No Less Than the Journey (19 page)

CHAPTER 3

At the hotel that evening when Aaron told the two women the worrying information given to him by Pat Rafferty, Anabelita was particularly concerned.

‘What do we do now?’ she asked. ‘I’ve given up everything to come along with you, Aaron.’

‘I realize that, Anabelita, that’s what I want to discuss with both you and Lola. It’s come as quite a shock to all of us but, according to folk I’ve spoken to in Abilene, everything happened so suddenly that moving the stockyards from the town took them by surprise. There had been rumours for some time about the demise of the stockyards, but business was booming so no one took them seriously. Then, one day, it just happened. Cattle and cattlemen didn’t need to come to Abilene any more because the railroad had gone down the trail to meet them.’

‘Are you suggesting we do the same?’ This time the question came from Lola.

‘No …’ Aaron replied, before adding honestly, ‘I did think about it, but it would mean going too far out of the way from my real work out here.’

Leaning towards them and sounding more enthusiastic, he said, ‘Mind you, this could prove to be a blessing in disguise … for all of us.’

‘How?’ Anabelita demanded, unconvinced. ‘Lola and me came with you to work in a gambling parlour that’s been burned down, in a town where there’s no money and Lola and I have nowhere to work. I can’t see how that’s a good thing for any of us.’

His enthusiasm increasing, Aaron replied, ‘Think what might have happened had we got here earlier, bought the Golden Globe, and I’d gone off to carry out my duties as a United States Marshal leaving you to run a gaming-house. Now that would have been a real calamity for every one of us, especially me. I would have lost all my cash and not been able to help either of you. As it is I am able to finance either, or both of you, to go to wherever you think will best suit you – that’s if you want to go your own ways after you’ve listened to what I have to say.’

Aware that he had the full attention of both of them, Aaron continued, ‘I still intend setting up a gaming-saloon – an honest one – but in a place where there’s real money being made by men who are just looking for places in which to spend it. I’m talking about Denver.’

Anabelita looked at Aaron sceptically, ‘I’ve never heard of this “Denver”, but it sounds a lot like a place the Spaniards used to talk about … I believe they called it “El Dorado”, a place where everything was made of gold. The trouble is, such a place has never existed – or, if it did, no one’s ever found it.’

Leaning back in his chair once more, Aaron gave Anabelita an amused smile, ‘You know, you’re not so very wrong, Anabelita. Denver may not quite be an “El Dorado”, but the wealth that’s being spent there comes from gold. Men are flocking to the mines around the town in their thousands.’

‘Oh? And will they all become millionaires and go home happy – after spending a percentage on the gaming tables, of course, or are the great majority going to be disappointed when they find nothing and either starve or turn to crime in order to stay alive? It sounds to me as though this Denver might turn out to be an even wilder town than the new railhead town of Dodge.’

Aaron was not particularly surprised by Anabelita’s response to his suggestion that they should try their luck with a gambling saloon in Denver. After all, she had given up what was comparatively secure work on the Mississippi River to come with him. Colorado was still a Territory and few women thrived on frontier life … but he had brought
two
women to Abilene.

Turning to Anabelita’s companion, he asked, ‘What do you think about the idea, Lola?’

‘I can’t say I’m exactly jumping for joy at the thought of going further west than we are now,’ Lola replied honestly, ‘but I’ve less to lose than Anabelita and I don’t have enough experience to go back and get a croupier’s job on the river or in any other place that’s half-respectable. If you’re willing to take me on to Denver on my own I’ll come with you – because I trust you … but I would be a whole lot happier if Anabelita came too. There’s a great deal about gambling that she knows and I don’t.’

Appealing to her friend, she pleaded, ‘Won’t you give it a try, Anabelita … for me?’

While Lola had been talking, Anabelita’s thoughts had been of what concerned her even more than the shock of finding there was to be no work waiting for her in Abilene. Her reply to Lola’s plea reflected this thinking.

‘What happens if Wes comes here looking for me, only to find we’ve moved on to somewhere else?’

Lola had said nothing to Aaron about Anabelita’s suspected condition, but he was a shrewd man and he asked now, ‘Is there any particular reason why he should come looking for you?’

‘No
particular
reason,’ Anabelita lied, ‘but I do think a hell of a lot of him and I believed he was coming around to feeling the same way about me. Everyone we’ve spoken to about the place he was going to in Missouri has said that things there are bad – especially for English miners. I thought that if he couldn’t get mining work he might come looking for me to see what he might do in Abilene.’

‘The way things are here he’d be no luckier finding work than in Missouri,’ Aaron commented, ‘but if you decide to come with us I’ll send a telegraph to the County Sheriff of the Harmony area asking him to find Wes and tell him where we’ve gone. Not only that, just in case he’s already left and is on his way here, I’ll leave a message at the Abilene sheriff’s office too. If Wes comes here I’ll make certain he learns where we’ve gone. You can be quite certain of that, Anabelita. I’d like to make Wes a Deputy United States Marshal to help me out with what’s going to be a tough task in Colorado. So, you see, I have a keen interest in that young man too!’

Anabelita could not tell Aaron that she believed her interest in Wes’s future movements was even more urgent than those of the United States Marshal, albeit of a far more personal nature.

It concerned her whole future – and that of the child she was almost certainly carrying, the child that was hers and Wes’s.

She also realized that if Wes did not turn up, she would be able to rely on more support and help from Lola and Aaron than she was likely to find if she abandoned them now and returned to work back East, where she knew very few people
well enough to ask for their help.

Making up her mind, she capitulated. ‘All right, if you leave word for Wes where we’ve gone, I’ll come to Denver with you….’

CHAPTER 4

In Denver, Colorado, Aaron and the two women with him, found all they had expected to find in Abilene – and much more. It was early evening when they arrived accompanied by Pat Rafferty, and the streets surrounding the downtown railroad depot were thronged with men, women and children – but mostly men.

Among them were a number of cowboys, but the majority were men wearing a garb that Wes would have recognized immediately as that adopted by miners. Many spoke with an accent he would also have recognized and it thrilled Anabelita to hear them speak in the way he did. She wished he could have been here with her to hear it for himself.

Aaron looked about him and beamed. ‘Now, this is more like it, there’s a healthy aroma of money in the air….’

At that moment there was an eruption of noise from somewhere along the street, accompanied by a number of gunshots and a woman began screaming.

When Aaron seemed unconcerned by the sounds, Anabelita said to him, ‘Something’s happening along there. As United States Marshal shouldn’t you find out what it is?’

To her surprise, Aaron shook his head. When she appeared confused, he explained, ‘Denver’s a frontier town. If I got myself involved in every little altercation that occurred I’d just be wasting government money. Besides, it looks to me as though Denver has got itself a police force … of sorts. It’s standing right across the street and is no doubt paid by the good citizens of Denver to keep the peace. If he’s not concerned by whatever’s going on I’ll mind my own business.’

Looking across the street Anabelita saw a man wearing a blue uniform with a silver badge pinned to the left breast of his jacket. He was standing with his back to the disturbance, unconcernedly chatting to two men, both of whom to Lola’s experienced eyes appeared to have been drinking.

The four travellers had an amount of luggage with them and Aaron said to the one-armed man, ‘Will you look after the girls and the baggage for a few minutes, Pat? I can see a sign for the Denver Hotel up the quieter end of the street. It’s the hotel recommended by that talkative carpetbagger on the train, but this isn’t Abilene. If it’s as good as he said, then it’s likely to be full. There’s no sense lugging everything up there only to have to take it somewhere else.’

‘Go ahead,’ Rafferty grinned, ‘I don’t think we’ll be bored while you’re away.’

His comment was in response to an upsurge of sound from the street in the opposite direction to the Denver Hotel. Now it was mainly cheering and hooting and as they all looked in that direction they were in time to see a horse and rider emerge from the entrance to the saloon. The rider was wielding a six-gun in one hand and a bottle of whisky in the other.

Across the street from the railroad depot the uniformed policeman had turned to see what was happening, but was now in conversation with his two companions once more.

Aaron and Pat exchanged glances, then Aaron shrugged
and set off to walk to the Denver Hotel.

As Pat and the two women talked together the crowd outside the saloon farther along the street gradually drifted away. The town policeman was still talking to his companions, but one of them had begun taking an interest in Anabelita and Lola.

He said something to the others which caused all three men to look across the road before he sauntered across the thoroughfare towards the newly-arrived trio.

Dressed in none-too-clean cowboy clothes, the man wore a revolver in an open holster at his hip and as he drew closer, it became evident his face had not felt the touch of a razor for a week or more.

‘Uh-ah! Here comes trouble,’ Anabelita commented softly to Lola.

Stopping in front of the two women and ignoring their one-armed companion, the cowboy said, ‘Howdy, girls, you just arrived in town?’

The aroma of stale whisky which was breathed out with his words was the least offensive of the odours he brought with him and neither woman made any reply.

Undeterred, the cowboy spoke again, ‘If you’re looking for somewhere to stay I can take you to a hotel that’s as cheap as any you’re likely to find in Denver.’ Beaming at Lola, he added, ‘Not only that, they’ll ask no questions and if you’re looking to set yourselves up in business … well, you couldn’t find anyone better than Archie Leveridge to look after your interests.’

‘You’re being offensive, friend,’ said Pat Rafferty, ‘I think you’d better back off and return to your friends. They seem more amused by you than we are.’

Looking contemptuously at the one-armed man, the cowboy said, ‘Stay out of this – unless you want to lose the use
of the arm you’ve got left.’

Pat Rafferty did not carry a handgun and his shotgun was strapped to his bag, which was on the boardwalk with the other luggage.

As he began to sidle towards it, the cowboy lifted his revolver from its holster and said, ‘Don’t even think about it, Mister. You’d be dead before you laid a finger on it.’

While he was threatening Rafferty, Anabelita whispered to Lola, ‘Move in front of me … quickly!’

Startled, Lola said, ‘What…? Why…?’

‘Just do it!’ Anabelita hissed, in such an authoritarian tone that Lola did as she was told immediately and Anabelita reached beneath her skirt so swiftly that no one around her was even aware of the move.

‘Get over there, away from that bag,’ the cowboy gunman motioned Pat Rafferty away with a wave of his gun.

‘Look, cowboy, just go on your way and leave us alone. These are two respectable ladies and we’re all waiting here for a friend to return, then we’ll be going about our business.’

‘Is that so? Well, the ladies have just found themselves a new friend and I’m sure we’ll all know each other a whole lot better by the end of the evening – but so neither of ’em will feel left out I’ll call my partner to come over and join us.’

As he was speaking the cowboy signalled to the man who still stood speaking to the Denver police officer on the far side of the street and when the man started to walk towards them he spoke to Rafferty once more.

‘Now, go on your way and leave these “ladies” to enjoy the company of two real men.’

‘If it’s all the same to you, I’ll stay where I am and keep the ladies and their luggage with me.’ Pat Rafferty was hoping that if he could only keep the other man talking for long enough, Aaron would return, but it seemed the gunman had
other ideas.

‘I’ve asked you real nice to go away, but I’m running out of patience with you, Mister. I’m going to count to five … if you’re not gone by then you won’t be going anywhere … ever!’

Looking straight at Pat Rafferty, the cowboy began counting. ‘One … two … three … four….’

The revolver came up and there was the sound of a shot … but the cry of pain that followed came from the cowboy and not from Rafferty. The revolver he had been holding dropped to the ground and he staggered backwards, clutching his shoulder his expression one of agony and disbelief.

As Anabelita stepped from behind Lola, smoke still trickling from the barrel of the small revolver she held in her hand, the wounded cowboy began screaming, ‘… She shot me! The goddam bitch shot me…!’

While all this was going on, the friend who had been invited by Leveridge to join the anticipated party with the two women had looked on uncertainly. Now, seeing Anabelita holding the diminutive pistol, he began to draw his own pistol from its holster.

Whether or not he would have used it was never put to the test.

Aaron had been returning from the Denver Hotel when he saw a crowd gathering about the place where he had left Pat Rafferty with the two women and he began hurrying. As he neared the spot he heard the sound of a shot, fired from a small calibre weapon and he broke into an awkward run.

Pushing his way roughly through the gathering crowd he was in time to see Leveridge’s friend drawing his revolver. At the same moment Pat Rafferty dived for the shotgun strapped to his bag and the cowboy hesitated, uncertain whether to shoot at Anabelita, or the one-armed man.

Before he reached a decision a hand came over his shoulder and the muzzle or a revolver barrel was pressed against his right temple. He froze as Aaron’s voice said, ‘Just so much as twitch your trigger finger and you’ll lose what little brain you might have. Drop your gun – and be quick about it.’

The cowboy dropped his handgun as though it had suddenly become red-hot. Aaron promptly kicked it towards the women and Lola hastily picked it up.

A push from Aaron sent the disarmed man staggering across the road to where the uniformed Denver police officer was now supporting the wounded cowboy who had his back to a store front and appeared to be about to slip to the boardwalk.

While Aaron was being appraised by Pat Rafferty of what had occurred, a second uniformed man pushed his way through the crowd. He too wore a badge on the breast of his jacket, but the wording on it displayed the word ‘Chief’ and Aaron rightly assumed he commanded the Denver police force.

Addressing the officer supporting Leveridge as ‘McAvoy’, the newly-arrived police chief demanded to know what was happening.

Lowering the wounded man to the boardwalk, officer McAvoy explained, ‘There’s been a shooting, Chief.’ Pointing to Anabelita who had returned her .22 revolver to it’s holster, hidden beneath her skirt, he added, ‘She shot this man for no apparent reason.’

‘That’s a lie!’ Pat Rafferty said, heatedly, ’… and you damn well know it because he was talking to you before he came over here and started insulting the two women who are with me – something you seemed to find highly amusing at the time. When I told him to get lost he drew his gun and threatened to shoot me if I didn’t go away by the time he
counted to five. He’d got to four and was raising his gun when Miss Jones shot him. She saved my life.’

The police chief digested this for a moment, then turned to McAvoy. ‘Is this true?’

The officer shook his head, ‘I didn’t see anything of the sort … and I know Mr Leveridge. He’s not the sort of man who’d bother women that way.’

‘Leveridge…? Now that’s an unusual name.’ This from Aaron, ‘His first name wouldn’t happen to be Archibald, I suppose?’

Glaring at Aaron, McAvoy replied, ‘His name is Archie … but what’s it got to do with you?’

‘Well now, Archie Leveridge isn’t a man who any lawman should claim for a friend – although any one involved in law enforcement should know the name. A wanted poster went out to all sheriffs’ and marshals’ offices – including those in the Territories – declaring that a certain Archibald Leveridge is wanted in Missouri with others for holding up a stagecoach and making off with a cash box and a couple of bags of United States mail. Most of the others have either been killed or captured, but Leveridge managed to evade arrest, in spite of the fact that he has a seven hundred dollar reward on his head. Two hundred put up by the governor of Missouri and five hundred by Wells Fargo. I think Miss Jones can rightly claim that reward. I suggest you lock Leveridge up in your cells, have a doctor look at his wound, then ship him off to Jefferson City to stand trial – but if I were Chief of Police here I’d want to know how come one of my officers is so friendly with a wanted outlaw and was ready to take his part when he knew damn well that he started all the trouble here in the first place.’

Angrily, the Denver police chief demanded, ‘Are you trying to tell me how to do my job, Mister…? Who the hell are you, anyway?’

Pulling his coat open to reveal the five-pointed US Marshal’s star pinned to his chest, Aaron replied, ‘I’m Aaron Berryman, United States Marshal for The Territories. If I remember the notes I made before heading out West, you’ll be Chief Jack Kelly.’

Momentarily taken aback, Kelly made an attempt to retrieve his badly dented authority, ‘If a US Marshal came to Denver, I’d like to think I’d be the first to know – but what’s happened here is a local matter, not a Federal one. If Officer McAvoy has decided to arrest this woman then she stays arrested.’

‘I don’t think so, Chief Kelly. As it happens, you are the first to know I’m here, but from what little I’ve seen of your town so far, you’re not likely to be the last. Colorado has applied to President Grant to be given Statehood and admission to the United States of America. The President has sent me here to check on whether Colorado is ready to become a State; is capable of maintaining law and order without help, and whether I think Denver should become the State capital. I haven’t been in Denver for half-an-hour yet, but already I’m beginning to doubt whether any of his questions can be answered in the affirmative. As for the rest … among Leveridge’s crimes, he’s wanted for stealing US mail from a Wells Fargo stagecoach. That’s a
federal
offence and I’m a federal marshal. What’s more, I’ll personally shoot anyone who tries to arrest Miss Jones – and that includes you and McAvoy. She’s disabled a wanted and dangerous criminal and is due a reward for doing it. Now, get Leveridge into gaol and have him sent off to Missouri at the first opportunity. Mr Rafferty, me and the women are off to the Denver Hotel and that’s where I’ll be should you want me.’

Aaron was a diminutive, almost insignificant man but he seemed to grow in stature as he spoke and it would have taken
a braver man than either Police Chief Jack Kelly, or Officer McAvoy to try to stop him from leaving with his small party.