Will pointed the revolver at Paddy. The rocking of the train made aiming difficult. He pulled the trigger.
Paddy grabbed his leg and sat down, dropping his gun onto the roof of the car. Will had hit him again. Was it the same leg he’d hit with the rifle shot?
“Ye’re not going to stop me, Braddock! I’ll kill ye, and ye’re uncle, and that bloody nigger, if it’s the last thing I do.” Paddy rolled down the sloping roof and tumbled off the top of the boxcar.
Will scooted to the edge of his car and watched Paddy drop down the depth of the trestle and plunge into the water. Why would he jump? Could Paddy survive hitting the water from this height?
Would Paddy be able to swim his way out of the swiftly flowing river? Will remembered the incident at the beaver dam the previous summer when he’d heard Paddy tell Lone Eagle he didn’t know how to swim. And now one of Paddy’s legs bore a wound—maybe both legs. How could Paddy O’Hannigan ever make good on his vendetta threat?
CHAPTER 58
Jenny leaned over Ida’s neck and pointed toward the water flowing beneath the railroad bridge. “You mean Paddy fell all the way down there?”
“Yes.” Will sat Buck beside Jenny on the cliff above Green River. “I got off the train as soon as I could on the far side and hoofed it back here. I checked the banks for a mile downstream, but didn’t find any trace of him. I don’t know if he’s still alive, or not.”
“You shot him, too?”
“Yes, in a leg—maybe both. There was blood on the roof where he rolled off the car.”
“I doubt if we’ll ever see him again. I don’t see how he could survive such a fall. I remember when we were hiding in the beaver lodge, we heard him say he couldn’t swim. Even if hitting the water from such a distance didn’t kill him, he probably drowned.”
“I wouldn’t be too sure. That Irish ruffian seems to have more lives than a cat.”
Jenny shook her head and looked at Will. “And how are you this morning?”
Will shrugged.
“If you don’t have to keep chasing after Paddy O’Hannigan, maybe you can let those bear scratches heal. I’m running out of bandages.” Jenny laughed. She had re-bandaged his wounds when he’d returned to the Wells Fargo station after his encounter with Paddy.
“Thanks for patching me up . . . again.”
“What I’m looking forward to is the day I can take those buffalo sinew stitches out of you.” She grinned.
“Humph! I’m not looking forward to that.” The sinew stitches had hurt badly enough when Moon Woman had inserted them. He didn’t want to think about what it would feel like to have them pulled out.
A train approached the bridge from the far side of the river, opposite where Will and Jenny sat their horses. Two quick whistles and a clanging bell announced the train’s arrival at the Green River depot. The locomotive pulled a short string of three boxcars and a single passenger coach.
“That’s General Dodge’s private car,” Will said. “Let’s go see what’s going on.”
The two of them wheeled their horses away from the river and rode to the platform that stretched down the track side of the depot. The train stopped and General Dodge emerged from the rear of the coach at the same time Will’s uncle and Homer stepped out of the station building.
“Well, everybody’s here to greet me, I see,” Dodge said. He stepped from the railcar onto the platform. “Nice to see you all.”
Will raised a hand in greeting. He hadn’t seen the chief engineer since he’d been given the assignment to escort the count’s hunting party.
“Corcoran,” Dodge said, “Now that we’re almost across Wyoming it’s time to get serious about where we’re going to join up with the Central Pacific in Utah. We should effect that joining sometime early next year. You know our competitor’s managers better than anyone, since you met with them in California last spring. Silas Seymour’s out in Utah messing with the route again. I can’t afford to have him deciding where we hook up with the CP. I need you to get out there and help Sam Reed deflect the ‘insulting engineer’s’ meddling.”
“We can be on our way in a few hours, General. I’m just wrapping up the shipment of Count von Schroeder’s specimens. Soon as that’s complete, our work can end here.”
“Good. You can take Will and Homer with you. We can probably find something useful for them to do.” Dodge turned and motioned for Will to join him.
Will dismounted directly onto the depot’s platform, handing Buck’s reins to Jenny. He approached Dodge and extended his hand. “Hello, sir.”
“Hello, Will,” Dodge said.
“Let me introduce Jennifer McNabb, sir.” Will indicated Jenny with a wave of his hand in her direction. “She works for Wells Fargo.”
“How do you do, young lady.” Dodge lifted his hat.
“General Dodge, it’s a pleasure.” Jenny nodded from Ida’s saddle.
“How was the hunting expedition?” Dodge asked. “Your uncle just said he’s sending specimens someplace for the count.”
Will summarized the expedition’s incidents, including Lone Eagle’s participation. “Oh,” he said, “the count asked me to give you this letter.” He extracted the envelope from his haversack and passed it to Dodge.
Dodge quickly read the letter, then looked at Will. “According to this, you did a fine job. Count von Schroeder writes he is so pleased with the results of his expedition that he plans to buy more Union Pacific bonds. That’ll please Doc Durant, for sure.”
The door at the rear of the passenger car opened and a face familiar to Will appeared, struggling to drag a large box camera and its tripod onto the rear platform. Andrew Russell, the Union Pacific’s official photographer, smiled when he saw Will. “Will Braddock, as I recall,” Russell said.
“Yes, sir, that’s right.”
“You helped me once before. At Fort Sanders wasn’t it?”
“That’s right.”
“Perhaps I could impose upon you again.”
“What can I do?”
“General Dodge brought me along to document some of the historical points. I want to take some pictures of the construction of the new bridge over Green River. You can help me lug this camera gear out there.” He motioned down the tracks to the river’s edge.
“Certainly. Be glad to.”
“We’ll only be here an hour or two, Mr. Russell,” Dodge said. “As soon as Sean Corcoran and I finish our business, I plan to head this train back. Be ready.”
“I’ll be ready.”
Will helped Russell haul his camera gear and portable developing station out of the passenger car and down to the bridge abutment. Jenny rode Ida alongside them, leading Buck. She dismounted and let the two horses browse on the scrub brush nearby.
Russell busied himself setting up the heavy tripod and inserting the glass plate for his first exposure. “What’s that impressive butte called?” He pointed across the river to a prominent, flat-topped peak that jutted high above the rails.
“The locals call it Citadel Rock,” Jenny answered.
“Ah, an appropriate name.”
Russell worked for an hour exposing a half-dozen plates. “That will do it. We can pack all the gear back on board the general’s car now.”
After they had returned the camera gear to the passenger car, Will sat beside Jenny on the edge of the station platform. A short time later, General Dodge, Will’s uncle, and Homer stepped out of the depot’s waiting room.
“You’ve got your instructions, Corcoran,” Dodge said. “Good luck.”
“Thank you, sir. We’ll do our best.”
“General Dodge,” Will said. “I told Lone Eagle I would ask you to deposit his guide’s salary with the Army at Fort Fred Steele. I think he plans to seek employment there as a scout.”
“I can do that,” Dodge said. “The next time I see you we’ll probably be someplace out in Utah. Thanks again for a good job as hunting guide.” The general re-boarded his private coach.
&nb
sp; “Will,” his uncle said. “Homer and I will pack up the gear and be ready to head out in about an hour. Jenny, I’ll say goodbye for now.”
“Goodbye, Mr. Corcoran,” she replied. “Soon as the railroad tracks get laid beyond here, Papa will close the Green River Station, and we’ll head west ourselves.”
“Goodbye, Miss McNabb,” Homer said. He touched the brim of his hat.
“Goodbye, Homer. I’ll see you all in Utah.”
Will’s uncle and Homer walked down the platform and disappeared around the far end of the station building.
“Guess it’s time for us to say goodbye, Jenny,” Will said. “Don’t know when we’ll see each other. Hope it’s not too long.”
Jenny caressed Will’s arm. “Take care of yourself . . . and keep that wound from splitting open until it heals. You should be able to remove the stitches in a couple of weeks if you do.”
“Thanks for patching me up . . . again and again.” He grinned. “I’d prefer to have you around to take the stitches out, but I guess I’ll have to let Homer do it.”
Jenny mounted Ida and reined the horse around. She looked back over her shoulder, a smile on her face. Her blue eyes glittered in the sunlight. “Bye, Will.” She tapped her heels into the mare’s flank.
Will rubbed his hand over the white star on Buck’s forehead as he watched her ride away. “Bye, Jenny.”
HISTORICAL NOTES
In Bear Claws, Will Braddock encounters the following historical characters:
Grenville M. Dodge, Union Pacific’s chief engineer
General Ulysses S. Grant, Republican candidate for President
General William Tecumseh Sherman, Commander, Division of the Missouri
General Philip Sheridan, Commander, Department of the Missouri
Jack Casement, Union Pacific’s construction contractor (partners with his brother Dan)
Thomas “Doc” Durant, Union Pacific’s vice president & general manager
“Colonel” Silas Seymour, Durant’s consulting engineer
Jacob Blickensderfer, former Department of Interior railroad inspector
Samuel B. Reed, Union Pacific’s engineer of construction
Brigham Young, Mormon leader
James Strobridge, Central Pacific’s construction superintendent
Hanna Marie Strobridge, wife of James Strobridge
Samuel S. Montague, Central Pacific’s chief engineer
Charles Crocker, one of the “Big Four” Central Pacific founders
James Howden, Central Pacific’s Scottish chemist
Andrew J. Russell, Union Pacific’s official photographer
All other characters are fictitious.
Will’s adventures in Bear Claws take place during 1868, the second year of major construction on the transcontinental railroad. The sequence of events in the building of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific occurred as presented.
Union Pacific, Central Pacific, and Wells Fargo are authentic companies. The Sacramento Union was the oldest daily newspaper west of the Mississippi River. It closed its doors in 1994. The other businesses Will encounters are fictional. The towns, mountains, streams, and other geographical locales mentioned in the book are real. Hell on Wheels, the itinerant shack town, relocated more frequently than described.
The nitroglycerin attack on Grant’s train is the invention of the author. Grant’s meeting with Durant did happen and is included in Dodge’s autobiography. The dialogue at the Fort Sanders’ meeting is imagined, since it was not documented. The meeting between Sean Corcoran and Charles Crocker is the author’s creation.
Count Wolfgang von Schroeder is a fictional character, inspired by various historical personages who hunted wild game in the west in the 1800s. Alfred Jacob Miller did produce several paintings, including the one described, for Sir William Drummond Stewart’s 1837 hunting expedition.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Robert Lee Murphy introduced Will Braddock in his first novel, Eagle Talons. Bear Claws, the second book in The Iron Horse Chronicles trilogy, continues Will’s quest to determine his own destiny, as he works to help build the first transcontinental railroad. Following graduation from the University of Oklahoma, and a seven-year tour in the Army, Murphy worked for over thirty years with national and international organizations on all seven continents, including Antarctica, where Murphy Peak bears his name. During his career, he wrote various articles for magazines and numerous technical and professional documents.
Murphy is a member of Western Writers of America, The Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators, and the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society. Visit the author at his website: http://robertleemurphy.net.
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