The Ferguson Rifle by Louis L’Amour

the cause of the trouble, this was no place for Lucinda Falvey, and it was up to us to get her to Canada where she might find friends.
    â€œThere’s no use you leaving what you planned,” I said. “I’ll take her through to the Mandan villages at least, and farther if need be.”
    Ulibarri squatted near us. “It’s a long way, and there are many Indians,” he said, “but I promised the colonel that I would go, and I will.” He looked around at me. “I was raised by Indians.”
    â€œHopis?”
    â€œApaches,” he said, “but I speak much Indio … many tongues. I know the Sioux and the Pawnee and Shoshoni. I am young, but I have traveled.”
    â€œI will ride with you,” Davy said suddenly. “She’s an Irish lady, and far from home, and I’m an Irishman.”
    â€œI’m not Irish,” Kemble said, “but I’ll ride along.”
    â€œThere are furs in the north,” Solomon Talley said, “as well as here. We can trap as we go. The Hudson Bay Company will buy our furs.”
    There was no dissenting voice among them, and so the decision was made. Yet that night as I lay staring up at the stars, I considered the question. Obviously it was not the girl alone they sought, but what she knew, or what they believed she knew.
    What secret had they attempted to torture from the old Indian? A secret he had told Falvey? Had that secret been passed on to Lucinda? Or to Conway or Ulibarri?
    I remembered the few odds and ends from Conway’s pockets. Was there a clue among them? I decided I’d have another look at that map.
    And when morning came, I thought, I’ll have a long talk with Lucinda Falvey.
    For her to escape was of course essential, but to be penniless upon the world would not be pleasant for a young and lovely girl. Yes, yes of course she was lovely. That her father was one of the wild geese was obvious, that he might have a family to whom she could return was possible, but not too many of the Irish estates were paying well these days. A bit of smuggling on the side always helped, of course. My own family had tried it, too. There were still some of my blood remaining in Ireland, although only on my mother’s side. How well off they were, I did not know.
    I could think of nothing that would so arouse feelings as gold, and no doubt somewhere in this affair there was treasure involved. Of course, there was no shortage of treasure tales, and according to marketplace gossip, dozens of mule trains had gone north out of Mexico with treasure belonging to the Aztecs. Some of this was reported to have been hidden in western America, although why anyone should go so far to hide it, I could not guess, for the mountains of Mexico were filled with good hiding places.
    There was no need to go more than a day’s march from the valley of Mexico to find a thousand places where treasure could be hidden, so why anyone would travel hundreds of miles, risking discovery all the way, was beyond me.
    The Aztecs were reported to have come from somewhere in the north, and many were the stories of just where that had been, but they were not a rich people when they began their long trek to the south, nor for a long time after their arrival in the valley of Mexico. It was unlikely that coming into possession of great treasure they would send it all those many miles back to a land they had themselves abandoned. Yet this was a land where gold had been found, and who could guess what might not have been found … and hidden?
    So if there was a treasure, and if we could find it now, there might be enough to give Lucinda Falvey the advantages such a girl should have.
    The night wind stirred the leaves, down in the Indian encampment quiet had come at last, and my eyes closed. A few spattering drops of rain fell, and half-consciously I felt them, then turned in my sleep and awakened.
    The camp was still. Nothing seemed to move. The coals