Bendigo Shafter (1979) (20 page)

We were pleased to do what we could, ma'am, I said, embarrassed by her words.

We haven't met friendliness in many places, Bess said quietly. It is something to be treasured.

Well, we sat up and ate, and I was a hungry man, and those two women brought us food aplenty, and they made me a bed by the fireside, rolling out my own blankets for me.

It worried me some, when it came to undressing, for there was just one big room. They fetched a blanket for a curtain, but I worried nonetheless. That gold in my belt made quite a swelling under my shirt. Lucky it was that I am a narrow-waisted man, with wide shoulders, but anyone peeking would surely see it. Not that I expected peeking, but folks are curious, and many a good man has found his sense of right twisted by the sight of gold, or the appearance of it.

I trusted these folks, but I didn't want to lead them into temptation, either.

Yet I slept well, and sounder than I'd wanted, and waked so late that one of the women was up and stirring the fire when my eyes opened. It shamed me, that's what it did. Not since I was a youngster had any woman ever built fire when I was around.

These were poor folks, that was plain enough, but they had enough to do with, and grub to put on the table. The house was clean and neat, and those women washed their children and their potatoes.

When I came to saddle up, the man walked out to me. Mr. Shafter, he said apologetically, you done saved my sister, and the folks with her. We ain't got much, but a passerby left a book here ... I seen the books you had and figured you might cotton to this one. It's one o' them story books.

Glancing at it, I saw a novel I'd not seen before. It was Rienzi, the Last of the Tribunes. It was written by a man with two names and a bridge between them, Bulwer-Lytton.

Thanks, I said, and he could have given me nothing I would appreciate more.

As I rode away, and when I got clear of things and looked around over the bunch-grass levels and saw no one, I looked it over. I hadn't read a story book since I became a man. Once, when I was a boy, we'd seen a few, and I'd read a few stories, but this didn't seem to be for children. I knew what a tribune was because I'd read Plutarch.

The ride was bleak and lonely, with wide flats here and there, rocky ridges, and a few scattered cedars. When I came to where the station should be, there were only a few blackened timbers from a fire months old and three ugly-looking holes filled with slightly alkaline water that trickled off into a mud hole.

There was no welcome here for man or beast, so tired though I was, I moved on over a plain scattered with sage and greasewood. Patches of snow lay in every shadowed place. The sky was a dull gray overhead, the earth a dull gray beneath.

The miles unrolled without end, and just when I was about to give up and bed down on the open plain, the trail took a sudden dip into a shallow valley.

Chapter
17

The weather warmed, there were patches of black mud where snow had been, but snow remained in every shadowed corner, under the shelter of banks.

Far rolled the land wherever the eye turned, gray, desolate, the only vegetation a stunted sage, the only lure the blue haze that shadowed distant mountains. I saw no sign of Indians, only occasional jackrabbits that leaped up, bounded away, then stopped and sat up to look as if wondering what manner of creature was invading their lonely hills and plains.

Occasionally, on some far slope, a black-looking cedar cropped up ... there was nothing else. I came upon a sign that told me it was 533 miles to Carson City, but I was not going that way. The country flattened out. The plain was a dead white. Dust arose and covered me with a thin film. It got into my eyes, ears, and nose. The sage and greasewood grew scarcer, there were ugly patches of white salt like sores on the face of the land, and in the distance, Granite Mountain, a rough and craggy hogback. It was rumored there were springs at the base of the mountain.

I made camp that night near a pool of sulphurous water surrounded by some straggly rushes. There were rocks nearby and a place that could be defended if need be. The horses turned up their noses at the water, but finally drank as nothing better could be offered.

Putting a fire together from some dead cedar and using dried sage for kindling, I got some coffee started with water from a spare canteen I carried on my packhorse, a result of advice from Ethan Sackett. The night was cold.

About a mile away there was a low, ragged ridge of blackish rock that thrust up from the desert. There were some scattered cedars on its slopes, and obviously some deep coves along its flanks, an ideal place for Indians to hide and watch travelers who might stop at the spring, if such it could be called.

There was nothing about the place I liked, yet others had camped there. I found the remnants of their fires.

Chapter
18

Only a few days since I had left our town, yet it seemed long since I had left, and I wondered what they were doing now, and was glad that Drake Morrell was there, and Webb as well. Neither was a trusting man, and each was ready to fight if need be. Too often when trouble arises there is too much time wasted in trying to temporize, and it becomes too late for action.

By morning it had begun to snow. The flakes fell few and large, drifting swiftly down, and then the fall thickened and the flakes grew smaller. The wind moaned in the cedars. I rode back along the line, studying my back trail and the country around as well as I could through the thickly falling snow. There was no time when a man was safe from Indians, and at such a time they might easily attack.

They had observed white men traveling in the cold and had seen them muffle their ears with ear laps, turn coat collars up to narrow their vision, and huddle deep into their coats, seeking nothing but warmth. Sometimes it is better to be a little cold and remain alive.

Snow was inches deep upon the trail when I made the ascent toward Butte Station. Thomas, a Mormon who operated the station, saw me coming and poured hot coffee.

Butte Station was about thirty feet long, built of country stone, and about fifteen feet wide. One end was partitioned off with a canvas wall. Behind it were bunks for four men covered with ragged blankets. Beneath the bunks were heaps of rubbish, saddles, harness and straps, dried-out boots, sacks of grain and potatoes.

The door was the backboard of a wagon, scarred by bullets. From the walls, on wooden pegs, hung several cartridge belts, an empty canteen, a pair of shotgun chaps, and a buckskin coat, as well as several overcoats and slickers. The floor was of tamped earth, but unswept.

Thomas, who kept up a running fire of conversation, told me he had three brothers in the English army, and that he was considering a move to California, come spring.

The fireplace was huge, piled high with wood, and blazing comfortably. There had been a good stack of cut wood just outside the door, a reassuring sight with the weather as cold as it was.

Have to sleep on the floor, Thomas advised. With buffalo robes and all, it won't be bad.

It's just for one night, I thought. Tomorrow night I'll be at Ruby Valley Station, and it's much better.

I finished my coffee and took up my rifle. I'll look after the stock, I said to Thomas.

Stepping outside, I found it was bitter cold. My boots crunched on the snow as I walked over to the ramshackle stable and pole corral.

My stock was under the stable roof and sheltered from any wind. I stood there a few minutes, talking to my horses, and then I stuffed hay into the manger for them and turned back to the house.

From where I stood I could see bits of light through cracks in the shutters and a thin trail of smoke against the starlit sky.

Chapter
19

It was quiet when I rode up to Ruby Valley Station with towering, snow-covered peaks looming not far off. It was cold, but the sky was clear, and it looked like a good day a-coming.

I stripped the gear from my horses while Uncle Billy Rogers told me of the happenings along the western trail I'd be following tomorrow.

When I asked about cattle, he warmed up. Fine! Fine stock, son. Mostly Durhams and Shorthorns ... mixed breeds, but mixed from good stock. The forage has been good so they're overstocked on the range. If you want to buy cattle, this is the best time.

He took me over the trail that he had traveled and about which he had listened to much talk. There's bad stretches, but no way as bad as the trails out of California. There's more dry country to the south.

I studied over it, worrying about what I was about to do. They'd sent me out to use my judgment, and the deal I made for cattle could mean life or death for our town ... and for some of its people.

Money was a scarce thing amongst us, and if something went wrong we'd not be able to send out another man with more money. Nor could we hope to stay on where we were without cattle to feed us and to build a future. With daybreak I breakfasted and took to the trail. Diamond Spring was next, and this was dry, dry country I was crossing. I rode carefully around every bit of cover, carried my rifle ready in my hand at the passes, and was ready to play my cards the way they fell.

It was a hard day, a brutal day. The wind was cold off the snow-capped mountains, and the road had been chewed up by passing hoofs and had frozen that way.

Constant watching was wearing on the nerves, and this was a country where one had to be constantly aware. Twice I saw antelope in the distance, and several times coyotes and rabbits, both of which seemed to abound in the country. Coyotes had begun to learn about trails that where travelers were there might be the bodies of stock that died along the way or scraps of food thrown aside, so they stalked the trails, alert for any tidbit.

When at last I rode over Chokup Pass and saw Diamond Springs Station on the bench, I was ready to stop.

Chapter
20

When I'd stripped the gear from my horses, I tied them to the manger in the shed that acted the part of a stable. It wasn't very convincing.

I'm a man who believes in caring for his stock. Western horses, most of them half-broken mustangs from the wild free range, were used to roughing it. Winter and summer they had run loose, finding what shelter as they could, fighting mountain lions, wolves, and men who chased them, and finally coming under the saddle.

They were accustomed to rough living, but when a horse gave me what I required of him, which was a lot of travel over rough country, he deserved the best care I could arrange. That shed at Diamond Springs Station was nothing to write home about.

Usually, these western places had only a corral where the horses would stand, backs to the wind and storm or whatever, and they survived. The shed was an advantage but the wind was picking up to blow so I stayed on in the shed patching up a few holes to keep the wind out. I fixed most of the holes, but there's work a man can do that's helpful to his thinking, and working with the hands is one way.

It was time I decided what I intended to do with myself. Buying cattle was only a venture for the town, but when it was over I'd still have my problems. Traveling at this rate gives a man a chance to think, if he'll take it.

The study of law was one means to success, and I'd given it thought. Ranching? Well, ranching promised well, but I was not sure. Mining, from what I'd heard, seemed chancy.

Reading books was making me ask questions of myself. I was learning how other folks lived and had lived, and I could see that as Ruth Macken had said, it was a larger, wider world than I'd known.

Working around the stable kept me busy for most of an hour. Suddenly I realized that if I was to get any sleep I'd better go inside and to bed. I found myself reluctant to enter the station.

I kept thinking of the folks back in our town and knew I daren't make a mistake.

I was alone, carrying the fortunes of my community, and with a long ride ahead of me.

Chapter
21

Daybreak found me in no good mood, and for no good reason, and that was unusual for me. Usually I awakened in fine shape, feeling good and ready for the day, but this time it was different. I woke up with a chip on my shoulder and sense enough to know it and to warn myself to be careful.

I had killed a man in a gun battle, but I was not proud of it or wanting it talked of. It had been a matter of life or death, not only for me, but for those people back yonder who trusted me.

It was wild, rough country through which I rode that day, but I made good time and I saw no Indians. The only game was an occasional rabbit or a far-off glimpse of antelope. There was white sage and rabbit bush, and in the coves of the mountains, bunch-grass.

I rode with care, but it was a lucky thing that it must be so, for I saw the country. How many times have I talked with people who have ridden the trails where I have ridden, yet had seen nothing? They passed over the land just to get over it, not to live with it and see it, feel it.

There was beauty out there, even in the heat-shimmering white desolate lands that lay in long valleys between the mountains. I learned where to look for water, and when. I knew the birds or insects who might live close to water and those who had no need of it. The kangaroo rat, whom I came to love, manufactures his own water within his body and has no need of a drink, nor does the powder-post beetle.