How the West Was Won (1963) (17 page)

He stepped around in front of her. Do you believe all this? Tell me the truth? Cleve and I couldn't live on love for five minutes. There's the truth for you, Mr. Morgan.

Then you've answered the question I've been askin' for two thousand miles. So you just look here. I've got the biggest ranch you ever saw ... you can't ride across it in a day. That land will mean money, sooner or later. You say you want a rich husband. All right, you're lookin' at him. Lilith looked at him, but she was not seeing him, for what she saw was herself as she had once been, a wet, bedraggled girl standing on an Ohio riverbank. This was not what that girl had wanted-not this tent theatre, not what Morgan had to offer, either. She did not know exactly what it was that girl had wanted so badly, but she knew it was not this.

What Morgan offered was security, a shelter away from the wind. But when had she asked shelter of any man? Had she not always, no matter how hard the times, stood on her own two feet? Nowhere in the world was there anyone to whom she was beholden, except-a little-to Linus Rawlings.

Linus, she told herself, had understood. Even as he gave up his own free life for her sister Eve, so he had provided the means for Lilith to be free. Better than she or any of them, Linus must have known what she was facing, for in another way and another time he had faced the same himself. Freedom, Linus had known, is never bought cheaply. Linus had understood her, even as he would have understood Cleve.

There ain't a blessed thing you'd have to do cept mind the kids. An' we can leave right now ... whenever you're ready.

She smiled at him suddenly, for she had made her decision. Or had it been made long before? One never knew what it was that went to making a decision. Not now, Roger-not ever.

How can you say that? He was incredulous. You just said-Don't you believe your own words?

It would take too long to explain. I am sorry, truly I am. Roger Morgan turned abruptly, angrily, and strode away. She watched him go, a little sad, but without regrets.

Well! Agatha appeared in the opening of the wagon. I heard it! Why do you get the chance to make all the mistakes? Why can't I make a fool of myself for once?

Of course I'm a fool, but I know what I want, and I won't settle for less. We both should have left the train at Salt Lake. With the Mormons, you may have to share your man but at least you've got one. Agatha paused. What are you going to do now?

Lilith laughed suddenly. What am I going to do? Why, I am going to do what my sister did. When she found her man she had sense enough to go after him, and she let nothing stand in her way. Well, I'm going after mine, and if he won't come to me of his own free will, I'll have to find a way to make him. Agatha put her hands on her hips. Now you're makin' sense for the first time since we met! I declare, I never could see you lettin' that Cleve van Valen slip through your fingers, right when you had him, and all. He just wanted my money.

You know better than that. He may have thought so, and you may have believed it, but I never saw a man look at a bank-roll the way he looked at you. Why, old as I was, I was embarrassed to see it!

I hope he wanted something more than that!

You do, do you? Take it from me, honey, if they want you that way, be glad of it. You can always feed them into quietness afterwards. No man stands hitched of his own free will. You have to bait your trap, and when they nibble at the bait, why, you just make them happy, make them comfortable, and you can tie them tighter than with chains. An' believe me, the ones you can't keep that way ain't worth keepin'. Make a man easy in his home life, and he won't stray, not if you have a mind to his needs. He may think about kickin' over the traces, but let him feel he can go when he likes-if you're as smart as I think you are, he'll never want to go. The paddle-wheel steamer Sacramento Queen was a little smaller than the Mississippi river boats he had known, but the passengers were much the same. On the whole, though, they dressed somewhat more roughly and were somewhat more ostentatious in handling their money, of which they all seemed to have a good deal.

On the Mississippi you could tell a gentleman by the way he dressed ... there was no such easy classification on the Sacramento. Here the best-dressed men were almost invariably the gamblers. The exceptions were a few businessmen from San Francisco or an occasional traveler from the East or from Europe. The miners, ranchmen, or farmers usually dressed in a somewhat dressed-up version of the clothes they wore every day.

Cleve van Valen glanced at his cards. Before him was a comfortable-sized stack of gold coins, in his hand a pair of aces and a pair of deuces. His luck had rarely been good, yet he managed to be successful in a small way without it, relying on his knowledge of cards, of men, of percentages, and on his memory. His memory for cards played, as well as for how each man played the various hands, was remarkable. Months after a game had been played he could relate the exact sequence of hands; and he could estimate from past performances how each man was apt to play the various hands.

He had rarely found it necessary to aid the percentages. The average gambler was not a professional, and flattered himself that he understood cards. Moreover, the average gambler could be led to back his belief with money. Very few understood their chances of filling any particular hand. As every gambler knows, there are runs of luck that have nothing to do with percentages or even logic, and these Cleve was careful to steer clear of when they happened to others. They rarely happened to him.

Faint music came from the main salon, and unconsciously he began to hum with the sound. The song was A Home in the Meadow. The opening bars were played, and then a girl began to sing the words and Cleve stiffened in his chair. He strained his ears to be sure of the voice, and there was no mistaking it. He sat a little straighter. The cards seemed to have blurred a little. Another card was dealt him and almost unconsciously he added it to his hand. It was the third ace-he had a full house.

He looked at his cards, then swept the table with a quick glance. Suddenly he realized he was himself riding a streak of luck-and if a man was smart, he rode that streak hard.

Of the others at the table, there was not one whose measure he had not taken. Properly handled, there was three or four hundred dollars in that full house, and it was his for the taking.

The words of the song came to him more clearly, a song and a voice heard many times before over the open fires out upon the plains. It was Lilith, of course. Of late he had even been hearing her voice in his sleep.

A wise gambler rode his winning streaks, but which way should he ride this one?

The man in the gray vest said, Check. The man next to him said, I'll listen. And it was Cleve's turn to open. He looked again at his cards, then folded them neatly and placed them face down on the table. He got to his feet abruptly. What's the matter with you? the gray vest asked. Gentlemen, my regrets. I am checking out. Abruptly, he swept the stacks of gold coins into his hands and filled his pockets, then he started to turn away. Now, see here! the gray vest began. I- With his left hand Cleve turned over the hand he had laid down, turned them over in his palm, but kept the face of the cards concealed. Gentlemen, I am quitting, but if any of you think you have a better hand than mine-the one I am laying down-I will be glad to bet card for card that mine are better: I am laying down a hand that would have cost you gentlemen five hundred dollars, but if you doubt me- No, the gray vest said, we don't doubt you, but you've won a good bit of our money.

So I have, and this hand would win more of it. But come on ... card for card. With the hand he held he was sure to win three bets and lose two, and with those odds he was prepared to gamble all day.

The man in the gray vest shrugged. You can quit if you want to-I am not going to walk into a game when you are so willing to bet. Besides,-and he smiled-only one ace has showed. With three still out, there is a chance you might have one or two of them.

Cleve grinned at him. Turning his hand outward he spread the five cards open before them. See for yourself, gentlemen. And with that, good day! The main salon was more than two-thirds filled with men and women seated at tables. Some were eating, others merely drinking. At one table, Agatha sat alone. Lilith, gowned beautifully, stood in the center of the stage, ending her song.

Cleve van Valen paused, taking a cheroot from his breast pocket Carefully, he clipped the end and lighted up. If anything, Lilith was more beautiful than when he had last seen her.

Deliberately, he stepped through the doorway and started down the length of the salon toward her. She could see him coming, and when she completed her song she turned swiftly to leave.

Lilith had seen him the instant he stepped through the door, and her knees went weak. Her heart pounding, she started off-stage, but Cleve stepped up on the stage and confronted her. Lily, I've got to talk to you. She was unable to reply. Somehow she seemed to have lost the faculty of speech.

Her lips were dry, and when she tried to swallow she could not. He knew that everyone was watching but he did not care. Lily, a few minutes ago when I heard your voice I threw away a winning hand and with it a streak of luck such as I haven't had in a long tune-something I did not believe I would do for any girl in the world. I threw in my hand because I hoped my winning streak would extend to you.

He took both her hands in his. Lil ... how would you like to hook up with a no-good gambler?

Suddenly everything within her seemed to well up and burst in a warm, wonderful flood. The next thing she knew her arms were around him and she was ignoring the outburst of applause from the audience.

Then we're on our way! Twelve hundred dollars I've got-right here.

What will we do? Open a gambling house?

A married man should spend his evenings at home, Cleve objected. How about a music hall? You can sing and dance, and- Nothing doing, she interrupted. A married woman should spend her evenings with her husband.

Worried, she looked up at him. But Cleve, how long will twelve hundred dollars last? We can't just sit at home and- Lil, have you seen, really seen San Francisco? It's ugly and small and full of fleas, and it burns down every five minutes, but each time they rebuild it gets bigger and finer. It's alive, Lil, alive and kicking and nothing can stop it! It makes a man want to get into the action, to build something, to start something-a steamship line, a railroad, something that will help that baby city grow- On twelve hundred dollars?

Men have started on less. Besides, Gabe French is there-he is operating a freight line to the Nevada mines. He's always liked me, and I think I could buy a working interest.

As a matter of fact, pa always wanted me to go into the shipping business. We could start with shipping and freight, and put our profits into real estate. Real estate? In California? Do you think we could make any money that way?

Some day somebody will. If we can just hang on long enough ... it's possible.

Before the War Between the States, the settlers trickled West by hundreds, after

it, they went by thousands. It was the Union that finally opened the West, a

free, united nation where all men were equal, where each had his right to his

own. The open land beckoned, offered the vastest empire man could desire,

providing the space and riches needed for the accomplishment of the nation's

manifest destinyaEU|

Chapter
12

Eve Rawlings stood on the wide veranda shading her eyes to look along the road toward town. A rig was coming, but it was still too far away to make out who it was, but these days every rig stirred fear within her. She glanced toward the field where Zeb was plowing, with Jeremiah following behind, planting corn. Her boys worked well together, and she was glad, for they were different in so many respects. Since the war began she had worried, not so much because of anything that had happened, but for fear of what might happen, and had happened in other families.

Right down the road a piece two boys had split, one going off to join the Union forces, the other south to join up with the Confederacy. Families all over Ohio, Illinois, Tennessee, and Kentucky had seen their sons and fathers go opposite ways, or brothers divide their allegiance.

The twenty years during which she and Linus had lived on the place had been happy ones. Looking at her boys plowing the field, she thought back to that terrible day when they landed after the calamity at the falls-her father and mother gone, Lilith lost somewhere upstream, and Sam wounded. It had seemed the utmost in despair, and yet from that moment her happiness had begun. True, she had lost her parents, and it was long before she recovered from that blow, but Lilith and Zeke had showed up. She would have known that Lilith, the strongest swimmer among them, would get to shore. And then to top it off, Linus had returned.

Now the rattle of the buggy lifted her eyes to the road again and she saw Peterson driving into the yard, wearing a uniform. The stab of fear was very sharp, and when she glanced toward the boys they had already tied up the team and were running across the furrows toward the yard. Why, Mr. Peterson! she said. Whatever are you doing in uniform? Militia's been sworn in, Mrs. Rawlings. I am Corporal Peterson now. Fraid this is the last time you'll see me for a spell ... Letter here-all the way from Californy.