The Undertaker's Wife by Loren D. Estleman

Author:Loren D. Estleman
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781429911832
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates

14

. . . And so Rubyoff confesses that he misled me about the facts of the situation in Hays City. Although the population here is clearly on the ascendant, the mean age of the immigrants is between twenty and thirty, and there is little of the fighting and gun play that has made the Abilene cattle town the subject of national attention. Rubyoff supports himself by growing corn, green beans, and tomatoes behind his house for his table, selling some to one of the hotels in town, and from occasional taxidermy, such as the wolf he is stuffing and mounting at present for Philip Sheridan, the Fort Hays commander, who shot the animal from horseback while on patrol recently. At present it represents the only income on the horizon.

I hasten to say that Rubyoff is not a schemer, merely a man fighting for survival by desperate measures. It is the old story. Even the Rooneys sustain themselves and their enterprise through a part interest in the Cheyenne Hotel, a place popular with speculators and the owners of the various cartage firms that stop here for storage and supplies. Its accommodations are superior to the Freighters’ Retreat, where the teamsters stay.

Rubyoff is genuinely uneasy with the pressure that has been applied against him by the Rooneys, whose acquaintance I have not yet made, although one sees one or all of them daily, crossing First from their parlor to the Cheyenne Hotel, and dining at their table in the window on the ground floor. They are a truculent-looking quartette of Irish roughnecks, despite their close shaves and tight waistcoats, and are somewhat feared as leaders of the local citizens’ vigilance committee. The feeling in Hays is that when the K.P. tracks reach this far, they will bring the cattle trade from Abilene and Ellsworth, and with it the rowdy behavior that prevents undertakers in such places from starvation. It is therefore in the brothers’ best interest to control the enterprise without interference from outside. Since the untimely death of his own brother Gregori, Rubyoff feels that a partnership will stand firmer than one man alone against four and their influence.

In spite of his duplicitous letter, my sympathies lie with Rubyoff, and I agree with him that Hays City offers great opportunity, especially for the businessman who has established himself before the first wave of entrepreneurs sweeps in from East and West. However, the situation until then is lean. Do you and Victoria be patient . . .

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