Chapter Seven

After dark Quantrill and his men came into the canyon flushed with success.

“We got away with the contents of a Federal army pay-wagon!” The captain crowed as he handed his horse over to Pierre Chamont.

“Well, at least we will not be short of Yankee dollars from now on.” Daniel commented.

“Daniel, I want you to count the money. You’re the only one that I trust not to take any. Every last penny of this money has to be delivered to Confederate headquarters in Texas to further the war effort. Choose your men: you can take two; because you will personally make the delivery.”

Daniel spent the whole evening counting the money. There was over fifteen thousand dollars with almost two thousand dollars in coins.

“Captain, the coins are too heavy and bulky.” Daniel complained. “May we not leave them here to use for supplies? There will be over thirteen thousand in notes to deliver to headquarters.”

“No sirree! Every last coin has to go to headquarters. I will not have it said that we did this robbery to enrich ourselves.”

“I will have to take two packhorses, sir, one for provisions and the other to carry the money.”

“That’s fine Daniel but I want you to spread the money over all the horses just in case something happens and you lose a horse. I would not want it to be the one horse carrying all the money.”

Daniel chose Pierre Chamont and Jake Smith to accompany him. He left them to pack the provisions onto the two packhorses while he rode over to the mansion to see Arabella.

She appeared delighted to see him.

“Arabella, the captain is sending me south into Texas. Depending on the disposition of Federal troops, I could be away a couple of weeks. Do you have any wrapping paper or cloth that I can use to wrap a cargo that I must deliver to the headquarters?”

“Daniel, wrapping paper and cloth all went up in smoke with the house but I call to mind some rolls of wallpaper that were left over from decorating the living and dining rooms. They would be stored down at the stables in the storeroom there.”

She led him down to the storeroom and handed over the wallpaper. It was sturdy stuff and very near to waterproof.

“This should do the job well, Arabella. Thank you for your help. I’ll see you in about two weeks, God willing.”

“Hold on there mister!” She said with determination. “If you are going away for two weeks with the possibility of never returning, the very least you can do is kiss me farewell.”

Daniel was surprised by the request but he was nothing loath, so he kissed her soundly and had to tear himself out of her arms.

“I’ll be back, Arabella. You can count on it.” He told her as he mounted Star.

He carried the wallpaper back to the canyon and set about making tight parcels of all the banknotes and individually wrapping rolls of coins so that they did not rattle or jingle in the horse-packs. He then personally placed equally-valued packs on all of the five horses to be used for the trip.

“I’m done, captain.” Daniel reported to Quantrill before leaving.

“Here, Daniel this is my report for whatever general you encounter. You will see that I have not addressed it since I do not know who will be in charge. Also, if you are captured, I want you to destroy the letter before the Yankees get a chance to read it. It would make excellent evidence against me in a Yankee court.”

“I will make sure of that Captain. You may count on me.”

“I do, Daniel, that is why I am sending you.”

Daniel rode out that evening since they would be doing most of their traveling at night and sleeping in the daytime. Against Pierre’s suggestion, Daniel had taken a large quantity of jerky for those times when a campfire would not be advisable.

They traveled along the ridges always with one man out front checking the lie of the land and watching out for hostiles.

By morning they had covered twenty miles and then they found a sheltered spot where they could eat and sleep. Daniel always insisted on one of them standing guard while the other two slept for four hours at a time. After sunset they began to travel again and on that night they covered thirty miles.

“We need to be more careful, men. Thirty miles is too much: it means that we are not advancing with due caution.”

Daniel made sure that they collected only the driest of firewood before he would permit a fire. Once the fire was going, Pierre began his kitchen magic and Jake sat on a highpoint watching in all directions.

Pierre had just produced the meal when Jake called down.

“Boss, I c’n see what looks to be a Federal cavalry troop comin’ from where we just bin.”

Daniel climbed up the ridge and took the telescope from Jake.

“Looks like they’ve got an Indian tracker there; we had better eat and move. The map shows a river a few miles ahead. Let us see if we can use that to lose the tracker.”

Pierre was highly irate that they had to gulp down his masterpiece and move on without even taking a nap.

“Daytime is when we sleep, no? Why zen must we move on?”

“Pierre, we do not wish to be taken by the Federals. They will make camp at the end of the day and if we have not lost them by then we will sleep, okay?”

“Ah, I should ‘ave stayed in New Orleans where food is good, sleep is easy and so are zee women.”

He grumbled but he moved quickly to gather his implements while Jake dismantled the fire and scattered leaves over the site.

They traveled hard because in the daylight when one could see where one was going, it was easier to cover a lot of ground.

The river was not entirely suitable for losing the tracker. It cut across their line of travel and whether they moved upstream or downstream they would still lose ground if they used it. Daniel decided to try and fake it. He erased their prints going into the river and erased their print coming out of the river but he still pressed on straight ahead. He hoped that the tracker would waste time looking up and down the river for their exit point. As it happened, the Major in charge of the troop, decided to camp at the river and the Indian tracker was apparently able to pick up their tracks at leisure before the pursuit continued on the following morning.

Daniel stopped when he saw that the troop had camped for the night and he ran only two watches of four hours before moving again. They covered forty miles in that twenty four hours and put another five miles between the Federals and them. The Federals were now hidden by the curvature of the earth and Daniel intended to keep it so.

He made use of rocky ground whenever possible and they never left anything to mark a campsite but Daniel knew that Indian trackers were not so easily fooled. All he could do was make sure that tracking them was as difficult as possible.

As, to the best of his knowledge the areas of combat were well north of them now, Daniel felt that he could use some daylight hours for travel and they managed fifty miles that day.

They had been avoiding all habitations on their journey south but now they were definitely in Confederate territory so moving through a town would serve more than one purpose. First of all they could enquire as to the locality of Confederate headquarters since none of them knew where that was, secondly their tracks would be lost in the myriad of tracks that a town produces and thirdly a Federal cavalry troop would not venture into a Confederate town.

Daniel was fortunate to find a Confederate army camp on the outskirts of the first town he encountered. They rode in and he went in to see the commanding officer.

“Sir, I am Corporal Beauregard of Quantrill’s raiders. I am carrying important dispatches for Army headquarters. Could you please point me in the right direction, sir?”

“Corporal? Why are you not in uniform corporal?” The over-weight major demanded to know.

“Sir, in Quantrill’s raiders, we do not wear uniforms so that we can infiltrate into the civilian population for our attacks.”

“So, you are sneaky little men that are not proud of your country and its uniform!”

“No sir! We are proud of our country but it is the nature of our work...”

“Did I ask you to answer me, corporal, if that is what you are? Speak when you are spoken to. Stand up straight in front of an officer.”

Daniel was already standing straight but he could see that nothing would satisfy this fat desk-bound buffoon.

“You will report to our stores immediately and draw a uniform. When you are properly attired you may return to my clerk and request an interview. I will not disclose valuable military information to every rag-tag hobo that demands it of me. Dismissed!”

Daniel knew enough to make a smart about turn and march out of the little wooden office.

“What ‘as ‘e say, Daniel? Where is zee ‘eadquarters?”

“He says I must draw a uniform and appear before him properly dressed before he will answer my question.”

“Ah, one of zose, eh?”

Daniel marched to the stores and spoke to the quartermaster sergeant.

“The major insist that I should be properly dressed as a corporal, before I can appear before him. Could you please issue me with a uniform?”

“Son, I understand just how difficult the major can be and I surely believe every word that you done said to me but he ain’t gonna have to account to the quartermaster general for every stitch of clothing that goes outa this here store. Who is gonna pay for this here uniform?”

“Tell me sergeant, do you have a full dress uniform to fit me?”

“Sure do but it’s gonna cost you thirty bucks.”

Daniel dealt out thirty Confederate dollars so quickly that the sergeant was sorry that he did not ask for more.

He handed over the uniform and Daniel stripped down there and then and pulled on the uniform.

“How does that look?” Daniel asked of the sergeant.

“Better’n a Yankee in dress uniform.” The sergeant assured him.

“No, I mean will the Major be happy with this?”

“Sure he will. He jist like to throw his weight around. Say, what you want to see that ol’ tub of lard fer anyhows?”

“I need to know where the Army Headquarters are.”

“Hell sonny boy, I c’da tole you that. Everybody knows it’s wherever President Jefferson Davis is at and right now, he’s here in Texas at Gonzales.”

“Thanks a lot Sergeant!” Daniel shouted as he ran out of the stores carrying his civilian clothing over his arm.

With no Union cavalry troop to worry about, they rode south for Gonzales where a new army supply depot was being built.

Texas was then the biggest state in America so the trip was a long one. They by-passed Waco and headed directly for Austin ignoring roads and following a pocket compass.