Chapter 6

Martha had a lot to say! She gave him all kinds of hell for not being more careful. She then hugged and kissed him for surviving to return to her. Eddy's side was so painful, that kisses and few light hugs were all he could do for a while.

Martha also congratulated Eddy for being promoted to marshal to replace Mike. Mike resigned on the day of the fight with the protection people since he was going to be spending all his time in bed, anyway. The doctor ordered him to stay off that leg; he had to dig the bullet out of the bone! That leg was going to be pretty useless for over a month and Mike would probably have to learn to walk all over again. The grateful Merchant's Association paid Mike a nice retirement bonus, so he was fixed financially for the rest of his life.

Eddy settled into the job of marshal without much added stress. Sacramento was growing and the city council agreed to keep a second deputy marshal on the payroll as soon as Eddy found one. He and Bill began an active search and they hoped to find a suitable person by the end of the next month.

Martha was glad to have Eddy working a regular day shift so that he would be home at night. She was looking forward to sleeping with her husband every night and having him available for a regular honoring of "wifely duties," as the midwife had called it.

Josh and Jeb had spent some time finding another wagon and team of oxen to supplement what they already had so that they could continue expanding their freight business. Josh had found another farmer who discovered that oxen were great for pulling a heavy wagon, but were not as good as mules when it came to pulling a plow. The farmer sold his oxen and wagon for enough to buy a pair of mules, so he was happy and the boys were happy.

The new teamster, Jim Wilkerson, the boys hired was working out well and they expected him to be ready when Silas Warren arrived with his first load of stone for the construction project. The boys had built a substantial customer base and were now hauling every day. In fact, they might be in a bind when the stone hauling started for lack of enough wagons and teamsters!

Eddy found that his days were full! Between keeping up with the paperwork the marshal had to do and keeping in contact with the businessmen in town, he didn't have much time for law enforcement. One thing he did which caused a lot of consternation at first, but proved to be a boon to the community, was to install a large bell on the roof of the jail. If somebody needed the marshal in a hurry, he was to ring the bell and Eddy would come running. The bell could be heard all over Sacramento and a lot of people beside Eddy responded to the sound. It also quickly became the fire alarm bell and Eddy was again the hero of the day!

One day, the bell rang and Eddy came running to hear a report of a bank robbery in progress. He rushed to the scene to find a gun battle in progress between some would-be bank robbers and several irate citizens of Sacramento. Judging from the gunfire coming from the bank, there were three robbers in the bank and two outside hiding behind the watering trough.

The citizens were doing a good job of keeping the robbers pinned down, so Eddy decided to try outflanking the two bandits outside. The bank was on a corner, so he could use that street to get close to the men behind the watering trough without them seeing him.

Eddy ran around some buildings to get to the alley behind the bank. He was just approaching the back of the bank when the rear door burst open and three men wearing masks ran out. Eddy yelled, "I'M THE MARSHALL! YOU'RE UNDER ARREST!"

The men turned to face Eddy and raised their pistols in his direction. Eddy didn't hesitate; he fired one barrel at the robbers who were far enough away that the spread of the shot was perfect from his sawed-off shotgun. He wounded all three, but didn't kill anybody. They dropped their guns and held up their hands. Some bystanders came running at the sound of the shotgun and Eddy asked them to guard the three crooks while he tended to the problem in front of the bank.

Eddy reloaded and went into the side street. He crept along the side of the bank until he came to the corner. He carefully looked around the corner of the building and saw the situation. The crooks were hunkered down behind the watering troughs with absolutely no place to go; they didn't even dare to try to rush into the bank. Eddy waved his hat and was recognized by the people shooting at the robbers. They stopped shooting and Eddy called out, "SURRENDER, NOW! YOUR FRIENDS HAVE BEEN CAPTURED AND YOU ARE DEAD MEN IF YOU DON'T GIVE UP!"

One of the robbers replied, "WE SURRENDER! DON'T SHOOT! WE'RE GIVING UP!"

Eddy stepped out from the corner of the building and pointed his shotgun at the robbers still huddled behind the watering trough. "Toss out your guns and stand up with your hands in the air where I can see them!" They did, just as Bill ran up.

"Sorry I'm late. I was clear across town at my sister's house when the alarm sounded. I ran to the jail and somebody told me where I could find you. What can I do to help?"

"Please look after these two galoots while I check inside the bank. Somebody in there may be hurt. I may not be back for a while." Eddy went into the bank and called, "I'M THE MARSHAL! ANYBODY HURT IN HERE?" There was a answering shout from an office and Eddy ran in to see what was going on.

Eddy found four men hog-tied on the floor. He cut them loose with his bowie knife and said, "The robbery is over. We've captured all five of the robbers. Are all of you OK? Was anything stolen?"

The bank manager stood up and answered, "Much obliged, Marshal. We're OK. The vault was locked so they only got a few dollars from the tellers' cash drawers. I don't know how much that was, yet."

"You're welcome. Since we caught them in the alley, you'll probably get back every penny. I'll take them to jail now. I'd appreciate it if you would come by later to make a full report we can use at the trial."

"Sure thing, and thanks, again."

Bill and Eddy took the crooks to jail and Eddy started filling out that damned paperwork. Bill went home and Eddy waited around for the bank manager to come in to make his report.

That evening, Eddy told his story at supper and everybody laughed when he told them the total haul had been $7.13, mostly pocket change from the tellers; the manager had put all the money in the vault just before the robbers came in.

Josh reported that they had found another potential teamster, Jack Butterfield, that they would train the way they had Jim Wilkerson. They had received word that the first ship load of stone would be docked in two days, and they could expect their first load the day after it docked. Everybody was excited over that and could hardly wait for the money to start rolling in.

The ship loaded with stone arrived on schedule and the boys flipped a coin for the honor of the first load. Jeb won and was very proud of himself, though Josh couldn't understand what there was to be proud of in winning a coin toss.

Jeb and Jim took the first load and Josh and Jack took the second. They found that, yes, they could easily handle six loads a day in good weather and might make eight a day once there was a backlog of stones to be moved. However, they might not make six a day in rainy weather because of the mud slowing down the oxen.

On the second day, Jeb took one wagon and Jim took the other for the stone deliveries, and they did make eight trips that day. Jeb hoped that they could keep that up so that they could have a cushion for the rainy days, when they came.

Meanwhile Josh started training Jack on the other jobs they had. Jack had a temper that Josh was forced to step on before it got out of hand. "Jack, the oxen want to do what you tell them, but they're too stupid to know what you want when you give them conflicting orders. If you can't hold your temper, you will never make a good teamster!"

Jack was suitably embarrassed and promised to do better, so they continued the training while making hauls. Jack also learned not to yell at the customers, a trait that the boys insisted upon. This made them stand out and brought them business from customers who were tired of being screamed at by teamsters for situations they couldn't control.

On the days that there was no other business, Josh and Jack helped with the hauling of stone, so that it was possible to haul as many as 12 loads in one day. This was double what Silas Warren had expected and he was forced to bring in stone faster than he had originally planned. This did not upset Warren, since it meant that he, too, made money faster than he had expected.

As one might expect, The Chinese community in Sacramento was close-knit and did not mingle with the other races any more than absolutely necessary. That's why Eddy was so surprised when an elderly Chinese gentleman showed up at the jail to talk to him on legal business. Eddy was very polite when the man came in and stood up to greet him. He guided the man to a seat and apologized for having only coffee that he could offer the man to drink.