Rivers West

by Louis L'Amour

  I considered that. Now why should he have me aboard? Obviously, to be watched, and then done away with when the chance presented itself.

  “No,” I said. “I will not come, Macaire. You’re a good man, and I would stand beside you in this trouble, for there’s trouble acoming, whether she believes it or not.”

  We were walking alone on the street. “She kens the lot,” said Macaire. “She knows better the trouble than any of us. You know too little of the lass, John Daniel. She knows what’s ahead, and well she knows it.”

  “But—”

  “Lad, her father was a canny man. He had those who knew writing to him from all about. The lass knows more than the both of us.”

  I could only stare at him. “You cannot mean that.”

  “Aye. Mean it I do. And well I mean it. Do not underrate her, lad. She’s got a canny head on her pretty shoulders, a canny head. She’s like her pa…only more, lad, more.”

  We walked the rest of the way in silence. At the tavern door, I said, “Come for a dram.”

  “No. I should be at her side.”

  He left me then, and I walked inside and went aloft to my room. When I lighted the candle, Butlin was there, resting easy in my chair.

  “How did it go, then?” he asked.

  “Well enough.” And then I told him of the chance to build the steamboat.

  “From John Dill himself, is it? Aye, he’s a knowing man. You’ll find no better anywhere about. He’s been up the Mississippi, and he’s sailed on the lakes.”

  “Aye?”

  “He helped to build the Accommodation some ten years back, at Montreal. He worked on the Swiftsure and tried to buy a piece of the Walk-in-the-Water before building began. He knows boats, and he believes in steam.”

  The names were familiar to me. All were Great Lakes steamers, and there’d been a time when I thought of going down to Sackett’s Harbor to work on the American steamer Ontario.

  “Well,” he said at last, “you have what you wanted. It is surely your chance, and with a good man, a solid man. If you do this one well you’ll have a future, lad, for he has the name of seeking out good men and keeping them by him.”

  Then I told him about Macaire and what he had said of Miss Majoribanks. He did not seem surprised. I said as much.

  “Talon,” he said, “I have known of Miss Majoribanks for more than two years, and Macaire is right. There’s no shrewder person in the country than her.”

  “But she’s just a girl!”

  He chuckled. “Oh, sure! That’s all she is, a girl. But she has a head on her shoulders that is older and wiser than many a man twice her age. You forget she grew up at her father’s knee, helping with the business, often making decisions, handling the writing. Believe me, her pen is known to a hundred men west of here, and they’d die for her.

  “You can tell her little about Torville that she does not already know.”

  Peeling off my shirt, I bathed in the basin, dumped the water out of the window, and filled the basin again from the white pitcher. It was cold, but it felt good on my arms and chest. When I had dried off, I put on a fresh shirt.

  Butlin had been watching me, and when I had the shirt on, he shook his head. “You’re strong,” he said. “I have seen some mighty men in my time, but never one with muscles like you have.”

  I shrugged. “My family runs to muscle. And when a man lifts heavy timbers morning until night, he’ll become strong or he’ll not last.”

  I looked around at him and said: “Did you ever lift a twelve-by-twelve that’s ten feet long and green timber? You’ll not find too many who can do it once, but I’ve lifted them, balanced them, carried them, and fitted them in place. Not once but a dozen to twenty in a fair day’s work, along with smaller stuff.”

  Later, at table in the common room below, I said, “If we do the steamer, I’ll be needing help. Will you work with me?”

  “Thanks…but no.”

  “It will be no timbers as big as those I’ve mentioned,” I said.

  “It is not that,” he said, “but the lass.”

  “Miss Majoribanks?” I could not call her Tabitha.

  “She will need help. She knows what it is she faces, but she will not quit. She will find her brother, alive or dead, and if dead, she’ll find where the body lies. You can be sure of it.”

  I shifted uneasily. The food was being put before us, but suddenly I was not hungry.

  “What are you to her?” I asked.

  “I am nothing. But they have asked me to go.”

  He left me then. I felt relief that he would be going with them.

  Suddenly I realized that it had been some time since I had seen Jambe-de-Bois. I had seen nothing of him, in fact, since the morning before.

  I inquired of the desk clerk about Jambe-de-Bois, but he had seen nothing of him either. I went upstairs to my room.

  Glancing from the window, I saw lights on the deck of the steamer.

  Undressed, I got into bed, clasped my hands behind my head, and considered building the steamboat and the problems it would entail. Yet through the thoughts of building, costs, time, and materials, her face kept appearing, laughing, angry, contemptuous, cool…but always her face.

  Disgusted, I sat up. What was the matter with me? Why should my thoughts continually revert to her?

  Suddenly, there was a tap on my door—the faintest of taps, almost as if it wished not to be heard.

  Chapter 12

  *

  MY HAND REACHED for the pistol that lay on the table. A moment of listening, and the tap came again.

  It was very late. Sliding quickly from bed, I drew on my pants, tucking the gun behind my belt, and I stepped to the door.

  “Who is it?” I asked.

  “Macklem,” a voice answered.

  Right hand on my gun, I opened the door with my left and took a quick step back, drawing the gun as I did so.

  Macklem stood there, filling the door. He stepped into the room, lithe as a cat. Noticing my pistol, he chuckled. “Afraid?” he said.

  “Careful,” I replied quietly, “just careful.”

  “You have talked to Miss Majoribanks,” he said, “and I gather there was some disagreement.”

  “Of a sort,” I said, committing myself to nothing.

  He drew back a chair and sat down. “Can we have a light?”

  “The candle is there,” I pointed with the muzzle of the gun, “if you wish it lit, then light it.”

  He did so. The match flared briefly, the wick caught, the flame lifted up.

  “You do not trust me,” he said, as if sorrowed by the fact.

  I chuckled. “Not even a bit.”

  He waved a hand. “No matter. Regardless of that, we need you.”

  “We?”

  “All of us. Miss Majoribanks, Macaire, Mrs. Higgs, and I. We are going west, into unknown country, Indian country. You have had experience with Indians. Macaire says you understand rough country, that you’ve dealt with Indians. I’ve come to ask you to join us.”

  He smiled at me.

  “Also,” he added, “Miss Majoribanks would feel safer if you were along.”

  “Did she say that?”

  “No,” he admitted, “but I sense it. Whether you know it or not, she believes in you. She trusts you.”

  I grunted.

  “I do not joke. We have far to go, and beyond St. Louis, who knows what awaits us.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “I have an excellent offer to build a steamboat here. It is what I came west to do.”

  He was silent for a few moments. “You are a Canadian?” he asked suddenly. “From Quebec?”

  “I am.”

  He hesitated again, as if uncertain how to proceed. “We need a man of your skills,” he said. “On such a trip there is much danger and often a need for repairs. Miss Majoribanks wishes to go up some of the unknown rivers, and there will be no boat yards there, nor any skilled workmen.”

  “I would have thought,” I sa
id, “that the men you have with you there would have various skills.”

  “There’s also the matter of companionship,” he suggested. “You are obviously a man of intelligence, of breeding. You work with your hands, but you’re cut from a higher class.”

  “What do you know of my class?”

  He waved a hand. “It is obvious. You are a gentleman, a man of culture and background. It is in your bearing, your style, your manner of speech. You are most certainly of French ancestry, but not completely so.”

  “Not completely so,” I agreed. “And you, Colonel Macklem? What is your ancestry? Your breeding? I do not find it so obvious.”

  He looked up suddenly, and the glance he shot at me was not pleasant. I had touched a nerve, a point of extreme sensitivity. It was a thing to remember.

  “Does it matter?” He stood up suddenly, so suddenly that I took an involuntary step backward. It irritated me, for he noticed and was amused. “What matters is that we must have you with us. What inducement can I offer? A chance to trade for furs? To look for gold? To become suddenly rich in some other way? You seem to be a fighting man—”

  “I?”

  “You.” He looked across the table at me. “We understand each other, you and I. We are both men of the world. To the west there are vast lands, free for the taking. There are estates to be had more vast than anything the feudal lords of Europe could dream of.”

  He looked at me.

  “To build a boat is all very well, but to own a thousand square miles…every inch of it yours…that is something! Fortunes await the strong, and land is there for the taking.”

  “One day I shall go west but when I go it will be to trade, not to conquer.”

  He shrugged. “As you will.”

  His face was half in shadow now. “I think you are a fool,” he said abruptly.

  For the first time, I thought him a little uneasy.

  “Goodbye then.” He held out his hand. I almost took it, but I should have had to shift the gun to my left hand.

  “Goodbye, and my best wishes to Miss Majoribanks. By the way,” I said casually, “did you know that Simon Tate rode east with a message from her?”

  He froze. “Tate? Who is Simon Tate?”

  “He owns the inn where we met. He is quite influential in a political way. He rode off in great haste.”

  Macklem left and closed the door behind him. I barred the door and went back to bed. Yet for several hours, I remained awake.

  I dozed.

  There was a quick rap on the door. I got up and unbarred it.

  Jambe-de-Bois was there in his greasy cloak, his long hair straggling about his face, his eyes wild.

  “They’ve gone! You let them go!”

  Swiftly, I turned to the window. It was dawn. Where the steamboat had been, there was nothing. The dockside was empty, and on the river there was no trail of smoke.

  Something sank within me. They were gone. She was gone.

  Chapter 13

  *

  YOU DO NOT know him! He is a devil that Macklem! A devil!”

  I had never seen him so disturbed.

  “What could I do? I went to her, and she would not listen. He was here last night, and—”

  “Macklem was here? To see you? Oh, my friend!”

  When I told him what Macklem had wanted, he nodded his head. “Of course! He has her, her boat, and he has Macaire. Once he gets you, the slate will be clean.”

  “What slate? What are you talking about?”

  “Who can connect him with Foulsham? You. Who is going west after Charles Majoribanks? His sister. If Charles does not escape, the sister does not get back. Macaire, in whom she has confided, does not get back. And then if Macklem gets you—”

  Irritably, I brushed it off. “You assume too much. We suspect much, but we know nothing at all. I cannot for certain connect him with the murder of Foulsham. He was in the vicinity, but so was I. And so were you.”

  Jambe turned abruptly. “He did not remember me,” he muttered. “Or if he remembered, he didn’t care! What could I do? Of what could I accuse him without in turn accusing myself?”

  “Let’s have some food,” I said, “some coffee, at least.”

  We went downstairs and sat at a table in the corner from which both the doors to the street and the kitchen were visible.

  Jambe placed his scarred fingers on the edge of the table, and I looked searchingly into his eyes. “You know this man, Jambe-de-Bois. What is it you know?”

  “Too much!” he said. “He is a fiend! I am a bad man, mon ami, but I am not an evil one!”

  “There is a difference?” I asked ironically.

  He nodded seriously. “Much difference! Much! Sometimes one is bad. One steals, one kills when fighting, one takes a ship here and there, but what one does is done in heat, it is done sword in hand against other swords, pistol against pistol, fist against fist. You are a fighting man. You understand this?”

  I nodded.

  “I am bad, mon ami, but I am not evil! I am a thief. But never have I killed just to be killing! Never have I held in contempt a human life! Never have I tortured, never have I abused the helpless!

  “I am not evil as Macklem is evil! He is cold, vicious, without heart or scruple. He kills to be killing, with no anger but only contempt. He despises men, and despises women even more. The girl…Miss Majoribanks. He hates her most of all!

  “Yes, I know him. But I do not think he now knows me. At first…well, I was afraid. I, who have feared nothing, fear him.

  “But I was younger then, without this beard and this gold ring in my ear, with two strong legs.

  “He has been what he is from a very young child. He was so in the slums, yet his beauty of body won him attention. He was given a chance. He was taken into a wealthy home and educated, yet when the time came he tortured and killed his benefactors. He escaped to sea. He betrayed his ship, stole the money, went ashore, and took a new name.

  “He has betrayed, defiled, ruined, and always with an easy smile—with laughter even. And many times he has been on the verge of great wealth, but always something defeated him.

  “We came ashore on an island in the eastern waters, came ashore with treasure for each of us to share. Four of us to bury it, and Macklem brought a lunch and several bottles of wine.

  “We drank the wine. I drank little because it was food I wanted. I stole meat from the basket, and when I thought I’d been seen, I threw it quickly down. Later, where the basket had been, I saw a rat…a dying rat, kicking its life out…poisoned.

  “Turning, I ran back down the beach. All were drinking, most were drunk. When I shouted at them, Macklem turned deliberately and lifted a pistol to shoot me.

  “Oh, I was young then. I had two strong legs, and I turned and dove into the brush. The bullet cut a leaf above my head.

  “I ran and ran…he did not follow. Behind me I could hear the screams of the other two men, dying. He had poisoned them both.

  “For three days, guarding our boat for himself, he hunted me. Twice, knowing I would be hungry, he left poisoned food upon the beach. Traps. The rats and gulls died, but not I. Finally, he left.”

  “And the treasure?”

  “He was no fool. He took it with him.”

  It was a terrible story.

  “After seven long months I was picked up. Since then I have heard of him often. Several times I have seen him, though he does not recognize me. I have searched for him, followed him, waiting for the moment when I might see him die.”

  “Yes, Jambe, I understand,” I said.

  “But he does not die. With any weapon he is a master. I have never seen his equal. Believe me, mon ami, do not provoke him. He will kill you.”

  “I am not so sure.”

  “You may be sure. And this is the man with whom you have left Miss Majoribanks. This is the man!”

  “By steamboat it is thirty-five days to St. Louis. Say he cuts the time to thirty.”

  “So?”
<
br />   “Overland, with horses, say it is six hundred miles. With average luck, twenty-five days, with the best of luck and fresh horses along the way—good horses—perhaps ten, fifteen days.”

  His fingers gripped my wrist. “You mean it? You will go?”

  As we ate I considered all aspects of the journey before us. We must cross at least six hundred miles of rough country, and the distance was only a guess.

  Much would depend upon my horses, the weather, stream crossings, and the fortunes of the day. If we were lucky, we could do it with time to spare.

  I placed gold coins on the table. “Buy food. The simpler the better. We will want coffee and what can be easily packed and prepared. I must see Mr. Dill.”

  Dill was in his office, and I wasted no time, nor did I keep anything to myself. He was a solid citizen, a respected, worthy man, and I told him exactly what the problem was, even about Macklem and what Jambe-de-Bois had told me.

  “Go,” Dill said, “and luck to you.” He got to his feet. “This is my country, too, young man, and much of our future depends on the development of the Louisiana Territory.

  “I’ve dozens of horses, and you’ll need strong stock.” He stepped to the door of his office and motioned to a clerk. “John, go to the stables and have Joel put lead ropes on Sam and Dave. Mr. Talon here will take them.”

  By midafternoon we were across the river and headed west. I was glad. The fever of the West was again upon me.

  Yet what Dill had said remained in my mind. He had said this was his country, too. Was it mine? By birth I was a Canadian, but now I was here, and was this not my country also?

  Traveling was no new thing for me. On the Gaspé Peninsula of Quebec where I was born there was not much work. My family owned much land there, but to work as a shipwright demanded long trips. Several times I had been down the coast to the towns of Maine. I had worked in Nova Scotia. My first trip to Toronto had been with my father and uncle while I was a very young boy. We had worked all summer at Lachine, near Montreal, building several bateaux. These were forty feet long, eight feet wide, with almost vertical sides and a blunt bow and stern. We built the sides of fir, the bottom of oak. These boats were occasionally sailed, more often rowed or poled, and when close in shore, pulled by men walking in shallow water, near the shore. Later we helped build one of the first Durham boats to be used in Canada. These were eighty to ninety feet overall with a beam of ten feet, and were usually sailed or rowed. They could carry thirty-five to forty tons of freight downstream, eight to ten tons upstream. Both types of boat were much used on lakes and rivers in Canada.