Antebellum BK 1 (10 page)

Robert offered him his pistol. “Here’s your military protection. An Army issue Colt.”

Quinton looked at the gun as if it was a coiled snake. “I don’t know how to use that.”

Robert grinned. “Then I suppose your only protection is your silver tongue.”

“
You have permission to go ashore, Mr. Quinton,” Marshall said with a grin.

February 28, 1849

San Francisco, California

M
arina was standing at the ship’s rail with Jack, Clementine and Robert as the longboats began towing the
California
toward the docks. “So much for your sleepy little town,” she said, dryly.

“
Yes. So much for it.” Jack lowered his binoculars and leaned over the rail. “Ahoy in the boat,” he shouted.

“
Aye?” the coxswain of the nearest longboat looked up.

“
What’s all the activity? Has something happened?”

“
Gold,” the man shouted. “They’s somethin’ like twenty-five thousand new people in town and more comin’ every day.”

“
Twenty-five thousand,” Jack repeated in amazement. “That’s impossible.”

Robert took the binoculars from Jack, looked at the bustling shore, then gave the glasses to Marina. “I guess you won’t be having that vacation we promised you, Mother.”

She put the glasses to her eyes. “I’ve seen a few boom towns spring up in Texas, but nothing like this. You’re going to have your hands full trying to keep the peace here.” She gave the binoculars to Clementine but Clementine passed them on to Jack without looking ashore.

“
Do you see Sherman?” Robert asked Jack. “He said he’d meet us.”

“
There are too many people on the dock,” Jack said.

“
Cump has a red beard,” Robert prompted.

“
Cump?” Marina asked. “What kind of name is that? It sounds obscene.”

“
William Tecumseh Sherman,” Jack replied. “Cump.”

“
Class of ’40,” Robert added, to stop Marina from a ribald reply. “Sixth in his class. He would have been fourth, but he had too many demerits.”

“
Quincy’s set a record,” Jack chuckled. “He managed to collect ninety-nine demerits in his Plebe year.”

“
Cump got a hundred fifty in four years, only thirty in his plebe year,” Robert said. “I pray for poor Quincy every night.”

“
You’re wasting your time and God’s time in praying for Quincy,” Marina growled. “He’s a Van Buskirk. He’ll graduate and it’ll be near the top of his class, just like all the rest of you.”

Jack was watching what seemed to be a brawl on the dock. “From the looks of this place, we may need somebody who’s as good with his fists as Quincy.”

“
Is that Cump swinging his sword?” Robert asked, squinting at the dockside fracas.

“
Must be.” Jack gave Robert the binoculars.

“
Yes, that’s Cump,” Robert chuckled. He lowered the glasses. “Do you know Colonel Richard Mason, Mother?”

She nodded. “Yes. His grandfather, George Mason, was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. He knew your grandfather and grandmother.”

“
Mason’s the military governor here.” Jack took the binoculars back from Robert.

“
For now,” Robert said with a grin. “With Zachary Taylor in the White House, the Van Buskirk political star may be on the rise again.”

April
2, 1849

San Francisco, California

M
arina walked out of the millinery shop and stopped abruptly as a bearded man on the wooden sidewalk tipped his hat to her. “You idiot,” she hissed, glancing over her shoulder. “Jack and his wife are in there. If he sees you, he’ll have no choice but to arrest you.”

“
He may see me but he won’t arrest me, Mother.” William Van Buskirk replied.

She took his arm and steered him away from the shop. “If you harm Jack or any of your other brothers, I’ll kill you myself. You may be able to hide from the law but you can’t hide from me.”

“
Does that threat extend to my sister?”

“
Why would you hurt Anna?”

“
I despise her. That’s why I killed her husband.”

“
The warning applies to all my children and grandchildren.” She led him into a saloon and to a vacant table at the rear, against the wall. “Buy me a drink. Vodka if they have it, gin if they don’t.”

“
Happy to.” William pulled out a chair for her. “I’m not going let Jack arrest me nor will I let you kill me, Mother.”

“
Jack won’t be looking for me in here,” she replied as she accepted the seat. “As to the other, if the time comes, we’ll just have to see.”

William pushed his way to the bar, then returned to the table with a bottle and two glasses. “I was sorry to hear about Dad. Why didn’t you tell me when I saw you at Galveston?”

“
I didn’t want to talk about it. How did you hear?”

“
That Texas Ranger, Joshua Whipple, caught up with me in Mexico.” William sat down with his back to the wall. “He told me.”

“
Josiah, not Joshua. Did you kill him?” She poured gin into both glasses then drank half of hers in a single swallow.

“
Not yet. He captured me, but he made the mistake of putting me in a Mexican jail. I bribed my way out. Sooner or later he’ll hear that I’m in San Francisco and I’ll repay him for the indignity of his insults, and for that night in jail.”

“
Insults? He probably didn’t say anything about you that wasn’t true.”

William sipped from his glass but his eyes kept moving over the men in the saloon. “Was it a coincidence that you picked this table, Mother? Or did you know I needed to have my back protected?”

“
My face was on a wanted poster until Texas gained independence from Mexico.”

He chuckled. “What were you wanted for? Shoplifting?”

“
Murder.” She looked around then swallowed the gin.

“
Were you guilty?”

“
Yes. Why don’t you go to Europe? I’ll give you enough money to live well.”

“
I’ve got more money than you do, Mother.”

“
Stealing from the gold miners?”

“
Among other things.”

“
If you have so much money, why stay here?”

“
I like it here. It’s fun.” He poured more gin in her glass.

“
The reward for you is so big that eventually somebody is going to shoot you in the back for it.”

“
That’s what makes it fun.”

“
Do you call sitting with your back to the wall fun?” Marina picked up the glass and put it back down. “I better go.”

“
Finish your drink first.”

“
If I do, I won’t stop.”

He studied her for a moment. “I don’t really know you, do I?”

She stood up. “If you know yourself, you know me. Luckily, all my other children took after their father.”

“
You’re wrong, Mother. I’m the lucky one.”

“
Time will tell, William. Take care of yourself. God won’t.”

May 28, 1849

Panama

B
artolome Quinton climbed
California’s
ladder and shook Captain Forbes’s hand. “Are you recovered, Captain?”

“
Indeed, I am, sir. Thank you.”

“
Have you some passengers bound for New York that prefer the overland route?”

“
No. I sent for you because of another matter.” Forbes gestured forward. “I wonder if I might have a private word with you.”

“
Of course.” Quinton looked puzzled, but accompanied Forbes to his cabin.

Forbes cleared maps and charts from one of the chairs for Quinton, then crossed the cluttered cabin to stand at the map table. “Have a seat please, Mr. Quinton.”

“
I’m fine standing, thank you. What’s this all about? Why have you not docked yet and why did you send for me?”

Forbes took a few seconds to gather his thoughts. “We left San Francisco on the first of this month with fifty-four passengers and gold specie valued at…” He glanced at the ship’s log that was open on the table. “Three hundred forty-six thousand, six hundred and fifty-three dollars. We arrived here with fifty-three passengers and a few gold bars worth less than a thousand dollars.”

“
Oh dear. Have you any idea where this thief disembarked?”

“
Not exactly, but certainly it was very near here. He dined with me last night and we only noticed him missing a short time ago when it was discovered that there was only a bamboo frame covered with a tarpaulin disguised to look like a properly stowed boat on the stern davits. He probably absconded after the mid-watch began.”

“
The perpetrator would have needed help to load so much weight into the boat.”

“
Yes. It is evident that he had four or more accomplices. The stern boat is quite large and requires two crewmen on the windlasses and another two in the boat.”

“
Can we assume that they would be members of your crew or could passengers have been involved?”

“
Lowering the boat requires some small skill. I doubt that any passengers have such experience.”

“
Have you any idea which crew members?”

“
No. And I may never discover the answer. The entire crew that came with me from New York deserted for the goldfields of California when we reached San Francisco. I was forced to hire an entirely new crew at exorbitant wages. Many of the men are of low moral character and they too will be gone at the first opportunity.”

“
I see. So what is it that you wish of me?”

“
I was hoping that you would spread the word of the theft across the isthmus, among your minions.”

“
I presume that a reward is offered?”

Forbes seemed surprised. “Yes. If that is necessary.”

“
How much are you prepared to offer?”

Forbes shrugged. “What would you suggest?”

“
I should think fifty percent reasonable.”

“
What?”

“
To recover half is considerably better than none.”

“
I thought we were friends.”

“
As did I. Before you sent me, unarmed, into the mob during your outward bound voyage.”

“
Twenty-five percent,” Forbes said.

“
Shall we say thirty?”

“
Very well. Thirty.”

“
Dead or alive?” Quinton asked.

“
It doesn’t matter as long as you recover the gold.”

“
Do you have a name and description for this fellow?”

Forbes searched through some papers on the table. “The name on our passenger manifest is Colonel Van Williams.” He handed Quinton a sketch. “A woman passenger drew this. It’s quite a good likeness.”

“
Handsome fellow,” Quinton observed. “I expect that he’ll have shaved the beard by now.”

“
Quite likely.”

“
The name, Colonel Van Williams, is surely false as well.”

“
Yes. The young woman who drew the sketch referred to him as Billy, if that helps.”

Quinton folded the sketch and walked toward the cabin door. “Never fear, Captain. Nothing and no one can cross the isthmus of Panama without me knowing.”

June 23, 1849

Port Isabel, Texas

L
ucky Billy Van waited as the last customer left the bank and put his foot in the door before the clerk could close and lock it. “I need to speak to the manager.”

“
We’re just closing, sir.”