Chapter 2

The dark line of the Front Range grew more defined, and the scarcity of water became greater. At the last stream way, we had filled everything we had with water. The stream was the remains of runoff from the mountains and was quickly drying up as the heat of the season increased. One of the large barrels that held corn meal was emptied and filled with water, a move that was to pay off for years to come.

Just past midday, Mick caught sight of a flashing light off to the south. There was no rhyme or reason to the random flashing of the light. Both Mick and I had experience with signal mirrors being used to convey cloaked messages during the war and both of us thought of Indians signaling. I told Rory to keep going and Mick and I rode off to reconnoiter the light source.

As we rode, the heat of the day caused the land farther to the South to appear to be a vast lake. When we were getting closer we realized that it was a mirage. Sitting in the middle of the mirage was a wagon, and the wagon was the source of the flashing light. We slowed as we approached and split wide apart in case there was a shooter waiting in the wagon.

Once close enough to see the light source, we saw that it was a mirror on a string hanging on the side of the wagon. There was a body lying on the ground on the side of the wagon nearest us. At the front of the wagon were two dead horses and at the back a dead cow. I circled around to the back of the wagon and saw another dead body on the far side, but from the back of my horse I couldn’t see if there was anyone inside the wagon.

Signaling to Mick, I approached from the back of the wagon and dismounted. I climbed from my horse into the back of the wagon and found more bodies inside. That was when I realized that all of the bodies were those of women. Mick was examining the two bodies outside the wagon and when finished, climbed into the drivers’ place.

“Paul, the two bodies out here are women and pretty dried up. The critters and birds have been at them. I’d guess they’ve been without water for at least a week, same for the horses. The cow looks like a recent death though,” he said while I reached down to shake the nearest woman and nearly jumped out of my skin when she groaned.

“Mick! This one’s alive!”

Mick stepped back into the bed of the wagon and shook the other two women finding both of them alive as well, but just barely. I scrambled out of the wagon and retrieved my large canteen. He did the same from the front. I lifted the nearest woman when I climbed back in and after dipping my finger into the canteen, I offered the wet digit to the woman’s parched lips.

The water soaked into the skin of her lips immediately, so I repeated the process, and then looked at Mick.

“Mick, are there any cups around?”

Mick looked around the women and soon was in possession of two tin cups. We poured a small amount of water into the cups and offered the life-giving liquid to the two nearest women. I then put the cup to the lips of the third woman.

“Mick, I’ll stay here with my canteen. You need to ride back to Rory and bring the wagon back here. We may be able to save these three. I’ll keep giving them sips of water. Too much too fast will kill them. Hurry!”

Mick climbed down from the wagon and mounted his horse, yelling into the wagon.

“Do you need the other canteen?”

“No, you’ll need it in this heat. Make sure you water your horse when you get back to the wagon. Don’t rush the mules on the way back.”

Mick waved his understanding and took off at a canter. I then moved all of the women into a sitting position and began to administer sips to each in turn. I wasn’t getting any response, so I did something that I’d heard about a long time ago. I knew that women wore corsets and that corsets made it hard for women to breath at times.

I leaned the first woman over and opened the back of her dress, exposing the undergarment. I loosened the knot and began to undo the garment. When I had the thing completely undone, I leaned her back, gave her another sip of water and moved to the next woman. After completing the undoing of the three corsets, I sat back and waited for a response.

It took several minutes for them to respond. When that happened, I began giving sips of water again. After a few more minutes the first woman tried to grab the cup and gulp down more water. She was weak and couldn’t hold on very tightly, so I slowly fed her more water. Soon all three were responding to my care.

“It’s going to be all right now,” I said. “Just relax and let the water do its work. My brothers are coming back with our wagon and then we’ll have plenty of water and food for you. Right now, just take it easy. I’m Paul O’Dell.”

The first woman tried to speak but couldn’t do more than croak. The second woman was in the same state, but the third was able to form words.

“I’m Opal Anne,” she croaked.

“Hello Opal Anne,” I said softly, “Nice to make your acquaintance.”

I offered her more water and she drank slowly before handing the cup back to me. Her hair was a fire red and she had freckles all over what skin I could see. I offered more water to the other women and soon was told that the blonde was Raylene and the brunette was Betty Mae. All three women were beauties in their own way.

I found some small towels and wet them with a little water, laying them on the foreheads of each woman. They seemed to respond to that very well. Soon they were carrying on short conversations.

“So how did you ladies get yourselves into this mess?” I asked.

“We’re whores,” Opal Anne explained. “We got run out of Wichita and were on our way to the silver camps in Oro City. We figured that we could make a living amongst the miners.”

“Sorry, I meant, how did you get so far off the trail?”

“Oh!” Opal Anne paused to consider me. “We were low on water and saw a lake off in the distance.”

“It was a mirage. We saw the same thing,” I explained.

“Yeah, by the time we figured that out, we were out of water and one of the horses had dropped over dead. We were here a couple of days when Kitty and Daisy died from thirst. And then we figured out that we could drink the cow’s milk. The second horse died the next day and after a couple more days the cow died too. We drank the milk until the cow was dry and then we just stayed in the wagon and waited to die.”

“My brother figured that the two women outside had been dead for at least a week. So, your story sounds about right.”

They all sat in silence, sipping water for quite some time, until they heard the wagon approaching. Mick must have ignored the warning not to rush with the horse or mules.

“That sounds like Mick and Rory, my brothers. That’s good, they’ll get a fire started and have some food for you. They’ll also have a lot of water so if you want to take bigger drinks you can do so now.”

The three women all drank deeply almost emptying the canteen. That was when Raylene noticed that her corset was undone.

“My corset!”

“Yeah, I undid them so you could breathe. I also thought that they might make it harder for the water to get to your stomachs. I undid all of them and that was when you began to come around.”

“Well, it’s not like a man hasn’t undone my corset before,” Betty Mae said with a slight laugh.

“We’ve got some time; do you want me to help tie them back up?”

“No sir. If you and your brothers don’t mind the sight of undressed women, we’ll just take them off and then put our dresses back on.”

Before the women could begin, I jumped out of the back of the wagon and got on my horse to ride to his brothers.

“Hey Paul, how are they?”

“The three in the wagon are alive and talking. They’ve almost emptied my canteen and it appears they haven’t eaten in about four or five days. They were living on cow’s milk until the cow died.”

“What the hell were they doing out here?” Rory asked.

“They were out of water and thought they saw a lake.”

Rory nodded in understanding, “Me too. But what were they doing out here?”

“They were going from Wichita to the silver mines in Oro City. Mick, Rory, they’re whores. But they’re pretty weak. I don’t think we should be taking advantage of them.”

“Wouldn’t think of it, Paul,” Rory said. “I’ve never been one to spend time with the whores in Falls City. So, it makes no big deal to me to not mess with them now.”

“Well, just to make things clear. The redhead is mine,” I declared.