CHAPTER 8
KANSAS CITY, 1867 - 1868
Kansas City had grown since Orville Miller last stayed there. The City had become a trailhead for the Chisholm Trail and the Kansas Pacific Railroad had just been opened. The herds, ever increasing in size, were driven in and shipped east for the voracious appetites of the east coast Americans. The railroad was being extended further West towards Abilene, now a booming cowtown.
Ellie had friends in Kansas City, so they decided to live there for a while, her friends would introduce her to Kansas society, and Orville thought he would try and find employment with the Railroad. He had no wish to become a ganger, but the Stationmaster needed an assistant, so he became an employee of the Kansas Pacific Railroad. Seeing the drovers and herds coming in and being shipped east stirred once more Orville's restless, outdoor spirit and he grew increasingly frustrated with his job. The move back East had proved to be very heavy on his financial resources, and he began to hate again - hate the City, hate the job and, finally, hate Ellie for being the reason for him having to move East.
Ellie could not understand her husband's change of mood and attitude towards her, and she spent more and more time with her friends. She tried to talk to him about it, but he refused to discuss the problem. One night, tired and frustrated at a particularly stressful and demanding day at work, he came home to an empty house. A note was awaiting him. It read: "Orville, I'm spending a couple of days with the Mitchells. Hoe you don't mind. Love, Ellie."
"Mind!" he thought. "Don't mind! Here am I, slaving to get up enough money, and she's off with her friends for a couple of days! Right, that's it! I must get back West."
He wrote Ellie a note for her to read on her return. It read: "Things aren't working out for me here. I know your friends will look after you, better than I can. I may come back sometime. Orville."
Orville had seen advertisements posted around Kansas asking for recruits for Army service. Since the Civil War, nearly all the men who had served and survived had returned home so, with the possibility in mind of killing some more Mexicans and Apaches, Orville headed for Fort Smith where, in early 1869, he enlisted for three years and was, with his experience of the area and previous war record with the Union Army, transferred to Fort Apache with the rank of Lieutenant. Promotion was quick in the early years after the Civil War for men who were intelligent, which Miller most certainly was. He was given command of the detachment escorting the Paymaster between the Forts with the soldiers' pay, and as he rode around with his troop, an idea formed in his alert and inventive brain as he saw an opportunity to rob the detail and escape with the money.
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