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NDH WESTERN STORY

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SHERIFF MATT GREIT

Sheriff 1880 of Bearly Valley. The first man you call for and the last man
you want to meet. Matt is a close friend of Chester the Telegraph Operator.

DOC “BONES” GILDERSLEEVE

Army surgeon who wandered west after war. Settled in Bearly Here to take up
doctoring, but sometimes sells patent medicine when the doctoring is slow.
[Long ago enemy of Chester; employee of Colonel]

PATTIE BARBETTE
Saloon owner via her daddy. She’s gone into debt hiring a cook and putting
in green baize gambling tables, and cancan girls who can. [Connie or
younger girl is chief prostitute]

IRISH JACK
An itinerant from somewhere east. Wears fancy clothes and speaks with an
accent. He’s an “Enterpriser”, a professional gambler who travels from town
to town providing poker playing entertainment and free booze for the
locals. [could be a US Marshal/Army Officer in disguise. Sent by
“government” to investigate [Bearly, Chester, Railroad].

THE COLONEL
A woman who’s rough, ready and runs the cattle ranch nearby. Has little
love for the law, and none for Connie Barbette. She’d like to take over the
Elixir and make it a “company store” so she can collect the money she pays
to her cowpokes. [the bad guy. Controller of everything]

PATTI URQUART THE PIANO PLAYER AND UNDERTAKER.

Always good with a one-liner, even on the piano. Just waiting for someone
to shrug off their mortal coil.

WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE

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THE ELIXIR (PEAR BOTTOM SALOON) SOCIAL CLUB

Connie Barbette sings a rousing song (with girls dancing) and Patti Urquart
playing the piano.
Patti
Welcome to the pear bottom saloon and dancin’emporium where the dancin is hot
and the booze is hotter. It’s plowin’ and plantin’ season now. We got mountains on
the left, mountians on the right, with plenty of Injuns in them thar hills with that
ol’ slippery-slidey Surprise Lake smack-dab in the middle. And, when she shows
up, Surprise Lake is always’s a surprise, ain’t it?” And, that ain’t all, folks. We got
oak and acorns and bear and deer and elk and hawks and the occasional eagle and
full-up batches of raccoon, fox, badger, gophers, and two, two many skunks. It’s
the town of BVS where the outlaws and the lawmen are often one and the same.

connie
Sings about town, Pops starting the Elixir,
and town hopes that the railroad will build a
station in their city. Connie also hopes the
railroad will come. She has plans to turn the
Elixir into a first—class hotel—restaurant—
bordello.

The Elixir Social Club is the town center for Bearly Here, a western burg
that hopes the railroad will build a station in town. There are a few sheep
and cattle ranches in the area, some passers—by, and a handful of local
characters who call the town home.
CONNIE BARBETTE is the owner of the Elixir. She inherited the watering hole
from her father who established a drinking spot for the Chinese laborers
who worked the railroad. The workers and the railroad moved on past Bearly
Here, but there’s still a portrait of SU ZEE above the bar that Daddy made
Connie promise never to take down.
Connie has dreams of making the Elixir the Babylon of the territory: green
baize gambling tables, a decent place to get a meal, the best cancan girls
in the west, and the best girls in the west girls who can.
Connie throws open the Elixir to the guests, with a SONG AND DANCE together
with the girls, and URQUART at the piano.
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Connie: He had no sense of tempo and his

middle C was flat. I surely can’t turn the
Elixir into a “Las Vegas” with him doing the
music. I can’t have a class establishment
with a bum piano player.
DOC GILDERSLEEVE
The local sawbones who grabs every opportunity to pitch his patent medicine
when the patient waiting room is empty.

IRISH JACK A FANCY—DRESSED PROFESSIONAL GAMBLER

seats himself at an empty table, orders a couple of bottles of booze,
bridge—shuffles a deck of cards to lure the locals to take a risk. He’s
recreation for the cowpokes and sheep herders who bust down the doors to
get a spot at the table. Who knows, one of them might win a hand.

CONNIE BUYS HERSELF A SEAT AT THE TABLE.

Sees Jack as a potential investor, but Jack says he’s just an itinerant
gambler.

MATT GREIT, U.S. Marshall for the territory surrounding Bearly Here. The
first man you call for and the last man you want to meet. Announces that
CHESTER the Telegraph Operator has been shot. Doc is urgently needed to
tend to him.
Chester Conklin, the telegraph operator, showed up in Bearly Here a
few years ago. Chester has his own equipment and establishes
connections for a town that’s been bypassed by the railroad and
telegraph. The telegraph is the only means of communication to the
outside of Bearly Here, but it’s also the way residents who want to
keep their activities with each other a secret.

DOC HEADS FOR HIS OFFICE TO PATCH—UP CHESTER.

Doc remembers Chester during the war. The rumor was that Chester was a spy
and caused the defeat of ?? during the Battle of ??. Maybe somebody finally
tracked him down.
Matt remarks that Chester was mild—mannered and didn’t even carry a gun.
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MATT SEATS HIMSELF AT THE POKER TATLE TO CHAT WITH IRISH JACK
Jack: I’m just passing through looking for
residents who might enjoy a game of friendly
cards.
Jack: Could be. I’ve been somewhere. If
you’ve been somewhere, maybe we met.
Lets him know that a bunch of rowdy cowpokes are headed for the Elixir. For
Jack the more pigeons there are the better.
I’d be careful if I’s you. The Colonel, their
boss, don’t take to strangers who don’t get
his blessing in advance.
Jack: Yes. I know the Colonel. From way back.

MATT HAS DINNER WITH WITH CONNIE

Discuss Chester the Telegraph Operator, where he came from, etc. Matt’s
always liked Chester, but Connie’s not so sure.
Funny how he’d sit at the bar all night by
himself, eating his dinner and staring at
that portrait of Su Zee

Connie hates the portrait but promised father she wouldn’t take it down.
“Like to get rid of that ugly, smoke smudged
thing. Spoils the look of my bar, but daddy
made me promise.”

DOC COULDN’T REVIVE CHESTER

“That shotgun blast nearly cut him in half and scattered all the messages
off his table.”
Relates some unusual things Chester said in his last moments.
Alerts Urquhart that it’s time to change from piano player to undertaker.

MATT INVESTIGATES SHOOTING OF CHESTER.

I’d best get to the Telegraph Office before anyone else goes inside. He
didn’t carry enough money to be robbed, so there has to be another reason
for killing him.
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COWPOKES ROWDY ENTRANCE

Cowpokes from the Colonel’s ranch Take over poker game, the bar, and the
girls. Locals are intimidated, but Irish Jack welcomes new players.
bang—bang hoot and holler end of act one

DRINKS AND PEE TIME FOR AUDIENCE

ACT TWO
THE “COLONEL” FOLLOWS HER MEN INTO THE ELIXIR.
The Colonel is a rough and ready woman who runs the cattle ranch nearby.
She has little love for The Law, and none for Connie. She’d like to take
over the Elixir and make it a “company store” so she can collect the money
she pays to her cowpokes.

MATT WARNS THE COWPOKES AND COLONEL THAT TOO MUCH RAMBUNCTIOUSNESS WILL NOT
BE TOLERATED IN BEARLY HERE.
Cowpokes are the life of the Elixir, so Matt can’t step on them too hard,
but he’s got to keep the piece as well. The Colonel takes real exception to
Matt’s warning. There’s longstanding hostility between the two of them.

COLONEL AND CONNIE STAND TOE TO TOE AT THE BAR

Colonel and Connie can drink each other under the table. The Colonel is
suspicious of Connie but loaned her dad money by covert investment via the
Telegraph. (money Connie doesn’t know about)

MATT HAS RUMMAGED THROUGH TELEGRAPH OFFICE

While Urquart builds the casket, Matt returns to talk to Doc about what he
found at the Telegraph office. There’s some notes Chester spiked indicating
that nearly everybody in town visited the telegraph office and cabled
someone on the day Chester was shot. Many of the notes are either partially
burned or in pieces from the shotgun blast.
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MAT, THE DOC, AND CONNIE GO OVER THE NOTES TRYING TO PIECE THEM TOGETHER
LIKE A JIGSAW PUZZLE.
Even when they find a match with the pieces of paper, they don’t make much
sense. Because cables were charged by the word, people developed a code for
their messages where a word stood for a whole concept, event or question.
The notes appear nonsensical unless the code is broken.

COLONEL ACCUSES JACK OF CHEATING

Jack pulls a derringer, and the Colonel draws a six—gun. The two of them
face down each other, but the Colonel is drunk, and Jack clonks him out.

MATT HAULS THE COLONEL TO A JAIL CELL TO SOBER UP.

These two clearly don’t like each other. [Colonel will be killed in jail
cell] while no one is present in the Sheriff’s office. Who could have snuck
in to kill the Colonel — and why?

DOC AND CONNIE GOSSIP RE MATT’S FRIENDSHIP WITH CHESTER

“Don’t see much reason why a man like Matt would be partial to a nobody
like Chester”
Maybe Matt killed the Colonel to get back at her for killing Chester?