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You’ll not be forgiven this side of the grave, not by Will Caffrey. ” “The money is rightfully mine, Tinker. ” The mill was ready, and again I ground my meal, the noise allowing for no talk, but when I’d emptied the hopper I said, “If it is enemies I have, it is the Caffreys. ” He shot me a curious glance, which puzzled me with its content. “Not three tall, mustached men with dark hair and long faces? ” “In the Cherokee towns. ” “The Indians are my friends. ” Midah was an old man with a love for the bottle and a memory of youth that only drink could bring back.

And Caffrey would speculate aloud on how much interest the money would bring, and what could be bought of lands and cattle with such an amount of gold. Her words bothered me more than his, for I sensed an evil in her that was not in him. He was a greedy, selfish man, close with money and hard-fisted as well as self-righteous; but as for her—I think she would have murdered me. Indeed, I think it was in her mind to do so. Caffrey had a reputation for honesty, but many a man with such a reputation simply has not been found out or tested, and for Will Caffrey the test of those bags of gold was too much for his principles to bear.

The fight was over. The Tinker glanced at the other two men, who were withdrawing. Then he coolly leaned over and thrust the blade into the turf near the road to cleanse it of blood. Three men were down and the fight gone out of the others, and it hadn’t been twenty seconds since they stopped us. No doubt they’d robbed many a traveler at this point and believed us easily handled. We paid them no more mind, starting off up the rise toward the high ground back of the river. And that big man was dead.