Several people were gathered in front of Dugan’s store. Cade picked up Stone and began running toward the crowd.
“What is it?” Jeter asked.
“I don’t know, but you’d better come with me. I don’t think this is going to turn out well.”
When Jeter and Cade reached Dugan’s store, they saw Magnolia lying on the ground with a group of men standing around her. A wet spot encircled her.
Jeter knelt beside her, taking her hand in his. “Magnolia, speak to me, tell me you’re all right.”
Magnolia opened her eyes and smiled when she saw Jeter. “It’s time. Get me out of the street.”
“Where? Where do you want to go?”
“I don’t care, just find a place. You don’t want your baby to be born in the middle of Front Street, do you?”
“I’ll run for the doctor,” Jeter said after he had taken Magnolia home.
“There’s no time for that,” Mary said. “Get me some water and towels. This baby is about to be born now!”
“Oh, I, uh . . .”
“You stay here with Magnolia,” Cade said. “I’ll get the water and towels.”
A moment later Cade stepped back into the bedroom with the requested items. Jeter took them from him.
“Get those three babies out of here,” Mary said. “They don’t need to be in the way.”
It may have been a strange reaction for him, under the circumstances, but Cade felt good that Mary had said “three” babies, including Stone in the same reference.
“Come on, let’s wait in the other room,” Cade said, leading the three children back into the keeping room.
“Is Mama having a baby?” Bella asked.
“Yes, she is.”
“She will be our sister,” Chantal said.
“How do you know it’ll be a girl?” Cade asked.
“It will be a girl,” Chantal insisted.
The four waited nervously until, finally, they heard the cry of a baby.
“That’s her. That’s our sister crying,” Bella said, excitedly.
A moment later Jeter stepped out of the bedroom with a big smile on his face.
“Bella, Chantal, Stone, come meet your baby sister.”
“See, I told you it’d be a girl,” Chantal said with a proud grin.
“We’re naming her Mary Lilajean,” Jeter said. He looked over at Mary, “After my two mothers.”
“So, what do you girls think about your new little sister?” Cade asked when they saw the baby.
“I think she’s beautiful,” Bella said reaching out to touch the baby’s cheek.
“I think she’s beautiful too,” Chantal added.
“She’s little,” Stone said.
“Yes, well, babies are little,” Cade replied.
He looked down at Magnolia, who was holding the baby and looking at her with a beatific smile.
“How are you feeling?” Cade asked.
“I feel wonderful. And isn’t she beautiful?” Magnolia asked with a warm smile.
“Yes, she is, and that isn’t just my opinion. Chantal and Bella back me up on that.”
“I’m sure they’re going to be very helpful with the baby,” Magnolia said as Bella climbed up onto the bed. “Perhaps even a little too helpful.”
“Magnolia, I owe you more than I can ever repay,” Cade said. “First Chantal, then Stone, and now you have a new baby. I hope I haven’t given you more than you can handle.”
“Oh, don’t be foolish, Cade. There are lots of women who have four children and many who have five, six, or more. In a way it’s easier because the children look out for one another. I’m very happy to have them.”
“Yes, the girls have truly been a blessing,” Mary said.
Cade couldn’t help but notice how pointedly the older woman had left out any mention of the boy.
Adobe Walls:
The first resident out to welcome the arrival of the Harrison and McCall wagons was Skeeter, the cur dog, belonging to Tom O’Keefe. He ran out to the wagon, barking happily, and turning in circles to show his excitement.
“Hello, Skeeter,” Cade greeted as he slid off his horse. He squatted down to rub Skeeter behind the ears, and to let Skeeter greet him with dog kisses.
“I swear that dog would probably leave with you without ever lookin’ back,” Tom O’Keefe said. “Dog, don’t forget who feeds you.”
Cade laughed. “Damn, Tom, if I didn’t know better, I’d say you were jealous.”
“I am jealous,” Tom replied, though his demeanor and smile showed that he wasn’t serious.
“Where’s James Langton?” Jacob asked. “Bob Wright said he’ll take care of getting our wagons unloaded.”
“I thought Rath and Wright would have rode down with you,” Langton said as he approached the wagons. “But I guess they’ll come when I get the store all outfitted. Pull these here wagons down in front of our place if you would. I expect y’all will be a wantin to go see what Hanrahan’s got set up.”
“A swig would taste pretty good about now,” Jacob said.
“Say, would Masterson happen to be here?” Cade asked.
“You’ll find him in the bar, no doubt playin’ cards. It’s a wonder that boy hasn’t been shot,” Langton said.
“Oh? Why is that?”
“He’s got so many I.O.U.’s from them fellas—why they’re gonna be huntin’ a month just to pay him back.”
“He’s winning, then,” Jacob said.
“I’d say, and what’s worse, nobody can say he’s cheatin’. Nobody knows how he can win so much,” Langton said.
“Maybe he’s just lucky,” Cade said, as he pulled the gutta-percha bag out of one of the wagons.
When Cade and Jacob walked into Hanrahan’s it took a minute for their eyes to adjust to the lantern-lit room. The building was about twenty-five feet wide and eighty feet long with walls made of stacked sod some two feet thick. The bar that had been a buffalo hide stretched over two whiskey barrels when last Cade had seen it, was now made of rough sawn planks set on sturdy tree trunks. The tables were built of the same material, but they had tanned hides stretched across them to facilitate the playing of cards. The chairs were three-legged stools. Cade’s first thought was how uncomfortable it would be to sit on those hour after hour, but no one seemed to notice.
“Cade,” Bat Masterson said, raising his hand. “And Jacob, too. What news have you brought from Dodge?”
“By news, would you mean the Messenger?” Cade asked.
“Maybe, but that all depends. Did you bring a paper?” Bat asked, bracing himself for the response.
“No, I didn’t.”
“I, uh, see. Well, I thank you for not . . .”
“I brought 20!” Cade said with a wide grin.
“Twenty?”
“Now that you’re a published writer, I thought you might want to share your story with your friends.” Cade dropped the bundle of newspapers on the table. “At least the ones who can read.”
“What are you talking about?” James Hanrahan asked. “Bat doesn’t have any friends.”
“Oh, yeah?” Bat said. “Well, read this and weep.” Bat gave a copy of the paper to Hanrahan, then went around calling out like a paper boy. “Paper! Paper! Get your newspaper here!”
It took the better part of two days to get the Harrison and McCall wagons unloaded.
“I think we should head back to Dodge, first thing in the morning,” Jacob said. “It’s a shame there are such a few hides to take back.”
“It can’t be helped,” Fred Leonard said. “The herd hasn’t started moving north yet, and the hides we have are from those men who didn’t come in for the winter. I’d say we have less than 2,500, but they have to start movin’ soon.”
“If there are any buffalo left,” Cade said emphasizing the word if.
Leonard shook his head. “Don’t even say that. Charlie Myers and I have too much money invested in this place to just pull up and leave. No, the buffalo are out t
here—they have to be.”
“Has anyone gone out to look for ‘em?” Jacob asked.
“Yeah, Billy Dixon and a couple of skinners went out about a week after we got here. He’ll be comin’ back with a report on what he’s found. If it’s good news, he’ll have a load of hides. If it’s bad news . . ., but in the meantime, load up the hides we got and take ‘em back to Dodge.”
“All right,” Cade said, “but let’s have Tom O’Keefe go over the wagons, and repack the wheels before we head back.”
Jacob and Cade were sitting at a table in the back of Myers store. Sybil Olds had come to join them.
“Tell me the news from Dodge. How is my friend, Magnolia?”
“She now has four children,” Jacob said.
“Don’t tell me, she had twins!” A big smile crossed Sybil’s face. “Jeter has to be the happiest man alive.”
“She didn’t have twins,” Cade said. “She had a little girl, Mary Lilajean and she almost had her in the middle of Front Street.”
Sybil’s eyes grew large. “You can’t mean that. What happened?”
Cade told her all about having the baby, how he had come to get Stone, how Kirk Jordan had gone after the child, Jeter’s fight and everything else he could think to tell Sybil.
It was obvious to Cade, that as she was the only woman in the compound, probably the only white woman in the Texas Panhandle, Sybil was lonely for a woman’s companionship. He remembered the day the wagons had moved out of Dodge some two months ago, how Magnolia and Sybil had embraced. He wished it would be possible for Magnolia to come visit, but with her own new baby, and the child he had thrust upon her, it would be impossible.
“Say, Sybil, why don’t you ride back to Dodge with us?” Cade asked. “You can stay with Magnolia and see the new baby. We’ll be coming back by the end of the month and you could come back then.”
“Never. Do you think William Olds could ever get along without me?”
Both men laughed. “It was just a thought,” Cade said.
“Here you are,” Tom O’Keefe said. “I’m afraid I’ve got some bad news for you.”
“Let’s hear it,” Jacob said.
“It looks like you’ve got a split hub on one of your wheels. Both of the point bands are broke and the hub bore has been settin’ on the axle skein. It just couldn’t take the friction.”
“Can you fix it?”
“I can put the bands back on, but the hub’s still split, and it could give out anywhere along the way. It’s up to you two what you want me to do.”
“What do you think, Cade? Shall we risk it?”
“I don’t want to be the target for a marauding band of Indians if we’re hung up someplace. I say we leave the wagon here. Bring a new hub when you come back down.”
“I think that’s best,” Tom said. “I’ll finish up on the other wagons. Need to replace a king bolt, but I can do that.”
“Thanks, Tom,” Cade said.
Jacob cocked his head and squinted his eyes at Cade. “When you come back? That sounded like only one of us is going back to Dodge.”
“I’ve been thinking. It’ll only be a matter of time before the buffalo head north. I could make a lot of money in a short period of time—maybe enough to buy me a piece of land somewhere, settle down, find a wife, take care of Stone—who knows what I’ll do.”
“Restless, huh? As it is, you’ve stayed in this freighting business longer than I ever thought you would,” Jacob said. “I’ll tell you what. I won’t be back for at least four or five weeks. Stay here and when I come back, we’ll talk about what we want to do. Maybe I should move on, too.”
12
Cade stayed around the settlement, which was officially named Adobe Walls, but most of the men called it the Walls. It was interesting to watch the interaction between the men as they waited for evidence that the buffalo herd was on the move. There were six or eight men who worked the shops including William Olds who along with Sybil, cooked for the crew. Then there were the buffalo hunters. At this time there were about thirty or forty in residence. The final group was made up of the skinners.
In Cade’s opinion, there was no job that was more detestable. Back after a hurricane had hit Galveston and forced the closing of the original Red House, he had spent the winter skinning cattle that had died in the flood waters. That had been during the winter, when the stink was not as great. But in Kansas, and now Texas, the heat of the summer caused the buffalo to reach the putrid stage all too quickly. These men never took a bath, but even if they did, the next day their clothes and their hands would be covered with the same filth.
But now as they waited, there was an unusual spirit of camaraderie.
They played cards, had horse races, held shooting contests, but most of all they drank. And even in their drunken stupor, there were few if any fights that broke out. It was as if these men knew that if anything happened, they could only depend on one another.
Cade was in a poker game where for once he was going to best Bat Masterson, when all at once a loud cacophony of sound started outside.
Every eye around the table opened wide as stools were pushed aside and pistols were drawn.
“What’s that?” Cade asked.
“It’s Tom O’Keefe wantin’ to get out attention,” Bat said. “Sorry old man.” He flipped over Cade’s cards. “You had me.”
Everyone hurried out of the bar to see Billy Dixon and three other men coming toward the settlement. There were two wagons each pulled by a couple of mules.
Cade noticed that the wagons were basically empty. No buffalo hides.
“What happened, Billy?” Fred Leonard asked. “Did you find the herd?”
“Not yet,” Billy said. “We saw a few old bulls movin’ but they haven’t joined the cows yet.”
“Damn,” Bat said. “I’m ready to leave this place. I want to get some buffs.”
“You just want to leave, cause everybody knows your luck’s turnin’,” Mike Welch said. “You was about to lose that pot to McCall.”
“You can go out yourselves if you want to,” Billy said. “I’m gonna have Tom fix my brake roller and pick up some supplies. Then I’m headed out again.”
“Where ya goin?” Welsh asked.
“I’m headin’ west at least as far as Hell’s Creek, maybe go on down to the old Fort Bascom Trail,” Billy said.
One of the men who was with Billy shook his head. “I think you’re makin’ a mistake. We saw those old bulls over by Cantonment Creek, and I think we should go back east. I just got me a feelin’ that’s where we’re a gonna see ‘em first.”
“Well, Brick, why don’t we split up? You go east, and I’ll go west. That’ll widen our search.”
“What about Frenchy? Does he stay with you or does he come with me?” Brick Bond asked.
“I stay with Billy,” the man called Frenchy said.
“And I stay with Frenchy,” the other man said.
Billy laughed. “Then it’s settled. I’ll be eatin’ the best buffalo steak on the plains. Now who wants to be my new shooter?”
“Are you serious?” Cade asked.
“I am.”
“Then I’m your new shooter.”
“McCall? Aren’t you in the freightin’ business?”
“I’m here waitin’ on a hub for one of our wagons. In the meantime, I want to kill a few buffs,” Cade said.
Billy nodded his head. “You and me can be partners—fifty, fifty. We’ll send our hides on to Dodge and get a dollar more than what we’d get from Fred Leonard or James Langton and with your wagons we won’t be paying any freight. Is that a deal?”
“I think you’ve got a partner,” Cade said extending his hand.
Cade outfitted himself with anything he thought he would need including a new Sharps .50. At one time he had had such a gun, but he had given it to Ernst Hoffmann. He and Hoffmann had been hunting partners while Cade was searching for Arabella and Magnolia. After he had killed Kilgore and Toombs, he v
owed he would never use the gun again.
For the first several days the hunting party made up of Billy and Cade and two skinners, Frenchy and an Englishman named Charlie Armitage, saw only a few clusters of old bulls. Billy led them up the Canadian until they reached White Deer Creek, then turned and followed the creek until they got to the plains. For a while they hugged the plains until coming to a creek that offered an ideal camping place. The spot had plenty of grass and wood and was close to water.
“This is where we’ll make our permanent camp,” Billy said. “We’ll need some sort of shelter.” He took out an ax and handed it to Cade. “You go chop some willows and Frenchy, you start a fire. Armitage, you come with me. There’s bound to be some wild turkeys around here.”
That night, Cade understood why Brick Bond had wanted Frenchy to be in his camp. Cade had never eaten a better meal cooked over a campfire.
That was wrong. The meals Arabella and Magnolia had prepared on the cattle drive were better than Frenchy’s, but his food came close.
As he lay in his bedroll, Cade wondered what was ahead for him. He had told Jacob that he wanted to make enough money to buy some land. Did he really want to go back to farming like he had done in Tennessee? Or did he want to buy land in Kansas, or even here in Texas? Maybe he should go back to East Texas, Galveston, perhaps.
Cade was thirty-one years old. Except for the old men who were at Adobe Walls, most of the others were young. Billy was twenty-four, Bat was twenty-one, Billy Tyler was probably not out of his teens.
And what of the richest men in Dodge? Bob Wright was three years older than Cade, Charles Rath seven years older and Charley Meyers not much older than that. Money was not the only gauge for success, but it was a gauge. And Cade had spent the better part of his life getting in and out of one scrape after another.
This buffalo hunt was going to be his last adventure. Cade decided he was going to become an upstanding member of the community; which community that would be, he couldn’t say.
He spent a restless night, the next morning arising before daylight. He put wood on the coals that Frenchy had so carefully banked the night before, and went down to the creek to get some water for a pot of coffee.
The Western Adventures of Cade McCall Box Set Page 69
