Longarm and the Shoshoni silver

Longarm laughed lightly and said, "I have. She was a fake. The nurse died eight or ten years before I was bom, at about the age of seventy or eighty."

Shoshoni Sam nodded and said, "You're right. But what would you say if I told you we were on the trail of the one and original genuine Sacajawea, the lovely Shoshoni maiden who led Lewis and Clark to glory and the wide Pacific Ocean?"

Longarm laughed less politely and replied, "I'd say you were a gent with a wry sense of humor. I was raised not to call my elders damned fools. For openers, and with all due respect, Sacajawea may have been Shoshoni. But after that she was no maiden. She was a woman grown with a papoose on her back, and we're talking about an expedition that took place a good seventy-five years ago!"

Then he spotted Rhinegold just inside the doorway of the stable ahead, and called out to him, telling Shoshoni Sam he was just too busy with important chores to speculate on circus freaks. When that didn't get rid of the pest, he sighed and said, "I wasn't at the funeral, but they give the year of Miss Sacajawea's death as 1812 on her grave marker over at Fort Union, Montana Territory, if you'd like to look it up. I only remembered because we got into a second war with the English that same year and one of my uncles had to do something about that under Jackson at New Orleans."

Rhinegold came out to meet them, with old Angus glowering out like an ogre from the doorway. So Longarm told the guide about all the supplies to be loaded down the way at the store, and as soon as Rhinegold said he'd see to it, Longarm went on in, with a nod at old Angus, to put a halter and packsaddle on his own roan.

Shoshoni Sam was still waiting out front as Longarm led the pony from the stable. It was commencing to get tedious, and Longarm said so when the buckskin-clad pest fell in step beside him afoot to declare, "I know they say Sacajawea died soon after she led the Lewis and Clark Expedition. But that tombstone at Fort Union is as brazen a hoax as George Washington's old nanny. Fort Union was only built in 1829, and you can look that up. So answer me

how anyone by any name could have died there and been buried there in 1812?"

Longaim spied Dame Flora on the porch of the general store down the way and waved to her, telling Shoshoni Sam, "I don't have to. They've sent me out to hunt many an odd want in my time, but I'm pleased to report Miss Sacajawea ain't wanted nowhere, dead or alive."

As the two of them led the roan to the plank steps of the store Longarm felt obliged to present the freak-hunter to Dame Flora, unable to resist the chance to add, "He's searching for a missing lady as well, ma'am. A Shoshoni called Sacajawea. You might not have heard of her, being from Scotland and all, but should she turn up on the trail ahead try to make allowances for advanced years. I figure she'd be around a hundred or so by now."

Shoshoni Sam sounded serious as he insisted, "Princess Tupombi figures her younger than ninety-five, being she was in her teens as late as 1804, right?"

Dame Flora smiled uncertainly and replied, "If you say so, sir. How old might this FYincess Tupombi be?"

Longarm sighed and said, "No more than twenty-odd, if she's even an Indian, ma'am. I should have mentioned Shoshoni Sam here is a professional showman. Meanwhile, Rhinegold ought to be here any minute with your own stock. So if you'll excuse me, I'd best go in and settle up my own transactions."

He did. The old Mormon sold him some extra coffee and the same brand of cheroots at /wo-for-a-nickel. But when Longarm asked if they had any Maryland Rye under the counter, the older man shot him a stem look and warned him not to press his gentile luck just because they were north of the Utah line.

Then old Angus came in, looking even sterner, to pick up the bags and boxes Dame Flora had already paid for. So getting all of it out that one door and aboard three pack ponies was a bit awkward, although not really tough.

Longarm didn't care if they finished ahead of him. He

wasn't aiming to ride on before those other government men showed up. But he was starting to care about that. He'd have never bulled on this far ahead of them if he'd known they were poking up along the trail in wheelchairs.

There was almost as much confusion getting both his and Dame Flora's fresh supplies under cover again at the Overland stop. A couple more stable hands had come back from breakfasts at home and either helped or added to the bustle, depending on who was fussing at whom.