Chapter 2 - Pleasure Island in the Desert
After a night of sleep in the wagons Geppetto and his family were ready to scout out the new park that the Coachman and the Ringmaster set up in Tombstone. Geppetto figured immediately that even though they both represented the law in Tombstone that the Earp brothers, Sheriff Behan and Deputy Sheriff Stillwell were too busy feuding with each other to be very much of a help in the matter of the Coachman and the Ringmaster. It seemed to be that one side of that feud, The Earps were against the crooked activities of the Clanton / McLaury gang while the Behan / Stillwell faction supported them for the money that their activities brought into Tombstone's assorted Faro banks, poker tables, saloons and even less moral businesses. Furthermore even if it wasn't for the feud between the two lawman factions of Tombstone the Earps would not me of much help anyway. If there were monster scorpions guarding the new park those would be at least partially creatures of magic just like the monster scorpion on pleasure Island when it was run by the Ringmaster was and just like both Monstro whales were. Ordinary firearms would have no effect on such combinations of animal and cursed magic.
Pinocchio and Lampwick sat themselves atop the second wagon with Pinocchio singing a westernized version of There are No Strings on Me he eventually wanted to try out at the Bird Cage Theater to while away the time while they looked for a safe place to spy on the Coachman's and Ringmaster's new park.
The deserts around Tombstone were largely the home of the Native Americans of the Apache Nation along with several silver mining interests. One part of this region was bought by the Coachman and the Ringmaster from one of the mining interests and his and the Ringmaster's new park which was called Pleasure Town was built upon it. Pleasure Town has a single street midway in the form of a typical Westertn Street with rides built all around it. These rides included a vertical wheel, an enclosed roller coaster, an open air roller coaster and a Carousel along with other horizontal wheel rides and small trains that were unique designs of the Coachman and the Ringmaster. The enclosed roller coaster had clown faces for an entrance and exit just as the one set up by the Ringmaster on Pleasure Island did and its purpose was obviously the same.
Pinocchio continued to take inventory of the attractions in the new park from a safe point atop a mesa with a road leading to its summit when one of the outside "attractions showed up. It was a scorpion of immense size but thoroughly streamlined shape. "The ringmaster sure knows how to pick them." Pinocchio said.
"Even at monstro size I can recognize the Arizona Bark Scorpion, the most venomous of its kind in this territory." As he was saying this another gigantic bark scorpion came into view. If these were still natural scorpions a fight to the death where one would have stung, pre digested and eaten the other would have ensued. However the Ringmaster's magic kept them from following their natural instincts and they simply continued around the park in opposite directions.
Lampwick was looking down on the road to the park from the opposite side of the mesa from Pinocchio and discovered something just as disturbing but for a different reason. This was the Ringmaster having a conversation with three cowboy types. Lampwick could see from their clothing who the cowboy types were. They were the McLaury brothers and deputy Sheriff Frank Stilwell. "This is all we need." Lampwick said.
"The fairy told us to stay clear of those three and now they appear to have inserted themselves in our business as well as that of the Earps.
"What do you mean." Pinocchio asked.
"I just got an eyeful of the outlaw deputy Stilwell, the McLaury brothers and the Ringmaster talking about something." Lampwick returned.
"Shouldn't be too surprised at that." Pinocchio said. "Birds of a feather do flock together. However if this is the time in American history I think it is we shouldn't have to worry about any deals the Ringmaster and the Coachman come up with concerning the Clanton's, McLaurys and Frank Stilwell for to much longer."
"Why do you say that." Lampwick asked.
"Because if this the period in Arizona history I think it is then both of the McLaurys and one of the Clantons will be as dead as a mackerel in Monstro's gut come three in the afternoon next Saturday." Pinocchio said.
"Are you sure of this?" Lampwick asked.
"Yes, At least if this timeline is representing a similar event from the Duckburg World I read about in the Junior Woodchucks Guidebook." Pinocchio answered.
"What exactly is supposed to happen next Saturday at three in the afternoon?" Lampwick asked.
"The Earp brothers and Doc Holliday and two of the Clantons, Ike and Billy, both of the McLaurys and Billy Clayborne, are to meet in a gunfight in an ally by a photographer's studio in the vicinity of the OK Corral. Pinocchio answered. "I know the same thing will happen here because I will be engaged with those two bark scorpions at that same three o' clock hour according to my dream. You see I heard a series of gunshots in the direction opposite that of the scorpions I was confronting in my dream at exactly the same time I was engaging them. I believe that those gunshots were the Earp, Holliday, Clanton, McLaury gunfight."
"You mean your assignment this time is to take on those scorpions on one side of Tombstone while two feuding factions are shooting it out on the other?" Lampwick shouted. "The Blue fairy has come up with some toughies before but this one takes the cake. No wonder she wanted you to be a puppet again for this."
"Well lets see if we can get of this mesa and up closer to the Ringmaster and the McLaurys." Pinocchio returned. "I really would like to know what these three are up to."
"But the scorpions." Lampwick returned.
"They probably will not leave the vicinity of the new boy to donkey factory." Pinocchio returned. "They are under the restraints of magic to stay there."
Pinocchio and Lampwick proceeded down the mesa's gentle slope with the road on it, soon they found a convenient cactus bush that was close enough to both hide themselves and overhear the converstation between the three crooks.
"Now you have this straight." the Ringmaster said. "You are to have the boys on Allen street by the Bird Cage Theater this Friday night and no double crossing Mr. Frank McLaury. You have seen what we are capable of with our parks guardians and we have other methods of dealing with double crossers that are as far above your six guns as the stars above the sky."
"You are the one who is double crossing." Frank McLaury announced. "The deal was that you use those guardians of yours on the Earps and Doc Holliday this coming Saturday and you get your boys to change into jackasses NEXT Friday. You seem to forget that the Clantons and McLaurys run things in this county
And we aim to keep it that way. By the way you will also be taxed for every boy you change into a donkey at an equal rate for Mexicans, Settlers and Indians alike."
"Fair enough." The Ringmaster said. "We'll do things your way for now. But don't depend on this state of affairs remaining the same when Pleasure Town is fully established."
With that the meeting between the McLaurys and the Ringmaster broke up. The McLaurys got back on their horses and headed back towards town with Deputy Sheriff Stilwell. Pinocchio and Lampwick also returned to the Mesa overlooking the park Just as both of the scorpion guardians were in view again making another of their endless circumnavigations of it.
"Then there is no doubt about it." Lampwick said. "Those two monsters are going to be in town on the day of the gunfight."
"Now I see why we are here." Pinocchio said. "I believe the fairy would stop this if she could but since she can't she wants to keep it fair at least. All earthly firearms one end of the street and all magic on the other.
We're here to keep the two from mixing as the McLaurys, Stilwell and the Ringmaster intended as well as to capture the Coachman and the Ringmaster ."
Pinocchio and Lampwick returned to the center of the mesa where the wagons were parked. "We've found what we came here to see." Pinocchio announced to Stromboli and Geppetto. "Time to go back to town."
After Pinocchio and Lampwick again placed themselves atop the second wagon Stromboli led his horse back to the road and back into Tombstone.
Next - Friday Night at the Bird Cage Theater.