Cade interrupted her with a little laugh. “You want me to buy you some new clothes.”
“Yes, for Magnolia and me.”
“I’ll be glad to,” Cade said with a rather salacious smile.
“Oh, and Cade? Do buy clothes we can be seen wearing in public.”
“Well, now you are taking all the fun from it,” Cade teased. “But I’ll see what I can do.”
Cade and Jeter reached Galveston by mid-afternoon where they were greeted with the stench of death from horses, cows, pigs, and family pets that were bloating in the street while flies swarmed over them. The bodies of the animals were floating in shallow pools, and hanging from trees. Every able-bodied man worked. The priority was in finding people who were alive, trapped under collapsed buildings or wandering around in shock. Dead bodies were recovered and animals were burned, and the smells permeated the air twenty-four hours per day. Cade was hoping he would find Mr. Bowman or Joan Baker, but he never found either of them.
Hotels and restaurants that could open their doors turned no one away. People who had lost their homes found shelter anywhere they could, in the train station, at the city hall, in commercial buildings, warehouses, saloons, and even whore houses. Finally, ten days after the storm, all the survivors had been accounted for and the dead had been buried. Now the city began to turn to the task of rebuilding.
One of the buildings that had been destroyed was the bank, and Cade was concerned about his money. He visited Charles Montgomery, the owner, at the site of the bank.
“We believe all the money is safe,” Montgomery said in response to Cade’s question. Montgomery pointed to the pile of bricks and sand where at least a dozen men were working. “The vault should be buried under all that rubble, and money that we had on deposit, as well as our records, are in the vault.”
“I am assuming you will be rebuilding.”
“Indeed we will,” Montgomery said. “The merchants and the citizens of this town are going to be needing money and we at the First Galveston feel an obligation to meet that need. When Miss Dupree needs capital to rebuild The Red House, we’ll be here for her—and for you, too, Mr. McCall.”
Satisfied that his money was safe, even if he didn’t have immediate access to it, Cade assured the banker that he would maintain his account and if the need arose, he would borrow money from the First Galveston.
The Saddle and Stirrup had been repaired and was now open for business. For the first time in several days, Cade and Jeter found an opportunity to relax for a while, and joined others that they knew for a beer.
“You think it’s bad here,” a cowboy named Art Finley said. Finley was one of the cowboys who had ridden with Cade and Jeter during the last cattle drive. “You should see it to the south of here. You think a lot of animals died in Galveston, well out on the range they’s been hunnerts, maybe even thousands of cows that was kilt by the storm, now their carcasses are lyin’ around, all over the place. You talk about stench. Whoeee!” Finley held his nose closed.
“I hadn’t even thought about that,” Cade said. “Of course, the cattle would have no place to shelter.”
“Damn, I wonder if there’ll even be a drive come spring,” Jeter said.
“Good question,” Cade replied. “We may wind up with a lean year, partner.”
Cade and Jeter were ready to leave Galveston.
“Aren’t you forgettin’ somethin’?” Jeter asked.
“I don’t think so.”
“The clothes. Arabella told you to get her and Magnolia some dresses.”
“Oh, yeah,” Cade said as he stopped his horse in front of Blum’s Mercantile. “Arabella used to shop here. Maybe someone can pick out what she’d like.”
“You mean as much time as you spend with that woman, you don’t know what she likes?”
That night the two women, wearing new dresses, prepared a feast of fried chicken for Cade and Jeter and the Hatleys. There was a great deal of conversation over the dinner table about the condition of Galveston, though Cade and Jeter downplayed the more gruesome aspects, concentrating instead on the willingness of so many to pitch in and help with the cleanup and rebuilding.
“Oh!” Arabella said, half-way through dinner. “I almost forgot. Mr. Puckett dropped by and he left a letter for you.”
“Probably telling us he won’t be needin’ us for a cattle drive come spring,” Jeter said.
Having left the table to retrieve the letter, Arabella came back a moment later with the missive in hand.
Cade and Jeter
As I’m sure you may know by now, thousands of cattle were killed by the hurricane, and there is a need for disposition of the dead animals. The hides can still be salvaged, but we will need men who are willing to do the hard work of skinning the cattle, then disposing of the carcasses. I will pay a dollar and a half per hide, cured and delivered to the LP Ranch. I hope you two men are interested in such a project.
I have been talking with other ranchers, and we think that if we merge our herds, we will have enough cattle for a spring drive. I have put forth you two men as contractors to manage the herd.
Linus Puckett
“Well, how about that?” Cade asked, as with a big smile he handed the letter to Jeter. “It looks like we aren’t out of business just yet.”
5
The next morning, as Cade and Jeter prepared to leave the MW, Arabella and Maggie joined them out by the corral. They were hitching a wagon to a team of mules, having decided not to take horses.
“Here’s fifty dollars,” Cade said as he handed the money to Arabella. “I wish I had more to give you, but until the bank is back in business you’ll have to make this last. You can stay here or you can go back to Galveston.”
“What’s there to go back to?” Arabella asked. “Magnolia and I have discussed it, and we’ve decided we’d rather stay here with the Hatleys.”
Cade smiled. “Good, I was hoping you would say that. But if you stay here, there’s going to come a time when you will need more supplies. Texana is the closest town, and to get to it you just follow the river north for about five miles. Use Harry and Rhoda,” Cade said, pointing out two of the horses. “They take to the harness easily, but Titus will help you hitch them up to the buckboard.”
“When will you be back?” Arabella asked.
“I’m thinking not until sometime in the spring,” Cade said. “You’ve got enough wood cut to last you until the end of January, but you’ll be needing some more to get you through the rest of the winter. Titus will want to do the cutting for you, but he’s an old man so you help him. But you should start now, a little each day before it gets cold.”
“The cabin you’re in should stay warm because I’ve chinked a lot of mud into the cracks,” Jeter said, “but if you have to move in with Ma and Pa then do it.”
“Merci,” Maggie said, smiling at Jeter.
“Uh, yes, uhmm, well,” Jeter said, clearing his throat in embarrassment over being the target of Maggie’s direct stare. “Come on, Cade. We’d better be going.”
Cade put his arms around Arabella and pulled her to him for a kiss.
“Monsieur, Jeter, do you not want a kiss goodbye?” Maggie asked.
“What?” Now Jeter’s embarrassment left, to be replaced by a wide, elated smile. “Yes, of course I want a kiss goodbye.”
Cade and Arabella looked on as Jeter kissed Maggie, though it would be more accurate to say that Maggie was kissing Jeter, as she had obviously taken the initiative.
The two young women stood side by side, waving as the wagon drew away from them.
“Monsieur Jeter is a very nice man,” Maggie said.
“Are you beginning to . . . have feelings for him?” Arabella asked.
“Do you think it is wrong?”
“No more than it’s wrong for me to have feelings for Cade. But Magnolia, remember who, and what we are.”
“We are not the women we were in New Orleans. We have changed,” Maggie insisted.
> A sad expression crossed Arabella’s face. “Unfortunately, we can’t unring a bell, and we can’t hide from who or what we are. No matter how much we want it to be different, we can’t change our past.”
“You don’t think that Cade can forgive you? He knows who you are, and yet he seems to care for you,” Maggie said.
“Magnolia, you don’t know how much I want that to be true, but women like us can never change. It’s a burden we will carry for the rest of our lives.”
Because so many businesses had been destroyed by the hurricane, men who needed employment found skinning dead cows a means of survival. Store clerks, draymen, blacksmiths, people of all trades, were taking part in the cattle-hide business, along with Cade and Jeter.
“Tell me about Maggie,” Jeter said one night while Cade and he were camped on Live Oak Bayou. Jeter was tending to a jack rabbit that was cooking over the fire.
“What do you mean, tell you about her? She’s Arabella’s friend; they worked together back in New Orleans.”
“Worked together?”
“Yes, she was a whore, if that’s what you’re getting at,” Cade said. “I’ve never asked what happened to her, but I get the feeling she left New Orleans in a hurry.”
“Do you think she’s running from something? Maybe the law?”
“Jeter Willis, you’re the only person I know who’s not running from something. Do you think for a minute I’m going back to Clarksville, Tennessee, anytime soon?”
“But that’s different. Your brother married your fiancée when they thought you were killed in the war.”
“That’s true, but that’s not the only reason I’m staying away,” Cade said.
“All right, I won’t ask anymore,” Jeter said. “But let’s get back to Magnolia. Don’t you think she’s sort of . . . well . . . I don’t know how to say it, but she has sort of a different look about her. A good look, don’t get me wrong, but it’s sort of . . . different is the only word I can come up with.”
“How about exotic?” Cade suggested.
“Exotic, yeah. But what does that mean?”
Cade chuckled. “It means just what you said: different, unusual, striking.”
“Yeah, all that.”
“Jeter, you do know she’s a quadroon don’t you?”
“No, I didn’t know that.”
“Does that make a difference?
“A difference how? What do you mean?”
“Does that make a difference about what you think about her?”
“I think she’s one of the prettiest women I’ve ever seen, ‘n I’d say that, no matter what she is.”
“She is pretty,” Cade agreed. “But she’s no shrinking violet. I know that Arabella can take care of herself, and I think Maggie can, too.”
“I hope you’re right. I hated to leave them at the ranch, even if Ma and Pa are there with them.”
Jeter couldn’t help but think of Lilajean Willis. His father had left him and his mother alone, while he had gone out to hunt. When Lilajean saw Indians circling the cabin, she had put her five-year old son under a board in the floor and told him not to say anything or come out no matter what.
When he heard the sound of a gunshot, he thought it was his father coming home, but it was the shot that killed his father. No one came for him, and still he stayed under the floor in the dark. Finally, on the second day, he heard a sound and a banging on the board above him. Even though his mother had told him not to come out until she came for him, he moved the board aside. It was then that he saw her—bloodied and near death. She had escaped from her captors and come back for her son. He crawled out and sat beside her as she lay dying.
Two days later Titus Hatley came to borrow a gang plow.
It was then that Titus and Mary became his parents.
Four months later, and about a mile away from where Cade and Jeter were working, a couple of men were engaged in the same temporary occupation.
“Sum bitch!” Tyrone Grimes said. “I don’t wish nothin’ bad for nobody, but we’re goin’ to wind up makin’ more money out ‘a these here dead cows than we’ve ever made out ‘a live ones.”
“Yeah,” Bart Canfield agreed. “I figure we got us at least a hunnert ‘n fifty dollars apiece there.”
“Who’s this comin’ toward us?” Grimes asked, his voice registering his apprehension as he watched four men approach.
“I don’t know. Maybe it’s just somebody wantin’ to be friendly.”
“Wait a minute, I know one o’ them men,” Canfield said. “That’s Amon Kilgore; he’s a trail boss.”
The two men waited as Kilgore and the three men with him approached.
“Hello, boys,” Kilgore said.
“Mr. Kilgore, what can we do for you?” Canfield asked.
Kilgore looked surprised that he was recognized. “You know me?”
“Yeah, you’re a trail boss. Took the Rocking D up last year. I tried to sign on with ya but you turned me down.”
“That’s too bad.”
“It don’t make no never mind, mister. I hired on to the Lazy 8.”
“This ain’t about herding cows. It’s too bad you recognized me because now I have to kill you.”
“Now look, Kilgore, I ain’t done nothin’ to you,” Canfield pleaded.
“It’s not what you did, it’s what you’re gonna do.” Kilgore drew his pistol.
Canfield threw up his hand. “I got a wife and kids. You can’t just shoot me for nothin’.”
“I’m takin’ your hides, and I don’t want nobody tellin’ the law who done it.”
Just then Tyrone Grimes started running for a copse of trees. One of the other men with Kilgore took aim and shot him.
“Damn, Pogue, you shot him in the back.”
Pogue nodded his head as he turned his gun toward Canfield. “We thank ya’ for all the work you’ve done,”
“If you’re going to do this, get it over with,” Canfield said as he stared into the man’s eyes.
A satanic smile crossed Pogue’s lips as he pulled the trigger.
“All right, that’s done,” Kilgore said. “Morgan, you and Cooper tie a rope to those hides and let’s drag ‘em over to the wagon.”
“Did you hear something?” Jeter asked.
“Yeah, I heard it,” Cade said. “Sounded like gunshots.”
“It’s probably Tyrone and Bart shootin’ at something. I know they’re pretty close to us,” Jeter suggested.
“You’re probably right. Maybe we should ride over and make sure everything’s all right.”
“I’ll bet it’s a coyote comin’ after a carcass they didn’t burn,” Jeter said. “One thing’s for sure, it’s not Indians.”
Cade laughed. “You’re right about that. With all the cow skinners out here, if we all banded together we’d have an army. How many hides do we have in that pile?”
“This one makes five-hundred-fifty-two,” Jeter said as he threw another one onto the wagon.
“Are you about ready to call it quits?” Cade asked. “With so many men out here scouring the coast, the cows we can find now are few and far between.”
“And we’ve already taken five-hundred back to Mr. Puckett,” Jeter said. “I say we head for home.”
“I’m with you. It’s turned out to be a pretty good winter,” Cade said as he began kicking dirt onto the remaining embers left from the burning of the last carcass.
About half a mile away from Cade and Jeter’s temporary encampment, Amon Kilgore, stood on a small rise, looking down toward the fire, wagon, and two men.
“How many hides do you think they got?” Morgan asked.
“I don’t know, but they’ve got a wagon full, that’s for sure,” Kilgore replied. He was studying the site through a pair of binoculars. “And what’s even more important, they got ‘em loaded, so we can get out of here in a hurry.” He lowered the binoculars, but he didn’t move.
“Well, are we gonna’ do it or not?” Julius Cooper asked.
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br /> “I know them two,” Kilgore said. “That’s Cade McCall and Jeter Willis.”
“So what?” Cooper asked.
“I don’t want them to see me.”
“What difference does it make whether you’re seen by them two or not? That poor bastard Pogue just killed knew you, too, and what did it get him? He’s just as dead as the other one.”
“These two are different,” Kilgore said. “They’re not goin’ to be that easy to kill.”
“That’s all right, you just stay back here, like a puss ‘n we’ll kill ‘em for you,” Pogue said with an evil smile.
Cade and Jeter were striking their camp, when they saw three riders coming toward them.
“I wonder who these men are?” Jeter asked.
“I don’t know, but I guess we’re about to find out,” Cade said. He was just about to put his bedroll into the back of the wagon, but he hung onto it as he watched the riders approach.
“Do you recognize any of them?” Cade asked.
“No, I don’t.”
The three men came on into the camp.
“I see you two boys have been busy this winter,” One of the three riders said. “Your wagon looks pretty full there. How many hides do you have?”
“I don’t see that it’s any of your business,” Cade answered.
“Here now, is that any way to respond to a friendly question?”
“Under the circumstances, I’m not sure the question is all that friendly,” Cade replied.
“Well now, you may have a point there,” the talkative rider said. “It turns out that there is a point to my question. I’m interested in how many hides you have, ‘cause I plan to take ‘em off your hands.”
“They’re not our hides to sell,” Cade replied. “We’re contracted to Linus Puckett for these hides.”
The Western Adventures of Cade McCall Box Set Page 25
