“Were you serious about buying the cattle if she had brought you the herd?”
“Yes. I wouldn’t have paid the same price Mr. Hilliard would have gotten at the railhead, but I would have paid a fair price.”
“What if the herd was delivered to you now? Would you still buy it?”
“Well, of course I would,” Dorchester replied. “But how is the herd going to be delivered to me?”
“I’ll bring it to you,” Hawke said.
“What? You mean you would steal the herd?”
Hawke shook his head. “It wouldn’t be stealing,” he said. “The paper they served her said that she had to vacate the land, and she had to leave the fixed property there. But it specifically granted her the right to take all movable property, including her livestock. And there was no time limit.”
“No time limit?”
Hawke shook his head. “It gives the property owner twenty-four hours to vacate the property, but it does not say when the livestock must be moved. Technically, even though the herd is still there, it belongs to her.”
“So you think if you just ride up and ask for the herd, they’ll turn it over to you?”
“I don’t plan to ask for the herd,” Hawke said. “I aim to take it.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Dorchester said. “That’s far too dangerous. I would hate to think of you getting yourself killed trying to do something for me.”
Hawke smiled. “Then let’s say I’m doing it for Mrs. Hilliard. And I don’t plan on getting myself killed.”
Dorchester drummed his fingers on the helmet of the suit of armor for a moment as he studied Hawke.
“Do you really think you can get the herd here?”
“Yes,” Hawke said. “I’ll need a few men to help me, but if you would pay a bonus to anyone who volunteers, I will get the herd to you.”
Dorchester smiled broadly. “Then, by Jove, let’s do it.”
Dorchester returned to the parlor. “Mrs. Hilliard, I am prepared to pay you $12,500 for your herd,” he said.
“What?” Cindy gasped in surprise.
“I don’t want to cheat you. You do understand, don’t you, that you could get more for them if you delivered them to the railhead?”
“Yes, I understand that, but I don’t understand why you would make such an offer. I told you, I no longer have a herd.”
“Not according to Hawke.”
“What?”
“Tell her, Hawke.”
“According to the paper that was served you, Mrs. Hilliard, that herd still belongs to you. It is on confiscated land, but it is still your herd.”
“I thought he said twenty-four hours.”
“Twenty-four hours for you to leave. That has nothing to do with your herd.”
“That may be true,” Cindy said. She sighed. “But true or false, the effect is the same. Thank you for offering to buy my herd, Mr. Dorchester, but I still have the same problem. I have no way of getting them to you.”
“You let me worry about that,” Dorchester said. “If you are agreeable to the deal, we’ll go down to the bank and I’ll write out a draft for the sale and buy them where they stand.”
“I…I…Mr. Dorchester, I don’t know how to thank you,” she stammered.
“Don’t thank just me,” Dorchester said. “Mr. Hawke is the one who discovered the loophole in the contract. And he is the one who is going to deliver your herd to me.”
“Oh!” Pamela gasped, putting her hand to her mouth. “But won’t that be very risky?”
“Life is risky,” Hawke said.
“Father, no. Don’t let him go,” Pamela pleaded.
“My dear, you have already observed this stalwart fellow in action. Do you think for one moment I could stop him from doing anything once he sets his mind to it?”
“No, I suppose not,” Pamela agreed. She looked at Hawke. “But please, Hawke. Be careful.”
Win Woodruff and Eddie Taylor had been cowboys at Northumbria for three years, but four weeks ago they quit their jobs. Buying picks, shovels, pans, and other supplies they might need for prospecting, they went up to the Sweetwater Mountains to try their luck.
So far their luck had been bad.
It was late in the day and the two men were exhausted, having spent the last three days breaking large rocks into smaller rocks, looking for any sign of gold. At the moment, Win was sitting on an old log smoking his pipe, while Eddie was a few yards away, near the campfire he’d made.
“Ha!” Eddie said aloud. “You shoulda seen that, Win.”
“I shoulda seen what?”
“I pissed this here grasshopper clean off a weed.”
“If it’s all the same to you, Eddie, I’d just as soon not watch you take a piss.”
“Well, it was just funny, that’s all,” Eddie said, buttoning his pants as he came back over to the log. “I mean that little grasshopper wrapped his arms and legs around that weed and was hangin’ on for dear life.”
“Grasshoppers don’t have arms.”
“Uh-huh. This’n here did,” Eddie insisted. Getting his own pipe out, he began filling the bowl with tobacco.
“Eddie, you think Mr. Dorchester would take us back?” Win asked.
“I don’t know,” Eddie answered. He looked up from his pipe. “Why? Are you thinkin’ about askin’ ’im to take you back?”
“Yeah, I am,” Win admitted.
Eddie reached down to pick up a twig, then stuck it in the fire and lit it. Using the burning twig, he lit his pipe. “How long—” he started to ask, then took a couple of puffs until the tobacco in the bowl caught. “How long you been thinkin’ about this?”
“I don’t know. At least for a week now.”
“You don’t say.”
“Come on, Eddie. You can’t tell me you ain’t thought of it a few times your ownself,” Win said.
Eddie sighed. “Yeah,” he agreed. “I admit that I have thought of it.”
“Well, what do you think? Do you think he’ll take us back?”
“I don’t know. But if I was a bettin’man, I’d say I reckon he probably would. He’s a good man, even if he does talk funny.”
“Well, I’ll tell you the truth, I’m about ready to go back. I don’t think there’s any gold at all up here.”
“Well, come on, Win, you know there has to be some gold, somewhere,” Eddie said. “Hell, somebody found gold else there wouldn’t be so many folks up here.”
“Can you tell me one person who has found gold?”
“Luke Rawlings has found gold.”
“I mean somebody other than Luke Rawlings and Percy Sheridan. And they don’t count, ’cause they’re the ones that found it in the first place.”
“I know,” Eddie said. “But they keep finding it regular. Sheridan come out the other day with a nugget that was as big as a walnut.”
“Yeah, I know people say that, but—”
“I seen it, Win,” Eddie said. “I mean, I seen that nugget with my own eyes.”
“If they’re findin’ all that gold, how come they ain’t up here all the time?” Win asked.
“What do you mean?”
“I just mean that most of the time they’re gone,” Win said. “Don’t that strike you as peculiar?”
“I don’t know. I guess I just never thought about it,” Eddie said.
“So, you want to stay up here and keep looking, or what?” Win asked.
Eddie looked over at the pile of rubble that represented the rocks they had broken up in the last week.
“We sure ain’t been broke out with luck, have we?” Eddie asked.
“So far we’ve ’bout broke our backs and we ain’t come up with so much as one ounce,” Win said, continuing to make his case. “We’re runnin’ low on food. Fact is, we ain’t got nothin’ left now but some jerky and a little coffee. And what are we going to do come winter if we ain’t found nothin’? You may recall, Mr. Dorchester kept us on all last winter, even though there wasn’t that much work
to do. We had three hots and a cot. This tent’s okay for the summer. But it won’t do much for keepin’ us warm in the winter.”
“Yeah,” Eddie finally said. “Yeah, you’re right. As far as I’m concerned, we’re just wastin’ our time here. I say we go back and see if we can get our old jobs back.”
“Good. I was hopin’ you would come around to my way of thinkin’. Hey, how much money have we got left?”
“Fourteen dollars,” Eddie answered. “Why?”
“Fourteen dollars is enough,” he said. “What do you say that, before we go back and start punchin’ cows again, we go down here to the Golden Cage and have us a little fun?”
“Doin’ what?”
“Doin’ what?” Win laughed. “I tell you what, don’t worry about it. I’m willin’ to bet you’ll figure out what to do when we get there.”
The Golden Cage had been put up in only six days, and it was clearly the most impressive establishment in South Pass City. That was the case even though a couple other wooden structures were now being erected. The Golden Cage was two stories high, with a second-story balcony that ran all the way across the front of the building. Below the balcony, at street level, was a fine wooden porch with a swing and a couple of rocking chairs.
For the first week after it was built, business was so good that Dupree thought he was going to have to bring in some more girls. But for the last couple of weeks business had been getting slower and slower.
At first Dupree wasn’t sure why business was so bad. Then, as he began questioning the girls, he learned that the men were frustrated because they weren’t finding any gold.
“None of them are?” Dupree asked.
“None that I’ve had anything to do with,” Libby answered.
The other two girls gave the same response. So far, not one of them had heard a success story.
“Maybe they’re just keeping quiet about it,” Dupree suggested.
“No, it isn’t that,” Libby replied. “Listen, the one thing men like to do more than anything else when they are with a woman is brag. If any of them had found gold, we would have heard about it.”
Dupree smiled. “You mean when a man is with one of you girls, he would rather brag than do anything else?”
It was a teasing comment, and the three girls laughed at its implication.
“All right,” Libby said. “Bragging is the second thing he wants to do.”
“Lookie here,” Lulu said, looking through the front window. “We’ve got a couple of customers.”
“In the middle of the day?” Dupree said. “That’s odd.”
“Get on out there and meet them, Jay,” Libby said, pushing him. “We can’t afford to lose them. As it stands now, we aren’t doing enough business to keep the doors open.”
“All right, all right, I’m going,” Dupree said, stepping out onto the front porch. He smiled at the two men as they approached. He was smoking a cigar, and as he greeted them, he tapped off the ash at the end.
“Good afternoon, gentlemen. My name is Jay Dupree, and on behalf of myself and the young ladies of the Golden Cage, I welcome you.”
“My name’s Win Woodruff, this here is Eddie Taylor.”
“This is our first time here,” Eddie said.
“I see. And you are gold miners, are you?” Dupree asked.
“Ha,” Eddie said. “I reckon you could say that, but we ain’t been doin’ a whole lot of what you would call gold minin’ so far.”
“Fact is, we ain’t done no gold minin’ at all,” Win added. “Mostly what we been doin’ is huntin’.”
“But no findin’,” Eddie said.
“Well, then it sounds to me like you two gentlemen need some relaxation,” Dupree suggested. “Come on in and get acquainted with the girls. Maybe it will bring you a change of luck.”
Inside, a dozen or so chairs and sofas were scattered about, along with several potted plants, mirrors on the walls, and a staircase rising to the second floor. Three girls were sitting in the parlor, but there were no customers anywhere to be seen.
Two of the girls got up and walked over to greet them.
“My name is Lulu,” the one who stepped up to Eddie said.
“And I’m Sue. What are your names?”
“I’m Eddie, he’s Win,” Eddie said. He looked around. “Where at’s all the men?”
“Oh, honey, don’t tell me you like men better than you do women,” Lulu asked, and she and Sue laughed.
“What?” Eddie replied in an almost explosive reaction. “Hell no! What do you mean, do I like men better than women? Why would you ask me such a thing?”
Win laughed. “Don’t get in such a huff. They was just teasin’ you, that’s all.” Then, to the girls, he explained Eddie’s question. “What he means is, how come you ain’t got no customers?”
“Because they’re all working their claims,” Lulu replied. “We normally don’t get anyone in the middle of the day. That means you fellas have us all to yourself.”
“Well now,” Win said with a big satisfied smile. “Ain’t we the lucky ones?”
“Listen, you got a place to take a bath in this here whorehouse?” Eddie asked, rubbing the stubble on his chin. “It’s been a while since I’ve had me a proper bath.”
“Oooeee, tell me about it,” Lulu said, pinching her nose and laughing. “Come on, I’ll give you a bath.”
“You’ll give me a bath?” Eddie replied. “Well, I don’t know about that.”
“What do you mean you don’t know about that?” Win asked. “Are you crazy?”
“Well, come on, Win, I ain’t had nobody give me a bath since my mama done it when I was real young.”
“I said you would figure out what to do when you got here,” Win said, shaking his head. “I can see now that I was wrong.”
“You mean he’s a virgin?” Lulu asked Win.
Win nodded. “He’s a virgin, all right, and about as green as they come.”
“Well, then, I’ll just have to teach him, won’t I?” Lulu said in a husky voice. “And we’ll start with the bath. Honey, I’ll just bet you that your mama never gave you a bath like the one I’m going to give you.”
“Why? What’s different about it? A bath is a bath, ain’t it?”
“Jesus, Eddie, you are one dumb turd, do you know that?” Win asked in exasperation.
“Shh, don’t scold him. You have to be patient with virgins,” Lulu said, chuckling. Then, to Eddie, she said, “Here’s something your mama never did. I’ll be naked while I’m giving you this bath.”
“Oh,” Eddie replied. Then, finally understanding the implications of what she’d just said, he smiled broadly. “Oh!”
“Honey, you could use a bath too, you know,” Sue said to Win.
“That’s fine with me,” Win replied. “As long as I don’t have to share a tub with Eddie.”
The girls laughed as they led the two men away.
Chapter 17
ON THE DAY AFTER THE FUNERAL, EVERYONE IN town knew who was behind the Sweetwater Railroad Company, because a big sign went up on the front of Bailey McPherson’s building:
SWEETWATER RAILROAD COMPANY
BAILEY MCPHERSON, PRESIDENT
Dorchester came down to the depot to see Cindy off on her trip back East. Cindy, with $12,500 safely tucked away in the false bottom of her trunk, expressed her thanks, then waved a tearful good-bye as she got on the train.
Dorchester said nothing when he first saw the sign, but as soon as the eastbound train left the station, he walked down the street, then into the Sweetwater Railroad Company’s office.
A young woman was in the front office, seated at a desk behind the counter. When Dorchester entered, she said, “Yes, sir, may I help you?”
“I would like to talk to Miss McPherson.”
“I believe Miss McPherson is busy now.”
“Tell her to get unbusy.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Tell her Dorchester is here.”
<
br /> “Sir, I told you, she is—”
“Now!” Dorchester shouted, banging his fist so hard on the counter that it caused the windows in the building to rattle.
“It’s all right, Mrs. White,” Bailey said, appearing in the door then. “I’ll talk to the gentleman.” Bailey smiled at Dorchester, though the smile was obviously forced. “It’s good to see you, Sir James,” she said.
“Sir James?” the young woman repeated.
“Oh, yes, dear. Allow me to introduce you to our resident royalty,” Bailey said. “This is Brigadier Sir James Spencer Dorchester, Earl of Preston, Viscount of Davencourt.”
“You can dispense with all of that,” Dorchester said with a dismissive wave of his hand. “I want to know what is going on with this railroad business.”
“Oh, yes, exciting, isn’t it? I’m building a railroad from here up to the Sweetwater. To South Pass.”
“What in heaven’s name for? There are no settlements between here and the Sweetwater. And even South Pass is a temporary settlement, until all this gold fever passes.”
“Well then, perhaps the railroad will ensure that a real city develops there. Wouldn’t that be exciting?”
“In the meantime you are taking land away from honest ranchers and farmers. Hilliard, Miller, who else will you be getting land from?”
“What a coincidence that you would ask,” Bailey said. “You’re coming in here will save us the trouble of serving you.”
“Serving me?”
“Yes. I’m afraid we are going to be taking a five mile strip of land all along the Green River and up the Big Sandy. That means that from you we will be taking a total of, let me see…yes, here it is. One hundred and forty-four thousand acres.”
“What?”
“I would advise you to move all your stock off that property,” Bailey said.
“We’ll see about this,” Dorchester said angrily. “This is outrageous, and one way or another I’m going to stop you.”
“I don’t think so,” Bailey said. “I have the law on my side.”
Hawke was sitting at a table in the cookhouse, drinking coffee and examining a topographic map of the area between Green River and the Sweetwater Mountains. He looked up when two men came in and stepped up to the table, their hats in their hand.
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