by F. M. Worden
Jake rubbed his face with a left hand said, “We make guns here, never thought about being a dealer of some other gun maker.”
“These pistols are selling for thirty-five to forty dollars in Texas. You can make a handsome profit.” Sam Colt was some salesmen. “How many can we send you?”
Jake asked his brother, “What do you think?”
Sam Hawkins said, “We don’t even know if they’ll shoot.”
“You got a place to shoot? My man here will show you how well they shoot,” returned the Colonel.
Jake told him he had a range out back where he could shoot the pistols. Colonel Colt turned to the young man with him and said, “Let’s show-em how well these pistols shoot.”
They all went out to the range behind the shop. Jake had Sam set up six metal, six inch round trip targets. They stood thirty yards away. The young man had loaded one pistol.
“Go ahead Henry-hit em.” Henry fired six times hit one target.
Jake said, “Not very good, let my boy Sam here try.”
Colonel Colt agreed. Henry loaded the pistol again and handed it to Sam. He cocked the gun and in rapid fire, cocked, fired and hit all six. Handed the pistol back to Henry.
“My God,” said Colonel Colt, “this boy can shoot.”
He asked Sam, “How ya like a job with me?”
Sam shook his head no, turned and went back in the shop.
Jake told the Colonel, “We’ll take twenty to start, so we can see how well they sell.”
Later in the day George came to see Sam. “Miss Sarah wants you to come to supper tonight, will you come?” Sam told him to tell her he would.
It was after dark when he knocked on the kitchen door. Sarah opened the door. She was a beautiful woman even in the dim light. “I’ve been waiting supper on you, come on in.”
Sam followed her up the stairs to her rooms. The table was set with lighted candles. She turned to him said, “After supper I have a surprise for you. Please set and let’s eat.”
Sam did as she asked. The meal was baked turkey and mashed potatoes, gravy and all the trimming. After supper they sat on the settee and had coffee. They talked for over an hour.
Sarah then said, “Want to see my surprise for you?”
Sam told her not to spend her money on him. She went into the other room and returned with a wrapped box, handed it to Sam. “Open it,” She insisted.
In it was a new blue wool suit with a vest and two pairs of pants, also a pair of high button shoes.
“Now,” She said, “you gotta have a bath. I’ve new underwear for you too.” Sam shook his head no.
She said, “Look I have a tub waiting for us.” She took his hand and led him to a tub in the bed room. Three foot deep, four feet across it was steaming with hot water.
Sarah said, “It’s big enough for two.” She undressed so did he, they both took a nice warm soapy bath.
Next morning Sam had over slept. He jumped out of bed and dressed and ran to the shop. He did his chores as fast as he could before anyone would come. He sat and waited. No one came. He had forgotten it was Sunday.
Sarah knocked on the back door. “Are you in there Sam?” she called.
He opened the door. “Let’s have breakfast and go for a buggy ride. I want to take you on a picnic.” Sam had one of the most pleasant mornings he could remember.
She had a new single seat black buggy and a fine stepping bay gelding to pull it, she let Sam drive. They stopped in a small grove of willows and had a picnic of fried chicken.
While they were eating, Sarah asked if there was any thing in the world he would want? It didn’t take long. He told her he always wanted a horse of his own.
She said, “I own a farm not far from here. It has lots of horses. You want a’ go look?”
He told her, “Lady, you are full of surprises. You own a farm?”
“Yes, let’s go look at horses.”
As they drove, she told Sam that her Pa had the café and the farm. When he died, he left them to her. She told him she never went out there.
“A man runs it for me and brings the money after the harvest.”
“What do you grow on your farm?”
She said, “I don’t know, some corn, and all kinds of things, but I know we have lots of horses.”
Soon they turned into a lane with large cottonwood trees on both sides. The trees hung over the lane and covered the sun from sight. In about a mile they drove into a farm yard. A large old house with two stories stood before them. An older man came out on the porch. He had long white hair and a long white beard. As he approached the buggy, he walked kinda stooped over. He looked to Sam to be in his early sixties. When he saw who was in the buggy, he said with a big smile, “Miss Sarah what brings you to the farm today?”
“Mr. Cartwright, meet my friend Sam Duncan.”
As they both got out of the buggy, she said, “We’ve come to look at my horses.”
The older man moved to shake Sam’s hand, “Call me Al, I ain’t seen Miss Sarah in a coon’s age. Glad she finally come to see us, I’ll have the boys go bring up the horses.”
He called to two young black boys in a demanding voice, “Go get them horses. Bring em up here.”
Soon there was twenty head in a pen by the barn. Sarah told Sam to look them over. “See if you’d like one.”
Sam went in the pen and studied the horse herd for some time. Then he told her, “I like the big sorrel gelding with the blaze face.”
“You can have him,” Sarah said with a flip of her hand.
Al said to Sarah, “This man knows horses. This horse is the best on the farm. He’s worth four or five hundred dollars.”
Sam turned to Sarah and said, “You can’t give him to me. I’ll buy him.”
“No, you won’t.” Sarah looked mad. “If you really want to pay, I’ll split the difference with you, two hundred dollars, Okay Sam?”
“It’s a deal Sarah.”
She told Al to tie the horse to the back of the buggy. Sam was delighted with the horse.
All the way back to town Sarah jabbered and jabbered. The horse meant nothing to her. Sam had to keep looking back to make sure he wasn’t dreaming. He owned a horse.
Monday morning Jake had a surprise for Sam. Colonel Colt had given a pistol to him. The Colonel told Jake to tell him, “A man who can shoot like that needs a good pistol.”
Then Jake said, “I need to talk to you sometime today. You gettin the Itch Sam?”
Sam smiled and shook his head yes.
After work hours Jake asked Sam to come in the office. “Set Sam,” he said, “You getting pretty thick with this woman Sarah. I’m gonna tell what I know of her. You can take it for what it’s worth.”
“Fine. I would like to know all you can tell me about her.” He was ready to listen to what Jake had to say.
Jake starts talking. “I didn’t know her Pa at all. He was a big fella, always in a hurry. I don’t think he made friends very easy. Most of the folks around here never got to know the man. When he come to town, his little girl was just a little tyke. He had that café for ten or so years. When he died, she got all he owned being his only kin. She went kinda wild at first. She was about your age, maybe a little older, to be handed a lot of money, it was bad. Lots of people took advantage of her, she be-n so young. She met a river boat man and took up with him, he was probably forty years old. He moved in with her, in that up stairs’ apartment. She spent a lot of money redoing it, so we heard. One Saturday night they had a big fight. I heard the yelling and screaming could be heard all over town. In two days he was found a float-en in a back water slue south of town. Been told she had given him an expensive gold watch, it was never found. Some say them blacks that work for her will do any bidding she wants. They’re all free and married men they all live in the same location she had built for them south of town. Sam she’s had several men since then and they all disappear never to be seen again. I tell ya it’s kinda strange. You walk softly around that
woman.”
Sam thanked him. They never talked of Sarah again.
Sam began gathering horse equipment. A saddle, pack saddle and camp gear. He made a leather saddle scabbard for a rifle and a pair of saddle bags. He had talked to Sam Hawkin about making a two-foot barrel for his colt pistol. Sam made it in a few days and he and young Sam screwed it into the gun. He had made a wooden shoulder stock for it and mounted the same on the pistol. The two fired the rifle-pistol out back on the range.
He asked Sam Hawkin, “How far you figure she’ll shoot?”
“Pack all the power in the cylinder you can get, set the ball deep and she should be good for two hundred yards.” Sam did and Hawkin was right.
The winter turned to spring, it was 1849. Word came gold had been discovered in California, the gold rush was on.
Many men started west and needed a rifle and pistols. The shop was booming. Sam was lucky, he found and purchased a ten-year old mare who had been used as a saddle and pack horse.
A shipment of a hundred colt pistols came in. Sam purchased one and an English 10 gauge double-barreled shot gun. Now he was ready to go west.
By June prices went sky high. Flour, sugar, corn went for a hundred dollars a barrel. Teams of oxen, mules and horses went for a thousand dollars if you could find any. It was a true seller’s market.
Sam talked to an Army officer who told him mounted troops were going to a new post named Fort Laramie. Six hundred miles up on the Oregon trail. “There’s gonna be need for all kinda help up there. A man could make good money.”
Sam told Jake he was about ready to go. Jake knew how he felt. “If you want ta start a repair gun shop up there, we’ll send anything you need. Mail has started coming in from that fort and going that way. Write and let me know, we’ll ship supplies to you. Them emigrants need all kinds of help by the time they get that far.”
Sam said he would take him up on the deal. “Just as soon as I get set up.”
He told Jake he planned to leave Monday morning. “Good luck and God go along with ya,” Jake hugged him, turned away and left the shop. It would be a long time before they saw each other again.
Sam was busy packing. Sarah knocked on the back door. “You in there Sam?” she called.
He went and let her in, it was raining hard. “Why you out in this rain?”
“You won’t come down, so I came here.” She acted angry. “I’ll be up there in a little while. You go back, I’ll come up and eat.” She reluctantly returned to the café.
The two had a nice supper. After supper he let her know his plans of going west. She went into a fit of rage, started throwing things at him calling him names, fell on the floor screaming and kicking, saying she hoped the Indians would kill him. He told her he didn’t like to see her act this way.
“I just gotta go Sarah,” he told her. “I’ll miss you.” He went down to the kitchen. George heard it all and said, “Come by on your way, I’ll have a food sack for you’s.” Sam did.
At sunup, with his saddle horse and pack horse he rode to the docks and onto a steam boat he had booked passage on to go up the Missouri River to the town of Independence. The jumping off place for most of the wagon trains headed west and to Fort Laramie on the Oregon Trail. Sam was on his way west.
Chapter 6
Fort Laramie
Sam rode into Independence, after leaving the paddle wheel steamer. There were three wagon trains being made up to go west, one a Mormon with a hundred and fifty Saints. Many a pretty girl was with this train.
Sam missed Sarah already.
Sam asked a wagon boss when they expected to leave. “Not for another week.” The other trains were waiting for one thing or the other. No one seemed to be in a hurry.
He decided to push on by himself. He followed a well worn trail west. As he moved past settlements and farms the plains became empty of civilization. He could see that the wagons moved four wide abreast. He guessed it was for protection from Indians. The grass was stirrup high, small streams ran to the north toward the Missouri river. Game became plentiful, rabbits bounded away every few yards, deer stopped to watch them go by. Antelope herds grazed in the distance. Coyotes and wolves hid in the tall grass, not moving unless Sam and his horses disturbed them. Late in the evening of the first day out, two wolves followed along for some time, staying out of gun range. He surmised them had been shot at before. A crippled antelope appeared. The wolves went after it and Sam watched as the two got a meal.
Moving on he found where unshod horses had cut across the trail. Quite a bunch, maybe ten or more. He made camp in a slight draw. No fires tonight and no hot coffee. That night he had a fitful sleep. Morning light came. He felt tired all over.
He saddled, packed and rode on, without eating. The dried meat he ate as he rode took much water to get down. It was a pleasant, cool morning. By noon a thunder storm hit the prairie. Lightening and thunder rolled across the plains. Soaked to the skin he looked for a spot to camp, none could be found to his liking. He rode on late into the darkness.
Then the rain stopped, it gave the prairie a fresh smell. A fire appeared in the distance. As he drew near, he could see a covered wagon, there were people standing by a fire. He yelled, “Ho the wagon.”
A women’s voice came back, “Who are you?”
He rode on in. He could see two women with bonnets and heavy coats on. When he stepped down, they both ran to hug him and almost knocked him down, one was saying, “God has answered our prayers.” She said, “Thank you God.”
He asked what they were doing out here on the plains by themselves? Both women tried to tell him at once. He stopped them, “One at a time.”
He pushed them both back and held them by an arm. The older one, he pushed her bonnet back so to see her face, he could see she was very young, she started talking so fast he couldn’t understand her. “Whoa, whoa, slow down.”
She told him her story. “We’re from Illinois, on the way to meet my husband’s folks at Fort Kearny on the Platte River. This girl is my little sister, my husband stepped in a gopher hole. He was out in front of the oxen they ran over him and broke his leg yesterday afternoon, we been here ever since, he’s in the wagon asleep, my baby and two children we picked up in Iowa are in there too. We been scared to death Indians would come and get us, will you help us?”
Sam asked why they were out here. “Why didn’t you follow the river?”
“We were told this is a short cut, my husband was in a hurry to catch his folks.”
Sam climbed on the tail gate to look at the man. Struck a match. The air was filled with the smell of fresh blood. He asked if they had a lantern. The young girl went and got one and handed it to him, he lit it and removed the quilt covering the man. His leg lay in a pool of blood, Sam felt his face, he was burning hot.
Sam held the lantern high, he could see three little children asleep father back in the wagon. Sam told the woman, “This man is not asleep, he’s unconscious, his leg is shattered, it looks to me like it’s got to come off.”
The young wife started crying, “No, no, he’ll die if you cut his leg off.”
“Lady he’ll die if we don’t, let’s get together and get it done.”
Sam unsaddled his horses and put the saddles under the wagon. He asked if the oxen were in the yoke all day.
The woman said, “They’ve been yoked since we started, we were afraid they might run off.”
Sam unyoked the team and turned them loose, they started in eating grass.
He told her, “They ain’t going nowhere, they’ll eat all night.”
Sam asked if she had a sewing kit. She did and went to get it. He told the sister to keep the fire going. They had a big pile of buffalo chips.
“We gathered chips all day to have something for the children to do,” She said.
“Get it hot as you can but not too high, we don’t want the Indians to see it.”
Sam looked for something he could make a hot iron out of. A sharp pick hung on the sid
e of the wagon. He knocked the wood handle out, gave the steel pick to the younger girl. Told her, “Get the tip red hot, and bring it to me when I ask.”
He went to the wagon told the wife to get something for bandages, heat plenty of water. He set his Bowie knife in the fire to get the blade hot.
“You got whisky?” he asked.
“We’re Mormons, we don’t use spirits,” she said.
“It’s for his leg not his belly, I have some in my pack. I’ll get it.”
Sam got his bottle, climbed in the wagon, the wife was there. “Let’s get this quilt out, hand me that pillow.” He worked the quilt out and pushed the pillow under the fractured leg. He lifted the leg, pushed the pillow so the bad part of the leg hung loose. He called for his knife and with the knife cut the pants all the way to the hip.
What a sight, pieces of bone were protruding in every direction. He sent the knife back to be heated some more.
He asked, “How long’s he been out?”
“Since early this afternoon.”
Sam studied the leg. He told the wife, “I ain’t no doctor but this leg must come off. You want me to do it? Or do you wanta do it?” Tears streamed down her face.
“I can’t do it.” Now she was crying hard. “I can’t do it.”
“You gotta tell me to do it. If you want me to.”
“If it’s gonna be done, you will have to do it.”
“Fine, let’s get to it. Get the biggest needle you have and a heavy thread.”
Sam called for the hot water. They cleaned the break as best they could. Sam grabbed the wife by her shoulders with both hands, shook her hard saying, “You gotta help me, if you do what I say we’ll be okay.” She wiped her eyes and shook her head, yes.