The coach was the last foul car to be removed from the track. The next abandoned car north, with Whip, the undertaker, the grieving widow, the Apache woman, and the others, had been removed by the Standley Station section gang. The engine and first coach was in the process of being towed off by the Crystal Creek section gang, leaving the track open for travel.
The windows of the telegraph office rattled again as Uncle Ted, with his hairy arm hanging out the window of the Ironhorse, throttled the engine off the main track and rumbled to a stop in the switchyard behind the water tower.
“God help us,” the governor said.
77
A half-hour passed and there had been no response from Buck LeFlore. Jenny did receive a wire notifying us the Southbound Express was up and running again and on the move down the track en route to Paris. Sam told us she would have a better idea of where we would pass the Southbound Express once we were ready to leave, but she thought we would most likely have to use a pass track midway between Half Moon Junction and Standley Station somewhere around five and six o’clock.
In short order, Uncle Ted and Sam got the Ironhorse tender filled up with coal from the coal tower, Virgil retrieved the money from the crates in the freight car and transferred the loot to the stock coach, and I fetched the four horses from the jail.
It was half past noon when I walked the horses down to where Virgil was now standing with the governor and Hobbs in the switchyard with Sam and little Charlie. They were watching Uncle Ted maneuvering the Ironhorse.
Uncle Ted pulled the whistle cord, and three short loud blasts spooked the horses as the Ironhorse backed toward the stock coach.
I turned the horses away from the engine noise, circling them, getting their feet back solid under them, when I saw Berkeley walking toward me carrying a large carpet bag and wearing denim trousers and a barn coat.
“I’m your shoveler,” Berkeley said.
He reached out and took two of the horses’ leads.
“Packed us some rations, too.”
“Good of you,” I said.
“Least I can do.”
“Hard to know how this will play out.”
“One way or another, it will.”
“It will, indeed,” I said.
We crossed a dead-end set of rails just as the automatic coupler of the Ironhorse docked with the coupler on the stock car. Sam stepped up between the tender and the stock coach and connected the glad-hand coupler on the air line as we neared with the horses.
“Got us a fireman,” I said.
Everyone turned and looked at Berkeley.
“Don’t look so surprised,” Berkeley said. “Contrary to what makes perfect sense, I’m no stranger to hard work. Besides, you have a train station to manage, Sam.”
“Suit yourself,” Sam said.
She moved to the side of the stock car and uncleated the rope from the block-and-tackle system that lowered and raised the ramp.
“I don’t think Uncle Ted has bathed in six, maybe seven, years!” Sam said.
We lowered the ramp, and I got the two other horses familiar with getting up into the car and coming out of the car. The stud Cortez and the roan were knowledgeable train travelers and had no problem with the ramp, but the other two needed some encouraging. I loaded each horse a number of times and after a few smooth up and downs, making sure they felt comfortable, I removed their saddles and tack, set up the mangers with hay, and secured them in their stalls for the journey.
Uncle Ted got the Ironhorse and stock car onto the main track and let out three short whistles. He backed the tender under the water tank, where Sam and Charlie awaited. Sam swung out the spigot arm over the tender.
“Go ahead on, Charlie!” Sam said.
“Okay, Sam,” Charlie said.
Charlie jerked down on the chain and started filling the tender with water.
78
I entered the side door of the depot and crossed the corridor to the telegraph office where Virgil was standing with the governor and Hobbs next to Jenny’s desk. When I entered the office, Virgil looked to me and shook his head slightly.
“No word from LeFlore?” I said.
Jenny looked at me and shook her head.
“Nope,” Virgil said.
“Reckon we go at it on our own,” I said.
Virgil nodded.
“That’s right,” he said.
“Just follow the line toward the camps,” I said.
“Yep,” Virgil said. “See where it leads us.”
The governor had his hands behind his back again and a troubled look on his face. He started shaking his head from side to side. I spoke up before he had a chance to say anything.
“Sir, if I may?”
The governor looked at me.
“Deputy.”
“Virgil and I have been doing law work together for over twenty years. There’s nobody better at law work than the man standing right there. Time and time again we have been in situations that have required every kind of can-do there is and we will do our very best to find your daughters and save them.”
The governor looked at Virgil and me for a long silent moment.
“I will, of course, be anxious and waiting. If the circumstances were different and my wife were not with me, I would of course go with you.”
“Me, too,” Hobbs said.
“Shut up, Chet,” the governor said.
The governor didn’t even look at Hobbs.
“Just...”
The governor stopped talking and looked to Virgil.
“I don’t know what else to say or do,” he said.
“There is nothing to say,” Virgil said. “As far as the doing goes, it’s like Everett said. We are gonna do everything we can to get your girls back safe and sound.”
“Thank you, Marshal,” the governor said.
He sat down in the chair by the desk.
“Thank you...”
Outside I saw Sam raise the spigot and say something to Charlie. Charlie hollered back and then ran toward the depot.
Uncle Ted pulled the cable, and two long whistle blasts rang out. Steam built, the brakes were released, and the Ironhorse moved away from the water tower and chugged slowly toward the depot.
Charlie ran ahead of the Ironhorse to the depot, hurried up the steps, and came through the front door breathing hard.
“Excuse me,” Charlie said. “Sam told me to tell you it’s time to go!”
79
Sam stood on the depot porch next to Charlie as Virgil and I stepped up onto the Ironhorse with Uncle Ted and Berkeley. Berkeley was sweating. He was already dirty with soot from coaling up the Ironhorse to traverse out of the switchyard and onto the main track.
Virgil and I had been introduced to Uncle Ted from afar, but this was my first up-close-and-personal look at him.
“Here we go,” Uncle Ted said.
Uncle Ted grinned. He was a big man. His arms and neck were covered with curly grayish red hairs, and he had a thick gray-and-red beard, but when he took off his cap and scratched his head there wasn’t one hair, red or gray, on top of his scalp. Even though he had a permanent smile on his face and exuded friendliness, Uncle Ted looked and smelled just as Sam said, as though he had not bathed in six or seven years. If it weren’t for the fact we needed to be alert, and to some degree cautious, I would be in the stalls with the horses. But the fact remained: we were on a mission with peculiar and dangerous circumstances, and readiness was important.
Virgil stayed on the Ironhorse step and looked back to Sam.
“What time will we get up there, you figure?” Virgil asked.
Sam looked at her conductor’s watch.