Idaho Gold Fever

1

The ten canvas-topped turtles rattled and creaked as they wound into the mountains at the lumbering rate of fifteen miles a day. On good days. On days when the going was steep or the weather was bad or one of the wagons broke down, they lumbered less.

The tall rider in buckskins had no trouble keeping them in sight. He was broad of shoulder and slender of hip, with pantherish muscles that rippled when he moved. His white hat, brown with dust, was worn with the brim low over his eyes to shield them from the harsh glare of the relentless summer sun.

His name was Skye Fargo. He wore a Colt and had a Henry rifle in his saddle scabbard and a double-edged Arkansas toothpick in an ankle sheath, and he knew how to use all three with uncommon skill. As a tracker, he was without peer. He also possessed an uncanny memory for landmarks and a superb sense of direction. A lot of folks got lost in the wilds; Fargo never did. A lot of folks couldn’t tell east from west or north from south, but Fargo always knew. He relied on the sun and the stars and his own inherent senses, and they never failed him.

Quite often, Fargo used his skills scouting for the army. At other times he hired out for whoever struck his interest. At the moment he was shadowing the wagon train to earn the one thousand dollars he was being paid to find out what had happened to a missing family. A thousand dollars was a lot of money at a time when most men barely earned five hundred a year. Not that Fargo would hold on to it. With his fondness for whiskey, cards and women—not necessarily in that order—he spent every dollar he made almost as soon as he made it. A friend of Fargo’s once joked that his poke must have a bottomless hole, and the joke wasn’t far from the truth.

So here Fargo was, astride his Ovaro a quarter mile to the east of the wagons, riding at a leisurely pace and wishing he was in a cool saloon somewhere with a willing dove on his lap, a bottle of red-eye at his elbow, and a full house in his hand.

Fargo had been trailing the wagon train for over a week now. The wagons were filled with settlers, and Fargo wasn’t all that partial to their kind. There were too damned many, swarming from the East like locusts, fit to overrun the West with their farms and their cattle and their caterwauling children. As yet only a few areas west of the Mississippi River had become civilized, but give them fifty years and Fargo worried that the untamed prairies and mountains he loved so much would become an unending vista of settlements, towns and cities.

Fargo dreaded that day. City life was all right for a festive lark but too much of it bored him. Worse, after a couple of weeks of having a roof over his head and being hemmed by four walls, he got to feeling as if he were in a cage. He couldn’t stand that feeling.

The Ovaro pricked its ears and looked toward the wagons, prompting Fargo to do the same. “Damn,” he said, annoyed with himself. He hadn’t been paying attention, and two riders had left the wagons and were coming directly toward him. For a few tense moments he thought that they’d spotted him. But that was unlikely. He was far enough back in the trees that he blended into the shadows.

Fargo didn’t want to be seen until he was ready. Reining toward a cluster of boulders, some as big as the covered wagons, he swung behind them and dismounted. Palming his Colt, he edged to where he could see the riders approach.

The pair were scruffy specimens. Their clothes had never been washed and their hats were stained, their boots badly scuffed. The rider on the left was short and stout, with a face remarkably like a hog’s. The rider on the right was big and wide and wore a perpetual scowl on a scarred face only a mother could love. They slowed as they neared the woods and shucked rifles from their scabbards.

Hunting for game, Fargo reckoned. He strained to hear what they were saying, but they weren’t close enough yet. He was concerned they would see the Ovaro’s tracks, but they entered the trees at a point a dozen yards north of him.

The pair were prattling away, seemingly without a care in the world.

The hoggish one gave voice to a high-pitched titter more fitting for a saloon girl.

“Ain’t it the truth, Slag. Ain’t it the truth. I don’t know how that dirt grubber puts up with it.”

“He does it for the same reason any man does,” Slag said in a voice that rasped like a file on metal.

“I’d as soon slit my throat as be nagged and badgered and insulted to death.”

“You don’t have to worry, Perkins. Neither one of us will ever hitch ourselves to a dress.”

Slag drew rein and his companion did the same. Both shifted in their saddles and gazed back at the plodding wagons. “Look at them. Like so many sheep. Makes me glad I’m a wolf.”

The two men laughed.

“I can’t wait to get there,” Perkins said. “For me the best part will be the carving.”

Slag snorted. “I believe it. Don’t take this wrong, pard, but you’re twisted inside. To watch you gives me the chills.”

“Why, that’s just about the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me,” Perkins gleefully responded.

“It wasn’t meant to be. You’re spooky, is what you are. You should have been born a redskin. You would fit right in as an Apache or one of those devil Sioux.” Slag paused. “Now there’s something I never thought I’d say to a white man.”

Perkins lost some of his good mood. “You make me out to be worse than I am. And you like to carve, too. You’re just not as honest about it as I am.”

“The hell I’m not. I don’t brag about it, is all. Or wallow in the blood, like you do.”

“There are a few with this bunch who could stand to be cut. Take that Rachel.”

“Her? She’s as sweet as can be.”

“I like the sweet ones best.”

“I’m glad I’m not sweet,” Slag said.

Perkins cackled uproariously.

Lifting their reins, the pair rode on. Soon the vegetation swallowed them and the clomp of hooves faded.

Fargo stayed where he was. He had heard enough to quicken his suspicions. The question now was what to do about it? He wasn’t a lawman. He could go for one but it could take weeks to find a federal marshal and bring him back, and by then whatever Slag and Perkins and their friends were up to would be done with.

Twirling his Colt into its holster, Fargo forked leather. He had a decision to make. The people with the wagon train were nothing to him. He didn’t know any of them personally. And given his low opinion of settlers, he should rein around and leave. But there were women and children. And there might be a link between this bunch and the missing family.

With a sigh, Fargo reined toward the wagon train. Once he was in the open, he rode parallel with the wagons but stayed a good hundred yards out. Soon shouts told him he had been spotted. Before long several riders came galloping toward him. One yelled for him to stop.

Fargo drew rein and waited.

Two of the three were settlers. Their homespun clothes and floppy hats marked them as members of the wagon train.

The third man was different. He was like Slag and Perkins: dirty and ill-kempt and bristling with weapons. Of middling height, he favored a Remington revolver worn butt forward on his left hip. He had high cheek-bones and beady eyes and a hooked nose that made him look like a hawk.

“We want to talk to you, mister,” the hawk-faced man declared.

“You see me sitting here,” Fargo said as they came to a stop. “What do you want?”

The settlers smiled in friendly greeting but the hawk-faced man placed his hand on the butt of his Remington.

“I don’t much like your tone.”

“I don’t much care,” Fargo informed him. “Unless you have something to say, I’ll be on my way.”

“We want to know who you are and what you’re doing here.”

Fargo shook his head.

“You won’t say?” one of the settlers asked.

“My personal affairs are my own.”

“What if I insist?” the hawk-faced man said, and just like that his gun hand moved.

So did Fargo’s. In the blink of an eye he had his Colt up and out. All three of them heard the click of the hammer. “Draw that six-shooter and I’ll blow you to hell.”

Amazement turned the hawk-faced man to stone. He stared into the barrel of the Colt and his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down. “That was mighty slick.”

“Get your hand off that hogleg.”

Reluctantly, the hawk-faced man splayed his fingers and held his arm out from his side. “I meant what I said. That was about the slickest I’ve ever come across.”

The biggest settler, who looked to be in his forties and packed a lot of beef on his bones, kneed his sorrel closer. “Enough of this, Mr. Rinson. I won’t have you threatening everyone we come across.” He grinned at Fargo. “Forgive him, mister. He means well. He just wants to protect us and our families.”

“Is that what he’s doing?”

The big settler nodded. “He works for Victor Gore. Maybe you’ve heard of him? He used to be a trapper in these parts. Or so he tells us.”

“Never heard of him,” Fargo admitted. But that wasn’t unusual. The height of the trapping trade had been before his time.

“Well, be that as it may, Mr. Rinson works for Mr. Gore. We’ve hired them to guide us to the Payette River Valley. We’re farmers, you see, and Mr. Gore says the valley is perfect for homesteading.” The man offered his big hand. “I’m Lester Winston, by the way. My family is in the first wagon yonder. In the other wagons are friends of ours. We’re all from Ohio.”

Fargo slid the Colt into its holster, then shook. Predictably, the farmer had a grip of iron.

“I take it you have heard that the Nez Perce have been acting up of late?” Lester Winston went on. “That’s why I let Mr. Gore talk me into hiring him and his men when we ran into them at Fort Bridger. They are worth their fee if they get us safely through to the Payette River Valley.” He stopped. “Have you ever been there?”

“No,” Fargo said. The Payette River, yes, but not of a valley named after the river. Which in itself was peculiar, given how many times he had been through this region.

“Mr. Gore says the soil is so rich, our crops will practically grow themselves. And game is so plentiful we won’t ever lack for meat.” Lester gazed to the northwest, his eye lit with the gleam of land hunger. “We were on our way to Oregon Country, but after hearing Mr. Gore talk about how grand the Payette River Valley is, we changed our minds.”

“This Gore must be some talker,” Fargo said, and noticed that it caused Rinson to frown.

“He does have a silver tongue,” Lester said. “But he’s a fine gentleman. The salt of the earth, if you ask me.”

“I haven’t met many of those,” Fargo said drily.

Rinson let out a small hiss of annoyance. “Are we going to sit here jawing all day, Winston? Gore left me to watch over you while he’s gone, and I can’t say as I like you telling this stranger all there is to know about us. For all we know, he’s an outlaw.”

“He doesn’t look like one.”

“Listen to yourself. You can’t tell if a person is good or bad by how they look. I say we send him on his way. And if he won’t go, we prod him to move him along.”

“I don’t prod easy,” Fargo said.

“Did you hear him?” Rinson asked Lester. “He’s not all that friendly. It’s best if we’re shed of him.”

The wagons had stopped. Men, women and children were all staring with keen interest. They were so far north of the Snake River, in country so rugged and remote, that to run across another white was rare.

One woman, in particular, caught Fargo’s eye. She was young and shapely and wore a bright blue bonnet that complemented her darker blue dress. From under the bonnet, fine yellow hair cascaded, shimmering like gold in the sunlight. Fargo couldn’t tell much else about her from that distance, but what he could tell prompted him to say to Lester Winston, “I’d like to ride with you awhile. Maybe share your supper.”

Rinson growled, “Like hell.”

Now it was Lester Winston who frowned. “Need I remind you that I am the leader of this wagon train? I’ll make the decision, not you.”

“Gore won’t like it.”

“He’s not here. And while I’ll admit that our safety should be uppermost on our minds, I refuse to think the worst of everyone we meet. We must all be Good Samaritans, Mr. Rinson.”

“Good what?”

“Haven’t you read the Bible?” Lester asked. “The milk of human kindness separates us from the beasts, and we must never let the flow run dry.”

“I’m not all that fond of milk,” Rinson said. “And I never learned to read nor write.”

Winston turned to Fargo. “Yes, by all means, come join us. My Martha won’t mind feeding you. And it will be nice to have someone new to talk to.”

“Damn it,” Rinson fumed. To Fargo he said, “Mister, you have no idea what you are letting yourself in for. Victor Gore is liable to have you stomped into the dirt, and that’s no lie.”

“I don’t stomp easy, either,” Fargo said, and gigged the Ovaro. He had the feeling he was about to poke his head into a bear trap, and if he wasn’t careful, the steel jaws would snap his head right off.