“Not in a little settlement like that, honey,” Carole chimed in from behind. “But we really could use some food, and I saw that you’ve taken all Nathan’s money.”
Rolf flushed with embarrassment. “Carole, I didn’t steal it! I just took what we’d need to get down to Arizona.”
“But we don’t even know where in Arizona we’re supposed to go!” Teresa said with obvious exasperation.
“Nathan will come around,” Rolf said, trying to sound confident. “And he’ll tell us where he wanted to end up and buy a ranch.”
“But what if he doesn’t?” Teresa asked. “Then what do we do?”
“I don’t know,” Rolf admitted. “I’ve been giving that some thought, but so far I haven’t come up with anything. The thing of it is, we talked a lot but he never actually said where we were going.”
“Do you think he had a specific destination in Arizona?”
Rolf shrugged. “It’s hard to say. One night on the trail Nathan talked fondly of a place along the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.”
“In Nevada?” Carole asked, sounding surprised.
“I think he said it was in California.”
“Jeez,” Teresa said, “I always wanted to see California and the ocean.”
“It’d be nice all right,” Rolf said, “but I don’t recall Nathan saying anything about any ocean nearby.”
“Well, he just must have forgot,” Teresa said, “because California has definitely got an ocean. I know that for a fact because San Francisco is in California and it’s beside the ocean.”
“Well then, Teresa, darling,” Rolf said, plenty willing to concede the point as they neared the mining town, “I guess we would be close to the ocean.”
Rolf stopped the wagon and tethered the Thoroughbreds together so that they could not be scattered or stolen. Then he climbed back into the buckboard and continued on. The mining settlement didn’t have a name that they could locate. A lot of them had signs posted at both ends of the main street giving the name, the population, or often even the date it was founded. But this town was so hard looking that no one had bothered.
“We sure are attracting a lot of attention,” Teresa said, noting the flock of miners who were beginning to stare.
“We always attract a lot of attention when we arrive,” Carole said, cradling Nathan’s head in her lap.
Rolf felt a stirring of jealousy and anger as miners, freighters, and saloon patrons stood lined along the street gawking at the new arrivals. “They act like they never seen women before,” he muttered.
“Just ignore them and let’s stop in front of that general store up on the right,” Teresa said. “It looks to be the only one in town.”
“I’ll bet it’s damned expensive too,” Rolf grumbled.
“We’ve got enough money to buy anything we want,” Teresa said in a low voice as she surveyed the hard, leering faces that lined the street. “Let’s just buy what we need and get out of here as fast as possible.”
“Good idea,” Carole said.
Rolf was beginning to think that it really might have been wiser if they’d have bypassed this settlement. Other than a livery, a general store, and an assayer’s office, all it had was a line of saloons, gambling halls, and other attractions created with the sole purpose of separating a miner from his gold.
Rolf tried to ignore the hard-faced men as he climbed down from the buckboard and then handed the reins to Teresa. “I’ll just grab a few things and we’ll be on our way.”
“Sure,” she said, looking uneasy. “Just don’t stray out of calling distance.”
Rolf nodded, and when he started to step up upon the boardwalk, a tough-looking man blocked his view. “Whatcha doin’ with them chippies, huh, kid?”
Rolf heard the mocking challenge. He felt his insides grow cold and wanted to step around the bigger man and sidestep this trouble. And he might have, but the man gave him a little shove. “I asked you a question, kid.”
“Ignore him, Rolf!” Teresa said. “He’s just trying to show off to his friends.”
The man turned his eyes to Teresa. “You got fire. Why don’t you come down here and do the women’s work of shopping instead of sending the kid?”
Rolf knew that he could not avoid or win this fight. He was just not big or strong enough to whip the bully. That being the case, he had no alternative but to draw his six-gun. It came up very fast, smooth and cocked.
“Step aside,” Rolf whispered, pressing the barrel of the gun to the bully’s belly. “Step aside or I’ll blow your guts all over the side of this building.”
The bully paled. He glanced down at the pistol, then back up at Rolf and tried to sound brave. “If you kill me, kid, my friends will tear you apart.”
“Fine,” Rolf said. “It’s a good day to die … but you’re going to do it first.”
The street fell silent. A hundred men stood watching, and not one said a word as the bully weighed the resolve in Rolf’s eyes and decided that he wasn’t bluffing.
“I ain’t armed, kid.”
“Then either get out of my sight, or get a gun,” Rolf heard himself say.
“I-I was just joshin’ you a little. No harm meant.”
“Sure,” Rolf said, prodding the man hard. “And no harm done. Now, git!”
