Cowboy Challenges

In the mid-nineteenth century, Reg, caught in suspiciously fraudulent practices at the Boston bank for which he worked, high tailed it to California. The first of many challenges for the handsome twenty-four-year-old was the arduous journey spending day after day sitting on a hard, wooden bench while driving a Conestoga Wagon. His second challenge was the alternating carnal attention of a pair of hormone-driven young men.

After achieving his goal of reaching San Francisco, Reg was challenged by his efforts to secure transportation to Sutter’s Mill, primary site of the California Gold Rush. He ended up in Coloma, the town closest to Sutter’s Mill, where he established a gold for cash exchange, using funds lent him by a San Francisco bank which believed the trumped-up references from his former employer−word of his fraud not having reached the west coast.

Setting up his envisioned entrepreneurial endeavor proved to be another challenge, so abandoning his frustrating search for an ideal site to set up a gold exchange, Reg visited the local saloon where the town bully tried to make an example of the “city slicker.” Rescued by a chanteuse going by the name Miss Lily, Reg left the saloon only to be escorted back in for a drink by a mountainous frontiersman with the auspicious nickname “Colt.” A romantic liaison developed as Reg and Colt opened the gold exchange. Reg handled the money and Colt provided security.

When the feverish pace of the gold rush ended, Reg faced a new challenge; with the business no longer profitable, decisions were required regarding his and Colt’s futures.