Lorenzo Crabbe

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1. 

   POW!

   December 14, 2021

   A shout from the crowd went up as Charlie Wentworth went down and, above it all, Arabella' voice screaming "Get up Charlie, Get up!! You was just winnin'!!!" This hubbub even caught Lorenzo Crabbe's attention and he looked up to see what was going on. He checked his watch. Hmm, the fight hadn't lasted quite as long as he had hoped. Maybe the young deputy would stagger back to his feet, but as the man doing the refereeing counted him out, that seemed increasingly like a @Longshot.
    
   Crabbe pushed though the crowd and hustled a blue-uniformed army officer out of the way. "Excuse me, Commodore, I need to speak to this little lady!"
    
   He whispered to Caroline urgently. 
    
   "Hey, Mundee, help me out will ya? I told that Cullen to hold back, but he's bloodthirsty, he's knocked that deputy out in record time and this mob's going to get ugly, feel they've been cheated, half of 'em'll be demanding their money back." The idea of that made him feel sick, especially after he'd spent the whole of the fight counting it out several times. 
    
   "Listen, I'll get Hector to break out his fiddle again, and Muddy to come on down off that ladder with her gee-tar and you get up there and sing 'em a song, while we scrape Wentworth off of the canvas." he suggested "And make it a long song! That'll hold 'em!"
    
   @Wayfarer
    
    
   
2. 

   POW!

   November 5, 2021

   He stepped back a bit and nodded to Crabbe to await any other hyperbole from the fight's organizer.
    
   But Lorenzo was done. He nodded to the more than capable referee "I'll be in the back counting up the money..." he glanced at Charlie and Robert "... not too keen on the sight of blood." he grinned and deftly climbed out between the ropes, his pockets bulging with cash.
    
   
3. 

   POW!

   November 4, 2021

   It was fifteen minutes past the time the fight was due to begin. Crabbe decided that anyone who was coming had come, and the crowd were starting to reach a suitable state of expectation and suspense. He climbed into the ring and a hush fell on the assembled multitude punctuated by the odd shout of excitement from the more rowdy elements amongst the throng. 
    
   Lorenzo beamed down a their upturned faces: each representing so many dollars in his pocket: the boxing match itself more a mere formality for him, but of greater import to those who had gathered to enjoy the bloodshed, risk a bet, or enjoy the finer points of the noble art. Not to mention the two men who had to actually fight!
    
   "Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen!" he started in grandiloquent style "Lorenzo Crabbe enterprises has the greatest of pleasure in announcing the commencement of tonight's phenomenal flurry of fisticuffs! A bombastically beautiful bounty of boxing! A pure premium of pugilistic perambulations!!" It was meaningless rubbish, of course, but a crowd always liked a little bit of ambitiously addleheaded alliteration. 
    
   There were cheers as well as the predictable shouts of "Get on with it!" and "D'ya swallow a dictionary, Crabbe!?"
    
   "Ladies and Gentleman..." the Lords had presumably left for some reason "... permit me to present to you: in the Red Corner... the terror of Flathead Valley, Bobby "Basher" Cullen ..." he waited for any applause to die down. It didn't take long. "... and in the Blue Corner, your very own local boy, Charles "Crippler" Wentworth!" The applause was a little more sustained this time, which was understandable for a more recognised local figure. 
    
   "Gentlemen..." looked like the ladies had left, too, leaving only Caroline and Arabella "... your referee for the evening...." he looked about for the fellow who had agreed to undertake that responsible and troublesome task. And there he was!
    
   "... Quentin Aloysius Cantrell!!"
    
    
   @Longshot
   
4. 

   POW!

   October 16, 2021

   "Oh, well, I guess I owe you a thank you then. I am still gettin' paid for this fight though?" suddenly it occurred to the young Irishman was that supposed to be in lieu of payment for the boxing bout? If so, he wasn't going to agree to that.
    
   "Bobby, Bobby, Bobby..." Crabbe purred as he approached the young man and patted him paternally on the shoulder "Course you're gonna get paid: and if you win you get the purse on top." he assured him. 
    
   "No... the Claim... well you remember when me and Fa came to see you? And you signed that lil' old piece o' paper. Why that's an investment for the future, my boy. A man can't box forever, one day he'll meet his match ... not tonight, o' course!" he hastened to add "But one day when you're gettin' on and can't throw them lefts like you can now, and you find that little stream on your claim don't have no gold in it... you're gonna thank old Uncle Lorenzo fer lookin' out for you." he cooed gently.
    
   "Yep, you, me and our sleepin' partner." He had never mentioned the name of the other man, the one who had sorted out the legal niceties of getting the Claim back from 'John Smith' while Crabbe, Lafferty and Grimes had 'sorted out' the man who had tricked the illiterate Irishman out of his claim.
    
   "Mind you, there's been a little problem with our sleeping partner - he's kinda 'sleepin' beneath the sod' these days. His plans sorta went up in flames. As of two weeks ago, our partner's his daughter and heir: we should take you to go meet her some day soon." he informed the miner.
    
   Lorenzo pulled out his watch.
    
   "We'd best be getting out there!" he yelped.
   
5. 

   POW!

   October 14, 2021

   "I wish I could do such a thing as easy as all that...decide when to win the fight. Especially since I've never even seen this boyo in action," Robert shrugged.
    
   "Haw Haw!" Crabbe laughed, he's gonna give you less trouble than that punch bag we set up fer you to practice on."
    
   "Oh and I'd bet on Conor if you two did," he then grinned.
    
   "Oh, 's that right?!" chuckled Crabbe. He caught Lafferty's eye. Now was a good time to tell Robert, give him a fillip just before the fight. "Oh, I forgot to mention, me and old Laff here and the late lamented Mr Grimes bumped into that feller Smith who diddled you out of your claim. We managed to persuade him to sign it right back to you, didn't we Laff?" he asked the Irishman. 
    
   Yeah, Crabbe was no slouch in a fight, all right - especially when it was three against one, the other fellow was tied to a chair and he himself was armed with a heavy leaden ended walking stick. 
    
   
    
   "Anyhow..." Crabbe continued, "I reckon that flabby Charlie Wentworth's as good as laid out on the the canvas already!" 
    
   "I don't be intendin' on losin', Mr. Crabbe but I think this here Charlie will have somethin' to be sayin' about it too," Robert was determined not to get overconfident.
    
   Crabbe just shook his head. "Nah, fight's as good as over. Experience will tell, my boy, experience will tell."
   
6. 

   POW!

   October 11, 2021

   As Caroline passed into the barn, Jemima caught Miriam's eye, nodded at the blonde's retreating back and silently mouthed her opinion of the woman "She's a Whore".
    
   Meanwhile, within, Crabbe stuck his head into Robert's little 'tent' and grinned.
    
   "Not long now, champ!" he smiled, his magnified eyes flicking to the other mick he'd hired to act as Cullen's second. "Good work Lafferty, he's looking great, like a puma, ready for the kill!" he cheered them both on. 
    
   "Still..." he corrected himself "... don't go and finish him off too quick, mind, Bobby-boy. I mean, if it's all over too quickly, those hyenas out there'll be baying for more blood! Me and Con' there'll have to strip down and knock seven bells outta each other!" he warned.
    
   "Anyhow..." he returned to the pep talk "I reckon that flabby Charlie Wentworth's as good as laid out on the the canvas already!" 
    
   @Wayfarer
   
7. 

   POW!

   October 9, 2021

   Mature Content: Bloody violence
   With: Anyone
   Location: Barn
   When: Friday, 18th August 1876
   Time of Day: 6pm - onwards.
    
   
    
    
   The music crackled in the air of the old barn tonight, cutting through the myriad excited voices as the great moment of visceral conflict approached. Like some goggle eyed Pied Piper of Hamelin, Lorenzo Crabbe had a good percentage of the younger folk of Kalispell under his sway and doing his bidding. In the raised ring, Hector Wigfall, Arabella Mudd and the hitherto mysterious blind girl, Frances Grimes belted out music to entertain the masses until the fight began. 'Hitherto' because Frances seemed a lot less mysterious, somehow, blindfold or not, when she was frailing out Shootin' Creek at high speed on a five string banjo. Hector's fiddle and Arabella's guitaro could hardly keep up with her flying fingers. On the door, Hector's twin sister Jemma and Arabella's 'Bosom Friend' Miriam Kaufmann took the money: which was regularly siphoned off by the avaricious Crabbe.
    
    He was counting the takings now, when he suddenly remembered they had to actually have a fight sometime. It was nearly past the advertised time for the Battle of the Century to begin: but people were still coming through the door and paying over cold solid cash! "Stick 'em another one!" he hissed to his little scratch band.
    
   Frances nodded. "Bonaparte's Retreat, in G" she told the other two. "They're all in G!" complained Arabella, still sitting a distance away from the blind girl, in case it was catching, as she and Hector scrambled to catch up with the girl's electric playing. 
    
   Crabbe wandered over to the makeshift canvas 'Changing Rooms' he had put together at the back of the barn. Charlie was in there with his Wentworth Seconds. With Hector and Jemima busy elsewhere, he had been forced to bring in a replacement for Robert Cullen's sponger downer.
    
   @Anyone!
    
   [OOC if'n you want to know what the scratch band sounded like:]
    
   
8. 

   Two At Breakfast

   September 28, 2021

   "If either of you two would like to make a wager on the fight, I'm running very good odds on both men.  It seems the town is divided on who will win," Ben said, before addressing Speed, "By the way, Marshall, I run a clean book...you have my personal guarantee."
    
   Crabbe wondered whether he should mention that all of his operations were strictly above board and legal, too, but then realised that this would only serve to weaken Ben's position rather than bolster his own. Guyer was good enough a lawman to have taken Crabbe's measure the first minute he laid eyes on him, and Crabbe was good enough a chancer to know it, and to make sure he steered clear of any trouble with the men carrying tin badges.
    
   "My only problem is finding a referee" he said instead "I was going to ask you, Marshall, what we you being a respected and neutral party; but now ol' Charlie's your Deputy, you might be seen as partisan. Any ideas?" he asked. It was a genuine question, the person overseeing the ruckus in the ring needed to know about boxing and been entirely impartial. 
    
   He then added one last comment.
    
   "Oh, and order some breakfast, will ya fellers, this poor girl's been standin' here an hour." he tipped his head toward Clara. Oh, Lorenzo was always considerate to the ladies. 
    
   @Wayfarer @Flip @JulieS
   
9. 

   Two At Breakfast

   September 26, 2021

   "So Simons, I hear there's to not only be a prize fight, but some talk of a stage play? Interesting."
    
   Lorenzo let Ben field this question, as it was aimed at him. He himself was always careful what he said to the bloodhound newspaper reporter and editor. Not that McVay ever printed lies: but he had a knack of printing what you did tell him in such a way that did quite give the impression of yourself that you had hoped for.
    
   Then, "Mister Crabbe, you involved in all of this? doesn't seem to be in your bailiwick. Well, maybe the fight."
    
   "Mr McVay, I'm sponsoring and running the whole shebang. And it's going to be an exciting and educational exhibition of the fine science of pugilism, too. We've got local talent in the form of Kalispell's very own Deputy Marshall, Mr. Charles Wentworth Junior taking on a wild young Irishman called Battling Bob Cullen. And it's a real grudge match, too!" he added on a whim. People were more interested in a fight if the two combatants were known to hate each other, rather than a couple of disinterested sluggers throwing hooks and crosses at each other.
    
   He'd have to invent a story as to why the two young men hated each other, probably something involving an argument over a girl, that always went over big with the general public.
    
   Phinn stood looking at Crabbe a long moment. "Crabbe, Simmons. You let me know the dates, be in the Union. We do posters and hand bills as well, if printed adverts strikes your fancy for either event."
    
   "Will do that, Mr. McVay!" nodded Lorenzo "'It pays to advertise' as they say. Soon as I'm sure of the exact time on the 6th, I'll send one of my people around with the details." 'One of his people!' Crabbe thought that sounded pretty grand.
    
   "Of course, there will be free entrance to the gentlemen of the Press who will no doubt wish to report 'pon the proceedings!" he added as a sweetener to a, hopefully, favourable piece on the event. A pretty cheap sweetener, too, as Phin was about the only 'gentleman of the press' in town.
    
   @JulieS @Flip
   
10. 

    Woman at Work (Open to any)

    September 19, 2021

    A huge smile crept on his face, "You know Crabbe, you might come in handy after all."
     
    "Well Ben, you know I ain't hard to get along with, what'd you want?"
     
    Clara carried out then set  two heaping plates in front of Mr. Simon and Mr. Crabbe,"There you go, gentlemen. Salt and pepper is on the table. Would either of you like any cream or sugar or both for your coffees?"
     
    "Black will be fine," Ben answered.  He looked down at his plate, before picking up his fork and tasting the bacon.  "As usual, it tastes as good as it smells.  My compliments, Mrs. Lutz."
     
    "Er, yeah, me too." added Lorenzo distractedly, wondering what Simons was after.
     
    After taking a few more bites of his breakfast, he turned to Crabbe, "I want to ask you about your ward, Bridget.  Would she be interested in joinng a young ladies group, if my Aunt was in charge of it?"
     
    "Why sure! She'd be tickled pink to join that there... er, 'Young Ladies Group'" he beamed. Frankly, anything that got Bridget off his hands for a few hours was welcome. He'd run a few 'Young Ladies Groups' of his own in the past, of course, but he suspected that this was something a little more upmarket and respectable.
     
    "So, er, what happens at this 'Young Ladies Group'?" he asked, making it pretty clear he had agreed to something on his ward's behalf without really knowing what it was.
     
    @JulieS @Wayfarer