Dakota Trail

by David R Lewis

  “Just throwed her down, did he?”

  “Yessir. He come to yellin’ at her then, called her a bitch, yanked her up to her feet by the front a her robe, an’ drawed back to hit her in the face. I got to him, pointed my Remington at him, an’ tolt him if he hit her I’d shoot him. He settled down a little bit, then come to squawkin’ about how she belonged to him an’ he would do what he pleased with her. She was his property, bought an’ paid for. That’s when I smacked his nose.”

  Forest grinned at me.

  “Feel good, did it?” he asked.

  “Yessir,” I said, “it did. Her name is Lotus Flower an’ she speaks English purty fair. Me an Marion took her back to Mister Rafferty’s house an’ got her a job fixin’ up rooms an’ such for him every mornin’. Mister Rafferty is gonna pay her fifty cents a day, plus two meals an’ put her up in a little room a her own.”

  “Well ain’t that nice a him to do such a thing.” Forest said.

  “Plus,” I went on, “I spoke with the ladies over at Nora’s Notions store. I’m takin’ her over there this afternoon for them to meet her. We’ve already talked about her, an’ it will prob’ly mean three hours a day workin’ in the store at twenny-five cents a hour, plus some American clothes for her. All she’s got now is one a them Chinee robe things an’ them wooden soles kindly strapped to her feet.”

  It was then when that young feller showed up with a cup a coffee for Forest.

  “On the house,” he said.

  Forest looked at me. “On the house?” he said.

  I grinned at him an’ leaned back.

  “It ain’t whatcha know, son,” I said. “It’s who ya know.”

  Forest come to smilin’ real big, an’ put about four spoons a sweet in his coffee, then poured half of it down his neck.

  “This fella that come complainin’ to ya about how we attacked him go by the name a Craig, does he?” I asked.

  Forest nodded.

  “He said he’d come by the office a little after suppertime to see if I’d found them blackhearts that treated him so bad. I was just thinkin’ what a surprise it might be for him if you fellers was to be on hand.”

  That put me to grinnin’ some.

  “Where’s yer office?” I asked.

  “When ya leave the roomin’ house, go east to the first street, then north about three blocks an’ you boys cain’t miss it. Can I expect you fellers around suppertime?”

  “Reckon ya kin,” I tolt him.

  Sheriff Hickman smiled, swallered the last a his coffee, an’ stood up.

  “See ya tonight,” he said, an’ struck off.

  I set there for a spell, drinkin’ some coffee an’ thinkin’ about everthin’ that was goin’ on involvin’ Miss Lotus an’ all. My mind was so tied up with it, I didn’t even notice Marion and Homer ‘til they set down at the table with me.

  “Where was ya?” Marion asked me.

  “Kindly wrapped up in all the changes that are comin’ to Miss Lotus, I reckon,” I tolt him.

  “You et?” Homer asked me.

  “Not yet,” I said. “Sheriff Hickman come in an’ him an’ me jawed for a spell. He’d like it if we was to drop by his office around supper time.”

  “What for?”

  “Well, it seems like that ol’ boy I punched in the nose an’ you throwed off the boardwalk might just be over at the Sheriff’s office about that time to see if Hickman has managed to locate the blackhearts that treated him so terrible. The sheriff thought it might be a good thing if all a us was to be there.”

  Marion grinned.

  “That oughta take some a the curl outa his tail,” he said.

  Miss Lucy showed up then, totin’ a tray with three a them ground beef meals for us. Behind her come a young fella with fresh coffee an’ such.

  “I took a chance on what you gentlemen might want to eat,” she said.

  “Miss Lucy,” Homer said, “That chance was a certainty, an’ we’re right pleased with your choice.”

  She smiled real big, give us a little bob, and hustled off. The place was durn near completely full.

  After we finished eatin’ an’ all, we each left her a six-bit tip an’ went out on the boardwalk. Marion looked up an’ down the way an’ spoke up.

  “Reckon I’ll hike around for a spell an’ see what I can see. You boys wanna tag along?”

  “You two go ahead on,” I said. “I gotta git back over to Rafferty’s an’ collect Miss Lotus. I might have found a little afternoon job for her in a store with a couple a nice ladies. They’ll fix her up in some American type clothes an’ such, an’ pay her fifty cents a day for two or three hours a work straightenin’ up the place an’ such. Between that an’ what Mister Rafferty is doin’ for her, she’ll have food, a place ta sleep, new clothes, an’ be makin’ a dollar a day or better.”

  “Ol’ Ruben,” Marion said, an’ walked off. Homer follerd along.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  It was early afternoon afore I got back to the roomin’ house. Miss Lotus was on the porch in a rockin’ chair an’ talkin’ some with a couple a folks settin’ out there with her. When she seen me, she jumped to her feet an’ gimme a greetin’.

  “Roo-bin!” she kindly hollerd. Then she come over to the top a them steps an’ kindly bowed to me a little bit.

  “Miss Lotus,” I said an’ bowed right back at her. That tickled her some an’ she giggled a little. Them two folks she had been talkin’ to was both smilin’ quite a bit. Miss Lotus turned to them.

  “Roo-bin,” she went on, “this Mister an’ Misses Por-tur. They are kind people to me. I get you coffee.”

  I watched her scurry away an’ turned to them people.

  “Nice to meet you folks,” I said, an’ shook hands with the man. “I’m Marshal Ruben Beeler.”

  The woman spoke up.

  “I hear you are quite the hero, Marshal Beeler.”

  “That would be me, M’am,” I tolt her. “Sometimes I am so wonderful that I shine like the sun. It makes gittin’ to sleep some vexin’, but I’m gittin’ used to it.”

  That set both of ‘em to chucklin’ some. Mister Porter spoke up.

  “It is a fine thing you and your partners have done for that young woman.”

  “Thank ya, sir,” I said. “I doan believe I have ever met anybody who deserves it more than she does. Mister Rafferty has give her a little job workin’ here in the roomin’ house for him, kindly straightnin’ things up an’ such in the mornin’. In return, he’s give her a little room a her own, food ta eat, an’ some money. In a while, I’m takin’ her over to the notions store. The ladies there, Miz Nora an’ Miz Darleen, are gonna give her a job for a couple hours ever afternoon helpin’ ‘em straighten the place up. In return, they are gonna pay her an’ git her in some American clothes an’ such. She doan know about it yet. I’m fixin’ to give her a little surprise.”

  It was then she come out with my coffee an’ handed it to me.

  “Thank ya, Miss Lotus,” I said, givin’ her a little bow. “You got all your work done for the day, have ya?”

  “Oh very yes,” she said. “Mista Rafferty say I do good job, and fast too. He give me breakfast. First time I eat bacon. I like bacon very much.”

  Them folks laughed a little.

  “So you’re doin’ all right then, are ya?”

  “Very much right,” she said. “Here I can come outside when I want, I have soft bed in my own little room, and no person come to bother me in the night. Mista Rafferty very nice man.”

  “Good. I have a couple a nice ladies who want to meet ya. I tolt ‘em a bit about ya, an’ it could be they have a job a work for ya in the afternoon time if you’re interested.”

  “I can make more money?”

  “A little bit,” I said.

  “When I meet them?”

  “Why doan you take my coffee cup back to the kitchen, then you an’ me will mosey over that way.”

  She studied on me for a minute.

  “
What mean mo-zee?” she asked.

  “Walk,” I said.

  She smiled.

  “I mo-zee to kitchen with cup and mo-zee right back,” she said, and struck off.

  Mister an’ Missus Porter was both smilin’ quite a bit.

  It warn’t but a minute ‘til Lotus come back an’ her an’ me struck off. Once we got down the steps an’ out by the street, she started walkin’ in back a me. I stopped an’ looked at her.

  “Miss Lotus,” I said, “you ain’t got to walk behind nobody any more. You ain’t no slave an’ you ain’t no servant. Walk up here with me, girl. You an’ me are friends out on a afternoon stroll. Friends walk side by side.”

  Her smile was so big, it kindly shined my heart.

  On our walk, I asked her about where she come from an’ how she got to be where she was. She tolt me her mother an’ father come across the waters to Californy when she warn’t much more than just a baby, an’ traveled clear out to Deadwood to open a laundry bidness for all them miners out that way. Accordin’ to what she said, her daddy was a putry smart feller. He priced his cost a little below any competition an’ done the worshin’ in a big ol’ copper tub with a low fire under it to keep the water some warm. All the worshin’ an’ scrubbin’ an’ such was done while them clothes was in that water. Then they was moved to another copper tub to be rinsed afore they was wrung out an’ hung to dry. At the end of the day, her daddy would rinse an’ drain both them tubs right slow an’ run that water through four or five layers a silk cloth. That silk would let the water through just fine, but would hang on to the gold dust an’ the dirt in them clothes that had settled to the bottom of the tubs. Her daddy would stir that last mess with more clean water an’ drain everthing over an’ over until they warn’t nothin’ left in that silk but gold dust.

  She said when she got some older, she worked in the laundry an’ by the time she was five or six, spoke American better’n either one a her folks. She worked like that for three or four years an’ then her mother got terrible sick an’ come to throwin’ up blood an’ such. After a couple a weeks or so, her momma passed an’ her daddy took it terrible hard, kindly losin’ his will to live. A few months after her momma died, her daddy kindly just give up on everthin’ in his grief an’ got to spendin’ too much time in opium dens an’ such. By the time she was about ten years old, he passed. Miss Lotus tried to keep things goin’ but the laundry bidness was too much for her to handle all by herself, an’ purty soon it just folded up an’ died, too. She had some money an’ gold dust left an’ was able to git enough to eat an’ such an’ keep the little shack they lived in behind the laundry, but she was terrible lonesome an’ didn’t have nobody to turn to. She tolt me she went to bed one evenin’, an’ woke up with a terrible headache an’ was trapped in a wood crate with a barred door in the back of a buckboard wagon.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  I gotta admit to ya that I was some took aback listenin’ to what Miss Lotus tolt me an’ all. I was kindly mad an’ sad at the same time.

  “You doan have to tell me nothin’ if ya doan want to,” I said. “Them must be hard memories for ya.”

  “Memories are hard, Roo-bin, but they are only memories. Now you and Ho-ma and Ma-re-on have brought to me a new life. I not mind to talk about things.”

  “You sure?”

  “Very yes,” she said, an’ went on with her story.

  She tolt me that her an’ two other girls was locked up in them crates near all the time for several days, ridin’ along in the back of a buckboard what was drove by two white men an’ a Chinee fella. After quite a spell, they come to a house out in the country; an’ the three girls was took from them crates an’ put inside little cells like, with just a blanket, a stool, an’ a chamber pot. They got fed potaters or rice an’ fatback twice a day, an’ once a week was allowed to worsh up. They was only give nightgowns to wear, and no shoes of any kind.

  She said that she was helt in that little room from that summer all the way to the next summe;r an’ while she was there, a mess a more girls a little older than her was brung in an sent off. They was all kept separate so she didn’t know exactly how many had been sold or nothin’ like that, an’ they warn’t allowed to talk among theyselves. She did know that one of the two that had been took with her from out in Deadwood died durin’ that winter. Late the next fall, things changed for Miss Lotus. She was give more food to eat, plus some shoes an’ one a them Chinee robes, an’ was put outside an’ made to walk around ever day for a couple hours for exercise. In early spring, that Chinee fella that had helped take her in the first place come by now an’ then to teach her a little English. She done a smart thing an’ never let on that she already knowed how to speak it. He was the first of them men keepin’ her captive that come to inflict rape on her.

  When she tolt me that, it hit me kindly hard an’ I come grittin’ my teeth from it. Miss Lotus stopped walkin’ then an’ looked at me.

  “It over now, Roo-bin,” she said. “I no longer in that place with those men. I know longer am with Mista Craig or who he would sell me to. You an’ Ho-ma an’ Ma-re-on have brought me new life. To be angry about what happened then will poison what happens now. I not happy for long time, but that is over. Now, I walk down the street with one of my new friends and am very happy.”

  I had tears in my eyes standin’ there an’ lookin’ down at her.

  “Miss Lotus,” I said, “I doan believe I have ever met a finer person than you are.”

  She kindly give me a little nod then an’ spoke up. I could see she had tears in her eyes, too.

  “Then you need to look in mirror, Roo-bin,” she said.

  She kindly hugged on me then, her arms around my waist. I returned her hug for a little bit, pattin’ her on the back a time or two, then turned her loose.

  “All my life,” she said, “I will remember you marshals and what you have done for me. But most of all, I will remember you. Oh very yes.”

  I never had no little sister nor nothin’ like one, but I reckon Miss Lotus was close enough.

  We walked on for a ways, neither one of us conversatin’ or nothin’. I figgerd anythin’ else either one of us was to say had, in one way or another, already been said. About the time we got to the street we needed, here come that little horse drawed train car with mebbe six or seven folks settin’ in it. I flagged it down. As we got up in the car, the fella drivin’ the team looked at me an’ shook his head.

  “I doan haul no Chinee people on this route,” he said. “You can come along, but she cain’t. White folks only.”

  I smiled at him.

  “That your rule or is it from the company that owns this rig?”

  He looked me up an’ down.

  “I’m drivin’ the team, godammit,” he said. “I make the rules.”

  “This young woman is in my company,” I tolt him. “She has had a terrible life for quite a spell because a folks like you, sir, an’ she’s comin’ back from it. She ain’t offerd you no problem nor difficulty. I’ll pay for both our fares. You’re hired to drive the team. I was you, I’d do just that.”

  He flared up some.

  “I ain’t haulin’ no Godless Chinee heathern an’ that’s all they is to it.”

  I leaned in some close an’ spoke a little low so them other folks in the car might not hear me.

  “Friend,” I said, “my name is Ruben Beeler an’ I am a United States Marshal. This young girl is in my custody an’ is my responsibility. I take my responsibility some serious. Takin’ care a her is my bidness. Your bidness is to drive them horses. Now, if you doan wanna do that you can walk an’ I’ll drive the team. Her an’ me is goin’ on down the way in this train car. Would you care to come with us, or would you rather limp on home by yerself?”

  “What the hell you mean by that?” he kindly hollerd.

  “What I mean is if I have to toss ya offa this railcar, I ain’t gonna be nice about it. All these folks will git to laugh at ya after I throw ya out on th
e street. With any kinda luck, you’ll hurt yerself in the fall. As a matter a fact, I intend for you to hurt yerself an’ I will shore enough see that ya do. Now git the car movin’, sir, or you’ll be terrible sorry ya didn’t.”

  We went on the way in fine style, Miss Lotus tryin’ to see everthin’ at once an’ smilin’ some big. She never mentioned me an’ the ol’ boy drivin’ the car fussin’ at each other; but I talked it over with her, an’ she handled it fair well. Putry soon, we come on the block with the notions store on it. I went back up front an’ tolt that ol’ boy to stop the car. He wodden even look at me, but he brung the team to a standstill.

  “Thank ya, sir,” I tolt him. “There’s been a oversight. I never did pay ya for our trip. I’m sorry I neglected that, but my mind was on other things. Miss Lotus, would you be kind enough to pay this gentleman for our ride?”

  She handed him a five dollar gold piece I’d give her afore we come up to leave the car. He looked some surprised.

  “I doan know if I got enough change for that,” he said.

  “You may keep the change, sir,” Lotus said. “Oh very yes. It is a gift to you from a Godless heathen Chinee.”

  Her an’ me had about half a block to walk to the notions store. We both smiled all the way.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  When we come to the store, Lotus helt back so I could go in first. I stopped an’ smiled at her.

  “Miss Lotus,” I said, “yer in America now. It is considered to be good manners for a man walkin’ with a woman to hold the door open so the lady he’s with kin go into someplace ahead a him.”