Louis L'Amour by The Warrior's Path Page B

herself! Then we would have evidence that might take these men to the gallows!”

Chapter X
    I t was easy talk, yet the thought rankled that such things could be done and that those who did them would go unpunished. A man could say it was none of his affair, but how many would suffer until somebody did make it his business?
    Maverick was patient. “You know nothing of the Indies,” he said. “It is a different world than this, and it is nothing like Virginia or the Carolinas. It is a place of pirates, cutthroats, and sharp businessmen. And how would you go about finding one girl? A girl who is probably kept from sight?”
    I did not know. All I knew of the Indies was hearsay, and not much of that, yet the more I thought of it, the more I decided that this I must do.
    Yance was quiet, and that was unusual for him. Despite his flamboyance, Yance’s thinking was sound, and he could see, even as I could, the problems involved. In the first place, there were many islands, and to which one had she gone? Had she survived the trip? Many people died aboard ship and were buried at sea, for the life was rough at best, the food poor, and many a tough sailor man failed to survive a voyage.
    Jamaica, Hispaniola, Grenada, Cuba, Martinique, the names themselves were enchanting.
    â€œYou would have no chance,” Reverend Blaxton assured me. “It is a fine thing you think of doing, a noble thing, but you would waste time better spent in some other way. We do not even know that she was not taken by Indians or murdered somewhere along ourown shore. It would be like searching for one snowflake in the dead of winter.”
    â€œAnyway,” Yance said practically, “you’ve got your crop back home, and Temperance will be wondering what happened to us.”
    â€œI did not mean for you to come, Yance. I meant for you to go home and let them know where I have gone.”
    There was a deal of talk, which, as is always true in such cases, seemed to arrive nowhere, for there is always a repeating of arguments and a rephrasing of the same ideas and much time wasted. Yet as the talk went on, I listened with half an ear and thought my own thoughts, worrying over the possibility as a dog over a bone.
    When first the words came to my lips, they came almost unbidden, yet the idea would not let me abandon it. The Indies were foreign to me, and I should not be treading the familiar ground of the forest or mountains or swamp but at sea and among islands and men of different backgrounds than I, and I would be among cities, which I scarcely expected to enjoy.
    Yet what if I found her? From all that had been said, I guessed there was a core of steel in the lass, that whatever else she might be, she was not one to be easily conquered by circumstance or condition.
    That she was possessed of more than her share of healthy animal spirit seemed likely, and the restraints of living in a community ruled by the congregation would be irritating and confining to such a one.
    Well, to suppose. If she was indeed taken by slavers to the Indies and sold there, what then? What would become of her? Many a girl might give up, accept the life, and sink to the depths, ending when cast out as no longer useful, eaten by disease, or soaked in alcohol. But I could not believe that would happen to such a girl as this one. There was strength in her; for good or bad there was strength, and that must count for something.
    Suddenly the door from an inner room opened,and Diana was there. She moved into the room like a dream of beauty and went to the fire to stir it.
    â€œHow is Carrie?” I asked.
    She looked over her shoulder at me. “Sleeping, and the poor child needs it. She is exhausted.”
    â€œAnd you?”
    â€œThere is not the time. I have things to consider.” She looked around again. “They will be coming, I think. They have had their time at Cape Ann and some other settlements.”
    â€œWhat do you mean by