Rivers West by Louis L’Amour Page A

to the western lands for you, it is the same for him…for them.”
    â€œYou are accusing him?” Her eyes were furious.
    â€œNo. I have not sufficient evidence. What I am suggesting is that you find another crew. Find one known to local people, and a captain known to local people.”
    â€œYou have not sufficient evidence! I should think
not
. All you have is supposition and your own dislike for him. I’m sorry, Helen, but I can no longer remain in the room with this man.”
    â€œI’m leaving.” I turned to Helen. “I am sorry. I had information. I hoped she would listen, but I did not mean to disrupt your breakfast.”
    She walked to the door with me. “You will come again, won’t you? And please…don’t take offense. I have never seen her so angry before. She must like you a great deal.”
    â€œ
Like
me? She detests the ground I walk on.”
    Helen laughed. “I doubt it. It was what you said about no reason for jealousy that really burned. Do come again, Mr. Daniel.”
    â€œCall me Jean,” I said. “That’s really my name.”
    I walked back slowly, turning the whole affair over in my mind.
    My efforts had been useless. Now she was angry, and if I was any judge of people, the last thing she would think of doing would be to rid herself of Macklem. I had really made things worse, for all my good intentions.
    Macaire. I must warn Macaire.
    Suddenly, I was alert. I must move with caution. Those two men who’d confronted me outside the inn had not been there by accident, but obviously to prevent me from doing just what I’d done. Only I’d made a proper mess of it.
    Macklem, or somebody close to him for whom he was acting, certainly believed that I knew more than I did. No doubt, he suspected I could go to them with concrete information, and wished to prevent that.
    Butlin was loafing on Water Street, obviously watching for me. He sauntered along toward me. “Looks like you had trouble,” he said.
    â€œNo trouble,” I said.
    â€œBut a man at the inn said you were jumped by two thugs.”
    â€œOh, that!” I grinned at him. “That was nothing to what I ran into when I tried to warn Miss Majoribanks about Macklem.”
    Briefly, I explained. Butlin stood quiet, listening. He was a good listener, Butlin was, and a man who remembered, but above all, as I was learning, he was a man who knew how to act on what he had learned. Many men have information, but few know how to use it to advantage.
    â€œSo what do we do now? Jambe-de-Bois is worried.”
    â€œI want to talk to Macaire. Find him for me, will you? I shall change clothes.”
    My room was quiet. From my window I could see the
Western Engineer
. From my packsack I got out my telescope and studied the steamboat.
    A man was standing on a skiff painting over the ship’s name. Several men were walking up the gangway carrying boxes and bales. Macklem was wasting no time.
    A wagon pulled by two horses had drawn up near the gangway. The back of the wagon was covered with a tarpaulin, and as I watched, several men surrounded the wagon, all of them facing out. Six husky men came down the gangway. The back of the tarpaulin was lifted and one long box taken out, then another and another.
    The husky men took the boxes up the gangway at a trot, and all the while those other men were looking, watching, wary as cats.
    A warehouse and big stacks of lumber shielded them from Water Street, and only my position on the second floor of the tavern with my telescope gave me a chance to see it happen.
    As I watched, I counted aloud: “Three, four, five…six, seven…eight.” And there were more. At least ten of those long boxes, and nobody needed to tell me what they contained, for I had seen such before. Each box contained at least a dozen rifles. Perhaps more.
    There was a light tap on the door, and Butlin came in. Handing him the glass, I