No Less Than the Journey (14 page)

CHAPTER 22

Riding away from the splendid mansion with the Schuster’s present affixed to his belt, Wes looked back when they were almost out of sight of the house and saw Emma still standing outside the impressive entrance of the mansion. He waved and received an immediate and energetic response.

Wes was in the company of Aaron and Old Charlie. The mountain-man had not put in an appearance for breakfast and when Wes asked him about his absence, Charlie replied, ‘I’ve never been able to get along with the fancy ways folks like the Schusters have of eating – nor with their manner of living, come to that. I slept in the stable, close to my mule, and got coffee and grub from the kitchen. That way I could use just my knife and fingers to eat without upsetting anyone.’

Remembering his own confusion when confronted with an array of cutlery at the first meal he had taken in the Schuster mansion, Wes said, ‘They do seem to use far more knives, forks and spoons than I’m used to. If Emma hadn’t been there to help me I’d have made a fool of myself at eating times.’

‘You’ve got time to learn fancy ways, boy … I ain’t and
Aaron tells me the girl has taken a shine to you,’ Old Charlie commented, ‘Says it’s because of her you’ve got that fancy six-shooter you’re carrying. Can you use it?’

‘Aaron taught me how on the boat from New York,’ Wes confirmed, ‘Although I used a rifle against the river pirates.’

Aaron had been listening to their conversation and now he said, ‘He’s better than average with a rifle, Charlie, and knows how to point a pistol and pull the trigger but he wouldn’t stand a chance against most men who carry a handgun.’

Ejecting a stream of tobacco juice to one side of his mule, Old Charlie said to Wes, ‘Until you can handle that gun better than anyone you’re likely to meet up with, I suggest you keep it tucked away, boy. Men wearing fancy guns are targets for those who like to think of themselves as “gunmen” – and a great many of ’em really are handy with a gun.’

‘I won’t be going anywhere looking for trouble,’ Wes declared. ‘As for wearing it … I’ve only got it on now to please Emma. I’ll take it off when we get a little way from the house.’

Nodding his approval, Old Charlie cut a piece from a twist of tobacco using a knife he carried in a sheath on his belt – but which Wes thought would not have been out of place in a butchers’ shop. The tobacco safely ensconced in his cheek, he said, ‘Keeping it out of sight is a good idea … at least, for now, but Aaron tells me you’re on your way to Missouri mining country, around Harmony. If you’re looking to keep out of trouble then you’re heading in the wrong direction. You won’t need to
look
for trouble there – it’ll come and find you for sure. A friend of mine from way back is County Sheriff there, least, he was when I last met him, but he was born and brought up in America. So many German miners have come in during the last year or two they’ll be wanting one of their own to take on the job. It’s certainly not the place for an
English
miner. From what I’ve heard they’ve all been forced out and gone to find
work farther West.’

‘I’ve heard the same,’ Wes admitted, ‘but I wrote and told my uncle I was coming out to him at Harmony and in the last letter I had from him he said he was looking forward to meeting me there. He might, or might not still be around waiting for me, but if things are as bad as you say and he’s moved on, he’ll have left word of where he’s gone. So I really have no alternative but to go there and find out.’

Old Charlie shrugged, ‘You must do what you think is for the best – but you’d do well to put that fancy gun out of sight before you get there lest someone takes a shine to it.’

On the way to the river, Wes learned a great deal about Old Charlie and the adventurous life he had led. Some of the details came from anecdotes told by Aaron of the days when the old mountain-man hunted food to feed Union soldiers who were engaged in fighting Confederate irregulars, or Indians – sometimes both – on the plains of the Western frontier.

The old man was quite happy to reply to the many questions put to him by Wes about the things he had seen and done, but he rarely volunteered information.

Nevertheless, before they arrived at the river Wes had learned that Old Charlie, now in his sixties, had been born on a desperately poor homestead in the mountains of South Carolina, one of a great many brothers and sisters. He had helped his father to scratch a precarious living until he ran away at the age of sixteen to go trapping with a party of Frenchmen in the Rocky Mountains.

Later, he became a buffalo hunter on the Great Plains, was a guide to some of the wagon trains heading for new lands in the West, then hunted for meat to feed both Union and Confederate armies in the 1860s.

In between such varied activities Old Charlie alternately
fought Indians and lived, apparently quite happily, among them.

He was now heading west once more, this time to the mountains of Colorado to try his hand at the one thing that seemed to be missing from his adventurous life – prospecting for gold.

Much of his life story was already known to Aaron, but Old Charlie had been able to fill in one or two gaps in his knowledge and Aaron asked now, ‘Trying something new is fine, old-timer, but what happens if you’re successful and strike it rich? Will you go back East and live out the rest of your years in luxury?’

Charlie spat out juice from the latest wad of tobacco, but this time it was a gesture of disgust. ‘I wouldn’t go back East if I found a nugget as big as a tepee! The East ain’t for me – especially not the cities. There’s so many folk packed into ’em that there’s not enough air to go around for everyone. Breathe in and all you get is what someone else has just breathed out!’

Wes did not know how accurate Old Charlie’s description was of city air, but he was inclined to accept it. During the short time he had spent in New York he had thought there was a taste in the air and it was not pleasant.

‘What would you do if you suddenly struck it rich?’ he asked.

‘I’d buy myself a young Indian wife – a Pawnee, perhaps. They’re good homemakers and have been taught how to grow food to fill a man’s belly. Then I’d take her to part of the Territories where settlers haven’t yet reached, get me a piece of land in good hunting country, and have a few hogs and maybe a cow. I might do that anyhow. It’s about as much as any man could want when he gets to my age.’

Wes thought it a simple enough ambition but wondered what a young Indian woman would think of such an
arrangement. He could think of no young woman of his acquaintance who would be happy to cut themselves off from others in such a way, even with a younger man. He doubted whether an Indian woman would be any different.

CHAPTER 23

When the trio eventually reached the
Missouri Belle
, Anabelita was greatly relieved to see Wes. After greeting him warmly, she said, ‘Lola and I were expecting you last night and feared something might have happened to you both.’

Pleased that she had missed him, Wes explained, ‘There wasn’t time to make arrangements to get back here after the funeral, so we had to leave it until today – and we’ve brought an old friend of Aaron’s along with us.’

‘Is he an army friend?’ Anabelita asked, without any particular interest.

‘No, he hunted for Aaron and his soldiers during the war. He’s quite an old man who seems to have done all sorts of things but he doesn’t care too much for the company of others. He’s been a trapper, a buffalo hunter, fought with Indians – and now he’s on his way to Colorado to look for gold.’

‘Searching for gold in Colorado’s not likely to suit a man who likes to be on his own,’ Anabelita commented. ‘Half the world must be there doing the same thing … but forget Aaron’s friend – forget everyone else for a while. I really have missed you, Wes. I’d show you how much right now, but
you’ll need to wait until tonight. The captain’s back from St Louis and Lola and I are helping make an inventory of everything left on board that can be used again.’

‘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.’