Knights of the Golden Circle
Part 8: Hendricks Remembers
"You can't go after him Mr. Hendricks," Greyson stated. You're not strong enough."
"Wilkes took off with one of the women. He kidnapped her to lead Caine into a trap. I want to know why, and I want Mrs. Lee Wu returned unharmed."
"I can tell you why. Caine humiliated Wilkes yesterday. He was working the men too hard, again. Mrs. Wu tried to get him to stop, but he wouldn't. Wilkes even started to hit the woman when Caine intervened. Rankled Wilkes pretty good, so he picked a fight with Caine. Wilkes lost."
"I still have a right to go after Wilkes to get Mrs. Wu back," Hendricks argued.
"I can't let you ride out of here. Your injuries aren't healed enough. Look at yourself. You're unsteady on your feet and you're weak. You won't make it. You're likely to fall off your horse. Besides, you don't even know which direction Caine went."
James Hendricks glared at the man, but knew he was right. He wouldn't last long against Wilkes.
"God Dammit, I don't like feeling helpless, Greyson. I've got to do something."
"Tell you what. I'll ride to Jacksonville and see if there's any news from the railroad, let them know what's happened."
"Wilkes said the lines were down. He said he had to go all the way to Stratton."
"And you believed him after this? I've a feeling Wilkes has been playing you for a sucker."
"Watch it Greyson or you just might find yourself without a job."
"I didn't mean to offend," Greyson quickly added. "It's just that Wilkes has never struck me as being the type to follow orders. The way he treats the Chinese, he acts as if they are his personal slaves, and he can do what he wants with them. I didn't want to tell you this, but a few weeks ago, when we were in Perrysville, I saw Wilkes with a wad of money you could choke a horse. Not only that, he also wasn't dressed the way he is out here."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean he was dressed like some of those very wealthy land barons, or ranchers. And he was acting like them, too."
"Greyson, do me a favor. I need you to find the nearest telegraph office and send a wire to the head office. I don't want you to go to Stratton."
"Where do you want me to go?"
Hendricks pulled out a map of the territory and pointed to another town west of their position. "Ride here. There's someone I want you to contact. Maybe he'll know more about why the railroad wanted me to include Wilkes. I'm beginning to think that someone else is involved with this. I want you to verify if Wilkes is even with the railroad. All I had from him was a letter stating he needed to be included or the deal wasn't going to go through. The original deal was that the railroad was to pay on all the supplies and even on some of the salaries. I'd pay the rest, but so far, I haven't seen enough from the railroad, not at least by the standards of the agreement. I'm beginning to wonder where that money has gone. It started about three weeks after Wilkes arrived. I'd send dispatches with him, and he agreed to pick up the cash for any supplies and the payroll. There never seemed to be enough. Then another three weeks later, the money stopped coming in. That's just about the same time the raids started. And that letter Wilkes gave me, supposedly was from the head office, saying he was their liaison or something like that. It looked official enough, but now something smells fishy. I don't know why I didn't see it before."
Jim Hendricks thought back on the day he had been negotiating with the railroad. Because he agreed to put up part of his own money, they agreed he could lay down track in the area that was later planned for expansion. His track would be a branch track heading north through the territory in hopes of becoming the newest state, but there was one catch. The railroad would agree to front the money for the track, all the supplies, and the salaries at least for those men who were attached to the main office like Greyson while Hendricks would pay any workers that he personally hired, at least the idea had come from him. He remembered why he did it, too.
"I could not help but overhear you need help to build a railroad."
"Yes, and who might you be?" Hendricks asked.
"I am Wu Yen."
"What do you know about working on a railroad?"
"I have worked on a railroad before," Wu Yen told his story. "I would lay track and spread gravel with my countrymen. We would work long into the night sometimes. We worked hard, but we were paid little. They also did not feed us well. I left after six months because I needed to feed my family."
"Why do you want to work for me?"
"You appear to be an honest man."
"You got that right. How much were they paying you?"
Hendricks' eyes narrowed when Wu Yen told him. "That's nearly slave wages, how can they get away with that?"
"It is more than I made back in China, but not enough to sustain my family. I could only feed myself."
"Well, if you decide to work for me, you'll get more than triple that amount. I can't stand to see a man not paid what he's worth."
Hendricks recalled that when Wu Yen left, the next day he had more than the numbers he needed to get started. The word must have spread like wildfire. A few weeks later after they had started laying track and laying it down quickly, Wilkes showed up at camp.
"You know it was shortly after that when communication with the main office had stopped. Oh, the supplies kept coming, but the money for the payroll stopped. That's when I started having to pay out using more of my own money. Caine's right. I think Wilkes isn't what he seems to be."
"Let's just hope Caine isn't walking into a trap and gets himself killed."
Continues with part 9
