“And they passed it right by?”
“Back in the 1850s they weren’t interested in silver. Everybody was thinking about gold.”
Mr. Cook leaned over and maneuvered another log onto the fire. “I’m beginning to see the connection,” he said. “The silver you found in the cave originally came from Sun Mountain.”
“That’s right,” Joe said. “Somewhere in the 1850s a party of Mormons....”
“I knew it!” Sandy interrupted. “The same party that was massacred!”
Joe smiled. “Yes,” he admitted. “You were right all the time. I didn’t know that anybody knew about that incident. That’s why I was so startled when you told the story the day we first met. It happened just the way you described. They stopped over at Sun Mountain, found a rich vein of silver, and then moved on. Maybe they wanted to found a new community of their own. Anyway, they decided to head north. My people—the Blackfeet—massacred them here in the mountains.”
“How do you know that?” Hank asked.
“The story of the massacre was handed down by my tribe. As a matter of fact, it was my great-great-great-grandfather who led the raid.”
“Score one for Mike,” Mr. Cook said. “That’s exactly the way he said it happened.”
Joe turned, to Mike and laughed. “You people seem to have figured out everything.”