“Yep,” I said. “Told us that, too.”
Virgil looked to Sam.
“You said you got a number of messages about what happened on the track?” Virgil said.
Sam crammed her hands into her front pockets. She looked to the clock on the wall for a moment before she looked back to Virgil.
“Yes, sir,” Sam said. “We got us a bad situation here, Marshal.”
Sam fidgeted a bit, looking at Virgil and the governor.
“Go on,” Virgil said.
“Them telegraph lines started buzzin’ with everything goin’ on,” Sam said. “From every direction. Jenny?”
“The Express not arriving in Tall Water Falls,” Jenny said, “started the normal, or I should say necessary, transmissions for a situation like this.”
“We’ve never had nothing like this happen, ever,” Sam said.
“Section gangs already figured out a lot about what happened last night,” Jenny said. “First, the main terminal stations in both — Paris to the south, and Division City to the north — were alerted of the situation so the train and the schedules would be put on hold.”
“There was one Southbound Express already en route out of Fort Smith,” Sam continued, “but it was delayed until the foul cars are removed. Section gangs were dispatched to survey and report their findin’s first thing this mornin’.”
“Which were?” I said.
Sam shook her head.
“Well, last night there was some serious bad business I can tell you,” Sam said. “Nobody would have ever expected nothin’ like what has happened here. Some of it I ’spect you already know about. Some of it I ’spect you don’t.”
Sam stopped talking and looked to the governor.
“Go ahead,” the governor said.
Virgil offered a short nod.
“There was a robbery on the evenin’ Express out of Paris, which resulted in folks gettin’ killed. All along the track, from the top of the rise here at Half Moon all the way up through the woods of the Kiamichi, there have been a number of men found dead. We found these cars here with the burnt Pullman, and at the top of the rise, north of town here, we found another coach and a body of a man with his throat cut on the track. Along with the dead, Standley Station, the next way station up, also found an abandoned coach on the track. That car was full of passengers.”
69
Sam stopped talking. She looked at Jenny and bit her lip. Then looked to the governor.
“That it?” Virgil said.
Sam shook her head.
“No, sir. Next up. Crystal Creek gang found the engine and first coach stalled out.”
Sam swallowed hard.
“Apparently, where the engine was stopped on the track just north of Crystal Creek, riders showed up.”
“Riders?” Virgil said.
“The pickup riders,” I said.
“No doubt,” Virgil said.
“Evidently, they stayed diligent heading north,” I said.
“Evidently, they did,” Virgil said. “Go on, Sam.”
“All this was a wire from Crystal Creek... which also said shots were fired and two women were pulled from the coach,” Sam said.
The governor looked out the window, then looked to the floor.
“Where’s the engine now?” I said.
“The section gang is removing the engine and coach from the main line to a set out on the wye track,” Sam said. “Never seen or heard nothin’ like this, ever.”
The governor remained looking at the floor.
“That it?” Virgil said.
“Yes,” Sam said. “Well, other than the scheduled South Express from Fort Smith had to stop in Division City and wait. Once the track is clear it will get on its way down. I figure them stranded passengers will board the Express when it’s up and runnin’ again.”
“Nothing else from Tall Water Falls’ section gang?” Virgil asked.
“Nothing,” Jenny said. “Just this, this telegram, but nothing else.”
Virgil looked to the governor and pointed to the telegram the governor was holding in his hand.
“Need to reply,” Virgil said.
The governor looked at the telegram and nodded.
The telegram was for certain cryptic but clear enough to understand.
TO: The Great Governor of Texas — exchange engendered upon payment, 500K. Promptly comply for instructions or swift terminus will be guaranteed. “So wise so young, they say do never live long.” — RICHARD III
Jenny pulled up the chair and sat at the desk in front of the key and readied herself. The governor looked to Virgil, thinking for a moment about what to say.
“Um... how about, ‘Compliance agreed... Describe how, when, and where you wish to proceed’?”
Jenny held a steady gaze on the governor before looking to Virgil.
Virgil looked to me.
“Sounds right,” I said.
Jenny got a nod from the governor and scribbled the message on a piece of paper.
“‘Compliance agreed,’” Jenny said as she wrote. “‘Describe how, when, and where you wish to proceed.’”
Jenny looked to Virgil and he glanced up to the clock.
“Yes,” the governor said as he slowly got to his feet. “Send that.”
Jenny quickly pounded out the message on the key. She sat back in her chair and looked up at the clock on the wall. The time was half past seven o’clock. Jenny turned her chair sideways at the desk. She looked to the governor and Virgil before turning her attention back to the sounder sitting on the desk. All of us in the room looked to the sounder and waited.
70
Uncle Ted and the Ironhorse continued working, clearing the track. The big engine towed the burnt Pullman into the yard, making the windows of the telegraph office rattle. It was now a quarter past eight o’clock. The sounder sitting on the desk in front of Jenny had remained silent, and we had heard nothing back from Richard III. There had been no activity at all on the line since Jenny sent the wire to Ernest C. in Tall Water Falls. Virgil sat in the corner of the office with his hat down over his eyes, the governor was pacing slowly back and forth in the corridor of the depot where Berkeley and Hobbs sat half asleep on a bench, and I stood looking out the window, watching Sam walking next to the Ironhorse. I turned from the window and sat in a chair next to the desk. Jenny looked up from a book she was reading about Egyptian pyramids and smiled. For a girl who fancied herself as a man, she was attractive. Her skin was the opposite of Sam’s weathered complexion; Jenny was honey-colored and smooth. She looked as though she had never spent a day in the sun.
I looked at the connections on the key, relay, and sounder that were sitting on the telegraph desk in front of her.
“Everything been working good here, Jenny?”
“It has,” she said. “It’s all old as the hills, belonged to my father, but it’s J. H. Bunnell and Company equipment and works better than most of the new stuff.”
“Batteries are good?”
“They are,” Jenny said. “The whole series circuit from Paris to Fort Smith has been very reliable, no problems.”
The governor poked his head into the office.
“Marshal, Deputy?” the governor said.
Virgil lifted his hat from his eyes.
“I need to let my wife know what’s happening.”
“We’ll be right here,” Virgil said.
The governor gazed at the sounder sitting on the desk.
“I’ll walk with you,” Hobbs said as he got to his feet.
The governor glanced back to Hobbs and looked to Virgil.
“Marshal,” he said, “if this madman responds, and I pray to God in Heaven he does, I implore you and your deputy might provide the necessary backbone and tactical maneuvers and whatever Lord knows what else might be needed for this exchange to be successful.”