Black Hills Gold by Will DuRey

Author:Will DuRey [DuRey, Will]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Robert Hale
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

It was another hour before more horsemen arrived at the farm, and during that time Henry Watkin had grown more anxious because of the non-arrival of his brother; Jake Preston’s assurances that all would be well because he was with Sol Carter did little to appease him. Sol Carter had a tough reputation, but the Watkin brothers had always judged him to be a hot-head who would one day pick a fight with the wrong man. Henry was hoping that this hadn’t been the day.

Jake, meantime, had engaged Vera in conversation, had listened to her account of life on the river with such interest and expressions of amazement that any witness to the scene might have thought him ignorant of the most basic knowledge of tree-felling and farming. She showed him examples of their trade wares, the moccasins and strings of stone beads that were genuine Sioux articles, the clothes made by her mother and herself during the long winter days, and the carvings her father whittled from lumps of timber. Jem’s artistic collection included buffalo, bears and elk in addition to representations of Sioux artefacts, which always attracted the attention of the river travellers. These included canoes, ceremonial pipes and miniature totem poles, which, when painted, were his most popular item.

Although Jem could not find fault with Jake Preston’s behaviour in either word or action during his conversation with Vera, he was wary of the visitor’s motive for engaging his daughter’s attention. For some time he’d been increasingly aware of the fact that Vera was no longer the child who had run at his side when following forest trails, but the full impact of her maturity was only now apparent as she was plied with Jake Preston’s flattery. Although Jem had had no reason to be troubled by anything the men had done since their arrival, something had twisted in his stomach at their first appearance, and had only tightened since.

That troubling sensation increased with the new arrivals. The group was at least twenty strong, coming downriver from the north, removing any doubt from Jem’s mind that they were the same riders he’d seen on the far side of the Missouri earlier that day. His assumption that they had been heading for Fort Union had been wrong. And what was more troubling was that for Jake and Henry, their arrival was not unexpected. The pair had gone outside to greet the men, walking twenty yards from the house so that they were out of earshot of Jem and his family.

Although from their earlier chatter, Jem had got the impression that his current visitors were awaiting Henry’s brother and one other man, he didn’t think they could be among these new arrivals. Henry’s vigilance had been directed away from the river, as though he expected his brother to be following the trail that had brought him and Jake to the farm. Even now he was throwing glances in that direction, and was becoming more and more anxious.

Jem couldn’t figure out what was happening.

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