Spake As a Dragon (49 page)

“
Yes, William I feel the
same.”

POUCHES OF GOLD

Spring came early that year – the
early melting of the snow was no fluke, the weather cleared in late
March and by April the sun was beginning to shine each and every
day. The creeks up and down the mountains had run full of melted
snow for weeks but were now running at normal depths and normal
amounts of water flow. It was once again time for Sam and William
to venture back into the mountains and return to the gold
stream.

The trip this time, thought William,
was pleasant. The days were warm and he did not have to trudge
along on those cumbersome snowshoes. Occasionally they would run
upon a patch of snow, but the sun had already done its handy work
and they could easily travel around it.

It wasn’t long until they reached the
top of the ridge they had found a couple of months earlier, this
time the trail was easily visible and wasn’t much of a job walking
to the bottom to the creek.

The first day Sam ventured out into
the creek barefoot, all he could do was complain about the cold
water. It was cold until he reached down and found his first nugget
he then forgot about the coldness of the water. “Hey!” He said to
William, who was already shedding his boots and walking into the
frigid water.

“
Here’s one!” Yelled
William. It was like picking up pecans from underneath a pecan
tree. Nuggets lay everywhere. “Sam, did you ever in you life
believe such a place existed?” Sam did not even answer he was too
busy picking up the shiny golden stones.

A couple of days in the creek and the
two of them had collected two sacks of nuggets. “How much you think
we have William?”

“
I don’t know Sam, but if
we collect anymore we won’t be able to carry them,” He said
laughing. “Let’s pack’er up a get out of here. It’s time to travel
up to Pennsylvania and get this gold to Matthew.”

Sam and William had been on the trail
to Gettysburg for five days, had finished their supper and sat
talking.

“
Where do you figure we
are William?”

“
We’re in West Virginia
and I think we are about half way to Gettysburg. We should be there
in another four or five days. Why do you ask?”

Sam explained how he had heard that
the western mountains of Virginia did not side with the South on
the slavery issue and had broken away from the state of Virginia
and formed an independent state. He said he has heard the majority
of inhabitants in this section of the state were vehemently
anti-South, and hated the plantation owners of coastal Virginia,
who owned slaves. Most are un-educated living on rocky scraps of
land making and selling moonshine. They never had the need for
slaves and hated those who did. He had even heard of murders that
had taken place by the ‘hillbillies’ of West Virginia and Sam had
the fear they were now in this part of the country.

“
Don’t give it any mind
Sam, you have your old Henry rifle and I have my Colt pistol, we
will be fine. Come on let’s get some sleep so we can move out early
tomorrow – the faster we get out of West Virginia, the
better.”

William and Sam threw their saddle
blankets down and pitched their saddles on top to use as pillows.
Rolling up in their ponchos, they settled down to get some
sleep.

The fire had dwindled down to an
orange glow of hot embers; the horses are hobbled at the edge of
their campground. For a moment, the horses stop eating as their
ears stand up. The horse’s keen sense of hearing has picked up an
unfamiliar sound. Sam and William have a whole string of horses
with them. They had gone to the back pasture and rounded up all the
outlaw horses that were still on the farm. Originally there had
been eight, but Luke, Catherine and Sam had taken two along with
them to Alabama. In addition to their two mounts, Sam and William
had the remaining six and a burro. They have the intention to trade
horses for supplies as they journey toward Gettysburg. They must
trade since they have no hard cash except the gold and they do not
want anyone to know they have it.

The string of horses is beginning to
get restless. They shuffle around each other, some whinny, others
snort, they are nervous. The two young travelers lay on their
blankets sound asleep. Sleep on the ground by a campfire for days
and days on end caused them to grow insensitive to the nightly
noises of the forests and fidgeting of the horses.

This particular night it would have
been especially helpful if they were not such sound sleepers. The
noise the horses had picked up were riders walking their horses
through the woods toward Sam and William’s campfire. There were
five of them. They had been in the midst of the camp before either
Sam or William realized it. They all were riding western quarter
horses with Mexican saddles. They all appeared mangy and dirty, but
the Colt six-shooters strapped to their legs were clean, freshly
oiled and recently used. “Hey, you two wake up! Y’all got company!”
The leader said stepping from his horse and walking toward the
coffee pot sitting next to the campfire.

William and Sam are awake now.
Throwing back their ponchos to get to their firearms is a mistake.
Sam, sleeping closest to the fire tries to bring his Henry rifle
up, but the leader smashes his .45 across Sam’s head knocking him
to the ground. “Wait a minute! I know you!” Said the gun-wielding
bandit.

William is now helping Sam upon his
feet, a flood of blood flows from a cut over Sam’s eye, “What do
you want mister? We’re just traveling through and ain’t bothering
nobody.”

“
First off this here one,”
pointing with his pistol at Sam, “I seed him the day Bert Black got
kilt. He was with a woman and another man. Seems like I ‘member you
alls was headin’ to Alabama.”

“
Nah, you must be wrong
mister, why would we be up here in West Virginia if we was headed
to Alabama,” replied William?

“
Shut yer mouth! I ain’t
talkin’ to you.” Pointing at Sam, “It’s this one that was with them
when they kilt Bert.”

William again answered, “What is it
you want mister? We ain’t got any money and we don’t know no
Bert.”

“
No, what y’all are is
liars. I see Charlie’s pinto pony over there in that string of
horses, and y’all tellin’ me you don’t know Bert Black. I’m Bill
Jackson and I’m old Bert’s best friend and I know bushwhackers when
I see ‘em.”

Sam says, “Mister Jackson I don’t know
nothing about Bert Black nor that feller Charlie’s pinto. These
horses were running free on a deserted farm and pasture. We figured
they weren’t no use to whoever’s place it was. We figured the
owners musta got themselves killed in the War.”

“
As I said, you’re a liar!
You asked to know what we wanted, well I’m fixin’ to tell you –
first off we’re taking that string of horses and second off we’re
fixin’ to shoot you right here and now. Lucky look through them
there saddle bags of theirs and see if there is anything else we
might need.”

Rumbling through one of the saddle
bags, Lucky finds the two sacks of gold and holds them up for the
others to see, “Looky here what I done found – these young hayseeds
was holding out on us!”

The outlaw leader Jackson pulls his
six-shooter from his holster, “Gold huh? And besides lying yer
thieves too boot!” He said pulling the hammer back and fired
without aiming, ‘
Kaboom
,’ ‘
Kaboom
,’ the noise from
the old Colt .44 was deafening as it reverberated through the
trees.

The first lead slug catches William
just above the heart; the second bullet punches a
forty-four-caliber hole right over Sam’s right eye. William is spun
to his left, he reaches out one last time trying to grasp his
friend Sam’s hand, but Sam collapsed where he stood. Both, with
warm blood spewing from their wounds, fall with an agonizing thud
upon the cold ground – dead!

Chapter
Fifty-Nine

“
NATE, IS IT REALLY
YOU?”

“
Matthew, come sit down
and eat your supper.” Matt pulled up a chair across from Mark and
began to eat. “Matt I have to tell you a couple of things – first
you being a Southern boy and all, I wasn’t too happy to see you
when Kim and Kelley brought you to my home. I barely tolerated her
marriage to you, but Son and I mean that in the most humble way
because I think of you as a son now. I now know you to be a fine
Christian man, a devoted husband and without your help hundreds of
young men would not be able to walk today. You’re coming here was
just a God-send, and I want to take this opportunity to thank you
and apologize for anything I have said or done earlier that might
have besmirched your name.”

“
No Sir, it is I who
should be thanking you. Without you, Kim, and Kelly I would not be
alive today – for you all I am thankful.”

“
Thank you Matt, but now
to the sad part – our work on the artificial limbs is over. The
money is exhausted, and I cannot come up with anymore. I have
mortgaged my house and land and have no way to even pay back the
notes. I’m afraid we will be thrown out onto the street when the
notes come due. I’ve even gone as far as pawning all my work
tools.”

“
But Mark there are dozens
of soldiers still on the waiting list! What are they to
do?”

“
I know, it saddens me
too, but without funds it is impossible to buy supplies that we
need. Even if we could, somehow, come up with some money we need
additional workers and there is no money to hire them either. If we
had money and more workers we could outfit dozens of soldiers with
the means to walk, work and live a normal live somewhat. We will
just have to leave it in the hands of God – if it is His will then,
He will provide a way.

“
With no means to raise
money and the mortgage note coming due in the next few months Matt
your mother Malinda offered us a place to stay, if we ever needed
one. I believe we need one right now – I have just enough money to
get us to South Carolina. Until God decides to provide a way to
help us, I suggest, we load the wagon and go stay at Scarlettsville
until times get better. What do you think?”

“
Mark, I knew we were in
dire straits with the artificial legs, but I did not realize how
much you had invested – your home, your land and your tools. If we
need to go to South Carolina, by all means I am with
you.”

Suddenly there is a pounding on the
front door and they can hear a man yelling, “What is he saying?”
Asked Matt.

Pushing his chair away from the table
Mark stood saying, “Don’t know, but I’m going to find
out!”

Opening the door was Laredo, Laredo
Lawson. He was the collector for Mark’s mortgages. A year earlier,
Private Laredo was being hung for killing his sergeant, but when
the hangman sprung the trap, the rope broke. His commanding officer
commuted his sentence to life in prison, but Laredo Lawson, now
known as ‘Lucky’ Laredo Lawson escaped and was hiding out in this
small out of the way town of Gettysburg.

RETURN HOME

Luke and Nate had worked their way
back south from City Point, Virginia. They had found out from C. J.
Cox, who had been in prison with Robert that Robert left City Point
heading to Norfolk and then to Charleston, South Carolina. Luke had
made a decision their best course of action was to head back home
and now they had traveled the length of Virginia and found
themselves in the middle of North Carolina.

“
How much further Luke do
you thank it’ll be before we gets to my place?”

“
Nate, in about ten miles
we gonna come to Raleigh. Then we are gonna head southwest to your
place, should be there day after tomorrow.”

“
Lands sake, you don’t
mean it – day after tomorrow.”

Night found them southwest of Raleigh
making camp on the Cape Fear River. “In the morning I’ll find us
someone that will ferry us across this river Nate, it is too wide
for us to try to swim the horses across, besides it’s just May and
that water has got to be pretty cold. If we can get across pretty
fast tomorrow and we push hard all day, we should be pretty close
to your farm by dark. It’s between Monroe and Rockingham,
right?”

“
Shore ‘nuff Nate ‘bout
five miles west out of Rockingham. I’s got me a good bottomland
farm on the Pee Dee River. So rich you’s can poke a stick in the
ground and it’ll grow leaves. Good rich bottom land
Luke.”

Luke was pretty accurate in his
estimation of how far they could travel. At sundown, they were on
the eastern side of the Pee Dee. Nate’s farm was on the western
side. “Luke if’en you was to squint yer eyes and peer purty hard
you can almost see my farm from here. It right over th...there...”
Nate said pointing.

“
What’s wrong Nate? What
did you see?”

“
Luke, there’s a light
comin’ from where my house used to be. They said them Union cannons
blowed my house away...something jest ain’t right Luke, something
ain’t right...”

“
Calm down Nate, get hold
of yourself, we’ll get this all straighten out tomorrow. You are
probably not looking at the right spot – remember it’s been a long
time since you have been home.”