Four old horses strained to tow the New Leaf slowly along the river. Martha kept looking toward St. Louis, long since vanished beyond the horizon. She had no idea what fate awaited her, and her heart was full of unease.
Just then, the middle-aged gold prospector who had been chatting with Harper glanced around the deck and suddenly asked, "Hey, have you noticed? There doesn't seem to be a single French speaker among the people heading to the West Coast."
Harper thought for a moment, then nodded. "Seems that way. Maybe the French people who wanted to prospect are already in California."
Little did they know that the French version of the story about the prospector Miles had two extra passages.
One came at the beginning. Miles had not traveled to California alone, but with more than ninety people from his hometown. Fewer than sixty had reached their destination alive. The story described all manner of terrible ordeals along the way; Miles himself had nearly died of cholera. The other passage came at the end. Miles had returned to his hometown in Maryland, marveling at his good fortune. Of all those who had left with him, he alone had actually made money. The rest were still struggling on the West Coast—or in purgatory.
He had even killed four of his fellow townsmen with his own hands. They had discovered the same rich vein of gold in a river valley, and each had drawn a gun to claim the fortune for himself. In the end, Miles had escaped death by sheer luck.
Yet in the fourth month after Miles returned home, severe mercury poisoning killed him in the estate he had just bought.
Moreover, the Louisiana authorities were extremely strict about approving residents of the Colony for travel to California. In