Chapter 4

Crossing the Arkansas River was not as big a problem as I expected. It turned out that there was a ford that we could use which meant that we never got into water deeper than the mules’ knees. We still had to work at it to be sure that there were no injuries to the mules because the river bed could have low places that could trip a mule or even break its leg. To be on the safe side, Nina had a man walk across the ford directly in front of each line of mules using a long staff to probe the bed for sink holes, etc.

Some of those places were found, but none of them trapped a mule or a wagon. Actually, that would have been an excellent place for an ambush, but the ambushers would not have been able to operate from horseback, so that must of been why we never saw a Kiowa. We were somewhat slow and deliberate about crossing the river, so it took us all day to get all 18 wagons across. Well, the rest was good for the mules, and it helped the men, too.

We camped on the south side of the river that night, and some of the men fished. That was great because we had those fish for breakfast the next morning. I do not know what kind of fish they were, but we enjoyed them after Cookie had fried them. My mouth still waters when I think about it.

We had close to 50 miles of fairly rough territory to cross before we came to the Cimarron River. We followed close to the edge of the river along here and had few problems. I guess that the Kiowa had more interesting things to do than to pester us, because we still had not seen any lately. We found out later that the Kiowa and Comanches had joined in a major battle with the US Army along the Red River. They wanted to drive the Whites out of Texas, but the US Army was winning most of the battles, and certainly winning the war.

They found that the Army was not a pushover when they had almost as many men as the Indians in a battle and had a chance to dig in. For practical purposes, it was the Indians who were driven out of Texas by the time the war ended. I think that part of their problem was that they could not understand that they and the Army were fighting for different reasons, and the Army was never going to give up.

In any case, for whatever reason, we were not bothered and made it into Santa Fe ahead of schedule by eight days. I think that Nina was hard pressed not to stick out her tongue when she was paid that $500 bonus in gold. In fact, the entire bill was paid in gold, and we suddenly had $3,750 on our hands before we paid the wages to the muleskinners and Cookie.

Now, we were in an interesting position. We had over $3,000 in gold to transport back to St. Louis. That was something on the order of 140 ounces or 8¾-9 pounds of gold. That does not seem like a lot of weight, but try carrying that much weight in a pocket. It seemed like the most practical solution was to put the gold bars in a valise and hand-carry it with us on the train. That way, we could keep the valise with us at all times and keep it from wandering off with somebody else.

We had decided to spend a few days in Santa Fe to relax before making the trip back to St. Louis. We were at supper one evening in the hotel’s restaurant when Nina absolutely floored me with a question. We had just finished dessert and were drinking a last cup of coffee when she said, “Al, we have known each other for nearly two months, and I have come to think very highly of you. I am not sure of how you feel about me, but I wonder if you would be interested in marrying me?”

Oh, my God! I had a mouth full of hot coffee when she said that, and, I swallowed kind of convulsively. As a result, some of the coffee went down the wrong way and I began to cough. I finally stopped coughing, but not before receiving several almost-death blows from people patting me on the back trying to help me to stop coughing.

By this time, Nina was in a bad state, for she feared that she might have killed me with her question. Some time back, she had told me to call her Nina instead of Miss Foch, but I had thought that was simply a friendly gesture. Hell, yes, I had lusted after Nina, but I had no hope of marrying her. After all, she was my boss and rich, while I was scratching to make a living. I had nothing to offer her, so I spent a lot of my alone time mooning over her, but I tried not to let her know that because I did not want Nina to reject me. I had never thought seriously about love, but that was rarely a consideration in marriage in this day and age.

Minutes after her question, I had still not answered her. “Al, please do not make me beg. I am serious about wanting to marry you. Please answer my question.”

“My dear Nina, almost any man would be a damned fool not to jump at the chance to marry you, but surely I am not the right man for you. I am barely able to make enough money to keep myself alive, and I have so few of the social graces that you deserve. Certainly, I would dearly love to marry you, but I have nothing to offer you. You deserve much more than me.”

“Oh, Al, you do not know how the things you are saying are exactly what it is that draws me to you. You are kind, you are considerate of the feelings of others, you are smart, you are a hard worker; oh, I could go on and on listing your virtues. You are exactly the kind of man I want for my husband.”

“But, Nina, your father would shoot me for even thinking about marrying you. He would consider me nothing but a leach trying to get your fortune.”

“Oh, no, Al. My father has been after me for years to find a man I could respect enough to want to marry. He will welcome you to our family without hesitation. Do not worry about what he will say, because I truly want you. Please agree to marry me. See, I am now begging you to marry me.”

“Nina, if this is truly what you want, then it is what I want, too. Yes, I will marry you. When do you want to have the wedding? After we get back to St. Louis?”

“That is alright with me, if that is what you want. But I would marry you tonight if that were what you wanted.”

An older woman at the next table leaned over and said to Nina, “My dear, under the laws of this territory, you are already married to this gentleman. Common law marriages are perfectly legal, and you only have to tell someone that you are married for it to be considered official.”

“Very well, I will announce to the world that I, Nina Foch, am married to Alphonse Terhune. Okay, Al, what do you say?”

“You have convinced me, Nina. I, Alphonse Terhune, am married to Nina Foch. There, I hope that it satisfies the legal requirements.”

Suddenly, we were surrounded by applause. I had no idea how many people had heard what we had been talking about. We must of been louder in our conversation than I had realized.

“Sign the check, HUSBAND, with OUR room number, and let us go to our bedroom”

I must have been in something of a state of shock because it took me a few seconds to catch on to what she was saying. I wrote on the check my name and her room number and left with her for the lobby. We had to go through there to reach the stairs to our rooms. “First thing tomorrow morning, HUSBAND, you will have to check out of your room, but you already have everything you need for tonight.”

I made a note of how she emphasized the word husband whenever she spoke to me where other people could hear her. Okay, if that were the way she wanted to play the game, I was all for it. “Certainly, WIFE, I can do it that way.” Nina seemed to walk straighter when I used the word “wife.” That was easy for me to go along with.

We went up the stairs and directly to her room. She unlocked the door, but nearly panicked when I picked her up to carry her over the threshold. She quickly changed to giggles when she realized what I was doing. She sat on the bed and said, “Please take off my shoes for me. I have a very difficult time doing that when I am wearing this blasted corset.”