No Less Than the Journey by E.V. Thompson Read Free Book Online

I’ll have a wanted notice put out for him – with a large reward. He’ll be picked up, sooner or later.’
    ‘I hope you’re right, Aaron, but I don’t believe you’ve heard the last of him.’

CHAPTER 6
    Later that same day the Missouri Belle berthed at the Mississippi town of Vicksburg. Of great strategic importance during the Civil War, there was still a United States army garrison here and in response to the urgent sounding of the riverboat’s steam whistle and bell it was not long before the commanding officer and a detachment of troops arrived to take charge of Aaron’s prisoners and carry away the bodies of their companions.
    When he learned of the desperate fight that had taken place downriver from his headquarters, Colonel Van Kleef, the officer in charge of the garrison, sent off a detail with orders to hunt down any surviving river pirates but, as Aaron told Wes, they would find no one. He had already learned that most of the river pirates had fought as Confederate ‘irregulars’ in the late war.
    It was a term that described men who would have been outlaws even in more peaceful times. War had served to hone their skills in the art of evading capture. Heading north and west, they would vanish in the uncharted forests and uplands of neighbouring Arkansas.
    When the last of the prisoners had been taken away, Aaron asked Colonel Van Kleef if there was an undertaker in the townwho could provide a suitable coffin for the late Captain Schuster.
    Startled, the colonel asked, ‘Are you talking of Captain Harrison Schuster, son of old Silas Schuster who was a Kentucky Senator before choosing the wrong side when the war began?’
    ‘I know very little about Captain Schuster’s background, except that he was a Confederate officer, and that his family were considerable landowners in Kentucky,’ Aaron replied.
    ‘They still are,’ said the colonel. ‘The old Senator suffered as much as anyone during the war, losing two of his sons, who fought on opposing sides, and all his slaves too, but he’s tough and is pulling things together again. If there’s any justice he’ll be made the next Governor of Kentucky. He’s a good man, despite his wartime affiliations. I’ve met him a couple of times when he’s passed up and down the river and I admire the man. He will be absolutely devastated by the death of yet another son. It leaves him with just one now, although I believe he has a number of daughters.’
    ‘Harrison Schuster was a good man too,’ Aaron declared. ‘His help was invaluable in wiping out the river pirates.’
    ‘Then I suggest that a letter from you to President Grant, referring to the part he played would be a practical memorial for such a man,’ Colonel Van Kleef said. ‘Silas Schuster would dearly love to become a political animal once more in Kentucky – and the United States would regain the services of an honest man … a man who is quite the opposite of a Senator who will be accompanying you with his son on the Missouri Belle upriver as far as Memphis. Senator Connolly of Louisiana uses his office for the benefit only of … Senator Connolly. He’s been in Vicksburg visiting his brother, who happens to be my administrative officer.’
    As though suddenly aware that he was talking to a man who was likely to have friends in Washington, Colonel VanKleef reverted to the conversation the two men had been having when he had suddenly launched the verbal attack on the reputation of the Louisiana Senator.
    ‘… but that’s all by the way. I’ll have the undertaker come along to see you right away. I will also telegraph to the officer in charge of the small garrison at Cairo, upriver at the junction with the Ohio River, to say you have Harrison Schuster’s body on board. That will probably be the best place for you to have it unloaded and the army will arrange for it to be carried to the family home near Mayfield with all due ceremony.’
    ‘I’m much obliged,’ said Aaron, grasping