Seed of Evil (3 page)

Nestled in the heart of the Rockies lay a valley ringed by towering mountains over three miles high. Several were capped with the white of snow. Other peaks were the brown of upthrust rock or the red of bare earth.

King Valley, it was called, and at its center was the great blue eye known as King Lake. Lush grass spread south of the lake. To the west, north, and east grew forest as dense and untamed as the day the first man set foot on the North American continent.

Wildlife thrived. Mountain sheep roamed the high crags. Elk bugled in the upper meadows. Deer were everywhere. Mountain lions and wolves helped keep the population in check. Coyotes and bobcats fed on the small game.

Birds were as numerous as the leaves on the trees. Robins, sparrows, jays, and ravens constantly flew about. Out on the lake, ducks, geese, and terns swam and quacked and honked. High above soared the predators of the air, eagles and hawks, and the woods harbored owls.

“It sure is beautiful here, Pa,” Evelyn King said as she stood on the shore and skimmed stones on the lake’s surface. “There are days when I want to pinch myself to be sure I’m not dreaming.”

Nate cared for his daughter deeply. She was headstrong at times, but she had a good heart and a
peaceful temperament. She was also very much in love—although she wouldn’t come right out and admit it—with a young Nansusequa. “How is Dega doing these days?”

“Fine, I suppose.”

Nate had been home less than an hour. He had hugged and kissed his wife and talked with their daughter-in-law, who was visiting. Then he had come out to stretch his legs and caught sight of his daughter on her way back from the Nansusequa lodge at the other end of the lake.

“The two of you have been awfully close since that day you went off together.”

“We’re friends, is all.”

“Hard to find diapers for a man my age,” Nate said.

“What would you need a diaper for?”

“I must have been born yesterday.”

Evelyn laughed. About to throw another flat stone, she glanced to the north and said, “Uh-oh. What has him in such a dither?”

Nate heard the thud of hooves and guessed what he would see before he turned, and he was right. Riding hard toward them was his son, Zach. They looked somewhat alike, in that Zach had his father’s green eyes and build, but Zach mostly took after his mother and the Shoshone side of the family. “You might want to go inside.”

“Are you two going to argue again?” Evelyn threw the stone, which skipped several times before sinking. “I might just do that, then. When he’s mad he’s not fun to be around.”

Nate walked to the water, hunkered down, and dipped his hand in. He sipped from his cupped
palm and wet his neck. As he was rising, his son arrived in a loud clatter and a flurry of dust.

“It is true what Louisa just told me?” Zach demanded without dismounting.

“Unless she’s taken to lying to you, I would say it was,” Nate replied.

“She said she was visiting Ma when you got home. She said there’s a new trading post in the foothills.”

“They’re calling it a mercantile.”

“I don’t like it, Pa,” Zach said.

“I’m not fond of the idea, either, but it’s there and there’s nothing we can do about it.”

Zach patted one of the pistols tucked under his leather belt. “Yes, there is.”

“Climb down, son,” Nate suggested, and when Zach alighted, Nate draped an arm over his son’s shoulders. “Listen to me. We don’t own these mountains. We can’t go around running people off because we don’t like them or because we object to what they do for a living.”

“We can if what they do causes trouble. The last time we nearly had a war on our hands.”

“Trust me. It’s all I’ve thought about since St. Vrain told me about the new trader.” Nate chose his next words carefully. His son had a tendency to let his feelings get the better of his judgment and was much too quick to resort to violence. “I’ve met the man. He’s given me his word he’ll be fair and decent and won’t ply the Indians with liquor. So long as he abides by his word, we have no right to interfere with his livelihood.”

“Which is a fancy way of saying we twiddle our thumbs and hope for the best.”

Nate lowered his arm and gazed out across the beautiful blue of the lake. Patience was another trait his son had not yet fully mastered. But Nate couldn’t blame him. He, too, felt a special bond with the mountains and the people who lived there. Many of the tribes were their friends. He felt especially protective toward the Shoshones, who had accepted him as one of their own. “We have to give the new trader the benefit of the doubt.”

“You do, maybe,” Zach said.

“The last time you took the law into your own hands, you ended up on trial for your life.”

Zach’s dark features clouded. “I did what was right and you know it. And aren’t you forgetting something?”

“What?”

Zach gestured, encompassing their valley and the ring of mountains with a sweep of his arm. “There
is
no law out here. There is no government. There are no army posts.”

“Yet,” Nate interrupted, and was ignored.

“There are no politicians and lawyers to tell us how to live. We’re free to do as we please. Truly and really free, as you’ve impressed on me since I was old enough to understand what being free means.”

Nate didn’t comment. The boy had him there.

“Out here, we live by what
we
think is right. We have to stand up for ourselves, for what we believe in, and for those we care for.”

“I agree, wholeheartedly,” Nate said. “But you’re forgetting something, too.”

“Which is?”

“That this new trader hasn’t done anything wrong yet. He hasn’t caused any trouble. We can’t close him down and drive him off without a reason.”

Zach put a hand on the hilt of his bowie. “All right, Pa. I won’t do anything, for now. But I’ll keep an eye on things, and my ears open, and if I find out this new trader is as bad as the last, there will be blood.”

Chases Rabbits was surprised when Long Hair sent for him. He was in his father’s lodge, letting his father admire his new rifle, when a runner came and said that whites had come to the village, and Long Hair needed Chases Rabbits to translate.

Chases Rabbits hurried back with the runner. Two horses with saddles were outside the chief’s lodge, along with a string of four more. So was a gathering crowd of his people. He held his head high and made sure to hold his new rifle across his chest where all could see it. Then he bent and was in the chief’s lodge.

Other warriors were already there, prominent men, the most important in their tribe.

Long Hair beckoned. He had seen over eighty winters and was one of the most revered leaders of the tribe. His name came from the fact that his hair, once black but now as white as snow, had never been cut. He wore it in a single braid drawn up at the back. When he let it down, as he sometimes did at celebrations, it was as long as two tall men lying down head to toe.

Chases Rabbits was deeply honored, and greatly proud, to be called upon. Because of their many dealings with whites, quite a few of his people spoke a little of the white tongue, but he spoke it best. He had his mother to thank for that. She had lived with a white trapper when he was a boy.

Long Hair indicated that Chases Rabbits should sit on his left, between him and the white men.

Not until Chases Rabbits sank down did he look at them and realize who they were. He had to think to remember their names. Then he turned his attention to the great chief.

“You will speak to these whites for us. Find out why they have come. They do not know our tongue and do not know sign. But they smile and are friendly and seem to have something important to say.”

“I have met them,” Chases Rabbits revealed. “They are with the man who has the new trading post.”

“Then perhaps they have come to ask us to trade with them,” Long Hair said. “Question them for us.”

Chases Rabbits turned to their visitors and switched to English. “My heart be happy at seeing you again, Mr. Geist.” He was not so happy to see the other one, Petrie. He had not liked how Petrie treated his friend Nate King.

“Well, this is a stroke of luck,” the blond man said cheerfully. “Chases Rabbits, isn’t it? I’ll be grateful if you can help us.”

“What it be you want?”

Geist was seated cross-legged, his elbows on his knees. He made a tepee of his fingers and tapped them to his square chin. “I have heard about Long Hair. They say he is a great and wise chief. Tell him for me that I am honored to be in his presence.”

Chases Rabbits did as the white man wanted.

“I am here on behalf of Mr. Levi—”

“Me sorry,” Chases Rabbit broke in. “Who?”

“On behalf of Toad,” Geist clarified. “He has left it to me to drum up business for the trading post. I figure the best way to do that is to hook up with one
of the tribes and have them spread word among the other tribes about how friendly we are.”

“Me sorry again,” Chases Rabbits said. “What mean hook up? Like hook Nate King use to catch fish?”

Petrie laughed.

“No, not like a fishhook,” Geist said, glaring at Petrie. “Hook up means to be a special friend. We would like to be special friends with the Crows. As a token of our friendship, I brought four horses for…” He seemed to catch himself. “I brought three horses as gifts for Long Hair and one horse as a gift for you.”

“Me?” Chases Rabbits said in great surprise.

“I would like you to be our interpreter. In exchange, you’ll get free gifts. The horse is just the first of many.”

The prospect of a flood of wealth dazzled Chases Rabbits to such an extent that he nearly missed what Geist said next.

“The rest of your people will get special treatment, too. We’ll give you discounts on the trade goods that we won’t give others.”

“Discounts?”

“A blanket that might cost someone from another tribe four buffalo robes will only cost your tribe three. That sort of thing.”

“It be nice of you.”

Geist reached over and patted Chases Rabbits on the arm. “Like I said, we want to be special friends with the Crows.”

“Why us?” Chases Rabbits thought to ask. “There be many tribes. The Shoshones, the Arapahos, the Nez Perce—” He would have gone on, but Geist had an answer.

“The Shoshones already have a special white friend in Nate King. As for the others, they’re too far away. You Crows are the closest.”

Long Hair impatiently asked what the white man was talking about.

Chases Rabbits explained. He made it a point to end with “They want me to talk for them in council because I speak the white tongue so well.”

The burly warrior on Long Hair’s right raised his head. “This is a good thing for the Apsaalooke,” he said, using their name for themselves. “The Shoshones have done well by their friendship with Grizzly Killer. Why should we not benefit by having this white man for our friend?”

Another warrior spoke. “Think of what it will mean. More horses. More guns. More knives.”

“More pots for the women,” a warrior at the end said, and they all grinned.

“It is a good thing,” Long Hair agreed, and turned to Chases Rabbit. “Tell the white man we accept. Thank him for me for the horses. Say that from this day on, we will regard him and the other whites at the trading post as our brothers. They are always welcome at our fire.”

Chases Rabbits translated Long Hair’s acceptance to the whites. Geist was pleased. “I can’t tell you how much this means to us. You won’t regret it.”

A pipe was produced and passed around.

Chases Rabbits sat straight and tall. His status in the tribe had changed; he was now a man of importance. He thought of Raven On The Ground and how impressed she would be. He couldn’t wait to tell the Kings. He was sure they would be happy for him.

The pair was barely out of sight of the Crow village when Geist shifted in his saddle and snapped, “You almost gave us away back there when you laughed, damn you.”

“Don’t talk to me like that,” Petrie said.

Geist drew rein. “I’ll talk to you any damn way I please. There is too much at stake for you to act the fool.”

“Now, hold on,” Petrie said. “They have no idea what this is about. That boy and his fishhook was close to the truth, but he doesn’t know it. That’s why I laughed.”

Leveling his rifle, Geist asked in a tone pregnant with menace, “Are you talking back to me?”

“Never,” Petrie said, staring calmly at the rifle’s muzzle. “How long have we been together? I’ve never had cause to complain. You outthink everybody. All I do is kill.”

Geist lowered his long gun and flicked his reins. “I’m irritable, I suppose, because there’s so much at stake. We can’t have them suspect.”

“They have no more brains than cows.”

“And like cows we’ll use them to our own ends. Six months from now we’ll be back where we were before that sheriff and his posse closed in. Only better, because out here there’s no law.”

“It was the best idea we ever had, coming west of the Mississippi.”

“We?” Geist said.

“Well, you know.”

“I should have thought of it years ago. We can do whatever we please out here. Think about that. Whatever we damn well please.” Geist’s face practically glowed with fierce delight. “There’s no one to stop us.”

“What about St. Vrain and his partners, and that busybody King?”

“All St. Vrain cares about is his precious fort. The Bent brothers have ties to the Cheyenne and the Arapaho, not to mention the Crows. They won’t give a lick what we do.”

“That still leaves Nate King.”

“Yes, it does. But if we do this right, if we do it smart, we’ll have everything in place before he can lift a finger against us. By then, it will be too late.”

“I can shoot him so it never comes to that.”

“Use your damn head. If we kill him, we’ll make the Shoshones mad, and we want their trade as much as the others.”

“They’ll never know it was me,” Petrie said.

“Maybe not. But there’s that son of his to consider. I had a long talk with St. Vrain about this Zachary King. He’s our main worry. He wiped out an entire trading post for stirring up trouble with the redskins.”

“What do you mean, wiped out?”

“What the hell do you think I mean? He and some Shoshones killed every last man. Killed some Crows who were involved, too, which didn’t sit well with the Crows. Yet another reason for us to choose them and not another tribe.” Geist shook his head. “No, this Zach King is a he-bear. The genuine article. We’ll tread light so as not to involve him.”

“A lot of trouble to go to,” Petrie said. “I could kill him as well as his pa.”

Geist rode for a while in silence, then said, “If it comes to that. In the meantime, do as I say.”

“Don’t you mean as Toad says?”

“Isn’t he something?” Geist said.

The river they were following flowed through gorgeous country lush with vegetation and teeming with game. They spooked a female elk that barreled away through the undergrowth with her calf at her tail.

“That reminds me,” Petrie said. “Why didn’t you ask them about the women?”

“One step at a time,” Geist replied. “First we win their confidence, and then we set it up.”

“I can’t wait,” Petrie said.

“Me neither.”