by Jack Tunney
In the kitchen, he thanked Rita for her fine meals. She shook his hand with a grip like a man’s and offered him a last cup of coffee. He passed her a short stack of double eagles from his winnings.
“Coffee ain’t that much, not even here,” Rita said.
“Value is figured by a lot of different things,” he said. The cook snatched up the coins and left the kitchen.
Maud entered while he drank from the cup. She looked weary. When she saw Jean, her expression paled beyond its usual ghostly hue. Her lips pursed tightly. “I didn’t want to see you like this. Not after.”
“I’m sorry.” Her image wavered slightly in his one open eye. Her color gave her an insubstantial aspect.
“I don’t imagine you’re a man who says sorry.”
“No.” Jean refilled his cup from the pot on the stove. He leaned against the cane. “We’re leaving tomorrow.”
“Don’t ask me anything, Jean,” Maud said. “And don’t tell me anything. You came up here for someone else’s dream, and it didn’t fit. You wanted away from fighting, and look at you now. I can’t be chained to someone else’s dream, Jean. Not now. I’m making my own stake. Better than I could outside. I can’t…” her voice caught. “I can’t…”
He raised the cup to stop her. “I know.” He smiled, making his mouth hurt. “I came up here on Pete’s dream. But it didn’t pan out, and it broke him. I was able to mend him. Some.” He peered into his coffee cup. “But I need to live up to my good-mannered reputation.” He set the cup on the table, then withdrew several double eagles from a pocket and stacked them by the cup.
Maud’s face flashed scarlet. “What are you doing?”
Jean lifted a placating hand. “I’m paying you for that dead man’s suit. It came in handy.” He walked to the door and stood before her. “Thank you, ma’am.”
She stared into his one visible eye. Jean said, “You said maybe I reminded you of someone. Was that before or after the mule kicked him?”
Maud stood on tiptoes and wrapped her arms around Jean’s neck. She kissed him, hard, and Jean felt fire in his injured lips for several long moments. Then she released him.
“Thank you, ma’am.”
Maud smiled.
Jean walked to the front, handed Thaddeus some coins, and left. He put on his hat and adjusted it with delicate movements. Wooden nickels and whores’ smiles, he thought. He started toward The Dexter, leaning on the cane. A generous portion of his earnings were wrapped in a chamois belt wound around his bruised torso. The rest was secure in The Dexter’s safe. Jean had a stake, but he didn’t know what he’d do after reaching San Francisco. He’d plan later. Right now, he thought, just keep thinking about wooden nickels.
THE END
AUTHOR’S NOTE
This is a work of fiction. However, people who really existed appear herein. Whatever their actual lives and activities may have been, I’ve manipulated their personalities to suit my story. I’ve also adjusted dates to fit my needs.
Gold was discovered on Anvil Creek outside Nome in 1898. Prospectors stampeded from the goldfields in Dawson to Nome forthwith. Federal Judge Arthur Noyes arrived in 1900 with his scam to legally jump many of the claims along Anvil Creek. He was in league with Alexander McKenzie, whom Noyes named as receiver for the jumped mines. In Fighting Alaska, Sam Kearney stands in for McKenzie. The scam was later broken up and ownership returned to the mines’ original developers. Judge Noyes was fined, but never jailed.
Jean St. Vrain is fictional, but his family history is borrowed from that of Ceran St. Vrain (Ceran de Hault de Lassus de St. Vrain), a New Mexico fur trader who established Bent’s Fort with William Bent near Taos in 1833.
Wyatt Earp went north with his wife Josie to exploit the entrepreneurial opportunities of the Yukon gold rush. They arrived in Nome in 1899. Wyatt made money in various enterprises, including The Second Hand Saloon and the luxurious Dexter.
Rex Beach was trained as a lawyer and worked in theatre. He became close friends with the Earps. The Nome mining scandals were the focus of the plot for his best-selling novel The Spoilers. He recast Judge Noyes and Alexander McKenzie as Judge Stillman and Alec McNamara, respectively. (Stillman arrives at Nome on a ship named the Senator – the same that takes Jean and Pete away.) Mexico Mullins is a gambler who features in the events in The Spoilers. In I Married Wyatt Earp, Glenn G. Boyer puts forth the idea that Wyatt Earp was the inspiration for the character Ben Stark in Beach’s novel The Barrier.
Tex Rickard made (and lost) multiple fortunes during the northern gold rush. He left Alaska with well-filled coffers, which helped launch his career as a fight promoter, including the Jim Jeffries-Jack Johnson bout (1910) and multiple Jack Dempsey fights. He built the third incarnation of Madison Square Garden and founded the New York Rangers of the National Hockey League.
The following books served as research materials for this story:
Boyer, Glenn G. I Married Wyatt Earp. Stamford, Connecticut: Longmeadow Press, 1994 edition of the 1976 edition published by the University of Arizona Press.
Lavender, David. Bent’s Fort. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, Bison Books edition, 1972 edition of the 1954 edition published by Doubleday & Company.
Morgan, Lael. Good Time Girls of the Alaska-Yukon Gold Rush. Fairbanks, Alaska: Epicenter Press, 1999.
Morgan, Murray. One Man’s Gold Rush: A Klondike Album – Photographs by E.A. Hegg. Seattle, Washington: University of Washington Press, 1967.
Tefertiller, Casey. Wyatt Earp: The Life Behind the Legend. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1997.
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