by Tony Masero
‘You got it, Frank. Now let’s ride, we don’t want that old steamer beating us to it.’
The one thing the gang hadn’t reckoned on was Bode Williams. At the last moment before the train set off, the old drunk had taken one too many and slipped and fallen from the platform edge, cracking his head on a railroad tie. He had been replaced by a clerk from the railroad office at the last minute, a young fellow, keen as mustard named Benjamin Aimes.
Aime’s saw his duty as a God given opportunity for advancement and intended to use it to the best of his ability. So doing, he armed himself with a cut-down shotgun, a brace of Navy Colts and a saber that had belonged to his officer father and seen action at the second Bull Run. Bristling with his armaments, Aimes took up his station in the calaboose and waited impatiently for his first tour of duty as they pulled into Bridgeport.
All went according to plan until the train pulled into its second stop. The engine driver drew into a curved siding and began to take on water from the tower whilst his fireman and some Negro railroad workers carried aboard more cut logs for the boiler fire. Whilst the men were engaged in passing up the timber, Jesse’s two men made their stealthy and unseen way on foot alongside the curve of wagons until they reached the express car. Armed with crowbars they began to lever the padlocks free. It was hard work and with the additional problem of being as quiet as possible, the two never heard Aimes as he arrived behind them with a surprised but determined look on his face.
‘What do you fellows think you are about?’ he asked, raising the shotgun to cover them both.
The two men spun around dropping the crowbars as they did so. On sight of the wavering shotgun in Aimes’s trembling hands, the two raised their hands high.
‘Don’t shoot, mister,’ said one, thinking quickly. ‘We’re with the railroad. Just checking security here.’
A slight and disbelieving smile crossed young Aimes face, ‘I don’t think so, boys. I think you mean to break in there and take what you can.’
‘Just who’re you exactly?’ asked the other outlaw turning belligerent. ‘You’re the one with the gun. Could be you’re a road agent or train robber yourself.’
‘No, mister. I’m the guard here and you fellows are my prisoners.’
Aimes was feeling pleased with himself but he was not a trained gunman, his usual trade meant he carried nothing more dangerous than a dip-pen and ruler, so his body trembled with excitement. Aimes swallowed and tried to steady his nerve.
‘Now you men will come along of me, back to the calaboose. We have some irons there and I intend to place you in manacles until we reach the end of the line.’
‘Want a bet?’ came the voice behind, followed by the click of a revolver being placed on full cock.
Aimes froze, his fingers locking on the shotgun with an intense claw-like grip.
‘Now you leave off with the shotgun, mister. Just hand it over to one of the men there, that’s it,’ said Jesse as Aimes obeyed.
‘You sure were just in time, Jesse,’ breathed the man taking the shotgun.
‘Best you boys get on with your work. Me and this young fellow going to have a few words. What is your name?’ asked Jesse as he poked the guard in the back of the head with his pistol barrel.
‘B…. Benjamin Aimes,’ stuttered the clerk
‘What you doing here, Ben? Where’s the regular fellow?’
‘He got drunk and busted his head,’ Aimes explained.
‘Damn fool,’ snorted Jesse. ‘And you is what? You ain’t no regular guard.’
‘No, I’m accounts clerk for the railroad. They set me up with this temporary, as there weren’t no Pinkerton agents available at such short notice. You ain’t going to take it out on me, are you?’
‘Well, Ben, I been considering on that. You sure got yourself into a pretty pickle here, ain’t you?’
Just then there was a wrenching noise as one of the padlocks gave way, the sound barely heard over the hiss of steam and clatter of logs coming from the engine further along the track.
‘Looks like we’re inside,’ said Jesse, as the second lock broke and dropped to the ground. ‘In you get boys.’
The car door was slid back and the two mean leapt inside.
‘You know who I am, Ben?’ asked Jesse.
‘Y…. You’re the outlaw, Jesse James, ain’t you?’
‘Right nice to meet you,’ grinned Jesse. ‘Now what in tarnation do I do with you?’
Aimes swallowed hard. ‘It’s my duty to protect this train, Mister James. I was just doing my duty.’
‘Sure you were, same as I am in alleviating the Union of some of its ill-gotten gains. Now climb up there alongside my men, will you?’
Aimes, with his hands held high and his nervous gaze fixed on Jesse’s pistol, hiked himself up into the express car.
‘You boys listen to me,’ Jesse said to the men inside. ‘I want you to take care of Ben here. Don’t you hurt him none, just put a gag on him and tie him then you go and leave him in a corner somewhere out of the way. Alright now?’
The train was shunting forward, the buffers crashing together as it prepared to set off.
‘We got you, Jesse,’ said one of the men inside as the door was slid shut. ‘We’ll take good care of him.’
Trouble was, the two men in the car looked at Aimes from a different viewpoint. They did not want a witness and their pictures then appearing on a Pinkerton wanted circular and so Ben’s dead body was later found dumped alongside the track some forty-eight hours after the raid. Jesse got both the blame for the robbery and the murder; he also earned Allan Pinkerton’s undying resentment. A fact that was to come back and bite the outlaw later.
But despite this unpleasant event both safes inside the express car were broached and the total amount of valuables carried off. Two thirds of it making its way to Brevet Landing and into the hands of Paramount Bliss in readiness for shipping out of the country.
Chapter Fourteen
‘There’s only one priority as I see it,’ Belle said. ‘And that’s to get Lomas’s sister out as soon as possible. Lord knows what the poor woman is going through.’
‘First we have to find out where she is for sure,’ Kirby put in.
‘That’s easy done,’ Belle added dismissively.
‘How’s that?’ Lomas asked.
They were sitting in a roadside tavern just outside of and on the main thoroughfare above Brevet Landing. The place held a mobile clientele mainly of wagon haulers and travellers on the road to Petersburg and they had decided they would not be so noticeable there. Although, given Belle’s companions that was something of misguided observation. The five women sat at a separate table enclosing the uncomfortable looking figure of Sweet Dean on all sides and fending off the advances of most men in the bar. Fortunately, despite their all too obvious profession, Clara would brook no interference and with a few well-placed choice words she saw off the most determined of the men.
‘Look there,’ Belle said. ‘You see those fellows? Like bees around honey. Why any one of those girls of mine could walk up to the front door of Paramount Bliss and inveigle their way in. We’ll soon have the knowledge and pass word to Ladybell as well.’
‘That would certainly keep her spirits up,’ said Lomas with a hopeful twitch of his lips.
Kirby tilted his head doubtfully, ‘I don’t know, these are rough customers, Belle.’
‘The girls can take care of themselves. Little Lulu, the Chinese girl, she can hurt men without them even knowing she’s been there. Most of these women came up tough, they know their way around a knuckleduster and a knife, I assure you.’
Kirby raised submissive eyebrows, trusting in Belle’s assessment. ‘Well, all right. How do you want to handle it?’
Belle crooked a finger at Clara and brought her over to join them. Quickly the problem was explained and it did not take a second before the sharp-witted Clara had a solution.
‘We pick the two smallest. The least threatening.’
‘That would be Kate and Maggie,’ Belle said.
‘Right,’ agreed Clara. ‘They go knocking door-to-door, do-gooders collecting for some cause. Then they ask for directions or some other pretext to get inside. With two of them, one can run distraction whilst the other finds the sister and puts her wise to what’s going on.’
‘We shouldn’t forget Wayland and his crew?’ Lomas said.
‘I haven’t forgotten them,’ growled Kirby dourly.
‘When we find out where they are we’ll know what to do,’ Belle said.
‘There’s a saloon bar down there called ‘The Angel’ where Bliss hangs out,’ advised Kirby.
‘Then I’ll have Clara and Molly take a look.’
‘Just find them for me, I’ll do the rest.’
Belle glanced across at his frozen features and she saw the pain engrained there and for a moment a thread of jealousy ran through her. That another could have supplanted her place in Kirby’s heart struck a chord of displeasure. It was a momentary thing though and with a flush of remorse she quickly brushed the shallow emotion aside.
‘They can’t see either of you two,’ she said. ‘It would show our hand. You have to keep out of sight until we know the lie of the land.’
Kirby quirked a grin, ‘Still a take-charge kind of lady I see,’ he said.
Belle tilted her head and looked at him fondly, ‘I guess you’ve been out of the running for a while.’
‘It’s coming back,’ Kirby admitted grimly.
‘She must have been some kind of lady, that wife of yours.’
Kirby nodded, ‘The best,’ he said.
‘Wish I’d met her.’
‘You wouldn’t have liked her, Belle. Not your style.’
‘That a fact? She liked you well enough though.’
‘That she did,’ he accepted.
‘Well, I’m real sorry for your loss,’ Belle said with an air of honesty. Which was true in a way, she did not like to see Kirby suffering and was sad that someone he felt so obviously deeply about had met such a harsh end.
Kirby nodded, ‘Thanks, Belle.’
‘We going to get this done?’ asked Lomas impatiently. ‘You two can catch up later. I’m worried about my baby sister and the longer we leave it the more worried I get.’
Belle took a private room in the tavern and told Lulu to keep Sweet Dean company whilst she, Lomas and Kirby saw the girls off on their various missions. Sweet Dean took one look at the impassive face of the slender Chinese and was obviously uncomfortable with her apparent confident placidity. Belle was sure he would make no problems.
‘You like play card?’ Lulu asked him, her expression never changing.
‘I…. I don’t know,’ Sweet Dean stuttered.
‘You like,’ Lulu said decisively. ‘I like gamble. We play. Make with dollar, fat man.’
Sweet Dean swallowed and pleaded with his eyes and Belle lifted a dismissive eyebrow and smiled thinly in response. ‘Best do like she says, mister. Lulu may not look much but she can fan you out just as easy as she cuts those cards.’
The diminutive Maggie and quiet Kate, both now dressed in their plainest clothes and carrying a small tin bucket Lomas had found for them, walked down the hill towards the port in the valley below as Molly and Clara made their way towards the bar that Kirby had indicated for them. All four were on foot and strolled casually as if out on a Sunday walk.
‘You really think they’ll do okay?’ asked Kirby with a troubled frown.
The three stood on a cliff edge with a clear view of the town and the road down. They were hidden from view of the road by a stunted stand of trees that clung to the windswept point behind them.
‘They’ll be fine,’ promised Belle, watching the women stride away.
‘I feel hamstrung here,’ grumbled Kirby.
‘Hold your water, hoss,’ Lomas said. ‘We’ll get to it.’
‘Don’t feel right though, them women doing our job.’
‘Take it kindly,’ rumbled Belle, looking at him with a frown and getting a little tired of his impatient restlessness. ‘We have to get this right and they don’t have to be doing it anyway, you know that don’t you?’
‘I know,’ said Kirby, feeling humbled and embarrassed by his gracelessness. ‘I just want to get on.’
‘Same as ever,’ smiled Belle wryly, looking down into the bay. ‘That the ship?’ she said, pointing at the paddle steamer anchored there.
‘That’s her,’ Lomas said. ‘The Phantom.’
‘Nice looking boat,’ observed Belle, taking in the sleek lines and low draught.
‘They made those blockade runners to go fast,’ Lomas advised her. ‘Less armaments to keep them light so they could travel at speed.’
‘That what they’re planning to haul ass in?’ asked Kirby.
‘That’s it, that and a parcel of gold, and I reckon Xavier Bond will be aboard as well,’ Belle answered.
‘Hmm,’ mused Kirby speculatively. ‘Be nice to bring down the Circle once and for all.’
‘Wouldn’t it though,’ said Belle.
‘What’re you planning to do with that load you’re carrying for Sweet Dean?’
‘Well, it ain’t going aboard that ship, that’s for sure. We’ll see what Mister Pinkerton wants to do with it.’
‘But first things first,’ Lomas said. ‘Let’s see how this plays out here before we get into anything else.’ The other two nodded in agreement.
‘What do you two want?’ Paramount Bliss asked them bluntly.
Maggie and Kate looked up at him from the bottom of the house steps with wide, innocent eyes.
‘Oh, Mister Bliss, we are so sorry to trouble you. We’re ladies from the church committee and are collecting for the wounded veterans who have done so much for us during the recent conflict and are now in a bad way. Might you spare a few dollars for their welfare?’ Maggie asked him in a simpering voice and with a saintly smile.
‘Don’t the government care for such?’ growled Bliss. ‘I thought they gave them pension for their sufferings.’
‘It is never enough, brother Bliss. The poor souls are in constant need of attention.’
‘Ain’t we all, sister? I already done my bit for the country. I served and risked life and limb for nigh on three years and I don’t see why I should pay out for others who was just doing their duty.’
‘A little Christian charity, dear sir,’ Maggie said, rattling the few cents they had placed in the bottom of the bucket.
‘I don’t know you ladies, you local?’ asked Bliss, looking them over with a suspicious eye.
‘We have just arrived in the vicinity,’ Maggie explained. ‘Tossed hither and thither by the misfortunes of war.’
‘Your friend there don’t say much either, does she?’
‘Lost her husband,’ confided Maggie, in a hushed voice. ‘She still grieves.’
‘How do I know you ain’t just hustlers coming around with a begging bowl and liking to abscond with the money you make?’
‘Oh! Mister Bliss,’ gasped a shocked Maggie convincingly. ‘How can you even think such a thing?’
‘Well,’ Bliss said, a little ruffled. ‘You never know, there’s plenty about these days.’
‘A few cents will do it, sir. Every little helps. Our brave, bold fellows went to stand up for the honor of the South. So many of them have lost their limbs and now cannot walk let alone stand.’
Bliss fumbled for a moment in the pockets of his leather vest but came up empty.
‘Wait there,’ he said, finally giving in to their demands and turning to go. ‘I think I have some change inside.’
‘One thing, sir,’ piped up Kate, speaking for the first time. ‘Might I trouble you for a sip of water? It is so dry and tiring walking the town.’
Bliss huffed an irritable sigh. ‘You there, Billy?’ he called back into the house. ‘Got a church lady here needs water, you bring her a glass will you?’
‘Get that woman of yours to do
it,’ came the tired answer. ‘I ain’t got my pants on yet.’
‘You get her to do it!’ shouted Bliss angrily in reply as he went inside. ‘You lazy bum, you should be out of that damned pit of yours by now anyway.’
‘It was a late night, you know how it is, Captain.’
The two women on the doorstep heard the discussion continue as Bliss lumbered around inside the house.
‘Give me a few cents,’ he called.
‘I ain’t got any,’ Billy answered. ‘Spent every last dime last night.’
‘Told you not to get into that card game. Now I got these begging women at the door pestering me. I know I got a buck or two here somewhere.’
Maggie had sidled up the front steps and stood listening as she looked down a long narrow hallway to a kitchen at the far end. She could see a female figure there outlined against a window in the rear wall of the house. She was cranking the handle of a pump and drawing water.
‘You could always hustle a bit free from that delivery we had last night,’ Billy suggested.
‘Shut up about that, you fool,’ snarled Bliss. ‘I told you, nothing is to be said. You want your head on a plate? You keep flapping your gums like that and it’ll happen. Now, find me a few bits for these damned women, then I have to go see my cuz Edward up at The Angel. There’s things we have to arrange.’
‘You want me to come?’
‘No I don’t, you got to stay here and watch over the parcel. Know what I mean?’
Maggie tried to make out the figure in back more clearly but Bliss came out of a room and blocked her view.
‘What you doing up here?’ barked Bliss. ‘I never said you could come in my house.’
‘The water,’ explained Maggie, with a simpering smile.
‘Get down here with that blasted water, you dumb critter,’ Bliss called over his shoulder to the figure out back. ‘Now, here,’ he said, throwing a few coins into Maggie’s bucket. ‘Take this and get along.’