yarn,” Cody agreed, as they reached the edge of the encampment. “Jest a damn shame nobody’ll ever read it but yer Brotherhood.”
“Yes,” Rosa agreed wistfully. “It is.”
Todtnau was a slightly smaller town than Bad Schoensee, and although it did have a lovely waterfall, it lacked the lake, and so it was not as much of a spa destination. Still, they were able to support a run of four days, and even better, because Kellermann had made sure the show was there over a market weekend, the cost of supplies was cheaper than it had been in Bad Schoensee. Kellermann had counted on this, and made some very shrewd bargains while they were there. The Americans did like their meat, and sausages and hams would keep in the warmer weather better than anything other than salt beef.
Kellermann called the foremost of the members of the show together after the last show in Bad Schoensee. He had a map spread out on the table. “I wanted to show you all this, so there would be no rumors that I was leading you around in circles,” he said, looking at each of them in turn. “Look, there is Bad Schoensee,” he said, pointing. “And here is Todtnau. Now, here was my problem. We could have gone this way, up to Freiburg, which is a city and we probably could stay for two weeks or more. But it is a long way, and only one village on the way, so there would be no way of earning much money on the road there. So I rejected that.”
Everyone nodded, including Giselle.
“Or, I could see that we could backtrack a little bit, and take this route to Neustadt. It’s longer, and circuitous, but there are seven towns on the way, and we can stop and do at least two days in each. It won’t be a lot of money, but we also don’t have to do the full show, just the main tent, so there won’t be as much to set up. So that is what I arranged.” His finger traced more of their route. “From there, we go to Donnau-Eschingen, then back this way to Freiburg with a great many shows on the way, and from there I can arrange things farther north, all the way up to Strasbourg and Baden-Baden. We can have at least three weeks in Freiburg, I think, which will give me plenty of time to arrange more bookings.”
“That looks pretty fine to me, Kellermann,” Cody said as they all contemplated the map.
“I’m not planning on taking us farther north than Baden-Baden, because Wild Bill’s show is in the north.” Kellermann shook his head. “You know what happened when you followed him in France. Half-filled tents. That was why you canceled the rest of the bookings and went down to Italy.”
“It was worse’n half-filled, sometimes we didn’ have no more’n a dozen customers,” Cody told him, as the others nodded, agreeing with him. “I knew you was smarter than that thief that made the first set of bookin’s!”
Kellermann relaxed, and smiled. “Well, I do know my countrymen. And I do know that the people here in the Schwarzwald tend to be overlooked when it comes to traveling entertainments of our size. I’m glad you approve.”
“Say, Kellermann,” Texas Tom spoke up. “You reckon we’ll be able to go home by November?”
“Go home?” Kellermann said. “Well . . . yes. You’ll have more than enough to book passage for everyone home from, say, Amsterdam or one of the Italian ports. If you all plan to disband, you won’t need to bring the tents, or any of the livestock except those you really want to, and I can certainly arrange for all of it to be sold. But you won’t go home rich.”
Faces fell all around the table.
“On the other hand,” Kellermann continued, “If you were to stay another year here, as Buffalo Bill is planning on doing, your reputation will have increased dramatically and you will benefit from the reputation of Buffalo Bill. I will be able to book you for a month or more at Heidelberg, Ulm, Stuttgart, Munich, none of which will have seen Buffalo Bill’s show, since he is planning on returning to England next year. I can confidently predict that yes, if you remain until . . . October after next, you will all go home rich. We only need to find a cheap place to spend the winter. Italy, perhaps. . . .”