Goblin Gulch - The Curious Story of Milton, Nevada

[JayRay]

Chapter 5 - A Hundred for a Head, Thirty for a Hand

But, as Einstein had said, this too was just light and shadow, nothing tactile or flesh and blood. I however felt the need to impress upon him as much as I could. This old man had been in a few scraps and although I must acknowledge the corn, I also knew where the potatoes were buried, so to speak.

"And that, Dr. Einstein, is why I sought you out, because on that ever fateful day of September 7, 1888; The day that the mountains flashed and the canyons growled, creatures of varied sizes did indeed march out from the caves and mines into our world. Not as simple phatoms of light and shadow, but as flesh... and blood, or what ichor those monstrosities used for blood. Led by a cruel manager of things most occult and..."

"Fantastical?" he responded with a chuckle. "You use the vord a lot, Herr Clemens."

I chuckled back, taking a puff of my cigar, since a quarter of it had been already consumed to ash.

"Well, yes, fantastical would be a good description, however, I was leaning on the words... Mythical? Biblical? Inconceivable? My good doctor, not since the stories of Sodom and Gomorrah had I any reference by which to judge those events. Fireballs in the skies? Banshees that turned hardened iron and copper mechinitions to rust and dust with but a scream, Savage weaponry that put old Colt's weaponry to pittance, Seven by Nine in comparison. At the first sightings, the assayers and even the Marshall of the town set our people upon the 'invaders', offering bounties for their heads, or hands..."

Albert chuckled, his face gaining a bit of humor and levity on its countenance. Perhaps he was understanding my plight, or maybe he was taking me for a bufoon and playing along to entertain this old adventurer on such a dark Zurich night. I did mention how dark it was outside, of course?

"Bounties, like the real old gunslingers, yes? Hang them high on the gallows, yes?" Albert actually laughed. "But, I must ask... why a bounty, on ze hands?"

My eyes grew wide. He didn't know. Despite their ability to walk through curtains of light, despite their monstrous size, the creatures - "They didn't have guns or firearms as you would think a well formed militia of the occult-like monsters would. At least not at first. No, they carried huge swords, more cleavers than say, a calvaryman's sabre. Huge axes that could topple even a mighty oak with but a few swipes."

Albert stopped me. "Like Paul Bunyan?"

I rolled my eyes. He was playing across my banter like a child skipping rocks upon a pond, the pebbles never dipping below the waves to get at the volume of the lake of my revelations.

"Needless to say, I had just arrived in Milton, looking as it were for source material for a new novel. I hadn't quite settled on a topic, or a story, but hearing of the advances in steam mechinations; flying ships and horseless carriages, a cargo train that ran without a track, I had to see such things for myself, and thus, as fate and perhaps an avatar of inspiration would have it, I checked into the Willingham Hotel and Saloon on September... 6th. "