Moses, Me, and Murder Read online

  Moses, too, had caught sight of the nugget. From where he stood, above and behind Barry as he tended to his hair, he could see it upside-down.

  “Barry!” Moses’s voice was suddenly harsh, as if he had been surprised by something. “Where did you get that nugget?”

  Barry turned slowly, deliberately, to stare at Moses. “I brought it with me from California,” he said quietly. “What business is it of yours, anyway?”

  “None, suh. I was just going to say that it surely is a large and unusual piece of gold.”

  “You wouldn’t be thinking you’d seen it somewhere before?”

  “No, suh! Positively not, suh! I never saw that gold nugget anywhere in my life before!”

  Moses was doing his trick with the southern accent, very strongly. I sat up straighter, wondering what had made him so upset.

  Moses abruptly picked up a bottle of his hair restorer. “Can I interest you in a treatment of my own Hair Invigorator, suh? Absolutely free and on the house. I guarantee the restoration of any lost hair in one week, and a softer and fuller head of hair. If you would care to see signed statements from satisfied customers, I can produce several for your …”

  “Shut up!” Barry lowered his voice. “I don’t want any Hair Invigorator. Do my beard now and hurry up.”

  It didn’t take Moses long to finish trimming Barry’s beard. He seemed worried, though, and I noticed that his hands were shaking as he worked.

  Barry stood up, settled his bill, and turned to go. At the door he stopped, turning around to face Moses.

  “About that nugget. It’s a good thing you ain’t seen it before. It’s mine; always has been and always will be. I wouldn’t want people to be talking otherwise now, would I? And if they do talk, Moses, if they do talk, I’ll know who’s been telling tales, won’t I?” He smiled, looking directly at me.

  “Master Percy here’s a good friend of yours, isn’t he, Moses? Leastwise, that’s what I hear from people who know all about him. Would be an awful shame if something were to happen to him, right when he’s in the pride of his youth. We wouldn’t want anything unfortunate to happen to Master Percy now, would we?”

  Moses hurried across the room to stand by my side. He put an arm around me. “No suh, Mistuh Barry. I ain’t ever seen that nugget before and I ain’t going to talk to no one! Please go now. Get out of my shop!”

  Barry left, laughing his strange laugh. We watched him go.

  “What was all of that about, Moses?” I asked. “He sounded almost as if he were threatening me.”

  “Don’t you worry your head about Mister Barry,” said Moses. “He won’t touch you. I’ll see to that! I won’t say anything!”

  “Won’t say anything about what?”

  “Never you mind, Ted. That’s grown-up business and I’ll tend to it. Never you mind.”

  “Oh, Moses, you’ve told me lots of grown-up stories before, some I wouldn’t dare tell my mother. Why can’t you tell me now?”

  Moses sat down in the barber’s chair. He didn’t look well. His normally deep black skin had gone a funny shade, almost grey, and his eyes were glassy. I went to him.

  “Are you all right? Can I get you a glass of water, or some of that medicine you keep in the cupboard?”

  “How do you know about my heart tonic?” Moses forgot to be upset for a moment. Then he smiled. “You surely are a noticing young man. But no, thank you, Ted. I’ll be all right.”

  He shut his eyes and leaned back against the chair’s headrest. After a few minutes he seemed almost to have forgotten that I was there, for he began to mutter to himself. “What to do, what to do now? Can’t take a chance on him harming the boy. Yet Charles was my friend. What to do, what to do?”

  I went to him and put my hand on his arm. “Moses? What is it? You can tell me.”

  He jumped. He had forgotten about me. “Ted? Run along home now, run along.”

  “Nope. I’m not going until you tell me what’s the matter.”

  “I can’t tell you, Ted. Please, just go home.”

  “If you won’t tell me what’s so upsetting about that nugget Mr. Barry’s wearing, I’m going to go to Constable Sullivan. I’ll tell him that something peculiar is going on. He’ll get the truth from you!”

  “Theodore! That’s blackmail!”

  “Blackmail or not, I’m not going anywhere until you tell me the whole story.”

  I should have kept my mouth shut as Ma’s always telling me. Moses did tell me the story, all of it. Now I’m scared, really scared. And now there’s two of us in Barkerville who don’t know what to do.

  4

  Moses’s Story:

  The Face of Luck

  No one came into the barbershop as Moses told me his story. No one came in, and even the street outside, usually so noisy, grew still — almost as if it were listening. I sat on the bench, not moving. As Moses spoke it almost seemed as if the shop and Barkerville faded away. I felt as if I, too, were out on the trail, coming into the gold fields on foot, coming to search for my fortune, for a new life.

  “You see, Ted,” Moses said. “I first met Charles Blessing in New Westminster. We were both alone, so we decided to travel together. A little company along the way makes the miles seem shorter. He was a good companion — generous with his money, easy to talk to, to laugh with. I guess you might say that by the time we reached the Junction we were friends, good friends.

  I was going home to Barkerville. I’d closed my shop there and gone to Victoria for the winter. My friends and some of my family are in Victoria; I’ve only been in the Cariboo for a few years. You know, Ted, the long winters in this country can be hard on a man, hard on his body and on his soul. So, I’d taken some time off, gone back to a milder climate.

  By May, though, I figured Williams Creek would be thawed and the sun would be warm during the day, even if the nights were still cold. I decided to come back to the gold fields. I’d picked up a lot of good stories on the coast, and I reckoned I could give my customers a pretty entertaining time when I got home. Also, I planned to expand the barbershop’s merchandise. I invested in specialty items for the ladies. You know, fancy lace handkerchiefs, the new style button boots, velvet ribbons — some of the little luxuries women can’t find in Barkerville. I figured I would make a lot of money when I began selling the stuff, but it had cost me plenty to buy it. It had already been shipped and was waiting for me in the Cariboo. Right then, though, I was, shall we say, a little short of ready cash. That’s why I was doing the trip on foot instead of by stagecoach and steamer. Actually, by May I was as near broke as I’d ever been in my life, and tired to death of eating bannock and beans. I began to cut hair and trim beards along the way. I always carry my barber’s tools with me. People who had been on the road for weeks and were in a hurry to get to the gold fields didn’t have the time to look for a regular barber. They were mighty glad to find me at their camps of a night. I wasn’t getting rich, but I was paying my own way.

  Sitting on a log and sipping hot coffee, Charles Blessing would often watch as I wielded my scissors and exchanged small talk with the clients. One night, just before we reached Quesnel, a traveller paid overgenerously for his haircut. As the traveller left our campfire, newly trimmed, Blessing watched me tuck the coins into my money belt, and sighed.

  He pulled out his own wallet, tipping the contents into his hand. I remember seeing two twenty-dollar gold pieces, and some smaller coins. Not a lot of money.

  “I wish I had a trade the way you have, Moses,” Blessing said to me. “I hadn’t figured on this travelling being so expensive, and I’m running a bit short. I’ve only got about sixty dollars left and I need to buy a claim. It’s twenty-five dollars for one hundred feet on Williams Creek, so I hear tell, and I have to get myself outfitted to work it, too. It’s going to be close.”

  “You know you’re always welcome to a bed at my shop in Barkerville, Charles,” I said. “I’ve got an extra room in the back where I sleep. I can stake you, too, i
f you run out of grub. Once the ladies of the town see my new stock, the money will be coming in so fast I won’t be able to count it!”

  He looked at me, smiling. “That’s a mighty kind offer, Moses, mighty kind. But before I’d ask another man to gamble on my prospecting or to feed me, I’d sell my luck.”

  “Your luck, Charles?”

  “Yup. Right here. My nugget pin. It’s California gold, and I figure if it brought me luck there it will bring me luck in the Cariboo.” He carefully undid the pin and handed it to me. It was heavy, large, and curiously formed.

  “Quite the nugget you have here, Charles.”

  “Look at it, Moses. Look at it carefully. Does the shape remind you of anything?”

  I studied it hard. It did seem vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t put my finger on what it reminded me of.

  “Looks a bit like an angel spreading his wings,” I said, hesitantly. “Not too much, but if you were to stretch your imagination that’s what you could say it reminded you of.”

  “Right!” He was pleased, as if I were a school kid who’d guessed the right answer to a hard question. “Now, turn it around, Moses. Turn it upside-down.”

  Well, I turned the pin over and a man’s face leapt out of the gold at me. “It’s a face, a man’s face, clear as a summer’s day,” I said. “Why, it’s remarkable. I have never seen anything like that in a nugget before!”

  “Right again!” Charles was smiling. “It does look like a face, but the jeweller who turned it into a stickpin for me didn’t see it. He looked at it the other way around and only saw the angel. So he mounted the nugget upside down!

  “Aren’t too many people who ever get to see the face in it, though,” he continued. “I keep it pretty close to me, even at night, and never take it off during the day. Wouldn’t do to lose my luck now, would it? Before I’ve even got to Barkerville?” He carefully fastened the pin back on his lapel, making sure that it was secure. “Nope. Wouldn’t do to lose my luck, wouldn’t do at all!”

  Moses had finished his story. He looked at me, waiting for me to make the connection. I did.

  “It was Charles Blessing’s nugget that Mr. Barry was wearing, wasn’t it Moses? It was Blessing’s nugget, and Barry and Blessing left Quesnel together!”

  “Yes, Ted. No one has seen my friend since the morning he left Quesnel with Barry, at least no one I’ve been able to find. I’m worried. If Charles has lost his luck that means something pretty unfortunate has happened to him. And I suspect that James Barry knows more than he’s telling.

  “Are you sure, Moses, are you sure that it was the same nugget?”

  “Theodore MacIntosh! Have you forgotten my story so quickly? The face in the gold could only be seen when the pin was turned upside down. As I trimmed Barry’s hair I looked down at his lapel and saw it. The face in the nugget was there! There’s no mistake, Ted, none. It’s Charles Blessing’s nugget that Barry has — Charles’s luck.”

  5

  A Dilemma

  I stared at Moses, feeling my eyes grow wide. “That means … that means that Mr. Barry must have stolen the nugget, doesn’t it?”

  “I’m sure he didn’t come by it honestly, Ted. Look, if Charles Blessing had sold him the pin then Barry would have known about the face in it. It was such an unusual nugget and Charles was so proud of it that he surely would have shown the face to anyone who was buying it. And besides, Barry didn’t have any money. He tried to borrow some from both me and Charles in Quesnel. How could he have bought the nugget?

  “But Barry said it was his. He obviously didn’t know how easy that particular nugget was to identify. Besides, Charles didn’t need to sell it. He still had money left, almost the whole sixty dollars.”

  “Moses, if Barry has the pin and Barry was the last person known to be travelling with Mr. Blessing then …”

  “Don’t say it, son. I’ve been thinking that way myself. I’m afraid that something very bad has happened to my friend — and I think that snake Barry was responsible!”

  I stood up and started to leave the store. “Where do you think you’re going?” called Moses.

  “To fetch Constable Sullivan. You must tell him your suspicions, Moses. Mr. Blessing may be lying dead somewhere beside the road from Quesnel.”

  “Ted! Come back and sit down!” Moses’s voice was sharp, almost angry. “Can’t you see that I don’t dare tell anyone, least of all an officer of the law, what I suspect? You heard what Barry said; something unfortunate would happen to you if word got out that I’d recognized the nugget. Barry’s threatening to hurt you if I do talk, and knowing him he’s liable to carry out that threat!”

  “Huh! I’m not afraid of him!” I said, but deep inside I was hearing Barry’s strange laugh and remembering how he had frightened me on the Richfield road. “He won’t do anything to me,” I repeated, but I guess my voice trembled a bit, because Moses smiled at me.

  “Don’t worry, Ted. You’re safe as long as neither of us tells about the nugget.”

  I sat down on the bench again. “But Moses, Charles Blessing was a friend of yours. You can’t keep quiet! We have to do something — James Barry may have murdered him!”

  “We’ll think on it, all right? If there were a way to keep you out of Barry’s reach, then maybe I could tell the constable. But Barry’s a sly one. You wouldn’t be safe anywhere in Barkerville, not even in your own home.”

  “Maybe I could …” I began.

  “Don’t worry about it for now, Ted. There’s no way to keep you away from him. The way you wander the streets of this town, you’d be easy to find. Why, even your own mother doesn’t know where you are half the time, does she? It could be hours before anyone even knew you were missing. Anything could happen. That man is one of the most evil people I have ever met!”

  “I could stay right close to Pa until Barry’s arrested,” I suggested.

  “You think he would be arrested? On what evidence? My word, and only mine, that he has my missing friend’s stickpin? We need other proof before we can say anything!

  “Besides, your pa isn’t a much bigger man than I am, Ted. Do you really think he’d be any match for Barry?”

  Moses was right. My pa is short and slender. Oh, he has strong enough arms from all the woodworking he does, but Barry is almost a foot taller. Much heavier, too. And meaner. I couldn’t bear the thought of Pa getting tangled up with him on my account.

  “I guess you’re right, Moses. There isn’t anything we can do.” I took a deep breath. “I am afraid of Mr. Barry,” I admitted. “He frightens me half to death, and I haven’t even seen him really angry yet.”

  “I confess, he makes me nervous too,” Moses said. He went to the cupboard and took out a small brown bottle.

  “I’m not taking my courage from a bottle, Ted,” he said, as he poured some of the thick liquid into a glass and added water. “Just sort of a precaution.” He grimaced as he swallowed the mixture.

  “Are you all right, Moses? Should I fetch the doctor?”

  Moses laughed. “No, Ted. Sometimes when I’m upset, or perhaps a bit scared, my heart takes to racing some. Palpitations, they call it.”

  “Is it serious, Moses?” I asked, still worried about him.

  “No, just a nuisance. This tonic fixes it up in a hurry, but it tastes so bad that I don’t take it as often as I should.”

  He looked at his watch. “Wait with me, Ted. I have one more customer coming, then I’ll close up early and walk you home. I don’t like the idea of your being on that lonely road all by yourself today.”

  “Thanks, Moses. If you’re sure you’re all right?”

  He nodded, and didn’t say anything. Neither of us said anything, just sat there in silence. It was almost as if we were waiting for something to happen. We didn’t know what, but both of us were sure it wouldn’t be pleasant!

  6

  News!

  It was late in the afternoon of September 27, 1866. I came running into the barbershop, a copy of th
e Sentinel, Barkerville’s paper, clutched in my hand.

  “Moses, Moses …” I began.

  “Ted, I have a customer right now.” One of the saloon girls sat in the barber’s chair, while Moses arranged her long hair in an elaborate nest of curls.

  “But Moses, it’s news, it’s important!”

  Moses frowned at me. His rule was that although I was allowed to stay in the shop while he had customers, I wasn’t supposed to speak unless spoken to — just sit quietly and mind my own business. Moses didn’t have many rules, and I’d never broken this one before.

  “I’ll speak to you later,” he said.

  Disappointed, I sat down and waited for him to finish with his hairstyling. The saloon girl spoke up. “Does the Sentinel have any news about the dead man found near Pinegrove? Oh, do read it aloud! I want to know more about it.”

  I looked at Moses. He had forgotten what he was doing and stood, hands down at his sides, staring at me. His lips were pulled tightly together, and cords of muscle stood out on his neck.

  “Yes, read it, Ted,” he said at last.

  I read. “Information was received on Tuesday evening, from the magistrate here, that the body of a man had been found in the woods …” It went on to tell how a packer had discovered the body, but I skipped that part and jumped ahead. “The remains were in a very advanced stage of decomposition, the body being almost devoid of flesh and unrecognizable. The head rested on a coat, and the flesh of the lower side of the face still remained; a hole which is probably the effect of a bullet was observed in the skull, and from the position of the body it is evident that the man came to his death by foul means!”