No Less Than the Journey

by E. V. Thompson

  Old Charlie’s immediate reaction was to turn down the suggestion outright. Shaking his head vigorously, he said, ‘Me and Nellie travel across Missouri on a train? No, boy, it would be more than either of us could bear. You take the train to wherever you want to go, me and Nellie’ll take our own time getting to Denver and I’ll look you up when we get there.’

  Sheriff Howard Marlin now came into the discussion on Wes’s side, saying, ‘Wes’s suggestion makes a whole lot of sense, Charlie – as you’d agree if only you’d think about it. Missouri’s a settled State now, with sheriffs, town marshals, deputies and policemen every way you turn. You come through their territory trying to live the way you did forty, thirty – or even twenty – years ago and you’ll get yourself arrested. It wouldn’t matter to them that you’ve been a trapper, a scout for the army, or a mountain man. To them you’d be a hobo, someone with no work and no home and they’d throw you in gaol. Is that how you want to end up, Charlie? Getting yourself arrested because you don’t belong any more to the world in which folks like them are living?’

  Sheriff Marlin shook his head, ‘I don’t think so. You just put your mind to what Wes has suggested and you’ll see that it makes a whole lot of sense. He’s giving you an opportunity to do what it is you want to do for perhaps a last time – and enjoy his company while you’re doing it. Given the choice, I know what I’d do.’

  CHAPTER 30

  ‘I don’t know why I let you talk me into travelling on this damned contraption! If the Good Lord had meant us to get around like this he’d have made us with wheels instead of feet and laid rails all over his earth.’

  Wes grinned at the grumbling of his companion, ‘Having wheels for feet and going around on rails would have been all right for bandy-legged old timers like you, Charlie, you’d have been quite comfortable going around with a wheel on each rail, but it might have proved hard on the rest of us.’

  The two men were talking on the ore-train that ran from Iron Mountain, as it rattled and swayed its way along the track that would take it to St Louis.

  The attack on the Union Bank in Potosi had produced the result predicted by Sheriff Howard Marlin. Faced with the prospect of having no money to sustain their families, the miners had gone back to work, ignoring the exhortations of Kauffmann and the other union leaders.

  Whoever had planned and executed the bank robbery, the result had certainly done a great favour to the mine owners. The miners’ union had suffered a humiliating defeat and it would be many years before they regained the absolute power they once held over their members.

  There were very few miners on the train, but the ride was no more comfortable for passengers than it had been on Wes’s previous journey.

  ‘How much longer do we have to put up with this misery?’ Old Charlie was grumbling once more.

  ‘We should arrive in St Louis in another fifteen minutes, or so. We’ll then have a couple of hours on our hands to get to the Kansas Pacific station, buy a ticket and get the train to Abilene. You’ll find it more comfortable once we’re on board a proper train.’

  Wes’s hopes that boarding a main line passenger train would satisfy his travelling companion were soon shattered. The Kansas Pacific line was popular with settlers heading west and the long carriages were packed with men, women and children – a great many children. Most were immigrants to the United States, with their belongings. These new arrivals to the country were particularly excited to be coming towards the end of the greatest adventure of their lives.

  Even Wes, inured by virtue of his sea voyage to America to the chatter and presence of a surfeit of fellow beings, found so much loud and unintelligible conversation difficult to endure. Old Charlie declared it to be intolerable.

  Taking his bedroll, the old mountain-man decamped at the first stop, announcing that he would spend the thirty hour journey with Nellie, his mule, in the boxcar at the rear of the train.

  Unfortunately, Nellie was even less enamoured than her owner with the accommodation offered by the Kansas Pacific railroad – and with the equines brought on board the train at Jefferson City to share her accommodation.

  She threw a tantrum.

  Soon after the train arrived at Sedalia, the conductor came through the carriage calling for ‘Wesley Curnow’.

  When Wes identified himself, the conductor asked, ‘Are you a friend of that cantankerous old-timer who’s dressed up like a “squaw-man”?’

  Wes did not know what constituted a ‘squaw-man’, but he thought he recognized the description of a ‘cantankerous old-timer’.

  ‘If you’re talking about Charlie Quinnell, yes, I’m a friend. We’re travelling to Abilene together, but he decided to spend the journey with his mule in the boxcar at the rear of the train.’

  ‘You might be travelling to Abilene, but your partner isn’t … leastways, not on this train – unless he agrees to shoot that mule of his!’

  ‘Shoot Nellie?’ Wes was aghast. ‘He’d shoot you – or even me before he’d do that. But what has Charlie, or his mule, done to upset you?’

  ‘The old-timer’s done nothing – apart from giving me a lot of lip – but that mule of his…! The Kansas Pacific spent a lot of money fitting out a boxcar with stalls to accommodate horses in damn near as much comfort as the passengers. It’s worked out well for as long as I’ve been conducting on this line – until that mule came on board. The brute has kicked out one side of its stall, bit the ear off a deputy marshal’s horse and lamed a top rodeo horse that’s on its way to perform at the Kansas City fair. It’s a good thing your partner has agreed to leave the train here, at Sedalia. If he hadn’t, the railroad would have taken him – and his mule – before the court in Kansas City.’

  Wes was appalled, but his primary concern was not with the rodeo horse, or the Kansas Pacific railroad.

  ‘How far are we from Abilene?’ He asked the question as he began gathering belongings from the rack above his head.

  Shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly, the conductor replied, casually, ‘Somewhere about two hundred miles or so, do you have a horse in the boxcar?’

  When Wes shook his head, the conductor said, ‘Then I guess you’ve got a long walk ahead of you.’

  By the time the cattle town of Sedalia was behind them, Old Charlie’s mood had undergone a dramatic change. From being angry and resentful of the threats made against Nellie and being thrown off the Kansas Pacific train, he now looked about him appreciatively. ‘This is the way a man should travel in America, Wes. Sniffing God-given air and admiring what the country has to offer, not shut up in some prison-on-wheels with a crowd of strangers who have no appreciation of the country they’re travelling through and who just want to get to where they’re going so they can make it exactly like the place they’ve been in such a goddam hurry to get out of!’

  Wes shifted his bulk in a bid to make himself more comfortable on the unfamiliar cowboy saddle, which was all that had been available at the Sedalia stables from which he had purchased the mare he was riding.

  Advice on the purchase had been given by Charlie who succeeded in driving a hard bargain with the stable owner. The old man was well pleased with the beast, telling Wes he now owned as fine an animal as any he was likely to come across during his travels in the Territories.

  Settling down in his saddle once more, Wes asked, ‘How long is it going to take us to reach Abilene, Charlie?’

  ‘We’ll be there in about a week,’ the old man replied.

  ‘A week!’ Wes repeated bitterly, ‘I’ll arrive to see Anabelita, dirty, tired out and …’ shifting his weight again, ‘… most probably saddle-sore. The train would have got us there in another fifteen hours, or so.’

  ‘So? What’s a week out of a lifetime? By the time you reach Abilene now you’ll be more suited to life in the West than when you started out – and if you travel on to Colorado with me you’ll be able to hold your own among the best – or the worst – of the gunmen you’re likely to come up against there.’
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  ‘I’ve no intention of “coming up against” anyone, Charlie, certainly not with a gun in my hand.’

  ‘Then I suggest you turn right around now and go back East. Where you’re heading a man needs to prove himself and earn respect from others if he’s to survive. Aaron says you have guts and are a good man to have around when there’s trouble. He knows men, so I’m happy to go along with that, but out in the Territories you’ll need to prove it to men who ain’t so easy to convince – and unless I can teach you how to do it you’ll not live very long.’

  BOOK 2

  CHAPTER 1

  Anabelita, Lola and Aaron boarded a Kansas Pacific railroad train from St Louis a week before Wes and Old Charlie made their abortive journey along the same line.

  It was a much less crowded train than the one boarded by the two men. A special immigrant train had been provided by the railroad company the day before. Lacking many of the amenities of a scheduled train, it had nevertheless attracted many miners and settlers heading west, aware they would be saving a great deal of money by travelling in such a spartan fashion.

  Anabelita had become increasingly quiet since leaving the stranded Missouri Belle and, soon after the train set off, when Aaron had gone to spend an hour in the saloon car, Lola tackled her about her lack of conversation.

  ‘Are you all right, Anabelita? You’ve hardly said more than a few words since we left the river.’

  Anabelita started, as though her mind had been far away when Lola spoke. Gathering her thoughts together, she replied, ‘Haven’t I? I’m sorry, Lola, I don’t mean to be rude, it’s just … oh, I don’t know! I suppose I believed that my life had pretty well settled down while I was working on the Missouri Belle. Now everything is up in the air again.’

  ‘Is it the fact that you are going to work for Aaron now…? Or does it have more to do with parting company with Wes?’ Lola asked the question casually, but she studied Anabelita’s face closely for a reaction.

  She had forgotten she was speaking to a very accomplished poker player. Without changing her expression, Anabelita lied, ‘It’s the change in my way of life, I guess. I like to plan my life as much as I can. It’s just not possible right now.’

  ‘We can none of us tell exactly what’s going to happen in the future, but I think we can both rely on Aaron to look after us. He won’t let us down.’

  ‘I’m sure he won’t … at least, not intentionally. But he’s first and foremost a United States Marshal whose work is out in the Territories. It doesn’t exactly make him the most secure of employers.’

  Shuddering involuntarily, Lola said, ‘I’d rather not think about that, Anabelita.’

  Reaching out, Anabelita gripped her friend’s arm, sympathetically, ‘I’m sorry, Lola, that wasn’t very tactful of me.’ After a few moments, she added, ‘When I get really depressed I wish I had led a “normal” life and ended up with a safe home and a family, like most women. But had we both done that we would never have met men like Aaron or Wes, would we?’

  ‘In the long term that might have been for the best,’ Lola said enigmatically, ‘At least, it would have been for me. Aaron is an important man … a friend of the President, no less. I am nothing more than a bar girl … a whore! One day he’ll go back East to his own kind, leaving me to go back to mine. But I accepted that when I let myself fall for him and I’ll make the most of him while I can. It’s not every woman who is lucky enough to have someone like Aaron come into her life.’

  Lola was not in the habit of expressing her feelings quite so openly and, giving Anabelita an embarrassed, lop-sided smile, she added, ‘We haven’t done too well in our choice of men, have we? There’s me saying Aaron’s too good for me and Wes believing he’s not good enough for you!’

  Startled by Lola’s words, Anabelita demanded, ‘What do you mean…? Whatever gives you the idea that Wes doesn’t believe he’s good enough for me?’

  ‘Aaron told me,’ Lola replied. ‘It seems Wes told him he could never see you settling down to life as the wife of a miner.’

  ‘Since the question of marriage has never come up, I don’t think Wes had any right to say who I would, or wouldn’t settle down with. For all he knows I might be ready to settle down with anyone who will have me.’

  Anabelita’s reply puzzled Lola. She thought about it for a few moments before asking, ‘Are you pregnant?’ She put the question hesitantly, fully expecting her friend to be indignant at such an impertinent question.

  Instead, Anabelita shrugged, ‘I don’t know.’

  The reply astonished Lola. ‘You don’t know whether you’re expecting a baby? There can’t be any doubt, one way or the other, surely? You either are, or you’re not!’

  ‘I’ve never been particularly regular,’ Anabelita replied, ‘and I’m only a couple of weeks overdue.’

  Showing very real concern, Lola said, ‘But … what if you are pregnant? You can’t take up work in a frontier town gaming house in that condition.’

  ‘Why not? It won’t even show for about six months – and what else should I do? Retire on what little money I’ve got put by, only to discover it’s a false alarm? No, Lola, I’ll carry on with whatever Aaron has planned for us and decide what to do when I know one way or the other.’

  When Lola remained silent, Anabelita said, ‘You won’t say anything to Aaron about it?’

  ‘Of course not, but in all fairness to him I think you should tell him as soon as you know for certain – for his sake and for yours. He’ll no doubt be able to get in touch with Wes….’

  ‘No!’ Anabelita spoke fiercely, ‘I don’t want Wes to know anything about this … even if there is something to know. I hope he will come back to me sometime soon, Lola. I think I want it more than anything I have ever wanted in the whole of my life, but it needs to be because he loves me, not because he believes it is what he should do. If he returns to me because someone tells him I am expecting his baby I will never know for certain. If he comes back to me of his own accord then I will tell him. I will also tell him how I feel about becoming a miner’s wife … but all that is in the future. I am glad I have told you, Lola, you are a good friend and I wasn’t happy not saying anything to you but let’s not talk about it again until I am certain whether or not I am having Wes’s baby.’

  CHAPTER 2

  The next day was a Saturday and, late in the afternoon, as the train slowed on the approach to the Abilene depot, Lola and Anabelita made a final check to ensure they would leave nothing behind when they disembarked.

  Both women were excited to be arriving at their destination – but their enthusiasm was not shared by Aaron. The US Marshal had been led to believe that Abilene was a thriving and exciting railhead town, where cowboys, cattlemen, buyers and their many hangers-on made it a rowdy and free-spending town. What he was seeing through the train window did not justify such a claim.

  There were extensive stockyards, it was true, but they were standing empty with a neglected air and what could be seen of Abilene itself gave the newcomer an impression of a sleepy and rather tired town.

  It was not at all what Aaron had been expecting. At this time of day a railhead town should have been bracing itself for a night of riotous entertainment. Abilene did not look like a town where a man could make his fortune by opening a gambling house.

  At that moment the conductor came through the car and Aaron commented to him on the lack of activity to be seen through the car window.

  ‘Things in Abilene certainly aren’t what they used to be,’ the conductor agreed ruefully, ‘There was a time when there’d be nigh as many folk waiting to meet the train as there were steers in the pens we’ve just passed. Trouble is, too many newcomers brought fancy ideas in from the East and they didn’t care for the smell of the cattle – nor the cowboys. Thing got so bad that the Texan cattlemen persuaded the Sante Fe railroad to lay track into Dodge. When they did, the cattlemen moved the stockyards there too. I tell you, if it wasn’t for all that’s going on out in C
olorado the Kansas Pacific would be in deep trouble and it’d be hardly worthwhile stopping in Abilene at all. There’s only six of you getting off the train today and I doubt if there’ll be that many getting on.’

  Lola and Anabelita had been listening to the conversation with increasing concern. When the conductor moved on Lola asked, ‘If all he says is true, what are we going to do, Aaron? If there are no cattle coming in there’s going to be very little money around to spend on gambling.’

  Aaron could only agree, but he said, ‘Let’s not get too depressed about it right now. We’ll find a hotel, book ourselves in and I’ll check out how much truth there is in what the conductor had to say. Things might not be quite as bad as he makes out although I must admit there doesn’t seem to be very much going on in Abilene right now.’

  Booking in to a hotel posed the trio no problem. Aaron had already inquired about which of the town’s establishments was most suitable for the two women and had learned that the best of them was right opposite the railroad depot. Here he booked a room for Lola and Anabelita to share and another for himself.

  When he had seen the two women settled in, Aaron set off to find the town sheriff. He had no trouble locating his office on the town’s dusty and tired-looking main street, but the sheriff was not here.

  A one-armed man sitting in the office cleaning a shotgun informed him that the town’s premier lawman was out of town with his wife, attending a relative’s wedding in Kansas City.