The Railroad War (21 page)

When Jed entered the suite and saw its richly carved walnut furniture and ornate Oriental rugs, and through the open doors of the bedrooms saw the private bathrooms that adjoined each of them, his eyes widened, but he made no comment. Ki and Jessie paid little attention to their surroundings. They picked up their saddlebags and stood looking at the open bedroom doors.

Ki said, “You choose the room you want, Jessie. Jed and I will take the others.”

“As far as I can tell, the bedrooms are identical,” Jessie said. “Suppose I take the one in the center. As soon as I bathe and get into fresh clothes, we'll decide where to start.”

“A good idea,” Ki said. “The only thing lacking in the Ormsby House was enough bathtubs.”

Before she reached the bedroom door, Jessie turned and said to Ki, “I intend to have a long, lazy soak, Ki. You and Jed will probably finish bathing before I do, so why don't you tell Jed what you learned from that saloon girl? It'll help him to understand how important it was for us to come here to Virginia City.”

Ki and Jed returned to the sitting room only a few moments apart. Ki had just settled into one of the brocade-upholstered easy chairs when Jed came in. He sat down in the chair nearest Ki and waited expectantly.

Ki asked, “How much do you know about what Cheri told me?”

Jed shook his head. “Not a thing. I guess Cheri's that saloon girl Jessie was talking about, but I don't recall hearing her name before. I stay pretty much away from saloons, Ki. ”

“I'd better start at the beginning, then.”

As briefly as he could, Ki told Jed of his conversations with the barkeep and Cheri, and what he'd heard listening to the exchange between Slip and Jug after Cheri's death. He cut his narrative as short as possible, condensing and summarizing, omitting much detail. Jed's brow began furrowing while Ki talked, and when he'd heard the last of the details that Ki saw fit to include, his frown had deepened to a puzzled scowl.

“You killed both of them just like that?” Jed asked. “One of ‘em carrying a pistol and the other one coming at you?” He shook his head. “I'm not saying I don't believe you, Ki, but—”

“I can only tell you what happened, Jed,” Ki said quietly. “But when we have time, I will show you that I can throw two of my
shuriken
in less time that a man can draw a pistol.”

Jed was still frowning. “The other thing I can't figure out is how you got this Cheri woman to tell you as much as she did.”

“She was trying to enlist me into the cartel. She had to tell me about the man we came here to find, this Frank Jeffers.”

“Now I haven't been around much, but I've got enough sense to know a woman's not going to talk all that much without a pretty good reason,” Jed said. “You didn't come right out with it, but I know how women get softened up and like to say things they might not otherwise to a man who's just given ‘em a good pronging.” Ki did not take Jed's hint. After a moment, Jed asked, “Am I right about that, Ki? Go on and tell me. I promise I won't say a word to Jessie.”

Ki said quietly, “Jessie already knows.”

“She does?”

“Certainly.”

“But I thought—” Jed stopped in confusion, stared at Ki for a moment, and went on, “I mean, I was sure—you and her traveling around together everywhere the way you do, I guess I just figured—”

“You figured wrong, Jed,” Ki said. “I see that you don't understand how it is between Jessie and me.”

“I guess I sure as hell don‘t!” Jed was now embarrassed as well as confused. “But I've put my foot deep enough in my mouth already. I don't aim to shove it down my throat any further.”

“Don't feel embarrassed,” Ki said. “It's easy to make such a mistake, and very hard for some people to understand what is really between Jessie and me.”

“Why don't you try to tell me?”

“I'm not sure I can find the words I need.” Ki frowned and thought for a moment. “When I came to this country, I knew no one except Alex Starbuck. My family had—well, my father was American, and my Japanese mother's family did not approve of my mixed blood. An outcast in my own country, I came here to the United States. Alex Starbuck had been a friend of my father‘s, and I went to him. He gave me work, and later I became his assistant. Jessie was a young girl when I first began working for her father. I watched her grow up, and when Alex was killed, she asked me to serve her as I had served Alex.”

Ki paused, his eyes fixed unobtrusively on Jed. The young ranch hand was frowning as he tried to assimilate all that Ki had said, and to guess at what had been left unspoken.

“I guess you and Jessie are sort of like a sister and brother, then,” Jed frowned. “Is that right?”

“It's as close as you can come, I think. But I am also Jessie's servant.” Ki smiled a bit sadly. “It is a difficult relationship to explain. I do not question Jessie's orders, or what she does, and she asks nothing about my own personal life. And when the two overlap and mingle, we seem to understand what we do not say.”

“It's sort of complicated, all right,” Jed agreed. “But I think I follow you.”

“Good.”

“I still don't understand what this cartel's all about, though,” Jed said.

Jessie came into the sitting room. She had changed from her traveling clothes into the skirt and jacket that she wore in town. Hearing Jed's remark about the cartel, she said, “I'll explain as much as I can to you right away, Jed, because you must understand the kind of men we're fighting. But before I get into that, has Ki told you why we came to Virginia City?”

Jed nodded. “We're looking for a fellow named Frank Jeffers. He likes to gamble at the faro tables in the New Ophir Saloon—I guess that'd be one of the fancy ones down by Piper's Opera House, at the other end of C Street. This Jeffers is mixed up in the cartel thing, the way I got it.”

“He's probably one of their very important men,” Jessie said soberly. “Which makes him very dangerous.”

“That doesn't scare me a bit, Jessie,” Jed told her. “You don't have to worry about me being afraid to face him down.”

“I'm not.” Jessie smiled reassuringly, then added, “But don't make the mistake of underestimating the cartel's men, Jed. They're merciless and unscrupulous. If one of them gets you in a corner, kill him before he kills you.”

“But the best thing to do is not to let one of them get you cornered,” Ki put in. He turned to Jessie and went on, “Should we be getting busy now? The sooner we start—”

“Yes, of course,” Jessie replied. “While I was relaxing, I had a few ideas. Let's order lunch sent up, and while we eat, we can talk about them. I'll explain a few things about the cartel to Jed, and then we'll make our plans.”

While they ate grilled lake trout taken the afternoon before from the icy depths of nearby Lake Tahoe, Jessie talked about the cartel. Since Jed had been present the night before, when she'd sketched for Governor Kinkead its worldwide organization and sinister motives, she dwelt chiefly on its methods of operation, of which she and Ki had learned the hard way in their earlier encounters.

Without appearing to do so, Jessie covertly studied Jed's handsome bronzed face, freshly shaved after his bath. When she noted how his facial expressions changed in reaction to her explanations, she realized that he was much quicker of mind than she'd thought. With a word added now and then by Ki, she could see when she'd finished that Jed had now begun to comprehend the size and nature of the group behind the South Sierra Railway Company.

“And you think this fellow Jeffers is pretty high up in this cartel outfit?” he asked.

“Very high indeed,” Jessie replied. “I'm sure he's Karl Prosser's boss, and that the cartel's put him in full charge of getting the railroad built.”

“I'd guess that Jeffers is in charge of a lot more than just the railroad, too,” Ki put in. “He's probably the cartel's headman in Nevada Territory, perhaps even more powerful than that.”

“You make it sound pretty bad, Ki,” Jed frowned. “Isn't the government doing anything? I'd think Congress—”

“Don't depend on Congress,” Jessie broke in. “Once a man goes to Congress, he hasn't anything on his mind but getting himself elected again.”

“Well, the Secret Service, then,” Jed suggested.

“All it can do is try to stop counterfeiters,” Jessie told him. “And you've seen right in Hidden Valley how easy it is for the cartel to bribe local sheriffs and judges.”

Jed nodded thoughtfully. “I guess that sort of leaves it to people like you and Ki, don't it?”

“We've been fighting them since Father's death, just as he fought them while he was alive,” Jessie said.

“Well, you can sure count on me to help you and Ki, Jessie,” Jed told her, his voice firm. “That's the kind of outfit that any right-thinking American wants to put out of business!”

“I was sure you'd feel—” Jessie began. She stopped in mid-sentence when raised voices sounded from the hall, followed by the muffled noises of a scuffle.

Ki was at the door before either Jessie or Jed could move. He turned the key quickly and threw the door open. A uniformed bellboy and a man dressed in city-style clothing were grappling with each other. The bellboy was young, and no match for his opponent. As Ki went through the door, the bigger man shoved the bellboy against Ki and started running down the hall.

Ki tried to push the youth out of his way, but the boy was partly stunned, and clung to Ki's arms. The fleeing man reached the end of the corridor and, without breaking stride, dove headfirst through the window that overlooked the back of the hotel building. He disappeared while the tinkling crash of the broken windowpane still hung in the air.

Jed and Jessie reached Ki and pulled the bellboy away from him. Ki ran down the hall at top speed and looked out the broken window. Jed was close behind Ki. Jessie stood in the open door, supporting the dazed bellboy.

One glance out the window told Ki the story. Directly below, the shed roof of the hotel's back entrance stretched only a few feet under the windowsill. The man who'd gone through the window had vanished. Ki and Jed looked down at the hotel's stables, across a narrow courtyard.

“You think he went in there?” Jed asked. “I'm ready to go look and see if we can find him.”

Ki shook his head. “He'd be too smart to try and hide. No, Jed. He's gotten away, and he knows exactly where to go, while we're strangers here. Trying to find him would be a waste of time.”

They walked back to the open door of the suite. Jessie was talking to the bellboy. She said, “The boy caught whoever it was bending down at the door. He was either trying to pick the lock or listening to us.”

Ki nodded, then turned to Jed. “You see that Jessie was not exaggerating when she told you how cunning they are.” When Jed started to answer, his question plain in his eyes, Ki shook his head. Indicating the bellboy, he said, “Later, Jed.”

Jessie took a double eagle from her pocket and held the gold coin up for the bellboy to see. She said, “This is yours on one condition. You are not to tell anybody about what happened.”

“But I've got to report—” the boy began.

“No. You do not have to report. Someone will find the window broken and blame it on a careless guest. But this twenty dollars is yours if you agree to keep absolutely quiet about what happened.”

“Well...” The bellboy's eyes were fixed on the gold-piece. He swallowed hard, and nodded. “All right, Miss Johnson. I promise. I swear I won't say a word. Not to the bell captain or the clerk or anybody else.”

When the bellboy had left, clutching his double eagle, and the door had been closed and locked again, Jessie said crisply, “They learned we were here sooner than I'd expected, Ki. That means we'll have to work faster than we'd planned. I must send a telegram to the bank in San Francisco right away. While I'm doing that, you and Jed can scout out the New Ophir Saloon.”

“But are we—” Jed began.

“We're going through with our plans, Jed,” Jessie replied calmly. “We'll just have to be more careful and work faster. Now you and Ki go ahead. I'm going to write my telegram and send it. We don't have any time to waste. With any luck, we'll strike our first blow at the cartel tonight!”

 

Jessie walked slowly down C Street when she left the hotel. The main thoroughfare was as crowded at ten o‘clock at night as it had been in the afternoon when she'd gone to the telegraph office in the Virginia & Truckee Railroad depot, and as it had been in midmorning when she and Ki and Jed had arrived.

Virginia City had two principal industries, silver mining and saloonkeeping, and both operated around the clock. All the retail stores Jessie passed were still open, the saloons that seemed to occupy the ground floor of every second or third building were all busy, and in two or three of the narrow alleys between buildings, where the red lights of the cribs glowed, there were men lined up at some of the doors, waiting for a favorite.

Most of the men on the street seemed to be moving from one saloon to the next, in search of one of the two other recreations the town offered: drinking and gambling. All of them were out looking for a way to forget the past twelve hours or to dull the dread of the next twelve, which they would spend deep in the steam-hot drifts where two or three men were crushed to death each day under collapsing earth. With ten thousand men off-shift and on the streets regardless of the hour, Virginia City quite literally never slept.