Piles of burnt bones—human bones—were stacked, spilling out onto the floorboards. In front of the fire lay two large pots, both of them crammed full of what looked to be children’s severed limbs.

There were no words.

But somehow Tim found them.

“Just what the hell happened to these people?” he exclaimed softly.

We all looked at Donna, limp in Jake’s strong arms. Piece by tragic piece, we were starting to have an idea. The snow storms weren’t the only danger the Donner party had faced. Not by a long shot.

While Tim and Jake cleared out the scene of carnage from the cabin, I helped Avery tend to Donna. She was still unconscious, though Avery had found a small packet of opium buried deep within the first aid pack, a remedy better than moonshine should she wake up.

When we’d done what we could for her, I threw on my thick shawl and started for the door.

“Where are you going?” Avery asked, wiping his hands dry on the last clean cloth we had. If we wanted to keep Donna’s wounds clean someone was going to have to start doing laundry soon and I had a feeling it would be me.

I looked over at Tim and Jake, who had gotten a fire started in the cleaned-out pit and were boiling water to make tea and coffee. They both eyed me in such a way that it made me feel on edge.

“I’m putting the horses away,” I said to Avery without taking my eyes off of them.

“I’m going with you,” he said. He grabbed his coat and shrugged it on. “I’m not letting you out there alone with those crazed people.”

Jake let out a dry laugh at the word “people” but didn’t say anything else.

“Sure,” I said. “I can use the help.”

We headed out into the dusk. There was little light left so Avery grabbed the kerosene lantern that was hanging by the door and we walked over to the horses that had already gathered inside the cabin anyway. Though the day had been mild, the dripping sound of melting snow had stopped and my breath was clouding around me. The night would be cold but as long as we all made it through alive, that was enough for me. I had a hard time complaining about trivial things when someone like Meeks had lost their life in such a brutal way.

The empty cabin had hard-packed dirt which was perfect for the horses, and they were all huddled together with their gear still on. Though it was cold, the missing wall was south-facing and only a little bit of snow had drifted through the roof. Avery and I quickly started getting them untacked, and once he had only his own horse to do, I went around with the lamp and tried to make the cabin a safer place. There was a section of broken and loose floorboards near the middle that could cause a problem if one of the horses stepped on it.

I started prying them off the ground and putting them off to the side when my hands went through the dirt beside one of the boards. Curious, I pushed it aside and looked down. There was a square hole cut into the ground, not too deep and about two feet wide and long. In the middle of the square was a leather satchel. And in the satchel was a gleam of gold.

I blinked, feeling stuck in place, and tried to make sense of what I was looking at. I bent over and brought the lamp closer. Now the gold danced with the light, sending off a beautiful glow like a million summer sundowns. I was transfixed. With one hand I reached into the bag and carefully pulled out a heavy bar of gold, its surface chilled and shiny smooth.

“Avery,” I said breathlessly, afraid that if I looked away, the gold would vanish. “Avery, you won’t believe what I found.”

I heard nothing in response. I smelled only tobacco smoke.

I turned around, and in the shadows, saw Tim standing behind me with a gun to my head. Jake was off to the side of him, his revolver aimed at Avery who was scowling at him with his hands in the air.

“If I was you, Eve,” Tim said with a smile that didn’t match his eyes, “I would kindly drop the gold.”

I didn’t know what to say, or what to do.

“I said,” Tim repeated, “drop the gold. Drop it and get up and come over here.”

“Tim,” Jake warned. “It’s fine.”

“People change when they see money,” Tim explained. “They change even more when they see gold. Come on, Eve.”

I dropped the bar with a clatter and slowly got to my knees. “Tim,” I said, trying to reason with him, “why are you pointing a gun to my head? To both our heads? What did we do? What’s going on?”

Tim sighed. “Guess I do owe you an explanation. You did find what we’ve been looking for, after all.”

“I thought you were looking for George Clark,” I said. I exchanged a wary look with Avery, and it was apparent he thought the same thing too.

Tim lowered the gun. “George Clark is dead. Or so we all assume. He was never related to anyone in the Donner party and was never involved in the search for them. George Clark was a prospector from Sacramento who struck gold in the foothills and became filthy rich. He was heading back over the mountains from the west when something happened to him and the three fellas that were with him. Only one man made it out of the mountains and turned up at Isaac’s door, a man who had gone half-mad. He later died, killed himself in some awful suicide, but he’d already told Isaac everything he needed to know. Mainly, there was a fortune left behind here in these hills. That fortune was just in your hands.” His eyes flitted over to the hole full of gold, the bars gleaming in the lamplight.

Out of everything he’d just told me, all the horrible truths, I could only think of one thing. I looked over at Jake who was keeping his gaze to the ground, as if he was ashamed, even though his gun was still aimed in Avery’s direction.

“You lied to me,” I yelled at Jake, my heart breaking with indignation. “You said you didn’t know why we were here.”

He swallowed hard, and when he looked up at me, a sad smirk was playing on his lips. “Guess I do know you well enough.”

“You know nothing about me,” I sneered, “or anything about being an honorable man.”

He cocked his head. “Well, I can’t know everything.”

Tim cleared his throat, and I was suddenly aware of how hot my face was. I felt utterly betrayed, stupid and foolish. Tim had been such a fatherly figure to me, and Jake…well, I didn’t know what I thought about Jake. But him lying to me near tore me up inside. I was angry that he had such an effect on me—I shouldn’t have even been surprised.

“Now this ain’t the end of the world,” Tim said, putting his gun in his holster and motioning for Jake to do the same. “We can get through this just fine if the two of you behave.”

“You actually think we’d take the gold and run?” I asked, for the thought hadn’t even crossed my mind.

“My, you are an innocent one, aren’t you Eve?” Tim asked. “You need to change that real fast or this world is going to eat you up.”

“Literally, it seems,” Jake added, though he was back to not looking me in the eye.

“We should get a move on back inside,” Tim said, taking his gun out and gesturing to the cabin with it. Night had already fallen and the wind was picking up, whistling over the unseen lake. “Donna may need you.”

When I didn’t move, Tim waved his gun again. His eyes weren’t mean but I didn’t want to test his patience. I looked at Avery and nodded. We walked off toward the cabin, Tim right behind us. I could hear Jake making his way to the wood boards and covering up the hole, I guess in case Isaac and Hank came back. It was clear now that this was an every man for himself operation.

As if reading my mind, Tim said, “You know one bar would be enough for you to start a new life, Eve. The best life you could imagine.”

“Are you trying to tempt me?” I said in a dull voice as the wind whipped my hair out of my braid.

“Just trying to get you to see why we came all the way out here. What it’s worth. We’ve all put in time with the Rangers or other jobs, and we’ve all bled more than we should have for it. The beauty of this fair country is that every man has the opportunity to make the most for himself. We’re just being Americans.”