Chapter 225: Dinner and Deals

I always felt the need for a long hot shower after dealing with Henry Leavenworth, something about the man was intricately slimy. That day was no different, his first question was about money. Oh we observed the formal niceties of greetings and small talk one makes at such meetings, the trappings of civilization must be observed. Yet under it all you could feel the anxious tension that accompanies Gold Fever, and Mr. Leavenworth had that fever in a pretty bad way, you could almost smell the greed rippling off of him.

There was a lot that I needed from the US Army, primary most being contract work on the new Fort Leavenworth in a few years time. The best way to manage this was to keep Henry happy with the current gold deal. He was always much easier to deal with after his pockets had been stuffed with shiny lumps of precious metal. That trade was already pre-arranged so it was with little fanfare when the exchange was completed, we did manage to congratulate ourselves with a generous helping of his brandy afterwards anyway. It wasn’t bad brandy and reminded me that it was all that difficult to make once you understood homemade fruit wine and could operate a still.

Our talk turned to current news and we swapped tidbits of gossip back and forth to pass a little time while the monies were being counted. It’s funny how the counting is much more carefully done when executing shady deals than when made in a trusting and above-the-board exchange. It didn’t help that Lt. Douglas was still the sniveling prick that he’d been the first time I met him, frankly I couldn’t see why Henry put up with him. Outside of Douglas being involved the transaction went smoothly and Leavenworth and I were able to move on to future business in a cordial manner. With an invitation to supper at Henry’s house in hand I left for the docks to spend the afternoon recruiting.

The plan was too push off back to Rulo at first light tomorrow morning. The downhill run with the current would be fast enough to get us there even in the autumn shortened day. With any luck I’d be sleeping in my own bed the next night.

Sven and Jack had been busy recruiting and we had five new prospects waiting for my final approval, only two of them had small families, blessedly small families. Three of the recruits were black, having been brought west by the Army Corps of Engineers who often leased slaves from owners back east. Slave leasing was big business and could provide a very nice investment for even a middle class citizen. As a rule the US Government didn’t directly own slaves; that being said, they weren’t shy about leasing or renting them from private parties. They also hired free blacks as common or semi-skilled labor. While theses free men were transported to location for free getting home was an entirely different story.