Pierce Coburn, 1840—1915

Pierce Elijah Coburn was born in August of 1840 in Sydney Cove, New South Wales and raised by his father and mother in an inconspicuous home near the penal colony.  His father earned a modest but comfortable living as a farrier and horse trainer for the military police and his mother schooled young Pierce in the hopes he would one day attend university.

Pierce grew tall and spindly and presented an introverted and meek demeanor.  He rarely uttered a word, and when he did, it was but a whisper.  He was energetic, nimble, and blessed with extraordinary visual acuity.  He was also a voracious reader, which in Sydney, necessitated ordering innumerable books from abroad.  Pierce loved to read about warfare and prominent warriors of the distant past, particularly Alexander and Hannibal.  He had an enduring interest in weaponry of all kinds and when he was not reading he spent his idle time making sketches of catapults, cannons, and warships, sometimes building scale models of his fanciful designs.

As he grew, his strength increased magnificently but he became more aloof and taciturn.  His father took him to the stables where he worked and showed him how to ride and work with horses.  Pierce was captivated with the graceful, powerful beasts and began clamoring for a horse of his own, a request his father gladly fulfilled.  One of the officers took a liking to young Pierce and taught him how to shoot.  On Coburn's twelfth birthday, he received his first firearm, a Hunt-Jennings repeating rifle which was the forerunner of the iconic Winchester.  Pierce astounded all of the ordinarily imperturbable military officers with his splendid aim, prompting them to bestow the nickname "Bullseye" upon the lad.

His mother attempted to continue his education, accelerating the pace, but young Bullseye's extracurricular activities left him little time for studying.  His horse granted him the liberty to go where he pleased.

Pierce delighted in the strange flora and fauna found in and around the Great Dividing Range of Southeastern Australia.  One day, as he was exploring its western slope, he was astonished to see a bird felled by a flying 'L' shaped weapon and scrambled to meet the wielder of this fabulous instrument.  It was then he met Ganawanda, an aborigine boy who was as fascinated by Pierce's rifle as Pierce was by his boomerang.  Ganawanda taught Pierce how to use a boomerang and several other native weapons.  Pierce taught Ganawanda how to fire a rifle and ride horses, and Ganawanda taught him much about surviving in the bush and on the outback.  They became inseparable friends, each learning the other's language and customs.

On Pierce's sixteenth birthday, he was angered that his father had been required to work and would be unable to attend his birthday party.  He left his mother after a brief argument and rode out to meet his friends on the outback.  He returned well after dark that evening to find his mother weeping inconsolably.  Between sobs, she related the dreadful news that his father had died after having been thrown by an agitated horse.  Though emotionally devastated, Pierce maintained his composure and announced that he would take a job in the mines to help with the family finances.

At a small open-pit mine west of Canberra, he caught the attention of his foreman with his quick mind and strong back.  He assisted in the setting of charges and eventually became the explosives chief after his predecessor was killed by an ill-timed blast.

Coburn maintained his friendship with Ganawanda and others of his tribe.  He spent his free time hunting and exploring with several of them and accumulated abundant knowledge of hunting, tracking, and surviving in an inhospitable wilderness.  On one of their treks, the men stumbled across a rich vein of gold running through a low seam.  They staked a claim and began working the mine which proved productive beyond their most fervent anticipations.  All five became quite wealthy, although Coburn began to lose interest in the day-to-day tedium of running a mine and sold his stake to the other members.  The Bullseye Mine became the Ganawanda Mine.

Coburn, now extraordinarily well-to-do, amused himself by competing in horse racing and target shooting events.  He showered his mother with extravagant gifts, and became legendary in the local taverns for his singular capacity for imbibing large quantities of liquor without appearing to become inebriated.  Coburn entertained himself in this fashion for many months until another ghastly occurrence roused him to sobriety.

In late 1867, Ganawanda was killed by a robber who ambushed him as he left the assayer's office with the day's proceeds.  The local constabulary was unconcerned with the death of an aborigine man, but Coburn resolved he would catch the criminal and hold him accountable.  He launched a one-man dragnet, doggedly pursuing the murderous scoundrel responsible for the death of his childhood friend.  Months later, he apprehended Billy Clodpole, and in a rage, beat him half to death.

Now a criminal himself, he hastily left New South Wales for America before he could be captured for his crime.  He landed in the California Territory and set up shop as a bounty hunter.  Coburn's skill and his unusual appearance earned him a rapidly spreading reputation.  Dressed in his distinctive long Texas Ranger coat, "Bullseye" Coburn impressed the local men with his stupendous gunnery and attracted the local ladies with his ever-present budgie, a high-spirited talking parakeet named "Bunyip."

In late 1869, Coburn had pursued Lucius "Porcupine" Craddock from California into Carson City, Nevada.  Craddock was an escaped murderer who began his career of criminal behavior as a horse thief.  He was infamous for his gang, which numbered nearly forty and which had looted entire towns, stealing everything from gold to cattle.  Coburn had located the Porcupine Gang but was mystified by the five dapper gentlemen who also appeared to be observing them.  They did not look like lawmen.

That evening, he surprised them at their camp, demanding they explain their motives.  Dr. Hogalum and the four other members of the Hogalum Society revealed that they had been retained by the Italian government to retrieve a rare artifact that had been stolen in a train robbery.  Coburn was unimpressed.  He admonished the Hogalums to keep their distance lest they be harmed in the crossfire, and disappeared as suddenly as he had appeared.

The following morning, Satyros witnessed a most extraordinary occurrence from his perch in a nearby tree.  The Porcupine Gang was making its way slowly up a hillside with Craddock himself at the fore, guiding the group upward with impatient shouts.  Coburn appeared from behind an outcropping twenty or so feet above Craddock and began hurling insults and epithets of a most coarse and unseemly kind.  Craddock obliged Coburn, climbing up and positioning himself to fire his revolver at the source of the incendiary bombast, but Coburn slipped out of sight in an instant.  Suddenly, the entire hillside erupted in a dusty explosion, and Craddock's gang slid kicking and bellowing down the hill some two hundred feet into an enormous net.  By the time Craddock had recovered his footing, Coburn had him restrained with rope and manacles.

All of the Hogalums were intrigued by Coburn's no-nonsense style and unusual accent, but it was Satyros who suggested offering him membership.  In characteristic style, the Hogalums debated fiercely about the "dusty gunman," finally tabling the discussion until a suitable tavern might be found.  As luck would have it, their first foray into a genuine western saloon found them face to face with Coburn himself.  He had sampled the entirety of the female companionship to be found in this establishment and was about to take his leave when he spied the Hogalums crossing the dirt road toward the saloon.  They entered reluctantly and stepped up to the bar to place their orders.  All of the patrons laughed uproariously at the exotic libations requested by each Hogalum in their turn, but the bartender maintained a straight face.  When they had finished ordering, the bartender poured five shots of a most inferior whiskey, "compliments of Bullseye."

Coburn apologized curtly that he was unable to retrieve the artifact the Hogalum Society had been commissioned to retrieve.  Valkusian opened a leather case revealing a spectacular jeweled dagger and calmly explained that Satyros had liberated it from Craddock's heavily guarded encampment the night before Coburn's spectacular display of explosives aptitude.  Coburn was speechless.  Dr. Hogalum, who had rather a taste for whiskey, was talkative.  He invited Coburn to join the Hogalum Society.

Coburn was uneasy about the "pompous, self-important" Hogalums, due in part to their "propensity for pedantic magniloquence and insubstantial intellectual abstractions."  Coburn had no tolerance for such self-indulgent colloquy, nor for the incessant argumentation which typified their discourse.  When asked about his taciturn reserve, Coburn frequently quoted the Greek philosopher Xenocrates, saying, "I have often repented speaking, but never of holding my tongue."

Over the years, Coburn came to respect the adroitness and wisdom of Dr. Hogalum and his protégés.  The Hogalums, though dubious at the outset, soon came to value Coburn's contributions and eventually to admit that his deft clarity of thought made him able to see clearly through the bewildering murk and subterfuge that often baffled them.

Coburn served as pilot aboard the Luftigel, and his firearm skills were a welcome supplement to the Hogalums' otherwise meager defensive capabilities.  He amassed an armory of weapons, often carrying multiple pistols and blades strapped to every limb, in addition to his prized Belgian-made 20-chamber revolver, which he displayed prominently in an elaborately tooled leather waist holster.  Coburn tried for years—without success—to convince Magnetron to place Gatling guns on the Luftigel Airship.  He designed a mechanism that would permit one shooter to fire five guns simultaneously, but it was never used.

Pierce "Bullseye" Coburn was a man of few words and calm determination. In spite of his rough-hewn exterior and proclivity for violent conduct, he was quite adept at unraveling puzzles that completely perplexed the more intellectual Hogalums.  He assiduously avoided entanglement in the customary squabbling, and was always prepared for the next assignment.

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