Escape From Gold Mountain Page 6
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Chapter 9
~o0o~
T ex mentally shook his head as he settled in the saddle in front of the Chinese woman. Perhaps Chinese men found such a diminutive female attractive, but he preferred them full-sized and full-figured. Once he rode far enough out of sight to feel confident no one from the road could see him, he stopped long enough to pull a handkerchief out of his pocket. He used it to blindfold the woman. So far, she hadn’t screamed or called out except that once when he first grabbed her. As long as she kept quiet, he found no need to gag her.
Now, to meet up with Charley Jardine.
~o0o~
As soon as Jardine saw Tex had the woman well away from stagecoach, he called out to him with a low whistle. Tex guided his horse to a clearing to join his partner in crime.
Charley hardly gave the blind-folded woman with her head hanging down a glance before he stretched to look at the back of Tex’s saddle. “Where’s her trunk? You leave it up on the road where the driver or anyone passing by could take it?”
Tex shook his head. “Didn’t have no trunks. She’s only got the one valise.”
Charley scowled, visibly agitated. “Don’t give me any of your bunk, Tex. She’s got to have a couple of trunks with her.”
Not immediately replying, Tex gave Charley Jardine a long, hard stare. His words came out in a drawl. “Seems I recollect when Shorty come and told us she got on the stage, he said they only brought the one valise for her. The driver said the same. He was right quick to offer up his strongbox, which must not hold much, considering he was so free with it.”
Jardine swore under his breath. He started to have a bad feeling about this hold-up. He could not comprehend how a woman, even a Chinese prostitute who had been in the area as long as she had, possessed only what would fit in one valise.
There was also the issue of all the money she carried. “We’ll get farther from the road and see what she’s got with her, eh?”
The two followed the stream for a quarter of a mile until they came upon a dense copse of aspens. They lead their horses in the center until they found a small clearing. Charley called a halt. The two men dismounted. Tex pulled Loi from the saddle and steadied her on her feet.
Charley looked at Loi and frowned. “What’s wrong with her feet?”
Tex shrugged. “Don’t know, but I hear-tell them Chinese do something to their women’s feet to keep them from growing.”
Charley shook his head. “Never did understand things like that. What does she have in her satchel?”
Tex opened the valise and dumped the contents on the ground. A collection of clothes, a hair brush, combs, a bowl made of china, and personal items fell in a heap. The two pawed through it, but found no money. Tex grunted in disgust. “There’s nothing here, not even some jewelry that might be worth something. Y’all sure you heard right?”
“There was no mistake about what I heard. Check that valise a little closer. There could be something in the lining, eh?”
“Tex pulled out his knife and ripped the lining all around the top edge. He pulled it apart. “Nothing.” He turned to the Chinawoman, whose quaking body stood where she had been put. She kept her head bent forward in submission.
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Chapter 10
~o0o~
L oi felt the only thing to her advantage in her current situation was that these two men did not know she understood enough English to figure out most of what they said. She knew they were after money. Perhaps they didn’t take her off the stagecoach to hurt her or sell her as a slave to someone new. Perhaps, when they found what they wanted, they would let her go. Although, how she would find her way to the high man of the On Yick tong in Dai Fow who owned her, or even back to Ah Chin in Lundy, she had no idea.
The new man, Loi assumed, must be another Caucasian because he spoke English. She could tell he was also very tall—maybe even taller than the man who had taken her off the stagecoach. In fact, she realized with a start, the English spoken by the newcomer wasn’t like the English spoken by most of the Americans she had heard.
“Wait. She had one of them bags women carry.”
Loi knew the voice belonged to the man who had first captured her. As soon as he grabbed her arm, she pulled her hands free of her sleeves and held the pouch in front of her. It was part of her travel money given her to pay for food, a place to sleep, her train ticket and the ticket for the Chinese man who was to meet her in Bodie and take her to a city up north where they would board the railroad.
Loi would not fight the men taking that money. Maybe they would be content with it and let her go. She listened to the sounds as the second man opened the reticule and shook out the coins. However, she soon realized by the man’s indignant cry it was not enough to satisfy them.
“Fifty dollars! This is nothing more than traveling money—enough for grub and a couple of nights in a room, maybe her train ticket. This isn’t enough to get us even a good round of drinks and a decent stake in a poker game.”
Loi heard the man who had stolen her off the stagecoach grumble a threat to the other. “You owe me double that just for what I done. That’s before figuring in anyone else’s cut.” She didn’t understand what he referred to, or why the other man owed him more money. She only knew she was in the middle of it and bound to get the worst of any disagreement.
“Check her for a money belt.”
“There’s no way she’s carrying the kind of money y’all were talking about in a money belt.”
“Check anyway.”
Before Loi could prepare herself, rough hands grabbed her and lifted her jacket. They jerked up the hem of her smock she wore underneath. With gasps of protest, Loi tried to push the man’s hands away.
“Sure is skittish for a whore, eh?”
To keep the men from tearing her buttons, Loi reached up to unbutton the fasteners that kept her heavy quilted jacket around her and held her arms out. Her breath heaved in gasps, and she forced herself to not cry out as they lifted the hem of her pink and green silk blouse. Other men had handled her body many times. She should not allow the way these men tore at her clothes to disturb her. With a sinking heart, she knew what they sought and what they would find.
“There it is. I’ll bet money on it.”
“Y’all better hope there’s plenty of money in it.”
Loi felt fingers jerk at the knot that tied the long band of black silk wrapped around her midriff. She was to give it to the On Yick tong zyu. Ah Chin forbade her to spend any of it.
After the men removed the band of silk, Loi felt cool air waft against her now-bare skin. Knowing the pair had found her money, she fought back tears that threatened to dampen the cloth around her eyes. When she returned to the On Yick tong, no doubt the high man would order her severely beaten. It would not matter that she did nothing wrong and could not have prevented the theft. Even if she was able to make her way back to Lundy, Ah Chin would beat her to within an inch of her life for causing him the inconvenience of having to explain to the On Yick tong zyu why she no longer had the money.
Loi understood this meant she must work for many more years before the tong high man would consider selling her to one man. By then, she might be too old to be considered for a concubine, or even the wife of a poor Chinese laborer, even if the tong eventually decided to let her be bought. What man wants a woman almost past her child-bearing years to provide sons for him?
“Two hundred and ten dollars. Add to the fifty in the pouch, it totals two hundred and sixty dollars. Wasn’t worth our time.”
“You’re doing, not mine, Char…”
“No names!” The yelled order cut off the words the man who had stolen her started to say. Then the man who had spoken them gave a high-pitched laugh. “Just call me Boss.”
So, the second man was named Char something, but wanted to be called Boss. She remembered
the second man had called the one who stole her off of the stagecoach Tex.
The man called Tex grumbled in disgust. “You’re not much of a boss. Way I see it, I’m fixing to take my share of the money and be on my way. Y’all can settle up with Shorty.”
There was a third man named Shorty? Loi stiffened at the sound of what she thought might be the click of a gun hammer, and then a second gun pulled out of a holster. Feeling carefully with her feet, she attempted to step away from the two in hopes she would not be caught in the crossfire of a shootout.
“Now, Tex, there’s no need you getting riled up.”
The other man growled. “No one pulls a gun on me—Boss.”
The one who spoke different English gave another of his high-pitched giggles. “Stop and think about it. Look at the number of men she’s seen the years she’s been here. She’s worth a lot of money to the Chinese, eh? No need for us to be settling for this. They’ll want her back.”
“What y’all got in mind?”
Loi heard the man jiggle the money they had taken from her in his hand. She suspected he intended to keep it all to himself. She tried to not worry about what the loss of that money meant to her. She knew she was lucky to still be alive.
“Let’s get out of here and go back to our hide-out.”
“My hideout, Boss, and don’t y’all forget it. That’s almost a full day’s ride from here and the morning’s half gone.”
“Then it’s best we get going. If Shorty knows what’s good for him, he’ll have a fire going and grub ready.”
Ah. The third man named Shorty was somewhere else waiting for them.
“Leave her trash here. We don’t need nothing to slow us down.”
“Leave it so someone can spot it and pick up our trail? You’re not thinking clearly, eh?”
“Fine, but y’all take the Chinawoman, too.”
Loi recognized the high-pitched laugh belonging to the man named Boss. “I thought you liked the ladies.”
The man called Tex snorted in disgust. “She’s a cute little thing, I reckon, but I’m not so desperate I’d settle for a Chinese whore.”
The one who called himself Boss grew serious, his voice void of all humor. “Take her anyway. You were hired for a job, and it’s not done yet. I’ll take the money and the valise. Don’t drag your feet, either. The sooner we’re gone from here, the better.”
Once again on the back of the horse behind Tex, as they started riding, Loi felt her curiosity get the better of her. Even with his neckerchief pulled up to cover his lower face, she had seen enough of Tex to know he had brown hair and dark eyes—close enough to the coloring of the Chinese to not appear like some of the bad ghosts of her native superstitions. However, among the few white men who had used her, she had seen some with the unnatural light hair and eye colors her people associated with such creatures. This second man who had captured her—the one called Boss and who acted like he was in charge—what manner of Westerner was he?
Loi released her hold on Tex long enough to push her blindfold covering her left eye up onto her forehead. Using the horse’s swaying gait as they picked their way down a hill to mask her movement, Loi carefully leaned to her left just far enough to see ahead of her. A turn in the trail offered her a clear view of Boss’s back.
With dismay, Loi sucked in her breath. Not wishing to alert the two men that she had not kept the blindfold in place, she clamped her lips shut to prevent a cry of distress from escaping. When his horse stepped into a small clearing where the morning sun shined through the tree branches and spotlighted the back of his head, she had clearly seen the red in Boss’s shoulder-length hair—red like the mane of Horse-Face, one of the two evil guardians of hell. Boss’s hair flamed red with a burnished glow until his horse carried him back into the shadow.
Loi squeezed her eyes shut and rubbed her forehead against Tex’s back in an effort to once again cover her eye with the folded cloth. How could her fate bring her such bad luck? She had been captured by an evil ghost.
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Chapter 11
~o0o~
North of Bodie, California ~ September, 1884
S itting on the half-rotted log in front of the cabin, once more Luke almost convinced himself that Charley Jardine sent him back to the hideout with the intent of skipping out and taking all the money he owed to Luke with him. However, Charley didn’t know who—or what—he was dealing with. Luke had already determined that if he was forced to track Charley and Tex down in order to get his earnings, he would get his revenge, too. It would cost Charley far more than if he had kept his word and paid Luke what he promised.
Luke silently rose to his feet and faded into the shadows at the sound of approaching horses. A lifetime of habit told him never to assume the men for whom he waited were the ones riding towards him. Knife in easy reach on his belt and his hand on his pistol, he watched Charley and Tex ride into the clearing in front of the dwelling Tex had built for a hideout in this high, remote section of Mono County mountains. Next, the twilight, which cast a dim glow, Luke noticed someone rode behind Tex. Arms belonging to a child or small person clutched Tex’s middle.
Charley looked around. “Looks deserted. Well, with him gone, it’ll mean one less way to divide up the money, eh?”
Luke could hear Tex’s snort of derision as the man forced apart the hands gripping him tightly and dismounted. “He’s here. There’s a fire belching smoke up the chimney and the smell of coffee. Figure he’s got something cooking in that pot I keep on the hearth, too.” Tex called out in the direction of the cabin door. “Hello the cabin. Y’all can show yourself, Shorty.” With that, Tex grabbed the person that had been riding behind him and unceremoniously dumped her on the ground.
Luke stepped into the circle of fading light and looked at the black-clad figure. Behind the bandanna covering her eyes, he recognized the black hat with its white trim that rested skewed on the woman’s head. Anger welled up within him. He had suspected Charley had robbery on his mind when he told Luke to watch for the woman boarding the stage. However, he never expected them to get embroiled—and embroil him—with abducting someone.
His arms akimbo, Luke shouted at Tex and Charley. “What’s this all about? Why is she here?”
Charley dismounted slowly, his movements revealing the aches he felt after his forty-mile ride. “No cause to get your dander up, Shorty. We ran into a bit of a snag, so we brought the Chinawoman back here until we sort things out.”
Tex grunted with disgust as he dismounted. “Did my part just fine. Y’all can take the blame for our snag, Char…oh, I mean, Boss.”
“Boss?” Luke didn’t like the sound of that. No one was his boss, especially not some scoundrel like Charley Jardine. As soon as he had his money, he planned to ride away from these two hoodlums. Unfortunately, the two idiots abducting the Chinese woman and bringing her to the hideout they had been using between cattle raids complicated things.
“Yeah, the brains of the outfit, here, figured we’re not going to use our real names around her. Of course, he decided that after shouting out the name I tend to go by. Some boss he is.”
Charley emitted his high-pitched laugh. “’You’re making too much of it. Now, Shorty, here, it wasn’t necessary to think of a new name for him. We already did.”
The longer the two bickered, the more Luke felt the irritation build within him. “You still didn’t answer my question. Why’s she here?”
Both men turned towards him, but Tex answered. “She’s here because Boss, here, don’t know what he’s doing. He overheard some dimwits in the bar talking about the Chinese sending thousands of dollars they owe to some big hombres in Chinatown. They told him it was getting put on the stagecoach with the Chinawoman. So, we grabbed her and everything she had off the stage. Only thing is, there’s no thousands.”
“Nay, lad, it wasn’t me who grabbed her. You pulled her off the stagecoach.”
Luke
ignored Charley. He had already figured out Charley was quick to take credit for everyone else’s achievements, but quick to blame others for his own failings. “How much was she carrying?”
“Not nearly enough.” Tex walked inside the cabin. Charley, tugging Loi along by her arm, followed.
The cabin hideout was a crude affair. It boasted four walls with the cracks between the logs packed with a mud and straw mix against the winter cold. A stone fireplace, complete with an iron grate for cooking, took up most of the same wall in which Tex had built the door. Tex had not bothered much with furnishing it. Three cut logs standing on end served as stools and three ticks stuffed with dried grass for pallets was all that passed for furniture.
Luke followed them inside. Charley picked up his cup and walked toward the coffee pot. “We only found two hundred and sixty on her. Fifty was in her reticule and the rest was in a money belt.”
Luke shook his head in frustration. “I should have known you two were up to no good. Look, I want no part of this, Charley. You said you’d give me what you owe me after we got back here today. Just hand it over. I don’t want to get caught in the middle of this mess.”
“Ah, but you already are in the middle of it, eh? Don’t worry. It’s but a little change of plans.”
Luke stepped forward, then assumed a stance with feet spread, and his fists on his hips, close to his weapons. “Where’s my money? I want it now.”
Charley fished the reticule out of his pants pocket and emptied the contents in his hand. He counted out part of the half eagles and returned them to the reticule. The rest he put in his pocket. After pulling the strings tight, he tossed the bag to Luke.
Before Luke could pull the purse open, Charley spoke. “There’s twenty dollars in there, Shorty. You want to take it and ride out, then be on your way. You want the full fifty, you’ll have to see this last job through to the end, eh?”