No Less Than the Journey

by E. V. Thompson

  ‘Surely there are others on board who could be doing that.’

  ‘There should be,’ Anabelita agreed, ‘but while you, Aaron and the captain were away most of the crew left the boat and a great many things that should have been on the inventory went with them – including all the drinks from the saloon. Fortunately, the captain had kept the only key to the liquor store with him and it wasn’t touched, but now he’s opened it up to those of us who remained on board. Every night will be a party night until a company steamboat arrives to take off whatever’s worth salvaging.’

  Old Charlie joined Aaron and the others on board the Missouri Belle for drinks that evening, but he declined an invitation to remain on the steamboat until the others were taken off. Instead, he went ashore after enjoying an alcoholic evening with them, explaining that he and his mule would find somewhere out in the open away from the river. He declared that folk not only attracted trouble, but mosquitoes as well.

  When Old Charlie had gone, Wes commented to Aaron, ‘I wish he had stayed around longer, he’s probably one of the most interesting men I’ve ever met and there can be few men who know more about America and its people. I would like to have spent more time talking with him.’

  ‘You might still have the chance,’ Aaron said. ‘You remember him saying that he has a friend who is County Sheriff up that way? Old Charlie’s decided that as he’ll be so close and almost certainly won’t be passing this way again it would be a pity not to find time to visit him.’

  Breaking into a smile, Aaron added, ‘He’s taking his mule on the train and sharing a box-car with it. He prefers the mule’s company to that of folk he doesn’t know. They make a good pair, the mule is as cantankerous as Old Charlie himself.’

  That evening, as Wes, Aaron and the two women sat drinking on the open-sided deck, Wes could not help thinking of the time he had spent at the Schuster mansion, and comparing Anabelita with Emma.

  He realized that not only had Emma lived a far more sheltered life than the steamboat gambler, she had also been brought up to conform to a standard of behaviour that was expected of girls in the society to which she belonged.

  Anabelita had no such constraints. She lived her life according to the standards she set for herself.

  While Emma was probably the nicest young woman he had ever met, and one of whom he could have become very fond, Wes knew that such a way of life would not have proved acceptable to either Emma, or her family.

  The way he felt about Anabelita was very different. So different that he would not allow himself to spend too much time thinking about it.

  It was three days before a company steamboat arrived from St Louis and edged gingerly alongside the Missouri Belle. The three days had passed very pleasantly for Wes and Aaron. They helped Anabelita and Lola with the not too onerous task of taking the inventory of salvageable items but Wes and Anabelita also found time to take walks along the river bank and get to know each other better, in more relaxed circumstances than at any time before.

  The captain of the stricken vessel and his remaining crew members were quite content to have a United States Marshal and a man who had helped fight off river pirates with them on board the marooned ship to help protect them should the need arise and they lived well.

  With the arrival of the other steamboat, things on board changed immediately. Within twenty-four hours the Missouri Belle was no more than an empty shell. On the final morning even the beds that had been slept in by the remaining occupants were removed.

  It was time for Aaron, Wes and the two croupiers to leave too.

  Wes realized it was not going to be easy to say goodbye to Anabelita. Since returning to the Missouri Belle after his visit to the Schuster mansion she had become increasingly important to him, even though he could see no place for her in the future he had mapped out for himself. He had certainly never intended that he should feel this way about her.

  Despite this, an inborn Cornish stubbornness prompted him to reject yet another suggestion from Aaron that he forget his plans to go to Harmony and come to Abilene with him and the two women instead.

  ‘It would make Anabelita very happy,’ Aaron pointed out. ‘She’s fallen for you, Wes, and you don’t need me to tell you that she is a very special lady.’

  ‘I don’t need anyone to tell me,’ Wes said, irritably, ‘but I have promised to go to Harmony – and that’s where I’m going.’

  Accepting defeat, Aaron shrugged, ‘Well, I can at least tell Anabelita that I tried my damnedest to get you to come with us. If you change your mind you know where you can find her, but if it’s your feelings for Anabelita that cause you to change your mind then don’t leave it too long. Abilene’s a cattleman’s town. Some of the ranchers who come up from Texas with their herds are very rich men, with a lot to offer any girl who takes their fancy.’

  ‘They’ll be able to offer her more than I ever will, so if the right man came along she’d be a fool to turn him down.’ Wes spoke with a magnanimity he did not feel, adding, ‘As you say, she’s a very special woman, while I am a miner – and, right now, an out-of-work miner. From all I’ve been told I could stay that way for a long time. I’m not exactly a prize catch, for any woman!’

  ‘You’re no longer in England, Wes, so try to stop thinking like a damn fool Englishman! This is America, a land that’s brimming over with opportunity – for everyone. You were probably a miner in England because everyone else around you was one. It doesn’t mean you have to do the same thing here. In America you look around, see what it is you really want to be, then go out and get it. I’ve told you that you only have to say “yes” and I’ll make you a deputy US Marshal right here and now. You could also take over looking after things at the gaming-house I intend opening in Abilene. Then again, you could go back to the Schuster plantation and ask Silas Schuster to take you on. Do that and you’d end up marrying Emma and becoming a very rich man. Dammit, man, there are thousands of young men out there who’d bust a gut for the opportunities you have right now – and one woman, at least, who’d go along with whatever you decided to do. So don’t tell me – or yourself – that you’re no more than an out-of-work miner. You can be whatever you want to be. The choice is yours.’

  CHAPTER 24

  Wes and the others reached the main St Louis to Iron Mountain railroad travelling on a twice weekly branch-line train which served those living on the many outlying farms in the area. Here they parted company.

  It was not an easy parting for either Wes or Anabelita. As a professional gambler Anabelita was used to concealing her feelings and she did so today – but with the greatest difficulty. She kept her face turned away from the others so that only Wes saw the tears that welled up in her eyes before the train she was on pulled away, heading for St Louis, leaving Wes to wait for one that would carry him in the opposite direction – to Harmony.

  Since Wes’s return from the Schuster plantation he and Anabelita had spent each night together and she had made use of every wile available to her in an attempt to persuade him to change his mind and travel to Abilene with her and the others.

  The most she had been able to achieve was a promise that if Peter Rowse, Wes’s uncle, was no longer in Harmony and had left no message for him, Wes would make his way to Abilene, find Anabelita, and discuss the future with her.

  To Anabelita it sounded as though he had made up his mind they would not be seeing each other again. She would never know how close he came to changing his mind whenever he looked at her.

  When the train on which Wes was to travel came along and he climbed on board he began to wish he had gone with Anabelita and the others.

  The train was comprised of ore trucks with the addition of a single passenger ‘carriage’ at the rear of the train, immediately ahead of the brake van. It was, in fact, a boxcar, from which sections of the side-panelling had been removed.

  The seating consisted of half-a-dozen bench seats placed around the perimeter of the floor space and all were occupied, albeit l
oosely.

  As none of the seated men seemed inclined to move up and make room for him, Wes dropped the bag containing his possessions on the floor and sat down beside it.

  The men in the carriage were dressed in clothes Wes instantly recognized as those worn by miners and they fell silent when he climbed on board. When the train jerked into motion they began talking together again in a language he did not understand, but took to be German.

  Once, one of the men tried to engage him in conversation, but when he indicated he did not speak the other man’s language no further effort was made and he was ignored for the remainder of the journey.

  When the train juddered to a halt some of the men alighted and, although Wes repeated the name ‘Harmony’ to those remaining, they pretended not to understand what he wanted.

  Fortunately, the brakeman came along and when Wes put the question to him he proved to be an American, saying, ‘There’s no station at Harmony, friend. This is Potosi and as close as you are going to get.’

  Gratefully, Wes picked up his bag and alighted from the train. Standing beside the track he asked the brakeman, ‘How far is Harmony from here?’

  The brakeman shook his head, ‘I’ve never been there, but I believe it’s about fifteen miles, or so.’

  When Wes expressed dismay, the brakeman said, ‘There’s a store a little way into town. They run wagons up to the mines. You could ask if they have anything going to Harmony.’

  Thanking him, Wes made his way from the railroad station as the train clattered into motion once more.

  The owner of the general store proved more helpful than had the German miners. In reply to Wes’s question, he said, ‘I’ve got a couple of wagons leaving for Harmony within the hour. You’re welcome to a ride on one of them – but do you have friends there?’

  ‘I hope so,’ Wes replied, ‘I’ve come all this way to meet my uncle, he’s a miner there.’

  ‘An English miner?’ There was incredulity in the storekeeper’s voice.

  ‘Well, yes … although he would no doubt prefer to be known as a Cornishman.’

  ‘How long is it since you heard from this uncle of yours?’ the storekeeper asked.

  ‘I suppose he must have written his last letter to me about eight or nine months ago. Why do you ask?’

  Ignoring the question, the storekeeper said, ‘I doubt if he’s still there. A great deal has changed on the mines around Harmony in the last twelve months. So many Germans have come in that they’ve taken over most of the work on the mines, ousting miners from other countries. They’ve also formed themselves into trade unions – militant ones at that. A while ago they all downed tools in a bid to get more money from the mine owners. The owners’ answer was to bring in workers from outside. There was a whole lot of trouble for a while before the Germans were forced to go back to work if they didn’t want to see their families starve. A great many of the miners brought in by the owners were Cornishmen, so unless you have someone influential there you’d do well to stay well clear of Harmony. Around this area Cornishmen are about as popular as weevils in a cookie factory.’

  ‘You’re not the first person to tell me that,’ Wes admitted, ‘but I wrote and told my uncle I was coming. It’s just possible he stayed on to wait for me. If he did he’ll be having an uncomfortable time. I need to go there and find out.’

  ‘I don’t think you realize just how bad things are up there,’ the storekeeper said, seriously. ‘Men who fall foul of the unions don’t find it merely “uncomfortable”. Their problems are more likely to prove terminal.’

  Pointing to where the Winchester bought by Aaron for Wes at New Orleans was strapped to his bag of belongings, the storekeeper added, ‘I see you’ve got a rifle there. While you’re in Harmony I suggest you keep it loaded and have it close by – day and night.’

  With these words of warning the storekeeper left the store and went outside to check the wagon yard. When he returned to where Wes had been thinking over what he had been told, the helpful store owner said to him, ‘The wagons are just about ready to leave. If you haven’t changed your mind you’d best get out there.’

  Assuring the storekeeper that he was still intent on travelling to Harmony, Wes thanked him for his assistance and was making his way from the store when the man called after him.

  ‘Seeing as you’re not going to see sense, I suggest you check in at the Eastern Promise hotel in Harmony. It’s run and staffed by Chinese. They don’t care where a man comes from, or what colour he is. Just so long as you’re able to pay your way they’ll give you as good a room as you’re likely to find anywhere.’

  CHAPTER 25

  Harmony was a typical American mining town although the hastily erected houses raised when lead was first discovered in the area had been largely replaced by more permanent structures and the streets were cleaner than any of the mining towns and villages Wes had known in Cornwall. It was a result, the wagoner told him – albeit grudgingly – of Germanic influence upon the town.

  The same wagon driver set Wes off outside the Chinese hotel and expressed thanks for the few coins Wes gave him to buy himself a couple of drinks when the wagon had been unloaded.

  The diminutive and elderly hotel proprietor’s Chinese name was Nieh Tei, which had been corrupted by early English occupants of the town to ‘Nitty’. As Nieh Tei preferred to be known as ‘Joe’, he inevitably became known as ‘Nitty Joe’.

  Nitty Joe went out of his way to make Wes welcome in his establishment. There seemed to be few other guests and Wes thought it highly probable that most other Harmony hotels catered for Germans, leaving Joe to tend to the needs of the few non-German visitors to the small mining town.

  Wes was given a front room overlooking the street and although this was quite noisy when the window was open, the hotel itself was quiet and after a passable meal Wes went to bed and enjoyed a good night’s sleep.

  Next morning at breakfast he got into conversation with a garrulous travelling salesman who worked for a Chicago footwear company, visiting various town and mining stores taking wholesale orders.

  He was exactly the type of man Wes had been hoping to meet with. After listening to a lecture on the impossibility of the Germans allowing him to work in the lead mines in the area, Wes persuaded him to draw a passable map of mines in the vicinity for his use.

  Armed with this, Wes set off after breakfast to find Peter Rowse – and also sound out the possibility of finding work in the area.

  It soon became apparent to him that the reports he had heard of the German attitude towards English miners had not been exaggerated.

  At the first two mines his search for Peter Rowse met with a ‘don’t know and don’t want to know’ response and while a tentative inquiry about the possibility of being given work provoked incredulity in the first mine office and anger in the second, when he broached the subject at the third he was actually threatened with violence and forced to leave the mine in a hurry.

  At the fourth mine, that afternoon, the mine manager was more reasonable and spoke more English than had the Germans on the other mines. It turned out he had attended the Camborne school of mines in Cornwall and had actually learned some of his skills working in Cornish mines.

  He had not known Peter Rowse, but gave Wes the useful information that many miners who moved from the area left details of their intended destinations in the post office in Harmony, where a record was kept of such information.

  The helpful mine manager also warned Wes that another strike was imminent with the first men coming out that very night. At such times tempers boiled over and because of previous strike-breaking activities by Cornish miners he suggested Wes should obtain the information he wanted and leave Harmony at the earliest opportunity, explaining that when news that a Cornish miner was in the town reached the ears of union officials, as it most certainly would, they would seek him out and forcibly evict him from Harmony.

  Wes was told this was an action the union men had taken on many occasio
ns during their previous strike – and with ever-increasing violence.

  Thanking the helpful mine manager for his information and the warning, Wes tramped back into Harmony, aware that he could not reach the town before the doors of the post office closed for the day. However, the office was not far from his hotel and he decided he would go there first thing the next morning and plan his future actions according to the information he received.

  One thing had already become increasingly certain. He would not find employment as a miner in Harmony and if his uncle was no longer here there was nothing to tie him to this particular area.

  Indeed, if there was no message from the family member, he could go anywhere. Even to Abilene!

  When Wes reached the Chinese owned hotel he found ‘Nitty’ Joe in a state of some excitement. It seemed from what Wes was able to gain that someone from the sheriff’s office had come looking for him, with a message.

  The hotel owner could tell Wes nothing more than this. Puzzled, Wes made his way to the sheriff’s office, only to find it locked and no one there.

  An old man, crippled from years spent underground in the lead mines and suffering from a more recent excess of alcohol was seated on the boardwalk nearby. He told Wes the sheriff had sworn in a number of deputies and gone to the mines in anticipation of trouble when miners came off the late shift and the strike began.

  Wes decided to return to the hotel and have another early night, ignoring what was going on in the mines around the town. He was not aware that his presence in town was known and had been rekindling the still smouldering resentment against non German miners – Cornishmen in particular – who had been called in to break the earlier major strike.