The Texican Way

by Bernard Veale

  “Hell, talk about the luck of the Irish! Who was the dealer here?” Harland demanded to know.

  “I guess that I was.” Daniel admitted quietly. “Don’t you men think that it is about time that we got in a new pack?”

  “Sure enough, but who has the money to buy one?” Brad Younger asked.

  “Why I do. How much for a new pack?” Daniel asked Harland.

  “A dollar and a dollar.” Harland snapped, still irritated by his loss of all the money he had received from Daniel so far.

  Daniel handed over the two dollars from his modest winnings.

  On the following morning Flaherty made a point of coming over to Daniel.

  “Thank you for last night. I don’t know how you did it but that was the most satisfying win of my life.”

  “Good morning sir. I fail to get your meaning, sir.”

  “We both know what I mean, captain. I have enough now for me to pay rent for my quarters until the end of this year.”

  Daniel was happy that Sergeant Harland was feeling the lack of money. He wanted the man in a truly greedy frame of mind.

  “Sergeant,” Daniel said to Harland as soon as he appeared. “I would like to take my men for a treat.”

  “Men? What men, captain?” Harland asked sarcastically.

  “I’ve gathered a team of men together and I want to bond them together. I hear that you allow a visit to the local whorehouse to those who can pay. How much for myself and five men?”

  “Six men? That sure is a lot! Theah is onny three gals at the who’house. Six hunnerd dollars is the cost.”

  “A hundred dollars a man? That’s expensive!”

  “For six men, ah’m gonna haveta send two guards an’ that kinda cuts into mah profit.”

  Harland was afraid that he might lose the deal so he said quickly: “For you-all captain, Ah’ll do it for five hundred but only this heah time. Next time it’s gonna be at mah goin’ rate.”

  Daniel gathered his chosen men together.

  “Men, we are all leaving this place tonight. Dress in whatever clothing you want to keep and fill your pockets with anything you would like to take along.”

  “Sir,” one of the corporals asked doggedly. “Where are we going?”

  “We are all going to a whorehouse.”

  “Sir,” the other corporal said. “I am a Christian and I cain’t be goin’ to no whorehouse.”

  “Soldier, you do not understand. We are going to escape this place. Our excuse to get outside the walls is that we are going to a whorehouse for which pleasure I have already paid. Once outside the walls we only have two guns to deal with, those of our two guards. If we six men cannot deal with two armed men, we do not deserve to be called soldiers. Now are you coming with me or are you not?”

  “Oh, yes sir! I see sir.” The Christian soldier said. “To git away from this hellhole I will enter a whorehouse, most surely.”

  “Right we all meet here after dark. We don’t do anything to our two guards until I give the word. We have to be far enough from the prison before we try anything. I’ll say ‘Good heavens what on earth is that?’ When the guards look where I am pointing you all tackle them and take their weapons. Any questions?”

  Daniel held up a hand. “Oh yes, and one more thing. Not a word about this to anyone else. You never know which man in this place will sell us to the guards for a few privileges. Do you all understand?”

  There was a chorus of ‘yessirs’ as the group went off to sort through their few possessions.

  Lieutenant Colonel Flaherty limped over.

  “What’s going on here Captain?”

  “Just organizing an outing, Colonel, I thought I would try out the local whorehouse.”

  “Captain, I would not have imagined that you were that sort of man. You must have plenty of girls back where you come from.”

  “I certainly do, Colonel, but I haven’t seen them in over a year. It is not so much the swiving. I just miss some feminine company.”

  “Well, watch out for the diseases they can give you. The girl might be clean but most of her customers will not have bathed in a year or more.”

  “I take your point, sir but I do not think I will be risking too much.”

  Flaherty shrugged and walked away. He had just lost a lot of respect for Captain Daniels.

  Chapter Twenty One

  At the appointed hour the six men gathered and waiting for the arrival of Sergeant Harland accompanied by two burly guards both wearing holstered pistols.

  “Afore you-all go outa that gate you-all gotta know that ah’m personally comin’ after any whoreson what tries ter get away. These two men have orders to shoot to kill and that is gonna be a kinder fate than what ah’m gonna do ter any man whut has ter be dragged back heah.”

  “Yes ,sergeant!” Everyone echoed.

  “Sergeant, all we want to do is have some fun. Where can we run? We have no food, no weapons and no horses. We couldn’t get more than a mile or two before someone is going to take a shot at our nice blue uniforms. Relax, we’ll be back before you know it.”

  Daniel smiled easily and the sergeant walked back inside to the nice bottle of whisky that he had purchased from that day’s profit.

  They formed up two by two with one guard leading the way and the other walking behind them. The two captains took up the rear. Sergeant major and one corporal were in the front row.

  The sergeant major led the way with a marching ditty and soon everyone was marching at a good fast pace. The guards relaxed as the prisoners marched in good humor.

  When Daniel judged that they were far enough from the fort and that the two guards were in a relaxed frame of mind, he stopped suddenly and pointed into the darkness.

  “Good heavens what on earth is that?” he shouted.

  Both guards turned to look in the direction that he was pointing and that was when Daniel and Brad Younger tackled the rear guard. He went down like a ninepin and Daniel snatched up his pistol turning to face the other guard who was struggling with the Sergeant Major while the other prisoner stood watching apprehensively.

  “Get in there and help him you lily-livered scabs!” Brad Younger screamed at them.

  Daniel tried to aim at the guard but he and the sergeant major were twisting this way and that and also the three other prisoners stood in the way.

  The guard had managed to pull out his pistol but the sergeant major held his right hand up so that the pistol could not be brought to bear. Daniel burst through the three dumbstruck prisoners and grabbed at the guard just as he wrenched his hand free of the Sergeant major’s grasp and fired off a random shot. There was the sound of a bullet striking home just before Daniel’s pistol rammed down on the fighting guard’s head and he fell stunned to the ground.

  “Grab his pistol Sergeant major.” Daniel ordered he turned to see one of the corporals lying on the ground with blood on his breast.

  “You two useless lumps of inaction! Tie up those two guards. Do it now!” Daniel roared at them.

  “But sir, you heard what the sergeant said that he would do to us if we tried to escape. And you yourself said that we had no horses, food or weapons so we could not get away.”

  “That’s what I said to him, you fools! Do you think that I have arranged nothing? Tie up the guards before they recover and let’s get moving!”

  They tied up the guards and left them at the side of the road then Daniel led them to his canyon after passing through two rivers just in case Harland ordered a search against his colonel’s orders.

  Jack seemed to have anticipated him somehow. All the horses were saddled and ready and the cart was packed and ready to go.

  “How did you know we were coming today, Jack?”

  “I prepare for you every night, Captain.”

 
; “Put the corporal on the cart and tie his horse to the backboard.” Daniel ordered. “Mount up and let’s go!”

  Jack handed him his weapons and Daniel mounted Star.

  He led the way with Star’s long loping walk that caused the other horses to canter.

  “Jack, climb into the back of the cart and take a look at Corporal Jones. Let me know how he is doing.”

  A few minutes later Jack climbed back to his seat and took up the reins again.

  “Broken rib, captain, very painful, he has lost some blood but bleeding has stopped. I have bandaged him and given him one of your opium pellets. He will sleep now.”

  They traveled all night stopping only at dawn when the under-nourished horses needed to rest. Daniel saw to it that they were given a good ration of oats, hobbled and left to graze. He organized a watch roster leaving the last watch for himself and then kept an eye on the others to see just how well they kept their watch.

  When he was satisfied that a proper watch was being maintained, he checked Corporal Jones’s condition before he slept for three hours.

  At sundown they were back on the road still maintaining the heading that would get them back to Colonel Bridges’ regiment.

  By this time, Corporal Jones was sitting alongside Jack on the cart because sitting up hurt his rib less than lying down and taking the jolting of the cart over the rough terrain.

  “Dan, I think that we have outrun our pursuit. Colonel Armitage would not have let Sergeant Harland range too far from the fort. He doesn’t have enough men. Boy, I would have loved to hear the roasting that Armitage must have given Harland when he learned that he was allowing prisoners to buy a trip to the whorehouse.” Brad said.

  “Harland deserves anything that he gets, Brad. He must be one of the most avaricious men I have ever encountered.”

  “That whole exercise must have cost you a fortune. Why did you do it?”

  “I planned to make a break from the moment I heard that I would be sent to Fort Briscoe. I asked Jack to buy the horses and provisions and to let me know where he would wait. No-one stopped his message coming to me. I had never for one moment believed that I would be able to buy a trip outside the walls.”

  “But why did you buy five horses? In your position I would have made the break on my own, not dragged five almost totally useless prisoners along with me.” Younger insisted.

  “I figured that I might be able to rescue some valuable people so I made provision to take five with me. I never dreamed that there would be hardly anyone worthwhile to rescue, present company excepted of course.”

  “Well, thank you for that but I must say that the sergeant major looks to be a valuable person also. It is just the other three that seem a total waste of effort.”

  That evening Corporal Jones was running a fever. They wrapped him in blankets and gave him copious quantities of water to drink.

  Daniel decided that they would stay where they were that day because jolting the cart over rocks and gullies in the darkness of the night would not do Jones a lot of good.

  By the morning Jones was showing an improvement so Daniel decided to travel in daylight on established roads. This would increase the distance they would have to travel but at least the going would be quicker and smoother.

  “Hell, captain, cain’t we have something other than this damned rice all the time?” The other corporal complained.

  “Rice keeps well and cooks easily. Jack makes very tasty dishes. Why should you complain? You could be sitting back in prison eating the same dreary slop, day after day.” Captain Brad Younger declared before Daniel could reply.

  “Yeah, sir, you are right so now I gotta eat rice which I don’t like and head back to the army where the rebels throw everything they’ve got at me and if I’m lucky enough to survive, I’ll probably end up starving on my daddy’s farm which will have returned to the wild ‘cos there hasn’t been anyone to tend it while I been away getting shot at.”

  “That is the price of patriotism, Pringle.” Brad Younger replied.

  “No sir, captain, that is the price we pay to keep our politicians plump and comfortable and not shot at so that they can commit us to doing things we would rather not.”

  “You are mighty cynical for someone of your age, Pringle.”

  “Losing everything we ever had so that we can interfere with the lives of our Southern brothers, will do that to us, Captain.”

  “I take it that you do not approve of this war.”

  “I do not sir. I am a Christian and I do not believe that we should take up arms unless and until we are attacked. I do not approve of slavery, sir, but slaves existed when the Lord walked this earth and he told us to turn the other cheek. I do not believe it is our right to take away the free-will the Lord gave us by forcing our will onto others.”

  “Perhaps you should remember the saying ‘all that it takes for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing’.”

  “Yes sir, I have heard that one and I dare say that a politician coined it for his own ends.”

  This particular debate raged on for several days during which time the sorry-looking horses gained muscle and condition and Corporal Jones lost it.

  His skin was now yellow, his face drawn and the substance of his body wasted away.

  Jack approached Daniel and took him to one side. “Captain, I have discovered what ails the Corporal Jones. I thought that his color looked familiar and I went into your baggage and checked your opium pellets, almost half are gone.”

  “You mean that he has been stealing my pellets from my baggage?”

  “It is my fault, captain, when he was so sick I took out the pellets before his eyes. He now relieves his own pain by taking the pellets himself.”

  “These are very powerful pellets, Jack. What will happen to the corporal now?”

  “He is now in the power of opium. If we refuse to allow him any pellets he will convulse and die. We must give him less and less each day until his body can manage without opium.”

  “What happens if we use up all the pellets before his body has become able to manage without opium?”

  “He will convulse and die, captain. Even with pellets rationed less and less until his body stabilizes the desire for opium is so strong that he will do anything to get more: killing, stealing and lying.”

  Daniel called Sergeant Major Jock MacPherson and explained the situation to him.

  “I shall arrest him for theft, sir. We will tie up his hands so that he cannot steal anything else. It gives us the excuse to hold him captive while we try to wean him off that opius stuff.”

  “Right Sergeant-Major do that. We should reach the regiment in another day or so and keeping him locked up while charged for theft is probably the best thing we can do for him.”

  It was late that afternoon when the town of Wending came in sight and this was where the regiment had been moved to, according to General Lee’s intelligence reports.

  For Corporal Jones’s sake Daniel decided to call a halt for the night. Jones was screaming in agony even though his wound appeared to be quite firm and healthy.

  Jack recommended one pellet of opium to carry Jones through the night. Daniel agreed and the relief that Jones displayed upon receiving his dose was remarkable.

  This was Indian country and Daniel made sure that a proper watch was kept through the night but shortly before dawn Jones awoke and began screaming for more opium.

  Daniel and Jack discussed whether or not to give him another pellet and Daniel decided to hold off until Jones had eaten breakfast, making it a condition for the next dose that Jones ate everything given to him. Of course, the breakfast consisted mainly of rice but despite this Jones gulped down his portion avidly so as to be eligible for another pellet.

  “Captain, I fear that it will take longer than I had hope
d to get the corporal off his need for opium. If we keep to one pellet in the morning and one in the evening your pellets will last two weeks. I recommend that we continue on that dosage only for one week and then reduce him to one pellet every twenty four hours. It will be hard on him but if he is kept in the lockup during the whole period we may be able to control him.”

  “I will explain all of this to the Colonel. I am sure that he will agree with your suggestion.”

  They made a strange sight riding into the town. Five men in ragged Federal uniform riding horses of motley hue followed by a cart driven by a Chinese man accompanied by a Union corporal with bound hands.

  Daniel made enquiries regarding the location of the regiment and was directed several miles to the east where the regiment was reputed to be encamped.

  Chapter Twenty Two

  It was past noon when they at last reached the regiment.

  Captain William J Hamilton the third was the duty officer and he stared at amazement at his friend.

  “I cannot credit my eyes! Why Dan Daniels is that you after all this time? Where the blazes have you been?”

  “Prisoner of war, Bill, may I present Captain Brad Younger? Brad was with me in the stockade at Fort Briscoe. Brad this is Bill Hamilton, the pride of the regiment.”

  Bill shook Brad’s hand.”I am only the pride of the regiment since Dan left us now all the women around will abandon us lesser mortals and turn back to Dan.”

  Bill conducted Dan and his small group to the Colonel’s hut.

  “Good heavens, Dan my boy! Where have you been? Melissa was totally distraught when you disappeared! She will be delighted to have you back.”

  Daniel introduced his small group to the Colonel who then insisted that Dan come to supper that evening so as to relate his adventures since his disappearance and of course, Captain Younger was also invited.

  They went up to the Colonel’s quarters together and Dan knocked upon the door which was almost immediately flung open and an excited Melissa Bridges threw herself into Dan’s arms. Dan spent some time detaching her insistent arms from around his neck so that he could present Brad Younger to her.