1
Two tongues
The fight between the white man and the Indians had long been over, at least the way the historians always wrote about it.
Pieces of land had been allocated to some of the Indians way back, in truth it was really worthless land as far as the white man at that time was concerned.
You either couldn’t build on it, for it was rocky terrain or it was too barren to grow on or needed cleared of trees. But what was more important to the Indian, it was sacred land of their forefathers.
People had crossed over it or around it for years and paid no attention to the land.
The town was still growing up, It was more or less at the end of the trail as you might say, but it was still well populated, it was a peaceful town, every now and then an Indian would come from out of the wilderness into town to hang around the bars or houses of pleasure looking for cheap drink
Most times they were thrown out because they couldn’t handle their drink or couldn’t afford to buy it. It was late in the evening when an Indian walked into the bar; he placed a hand full of coins on the bar.
“Whiskey, I want whiskey.”
He was about thirty years old or so, dressed in what you might call traditional buck skins, there was something different about him, he wasn’t the usual down and out Indian, there was an air of difference about him.
The barman poured him a small shot of cheap whiskey from under the counter and took the usual amount from the coins he had placed on the counter.
The Indian looked at the glass, then at the barman, then tipped the glass over.
“I want good whiskey, white mans whiskey.”
The barman then produced a length of four by two from under the bar counter and brought it down on the counter, which made everyone look up.
“I want good whiskey.”
The barman shoved the piece of lumber under the chin of the Indian.
“Look here Sitting Bull we want no Indian uprisings here.”
Without moving his head the Indian produce something from his pouch and dropped it on to the counter.
“I want good whiskey.”
The barman picked up what the Indian had dropped on the counter.
“Holy shit. Where you get this from Sitting Bull?”
The barmen looked a little surprised, then shouted towards the others in the bar.
“Hey. Can anybody recognise gold when they see it?”
A tall man rose from his seat, he was almost a throw back to the old pioneers the way he dressed, he walked slowly over to the bar, took what the barman was holding in his hand, he bit down on it, nodded in satisfaction, then threw a silver dollar onto the counter.
“Give the chief a bottle of the best.” He then placed what was a nugget of almost pure gold into his waistcoat pocket. Turning to the Indian.
“Where did you get this from then chief?”
“I’m not a chief, my name is Two tongues.”
“Okay Two tongues, where you get yellow metal from.”
“From land given to Indians a long time ago by your big chief, given to fathers, sacred land, under treaty white men have no right to trespass, I’ve got a paper to say so.”
On that the Indian picked up the bottle of whiskey and walked out of the bar.
There was a mumbling of voices all around the bar, and I suppose rumours were bound to escalate from what happened.
Three months had passed since that evening; the bar had the usual crowd in, when in walked the Indian, once again he placed a handful of coins on the bar and called for whiskey.
The barman ventured under the counter when the Indian spoke out again. “ I want good whiskey.”
Before the barman could say anything the Indian dropped another nugget of gold on the counter.
Unaware to the Indian a small crowd had gathered behind him, it was the same tall man who pushed his way through.
“Alright Two tongues, how much of this stuff have you got for Christ’s sake.”
On this the Indian produced a small leather pouch and dropped it on the counter, the tall man picked it up and emptied the contents onto the bar counter.
Half a dozen large pea size nuggets fell onto the counter; even anyone who didn’t know much about gold could see what they were.
“Jesus Christ Indian, this is good stuff, you prepared to share this stuff with us?”
“Two tongues can’t do that, it comes from the sacred land of my forefathers.”
“Come on Indian we’ll buy the land off you, it’s no good to you or your people.”
The Indian stood for a while. “Okay, but the land will cost you a lot of money.”
There was a mumble going around the bar, some were saying this could be the richest strike since the Klondike. Without a doubt everyone wanted a piece of this action if they could get it.
“Okay Two tongues, we want to see this piece of land first, the place where you get the yellow metal from.”
“Two tongues wants the money first, Two tongues isn’t a dumb Indian, I show you where the yellow metal comes from, you will kill Two tongues, then Two tongues will get nothing.
“How much this going to cost us Sam?” came a voice from the back.” Directed to the barman. Then everyone joined in, it seemed as though everyone in the bar wanted a piece of the action.
“Two tongues will be back next week, every man who wants yellow metal will have to pay one hundred dollars.”
“Holy shit Indian where do you think we can get that kind of money from?” came a voice from behind, now everybody was talking.
“White men have the bank, get the money from the bank.”
Two tongues picked up the nuggets of gold and put them back into his pouch, he left one on the bar counter.
The tall stranger picked it up and put it in his breast pocket he then threw another silver dollar on the bar counter.
“Whiskey.” On that the barman placed a bottle of whiskey on the counter, Two tongues picked it up and left.
By now everyone was buzzing, it was the barman who shouted up.
“Okay boys, anybody who wants a piece of the action, come to the bar, we got a piece of paper here, put your name on it or make your mark and we’ll see the bank manager in the morning.”
The place had now come alive, everyone pushing to get their name or mark on the paper.
“Take your time boys, that Indian said he wouldn’t be back till next week.” The barman shouted again.
The next morning it seemed as though the whole town had heard the news, everybody wanted in on the deal, there was a crowd outside the bank.
It was then that the sheriff showed up, with a couple of deputies.
“Okay men lets do this peaceful like, everyone will get their turn, and for heavens sake keep this to yourselves, before you know it the whole territory will want in on this, there will be nothing but chaos, it’ll not be worth a nickel if the word gets around.”
It was then that the bank manager and the town’s only solicitor showed up, it seems as though they had heard what it was all about.
The bank manager shouted above the din of what was going on.
“Okay men, we have an official document here drawn up legal like, each man will sign it or make his mark and the bank will stand him loan on one hundred dollars, this will be paid back before any of you see hard cash, till we get the gold, and after noon today nobody will be able to sign this document, it will be officially closed.
It was the busiest the bank had ever been, in fact it was hard to believe that so many people lived in the town.
The sheriff had roadblocks on each end of the town; it stopped people getting in if they didn’t live in town, and of course it stopped people getting out and the word being spread about.
Everyone was on kind of tenterhooks all that week, waiting to see if Two tongues showed up.
Sure enough, almost to the minute Two tongues walked into the bar and ordered whiskey. Only this time he didn’t have to pay for it, for him the whiskey was free.
It was shortly after that when the sheriff walked in, followed by the bank manager and the town’s solicitor, a table was found for them and Two tongues was invited to join them.
It was the bank manager who spoke first. “This land you have for sale, have you any proof it belongs to you.”
“I have the paper, given by your great chief, a long time ago to my people, I’m the last of tribe, the land now belongs to me, the land is no good for Indians, no food, the deer all disappeared a long time ago, my people left or died.”
“Can we see this paper?”
Two tongues reached into his buckskin shirt and produced a pouch, which he laid on the table.
The solicitor reached forward picked up the pouch and removed a large document from it, he sat for a while studying the document, he then handed it to the bank manager.
“ No doubt in my mind that this is genuine, what do you say Frank.” The solicitor said as he turned to the bank manager.
The bank manager folded the document back up, placed it back into the pouch and handed it back to Two tongues.
“On inspection of this land, and provided that gold is found, through the bank the people of this town will pay you the sum of one hundred dollars each and buy all rights to this land, there are one thousand signatures on a document I have here.”
“How are you going pay Two tongues?”
“You can have it in cash, at the bank, on signing the bill of sale after the inspection.”
“Okay, we go tomorrow to see the land, we will go at sunrise, you bring a horse for Two tongues.”
There was a party of five outside the bar at sunrise; it consisted of the sheriff, bank manager, solicitor and two men picked from the town that had done prospecting for gold before.
They waited a while until Two tongues showed up.
It was quiet as they left the town, a mist had spread across from the lake and was rising through the trees, it disappeared as the sun rose to warm the land, there wasn’t a word spoken all morning as they followed Two tongues, it was almost noon when Two tongues pulled his horse up.
“We are here, all this land here belongs to my forefathers.” As he spread his arm out to indicate how much land there was.
It was a rocky place; it was hard to understand how the few trees that were there grew, there was a stream, which at least provided the land with water.
It was the sheriff who spoke first. “Okay Indian show us where you find this gold.”
Two tongues got down from his horse. “Come, I will show you the yellow metal in the stream and in the ground.”
Two tongues walked through the stream pointing out places where you could see the yellow in the rocks under the water.
Then he showed them what was an old workings of a mine.
“The white man came here a long time ago, my people killed them for being on sacred Indian land.
“But how we going to see inside here?” One of the selected men from the town asked.
Two tongues thrust a torch towards him. “You light this, I will show you the yellow metal.”
The torch was lit, it wasn’t a very good flame, but at least it gave enough light for them to see where they were going.
Two tongues pointed out several more places as they slowly crept along a narrow low tunnel that had been dug into the rock, Two tongues didn’t really have to show them for it glinted even in the dim light of the torch.
“How much more is there to see?” the solicitor asked
“I’ll show you more but it’s not safe, the place could fall in, but there’s plenty more yellow metal.”
The sheriff turned to the two selected men from the town.
“What about you two, you’re the experts here.”
The two men looked at each other and nodded, as one of them spoke up.
“It looks good from what we’ve seen, better than anything I ever prospected for, way back, with the right men and equipment we could be hitting pay dirt in no time.”
It was then the bank manager spoke up. “Right men, that sounds good enough for me, lets get back to town and put this business to bed.”
The men talked among themselves all the way back to town; it seemed as though Two tongues wasn’t interested in what they were saying; it was starting to get dusk when they rode into town, there were a few who asked what things were like.
They all got the same answer. “Looking good, looking real good.”
They pulled up outside of the bank, inside the bank managers office it was a little crowded, but Two tongues was given the respect of a good customer and given a seat.
Documents were laid on the desk, then the bank manager asked Two tongues for his document, which he produced as he did before.
When all had signed their names to the documents, in Two tongues case he made a mark, the bank manager handed Two tongues a banker’s draft.
“What’s this, this isn’t money, this is just paper, its not real money, Two tongues wants it in dollars.”
“But that paper will stand good in any bank in the country.”
“Two tongues wants hard cash.” He seemed to be getting annoyed as his voice rose.
“Okay, Okay, we will give you money.”
The bank manager went over to the vault and opened it and brought out the money so Two tongues could see it and placed it on the desk, in all denominations of dollar bills.
Two tongues smiled. “That’s good, that’s real money.
It was placed in two large moneybags and handed to Two tongues; in turn each man shook hands with Two tongues and thanked him for what he had done.
Two tongues got up to leave, as he did, he asked.
“Can I keep the horse?”
The bank manger smiled and said, “Sure you can keep the horse, after all it’s only a horse.”
All the men in the bank manager’s office were congratulating each other and patting each other on the backs as they heard Two tongues ride off.
The next few days’ arrangements were made for the town to start and rake in their bounty of gold from the old Indian land.
Once they started to take the gold that they had been shown from the stream and the old mine workings it slowly dawned on them that it wasn’t proper gold.
It was the two selected men that discovered it and showed it to the bank manager.
“What do you mean it’s not proper gold?”
“Well it is proper gold, if you see what I mean, but it aint digging gold.”
“What do you mean it aint digging gold?” The bank manager stammered.
“Well it is gold but you don’t dig this out of the ground, it’s been put onto the rock.”
“What do you mean it’s been put onto the rock?”
“That damn blasted Indian, he’s shot it on with a shot gun, it looked like the real stuff in the light of that half lit torch we had when we inspected the place.”
“What about the gold in the stream, isn’t that real.
“It’s the same as that in the mine.”
“That blasted Indian, he’s made the town pay for what was done to his tribe all that time ago. He’s long gone by now, God knows which way he went; we’ll never find him. Now I know why he’s called bloody Two tongues, he’s lied with the one he spoke to us with. Come to think about it we aint seen that tall stranger since either.”
Copyright © 2007