CHAPTER FOUR
Big
Horn Basin, Wyoming Territory
Don Kelly and his brother Al were
knee-deep in the rapid-running stream of Thoroughfare Creek. The
water was white foam where it broke over the rocks, but otherwise
crystal clear, and they could see all the way to the bottom as they
dipped their pans into the rocks and sand. Slowly sloshing the
water around, they gradually emptied the pan of the water, sand,
and lighter gravel. Then they studied the residue remaining in the
bottom of the pan. They had been doing this for the better part of
an hour when Al suddenly let out a whoop of joy.
“Don! Don, get over here! Look at
this!”
Al turned his pan slightly, and Don
could see, in the bottom of the pan, bright flashes.
“That’s gold!” Al said. “There’s bound
to be more here.”
“All right!” Don said. “Now we’re
getting somewhere!”
Don joined his brother in the part of
the river he was working, and with his very first pan came up with
gold of his own.
“If we keep this up, we’ll take
seventy-five to a hundred dollars out of here just today,” Al
said.
As the two men continued to pan the
river, they spread out a cloth on the bank and piled their gold
there. Some of the gold was coming in nuggets as large as kernels
of corn, and within two hours they had accumulated several
ounces.
“Seventy-five dollars my hind leg,” Don
said. “We’ve got two, maybe three hundred dollars here if we have a
dime.”
Mountain Saloon, DeMaris Springs, Wyoming
Territory
The town of DeMaris Springs was in the
shadows of Cedar Mountain, bordered on the south by Stinking Water
River, and on the north by the hot springs that gave the town its
name. The Mountain Saloon was made of rip-sawed wide, unpainted
boards, though it did have a false front with the name of the
saloon rendered in black outlined in red. It was the center of
activity in a little town of under two hundred people, and it had
the distinction of having one of only two pianos in the town, the
other being in Mme. Mouchette’s House for Discriminating
Gentlemen.
Excitement was keen in the saloon
because Don and Al Kelly had just come in with news of their gold
find.
“There ain’t no tellin’ how much gold
there is up there,” Don said, holding court among all the other
saloon patrons.
“Where’d you find it?”
“Huh, uh, I ain’t a-goin’ to tell you
that,” Don said. “You’re goin’ to have to look for yourself to find
your own gold.”
“But it’s up there,” Al said. “If we
was able to find what we did, why my guess is that it’s all over
the valley.”
“I’m goin’ up there,” someone
said.
“Yeah, me too!” another added, and
within moments, nearly every patron in the saloon had stated his
intention to go up into the Big Horn Basin to try his luck at gold
hunting.
Two of the patrons of the saloon were
Sam Davis and Lee Regret.
Davis was a man of medium height and
size. Clean-shaven, his most distinguishing feature was a
pockmarked face and a drooping left eye. The droop was the result
of an old wound, suffered in a knife fight the first time Davis was
ever in jail.
Regret was relatively small and so dark
that he was often mistaken for a Mexican. He had a full beard that
was as dark as his long black hair.
Unlike the others, Davis and Regret
weren’t crowding around the two brothers trying to get more
information. They already had the information they
needed.
“Bellefontaine ain’t goin’ to like
this,” Regret said. “They’s too many prospectors up there already,
this is just goin’ to bring a lot more.”
“No, he ain’t goin’ to like it at all,”
Davis agreed.
“We’re goin’ to have to tell him,”
Regret said.
“Not yet.”
“What do you mean, not yet? He’s goin’
to find out sooner or later, then he’ll be mad at us for not
tellin’ him.”
“We’re goin’ to tell him,” Davis said.
“But not until after we have took care of the
problem.”
“Took care of the problem? How we goin’
to do that?”
“You’ll see.”
When Don and Al left the Mountain
Saloon, they were so excited by their discovery that they didn’t
notice the two men following them. Their only thought was to get
back to the creek where they had first made their discovery, and
start panning again. It took two hours of riding before they
returned to the spot where they had discovered gold, and within a
few moments after they started panning, they were bringing up more
color.
Sam Davis and Lee Regret watched the
two men for a few moments, and saw with their own eyes the success
the Kelly brothers were having.
“They wasn’t lyin’,” Davis said. “They
really did discover gold. They just got started, and look at the
gold they done got piled up alongside ’em there.”
“Yeah,” Regret said. “I see
it.”
“That sure is somethin’,” Davis
said.
“What are we goin’ to do now?” Regret
asked.
“Like I said when we started out, we’re
goin’ to take care of the problem,” Davis replied. He pulled his
pistol, and Regret pulled his as well.
With pistols in hand, the two rode up
to the goldpanning brothers. Not until they were right upon the two
brothers did Don notice them.
“What are you doing here? What did you
do, follow us?” Don asked. “We told you people back in town to find
your own place. This is ours.”
Davis and Regret aimed their pistols at
the two brothers.
“What? No, wait!” Don said. “You don’t
need no guns, you can have this spot! Me ’n my brother will find
someplace else.”
“There is no place else for you,” Davis
said. “This whole valley belongs to Mr.
Bellefontaine.”
“Bellefontaine? He might own the town,
but he don’t own this valley,” Al said. “This is public
land!”
“No it ain’t public land. This land and
ever’ thing on it belongs to Mr. Bellefontaine,” Davis said. “So,
what I’m going to ask you to do is hand over the gold, pack up your
belongings, and leave.”
“Hand over the gold? Are you crazy,
Mister?” Al replied. “Me ’n my brother been workin’ out here for
near a month and this here is the first color we’ve turned up, so
we ain’t givin’ it away. Besides which, there ain’t nobody said
nothin’ to us ’bout this bein’ private property. Seein’ as you got
guns and are makin’ us do it, we’ll go somewhere else, but we ain’t
handin’ over the gold we done found here.”
“I’m sorry you feel that way,” Davis
said. He pulled the trigger and his bullet plowed into Al’s
chest.
“Al!” Don called, shocked at seeing his
brother shot before his very eyes. “You bastard! You shot my
brother!” Don shouted angrily at Davis. Grabbing a pickaxe from the
ground, he started toward Davis.
“Yeah, I did, didn’t I?” Davis said. He
fired again, this bullet hitting Don in the stomach.
Don went down as well, and now both
brothers were lying facedown in the water. Swirls of blood, caught
up by the swift current, began flowing downstream.
Davis got down from his horse and,
drawing his knife, proceeded to scalp both of the
prospectors.
“Get the gold, Regret,” Davis said
calmly as he went about the grizzly process of lifting the two
scalps.
Regret dismounted, then walked over to
fold the cloth over and scoop up the gold.
“We goin’ to tell Bellfontaine about
the gold?” Regret asked.
“We got to,” Davis replied as he stuck
his hands into the swiftly flowing water to wash away the
blood.
“Why? How’s anyone goin’ to find
out?”
“What would we do with the gold, even
if we did keep it?” Davis asked. “Bellefontaine owns the bank. Soon
as we tried to cash it, he’d find out. Then we’d be in a lot of
trouble. We got easy jobs that pay good, why get greedy just over a
few dollars in gold?”
“Yeah,” Regret said. “I reckon you’re
right.”
DeMaris
Springs
Pierre Bellefontaine owned
Bellefontaine Mineral Asset Development Company, a large mining
company operating in the public land area throughout the Big Horn
Basin. One of the largest mining operations of its kind, it
employed prospectors, geologists, engineers, and miners, men who
willingly gave up the uncertainty of merely looking for gold for
the certainty of a paycheck by working for someone else who was
willing to take the risk.
Bellefontaine was willing to take risks
because he could afford them. In addition to the Bellefontaine
Mineral Asset Development Company, he also owned the Bank of
DeMaris Springs, the DeMaris Springs Mercantile, the Bellefontaine
Freight Line, and the stagecoach line that connected DeMaris
Springs with Sheridan, Wyoming Territory, and Billings, Montana
Territory, Billings being the closest railhead. Bellefontaine often
made the remark, and with some justification, that he owned the
town of DeMaris Springs. Located in the Stinking Water Valley,
DeMaris Springs was the only town between Green River, Wyoming
Territory and Virginia City, Montana Territory, and between
Buffalo, Wyoming Territory, and Yellowstone National
Park.
He also knew what many others did not
know. The “real” gold of the Big Horn Basin wasn’t gold at all. It
was coal. The gold finds had been few and far between, but his
mining engineers had told him that there was a vein of coal that
rivaled that of any other coal-producing area in the entire
country. And with steam engines transitioning from wood to coal,
this find would be worth a fortune.
But he had two problems. One problem
was the number of gold prospectors who continued to work the valley
in their quest of the yellow metal, and the other was the
increasing number of ranchers and farmers who were moving into and
settling the valley. In order for his dream of a coal empire to
work, he would need uninhibited access to the entire
valley.
At the moment, Bellefontaine was
dealing with two of his employees, Lee Regret and Sam Davis. They
had brought him information about their encounter with the Kelly
brothers, and Bellefontaine drummed his fingers on his desk as he
examined the map that was spread out before him.
“And you say they found gold here?” he
asked, placing his finger on a place alongside Stinking Water
River.
“Yes, sir. And they told the other
folks about it as well,” Davis said. “Like as not, there are twenty
or thirty more people out there now than there was
yesterday.”
“Are you sure they found gold? Or were
they just talking?”
“No, sir, they found gold all right.
This gold,” Davis said, pulling the little cloth-wrapped package
from his pocket. He put the package on the desk in front of
Bellefontaine, and Bellefontaine examined it more closely, moving
the small nuggets around with his finger.
“How is it that you did not keep this
gold for yourselves?” Bellefontaine asked, looking up at the two
men.
“Well, sir, it’s like you said,” Davis
replied. “The land and ever’ thing in it belongs to you. Wouldn’t
be right for us to be runnin’ the other folks out of there by
tellin’ ’em ever’ thing out there belongs to you, then us be
keepin’ this gold they found. Most especial since we are workin’
for you,” Davis said.
Bellefontaine laughed. “Wouldn’t be
right? Or you knew you would be caught?”
“Maybe both,” Davis
admitted.
Bellefontaine laughed again, then, once
more turned his attention to the map.
“How many people do you think are in
this area?” he asked, making a small circle over a portion of the
map.
“Don’t nobody know for sure. Could be a
hunnert or more,” Davis said. “All of ’em
prospectin’.”
“Other than this, are they finding
anything?” Bellefontaine asked, pointing to the little pile of gold
on his desk.
“Don’t nobody know that neither,”
Regret said. “But if them two that was in the saloon come up with
gold, then it would be a safe bet to say that others is goin’ to do
it too. Especially, like I said, since they come into the saloon
mouthin’ off about it. That couldn’t of done nothin’ but start a
little gold rush.”
Bellefontaine stroked his chin as he
continued to study the map. “I would try and buy all of them out,
but if there are a hundred in there, and they all wanted a thousand
dollars, it would about break me,” he said. “Especially with all
the money I’ve already got in mining equipment. It wouldn’t do any
good anyway unless every one of them agreed to a buyout, and I
don’t think they are going to do that, do you?”
“No, sir,” Davis said. “I sure
don’t.”
“You said you—uh—took care of the two
men who panned this gold?”
“Yes sir.”
“Where are they now?”
“Where are they? They’re still lyin’
there as far as I know,” Davis replied, somewhat confused by the
question.
“Good. If some of the other prospectors
come across them, it may not be a bad thing if they get the idea
that it’s dangerous out there.”
“Yes, sir, that’s sort of what we was
thinkin’,” Davis said. “That’s why I scalped ’em.”
“You what? You scalped
them?”
“Yes, sir. I figured it would make it
look like the Injuns done it.”
“Yes, that’s probably a pretty good
idea. But I’m afraid that two scalped prospectors won’t be enough
to get everyone out of there. And getting everyone out of there is
what we need to do.”
“If you’re really wantin’ all them
folks out of there, me ’n Regret have come up with this
idea.”
“What idea is that?”
“Well, you might mind, Mr.
Bellefontaine, that me’n Regret was oncet soldiers. Members of the
Sixth Cavalry we was, out of Fort Keogh.”
“Yes, I know that.”
“Well, sir, we still keep in touch with
some of our old pards, and they’ve been tellin’ us about Injuns
attackin’ prospectors, ranchers, farmers and the like up in
Montana. And they been talkin’ ’bout somethin’ new that’s goin’ on
with all the Injuns now.”
“Something new? What are you talking
about?”
“It’s called Spirit Talkin’,” Davis
said.
“Spirit Talking? What’s so new about
that? Indians are always talking to spirits.”
“Not like this. Like I said, this here
is somethin’ new. Seems like a chief by the name of Mean to His
Horses has been sayin’ that the spirits is tellin’ him that all the
white men are goin’ to leave, and all the land is goin’ to be give
back to the Injuns.”
“And they actually believe that?”
Bellefontaine asked.
“A whole lot of ’em do, and, like I
said, they been sorta helpin’ it along up there in Montana,
attackin’ citizens and all. And it’s got the army all worried,”
Davis said. “They’re lookin’ for an uprisin’ among the
Injuns.”
“Mean to His Horses is Crow, is
he?”
“No, sir, he is Cheyenne.”
“That’s all very interesting, but what
has that got to do with our problem?” Bellefontaine asked. “All the
Indians we have around here are Crow.”
“Well, that’s just the thing, you see.
It ain’t just the Cheyenne that’s been doin’ this Spirit Talkin’,”
Davis said. “It’s spread all over the Sioux nation: Lakota, Oglala,
Brule, Miniconjou, Hunkpapa, and even some among the Shoshone and
the Crow. So, what if we was to sort of give the Injuns a little
poke, so to speak, and prod ’em in to goin’ onto the warpath, why
it would wind up running all the squatters off,” Davis
said.
“What good would that do me?”
Bellefontaine asked. “If the Indians run everyone out of the
valley, I won’t be able to be in there either.”
“Sure you will,” Davis explained. “What
will happen is this. Once the Injuns go on the warpath, why the
army will come in and move ’em out, not only from the public land,
but more than likely run ’em off their own reservation as well. And
once that happens, it will leave the whole valley open. At least
from here all the way to the Yellowstone.”
“Do you think you could do that? Get
the Indians to attack the prospectors?”
“Oh, yes, I think me ’n Regret could do
that just real easy,” Davis said. Bellefontaine stared at Davis for
a long moment. Then a huge smile spread across his face, and he hit
his hand on the desk.
“By damn!” he said. “You two boys come
up with that idea, did you?”
“Yes, sir, me ’n Regret.”
“Well, let me tell you, that is one
hell of a good idea! How soon can you get started?”