Chapter 12

Nothing more of real interest happened before their return to Kansas City. They picked up the completed repeating rifle and headed home. It seemed like it was going to be a cold winter because the wind was blowing hard and making it difficult to find a comfortable position on the horse or the wagon. Both Billy and Ann said to hell with it and headed home.

They arrived home to a riotous greeting from Maria and only a slightly more sedate greeting from Josh and Nancy. All three were happy when Billy announced that this had been the last trip for this year. It was already getting too uncomfortable to travel, so there was not much point in patrolling until spring.

Two notable things happened that winter: Maria's son, Billy, Jr., was born, and Ann showed up pregnant. Billy was caught on the horns of a mighty dilemma. He now had two children here or on the way, so, was he going to continue to stick his neck out to hunt bushwhackers and other bad guys, or was he going to retire. He fully realized that he had been unreasonably lucky so far, but there was no way to tell how much longer his luck was going to hold. He certainly didn't want to get killed, now that he had a wonderful family started. Also, he had plenty of money for them to live on, so there was no financial incentive for them to continue hunting bad guys.

Billy found that his war against bushwhackers had burned itself out. He still hated them for the death of his friend Bob Hastings, but it was no longer like an acid eating at his gut. He admitted to himself that the only reason he hunted bushwhackers now was out of habit and a need for something to do. Hell, here it was 1859 and he was 22 years old. He was approaching middle age (at least, in his estimate), and it was time to accept his responsibilities.

That still left the question of what to do with the rest of his life. Billy had the good sense not to stew with the question on his own. He asked his wives, Josh, and Nancy what the four of them wanted to do after explaining his quandary. Josh was the one with the perfect idea, "Let's move to California!"

All of them were smart enough to recognize the signs of the coming Civil War. Hell, a person had to be blind not to see it. For practical purposes, it had already been raging in Missouri and Kansas for the last five years. After some discussion, they all agreed that none of them wanted to be caught up in the coming big war, and the only way any of them could think of to escape it was to head farther west. California seemed to be the obvious answer.

This now raised the problem of what to do about Ann's pregnancy. Nancy advised against traveling on such an arduous journey in her state, and they certainly were not going to leave her behind. The baby was due in the late part of May, so there was no practical way for them to consider leaving for California in the spring of 1860. The only logical solution seemed to be for them to wait for the spring of 1861. They just hoped for the war to hold off for that long.

Under the circumstances, they decided for Billy to make a trip to Independence to see what they needed to do for their trek. He was sure to be back before Ann's baby was born, so he left in early April of 1860, figuring that he could find out what he needed to know and get back before the second week in May.

The trip to Independence was made by riverboat, the Annie O'Malley. Billy picked up the boat when it stopped for fuel, and Josh was with him to return the horse to their home. Billy planned to stop off in Kansas City to pick up the last two repeating rifles, and he would buy a horse there to ride home. With just a horse, if he pushed it, the ride would only take one day from Kansas City.

In Independence, Billy was able to find out that he was going to need oxen to pull the wagons, and they would need two wagons for all of the people. In fact, two wagons was going to push the living space if they planned to sleep in the wagons, as many people did. Fortunately, they did not have much they really wanted to take with them, since they had over $300,000 in gold to take. They figured that they could buy whatever they needed once they got to California. It was axiomatic: the lighter the load, the easier the trip.

The summer of 1860 was spent in getting Nancy up to their standards with her new rifle and the Colt pistol. She tended to flinch with the recoil of the rifle, but she was good enough by the time fall came to be considered acceptable, and the fact that the rifle was a repeater made up for some of her awkwardness. She was much more successful with the Colt and became quite the marksman when she used two hands to shoot. All-in-all, everybody was quite satisfied with her shooting abilities by the time summer was over.

Everybody was excited when Ann produced a girl, Sarah—now they had one of each! Billy was inclined to take most of the credit for one each until he was teased out of his overweening pride. Upon reflection, he did admit that the women had a little to do with it.