Chapter 13

November 27, 1849

I sat there and couldn't believe what I was hearing, "He's dead! I shot him three times and saw him fall down. He can't be alive!"

"Claire and I thought he was a ghost too when we saw him. After he bought us from the slavers he showed us where you had shot him. Apparently you hit a rib with each shot and the bullets splintered apart and tore up his chest and side. He said he still has pieces of the shots in him and you would pay for each one. Alex, I'm scared about what he plans to do to Claire and Elizabeth. He's crazy!"

I nodded because I was afraid too. I kissed Louise and then looked at Corrie, "I'm counting on you to get Louise safely back to our farm." I turned back to Louise, "I have to find Claire and Elizabeth or I would take you back myself. I promise that I'll find them and be back as soon as I can."

Louise nodded, "You better hurry, I'm going to be waiting for all of you. Make sure he never manages to hurt us again."

I found myself agreeing that this time I would be sure the SOB was dead. He would never be able to bother us again. He had received his free pass. This time the pass would be canceled permanently. I felt a need to hurry as if I had to prevent something dreadful from happening. I finished my meal and hurried Josh and Willy to finish theirs as well. I left Corrie a tent and half of the food and most of the cooking equipment. Corrie packed us some Johnny bread and bacon to eat as well as the food that would be fastest to cook. Corrie had her rifle and pistol for protection and hunting so I felt that she would be safe returning to Oregon City. I gave her $50 to pay for hotel rooms and passage back to Salem.

We quickly loaded everything we were taking and headed out. I gave Louise a final kiss and hug before we left. Josh gave her a hug and told her, "Don't worry Mom, I'll take care of him for you."

We started out moving as quickly as we could. We began to meet people on the train going toward Oregon City. Every time we met a party we would question them if they had seen either Claire or Elizabeth. Usually the answer was no but every so often we would run into people who remembered seeing a party with two women in it in hand irons going toward The Dalles. The man who was with them claimed to be taking them to prison at the fort. The women were gagged and tied to the horses. When asked about when they had been seen, everyone said yesterday.

This was encouragement enough for me to hurry even more, until Josh began lagging behind. Willy called this to my attention and I slowed down and looked for a place to stop. Soon we came to a small clearing off the road and I checked his leg. The leg had begun to become infected and I was worried about Josh's progress. I had a small bottle of the solution from Jug #4 with me and put some on his wound. Feeling his head, I decided to give him some willow bark tea. As much of a hurry as I was in, I knew that if I allowed Josh to become severely ill, my wives would kill me even if I rescued them. I knew we would have to stop before long and give Josh's body the chance to heal. I gave him a small amount of the solution of Jug #4 to drink and re-wrapped his leg.

"Are you able to continue a bit longer? I want to go about 5 miles more and then we'll stop for the day."

"I can go further, Dad. We have to reach mom Claire and Elizabeth before anything happens to them."

"I'm in a hurry too, but you've got to heal up some more before we continue. I don't want to lose you either." I asked Willy to ride with Josh while I went ahead and set up the camp. Taking the pack horse we had left, I hurried forward to the campsite and began to set up and prepare a good meal for Josh and Willy. I boiled some water and sterilized some cloth for a new bandage for Josh's leg. I began to cook some bacon and venison with some greens I had gathered when I arrived. Soon after I had everything started I saw Willy and Josh arriving.

I hurried over and helped Josh get down from his horse. I took him over to the fire and had him raise his leg up on a rock and pulled off the bandage he had on it. I cut a couple of stitches and let the pus out. Squeezing around the wound I managed to get most of the pus out. Getting the bottle of solution I put some in the wound and over the stitched up area as well. I made sure he ate and then made him go to bed. Soon afterwards he was asleep.

Willy and I stayed up a little longer talking about what our best options were. Willy suggested that I stop at the first blacksmith we found in The Dalles and have him cut off the barrel of the shotgun to 16 inches. When I asked why, he told me that this would give me a small area weapon that would take out everyone in that area if I used buckshot. I remembered after he mentioned it that several police officers I had known had kept a sawed off shotgun in their cars. Now I knew why.

"Willy, you know this will probably come down to shooting. Are you willing to get involved with that?"

"Alex, I've lived on the frontier for the last 27 years. This won't be the first time I've had to shoot at someone. All I ask is that if anything happens to me that you take care of Ola for me. She's expecting and if anything happens to me, I want you to make sure her and the baby are taken care of."

"I promise. Let me take the lead on this though. Until the Sheriff takes the badge away I'm still a deputy and have a right to pursue lawbreakers."

"You're the boss on this trip. Just be sure you keep an eye on Josh. He's young and will try and push too hard if he gets upset."

"I know. I'm worried about him too. I don't know if he could shoot a man if it becomes necessary. I don't know if he missed or just couldn't shoot the man in the ship's hold. I guess it's up to us to keep an eye on him for his own sake."

I pulled out the dowsing rod again and tried to find my wives. This time I felt a split in the pull as if they were in two different locations. Going to one I opened my eyes and found the rod pointing to a location near the new fort that had been built. Closing my eyes again I followed the second pull and found it on the other side of The Dalles. I tired to concentrate on the feeling I was receiving and felt more pain and fear from the one near the fort. I decided that this was the one I was going after first. I was ready to ride all night but Willy persuaded me that this was foolish. I needed to wait for Josh to rest up and let his wound heal some more and travel when it was safe tomorrow.

I felt a need to hurry and spent much of the night awake waiting for daybreak. I got up and started fixing breakfast before daybreak and woke Willy and Josh up as dawn was breaking. Checking Josh's leg I was relieved to see that it looked a lot better this morning and his fever seemed to have broken. I asked if he could ride and he answered yes. I wasn't sure but took his word. I asked Willy if he could ride with Josh today, while I rode ahead. I felt like if I didn't get to The Dalles soon something would happen.

November 28, 1849

Hurrying through breakfast I told Willy that I would meet him in The Dalles and took my horse and two remounts. I rode the horses until they couldn't carry me any further and then changed to another. By two o'clock I was beginning to enter The Dalles and used the dowsing rod to lead me to my wife. I followed the rod to a building near the fort. Asking around I found it was a brothel that served the fort. Tying my horse to the hitching post in front, I entered the brothel and looked around. A woman came up and asked what I wanted.

"I'm looking for two women, one about 5 foot 6 inches with long reddish hair and brown eyes and another about 5 foot with red hair and green eyes."

"Haven't seen anyone matching that description around here", she replied. I took out my dowsing rod and it pointed toward the back of the house.

"What's back there?"

"That private, you can't go in there!" I pulled out my pistol and showed her my badge.

"I'm going back there and if I find one of the women you're going to jail. Now lead me back there!" She began to go slowly back to the area when I saw a figure in the mirror coming down the stairs behind me with a gun in his hand. I grabbed her with my left hand and turned with her in front of me. The man raised his gun and I shot him in the head. As he fell down I grabbed her by the back of the neck and hissed in her ear, "Any more of this and you'll be the first to die."

I placed the gun against her head and she motioned to the bartender to back away from the bar. Walking over to the bar I took a sawed off shotgun from under the bar and had both of them sit down on a chair and face away from me. I placed the loop of rope around the bartender's hands first and tied the end of the rope to his neck. I then tied the woman the same way. After I had their hands tied, I secured them to the chairs with more rope. I whispered into the woman's ear, "The 'group' will be very annoyed if you had anything to do with this." She paled for the first time and quickly told me that there was a man in the room with instructions to shoot anyone who came in without a password. I asked if there was any other entrance to the room and was told no, but there was a window into the room from the back of the building.