Soul of a Gunslinger

by Jim Cox

  There appeared to be two classes of people on the street; those who were well dressed and those who were at the bottom of the barrel wearing rags. Many men carried bottles of whiskey and openly drank from them in the wide open. Some men were so drunk they were unable to stand and lay alongside the boardwalk, or in the street, causing folks to walk around them. Prostitutes walked up and down the streets in shifty clothing, propositioning potential customers with all kinds of sexual offers.

  It appeared to Hide and Lefty the city had no restrictions, no law enforcement whatsoever, and that every person must fend for themselves. Lefty rode with his gun’s rawhide safety loop hanging loose.

  The variation in nationalities was remarkable. English-speaking whites were in the majority, followed by Chinese and Mexicans, but other countries were present. Each nationality seemed to flock together with their own language, style of dress, religion, and customs. Lefty’s eyes searched for men with cocky expressions, wearing tied-down guns; there were several.

  God’s natural landscape was beautiful. The blue bay water in the distance with lapping white-capped waves; the far-off tree covered mountains; and the surrounding islands. Even the sound of the rushing waves hitting the shore was pleasant. However, what mankind had added to the area was terrible.

  Hide and Lefty had dismounted and were leading their horses because of the congested street; it was nearly impossible to get through. Neither man spoke, partly due to the surrounding loud voices, but mostly due to their focus on the shabby looking structures that housed the businesses along the hilly Main Street. Nearly half of the merchants conducted their sales from a tent, and the rest from poorly built log huts with signs over the doorways identifying their type of business. Neither Hide nor Lefty could read the business signs, but they could tell what they sold from the articles sitting on the boardwalk outside the entrance door.

  By the time they had walked a considerable distance up Main Street toward the San Francisco Bay, they had passed five cafes, three gold exchange offices, two single-story hotels, three feed and grain stores, and six supply stores selling articles for gold digging. There were also dance halls, live performing variety shows, two banks, five mercantile, and three blacksmiths with horse boarding. Other small shops were scattered about selling trinkets and other items. However, the most popular of all businesses along Main Street were the eleven saloons, and each saloon had several small cribs outback to accommodate the women’s prostitution activities.

  Hide and Lefty topped one of Main Street’s tallest hills and stood in awl. They’d seen the bay a short time back from a different vantage point, but it didn’t show the hundreds of ships dotting the water in the harbor, and practically every one of the ships were abandoned and in bad condition. Some were partly under water. Many abandon ships had been brought to the shoreline for homes and a variety of businesses. It was a strange sight.

  When Lefty and Hide left the hilltop and continued walking downhill on Main Street, the sun was casting long shadows as the day was coming to an end. By the time they’d ridden several hundred yards through the crowd and got to Bay Street at the foot of the hill, twilight was setting in, and the air was becoming chilly. A few lanterns had been lit among the businesses which helped light the area a bit.

  A short time after Hide and Lefty reached Bay Street, which ran along the shoreline, or Barbary Coast as Lefty and Hide would soon learn to call it, a man in shabby clothes was hurrying toward them. “You don’t need all of them horses!” he shouted out. “I need a horse to get me to the gold fields and there ain’t none to be had in the area. I’ll give you a bag of gold for one of ‘em.” Lefty was about to take the man up on the offer, when several nearby men, who had obviously overheard the offer, started gathering around waving bags of gold and shouting out higher offers like they were at an auction.

  “Two bags,” a man shouted. Then a man in the back of the crowd called out, three bags. In a manner of two or three minutes, the bidding went from one bag of gold to four. Then a man pulled out five bags of gold dust from his gold-vest and called out, “five bags” which topped all offers and ended the biding. There were two men who offered four bags of gold for the second horse which caused a clash because neither man would give-up his offer. An argument broke out between the two men and one thing led to another. Before long a fight started with their arms swinging every-which-way, and one man was knocked to the ground. The man still standing had his leg cocked to kick his foe, but the man lying on the ground drew his gun and fired. Luckily it missed its target. However, out of the corner of his eye, Lefty saw Hide’s legs crumbling beneath him with a large blood spot spreading under his left shirt pocket.

  Lefty hurried to him and was turning his friend over to examine the wound when someone in the crowd shouted out, “Watch out, the man’s gonna shoot again!” Out of instinct, Lefty quickly turned and shot. Now there was only one bidder for the second horse.

  Chapter Ten

  “Someone get a doctor,” Lefty shouted, “My friend’s been shot in the chest and needs help.”

  “We’ve only got one doctor among us, and he’s always drunk by this time of the day,” a voice answered from the crowd.

  “Is there any place around here where I can take him to tend to his wound?” Lefty asked. Men glanced at one another, but no one offered their assistance and one-by-one most of them left. Lefty turned his attention to his friend and did his best to stop the bleeding and make him comfortable.

  After fetching the thieves’ rolled-up clothes bundle hanging on a pack horse and putting it under Hide’s head, Lefty stood and said, “I’ll give a bag of gold to anyone who takes in my friend for a few days so he can be treated.”

  No one accepted Lefty’s one bag offer, and after a long minute, he was about to offer two bags, but before he did, a woman stepped forward and said, “You can bring him to my place. I own one of the ships not far from here.” Lefty nodded his thanks and asked two men who were still standing close-by to help him move Hide. The two men locked their hands under Hide’s torso, and Lefty held his legs, as they followed the woman to her place carrying the injured man as carefully as possible. Another man followed, leading Lefty and Hide’s remaining four horses.

  Her ship was one of the larger ones along the Barbary Coast and was divided into two sections. The front part of her ship was a bakery store, displaying pies and other bakery goods for sale. And the back part was her living quarters. She led the men to the living room area and directed Hide to be laid on a half-bed. Then she turned to Lefty and said, “I’ll tend to your friend while you take care of your horses. There’s a livery down the road a bit.” Lefty had turned to leave when she called to him, “If I was you I’d leave those bags of gold here. The streets are full of men who’d rob ‘ya at gunpoint for a bag of gold, probably even kill ‘ya, and by now, they all know you sold those horses for nine bags.”

  Lefty laid the nine bags on a side-table and then asked the woman, “What’s a bag of gold dust worth, ma’am?”

  “It varies, but a reputable buyer would give you between six and seven hundred dollars for a bag. They pay in local bank notes around here which is as good as the Union’s money.”

  As Lefty walked down the planks from the ship to shore, he mumbled to himself, “If what she says is true, me and Hide already have five-thousand-dollars, and we ain’t even started digging.”

  Lefty had walked a short distance when two men with tied-down guns stepped out from the crowd a few yards ahead and braced him. Lefty felt to make sure his gun’s safety rawhide was hanging loose; it was.

  “You were overpaid for those two horses you sold, and we want part of the gold,” one of the would-be thieves said.

  “Yaw,” said the other with a broad grin, “let’s say half of it.”

  “I ain’t got it on me,” Lefty said. “You’ll have to rob someone else.”

  “Don’t get smart with us. Take us to where you have it hid, or we’ll kill ‘ya,” one of the men said as his ha
nd inched toward his gun.

  “You touch that gun handle, and you’re a dead man!” Lefty said with a calm but convincing tone. The man eased his hand back.

  Then a voice rang out from the crowd, “I’d be careful if I were you. That’s Lefty Newman you’re bracing, and he’s already notched several men.” The two robbers took on blank expressions and then backed off disappearing into the crowd. A low murmur started echoing among the crowd, “That’s Lefty Newman, the gunslinger!”

  When Lefty returned to the ship from tending the horses, the woman was placing a blanket over Hide’s unconscious body. His boots were sitting against a wall, and his bare chest had strips of cloth wrapped around it. Turning to Lefty, she said, “I’m thinking the bullet went through his left lung and lodged under the skin in his back. It wasn’t hard to remove. I poured a good bit of whiskey in and around the injury to help eliminate any infection.”

  “How bad is it, ma’am? He ain’t gonna die, is he?” Lefty asked with a grim face.

  “I’m not sure. Most lung shots are fatal, but he’s not breathing any blood, so maybe that’s a good sign. We’ll just have to wait and see.”

  “I ain’t got no place to take him, ma’am, and I’d be obliged to pay you more than the one bag of gold I offered if we could stay here awhile. I’ll pay whatever you think is suitable.”

  The woman avoided Lefty’s plea and said, “I think it’s time we introduced ourselves. My name is Louise Hemming…what’s yours?”

  “My Christian name is Albert Newman, but folks call me Lefty, Mrs. Hemming.”

  Louise smiled and said, “We’re not formal in this part of the country, Lefty, please call me Louise.” Lefty nodded.

  “My friend’s name is James Hideman, but he’s known as Hide. We’re both from southwest Texas, not far from the Mexico border. We left home in late April, nearly three months ago and came the southern trail through the deserts. We nearly died due to the heat and lack of water, but we finally made it. What about you, Louise? What are you doing out here?”

  “My husband and I lived on a farm in Virginia. I was satisfied with our lifestyle, but my husband had an adventurous mind, so when he heard of the California gold discovery, we lit out and were one of the first easterners to get here. We came by the riverways to St. Louis and then traveled in a wagon train from there. Indians gave us a few problems, but since there were over thirty wagons in our group, they mostly left us alone. The mountain passes were clear since we came over them in August, but it was still a difficult trip.”

  “You speak of your husband, ma’am. Is he off in the mountains after gold?”

  Louise's face turned sober, and after a long pause, she said, “My husband is dead…he was murdered. He had made a good strike in the mountains the first month we got here and brought several thousand dollars of gold back here. That’s when we bought this ship, and I set up my business. When he returned to his claim, someone had placed their stake on it and said it had been abandon, and my husband no longer had rights to it. An argument broke out, and they shot him. An Argonaut looked me up a couple months after my husband was killed and told me the story. He said his body is buried on a hillside overlooking a mountain stream.”

  “I’m sorry to hear of your loss, ma’am. You must get lonely, being here all by yourself without your husband.”

  “I do get lonely sometimes, but it’s not as bad as it used to be. It’s getting better. There are several women who have lost their husbands I spend time with, and my business helps keeps my mind occupied.” There was a period of silence, and then Louise rose to check on Hide. He was breathing good, and the injury had not bled through the wrappings. Turning to Lefty, she asked, “Are you hungry, Lefty?”

  “Yes, ma’am. I ain’t ate since noon.”

  “I haven’t either,” she said. “You watch your friend, and I’ll go fix us something to eat.” Lefty’s eyes brightened as he watched Louise walk to the room’s cooking area. She was a very pretty woman that walked with authority. She was tall and slender with dark brown, braided hair. Her light blue eyes radiated from her tanned complexion. Her nose was small, and her full lips widened when she smiled, showing her straight, white teeth and her contagious smile. She had on a light green dress with a dark sash around its collar. Lefty guessed her age to be in the mid to late twenties.

  After a meal of hominy, boiled potatoes, and fried fish, along with a few refills of coffee, Lefty went to the livery and paid for a week’s boarding with full feed for all four horses. Then he fetched his and Hide’s personal items including their saddlebags and bedrolls and went back to Louise’s.

  Hide’s condition remained the same for the next two days. Nothing Louise or Lefty could do would bring him out of his unconsciousness. During that time, Lefty enjoyed helping Louise make baked goods for sale. And every morning he helped sell pastries to men who filled her store. Bear Paws was her most popular item, but her fried apple pies were a close second. Lefty’s cooking jobs were to carry in firewood from shore, beat the dough into shape, and remove the cooked products from the oven. The aroma was irresistible. Often times, when Louise’s back was turned, Lefty would snatch a Bear Paw from the platter and quickly eat it. He thought he was fooling her, but she knew what was happening and smiled whenever he took one.

  Lefty woke at the crack-of-dawn on the third day and remained under the covers of his floor-bed, fully dressed except for his hat, gun, and boots. After a few minutes of wondering what the day might bring, he got the urge to get the day started, so he threw back the covers, shook out and stomped on his boots. When he went to Hide, he knew right off he’d turned for the worse. He was burning up with fever, his clothing was soaked in sweat, and his breathing was irregular. Lefty quickly called Louise.

  After a careful look-over, Louise said with concern, “An internal infection has probably developed around his lung injury, and I’d guess he’s lost a lot of body fluids because he hasn’t had a thing to drink since he’s been here.”

  “What are we gonna do, Louise? We’ve got to do something or he might die.”

  A long minute of silence passed as Louise thought on the matter. Finally, she said, “I want you to bring me a bucket of water from the bay and a towel from the wash basin. Maybe, if I wash his face with the cool water, it’ll help bring his fever down. I also want you to bring me a cup of fresh drinking water…we’ve got to get some liquid down him.” Lefty hurried off to get the water.

  When he returned with the water, Louise was sitting on Hide’s bed with his head on her lap. “Set the bucket of bay water close to me and wet the towel.” After Louise had softly wiped Hide’s face with the cool, wet towel for several minutes, she asked Lefty to help her lift Hide to a sitting position and then hand her the cup of water.

  After getting half of the water down him, Lefty smiled and asked, “Now what should I do?”

  “I want you to go for the doctor. It’s early so he should be sober. But before you leave, set a pan on the counter by the Bear Paws for the men to put their money in. We’ll be selling by the honor system this morning.”

  The doctor smelled of whiskey, but he wasn’t drunk. After examining Hide for several minutes, he said, “We’ve got to get his fever down within the next hour or two, or he’ll not make it.” Turning to Louise, he asked, “Do you have a bathtub, ma’am?” She nodded. “We can fill it with cold water and soak him in it. That might help.”

  Lefty interrupted. “Why don’t we set him in the ocean? I can hold him upright in water up to his neck. Wouldn’t that be better than cramping him up in a bathtub?” The doctor smiled.

  “That’s a good idea, young man. Go find a couple of men to help us get him down the walkway and into the water. I’ll make some tea out of willow bark; it’ll help with the pain and infection.”

  During the two hours Hide soaked in the cold ocean water with Lefty holding him upright, Louise and the doctor sat at the table eating Bear Paws and drinking coffee.. When Hide was brought back inside and put to bed
, his fever had dropped considerably. The doctor put a thick salve of an old Indian remedy on the injury and wrapped it with fresh material. He also got a half-cup of willow bark tea down him and prescribed they do the same every hour until he woke.

  The following two days were much the same as when the doctor was there. Hide remained unconscious with a high fever and Lefty took him to the ocean three times each day to lower it. Baked goods continued to be made and sold, and the Barbary Coast was just as crowded and unpredictable as always.

  Chapter Eleven

  When Lefty woke two mornings later, Hide was lying on his side looking at him. Lefty immediately threw back the covers and went to him in his bare feet. “It’s about time you woke up and joined the rest of us,” Lefty said with a smile.

  “What happened to me and how long have I been unconscious?” Hide asked in a broken voice, almost in a whisper.

  “You were shot five days ago and have been unconscious ‘til now.” Lefty was telling Hide of his almost-demise and was speaking of Louise when she walked in.

  “I heard you talking, Lefty; it woke me up,” she said as her eyes searched the room. “Who were you talking…oh, you’re awake,” she said as her eyes found Hide.