Colter's Path (9781101604830) Read online

  A RISKY ENDEAVOR

  Jedd eyed the door and pictured himself bolting through it, leaving this group and their venture behind. But he didn’t. He’d agreed to let Plumb hire him. Even if the whole enterprise was looking increasingly off-putting and unpromising, he wouldn’t just walk away.

  He settled in his seat and did his best to exhibit a face of unworried dispassion as the three partners in the California Enterprise Company bickered and snarled at one another, and Crozier Bellingham listened and scribbled feverishly with his pencil.

  Jedd looked again at one of the paintings on the wall, a depiction of a deep and shadowed mountain range stretching to a far horizon, and wished he were part of it, lost in that great solitude of hills and forests, far away from jabbering voices and the scratch of pencil on paper.

  COLTER’S

  PATH

  CAMERON JUDD

  A SIGNET BOOK

  SIGNET

  Published by New American Library, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA

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  First published by Signet, an imprint of New American Library, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  First Printing, October 2012

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  ISBN: 978-1-101-60483-0

  Copyright © Cameron Judd, 2012

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

  REGISTERED TRADEMARK—MARCA REGISTRADA

  Printed in the United States of America

  PUBLISHER’S NOTE

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party Web sites or their content.

  If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”

  ALWAYS LEARNING

  PEARSON

  To Jedd Dotson and the rest of the Class of ’74, Putnam

  County Senior High School, Cookeville, Tennessee

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  Part One

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Part Two

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Part Three

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Postscript

  The Long Hunt

  PROLOGUE

  Knoxville, Tennessee

  JANUARY 1849

  Ottwell Plumb swabbed his broad tongue across a mouthful of gold teeth and said, “To get straight to the point, Mr. Colter, I am told you are the best. I am told that any band of travelers you pilot is as safe and assured of safe arrival as any such group in these times can be. And I am told you have made a successful journey to Oregon already, and one to California.”

  Jedd Colter listened, sipping on a mug of hot black coffee. He was a lean, weathered man of twenty-eight who stood an impressive six feet tall and was well featured, generally considered a fine figure of a man despite a tendency to go too long unshorn and unshaven. “I would say I have made two journeys to California, sir. It depends upon how you count it. The route I’ve followed has been the California-Oregon Trail. Both my California journeys happened before the gold was found at Sutter’s, just folks moving across to California to settle. My first journey was the long trot, the whole distance. The second band I piloted only the final half of the journey, replacing the original pilot who had died along the way. I got them pilgrims safely to their destination in his place.”

  “Well, here’s to his memory, and your success in his stead,” said Plumb, lifting his coffee in salute. Colter followed suit out of politeness, and marveled as a new smile provided another flash of Plumb’s mouthful of gold. Plumb spoke again. “The fact that we share common North Carolinian roots, you and I and my partners the Sadler brothers, only enhances the logic of our collaboration on this grand venture. We have trodden the same hills and valleys, drunk of the same wellsprings, gloried in the same expansive Carolina skies…. It seems fitting that we should undertake together to be part of this nation’s grandest new adventure!”

  “Permit me to ask you something, sir,” Colter said to the man he’d met only two hours earlier. “Is that California gold you’ve had them gilded choppers made from?”

  Plumb smiled widely, displaying the golden teeth to full measure. Then he squelched the smile and leaned a little closer to Colter. “Between you and me, Mr. Colter—”

  “Call me Jedd.”

  “And call me Ottwell. Between you and me, Jedd, the gold in my mouth is not from California, though I allow people to believe it is. In my line of business, it pays to display some degree of, shall we say, flamboyance? Extravagance. Whatever draws the public eye. My combination of silver tongue and golden teeth brings attention to my plan. Showmanship, you see. Which is one more reason I have sought you out and hope to involve you in our work. Showmanship.”

  Jedd drew in a long breath. “I’m not sure how I fit into a scheme such as that one, sir. I’m obliged to say two things to you. First, I am one of the poorest examples of ‘showmanship’ you could have picked, if that’s what you’re after. I’m a man of the hills and mountains and plains. A rover and rambler. I shun human attention like a pox, and oftentimes, even human company. Second, I would advise you to find another way to advertise your venture, other than by way of your teeth. With the hunger for gold
as high as it is in this nation just now, there are some who might find it more handy to ‘mine’ their gold directly out of your piehole than to pan it out of a stream.”

  “I can take care of myself sufficiently to avoid trouble,” Plumb said, patting his chest in a way to let Jedd know there was a pistol hidden beneath his coat.

  “I hope you can,” Jedd said. He refocused the discussion. “What you’re asking of me, Ottwell, is to work with your California Enterprising Company of…of…”

  “The California Enterprise Company of East Tennessee,” Plumb prompted.

  “Right, right. You want me to work with your California Enterprise Company of East Tennessee as a scout, pilot, and trail adviser.”

  “Precisely so. Essentially the same work you have already done for others, but in this case we seek to specially promote your name and reputation as part of our company’s attraction to the public.

  “I believe your excellent reputation, and that of your history-making family, is something this venture can trade upon to increase the attractiveness of our effort to the general public. The more emigrants we can add to our band, you see, the better our profits…and your share of them. But, for you, it gets even better than that.” Plumb took on a sly, between-you-and-me expression. “What you haven’t been told yet is that I…uh, we intend to pay you in a manner that will at least double your usual gain in such ventures, and do so in an ongoing way.”

  “How so?”

  “In addition to the onetime fee that is your standard, and the additional percentage paid based upon the size of the group, we propose to pay you ten percent of profits made from the mining of gold by my partners in this venture, Wilberforce and Witherspoon Sadler. It is they who will be involved in the actual work in the diggings. For every hundred dollars in gold they obtain, ten dollars of it will go to you. This arrangement will stand as long as the Sadlers involve themselves in the mining of gold, either directly by their own hand or by those whom they hire.”

  “And I don’t have to work the diggings myself for this income?”

  “You needn’t lift a pan unless you so desire.”

  “And if I did choose to pan for gold on my own? And found color? Would I then be obliged to share the same percentage back with you and the Sadlers?”

  Plumb grinned and chuckled. “You are a man with the instincts of commerce, sir. It always pays to look around the next corner of every bargain, to make sure no hidden wolves are there, waiting to bite.”

  “Well? What is the answer?”

  Plumb fidgeted and frowned. “I am in a situation in which it is difficult to speak for…I’m not sure I should…” He pursed his lips and crunched his eyebrows downward. “No. No. I’ll not hesitate to speak on their account. Your involvement is crucial to our success. The answer is no, without equivocation. You would not be obliged to share any percentage of what gold you might discover on any independent claim of your own.”

  Jedd did not miss the extra emphasis Plumb placed on the key word. “Independent of you and the Sadlers, you mean?”

  “Precisely. Should you labor on a claim held by the California Enterprise partnership, naturally the profits would be divided among all relevant parties. It seems only fair, wouldn’t you say?”

  “It does. Are you certain the Sadlers will go along with the provision regarding my rights to full possession of gold I independently obtain on claims other than theirs?” It was largely a hypothetical conversation; Jedd possessed little ambition for prospecting. If he struck color it would likely be by mere happy accident.

  Plumb was growing more firm in his declarations the more he talked. “Do not worry about the Sadlers. I am the founder of this venture, and they will do what I say. Particularly if they know the agreements you and I make are crucial to our ability to secure you as our pilot.”

  Jedd had his doubts. The reputation of the Sadlers in this town, particularly the elder Sadler, was that of men who did not well abide being told what to do and perceived themselves as self-sufficient, not prone to require the advice or aid of others.

  “I’m astonished, sir. What is there about me that would be of such value to you? There are a lot of California pilots available who would serve you well. I’m not trying to undermine my own opportunity by speaking to you this way, but since I insist that those I work for be fully open and honest with me, I consider that I owe equal frankness in return. And I’m frankly surprised by your focus on me.”

  Plumb squeezed his eyes and lips closed so that his face looked oddly pinched, and nodded profoundly. “An excellent notion and habit, sir, this speaking freely and honestly. Excellent indeed.”

  “Good. Now please answer the question.”

  Plumb squirmed as if struck with a hidden itch. “Yes, sir, yes.” He paused and cleared his throat. “You are correct that there are other pilots to be had. But I have already touched upon the primary reason I have come to you: I invest my trust in good reputation. And in associating myself with those who possess it. Those who have earned a good name deserve to benefit from it. And you have earned such. Even before you, the Colter family was associated with the expanding American frontier for generations. Merely to hear it calls forth images of wild and unsettled mountains in the early days of the frontier, and of courage and leadership. Therefore I find it desirable to associate such a noted name with my new venture. Are you following me?”

  “I follow. That’s not to say I’ve made a decision about what you offer.” In fact, Colter had decided, the moment he learned of the proposed recompense. He was in no position to turn away from high-paying work. After all, his ever-present financial strictures had already cost him the chance to marry the only woman he had loved—a woman of this very town, in fact. She had been ready to accept him, he believed. What she could not abide was his lack of resources.

  He was a poor man, no question of it. Always in need of money and work. Still, it went against his grain to appear overeager, so he did not jump too swiftly to voice agreement to Plumb’s offer.

  “I think you would find yourself in a happy position as we make our journey,” said Plumb. “The commander of the venture, as we have titled him, is General Gordon Lloyd, no longer officially in a military role but still stalwart. The true, day-to-day leaders will be the Sadlers, however, General Lloyd being largely a symbolic figure. You would serve as a practical adviser to the Sadlers, keeping things on the path, as it were.”

  “What would be your own role as we proceed?”

  “Oh, I will not make the journey myself, not immediately. I am a dreamer, a planner, a visionary…not an overland adventurer. And I possess little interest in working directly as a prospector. It is my belief that, over time, more will profit indirectly from the rush for gold than those who profit directly. The patient man shall prevail over all others. Travel, shelter, food, medical, legal, and spiritual counsel…all these things will be in demand by those who reach the far West. Those who provide those services will stand to benefit wonderfully.”

  “I’m prone to agree with you, sir,” Colter said. “I myself find the possession of gold to be a pleasing prospect, yet I have little inclination to search the earth for it or spend my days squatted by a stream with a pan in my hand.”

  “Are you agreeing to my proposal?”

  Jedd paused a few moments. “I admit to some hesitation born of the fact that you yourself are not making the journey. It causes me to question your own faith in the venture.”

  Plumb performed that strange screwing up of his countenance again, eyes narrowed to slits and puffed outward above and below his very black lashes. “I believe deeply in this venture. I intend for there to be many journeys of this sort across this growing land we have been given to live upon. But I know my personal limits and my place, Jedd. You are a man of trail and mountain and plains. I am a man of town and city. The forest and range in which I hunt is that of business and commerce. I shall travel with you in spirit and thought and even prayer…but I would be nothing but a burden
should I try to make the journey myself.”

  Jedd nodded.

  “Will you accept my offer, then? Shake my hand in seal of the bargain?”

  Jedd thought a few moments more, battling an innate hesitation to obligate himself to a venture he could not fully control, then thrust out his hand and said, “Looks like I’m going back to California.”

  Plumb’s face beamed so brightly Jedd thought the man was about to burst into tears of joy.

  That evening, as Ottwell Plumb made his way alone back to his hotel, he was pulled into an alleyway by three strangers, beaten unconscious, and robbed of his pistol, an antique watch, and his golden teeth. Most of the teeth were false and so were simply yanked out of his mouth by hand, but some were his natural teeth, gold-plated, and those were removed forcibly by fast use of some sort of large pincers or pliers.

  Bleeding and pale, he regained consciousness on his own and found his feet after several efforts, then staggered on until he collapsed on a curb a quarter mile away. He was found and carried by helpful strangers to the office of a doctor who operated a private infirmary near the Holston River.

  “I seen that fellow two days ago,” one of the three helpful strangers said to his fellows after they abandoned him to the physician. “Had gold teeth in his mouth. Ain’t no wonder such a thing happened to him, flashing gold teeth all around town.”

  “Just a fool,” said another. “Just an unthinking fool.”

  “Will he live?” the third asked.

  “I think so,” said the first. “I don’t think he was beat on all that bad. And like Jack just said, he’s a fool. And fools generally survive most anything.”

  PART ONE

  1849

  CHAPTER ONE

  Jedd Colter strode up a particular Knoxville avenue and cursed himself inwardly for being there. A deep sense of dissatisfaction and restlessness, even outright unhappiness, pervaded his thoughts and showed in his demeanor. He walked alone, glowering into the gloom of the cooling evening.