'We wish a deed of partnership drawn out between John Myrtle, that is
myself, Linda Myrtle, and Joseph Murdoch. Each of the three parties
agrees to put in the sum of five hundred pounds, which is to be jointly
expended on the journey to California, and on starting and carrying on a
saloon or other establishment there, the profits to be divided monthly,
each of the three parties becoming absolute possessor of his or her
share. In the event of Linda Myrtle marrying, or leaving the partnership
for any reason whatever, she is to forfeit all share in the property or
effects of the partnership.'
The lawyer listened attentively. 'Do either of the other parties
similarly forfeit their share on leaving the partnership?'
'No; but it might be as well to put in a clause that in the event of his
doing so the partner remaining has the first option of purchasing his
share at a price to be fixed upon by an umpire agreed upon by both.'
'I have a question to ask,' the girl said suddenly. 'Would such a deed
as this be rendered useless or invalid if the names of one or more of
the parties were not those properly belonging to them?'
The lawyer looked at her in surprise. 'It would certainly be very
desirable that the real names should be inserted. This, however, would
not be indispensable if the identity of the parties with those named
here could be proved; for instance if you were to come here to prove the
deed I could testify that you were the lady who signed as Linda Myrtle,
and that under that name for example, you registered at the hotel, and
were generally known. Did you wish to prove it elsewhere, you would take
an affidavit that you were the person designated and known as Linda
Myrtle. Did you sign under your real name, whatever it might be, it
would be just as difficult for you in California to prove that you were
entitled to it, as to that under which you sign. You intend, I suppose,
to continue to pass under the name given, and will be generally known by
it. Moreover, in case of necessity, you might write to me and forward
your likeness, and I could then make an affidavit to the effect that the
original of that portrait was the lady who in my presence signed the
deed of partnership under the name of Linda Myrtle.'
'We should each wish to have copies of the deed of partnership, and I
desire that a fourth copy may be made, and this I shall request you to
hold in charge for me, so that in case I should at any time lose or be
deprived of my copy, I should, by applying to you, be able to obtain
another copy.'
'I will certainly do that, Miss Myrtle, and I think it a very wise
precaution on your part. I will have the draft ready this afternoon,'
the lawyer said; 'I shall be glad if you will call in at three o'clock
to see if it meets your joint views, and if so, I will have the
deed--which will be a very short one--copied four times in readiness for
the signatures in the morning.'
'What did you want to go on like this for, Linda?' Mr. Warbles grumbled,
as he went out into the street. 'Why, the man will suppose that you
suspect us of some plot to rob you.'
'No, I don't suspect anything particular, but there is nothing like
having things put on a satisfactory footing. I see that it is for our
interest that we should act square to each other, and I certainly see no
reason whatever why you should wish to get rid of me. Still, no one can
say what might happen. After all, I am only ensuring to myself my share
of the profits so long as I do my share of the business as well as I
can--and I should think from what you have seen of my powers of acting,
you can rest well assured that I shall do it very well--but I want to be
independent, and I will be so. I don't know anything of this place we
are going to, except that the men are rough and quarrelsome, and I want,
if after two or three months trial I find the life altogether unbearable
to be able to leave, with money enough in my pocket to pay my fare to
San Francisco, if not home, and to be able to keep myself until I can
find some situation.'
'You are right enough, Miss Linda,' Joe Murdoch broke in, 'and I haven't
the least feeling against you for what you have said and done. I like
you all the better that you can stand up for yourself, and though I am
not much of a fighting man I will promise you I will stand by you out
there whatever comes. Any man that says a word to you that he ought not
to say I will reckon with him. I ain't a straight man myself and never
have been since I was a kid, but, by gosh, I would be cut in pieces
rather than see anything happen to a girl that is as straight as you
are.'
'Thank you, Joe,' she said, quietly holding out her hand to him. 'I did
not know you before, but now that I do, I feel there is no occasion for
me to have that fourth copy made.'
'You have it made, miss; it is best you should have one. I might go
under and Bob might get another partner, or he might go under and I
might get another partner, and in either case it would save trouble if
you have your rights clearly marked out and set down.'
'Let us go down to the wharf, Joe,' his comrade said, changing the
conversation. 'It is all as good as settled now, and we may as well
begin to get the things. How long will it take us?'
'It won't take more than two hours, any way,' Joe said. 'There are big
stores here where we can get every mortal thing we want. We could go by
the boat to-night if we wanted to, but we don't want to. In the first
place I have got to settle about selling my saloon, and in the second
the order for the horses is only going by to-night's boat, and it ain't
no manner of use our getting into Omaha before they do. It would cost us
twice as much to live in a shanty, where every square foot is occupied
by sleepers, than it would to stop comfortably in an hotel here. I shall
not be long in getting rid of my place. Two or three of the men who use
it have asked me at one time or another what I would take to clear out
of it. It is handy for the river, and I do a fairish trade with sailors
of an evening. Still, it would take a day or two to arrange it, and it
will never do to look as if one was in a hurry. If they thought I wanted
to clear out they would not offer half the sum they would if they
thought that I did not care one way or the other about making a deal.'
They walked along the wharves looking at the steamers.
'There are plenty of them going up the river,' Murdoch said, 'but
Thursday's boat is the first that goes up to Omaha, and that is about as
close as we can cut it. It is Monday now, and the day is pretty near
half gone; I reckon I shall want all the time for carrying out my deal.
I will go now and see one of the chaps I spoke of. At three o'clock we
have got to meet at that lawyer's office, and then if you like we will
go and get our outfit, and take our passages. I have got more than
enough money to pay for my share. If you will take my advice, Miss
Linda, you will go back to the hotel and overhaul your things and see
what you want for the journey. You will want some good strong plain
dresses and serviceable things underneath, for it is a rough business I
can tell you. You want a store of all sorts of little things--buttons
and such like, needles and thread and all that sort of thing--and plenty
of stout shoes that will bear knocking about. You must bear in mind that
you won't see a shop for four or five months; but remember the less
baggage you take the better, as I have heard that many a waggonload of
emigrants going across the plains have had to chuck everything
overboard, kit and food and all except a sack of flour, so as to lighten
the waggons when the horses broke down. I am not sure, Bob, that it
would not be wiser to write for six horses, or better still for two
mules for wheelers and four horses. It may cost a bit more, but it will
make things more easy and will give us a better chance of getting to the
end of our journey with all our kit.'
'All right, Joe; you know more of these things than I do. If you think
that six are best, order them. I suppose the tent we shall get out
there.'
'Yes, the tent is a mighty heavy thing. I should never think of dragging
that with us.'
'I should not have given you credit for being so soft, Murdoch,'
Truscott growled, as after seeing the girl into the hotel, they turned
away together.
'I dare say not. Softness ain't much in my line, but that girl fetched
me altogether. Here she is, right away from England and without a friend
in the world, and she speaks out as firm and as brave as if she had
twenty men within call ready to help her. If she had been one of the
crying sort she would have got no pity from me, but she regular took my
breath away when she spoke out like that, and I says to myself, "She has
got to be ridden on a snaffle; just touch the curb and she will bolt
with you and will break your neck as well as her own." But I meant what
I said for all that. She is just the girl for what we want, and if she
finds we treat her well and act square by her she will act square by us.
She will keep them all at a distance, and keep her head straight all the
time; only you will have to humour her. I don't know where you picked
her up, but I should wager a dollar to a cent that she is thoroughbred.'
'You would not have said so if you had seen her three years and a half
ago, when I picked her out from a slum in London.'
'I might not have said so then, that is likely enough; one can't always
tell whether a yearling is going to turn out a good horse, and a good
many who think they are clever get sucked in over it; but a man who has
an eye to horseflesh can tell whether a three-year-old is well bred or
not, and I guess I am not far out with this one. Yes, I am struck over
her. It is not often that women, or men either for that matter, get on
the soft side of me. You know pretty well that I wasn't afraid of
running a bit of risk in the old days, and you may guess that this
country doesn't make a baby of one. No, sir, I have seen pistols and
knives out pretty often since I came here, and would use them myself if
there was any occasion, and I guess that if we ever get into a mess you
will find I shall play my part as well as you do; only I want it clearly
understood that in this job we are going in for I am ready to go through
it whatever comes; but I am fixed in my mind that we are going to act
straight to that girl.'
'Who wants not to act straight?' the other said angrily. 'Haven't I
brought her all the way out here because I thought she would be useful?
Couldn't I have slipped away with all the pot we had made, and left her
behind me if I had wanted to? And who is talking about my not acting
square with her now?'
'That is right enough, mate; we won't quarrel over it. So that we three
all act straight to each other all round I am satisfied.'
They did not get away from New Orleans as soon as they had expected. The
various purchases were all made in ample time, but the business of
disposing of Murdoch's saloon was not so speedily arranged. He suggested
that the other two should go on by the 'Mississippi Belle,' and that he
should follow by the next steamer, but Warbles was against this.
'A week won't make much difference one way or the other,' he said. 'It
is better that we should keep together. You are more up to the ropes
here than I am. I suppose they will change our tickets for those of next
week's boat?'
'There will be no difficulty about that; I could change them in five
minutes. There are lots of people who could not get berths on her, and
have had to take them in the next boat, and they would jump at the
chance of going up at once.'
It was not until they had been at New Orleans nearly three weeks that
Murdoch's business was finally arranged and everything was ready for a
start. Warbles was in no particular hurry; he had been accustomed to do
a great deal of aimless loafing about during his career, and found
plenty to amuse him, looking at the busy scene by the riverside; but at
last all was ready, and their goods were all on board the steamer that
was to start on the following morning.
'There is a New York steamer signalled coming up,' Murdoch said, as they
stood together smoking on one of the quays. 'She will be in by five
o'clock. It is the 'Savannah'; she is a smart boat, and I guess she has
made the passage down in four or five days quicker time than you did.'
'I am glad she is in before we start. I dare say she will have papers
from England a good week later than any we have got here. It is as well
to get the last news while we can. We shan't have the chance for some
months again.'
'I don't care for English papers now. I look at them, because sometimes
an English skipper or mate comes into my place, and when they find I am
a countryman and know something about the turf, they will put a few
dollars on some horse or other for the Derby. If the news is expected in
before they sail, sometimes they will turn to the English paper and pick
out a horse just for the fun of the thing for some other race of which
the news ought to be in in a day or two, and put two or three dollars on
it. If it was not for that I should never take the trouble to look at
them, though I always take them regular in the saloon.'
It was not long before a steamer appeared at a distant turn of the
river, and as she came up to the city the two men walked down to the
wharf, where she would arrive, and where a crowd of idlers like
themselves had already assembled. As she warped alongside, Truscott gave
a sudden exclamation and nervously grasped his companion's arm.
'What is up?' the latter asked angrily. 'Confound it, there is no
occasion to grip a man like that. I thought for a moment a big dog had
got hold of me. What is the matter with you?'
Truscott had pulled his hat far down over his eyes.
'Do you see that man upon the hurricane deck, with his hands in his
pockets smoking a cigar?'
'Yes, I see him fast enough; he is an Englishman, one can tell with half
an eye. Well, what about him?'
'Take a good look at him so as to know him again, and then let us get
out of this and I will tell you.'
Murdoch took another look and then followed his companion out of the
crowd.
'Well, you look as if you had had a facer,' he said, when they had moved
a hundred yards away. 'I have seen chaps look like that when they have
had every penny they own in the world on the favourite and it has not
even been placed.'
'I feel something like that, Joe. I believe that fellow is on my track?'
'You do; why, how can that be? How can he have followed you here?'
'That is more than I can say, but it don't much matter if he has
followed me.'
'Are you sure it is the man?'
'Quite sure. I am a good hand at faces. One wants to be when one is a
bookmaker and don't always find it convenient to pay up. I saw that man
at the Oaks; he was talking for some time to a man I knew--the very man
who was mixed up in the job I pulled off before leaving England.'
'You mean it was his money you got at?'
'Yes. Well, that fellow you saw there has been after me. Two or three of
my pals told me there had been a man asking about me on the racecourses,
and one day, it was the only time I went down, one of them pointed him
out to me. He got into the train with me at Epsom; he thought I did not
see him, but I did. He got into the next compartment, but I slipped him
at Vauxhall, and did not see any more of him. I believe that fellow is
on my track, though how he has got hold of it is more than I can guess.
Anyhow, I cannot believe it is accident that brings him alongside of me
again. I should not be surprised if he has got a warrant against the
girl and me in his pocket now.'
'Well, he has brought his pigs to the wrong market if he has,' Murdoch
said fiercely; 'we have gone into this affair now, and if anyone thinks
he is going to meddle with us he will find he is mistaken. Well, there
ain't any time to be lost; if he happens to go to the same hotel you are
at the game is up. You had best go straight back, get a carriage and
have all your things taken right down to the boat; then if you are
smart, you will be in time to get on board the boat that starts in two
hours for Baton Rouge. Get off there and be on the look out for our boat
as she comes along to-morrow. I shall be up in the bow; if you see me
wave my handkerchief you will know it is all right, and you can step
right on board; if you don't see me wave, do you and the girl move off
at once; get behind one of the stores, and come on by the next boat. I
don't think it likely he will be there, mighty unlikely, but it is just
as well to settle what to do in case he is. If he should by any chance
guess that the Mr. and Miss Myrtle he sees in the hotel books are the
pair he is looking for, he would find out that they are bound up the
river, and in the morning he might go down to the steamer to see if it
is them. He would watch till she went off, and when he found out that
you are not among the passengers he would think that he had made a
mistake, and go back to the hotel again, and would hunt about in other
places before he had made up his mind that you had given him the slip.
It is a week before another steamer goes up to Omaha, and we should be a
week out on the plains before he got there.'
'I should like to see anyone talking about an arrest out there. However,
I don't think you need be afraid of him; I fancy I can arrange about
that.'
'You ain't going----'
'Never mind what I am going to do,' the other interrupted. 'I am not
going to have our plans broken up, nor the pleasure of our journey
spoilt by being hunted as if we were dogs. I don't know who this fellow
is, and I don't care; if he chooses to meddle with our affairs, he has
got to take the consequences; he is not in London now. There, don't
stand here another minute; he may land in half-an-hour, and you have got
to be out of the hotel before then. I heard the girl say that the boxes
were all packed. Mind, first get the boxes on board, then go to the
wharf and get on board the Baton Rouge steamer. Look out for our boat;
if you see me wave my white handkerchief it is safe to come on board; if
not, slip away and get behind something till we go on again; then come
by next boat. If he gets off at any of the landings, going up the river,
I shall get off too, and come on board again as you come along.'
Murdoch went back to the landing-place. The passengers were pouring off
the steamer with bags and boxes of all kinds. The man he was to watch
was still walking quietly up and down the hurricane deck, evidently in
no hurry to land until the rush was over. Sometimes he stopped to speak
a word or two to a boy who was standing at the rail, watching the others
landing.
'I guess that fellow is with him,' Murdoch muttered. 'It may be some boy
he has made friends with on the passage. If he has brought him from
England it must be because the boy knows Tom and the girl; but if he
does he could do no harm if the other was out of the way. You are taking
it cool and quiet, my fine fellow. If you guessed that every five
minutes you spent there spoilt your chance, you would not take it quite
so easily.'
It was a good half-hour before the stream of passengers and porters with
baggage had ceased crossing the gangway; then the man and boy left the
hurricane deck, and a minute or two later appeared at the gangway,
followed by two men with portmanteaux. There was but one vehicle
remaining by the wharf. Murdoch knew the driver.
'Mike,' he said, 'here are a couple of dollars for you. If that man just
landing tells you to drive him to Planter's Hotel you take him somewhere
else. Pretend you misunderstood him. I have my reasons for not wanting
him to go there.'
'All right, I will take him to Reardon's; it is at the other end of the
town.'
'Come back here and let me know where you put him down,' and Murdoch
moved off as the gentleman came up to the carriage.
He watched them drive off, and then took a seat on a baulk of timber
till Mike returned.
'He told me to take him to the Crescent City, and it's there I put him
down, Mr. Murdoch.'
'All right, Mike; I don't care where he goes so that it isn't to
Planter's.' Then he walked away, and after threading several of the
worst streets of the town, stopped at a low wine shop. There was no one
in but the man behind the bar.
'They tell me that you have sold out, Murdoch, and are going West. Is it
true?'
'That is right. I have had enough of this. I am going to try my luck
West. Have you got Black Mat with you still?'
'No. You will find him at Luttrell's. You know the place, at the corner
of Plantation Street. That is to say, he was there a fortnight ago, if
he has not got shot or hung since. Not thinking of taking him with you?'
'No.' Murdoch laughed. 'He is strong enough and would be useful, but he
gets so confoundedly sulky if he takes a drop too much. That was why I
had to get rid of him. He got into three or four rows, and I had him on
my hands each time for over a fortnight, so I thought he had better go.'
'Yes, you told me about it. I found him useful here, especially when I
wanted the place cleared; but it would not do, he broke one fellow's
shoulder throwing him out, and it was getting me a bad name.'
'Well, good-bye,' Murdoch said. 'I am off by the boat to-morrow. I will
look you up if I come back this way, and let you know how I have got
on.'
Five minutes later Murdoch turned into Luttrell's. A powerful negro,
whose face was disfigured by the scars of several cuts and gashes at
once came up to him. 'Waall, boss, how are you?'
'I am all right, Mat. I came to have a word with you.'
'There ain't no one to prevent you. The boss has just gone out. We don't
do no business here till late.'
'What I want you for is this, Mat. There is a friend of mine just come
from New York. He is going up the River with me, but there is a police
chap just come down after him, and, like enough, he will be at the boat
to put his hand on his shoulder. I want to arrange that he shan't be
there, you understand; I don't want him killed, but I just want him to
have a hint that he had better not meddle with other people's
business--a hint, you know, strong enough to lay him up for three weeks
or a month; and I should not mind paying twenty dollars to the man who
gives him the hint.'
'You point him out to me and the job will be done, boss; only I don't
sees as I can hit it to exact three weeks or a month. When one is in a
bit of a hurry it ain't no easy matter to figure it out just exact.'
'Well, we are not particular to a week; what we want is not to be
bothered with him.'
'I will fix that, boss. You can go on board that boat with your mind
easy.'
'Of course you can't go now?'
'Well, I could go, if it was downright necessary, but it would be rough
on the boss to find no one here when he came back. I expect he will be
in in ten minutes. He said if anyone asked for him he would be back in
half-an-hour, and it is getting on for that now.'
'I will wait, then; I know Luttrell very well; he will let you go out
for a bit with me if I ask him.'
The keeper of the saloon soon returned. 'I can do without him,' he said,
when Murdoch told him that he wanted the negro to do a job for him. 'I
don't expect it will be a very busy night, and if it is I will call my
wife down, and put her behind the bar, while I keep things straightened
out.'
Upon arriving at the hotel Captain Hampton dined quietly. Then he went
to the clerk's desk, had a talk with him over the people who had been
staying there and showed him Dorothy's photograph.
'Nothing like that been here,' the clerk said positively. 'I should have
noticed her at once if she had been.'
'I have no reason to suppose that she came here more than to any other
hotel,' Hampton said. 'I will go round in the morning and try the
others. I suppose there are not a great many where a gentleman with a
lady with him would be likely to put up?'
'Not more than six, I should say, at the outside,' the clerk said, and
gave the names, which Captain Hampton at once wrote down in a note-book.
'It is just possible that they might not have come here at all, but may
have stopped at Mobile, where the steamer touched on her way down;
still, I think it much more likely that they have come here.' Then he
went upstairs and wrote a chatty letter to Danvers, giving him an
account of the voyage.
'I hear there is a steamer leaves to-morrow, and I hope to be able to
give you some news before I close this. I am going round the hotels the
first thing, and hope, if not to find them, to get some news of them.
The latter is most probable. I don't see Truscott could have any motive
in stopping here, and I shall expect to find that they only stayed a day
or two and then went up the river. I have a strong conviction he means
to go to California; but even in that case he may have chosen some other
route--have gone down to Panama and crossed the isthmus there, or may
have taken steamer to Galveston and started from there by the southern
route, though I don't think that is likely, for the Indians are worse on
that line than on the other. Anyhow, whichever route they have taken I
shall follow. I wrote from New York to the War Office, asking that my
leave might be extended for another six months from the end of the year,
on very urgent business that compelled me to travel in America. I have
sent a private letter to Colonel Eversfield, telling him something of
the nature of the work I have in hand, and asking him to back up my
request. I have no doubt he can manage it. That ought to give me plenty
of time; but if the worst comes to the worst and I find myself pinched I
must take ship at San Francisco and get to China, and from there by a P.
and O. to India. This will be the last letter you will get, I fancy, for
a very long time; though for aught I know there may be means of sending
off letters from some of the stations on the plains.'
He addressed an envelope, laid it by the unfinished letter, and then
went downstairs. It was dark now, and beckoning to Jacob, who was
sitting in the hall, to accompany him, he strolled out through the door.
For nearly an hour they wandered about, and at the end of that time came
out on the quays.