Journey Days of Henry McAlister
                                        CHAPTER TWENTYTHREE
                                        Chapter twenty-three-part three

      “I can’t thank you enough for helping us and letting us stay with you,” said Henry.
      “What? Don’t be foolish, think nothing of it. Margaret and I just thank God that you two made it safely thought that horrific ordeal on the train. Besides you’ll soon be part of the family and you did help me when I was shot,” said Mordecai.
      “Hopefully going by ship this time we’ll not have any more trouble.”
      “I’m sure it will be. And remember Henry, God is watching over you.”
      “Maybe. I just hope for Katherine’s sake that nothing strange happens. She doesn’t seem to be as carefree and happy as before we left. I’m worried.”
      “It’s only natural, give it some time Henry, once she’s back in San Francisco, surrounded by her friends and family, she’ll return to her old self. You’ll see. Time is a great healer, and not just for gun shots.”
       “There you two fine gentlemen are,” said Margaret. “Katherine’s waiting for you in her cabin Henry.”
       “You’re as daft as ever, Margaret, the evening light must be playing tricks on your eyes. I’m just an old codger, Henry here is the fine gentleman,” laughed Mordecai.
      “Well I guess I should be going. Thank you for everything, Katherine and I both appreciate it.”
      “Nonsense,” said Mordecai. “It was the least we could do.”
      “You’ll be coming to San Francisco for the wedding, won’t you?”
      “Of course. You can tell my brother that we’ll be there, the devil himself couldn’t keep us away.”
       Henry hugged Margaret and thanked Mordecai once again and waved to them for a last time as they disappeared around the corner of the general store on the main street. The quarter moon was just beginning to appear over the tree tops, the docks were bustling with as much activity as they were during the day it seemed to Henry. The wooden docks, crammed with supplies on nearly every open space, creaked and groaned with the gentle current lashing against their pilings.
      “Henry, Henry,” the faint voice said, stopping Henry.
      “What? Who’s there?” Henry said, looking about to find where the voice had come from.
      “Over here Henry,” the voice said a little louder.
      “Who’s there, come out where I can see you,” demanded Henry, edging nearer the stacked cargo boxes, his hand resting on his revolver.
      “Over here, a little closer.”
      Henry moved between the crates towards the voice and said, “you!”
      Pierre laughed as he stepped from the shadows and said, “that’s right, it’s your friend Pierre.”
      “You’re no friend of mine, you’re wanted for murder,” replied Henry, firmly gripping the hilt of his revolver.
      “What do you mean, murder? I ain’t killed nobody in quite a while, and iff’n I did they must of deserved it.”
      “You killed Vinton on the train and…and cut him up for food.”
      “Did I Henry? Are you sure? Did you see me kill Vinton? Did you? Maybe he was already dead, frozen in the snow when I come across him.”
      “I don’t believe you, I think you killed him for food and you gave Katherine and me some of that despicable meat. That’s what I think and I’m going to tell the authorities that you’re here in Whitehorse. They have men looking for you,” Henry said backing away out of the cargo crates.
      “Easy boy, no need to be rash. I found Vinton just as I said, frozen there in the snow next to the train, a bottle of whiskey in his hand. Dead. Seemed a shame to me, what with the dire predicament everybody was in. One hundred fifty pounds of meat and bones just lying there and everyone starving. It would have been a sin to let the wolves have him, when everyone was hungry,” laughed Pierre.
      “You’re a Godless monster using Vinton as food and giving that, that disgusting meat to Katherine and me. I want to be there when they hang you and send you to Hell.”
      “Did I boy? Did I give you Vinton to eat? Maybe I only gave you caribou, beaver or raccoon to eat. You ever tasted human flesh boy? Do you know what it tastes like? You don’t know do you? We made an arrangement and I did my part and I expect to be paid for it.”
      “I’m not paying you a single gold piece for what you’ve done!”
      “Now, now boy, that’s no way to be, no way to treat an old friend,” grinned Pierre, twisting his hunting knife in front of him. “Appears to me that Katherine and yourself made it through all right. That was the bargain we made wasn’t it? I lived up to my end and I suggest you do like wise.”
      “Are you threatening me and Katherine?” Said Henry, stepping forward and pressing his revolver into Pierre’s chest, both of them backing up into the shadows. “I’ll kill ya!”
      “I don’t think so Henry, you’re not that kind of man. A man about to be married and start a new life for himself and his lovely misses, it would be against your nature. A gunshot on these docks would bring everyone scurrying and you’d, you’d end up in rotting in a jail cell, a long, long way from San Francisco. That’s where you and you’re lovely Katherine are headed ain’t it? A deals a deal, even if it’s with the devil,” laughed Pierre.
      “I’m not payin’ and you have nothing to threaten me with. You’re wanted by the Mounties, they’re going to hang you for what you did. And killing me won’t get you your money.”
      “I’ve never been to San Francisco, I hear it’s a right big city, a man could get lost in it, or maybe I could save myself the trip and have that Preacher and his lady tell me about it,” smiled Pierre.
      Henry tightened his grip on his revolver, his fingers aching from the force and thought for a moment and said, “I don’t have the money with me, you’ll have to meet me in San Francisco if you want to be paid, and I’ll not have you on the same ship as Katherine and me.”
     “You’ve got the money on you now, I’ve been watching you and that Preacher fellow going back and forth, visiting the bank. I know you got it on you.”
     A dejected Henry reached into his coat and took the money he owed to Pierre, wadding it up and throwing it at Pierre’s feet saying, “If I ever see you…”
     Pierre’s laughter vanished with him into the darkness between the crates.
                                                                           #
To be continued...

Journey Days of Henry McAlister

                                    CHAPTER TWENTYTHREE
                                   Chapter twenty-three-part two

     “You’ve got quite a calamity here,” remarked the Captain. “What was your name?”

     “Henry sir. Are you sure she’s going to be all right?” Henry said to the doctor, who was hovering over Katherine.
     “Yes, yes she’ll be fine, she just needs some hot food, and plenty of it.”
     “Listen here Henry, what happened? Where is everybody?”
     “What happened! Can’t you see what happened? The train exploded, it near killed everybody and we’ve been all alone here for…what day is it?”
     “It’s November 14th.”
     “My God, we’ve been here three months. Why didn’t you come sooner?”
     “No one knew you were up here, everyone thought that the train had made it into Skagway, that is until Mr. Hansen was found by a pair of trappers along the trail north of Whitehorse.”
     “Mr. Hansen? He and Mr. Wells set out weeks ago, what happened?”
     “He was found half frozen in the snow, and taken down to Whitehorse. He was unconscious for some time, no one knew who he was or where he came from. Most thought he was a prospector that had gotten himself lost. After a couple of weeks, he started mumbling about you folks on the train here.”
     “How is he?”
     “The fever got him, the other fellow never made it off the trail.”
     “Oh, that was Warren Wells.”
     “Are you the only ones left?”
     “Well, there’s me and Katherine, and the porter, Isaiah, and Pierre.”
     “We found the porter, where’s this Pierre?”
     “He stays in the caboose.”
     “Come along then, let’s go see if we can find him,” order Captain Oakland. “She’ll be alright son, let the Doctor handle it.”
     Sergeant Mac Elroy knocked on the caboose’s door while the Captain and Henry waited on the platform. Henry watched the other rescuers unloading the supplies and setting up camp fires, and scurrying into the train, each of them gawking at the destruction that was strewn along the track.
     “Kick it in Sergeant,” order Captain Oakland, after there was no response from the knocking. “You wait here Henry.”
     The Captain and the Sergeant entered the caboose’s small darkened cabin, their eyes adjusting to the bleak darkness within. The floor was littered with the remains of animals, skins, hides and bones were plied in every corner, a small pile of broken pine limbs were stacked near the cold wood stove.
     “Aggg, the odor in here, how could anyone,” said Sergeant Mac Elroy.
     “Well he’s not here, Sergeant look around. Henry, is this the last place you saw him?”
     “I’ve never been in here before, I think I talked to him about a week ago in the train, we had an arrangement, he was to hunt for Katherine and me.”
     “An agreement huh?”
     “Captain, over here,” Sergeant Mac Elroy said, gesturing towards a pile of bones in the corner.
     “What is it?”
     “I think you should have a look at this sir,” said Sergeant Mac Elroy, holding a human skull in his hands.
     “What the? Henry, Henry get in here,” shouted Captain Oakland. “What do you make of this? Is this what happened to all the passengers? What do you know about this? Where’s Pierre?”
     “I…I…I don’t know anything about that sir, like I told you I’ve never been in here, Pierre was the only one who came in here,” a disgusted Henry said.
     “What happened here Henry, tell the truth,” an angry Captain Oakland shouted.
     “Did you have anything to do with this? Tell the truth boy, it’ll go easier on you at the trial. They may only hang you.”
     “I am telling you the truth. I don’t know anything about what happened in here. You’ve got to believe me.”
     “So, Pierre was supposed to supply you with food huh? Is this the way he did it, by murdering the passengers one by one and cutting them up for stew? Is that what happened boy? Did starvation make you and Pierre do it?”
     “No! I didn’t do anything. You don’t think Pierre gave me…” Henry said stumbling out of the cabin and wrenching up his stomach over the iron railing.
     “All right boy, all right. Tell me about Pierre.”
     “He told me his name was…” Henry said, wiping the bile from his mouth. “He said his name was Pierre D’Lamont. I thought he was a trapper or a prospector.”
     “D’Lamont? A big man with a red beard and black as coal eyes? Is that him?”
     “Yes, how do you know?”
     “Oh we in the RCP have heard about him, he’s wanted in regards for the disappearance of his partner Emmett, a year or so back. We know of him and we’re going to get him too.”
     “You don’t think he gave me human…” Henry paused at the sickening thought. “Did he? You can’t tell Katherine about this…she’s in a bad way…and she…”
     “Don’t worry son, the Sergeant and I will keep this quiet, and I’m sure the railroad doesn’t want this type of thing to be spread about. Bad for business. But you’ll have to fill out a report once we get back to Whitehorse.”
     “Yes, yes of course, just so long as Katherine doesn’t find out.”
     “Sergeant gather up those remains to use as evidence against Pierre when we catch him. And we will, we always get our man.”
                                                                      #
To be continued.......

Journey Days of Henry McAlister

                        Journey Days of Henry McAlister
                              CHAPTER TWENTYTHREE
                            Chapter twenty-three-part one

     Henry piled the last of the firewood he had pried loosed from the snow and ice that encased the wrecked passenger car into his arms and plodded his way back through the snow drifts, stopping suddenly at hearing a cracking echo from the valley. The second echo caused Henry to drop the firewood and race towards the train, listening for the faint sound of what he was sure was a shotgun blast. Henry steadied himself atop of the ice and snow covered passenger car, and looked towards where he thought the sound had come from. He could barely make out the jagged moving forms of three dog sled teams heading towards him in the distance. ‘Hello, hello’ he shouted into the wind, ‘over here’, and jumped down into the snow bank that surrounded the train. ‘Katherine, they’re here, they’re here’, he shouted as he raced down the aisle to his cabin, his snow covered boots slipping on the wooden planks.
     “Kay they’re here, they’ve come,” shouted Henry, shaking Katherine to wake her.
     “What? Go away Henry, let me sleep.”
     “No Katherine! Wake up, we’re rescued, they’re here, I saw them. Wake up.”
     Henry left Katherine and raced towards the back of the train, the figures were more distinct now, three teams of sled teams hurrying towards them, their sleds loaded with supplies and the dogs straining to gain another foot forward along the buried train tracks. Henry fired his revolver into the air and shouted ‘over here, over here’.
     “Good God man, you’re alive,” said Captain Frank Oakland of the RCP, jumping from his sled in front of Henry. “We feared the worst. You men there, check inside.”
     “Hurry, hurry, Katherine’s in need of help, she’s in a bad way,” pleaded Henry. “You must hurry.”
     “Calm down man, we’re here now. We’ve brought a doctor,” Captain Oakland said, following Henry into the train.
     “There she is, do something!”
     “Doctor, Doctor, over here. What’s your name? Are there any others? Sergeant Mac Elroy, unload the supplies and get some fires going, heat up some food,” ordered the Captain.
     “How’s Katherine? How is she?” Said Henry. “Do something”
     “Calm down boy,” said the Doctor. “I’ve given her a shot, it should help. She’s emaciated and weak, but her heart sounds strong.”
     “What’s that mean?” Asked a frustrated anxious Henry.
     “It means she needs some hot food and care. I think she’ll be fine, it appears we arrived in time.”
     “Where are the others?” Asked Captain Oakland.
     “Captain, we found someone, it appears to be the porter.”
     “Doctor come with me,” ordered Captain Oakland.
     “No! What about Katherine?” Pleaded Henry.
     “Calm down boy, let the medicine do its work, I’ll be back in a few minutes,”
said the Doctor.
     Henry knelt in front of Katherine, rubbing her hands, “Kay can you hear me?” He said softly.
    “Huh? Oh it’s you Henry.”
    “They’re here, we’re saved,” smiled Henry, tears streaking into his beard.
                                                              #
To be continued.........

                               Journey Days of Henry McAlister
                                        CHAPTER TWENTYTWO
                                     Chapter twenty-two-part five

     “Hmmm, isn’t the fresh air wonderful?” Said Katherine, as they walked towards the rear of the train..
     “Yes it is, crisp and clear,” Henry said.
     “This place must be quite lovely in the summer, with the field and trees in full bloom and the river flowing by,” noted Katherine, pointing towards the grey snow topped mountain range in the far distance.
     “Yes I suppose it would be, except right now it’s filled with this, this white stuff. I hope I never have to deal with snow again. I think we should live somewhere where the weather is perfect every day of the year,” said Henry, tossing a snowball towards the train wreckage in the stream.
     “You missed,” laughed Katherine. “You’re not a very good pitcher.”
     “Yes well, hopefully I won’t have to make a living at tossing snowballs.”
     “You know Henry, San Francisco has almost perfect weather year round, and it never snows there, the only bad thing it is that it has a lot of dreadful hills. Up and down, up and down.”
     “If the weather’s perfect than we’ll put it first on our list of places to live, and we can go everywhere by carriage,” Henry tossed another snowball, the mass of white smashing against the submerged smokestack.      “See!”
     “Ha, ha, ha. What’s that over there Henry?”
     “Where? Henry said, shielding his eyes from the sun’s glare and looking in the direction Katherine was pointing.
     “Over there, under that small tree. It looks like a hat.”
     “You wait here, I’ll go and get it…yep it’s a hat,” shouted Henry, dusting off the snow from the hat’s brim. “It’s Vinton’s hat, and here’s a whiskey bottle.”
     “You don’t think he came out here at night do you?”
     “I don’t know, I hope not, he was in no condition to do anything the last time I saw him,” said Henry, stuffing the hat into his coat.
     “Didn’t Pierre say he would be gone for a couple of days?” Questioned Katherine, looking towards the caboose.
     “Yes why?”
     “Look Henry, there’s smoke coming from the chimney.”
     “Maybe he left the stove full of wood when he left and it hasn’t burn thought yet,” said Henry, watching the black smoke puffing from the caboose’s smokestack. “Anyway, if he’s still here, he doesn’t want to be disturbed. At least that’s the way it was the last time I knocked on his door. I knocked as hard as I could, and I think he was in there then too. We best not pry, I’m not so sure about him. Come along, let’s go and see if we can find Vinton.”
     “You go in and take your snow covered coat off and get warm by the fire,” said Henry, outside his cabin.  “I’ll search the rest of the train for Vinton.”
     “I can’t imagine where he would have gone.”
     “And don’t forget to…”
     “Yes I know, lock the door.”
                                                               #
     “What is it girl?” Said Preston Sawhill, seeing his horse’s head rear-up and halting along the snow covered trail. “John over here, there’s something half-buried in the snow.”
     Preston knelt beside the two prone figures lying along the trail, brushing back the fallen snow, uncovering the still bodies of Virgil and Warren.
     “Jehovah! It’s two men, quick John help me. This one’s still alive.”
     “Look at em,” exclaimed John Hosfield. “I’ve never seen a man frozen before, he’s blue.”
     “Stop your gawkin’ and get some blankets, while I start a fire.”
     “I can’t move this one, he’s frozen to the ground.”
     “Never mind him, we maybe can save the other one, hurry man.”
                                                              #
     Henry sat dejected on the bench opposite Katherine, watching her frail sleeping figure and regretting he was unable to do more. Gone was her vibrant glow, her hair a tangled unkempt cluster of curls, her arms appeared as ashen gawk limbs jutting out from a body that once breathed air into every room it entered. Katherine had seemed to Henry to have given up, the stain of being trapped on the train had become too much for her, she spent her time propped up into the corner of the bench, sleeping. She was even disinterested in eating the meager food that he could find or that Pierre would bring. The two small stoves, nestled in their corners, perked out the last of their heat. ‘time to gather some more wood’, Henry thought, putting on his coats and looking back at Katherine. How much longer, before…
                                                             #
To be continued...

                           Journey Days of Henry McAlister
                                 CHAPTER TWENTYTWO
                             Chapter twenty-two-part four

     “I thought I’d find you here,’ said Henry to Isaiah, who was sitting behind the bar.
     “Nowhere in particular to go, this is my post. Can I get you a drink sir?”
     “No thank you Isaiah, I just came here to give you this,” Henry said unwrapping a fist sized hunk of meat from its cloth cover.
     “Lordy, that’s, that’s real meat sir,” smiled Isaiah, taking the meat and smelling its flavorful aroma. “But sir, what about…?
     “Never you mind, Katherine and I are fine, we wanted you to have this. Maybe it will help.”
     “It surely will sir Henry, how can I ever thank you,” Isaiah said, biting off a piece of meat and slowing savoring it’s taste. “Lordy, I thought I’d never taste meat again. Can I get you something? How about some coffee? Can I make you and the misses some coffee?”
     “No, no Isaiah, we’re fine,” Henry said, raising his palm to quiet Isaiah’s excitement. “Where’s Vinton?”
     “Oh, I haven’t see Mr. Wright since that day when he found Mr. Bridgewater’s body missing. I suspect he’s in one of the cabins.”
     “I’ll go see if I can find him, I have some meat for him too.”
     “Thank you sir, thank you,” Isaiah said pressing the meat to his lips and inhaling all he could of its meaty flavor.
     Henry found Vinton in a drunken sleep in cabin number 5, an empty whiskey bottle clinched in his hand.
     “Vinton, wake up,” shouted Henry, shaking Vinton’s shoulder. “Wake up, I brought you some food.”
     “Uggg…”
     “Wake up, wake up, will you?”
     Henry waited for any reaction, shook his head and left the meat on the bench opposite the snoring Vinton.
     “Well I think we have a friend for life in Isaiah,” said Henry to Katherine when he returned to their remodeled cabin.
     “I certainly do hope it helps them. What about Mr. Wright?”
     “I found him passed out in a cabin and left the meat for him. He’ll find it when he wakes up.”
                                                               #
     “Your beard is getting long again Henry.”
     “Oh, oh yes,” replied Henry, scratching his facial growth. “Do you like it?”
     “Well I’m not sure, it’s very unkempt and makes you look so much different.”
     “I can try and shave it if you’d like.”
     “No it will be all right…for now.”
     “I had a curious dream last night,” said Henry. “Do you want to hear about it.”
     “Hmm…”
     “My dream, do you want to hear it?”
     “Oh yes, of course, go ahead Henry.”
     “I dreamt I was back in the Yukon, digging for gold again, and everywhere I dug I would always find one of those hardtack biscuits I told you about. The curious thing is that when I ate one, they where filled with jam and cream.”
     “Henry, I think you’re hungrier than you’ll admit, hardtack biscuit filled with cream,” laughed Katherine.
     “Well, that’s what I remember anyway. What about you?”
     “I must admit I dream about food too, only it’s Thanksgiving time and all the family is seating around a giant table. Everyone is laughing and having a great time. The table is filed with turkeys, and hams, corn and cakes, fresh baked bread. Just about anything you could imagine.”
     “Stop it, stop it,” replied Henry. “You’re making me hungry, now all I’ll think about is eating turkey and ham. Mother always used to make the sweetest baked ham, when we could afford it.”
     “Well, you’re the one who brought it up, serves you right. There were mountains of potatoes with gravy too,” laughed Katherine.
     “Stop it, or I’ll…or I’ll come over there and kiss you with my scratchy beard.”
     “Turkey, turkey, turkey.”
     “Yes I think you’ll definitely have to shave that beard when we get out of here. It scratched.”
     Henry smiled, holding Katherine close and looking at the bright sunshine that entered through the small crack above the wooden slats on the windows.
     “It looks like it mite be a sunny day today, would you like to get out and walk around the train for a while, just to get out and stretch your legs?”
     “That sounds wonderful Henry.”
     “You bundle up and I’ll go see what it’s like outside,” said Henry donning his hide coat.
Henry returned a few minutes later and said, “Come along Miss turkey, turkey, turkey.”
                                                              #
To be continued...

                           Journey Days of Henry McAlister
                                   CHAPTER TWENTYTWO
                             Chapter twenty-two-part three

     Henry wadded through the knee deep snow, his moose hide coat wrenched tightly around his body with his rifle tucked inside, to keep it from freezing, the snow clung in misshaped clumps on his fur wrapped boots, making every new step heavier then the one before. Fallen tree limbs hidden beneath the snow, would reach out and cause him to stumble and fall. The wind walked across the barren branches of the trees above him, kicking off the accumulated snow, the flakes drifting in front of him in shimmering veils of white powder. Henry watched an eagle flirt past the sun and wished that it was as easy for him to walk through the snow as it was for the eagle to gracefully float thought the blue sky. It was well past when the sun was highest overhead that Henry saw the fresh trail of hoof prints in the snow. ‘A herd of caribou’ he thought, he followed the trail into a small ravine, its sides lined with aspen and fir trees, ahead of him he saw three caribou just beyond a fallen tree, they were rooting at the snow, searching for the frozen grass that was hidden underneath. Henry steadied his rife against the crook of a tree branch and sighted the biggest animal, their heads quickly tuned in the direction behind them, and they bounded off quicker than Henry had ever seen such a large animal do before. The wolves bayed and their black shapes raced through the forest, past where the caribou had been standing, howling as they chased down their prey. Henry flattened against the back of the tree, feeling unprotected and exposed as he held himself taut against its width.
                                                                  #
     Henry cursed himself for not having been able to get any game, he wondered how long Katherine could survive without any real food. ‘It couldn’t be much longer’ he thought. The silhouette of the train against the mountainside was a welcome view, he vowed that he would go out again and again until he was successful. Katherine waved from the platform of the passenger car when she saw Henry emerge past the tree line. Henry waved his rifle in the air and shouted. A golden haired angel.
                                                                #
     “Henry, Henry, I’m so glad you made it back, I was so worried,” Katherine said happily. “It’s wonderful, it’s wonderful, hurry Henry hurry.”
     “What is it?” Asked Henry, taking off his snow covered coat and entering their cabin. Henry immediately glanced over to the pot of boiling meat on the small stove, its aroma filled the small cabin, and was shocked and gladdened.
     “It’s food Henry. Pierre brought it by this morning while you were gone,”
Katherine perked. “Isn’t it wonderful?”
     “It’s, it’s wonderful. Grimney,” Henry said, sipping a spoonful of broth. “It tastes wonderful, like nothing I’ve ever had before. Let’s eat, I’m starved.”
     “You go ahead Henry, I’ve already had some. I’m afraid I couldn’t wait,” said Katherine, handling a bowl to Henry and stabbing a chunk of meat in the pot.
     “Hmmm, it is good,” Henry said, hungrily eating the hot meat. “What kind of meat is it? Did Pierre say?”
     “He said it was a mixture of beaver and raccoon. Have some more Henry. Pierre said he would bring some more by in a day or so,” smiled Katherine.
     “I guess I was wrong about Pierre, he did get us some food.”
                                                                #
     Katherine stood in the passage way, anguished and worried about the events that were occurring inside her small cabin. The sounds of a broad axe biting into wooden planks filled her ears, her eyes watched as Henry, his strength renewed, fought against the wall dividing Katherine’s cabin and the empty cabin beyond. The planked wall groaned and resisted Henry’s axe, splinters and shards of once proud planks, danced in the air and shattered their whirling flights onto the cabin floor.
     “Henry, Henry, be careful.”
      Henry paused and smiled, sweat and wood dust covering his arms and said, “It’s got to go, this cabin is too small to be living our trapped lives in.”
     “Henry the railroad will get mad at your destroying the cabins.”
     “I don’t care, I’ll buy the whole railroad if I have to, I’ll pay anything if it gets us out of here one day sooner.” Henry rested the broad axe on the remains of the bench and said, “It’s fun.”
     Henry vented his anger and frustration on the wooden walls, making it yield to his design. The opening grew and grew and soon the wall and the benches were piled in ragged heaps of splintered memories, ready to be tossed into the stoves.
     “There,” Henry said, prying up the last plate that was nailed to the train’s floor and beating the pointed nails into submission. “Once I clean up this mess, we’ll have a little more room to move around in, it won’t be such a tiny box, will it?”
     “Well, it certainly is…is bigger,” a half-smile passed over Katherine’s face. “And you made a lot of firewood.”
     “You’ll see, it will make things brighter, you’ll see,” said Henry tossing the wooden remains into the far corner.
     Katherine bent down and began to help Henry with cleaning the debris from what once was her small cabin and Henry said, “Don’t Kay, there are a lot of sharp pieces in here, I’ll take care of it, you wait in the corridor, it will only take a minute.”
     “All right, but be careful.”
     “Just like a woman,” laughed Pierre. “Always doing some alliterating. That’s a fine cabin of firewood you have there Henry.”
     “Oh my, you startled me. I didn’t even notice you come through the door,” said Katherine.
     “Us D’Lamonts have been know to be silent and crafty,” smiled Pierre. “It helps in the hunt. Here I brung you some more meat.”
     “Thank you,” said Henry, wiping the dust from his hands and face. “We certainly are grateful.”
     “No need to be grateful, just remember our bargain,” said Pierre, with a broad smile.
     “Enjoy, I’ll be gone for a couple days and should return with more for ya.”
     “I was thinking, Pierre, maybe I could come with you. Two hunters are better than one,” said Henry.
     “NO! Said Pierre. “I mean, you have the young misses to look after and who knows what I might run into. It’s best if you keep near the train, what’s left of it.”
     “Aren’t you afraid being out there by yourself, what with the wolves roaming near by?” Asked Katherine. “Henry told me about the wolves he saw while he was hunting.”
     “Me? Scared? Naaggh, if them wolves should come towards me, well there’ll just be more to eat, won’t there?” Laughed Pierre.
     “This meat is cooked,” said a puzzled Henry.
     “That’s right, I cook it at night…over the campfire. Less weight to haul around with the sinew and bones removed,” remarked Pierre, turning to leave.
     “Thank you, thank you,” Katherine said, watching Pierre leave the passenger car.
     “Well, I had better hurry and clean up this place so we can eat.”
     “Henry, what about Vinton and Isaiah? We said we were going to give them some.”
     “Yes we will, after you’ve had your fill. We’ll leave some for them. As you said, it is the Christian thing to do, I hope it helps,” Henry said, returning to sorting through the debris of the two cabins.
                                                              #
To be continued...

                             Journey Days of Henry McAlister
                                    CHAPTER TWENTYTWO
                               Chapter twenty-two-part two

     The sound of Henry banging on the rear door of the caboose died in the snow covered hillside, Henry banged on the door again and attempted to view inside, only to find that that small window had been boarded over from the inside.
     “Pierre, Pierre! Are you in there?” Henry shouted against the face of the wooden door, its peeling colors painted in ice. “We have to talk, we have an arrangement. I know you’re in there. Come out here!”
The wind was the only response he heard, as he stood on the caboose’s platform.
     “I know you’re in there, come out, we have a arrangement. You’ll have to do better than this if you want your money,” Henry shouted, kicking the door in disgust.
     Pierre sat in the darkened room rocking slowly in the old wooden chair, the last of his cigars between his teeth and a smile on his lips. He watched Henry’s shadow figure through the slats as Henry climbed down the small iron steps and disappear around the corner. The caboose’s small stove bubbled its heat into the room and Pierre stirred the boiling stew pot, freeing the meat from the bones. Pierre grabbed a boot from a pile of bloody clothes carpeted the floor, and tossed it into the belly of the stove, it crackled and hissed as it settled into the hot coals. Pierre laughed to himself and threw the last of his cigar in with it. ‘enough for three, if a man be of a mind’, he thought. His laughter filling the dark room.
     “Did you talk to Pierre?” Asked Katherine.
     “No! I know he was there I could see smoke coming from his chimney, and I thought I could smell something cooking. He’s a damn bastard, how long did he think that rabbit would last? Where’s my rifle?” Said Henry, his mind set on doing what he should have been doing all along, hunting.
     “What are going to do Henry?” Katherine said, frightened by Henry’s determined actions.
     “I’m going hunting, and I ain’t coming back until I get something for the both of us, I can’t just sit here and see you waste away like this, I should of…I should be out there hunting, we can’t survive on someone else’s promises.”
     “Henry please don’t go, it’s almost dark and you’ll freeze out there at night, or worse, with those wolves around.”
     “I can’t just sit here no more, it’s time for me to do something,” a dejected Henry said, plopping onto the bench, unable to look at Katherine.
     “Henry not tonight, please, wait until morning. I don’t think I could sleep if you were out there at night, please wait until morning.”
     Henry reached across the space between the bench and clasped Katherine’s hand. “All right, but from tonight on, we have to think of ourselves as…as being shipwrecked all alone on an island or something, just the two of us. We have to do whatever we have to from now on, We can’t rely on anybody but ourselves. No matter what it takes.”
     “Yes Henry, I understand, whatever we have to, to survive.”
                                                                       #
To be continued...

                            Journey Days of Henry McAlister
                                     CHAPTER TWENTYTWO
                                 Chapter twenty-two-part one

     “It’s gone all right,” said Henry, warming his hands over the stove. “I looked all around the train for tracks or blood, I didn’t see anything, he’s just gone.”
     “I doubt there would be any blood, Henry, the poor man must have been frozen solid by now.”
     “Yes I know. I was just sayin’. Why where you in the storage car?” Henry said leaning over Vinton, who sat on the bench, moaning, with his head in his hands.
     “I was…I…well if I have to tell you, I was looking for something to eat. A rat or a mouse, like the porter was talking about last night. I thought maybe…”
     “Oh, ahhh well. Did you see anything?” Henry said quietly.
     “No I didn’t see nothing, when I lit the lantern I noticed that Mr. Bridgewater’s body was gone, and I got out of there as quick as I could.”
     “Do you think it could have been those wolves again Henry?” Asked Katherine.
     “I didn’t see any tracks or claw marks. Vinton when you went to the storage car was the door closed?”
     “Yea it was closed, but it opened right easily. Then I got out of there.”
     “Isaiah, I thought the storage car was always to be locked.”
     “Yes sir, it normally is, but after the accident, Mr. Buchanan said it was to not be locked again so’s everyone could get anything they wanted from it.”
     “Well I don’t know what happened then, he couldn’t have walked off,” a puzzled Henry remarked.
     “It must have been them wolves again,” said the Porter.
     “Must have been,” said Vinton. “They got him, and they’re gonna get us too, if we’re not careful. We had best board up the windows and lock the doors. They must be loco, mad with hunger. I ain’t gonna let them get me.”
     “Oh Henry, do we have to? It’s so dark in here already,” a worried Katherine said.
     “Maybe we should, just as a precaution.”
     Vinton was of little help securing the windows with broken bench slats, he had squirreled himself away in the corner of one of the benches with a whiskey bottle, moaning to himself, ‘they ain’t gonna get me’. Katherine did the best she knew how with splitting the slats with a hand axe and cleaning up after Henry and the porter as they went from window to window in the passenger car, ripping down the shades and nailing the fractured boards in place, the car gained more and more darkness with only slivers of sunlight streaming through the misaligned wooden cracks.
     When they had reached her cabin Katherine fretted and said, “Do we have to Henry?”
     “Yes, I think so,” replied Henry softly. “You can barely see out anyway, look how the snow has drifted up past the sill and all you can see is the mountain side.”
     “It’s just, it’s just that it’s so dark. It’ll seem like my coffin I’m sure.”
     “Please don’t think of it that way, Kay, I’ll leave the top uncovered. That’ll help wouldn’t it?”
     “Oh Henry, this is all my fault. We should of taken the steamer like you wanted. This isn’t very romantic at all,” cried Katherine, collapsing onto the bench.
     Henry looked at Katherine and then to the porter and said, “Come along, let’s get this over with, we still have three cabins to do.”
     “Ain’t you gonna…?”
     “It’s best she let it out. We can’t pretend like it’s some kind of adventure any more.”
                                                                #
To be continued...

                           Journey Days of Henry McAlister
                                  CHAPTER TWENTYONE
                             Chapter twenty-one-part five

     Henry briskly rubbed Katherine’s hands trying to get some warm back in them and said, “Katherine I’m very mad at you, you shouldn’t have stayed out there so long. I shouldn’t have let you. Your hands are ice.”
     “Henry I had too. You don’t know what it’s like to stay in this cabin all day and all night,” Katherine said, her voice trembling as she spoke. “You get to go out, hunting and getting firewood, while I’m confined in here. I’ve read that damn book of mine five times. Excuse me for swearing Henry, but you just don’t know. I think I’ve memorized every line in that book. It’s cramped and smells like dead animals in here. Oh Henry, whatever are we going to do?”
     “I know, I know,” said Henry, wrapping his arms around Katherine. “I’m just trying to protect you, you’re the most precious thing to me. I’m sorry I got mad at you.”
     “Henry, it’s going to be all right, isn’t it? Someone will come won’t they?”
     “Of course they will, I bet someone’s already on their way,” lied Henry, something he had promised himself he wouldn’t do to Katherine. “And Pierre is going to help hunt for food, things will be better once we have more to eat, you’ll see. Tomorrow we’ll go and visit everyone in the passenger car, see what they think. Would that be all right?”
     “Yes Henry,” said Katherine, tears streaming down her cheeks.
     “Come on Kay, sit with me by the fire, you’ll feel better,” Henry said softly, pressing Katherine’s head against his shoulder while wrapping her tight into his body and caressing her.
                                                                #
     The passenger car was empty when Henry and Katherine entered the next morning. The wood stoves piped out a faint heat from their cast iron bellies, a number of the benches had been torn apart for their wood and sheets of icicles hung outside from the roof, glistening in the sunshine.
     “It’s a shame what’s been done to this car, it was a lovely dining car,” said Katherine.
     “I’m sure the railroad company can fix it up again. There doesn’t appear to be anyone here, do you want to go back to our cabin?” Noted Henry, leaning against the bar.
     Katherine looked out into the snow covered landscape and said, “No, let’s sit in here a while, I can see the trees and river from here, I’m so tired of looking at that mountainside from the cabin. It feels like a whole other world in this car.”
     “If you like. Maybe I can get that cook stove going and find some coffee.”
     “That would be wonderful.”
     Henry kicked the shattered remains of one of the booths and gathered up the broken slats and tuffs of horse hair, carrying them to the cook stove beside the bar. The cook stove was cold and hadn’t been lit for a few days, the door creaked as he opened it to look inside. Barren, except for ashes.
     “Can I help you with that sir?”
     Henry lurched back at the sound of Isaiah’s voice, knocking over the empty coffee pot that rested on the stove top.
     “Crimney, you scared the Jesus out of me. I thought you were a ghost or something,” stammered Henry. “What are you doing back there behind the bar? I didn’t see you.”
     “This is where I’ve been sleeping since Mr. Pierre said he wanted to stay in the caboose.”
     “What? You’ve been sleeping behind the bar? That’s’ nonsense.”
     “Henry’s right,” said Katherine, standing beside Henry. “You should move into one of the empty cabins.”
     “I don’t mind, misses.”
     “Now don’t be foolish, Isaiah,” said Katherine. “We insist that you move into one of the cabins, it’ll be safer and warmer, I’m sure.”
     “That’s right Isaiah, there’s no need for you to be sleeping on the floor.”
     “Well, I was kind of thinking about it, but I didn’t want to cause anyone a fuss.”
     “Nobody’s gonna get flustered,” said Henry. “And if they do, you come to me, I’ll see to it that their set straight. Have you seen Vinton or Pierre lately?”
     “Not since last night, when Mr. Wright was here. I haven’t see Mr. Pierre for a couple of days, don’t know what he’s about. Was you trying to get that stove started?” Asked Isaiah, poking his head into the stove.
     “Yes, I thought maybe I could get a fire going and find some coffee for Katherine and myself.”
     “I coulds do that for you sir. But I’ll have to grind you up some beans first. It mite take a while, and let’s not get this old beast a goin’, if you don’t mind I could use the stove in the corner, sir.”
     “That would be fine Isaiah, and it will also help to heat this cabin,” said Katherine.
     “Yes, ma’am.”
     The rear door of the passenger car swung open, nearly hitting Henry, as Vinton burst though, gasping for air.
     “It’s gone!”
     “What’s gone?” Asked Henry.
     “The body of Mr. Bridgewater, in the storage car. It’s gone,” panted Vinton, sitting down at one of the benches. “I need a drink, porter get me a drink.”
     “Never mind that. What do mean it’s gone? It can’t be gone. Criminy that man was dead. What were you doing in the storage car?” Demanded Henry.
     “It’s gone I tell you, go and look for yourself.”
     “I will. Katherine please stay here and you two don’t go nowhere,” said Henry rushing out the door.
                                                               #
To be continued...

                           Journey Days of Henry McAlister
                               CHAPTER TWENTYONE
                         Chapter twenty-one-part four

     “How come you didn’t go with those other men, sir?” Asked Isaiah to Vinton, while fashioning a crude bed of blankets and furs on the floor behind the wooden bar.
     “Me? Why I could never make that trek, just look at me, do I look like someone who is comfortable being outside in the wilderness? I’m a salesman, inside buildings, stores and houses is where I belong, not in some God forsaken wilderness. How come you stayed?”
     “Oh I couldn’t go sir, my place is on the train. I’m the only train employee left now since everyone else is gone. I figure it’s my duty to do what I can for everyone and to look after things as best I can on the train.”
     “Ha, ha, that’s a good one niggra,” laughed Vinton. “Look after things, my God niggra, everything’s destroyed, there ain’t no train left.”
     “Yes sir, that’s rightly so. But it’s still my job to stay with the train,” said Isaiah wiping the dust from the bar top.
     “Why are you still tending to the bar? Ain’t nobody coming. We’re all that’s left, except for Henry and Katherine and that big fellow Pierre.
     “This is my post sir, and well…it helps if I keep busy, the days past quicker that way.”
     “You wouldn’t have any food back there would you, perhaps some bread or beans hidden away?”
     “Oh no sir, no sir. Everything was parceled out to everyone. There ain’t no store bought supplies left.”
     “Well what have you been eating then? I ate mine a long time ago, I never thought we’d be here this long. I’m starving, what have you been eating?”
     “This and that sir, can’t rightly say,” said Isaiah while packing the unbroken glasses into boxes.
     “You got to help me, I’m starving, I’d eat anything.”
     “That’s just it sir, anything.”
     “What?”
     “Anything sir. When I was young living with my family in Atlanta, my great-great-granny used to tell us about the times doing the Freedom War, after the Yankees had gone through and burned and taken everything. There wasn’t anything to eat then either, not a chicken or a pig, not even anything from the gardens. The Yankees had taken everything, like locusts they were, stripping everything from everywhere. Everyone was starving then too, and she said that the only thing to eat then was what she called ‘survival stew’”, explained Isaiah.
     “What’s that? Is that what you’ve been eating?” Asked Vinton, listening intently.
     “Yes sir, it’s what ya gots to do.”
     “Well what is it? Tell me man.”
     “It’s anything and everything. Anything that can be boiled in a pot. Pieces of hide and tree bark, pine needles and young pine cones. Bird’s nest if you can get at em. I killed a rat in the storage car the other day. Rats can be mighty tasty if you cook em right.”
     “That’s what you’ve been eating? Rats and hides?” Said a disgusted Vinton, his face contorting at the idea of eating rats. “I could never eat vermin.”
     “They ain’t so bad, once you skin em and take they heads off. We got a couple of bags of salt and sugar, it helps the taste a mite.”
     “That’s it? That’s what you’ve been eating? I can’t, I just can’t.”
     “Suit yourself sir, it ain’t no secret where I come from on what to do when food gets scarce, I guess that’s why my great-great-granny called it survival stew.”
                                                                       #
To be continued...

                             Journey Days of Henry McAlister
                                  CHAPTER TWENTYONE
                              Chapter twenty-one-part three

     Henry stirred the pot of rabbit stew and watched Katherine’s slow breathing, her face calmly serene nuzzled against the brown fur of the caribou hide blanket. The fire crackled and hissed, emanating its warmth into the small cabin, pearl shaped droplet’s of water streaked down the small window and gathered on the window ledge, for a brief time melting the frost that had accumulated there.
     “Katherine, Kay, here drink this,” said Henry pressing a cupful of broth to her lips.
     “Huh? Is that you Henry? What is it?”
     “It’s stew, drink it.”
     Katherine’s eyes brightened as she finished the broth, saying, “Where’d this come from?”
     “It’s a rabbit from that fellow Pierre.”
     “A rabbit? That seems strange that he would give you a rabbit when food is so scarce. It was very charitable of him.”
     “Well, it wasn’t exactly charity that got him to do it,” said Henry, explaining his business agreement with Pierre. “With the two of us hunting for food I’m sure we can make it through this. Now, I want you to eat.”
     “Henry are you going to eat?”
     “Of course I am, I’m starving.”
                                                                #
     Vinton craned his neck out the window watching Virgil and Warren, burdened with what supplies they could find, trudge through the snow and disappear around the end of the caboose on their way towards Whitehorse. He was both hopeful at their leaving and trying to get help, and worried about his fate, alone on the train, his knowledge of hunting and of using a rifle was limited to just the tall tales that he would overhear in the saloons as he made his sales calls. ‘Accursed snow’ he thought.
     Henry and Katherine, standing outside near the end of the train, waved shouted ‘good luck’, to the men as they passed the end of the caboose, and watched until the two men had vanished beyond a bend in the railway line. Their tracks soon disappearing in the wind swept snow.
     “Come along Katherine, let’s get you inside where it’s warm.”
     Katherine tugged at the caribou hide drawing it tighter to her and said, “In just a minute Henry. Isn’t the fresh air wonderful? It’s so beautiful out here, so open. I sometimes feel like the walls of the cabin are closing in on me. Suffocating me, let’s stay out here for a few more minutes.”
     “If you want, but only for a few minutes, until you refresh yourself,” Henry said, stamping his feet in the snow.
     “Do you think they have a chance?”
     “I don’t know. They didn’t take much with them. If they can survive through the night, I don’t know.”
     “You’re going to stay with me aren’t you?”
     “What a darn fool question, I’m not leaving you. I’m never going to leave you, not now not ever. What a darn fool question. Come along, the cold must be affecting your thinking.”
     The small path beside the train had been trampled out by the men going hunting or wandering about, against the train the snow had drifted to over the top of man’s head and the riverside was only slightly better, avoiding a view of the scenery beyond, if a man raised himself as high as he could of his toes.
     “There’s not many of us left, is there Henry? I can’t help but think about the other men on this train. What are they going to do?” Said Katherine, careful with her steps on the ice covered ladder to the passenger car platform.
     “Yes I know, I’ve been thinking about that too. Things could get down right upsetting if they see that we have food and they don’t. I think maybe, we should share what we can with them. But no matter what happens you have to come first. I can’t have you starving because we gave some of our food to them.”
     “Yes Henry, it’s the only Christian thing to do.”
     “And you have to promise me that you’ll never leave the cabin unless I’m with you.”
     “Of course Henry, I’ve seen desperate men losing control of themselves, and that was over simple flakes of gold dust, I shutter to think what could happen because of the isolation and everyone starving.”
     “Good, I’m glad that you understand that things may become unruly and we both have to be careful.”
     “Yes Henry I do and I pray every night that this horrible experience will be over soon for all of us and I keep your derringer in my bag, just in case. Of course I could never shoot anyone, but it might scare them.”
                                                                        #
To be continued...

                             Journey Days of Henry McAlister
                                     CHAPTER TWENTYONE
                                 Chapter twenty-one-part two

     “Where do you think you’re off to darkie?” Asked Vinton, after seeing Isaiah come through the door carrying all of his belongings.
     “That big fellow, Mr. Pierre, says I had to move on account of he’s gonna stay in the Caboose car.”
     “What’s he want to be in there for? I guess he don’t want nothing to do with us, he wants to be alone,” quipped Vinton. “Well that’s fine with me, I never cared much for his manner anyway. You just keep your gear out of my way, and get me a drink.”.
     “Yes, sir, yes sir. I won’t be no trouble at all,” Isaiah said, stowing his belongings behind the charred wall of the bar. “Whiskey, sir?”
     “Yep, give me three fingers and leave the bottle, seein’ that it’s free now and it’s the only thing to drink around here.”
     “I could make you some fresh coffee sir.”
     “I never drink…coffee, it’ll rot your inners.”
                                                              #
     “They didn’t make it, there’s no hope of a rescue party now,” said Warren.
     “You don’t know that,” replied Virgil.
     “Then where’s the rescue party? It’s been twelve days, they should have been here by now, they’d have sleds and dogs. We can’t stay here any longer, I tell you. We have to get out while we have some strength left.”
     “And what? If they couldn’t make it…”
     “We’ll head towards Whitehorse, it’s almost all downhill, we have to.”
     “Maybe, I don’t know. What if we head out and the rescue party arrives?”
     “They ain’t coming I tell you. We have to head towards Whitehorse it’s our only chance. I’m leaving, you coming with me?”
     “I don’t know, I don’t know. They have to know something’s not right, we should of arrive at Skagway long ago.”
     “You heard what the conductor said, they may not even be expecting us.”
     “What about the telegraph lines, they have to be…”
     “Those lines? Their probably all down because of the storm, I’m going in the morning, with or without you.”
                                                                  #
To be continued...

                          Journey Days of Henry McAlister
                               CHAPTER TWENTYONE
                           Chapter twenty-one-part one

     Henry quietly closed the door to the cabin and shook off the snow from his coat, the small wood stove barely giving out any heat into the cabin as Henry tried to warm his hands in front of its dying ember filled core.
     “Is that you Henry?” Asked Katherine, her eyes half open.
     “Yes,” said Henry solemnly.
     “Did you have any luck?”
     “No, I followed a lot of rabbit trails but I didn’t even get a shot off, I’m sorry.”
     “Don’t be sorry, you tried. I’m sure you’ll get something next time.”
     “I can’t stand it, this is terrible. My not being able too…”
     “Henry stop it, this isn’t your fault, stop blaming yourself, you’ll have better luck tomorrow, take your wet clothes off and rest.”
     “Maybe I will, how are you feeling?”
     “Fine, I’m just tired, I can’t seem to get warm,” Katherine said her eyes closing.
     “You can’t let the stove go out, you’ll freeze in here.”
     “I know dear, I’m just tired,” Katherine replied, pulling the hide blanket tighter under her chin while pulling her knees up closer and making herself smaller in the corner of the bench.
     “You just need some food, I’ll go out again tomorrow morning.”
     “I know, I know, let’s just rest for a little while, I’m so tired.”
     “Henry are you in there?” Bellowed Pierre from the corridor.
     “Yes, who is it, what do you what?”
     “It’s Pierre, I have something I’d like to talk to you about.”
     “Can’t it wait until morning? I’ve just returned from hunting.”
     “That’s what I want to talk to you about.”
     Henry quietly slid the cabin door shut behind him and said, “What’s so important that it can’t wait until morning?”
      “No need to get yourself riled up. I seen you come back. Looked to me as if you had no luck hunting.”
     “Yes that’s right, every critter is staying quiet because of the snow I suspect. I’ll be heading out again in the morning. All I saw was a few rabbit tracks that lead nowhere.”
     “It must be a heavy burden for you, what with you having your fiancée to take care of and all. I suspect that if it weren’t for her you would of gone along with Mr. Buchanan and tried to make it to Skagway.”
     “What’s your point? You said you had something you wanted to talk to me about, is that it?”
     “Easy boy. I’ve lived in mountains like these for almost twenty years now and I know every animal track and sign there is. I’ve lived and breathed in em, trapped and hunted most every kind of animal there is.”
     “So. So what?”
     “Well, seeing how we’re stuck here together I thought maybe I could ease your burden a mite and do some hunting for you and your fiancée.”
     “What? Why would you do that?”
     “I hear tell that you struck it rich in the Klondike and…”
     “Something like that, but not as much as people have been saying.”
     “I’m sure that’s true, I’d be willing to supply you and your fiancée with fresh meat for…”
     “How much? How much do you what?”
     “I’m a modest man of modest means but I have a have a hankering for some of the good life I’ve seen. Now that I’m older the wilderness is wearing on me.”
      “How much?” Said an agitated Henry.
      “As I’ve said I’m a modest man and the way I figure it there won’t be any of us getting out of here any time soon, so I figures I can supply you and your misses with enough fresh meat until we’re rescued, for two hundred dollars.”
      “Until we’re rescued for two hundred dollars?” Henry said, excitement and relief passing over his face.
      “Each.”
      “Henry stepped closer to Pierre and looked square into his eyes and said, “I don’t have that much on me, I had it all transferred to the First National Bank in San Francisco. I kept only enough for expenses on this trip.”
      “That’s right sensible of you and I suspected as much. No matter, you can pay me when we get to San Francisco. Course you’ll have to pay for my passage also.”
     “Very well, but how do I know you can live up to your side of the deal?”
     “Well,” laughed Pierre, “you can’t pay me iff’n your dead, now can you? I’ll see to it that you have enough to eat.”
     “If anything happens to Katherine, the deals off, is that understood?”
     “Of course. Here take this,” said Pierre, reaching into his hunting bag and retrieving a rabbit. “Snared it this morning, as you can see I mean what I’m about. It’ll be enough until I get back.”
     “Where are you going?”
     “I figured I’d move my belongings into the Caboose there, more private, seeings how the conductor’s not going to be using it any more, then I’ll be heading out. Hunting Henry, hunting, I have mouths to feed.”
     “What about the other passengers?” Asked Henry.
     “What about em? Oh, as I see it, they can fend for themselves, unlessen they have two hundred dollars,” laughed Pierre as he went down the passageway.
                                                              #
To be continued...

                           Journey Days of Henry McAlister
                                  CHAPTER TWENTY
                               Chapter twenty-part three

     “How is he?” Asked Henry to Virgil who now stood over the still body of Fenton, his shotgun open as he flipped the smoking shells onto the floor and reloaded his shotgun with shells taken from his coat pocket.
     “He’s dead,” replied Virgil calmly.
     “He ain’t dead, he’s still breathing, do something man.”
     Virgil knelt down over the bloody body, and listened to the man’s labored breathing and watched as the blood pulsed out of his neck with each heartbeat. The flow of blood slowed, then stopped. he listened as Fenton’s last gasp of breath barely caused the blood on the floor to move.
     “He’s dead,” restated Fenton as he stood up.
     Virgil stood at the bar pouring himself a drink from one of the bottles that still stood upright on the bar and said to the porter who huddled hidden on the floor behind the bar, “You can get up now, it’s over.”
     “Lordy, lordy, my Lord,” gasped the porter as he viewed the wreckage of bodies and furniture in the dining car, then he began unconsciously to wipe the bar top clear of its broken bottles and spilled whiskey.
    “There, there dear it’s over,” Henry said to Katherine, still in his arms, trying to comfort her.
     The hot smell of burning firewood filled the room as black smoke from the overturned stove continued to empty into the dining car.
     “Fire!” Screamed the porter, pointing towards the dislodged stove in the corner.
     Hot coals that had spilled from the open door of the stove ignited the spilled whiskey that had been strewn around the floor during the struggle with the wolf. Red and yellow flames quickly engulfed the body of the wolf and the torn curtains near the broken window. Virgil and Henry quickly rushed towards the flames trying to stamp them out but the liquor fueled fire continued to spread along the floor towards the wooden bar. Virgil ripped down a window curtain and began beating at the flames, the flames continued to creep towards the bar and up the sides of the dining car reaching to the ceiling.
     “Snow,” shouted Virgil. “Grab that firewood bucket Henry. Open the other door.”
     “No!! There’s wolves out there,” cried Katherine.
     Virgil ignored her pleads and opened the door as Henry handed him the firewood bucket. The porter climbed over the bar and joined Henry and Virgil in a line down the aisle of the dining car. Virgil hurriedly packed the snow from outside in the firewood bucket and then passed it to Henry who in turn passed it to Isaiah. Isaiah moved as close as he dared to the flames and dumped the snow onto the fire, stopping it with the frozen mixture. The men continued passing the bucket along the line, filling it with snow and returning the filled bucket to the flames. Bucket after bucket kept passing up and down the isle, the fire became smaller and smaller as each pound of snow was doused into it. Black smoke half filled the dining car from the extinguished flames and the hot firewood stove. Finally a last bucket of snow was thrown into the stove, smothering the hot coals. The men collapsed into the dining car booths as the black smoke swirled around the car driven by the icy wind coming in from the broken window.
     “Quite an eventful night,” muttered Virgil, straightening up and reaching into his inner coat pocket and pulling out a cigar.
     “Lordy, lordy,” an exhausted Isaiah sighed.
     “You can say that again,” Virgil responded.
     “Come on Kay, let me take you back to your cabin, you’ll be safe there.”
     “No!! I can’t be alone,” cried Katherine.
     “Come on Kay, let’s go,” said Henry holding her tight and guiding her towards her cabin.
     “We heard shots,” Warren excitedly said stepping into the dining car followed closely by Vinton. “What happened here?”
     “A wolf,” replied Henry while escorting Katherine through the doorway and into the adjoining car.
     “You two men missed all the fun,” remarked Virgil while pouring himself a drink and puffing on his cigar.
     “My God!” Exclaimed Vinton.
     “Ain’t no God here,” replied Vinton. “You two men pick up what’s left of Fenton there and take him someplace.”
     “Ah, where?” asked Warren.
     “Put him the storage car, I don’t care. Just get him out of here.”
                                                                    #
To be continued...

                          Journey Days of Henry McAlister
                                      CHAPTER TWENTY
                               Chapter twenty-part two

     Fenton stepped towards the side window and cleared away the moisture from the glass to view what was outside. As he peered into the darkness, a wolf’s head with its black eyes and white fangs appeared directly on the other side of the glass. Fenton jerked back from the window just as the wolf bounded through the glass. He staggered to his right between the booths and the bar as the wolf landed on the floor beside him. Its claws dragging into the wooden floor, it continued sliding until it ended in a heap along the wall. He scrambled to get as far away from the beast intruder as he could, knocking over plates and glassware on the tables and whiskey bottles that stood on the bar top. The porter, his eyes wide with fright at the sight of the wolf now crouched for an attack at the open end of the bar, could only hope that he wasn’t going to be its victim, he slowly knelt down and tried to make himself as small as possible to hide behind a case of whiskey that was stored on the floor. The wolf fixed its eyes of the retreating figure of Fenton and clawed its way towards him then leapt onto the Fenton’s back. The brute force of the wolf’s attack and its weight caused him to collapse onto the floor among the shattered bottles and dinnerware. His yells and screams of terror and pain fixated everyone on the frenzied blood soaked attack. Fenton pinned to the floor with the wolf tearing away at his back, neck and head, tried to reach behind him to dislodge the wolf, the wolf ignored his hands and fists to continue its attack on his shoulders and neck. Its fangs ripping away chunks of coat, flesh and muscle with Fenton’s blood spattering in every direction.
     “Shoot it, shoot it,” screamed Katherine.
     Virgil raced towards the rear of the dining car to retrieve his shotgun that stood in the corner, he hoped he would be quick enough to stop the wolf’s attack before it finished with Fenton and then turned on the rest of them. Henry awaked from his fixated trance of watching the horrifying scene just a few feet in front of him by Katherine’s screaming, pulled his revolver from under his coat jacket and fired twice at the black blood soaked shape that continued struggling on top of Fenton. The wolf paused for a moment from hearing the loud sounds of Henry’s revolver but none of the bullet’s stuck the wolf, instead they splintered into the face of the bar beside it. Again Henry fired his revolver, the bullet hitting the wolf in its rear leg, it recoiled from the shot for a few seconds as if to wonder what had struck its leg, it seemed to feel no pain from the wound. Virgil pushed Henry aside causing Henry to fall into a booth, then carefully raised and aimed his shotgun and pulled the trigger. The blast from the shotgun hit the wolf in the neck and shoulder, shattering the wolf’s left leg, it careened backwards, stumbling over the still body of Fenton, then turned in a half-circle on its three legs, its head slamming into the floor behind the last booth and flipped over onto its back. The body of the wolf slid along the floor crashing into the wall and knocking the small firewood stove off its stand and dislodging the stovepipe. The firewood stove tilted into the corner as its door opened exposing the hot coals inside, with black acrid smoke bellowing from the dislodged stovepipe. Virgil stepped past the body of Fenton towards the now still wolf and looked at it with its black eyes and blooded tongue hanging from its mouth and levered his shotgun at the animal. The second blast exploded the wolf’s head over the walls and floor. Henry straightened himself in the booth and went over to Katherine, he sat beside her and wrapped his arms around her holding her as tightly as he could. He would never have forgiven himself if he had allowed anything to happen to her. She buried her head into his shoulder, sobbing and shivering uncontrollably.
                                                              #
To be continued...

                          Journey Days of Henry McAlister
                                   CHAPTER TWENTY
                                Chapter twenty-part one

     “Do you hear that?” Asked Katherine.
     “Just wolves, they’ve probably arguing over the carcass we left,” replied Virgil.
     “Yes I know they’re wolves, it’s just that they sound like they’re getting closer.”
     Warren stepped closer to the frost covered window and cleared the glass with his hands, trying to view anything that might be outside, in the distance he could see numerous dark shapes dancing around where he and Virgil had left the remains of the caribou. The wolves’ eyes reflective in the stillness of the frigid moonlit air. He watched as one after another tore into the remains they had left.
     “Henry, you don’t think they’ll come here do you?” Katherine asked.
     “I doubt it, they’ll get their fill and then head back into the woods.”
     Warren turned away from the window and stood near the bar, ordering another whiskey from the porter.
    “Yes sir,” replied the porter.
     “Wolves ain’t nothing to ignore. I seen em take down a full grown Grizzly when they’re hungry enough. There ain’t much left when a pack gets ya.”
     “Warren let’s not get everyone riled up with your wolf stories, things are bad enough without your horror stories,” said Henry.
     “It’s true I tell you, they ain’t afraid of nothing.”
     “Please Mr. Wells, my fiancée is here.”
     “I was just saying----”
     Henry went over to Katherine and put his arms around her and whispered into her ear. “It’s just stories, we’re safe in here. They know better than to get near men.”
     Katherine stood huddled in her Henry’s arms, hoping that this ordeal would soon be over and the rescue train would soon arrive to take them all to the safety of a town. The wolves quickly finished the last remains of the caribou, ripping and tearing the ribs and legs from the animal’s body, and started fighting among each other over the remaining scraps. Their teeth and claws glinted in the moonlight as they dashed in and around the caribou’s body. In the distance through the wind swept snow filled night, they could see the lights flickering in the windows of the train cars, the forms of the passengers walking about in the dining car silhouetted in the square frames of the windows.
     Henry and Katherine sat together in a booth towards the front of the dining car near one of the firewood stoves trying to gather its heat. As they sat silently next to each other holding hands, the door at the other end of the car swung open and in stepped Fenton. The wind driven snow piled against the door cascaded into the dining car as he entered. He kicked the snow piles aside and slammed the door shut, then shook his coat to dislodge the snow that had fallen on his shoulders. He clasped his hands together and blew into his palms then moved nearer the firewood stove standing with his back to it.
     “Damn, it’s cold enough out there to freeze a man’s spit before it hits the ground,” he said. “Couldn’t get any sleep, damn room of mine is like an iceberg even with my stove roaring red. Snows piled up halfway along my window.”
     “What’s that noise?” Asked Fenton as he looked up to the dining car ceiling.
     “Quiet!” Said Virgil. “I heard it too, there’s something on the roof of the car.”
     Everybody in the car stood still and looked up towards the ceiling, listening for any sound. The sound of something walking on the car roof became clearer, the sounds of claws padding through the crusted snow and onto the metal roof.
     “It’s a wolf,” exclaimed a frightened Katherine.
                                                                       #
To be continued...