Chapter 5

Day 13 - 16

I was ready to leave to go to Fort Laramie after we had enough gold to buy what we needed. However, having recovered from one fever, another fever struck Claire and Elizabeth: Gold Fever! We spent the next two days trying to get the rest of the gold out from the quartz face. After half a day of watching the fire, I'd had enough and told them that I was going to catch some fish for lunch. I was disgusted with their greediness. I stomped off and began to kick at the dry streambed with my boot. While stomping around and muttering to myself, I stopped for a minute to think. I had to remind myself that Claire and Elizabeth were women of the nineteenth century and of course they would reflect the outlook of their time, just as I reflected the outlook of mine. I remembered from my history classes that people in the nineteenth century believed that wealth was a sign of virtue and that God had given humans the right and the duty to seek it.

When I got to the stream, I reached in my pocket and found the fishhook I had made from my key ring. It still had the cloth and the string attached. Pulling out a small nugget of gold I flattened it and wrapped it around the hook below the cloth then cut a branch from a nearby willow for a pole. Stepping from stone to stone, I got to the middle of the stream and began to fish. Letting the hook drift downstream of the rock I began catching fish. As I caught a fish, I took it off the hook and threw it to the bank. This worked pretty well but the rock I was on began to become slippery with the scales and water from the fish.

Deciding to return to the shore I tried to jump back to the next rock. Splash! I hit the water face first. Grabbing for a rock I sat up. Disgusted with myself, I grabbed another rock to throw at the bank. I lifted it and was surprised at the weight. Looking at it closer I found I had a piece of quartz the size of a dinner plate. It appeared to have more gold in it than quartz. Getting up and looking around I found several other pieces in the same area. None was quite as large as the first piece but they were large enough. After getting all the pieces to shore I realized that we had almost doubled the amount of gold that we had found before and had over ten pounds altogether. Now I had to figure out how to convince the girls that trying to find more gold was senseless.

Deciding on a plan I went back where the girls were still working on the quartz ledge and borrowed a firebrand. Claire and Elizabeth giggled at my wet clothes when I announced that we were having fish for lunch and to be ready to eat in about an hour. I observed that the gold vein in the quartz was getting smaller rapidly. Saying nothing I returned to the stream and used the gold/quartz pieces to use as a fire ring. Starting a small fire, I cleaned the fish, placed them on sticks and hung them above the fire to cook. I began panning the sand from the dry creek, finding gold in most of the pans but not getting the same thrill that I did with the first pan of gold.

About an hour later I heard them giggling as they came out of the dry streambed. This suddenly stopped when they saw the fire ring. They came forward and sat silently. I was equally silent and handed each of them one of the sticks with fish. They reached out hesitantly, unsure about what I was trying to say with the fire ring.

Claire spoke up, "Alex, why didn't you say something about finding so much gold before?"

I looked at both of them and said; "I think gold is important to you, but is it so important that you'll give up your trip to Oregon? You have to decide. If you stay here and do nothing else but hunt for gold, what are you going to do with it? You can't eat it. And if you do find more gold, what can you buy with it out here? Gold fever is a sickness just like drinking too much whiskey and sooner or later it will kill you."

Both women began to cry. "Why are you so mad at us? For the first time we have a chance to be rich!" Elizabeth cried.

I shook my head, "I'm not mad at you, just disappointed. I have come to care for both of you and I admire the courage that you showed when you decided to move to Oregon. I just want both of you to decide whether it's more important to search for gold or if you're willing to settle for Oregon." I turned away and said over my shoulder, "I'm planning to go to Oregon. I need to keep away from important events so I don't change the future. You can join me or not. It's up to you." I then walked back to the wagon

Two hours later both women arrived back at the wagon. I pretended to be asleep and just listened to the noises. I heard clothes rustling and felt hands on my blanket. Opening my eyes, I saw a kneeling Claire and Elizabeth next to me.

"Please forgive us." Claire asked in tears.

I opened my arms and shortly had a beautiful woman in each arm giving me kisses and crying. "Have you decided what you want to do?" I asked.

"We're going to Oregon with you." Elizabeth cried. "We'll leave all the gold if you say so."

"No we'll keep the gold we found up to now but we need to get ready to figure out how we are going to get to Fort Laramie. Do I go alone or do we go together?" Both women glared at me.

"If you think that we're going to stay here alone, you better think again." Claire stated.

"There is no way you're going away without me," declared Elizabeth.

"Then get together whatever we'll need for a three day foot journey. Just remember that every ounce you start out with will feel like a pound at the end of a long day."

"What about the gold?" Claire asked.

"We need to bury most of it and only take enough with us to buy the oxen and some horses. Everything else can wait until we pick up the wagon."

After discussing the matter between all of us we decided to bury the gold in the stream next to a tree we marked with three crosses. I kept out enough gold nuggets to fill a small sack the girls cobbled together out of an old skirt. We decided to start after a good night's sleep.

I was getting under the wagon on my bed of branches when Elizabeth grabbed my arm, "Come with me." She pulled me toward the back of the wagon.

From inside the wagon I heard Claire call, "Elizabeth, are you coming to bed?"

"Yes, and Alex is coming in too!" Silence answered her.

"Maybe I better stay out here." I said pulling back from Elizabeth's grasp.

Claire poked her head out, "Don't you dare!" She grabbed the other arm and pulled.

When faced with a situation like that what would you do? We spent half the night kissing and exploring each other's bodies. Since we were going to be walking the next day I drew the line at penetration, promising that as soon as we were able to pick up the wagon I would finish the job of making them women. I did give both women several orgasms by eating them out. Both women were amazed about the fact that I would put my face down there. This was something new to both. I talked about positions that I had done or knew of. The women alternatively showed expressions of shock and interest. We talked about what we wanted to do in Oregon and where we wanted to live. We decided that we should live in the Willamette valley as we could get a 164-acre homestead there. Elizabeth wanted to have a farm while I was interested in raising cattle. We decided to wait until we saw the land before deciding. We fell asleep and slept until quite late for us, as the sun was already up.

Day 17

We got off to an even later start than I had planned today. I had the only pack so I ended up carrying the majority of the clothes. I had to tell the women that I was not going to be carrying more than one dress each after they almost came to blows trying to stuff the pack full. Claire managed to find enough punk to keep a coal burning in the small pot, so we didn't have to worry about using one of my few remaining matches to start a fire.

We quickly got away from the tree-covered hills and on to a wide grassy plain. The wagon train had followed the stream most of the way and we did likewise. I saw that they had crossed the stream, so I undressed and checked out the crossing. When I tried I found it to be above my waist. Claire and Elizabeth couldn't swim and refused to take off their dresses, so I had to carry them both on my shoulders over the crossing, muttering to myself the whole time. After all, they were not light; especially with long-skirted nineteenth-century dresses on. Afterwards I had to stop and dry off before we went anywhere. I redressed and we continued on our way.

We crossed several smaller streams but managed to avoid getting wet, until we came to a small river. I again undressed and checked the crossing. This time it was only up to my hips. I returned to the bank and carried Elizabeth across in my arms and gave her my .22. I didn't see anyone, but had the feeling that we were being watched. I went back and lifted Claire onto my shoulders to carry, telling her to be aware of the surroundings. We got across where I again dried off and redressed. I still had the feeling that I was being watched.

We had walked about a third of a mile when I saw a party of horsemen riding toward us. I had the women lay down and had Claire keep her pistol on the approaching party. I thumbed open my holster and stood up. I could tell they weren't Indians but there were plenty of white men who were dangerous enough.

I was relieved to find that the party was from Fort Laramie who had come out to see who was crossing the river and why I was doing it naked. I had been watched as we were crossing the river with a glass. They had thought we were Indians until they had seen my pale skin as I was crossing. After checking to see that we were not being followed, a large portion of the white men of the fort had come out to see if we needed help. I later found there were about 25 white men married to Indian women living in the fort with their children. We were helped onto horses and everyone returned to the fort. I was surprised when we arrived to find the women dressed much better than Claire or Elizabeth. There was a trading post at the fort and I hoped to be able to buy the supplies I needed.

Claire told me that I would do the talking since apparently women were not supposed to talk to strange men. I explained that our wagon had broken down and the rest of the train had left while we were getting it fixed. Later our oxen had gradually died after eating something, so we had to leave our wagon in the hills and walk the last day. We had some gold I had panned while at a gold strike around Quebec some years earlier that I was willing to trade for some oxen and enough supplies to continue our trip. There was a lot of interest in the gold but when I mentioned that this was all that remained from the strike the interest waned quickly.

The men explained that there were only four oxen at Fort Laramie and they had been left by wagon trains after becoming sick. They were willing to sell them as they had no use for them, but provisions were expensive this far away from civilization. They offered to have their wives show the women how to find food on the plains while I went back to fetch the wagon. Other than that they recommended that I buy a woman from one of the tribes and have her teach them on the way. The trading post that had goods for sale to trappers and emigrants but the prices were 10 times greater than in St. Louis. I now was glad that we had brought more than twice the amount of gold that we thought we needed. I decided that I needed more weapons for our party as I was getting tired of trying to kill animals with my pistol.

I was able to buy a Hawken Plains .54 rifle and another Peterson revolver with enough powder, shot and caps to last us until we got to Oregon, as well as the oxen and three horses with tack. This took up almost half of the gold I had brought with me, about 12 ounces. I arranged to buy as much flour, salt, beans, and what few spices that they would sell for the remaining 12 ounces then arranged for the goods to be kept until we returned with the wagon. One trapper offered to come back with us but I declined saying that it was only 12 or 14 miles away. I found the date was May 16 by asking the shopkeeper. I explained that we had lost track while struggling to catch up with our train.

We had our first argument between the three of us at this time. Elizabeth and Claire both stated that they were going to go with me back to the wagon. I was equally determined that only one would go with me. After many hot words between the two, Claire pulled rank as the oldest to get her way. We had spent so much time getting this settled that I begged a place to stay for the night and made plans to leave the next morning. We were offered a room where they had stored furs during the height of the fur trade.

As I was walking around I saw an Indian woman working on some buckskin leggings. I asked the shopkeeper how much it would cost to get 2 sets of buckskins for me and the girls, as I was tired of only having one set of clothes. He asked if we had more gold and I told him that I had some but not much more, since I had spent most of it getting outfitted for the journey to Oregon. He said that I should be able to get a complete set for all of us for about three small nuggets. He also advised me not to let anyone else know about the gold, since this was an area without any law other than what you carried with you. He advised me again to buy another gun and trade for an Indian woman or wait for another wagon train to come through. As I was determined to wait for a train anyway I agreed that this would be the best thing.

May 17, 1847

Claire and I left the fort this morning herding the oxen back to the wagon. We had been gone about two hours when we heard a horseman riding hard behind us. I told Claire to dismount and we readied ourselves for anything. As we waited, Claire worried about Indians attacking us for our weapons. I told her they tended to be more friendly than dangerous to prepared travelers. When the rider came into sight, Claire began to fume, and soon afterwards so did I. There, wearing a wide grin was Elizabeth, whom we had believed was back at the fort.

"Elizabeth, I'm going to tan your bottom for this!" I was really pissed and so was Claire.

Elizabeth drooped and started sniffling, "I'm sorry! I just got so worried about you there at the fort. I had to come!"

Rather than lose another day by returning with her to the fort, we let her come with us. One thing I had rapidly discovered with oxen is that they had one speed - dead slow. I don't think we went faster than 3 or 4 miles an hour. It took us the rest of the day to get to our wagon as we lost a lot of time whenever we had to cross a stream. We had gone further in 6 hours yesterday on foot than in 10 hours today. By the time we got back to the camp we were all exhausted and had just enough energy to fix something to eat and make sure the oxen were secured.