Boxelder Canyon Branch

Brother Vigilance and Sister Constance ride up on the small town of Boxelder Canyon.  It's a warm day but the cool breeze off of the mountains makes it pretty comfortable.  As they ride up through the town's main street, a man steps down from one of the walkways and strolls out to greet them.

"Mornin'!" he says, tipping his hat and eyeing thier colorful coats.  "Welcome to Boxelder Canyon.  You're Dogs, aint'cha?  How can I help you this fine day?"

The breeze shifts and the two Dogs can smell the hint of a smokey odor in the air.

Constance looks around the town with a faintly puzzled expression, biting on her bottom lip, then turning to the man she says: "Good morning sir, an Inn and a hot meal would be most welcome, and perhaps somewhere to wash? But before that perhaps you could tell us what caused the scent on the breeze?" Constance cocks her head to one side and looks at the man expectantly.

The man sniffs the air.  "That?" he asks.  "That's probably the church meeting hall.  It burned down mysteriously last week.  Nobody knows who did it, but Brother Cadmus got burnt pretty bad.  He's mighty pissed about it, lasht I heard."  Here the man lets out a mighty belch, and you notice a distinct redness in his eyes and nose.  "S-shcuse me, Brother.  I'd best be going.  There's an in down the street, near the burned-out church."  He begins to walk away.

Constance frowns, a worry line appearing across her forehead, "Brother Cadmus... my uncle! Vigilance we must hurry, I need to see him... I need to make sure he's alright... and that man has been drinking." As she says drinking the venom in her tone is easy to hear. "It would appear that we have much to do here... the question is what was my uncle doing in the Meeting Hall when it caught fire?" So saying Constance spurs Horse down the street towards the inn, heading towards Brother Cadmus's farm.

Vigilance, sharing his concern for Brother Cadmus, gives Pips reins a quick snap and follows Constance. He gives the buzzed man a final curious look before he gets out of sight. Its not even afternoon yet... he thinks to  himself.

The Dogs arrive at the home of Brother Cadmus where his wife is tending to him.  She offers them lemonade and muffins as she leads them into the back where Brother Cadmus is resting.  He's propped up in bed with a wet cloth that he holds gingerly to his face.  He has a distinctive puffy redness across most of one side of his body and he's missing some hair and an eyebrow.

"Yes!" Brother Cadmus says when he sees them.  "The King of Life has answered my prayers!  Sister Constance, it's good to see you again.  It's about time you Dogs showed up."  He sits up carefully with the help of his wife.  He winces in obvious pain.  "Now maybe we can finally get this town runnin' rightly.  You need to remove the Steward.  His Callin' is plain invalid.  Him and his creepy old grandmother that lives with him.  She's one of them Mountain People, you know.  I'm sure it's his fault that the church meeting house burnt down.  It's a sign from the King of Life his-self!"  Brother Cadmus winces as his deep frown sets off another wave of pain in his face.  His wife comforts him with another cool rag.

"Brother Cadmus, this is a very serious accusation. What makes you think that the Steward here is responsible for burning down church property?" Vigilance asks, trying to be open minded about the whole situation.

"Like I told you", Brother Cadmus replies, "the Steward and his dirty Mountain Person grandmother livin' right here in our town are an affront to the King of Life.  The burnin' church meeting house was a sign of his displeasure, if it wasn't the doin' of his grandmother, worshipin' spirits and the like.  You should head over there and have the Steward step down right now.  Maybe take care of his grandmother while you're at it.  I nearly died fightin' that fire."

Constance moves to embrace her Uncle, but mindful of his burns she stops herself short, looking at her Uncle's burns, burns brought about through his heroic efforts to save the church's building, she feels her anger start to rise. "I must control myself" she thinks, "there can be no jumping to conclusions here, the King of Life will not be served by hasty actions." Constance brings her gaze back to her Uncle's face and says: "Very well Uncle I will go and see the Steward now and hear what he has to say but first I need to ask you some questions, that is if you feel strong enough right now, if not I can return later."

"Well, certainly", replies Brother Cadmus.  "What do you need to know?"

"Thank you Uncle," says Constance, smiling sweetly, a rare expression for her, "Firstly I would like to know were you alone while fighting the blaze that destroyed the meeting hall, and also if you saw anything suspicious about the fire? I mean did it spread too quickly, did it seem to start as a huge blaze?" Constance looks down at her Uncle, smiling encouragingly at the brave man who fought the fire, until a frown crosses her face again as she says: "Oh, and on an unrelated matter Uncle, my companion Vigilance and I met a Brother on the way into town, and I am certain that he had been... drinking. I need to know about this matter Uncle, even the smallest sin amongst a community must be judged, lest we all fall to sin."

"I don't know", Brother Cadmus replies.  "I woke up in the night to hollerin' and yellin' and there was the meeting house on fire.  I ran out there and ran to the well and did what I could.  There were others there as well that came a-runnin'.  Pretty much all the folk in town what weren't children or elderly.  The fire seemed normal enough.  Sure felt like fire", he says grimacing.  "Don't know nothin' about any drinkin'.  You'd have to find the Brother again and ask him.  I'll bet that old Mountain woman has something to do with it, though.  Their type is always up to somethin'", he says venomously, his lip curling on the good side of his face.

"Well, rest easy Brother. You can be assured that the situation is in my partner and I's capable hands, and that we will find out who truly caused this crime against a house of God." Vigilance states with utter conviction. With that done he turns to Constance and smirks "Unless you have anymore questions, I say its time to pay a visit to the Steward." Vigiliance gives a sudden start realizing somthing he missed. "Brother, What is the Stewards name?"