“That’s fine.”
“Of course the rate’s a little higher—”
“How much?”
“For your wife, four dollars.”
“That’s all right, but I want to see it.”
“I’ll take you up myself.”
If I had built it special it couldn’t have been better. It looked right down on the station, so she could see everything that went on down there, and if she raised the window, she could even hear what was said. “Now remember, after you spot him you check out and send your baggage over. Then you tell the porter you forgot something, come up here—”
“They’ll have the key, though. At the desk.”
“That’s right. You’ve checked out. Let’s see—”
“Couldn’t I leave the door open?”
“Right. Come in here, watch Caskie—”
“Spot the coach he’s traveling on—”
“Have your wires ready.”
“I go running over to the station, hail the driver of Caskie’s coach, have my things put aboard, go into the station and file my wire, the one that says meet me.”
“And if he doesn’t come tomorrow—”
“File the other one, that I’ll be a day late.”
“Wear the white hat, but if anything comes up that looks suspicious, or that causes us to call it off, take off the hat and put on the red coat.”
“When Caskie sees me—”
“Say hello and act natural.”
“Hold me tight, Roger. I’m so excited.”
The local stage I had to take to Placerville was slow and I didn’t get there till three o’clock in the afternoon. I went to the Pioneer stables and bought me a couple of horses with money she had given me, with bridles and Mexican saddles, for easy riding. I left one there, got on the other one, and rode back the way I had come, so I could use the last hour of daylight to check up things I had to know. Placerville is in the first of the foothills, and below the town is rising ground, where anything pulled by horses has to slow down to a walk. I put the horse up the bank and skirted the edge of the woods at a walk, until pretty soon I found what I wanted. It was a bend, where I could stay in the trees, yet at the same time have a view of the road, not only what was coming up but what was going down. Then I rode into the woods a way, and found out there was no timber-cutting, charcoal-burning, or anything like that going on, though here and there were places where they had been doing plenty, and not so long ago. But right now anybody in those woods pretty much had it to himself. I rode on up in the hills a mile or so, and saw there was clear passage over to the river without having to follow any trail where people were likely to be. Then I rode right down to the river and saw there was pretty good footing along the bank, but by that time it was dark. I rode back, had some dinner at a chuck wagon, then went to bed.
Next morning, after I had something to eat and went back to the hotel, waiting around for that wire was an awful long time. I had given the telegrapher at Wells, Fargo the name of Bob Davis, which I was using at the hotel, and which she was to use when she wired me, and told him if anything came in I’d be over to pick it up. Finally, when it was time to go over there, he was just copying it down when I came in the door, and it said: “Sorry darling unable to make it today better luck tomorrow.” I went out and had a drink. When I walked back to my room my legs felt light. When the liquor wore off I wanted more. And then I knew why I felt like that. I was glad it was called off, even if it was for only a day.
I did some more riding around in the afternoon, partly to get a better line on the upper stretches of the river, partly to get acquainted with both horses. They weren’t either one of them really good, but they weren’t so bad either. They were Western mustangs, small but tough, and why I wanted them for what we had to do was they could probably get along on light rations, and, if they had to, forage up what they needed at night. That was one reason I was following the river. At least, somewhere along the way, there’d be grass and some kind of life I could shoot, or catch in the water, or something.
Before eating that night, I had the stable put me up four sacks of oats, ten pounds apiece. I wanted more, but kept remembering the weight of the gold that had to go on those saddles along with us. I weigh a hundred and eighty, and even if I put all the gold on her horse, we’d be traveling awful heavy. And yet I had to have something for the horses to eat. No way to feed rabbits to them.
“Leaving now by Pioneer dying to see you Josie.” I had about an hour. I went to the stable, saddled up, paid my bill. They had done like I said, fixed up the oats so they’d ride back of the saddle, and given me a halter to lead with. I started out. On the streets people turned to look at me, though a rider leading another horse was about the commonest thing you could see at that time in the West. Or maybe I just thought they were looking. The horse I was on acted all right, but the other one didn’t want to be led, and he kept hanging back and fighting me. And then when I came to the hill, and the spot where I wanted to go into the woods, my horse would go up the bank and the other one wouldn’t. It took me ten minutes, getting off and fighting them both, to get them up, and another five minutes to get them both quiet. Going through the woods it was worse, because the second horse would take a dive on the other side of some bush, and I’d have to wheel and back up to get him clear. I meant to tie them both up to trees, but I couldn’t have them too near the road. They might nicker, for one thing, and I had to have room to make a quick dash after we got the money.
At last I was at the bend, and behind a tree, with my red bandanna handkerchief ready to slip over my face, but my heart almost went through my heels when I looked at that road. It was crawling with traffic. I don’t think I ever saw so many freight wagons, not only loaded ones going up, but empty ones coming back, and not only wagons, but long strings of mules, where they could pull the empty wagons back with six and eight, and saved brake-men if they sent the mules on down in strings. And just to make things worse, a fellow showed up with a snatch team wearing the tassels of Pioneer, and it was easy to see he was there for the day. Unless it just happened that he and his six mules were at the bottom of the hill hooking on to a wagon, or up at the top, casting loose, he’d be in the way all the time. I began to feel cold in the feet. And then, down the road, I saw a spot of red. It got nearer, and sure enough it was an Overland coach, coming along behind six grays, and she was on top, with no hat and the red coat that was to be the danger signal. I could slip off through the woods, get my horses, and ride back to town without having to throw down on anybody at all. I was so happy I could sing.
“Roger, did I do wrong to get scared?”
“You got to think fast and decide.”
“I did everything, exactly as you told me, and it seemed funny that it was all coming out the way you said it would, from the porter getting worried I would miss the coach, to the driver doing all he could to accommodate a girl that was asking a favor, to the old telegraph operator that had jokes about how anxious I was to see my husband. And all that time I hadn’t run into Caskie. But when I came out of the station to climb up to the top, he jumped out of the coach, where he had already gone aboard, and looked at me without speaking, and then told the driver to go back to the company office. They looked like they thought he was crazy, but they did what he said and he went in there. When he came out he had two more guards, with rifles, and they climbed up behind me and I didn’t know what to do. But that meant three rifles up there, and I thought it was too many. I took off the hat and put on the red coat, and — did I do wrong, darling?”
We had got to Placerville almost the same time, and she was in front of the Cary House coming off the coach when I got there with my two horses. We lay down after lunch and she started to talk, and I listened like I was a brave hombre that was a little disappointed but would forgive because I really had a big heart. But her eyes were so black, and she looked at me so serious, that pretty soon I had to laugh. She laughed too. “If you love me I’ll tell you something.”