Yankton

Chapter 37

Chapter 37 Truck drivers of 1877

Just before we departed Cheyenne, I sent a telegram to Montana letting her know Colin and I were safe, and were on our way home from Cheyenne. Several miles north of town we hooked up with a group of three freight wagons part of Charlie Utter's freighting company. Although Charlie wasn't with them another well-known citizen of Deadwood was…Martha Jane Canary, or as history knows her, Calamity Jane. The bullwhackers weren't sure at first about letting us join up with them at first until we heard a lot of swearing, and Calamity jumped off the last wagon and ran up to us demanding to know what was going on. I think I read an article once about why the producers of the HBO series "Deadwood," used so much modern profanity, claiming it was because 1876 swear words wouldn't shock us like modern ones would. To be sure, there were plenty of "Goddam's," "Sons a bitches," "s**t," "Hell," and "damnations." There were other words and phrases out there as well, along with some no longer used as well as their meanings being somewhat unclear.

In any case, Martha was mad and wanted us to know it. When she finally got a good look at Colin and I she quieted down, and studied me for a moment, then pointing a finger at me, she exclaimed,

"Aint you that fellow that done shot up Swearingen's men?" Tipping my hat, I replied,

"Yes ma'am, guilty as charged."

"You're all that bastard talks about anymore, says he's gonna git even." I looked at her and smiled,

"Does he now? Well Martha, if at any point you think he's not just bullshitting, and really intends to come after me, please tell his girls to get the hell out of the Gem, as I will burn it down, and then at some point after that, those around him will get to see his head explode like a ripe melon. It won't matter where he's at, his last moment on earth could happen anywhere." She snickered at that one, then studied me again, asking,

"I hear tell you and that Montana woman got a place north of town." Nodding, I replied,

"You're talking about Purgatory Martha, a place where you have an open invitation to visit, first one is on the house, stop up any time, you're always welcome."

I wasn't sure whether it was the offer of free booze or my invitation, but her face brightened and she stuck her hand out,

"Well then, you gents just pack in with us." Shaking her hand, I replied,

"We would be more than happy to earn our place as your security patrol, we're on our way back from Cheyenne and Laramie, hauling gold for Michael O'Rourke, and Clay Jennings, traveling in a group is so much safer, don't you agree?" She frowned, for a second, but then nodded,

"I know them fella's, never heard nuthin' bad 'bout 'em, course we don't 'spect no trouble, but then ya never can tell. Well we're wastin' daylight, let's get goin."

Colin and I tied the two pack mules to Calamity's wagon so we could ride ahead of the train from time to time and watch for any trouble, any time I had the chance, I would locate to anyplace where I could observe the trail ahead, hoping to spot ambush sites.

Although I had read all I could find on Calamity, it still didn't prepare me for the living person. Looking at all those tin types and daguerreotypes of her you get an entirely different impression of her. She wasn't very tall, but them most people in this time period weren't either, Mark and I were always catching remarks from people commenting on how tall we were. Both Montana and Melonie were amazed at how large we all were when they visited the twenty-first century, I told them it was because people ate a whole lot better than in their day, and although probably too much, the quality, and variety of food was so much better.

As we rode along side of her freight wagon, I watched her, listened to her curse and shout at the mules pulling the wagon. I read somewhere that her swearing surpassed even the most hardened bullwhackers, but in reality, I've heard worse out of female marines I ran across in Afghanistan, and elsewhere. Calamity paled to the kind of tirade my own sister could unleash on someone who she thought was trying to wrong her. As for her looks, I thought she might have had some Italian blood in her, although the name Canary didn't sound very Italian to me. I was to have many other encounters with Calamity Jane during my time here, this was only the first, and as happens with so many we meet, first impressions never stand.

One thing I told Calamity and the others was that I would keep an eye on the stock at night, if I could nap from time to time during the day in the back of one of their wagons. At first, they thought I was just trying to skate, but for a time one of the bullwhackers would try and sneak up on me hoping to catch me sleeping, but none ever did. Towards the end of our journey, Calamity paid me a visit sitting down next to me. Her behavior suggested that she might have been looking for something else, but she never indicated as such. We got to talking when she casually said,

"I was sittin' with the sheriff and his chums not long ago, and you're name came up."

"So you have heard of me before," I replied, "Why didn't you say anything when we first joined up with the train?"

"Cause a couple of them fella's is friends of E.A.'s, they haven't said nuthin' cuz I think they is afraid of you, but yeah, I knew it was you as soon as I seed ya. Where's yur friend?'

"You mean Mark?"

"Yeah, Bullock wuz a-talkin 'bout him too."

"He decided to sit this one out, what was the sheriff saying about us?" I asked.

"Said you showed him some stuff that wasn't right, stuff that skered him, the doc seen it too, but wouldn't say nuthin else, sheriff just told everybody not to mess with you and that friend of yer's, said there had been enough killin' already, what did he mean by that?" I looked at her in the dark and quietly said,

"Martha, let's just say, I know all about you, things you couldn't imagine a stranger like me would, and leave it at that. However I would like to be your friend. If there is ever a time when friends are hard to find, or your sick and broke, you know where to find me and my friends, we won't let you down, and I mean that with all my heart." I thought I heard her sniff, then get up and leave.

She was certainly full of energy, driving a team of mules over what could barely be called a road was damn hard work, and these guys were doing it for practically s**t wages, but that was the way it was back then, I always had to be careful in paying people, my urge was to pay people a whole lot more than the going rate for whatever the job happened to be but Montana was always warning me that it would only stir up a lot of animosity and jealousy, however everyone who worked a Purgatory all were well paid.

Surprisingly, we made it home without incident. From time to time shady looking characters would pass us and try and strike up conversations all to no avail. There were times when strangers would approach our camp at night seeking a hot meal or a place to camp, but all were chased off, Calamity or Bill Mather's the head bullwhacker would pull their pistol and start yelling at them forcing the intruders to flee. Bill told me it was a common trick to gain entry then when we were all asleep, the strangers would either shoot us or club us over our heads. Whenever we ran across people like this, I would find a high perch up in the rocks and simply watch with my rifle and thermal scope, however no one ever returned.

We parted ways just north of Cheyenne Crossing, as Colin and I were headed for Lead. Both Jennings and O'Rourke were overjoyed at our success; we unloaded the supplies we had brought back each man taking whatever it was they had requested. After a round of congratulatory drinks and back slapping, Colin and I headed home. It was well after dark so we stopped off at the stable where we unsaddled the horses, fed, and brushed them down. As we walked up to the saloon, I heard the piano playing and the raucous laughter which brought back memories of dozens of westerns I had seen in the past. Tired, dirty and unshaven, we entered the saloon and went over to the employee table and sat down. Almost immediately, I heard a squeal as Montana as well as Sockie came rushing over. I stood up to receive Montana, but Sockie?

We got along all right and she liked working here, but I didn't think she missed me that much, but as Montana pulled me in for a hug and a kiss, out of the corner of my eye, I Sockie doing the same with Colin. Once Montana was finished, she said,

"Oh I was so worried, I'm so glad your home," then her expression changed,

"Look, I'm right in the middle of a game, you'd better get next door, things…things have happened."

"Mark, Melonie, something happen to them or his dad?"

"You'd just better talk to them," was all she'd say.

I immediately went over to the clinic where thankfully, Mark and Melonie were sitting at a table talking; when they say me, both immediately put their fingers to their lips indicating that I should be quiet. I stopped right there, then tip-toed over to where they were sitting; Melonie got up and poured me a cup of coffee from a pot on the stove.

"Montana said something was wrong," I said in a low voice, "What happened?" Both frowned, as Mark spoke.

"Well I took dad back no problem there, but Jake insisted on going, made a big fuss about it so I said "To Hell with it," so I took him, he's in 2014 right now, look man, I'm sorry, I…" I waved his apology away,

"Well damnit, he deserves whatever he gets, ah don't worry about it Mark, I promised him I'd take him later on I just worry about him running around there with no ID that's all."

"Well we've got another situation that's a little more serious," added Mark, "We've got two orphans sleeping in the other room there, they are in bad shape, Sockie's tried to talk to them, cause I think they are Swedish or Norwegian, all we know is their names, there's a girl who looks to be around fourteen or fifteen, her name is Inge, along with a boy who looks around ten, his name is Steinar I think."

"What happened, how did they get here?" I asked. Mark then proceeded to relate an incredible as well as heart-breaking story.

Mark and Melonie began to tell me the story that almost cost them their lives.

"A couple days after you and Colin left, we went over to Dora's to check up on her girls.

Goddamned cholera! Dora had a new cook who didn't believe in washing her hands after doing her business, among other things, needless to say she's now history, it took awhile, we were there longer than planned. Anyway, we explained how people got this disease, got the girls back on track with some antibiotics as well as electrolytes and Dora's everlasting thanks. As we were coming through Deadwood, there was a crowd gathered around some old guy who had found these two kids just wandering out by themselves. Says they wouldn't say a word, but judging from their appearance they've been through the mill.

Anyway, just as Mel and I were going to take a look at them these shitheel hiders moved in with one of 'em trying to grab the girl, says she's going with him since they were obviously orphans. As he was pulling at the girl who was crying now, her little brother, starts beating on this guy, pretty pathetic really, this kid trying to defend his sister. Well the guy hauls off and knocks the boy away then Mel lets out this howl and tries to grab the girl, the man tries to shove her out of the way, "This un's goin wit me," he kept sayin. Next thing I know Mel has a gun out and pointing at him, she was a regular wildcat I'm telling you, I've never seen her act that way before. Christ, she was swearing at them, hell, what could we do? I drew both my pistols out. I was screamin' for him and his buddies to back off and drop their guns, people were running away, Just the two of us held these guys off, those poor kids didn't know what was going down. The girl went to her brother's aid, both were crying their heads off, I was callin this guy every name I could think of, hell! I think I even threw some Afghan swear words in there as well. Anyway, they backed down. Mel was able to grab the kids and get them away, the head hider just kept shouting at us that we had no right taking his "girl" Christ Brian what kind of throwbacks they got out here?"

"Well then Bullock and a couple deputies show up. I explained to him the situation, and that we would take the kids with us and check them out. Bullock then told me to take the children and go, he stop by later and talk. As we rode away that hider was shaking his fist at us. Well, it didn't take long for those guys to start following us

I found a place to pull off the road and hide as well as set up a hasty ambush well it wasn't long before they came down that trail looking for us. I shot one, don't know if I killed him or not, but they stopped, and bought us time to get away.

Man, we could feel 'em right on our asses; we couldn't afford to stop so we kept riding. Well it was now dark, we hadn't planned on being gone that long, you know that small hollow just as the road starts to straighten out about a mile out of Deadwood?" I nodded.

"Well I swung in there jumped out with my AK got Mel and the kids down behind some rocks. About five minutes later, these bastards show up, I dumped a whole magazine on them, reloaded and went through another one, it happened just so damn fast. I couldn't see a whole lot, but all I knew was that they were all dead. Well we didn't stick around, taking off and hightailing it back here."

Mark took a long sip of coffee then continued.

"The sheriff shows up the next day wanting to know about the slaughter, said there were dead men and horses all over the place, then wanted to know if I had anything to do with it. Well I told him. "Sheriff, you saw how angry those hiders were, that boy would have been found somewhere with his neck wrung, and that poor girl…well, do I have to paint you a picture?"

He still couldn't figure out how I was able to kill all those guys, so I told him,

"Let's take a little ride out to our gun range sheriff, and I'll show you."

"Well I took out the AK, and dumped a full mag right in front of his eyes, put a whole bunch of holes in that piece of sheet metal you've got back there. Bullock just stood there refusing to believe what he saw, but I saw a touch of fear in his eyes, just a touch, but he didn't say a word, just shook his head got on his horse and rode off, end of story."