Chapter 14
Henry was too embarrassed to ask Silas for any more help. It embarrassed Henry terrible to ask Silas for help to write the letters, but it wasn’t something he could not very well ask the Judge’s wife, a woman, to help him with. However, he could ask her to help him learn how to read. She was a kind woman and especially showed him good will when Dinah disappeared.
Henry stopped by the Judge’s house at least twice a week when he was in town. He felt infantile reading the children’s books that Betsy had. He kept at it though with her encouragement.
Today, Henry read an article in the newspaper. “The question of co-education has attracted the usual interest at different college commencements. A young lady applied for permission to enter the examination at Dartmouth, but was refused.” He stumbled over the words, but he was able to get through it and finish it.
Betsy asked him, “What does the article mean?”
Henry rubbed his chin looking at the words. “Women want to be able to get a college education just like men,” he said slowly. “But, colleges don’t want women.” Henry paused in thought. “Mrs. Conner, I hope that colleges change their minds, because my dream is for my girls to go to college right alongside men.”
“It might happen, Henry. These colleges are considering it. If not, there are institutions just for girls.”
“I just want the best for them. I want to give them everything I couldn’t have,” Henry said.
“I know you do, Henry. You are a good man. And you are showing astounding progress with reading.”
“Thank you for taking the time with me,” Henry said.
Henry was still a slow reader, but he felt proud of himself. His parents put him through school initially when he was young boy, but Henry fell behind his peer quickly. The letters confused Henry. He was scolded by his teacher for absently inverting his letters, but when he looked at his work himself, he honestly couldn’t see the difference. It took him an abnormal amount of time to learn how to write his name, but sometimes, his turned around “e’s” persisted when he wrote his name. It wasn’t purposeful. Henry did not know why he did it.
At seven, his teacher told his parents that schooling was a waste of time. He was not naturally bright and would struggle needlessly in school from his innate stupidity. His teacher said all this in front of Henry, who soaked up her words and never forgot them. He was stupid, a dimwit, and would never go or do anything in life.
Henry’s father took the news numbly resigning himself to be the father of an idiot. The next day, Henry woke readying himself for school, but his father shook his head and told him plainly, “You won’t be going to school anymore.”
His father took him to a factory that day to work. If his son was going to be an imbecile, he might as well earn a wage. He never said any of this to Henry with words, but his actions towards his son told Henry that his father thought he was a great disappointment. Henry avoided trying to learn to read for the rest of his life. He tried to forget his childhood feelings of inadequacy and failure.
Henry was now a grown man with children. It was time he learned. It was time he stopped fulfilling his school teacher’s prophecy. He wanted to set a better example for Lilah and Tallulah. How could he press them to study when he couldn’t even read? Dinah’s disappearance prompted his quest for self improvement. Maybe she left for someone better. Someone who could, at least, read.
After reading with Betsy, Henry rode into town to meet his old business associates. The ones he used to run with during his outlaw days, Tom Bellamy, Buster Brown, and Wiley Dodge. He moonlighted as a bandit now, only partaking in the scams with the biggest hauls. He was never truly cut out as a gunslinger though because he refused to shoot anyone dead. He was sharpshooter, a skill he honed in the army, allowing him to aim for kneecaps or graze shoulders. Henry loved the thrill of good heist but wasn’t a killer. Bellamy, Buster, and Wiley, they were committed to the outlaw lifestyle, they’d shoot a guy square between the eyes if they had to. After serving in the war, Henry never wanted to take another man’s life again.
It was dear old Buster that initially introduced Henry to Dinah. She appeared into their lives seemingly out of thin air. They were in Montana at the time planning their next move at Buster’s place. She walked in with a sparkle in her eye and a wry smile.
Dinah flung her long blonde hair back with flick and then extended her hand out to Henry to be kissed. “Dinah,” she said.
Henry had never kissed a woman’s hand in his life. He shook her hand awkwardly. “Pleased to meet you, ma’am. Henry.”
Dinah laughed at Henry’s faux paus. She found it charming; a man that did not put on airs. She loved his square chin and deep brown eyes. He was a handsome man with rough edges. She was sick of genteel mannered man. It was why she left Europe in the first place.
On impulse, Dinah threw herself into Henry’s arms kissing him deeply on the lips. Henry, shocked at this woman’s gall, returned her ardor. They kissed like they weren’t in a room full of other people. They kissed like they were the only two people in the world. That’s what it was like to be with Dinah. Her energy was infectious. A person could get lost in her world and her whimsical ideas.
Bellamy and Wiley walked in during that whirlwind first kiss. Wiley joked, “I guess you’ve had a chance to get acquainted with Dinah.” Indeed, Henry did.
Dinah offered her services in any capacity to help the bandits. Dinah explained to them that robbing was actually something that came quite easy to her. She had been doing it on a small scale all her life.
She proved herself useful as a distraction and even more useful interacting with local law enforcement and bank officials in off hours to find out the best times for the boys to strike. She was beautiful and exotic with her French chic ways. Men were entranced with her long wavy hair, angular cheekbones, and red pouty mouth. Most hardly understood what she said when she asserted her accent more for effect. She could talk a man into doing anything, believing anything, and revealing confidential information.
Their first bank robbery together went perfectly. Dinah picked up information from a dim-witted bank official that a bank in Telluride, Colorado would be receiving $15,000. There was no use in robbing an empty bank so Dinah extracted valuable information like this whenever she could. There is nothing worse than robbing a bank with nothing in it. Bellamy, Buster, Wiley, Henry, and Dinah held the bank up at gun point. They rode away in a flash before the law even got to the scene.
Later that night, Dinah and Henry holed up together in a hotel room fifty miles away from Colorado. Dinah, still in her men’s garb, flung her hat off her head. Her white blonde hair flew down in a flurry. Henry grabbed her and playfully threw her on the bed. “You are so bad for me,” he said.
She kissed him. “You have no idea, Monsieur.”
Bellamy, Buster, and Wiley sat at a table in the back corner of Judge Conner’s Saloon.
Henry gave the Judge a head nod as he made his way to the back. The Judge in return nodded back.
Bellamy was the stockiest of the group with broad hunched soldiers and thick black beard. Buster was wiry and lean with shaggy blonde hair he wore in a ponytail under his hat. Wiley was thick and robust from his years of hard labor building bridges. All four men, including Henry, each served in the Union army, one way or the other, leaving scars and unhealed wounds in various individualized ways. Buster had the most notable battle scar running down the length of the right side of his neck. No one ever asked Buster about it. He wouldn’t have been able to talk about it anyway.
“Baker,” Bellamy said lifting his whiskey up to him in greeting.
Henry sat and got right to the point, “You think we can actually do it?”
Wiley nodded looking at Buster and Wiley for confirmation. Buster leaned back precariously on the back legs of the chair before slamming the front legs down and whispering, “We got a tip that Central Pacific passenger train will be carrying $60,000 of gold, at least.”
“Who gave you the tip?” Henry asked. Bellamy, Buster, and Wiley look at each other. No one wanted to break the news. Henry asked again, “Who gave you the tip?”
“Dinah,” Bellamy said hesitantly.
“You’ve seen her,” Henry said leaning back in his chair slowly. He took a moment to collect himself; his hand covering his mouth in thought. The guys let him sit in silence. Wiley raised his eyebrows to the Judge and held up a finger. In moments, the Judge came over and placed a whiskey in front of Henry. He nodded in appreciation savoring the whiskey burn as he swallowed it down. “How is she?” Henry said staring at his glass.
“She’s good. She didn’t want us to tell you that we’ve seen her,” Bellamy said. “But, we had to tell you.” He fidgeted his large hands tapping them on the table.
“Is she really okay?” Henry asked. “Is she having one of her spells.”
Bellamy said, “It’s hard to tell, Henry. She looked lucid, a little anxious, but you’d know better than I would if she was having a spell.”
“Where is she staying?” Henry pressed.
Bellamy looked at Henry impassively. “I can’t say, Henry.” He shook his head slowly truly regretful.
Henry held up a hand. “Okay. I understand.” He shook off the news of Dinah as best he could and diverted his attention back to their big heist. “I’m glad you told me. Knowing the source of the tip off, I can trust that it’s good information.” Bellamy, Buster, and Wiley nod in agreement. It was true. Dinah’s intel was always spot on. “This has never been done before,” Henry said. “A train robbery? Stagecoach heists are a piece of cake. Bank robberies, shit. Dinah and I have done them easily alone, but a speeding train with just the four of us?” Henry shook his head in doubt.
Wiley said with delicacy, “That’s what we wanted to talk to you about. We need more guys.”
Bellamy interjected, “The Espinosa brothers are interested in lending a hand.”
“Those guys are cold blooded killers. They’ve got venom in their veins!” Henry yowled.
The Espinosa Brothers were, indeed, ruthless killers, but unfortunate circumstances shaped them into cold blooded murderers. The brothers weren’t always violent. They were once obedient law abiding sons to their family, but when they witnessed six of their family members die from a U.S. Navy attack during the Mexican-American war, the quiet unassuming Espinosa Brothers transformed into furious vicious men. The Americans trampled onto their family’s land, raped their sisters, and subsequently threw them off their land. It was rumored that in the Colorado Territory, the Espinosas murdered thirty-three Americans in a revenge killing spree. The brothers had an immeasurable amount of hate inside them.
Buster interrupted, “We know. We know.” He held his hands up. “But they are the gun power we need to pull this off.”
“Is there anyone else? Anyone else but the Espinosas?” Henry pleaded.
Wiley shook his head. “No one wants to try to pull off the first ever attempted train robbery.”
Henry said, “Jesse James’s gang?”
“They are a no go. No one is crazy enough to attempt this. Only us,” Buster said.
“And the Espinosa brothers,” Henry finished.
“But if we are successful. $60,000 in gold. This will be your last heist, if you want it to be, Henry. You’ll never have to do this again. You can raise your daughters and become a law abiding cowboy.”
Henry said firmly unconvinced, “I say, we just do it ourselves. The Cavalry is already looking for these guys. Why should we get tangled up with them? We got our own problems.”
Wiley shrugged his shoulders. “Baker, you just said we couldn’t do it with just the four of us.”
Henry scrambled to think of there was anyone else they could enlist. He thought of Silas. Silas was a rough rider; he’d be able to handle the quick horse riding imperative to take over the fast speeds of a train. He bit his lip. He couldn’t ask Silas. Silas was a good honest man.
Henry groaned, unable to come up with any better ideas. He finally agreed with the proposed plan. They needed the Espinosa Brothers.
On the ride back home, Henry thought of what $60,000 in gold must look like. He thought of what he could do with that money split seven ways, because of course, the two Espinosa brothers and Dinah would get their cut. Even so, that was a lot of money. One acre of land out here was only $5.
He wondered where Dinah was exactly and where the guys had run into her. He knew enough not to ask, but it burned him to know. He wondered if she missed their daughters. He wondered if she was okay and if she had found happiness in whatever she left them to do.
Henry and Dinah’s last stagecoach robbery together was only memorable to Henry because it was a few weeks before Dinah discovered she was pregnant with Lilah. Dinah tied her hair up and hid it underneath a wide brimmed hat and dressed herself in men’s clothing. She pointed her pistol at the stagecoach passengers while Henry cleaned them out. They got away with $527 with Dinah riding behind Henry on the horse gripping him tightly and squealing with joy. She took down her hat and let her hair unravel in the wind as they escaped as she loved to do after a haul. Her arms held tightly to Henry as they rode as if she never intended to let him go.