Cast of Characters:

Wyatt - young cowboy for the Bar JS ranch and narrator of this tale

Verne Alexander and John Shelton - co-owners of the Bar JS ranch in the Arizona Territory

Isabell Netty- whore in the Silver Cent saloon

Tom Bollinger - held Isabell captive for three years before being gun downed after cheating in a card game

Ike Torrence - blacksmith for Pecos Valley

Dalton Brothers - murdered Isabell's parents during a train robbery

Bar JS wranglers


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"Colorado was cool and flourished, even when the sun lit up the Rockies." That was the promise Isabell had been told by the polecat Tom Bollinger.

Almost twenty-three, Isabell did not dwell on could-have-beens. A small room above the bar in the Silver Cent saloon was her certainty. She observed Mexico from her window. There she could ply her trade and strike it rich if she be bothered. She weren't.

Verne told her he'd been to Denver. That was back in his sheriffing days in the two-bit hole-in-the-wall known as Eagle Butte. Isabell liked Verne's stories.

"I figured out why you and me get on so good, Isabell," Verne said, "it's 'cause I talk and you listen."

He tossed her a five dollar gold piece. Like all else, Verne over-talked his sheriffing days. Listening to his jabber, Isabell thought she had a clear picture of the mountains. Before his time was up, she lost it and laid there flat on her back on the bed. Verne on top of her. Another conquest made.

Having to hear Verne's non-stop chatter, Isabell felt underpaid although he always gave her shiny ingots. They was more than her other customers offered. Verne was also her most regular caller.

Isabell was twenty when she encountered Bollinger. He held her captive for three years. Both her parents had been gunned down by train robbers in Biloxi. The law later hanged the Dalton Brothers. Isabell hadn't done no whoring up to then. Bollinger promised her marriage. Wedding bells never rung.

Isabell did go with Bollinger to San Angelo. She knew he wasn't much more than a whiskey-talking drunk but followed him to a lofty house there. Smoke kettles kept the skeeters from eating them alive. Bollinger's hounds were the only critters in the house treated good, beasts he swore he'd turn loose on Isabell if she ever ran away.

In Texas, Isabell's spirits sunk so low she quit talking. The whoring begun with Bollinger's compadres, mostly ones he owed debts to. Regulars soon followed. Bollinger did buy Isabell some sporting clothes, though she serviced one of his friends to get them.

The first time Isabell sassed Bollinger he slapped her so hard her ears rung for a week. His threats were worse. Isabell knew they weren't idle and kept a civil tongue in her mouth. The whore habit was what Bollinger expected her to acquire and Isabell knew it was her only chance to survive.

A bad gambler, Bollinger's luck ran out after he was caught dealing off the bottom of the deck. His final cards were cashed in by a bullet fairly ripped from Ike Torrence, the town's blacksmith.

Verne was the first to get Isabell started with men in the Silver Cent. She rarely spoke to her callers and preferred the silent treatment instead. Most of them chatted like squirrels. Isabell's silence struck Verne peculiar, especially since he was a gabber about most everything.

Verne always wore his spurs. He also liked to jingle them. Sometimes in the early morning as dawn broke, Isabell saw Verne, Mr. Shelton, and the Bar JS wranglers drive a small herd of cattle through Pecos Valley on their way to the low brush.

At least Isabell didn't walk the solitary dirt road through Pecos Valley carrying a sheet to lay down on the ground on, like some sporting women she knew in Texas did. Nor was she illiterate.

With no other means to support herself, Isabell sold the one thing she had at her disposal. She knew the risk of sporting included she might be killed by a caller. Some of her women friends in San Angelo befell violent ends. They were commonplace in the whoring business. Isabell's red hair made her more amorous to the cowboys who knocked on her door.

Isabell often wore brightly colored ruffled skirts, hued petticoats, a low cut bodice, boots, and silk stockings. Some of her callers said she was a soiled dove. Others stated she was a fair belle or a painted cat. Isabell reckoned her job was to brighten the night for lonely men in Pecos Valley. A jeweled dagger was concealed between her breasts. This she'd use to keep any boisterous cowboy who called on her in line, if need be.

For Isabell, sporting was easier than tending cows, raising crops, or breeding young'uns. The Silver Cent kept its red lanterns aglow. Bold red curtains adorned its lower windows and leant credence to the type of establishment the saloon was. Chairs flanked the walls and the Silver Cent's parlor was lavishly decorated.

Her finery purchased from peddlers along the trail, Isabell could only be seen by appointment. Verne kept her calendar filled. He was the lighthouse in Isabell's storm.



-Most FanStorians don't but read the notes.

-If you have not been following my tale, you will probably be lost with this chapter. Suggest you go back to the beginning and catch up.