He found himself awake at night fairly often, and he wasn’t the sort to just lie there in his bunk or bedroll and stare at the darkness. He felt better getting up and moving around. He liked to stay busy, always had. Besides, even though the wagon train was camped in a city and surrounded by civilization, it didn’t mean there were no dangers lurking in the darkness. In some ways, the situation was more precarious than if the immigrants had been out on the prairie. The threats were just different, that’s all. For those reasons, Jamie was up and taking a pasear around the camp when he spotted a couple figures skulking beside one of the wagons. They might be two of the immigrants, he told himself. Maybe a boy and a girl who weren’t supposed to be courting had slipped out of their families’ wagons for a midnight rendezvous. In that case, it wouldn’t be any of his business. Young love could run its course—or not—without any meddling from him. However, in one way of looking at it, anything that happened involving the wagon train was the wagon master’s business, he thought.
