His thoughts came to a halt as he heard Lijuan call out in a voice filled with puzzlement.
“What in the hell is that?!”
Dutch looked ahead across to where the plain they were riding on terminated at the entrance to Stanton's namesake gap. From their angle, they could see several railroad cars sticking out of the gap at a standstill. Even more puzzling than that was an enormous herd of cattle milling around near where the train sat idling, a couple of cowboys riding back and forth apparently keeping an eye on them.
“No doubt some sort of trouble. C’mon, Lijuan, let’s dig dirt and see what’s going on here!” he called out prodding his mount with his spurs.
Lijuan atop her long-time horse Kong did likewise and the pair launched into a full gallop. Scrub brush and mesquite trees whizzed by them on either side as they guided their horses towards the open break that lay between the stopped train and the throng of longhorns.
As they passed by a pair of steers that were stragglers near the back of the pack of milling livestock, Lijuan shouted to him when she immediately recognized the brand.
“This herd is from the Calico! Rooster McCarthy’s!”
Rooster McCarthy! Now there was a name he never needed hearing again. So many years ago, back in the schoolhouse in Alamieda, it had been Rooster who was the very person who had first given the ranch its nickname. Rooster had overheard young Dutch inviting his new friend Patch Donovan out to the ranch. Jealous that Dutch had been able to befriend the new arrival to Alamieda instead of him, Rooster had scornfully said, “Aw, why would you wanna go out there? Place ain’t nothin’ but a half breed haven!”
The name had caught on after that and now all these years later, the girls who loved their moniker of being the Daughters of Half Breed Haven, every now and then would say they owed Rooster a debt, to which Dutch silently disagreed. The kid had been horrible and one day when he had insulted Lijuan for being Chinese, Dutch had extracted a pound of flesh from him.
Now the two Wildes were passing between the sole passenger car and the cattle and Lijuan looked at the people, most dressed in finery, leaning out the windows and looking down at them. Some waved at them. Others she could see were staring straight ahead or speaking with each other in angry voices.
“Cattle and trains do not mix! What the hell is going on here? Rooster’s herd shouldn’t even be in the gap. The established trail to the Stanton’s Gap stockyards skirts around the mountain on the right side altogether!”
Dutch just shook his head and took her word for it. Long ago he had removed himself from anything to do with Cedar Ledge’s cattle operation. Despite Cassandra being older than him, being a male, he had been expected to take over the ranch when Whip had longed to give up splitting his time between his law practice and ranching to become a judge.
He had known then that he should have just come out and said that he longed for a career in the military, but he didn’t want to disappoint Whip so he had assumed control of Cedar Ledge. Those had been some of the most miserable and misbegotten few months of his life. A complete and utter disaster, Cassandra liked to chide him about nowadays that always brought laughs from the family.
At the time, however, nobody was laughing, and finally, Dutch had stated the obvious. He had no knack or skill for ranching, and the army was his dream. Shortly afterward he had departed for West Point, leaving Cassandra and Whip to jointly run Cedar Ledge. Eventually Cassandra, too, would leave to follow her dream and join the Pinkertons. Then Lijuan had taken over, and with Cattie running the cattle operations, the ranch had reached new heights of success.
Dust continued to kick up behind the siblings as they passed the freight cars heading towards where a group of men was assembled, the raised voices among them carried the discord on the wind.
“It’s a Grand Western train. Some of our newest clients for the timber operation. We’re going to be supplying them railroad ties for their Devil’s Canyon project! Remember Blue River had to skip the Founder’s Day trip because he’s got the lumber mill working around the clock making them!” Lijuan remarked and Dutch nodded back to her. A moment later they drew their horses to a stop next to the end of the coal tender, and Dutch’s eyes scouted the scene.
Several sweaty men were laboring in front of the train removing shovel after shovel full of earth and rock that was scattered into a sloping mound blocking the tracks. Based on their attire and the several horses tied up nearby to a Sissoo tree, they had to be cowpunchers from the nearby herd that was halted with the cattle just milling about.
His attention was quickly diverted away from that, however, by the arguing men. Standing shoulder to shoulder was a short, stocky man who he guessed was part of the train crew and a gangly youth in a conductor’s uniform. Pacing back in forth in front of them was a dandy in a bowler hat, and he was busy dressing them down.
“Now what do you suppose that’s all about?” Lijuan wondered.
“Let’s find out!” he said giving a gentle tug on the reins.”
CHAPTER 5
* * *
“Farnsworth, if I didn’t need you I would fire you on the spot! Taking this train out of the station with a drunken engineer in the caboose!”
“With all due respect, sir, you wanted to get those people to Stanton’s Gap on time. Weren’t much of a choice.”
“That’s your defense? Let me tell you-” before his clipped voice could finish whatever he meant to impart to the man, he became aware of the riders that had come up behind him when young Parker had looked up squinting with a look of surprise on his face. The boy’s eyes locked into place on Lijuan.
“Afternoon, gentlemen. Looks like you had a bit of ill luck,” Dutch said leaning forward into his saddle, and looking down at the imperious man.
“You could say that. Listen up, rannie, I’ll make you the same offer I made these other rannies. A gold eagle if you throw your back into helping clear away that landslide. I got a car full of investors for this railroad wanting to get to Stanton’s Gap and enjoy the festivities, and this delay is unacceptable!”
Dutch and Lijuan exchanged glances before swinging their legs over their saddles and stepping down. The young man in the conductor’s garb suddenly lurched forward and took the reins from Lijuan, a look of unbridled longing on his face. He didn’t even look at Dutch as he reached out to take the reins of Dutch’s horse as well. Amused by his instant attraction, Lijuan nodded her head and thanked him as Dutch stepped forward clearing his throat.
“Listen, sir. I appreciate the offer but-”
The skinny man shook his head and waggled his finger at him.
"No buts. This is not a negotiation. A golden eagle was good enough for these other men. I will tell you what though if your woman will put her back into it, I'll give her a silver eagle," he said crossing his arms.
“Sir, she’s not my woman. Lijuan’s my sister and my name is Dutch.”
“Sister?” the conductor blurted out.
“Now there is a story I’ll bet,” the man called Farnsworth said as Dutch chuckled, warming to the man.
"One I am not interested in hearing. Now time is wasting. In our only bit of luck today we were fortunate enough to be carrying a shipment of shovels bound for the hardware store in Stanton's Gap. You two want to make some money, then go grab a couple out of the first boxcar and get busy. Chop, chop now!"
“I think not, Mister Pierce,” Lijuan said fixing him with a steely gaze. “What I do want is to speak to whoever the foreman is who is ramrodding this cattle drive.” As she finished speaking, Dutch saw one of the men laboring on the landslide stop working and lean on his shovel to listen to the exchange.
“How, how do you know my name? I never told you it!”
Lijuan who had repined up her hair not long after they had left the claim, took off the flat brimmed hat favored by the Wilde sisters and stuck it on her saddle horn before unpinning her long tresses and shaking them for the second time that day. As the tresses tumbled around her shoulders and down her
back, Parker's mouth became, even more, slack-jawed to Dutch's amusement, wondering if the lad was going to go so far as to start drooling. Lijuan, like all his sisters, was a striking woman, he thought proudly.
“Because I don’t forget a face. You were in the background at your Denver offices a month ago when I was negotiating our deal with the GWR but I remember you. Don’t you remember me?”
The man tipped back his derby, his eyes narrowing for a moment before they went wide.
“Oh, my word! You’re the China woman! Forgive me, I mean Miss Wilde!”
“Yes, I am the China woman!” she said haughtily. “The China woman whose family will be supplying for your trestle project after the other lumber mill you were working with failed to keep up putting you behind schedule.”
“Again, apologies, Miss Wilde. It has been the most trying of days. As said I am attempting to get those fine people in the passenger car to the celebration, and when we ground to a halt I journeyed to the engine here only to find I had been deceived. The actual engineer is passed out drunk in the caboose, and the fireman and this wet behind the ears lad have been running the train all the way from Lake Bliss!” His head shook to emphasize his disgust and frustration over the situation.
Nodding at Farnsworth, Dutch said, “Looks like they did an admirable job of it. You would have been on time in Stanton’s Gap but for this unfortunate landslide.” Farnsworth shot Dutch a look of gratitude and nodded at him.
Pierce stamped his foot like a child before raising his voice. “That’s not the point! Luckily for me, I spotted that herd we passed earlier catching up with us. I had gone over the manifest of the boxcars before we left to make sure we weren’t transporting any livestock. I couldn’t have their smell wafting back on the passenger car after all!”
“God forbid,” Lijuan said airily.
As if she hadn’t spoken he continued, “That’ s how I knew about the shovels. I ran out and flagged down the foreman and made my offer so we could get the train moving! That, Mister Wilde, was after Farnsworth here refused to carry out my first plan to get us back on schedule!”
Farnsworth seemed to explode.
“That plan that would have gotten everyone on the train killed, you mean! I don’t give a god damn if you fire me on the spot after all! You might know book work when it comes to railroading, but you don’t know shit about your actual line!”
“How dare you!”
“Easy, you horse’s ass! Backing the train up and cutting over the old rail bed on the side of the mountain is about as close to a suicide mission as you can come!” Sweat was pouring down the man’s face and he was breathing heavily. Dutch stepped up and gripped his shoulder.
“You okay, sir?”
“I’m fine! Long as I don’t have to listen to this tinhorn!” he bellowed.
Pierce opened his mouth to protest but Lijuan didn’t give him a chance.
“What’s wrong with the old track bed?”
Wearily, Farnsworth looked at her as he spoke between taking deep gasps of air. "I travel this route all the time. The old bed runs along the side of the mountain where they blasted a route … years ago, but there is one … spot where they had to put up a trestle when the mountainside curved into … into a bowl before becoming straight again. You can see some of the trestle from down here on the new tracks as you … as you go by…. I could just make out some kind of damage to it … the timbers looked blackened. If I had to guess, there was a thunderstorm and a lightning strike may have set it on fire. A second storm following the first may have put out the blaze but if it did burn even for a little while … it would be … be … weakened. I reported it to the railroad but as far as I know … no one ever followed … argggghhhh!
Startled cries sounded as Farnsworth clutched his chest and pitched forward to the ground. Dutch was at his side in seconds turning him over onto his back. The man was grimacing in pain.
“What the devil is his problem?” Pierce sneered as Dutch angled his head towards the young conductor.
“You there! Conductor, race back to the passenger car and see if there is a doctor amongst the junket! Move!”
“Yes, sir!” he said handing off the reins to two of the cowboys that abandoned the landside and raced up next to the group followed by another man who had been digging. His clothes marked him to Dutch as perhaps the brakeman.
“Farnsworth!” the man shouted. “What’s happened to him?”
“He’s having some sort of heart attack!” Dutch said as the brakeman knelt and cradled Farnsworth. “Hiram! You are going to be okay! They just went to fetch a sawbones! Hang in there, my friend.” Farnsworth was unable to speak but he managed to grip Clark’s arm and he blinked his eyes in understanding.
With nothing more he could do, Dutch rose to his feet in time to see Lijuan grabbing the arm of one of the cowmen that had abandoned toiling over the slide and now stood with his hands jammed into his pockets. The petite woman surprised the man when she spun him around. Dutch knew there was power in her arms from the years she had spent wielding her signature weapon, a small foot long blacksmith’s hammer tucked into her belt. Both of her arms were well developed because she used either of them with the weapon as the one oddity that bound all six of the diverse Wilde children was all had discovered early on they were ambidextrous.
“You’re the foreman I was looking for before! I can tell just by looking at you! Running our ranch, I’ve seen enough of them in my life to be able to spot one!”
“So, you’re Catalina’s sister I gather. I met her once. Right fine cowman … cowgirl.” He tipped his hat. “Sorry I didn’t speak up before when you asked about me earlier. This man, Mister Pierce, was paying us a fair wage, so it only seemed right I keep on working. What can I do for you, ma’am?”
For a moment she was silent and the only sounds to be heard was the idling locomotive and the clang of shovels as men continued to clear away the debris. Finally, she tilted her head and came out with the hellcat known to much of Alamieda but rarely displayed to her brother.
“I want to know what the fuck you are thinking being in this gap in the first place and parking that herd right along next to a train!”
***
Unbeknownst to them all, on the far side of the train in the narrow space between the stalled cars and the rock wall of the mountain, Hank Colburn was on the move. A short time ago he had come to in the caboose and had defied the expectation of “sleeping it off.” Though not as drunk as when he had been helped into the car earlier, his head still swirled around him in intoxication.
On wobbly legs, he had risen and clutched the steel ladder that ran up the center of the caboose into the cupola area. His hand had slipped into his pocket and produced a small flask he carried at all times and took a healthy swig from it.
"Why-why ain't we movin'?" he had said to the empty air. "We got us a schedule to keep!" Pocketing the flask, he had stumbled out onto the rear of the caboose. His decision to exit the car to the left or to the right would later prove to be the pivotal moment for what was to come. Had he gone left he would have stepped out and been spotted by Parker as he raced towards the passenger car in search of a doctor. Instead, he had stepped down to the right and was seen by no one as he made his way towards the locomotive. Each step was a new challenge in his haze but he was a man on a mission now and the countdown to chaos had begun.
CHAPTER 6
* * *
At a steady gallop, Bright Feather, a daughter from the Luna tribe of the Yavapai people galloped at full speed on her black Mustang, which she had long ago amused herself by contrarily naming her White Lightning. Her ebony hair trailed behind her, and the brightly colored feather attached to her necklace flapped wildly in the wind. On this day she had chosen her necklace with a blue feather tethered to it. She had several different necklaces each featuring a different colored feather as a subtle nod to honor her own name.
Slung over her back were a cheaply made bow and an even more cheaply made quive
r. They had been won by Cassandra when, to the chagrin of one of the carnival workers, she had stepped up to his shooting game. The man had nearly bent over laughing when the blonde beauty had put down her nickel and said she wanted to try her hand at shooting the milk bottles. At a considerable distance, they had been set up on a plank in pyramid style with the top bottle resting atop the other two and there were four such pyramids set up.
Bright Feather and Honor Elizabeth had grinned, and Catalina, true to form broke out in raucous laughter as the man’s face blanched when Cassandra drew back her duster revealing the twin pearl-handled Colt .45s she wore at her waist. Gunfire rang out as she had drawn them with a speed that bordered on magic and all twelve of her shots connected with every single bottle sending them all clattering to the floor.
“I’ll take my prize now,” Cassandra had said breezily as her eyes looked over his selection. “Not sure what I want. Any of you girls want to pick something out?”
Looking over the poor selection of prizes the man was offering, Honor had sniffed and said, “I think not.”
Still laughing Catalina had encouraged Bright Feather to pick something out. To the relief of the carnie she had passed over the best stuff and had taken the bow and arrows with the intention of bringing them back to her people so they could get a good laugh at the poorly constructed copies of their weapons.
With the prizes slung over Bright Feather's back, the four women left the shooting game. The game had been set up for safety's sake outside of the town on the other side of the railroad tracks that curved as they crossed in front of the main street of the town before making their way to the train station and the nearby stockyard. Crossing the rail bed, the Wildes and Bright Feather had headed for the wide main street of Stanton's Gap that was jammed wall-to-wall with people that had come from all over. Vendors sold their wares, and more carnival games were in full swing. The women walked past the band that was playing its merry tunes and plunged back into the throngs of people. At the far end of the street, they saw the podium that had been erected from which the visiting senator would give his speech.
Sing The Death Song: Dutch Wilde & Bright Feather Western Adventure (Half Breed Haven Book 6) Page 5