Chugger's Hunt
Page 15
So, O'Doran went on. His campaign prospered. Backing fell into line. Opposition began to fold. Kelly's wide Irish grin began appearing in every Alaskan publication. It was tacked on every bulletin board and stapled to almost every upright pole in the state.
"Elect Kelly O'Doran. Honest leadership, with a real Alaskan." the posters proclaimed.
O'Doran could feel it, the exultation of imminent victory. It was exhilarating. Pride, sense of power and importance ballooned in the soul of the candidate. O'Doran was enthralled by the majesty of the honors to be heaped upon him.
The summer had passed and the fall had closed with the freeze-up. Only a fortnight's campaigning remained. Kelly O'Doran would lay back a little, watch his step, and make no errors. Then he would be elected. He would move to the nation's capital. His name and fame were as assured as the financial benefits he was certain to harvest.
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There was no warning. Each newspaper received the photographs only moments before deadline. An accompanying letter explained that each competing publication had been given the same information, at the same time. Editors exchanged calls for verification, but the presses had to roll.
To print? There was no alternative. The photographs were too clear, the crimes too serious to ignore. The name was far too prominent to bury. The story was hot. The best copywriters were hustled in. The major editorialists were dragged from their slumbers.
No paper dared relegate the expose to a back page. No one wished to. The wire services had the photographs en route within minutes of their receipt. This one was big time. Only rarely was journalism granted a complete and devastating destruction of a political career in one, all-encompassing revelation.
It would be Monday morning, with an entire week for daily supplements and commentaries. The next weekend would feature the finishers, the summaries of all that had occurred to bring the big man down. Not just down, editors agreed, but down and out.
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An urgent telephone call reached Kelly O'Doran almost as the presses rolled. He was asked to verify or deny.
Stunned, inwardly raging, the senator to be, or not to be, remained outwardly calm. He managed a laugh and claimed no knowledge of any of it. A reporter with copies of the photographs, letter, and documents was en route.
Hastily dressed, unshaven, and barely prepared, O'Doran met the journalist in his office. He accepted the packet and sat behind his desk to read.
Little time was needed. The photographs ran in splendid series. Remarkably clear in full color, the 8 x 10 prints followed the helicopter from arrival to departure. In some, O'Doran fired at the goat, while his first assistant grinned over his shoulder. Smoke Cole collected the dead animal and O'Doran and his aide hauled the trophy aboard. Near the end, Smoke pointed at the camera, and the shock on Kelly O'Doran's face was caught with vivid clarity.
It was beyond O'Doran's worst nightmare. Denial was ludicrous, but there was no other choice. Ghost pale, his voice a graveled croak, O'Doran said, "It's a hoax, some kind of look-alikes."
O'Doran did not raise his eyes. He was horribly aware of his unique and fancy wristwatch that showed clearly in one close up. Seeking time, he read the attached papers.
The first was a cover letter explaining how Chugger Martin was sending photo sets simultaneously to all newspapers and appropriate state officials.
The explanation was as damning as the photographs. It described the out of season hunting. It included Martin's savage beating in an attempt to recover the film by a man identified as Smoke Cole of Valdez. The Valdez' hospital's verification of Martin's injuries was included.
Martin's report of Cole's infiltration of his Granite Mountains party and probable attempt to hurl Martin and another to their deaths was news to O'Doran. Martin concluded with a short explanation of his delayed but uneventful return to the Ernestine Creek glacier and recovery of his film.
Numbed, Kelly O'Doran pushed the offending material away. He steadied his voice and attempted confidence.
"Pure fabrication, all of it."
The reporter was blatantly unconvinced.
"Chugger Martin is a familiar name, Mister O'Doran. To manufacture such an incident would expose him to legal action beyond believing. Why would he do that, and why would the hospital and the Granite Mountains people support his story?"
Kelly shrugged as expansively as possible, but he could hear sick defeat in his own voice. "You'll have to ask him why and how. All I can say is that the whole thing is a vicious, underhanded, last minute political attack. The public will see through it."
The reporter wanted more. He wished to know if O'Doran used the pictured helicopter service? Did O'Doran know a Smoke Cole? Would O'Doran's man support Kelly's position, and might he know more?"
O'Doran refused to answer. His office, he said, would, as usual, handle interviews and details. He, O'Doran, was going back to bed.
The phone rang until O'Doran took it off the hook, O'Doran instructed his aide to say nothing and to immediately fly to Seattle on business. Kelly reached the helicopter service intending to give warning, but reporters were already there. Frustrated, he could only hang up.
The press would pick and pry. Ground crews would have seen him. Waiters, motel clerks—hell, half of Valdez—would know something. O'Doran hoped Smoke Cole stayed missing. Under pressure or for reward, Cole might falter.
Before the morning news, Kelly O'Doran knew it was all over. In Alaska, a politician would better beat his family than hunt illegally.
After the news, more complete and detailed than seemed possible in the few darkened hours available, O'Doran's party withdrew their support. Secretaries of important individuals called to inform Mister O'Doran that his number had been removed from their files.
There was no O'Doran support. The exodus was complete, even to the political volunteers. No one waited for O'Doran statements. Chugger Martin's evidence was too complete and too positively presented for doubt. In hours, Kelly O'Doran's star had sunk and was gone.
O'Doran sat alone. He placed his pistol near his hand and tried to consider suicide. In another state his political future might be severely tarnished, but in Alaska, on this touted last frontier, Kelly O'Doran was finished politically, socially, and in business.
It was not fair! O'Doran raised his pistol, examined its deadly, blue-black presence, then tossed it aside in disgust.
He scratched a twenty-five word candidacy resignation and addressed it. He called a taxi and bundled warmly against the cold. His housekeeper could see to things. For now, O'Doran would join his aide in Seattle. After the election, interest would be less intense. He would negotiate with the game department. His people would liquidate O'Doran Alaskan interests.
Hell, he might never come back to Alaska. Florida sounded good right now. It was as far away as you could get, and it was warm.
O'Doran's taxi arrived, and he directed it to the airport. He would be on the first plane south, even if it went to Hawaii.
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EPILOG
Chugger Martin's fourth book was a departure. It was a novel about an Indian who knew shaman ways and who chose carefully his few white contacts. There was adventure in the tale. Some of it involved a vicious battle on a distant glacier.
There was also mysticism with the native Alaskan's attempts to be one with the great bears he lived among. Critics appreciated the story's depth, realism, and passion. They wrote positive reviews. The book sold well, and Martin's publisher desired a fifth.
Their anxious queries went unanswered. Chugger Martin was in the mountains.
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On his first spring visit to Cooper Landing, Acre Appleby found packages and a letter.
The larger package was a rifle, the smaller was the weapon's special ammunition. The letter said, "I'm going into the mountains for a few months. I'd like it if you came along." The clerk who read to Appleby said the letter was signed by Chugger Martin. Of course, Appleby already knew that.
The rifle
was Chugger's old Kenai .450 Alaskan, rebarreled with a new stock. The gun had a Lyman 48 receiver sight and a blade up front. The metal was finished in a dull, practical parkerizing that would wear well.
The rifle was not entirely drab. Into the flat sided receiver, gold letters had been engraved.
The Indian knew those letters. They spelled, Acre Appleby.
Acre hung his rifle across the back of his old truck's cab. He placed the heavy ammunition on the floor. He checked his money and decided he had enough.
Acre drove to the blacktop and turned north. Fairbanks was a long drive and he would not wish to keep his friend waiting.
THE END
About Roy Chandler
Roy F. Chandler retired following a twenty year U.S. Army career. Mr. Chandler then taught secondary school for seven years before becoming a full-time author of more than sixty books and countless magazine articles. Since 1969, he has written thirty-one published novels and as many nonfiction books on topics such as hunting, architecture, and antiques.
Now 87 years of age, Rocky Chandler remains active and still rides his Harley-Davidson across the continental United States.
He divides his time among Nokomis, FL, St Mary's City, MD, and Perry County, PA.
Rocky Chandler: Author, Educator, Soldier, Patriot in 2012
Books by Roy Chandler
Reading order of fiction books in the Perry County Series
Friend Seeker
The Warrior
Arrowmaker
The Black Rifle
Fort Robinson
Ironhawk
Song of Blue Moccasin
Tim Murphy, Rifleman
Hawk's Feather
Shatto
Chip Shatto
Shatto's Law (Ted's Story)
The Boss's Boy
Tiff's Game
Cronies
The Didactor
The Perry Countian
The Sweet Taste
Old Dog
Gray's Talent
Ramsey
Shooter Galloway
Shatto's Way
All Books By Publication Date
All About a Foot Soldier, 1965 (A colorful book for children)
History of Early Perry County Guns and Gunsmiths (With Donald L. Mitchell), 1969
A History of Perry County Railroads, 1970
Alaskan Hunter: a book about big game hunting, 1972
Kentucky Rifle Patchboxes and Barrel Marks, 1972
Tales of Perry County, 1973
Arrowmaker, 1974
Hunting in Perry County, 1974
Antiques of Perry County, 1976
The Black Rifle, 1976
Homes, Barns and Outbuildings of Perry County, 1978
Shatto, 1979
The Perry County Flavor, 1980
Arms Makers of Eastern Pennsylvania, 1981
The Didactor, 1981
Fort Robinson: A novel of Perry County Pennsylvania, the years 1750-63, 1981
Friend Seeker: A novel of Perry County PA, 1982
Gunsmiths of Eastern Pennsylvania, 1982
Perry County in Pen & Ink, 1983
Shatto's Way: A novel of Perry County, Pa, 1984
Chip Shatto: A novel of Perry County Pennsylvania, the years 1863-6, 1984
Pennsylvania Gunmakers (a collection), 1984
Firefighters of Perry County, 1985
The Warrior, A novel of the frontier, 1721-1764, 1985
Perry County Sketchbook (And Katherine R. Chandler), 1986
A 30-foot, $6,000 Cruising Catamaran, 1987
The Gun of Joseph Smith (With Katherine R. Chandler), 1987
The Perry Countian, 1987
Hawk's Feather - An Adventure Story, 1988
Ted's Story, 1988
Alcatraz: The Hardest Years 1934-1938 (With Erville F. Chandler), 1989
Cronies, 1989
Song of Blue Moccasin, 1989
Chugger's Hunt, 1990
The Sweet Taste, 1990
Tiff's Game: A work of fiction, 1991
Tuck Morgan, Plainsman (Vol. 2) (With Katherine R. Chandler), 1991
Death From Afar I (And Norman A. Chandler), 1992
Kentucky Rifle Patchboxes All New Volume 2, 1992
Behold the Long Rifle, 1993
Death From Afar II: Marine Corps Sniping (And Norman A. Chandler), 1993
Old Dog, 1993
Tim Murphy, Rifleman: A novel of Perry County, Pa. 1754-1840, 1993
Choose the Right Gun, 1994
Death From Afar Vol. III: The Black Book (And Norman A. Chandler), 1994
The Kentucky Pistol, 1994
Ramsey: A novel of Perry County Pennsylvania, 1994
Gray's Talent, 1995
Hunting Alaska, 1995
Last Black Book, 1995
Dark Shadow (The Red book series), 1996
Death From Afar IV (And Norman A. Chandler, 1996
Morgan's Park (Vol. 3) (With Katherine R. Chandler), 1997
White Feather: Carlos Hathcock USMC scout sniper (And Norman A. Chandler), 1997
Death From Afar V (And Norman A. Chandler), 1998
Ironhawk: A frontier novel of Perry County Pennsylvania 1759-1765, 1999
Sniper One, 2000
One Shot Brotherhood (And Norman A. Chandler), 2001
Shooter Galloway, 2004
The Hunter's Alaska, 2005
The Boss's Boy, 2007
Pardners, 2009
Hawk's Revenge, 2010
Antique Guns (included above)
History of Early Perry County Guns and Gunsmiths (With Donald L. Mitchell), 1969
Kentucky Rifle Patchboxes and Barrel Marks, 1972
Arms Makers of Eastern Pennsylvania, 1981
Gunsmiths of Eastern Pennsylvania, 1982
Pennsylvania Gunmakers (a collection), 1984
Kentucky Rifle Patchboxes All New Volume 2, 1992
Behold the Long Rifle, 1993
The Kentucky Pistol, 1994
Hunting
Alaskan Hunter: a book about big game hunting, 1972
Choose the Right Gun, 1994
Hunting Alaska, 1995
The Hunter's Alaska, 2005
Sniper Series
Death From Afar I (And Norman A. Chandler), 1992
Death From Afar II: Marine Corps Sniping (And Norman A. Chandler), 1993
Death From Afar Vol. III: The Black Book (And Norman A. Chandler), 1994
Death From Afar IV (And Norman A. Chandler), 1996
White Feather: Carlos Hathcock USMC Scout Sniper (And Norman A. Chandler), 1997
Death From Afar V (And Norman A. Chandler), 1998
Sniper One, 2000
One Shot Brotherhood (And Norman A. Chandler)
Gun of Joseph Smith Trilogy (Young Adult)
Gun of Joseph Smith, The (With Katherine R. Chandler), 1987
Tuck Morgan, Plainsman (Vol. 2) (With Katherine R. Chandler), 1991
Morgan's Park (Vol. 3) (With Katherine R. Chandler), 1997
Children's Books
All About a Foot Soldier, 1965