1. Josie in Tombstone


    Date: 9/15/2015, Categories: Historical, Author: billybroadband, Rating: , Source: LushStories

    thin, but his body projected a wiry grace and what they call “frontier strength”. I felt my insides ripple, as if my heart and stomach were a still pond in which he had thrown a large rock. He seemed to study me, as if I were some odd or beautiful thing that he had never seen the likes of before. I tried to meet his gaze, but I could not sustain eye contact with him without blushing. I grew flustered, which I rarely do, and felt as if I were a schoolgirl in San Francisco again. It was not a pleasant sensation to me at all. I have grown used to being the object of men’s stares, and using men to my advantage, but Mr. Earp seems a different kind of man to me, one I am unfamiliar with.” # # # “I saw Mr. Earp again on Friday night last, at the Bird Cage. He has a gambling table there that he runs, along with his brother, Morgan. I had seen Morgan at this self same table prior to this, but I do not recall seeing Wyatt at the table before. Perhaps I simply did not notice him, although I doubt that. I do not believe that Mr. Earp is a man that I would soon forget encountering. He is a man who always seems to be the central figure in a room, with all other men in his orbit, revolving around him. I was accompanying Johnny and, as is my custom, I held onto Johnny’s hand or arm, in order to signal other men that I was not available to their attentions. We were engaged in some meaningless conversation with some ranchers at the long bar, and I had the oddest feeling overcome me, as if I ...
    were being hunted. I glanced about and saw Mr. Earp looking directly at me, with that selfsame expression on his face as when I first saw him at the theater. This time I was able to compose myself and smile at him, nodding my head to him. His lips drew back but a little, as if they were not at all comfortable with the act of smiling. His eyes never left mine until the man beside him reminded him that he had a play to make on the cards. He ignored the man while he held my gaze for a few seconds more, before returning his attention to the game he was engaged in.” # # # The Earps first arrived in Tombstone in 1879, drawn by the rumors of silver and fortune that had drawn so many others. Some say that Wyatt and his brother Virgil returned to law enforcement because they arrived too late to fully benefit from the silver bonanza. What is certain is that the trouble with the cowboys started in earnest in the spring of 1881, when Wyatt was among the posse who pursued some cowboys who had robbed a Tombstone stage coach, killing the driver. Tensions rose quickly between the rambunctious cowboys and the Earps, who had been joined by a gambler friend of Wyatt’s named “Doc” Holliday, most recently from Wichita. The cowboys were partnered up with Ike and Billy Clanton and were fond of travelling the short distance to Mexico and returning with rustled horses or cattle, bolstering the livestock count of the Clanton ranch in return for payment in money and liquor. The cowboys were virtually ...
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