Bendigo Shafter

by Louis L'Amour

  “I knew about you people and hoped to reach you while I could still travel. I must have passed out just after I saw your lights.”

  “How old are they?”

  “The girl’s twelve and the boy’s a bit younger. Eight or nine, I’d say, and sick. He’s got a bad cough and a fever. That’s another reason I didn’t want them in the cold.”

  There were a lot of questions unanswered, but Sampson was shaking his head to get me to stop talking. His story made a certain kind of sense, but I was wondering what a man sentenced to hang was doing out there, miles from nowhere, with two children obviously not his own. “How do I find this place?”

  He told me, and he was good, I’ll give him that. He knew how to pick landmarks and how to give directions. In the west that was quite a skill, for many a man traveled a thousand miles on directions given in a few minutes over a drink or traced in the sand with a stick. From the directions he gave I knew this man had covered a lot of country and knew what to notice.

  “I’ll get my wife,” Sampson said. “Shell be wondering what happened.”

  When he had gone, I looked down at Morrell. “I am going after those kids,” I said, “and this had better not be a trap.”

  “Why should it be?”

  “We buried some renegades on the hill,” I said, “and they have friends.”

  “I am not one of them,” he said ironically, “although I expect I am enough of a renegade. I travel alone. Or did until I ran into those youngsters.”

  “What name are you using?”

  He gave me a cold, intent look. “That’s a good question,” he said. “Did you have anything in mind?”

  “A man’s name is his own affair,” I said, “and out here a man’s name is less than what he is. I looked in your saddlebags and saw a name there, but I’ll call you anything you like as long as you play your cards above the table.”

  “Fair enough.” For a moment he closed his eyes. It was wasting his strength to keep him talking, but there were things I wanted to know. “My name is Drake Morrell. It has always been a good name, and I’ll use it.”

  He closed his eyes again, and I shouldered into my coat, not relishing the long ride in the cold. The last thing before I left I placed his saddlebags where his hand could rest on them.

  The horse I saddled was the buckskin taken from the renegades. My own horse had been hard-used these past weeks and needed rest. The buckskin looked tough, a mustang, and a horse used to living out in all sorts of weather. He wanted to go no more than I did, but we started, a bait of grub and a roll of blankets behind the saddle.

  We headed south into a night bright with stars, the wind icy cold on my face.

  Ethan had pointed out the Oregon Buttes direction one time, and with what Morrell had told me, I felt sure I’d find the cave.

  The day dawned cold and gray. There was no sound but the hard pound of the buckskin’s hoofs on frozen snow or ground where the snow had blown away.

  For the last few miles of my ride I had the Oregon Buttes to guide on, for they stood out well against the sky, towering above the country around. Closing in, I smelted smoke ... at least, they still had a fire.

  The tracks of Morrel’s horse led me into the draw where the cave was, only it was not exactly a cave but a walled up dugout with a hollow log for a chimney. A girl was outside picking up sticks. She straightened up, watching me with wide, dark eyes.

  She was not afraid. She simply stood, waiting, to see what I was and what I wanted. She was a child, but a rarely beautiful child.

  “I am Bendigo Shafter,” I said, “and Mr. Morrell sent me for you.”

  “Is he all right?” She was anxious. “I was afraid for him.”

  “He was all right when I left, although he’ll be needing a lot of rest.”

  She opened the door with her free hand. “David is sick. Will you come in?”

  Ducking my head, I followed her. It was warm inside. There were four bunks and a table, two benches, a wash basin, and a bucket.

  On the lower bunk lay a child, shockingly thin, his eyes wide and feverish. His brow was hot under my hand, his breathing broken and unsteady.

  There was a door across the room. “What’s in there?” I asked.

  “A stable. There’s a little hay in there.” There was an outside door that opened among some boulders, and I led the buckskin in. He ducked his head and walked right to the manger, so I had a hunch that buckskin had been here before. I added some wood to the fire, then got out my grub sack and a pan I’d brought along. I threw pemmican into the pan, added some snow, and when it heated up I made her eat some of it. The boy refused at first, then swallowed a little, making a half-hearted effort to eat.

  We had to get out of here, but the boy would never survive a twenty-mile ride in the cold. “Is he your brother?”

  “Yes.”

  “Are you related to Drake Morrell?”

  “Oh, no! Of course not. He knew my mother, and he helped us.” Knew? I hesitated to ask the question but she looked at me with those great, dark eyes, holding her hands tightly clasped in her lap and said, “My mother died last week. He ... Mr. Morrell ... buried her. He was taking us to St. Louis so we could catch the steamer for New Orleans.”

  “I see.”

  “Only there was a man waiting for him at Fort Bridger. He put a rifle on Mr. Morrell and said he was going to kill him, but Mr. Morrell shot him. Then somebody else shot Mr. Morrell and we had to ride away.”

  “We’ll go to my town,” I said. “There are women there, and some children. You’ll like it there. We even had a party last night with dancing and singing.”

  “I can dance. And sing, too. And I can play the violin and banjo.” Bad as it was to remain here with the fuel running out and a risk of outlaws returning, for I was sure this had been one of their places from the way the buckskin acted, I simply dared not start with the boy in the shape he was in. Yet, if I could get some strength in him from the hot stew, he might be in better shape by daylight. It was a sure thing he would not recover here.

  There wasn’t fuel enough to last the night so I scouted along the riverbed. Here and there I found a broken limb from a tree, washed down from above, but in two trips I’d found everything within walking distance, and it wasn’t much.

  Several times I tried to feed the small boy, but he refused it. I wished John Sampson was with me, or Helen or Mrs. Macken.

  All I could do was keep them warm and hope for the best. After a while the girl fell asleep, and I was alone with the sick child, trying to keep the place warm. Finally there was nothing for it but to burn the stable door, so I brought the horse in with us where his body heat would help and broke down the manger and burned it and then the door. Somehow I kept the fire alive through the long, weary, very cold night.

  Sometime about daybreak I fell asleep myself and was awakened by a hand on my shoulder.

  “Mr. Shafter?”

  I sat up, ashamed of myself for sleeping. “What is it, honey? What’s wrong?”

  “It’s my brother, Mr. Shafter. He’s gone, I think.”

  And so he was.

  Chapter 10

  Drake Morrell tried to sit up when I walked into Sampson’s house. “Did you find them?”

  “The boy didn’t make it.”

  “I was afraid of that. How did she take it?”

  “Like a soldier ... so far.”

  “Their mother was a fine girl, a very fine one.” He looked up at me. “I knew her before. Long ago. She was ill. In very bad shape. So was the boy. I knew they had people in New Orleans, and if I could get them to St. Louis they could catch the steamboat.”

  He was silent for a while. He looked better but was far from well. He would be weak for a good long time.

  “Where is she now?”

  “At Ruth Macken’s. She’s a widow with one son, not much older than the girl. She had the most room, and she was the best person for a girl to be with at a time like this.”

  He had that b
ook on the table beside him and when I left he began reading again.

  Webb was in Cain’s house when I entered. He looked at me. “Do you know who that man is? He’s a riverboat gambler and gunfighter. He’s killed a half dozen men.”

  “So?”

  “Figured you’d like to know.”

  “He conducts himself as a gentleman should, and as long as he does I’ll find no fault in him.”

  “We can always use a good man with a gun,” Webb agreed. Two nights later when I was invited to Ruth Macken’s fine supper, I saw again the girl I had brought back from the cold.

  Mrs. Macken had contrived a dress for her from an old one of her own. She greeted me with a curtsy and led me to the table. She seemed somehow older than her twelve years, a grave, beautiful girl with large dark eyes.

  This was also the night I was finally returning Walden, which I had read twice, so Mrs. Macken went to her trunk for another. This time it was Plutarch’s Lices, a book about ancient Greeks and Romans whose lives were somehow similar.

  “More great men have read this book, Mr. Shafter, than any other unless it be the Bible. I think you will enjoy it.”

  We ate by candle and firelight, no casual meal as in the other cabins, but a formal dinner, carefully done and carefully served.

  When we were alone for a moment Ruth Macken said, “She’s very brave, but a strange child. She never mentions her brother, but at night I’ve heard her crying.”

  “I shouldn’t wonder, losing her mother and brother so nearly together. Does she know anything of her relatives in New Orleans?”

  “Only their names. She saw them only once, when she was very young, and she remembers they lived in a very grand house and did not approve of her father. He was an actor and played in London and Paris as well as New York.”

  “What happened to him?”

  “She hasn’t said, and I haven’t asked.” Ruth Macken smiled at me, amusement in her eyes. “You have an admirer, Mr. Shafter. You are her hero now. You came out in the storm and rescued her, just like in the stories.”

  I felt myself blushing. “I did nothing,” I said. She changed the subject. “What do you know about Drake Morrel?”

  “He is a gambler. He was sentenced to be hung in San Francisco, but we don’t know the circumstances. How he escaped I have no idea. I am sure he’s a man of good family, and with some education. He is reading a book now, in some foreign language. I believe it is Latin.

  “Webb knows something about him. He said he had been a river-boat gambler. He has supposedly killed several men, but so have we.”

  “Only a decent man would allow himself to be saddled with two youngsters while escaping from enemies. I think he will bear acquaintance, Mr. Shafter.”

  The days that passed were days of work, and for me, days of planning. I spent many hours with Ethan, going over the Oregon Trail in our talk, talking of water holes, where grass might be found, and such things. Our celebration of Thanksgiving was quiet, a brief sermon by John Sampson and then we sang hymns, the old ones: like Rock of Ages and Come Ye That Love the Lord.

  Drake Morrell recovered slowly, but before he did he hired Tom Croft and me to build him a cabin. We took our pay in gold, a twenty dollar gold piece to each of us. I hoarded mine against the Oregon trip.

  He bought needful things from Ruth Macken, and I was present when he made his purchases. When she answered the door he said, “Madam, I understand you have blankets and clothing to sell?” She led the way to her storeroom, and he selected blankets and the usual kitchen utensils. He was polite, yet there was something about him that froze off any questions.

  “Is there a post?” he asked. “I mean, can a letter be mailed from here?”

  “At present, no. We sent some mail by Porter Rockwell when he was here, but there has been no reply.”

  “Rockwell comes here?”

  “He came to thank us. We helped some Mormons.”

  “You were fortunate,” he commented dryly, “Porter’s visits usually have less happy results.”

  He studied the matter. “Then you’ve no regular post?”

  “Not yet. There’s talk of a stage line when spring comes again. It has been running off and on for several years, but the Indians steal their horses.”

  “I’ll be going west after Christmas,” I said. “I am going to buy cattle and drive them back. I could take your letters then.”

  He looked at me thoughtfully. “You are enterprising. Yes, thank you. I shall write a few.” He gathered his packages. “Do you have many visitors?”

  “Almost none. When spring comes we hope that will change.”

  “I’m sure.”

  He bowed again and walked out into the air. “A handsome woman,” he said, “and a lady.”

  “She lends me books.”

  “Books?”

  “I am reading Plutarch,” I said.

  He glanced at me. “You are fortunate. He was a man of great understanding, a man of the world in its best sense. Yes, he is well worth reading. And Mrs. Macken? Does she read Plutarch?”

  “Her husband did. I believe she has also.”

  “What happened to Mr. Macken?”

  “Indians ... on the way out. Over on the Plain. He’d been a major in the army and served in several frontier posts as well as in the east.”

  When we put down the bundles, I said, “I noticed you were reading.”

  “Yes, I have many books, but only the one with me.” He smiled. “You will understand, Mr. Shafter, I had no time to pack.”

  “Well,” I said, “he who reads and runs away lives to read another day.”

  He glanced at me again, but made no comment. Then after a moment be said, “When a man has put one bullet into you, and you have been trusted with the care of two children, you do not risk a second bullet. No doubt the gentleman and I shall meet again.”

  “That book ... it was in another language.”

  “Latin ... the Satires, of Juvenal.”

  Turning to the door, I hesitated. “Mr. Morrell,” I said, “I like you. We would like you to stay as long as you wish, but there is one thing. I understand you have had several gun battles.”

  “Not of my choosing. Not,” he added dryly, “in every case.”

  “We have a man here named Webb.”

  “I have seen him.”

  “He is a good man, but a difficult one. When there is trouble he is always ready for it, no matter what kind. We need men like that. But he is touchy ... he has never hunted trouble, but is very quick when it comes.”

  “Why do you tell me this?”

  “Because I do not want trouble between you and would not want it to come from a careless word.”

  “Thank you. I will remember what you have said.” He turned away as I started out, then asked, “Are you the town marshal?”

  “No, sir. We do not have one.”

  “You’d better. I mean before spring comes. This man Webb, perhaps?”

  “He’s too quick.”

  “Then you? You have handled this situation very correctly.”

  “I’ll be gone,” I said, “and I don’t want the job.”

  “Sometimes the job selects the man,” he said.

  For several days then we saw very little of Drake Morrell. He spent most of his time indoors, occasionally walking down to Beaver Creek in the evening.

  And then we had the chinook.

  I awakened in the night. Something was different, strangely different. At first I could not realize what it was, and then I knew.

  It was warm.

  Lying there in my bed I could hear water dripping from the eaves. I went down the ladder to the window. Cain was sitting on the edge of the bed, listening. “What is it, Cain?”

  “Sounds like rain, but it can’t be. Not at this time of the year.”

  We opened the door and looked out. Water was dripping from the eaves, and where the night before there had been a solid field of snow there were now large patches of black where t
he snow was no longer. A warm wind touched our faces, and the snow was vanishing as if by magic.

  “It’s what Ethan told us about,” Cain said, “it’s a chinook.”

  By daylight there was little snow left, and the road to the falls was black with mud. The air felt wonderful, and I bathed my face and upper body in a tin washbasin outside the door.

  For a few days we had fine weather and Cain and I turned to working on the tub mill we planned to build, marking out the ground and beginning the foundation. Croft had gone hunting with Neely Stuart, and all was quiet in the town.

  We worked steadily, hauling rocks and building them into a wall, with smaller rocks for a chimney. Cain worked without effort, the largest boulder seeming nothing to him.

  “You were with Morrell when he bought blankets?” he asked suddenly.

  Straightening to get the kink out of my back I said, “He bought clothing as well. I think he means to stay.”

  Cain was silent. After a while he took his pipe from his pocket and lighted it. “We can use another man. He’s an educated man, you say?”

  “Yes.”

  “He will be a companion then to Mrs. Macken. I do not doubt she has wished for somebody with education.”

  Surprised, I glanced at him. “I hadn’t thought of it that way. They had nothing to say to each other.”

  “Give them time. No doubt she misses educated talk. I heard her husband talk a few times, and he was a man of parts, very bright, and a fine speaker. Whatever he spoke had meaning.” And then he added, “I never had a gift for words.”

  “What you say is to the point, and that’s important.” He returned to work, but the conversation puzzled me. There had been a note of wistfulness, almost of uncertainty in his voice. He was always so calm, so sure. I think he made fewer false moves than any man I ever knew.

  He had always seemed so complete a man that I never thought of him feeling any lack in himself, yet now I knew he did. The lack of education disturbed him, made him less sure. And there was something else there, too. Something that I could not, at the moment, put a finger to.

  After a bit we left our work on the mill and went over to the places chosen and paced off the spots for a schoolhouse and a church. As we gathered tools at the day’s end, Cain said to me, “We are invited to Ruth Macken’s tonight. There’s to be a performance.”