Yankton

Chapter 13

Chapter 13 Getting the Show on the Road

Around noon, Mark and Melonie went back to Dora's to check on Kitty, I went into town to check out the livery stables to see what kind of nags they had for sale. The first place had nothing at all, the second place had a few, but although I didn't know as much about horses as I probably should have (Christ! I'm living in Laramie Wyoming of all places.) The stable owner let me look them over, but there wasn't anything that interested me. Making a few inquires, someone told me about a place just a few miles north of town that had a small corral. I begged a ride from a guy driving a wagon for permission to ride on the tailgate, eventually making my way north. When I knocked on the shack door, a man who looked to be in his 50's opened up. "Whatcha want?" he growled. "I heard you had horses for sale," I replied, I'm interested." He studied me for a moment, then muttered "Come in."

The shack seemed to be sparsely furnished basically a one room affair, what appeared to be one of those cast iron army beds I'd seen pictures of shoved in one corner, a stove, and little else. "Names Ben Cook," said the man offering his hand, "Brian Yankton," I replied. He offered me a chair at the table, and sat down across from me just watching me, then he started in about what a fool he'd been coming out here from Ohio, "My partner's dead, shot by claim jumpers, four months ago, we were building this place as something to fall back on when the claim played out but as you can see there's nothing left here either, I got three horses one's mine, t'other belonged to old George the third is just a pack horse. All I'm fixin to do right now is cut my losses and go back home. Brother's got a nice farm near Dayton, says he could use some help. As much as I hate farmin' I think I'd put a bullet in my brain if I had to stay here another winter." My mind was way ahead of this guy, on possibilities, so I asked, "How can I help sir?" Ben put his face into his hands and kept them there for a moment, then looking at me he asked, "How much ya got on you son?" I thought of the money Dora had given me, $70.00, I had another one hundred and twenty in my pocket, basically all that I had left. While I was thinking, Ben had been staring at the Spencer I had been carrying.

"I've got twenty dollars shy of two hundred, dollars, much of it in gold." Ben went into one of his "thinking" moods again obviously doing calculations in his head, then pointing at the Spencer, "Throw in that Spencer and everything is yours, the property, the buildings them horses as well. With that money I can get me stage and train fare home as well as some decent traveling clothes with even a bit to spare. I came out her with nothing, guess I'll go home with nothing…Cep't maybe that rifle. See, I carried one just like it in the war, I rode with a Calvary regiment for damn near three years, had to turn it in at the end, but I would sure love to own one again. I grinned, "Well Ben, guess this is both our lucky day, the rifle's yours." He drew up a deed to the place, which we would have notarized by a lawyer later on, then shaking on the deal, I gave him everything I had plus the rifle. We then walked out and he showed me the extent of the property which looked to be around five acres plus up the rock behind us for a little ways. "Perfect!" I thought, we now had a place where we could move the time machine. Besides the three horses, I was getting a crude pack saddle, as well as two worn saddles, one of them being a McClellan army saddle with the cut-out center.

Since it was late in the day, he invited me to stay the night sharing a bottle, and listening to the most incredible stories I've ever heard about the war, stories about the places he'd seen the friends he'd made and lost, his dreams for a life in the west now shattered. "I don't got no remorse," stated Ben, "Things is what they is. I'm just grateful I came out of that thing in one piece, I've still go my health, and maybe the good Lord never meant for me to come here. Maybe you coming along when you did was God giving me a second chance at life, leastways I can go home and look my brother in the eye and tell him "I tried." I then asked him, "Ben, if you tell me where your old claim was and who it was that shot your partner, maybe I could arrange for him to meet with an "untimely" accident, you know guys are always suffering from accidents up in those gold camps." He smiled at me and shook his head, "Thanks for the offer son, I don't know, but of this is truly the Lord's work best not to piss 'em off, no, best just to let the past go."

I slept out in the barn with a couple blankets Ben gave me, then in the morning we saddled up the horses and rode into town, where we had the deed taken care of by the lawyer, Ben bought a set of "duds" then bought himself a ticket on the Deadwood to Sidney Nebraska stage. Before we parted, I said to him, "You take care Ben, and I promise that if I'm ever in Dayton, I'll be sure to look you up." "You just do that son," he replied. I watched him board the stage and stayed until it rode away.

Taking stock of my situation I was now penniless but owned property, as well as three mounts, there was actually a decent amount of flat land, a good meadow, and a nearby rock facing we could work a tunnel into. I felt like Jack when he comes home to tell his father that he sold the family cow for a pouch of magic beans. I certainly wasn't making the "company" any money, but with that property we now had a place to start our little operation. There was the possibility of opening a tunnel or perhaps something larger in that rock facing, expanding the shack into something larger, my ultimate goal was getting Montana back into the "fold" maybe starting a place she could run, a place where the gold would come to us. Upon returning home, I unsaddled the horses and staked them out next to the cabin, where they had grass to chew on, Mark and Melonie were not back yet perhaps they spent the whole night at Dora's. While I was preparing my gear for the "hunting" trip I was going on a commotion at the door told me Mark was back.

When he and Melonie entered, they were laughing, Montana was right behind them. "Hey buddy," announced Mark, "Sorry we didn't come home last night, Kitty went into a fever, and we had to keep an eye on her." "That's OK," I replied, "I wasn't home either." "I greeted Montana, and said, "Tell Dora I getting ready to leave right now, I'll find that guy for her." Mark then said, "Say Brian where'd those horses come from?" I wore a sheepish grin as I replied, "I'm afraid I've got some good and bad news guy." Sitting down at the table, he said, "Well let's have it." "Well bad news first, I spent all our money, I mean all of it, that Spencer was even part of the deal." I could see him wince, as he was starting to like that rifle. "Good news is that one of those horses is yours, and you Melonie are welcome to the other. I've got the paint, and besides the three horses, we now own a five acre "ranch" just north of town. It's backed up near a rock face like this place, there's a small shack with a lean-to barn and corral. Guy sold the whole thing to me for one hundred and ninety dollars, basically enough to get back home to Ohio. You can shoot me now, or later, but I've got an idea about that place, Montana, this involves you. "This ought to be good, said Mark cynicism tainting his comment.

"I was thinking of turning the shack into a saloon which you could run Montana, deal cards there maybe hire a couple girls, we could open a small "convenience" store, buy and sell stuff, but basically a place where the gold could come to us."

Nobody was making any loud objections so far, so I continued. "It's a place to start anyway, as we get more money, we can expand things. As for you Melonie, It would also be a good place to start from. Let's face it female doctors aren't in big demand right now, but you could establish your reputation under our protection, and deal with the buying of antiques we discussed earlier." Turning to Montana, I added, "Mark and I aren't going to be around here forever, when we eventually leave for good, I would turn the whole thing over to you, if nothing else, you and Melonie would have a place to live where you could plan your next move." Nobody said anything for a few moments, then Mark spoke up, "Remind me to never leave you with our whole "stash", but all right I kinda like the idea, this place is a pain in the ass to get to, I'll tell you what, we'll go check the place out while you're gone OK? We'll be moving Kitty up here tomorrow, so that all will work out." Montana then said, "I want to see this place as well. Actually I like the idea as well, Dora's pretty accommodating, but sometimes I feel like I'm a bother. Would you really let me run the place?" Oh absolutely," I replied. "Hire however many girls you want, games of chance, but nothing crooked, we don't need pissed off miners and saddle tramps trying to kill us, I think if we do this right, we can make a lot of money. But remember, with the exception of rare coins and collectables anything you clear will belong to you ladies. The rare coins and antiques go home with us and that money goes into our account, both of you will be entitled to a certain percentage which will have to come back to you in the form of hard goods. And don't forget, there's always going to be a certain discrepancy in the shares due to inflation, but I promise I'll see that everybody's shares are as equal as we can get them."

Montana looked at me like she didn't quite believe me, but said nothing. Instead, she said, "I'd like to have a conversation with my friend Melonie, perhaps you two gentleman could excuse us?" As I was just finishing up on getting my gear together I said to Mark, "Can you ride a horse?" "Fair to middlen I guess, mostly horseback rides when we took vacations out to Yellowstone, that sort of thing." I grinned, "Welcome to the club Bro!" Once outside he helped me strap my Colt AR in the scabbard the saddlebags on as well as a small roll pack containing extra clothes rations and a bedroll. "Gonna be all right guy," asked Mark. I slapped him on the shoulder, "I'll be fine, shouldn't be too much trouble finding this creep Dora told me he has friends down near Custer City so that's where I'll head first." Then Mark took a serious tone, "Say, uh you wouldn't hold it against me if, uh, say, uh, Melonie and I got it on would you?" This hit me like a ton of bricks. ""I didn't know you had the "hots" for her?" Mark gave me a sheepish grin, "Uh it's kinda the other way around buddy, she's got the "hots" for me." Suddenly things started fall in place, I thought to myself, "So that's why Montana was acting the way she was, she must have spotted the attraction right off, well, there goes that!"

"I'm not your boss Mark, nor am I Melonie's, you guys do what ever makes you happy, just don't hurt her, and remember there will come a time when both of us will have to leave for good, keep that in mind. I'll see you when I get back," with that I rode down the hill. I figured I could just make Silver city by dark. In the beginning, I checked my riding skills, getting the horse to do what I wanted, stopping, backing up, cantering even galloping. I settled on a proper riding position as well as making sure I knew where I was going. I also thought a great deal about the sudden shift in relationships, if Mark and Melonie were getting involved, I decided then perhaps I'd see how far I could get with Montana. I continued to think about her, as well as my feelings toward her all the way to Silver city.