Free The Case of the Deadly Desperados by Caroline Lawrence Page A

sure,” I said. “She had a gentleman friend by then, a man named Tommy Three. Ma sold our tent & ponies and we bought places on a Wagon Train heading west. We were in Utah Territory when our wagon got separated from the rest. A band of Shoshone attacked us two days later and slaughtered my ma and Tommy Three and Hang Sung, our cook.”
    Sam Clemens looked up from his notepad. “All three massacred?”
    â€œYes, sir.”
    â€œAre you joshing me?”
    â€œNo, sir, I am not.”
    â€œWhy didn’t the Shoshone kill you, too, if you don’t mind my asking?”
    â€œI don’t know. I can’t remember what happened. I found myself sitting by the burning wagon. The Indians had taken our provisions and horses. But they left me alive with the bodies. I was wearing my old buckskins that day,” I said. “Maybe that is why.”
    â€œSo you are a double orphan?”
    I said, “Yes, sir.”
    Sam Clemens took his pipe out of his mouth and examined it. “Then what?” he said. “What happened after the massacre?”
    â€œAnother wagon train came along two days later,” I said. “They found me digging the graves.”
    â€œWhen was that?”
    â€œTwo years ago,” I said. “Summer of ’60.”
    â€œFirst year of the Silver Boom,” said Sam Clemens. “How old were you then?”
    â€œI was nine years old,” I said. “Almost ten.”
    Sam Clemens put the pipe back in his mouth. “And you were trying to bury the dead yourself?”
    â€œYes, sir. It would not have been right to leave Ma and Tommy Three and Hang Sung for the coyotes and buzzards. Especially Ma.”
    Sam Clemens was blinking rapidly. “Blasted alkali dust,” he said. “Stings your eyes.” He took out a handkerchief & wiped his face. I could not see how that would help. His handkerchief was as powdered as the rest of him. After a spell he said, “And the next wagon train took you on?”
    â€œYes, sir. The Reverend Emmet Jones and his wife were on that wagon train. They took pity on me and adopted me. Ma Evangeline said she had been trying to have a baby for years but the Lord had never seen fit to bless her with offspring. Pa said it was God’s Will that they show me love and mercy. They were real good to me.
    â€œWe went to a place near Salt Lake City and Pa tried to preach to the Mormons. Ma taught me to read and write and Pa taught me Scripture. Half a year ago the Mormons asked Pa to move on. About the same time, the Lord told him to found a town called Temperance in the Comstock, to be an Oasis of Holiness in a Desert of Sin. We got here in the spring and now he is dead and I do not think the town of Temperance will last much longer without him.” I stared down at the floor. “Pa used to say that Virginia City was Satan’s Playground. And now it has killed him.”
    Sam Clemens slowly shook his head. “To lose two parents is a tragedy,” he said. “But to lose four is just plain careless.”
    I did not know what to say.
    Sam Clemens narrowed his eyes at me. That was the fourth time he had given me Expression No. 5. “You know,” he said, “it is disconcerting to see what appears to be a sweet little girl talking about such things with no apparent emotions. I am not entirely sure I trust you.”
    I said, “It is my Thorn.”
    He puffed his pipe for a few moments. Then he said, “You are a strange creature, P.K.”
    Without another word he stood up, reached into his pants pocket & took out a small revolver.

Ledger Sheet 18
    AS SAM CLEMENS DREW his small revolver, I slid under the heavy wooden table as fast as a greased snake down a gopher hole.
    â€œCome back up, P.K.,” said Sam Clemens. “I mean you no harm. On the contrary, I mean to do you a kindness.”
    I raised my head up above the table.
    â€œI do not believe in violence,”