Stella went inside the Police Station leaving Ethel to switch to the drivers’ seat.

She returned a few minutes later grasping a small piece of paper and got back into the car.

“They were very helpful about a possible place to stay but it is unlikely that there will be a train north tomorrow. Apparently, the line washed out earlier today after a landslide.”

Ethel gripped the steering wheel a lot tighter. Stella noticed this.

“I know that it looks bad but at least we have some wheels unlike those stuck at the Railroad Depot…”

“Small mercies,” groaned Ethel.

“Now where is this place to stay?”

Stella smiled.
“Go past the Depot and keep on going for six blocks and it should be on the left.”

“Yes Miss!”

Stella glared at Ethel and then realised that Ethel was joking.

“Here we are,” said Stella as they climbed the stairs at the rooming house. Theirs was the last room available. It was also the smallest in the hotel.

“She said it was tiny,” grumbled Ethel
“but this is silly.”

“Never mind darling. It is only for one night?”

“And the rest. We don’t know how long it will be before the railroad is open again.”

“About that…” said Stella.

“In the morning please?”

Stella kissed Ethel and made a dash for the bathroom which they shared with four other rooms on that floor of the establishment.

---

The following morning dawned and the two women ate a quick breakfast at the rooming house following which, they checked out. They paid for their room in part with the eggs that Grammy had given them the previous day. The owner of the rooming house commented,
“We get a lot of that these days. Still, it means that I don’t have to search the stores for food for breakfasts…”

The girls knew that it was a sign of the hard times that most people were experiencing.

As they sat in the car outside where they’d stayed the night, Ethel asked,
“Are you happy about this?”

“Yeah. I think it is the only thing to do given that the Railroad is out and there is no certainty of a northbound train today.”

“Ok, Roanoke it is then?”

Ethel started the engine and they left town heading back the way they’d come the previous day.

---

Luck was with them and they reached Roanoke in time for Lunch which they took at the ‘Grand Hotel’. Then Ethel went to the Telegraph Office and sent a Telegram to George explaining that they would be a day or so late returning to Albany and that they’d send another message from NYC.

Now fully refreshed, the couple set off towards Washington only to find the road blocked by two Police Cars a few miles from town.

“Sorry Ladies. The road ahead is closed. You will have to turn around and take the road east out of town,” said a Police Officer.

“Thanks Officer. Is there a bridge out? We had to divert yesterday because of one,” asked Ethel.

“Not this time Ladies. Some bootleggers from DC are holed up in a farmhouse.”

“This is rather a long way from the Capital?” said Ethel.

“It is that Ma’am. A sign of the times I’m afraid. If you ask me, they’ll go to the moon to get some hooch these days.”

“Well thank you Officer. We’ll head back to town. Where does the road to the East go?” asked Stella.

“It ends up at the State Capital, Richmond Ma’am. You can get to DC tonight if you leave now.”

“Thanks again Officer. You have been most helpful.”

“Safe journey ladies,” said the Officer as he tipped his hat.

---

Once they were back on the road towards Roanoke, Ethen said,

“We have spoken to the Law more on this trip than the whole time when we running beer.”
Stella laughed.

“Yeah. Good isn’t it.”

Then she gripped Ethel’s hand.

“Isn’t it nice to be on the straight and narrow?”

Ethel just smiled back.

The couple reached Richmond later that afternoon. Stella stopped outside the Railroad Depot. Ethel went inside to look at the train schedule.

“There is a train to DC in an hour and a half if it is on time,” she said as she climbed back into the car.

“Good,” said Stella as she put the car into gear.

An hour later, a taxi dropped the couple off at the main entrance to the station. They’d sold the car at a 50% loss but it had served its purpose. Now it was time to appear as two normal women travelling north together.

Stella bought them two tickets to Washington where they were going to spend the night before going to New York and then on to Albany the next day.

---

[the following day at Union Station in Washington]

The DC newspapers were full of the incident near Roanoke. They were reporting that one Marcello Messi and six accomplices were killed in a shootout with State Police after a sting operation.

“Let me see the paper,” said Stella.

Stella read the report.
“Those are names of mob guys that operate out of Detroit. Something is not right here. That officer said that it was a bunch from DC?”

“We should not speculate. We’ve been out of the game long enough to not know who’s who in the Hooch business. We know that once one big mob boss was taken out of the picture things went to pot for a while. Lots of people would get killed while a new order was established. It could be that some people moved to another city especially if it got a but hot. The ‘hot lead’ sort of heat I mean… If that report about Al Capone becoming the new mob boss is true then that would explain why a lot of foot soldiers left Chicago for pastures new.”

Then Ethel added,
“But why here? This is a long way from home for them regardless.”

“Easy pickings when it comes to finding people making booze. There must be hundreds of people like Cletus doing the same thing all over West Virginia, Virginia and beyond,” said Stella.

“Even so, it just does not make sense. I mean to use hired guns from Detroit here in Virginia?”

“As you said, we’ve been out of the game for how long now? All sorts of turf wars must have been going on since we dropped out of sight. It might just be a sign of the times. People are tightening their belts all over the place. We’ve seen more than enough evidence of that on this trip haven’t we?”

“Yeah, we have. We’ve been out of touch for a long time and I don’t regret getting out when we did. See this other article on the front page?”

Ethel pointed to another article by a crime reporter.

Stella read the article.

“I missed that,” she replied.

“We knew that J. Edgar was getting tough but this new task force will make what they did to Capone look like a picnic in the park.”

Ethel looked up at the clock.

“Time to get our train. Speculating what is going on amongst our former business associates is not going to get us home any sooner now is it?”

“Yes Boss!”

They both laughed as they headed for their train north and home.

George was overjoyed to see them step off the train from New York the following lunchtime. He’d become concerned about their changes to their plans.

The extra funds made their lives a lot more comfortable but the world around them was in turmoil.

The Girls were so glad that they’d bailed out of Chicago when they did. Both of them were of the opinion that things were going to get worse rather then better. Their trip south had confirmed a lot of their worst fears. They both hoped that whatever happened would pass them by in their little corner of the world.

---

[Late Spring 1930]

Stella had been out in the barn collecting eggs when she heard the unmistakeable sounds of a ‘Tommy Gun’ coming from the direction of their nearest road. She hurried back into the house.

“Tommy Guns coming from the highway,” she exclaimed to Ethel and George who were preparing things for Lunch.

“Let’s hope they don’t come this way!” said George.
“We don’t have any guns do we ladies?”

“Stella has a derringer,” said Ethel.

George was suddenly alert.
“Where is it?”

“In my purse. Why?”

George didn’t answer. Instead he dived for the bag that was lying on the floor near the door to the hallway and pulled out the weapon. Without saying a word, he went to the back door and dashed outside. Twenty seconds later he returned without it.

“I’ve got rid of it. It is in the woodpile. The last thing we want is some ‘G Man’ finding it and thinking that he is under attack. We know that those guys have very itchy fingers.”

Both girls didn’t object. They’d all listened to the news all winter. The number of shoot outs where innocent bystanders were killed had increased. J-Edgar was under pressure from Congress to keep his men under control but so far there had been little evidence of that happening. If the ‘G-Men’ were in the area it was best to be totally clean when it came to weapons.

“I’d better make myself scarce,” said George.
“I’ll be in the barn cleaning out the chickens.”

Neither of the women objected. George knew his place when it came to being in the presence of outsiders.

As he went out the back door, the sounds of gunfire were echoing around the valley. Whatever was going on, it was happening right on their doorstep. The girls could only sit back and hope that it would go away.

To their dismay, a truck came flying up their drive. It was followed by three black cars with ‘G-Men’ hanging onto the sides and firing at the truck.

“It’s the Johnson Brother’s truck,” said Stella as they ducked back into the house.

“Let’s get down into the cellar,” said Ethel.

Before they could react, one of the chasing cars stopped outside the Cabin. Two agents burst into the kitchen.

“Where does this track lead?” asked one of them.

“It ends up on Route 2 about a mile east of Cropseyville. It is pretty rough from here on. You can’t go very fast at all or you will break an axle,” said Ethel.

The second agent said,
“Thank you Ma’am. Sorry for disturbing you.”

Then they left as quickly as they’d arrived.

A few minutes later George returned to the Kitchen.

“What did they want?”

“To know where the track went. So, we told them,” said Stella.

“We also told them that it is very rough.”

George nodded.

“Two cars went up the track and one turned around. I guess that one will be trying to head them off at the ‘pass’…?”

“Let’s hope they don’t come back,” said Ethel.

“Why not? We don’t have any hooch do we?”

George fiddled with his fingers.

“George?” asked Stella.

“I have a couple of flasks hidden under the floor of the barn but where they are hidden is not obvious. The hole is covered by straw and that broken wagon wheel.”

“George? Don’t you think that you should move them into the woods? Just in case?” asked Stella.

“I agree. Get rid of them just for the time being.”

“Aw?”

“George, you know the rule we operated under in Chicago… No hooch in the main office building.”

“Ok, ok. I’ll get them moved.”

Just then one of the two cars that had gone up the track came back and stopped outside the house. One of the agents came into the kitchen.

“Do you have a phone?”

“Sorry Agent. We aren’t connected. The phone company aren’t running any lines out this way anytime soon. The nearest is at the General Store in Brunswick.”

“Thank you, Ma’am. Sorry to bother you.”

The two agents left them alone and peace returned to the area but it was a wakeup call to all of them. They’d come to Troy to get away from Prohibition and its effects. Now those effects had followed them in a big way.

---

How big this was, was revealed when they went into Albany to do some shopping the next week. The gossip was all about how one of the Johnson Brothers had been wounded in a shootout with the Feds just over the state line in Massachusetts. The gossips also said that the other brother was on the run and that the numerous stills that they’d operated had been smashed up by the Feds.

The girls knew that with the brothers missing, a good number of people were going to feel the effects. Their legitimate business of providing wood to most of the residents of Troy was no more yet people needed wood for heat in the forthcoming winter.

“George…” said Stella that night.
“Fancy going back into business?”

“Miss Stella! How can you say that after all those stills have been wrecked around here?”

Stella laughed.

“Not booze. Something perfectly legal. I’m talking about taking over the Johnson Brothers Wood Supply business. We run it and I’m sure that there are a more than couple of people from Troy who would just love a job with a steady income.”

“Ah! I sees what you are on about.”

“Has anyone asked the surviving brother about this?” asked Stella.

“No. I was merely thinking ahead and… well as there is a gap in the market I sort of wondered…”

“Ok, ok,” said Ethel.
“I think we get it.”

“Who is his lawyer?”

“From the report in the paper, it is Don Brennan. Why?”

“We should go and see him. He can ask his client and if it is ok, he can draw up a contract so that it is all legal like. We don’t want the Feds and especially the Taxman investigating us now do we eh?” said Ethel.

“What about me? Don’t I get a say?” asked George.

Stella smiled.
“Of course, you do. This is only an idea at the moment. I only thought of it when I was doing the dishes.”

“Good,” said George firmly.
“You may have a problem getting white folk to work for a negro. They’ll want to be the boss and make me do all the heavy work.”

“That’s a good point George.”

“And a good few white folk, might not want someone like me going inside their homes. Even as your driver I had problems with staff at some of those big houses where you went to for parties.”

“Ok. George. I’ll forget it,” said Stella.

Ethel didn’t react. She was clearly thinking.

After a while, she said,

“The idea is good but we can’t get George involved. We have to run it ourselves and employ some local people to do the work. George is our driver. We can run the operation on a day to day basis.”

“Or just lease the land from the Johnsons and buy the business as well. Then we run the thing ‘under new management’. Then we are totally legit again,” said Stella.

“Where are we going to get all the ‘legit’ money to do that then? We have not declared any income to the Taxman since we have been here or had you forgotten that? If we get audited then we will be behind bars. Far better to do nothing. There is nothing to stop us suggesting to Don Brennan that getting someone to run the lumber side of their business would be a good thing though,” remarked Ethel.

Stella and George realised that they still needed to keep their heads down and so they agreed with Ethel not to do anything other than mentioning it to Mr Brennan.

Summer came and went as was as hot and sticky as before. As in previous summers, they all missed the breeze that came off Lake Michigan. It made the city liveable. Then the winter came and the same lake made it even colder than upstate New York.

The one Johnson brother that was in custody, Dick, went on trial and was convicted of running sixty-three illegal stills and found not guilty of transporting booze over state lines. Some bottles on their product were found over in Pitsfield, Mass. Dick denied actually sending the Whiskey to Pitsfield. There was no evidence that they’d actually transported the booze over state lines so the charges were dropped. He was found guilty of running the stills and the Judge sent Dick Johnson to prison for five years.

Thanks to the efforts of the lawyer, the legitimate side of the Johnsons business carried on so people didn’t freeze. That winter was one of the coldest on record in upstate New York while farms in the mid-west were literally blown away in the wind.

[to be continued]