No Less Than the Journey

by E. V. Thompson

  ‘Then I guess things must be pretty quiet around here right now,’ Aaron commented.

  Shaking his head, the one-armed man said dejectedly, ‘Mister, things are so quiet in Abilene that if anyone so much as sneezed, it’d likely make headlines in the next day’s newspaper.’

  Aaron smiled, ‘I’ll remember to tiptoe around town and make sure not to blow my nose … but am I right in thinking you’re Pat Rafferty?’

  ‘That’s me, Mister, but you have an advantage over me …’

  ‘I’m sorry, I should have introduced myself when I came in …’ Extending a hand, he said, ‘I’m Aaron Berryman, a friend of Heck McKinnon.’

  The one-armed man’s lackadaisical air disappeared immediately. Scrambling to his feet still clutching the shotgun, he seemed momentarily at a loss what to do with the weapon. Eventually laying it upon the table, he grasped Aaron’s right hand in an awkward grip with his own left and said, ‘It’s an honour to meet you, Marshal. Heck telegraphed that you’d be coming this way, but he didn’t say when, or why.’

  ‘I’m on my way to the Territories,’ Aaron explained, ‘but thought I’d like to set up a little personal business venture right here in Abilene first. At least, that was my intention. I came to look at a gambling saloon called the Golden Globe. Heck said you might be able to help me out.’

  Rafferty grimaced, ‘I could have helped you, Marshal, but not any more. You’ve arrived in Abilene a little too late. The Golden Globe burned down a couple of weeks ago.’

  Startled by the news, Aaron asked, ‘Burned down…? How did it happen?’

  ‘The only person with the answer to that question is Kate Scobell, who owned the place … but she ain’t around any more. She was arrested on suspicion of burning the place down so she could claim insurance on it, but a slick lawyer got her released and no one’s seen hide nor hair of her since then. Rumour has it she’s taken off and gone East.’

  Looking sympathetically at Aaron, Rafferty added, ‘All this might have come as a nasty shock to you, Marshal, but take it from me, you’ve had a lucky escape.’

  When Aaron asked him to explain what he meant, Rafferty said, ‘The days when money was easy come, easy go in Abilene, are over. There’s not one gaming-house in town that’s making money any more. Most have already closed. You’ll have seen the empty stockyards as you came in. Cattlemen have taken their money to Dodge City and until something comes in to take their place folk are going to need to tighten their belts – and I know what I’m talking about, Marshal. Time was when six deputies were hard put to keep order in this one street alone. Now they’ve all been paid off and the sheriff is able to go out of town to a family wedding, leaving a one-armed man without a badge to look after the town while he’s away.’

  ‘Well, according to Heck McKinnon you’re more than capable of doing just that, but finding Abilene so quiet has come as a big disappointment to me …’

  Aaron told Rafferty the story of the wrecking of the Missouri Belle, explaining, ‘I brought two of the women croupiers along to Abilene with me.’ Making no mention of Lola’s past, he added, ‘They’re both straight players and I was looking forward to buying the Golden Globe, setting it up as an honest house and asking you to keep order in it while I was away. Now I suppose I’ll need to take a look at Dodge.’

  ‘Dodge City is no place for women, Marshal – leastways, not unless they’re whores. My brother came through here from Dodge only last week, heading home to Missouri. He says it’s already wilder than Abilene ever was and reckons there’s no more than a couple of decent women there right now. As for gaming-houses … big men from the East have moved in and put the opposition out of business – some of ’em permanently. If you were likely to be around all the time you might be able to do something about it, but it’s no place to leave two women while you go about your government duties. No, Marshal, if I was thinking of starting up some such business I’d turn my back on cattle towns. I’d go way out West – to where you’re heading anyway. To Colorado. It’s still a Territory, although I’ve heard it said it won’t be too long before it’s given Statehood … but you’ll know that already. Miners are striking it rich around Denver and flocking into town looking for ways to spend their earnings. Yes, sir, if I was intending setting up a gambling saloon – one with an honest game and two women who weren’t whores working the tables, I’d head for Denver. A miner who struck it rich passed through here only last week and said men from the diggings will pay good money just for the chance to look at a decent woman. That’s where there’s money to be made, Marshal – and you’d always be somewhere near at hand to see that things were going just the way you wanted. I’m so sure that’s the place to be that if you decided to take your chances there and wanted someone to be around to keep order for you, I’d up sticks here and come along with you.’

  CHAPTER 3

  At the hotel that evening when Aaron told the two women the worrying information given to him by Pat Rafferty, Anabelita was particularly concerned.

  ‘What do we do now?’ she asked. ‘I’ve given up everything to come along with you, Aaron.’

  ‘I realize that, Anabelita, that’s what I want to discuss with both you and Lola. It’s come as quite a shock to all of us but, according to folk I’ve spoken to in Abilene, everything happened so suddenly that moving the stockyards from the town took them by surprise. There had been rumours for some time about the demise of the stockyards, but business was booming so no one took them seriously. Then, one day, it just happened. Cattle and cattlemen didn’t need to come to Abilene any more because the railroad had gone down the trail to meet them.’

  ‘Are you suggesting we do the same?’ This time the question came from Lola.

  ‘No …’ Aaron replied, before adding honestly, ‘I did think about it, but it would mean going too far out of the way from my real work out here.’

  Leaning towards them and sounding more enthusiastic, he said, ‘Mind you, this could prove to be a blessing in disguise … for all of us.’

  ‘How?’ Anabelita demanded, unconvinced. ‘Lola and me came with you to work in a gambling parlour that’s been burned down, in a town where there’s no money and Lola and I have nowhere to work. I can’t see how that’s a good thing for any of us.’

  His enthusiasm increasing, Aaron replied, ‘Think what might have happened had we got here earlier, bought the Golden Globe, and I’d gone off to carry out my duties as a United States Marshal leaving you to run a gaming-house. Now that would have been a real calamity for every one of us, especially me. I would have lost all my cash and not been able to help either of you. As it is I am able to finance either, or both of you, to go to wherever you think will best suit you – that’s if you want to go your own ways after you’ve listened to what I have to say.’

  Aware that he had the full attention of both of them, Aaron continued, ‘I still intend setting up a gaming-saloon – an honest one – but in a place where there’s real money being made by men who are just looking for places in which to spend it. I’m talking about Denver.’

  Anabelita looked at Aaron sceptically, ‘I’ve never heard of this “Denver”, but it sounds a lot like a place the Spaniards used to talk about … I believe they called it “El Dorado”, a place where everything was made of gold. The trouble is, such a place has never existed – or, if it did, no one’s ever found it.’

  Leaning back in his chair once more, Aaron gave Anabelita an amused smile, ‘You know, you’re not so very wrong, Anabelita. Denver may not quite be an “El Dorado”, but the wealth that’s being spent there comes from gold. Men are flocking to the mines around the town in their thousands.’

  ‘Oh? And will they all become millionaires and go home happy – after spending a percentage on the gaming tables, of course, or are the great majority going to be disappointed when they find nothing and either starve or turn to crime in order to stay alive? It sounds to me as though this Denver might turn out to be an even wilder town than the new railhead t
own of Dodge.’

  Aaron was not particularly surprised by Anabelita’s response to his suggestion that they should try their luck with a gambling saloon in Denver. After all, she had given up what was comparatively secure work on the Mississippi River to come with him. Colorado was still a Territory and few women thrived on frontier life … but he had brought two women to Abilene.

  Turning to Anabelita’s companion, he asked, ‘What do you think about the idea, Lola?’

  ‘I can’t say I’m exactly jumping for joy at the thought of going further west than we are now,’ Lola replied honestly, ‘but I’ve less to lose than Anabelita and I don’t have enough experience to go back and get a croupier’s job on the river or in any other place that’s half-respectable. If you’re willing to take me on to Denver on my own I’ll come with you – because I trust you … but I would be a whole lot happier if Anabelita came too. There’s a great deal about gambling that she knows and I don’t.’

  Appealing to her friend, she pleaded, ‘Won’t you give it a try, Anabelita … for me?’

  While Lola had been talking, Anabelita’s thoughts had been of what concerned her even more than the shock of finding there was to be no work waiting for her in Abilene. Her reply to Lola’s plea reflected this thinking.

  ‘What happens if Wes comes here looking for me, only to find we’ve moved on to somewhere else?’

  Lola had said nothing to Aaron about Anabelita’s suspected condition, but he was a shrewd man and he asked now, ‘Is there any particular reason why he should come looking for you?’

  ‘No particular reason,’ Anabelita lied, ‘but I do think a hell of a lot of him and I believed he was coming around to feeling the same way about me. Everyone we’ve spoken to about the place he was going to in Missouri has said that things there are bad – especially for English miners. I thought that if he couldn’t get mining work he might come looking for me to see what he might do in Abilene.’

  ‘The way things are here he’d be no luckier finding work than in Missouri,’ Aaron commented, ‘but if you decide to come with us I’ll send a telegraph to the County Sheriff of the Harmony area asking him to find Wes and tell him where we’ve gone. Not only that, just in case he’s already left and is on his way here, I’ll leave a message at the Abilene sheriff’s office too. If Wes comes here I’ll make certain he learns where we’ve gone. You can be quite certain of that, Anabelita. I’d like to make Wes a Deputy United States Marshal to help me out with what’s going to be a tough task in Colorado. So, you see, I have a keen interest in that young man too!’

  Anabelita could not tell Aaron that she believed her interest in Wes’s future movements was even more urgent than those of the United States Marshal, albeit of a far more personal nature.

  It concerned her whole future – and that of the child she was almost certainly carrying, the child that was hers and Wes’s.

  She also realized that if Wes did not turn up, she would be able to rely on more support and help from Lola and Aaron than she was likely to find if she abandoned them now and returned to work back East, where she knew very few people well enough to ask for their help.

  Making up her mind, she capitulated. ‘All right, if you leave word for Wes where we’ve gone, I’ll come to Denver with you….’

  CHAPTER 4

  In Denver, Colorado, Aaron and the two women with him, found all they had expected to find in Abilene – and much more. It was early evening when they arrived accompanied by Pat Rafferty, and the streets surrounding the downtown railroad depot were thronged with men, women and children – but mostly men.

  Among them were a number of cowboys, but the majority were men wearing a garb that Wes would have recognized immediately as that adopted by miners. Many spoke with an accent he would also have recognized and it thrilled Anabelita to hear them speak in the way he did. She wished he could have been here with her to hear it for himself.

  Aaron looked about him and beamed. ‘Now, this is more like it, there’s a healthy aroma of money in the air….’

  At that moment there was an eruption of noise from somewhere along the street, accompanied by a number of gunshots and a woman began screaming.

  When Aaron seemed unconcerned by the sounds, Anabelita said to him, ‘Something’s happening along there. As United States Marshal shouldn’t you find out what it is?’

  To her surprise, Aaron shook his head. When she appeared confused, he explained, ‘Denver’s a frontier town. If I got myself involved in every little altercation that occurred I’d just be wasting government money. Besides, it looks to me as though Denver has got itself a police force … of sorts. It’s standing right across the street and is no doubt paid by the good citizens of Denver to keep the peace. If he’s not concerned by whatever’s going on I’ll mind my own business.’

  Looking across the street Anabelita saw a man wearing a blue uniform with a silver badge pinned to the left breast of his jacket. He was standing with his back to the disturbance, unconcernedly chatting to two men, both of whom to Lola’s experienced eyes appeared to have been drinking.

  The four travellers had an amount of luggage with them and Aaron said to the one-armed man, ‘Will you look after the girls and the baggage for a few minutes, Pat? I can see a sign for the Denver Hotel up the quieter end of the street. It’s the hotel recommended by that talkative carpetbagger on the train, but this isn’t Abilene. If it’s as good as he said, then it’s likely to be full. There’s no sense lugging everything up there only to have to take it somewhere else.’

  ‘Go ahead,’ Rafferty grinned, ‘I don’t think we’ll be bored while you’re away.’

  His comment was in response to an upsurge of sound from the street in the opposite direction to the Denver Hotel. Now it was mainly cheering and hooting and as they all looked in that direction they were in time to see a horse and rider emerge from the entrance to the saloon. The rider was wielding a six-gun in one hand and a bottle of whisky in the other.

  Across the street from the railroad depot the uniformed policeman had turned to see what was happening, but was now in conversation with his two companions once more.

  Aaron and Pat exchanged glances, then Aaron shrugged and set off to walk to the Denver Hotel.

  As Pat and the two women talked together the crowd outside the saloon farther along the street gradually drifted away. The town policeman was still talking to his companions, but one of them had begun taking an interest in Anabelita and Lola.

  He said something to the others which caused all three men to look across the road before he sauntered across the thoroughfare towards the newly-arrived trio.

  Dressed in none-too-clean cowboy clothes, the man wore a revolver in an open holster at his hip and as he drew closer, it became evident his face had not felt the touch of a razor for a week or more.

  ‘Uh-ah! Here comes trouble,’ Anabelita commented softly to Lola.

  Stopping in front of the two women and ignoring their one-armed companion, the cowboy said, ‘Howdy, girls, you just arrived in town?’

  The aroma of stale whisky which was breathed out with his words was the least offensive of the odours he brought with him and neither woman made any reply.

  Undeterred, the cowboy spoke again, ‘If you’re looking for somewhere to stay I can take you to a hotel that’s as cheap as any you’re likely to find in Denver.’ Beaming at Lola, he added, ‘Not only that, they’ll ask no questions and if you’re looking to set yourselves up in business … well, you couldn’t find anyone better than Archie Leveridge to look after your interests.’

  ‘You’re being offensive, friend,’ said Pat Rafferty, ‘I think you’d better back off and return to your friends. They seem more amused by you than we are.’

  Looking contemptuously at the one-armed man, the cowboy said, ‘Stay out of this – unless you want to lose the use of the arm you’ve got left.’

  Pat Rafferty did not carry a handgun and his shotgun was strapped to his bag, which was on the boardwalk with the ot
her luggage.

  As he began to sidle towards it, the cowboy lifted his revolver from its holster and said, ‘Don’t even think about it, Mister. You’d be dead before you laid a finger on it.’

  While he was threatening Rafferty, Anabelita whispered to Lola, ‘Move in front of me … quickly!’

  Startled, Lola said, ‘What…? Why…?’

  ‘Just do it!’ Anabelita hissed, in such an authoritarian tone that Lola did as she was told immediately and Anabelita reached beneath her skirt so swiftly that no one around her was even aware of the move.

  ‘Get over there, away from that bag,’ the cowboy gunman motioned Pat Rafferty away with a wave of his gun.

  ‘Look, cowboy, just go on your way and leave us alone. These are two respectable ladies and we’re all waiting here for a friend to return, then we’ll be going about our business.’

  ‘Is that so? Well, the ladies have just found themselves a new friend and I’m sure we’ll all know each other a whole lot better by the end of the evening – but so neither of ’em will feel left out I’ll call my partner to come over and join us.’

  As he was speaking the cowboy signalled to the man who still stood speaking to the Denver police officer on the far side of the street and when the man started to walk towards them he spoke to Rafferty once more.

  ‘Now, go on your way and leave these “ladies” to enjoy the company of two real men.’

  ‘If it’s all the same to you, I’ll stay where I am and keep the ladies and their luggage with me.’ Pat Rafferty was hoping that if he could only keep the other man talking for long enough, Aaron would return, but it seemed the gunman had other ideas.

  ‘I’ve asked you real nice to go away, but I’m running out of patience with you, Mister. I’m going to count to five … if you’re not gone by then you won’t be going anywhere … ever!’

  Looking straight at Pat Rafferty, the cowboy began counting. ‘One … two … three … four….’