We arrived at the porch of the depot at the same time as Sam. Sam’s skin was dark from the sun, and her eyes were sapphire blue.
“Burton,” Sam said.
“Sam,” Berkeley said. “This is the governor, Mr. Hobbs, Marshal Cole, Deputy Hitch. Charlie here said you had some information?”
“Charlie, go on and help Uncle Ted with them cars.”
“Okay, Sam,” Charlie said.
Charlie scampered off the depot steps and ran toward the Ironhorse.
“What is it, Sam?” Berkeley said.
“Yes, please,” the governor said. “The boy said you have information about my daughters?”
Sam removed her bowler, revealing her close-cropped blond hair, and narrowed her eyes thoughtfully, looking at the governor.
“Yes, sir, Governor, sir,” she said. “Let me show you.”
66
Sam opened the door of the depot and ushered us in with a slight swing of her hat.
“After you,” she said.
We entered, and Sam hurried past us, and we followed her across the long, narrow corridor of the depot.
“Last night we received a wire alertin’ us the Fort Smith Express out of Paris was off schedule,” Sam said. “When Jenny, our telegraph operator, opened up this mornin’, she got a number of messages right quick about what happened on the track last night.”
We entered a small glassed-in corner office overlooking the track, where a young woman sat at a telegraph desk.
“This here is Jenny,” Sam said. “Anythin’ else come in, dear?”
“No, nothing,” Jenny said as she swiveled around in her chair from the desk.
Jenny was smaller than Sam. She, too, wore men’s clothes: breeches, a bowler, and a pin-striped shirt under a corduroy vest. Jenny opened the top drawer, took out a telegram, and handed it to Sam.
“This wire we received,” Sam said. “Addressed to you, sir.”
Sam handed the telegram to the governor.
“I sent Charlie to fetch you right away,” Sam said, “first thing when Jenny received it.”
The governor read the telegram. His eyes narrowed. He read the note again and looked to Jenny.
“You’re certain this is correct,” the governor said.
“Yes, sir, it’s correct, sir,” Jenny said. “It’s the message that was sent.”
Jenny spoke quickly with crisp, precise diction.
The governor looked at Sam.
“Jenny knows telegraphin’ beyond her years,” Sam said. “Her daddy was a telegrapher, taught her enough and then some. She’s good with code ’n everythin’ comes through here, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee, heck, Greek—”
“Marshal?” the governor said.
He handed the telegram to Virgil.
“Sometimes wires get changed when repeaters are not in line,” Jenny said, “or if notes have to be retransmitted over long distances by other operators, or if someone is a novice on the key, but that wire is from just up the rail at the top of the Kiamichi. I know that operator.”
Virgil looked up at me and back to the telegram. He reread the message and handed it to me.
“Up the rail, top of the Kiamichi?” Virgil said. “Where are you talking about, Jenny?”
“As far as I can tell, the transmission came from Tall Water Falls.”
I read the note and looked at the governor. He sat slowly into an armchair next to the desk. He was doing his best to maintain his composure. He gazed out the window toward the iron rails tapering off in the distance and shook his head slowly from side to side.
“For God’s sake,” Hobbs said. “What in God’s name has happened? What are we dealing with?”
The governor took the note from my hand and handed it to Hobbs. Hobbs read the telegram and looked at the governor with a shocked expression on his face.
67
“Ransom! Dear God! The gall!” Hobbs said. “What more? This is madness, absolute madness.”
The governor took the telegram from Hobbs. Then he leaned over in the chair, rested his elbows on the arms of the chair, and stared at the telegram.
“What did you mean,” Virgil said, “as far as you could tell this telegram was from Tall Water Falls?”
“The telegram could come from anywhere in the loop,” Sam said.
Jenny nodded.
“Yes, but as I previously mentioned, I know that operator; there are two of them at the depot. That operator is from Tall Water Falls. I don’t know the operator personally, but I know that fist. That is Ernest C.’s fist.”
“Fist?” Hobbs said.
“The operator’s key pattern,” I said.
“Every operator has a fist,” Jenny said. “A signature way of keying. We all key a distinct style. Though that wire is cryptic, that is Ernest C. from Tall Water Falls, no doubt about it... But...”
“But what? Something wrong?” I said. “You curious about something?”
Jenny looked at me then looked to the governor.
“Ernest C. didn’t provide a sine or confirmation to the wire,” Jenny said. “Sine is an operator’s signature.”
“Which is unusual,” Sam added.
“It is,” Jenny said. “Normally all railroad- and depot-dispatched transmissions are retyped in complete with sine. That way depot communications maintain a high degree of accuracy for zero confusion and safety. Right after I received this wire I replied with a received confirmation but got nothing back. With the Express not arriving in Tall Water Falls and everything that has happened this morning, compounded with the nature of this note, I knew something was wrong.”
“What are you saying?” the governor said.
“I believe Ernest C. is under watch or something of that nature,” Jenny said.
“So there is no telling where the note really came from?” I said.
“There is not,” Jenny said.
“Have you had any other communication with Tall Water Falls?” Virgil asked.
Jenny shook her head and said, “No. The last contact we had was prior to this note, and that was last night, right before I closed.”
“Which was what?” Virgil asked.
“I received word the Express out of Paris did not arrive at the scheduled time in Tall Water Falls,” Jenny said.
“You tell anybody about this?” Virgil said. “Last night?”
“Pardon?”
“When you got that news about the Express, you tell anybody else?”
“I left and alerted Sam right away,” Jenny said.
“Nobody else?” Virgil said.
“No,” Jenny said. “Well... except when I was closing the office there was a man who came just as I was leaving, asking about the next express to Fort Smith.”
Virgil looked at me, then back to Jenny.
“Tall man,” Virgil said. “Silver hair?”
Jenny looked back and forth between Virgil and me and said, “Why, yes. He was a tall man, silver hair.”
68
Virgil looked to the governor, who was looking at Hobbs.
“Goddamn Lassiter,” the governor said.
“What did you tell him?” Virgil said.
“I told him I was not certain when the next northbound would come through.”
“You tell him why?” Virgil said.
“You mean did I explain to him why I was uncertain?”
“Yes.”
Jenny thought for a moment.
“Well, I believe I said because there was trouble with tonight’s Express not arriving in Tall Water Falls. I told him he would have to check today for the next scheduled train, but that was it.”
“He ask you anything else?” Virgil said.
“No, sir.”
“He send a wire himself?” I asked.
“No,” Jenny said. “He did not.”
“The son of a bitch liar,” Hobbs said. “He told me he wired to alert the authorities.”