(no subject)
The last chapter, guys! We lived! Pass the booze and cookies!
11. Another Surprise!
It is Lewis, Jay's friend, who fought with Dobbs and has now discovered our would be Darwin Award winners.
Now came the sound of running steps and almost immediately the man was beside them. In front of them, you mean? Paul noticed that there was blood on his face. Hurriedly he told the Ute, "Pete Dobbs attacked us in here. He tried to kill us and Grandma. Did you see him? BZUH??? No, of course not! He had a fight with himself. *bangs head on desk* He was on his way out of the cave."
"You bet I did. He shot at me and missed -- then I fought with him and knocked him out cold in the tunnel near the cave opening. He doesn't know karate at all. LOL! I wish I were confident that was supposed to be funny, though...
Jay and Paul fill Lewis in on what Dobbs was trying to do.
"Are you sure Dobbs won't get away?" Then Paul volunteered, "I know where we can get some rope to time him up. You mean the rope you could have used to get out instead of trying to pursue Dobbs? That rope?
Lewis cuts some off and ties up Dobbs, then they collect Grandma and leave the cave. Lewis then explains how he came to rescue them. He talked to the Old One that morning and got a description of the cave area. He also learned from the woman who looks after the Old One while Jay's mom is at work that Jay, Paul, and Grandma were going out there to look around and picnic. So he went out to join them.
Well, I saw two parked cars and when I saw that the driver's registration card in the green one read Mrs. Sally Weber, I knew it was Paul's grandmother. The other car didn't mean anything to me at all. The first car didn't mean anything to you until you searched it, so why stop there? ... Why did Dobbs leave Grandma's car unlocked? More importantly, does Lewis normally go around searching parked cars to see who they belong to? After all, he didn't know anything was wrong at that point.
In any event, he found the cave and took out Dobbs.
They decide to go check out the cave some more because once word gets about that this old cavern has been rediscovered after so many years -- not to mention finding the missing stagecoach, its passengers, and the gold -- this cave will be so full of police and reporters and Indian experts that we'd never get to explore it in peace.
So they explore the cave and find the bodies of Kid Ruby and his men an arrow in the chest of every man. My they decomposed tidily.
Lewis explains that the Utes must have seen the ambushing of the stagecoach, followed the gang in, and killed them. Though there is one thing about this that bothers me. It would have been easy. Lewis says. After all, there weren't any turnoff roads to other towns, and the cave is along the stagecoach's route. Except that it's not on the road, and the road was the old stage route. Well, the stage route and later the Colorado Midland Railway line. (That link also shows that at least in 1900 there were towns along the route. The same towns that are still there.) You'd think that they might have found the stage then, for one thing. But my bigger question is: what is the terrain like that you have giant cliffs and caves with huge swiveling rocks and yet ground that a stagecoach could be driven over. These two things do not necessarily go together in my mind. Particularly since the stage needs to leave no sign of its passage.
For some bizarre reason, Grandma wants Kid Ruby's belt buckle - a mate to the one she gave Paul - which she then gives to Jay. No one is clear on what will happen to the gold, but no one cares too much (except Dobbs, but he's unconscious).
Paul now turned to Jay. "You've sure got a neat ending to your essay. But I still have a problem. Should I end mine by revealing that Bronco Billy Smart's real father was an outlaw and a killer? What do you say, Grandma?"
For a moment Mrs. Weber pondered. Then she said, "Go on, tell it. It can't hurt Billy now, and I think it's very interesting. This may be the most sensible thing in the book.
Paul stood silent a moment, then said, "All right." Wow, what he had learned, all in one day! With the help of four Coloradans, three of them Indians, he, an easterner, had cleared up a mystery Good god, man, check your ego! -- and solved a crime that happened over a hundred and ten years before.
So Lewis stands guard over Dobbs while Grandma heads off in search of the police, taking Jay and Paul with her. They plan to eat their delayed picnic lunch on the way.
The end.
Oh, but we must include the Author's Note.
She says that she'd been asked by kids to write a mystery for some time (she normally writes - gulp - historical fiction for kids.).
In reading the Works Progress Administration Writer's Program book, Colorado: A Guide to the Highest State, originally published in 1941, I ran across one sentence that gave me the genesis of my mystery. It is on page 230 and reads:
In 1873 a four-horse stage carrying five passengers and $40,00 in gold is said to have entered the pass and to have disappeared without a trace.
(The reference here is to Ute Pass, the route between Colorado Springs and the mining camp of Fairplay.)
This is the only reference I've found to this disappearing stagecoach. I have some suspicion that either the authors of that book made it up, or that, like the ghost children in the Gold Camp Road tunnels, it was a urban...er...rural legend. Nothing turns up on treasure hunting sites. I didn't see anything when I tried to take a look at the 1873 paper. I say "tried" because I would have to read each issue of the paper to be sure, and that's far more time and effort than I want to put into a spork. Now, even if there were good evidence for this story, she could easily have moved her fictional story to a location she was familiar with. Given that she lived in California, that might have been the better idea. Not that I have confidence that she'd have done any better.
Why do I have doubts? Her Author's Note continues:
I am indebted to Mary M. Davis of the Pikes Peak Library District, Colorado Springs, Colorado for graciously sending me material on old-time outlaws.
*gapes*
You asked her about outlaws. Not even, at least as written, Colorado outlaws, but just outlaws. Not the terrain. Not the city. Not anything that might actually require contacting a Colorado Springs librarian. Outlaws. *headdesk*
Poor, poor, Mary M. Davis.
I wonder if she ever read the book she was consulted on.
I wonder why this thing is still in the PPLD collection after 25 years. It's terrible. Not only did Ms. Beatty fail at research, the book is just plain bad. People's motivations aren't sensible, the main character is an ass, the writing is mediocre at best, and I don't understand many of her writing decisions. Why did she have the main character not want to go to Colorado? Why is this the first time he's visited his grandmother? Why bother with the stepfather? Why did she have the villain be the only character they never suspected...literally? In most mysteries, the person you don't suspect isn't an apparent suspect for a reason, not because he used the Force. Why didn't her editor ask her any of these questions? And yet people apparently still read it. Bleh.
I think I'll go scrub my brain with something good. Perhaps a competent mystery. This entry was originally posted at http://smurasaki.dreamwidth.org/88523.html.
11. Another Surprise!
It is Lewis, Jay's friend, who fought with Dobbs and has now discovered our would be Darwin Award winners.
Now came the sound of running steps and almost immediately the man was beside them. In front of them, you mean? Paul noticed that there was blood on his face. Hurriedly he told the Ute, "Pete Dobbs attacked us in here. He tried to kill us and Grandma. Did you see him? BZUH??? No, of course not! He had a fight with himself. *bangs head on desk* He was on his way out of the cave."
"You bet I did. He shot at me and missed -- then I fought with him and knocked him out cold in the tunnel near the cave opening. He doesn't know karate at all. LOL! I wish I were confident that was supposed to be funny, though...
Jay and Paul fill Lewis in on what Dobbs was trying to do.
"Are you sure Dobbs won't get away?" Then Paul volunteered, "I know where we can get some rope to time him up. You mean the rope you could have used to get out instead of trying to pursue Dobbs? That rope?
Lewis cuts some off and ties up Dobbs, then they collect Grandma and leave the cave. Lewis then explains how he came to rescue them. He talked to the Old One that morning and got a description of the cave area. He also learned from the woman who looks after the Old One while Jay's mom is at work that Jay, Paul, and Grandma were going out there to look around and picnic. So he went out to join them.
Well, I saw two parked cars and when I saw that the driver's registration card in the green one read Mrs. Sally Weber, I knew it was Paul's grandmother. The other car didn't mean anything to me at all. The first car didn't mean anything to you until you searched it, so why stop there? ... Why did Dobbs leave Grandma's car unlocked? More importantly, does Lewis normally go around searching parked cars to see who they belong to? After all, he didn't know anything was wrong at that point.
In any event, he found the cave and took out Dobbs.
They decide to go check out the cave some more because once word gets about that this old cavern has been rediscovered after so many years -- not to mention finding the missing stagecoach, its passengers, and the gold -- this cave will be so full of police and reporters and Indian experts that we'd never get to explore it in peace.
So they explore the cave and find the bodies of Kid Ruby and his men an arrow in the chest of every man. My they decomposed tidily.
Lewis explains that the Utes must have seen the ambushing of the stagecoach, followed the gang in, and killed them. Though there is one thing about this that bothers me. It would have been easy. Lewis says. After all, there weren't any turnoff roads to other towns, and the cave is along the stagecoach's route. Except that it's not on the road, and the road was the old stage route. Well, the stage route and later the Colorado Midland Railway line. (That link also shows that at least in 1900 there were towns along the route. The same towns that are still there.) You'd think that they might have found the stage then, for one thing. But my bigger question is: what is the terrain like that you have giant cliffs and caves with huge swiveling rocks and yet ground that a stagecoach could be driven over. These two things do not necessarily go together in my mind. Particularly since the stage needs to leave no sign of its passage.
For some bizarre reason, Grandma wants Kid Ruby's belt buckle - a mate to the one she gave Paul - which she then gives to Jay. No one is clear on what will happen to the gold, but no one cares too much (except Dobbs, but he's unconscious).
Paul now turned to Jay. "You've sure got a neat ending to your essay. But I still have a problem. Should I end mine by revealing that Bronco Billy Smart's real father was an outlaw and a killer? What do you say, Grandma?"
For a moment Mrs. Weber pondered. Then she said, "Go on, tell it. It can't hurt Billy now, and I think it's very interesting. This may be the most sensible thing in the book.
Paul stood silent a moment, then said, "All right." Wow, what he had learned, all in one day! With the help of four Coloradans, three of them Indians, he, an easterner, had cleared up a mystery Good god, man, check your ego! -- and solved a crime that happened over a hundred and ten years before.
So Lewis stands guard over Dobbs while Grandma heads off in search of the police, taking Jay and Paul with her. They plan to eat their delayed picnic lunch on the way.
The end.
Oh, but we must include the Author's Note.
She says that she'd been asked by kids to write a mystery for some time (she normally writes - gulp - historical fiction for kids.).
In reading the Works Progress Administration Writer's Program book, Colorado: A Guide to the Highest State, originally published in 1941, I ran across one sentence that gave me the genesis of my mystery. It is on page 230 and reads:
In 1873 a four-horse stage carrying five passengers and $40,00 in gold is said to have entered the pass and to have disappeared without a trace.
(The reference here is to Ute Pass, the route between Colorado Springs and the mining camp of Fairplay.)
This is the only reference I've found to this disappearing stagecoach. I have some suspicion that either the authors of that book made it up, or that, like the ghost children in the Gold Camp Road tunnels, it was a urban...er...rural legend. Nothing turns up on treasure hunting sites. I didn't see anything when I tried to take a look at the 1873 paper. I say "tried" because I would have to read each issue of the paper to be sure, and that's far more time and effort than I want to put into a spork. Now, even if there were good evidence for this story, she could easily have moved her fictional story to a location she was familiar with. Given that she lived in California, that might have been the better idea. Not that I have confidence that she'd have done any better.
Why do I have doubts? Her Author's Note continues:
I am indebted to Mary M. Davis of the Pikes Peak Library District, Colorado Springs, Colorado for graciously sending me material on old-time outlaws.
*gapes*
You asked her about outlaws. Not even, at least as written, Colorado outlaws, but just outlaws. Not the terrain. Not the city. Not anything that might actually require contacting a Colorado Springs librarian. Outlaws. *headdesk*
Poor, poor, Mary M. Davis.
I wonder if she ever read the book she was consulted on.
I wonder why this thing is still in the PPLD collection after 25 years. It's terrible. Not only did Ms. Beatty fail at research, the book is just plain bad. People's motivations aren't sensible, the main character is an ass, the writing is mediocre at best, and I don't understand many of her writing decisions. Why did she have the main character not want to go to Colorado? Why is this the first time he's visited his grandmother? Why bother with the stepfather? Why did she have the villain be the only character they never suspected...literally? In most mysteries, the person you don't suspect isn't an apparent suspect for a reason, not because he used the Force. Why didn't her editor ask her any of these questions? And yet people apparently still read it. Bleh.
I think I'll go scrub my brain with something good. Perhaps a competent mystery. This entry was originally posted at http://smurasaki.dreamwidth.org/88523.html.