The Colonel said, “Maria, you have done a wonderful job.”
Maria replied, “Thank you.”
Alice said, “Maria it looks wonderful, thank you so much.”
Dinner passed with social conversation. At the end, Maria brought in three bowls of warm peach cobbler and then poured thickened cream with a little nutmeg over the cobbler.
The Colonel said, “This is just too much.”
Dan said, “Yes, but it is too good to not eat it.”
Alice said, “Just eat it very slowly.”
After they finished the Colonel invited them into the parlor. He poured each of them a little brandy. Then he offered a toast, “To our family and friends.”
They finished their brandies and Dan said, “Colonel this has been a wonderful evening, and for Alice and myself, I want to thank you very much.”
The Colonel said, “Why don’t we sit over there by the desk.”
Dan and Alice sat in the two chairs by the desk, and the Colonel sat at the desk.
He continued, “I arranged this evening to celebrate your marriage. I wasn’t sure, if you would be here two nights or not, so I set this up for tonight. I hope you will be very happy together.”
Alice said, “You have done so very much for me, thank you for accepting me.”
“I was impressed by your courage and strength, and when you joined with Dan, you made him very happy.”
“Thank you again.”
“I want to take this time to give the both of you a wedding present.” The
Colonel turned and opened a drawer in his desk and removed an envelope and said, “Here are 5,000 shares of stock that represent 10% ownership in the Durango Mining Company made out to Dan and Alice O’Neil.” He handed the envelope to Dan.
Dan said, “Thank you very much.”
Alice said, “I don’t know what to say.”
The Colonel said, “You don’t need to say anything. This is something that I wanted to do.”
After a pause, Dan said, “Colonel if you don’t have anything planned, I would like to pack a lunch and take Alice back to Little Park for a few hours tomorrow?”
“No, I don’t have anything planned for tomorrow.”
Alice said, “Colonel, would you mind pouring us another brandy and we can sit in front of the fire for a little while.”
“An excellent suggestion.”
The Colonel poured the brandy, and they moved to the wing chairs at the fireplace. They spent the rest of the evening in conversation then went to bed.
In their room, Alice said, “I am glad we are going back to Little Park.”
“I didn’t mean to surprise you, but the thought came to me, and I acted.”
“It was a nice surprise.” And she kissed him.
“It was quite an evening wasn’t it.”
“Yes, I still can’t believe it.”
“The Colonel knows how to take everything up a little.”
“Do you think he would accept an invitation to come to visit us?”
“Oh, I am sure he would. We will have to give that some more thought after we get back.”
“Do you think it’s time for us to go to bed.”
With a smile, he said, “Yes.”
The next morning before breakfast Dan went to the kitchen and asked Maria to pack a lunch for the two of them. Then he went looking for Joe. Joe wasn’t at his cabin, so he went to the barn. At the barn he found one of the wranglers, who obviously was the blacksmith, when needed, shaping a horseshoe to fit. When he looked up, Dan told him that he needed a couple of horses after breakfast and that he would get them out of the corral when he needed them. The wrangler said that he would be glad to get them for him. Dan said he wasn’t sure what time he would need them, so he would take care of it.
He returned to their room. Alice was brushing her hair.
Dan said, “You look very nice this morning.”
“Thank you, I am about ready. What time is it?”
“It is ten till seven.”
She finished, and they went down for breakfast a little before 7:00. They found the Colonel and Joe in the dining room. They said good morning and the Colonel and Joe said good morning. Maria brought in breakfast, and they took their seats. The conversation was about the wedding and their plans. After breakfast, Alice went back to their room, and Dan went with Joe.
Joe and Dan went out through the kitchen and out to Joe’s cabin.
Upon entering the cabin, Joe said, “I am happy that you and Alice found each other. The Colonel is very glad that you and Alice are so happy together. I want you to take the deerskin ground cloth that Alice used with you.”
“Thank you, Joe, I know Alice will appreciate the thought. What are you doing today?”
“I am going to be around here today catching up on things that I haven’t been able to get to.”
“Okay, Alice and I will be gone until after lunch, but I will see you later.”
“Ya’ll be careful.”
Dan went back to his room and found that Alice had just finished changing clothes for their trip to Little Park. This time she was wearing pants and a white blouse. He did note that these pants fit quite a bit better than the ones that she had to wear on their escape.
He said, “You look nice.”
“Thank you, I try.”
“I thought about leaving around ten o’clock, but if you are ready, I can have the horses out front and ready in fifteen minutes.”
“I am ready.”
Dan turned and picked up a blanket he had rolled earlier and said, “I will see you out front in fifteen minutes.”
He left and went to the kitchen and picked up their lunch and carried it to the barn. At the corral, he cut out the horses that Alice and he had been riding. He saddled the horses and tied the blanket and the lunch on his horse and led them over to the front of the house. Alice came out, and he helped her up. They rode past the barn and retraced their way to Little Park. Once at Little Park they went to the shady area they had visited the other day.
They dismounted, and he spread the blanket on the ground and set the lunch to the side.
Dan walked to Alice and took her into his arms and said, “This will always be a special place because this is where we first expressed our love for each other.”
They kissed and then their passion carried them to the blanket. Afterward, as they lay in each other’s arms.
She said, “Since we are naked what about a swim in the pond?”
“Lets’ go.”
They walked carefully to the pond with their bare feet, and Dan picked her up and carried her into the water. The sun had warmed the air, but the water was cold and almost tolerable. They swam a little, but mostly hugged and kissed.
They returned to the blanket and laid in the warm sun to dry.
She turned to him and said, “I hope my boldness has not scared or offended you.”
“No, I rather enjoy it.”
“I decided when I was being held captive and did not have control over what I could do; that if I ever got free, I was going to do what I wanted, as much as possible.”
“I understand, and I always want you to be outspoken and open with me. I didn’t marry a wallflower or scared girl, I married a woman that I respect and love.”
Alice pulled herself to Dan and kissed him and said, “I married the man that made me want to be a woman.”
They kissed again, dressed and had lunch.
Dan said, “We will have to come back here again.”
“This place will always be special for me.”
They rolled up the blanket and mounted their horses and returned to the house. As they passed Joe’s cabin, Dan noticed he was there. They rode to the front of the house, and they dismounted. They kissed, and Alice went in, and Dan went to the barn. He unsaddled the horses and turned them into the corral. He carried the saddles into the barn and went to see Joe.
As he approached Dan said, “Afternoon Joe.”
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sp; Joe looked up from his leatherwork and said, “Afternoon.”
“We will be leaving in the morning to go to Texas, but we will be back next summer.”
“I hope next summer will be a little quieter than this one.”
“I am sure that it will have to be. But I am glad I came.”
“You are leaving with more than you came with.”
“Thanks to you.”
“We all did our part, but what matters is that Alice was rescued, and you found a wife.”
“I didn’t see that second one coming.”
“I saw it from the side while you were living it.”
“Was it that obvious?”
“It was obvious that you both liked each other very much, even if you didn’t have the courage to say it then.”
“It was the prospect of Alice leaving that forced me to say something.”
“Never fail to let someone know you care.”
“I am not as old as you, I have to learn these things.”
“Some things make you old.”
“Joe, I do want to thank you for your friendship and help. The Colonel is lucky to have you.”
“It is good that we all have each other because each one of us makes all of us better.”
“I will remember our time together.”
Dan and Joe stood, they shook hands and parted.
Dan returned to the house and went upstairs. Alice had changed clothes and was looking at their bags.
Dan asked, “Is there a problem?”
“I looked at the things in the other room and these bags and was thinking this is a lot to be carrying around.”
“Everything except our carpet bags will be in the baggage car, and we will rent a buggy or a buckboard to get all of this to the ranch.”
“I should have known that you had a plan.”
“My only plan is to love you and make you happy.”
She kissed him and said, “So far you are doing an excellent job on both items.”
“I do love you.”
She asked, “What clothes will I need on the train?”
“The Sunday schedule has the train leaving Durango at 6:00. The train has a dining car but no sleepers so we will spend the night in a chair car. So, I would start off with something comfortable that you can wear all night. We will get to Alamosa about 6:30 AM and catch the 8:00 train east, and you can change clothes if you want to. By the time we get to Trinidad, we should be able to get something other than a chair car, a sleeper or compartment. So, you will need something to sleep in. We will get to Fort Worth around 10 the next morning, and we will have time to dress and have breakfast before we get there.”
“I can make that work with a carpet bag.”
They got their bags ready and went downstairs for dinner. Joe joined them for dinner, and it was a good evening. After dinner, Dan and Alice went into the parlor and sat by the fire as it was too cold out to sit on the porch. The Colonel stayed in the dining room talking to Joe then joined them.
The Colonel said, “I appreciate you spending these couple of days here with me.”
Dan said, “We have enjoyed our time here and look forward to our return.”
Alice said, “Yes, I do look forward to returning here.”
The Colonel said, “We will leave here about 1:00 tomorrow and be at the station between 4:30 and 5:00. I will leave the rest of this evening to you, and I will go
upstairs.”
Dan said, “Goodnight Colonel.”
Alice said, “Goodnight.”
They stayed in the parlor sharing the fire until 9:00 and then went to bed.
The next morning, they were up and down for breakfast at 7:00. Bob Robert joined them for breakfast. He asked them to have all their baggage on the porch by 12:30 and ready to go. After breakfast, Alice and Dan joined the Colonel in the parlor for coffee. The conversation was about the day and the trip back, until it was time for an early lunch.
Then the Colonel got their attention and said, “I am very glad that what started as such a bad and dangerous situation has ended with so much happiness for all of us.”
Alice said, “I had given up hope of being rescued, and now I have so much to look forward to.”
Dan said, “Colonel, when I received your letter, I had no clue as to what I was getting into, but it has changed my life.”
Alice hugged and kissed Dan and turn to the Colonel and said, “Thank you.”
The Colonel tried to hold back his tears and said, “No, Alice thank you.”
Maria came and told them lunch was ready.
After lunch, it took Dan several trips to get everything down to the porch. Bob Robert and he loaded the buckboard, and they left the house at 1:00 sharp. Dan drove the buckboard and Alice sat beside them. The Colonel and Bob Robert rode ahead enough to let the dust settle before the buckboard got there. They took their time and arrived at the train station at 4:50. Bob Robert helped a porter get the baggage loaded on a baggage cart. Dan went inside and purchased their tickets and came out and gave the baggage tags to the porter who tagged the baggage and pushed the cart onto the platform. The Colonel had gone into the station and returned by the time the porter had finished.
The Colonel said, “Bob Robert and I will go ahead and start back now. Have a safe trip back to Texas.”
Dan said, “Goodbye,” and shook hands.
Alice gave the Colonel a hug.
They took their carpet bags and went into the station to wait. The Train arrived at 5:30 and the crew got busy servicing the locomotive. The baggage was loaded, and the dining car restocked. They boarded the train at 5:45. Dan found them a couple of seats in one of the chair cars and put their carpet bags in the overhead storage above their seats. He checked his watch as the train left the station and noted that it was 6:01. The train moved steadily south. They had dinner in the dining car at seven and then settled in for the night. The train stopped in Chama and waited two hours for passengers connecting from Farmington, which was longer than scheduled. Dan was already awake when the conductor came through and said Alamosa in thirty minutes. Dan woke Alice and asked her if she needed anything before they got there she said no she didn’t need anything other than using the mirror in the washroom to brush her hair. They reached Alamosa at 6:40 and went to the station restaurant for breakfast. They boarded the train and left at 8:00 and reached Trinidad, Colorado at 10:30 and boarded the Santa Fe to Fort Worth.
Dan was able to change from a chair car to a compartment on that train, and that compartment would be theirs’ until they reached Fort Worth.
Alice looked around the compartment and said, “This is nice. Until now I had only ridden on the narrow gauge trains in Colorado.”
“It does give us some privacy and a place to sleep.”
“That bed looks a little small.”
“There is an upper berth that folds down from the wall.”
“Think I would prefer to share the lower bed.”
“I am sure we can make it work for us.”
They settled into the compartment and watched the landscape roll by out their window. They talked about Texas, about Fort Worth and the ranch. They ate lunch and dinner in the dining car. Later that evening the porter knocked and asked if they wanted the upper bed lowered and Dan told him no. They turned the light off and slept very close together. They slept well, and Dan woke at 5:30 and went back to sleep. They got up about seven and took their time washing and dressing for the day. They went to the dining car for breakfast and asked to have a pot of tea sent to their room. Back in their room, they started packing their bags. The tea arrived while they were packing, and Dan had the porter put it on the table, and then he tipped the porter. After they finished with the bags, they sat by the window and drank their tea.
Alice said, “I have watched the land change since we left the mountains of Colorado, but the change from the open range land south of Sweetwater yesterday evening to this agricultural farmland this morning is the most striking.�
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“We are coming into Fort Worth from the south and will be passing large areas of black land farms where they grow a lot cotton and grain.”
“Is there much farming near your ranch southwest of Fort Worth.”
“No, not much at all, they say that Fort Worth is where ‘The West Begins’ because west of Fort Worth the land is rolling grasslands with wooded creeks for the most part. There are some really large ranches farther to the west.”
“I look forward to seeing the ranch.”
“I wish you were seeing the ranch for the first time in the springtime.”
The conductor knocked on the door and through the door said Fort Worth in thirty minutes. Dan checked the compartment and made sure that they weren’t leaving anything behind. The train arrived five minutes early, and they moved to the end of the car and down the steps to the platform.
Dan had just taken Alice’s arm and headed for the station when he heard someone call his name. It took him a minute to find that familiar face.
It was Bill Walker, and Dan said, “Hello Bill.”
Bill came over and shook his hand, and Dan said, “Bill this is my wife Alice, Alice this is Bill Walker.”
Bill said, “I am very pleased to meet you.”
Alice said, “It is nice to meet you.”
Dan asked, “What are you doing here?”
“The Colonel sent me a telegram telling me that you would be on the 10 o’clock train today and that you would need a buckboard to get your baggage to the ranch.”
“I should have known that the Colonel would have made arrangements for our return.”
“Lets’ get off this crowded platform follow me.”
They followed Bill over to the end of the station. Bill approached a baggage porter and gave him instructions to get Dan and Alice’s baggage from the train and bring it around to the edge of the platform. He then led Dan and Alice around the end of the station to the end of the platform, where he had a buckboard and team waiting.
Bill turned to the couple and said, “Dan it is really nice to see you back in Texas. Alice, I want to welcome you to Fort Worth.”
High Country Rescue Page 36