An Ominous Journey

By Peggy Williamson

This book is a sequel to Beths Journey, and it is a historical fiction novel based on the time when our country was expanding from coast to coast and a transitional time for Americans especially Native Americans. General knowledge about this period of time was acquired through extensive research. Although the book is strictly fictional the author attempts to accurately depict the time, and what it might have been like as the readers follow Beth along an ominous trail back to the east.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Nov 13, 2012
• ISBN: 9781477286616

Peggy Williamson

Peggy Williamson was born in Mississippi. She is a retired school principal, guidance counselor and teacher. She has an AAA in Administration, Guidance Counseling and Teaching. She spent 30 years in the field of education. This is her fourth book. She also wrote a sequel to this book entitled "An Ominous Journey" and "An Angel With Me” plus a children's book entitled "Who Was Here First?" Peggy Williamson has a love of children and education. She loves painting and writing. The book is written for young adults but can be enjoyed by older people as well.

Book preview

The Beginning

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Beth and Phantom are about to complete their first full summer in Oregon along with her brother Newitt, his wife Samantha, and ten other people that Newitt and Phantom had rescued from the Indians. The trip from St. Joseph had taken much longer than planned as there was an attack on the wagon train in the Rocky Mountains on the western side of South Pass.

Beth and her brother Newitt lived in Virginia, but were orphaned after their parents were killed. Their parents had taught them so much with Newitt becoming an expert with carpentry tools, and Beth was an expert with her rifle and hunting skills.

After their parents died the neighbors tried to persuade Beth and Phantom to live with them, but they were determined to survive on their own. Their only relative, Uncle Robert had long since taken a boat around the Cape and north to Boston.

A wagon master, Mr. Conner, had heard about them, and offered them a job of driving his two wagons to Oregon. Newitt was fifteen and Beth was sixteen, and neither of them thought it would be a problem to handle a team of oxen. Beth felt confident they could handle the job, and it would be the perfect opportunity to go where their only relative lived.

Mr. Conner treated them as though they were his own children, and later in the trip offered them his land and cabin in Oregon if something should happen to him before they reached their destination. He had no family so Beth and Newitt were more than some youngsters that he was trying to get to Oregon.

Phantom was scout for the wagons, and they met him after arriving in St. Joseph from Virginia. On the trail west Phantom was away from the wagons for most of the day, and sometimes he didn’t return until the following day, but he and Beth became very good friends.

Newitt found Samantha among the travelers, and after only two weeks on the trail she captured his heart. Beth and Phantom often talked, but never thought anything else about their relationship until much later.

Phantom saved Beth’s life once when she left the wagon train to search for her dog Bully. She knew it wasn’t a good idea to be a straggler or isolated from the others, but she had to find her dog. Indians watched the wagons all the time looking for an opportunity to take an animal or something they could use.

When she was looking for her dog Beth took a nasty fall putting an ugly gash in her head, and she passed out, but she didn’t have to look for Bully any longer as he found her. She and Bully were on their way back to the wagon train when several Indians attacked them jumping into the wagon from out of nowhere. Phantom found her just in time to save her from an early demise at the hands of the Indians.

The only advantage Beth and Phantom had was driving the wagons over walking as everyone else did except the other drivers, and those riding horses.

After crossing South Pass they camped at the base of a mountain where fresh water from the mountain stream provided them with delicious trout. Newitt, Phantom, Samantha, and Beth found a path up the mountain that led to a cave that they explored after the evening meal. Mr. Conner told everybody that the wagons would not roll the next day as time was needed to make repairs, harvest fresh game, wash, cook, and even rest before they moved on west. Being an expert with her rifle allowed her to be selected by Mr. Conner to harvest some meat for the wagon train, but with special instructions not to wander too far. Phantom went off to scout ahead of them, and the others all had chores for the day.

She went farther than planned, and was not with the wagon train when the Indians attacked returning to find only bodies. Mr. Conner was among those, but she could not find Phantom, Newitt, or Samantha that apparently must have been captured or killed away from the wagons. They must have attacked the wagons without any warning as most of the dead did not even have a weapon in hand although their weapons could have been taken.

The winter was brutal for her even though she did have supplies from the wagons, and shelter in the cave that she had found earlier. She didn’t know at the time that Samantha was taken as a captive along with nine other people, and Newitt was gravely injured as he attempted to rescue her. Phantom had heard all the shooting, and returned too late to do anything other than try to help Newitt.

Phantom did return to look for Beth, but she did not see him nor did he see her as she was in the cave. He quickly went back to the camp of the Shoshonis where he had taken Newitt after finding him near dead. He and his dad had been in their camp many times, and had stayed three weeks with them during an extremely bad winter. They had herbs that helped him, but his recovery was really slow.

She had a little time to prepare for winter, but the best thing that she did for herself was build a door for the cave entrance from wagon parts to keep out the cold, and the wild animals. Once inside the cave behind that door she felt pretty safe, and it was the door that kept her from meeting an early demise when the huge grizzly bear tried to reclaim his cave.

The days were long with the frigid winter months that brought one storm after another until the weather finally turned its fury into spring, and although it was still cold the temperatures were not frigid with the winds that blew in the blizzards. The weather gave her an opportunity to catch trout from the stream at the base of the mountain, and they were so good that she and Buddy went another day. It was on their second trip that two Indians surprised her, and she was only able to shoot one of them before she felt an arrow pierce her body. Buddy had caught the other one’s leg, and then she was able to shoot him.

She dragged herself back up to the cave where she tried to tend her wounded body, but after several days infection invaded the wound bringing with it a fever that was uncontrollable. She gave up, but not before putting a final entry into her diary that she had been keeping since she was small. She had written many pages since the attack, but part of the last entry was her confession that it had taken a long time but she finally realized that she was fond of Phantom.

As fate would prevail, Phantom for the second time returned just in time to save her life. While he was trying to break her fever with some herbs from his Indian medicine bag he found her diary that she had dropped to the floor. When she was better he admitted that he had read the diary, but he also confessed that he really cared for her too.

When Beth was well enough that moved on to Oregon, and on arrival were married along with her brother and Samantha. They claimed Mr. Conner’s land and cabin as he had wanted them to do, and now they all live close to Uncle Robert.

Phantom

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The first winter passes pretty quickly as there is so much to do in getting settled in Oregon although Phantom does most of the outside work during that first winter as she is still trying to regain her strength from the infection that almost claimed her life. Summer finds her still weak, and since there is a doctor available to the settlers she plans to see him on one of his scheduled trips to their area if she doesn’t feel better soon. She helps Phantom on their little farm especially since he doesn’t know much about farming except to plow and plant, and he has no idea how or when either is done. He does put up all the post and wire for the new fence without her help. He helps Newitt three or four days a week building furniture, and the other days home keeps him busy.

One afternoon when she and Phantom are unable to go outside to work or romp in the woods with Bully they just sit quietly and listen to the sound of the rain hitting on the roof of the cabin, and Beth asks Phantom if he will tell her something about the time when he and his dad were roaming the wilderness. Well, I guess I would need to start the story with my grandfather, he said, and began to tell his story.

My grandfather took to the mountains, but my grandmother refused to go with him knowing that he really never wanted her in such a wild country although he had such a passion for it that he didn’t want to be anywhere else. He made an annual trip home sometime around early summer, but returned to the wilderness before the end of summer never tarrying long in civilization.

When dad was eighteen he accompanied grandpa back to the mountains with grandpa teaching him about being a mountain man, and more important dad developed a love of the wilderness on that trip. He had such a desire to stay in the wilderness to explore every trail, and discover what was there that was new to him. Grandpa warned him that although they had lots of friends among the Indians there were those that were unfriendly to the whites that might trespass on their lands. Most of the tribes moved about with the seasons following food sources, and with so many Indians in the area it was sometimes hard to tell who was friendly.

One day a small group of Indians surprised grandpa while he was checking his traps sending an arrow through his heart, and left him by the stream. Grandpa had taught dad to keep his ears open to hear things before you saw them, and more often than not it could save your life. Dad was farther downstream when he heard the Indians trying to hurry the pack mule and horse they had just taken from grandpa, and he waded into the stream hiding under some bushes that were hanging over the water. They did not seem too concerned about looking for anyone else as they hurried out of sight as fast as the animals would allow them to travel.

Dad went back upstream and found grandpa with the life passed from him. The anger and sadness brought him great pain, and he found a place that he could recognize again before he put grandpa to rest in those mountains to stay. It was not the end of fur season, but dad gathered his traps and the furs they had harvested, and went home.

It was in the summer of the following year that his longing for the wilderness bid him to return to the place he loved. My mother was opposed to the mountains with their intolerable weather and dangers, but she did offer to go with him once. At one time he would have taken her, but he could later see it was no place for her.

One winter while dad was in the mountains mom became sick and died before he returned in the summer leaving a neighbor to care for me. It was the winter of my eighth year, and my world with a loving, kind, and wonderful mother was suddenly changed. Although dad was not home he loved my mother as much as anyone could ever love anyone else. He had a need for the solitude of the wilderness now more than ever to grieve for his wife in a land where heaven seems so close from on top of the high mountains. He purchased clothes and boots for me that might help me withstand the frigid temperatures of the mountains. He also bought supplies, a horse for me, another pack mule, and we left for the mountains to stay as he no longer had a reason to make the annual trips home.

Dad said One thing that we need to keep close is our pack mules because we don’t want to lose our supplies, and we don’t want to use a travois to drag our pelts out for trading. A travois leaves a mighty plain trail for the wrong people that might want to do us harm. Most mountain men don’t bother other people, but there are a few that would rather take your pelts maybe not being satisfied with the number they have trapped themselves. We can’t cook our beans without the pot in those bags or boil water for our coffee that we wouldn’t have either if our mules are taken. I took what he said very serious, and kept a close watch on my mule thinking I could get mighty hungry if something happened to him.

When we were well into the mountains we stopped, and after studying the area around us dad pulled some of the supplies from the mules. He walked in several directions