The man started to object, but shut up at Vester's sharp command.

  The big, red-bearded man leaned forward, spread his hands on the table. "Join us for a drink, Dewitt?" Again his body was tense. Waiting.

  "I don't drink with ruffians," Silas said softly. "I came over to give you a warning. Pass it on."

  "And who might I be passin' it on to?"

  Silas shrugged. "He carries a repeating rifle, wears boots with run down heels, and chews."

  Once more Vester seemed to relax. He chuckled. "That ain't much to go on. What makes you think I know anybody like that?"

  "Because, Vester, you know every cowardly, back-shooting, grave-robbing son of a bitch in these hills," Silas told him, smiling. "And while you're at it, you can tell your bully boys something for me, too." He dropped his left hand to the handle of his Bowie knife. "Tell 'em that the next time they lay hand on either of my Chinese kids, he'll be the last thing they hold."

  "Why you--"

  "Just tell them, Vester. Or be prepared to pay for their funerals." He let fly with his right sleeve knife. It thunked into the table, not six inches from a hand hovering too close to a belt gun.

  Once more the saloon was filled with silence.

  Silas reached across the table and pulled his knife free. Beer dripped to the dirt floor and was quickly absorbed. He cleaned the blade on Wilf's pantleg, then turned and walked to the doorway, his back prickling in expectation of a bullet. Safely there, he turned, saying, "Make sure they understand, Vester, or I might have to kill them."

  He touched the brim of his hat and faded quickly into the night.

  Damn, that had felt good! Nothing like running a good bluff.

  * * * *

  "You make much money today, Boss," Soomey said when he returned to the shelter. She had counted it, as best she could in the dim light of a lantern turned low. Using the little hand scales, she had weighed the gold dust carefully, then figured it at twenty dollars an ounce. Of course, it would assay out to less than that, because of impurities, but not much. The gold here was unusually clean and pure. "Three hundred forty-seven dollars, ten cents."

  He removed his coat and hung it from a stout branch on one of the concealing shrubs. "Ten cents?"

  "Tao Ni sold one handful of cornmeal. He did not know he was not meant to."

  She thought Boss snorted, but his head was turned, so she could not be certain.

  When Boss had removed his boots and was sprawled against his saddle, she handed him a cup of tea. All through the snowstorm she had been thinking and still had not discovered an answer to her dilemma. Was there a way she could use tonight's events to her advantage?

  It was time for Boss to admit her to his bed. He was restless at night, now, and each morning awoke hard and ready for pleasure. A man should not suffer so, not when he had a willing woman.

  At first she had wanted to do so only because she believed that he would be more kind, more caring of her and Tao Ni if she satisfied him. Men were very strange. Even Captain Slye, when she had done as he wished and brought him to his peculiar completion, had been less cruel, if only for a few hours.

  The skin of those who called themselves white had always repelled her, pallid like the underside of a fish, yet hairy like a beast. Boss's skin was pale, yes, but it had a warm tone to it, a hint of the very color of those tiny grains she'd weighed so carefully today. A golden man with silver-gilt hair--that was Boss. So beautiful!

  A kind man. A noble man. She believed he would be gentle in his use of a woman, causing no deliberate pain when he took his pleasure on her.

  She shivered, despite a wave of heat through her body that should have made her warm. Perhaps the infection in her feet had worsened, although she had been careful to keep them dry and warm.

  "Soomey?"

  Ah, she had all but ignored him, so lost had she been in her thoughts. "Yes, Boss?"

  "I want you three to get out of town tomorrow. Go to Placerville, or Bannock City. Take the horses. Stay away until I send for you."

  Her purpose was just, Soomey told herself, as she drew a deep breath. "Good. I wish to visit the Chinese store in Bannock City. Tao Ni and I will stay with Li Ching."

  He frowned. "You can go to the store if you want. But you'll sleep at Tilly's."

  For a moment she had no words. "Boss!"

  "You heard me. She's got a room she'll rent you. It'll be crowded, but the three of you can share it."

  "No, Boss. I will not sleep in a whorehouse!"

  His arms crossed over his chest and his brows lowered. "Then you're not going."

  Outraged, she stared at him a moment. He looked rock solid. "I am not slave. I go where I wish."

  He grabbed her and pulled her nose to nose with him, shaking her a little. "The hell you will!"

  Soomey felt the heat of his body, wished he would hold her with gentleness, not anger. "Boss, I am not whore. I will not sleep in whorehouse."

  "Listen to me, you obnoxious brat. Tilly's place is about the cleanest boarding house in Bannock City. If my sister came to town, that's where I'd put her. She'd be a hell of a lot safer there, than in that canvas-walled dump of a hotel, or either of the other boarding houses."

  "You have a sister?"

  "No, I don't have a sister, but if I did...Never mind. You're staying at Tilly's."

  "I can sleep in house of Li Ching."

  "Yeah? And where's Young Buff gonna stay?"

  Covering her mouth with a hand, Soomey stared at him. No Chinese would welcome Buffalo into his house, no matter how Soomey praised him.

  "Boss, there is no need for Buffa--"

  "Give over, Soomey," he said, setting her back into place. "If you want to go to Bannock City, you can go. But Buff will go with you and you'll stay at Tilly's. Got that?"

  She sighed. "Yes Boss. It will be as you say."

  When I come back and prove to you I am not a child, then you will sing from the other side of your mouth, she thought at him.

  Just wait.

  Chapter Thirteen

  "Buff, come on over here a minute." Silas beckoned the boy to join him where he was saddling the horses, several yards down the gulch from the canvas shelter where they'd slept. It was only a little after dawn, with long, horizontal sunbeams fighting their way through wisps of thin fog. A good day for travel.

  Buff picked up one of the packs as he passed. "Yessir?"

  Moving around so the horse stood between him and the shelter, Silas spoke quietly, "Can you handle my carbine?"

  The outrage on the boy's face was almost funny. "Only reason I brought the long rifle was 'cause I wanted Pa to keep his new Winchester. It's a treat, Silas. Why he can put seven bullets in--"

  "Your Pa's a fine shot. None better. But the reason I asked you is that you need more protection than that single-shot gun. Your job is to watch over those kids, not let any harm come to them. Can you do that?"

  "I'll guard 'em with my life." Buff's face glowed with pride and determination.

  "Your gun and a sharp eye will be enough. I don't want you risking your life either!" God! What was he doing, sending a boy off to guard two little kids? While he went haring around the hills after a treasure he wasn't even sure he could find.

  "I won't let anything happen to 'em, Silas. Honest."

  "Soomey's going to want to go to the Chinese store, and I doubt you'll be welcome there. But you go everywhere else with them, you hear?" He kneed the mare, tightened the cinch before she could swell up again. "And don't let her talk you out of staying at Tilly's. She's dead set against it."

  Was the kid blushing? "Yessir. We'll stay at Tilly's if I have to hogtie her." He dipped his head, wouldn't meet Silas's eye. "Uh, Silas?"

  "Yeah?"

  His voice was low, hesitant. "Do I have to stay in the same room as them?"

  Surprised speechless, Silas stepped back and looked at Young Buff. Really looked.

  The boy had several inches on him, was at least as tall as his pa. And there was a definite line of darker hair across his upper lip, although his cheeks were still peach-fuzz smooth. His shoulders were wide and his hands showed evidence of a man's labor. He had brought a small herd of cattle over a trail that would whiten the hair of many older, wiser men. Emmet and Hattie had given him permission to stay in the town, certainly knowing all the pitfalls and temptations of civilization.

  Silas pulled out his purse and poured half its contents into Young Buff's--no, just Buff, for he was handling a man's responsibilities--into his hand. "You can take any room Tilly's willing to rent you," he said, smiling.

  "Gee whillikers, Silas, you don't need...Pa gave me money...oh, heck, I don't know what to say."

  "You better be thinking of what you're going to tell Soomey. She has a real strong dislike of whores," Silas said, handing Buff his carbine. "And stay out of poker games."

  "Yessir, I...well, gee, yessir."

  * * * *

  The journey to Bannock City seemed to take twice as long as before. It was more comfortable, though, Soomey acknowledged, as she nodded in the saddle. While she was absent, Boss would be well guarded by Ji Rong and his cousins. Although their vigilance would cost her as much as she earned from Boss in five weeks, she did not begrudge them a penny, if they would keep Boss safe from his enemies.

  With the heat of the sun on her head and Tao Ni's body warming her back, she was entirely content.

  No, that was not right. She would not be entirely content until Boss acknowledged her womanhood.

  Such a stubborn man! This morning he had told them they must not return until four days from now. "I've things to do," he'd said, "and I don't want to be worrying about you three while I do them."

  She knew what he had to do. Find his 'secret,' whatever it was.

  Well, she understood obligation, and could not complain. But someday she would learn why he was beholden to Buffalo's father. And to Tilly.

  Boss was a complex man. At first she had taken him to be simply another of the adventurers who came to the gold fields, albeit a finer man than most.

  She had learned much from other mention he had made of events in his past. He had been to China and other ports in the East. He had been a merchant--a good one, she imagined, for he had much money. And he had been in this place many years ago.

  That was the most interesting of all. Why had he been here? And when? She had overheard enough since arriving in Bannock City to know that the basin, with its three almost parallel, gold-rich valleys, was newly discovered. "Never been anybody hereabouts but a bunch of red Injuns," was the way someone had put it.

  Boss must have been a child when he was here last, for he was still a young man, not many years older than herself. She smiled at that thought. How surprised he would be when she presented him with proof of her age.

  Proof. Could she obtain it? All she knew was that she had been born on the first day of the Year of the Tiger. But how long ago was that?

  More than once she had attempted to determine how old she was, but only recently had she gained some idea of her people's way of calculating age. So young when first sold, she had not been taught those things that most Chinese children learned very early. In the intervening years, she had had little contact with others of her countrymen, only the occasional deckhand, for whom she often had to translate.

  Although she read English very well, she could barely read her native language. Just enough to understand signs and to make her chop.

  Perhaps Li Ching could tell her. He must be well educated, for she had seen him reading while they were on the trail, squinting at the fine calligraphy in the firelight. And if he could not, he would know who in Bannock City could calculate her age.

  At last they topped the last hill and descended into the valley. They had only been away one month and already the town had grown greatly. "Look," she said to Tao Ni, who was awake now, "there are three streets, where there was only one."

  Buffalo reined in, so that her horse caught up with his. "I never did see anything so excitin'. Why I'll bet there's five thousand people all in that one little town."

  Remembering the first time she had seen Canton, Soomey smiled. "Many people, not all good. You be careful with your purse. Some people have very nimble fingers, so you never feel them take it."

  He grinned back at her. "Yeah. Pa warned me about pickpockets. And shell games, and shaved cards. And I don't know what else. It took him near an hour just to tell me all the things I was to be careful of."

  "And your mother, what did she warn you of?"

  At this Buffalo laughed heartily. "To mind my manners, mostly. She started in to caution me against women and whiskey, but Pa said I was man-high and ready to learn the ways of the world."

  "Well, I will warn you of women and whiskey, then. You must be very careful. There are those who drug their whiskey, to make stealing a purse more easy. And not just in saloons. Women do this too."

  "Tarnation, Soomey, you sound just like my Ma, and you just a kid."

  "I am not 'kid,' Buffalo, no matter what Boss says. I am many years older than you and far wiser in way of world." Furious, she kicked the mare into a trot. She would warn him no more. If he found himself with empty pockets and an aching head, she would laugh. That is what she would do. And she would not fetch him coffee for his hangover or warm, moist compresses for his head, or any of the comforts Captain Wilkins used to demand of her.

  She would let him suffer.

  Soomey led the way, guiding the mare toward Chinatown. She would find Li Ching first of all. After that she would purchase the medicines and herbs she needed.

  And she would not sleep at the whorehouse tonight.

  * * * *

  Once the youngsters were on the trail, Silas struck camp, hauling everything back to his tent in town. Since he was afoot, it took several trips, but he didn't care. He wanted folks to see that he was about, wanted to give the impression he wasn't spooked by the gunshots yesterday.

  He stopped by Appledore's and begged paint and the use of a small brush. It was only a few moments' work to letter "Hours 9 a.m. to noon" on the slab of bark that served as his OPEN FOR BUSINESS sign. Many of the stores in the Boise Basin were open only part time, the owners spending the rest of their days working their claims.

  Then he sat in the doorway of his tent and awaited trade. He begrudged the time to keep the store open, but felt it a worthwhile diversion for anyone watching him.

  Idleness was the devil's own workshop. Hadn't someone told him that back when he was just a youngster himself? He sure believed it now, the way his thoughts kept returning to Soomey whenever he had an unoccupied minute. He forced them away from memories of her slim body, golden in the firelight, although not before his body reacted. God! He was as randy as a youth.

  Silas chuckled. About as randy as Buffalo probably was, thinking of Tilly's, he'd bet.

  Hattie and Emmet could be proud of their son. He was a decent, brave lad, watchful of those younger than him, as a man should be. Emmet must have known he would be eager to sample all the fruits of civilization as soon as he was shut of the cattle. It spoke well of Buffalo that he'd thought more of being a help to Silas than of his own pleasures.

  Well, now he was headed for...what was it Soomey had said he wanted to see? Bright lights and loud music and fancy women.

  Or something.

  Closing his eyes in remembrance, Silas thought of his own first experience of that sort. He'd been around the same age as Buff was now. His ship had docked in Honolulu after a stormy voyage from the Columbia, near where Portland stood now. Silas had been awed, having seen little of America's eastern cities, although he had passed through St. Louis and Independence on his way west.

  He'd never seen the likes of Honolulu, back in '47. Or of its women. He'd missed his sailing, and had almost lost his stake. As it was, by the time he departed, his purse was a sight thinner than when he'd arrived.

  It was not memories of the girls in Hawaii that filled his mind, however. Silas saw only one girl--Soomey.

  Small, delicate Soomey, who had more strength of will in her slight body than many men larger than Silas.

  A girl who insisted she was a woman. Whose body was woman round and woman sweet.

  A girl who trusted him, who depended on him. And who had no idea what she asked when she demanded that he use her instead of Tilly's whores.

  The winter sun reached its zenith, low in the southern sky. With great relief Silas took down the sign and tied the flap closed. Counting the day's take took him only a few minutes. Nowhere near as good as yesterday, but respectable enough. With a wry grin, he opined he could probably get far richer in business than he ever would as a miner. And he knew a sight more about how to go about it, too.

  After depositing his cash box with Appledore--Silas wouldn't be surprised if the man hadn't ambitions to be Centerville's first banker--he strode up the hill behind the general store. It was as good a place to start his search as any.

  * * * *

  "I will take you to Feng Jiao Yan," the labor contractor told Soomey when she explained her quest. "He is a scholar of sorts, and one who frequently casts horoscopes. Perhaps he can be of assistance."

  She bowed her head, politely. "I thank you, honored one. It is of great importance to me that I discover my birth date."

  "Do you wish him to know your sex?" Li Ching asked. "He will be discreet."

  After a moment's consideration she said, "Perhaps it would be best, although I do not like it. A secret shared is a secret revealed."

  They went through the Chinese store and down a narrow passage behind it. Soomey saw a shack with familiar ideograms painted beside its curtained doorway. A crib, although this one was not locked and barred as those in San Francisco. Its occupant was within of her own choice.

  Soomey wished her well, but wondered why any woman would willingly choose such a life.

  Feng Jiao Yan was old, too old for working the rockers or hauling gravel. He sat in a darkened room, scrolls piled untidily about him. The strong scent of incense permeated the still air.

  She bowed when introduced to the elderly scholar. After an exchange of pleasantries, Soomey knelt before him and explained her quest.

 

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