The Next Fifty Pages (51-100)

The beginning of the next fifty pages starts off with Malinda, her aunt, Kurt Wylie, and a couple of other men stopping at Camp Cady to stay overnight. Sykes and Callaghen hate each other because now there is a fight over Malinda. Callaghen has a fight with Kurt Wylie, Kurt came west because he heard about the story of a river of gold. The wagon is heading for Nevada and by morning they are already on their way again. In the morning, Callaghen goes with a patrol lead by Lieutenant Sprague to show them around the desert. Sprague is a man that came with Sykes and is a part of Sykes army. The patrol travels most of the day and they don't see any Indians. Then they find tracks of small groups of Indians all heading the same direction, toward the trail that the wagon took. The men suspect that the Indians are planning to raid the wagon so they go that direction too. Callaghen travels ahead to scout and finds a couple of Indians hiding and kills them. Then when it becomes night he can't find the patrol, so he makes camp and waits. During the night, he hears a sound and it is the wagon, and he goes and meets up with them. When the wagon stops a makes camp, another man finds his way to the camp to tell them that the patrol unit was ambushed and he doesn't know where they are or if they are still alive. The wagon knows the Indians will track them so they make a run for Marl Springs, here there is a fort and water. The are able to make it here with no one getting hurt but they get ambushed by Indians many times on the way. When they get to the fort they plan on waiting there where it is safe rather than go out where the Indians are. This is where I stopped reading so stay tuned to hear what happens in the end of the book.