The Railroad War (19 page)

After leaving Hidden Valley by the north pass, an hour's ride brought them to the rough grade that had been cut for the railroad, but they had ridden beside it for less than a mile when Jed turned his horse westward. Through the clear morning air, which made it seem only a few miles away, the eastern face of the Sierra Nevadas reared like a massive wall, towering in one abrupt thrust above the lesser mountains through which the three would travel.

Jessie and Ki followed Jed over a well-marked trail through a wide, shallow valley. They made fast progress, and soon after the sun slid down to afternoon, they passed through what was left of the little town of Ludwig, the result and quickly the victim of a short-lived mining boom. The unpaved street along which they rode was bordered on both sides with abandoned buildings and houses. Though here and there they saw one that still looked occupied, they saw neither human nor animal as they made their way through the remains of the town.

With more than half of the first day of their two-day ride now behind them, Jessie and Ki began to wonder why Captain Tinker had told them their trip would be a hard one. They soon received an answer to their unspoken question. After leaving Ludwig, the trail grew progressively worse. Time after time, Jed led them into canyons along trails that were no more than a few scratches made by prospectors, trails that both Jessie and Ki knew they'd have ignored, if they had been alone.

Often now, the trails dwindled and almost vanished as they wove through narrow, serpentine canyons on ledges very little wider than the horses' hooves. At times the ledges along which they squeezed were so narrow that their legs brushed the canyon wall. From some of these, a rider could have touched the rocky canyon wall with one hand and dropped a stone straight down for a half-mile with the other, without extending either arm full length.

“I see now why the Captain didn't want us to try this trail without you, Jed,” Jessie said as they dismounted for the night at a spot Jed had picked, where the ground was almost level and the slope less precipitous than most.

Prompted by Jessie's question, Ki asked, “Is it like this all the rest of the way to Carson City?”

“No. We're close to being through the worst of it,” Jed replied. “By noon tomorrow we'll be through these hills and on the flats. Then we'll make better time. I'll have us in Carson City by sun down tomorrow evening.”

Though the sun had set the next day when they reached Carson City, Jessie and Ki agreed that Jed had kept his word. They'd passed through the foothill spur before noon and crossed a series of wide, sagebrush-dotted valleys; then, as they mounted to the rim of a shallow, saucerlike depression, the town suddenly came into sight on their left.

“We're there,” Jed announced. “That's Carson City.”

Long before they could make out details of other buildings and houses, they saw the slim dome of Nevada Territory's capitol rising from the saucer's rim. The dome's silver coating was a light-washed blue in the early, uneven twilight. While the capitol dome was bathed in brightness even in the fading day, the slope beyond it was in the shadow of the Sierras. Houses stood in ranks almost to the top of the rise, and lighted windows were already showing in some of them.

Jessie and Ki moved up to ride abreast of Jed as the trail became a street lined with small, neat, gingerbread-trimmed houses. They turned into the main street and rode toward the capitol's dome. After they'd passed the square, squat façade of the U.S. Mint, houses gave way to a scattering of stores, small office buildings, and saloons. Almost directly across from the capitol, Jed led them to the rear of a rambling stone building set back from the street, pulled up beside a row of carriages that stood in front of a huge barn, and swung out of his saddle.

“Even if it's past sunset, it's still daylight,” he said. “And just like I promised you, we're at the Ormsby House. It might not look like much, but the beds are clean and soft, and they set a real good table.”

“I'm hungry enough after two days of trail rations,” Jessie said. “But I saw a lot of lights in the windows of the capitol building. Even if it's getting late, I wonder if the governor might still be in his office.”

“If you and Jed are willing to wait for supper, I am too,” Ki told her. “Let's go across the street and find out.”

“Why don't you and Ki go, Jessie?” Jed suggested. “Let me stay here, I'll see the horses are tended and get our rooms.”

“If you don't mind, Jed,” Jessie replied. “Perhaps if Governor Kinkead hasn't gone home, he'd be willing to talk to us now. It might even be possible to finish our business with him this evening and get an early start tomorrow for Virginia City.”

Governor Kinkead was in his office, and when Jessie sent her name in to him by the clerk who guarded the inner door, Kinkead himself came out to greet her. He took both her hands and held them between his palms while he gazed into her green eyes.

“Alex Starbuck's daughter!” he exclaimed. “And I can see the resemblance, Jessie—I'm going to call you Jessie, because I feel like I'm your uncle. Your father was as close to me as any of my brothers ever were.”

“I'd like that, Governor,” Jessie replied. She responded at once to the friendliness radiating from the bearded face of the tall, sturdy man standing in front of her. The feeling of the governor's palms on her hands comforted her; they had the firmness that told of calluses formed by work and not yet gone soft, the hands of a man of action. She nodded in Ki's direction and said, “This is Ki. He was my father's friend and companion for years, and now he's mine.”

The governor nodded, releasing Jessie's hands to shake Ki's. “If you were Alex's friend, Ki, consider me yours.”

“Thank you, Governor,” Ki said. “Mr. Starbuck spoke of you often during the years I was with him. I remember that once he was getting ready to go to Alaska to visit you, but some urgent business problem made him postpone the trip.”

“I'm deeply indebted to Alex,” Kinkead said. “He used his influence in Washington to help those of us up there who finally persuaded Seward to buy Alaska from Russia back in ‘67.”

“That was before I was old enough to understand anything about my father's business,” Jessie said.

“Even before that, your father had helped me, Jessie,” the governor went on. “When I was first setting up my business in San Francisco in ‘54, he did more than any other man would've done for a ragged stranger.” His face grew sober. “It's tragic that a few scoundrels should rob the world of a man with his vision and foresight.”

“Father's death wasn't the work of just a few scoundrels,” Jessie said quietly. “That's the reason I'm here. I hope you're not too busy to talk for a few minutes, not necessarily now, but when you finish whatever work is keeping you here so late—”

Kinkead interrupted her. “We can talk right now, Jessie. The legislature's having a night session, and all I have to do is wait. We may be interrupted long enough for me to sign my name, that's all. Let's go in my office, where we can talk privately.”

When Jessie and Ki had settled into the big horsehair padded armchairs that stood in front of Kinkead's desk, the governor said, “I never enjoy night legislative sessions. When I miss my supper—” He stopped and looked at Jessie and Ki. “Have you had yours, by the way?”

“No,” Jessie replied. “We saw the lights in here and I was so anxious to see you that Ki and I came over at once.”

“That means you're stopping at the Ormsby House, then,” Kinkead said. “I was just about to send my clerk across the street to order my supper. The Ormsby House is used to sending me meals when I can't leave at noon, and when I'm working late. Suppose you and Ki have dinner with me here in the office?”

“We'd enjoy it,” Jessie answered after a quick look at Ki. “There's a young man with us, but I'm sure Ki will go over and explain to him.”

“Include him in my invitation, if you like,” the governor suggested. “I assume he's with you because he has a part in the matter that's brought you here.”

“Yes, he does.”

Ki stood up. “I'll go tell Jed, then.”

After Ki had gone, Kinkead was silent for a moment, looking at Jessie. Finally he said, “You're very like your father, you know. And I feel badly about something, Jessie. Perhaps if I tell you this now, it'll ease my feelings. Do you mind?”

“Do go ahead,” she invited.

“I didn't learn of your father's murder until after I got back from Alaska, Jessie. And I didn't realize that you were carrying on what he'd created. I should've written you, but business and politics combined have a way of keeping a man busy day and night. You'll overlook my negligence, I hope.”

“Of course I will, Governor! I'm just glad I've gotten to meet you. And while I'm not involved in politics, trying to preserve what Father left me has kept me busy too.”

“That's what's brought you here, then? I know that Alex had some very substantial land holdings here in Nevada Territory. If I recall correctly, they were in Hidden Valley, but I thought he'd passed all that land on to Captain Bob Tinker.”

Jessie nodded. “He did. And I have a letter from Captain Tinker to give you, about the trouble the people are having in Hidden Valley.”

Kinkead frowned. “I haven't heard of any trouble there.”

“It's just begun,” Jessie said. “Until a few days ago, the people there didn't understand what was happening, and most of them still don't. But the cause of the trouble goes back to the days when Father bought the valley land, not because he needed it, but because he wanted to keep—” She stopped and frowned, then asked, “Governor Kinkead, did Father ever mention that he'd been invited to become a member of a large European cartel?”

“He mentioned the offer, but told me he'd refused them.”

“Oh, yes, he refused. But they'd told him too much about their schemes and the way they operate when they were trying to persuade him to join them.” Jessie was silent for a moment, holding her emotions firmly in check. Then she went on, “You said a few minutes ago that a few scoundrels murdered my father. That covers the bare facts, but the whole truth is that the killers were a gang sent by the cartel to murder him.”

“And the cartel is trying to get a foothold now, here in Nevada Territory?”

“I'm sure they already have a foothold, or at least a toehold,” Jessie replied quietly. “What they're trying to do now is to expand their power and influence through a new railroad. They call it the South Sierra Railway Company, and they must have been planning it for years.”

Kinkead frowned. “I know about the railroad, of course. It was chartered by one of my predecessors, so I'm not really too familiar with it, but it seems to me that it was chartered only two or three years ago.”

“I'm sure that's right. But when Father bought the Hidden Valley land, the cartel was trying to buy it even then, and he got it away from them. Now they're after it again for their railroad, and they're starting—well, I suppose it's something close to a small war to get their hands on the valley.”

For a moment the governor looked at Jessie, his high forehead furrowed thoughtfully. Then he said, “If anybody but you had come to me with this story, Jessie, I wouldn't have believed it. But when I look at you and see the reflection of your father in your eyes, I know that what you've told me is true. Now tell me what I can do to help.”

During the trip, there'd been plenty of time for Jessie to organize the sequence of events that had taken place in Hidden Valley, and to be sure her interpretation of their significance would be logical and straightforward. Speaking rapidly, she told Kinkead of Bobby's visit to the Circle Star, and the effort to kill Ki and herself on their trip to the valley. She'd reached the episode of Ki's capture and what he'd learned from Cheri when Ki returned with Jed.

When Jessie resumed her story after they'd settled down, she made a point of bringing Jed into her narration, asking him to speak for the Hidden Valley farmers and ranchers. Jed had been anticipating meeting the governor too, and his remarks were as terse and to the point as Jessie's had been. Their story was still a long one, though. When they'd finished it, Kinkead leaned back in his chair, an angry frown on his face.

“I won't say that what you've told me is a shock, Jessie,” he began. “I've rubbed up against a lot of unscrupulous men in my lifetime. As a boy back in Pennsylvania, I learned there were men who'd stop at nothing to get what they wanted. Since then, I've been in business in Ohio and Utah, before I moved to San Francisco and then Alaska, and I've found it's the same all over. From what you've told me, this cartel is even worse than most. But there are some things I can do that will help you.”

When Kinkead stopped, pulled a tablet of paper across the desk, and reached for a pen from the elaborate inkstand in front of him, Jed said, “Jessie told you a lot of things about that cartel outfit that I hadn't heard before. And right now the folks in Hidden Valley could sure use some help. Captain Bob was even thinking about asking you to call out the militia.”

“I'm afraid our militia wouldn't be much help to you,” the governor smiled. “It exists only on paper, Jed. Aside from a few war veterans, nobody's interested in military matters now.”

“What do you plan to do, then, Governor?” Jessie asked.

“Several things. First I'll get your hasty recall election legalized. It takes a resolution by the legislature to authorize a recall election, Jessie, and the people in the valley will have to vote again, with proper printed ballots.”