Chapter 8

Who knows why anyone would do it, but every crowd has it share of fools! For some reason which seemed like a good idea at the time, the driver of the last wagon in the train decided to take a short cut and not follow the clearly marked trail. It looked like a hundred yards that would save 600 yards of twisting and turning, so the driver never questioned the reason for the circuitous route, but took it into his head to cut across the path of least resistance.

The wagon turned off the clearly marked trail at that particular moment when nobody was looking in his direction, so his defection went unremarked. He managed to get about 100 feet off the trail when the wagon seemed to fall right out from under him. The weight of the mules was not enough to trigger the problem, but the weight of the heavily loaded wagon was enough to break through the covering of the sink hole.

As the wagon twisted in its fall, the wagon tongue was broken loose and the mules were left standing on the solid ground, while the wagon with its driver fell into the sink hole. The wagon never twisted enough to fall over, but managed to stay on its wheels as it rapidly fell out of sight. The reins were jerked from the driver's hands, and the mules took this sudden jerk to be an order to stand in place.

Some would say that the driver deserved to die for his stupidity, but lady luck decided to spare him that final escape. After a few minutes of not knowing what had happened, the driver picked himself up from where he had fallen to the bed of the wagon and looked around. The walls of the sink hole were quite steep, but smooth, so the wagon had simply rolled to the bottom of the hole. This put the man's eye-level, even when he was standing on the driver's seat, below the level of the surrounding ground, so that he could not see anything of the countryside around him.

He shouted for help, but there was no one close enough to hear him. He got tired of shouting, so he tried to climb out of the hole. The wall of the hole was very steep and covered with loose sand, so it was impossible for the man to get enough purchase with his hands or feet to make any progress up the side of the hole. No doubt about it, he was well and truly stuck out of sight in this hole.

It was nearly an hour later before anyone noticed that the train was short one wagon. One of the guards noticed this as he rode his circuit around the train. The only reason he noticed was that he had been idly counting the wagons he passed as he rode; it was something to do to keep from falling asleep in the heat of the afternoon. He reported the discrepancy to Jed, the wagon master, as soon as he realized that something was wrong.

Jed ordered the train to halt until he found out what was going on. Just in case, they formed their defensive box and waited for further orders. Jed and the scout, Bill Hanson, who had just returned from his trip ahead of the train for that day, set out back down the trail to try to find the missing wagon. Nobody could remember when the missing wagon had disappeared, so they were left with the prospect of having to make an extensive search.

Bill and Jed were getting worried when Bill spotted the team of mules seemingly standing in an open field which was known to be a place of potential sink holes. They rode a little farther and could see that the mules were standing at the edge of a sink hole. From where they were on the trail, the hole looked to be small in diameter, but fairly deep. Not wanting to suffer the same fate as what had undoubtedly happened to the wagon, they rode the circuitous route to reach the place where the wagon had left the trail.

They found the tracks left by the wagon and followed them, assuming that there were no more potential sink holes where the wagon had already traveled. When they got close enough, they stopped their horses and used their ropes to fashion safety tethers between themselves and their horses. They payed out the line as they approached the edge of the hole, and it was well that they had made the connections to their horses. The ground started to collapse as they got near the hole, and they had to retreat precipitously before they, too, fell into the sink hole.

The man in the hole heard the noise and started yelling for help. Jed yelled back, "SHUT UP AN' LISTEN, YA DAMNED FOOL!" He had to shout this several times before the man in the hole would obey. Once the man in the hole quieted down, Jed asked in a more normal voice, "Are ya hurt?"

The answer was a string of profanity that would have impressed any impartial observer. The upshot was that the man was not injured anywhere but his dignity, and he wanted out of the hole, post haste. During the tirade, Jed and Bill grinned at each other, for the man was known throughout the train for his self-righteous piety. When the ranting finally died down, Jed asked a question he already knew the answer for, but he wanted to hear the amusing answer from below, "Have ya tried ta climb out, yet, by yerself, Samuel?"

Both Jed and Bill had to force themselves not to laugh at the resulting tirade in answer to this question. When the noise from Samuel finally died down, Jed said, "We'll throw ya a rope. Tie it around yourself and we'll use a horse ta pull ya out of the hole." Bill untied himself from his harness and made his way back to his horse, careful never to turn loose of the rope as he walked. Jed edged closer to the hole and threw the end of Bill's rope into the hole as far as he could manage.

This produced some more curses from the hole as Samuel complained, "Ya didn't have ta hit me with the rope. I could of found it easy enough." Bill couldn't help laughing out loud at this, he didn't care if Samuel did hear him. Samuel tied himself to the rope and called out that he was ready to escape the hole.

Bill started leading his horse at a slow walk as Samuel was pulled from the hole. It wasn't the most comfortable few minutes that Samuel had ever spent, but he finally exited the hole. Bill didn't stop the horse soon enough to suit Samuel, who was dragged along the ground for a few feet, so another profane tirade broke out. This time, even Jed was forced to laugh, but he stopped when he received an accusing glare from Samuel.

They moved back, away from the hole, and Samuel gave his side of the story. Of course, the Devil had deliberately set the temptation before Samuel and enticed him into traveling to the hole. Samuel was sure that he was being tested, just as was Job in the Old Testament. This brought another laugh from Jed and Bill, but Samuel continued to maintain his self-righteous demeanor.

Jed and Bill started talking about the best way to rescue the mules, since they were too valuable a resource to abandon, even if it was dangerous to go after them. At this, Samuel snorted and said something to the effect, "They're still my mules, I'll git 'em." He marched off toward the mules as Jed and Bill called after him to stop, but he wouldn't heed their warnings. Awash in his own purity and piety, Samuel knew that the Lord would look after him.

The Lord must have been looking another way, because Samuel got too close to the edge of the hole and it collapsed, just as it had when Jed and Bill had approached. Fortunately, it was feet first, as Samuel again fell all the way to the bottom of the hole, stopping only when his feet banged against a wagon wheel. The stream of profanity issuing from the hole this time was, indeed, a work of art and a thing of joy to hear!

After ascertaining that Samuel was still unhurt, Jed and Bill again pulled him from the sink hole. He was still certain that his trial that day was the work of the Devil, but he was closer to listening to reason from Jed and Bill than he had been earlier. This time, Bill donned the rope harness and went to fetch the mules. He went slowly and carefully, far enough away from the hole to avoid a crumbling edge and managed to bring the mules safely back to the marked trail.

Though Samuel was reluctant to do so, they all agreed that it would be too dangerous to try to salvage the contents of the wagon; the wagon, itself, was obviously a lost cause. Fortunately for Samuel, he had not lost his money that he had stashed in his money belt, a little under $1,000, so he was not going to suffer too much from his loss. Jed intended to make Samuel's adventure an object lesson for the rest of the train on the importance of following instructions.