laughed. “And do you expect these people to forget that a Ranger has gone missing? Or you reckoned his murder would be forgotten once you had some necks to twist in your ropes?”

The sheriff spat as his men handed him the letters.

“You should have made your way from town once you had your pay,” the sheriff sneered, stepping close. His great stomach pressed against Felicity as he leaned in so his round face was inches from hers. “But perhaps you have some feelings for this degenerate. Seems you leave me little recourse than to string you up with him for your impetuousness.”

“Or maybe we’ll look at those documents before we make any hasty decisions.”

A click of the hammer caused the sheriff to straighten. Ranger Hayes had his rifle raised and leveraged at the fat man’s chest.

“You still have failed to explain my brother’s disappearance.”

The sheriff shrugged.

“How am I suppose to know where your kind go, Ranger? They prowl the endless plains. He could have run afoul of hostile savages. Or maybe he stumbled upon this villainous pair and they got the better of him. Perhaps they tossed his body unceremoniously into them canyons.”

“Then it won’t be an issue if we take a look at the little lady’s evidence,” Ranger Hayes replied, his gun unmoving.

The sheriff gave only the briefest of glances at the papers in his hand to confirm their identity. Then he shook his head and gave a hearty laugh.

“Likely forgeries, anyway. Why would I keep such incriminating documents if I were so devious?”

“Perhaps to blackmail your correspondent if he reneged on his end? Or maybe you ain’t so untamedly bright. But I reckon I’d rather peruse them then have a word with your deputy myself before we continue.”

The sheriff’s smile melted away as his thick lips churned his predicament. He looked at the deputy still lying face down in the dirt.

“You fool,” he sneered. “You lowly, heat stricken fool. Don’t think I won’t deal with you later for this.”

The sheriff reached quickly for his coat pocket but a sudden thunder clap broke the air. All attending flinched at the sound. Felicity regarded the Ranger’s rifle but it still laid cocked in his hands.

The wood at the sheriff’s feet was cracked from where the bullet struck. Still standing with hand in his coat and letters shaking slightly in his fingers, the fat man turned. A mass shifted upon the roof of the General Store as Schroeder made a show of adjusting his aim.

Felicity quickly disentangled herself from her captors’ hands, rushing the sheriff before he could wage his chances against the Ranger and the sharpshooter. She snatched into his pockets and fetched the gun from its holster. With him disarmed, Ranger Hayes approached and grabbed the letters from the sheriff’s hand. He then turned his rifle towards the sheriff’s lawmen ordering them to drop their weapons. Ever so slowly, they obliged, the guns clattering against the floor.

As the Ranger turned to the documents, Nicolai stepped boldly forward.

“What do they read?”

“It’s as the lady inferred,” Ranger Hayes said. “Appears the sheriff was stealing supplies all across town and selling them off for his own. Even makes mention of hiring an outlaw to blame the whole business upon.”

The magnate ripped them from the Ranger’s hands, looking them over as well. His face grew even redder as he read, his fingers shaking with rage and embarrassment.

“To think I listen to you all morning striding smug before me,” Nicolai growled. “And the destruction of the bridge, you blithely destroyed years of work and preparation! I want these men punished, Ranger! Punished! This… this is unacceptable!”

The governor spat on the sheriff’s fine suit.

“As if you’re any better,” Sheriff Plummer sneered. “You growing fat and wealthy with nary a consideration for the folk that do all the digging for you. You rail lords ain’t nothing but thieves in better dress. You twist the law to your bidding, ruling worse than the nobles back across the waters! You thought you the only one that could manipulate these people. You’re just as stupid as the rest of them.”

“Hang them! And squeeze this fat lout into the cage!” Nicolai’s brow twitched as he stood but inches from the sheriff, quivering with fury. “Your soul goes nowhere. Let vultures pick you clean like you picked me.”

The magnate turned, heading for the stairs. Ranger Hayes regarded the other lawmen, beginning to follow the magnate’s words. In that brief respite, the sheriff grew desperate. Laure called out, slipping her arms free and knocking over one of her guards with a swift strike of her wrench to his gut. Her hands fell upon the gun of the other and the weapon seemed to fall apart in her fast fingers. But the sheriff struck lightning quick, bringing his fist heavily upon Felicity’s hand. The sheriff’s pistol fell from her fingers and in that moment the sheriff snatched at the weapon tucked into her hip. He grabbed her roughly, angling her body between him and the sharpshooter as he raised the gun to her head.

“Die, whore!”

He pulled the trigger.

And he pulled it again.

And he pulled it a third time.

He blinked at this seemingly divine providence right before Felicity drove her elbow hard into his gut. Pain wretched him forward and she slammed her fist into his face, crunching his nose beneath her knuckles. A spatter of blood shot out as she grabbed the collar of his vest, pulling his retreating head into her forehead. The already softened cartilage crunched again as he howled in pain before she drove her leg hard into his groin, keeling him onto his knees.

She scooped up the guns on the ground and without a word, let loose a single shot right into his fat rump.

He squealed like a pig, collapsing on the ground and rolling in pain. His hands knew not where to go between the bloody mess of his face, his throbbing groin or the shot in his ass.

The Ranger regarded her.

“That really necessary?”

“Perhaps not,” Felicity shrugged. “But it’s satisfying. Ain’t nothing that’ll finish him and it’s the least Pacal deserves. Make sure justice is seen, lawman.”

She emptied the sheriff’s pistol over the edge of the stage before tossing it in the pile at the Ranger’s feet. Before anyone could say otherwise, she moved to the steps, walking quickly from the platform and through the crowd. Schroeder was already clamouring down from the store when Laure and Felicity reached his side.

“Well, that was thrilling!” Laure said.

Felicity paused, turning to Schroeder.

“Appreciated.”

She held out the pistol raised against her moments ago. Schroeder reached for it with a smile.

“So, what was that about me needing proper care? You could say I saved your life right there.”

She pulled it back, twirling the gun into her hand and raised it to his head before clicking the trigger.

“There, now it’s square,” she tossed the gun into his chest. “Don’t let it happen again else you might be able to do more than shoot up some wood.”

He fumbled his catch and as he picked it up, she gave one last glance back at the stage. With the sheriff incapacitated the rest of the lawmen easily bowed before the Ranger. Many of the townsfolk assisted with the arrests, almost a little too eager to bring the gang that once held order to heel.

Then Schroeder looked back at Felicity, calling out as they made their way towards the train, “Wait, that doesn’t makes us even at all!”

It’s Friday so you know what that means. Actually, it doesn’t mean anything but I still have this short story kicking around incomplete on the site. So have some more Bannock!

Eaves Western Set Jail. Photo courtesy of nmfo and accessed from http://rs.locationshub.com/Slideshow.aspx?lid=013-10003765&id=35838.

“I’m confused. Don’t we hate, Hopkins.”

“I ain’t seeing the relevance.” Felicity stood on a crate, watching the deputy sitting in the office. He was an unsavoury sort with dark, shifting eyes and a large scar running down his cheek indicating he was no stranger to confrontations. But there was an edginess to his character highlighted by the dark leather vest that he wore. He busied himself with a small collection of woodblock prints of questionable content. They appeared most salacious: a variety of paintings of men and women in various compromising positions captured in the base painting style of the western colonies. Felicity had glimpsed a few more bloodier in nature. Those appeared as gratuitous depictions of violence and bloodshed and she wasn’t sure which the deputy found more entertaining.

“Well,” Schroeder said. “I don’t see why we’ve got to ruin a good thing. We’ve been paid. A criminal is going to hang. There’s nothing stopping us from just hopping on and going our merry way.”

“It’s the principal.”

“See, that’s the part where I struggle,” Schroeder said. “We’ve got nothing to prove. We did our job and were paid. I’m pretty ambivalent towards the Bian Chong. If you want to work with him, that’s fine. Coin is coin no matter what Empire it’s from.

“But I don’t see why we should be placing ourselves at unnecessary risk. Hopkins is an outlaw. A despicable man. Lots died in the explosion at the bridge and he didn’t so much as blink an eye.”

“He deserves to hang for what he’s done,” Laure said.

“I ain’t being played a fool.” Felicity’s eyes narrowed. “Pacal wouldn’t want a man to hang for the wrong reasons no matter how much he deserved it. I won’t see Hopkins punished just for gunning Pacal down. Though he ain’t stop the charges from going off he did stop Hopkins from getting away. If Sheriff Plummer had a hand in Pacal’s death – well I’ll see to it he gets the same that Hopkins does.”

“So this is about petty revenge and looking foolish,” Schroeder said.

“It’s about doing the right thing.”

“Right thing. An awfully quaint conceit from us, don’t you think?”

“No.”

“Of course not. When we rob and steal it’s wholly different.”

“Precisely.”

“So long as a line’s been drawn then.”

“Look, even a scoundrel can know the difference between wrong and necessity. What’s important ain’t each individual action but the net worth of our lives. We help those that need it and we avoid stealing from those that ain’t deserving.”

“Didn’t take you for the golden scales kind of gal,” Schroeder said. “Weight of one’s own sins and what not.”

“What else you propose?”

Schroeder shrugged.

“Wu wei. Be like the river and just float along.”

Felicity shook her head.

“Should have guessed. Think we can blow it?”

Laure rapped her knuckles against the stone wall and slowly shook her head. “They build them jails tighter than a hex nut on a vault front for that very reason.”

“It’s true,” Schroeder continued. “A criminal will commit crime. It is his nature. To fight against that nature is to enact your will on the greater cosmic harmony.”

“I ain’t reckoning that’s the priests’ preaching.”

“What would you know? Doesn’t the Lord say something about not killing?”

“I’m fairly certain, given the frame of the discourse, they ain’t agree to turn away from what’s just because the nature of a criminal is cowardice.”

“That’s because you aren’t aligning yourself with the pure force of the universe,” Schroeder said, closing his eyes. He began to weave his hands in stoic mimicry of the priests’ meditations, each limb moving about Felicity in languid, undulating motions as if he were little more than a leaf upon a river rushing to its end.

“I worry what you gather during our trips.”

“Do not fear the unknown,” he continued, his voice slow and peaceful. “Embrace the primordial state. Refuse the desire to assert your will and bend others to your authority.”

Felicity frowned and Schroeder felt the bare of her palm upside his head.

“You see, you disturb the natural balance!”

“Can’t help it – it’s my nature. Now come, your blathering inspired me to our proper course.”

“We’re returning to the train?” Laure asked.

“We should act like the outlaws we are.”

Felicity lifted the pistol in her hands and wove around the jail with the engineer in pursuit. She didn’t wait for the tardy Schroeder, rounding upon the wood front door and casting the briefest glance for watchers.

With a shatter, the latch broke from its hold beneath Felicity’s boot and the startled deputy fell back in his chair. His prints fluttered into the air, falling like thick white leaves about his head. He struggled to address this sudden assault, but as he disentangled from his chair his legs caught about his trousers still wrapped around his ankles. With a shout he tumbled, face cracking against the corner of the desk before he planted upon the floor.

Felicity walked over, pressing the cold tip of the pistol against his cheek.

“How about we not paint this floor today, hm?”

Twisting his lips to the side, the deputy protested.

“The mag already came by to take your money to your ship!”

Felicity heard Schroeder struggling to set the door back in place and motioned urgently for him. As Laure began searching for some restraints, Felicity directed Schroeder to the lawman’s lowered belt and the fop rescued the gun. Felicity took it for a second before pitching it in the dirt outside the jail.

“I’ll tell you how we’re proceeding,” Felicity said. “First thing: my man is going to lift your long johns…”

“Come on!”

“… and then you’re going to tell me which of these desks is the sheriff’s. While we bound your hands, you’ll co-operate yourself peacefully into one of these cells while we get the information we need.”

“We don’t got anything more, I swear!”

The deputy choked back further cries as Felicity pressed the gun harder against his cheek.

“We ain’t looking to steal. Least nothing legal.”

“This about the shipments? Plummer said you ain’t going to collect until the end of the month.”

Laure paused from searching the nearby hooks and even Schroeder turn to the captain at the deputy’s confession. Felicity wasn’t sure she had heard the deputy correctly either.

“You know about that then?”

“Do I?” the deputy asked in faked surprise.

Felicity released one of her two bullets into the floorboards by the deputy’s head. He flinched, giving a great deluge of apologies as his face turned away and his body quivered.

Felicity returned the smoking barrel to his other cheek.

“Must I explain the alternative? Because I reckon I can find what I need before that sham trial ends and still replicate at least one of these.”

She flipped through the wood prints with her boot until she found one particularly torturous one.

“I… what do you wa-want to know…”

Tears started to stream down his face in an unseemly manner. They mixed with the blood oozing from his nose to patter against the smooth floor. Laure located the sheriff’s manacles. The thick iron weighed more than she anticipated and she grunted as she lifted them over. She clasped the bracers around the deputy’s waiting wrists. With the manacles securely fastened, Felicity grabbed roughly at the chain binding them, pulling the deputy from the ground and pressing him up against a post. A quick flick of the chain and she had it wrapped securely about one of the hooks. A final tug confirmed they were solid before she extracted her new knife from her boot.

“What was on that print? Nose to navel?”

She ran the blade sharply down his front, splitting the buttons on his vest and cutting the whole cloth through. The deputy simpered, his entire body shaking violently against the chains.

“I’ll tell! I’ll tell! Please!”

Felicity stepped back. The deputy took four slow breaths, sniffling his bloodied nose as he steadied his heart. When he opened his eyes, he visibly squirmed at the knife tapping impatiently against her neck.

“Ain’t nobody suppose to know. Sheriff Plummer got it right in his head that we could start skimming some off the miners’ shipments. You know, a few crates here and there. Ain’t nobody going to miss a bit of ore. Given the bloody price they go for after awhile we’d have a nice, cozy profit.”

“I ain’t seeing where Hopkins comes in to this.”

“Well… the sheriff, see, he’s getting a little fat on the hog. He’s liking this scheme but reckons there’s more to squeeze. So he gets a couple of the boys together and we wrestle up some bandanas and big hats. Make ourselves like fancy brigands and what-have-you. Ain’t nobody going to question and we can just knock a few ships when they come for their loads.

“But the mag’ ain’t liking this. The bigger our take the more it cuts his profits, see? So he tells Plummer this needs proper concluding. Plummer says he’s doing all he can but the mag’ won’t be satisfied without a neck in the noose. So, Plummer convinces the fool that a few more men is needed for tracking these bandits. The suit agrees and now Plummer’s sitting on a big group of hooligans. More hands means more hauling from the ships when we come knocking.

“But the suit’s getting real angry now. That’s when the Rangers come. Start poking around, see? Guessing he got full of Plummer’s hamstringing and sought the lawmen on his own.”

“Ranger Hayes?” Schroeder asked.

“Naw, not him. First bloke came alone and discovered the sales deeds. Obviously, he gets right suspicious. Plummer gets him taken care of and sends him packing in a five foot hole. But that makes the suit even more irate. So then Plummer gets the brilliant idea to start laying the blame on some actual thieves. Offers some foolish sap way more than its worth to knock over a pointless post then catches him and strings him up.”

“So why was Hopkins sent to blow the Glorious Belt Bridge?” Felicity asked.

“I’m getting to that!” the deputy growled. “See, while the mag’ is happy to see some sap dangling from the cage he’s still right riffed there ain’t no sign of his ore. And the sheriff is prancing around in his fancies and the suit is all dusting for Plummer’s white powdered face. He’s saying that the sheriff best find his ore or heads will roll. sheriff decides it’s best to make it seem they ran the rocks over to the Jaders so the suit will rattle off his back. And what best way to do it than to have an outlaw attempt a daring escape while blowing the route to cover his trails!”

“And the bounty was just to legitimize the scam?” Schroeder asked.

“Naw, that was the Ranger’s idea. Guess offing one don’t get rid of the pack. This one’s even more ornery. At least the first would join us in the saloon from time to time. This Hayes fellow just scowls and heads off into the wilds on his own. Don’t seem none trustful.”

“So where are you keeping the goods?”

The deputy paused, licking dry lips.

“I… don’t rightly know.”

“That’s a shame. And you were doing so well.”

Felicity raised the knife again and the deputy howled before the blade even drew close.

“Check the desk!”

She slapped the deputy hard across the check.

“Which is his?”

Blubbering, the man pointed with his chin. Schroeder hurried over, rifling through the papers on top. But most were notices from townsfolk about petty disturbances or Nicolai frustrated with the lack of progress. Once he’d made a proper mess, Schroeder turned to the drawers, ripping them open and scattering the contents about the floor. But nothing looked like a proper bill of sale. However, as he went to rip the bottom drawer, it caught against the lock and no matter how hard he pulled he couldn’t work it free.

“The key?”

“Do-don’t know. The safe?”

“I ain’t got time for this,” Felicity sighed.

She whistled for Schroeder’s attention then tossed the pistol to him. Schroeder fumbled to catch the weapon, gritting his teeth worried it would discharge in his hands. Once he realized he hadn’t put a bullet through himself he looked back at his captain.

“Just get this done.”

Stepping back, Schroeder closed his eyes and leaned away from the weapon. The crack filled the entire room and a puff curled from the barrel. The bullet splintered wood and he sneaked a peep of his work.

“Not bad,” he smiled.

“What’s inside?”

He pulled the drawer right out from the desk and frowned at his prize.

“Nothing.”

Felicity turned back to the deputy, raising the knife high over her head. The man howled as she thrust it forward. Laure gave a sharp scream. The blade crunched as it bit into the wood. It took a few seconds for the deputy to process what happened and Felicity noted the stain growing along the leg of his long johns. She walked over, looking at the fruits of their labour.

She also frowned at the bare bottom of the drawer.

“That ain’t right. Who locks a naked drawer?”

Schroeder shrugged, leaning over the container and running a slow hand over the surface.

“Could be some sorcerer’s trickery. It’s not unheard of for a magnate to commission a ward or glamour to protect his most important documents. Doubtful the sheriff would be able or inclined, though.”

Felicity saw Schroeder pause, his brow raising curiously.

“You got something?”

“Not a reactant for an incantation. It’s smaller though, like a hole…”

The was a soft crack as he pried the entire bottom loose.

Beneath was a stuffed secret compartment.

A whole pile of paper was kept inside. Felicity snatched them up and as she scanned them she passed them to Schroeder. Stacks of letters and correspondences were jumbled together and as she scanned the spidery, flowing script she noticed they were an exchange between Sheriff Plummer and some cautious individual who only signed as Mr. Qv in a soft, flowing hand.

But the contents were clear enough. The fool went so far to even explain that it was pinched from the magnate’s shipments. Unfortunately, it lacked the location where the sheriff had it stashed and the only mention seemed to be for an exchange in a few days time.

“What do you make of it?”

“Certainly not a bill,” Schroeder said, “but I’d think damning enough. The correspondent is incredibly cautious but we got Plummer’s own confession in writing. Should weigh heavily in a court, I’d wager.”

Felicity stuffed them in her pocket.

“This will have to do,” she said. She motioned at the deputy. “Best bring him along too.”

She pulled the knife from the post, leaving the snivelling man to Schroeder and Laure.

Schroeder struggled to loosen the manacles from the nail and, when he finally did, he gave the man a sharp kick in the rump to get him moving. The deputy stumbled and tripped over his trousers still dragging on the ground but Schroeder refused to lift them. Laure gathered up some of the loose chain, trying to keep it from dragging. Felicity stepped into the street and searched for the town hall. But as the others emerged with the deputy, she could hear the echo of voices ringing through the abandoned town.

The trial had concluded.