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would
have returned to destroy us.
He was listening by then, and he asked who would fake such an attack and why.
I
told him I thought it was Andre and Swan. He was annoyed because I accused
his
brother-in-law. I said it seemed clear that Andre didn't mind killing and
neither did he seem to mind Swan's brutality to Angus.
Pierre did not like it, but he listened. "You think gold has been found and
held
out?" he said. I told him that was exactly what I believed.
I took to sleeping away from the others, on a pretense of watching for
Indians,
and I made my bed among leaves and branches that could not be walked over
without noise.
Moreover I watched my back.
We read on Pa had apparently been doing some scouting around and he had come
up
with a camp location two locations, in fact. He argued with Pierre Bontemps
that
there had been friction within the detachment. The story was that the Utes
had
attacked them, killed many, and that some had died of starvation later. Only
a
few men were supposed to have escaped. For several reasons, the story did not
make a lot of sense, for this hadn't been a patrol, but a large body of
men perhaps as many as three hundred. Pa believed there were less.
He figured there had been difficulties in the camp and they had separated.
Under
such primitive conditions animosities could develop, and something had
obviously
happened there. Pa found two camps, both with stone walls roughly put
together,
and he found pestholes the posts were rotted away but the holes could be
cleaned
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out. Rough shelters he found a button or two, and a broken knife.
Pa was shot at twice in the woods, but merely commented it must be Indians.
Meanwhile he stopped telling anyone his conclusions. From bones he dug up and
other signs, he decided one camp was doing a lot better than the other. The
men
in that part of the French military detachment were eating better, living
better
... must be an Indian or a mountain man in that outfit.
May 24: On the run. Wounded. We found the gold, or some of it. Andre and Swan
acted at once. Luckily I'd spread my bed as usual, then being uneasy I moved
back into the aspen. Had a devil of a time finding a place to stretch out, so
close they were. Suddenly I awakened and heard movement, then a roar of
rifles.
They'd slipped up and shot into my bedding. Unable to get close, they stood
back
and fired. They must have poured a dozen rounds into the place where my
bedding
was.
I heard Andre say, "Now for Pettigrew. Move quickly, man. Tell him it's
Indians
and when you get close ..." Swan asked him what to do about Pierre, and
Baston
said, "Leave 'im to me."
I couldn't get to both of them in time, but I ran toward Pierre, moving
silently
as could be.
We didn't need no pictures to tell us what was happening there atop the
mountain. Baston and Swan had turned to murder as soon as night came, wanting
the gold for themselves. They'd tried to kill pa first, and they believed the
job was done. Only it didn't work out the way they planned. When Swan got to
Nativity Pettigrew's bed, the man was gone. It wasn't until later that they
discovered a horse was also gone.
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Getting out of the aspen was a job, and pa had to find his way back to the
camp
in the darkness, expecting a shot any minute, having only a single-shot rifle
and a pistol.
He was coming up on them when he heard Baston.
"... no use reaching for that gun. I took the powder from it last evening,
Pierre. Sackett is dead, and soon you will be." There was a shot, then Baston
laughed, a mean laugh it was, too. "That was one leg, Pierre." Another shot.
"The other leg. I never liked you, you know. I knew someday I'd do this,
planned
it, thought about it. I just wish I could stay and watch you die."
Swan ran up, and there was talk. I guess they'd found Pettigrew was gone. I
heard swearing, and I moved in for a shot.
Eager to get a shot, and unable to see in the dark I lifted my rifle, stepped
forward for a better shot, and stepped into an unexpected hole. My body
crashed
into a bush. My rifle went off, and bullets cut leaves near my head. Another
shot was fired, and I felt the shock of a bullet. I went down, falling on my
pistol. If I moved they'd hear me. I drew my knife and waited.
They did not find me, and neither was of a mind to come hunting me in the
dark.
I heard Baston talking to Pierre, saying, "You're dead. I will leave you here
to
die. You've lost blood, both knees are broken, and you'll never be found. We
didn't find as much gold as I'd hoped, but we can always come back. We'll be
the
only ones who know where it is now."
"Pettigrew got away. He'll tell them," Pierre said.
And Andre answered, "Him? We'll catch him before he gets off the mountain.
And
when we do, we'll kill him."
CHAPTER XVI
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