Braddock's Gold by Jay Heavner

Author:Jay Heavner [Heavner, Jay]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-11-06T22:00:00+00:00

***

Two weeks later

The sun was at its zenith that warm day when the traveler from the west stopped at John's cabin. His horse and the one that followed were piled high with furs. Jenny sat on the porch shelling peas. "Hello," said John to the fur trader. "How are you, and where have you come from?”

“I am as well as can be expected,” he replied. “I just came from the forks of the Ohio.”

“How are things there, now that the French are gone?” John asked. “I hear the Indians have switched sides.”

“The British and Colonial forces are busy building a substantial fort at the forks,” he said. “They're calling it Fort Pitt in honor of William Pitt, the Prime Minister. Most of the Indians are now cooperating with the British, not the French, but not all. I chanced upon a horrible sight near Great Meadow. The Indians, probably Huron or Ottawa, left a dead man tied to a tree, by the trail for all to see,” he said. “He was missing a leg. It looked to me that they had eaten it while he watched. They had cauterized the wound from the missing leg with fire. I believe, after eating the leg, they cut his tongue out, and then blinded him. After that, they scalped him, and sank a tomahawk in his head to kill him finally.”

“What did he look like?” John asked.

“He was short and stout, probably bald,” the fur trader replied. Jenny looked up from her labors, but said nothing. “From the clothing they left, I’d say he was an Englishman.”

John asked, “Was there any evidence of a woman with him?”

"Yes, I saw what looked like part of a torn dress on a tree shard," he replied. "I suspect they are taking her back to their village if they don't kill her on the way. If they're pursued and she's too slow, they'll kill her. Or they may get hungry. If she made it to their village, she could be adopted into the tribe, used as a slave, or sold to the French."

"The dead man sounds like the traveler who went through here about a week ago, with his wife," John said. "That's too bad."

The two men talked for a short period. Jenny continues to shell the peas. Finally, the traveler left. He said he wanted to get to Winchester as soon as possible.

When he was gone, John walked to the porch and sat on the bench with Jenny. “Do you think it was Durham?” he asked.

"Yes," she replied. "I do. May he rest in peace, but I will shed no tears."

John looked at her and smiled. “I don’t think we will ever see those two again.”

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