Chapter 98

Kansas City, Missouri July 21, 1889

Eli and Isaac were up and dressed, after washing up from a wild time the night before when they’d had champagne sprayed all over them and made love on the balcony. They were sitting out on the balcony again, looking down on the sprawling city below as people began to stir and fill the streets.

The girls came out laughing and talking about the fun, crazy time they’d had last night. They were bathed, dressed and ready for a day of shopping and sightseeing in the big city.

Though they were late according to their usual breakfast time, they were among the first couples to be seated in the dining hall.

“I’m so hungry I could eat a cow,” Kit told them as they sat drinking their coffee.

“Me too, it must have been the champagne and the wild love making on the balcony that made us this hungry,” Ruby said, both sisters laughing at their memories of the night before.

“Eli, Ruby and I want to buy something for each member of the family and we want to get each of our sisters and the Blasingame girls a knife like the one you took from the troublemakers on the train,” Kit told him later, as they walked out of the hotel to go shopping.

“We’ll find the women’s shops first, then we’ll look for the stores that would sell the knives. Isaac and I want to buy a lot of fishing gear for all of us too. Dad told us that they saw a lot of big fish in that lake when they went up there. He said the water was so clear, you could see the bottom in the shallow parts,” Eli told her.

“Get enough fishing gear for all of us girls too, we’ll want to fish with you,” Ruby told him.

“We’ll be sure and get enough for all of us and the Mexicans too, with plenty of lures, hooks, line, and supplies to spare,” Eli said as he and Isaac grinned at each other.

They spent the entire morning shopping for women’s clothes, for themselves and for their momma and aunts back home. They bought each of their sisters a fancy dress and many, many articles of lacy, risqué undergarments made of silk. They bought hats and parasols, and they bought long winter coats that were on sale, for themselves and for all the women and girls. Kit and Ruby didn’t forget the younger boys and girls of the Crow family, or the Blasingame girls either. Whatever they bought for the others, they bought the same items for the four Texas girls. For the young Mexican girls who’d come up out of Laredo, they bought dresses and coats and undergarments they knew would fit.

By the time they came out of the last store, they had too many bags and boxes to carry around. They made arrangements with two different stores where they’d made most of their purchases, to have their packages delivered to the hotel.

Kit and Ruby were shocked to learn they’d spent nearly three hundred dollars of the money they’d brought with them just on clothes for them and the family.

“Don’t worry about it. We still have all the money we brought, plus what our dads gave us to spend,” Isaac told Ruby.

“We’ve never been shopping like this and we were having so much fun, we never counted until now. Are you sure it’s alright for us to spend money like this?” Kit asked as they pulled up in front of the hotel.

“Kit, you and Ruby need to get used to having money. Our dads and Jon David told us that we’re all gonna be millionaires by the time we get married and move in our new homes,” Eli told her.

“I don’t even know how to think of that much money,” Kit said and leaned over to kiss his cheek before they stepped down from the carriage.

The hotel manager came out when the four bellboys came to help them with their purchases.

“Mr. Crow, if you would like to have lunch in the dining hall, we’ll take care of your packages,” he offered.

“We passed a small eatery down by the ladieswear shops earlier and we wanted to eat there. We’ll be back before nightfall though, so please make reservations for us then,” Eli told him.

They climbed aboard the carriage and the driver turned it around in the cobblestone street to head back the way they’d come.

“Eli, you even sound like Dad when you talk to the manager like that. I can just hear him saying the same things you just told that man,” Kit said as they laughed and pointed out the sights in the downtown area of Kansas City while riding the fancy carriage with fringe around the top.

They had the driver stop at a small diner that advertised home cooking. Though the proprietors looked them over suspiciously, they welcomed them to their small diner and seated them.

‘Tom, those two young men look to be Indian. Did you see the big knives they have on their hips?’ a woman who sat near them whispered to her husband. Both were very well dressed and neatly groomed.

On the seat beside the man was a flat top, herringbone cap with a colorful game-bird feather stuck in it. He also had a heavy cane hooked over the chair back. The woman wore an elaborate hat with silk flowers around the top of the wide brim. The dress she wore would match any they’d seen in the shops they’d visited.

‘Dear, let’s just eat our meal. Those young people are probably visiting Kansas City on their way home to Indian Territory’, her husband told her.

‘You don’t suppose they are violent, do you? We’ve read stories about those people and how savage they can be!’

The man glanced over to see Eli and Isaac looking right at him. Eli smiled and nodded as he looked at the man.

‘I would say these young people are in no way violent, now let’s just eat this delicious food’, the man whispered to his wife.

“Eli, did you hear them?” Kit leaned over and whispered.

“Yes, I suppose folks just don’t realize that Indian Territory is now becoming civilized,” he whispered back.

As they were finishing their meal, the man and woman near them were through eating and the man was paying the waiter for their meal.

Isaac jumped up and paid their own bill before Eli could pay the waiter. They were still laughing about that when they stepped out onto the sidewalk.

“HELP, STOP THEM!” A woman yelled and they turned to look behind them.

There stood the woman and man who had been seated next to them as they ate. The man was wrestling with two young men who had grabbed the woman’s handbag and shopping bags off her arm.

“Those two men were on the train causing trouble with their friends,” Kit said to Ruby as Eli and Isaac ran to help the man.

Just as they neared the young men who were tussling with the man over his wife’s handbag, one of them broke the strap on the woman’s bag and both of them ran down the sidewalk with Eli and Isaac chasing after them.

They ran past a hardware store, and without breaking stride, Eli grabbed a hatchet from a rack in front of the store.

“DON’T KILL HIM, ELI,” Kit yelled just as Eli drew back to throw the hatchet. He was still in a dead run, as Kit and Ruby ran after them with their skirts raised to keep from tripping.

Eli flipped the hatchet over, blade up, then let it fly. The hammerhead on the hatchet hit the young man right between his shoulder blades. This was the one who held the woman’s handbag, and the other young man stopped to look back at his friend when he screamed and fell to the sidewalk. His friend had just turned to run again when Isaac grabbed him by his left arm, twisting it up behind his back in an arm lock.

With his arm twisted behind him, he was bent forward in pain as Isaac forced him to step over next to his friend where Eli was pulling him to sit on the sidewalk.

There was a loud whistle blowing shrilly near them and they looked up to see two policemen running toward them.

The policemen ran up the scene, pulling their guns on Eli and Isaac.

“Let those young men go this instant,” one of them barked as he pointed his revolver right at Isaac.

“Hold up, officer. These young men were helping us. Those two thieves had stolen my wife’s handbag and shopping bags. These two young Indians ran after them and apprehended them,” the man explained.

“I see who we have here now. Get to your feet, Louis. You and Bruno will do some time in jail for sure after this,” the sergeant barked at the young man Eli had hit with the hatchet.

“He may need some help,” Eli told him as he bent to pick up the hatchet.

“Did you hit him over his head with this hand-axe?” The officer asked as he looked at Eli holding the hatchet.

“No he didn’t, officer! He threw that thing over fifty feet like a tomahawk, hitting him square in his back,” the woman said as she pointed to the young man still slumped on the sidewalk in pain.

Just at that instant, there were a series of loud clicks as three news reporters took pictures of the scene on the sidewalk with hand-held cameras.

“My God, Son. You could’ve killed him with that thing!” The other officer said to Eli.

“I doubt that, Officer. His wife yelled just as he was about to let that axe fly and told him not to kill him,” the man spoke as he stood beside his wife, both of them now smiling at the two young men wearing buckskins and moccasins.

“Do you know these two Indians?” The sergeant asked the man and woman.

“No, but they were in the diner with their wives earlier when we were eating.”

“Where are their wives?”

“Here we are,” Ruby said as she and Kit reached up to hold their hats in place as they pushed their way through the crowd that had gathered around them.

“Yes, that’s them,” the woman said, finally managing a smile toward the redheaded sisters as she pointed to them.

Again, the cameras clicked in their faces as the news people made more photographs. These photographs were taken with Kit and Ruby standing next to Eli and Isaac.

The girls already knew enough about cameras to smile.

While Eli and Isaac were giving statements to the police officers, Kit and Ruby were talking to the news reporters who continued taking pictures of the scene and of those involved.

“Where can we buy a camera like that?” Ruby asked one man.

“There’s a camera shop on the next block over. These are the new Eastman film cameras and they’re quite expensive. They have to be sent back to Eastman to have the film developed too.”

“How long does that take?” Kit asked.

“Oh, just a few days, here in Kansas City.”

“Do they send your camera back with your pictures or do you have to buy a new camera?” Ruby asked.

“They send it back. They load it with a new roll of film and send it back to you with your developed pictures.”

“How many pictures will a roll of film take?” Ruby asked.

“One hundred.”

“ONE HUNDRED!” Ruby gasped.

Kit and Ruby turned to grin at each other.

“How much did you say they cost?” Kit asked, still grinning.

“Young man, I am Thomas Eugene McInnis and this is my wife Mildred. I want to thank you for what you and your friend just did. My wife and I would like to somehow reward both of you if there’s a way possible,” the man said after the police had taken the young thieves into custody.

“Mr. McInnis, I’m Eli Crow Junior and you don’t owe us anything. We were glad to help. This is my brother Isaac, my wife Kit and Isaac’s wife, Ruby,” Eli told the man, winking at Kit as he introduced her as his wife.

“Then we’re doubly honored to meet all of you. I’m afraid I may have been a bit rash in my earlier judgment of you young people, and for that I sincerely apologize,” the woman spoke to them as they shook hands all round.

“No need to apologize, Ma’am. We’re happy that you got your handbag and shopping bags back, and for Eli, throwing that hatchet was just like practice back home,” Kit said, smiling at the woman.

“That was some throw of that axe. I just knew you were going to cleave his spine right down the middle when I saw it strike him,” Mr. McInnis told Eli.

“He could have. Just as easily too,” Isaac told them.

“Where are you young people from? We’re from Wisconsin,” Mildred McInnis told them.

“We’re from Tulsa, down in Oklahoma Territory,” Kit told her.

“Tom is a contributor to Field and Forest Magazine and we’re on our way to Colorado to do a story on fly fishing for trout.”

“You’re a fly fisherman?” Isaac asked before Eli could say anything, as both of them grinned.

“Yes, my wife and I write articles about my fishing adventures for the magazine as we travel all over. Do you and your brother fish?”

“We were looking for a store where we could buy some fishing tackle. Do you know of one here in Kansas City?” Eli asked.

“I sure do. Do you mind if we accompany you? I’d be glad to help you select the best rods, reels, lures and flies on the market, that is if you don’t mind.”

“Sure, we’d like that. We’ve never owned fishing tackle other than a cane pole, with a hook, line, sinker, and a snuff bottle cork on it,” Eli told him.

They were walking along the sidewalk, talking about fishing and tackle as the new friends got to know each another.

“Do you have a good place to fly fish there in Tulsa? I never knew there were trout down there,” Tom McInnis said.

“I doubt we have any trout, but we do have big bass and lots of catfish, crappie, and bream.”

“I’ve read the book about Black Bass written by Dr. James Henshall, but I’ve never fished for them with a fly rod as he wrote about.”

“I’d like to have a copy of that book, where could we find it?” Eli asked.

“I’m sure the hardware store we’re going to will have them for sale. It’s a very popular sportsman’s book and very entertaining to read.

“After reading that book, I’ve often wanted to give it a try. Fly fishing for big bass, that is,” Tom McInnis told them.

“We have a big lake back where we’re building our homes. You should stop by sometime when you’re passing through this part of the country and try your luck fly fishing for bass. As far as we know, the lake has never been fished unless the Indians fished it before Dad bought it for us.”

“You own your own lake? How big is it?”

“I think Dad said it was close to four hundred acres, but we’d have to look at the map to be sure,” Eli told him.

“FOUR HUNDRED ACRES? And it’s never been fished?

“Mildred, I can see right now, we’re going there for a visit soon.”

“Tom, you know the girls will skin you alive if we go there this summer. You promised them we’d be back home in three weeks, if they came with us on this trip,” Mildred McInnis told her husband.

“Where are your girls?” Ruby asked.

“They wanted to stay at the hotel and rest. They stayed up late last night and sat on the balcony looking at the lights,” Mildred told her.

“How old are they?” Kit asked.

“They are fifteen and sixteen.”

“They’re close to our age then. We’ll have to meet them,” Kit said.

“Just don’t start talking about fishing. They are worse than Tom when it comes to telling tall tales of angling for big fish on some remote lake or stream.”

“Mildred, you love being out there on the wilderness streams as much as the girls and I do, you just hate admitting it,” McInnis told his wife.

“He’s right, and if you girls ever start fishing with rods and reels, you’ll get hooked on it too, so to speak,” Mildred told Kit and Ruby as she walked between them as they followed the men.

In the hardware store, Tom McInnis led them to the back of the store where the fishing rods were placed in racks along the walls. On the counters and shelves, there were that many more reels of all kinds. On the next aisle over, there were almost as many rifles and shotguns lined up in racks as there were fishing rods on the walls.

Kit and Ruby stood back and let their men have their fun shopping as Tom McInnis pointed out the best, special built laminated bamboo fly rods and casting rods on the market, just like the ones he used.

In one hour’s time, Eli and Isaac had bought the entire stock of fifty-nine fly rods and casting rods combined. They weren’t through either. They ordered that many more to be shipped to them at Crow Ridge as soon as the store owners could get the order together.

The next hour was spent on fishing line, lures, and reels for all the rods they had purchased. They wanted the best there was and made sure Tom McInnis approved of each and every purchase they made. He made sure they bought plenty of the wax and light oil used to treat the braided silk fly lines, to make the line float.

“Eli, you and Isaac have already spent close to four hundred dollars on fishing tackle alone. I love tackle and I love buying new rods and reels, but are you sure you’ll need all this?” Tom asked.

“We have four sisters and four brothers back home who are about to get married in a few years. We want to have enough for all of them and for all our people who work for us on our ranches too,” Eli told him.

“Do each of you and your brothers and sisters own your own ranches?” Tom asked. He was slowly finding out that there was more to these four young people than they had alluded to earlier.

“Yes Sir, Dad bought the land for us. We’re having our ten homes built back there now and they just brought close to fifteen thousand head of Longhorn cattle up out of Mexico to put on our ranches,” Eli said as he and Isaac kept looking and picking through the many lures.

“Mr. McInnis, we want to be sure and get enough of the fly fishing lures you said the bass and bream would strike, and we wanted to be sure and buy a few copies of that book about bass fishing by Dr. Henshall you were telling us about,” Isaac told him.

“I want to look at those recurve bows and the arrows too before we leave. We need to learn how to shoot them since we’ll have plenty of space to practice,” Eli told Isaac and pointed them out on a wall nearby.

“I saw the books up front when we came in. I think there were five copies on the shelf. I’m sure Mr. Griffin can order more if you need them. When you read that book, you’ll learn a lot about fly fishing for bass. He even describes using the floating top water lures that are made from painted cork or balsa wood, especially for bass fishing,” Tom McInnis told them.

“Where can we find those lures?” Eli asked.

“Right over there on the next aisle. The brass spoons and spinner lures are over there too.”

Eli and Isaac wandered down the next aisle after picking out dozens of lures and spinners they wanted. They were admiring the many guns on display when Eli picked up a Winchester .22LR Pump Action Rifle. There was only one on display and Isaac walked over to look it over too.

“I’ve never seen one of those, Eli. Is this the only one they have?”

“This is the only one I see, but I’d like to take at least a dozen back with us!”

When they left the hardware store they had such a big order of fishing tackle, they had to rent two taxis to carry their purchases to the hotel for them. The store owners gave them a huge discount on their purchases. This was the biggest, one-day sales of sporting goods they’d had in the fifteen years they’d been in business.

The two boys from Oklahoma Territory placed their order for two dozen of the new Winchester .22 Pump Action Rifles with five cases of .22 Long Rifle ammunition to be shipped directly to Tulsa.