Chapter 2

The quarry nestled between the bare rocky sides of two hills. It looked like a big hole in the ground, with a few wooden structures and frameworks down at the bottom. A ramp at one side was obviously where they hauled the rock up and out. There were some more wooden shacks near the top of the ramp.

A couple of larger buildings were set back against the hillside on one side - probably accommodation for the workers. A big spoil tip to one side contained the rock and dirt that had been dug out of the pit.

Jake and Sue looked down on the scene from the top of the ridge. Sue had never seen anything like it before - all that industry and effort just to dig a big hole in the ground. But Djaik had explained that was how the whites got the metals that they used for everything from money to guns.

Money was another thing she was just getting to understand. White men set great store by it. She was used to a system in which people helped each other because they were all part of the same community. But she had experience of barter, of changing horses for brides or skins for bows, so she had worked out that money was just an extension of that. A trapper changed his skins for money, which he could easily carry about. Then, when he wanted something in return, it was simpler to use the money to "buy" that than to have carried the skins around with him the whole time.

Sue wondered if men sold horses for money, and then used that money to buy a wife. She supposed they must. That way, men with the most money got the best women. She was glad that Djaik hadn't had to buy her - she was afraid that he wouldn't have been able to afford her.

Instead, he had come to her rescue late last summer. She had been travelling to another village to get married when she and her companion had been attacked and he had been killed. The two white men who had surprised them had then spent a day raping her and would probably have killed her too if Djaik hadn't heard them, come to see what was happening, and killed them both.

Left alone, and feeling defiled, she had gone with Djaik and learned to love him. Djaik had bought a wooden house for them to live in - a 'cabeen' he called it - and they had spent the winter there. But Djaik had needed to go earn some of this money, and Sue wouldn't be left behind.

So now they were looking for the men who were attacking the wagons that came from this hole in the ground. They were killing people and stealing the money. She could understand that, there were bad people everywhere and stealing money was like stealing horses, but why they would just burn wagons full of rock was beyond her.

And the fat man in the town had said it was Indians doing it. Again she could see why they would take money - although most Indians didn't seem to understand what money was all about, if she could work it out then others could too. But why burn wagons full of rock? They might get some honour from doing battle with the wagon drivers, but it seemed as though they had been shot down without much of a fight. And what Indians would use guns anyway? It was all a bit baffling, but her Djaik had said he would work it out and stop the bad men, so she would help him however she could.

"What do you think of that, lass?" Jake asked her, gesturing at the quarry pit below them. He spoke English to her - since he had been away from home and back amongst white people he tended to think in English first. This was also forcing her to improve her English and so understand everyone else and not just him. However, they still talked in Comanche, and mixed Indian languages, when they were alone at night - it seemed more intimate somehow.

"I no like," Sue replied. "Make land look bad."

"It does," was Jake's comment. He hadn't thought about that sort of thing before he met Sue. Men needed metals, and to get them they had to dig up ores, and that was how things were. Now, he was starting to see the world through an Indian's eyes and he could see the damage that men did sometimes. But they still needed the metals.

"Let's go down and see what they can tell us."

Uli Schmidt noticed one of his workers looking up at the hillside behind him, so he turned around to see what had attracted the man's attention. The quarry foreman saw two riders coming down the slope towards them, each one leading another horse with a pack on its back. As it was obvious that they were coming to the quarry, he walked back towards his office to be ready to receive them. He wondered what they wanted. It wasn't often that they had visitors out here.

Jake spotted the man standing outside one of the building, hands on hips, looking at them. He seemed to be around forty years old, well built and with a weathered look that spoke of a life of hard work being out in all weathers. His attitude spoke of him being the man in charge, so Jake rode towards him and pulled up about fifteen feet from the man.

"Howdy", Jake greeted him. "Are you the man in charge here?"

"I am," was the reply. "Uli Schmidt. Vott can I do vor you?" His English was good but the accent was unmistakable.