Chapter 23

We left the men to look after the herd and Jean-Louis and me headed to town. On the way we passed John Linn’s wharf. “I see that folks are already shipping cotton,” Jean-Louis observed.

“Weather’s been good,” I said, “but a body never knows how long it will last down here. I ‘spect they picked what they could before the fall rains start.”

“Likely you’re right,” Jean-Louis agreed. “There’s the cutter, so the womenfolks made it to town all right. They’ll either be at the hotel or out on the street investigating the stores!” I was glad to see Priscilla and Little Ed, and Jean-Louis made a fuss over Sharon and baby Angie. Both wives were spruced up for walking out in town, but they’d have to wait on me; I needed a bath and a change of clothes before I’d be fit to be seen with them, and even Jean-Louis looked like he need a good clean-up! So we promised to meet them back at the hotel after we were done.

I got a trim and a barber shave, then had my bath. Jean-Louis had bathed first, and he sat down in the chair after I got up to get his haircut and shave. By the time I got to our hotel room, Priscilla had my new store-bought suit and dress boots laid out ready. I barely had time to open my mouth before she started in.

“Don’t think you’re the only one!” she said. “Sharon is having a talk with Jean-Louis right now! You are important men and it’s time the Republic recognized it, but it won’t happen if you walk around a town as big as Linnville in torn and dirty work-pants! And that’s not all, that hat of yours will never do! As soon as you’re dressed, we’ll stop in at Robinson’s store and get you one that’s suitable for a rancher and businessman!”

“This is about you and Sharon, isn’t it?” I said. “You don’t want to be seen with a couple of men who work for a living, do you?” Right away I wished I could pull them words back, but I couldn’t and I knowed I was in deep trouble. She turned red as a Texas sunset, which told me I had hit the mark dead center, and as every married man knows that ain’t a good sign.

She wasn’t going to let up, Sharon neither. There would be no peace until they got us dressed up to look like a pair of whiskey drummers, or worse, politicians! Ain’t a working man yet that didn’t go right out and buy himself a store-bought suit as soon as somebody called him ‘Judge’ or ‘Senator’!

But I figured to have one more try, just to show her I wasn’t tamed. “John Linn is a lot more important than we are, and he doesn’t wear a fancy hat!”

When she grinned at me I knowed I’d lost. “He’s got one now, a tall silk hat that came all the way from New York!” So I shut up and got into that suit. It fit tolerably well, though it was nowhere near as comfortable as my old work clothes. At least she’d knowed better than to try talking me into town shoes! I played with Little Ed for a few minutes and soon had him laughing fit to bust, but when Priscilla started tapping her foot I handed him over to the nanny.

She nearly exploded again when I strapped my pistol on. “You can’t wear that! Your coat won’t hang right! And besides, you’ll need a new cane to complete your outfit! All the city men have them, and you’re a business man as well as a gunsmith! It’s time for you to look like a businessman, and that means a nice cane! If you were wearing that pistol, you would look funny with your cane banging into that pistol grip with every step!”

“I’ll switch the holster to my left side,” I said, “but I’m going to wear my pistol. I want people to see it, so that some of the town men you’re so hot to have me look like will want one themselves! Sam Colt has starting shipping his new-model pistols to Texas, so I need to sell the ones I’ve got while I can.”

Well, I won that scrap, but I knowed things were likely to be chillier than a Texas norther for a while. We stopped in at Robinson’s and she picked out a silk stovepipe hat, but I passed on her idea of a cane. Fancy, it was, black and with silver inlays, but instead, I got a plain black one with a sword inside. I remembered that not all that many years ago, a man had stuck a cane-sword in Jim Bowie’s chest during that sandbar fight, before Jim got mad and gutted him with that big fighting knife of his. Town men don’t carry Bowie knives, but I would have bet good silver money that half the canes they carried were like mine, a wooden sheath hiding the blade inside.

Nearly as soon as we walked out of the store I spotted John Linn, and he saw me at about the same time. “Jacob! I’ve got some folks here you need to meet!”

So we walked over and tipped my new hat to the young woman, then nodded at the man. “Jacob Jennings, meet Hugh Watts and his new bride Juliet Constance! They’ve only been married about three weeks!”

“Congratulations, Mister Watts! I wish you and your lady every happiness!” Inside, I was plumb happy with myself. Not even Jean-Louis could have said it better! John noticed too, but didn’t say anything, because just then, Jean-Louis and Sharon walked up so the introductions started over again.

Until I interrupted them, and to this day I don’t know quite how it happened. One minute I was standing there like a clothes dummy, the next I’d somehow managed to draw my pistol, swap hands, and shoot a Comanche warrior who’d been about to throw his spear at one of us.

Jean-Louis looked surprised, the women had no idea what had jut happened, and John Linn was frowning up a storm after I did it. But as soon as I pointed at that Comanche, laying on the ground with the bullet hole in his face that was still oozing blood, they all figured things out mighty quick.

The yells and screeching war-whoops that broke out before the gunshot had stopped echoing let us know the one I’d shot hadn’t come alone. Jean-Louis had been wearing his revolver too, and by now he had it in his hand, cocked and ready. “Jake?” he asked.

“Waterfront,” I said. “They won’t have come from that direction. Mister Linn?”

“I agree,” John said calmly. He was holding a twister-pistol, one with two barrels that city men often carried, and he looked like he was ready to use it. “Hugh, are you armed?”

“No, John. But they’re not here yet, so you go on ahead; I need to pick up my watch before some savage runs off with it. Juliet, you go with them, and after I get my watch I’ll catch up.”

“Not without you! I’ll wait here, so hurry!” she exclaimed.

“John, we can’t wait for him,” I said softly. “Judging by the noise, they’re almost here, and we’ve got families to think of!”

“You’re right, Jacob. Ladies, if you’ll oblige us by heading for my wharf, we’ll follow. Gentlemen, I think that line-abreast behind the ladies would suit us well?” That’s what we did, me with the sword in my left hand, my revolver in my right. The wooden cane part had fallen off somewhere. I figured I could do without it, but that bare blade might come in handy.

Looking back to where we’d come from, I saw no sign of Hugh Watts or his new wife. But he’d made his choice, and a man has to live with it. I felt sorry for his wife, but I had my own to look after.

It seemed like we was never going to get to that wharf, but time is funny that way. When you really need to hurry, seems like you’re always short of time, but when you’re enjoying something it never lasts as long as a body would prefer.

John looked behind us and said, “That’s disappointing. I had hoped my men hadn’t loaded the cotton bales.”

“You figured to fort up back of them, with the bay behind so that they couldn’t surround us?” I asked.

“Just so,” he agreed, still calm. “Gentlemen, I fear we have few options at this point. They are too many for three men to fight off. ‘Tis not what I would have chosen, but better companions I couldn’t ask for.”

“We’re not done for yet,” I said. “John, they’re plains Indians and they don’t savvy water at all. I suggest we put the women and babies in that boat,” I pointed at one drawn up on the sand, “and row them out to my ship.”