Life was good in the Walker house. Jed was busy making boots to supply the never ending need as people still flocked to the gold country to make their fortune. Adeline was busy making the cabin a home, sewing curtains, growing a vegetable garden and keeping up with Jed Jr. The spring was bright green and wildflowers grew in great drifts through the meadow down below the cabin. As spring fled to summer’s advancing heat, the vegetable garden flourished. Adeline and Jed sat on the porch one warm evening breathing in the sweet smells of summer while sitting in the swing watching their little one play in the dirt. Jed Jr. looked up at them and smiled.
Adeline missed the wildflowers that had succumbed to summer heat some weeks before. She mentioned this in passing to Jed, adding that she wished she had a flower bed like the one back in Boston she helped her mother tend. Jed didn’t say much but he did hear her, and a kernel of an idea began to grow in his mind. This was not Boston for sure, but Jed had a wicked sense of humor. When Adeline wasn’t watching, he found an old abandoned headboard and attached it to a couple rotten logs to form a shape that was exactly a bed. He put it in the front yard. He planted some flower seeds he had gathered on a trip to town. It was in fact, a flower bed! When he brought Adeline out to surprise her, she laughed until she cried. Jed Jr. didn’t get the joke, but he knew his mother was happy, and that’s all he needed to know. He smiled and gurgled his happiness too. Yes, life was good. Almost too good. That’s why it was such a shock when everything went dark in one sudden shift.
On a normal Saturday in August, Jed took off for Coloma on his once a week trip to get supplies and do some ‘selling’ as he called it for his boot business, which was doing so well that Jed was thinking about bringing on an assistant.
Bayne was a steep winding road from Kelsey to Coloma, some places just a narrow two track but others as much as two ox carts wide. Bayne was the thoroughfare Jed took down from Kelsey and the same one he was now trekking back up after most of the day in Coloma. Jed was on Ace, his faithful black horse. Jack, a strong mule, followed Ace with the supplies. Up the hill they trudged, one foot in front of the other as they neared the narrow part of the road where the bank dropped off steep on one side and rose just as steep on the other. Looking down, Jed’s stomach turned as he peered into the ravine hundreds of feet almost straight down with nothing but scrub oaks and scraggly pines in between to break a fall.
Ace sensed the danger first, stopping dead in his tracks, then pulling back and left into the bank away from the precipice. Ahead looming down was an ox and cart wild and out of control bearing down on them, and without any kind of driver in the seat. It was headed straight at them. Everything happened in the blink of an eye. Ace with rider jumped right away from the cart in a tremendous athletic feat, and down the precipice they went, Ace and Jed, tumbling hundreds of feet, hitting into trees and brush and rocks until they fell to the bottom of the ravine on the beach twenty feet from the river, both of them lying there gasping for air and unconscious. Ace saved Jed’s life jumping away from the out of control ox and cart, but now they were maybe in just as bad a fate.
As Jed lay unconscious, his mind drifted to the first time he met Ace. In the first week in Coloma, he figured out he needed a horse to carry supplies, but he didn’t want to spend much money as he was trying to get by until he hit a big gold strike. He asked around and was told where to see a man about a horse. He headed over to the feed lot and looked over the stock. Yes, there were some fine horses. Big draft breeds for pulling wagons, mules, and riding horses. Plenty to choose from.
Old Bud Isaac was the local horse trader who ran things there. He was a wily coot who would say anything to sell a horse. He wandered over to Jed, sized him up and said, “Hello son, what are you looking for?”
Jed wasn’t too savvy at horse tradin’. He had a horse once in Boston when he was growing up on a farm, but he never paid much attention to him other than to help his dad hitch him up to the wagon or plow. Now he wished he’d paid more attention because he couldn’t afford a mistake. “I need a good saddle horse,” Jed said.
Jed and Bud looked at all the horses for a while, but each one was too expensive for Jed. Ready to walk away and not buy a horse, Jed heard a whinny from inside the barn. “What was that?” he said.
“Oh, I forgot about Ace,” Bud said. “Come take a look.” A little suspicious, Jed followed Bud into the barn.
Jed and Ace locked eyes. Ace was a beautiful black gelding with a long flowing mane and tail. There was a small white star on his head, and his coat was the most beautiful shiny black Jed had ever seen on a horse. Wow! There was no way could Jed could ever afford a horse like this one, but he asked Bud anyway, “How much is he?”
Bud didn’t answer right away, as he was sizing Jed up and deciding how to maneuver the situation. “Well, you seem like a nice kid,” he said. “I guess I could let you have him for twenty bucks.”
What? Jed thought. Twenty bucks was less the half what he expected to pay for any old horse and way too little for a horse this beautiful. Jed didn’t bother to question his good fortune. He just said, “I’ll take him.” And with that, he handed Bud the twenty bucks. Bud laughed, took the money and also sold Jed some tack to outfit Ace for riding.
Jed was smiling ear to ear as he rode his new horse through town. Were some people laughing at him? No, probably just impressed with his good looking horse. Did he hear a snicker from that group of young kids over near the saloon? No, it must be just his imagination.
Jed tied Ace up at the hitching rail in front of the general store and went inside for supplies. Because he was so excited about his new horse, he looked out the window many times while gathering up what he needed to buy. That was the only reason he happened to see Ace nibble at his lead rope, pull it loose and head back to the feed lot.
Jed ran outside and chased Ace all the way back to Bud’s place. Bud was standing there laughing his ass off as Jed ran up. “Oh, did I forget to tell you, no one has ever been able to keep Ace tied up or in a corral. He always just comes back.”
Poor Jed had been hoodwinked by a horse trader. “How many times have you sold Ace and he keeps coming back,” Jed asked, grinning at Bud.
“Only six,” Bud said.
Well, Jed couldn’t afford to lose his horse anymore, so he gathered up Ace’s reins and climbed back into the saddle. As they walked along the main street of Coloma, Jed talked to Ace explaining how they were going to be partners. How he would always respect him and never ask more than was needed. He kept on talking and while Ace didn’t really understand him, he liked the sound of his voice and the gentle manner in which he treated him.
They returned to the store where Pete the owner had Jed’s order all wrapped up and ready to go.
“Hey Pete, can you add a bag of apples to that order please?” asked Jed. “Sure,” Pete said then he disappeared into the store and came back with big bag full.
Ace didn’t get many apples but he knew the smell and his ears perked up as he looked at Jed who took out an apple and fed it to him. He slobbered and chewed enjoying every delicious bite as he swallowed it down. Jed held up the bag of apples to Ace and then packed it all down on the saddle, all the while talking to Ace in a soft voice.
“Ace old buddy”, he said, “You and me are going to come to an understanding. When I whistle, you come. When you come, you get an apple.” Ace didn’t understand, of course, but he already liked this fellow with the soft voice, gentle hands and most important, a bag of apples!
Over the next week, Jed worked with Ace every day, teaching him tricks and most important teaching him that if Jed whistled the special whistle, Ace could come over and he’d get an apple. For the first time ever, Ace decided he wanted to stay and not go back to the feed barn.
And so Jed and Ace became inseparable. Jed never tied Ace up, and Ace never went too far. But if he heard the special whistle, Ace would come on the run. The people in town no longer snickered, and even Bud had developed a healthy respect for Jed and his horse skills.
In his half conscious state there on the river bed, Jed’s mind raced through the many situations he and Ace were together in. He knew somehow if Ace had survived the fall, he’d be right there when Jed woke up. Ace was more than a horse, he was his partner.
Adeline was outside hanging the wash on the line when Jack, the pack mule, raced into the yard heaving with exhaustion. She stopped dead in her tracks and walked over to catch him. She looked at Jack and was immediately frightened to see his state without Jed nearby. She knew that Jack wouldn’t leave Ace unless something bad had happened to scare him.
Adeline took Jack to the corral removing the pack saddle and goods which were half falling off already. She could tell Jack was upset and saw right away a bloody gash in his leg and another just above his shoulder. This was all she needed to see to know Jed was in trouble. Funny, she had had an uneasy feeling ever since Jed had left but she tried to ignore it and continue with her chores. Now all her instincts told her Jed was in trouble and with dark approaching fast, she sprang into action.
Addie was a fun and funny girl who made friends easily and was always there to help people who needed it. She needed help now, and so she went calling at the miners camp near the sluice below the cabin. Right away four miners jumped up and said “let’s get going and help Jed!”
Jed too had a lot of friends and had helped folks at different times, giving them advice about how to get around the Divide and pitching in with his own hands when a job needed doing. Some were miners at the camp.
Soon a group of seven took off with torches to find Jed. Down Bayne Road toward Coloma with Adeline in the lead they almost ran. They all spread out into the hillsides and ravines on either side of the trail calling out “Jed, you out there” at the top of their lungs. Adeline was the loudest of them all shouting at the top of her lungs “Jed, Ace, where are you?”
An hour later the search party reached the danger spot. The shouting stopped, and everybody opened their eyes wide looking around for a sign. Maybe this was where Jed had found some trouble. An eerie sense of doom spread over the searchers, and especially Adeline whose senses were working extra hard.
Peering ahead with some moonlight to help, at once all together Adeline and two others saw the ox cart smashed and piled into the embankment. All three shouted at once and ran forward to the wreckage.
No sign of the ox. Just a pile of broken buckboards, wheels and fittings. But underfoot Adeline saw scuffled dirt with hoofmarks carved and headed toward the edge of the cliff. She held the torch closer to the ground and gasped as she traced the marks over the embankment. “This is it boys!,” she shouted. “Ace was here, I can tell it almost for sure. The hoof marks go over the edge. They went into ravine.”
A wave of fear swept over Adeline as she saw the scene in her mind. Over the edge, Ace and Jed. Hundreds of feet down, down. “Can they still be alive after so steep and long a fall?” she asked herself. A wave of nausea swept her body, and she swooned about to fall herself, but one of the miners grabbed and pulled her back.
It was too steep and dangerous for anyone to crawl down the embankment, so the group headed down Bayne to Serenity Lane which was another trail that cut back to the river bed. But one young miner named Sam scuttled down the bankment on his butt slowly following the trail of scrapes and gouges in the red dirt and broken bushes that marked the violent descent of Ace and Jed.
It was dark now and dreary with only a small slice of moonlight filtering through the trees as they walked along toward the river. They all fanned out at the bottom and continued to call out for Jed and search every nook and cranny.
It was an eternity for Adeline who was now convinced this was an urgent situation where every second counted. Exhausted and overwhelmed with fear and anxiety, she slumped down on a rock and sobbed. A couple minutes later, she shook herself out of it and made a firm resolution that Jed was somewhere around here, alive and she would find him.
She sat quietly and made a silent prayer to protect Jed and Ace and for someone to guide her to them. Then she heard a muffled nicker. It was Ace! She knew the nicker because he did it every time she came outside with an apple or carrot.
She shouted out, “Ace, talk to me Ace.” Then she stood still and listened with every fiber of her being. There it was again! A soft nicker. It sounded weak, but it was Ace. She shouted out to the guys to follow her and then headed off in the direction she thought the nicker had come from.
“Ace”, she continued to yell, following the soft nicker. Finally she couldn’t tell where it was coming from. She could hear him sort of, but she couldn’t see anything. Then, standing near a big blackberry bush trying still to listen, Adeline felt hot breath and a soft black nose push her arm.
“Oh!” she said in a start. Then she reached up and gave Ace a big hug, pushing her face covered with tears against his smooth shiny black neck. “Where is Jed?” she asked Ace, as if he would tell her. He nickered again and pawed the ground in the berry patch.
“Oh no!” Addie thought.” Jed was deep in a blackberry bush, bleeding from the fall and tangled in those horrible bushes that tore at your clothes and flesh.
The miners moved in to pull away the thorny branches finally uncovering Jed who lay unconscious. Ace was very dehydrated and bruised, but he was able to walk out.
The miners got Jed out and put him into the back of a wagon they’d brought with them. The party then headed up the mountain to get Jed back home with Adeline sitting next to him in the wagon, squeezing a wet rag with a few drops of water onto his parched tongue.
Adeline was scarred and wringing her hands as the guys lifted Jed from the wagon and placed him on his bed in the cabin. They also pitched in to care for Ace and Jack and put them away while Adeline checked on the sleeping Jed Jr. She peered at him as he lay in his bed smiling and happy and ignorant of the disaster that nearly took his father life. Satisfied junior was okay, she raced back to Jed’s side to do whatever she could.
As she slipped into their bedroom and sat on the bed, she noticed a large black nose sticking in the window. Outside she heard one of the miners say, “Confound it Ace, I told you to stay in the corral”.
“Never mind him”, she spoke out the window, “You can’t keep him in when he wants out.”
She knew Ace loved Jed as much as she did and that was why he hadn’t left Jed side in the ravine even though he was tired and thirsty. Ace had probably saved Jed life again from being eaten by coyotes or whatever might have come along while Jed was unconscious. Ace was a one of a kind. Jed had told Adeline stories about Ace, but this one was nothing short of amazing.
Adeline was so grateful to Ace. She stroked his nose, gave him a carrot and let him stay with his head in the window all night watching over Jed just as she was.
Through the night she prayed for Jed as she wiped his face and cleaned up the cuts and bruises from the fall. Just before sunup, Addie fell asleep, keeping her hand on Jed’s chest to be sure he was breathing.
Adeline awoke with a start at the sound of Ace’s shrill whinny. She jumped up and admonished him for being so loud, but as she turned she realized why he whinnied. Jed was stirring, mumbling something and moaning. He lifted his hand to his head and said, “Boy, do I have a headache.”
Then he opened his eyes and saw Ace with his head through the window and Adeline crying at the side of the bed.
“It’s okay Addie. Ace won’t hurt you.” Jed said, clearly confused by the scene.
Adeline hugged Jed, who winced in pain, and then she hugged Ace and replied, “I know he won’t. I love this horse almost as much as I love you!”
Jed, even more confused said, “Huh?”
“It’s a long story,” she said, “But looks like we’ll have plenty of time to talk about it.”