ON BOARD THE TRAIN, THE COLONIAL - THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA
Mr. Higgins and Wild Bill are quietly talking. Outside the window is dark, with the occasional flash of light as the train moves west. Mr. Higgins is cradling his own bottle of sweet liquor while Wild Bill slowly sips his flask and examines Mr. Higgins’s recorder with curiosity. The cowboy turns silent as he presses all the buttons, fiddling with the mechanism. Mr. Higgins continues to talk. Wild Bill’s expression turns proud, as he has turned on the recording system, and he holds up the microphone as far over the Mr. Higgins as the arm can reach across the train coach.
MR. HIGGINS:
“...it was quite a wild journey, out there, the waves crashing. We could barely see through the windows of our submarine-”
WILD BILL:
“Submarine?”
Caught off guard Mr. Higgins realizes the microphone is staring him in the face as well as Wild Bill’s tooth-gaped grin.
MR. HIGGINS:
“Erm, yes, submarine. It is a boat that can go underwater.”
WILD BILL:
“Well don’t that beat it all?!”
MR. HIGGINS:
“Yes, sure, beats it all, quite right.”
WILD BILL:
“What’s it made out of?”
MR. HIGGINS:
“ Well, iron mainly I suppose. It runs on steam, much like this train.“
WILD BILL:
“And you say you were hunting the great Lake Monster of Lochy Ness?”
MR. HIGGINS:
“Loch Ness, and we were not hunting it exactly. You see what I do is research, notes, pictures if possible, specimens and the like. It is a very different idea then killing animals for the sport of it.”
WILD BILL:
“Live speci-ee-mans?”
MR. HIGGINS:
“No, no. That would be extremely difficult...”
WILD BILL:
“So if you’s killing them for research, how’s it different?”
Mr. Higgins pauses, flustered. Wild Bill turns off the recorder and leans back, a smirk on his intelligent face.
11:36 PM
In which Wild Bill asks about the Lochness Monster: