Pony Express Page 6

  I said, ‘If you people don’t want to take notice of what I say, then leave me be and let me ride on to Fort Richmond. They have to be warned, because the army don’t yet know of this.’

  ‘And somebody has entrusted you with this important information that is unknown to anybody else in the territory, is that what you’d have us believe?’ asked the elder, the incredulity showing plainly in his face. ‘Do you take us for perfect fools?’

  I started to give a stumbling explanation of the circumstances which had led up to my being given the responsibility of warning the cavalry about the invasion, but long before I had reached the end of my tale it was easy to see that none of the three people standing there, staring at me, believed a single word of what I was saying. The elder said, ‘Sister, you must take this young woman to your home for now. Your husband is there, is he not?’

  ‘Yes sir, that he is.’

  ‘Then tell him to set a guard upon this person and not to listen to any fantastical stories which she might weave. Do not let her speak to your children. I charge you to keep her under your eye until this evening. We will judge this difficult matter at the meeting then. Perhaps the Lord will show me the way of it before then.’

  I didn’t say so at the time, but even then, young as I was, I thought that the Lord was pretty regular in passing on his counsel to this man and that he then directed the footsteps of the little community in the way of righteousness. He seemed to have the place sewn up tight, with his word probably being on a level with that of the Lord of Hosts when it came to deciding any course of action.

  For now, there was little enough that I could do and although I knew how pressing the danger was, there would be no point in bolting. I was sure that they would raise a hue and cry for me and how far was I likely to get on foot? The woman who was escorting me to her home said, ‘What are you called?’

  ‘My name’s Elizabeth, but folk generally call me Beth.’

  ‘Elizabeth is a beautiful name. It means, oath to God, but I guess you already know that?’ I didn’t, but I just smiled politely.

  When we entered her house I saw at once an unsmiling man who was reading to the two children I had earlier seen with the woman. As soon as we went in the woman went over and whispered something in her husband’s ear, all the while looking across at me.

  He nodded his head and then came over to me, saying, ‘I’m charged with keeping you safe until tonight’s prayer meeting. I can’t set a watch upon you, so I’ll have to put you somewhere. He led me to a pantry at the back of the kitchen, a large, walk-in closet, whose shelves were filled with jars and bottles.

  His wife followed us and handed me a Bible, saying, ‘Seek ye the Lord while yet ye may.’ Then the man gave me a slight shove to encourage me to enter the pantry and, once I was within, he closed and bolted the door behind him.

  CHAPTER 6

  The first thing I did when once I’d heard the footsteps recede, was to start looking for a way to escape. This did not look very promising though, because the only window was a tiny one set high up in the wall. Even if I did manage to get up to it by clambering up the shelves or something of the sort, it would be too small for me to get through. Quite apart from that, the shelves themselves were flimsy and supported only by wooden pegs driven into the wall. They would be most unlikely to support my weight.

  I came closer to despairing at that point than ever I had so far on my journey. Perhaps it was because there was nothing I could actually do, other than sit on the floor and wait for somebody to fetch me. At least when I had been chased by the Indians and so on, I was able to sublimate my anxiety and fear into vigorous, physical action. There was nothing whatever to be done now, though.

  I have no idea how long I was sitting on that pantry floor before I heard somebody approaching. The door opened and the woman, whose name I still did not know, said, ‘We wouldn’t have you starve. We’re Christians. Come, set at the table with us for our meal.’

  Her husband was standing behind her, presumably in order to be on hand, should I try to make a run for it.

  Once we were seated at the table, me, the man and wife and their two little children, the husband said a long and elaborate grace, invoking the blessing of the Lord on his family, me as a guest and also upon the food on the table. Then we began eating. It was only freshly baked bread, butter and cheese, washed down with milk, but I found it most satisfying. After he finished with the prayer, the man said to me,

  ‘My name is Benjamin. This here is my wife Susan and these girls are called Esther and Miriam.’

  ‘My name is Elizabeth.’

  ‘So, Elizabeth,’ said Benjamin, ‘What is the story behind this wild escapade of yours?’ Although he was a sober and godly man, there was a hint of amusement in his voice. I don’t think that he saw me as the scout for a gang of robbers, but more likely to be a runaway of some kind.

  As we ate I explained about taking my brother’s place in the Pony Express and then told him of the horrible scene at Smoky Mountain. He listened carefully, asking one or two penetrating questions to clarify matters which were obscure to him. I said nothing of shooting the road agents, for I felt that this might prejudice him against me. I gave full details, though, of Joshua’s death.

  As I described the bloody scene at Smoky Mountain and talked of being chased by Comanches, Susan and her children looked at me in amazement, captivated by my narrative. Benjamin watched me more closely, trying I think to gauge how reliable and honest I was. When I had finished he sat back in his chair and eyed me narrowly. Then he said, ‘This is true what you’ve told us? You have not embellished or exaggerated any of it?’

  I was stung at the imputation of dishonesty and said hotly, ‘I have no need to exaggerate. The real thing was enough.’

  Turning to his wife, he said, ‘What did Elder Joseph say of this, wife?’

  ‘Said as we would enquire more deeply at the meeting this even.’

  ‘Strikes me that there’s no time to lose,’ said Benjamin, ‘This child’s given us a true bill, we could be at hazard this very second.’ He got to his feet.

  ‘Where are you going, husband?’

  ‘To see Elder Joseph and consult with him.’

  ‘He won’t thank you for questioning his decisions,’ said Susan. ‘If he says evening meeting, then that’s what he means. Like as not he’s praying about it this minute.’

  ‘I’d sooner know that word has been sent to the cavalry at Fort Richmond,’ said Benjamin, ‘Than I would that that old man is on his knees in prayer.’

  After her husband had left the house – without, incidentally, returning me to the pantry under lock and key – Susan gave me a reproachful look, as though I had brought trouble and disgrace to their home.

  She said, ‘It does no good, raising up a rebellion ’gainst the elders. I’ve told Benjamin that afore.’ She paused for a second, then added, as though in some sort of apologetic explanation, ‘My husband wasn’t always saved.’

  I hardly knew how to respond to any of this and contented myself with smiling at the children. I offered to help wash up the wares, which offer was accepted. I fancy that Susan too had been persuaded while I was talking that I was not really about to trick them into leaving their house so that a gang of bandits could enter it and rob them at will. As we worked, she asked me about my mother and whether she wouldn’t be dreadfully worried about me by now, having expected me back long since. I agreed that this was very likely to be true.

  Benjamin was gone for the best part of an hour and I was hardly able to contain myself during that time, so anxious was I to be on my way again. I had more or less taken it as read that there would be no question of the citizens of New Jerusalem following me north to the army base, and I thought now that the best practical way that I could aid them would be by bringing the cavalry down here to protect the town. But without a horse, it was very far from clear to me how I would be able to undertake even that operation.

  During the course of the hour
or so that I was compelled to spend in the company of Susan and her daughters, I found that they were not such a starchy bunch as I had first assumed. I kind of got the idea that there was so much religious observance in public that they had all got into the way of letting it all carry on over into their domestic lives.

  When at last the street door opened and the head of the house returned, I had hope that things had reached some sort of arrangement, because Benjamin was carrying in my hand the pistol which had earlier been confiscated from me.

  ‘Benjamin Carter,’ exclaimed his wife when she caught sight of the gun, ‘What are you about that you should bring such a wicked article into our home? In front of the little ’uns too. I should think you’d be ashamed to do it, sir!’

  ‘Well now, don’t take on so. I’m only returning some property to this young lady. You wouldn’t have her sent off through dangerous country alone and unarmed, would you, wife?’

  Susan looked at me and for a moment I thought that I detected the ghost of a smile around the corners of her mouth. I think that she had decided that I wasn’t such a bad one after all.

  She said, ‘Happen not. I hope that you haven’t fell out with the elders over this?’

  ‘Not overmuch. Elder Joseph can be a hasty man and we’ll say no more on the subject. This child meant well by us and I’ll take oath she’s no liar. That being so, the less we delay her, the better. For us, as well as others.’

  Having delivered himself of these sentiments, Benjamin handed me the pistol, which I tucked gratefully back into the holster. The two girls were gazing up at me nervously, so I bent down and said, ‘It’s been right nice visiting with you. I hope we might meet again.’ Then I stood up and said, ‘Does this mean that I can have my pony back as well?’

  ‘Yes. I went to see him. I saw the letter pouches. I reckon you’re the genuine article all right.’

  Susan came up to me and unexpectedly enfolded me in an affectionate embrace, kissing me on the cheek as she did so.

  ‘I will own that I didn’t care for the look of you at first,’ she announced bluntly. ‘But I hope I ain’t one never to allow when I’ve been mistook. You’re all right, Elizabeth, I’m sure of it. Go with God.’

  Together, me and Benjamin walked down the street to the barn where my pony was. As we strolled along, he said, ‘You mustn’t judge us harshly. Sometimes we’re a mite mistrustful of strangers. But we ain’t so very bad, when once you get to know us. Sorry for shutting you up in the pantry.’

  ‘You won’t get in to trouble for disputing with that elder, I hope?’

  ‘Ah, we’ll both live it down. I wasn’t always numbered among the saved, you know. Maybe I’m a little too worldly in my ways for my own good sometimes.’

  I didn’t know what to make of all that, having little notion in those days of what being ‘saved’ might entail. I was so relieved to be allowed to continue on my way that I have to say that I didn’t much care, either.

  I was glad to see that nobody had untacked the pony and that he was ready to go at once.

  I said to Benjamin, ‘Thank you for believing me, sir, and sticking up for me too.’

  ‘I can tell an honest person when I meet one, Elizabeth. Whether or no they are saved. Get along with you now.’

  I mounted up and was about to offer more thanks, when Benjamin said, ‘Enough talk. God speed!’ Then he slapped the pony’s flank and cried, ‘Yah!’ I shot off like an arrow from a bow, heading north once more towards Fort Richmond.

  I didn’t know, and for that matter still do not to this day, what to make of the town of New Jerusalem. Were they good-hearted and kind people who feared the Lord? Or were they rather a stiff-necked set of pious types who mistrusted strangers who didn’t fit into their own views on how to conduct life? I have never been able to decide.

  One thing which those who love horses might have noted is that I refer to my pony only as that, without using any given name. Well, there’s a good reason for that: I never found out what his name was! All I knew about him was that he was a gelding. Changing horses every ten miles or so, twelve times in the course of a working day, there was no time to become acquainted with the beasts. It was a case of jump off one and then vault right onto the next. Nobody introduced us and gave us time to get to know each other. I called him ‘Pony’ and that was enough for the both of us.

  Now that I was free and on the right track, I was feeling a whole heap better about every aspect of my personal situation. True, there was still the very present danger of attack by hostile Indians, but of course when you’re young you tend only to concern yourself with immediate threats to your well-being. So it was that despite seeing a number of men who had been slaughtered by Redskins, including one right in front of me, I was still able somehow to thrust the fear of such an eventuality as my own death right to the back of my mind. Instead, I focused only upon enjoying a ride in the late afternoon through some beautiful country.

  It may seem hard to believe, but I had never in my life been in Kansas before, despite living right by the Missouri, which marked the boundary between the two territories. The land across which I was now making my way was similar in a geographical sense to Missouri, except that it was a lot wilder. It looked the way that it must have done around St Joseph, before all the farming began.

  The road I was travelling along was no more than a dusty track, with hoofprints covering it, but few ruts from wheels, such as a wagon or stage might leave. It looked to me as though hardly anybody ever came along this way. The land undulated gently, with each rise revealing plains stretching into the distance.

  It was after coming to the top of one such gentle hill that I caught my first glimpse of Fort Richmond. It was still some miles away and because of the haze looked to me as though it was floating above the ground. I had no scale with which to compare it, it must have been quite three or four miles off, but I could see, even at that distance, that it was very large. In addition to the great rectangular bulk of the fort itself, there were many other little shapes dotted around near it, some brown and others white. I couldn’t for the life of me make out at all what these might be.

  It was only as I came within a mile or so of Fort Richmond that I realized just how big it really was. The walls of the stockade must have been fifty feet high, and towering twice as high above them was a flagstaff from which was flying the stars and bars. Perched, as it seemed to me, precariously on the walls of the stockade were four structures, each the size of the average house. These were guard posts.

  Now that I was nearer I could see that the objects which had so puzzled me were no more than tents. Some of these were bleached white army tents; others were the hide shelters of the Indians which they call tepees. After all that I had seen so far, I was more than a little taken aback to find a large number of Indians camped right around the fort. I wondered that the army tolerated it.

  Later on I found that these people were not Comanches but another, peaceful tribe. They had pitched up close to the fort partly because this afforded them some protection from their more warlike neighbours, but also as the close proximity to so many soldiers gave them many opportunities to barter and trade with the men stationed at Fort Richmond.

  I rode through what amounted to an Indian village before I reached the gates to the fort. To one side of the fort was an encampment of army tents, with chuck wagons parked near to them. It looked to me as though there were many more soldiers at the fort than was usual for them and this was some kind of overspill.

  The gates stood wide open and although there was a cavalryman lounging about in front of them, there was no atmosphere of readiness. Inside the stockade, which was formed of roughly dressed tree-trunks erected vertically, side by side, I could see Indians talking to soldiers, and men in shirtsleeves milling about aimlessly. The sentry, if that is what he was, said casually, ‘Anybody in especial you’re hoping to see?’

  ‘I need to speak to whoever’s in charge.’

  ‘You’ll be lucky. Wha
t you sellin’?’

  ‘Nothing at all. I have news for him.’

  ‘Yeah, yeah. Sure you do. Tell me and I’ll pass it on to him.’

  I began to get agitated because, after all that I had been through, this stupid man was determined to hold me up even further. There is no telling what intemperate words I might have been driven to if an officer hadn’t appeared on the scene at that moment.

  He said to the sentry, ‘What’s going on, Rawlings? Who’s this?’

  I cut in at that point, saying, ‘I’m a rider for the Pony Express. You might have heard of them.’

  The officer looked at me sharply and said, ‘Then what? What are you doing here?’

  I gave him a brief account of the massacre at Smoky Mountain and he and the sentry both stared at me, hanging on what I said as though they hardly knew what to make of it all. When I had finished, he said to the soldier I had first spoken to, ‘Rawlings, fetch the adjutant. At the double now. I’ll stay here with this young fellow.’

  After the sentry had set off at a brisk trot the officer said to me, ‘You can dismount. By the look of your pony, you’ve ridden hard.’

  I climbed down and the man looked closely at me. He didn’t say anything, but I suspected that he might be entertaining some doubts about my sex. If so, he was too much of a gentleman to say anything, so I relieved him of the painful necessity by saying, ‘I’m a girl, sir. It’s a long story.’

  ‘Yes, I dare say. Well, it’s nothing to the purpose for now. This is a damned odd business.’ Then, recollecting himself, he said, ‘I beg your pardon, miss, it just slipped out.’

  ‘I’ve heard worse. It’s nothing.’

  ‘Mind if I enquire as to your age?’