Walt picked up the fish, then eased him back into the cool water. The trout hesitated for a moment, flapped its tail, and squirted off into the deep.
Walt stared after the fish, then looked to Jim. “What if I was hungry?”
“Then we’d be eating trout tonight,” Jim smiled. “Taking a life, even an animal’s life, isn’t pretty, but sometimes it’s necessary.”
“Mama said you killed a man in the store. She didn’t want me to hear, but I heard her telling Grandpa.”
“I did.” Jim took in a breath and studied the mountains. “He wasn’t a good man. He hurt people. And he would have hurt more people.”
“So you killed him?” Walt squinted one eye. “Before he could hurt more people.”
“I did.”
“Was he a bad man, then?”
“Some men are bad men. Some men just do bad things from time to time.”
“Good men have to stop them?”
“That’s the way it works,” Jim said.
“Was my father a bad man?”
Jim hesitated a long time before speaking. “I don’t know. But he was hurting you and your mother.”
“He hit her a lot. I pretended not to know, but I remember how he hit her and made her cry. I was afraid, so I didn’t say anything.”
“Wasn’t your place to.” Jim’s throat felt tight. He swallowed.
Walt looked out over the calm lake. “I’m glad we let that fish go. The trout.”
“We can always catch him again later. Maybe he’ll be bigger next time.”
Walt smiled up at him. “When we’re hungry.”
* * * *
“San Francisco,” Jim said. “It’s the safest place to sell the gold.”
Jim, Ellen, David, Abigail, and Martha were all gathered around the table. Only Walt and Alma were missing, both in their beds, both fast asleep.
“It’s so far,” Ellen said. “You’ll be gone for days.”
“Over a week, I think,” Jim answered. “Three days there, one, maybe two in town, three back again.”
David frowned. He took up a pipe he’d recently carved and tamped it on his palm. “That’s a long time to be away.”
“And a long time to be on the road,” Ellen said.
“It is,” Jim nodded. “But I don’t see any other way of doing it. Bidwell’s Bar is out. It’ll be watched, if not by Cord Bannen, then by others. By now, I’m sure half the camp is out looking for me.”
“It’s likely he’ll be watching other roads as well and searching the hills,” David said. “I should go with you. Two guns are better than one. And four eyes watching for trouble better yet.”
“Two of us would be better. I agree. But what about Ellen and Abigail, Martha, Walt, and Alma? No one would be left to protect them.”
Abigail squeezed her husband’s arm; Jim knew he had an ally there. “David, be reasonable. You can’t leave us here all alone.”
“I don’t like it.” David scowled and stuffed the pipe between his teeth.
“None of us like it.”
“Why can’t we wait for Colton?” Abigail suggested. “He can go with Jim or stay here with all of us.”
“If Colton were here, David and I could take the gold in together. But we don’t know when he’ll be back.”
“We can still wait,” Abigail said.
“How much gold do we currently have?” Jim asked.
“Based on the last sale, another eight thousand dollars’ worth,” David said around the pipe stem.
The room was quiet as each of them considered it.
“Eight thousand,” Jim repeated. “We don’t know when Colton will get back. We’re gaining—”
“Seven hundred a week,” David said proudly.
“Colton might be back in two weeks or two months. We can’t know for sure. The problem will only grow until we can move some of this, get it away safely. By the time Colton arrives, it might be too much for two men to safely move.”
