Luke's Gold (4 page)

Luke Tucker picked up his saddle and walked it over to the circle of cowhands seated Indian-style in the shade of the cottonwoods next to the river. No one paid the old roper much attention, as the general talk floating back and forth over the group of men centered mostly upon prospects of cutting loose on the town of Miles City—as Milestown was now called—as soon as Mr. Becker arrived with the payroll. It had been a long drive, taking eleven hundred Texas longhorns from south of the Canadian River up the old Goodnight-Loving Trail all the way to Miles City, Montana Territory—and Luke could feel the toll of it in his bones. As he settled down beside Cade Hunter, he could imagine that he could actually hear his joints creaking with the effort.

Cade greeted him with a broad smile. “You look like you've got a little hitch in your get-along, Luke.”

Luke chuckled. “I reckon.” He leaned back against his saddle and stretched his legs out in front of him. “I ain't as young as some of you fellers,” he said. They sat there a while, listening to the big talk between the gang of men, bragging about how much whiskey they were planning to down and how many women were in danger of hard rides. After a few minutes more, Luke said to Cade, “Reckon you're anxious to get into town, too, and spend all the money you made on the drive.”

Cade smiled. “Well, it ain't really a helluva lot of money, is it?” he said. “I expect I'll have a drink or two, but I need most of my pay for new supplies and cartridges for my rifle.”

Luke nodded approvingly. This was one of the reasons he liked the quiet young man. He had worked with a lot of young men over the years, but Cade Hunter was not the typical tumbleweed cowhand Luke had commonly ridden with. The man seemed almost reclusive at times, deep in thoughts he shared with no one. Some might think him shy, and think to take advantage. Brady Waits had made that mistake—not once, but twice. Luke had to smile when he recalled the incident at the South Platte crossing when Brady decided to seek a measure of revenge for the loss of face he'd suffered the day Cade signed on.

That was pretty much the end of it as Luke remembered, but no one else thought it a good idea to jape the new fellow. Brady had mumbled something to Cade as he had limped off to find a rag to stuff in his nose to stop the bleeding. Luke couldn't hear what he said, but figured it was probably a warning that it wasn't over. Cade didn't react to it one way or the other. During the month after that, the rest of the crew came to realize that Cade Hunter might be somewhat of a loner, but he was a solid, dependable man who never looked for trouble, and one who always pulled his share of the load. Of course, Brady Waits never warmed up to him, but Luke saw something in the young man that told him he was the partner he was looking for. He had a business proposition for Cade, and now, at the end of the drive, Luke decided he was going to approach him with it.

Cade watched as Becker counted out his wages and placed the money in his hand. When Becker had finished, he said, “You're a good man, Cade. I've never seen a man better with horses than you are. I'm gonna need a couple of men to drive horses back to Texas with me. As far as the rest of the men, I'm letting each man pick one horse for himself. I don't aim to turn anyone loose without a horse. After that, I'm selling most of the remuda here—only gonna keep the best of the stock to take back to Texas. So if you're of a mind to take it, I'm offering you the job.”

The offer gave Cade something to think about. He had not planned to return to Texas right away. There was no one there waiting for his return, and he was still intent upon chasing wild horses in Montana. Becker's invitation came as a surprise, too, because Cade had assumed he would be paid off and cut loose like everybody else since he was the last man to hire on.

Overhearing the offer, Luke was more than an interested bystander, and he was somewhat relieved to hear Cade's response. “That's mighty generous of you to offer, Mr. Becker,” Cade replied. “If you don't mind, I'd like to think it over for a bit.”

Becker shrugged. “All right, but let me know by tomorrow morning, because if you don't want it, I'll pick one of the other men.”

Luke let Becker walk away before he spoke. “That was pretty high praise coming from Mr. Becker,” he said. “Most any of the other fellers woulda jumped on the chance to make wages all the way back to Texas.”

“I s'pose,” Cade replied. “I ain't turned it down yet.”

“It kinda sounded to me like you wasn't all that anxious to get back down to Texas.”

“Maybe.” Cade shrugged.

“Whaddaya say we go get that drink you mentioned before,” Luke suggested. “I've got a little somethin' I'm workin' on, somethin' you might be interested in.” A drink sounded like a good idea to Cade, so they left their saddles at the holding pens and walked into town. They weren't looking for anything beyond a drink, so they went into the first saloon they came to. Luke bought a bottle of whiskey and took it to a table in the back corner of the noisy room. When Cade reached into his pocket to pay for half of it, Luke wouldn't accept the money. “I'm gonna be the one doin' all the talkin',” he insisted, “so I'll pay for the whiskey.” Cade was never one to do much talking, anyway, so it sounded like a good deal to him. He wasn't prepared for the story he was about to hear, however.

After one stiff drink to stir up the dust hanging on from the cattle drive, and another one to settle it down again, they leaned back in their chairs, and Luke began talking. “I ain't plannin' to head back to Texas, either,” he said. “I'm headin' west outta here. Goin' to Virginia City, lookin' for gold.”

His statement caused little more than one slightly raised eyebrow by Cade. “It's a trifle late for that, ain't it?” he asked. “Placer mining's pretty much played out in Alder Gulch from what I've heard.”

A thin smile slowly formed on Luke's face. “Not the kind of gold I'll be lookin' for,” he said. “The kind I'm lookin' for is in leather pouches, in mule packs.” He went on to tell Cade his story. “Back durin' the war, I served in the Union Army—a fact I never done much talkin' about since I've been workin' cattle down in Texas the last few years.” The statement surprised Cade. He had assumed Luke had worn the Confederate gray. It was news, indeed, to find that a Rebel minié ball he carried above his left knee was the reason he walked with a slight limp.

“Back in 'sixty-three, I was assigned to a contingent of troops under Captain James Liberty Fisk to protect emigrants travelin' from St. Paul to Alder Gulch. At the time, I couldn't understand the sense in using soldiers for escort duty for a bunch of emigrants when other units were being sent to fight the Rebs. But when we got to Alder Gulch, it wasn't hard for even a half-wit like me to figure it out. Virginia City was as much a Confederate town as Richmond, Virginia. It was plum full of Southern secessionists—but Montana wasn't a state, it was a territory, so it was controlled by the Union.” He paused to pour himself another shot from the bottle, waiting for Cade to see the significance in the statement just made. Whether Cade did or not, he gave no indication, so Luke continued.

“You see, President Lincoln couldn't take a chance on all that gold comin' outta Virginia City gettin' sidetracked to the South. So they was encouragin' folks to move out there to water down Southern sympathies. Let me tell you, Virginia City was a wild ol' place durin' the war, as lawless a town as you've ever seen. It got so bad that a bunch of the men in town organized a vigilance committee to insure law and order, and brother, their justice was swift and final. The queersome part of it was that a lot of them outlaws they hung was loyal to the Union. Hell, they hung a deputy sheriff that everybody knew weren't no outlaw. The vigilantes claimed he was part of a secret society of road agents—run by Henry Plummer, the sheriff. All I know is there was a helluva lot of lynchin' in a short time back then, although it wasn't actually hangin'. Most of 'em was really just strangled to death. They'd throw a rope around their necks and choke 'em till they died—took about eight or ten minutes of pure hell for the victim. It was a helluva way to die.

“But protectin' emigrants weren't the only duty we had. We was also escortin' gold shipments back from there—and that's what I'm gettin' around to. In September of 'sixty-four, I was part of an escort detailed to guard a shipment outta Virginia City. There was a string of nine mules, loaded with dust, three civilians drivin' 'em, with a lieutenant and fifteen soldiers to guard 'em.

“We went down the Madison River a ways till we was a little north of the mountains. Then we cut across to strike the Gallatin, aimin' to follow it on up to the East Gallatin where there was a detachment of cavalry in camp—on the spot where Fort Ellis was built later on. That was as far as we were supposed to go before we turned the shipment over to them.” He cocked his head to the side for emphasis. “Now, how that bunch of Rebs knew we were comin' that way, I'll never know. Somebody must have been in on that deal, but they was waitin' for us when we just caught sight of the river. There musta been fifty or sixty of 'em, and they had us right where they wanted us. We rode down a little gulch that led to the water, and all of a sudden all hell broke loose on both sides of us. We never had a chance. I think the lieutenant was the first one hit, and boy, they slaughtered all but four of us before we knew what was happenin'. Men, horses, mules—they were shootin' everythin' that moved.

“I was just lucky, I reckon. I was ridin' right behind Lieutenant Parker when he got hit—rifle ball hit him right side of the head—wasn't nothin' you could do for him. Me and Luther Adams slid off our horses and used 'em for cover while we tried to see what was goin' on. It didn't take but a second to figure we was done for if we stayed where we were. Two of the drivers were the only other men I saw standin', besides Luther and me, and they had the same idea we had. By then, there was only two mules still alive. Both our horses was already dead, so I took my knife and cut one of the mules loose, and me and Luther ran down the gulch leadin' the mule. I think them two civilians cut the other mule loose, but we didn't wait to see which way they ran. All we was thinkin' about was savin' our own necks.

“I swear, I don't know how them raiders never saw us runnin'. I guess they were too busy gettin' down to those dead mules in the gulch. But we were thankful for it. As soon as we hit the water, we headed downstream. The river wasn't deep there, but I thought we was gonna lose the mule a couple of times when we stepped in some holes.

“Back upstream, we could hear 'em shootin' at them other two fellers, and we knew they'd be comin' after us next, lookin' for that other mule. Me and Luther talked it over, and we decided we'd never make it leading that mule loaded down with gold. We could put that mule to better use, so we decided to unload the gold and ride that son of a bitch the hell outta there. Only trouble was, that was a helluva lotta gold dust in them packs. It wasn't natural to just run off and leave it. So we did the next best thing. There was a fish bed under the bank where the current had carved out around a rock. Quick as we could, we unloaded that gold up under the bank, and hoped nobody found it. Then we led the mule on downstream a little farther before comin' out of the river.

“We got on that mule, me in front, Luther behind me. If we'd got on the other way around, it'd be Luther here tellin' this story instead of me. One of them Rebs had rode down the other side of the river, and I reckon he only had time for two shots. The first one got Luther in the back, the second one got me in the leg.”

Luke shook his head sadly and poured the last of the whiskey in his glass. “I'll never forget his last words before he slid off that mule, ‘I'm done for, Johnny,' he said, and he was gone. I don't have no idea who Johnny was—somebody back home, I reckon.” He paused to remember for a second, then tossed back his drink. “Anyway, that mule kicked up his heels when he felt his load lighten, and took off up through the hills. I've thought about it plenty since then. Maybe I shoulda stopped to help Luther, but, hell, he was dead. I know he was, and there weren't no sense in waitin' around to give that Reb time to reload, and me with a rifle ball in my leg already.”

Cade sat there, fascinated, while Luke related his story while drinking the major portion of the whiskey. He'd thought he had come to know the older man quite well during the short time the two had become friends. Evidently, he decided now, there was a lot he didn't know. “Well, what happened after that?” he asked.

Luke shrugged. “I don't think they even bothered to come after me. When I was sure they weren't on my tail, I cut back to strike for that cavalry camp to tell 'em what happened. Now, it was my intention to tell Captain Willett that we had hid some of that gold, but it plumb slipped my mind. The captain said he was just waitin' there for the mule train, and he was goin' on back to Fort Lincoln. He ordered me to go back with his detachment, since I was wounded. I tried to tell him that I'd best get back to Virginia City, but he said he needed me more than they did.”