Not sure what's important here and what's not, Kate bellies up to the bar and takes a perch there.

Kate can overhear Desiree Thornton speaking reassuringly to the couple at the bar. ”...as I learn anything, I promise I’ll send word. You two try to get a little rest in the meantime. I know that’s a tall order, but it will help”

The pair say their goodbyes, then depart, the woman holding the man’s arm as they exit through the batwing doors. Without asking, Thornton retrieves a clean glass from the shelf, pours two fingers of whiskey into it, and slides it in front of Kate. ”I take it you spoke with Miss Perez? Found out what has some of the families here in the valley in such distress?”

Kate looked at Thornton with a screwed down eye.  She thought about it and decided to play her cards carefully.  "Weeds.  Ornery weeds."

She took a sip.  "Mighty peculiar at that."

Thornton raises an eybrow. ”I’d have to agree. There’s been a lot of talk about trying to find out where those damned weeds have come from. Maybe if some of us could manage it, we could find other...things that have gone missing.”

She pours herself a drink. ”Of course, that’s kind of a tall order.” She looks at Kate pointedly. ”Not something most would take on just out of the goodness of their hearts.”

"Fortunately, there ain't nothin' good about me."  Kate growled.  "Listen... ah reckon ah ain't alone.  Ah'm gonna rustle up some hellraisers tomorry.  Or try to."

Thornton smiles. ”Somehow, I don’t think I need to waste my breath telling you to be careful about who you ride with, but I will advise you against trying to recruit any of John Tunstall’s former hands to the cause, including the one keeping watch out there on the porch. I’m afraid they’re only interested in vengeance. Nothing more.”

As the saloon keeper finishes speaking, the batwing doors swing open, and Bryan Lee, the Texas Ranger Kate shared the stagecoach ride with, steps inside.

Only a few moments pass before the doors open again, this admitting the engineer, Jake McGraw.

Jake looks around. "Ma'am." he says to Kate, tipping his hat. Then he spots Ranger Lee. "Ah! There you are! I been lookin' fer you. Got a spell to talk?"

Bryan walked into the saloon, taking a seat one away from Kansas Kate so as not to crowd the woman, tipping his hat to her and the saloon keeper.

"Ma'am," he said to each of them politely. He kept his side to the bar so that he could keep an eye on who was coming into the saloon after him while still engaging the two women. Of course, the first person he happened to see was Jake McGraw.

"Well, howdy, there," he said greeting Jake with a smile. "It's turnin' out to be a mini stage coach reunion. Don't worry, though, I kept a lookout for them wolves outside and I didn't see any." He didn't look like he meant it as a joke - not even a little bit.

"But yeah, I've got a few minutes for an old friend, if you promise to let me get a word in with these ladies afterwards," he said. "Miss Thornton, if you'd be so kind as to pour me a whiskey, and one for each of my compadres here, I'd be much obliged."

As he prepared to provide her the requisite sum afterwards, he looked to Kate for a moment. "After I get done talkin' to the most talented engineer I've ever met over here, if you wouldn't mind, I'd like a moment of your time. I spoke with the local schoolmarm earlier about the gardening problem she's having earlier, and I gather that you might share my interest in uh...botany."

"How interestin'." Jake says, raising an eyebrow. "'Cause I also had an interest in...gardenin' issues. And they got somethin' to add...might save us all some time if we were to chat about it together."

Thornton nods at McGraw in greeting. ”Certainly, sir,” she says to Lee with a smile, taking down a bottle from the shelf behind her and filling two glasses before topping off Kate’s. ”I’m afraid you have me at a disadvantage. You seem to know my name, but I don’t know yours.”

Kate's eyes narrowed.  McGraw didn't bother her.  He was mite reckless with his boomstick perhaps, but that was no mortal sin.

This other critter on the other hand...  Something had to be ferreted out before this went anywhere.  She stared at Lee, hard, discerning.

"Ya said ya were here for th' Rangers at th' Guv'nors or somethin' like that."  She took a gulp of her whiskey.  Kate approached with a loping step that made her spurs jingle, a calculated theatrical gesture.  These things had to be done with a certain style, or it just wasn't Kansas Kate.

"Some gangs... every one wears a red scarf.  Some gangs... everyone wears a little metal star.  And that's the most dangerous gang of them all, they done convinced everyone they ain't a gang, much like the  Devil convinced everyone he ain't real."

A quick hand retrieved an empty bottle left behind, spun it even, despite the imbalance.  She used it as a pointer to tap the Ranger's star.  It made a little clink.  "That puts you in the same gang as th' local sheriff."

The tone was measured, very carefully measured.  Kate assumed nothing, trusted no one, or at least tried to do both of those things (in reality no one can do both of those things or they'd never do anything).  It was a question, despite lacking the articulation of a question.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:50, Fri 06 Apr 2018.

He had been about to respond to Thornton, when he had been cut short by Kate's...'speech.' He listened to it quietly, unperturbed by her manner, and clearly unafraid by her gestures which were obviously designed to physically intimidate. It probably worked with most people, so he didn't blame her for trying to get a rise out of him.

Instead of giving her a reaction, he continued his response to the barkeep.

"Ma'am, My name is Bryan Lee, of the Texas Rangers. I was sent here by the Governor to look into local troubles that were brought to his attention by some private citizens, and have found more amiss here than I thought to initially," he said. "I was recommended your establishment by the local schoolmarm just down the way. I'm staying at Renata Montano's place just down the way. She's been incredibly helpful in informing me as to local happenings."

"I shared a stagecoach here with Kansas Kate over here, who by her words, may not be all that much brighter than the wolves that attacked us on the way into town, but she's good enough with that iron that I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt until she's proven herself to be absolutely without hope," he said, adding to Thornton in a conspiratorial stage whisper, "I think she'll surprise me."

Turning to Kate, he disdainfully eyed the bottle that she had used to tap his badge, but chuckled. "Kansas Kate, if you think every person that wears a bit o' metal is the same, then I'm guessin' you ain't seen that much o' the world. There's all kindsa people in the role of lawmen. Some act out of a sense of duty and obligation, and others merely used the presumption of that position and authority to seek out their own benefit. If all you've learned is to suspect lawmen on general principle, no words I can say will be able to convince you otherwise."

He drank the whiskey he had been poured finally.

"But take this into consideration. I've come to you to seek to join in our mutual endeavors because I witnessed the formidable skills you displayed on that stagecoach ride. My evaluation of the situation on the ground here in Lincoln tells me that I'm going to end up with quite an intense amount of local opposition. Given that we're both looking into the same thing, it wouldn't make a lick o sense for me to have come to you, instead of going to the local constabulary. But I ask you this: give me the benefit of the doubt, and I promise I'll prove your dumbass theories about lawmen wrong - at least as far as I'm concerned."

"As fer me," Jake says placidly, "I'm in whichever gang aims to stop the already powerful from takin' what ain't theirs to take an pushin' decent folk off their land with threats and devil weeds." he shrugs. "I'm also hopin' we can bring some sort o' justice for Tunstall before his boys decide to take it out in hot lead in the streets and things get really messy. Had enough o' that runnin' the rails." He takes a seat and looks to the barkeep. "A beer, if you please, instead o' whiskey. Watered down. I ain't lookin' for more than a buzz right now."

"Here's to that," he said, taking the whiskey that Jake had declined, and drinking it.

"A much more succinct way of puttin' it. I did come here to look after rumors of local outlawry and the Tunstall murder, but I'm placing the devil weeds as you call 'em at the top of my priority list."

Jake nods. "I was hopin' to persuade you to take a look in to it when I found you, but sounds to me like you already been pokin' about it. I ain't sure o' what all you heard, but I can tell you a few things." He sets his bag down and digs out his notes. "I got my hands on a sample and ran a few tests. The stuff's almost like livin' barb wire. It don't burn like it should, it don't have any moisture like it ought, and it ain't stiff or brittle, but it also ain't like any other damn plant I ever seen. It ain't any more natural than them dead wolves. Can't help but wonder if there's a connection there."

Bryan listened, nodding as he spoked, but took a moment to look out across the tavern before returning his gaze to McGraw.

"Mighty strange, indeed. Very helpful to know, Jake. Does it break easily? What methods can we use to destroy it if that's what we need to do?" he asked.

OOC:

He's looking to see who else is in the tavern. He doesn't want them to be overheard too widely out of his presumed circle of trust, so he's looking for ears.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:04, Fri 06 Apr 2018.

"No, it ain't. It's like cuttin' barb wire, and from what I heard the farmers have been doin' everythin' they can think of to kill it, only for it to keep comin' back. I might figure somethin' out if I dig up some and take a look at the roots, but I'm of the opinion we might want to try...less orthodox means, if'n you take my meanin'. Maybe get a Holy Roller to do an exorcism." Jake shrugs.

Kate smiled.  The Ranger had given an acceptable answer.  He had some strange ideas about lawmen but all lawmen had strange ideas about themselves, and right now she needed the strangest people she could find.

She was quiet and listened after that.  Her words would be sparse, her mind was on business now.

"Ya'll done talked to th' school marm?"  She looked up at the others, not wanting to repeat what they probably already knew.  But the way they spoke, she wasn't sure.

"I hadn't. I heard somethin' about what went down at the school, but what I heard only made me want to know more." Jake says.

"Short path to a long trail: th' sheriff here needs a bullet put in 'im.  His posse was tryin' to shake down th' proprietor here.  Ah managed to get out to th' Baxter place.  Kid named Lyle Baxter said he were in school when some roughnecks, vile sorts like yers truly, rode by th' schoolhouse on their way to gettin' deputized.  Little feller wanted to see, went out ta look."

She took a drink.

"This kid is either gonna be President or dead by twenty."  She added, and took another drink.

"Anyway, he come back in an' th' whole schoolhouse were a passle of weeds.  Yeah?  That sound familiar?  Full of them.  Him an' one little girl managed to smash a winder an' get out.  Brave kid.  Hope he becomes a farmer though, for his sake."

She shook her head.  She'd tried to dissuade him, but God only knew what a kid like that was going to do.

"But before he run, he seen somethin' in the weeds.  Like a man, but bigger.  It were reaching for him, coming out of the brambles.  Reckon I need to shoot that too, but I'mma need a bigger iron.  Real damn big.  Don't think a Sharp's Fifty will do 'er this time."

Kate finished the glass.

"There's more.  I been pokin' around myself.  Seems those that has a problem with th' Sheriff is th' ones gettin' them weeds.  Ain't that a tragedy."

Jake nods. "Sheriff ain't the only one. That girl you mentioned? Her dad, and a few other fellas, had been complainin' about The House tryin' to move in on their land. Some o' their kids went missin' when that weed thing appeared...and some o' Jesse Evens' crew approached their parents, claimin' they'd get their kids back safe and sound...long as folk stuck a cork in their complaints."

Thornton fills a glass with beer, watering it enough to cut some of its strength without ruining the brew’s taste. She slides it to McGraw, then speaks, keeping her voice low, ”The Sheriff...he may make a threat or two here and there to keep certain people out of Mr. Murphy and Mr. Dolan’s business, but on the whole, he’s honestly a rather weak man. Content to collect his pay, keep outsiders convinced that all is well here in Lincoln County, and occasionally use his powers to push those that are especially stubborn into line.”

“Violence? That’s left to Murphy’s men. Mostly Jesse Evans and his gang. Señor Segovia, who Kate here had the pleasure of seeing me speak with, is one of Evans’ riders.”

Lee takes in the saloon and its patrons as the conversation continues, but sees no one that seems particularly interested in the conversation between himself and the others at the bar. At one table, he notes a pair of cowboys speaking to a well dressed man in spectacles, but the three seem to be concentrating entirely on their own discussion, oblivious to other happenings in the barroom.

The only customer that leaves the Ranger with a feeling of uncertainty is the young man out on the porch who he passed when he entered.  The range hand who appeared to be keeping watch on the nearby courthouse.

Another moment passes and the saloon’s batwing doors swing open. Albert Cooper steps inside.