Free Twist of Gold by Michael Morpurgo

round so that the soil is taken off by the water. The gold, when you find it, will lie heavy and stay in the bottom of the pan.
     You’ll notice it for sure for ’tis yellow as the sun and will glow at you. Sure, ’tis simplicity itself. Nothin’ to it.
    ANNIE : Then why haven’t you found any, Seamus Finn, seeing as it’s that simple?
         Pause.
    SEAMUS FINN : You have a cruel tongue for such a pretty girl. Do you not cut to the quick? There’s hundreds of folk diggin’ away down-river,
     but they don’t know what I know. No one does. ’Tis me secret… (His lips are sealed – but he’s bursting to tell his secret.) But I’ll share it with
     you because I’ve been longin’ to share it with someone I can trust, an’ there’s not many of them about. Two years ago, an old Indian chief came by while I was camping by
     the river an’ he told me I would find gold, so much gold that I’d be the richest man in the world. He told me there was so much of it that the water ran yellow from the mountain! A
     man believes what he wants to believe. So I built me cabin and for two hot summers long I’ve dug an’ I’ve panned. ’Tis here, I know ’tis here. I feel it in me
     nose. But I’ve not been able to find it. Not yet. Now, with two extra pairs of fresh young eyes on the job we could snap up a fortune, a mighty fortune. And I could be off back home to
     Ireland where I belong – but I’ll not go back a poor man: I’ll return with enough money to buy half of Kerry, or I’ll not go back at all.
         He shoves a frying pan into each of their hands, and they get panning. SEAMUS FINN moves upstream.
         (Muttering when there’s nothing in his pan again.) Damn, damn, damn and damnation!
    ANNIE : Listen.
    SEAN : ’Tis only Seamus cursing again, Annie.
         The rumble of horses’ hooves.
    ANNIE : Not Seamus. Listen.
         The horses’ hooves thunder – there’s the whooping of RED INDIANS , and SEAN and ANNIE run like gazelles to SEAMUS FINN .
    ANNIE + SEAN : Seamus! Seamus! Seamus Finn!
    SEAMUS FINN : An’ what are you two hollerin’ about, you little divils?
    SEAN + ANNIE : Indians! Indians! Indians!
    SEAMUS FINN : Will you stop your nonsense! Stop your hollerin’! You’ll frighten them away.
    SEAN : We’ll frighten them ?
    SEAMUS FINN : They’ll not be hurtin’ you. They’re just Indians, friends of mine, you might say. The old chief I was tellin’ you
     about – every time he sets eyes on me, he laughs until he cries, the old divil.
         And sure enough, the INDIANS led by their RED INDIAN CHIEF are there bent double, consumed by
     laughter.
         (To ANNIE + SEAN .) Will you just stay where you are, an’ there’ll be no trouble. They
     need to know whether you’re a friend or an enemy. There’s nothing much in between. They’ve been here for ever and now we’ve all turned up and are taking their land. If
     they get in the ways, too many of them get killed, and so they fight back, who can blame ’em?
    ANNIE : Well, we’re friends, not enemies.
    SEAMUS FINN : Of course you are, but they don’t know that yet.
         SEAMUS FINN approaches the RED INDIAN CHIEF . They greet each other with a ritual – then the RED INDIAN CHIEF laughs. He speaks perfect English, much to SEAN and ANNIE ’s surprise.
    RED INDIAN CHIEF : Good evening, Mr Finn. And how is your hunt for gold coming along?
    SEAMUS FINN : Very well, thank you. And how is yourself?
    RED INDIAN CHIEF : I could not be better. In fact I have a proposition for you.
    SEAMUS FINN : You do, do you?
    RED INDIAN CHIEF : Yes indeedy-do-dah. One of the tribe witnessed an attack two days ago by an elegant-looking migrant on two seedy-looking men from a
     beleaguered, forlorn, and chaotic mess of a wagon-train.
    SEAN : The Colonel and the bounty hunter and French Charlie!
    RED INDIAN CHIEF : They were arguing about something or whatnot and all ended up killing each other. One of the seedy men was wearing a