12

Abigail said pensively, like she had been waiting a long time to say it, “That repays my debt to you two. You will never see me again. Rest assured, I am finally happy.”
The three of them turned their ponies and trotted off. I watched them go. In her own way, Abigail had suffered like Aimee. I was glad she’d finally found peace.
I got back to Denver that evening and headed straight for the Assayer’s Office. I wanted to find out just how lucky we were. The nuggets in my saddle bags looked relatively rich. So, it was clearly a claim I might want to stake.
The assay office in Denver was more than just a single guy at the back of a little shack, like it was in most of the gold towns. This one had the staff and equipment to do timely evaluations of the ore that was being brought down from the front range.
I wanted the assay done fast. So, I dropped it with the Head Assayer, who was an acquaintance of mine. Then, I went back to the sumptuous new house that we had built from the proceeds of our supply business.
Aimee was puttering in the kitchen. She said, vaguely interested, “Was there something there? Abigail was always overly melodramatic.”
I said, “There was something. But I don’t know what.”
Then I added, “On the other hand, Abigail seems to have found her place in life?”
Aimee smiled and said, “Yes, she has two virile husbands and a child.”
I added, to change THAT subject, “Well, I took what they showed me down to the assay office. We’ll know tomorrow whether it’s worth staking a claim.”
*****
It was a warm and sunny Wednesday morning, as I strolled into the Head Assayer’s Office. Seth was an older fellow. It was rumored that he had been a professor back east. That is, until he got caught fucking one of his students. Now he assayed rocks in the ass end of nowhere. Such are the wages of sin.
Anyhow, he was an affable guy; loved to talk like most of those overeducated fellows. He said, “You’ve got yourself a rich vein Jacob. But it’s hard to get a firm estimate of how much gold since the rock that the gold is embedded in is pure silver.”
Did he just say SILVER? The whole cliff face was made-up of that material!! Seth chattered on oblivious to my astounded reaction, ” He was saying, “That happens a lot in this area. God must have been pretty irate when he formed our mountains because everything’s melted together.”
I said unbelieving, “You’re telling me that the two samples are nothing but silver and gold?” Seth said, “Yep, it looks like you hit a mother lode, alright.” I’d get down to the government claims office as fast as I could If I were you.”
So, that’s the story of how Aimee and I became unspeakably and somewhat undeservedly rich.
We registered the claim that very day, and we staked it that evening. Then I cut Pat in for a third of the profit, if he would help me get the ore out. He and Aphrodite already had two kids by that point, and they needed the money.
We made hasty arrangements for people to take care of the whorehouse and the supply store. Then, we rolled out of town in our faithful Conestoga headed for a camp near Clear Creek. We needed to vanish fast. Since Seth was bound to talk; and people got killed for a whole lot less.
The mining was relatively straightforward. The vein ran right down the side of the split in the rock face. So, we didn’t have to do much digging. I was still in my twenties and as robust as ever. Pat was a hard worker and Aphrodite was stronger than he was. Aimee’s main job was to discourage visitors. She did that with her Henry.
It was backbreaking. But we eventually pulled a little over twenty-million dollars’ out of that claim. And in that respect; a couple of whores, a peripatetic Irishman, and an itinerant sailor did pretty well for themselves.
*****
There were a number of paths that our lives could have taken after that. But Aimee’s and my direction was set by something that occurred one fine evening in April of the following year.
We were dining at Pell’s Oyster House. I hear you say… Oysters?!! Denver is a thousand miles from the sea. How in the world could you be eating oysters? Well, the new Transcontinental railroad let suppliers ship those tasty little beasties in alive, in portable tanks. And so, oysters’d become all the rage in Denver. That is, if you could afford them, which we could.
Aimee causes a stir whenever she appears in public. She’s just that extraordinarily beautiful. But she was particularly stunning tonight. She’d swept into the restaurant in a silk dress that was one shade lighter than the deep violet of her eyes. And while being entirely appropriate, it showcased every inch of her astonishing figure.
The place was crowded. But a fellow immediately caught my attention. He was sitting with a group of four men at a table against the wall. Denver had become quite the commercial hub once the Colorado Central hooked us to the Transcontinental Railroad at Cheyenne. And those guys were obviously, in town to drum up a little business.
The stranger gawked at Aimee. Then he said something excitedly to the group and they all turned to stare at her. Every other guy in the place was surreptitiously checking my wife out. So, it wasn’t odd that she had the undivided attention of a table full of horny males. It was just that this group was being so blatant about it.
Then the man, who had originally noticed Aimee, pushed back and strolled toward us. He was clearly a salesman, dressed a little too flashy in a checkered suit and a derby hat. He had a wide, knowing grin plastered on his fat face.
We were sitting in intimate little alcove at the back. I always make sure that the maitre-de seats us in the best spot. Under the gaslights, Aimee was a study in serene beauty. She had her back to the approaching man, so I tapped her on the hand and nodded behind her.
She turned and regarded him curiously. He seemed absolutely thrilled to see her. He said jovially, “Hello little lady. I wondered where you’d gone after you left New Orleans. I want to buy some of your special loving tonight. That is, once you’ve finished with this fella.”
We were both a long way from May’s, in both miles and personal history. But Aimee is indeed an unforgettable woman. And this guy was clearly a former customer!! Aimee gave me a panicked look. I returned a nod that said, “Let me handle this.”
With that, the hurricane shutters slammed shut across my wife’s eyes and she got that opaque expression that I knew so well; and utterly hated. It killed me to see how quickly she could disappear behind the forbidding walls of her psyche.
I stood and said in a tone that made it clear I wanted this fellow to go away, “You must be mistaken my good man. This is my wife.”
He totally missed what I’d just said, because he was staring hungrily at Aimee. He said excitedly, “I’ve fucked a lot of whores. But you’re the best. Where are you working honey?” Mercifully, he was facing into the alcove. So, only Aimee and I heard that.
I didn’t want to create a fuss. So, I grabbed his arm, spun him and marched him out the door. He protested every step of the way. But his complaints fell on deaf ears.
This guy had no idea of the danger he was in. He saw a rich man, well-groomed and fashionably dressed. But we ALL have a past. It takes fearsome strength and utter ruthlessness to throw a thirty-pound whale-iron with sufficient force to kill a whale. More relevant, that primal ferocity lurks underneath my surface, like a river of molten lava.
This man’s imprudent words had brought it ALL to the surface. So, I dragged him into the alley, picked him up and slammed him against the wall. The thunderous impact knocked the wind out of him. I was still holding him pinned against the wall, when he finally got his breath back. I said through gritted teeth, “You are going to die right here in this alley if you don’t immediately go inside and apologize for your error.”
He could see pure homicide in the flickering light of the gaslamps and he was shaking terrified. He nodded weakly. He had already pissed himself. I put him down very gently and brushed off the back of his suit coat, which had flecks of paint embedded in it. Then I silently gestured for him to proceed back to our table.
He walked straight up to Aimee, who was gazing at him with the hooded-eyes that I had seen so often in our trip west, and meekly said, “I apologize for my confusion madam. I can see now that you are a completely different woman.”
Aimee smiled graciously and with considerable underlying significance, she said “I understand. People often misperceive me.” Then he turned and scuttled away.
I looked eloquently at my wife and said, “Shall we return home my dear. I don’t believe there is anything left for us here.” She rose gracefully, offered her hand and said, “Yes, I’ve had more than enough.”
On the way home she asked me, “What did you do to him out there? We felt the whole building rock.” I said mildly, “I just explained the disastrous effects of bad eyesight and he accepted that observation.”
Aimee gave me one of her cat-like smiles and proceeded to spend the rest of the night trying to kill her “Knight in Shining Armor.”
*****
That incident made the choice for us. We had to get as far away as possible from Aimee’s past. So, we would reinvent ourselves in the most populous city in America. Therefore, unlike most people of our time, we headed EAST to the fabled isle of Manhattan.
We bought a mansion off “millionaire’s row,” right next door to Pierpont Morgan’s palatial manse. I’d struck up a friendship with JP while I was investing our gold and silver holdings. He was young then, not the old walrus you see in the pictures, and just getting started. So, he needed capital. Accordingly, ours was a partnership made in heaven.