Bryan looked at Dallas in disbelief. If Gibbons and Jenny both said MacLeod was on that trip, the prisoner’s death was highly suspicious and he was probably making a point for the camel herder to keep silent. It seemed strange Dallas wouldn’t have known about the trip given Bo was his step-brother, but he probably didn’t know he knew. Bryan replied, “Oh no, you’re not sending me on some wild goose hunt into the middle of the desert because some Union yahoo that was just trying to talk his way out of prison showed him this pearl. He could have got that anywhere down on the coast.”
Dallas said, “True. But he mentioned a mute Indian woman and one big bad ass war chief that sounded a lot like Sparrow Hawk. Just saying Bryan, she could help us find it first. What’s the harm in asking?”
Bryan shook his head, “The harm is she’s going to think I’m playing her to get more of these. That’s what the harm is.”
Dallas sighed, “Well, I guess you don’t need this wagon after all. If you don’t plan on helping with this assignment, there are some positions for surgeons in Vicksburg.”
Bryan looked at Dallas, “I hope your next child has colic!”
Dallas’ eyebrow rose, “Now you don’t mean that. Lacy would be the one walking it all night. You know I can sleep like a baby through anything and I have.” Dallas chuckled, “Oh come on, you always said you wanted to get to California, here’s your chance.”
Bryan said, “And what about Jenny? You expect her to up and leave her family just like that.”
Dallas turned to Jenny, “Jenny, do you want to stay with Bryan or live with your Dad and Gage?”
Jenny couldn’t hear what he said and asked, “Bryan you need me?”
Dallas grinned, “There you go. She picked you and she’s right. You do need her. You’ll find a little extra in with your supplies. Let’s just call it her finder’s fee and enough to fund what the CSA wants you to do on your way West.”
Bryan asked, “And if things get hot?” Jenny was trying to get his attention. She had found another pouch that had slipped under the seat.
Dallas chuckled, “Oh, it’s going to get hot. You might need a few more of loose fitting pants they sell in the General Store and a sombrero.” Bryan didn’t think that was funny. He shook his head in disgust. Jenny put the pouch back. She lifted the wide jar covered with buckskin Dallas had set down by the wagon.
Bryan called out, “We need that jar Jenny. Leave it. We can use that for storage.” Jenny frowned as she looked under the hide. Her eyes bugged out. It was filled, but not with what she expected. She thought there would be food, but it had baby blankets, swaddling clothes, a sling, nappies, pins, a small bowl and small medal cup and plate. There were boy clothes JC had outgrown, and a several yards of soft flannel cloth.
Dallas handed Bryan a package, “These are from us. I figure you might need these.” Dallas gave Bryan a white heavy woven cotton Mexican wrap jacket, poncho, loose cotton shirt and white cotton pants.
Bryan smiled, “Thanks. You shouldn’t have.” Bryan recognized the outfit. Lacy had bought it for Dallas for their anniversary and he only wore it that one night declaring it unfit for a Texas Ranger to be caught dead in.
Dallas grinned, “You might be right. I didn’t have a lot to choose from, but if anyone can make this look good, it’s you Bryan.”
Dallas said seriously, “If you run into a skirmish, get South to Mexico. If you’re worried about what to tell her, just tell her we’re interested in finding wokwave. She doesn’t have to know what you’re looking for. You can decide how much to tell her. Worked a whole lot better for me with Lacy like that. By the time she figured it out, she really didn’t have much choice.”
Bryan winced, “I think she noticed. She can tell when you’re fixing to lie through your teeth now. Surely you noticed.”
Dallas grinned, “Sure I noticed and yet she still does it. You know why? She likes to think I care enough to lie to her.”
Bryan’s face was flushed, “More like she’d like to think some day you’ll grow up enough to realize you can’t stay mad at your Dad forever. She’d like to meet your family.”
Dallas said reluctantly, “Until she does, then she’ll know why I didn’t want to take her.”
Bryan said, “Can’t be that much worse than her sister-in-law Susan.”
Dallas sighed, “I guess that’s all relative to your point of view Bryan. Grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.” Dallas thought about Bryan’s situation, “Alright, I’ll even provide someone to help manage the camels. That’s it isn’t it. Jenny hates the camels.”
Jenny lifted the next jar and peeked under the covers. This one had bags of rice, beans, and corn along with dried jerky, dried fruit, and a few pieces of rock candy and a pint of black strap molasses.” She pushed it back into the wagon and arranged the jars where they wouldn’t bump and break.
Bryan eyebrow rose, “That trip to Delight was ours and you know it. Gage promised her.”
Dallas said, “Something came up.”
Bryan said, “Amazing how that happens just when it’s time to make good on a promise.”
Dallas said, “Lacy’s Father and Tommy have been transferred and I thought it would be the best chance she has to see them before they send them further East.” Dallas added, “Besides. You’d have to tell her to become a mute again if you went. She’s going to stick out like a sore thumb up there. Now she can wear buckskin, trade knickknacks, you can peddle tonics, pull teeth, and doctor up folks. It just works. Admit it Bryan, she’ll be a lot happier not stuck in some school marm dress with a turban on her head.” Jenny was right behind him. She didn’t say a word, just looked at what was packed on the camels and took a sack and dragged it back to the wagon and heaved it up into the back.
Dallas finished packing the screening equipment Bryan had used on the camels. Bryan moved his books, his civilian clothes, a fresh supply of flour, sugar, lard, canned meats, his Eucommia Bark.
Jenny took the bottle of whiskey Bryan used to doctor her wounds and make his coffee taste better and had a drink straight out of the bottle and put the cork back in the neck. Bryan looked at little surprised, “A little early isn’t it?”
Jenny said, “A little late. My back hurts, my arms hurt, my legs hurt, and my fingers hurt.”
Dallas watched as she took another couple gulps before Bryan removed the bottle from her grasp. Dallas handed a package wrapped in brown paper to Jenny, “The women at Camp Verde thought these might fit you Jenny.”
Jenny smiled, “Arkansas clothes?” She unwrapped the package and saw the skirt and blouse that looked like something her father’s Mexican house keeper would wear. Jenny tried to smile, “This make me blend in to back woods?”
Dallas smiled, “We thought maybe you would like to do something else Jenny. Arkansas can get cold. This will fit in with Bryan’s new orders. He needs your help.”
Jenny asked, “No rock hunting trip. Hum, you finished looking at my rocks? Cause, Gage say I get more, but all white man’s scribbles. I want my rocks back.”
Dallas looked quickly and pulled out an empty leather haversack, “Here, sorry about your rocks. Maybe this will make up for it?”
Jenny opened the pouch and poked around, “Alright, I trade.”
Dallas grabbed Bryan by the arm, “I never thought the day would come when I would miss you walking in on us, but I will. Telegraph or write us and tell me all about your trip. Don’t leave anything out like any rumors you hear like if Hi Jolly or Greek George are coming back with the rest of our camels anytime soon. Let us know where you find wokwave.” Dallas watch Jenny’s reaction. She didn’t blink or show she recognized their names, but the mention of wokwave hit a nerve.
Jenny asked Dallas, “You want we should find wokwave? Your army wants wokwave paddies?”
Bryan winced as Dallas pulled on his arm a little too hard. Dallas let go, “Sorry, I forgot.”
Bryan retorted, “More like those reports are going to be how fast our tr
oops are being whipped. More Union sympathizers in the western states if you ask me.” Bryan thought about their plan to give the Northern troops wokwave to confuse them, “Peyote makes men not care if they die Dallas. Lizard and his bunch were full of it the night they attacked us. It’s like we had to kill them more than once to get them to stop. You sure they’ve thought this through?”
Jenny nodded, “That true, Comanche not care if die or hurt. It make them act like men with no tomorrow full of bravado and lust. Maybe you should feed your troops some.”
Bryan said, “Not for troops on the field or us. I still don’t want you eating any more Jenny. Neither of us.”
Jenny asked, “So why get it? Make blue coats crazy and hard to kill and not want your men and women to eat it?”
Dallas said quickly, “It’s for pain relief for the dying. Some wounds can’t be fixed and it does relieve pain. Opium is in short supply.”
Bryan said, “For trade. Lighter than gold and we can trade it for other things we need.”
Jenny said, “Surely they can find people to trade for wokwave paddies that live near fields already? I study book so I can tell what diamonds look like and others stones just like asked.”
Dallas broke the bad news, “I’m taking Lacy to Delight, Jenny. She’s going to have a nice little vacation in my hunting cabin. She knows rocks like you and Bryan and she’s with child so that gives her a good place to keep her from doing too much while she waits out her time. No camels to make her sway too much.”
Jenny agreed, “Yes, good not to sway too much. She should not lift too much either. But does she not need to keep these things you give us too?”
Dallas looked puzzled, “I think we’ll have enough food Jenny, but I’m sure she’d appreciate the offer.”
Jenny looked confused, “Baby things and boys clothes in jars. She still think I have child?”
Dallas’ mouth dropped and then he whispered something in Bryan’s ear, “Those were for Gage.”
Jenny looked at Dallas as she read his lips, “Ah, she give us jars to store wokwave and we take paper you use on our gifts and give it back with wrap clothes. Jenny went back into the wagon and took the the young baby clothes out. She fingered the soft garments and blankets tenderly as if remembering when her sons were young. Then she put the clothes JC had out grown and wrapped those in the other brown paper and tied the string. Jenny looked at the heavy bag of trinkets and riffled through and pulled out several lighter sliver chains, any with turquoise, men’s and women’s silver rings, and ivory and sliver hair combs and put out where Dallas could see them. Jenny handed him the two bundles of clothes and pointed, “Baby things and this one your son out grow. Guess she think this one girl too.”
Jenny pointed to the items on the wagon floor, “We keep these to use for trade and make us look like people we travel through?”
Bryan asked, “Where did those come from?”
Jenny pointed to sack of trinkets, bobble, necklaces, silver and gold crosses, and gold coins. Dallas looked at her with chagrin as he looked back to his pack camel, “I guess she thought those were for you too. My fault.”
Bryan asked, “MacLeod, his part of what we found? You intended to send him and that with us?”
Dallas tried to make light of it, “He’s going the same way. He’ll have his own tent Bryan.”
Jenny’s eyes grew wide, “Let him take wagon, we go to Delight. You worried wife die? Bryan beat her chest until she come back.”
Dallas sighed, “There’s not really room. It’s a small cabin. That’s why Lacy is giving JC’s clothes to Mary Jane. She’ll be fine really. Her mother will be there.”
Bryan looked at her eyes as they took on a look of painful acceptable that there was more to it than what was being said. Bryan shook his head and turned her face toward him, “Mr. Richardson, Lacy’s father, he and I, well we have a past. Let’s just say, I’m not his favorite person. I don’t want you to hear the words that are sure to come out of his mouth. He considers me a disappointment and the root of everything bad that’s happened to his children.”
Jenny looked at Bryan, “No, not disappointment. You good man.”
Dallas nodded like he agreed, “That’s the spirit. Pitch in and help Bryan. You have my permission to make MacLeod’s life a living hell if he gives you any flack.”
Jenny asked, “What is flack?” Dallas bit down on his lip as he turned and tried to hide his amusement pretending to cough. Jenny patted him on his back, “You sick.”
Bryan chucked, “Yes he is. A very sick man Jenny.”
Jenny looked at what was stored and dragged MacLeod’s bag out and dumped it on the ground, “We not take that. His stuff, he worry with it. Wear out our horses with all this weight. This is ours for hours picking up what you not share with us. It is fair, is it not? Small price for help. We get one pearl for every ten we send back and all profit from trading too since it is not your money that send us West. Not work as slave any more.”
Bryan looked at Dallas and the bag on the ground, “Seems reasonable, as long as we keep everything presently in this wagon, the wagon, and the team. If we’re going to be peddlers, we need this wagon.”
Jenny added, “And the camels, we need camels for time we hunt wokwave or run from Indians or blue coats. You keep Priest. Last time he make big problems with Mojave. Not save his scalp this time if he goes.”
Dallas looked at Bryan and Jenny and took in the fact that MacLeod knew a lot more about those pearls than he was letting on and he had some questions of his own about that, “Alright, as long as you promise to take care of that little side trip Bryan.”
Bryan gave Dallas his answer, “Deal.”
Bryan and Jenny watched Dallas head back toward Camp Verde as they turned their wagon toward the El Paso road and headed north.
Jenny looked at the camels as they moved over the high desert plains, “Strange creatures the filthy smelly beasts.”
Bryan said, “The camels are different, but they have their good points. They can carry more weight. They take less water than horses. They can eat about anything in the desert including cactus and they can transverse terrain a wagon could never go over.”
Jenny reached back and was filling the haversack with the silver chains and trinkets and spotted something that made her close her pouch quickly. Jenny asked, “So, what now? Should we wait for Priest or quickly go back for one more trip and see what wash up on creek banks or maybe take stage and leave everything for Priest?”
Bryan said, “What? Where did that come from? I thought we had a deal with the Major.”
Jenny added, “I thought this was his leather pouch too, but it is not.”
Bryan chuckled, “What he gave you MacLeod’s haversack. Just how can you tell. One looks like the other to me. It’s no big deal.”
Jenny asked, “We are going to California?”
Bryan said, “Maybe, maybe not. I think we head that way and just decide along with the way. A lot will depend on what the other side does and how far south we need to go to find wokwave. We could go into Mexico and see some of the border towns along the Rio Grand.”
Jenny said, “Or maybe around Laredo or El Paso?”
Bryan kept talking, “Maybe Santa Fe or Flagstaff or even Sonoma would be nice.
Jenny replied, “I liked those places. Very pretty.”
Bryan thought he was on a roll as he added, “There’s a desert where the colors are so pretty they call it the painted desert.”
Jenny frowned, “Very hot and no water.”
Bryan responded, “Or we might even go north toward Oregon?”
Jenny shook her head, “Not go to valley of sickness and death. Everyone know that place is where trees and dampness cause sickness all year long.”
Bryan looked at Jenny, “Why you’re a walking atlas Jenny. So what about the Pacific Ocean, you object to living in San Diego?”
Jenny thought, “No, that fine. Pretty, temperatures not so hot to burn feet. No wokw
ave, but nice place.”
Bryan asked, “What if we found the perfect land to build that big house on and raise a million children before we got there. We wouldn’t want to keep going would we?”
Jenny looked at Bryan, “Maybe not a million. That would make us very old.”
Bryan wrapped his arm around her waist, “Maybe we try for just one after we find a nice safe place, or maybe we find some strays that need a home along the way, but tonight I’m showing you how to find your way using the north star and a sextant.”
Jenny smiled, “I would like that. I thought pirates used those. You sure we’re not taking a ship from port further South and sailing around end of world to California?”
Bryan’s eyes twinkled, “Well, aren’t you the clever one, but no we’re not going to a port like Indianola or Corpus Christi to sail around South America to California. There is fighting down there right now and I’m not getting us captured and stuck in some prisoner of war camp. Besides we have to watch out and report on the blue coats.”
Jenny puzzled, “Not port? Is San Diego not port? So we don’t go to Pacific Ocean or Gulf of Mexico.”
Bryan said, “Maybe I should tell you a story to pass the time while you wait to see where we end up. It concerns a ship. A lost ship in the California desert that they say rose up in some salt lake north of Yuma Arizona.”
Jenny laughed nervously, “A ship in the desert? How did it get there?”
Camp Camel: The Heart of Texas Page 50
