Gold

Chapter 9

The death of the party of Santee Sioux with whom Zachariah Hogan had been riding was the final chapter in the Great Sioux War. Altogether, eighteen Indians and fourteen cavalry troopers were killed in the engagement on the edge of that Nebraska pinewood and the Battle of Kennet Valley Wood in 1877 went down in history. The role played in it by Zachariah Hogan was however destined to remain unknown; for which he was, both at the time and in later life, profoundly grateful.

     Melanie Hogan’s joy at the safe return of her children was unbounded. Later, she would grieve for the loss of those men from her mother’s tribe, but at first she was selfishly pleased to have her son and daughter back home safely and be damned to how many others had lost their lives to bring this about. The day after Zachariah came home, his mother said to him, ‘Well son, killing a man’s not something you ever forget, so don’t bother trying. You did what you had to and a lot of folk lost their lives through it, but you did what you set out to do and that’s about enough, I reckon.’

     ‘You ever kill anybody Ma?’

     ‘I don’t know.’

     Zac looked at his mother and, shaken as he was by the events of the last few days, all but smiled. ‘You don’t know if you ever killed anybody? That’s blazing strange!’

     Melanie sketched out briefly what had taken place when she paid a visit to the McDonalds. After doing so, she concluded by saying, ‘Truth to tell, I shouldn’t wonder if that fellow bled to death. I think my arrow nicked some vessel and effected a mischief. Still, there it is.’

     ‘You feel bad about it?’

     ‘Not over-much, no. They’d no business coming here trying to cheat us and taking away your sister. To say nothing of killing your Pa. No, I wouldn’t be too sorrowful, were I to learn that I killed that Andrew McDonald.’

     Elizabeth was still sleeping in the house and Zac and his mother were standing some yards away, near the stream, because they did not wish to wake the girl; feeling that it was good for her to sleep and forget about the awful thing which had befallen her. Zachariah looked across to the bluff and said, ‘Are we staying or going, Ma?’

     ‘I think we’d be fools to leave until we survey that rock and see what might be found there.’

    The Black Hills gold rush was in full swing and in the second half of 1877, the northern part of Nebraska too became another spot where folks thought that their fortune might be made. The news of the rich lode of auriferous metal found up on what became known as Hogan’s Bluff was sufficient to lure many prospectors to the area. As is generally case; a few were lucky, but most were not. The Hogans though were assured of their fortune, because the land on which they struck gold was indisputably theirs alone.

     There was no question of tilling the land and Melanie and her son devoted all their energies to panning and digging. Eventually, they set up a company which built a mine on the bluff and with the profits from that, became richer than anybody else thereabouts.

     All this good fortune was, for Melanie, marred by one circumstance and that was that Andrew McDonald had indeed died; barely two hours after she had left the ranch-house that fateful day. He’d never even made it to town, because his wife feared to leave him untended while she tacked up the buggy. He had simply passed away quietly in the kitchen, where Melanie had last seen him; bleeding to death with his wife sitting helplessly by his side. This was not a terrible burden on Melanie Hogan’s conscience, but she would rather the wretch hadn’t died; no matter how richly some would say he deserved it. There it was though and whenever she felt a twinge of guilt about it, Melanie Hogan fetched out her late husband’s Bible, where she saw it written as blunt as could be in the Gospel of Matthew; ‘All who will take up the sword, will die by the sword’.