When Lulu stepped out from behind the screen a moment later, he was surprised to see that she was totally nude. And though he knew that most whores promised much more than they were able to deliver, in this case he was not disappointed. Lulu was all she promised and more. She was slender, except for the flare of her hips and the gentle rise of her relatively small but well-formed breasts. Without her clothes, she really did look like she was only nineteen. For a moment he felt a little uncomfortable with the idea of going to bed with a nineteen-year-old. He was thirty-two, considerably older than Lulu.
On the other hand, Lulu was a prostitute, and prostitutes were without history, therefore they were without age. There was no doubt in Rob’s mind but that Lulu was much older than he was in some areas. Especially when it came to sexual experience. For in truth, his own sexual experiences had been few and relatively far between.
“Honey, you don’t even have your clothes off yet,” Lulu said, the expression in her voice indicating that she was puzzled by that fact.
“What’s the hurry?” Rob replied. “We have all night, don’t we?”
Lulu laughed. “Yes, we do,” she agreed. “It’s just that most men are so—” Lulu stopped in mid-sentence. It was as if she were embarrassed to continue the statement about “most” men. “But that’s all right,” she said. “You’re different.”
“Does it bother you that I am different?”
“No. I like it that you’re different.”
Rob sat on the edge of the bed. “Will you help me take off my boots?” He held out his left leg.
Smiling at him, Lulu swung a long, naked limb over his leg, pivoting as she did, so that she wound up facing away from him. Rob found the image of her bare behind intensely erotic as she struggled with his boot.
As soon as his boots were off, Lulu removed his clothes. After he was naked, she leaned into him, pressing her bare breasts against his chest, grinding her pelvis against his and pushing him down onto the bed as she did.
They lay on the bed exploring each other’s bodies with their hands until, finally, Rob climbed on top. For the next few minutes there was only the sound of heavy breathing, a few groans of pleasure, and the symphony of creaking bedsprings.
Afterward they lay side by side, bathed in perspiration and coasting back down from their erotic high.
“Where are you going now?” Lulu asked.
“What do you mean, where am I going? I’m staying here all night.”
“No, I don’t mean that. I mean after tonight. When you give up looking for gold, where will you go?”
“Are you that certain that I’m going to give up?”
“You should.”
“Oh? And why is that?”
“Because there is no gold here,” Lulu said.
“I know that’s what everyone is telling you,” Rob said, “and I don’t blame them. It’s frustrating as hell to bust your ass out there day after day after day and not come up with even the tiniest bit of color. I’m frustrated too, but I’m not ready to give up yet.”
“There is no gold,” Lulu said again.
Rob chuckled. “Are you trying to get rid of us so you and the other girls can go out and start digging where we left off?”
“No,” Lulu said. “Do you know Luke Rawlings and Percy Sheridan?”
“Sure,” Rob said. “Everyone in the camp knows them. They are the two who discovered gold up here in the first place.”
Lulu shook her head. “They didn’t discover it here, they put it here.”
“What do you mean, they put it here?”
“I think the word is called ‘seeded.’ They seeded several rocks with gold, then scattered them around.”
“Well now, why the hell would they do something like that? That doesn’t make any sense at all. It’s not like they are trying to sell off claims or anything.”
“I don’t know why, but they did it,” Lulu said. “They just did it.”
“How do you know this?”
“Because Luke got drunk one night and told me,” Lulu said. “He did more than just tell me, he bragged about it. And Percy did the same thing with Sue. They seeded the field up here. And all this time they’ve been laughing at all you men, behind your backs.”
“I’ll be damn,” Rob said. “You know, I could almost believe it. Nobody has really found anything since we started. Nobody. I just can’t understand why they would have done it, though. By the way, if you know this, why are you and the other girls staying here?”
“We’re here because we know where the gold really is.”
“You do? Where?” Rob asked.
“It’s in your pocket, honey. And the pockets of every other man up here.”
Rob laughed. “I guess I walked right into that one,” he said.
Somewhere in the predawn darkness a calf bawled anxiously and its mother answered. In the distance a coyote sent up its long, lonesome wail, while out in the pond, frogs thrummed their night song. The moon was full and the night was alive with stars, from the very bright, shining lights, all the way down to those stars that weren’t visible as individual bodies at all but whose glow added to the luminous powder that dusted the distant sky.
Around the milling shapes of shadows that made up the small herd rode four men: Eddie, Win, Willie, and Hawke.
“You ever drove a herd before, Mr. Hawke?” Willie, one of the cowboys who had stayed on at Northumbria, asked.
“No, I can’t say as I have,” Hawke replied.
“Well, sir, I know you’re the boss ’n’ all, so’s I wouldn’t want to speak out of turn or nothin’, but iffen it was me, I’d start drivin’ ’em toward the river now.”
“Good idea, thanks. All right, 1et’s start ’em toward the river,” Hawke said.
“I’m surprised they don’t have anybody out here watching the herd,” Win said.
“They do,” Hawke replied.
“What do you mean, they do? Have you seen anyone?”
“No,” Hawke answered.
“Then what makes you think they’ve got anyone out here watchin’?”
“I can feel it,” Hawke said.
The calf’s call for his mother came again, this time with more insistence. The mother’s answer had a degree of anxiousness to it.
“Sounds like one of the little fellers has wandered off,” Eddie said. “Maybe I’d better go find it and get it back to its mama.”
“Leave it,” Hawke said. “We need to get out of here as quickly as we can.”
“Ah, I don’t mind,” Eddie said, slapping his legs against the side of his horse and riding off, disappearing in the darkness.
Suddenly, from the darkness, came a gunshot.
“What the hell is Eddie doing?” Willie asked. “He’ll spook the herd.”
“I don’t think that was Eddie,” Hawke said.
“What do you mean?”
“I think we’ve got company.”
They heard the sound of galloping hooves. From the darkness, Eddie’s horse, its nostrils flared wide and its eyes wild with terror, came running by them, its saddle empty.
“My God, where’s Eddie?” Willie asked.
Now, several gunshots erupted in the night, and the muzzle flashes lit up the herd.
“Jesus! What’s happening? Who is it? They’re all around us!” Win shouted in terror.
The cattle, spooked by the gunfire, started running. But Hawke noticed they were at least running in the right direction.
“Willie, Win, keep the herd running!” Hawke said, pulling his rifle from the scabbard.
“What are you doing? Where are you going?” Willie asked.
