The Railroad War (2 page)

“How is the boy?” he asked.

“Better, I think. At least he was, until he tried to tall and got excited and fainted.”

“He talked? What did he say?”

“He asked where the Circle Star is, Ki! He came hen looking for my dad!”

“Why?”

“I don't know why! He fainted before he could tell me.‘

Ki nodded thoughtfully. “That fits in with what I figured out while I was backtracking.”

“What do you mean?” Jessie frowned.

“I only meant that I figured out he was heading for the ranch, Jessie. I backtracked his footprints as far as the ridges just this side of the road, and even from the top of the highest ridge I didn't see any sign of a horse.”

“Where could he have started from?” Jessie asked, her brow wrinkling into a puzzled frown. “All there is in that direction is the railroad. Ki, you don't think—”

“Yes, I do, Jessie,” Ki broke in. “The railroad station's the only place he could have come from. You know how the road curves to avoid the ridges. The stationmaster probably headed him this way in a straight line, to save him five or six miles of walking along the road.”

“But that's still fifteen miles, Ki! It's almost a full day's walk. No wonder he got sunstroke!”

“He's lucky we came along when we did.”

“Yes.” Jessie looked at the boy's face. It was pallid and drawn, though he was breathing regularly and steadily. She took the slip of paper protruding from his shirt pocket, and unfolded it. A frown formed on her face as she looked up at Ki and said, “All that's written down here is ‘Circle Star Ranch, Sarah County, Texas.'”

“That's probably all the address he had, and he didn't want to forget the name of the county,” Ki suggested.

“I suppose. But why did he ask for Alex, Ki? Wouldn't anyone who knows the Circle Star know that my father's been dead all these years?”

“Not necessarily. Not if they came from a place far enough away so they'd have to travel here by train.”

“I suppose.” She looked down at the youth's colorless face. “Ki, we'd better get him to the house. He's not showing any signs of coming around, and he ought to be out of this hot sun.”

“We can carry him to the horses. It's only a few steps.”

Between them, they got the unconscious youth to the fence, and slid him under the bottom strand of barbwire. When they reached the horses, Ki mounted up and lifted the boy by the arms while Jessie boosted his legs. When the boy was settled into the front of the saddle, Ki wrapped an arm around the youth's chest and they started back to the Circle Star's main house.

Ed Wright, the Circle Star foreman, was working at the horse corral and saw them approaching. He was waiting when they reined in, and helped them get the still unconscious youth into the house.

“Where'd you find him?” Wright asked Ki as they laid the boy on the bed in the room adjoining Jessie's. “He's not from around here, judging by the outfit he's wearing.”

“I had the same idea,” Ki said, as he and Wright began undressing the unconscious lad. “He was lying on the prairie, just outside the line fence on the north range.”

Jessie entered the room in time to hear Ki's reply. She'd let Ki and the foreman carry the boy to the room while she got a pail of water and a stack of large bath towels. Unfolding one of the towels while she spoke, she told Wright, “We don't know anything about him yet, Ed, except that he asked where he could find the Circle Star, and then said he was looking for Alex.”

“But your father—” Wright began.

Ki interrrupted. “Yes. The boy didn't know Alex was dead, so that means he's not from anyplace near here.”

Jessie spread the water-soaked towel over the recumbent youth, covering him from shoulders to knees. Over her shoulder she asked, “Did you look in his pockets?”

“Not yet.” Ki picked up the boy's trousers and emptied the pockets. He said, “Three cartwheels and a few pennies. A jackknife and a piece of string. And the paper that was in his shirt pocket. That's all, and it certainly isn't much.”

Jessie had placed her palm on the boy's forehead after she'd covered him. She said, “His fever seems to be going down. I think we got to him just in time, Ki. A little while longer in that sun, and he might not have come around.”

Jessie's touch had aroused the youth. He stirred and opened his eyes. For a moment he gazed into space, disoriented. He stared at the ceiling without moving, then turned his head slowly while he looked around the room. After examining his surroundings, he fixed his eyes on Jessie, Ki, and Ed.

“You don't have anything to worry about,” Jessie assured him, her voice soothing. “You're at the Circle Star ranch, and after you've rested awhile you can tell us who you are, and then we'll talk about why you came here.”

“If this is the Circle Star, where's Mr. Alex Starbuck?” the boy demanded. His voice was still very weak, and he spoke in a rasping half-whisper.

“Let's talk about that later,” Jessie said. “Unless you'd like to tell me why you came here. I'm Jessie Starbuck.”

“Mr. Alex Starbuck's wife?”

“No. His daughter.”

“I guess I better wait,” he said. “Grandpa always told me if there was trouble too big for him to handle, he could get Mr. Starbuck to help him.”

“Who is your grandfather?” Jessie asked.

“Captain Bob Tinker. You'd oughta know that, if you're Mr. Starbuck's girl.”

“I suppose there are a lot of things I don't know,” Jessie replied. “Including your name.”

“It's Bobby. After Grandpa.”

“Where do you live, Bobby?”

“With Grandpa, of course. In Hidden Valley.”

Bobby's voice was growing raspy again. Jessie filled a glass with water from the pitcher that stood on the marble-topped commode beside the bed. She handed him the water, but he was unable to close his hand around the glass.

Jessie slid her arm under Bobby's shoulders, lifted him a bit, held the glass to his lips, and let him drink a few sips. He groped for the glass, trying to grasp it and empty it in a few quick gulps, but Jessie quickly moved it out of his reach. Even this slight exertion was too much for the weakened youth. He sagged back onto the bed, and Jessie slid her arm away and let him fall back with his head on the pillow.

“You've got to rest now, Bobby,” she said gently. “We can talk later about you and your grandfather, and why he sent you here to find Alex Starbuck.”

“I ain't got time to rest!” Bobby said, his face contorting into a worried frown. “I got to find Mr. Starbuck and tell . . . tell him . . . Grandpa's in . . . trouble.”

Bobby's last few words trailed off and were almost inaudible as his body sagged and his eyes closed and he lost consciousness again. Jessie placed a hand on his forehead as she and the men stood looking at the youth's towel-draped form.

“He's all right,” Jessie assured them. “Just very weak. He'll sleep awhile, and I imagine he needs food. We haven't any way of knowing how long it's been since he ate last.”

“Did anything he said make sense to you, Jessie?” Ki asked.

Jessie shook her head. “I was hoping you'd understand it.”

“I remember hearing your father mention Captain Tinker a few times,” Ki said. “But all I can recall is the name.”

“There are probably some entries in his old diaries that will give us a clue,” Jessie said. “I'll see what I can find, after supper.”

“Do you think I'd better stay here and keep an eye on Bobby?” Ki asked.

“He won't need anyone with him while he's asleep, Ki,” Jessie replied. “It's safe to leave him by himself for a while. I'll come in and change the towels every hour or so, to get some moisture back into his system. All he really needs besides that is rest, and food as soon as he can eat it.”

 

Jessie sighed as she placed the pocket-sized, black-bound book she'd just leafed through on top of the three she'd skimmed earlier. She leaned back in the big leather-upholstered chair that had been her father's favorite, and closed her eyes. The chair had become her favorite, too, for it still bore the faint fragrance of Alex Starbuck's cherry-flavored pipe tobacco.

Jessie did not allow herself a long relaxation. On the table beside the chair were two stacks of Alex's early diaries. The four books in the smaller stack were the ones she'd skimmed through since suppertime, and there were seven in the stack she'd not yet touched. She took the book that was on top of the larger stack and began leafing through it, reading rapidly, looking for the name of Captain Tinker.

She'd thumbed through three books before she found the name, and then the entry was nothing more than a bare mention of Tinker as the skipper of a ship called the
Sea
Sprite, which had carried some of Alex's cargoes of Oriental merchandise from the Far East to San Francisco, in the early days of his importing business. Finding the name in the fourth book had encouraged her, but as she started on the one she'd just picked up, the mantel clock struck ten, reminding her that it was time to look in on Bobby Tinker again.

Laying the diary aside, Jessie went through the spacious living room and mounted the stairs. She'd left a night light in the hallway, and at the corridor's end she noted that the door to Ki's bedroom was closed, as were all the others except the bedroom where Bobby Tinker lay, which she'd left ajar. She went in and looked at the youth.

He was still sleeping peacefully. Jessie felt his forehead and found that his fever was almost gone. She took a fresh wet towel from the pail beside the bed and spread it over him after removing the one that had covered him before. The windows of the room were open, and the breeze that had been warm when she'd changed the towels an hour earlier was beginning to blow cooler. Jessie stepped to the windows to pull them down, and stood for a moment looking out over the sleeping ranch.

As they did on any ranch, days began before sunrise on the Circle Star, and bedtime came immediately after supper. The bunkhouse and cookshack that stood beyond the corrals loomed dark and silent in the moonless night. In the square enclosed by the pole fence, she could see the horses standing quietly.

Jessie was reaching up to close the window when a flicker of motion at the comer of the cookshack caught her eyes. She let her arms down slowly and stood watching. A shadowy form, then another, and finally a third moved away from the cookshack and toward the corrals. Jessie wasted no time. The figures were not those of any Circle Star hands, or there'd have been a light in the bunkhouse. She closed the door of the bedroom as she left, and went down the hall to Ki's door.

“Ki!” she called softly, tapping the door's panels with her fingertips.

“Jessie?” Ki replied. In a moment the door opened and Ki was at her side. “What's wrong?”

“We have some unwanted visitors. They're at the corral now, coming toward the house.”

“Give me a minute, I'll get my jacket and
bo
.”

“I'll be in the hall downstairs,” Jessie said.

Hurrying now, she went down the steps and through the big living room. She took a rifle from the rack that was affixed to the wall just inside the door, and stood waiting for Ki to join her.

“How many of them are there?” Ki asked when he stopped inside the front door where Jessie stood. He leaned his bo against the wall while he finished buttoning his jacket.

“I saw three, Ki. They were going from the cookhouse to the corrals. There may be others that I couldn't see in the dark.”

“Suppose you cover me from the veranda,” Ki suggested. “If there are only three, I can handle them.”

“No. It's too dark. If I have to shoot, I might hit you by mistake.”

“I've got more confidence in your shooting than you have,” Ki said, smiling. “It wouldn't be like you to hit a target you're not aiming at.”

Jessie returned Ki's smile, but said, “We'll go together, Ki. You lead. I'll back you up.”

Ki nodded. He pointed to the study door, still ajar and spilling light into the living room. Jessie went to close it. As soon as the room was dark, she heard the soft click of the latch on the front door as Ki opened it. She hurried across the big room to join him. Outside, she found Ki still standing on the wide veranda, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the darkness.

“Do you see them?” Jessie whispered.

“One of them is standing at the corner of the front horse corral. I haven't spotted the others yet.”