Chapter 32

Thursday, March 2, 1848

Ed: Day 7 of the Dayton to Boston trip

We got an early start on a fine, early spring, morning. Kate wasn't sure just how far we were from her home town, but she thought we might get there this evening if we pushed it a little. We decided to push it.

We didn't talk very much as we went along. Part of that was because of how fast we were traveling, but part of it was that Kate seemed to pull into herself. The closer we got to her old home, the more introspective she became. I wasn't sure why this was, except that with her mother dead, she might be thinking of that.

Kate had told us a lot about her early life. In this day and age she hadn't had it too bad. Her parents had loved her and they had raised her to be self sufficient. They didn't have a lot of money, but she was raised on hugs and praise.

We had a quick, cold, lunch and got on our way again. It was almost dark when we came to the inn that Kate had said was on the outskirts of the town where she was raised. I figured we had come thirty-four or thirty-five miles for the day.

We got ourselves a room for the night in the inn and went back down for dinner. Kate didn't know the innkeeper or the serving girl. "Katie, my love, you've been quiet all day. Is something bothering you?" I asked as we were waiting for the serving girl to bring our meal.

"Sure and I guess it's just being close to where I grew up. We should probably see the sheriff in the morning and ask if pa has ever shown up."

"I can understand you still being worried about your pa."

"It's not just that. I guess I'm a wee bit mad about Silas Waterton running us off of our farm. If pa said he didn't owe Waterton any money, then he didn't owe him any money. Pat would have rather taken a beating than to have lied."

The serving girl brought out our dinner and I had something I had never eaten before. It was pork chops cooked in sauerkraut with dumplings. Kate assured me this was a Pennsylvania Dutch meal. It was delicious.

We lingered over dinner and I decided I'd like a pint of ale before bed. "How much farther is it to Boston?" Cassie asked.

"Well, I figured it'd take around three weeks, so I'd say we're about a third of our way there," I told her. "The long part of the trip will be from Boston to St Joseph. That's over twelve hundred miles, so it'll take at least forty days."

Cassie groaned and said, "Katie, we volunteered for this."

Kate grinned for almost the first time today. "It's fun, sister. I don't mind the trip at all. It's sure a lot better than sitting and watching our sister/wife feed her baby."

"I don't know about that," I grinned. "I kind of like watching Sam feed Becky."

Katie started to make a retort, then I saw her stiffen. "What's wrong, honey?" I asked.

"The man that just walked in is Silas Waterton," Kate said through clenched teeth.

We watched him in silence as Waterton took a seat closer to the fire than we were. He spoke to a couple of the men at a nearby table and looked around the room. I could see the recognition in his eye as his glance fell on Kate.

"Katie, my love, I think the bastard is going to come over and speak to you," I said. "Try not to lose your temper, hon. I'll take care of things if that's required."

Kate gave me a wan smile and nodded.

Sure enough, we watched as the bastard got to his feet and came over to our table. "You're the Mulligan girl aren't you?" he asked as he stood beside Kate.

"I was," Kate said, defiantly. "Now, I'm Mrs. Ed Hill."

Waterton was a small man, with weasel eyes. I think he may have suffered from the "small man's syndrom" and thought he had to make himself look big by his actions. He looked at me and asked, "Are you Mr. Hill?"

"That's right," I said.

"Well, Mr. Hill, I hate to tell you this, but your wife owes me some money."

"I'll be damned if I do," Kate said angrily.

"Why do you say she owes you money?" I asked.

"Her father owed me a lot of money. I sold the farm they had when his wife died and it left a balance of over five hundred dollars. That is still owed to me."

"How did Mr. Mulligan come to owe you so much money?" I asked.

"We bought a load of cargo we were having shipped around the horn to California. I put up the money and Mulligan was supposed to pay me back when the cargo was sold. The ship went down at sea, so the cargo was a loss. Mulligan refused to pay me his share."

"That's a damned lie," Kate said. "My father was a farmer all of his life. That's all he ever did. There's no way he'd ever risk money on a venture like that."

"Do you have any signed agreement on the deal?" I asked.

"It was a gentleman's agreement," Waterton said. "A man's handshake should be as good as a signed paper."

"Yes, it should be," I agreed. "Even if her father owed you the money, Kate doesn't. A child is not responsible for her father's debts."

"By English law they are," Waterton retorted.

"Maybe so," I said, "but we fought a war about seventy years ago to get our country out from under English rule. I'm afraid you have gotten everything from the Mulligan family that you are going to get."

"We'll see about that," Waterton said. "Since you are married to the woman, you are now responsible in my opinion. I think the sheriff may agree with me."

Waterton turned on his heel and walked away. "What are we going to do?" Kate asked, totally distraught.

"Not a thing, Katie. Don't worry, love. Everything is going to be okay."

"But, Ed, the sheriff is his brother. He can have us arrested."

"I doubt that seriously," I said. "Let's not worry about it, love. We're not going to be here long anyway. We'll visit your mother's grave in the morning, then we'll be on our way."

"If anyone gives us any trouble, we'll take care of it," Cassie said.

Sam: Preparing for the trip to St Joseph

Today was to be another day of packing and getting ready for the trip. Andy and Rawhide came around right after breakfast and said they needed some money to buy some tools we'd need in Oregon. I gave it to them and they headed for town.

Stu and his crew were still rounding up cattle. He told me this morning that they'd found 596 cattle and 43 horses so far. "I think we'll find another twenty or thirty cattle," he said. "There's probably not many more horses running loose."

"How much longer do you think it'll take to have them all ready to go?" I asked.

"Probably not more than a day or two. I was wondering about whether we should take off when the cattle are ready to go. We could take the drovers and the chuck wagon and the rest of you could catch up when you decide to leave."

"That sounds reasonable," I said. "Let me talk to Andy about it when he gets back from town. I imagine it'll be slower driving the cattle than it would be traveling in the wagons."

"Yeah," Stu said. "I doubt we'll be able to make more than about fifteen to eighteen miles a day with the cattle. The wagons should make twenty."

Andy was all for getting the cattle moving as soon as possible and Rawhide agreed with him. Rawhide, Andy, Stu and I talked it over that afternoon and we ended up deciding that Stu would take the crew and the cattle and get on the road the day after tomorrow. The rest of us would follow at the end of two weeks.

Angie was a little upset when she found that Stu was going to be gone, but she got over it quickly. She told me later that she was going to give Stu a sendoff he'd never forget.

Friday, March 3, 1848

Ed: Day 8 of the Dayton to Boston trip

We had an early breakfast and got an early start. I felt sorry for Kate because I knew she hadn't gotten much sleep. She woke me up several times during the night, tossing and turning.

We headed for the cemetery. We didn't have any flowers to put on the grave, but Kate spent some time cleaning up around it. I held her hand as she stood over the grave and said her goodbye.

We had just left the cemetery and headed east when a rider overtook us. He came thundering up behind us, so we pulled over to the side to let him pass. When he got even with us, he yelled, "Hold it right there."

We reined our horses in and I knew immediately it was the sheriff from the badge on his chest. "Where do you think you're going?" he asked. "Katie Mulligan, you are under arrest."

"You must be Sheriff Waterton," I said calmly. "The lady you are talking to is no longer Kate Mulligan. She's Kate Hill now. What can we do for you, sheriff?"

"Like I said, this woman is under arrest."

"On what charge?" I asked.

"The charge is running out on a debt. Come along with me, Kate."

"I'm afraid not, sheriff," I said calmly. "Your brother told me last night that Kate's father owed him money. That's all well and good, but Kate doesn't owe him anything."

"She owes him because she's her father's daughter."

"Sheriff, I think if you'll look up the law you'll find that a child is not responsible for her father's debts. If you want to collect the debt, collect it from her father."

"Her father is dead, so the debt falls to his estate," the sheriff said.

"We don't know if her father is dead or not," I said. "We're heading to Oregon to see if we can find out what happened to him."

"I say he's dead and she owes the debt. If you don't want to end up in jail with her, you'll keep your nose out of this."

"What makes you so sure he's dead?" I asked. "Did you or your brother have something to do with his death?"

"That does it," the sheriff said. "All three of you are going to jail."

He reached for his gun as he said this. "I wouldn't do that sheriff," Cassie said from behind him. He turned to look at her and he could see her Colt leveled at the center of his chest.

"You're going to be in a lot of trouble for this, young lady," Sheriff Waterton said. "Put your gun down now."

"No, sheriff. Ed, take his gun and throw it over in the brush."

I winked at Cassie and did what she said. "Now, sheriff, why don't you just ride on back to town."

"Tell your brother you made an attempt to arrest Kate, but we got away," I said. "You know what you're trying to pull won't hold up in court. We don't want any trouble, but if you come after us again, they'll take you back to town, belly down on your saddle."

"I'll be back with more men," the sheriff said.

"Better bring a bunch of them, sheriff and you'd better be able to defend your actions to a judge. My father has a friend who is on the Supreme Court. If he finds out you are trying to enforce English law on American citizens, you'll be in a world of trouble," I said.

The sheriff wheeled his horse and rode back toward town. "Ladies, let's find a nice place to get off the road," I said as I nudged Hawk to take off.

We were about a mile farther along the road when we found just what I was looking for. The road went through a stream that was about twenty feet wide. To the right, there were trees within about a hundred feet. To the left, it was almost half a mile to the tree line.

"Let's turn left after we get in the water," I said.

"Wouldn't it be better to turn right and get into the trees?" Kate asked.

"We have plenty of time before Waterton could possibly get back," I said. "If he figures out we turned off, he's going to expect us to go right to get under cover. They'll waste a lot of time looking for us if we go the other direction."

There were some trees along the creek bank, so we didn't feel quite as exposed as we could have. It only took us about fifteen minutes to get to the line of trees. We passed a hill and turned into another stream that fed into the one we were in from the right. We went up that stream for a couple of hundred yards and moved out through the woods.