The novel revolves around Orrin Sackett, a lawyer in the late 1800’s. He lived in the northern portion of the country. He learns his father has died while on a gold mining trip in New Orleans. Instead of using indirect characterization to show a character’s state of mind, L’Amour uses an omniscient point of view to assure the reader that the character’s suspicisions are genuine. Orrin has his own theories regarding his father’s mysterious death and plans to investigate them further. Orrin theorizes his father and those who have accompanied him to New Orleans found gold. Being a fair person, he knows his father would have taken his share and handed the remainder over the rightful owners. When the other members of the mining party return North empty handed, Orrin thinks they killed his father for his share of the gold and buried all of the gold with the intent of returning to the mountain to retrieve it. L’Amour avoids complex flashbacks, but the events

Sackett travels to New Orleans where he stays with his brother, all the while searching for clues about his father. On his search, he finds his theory is correct. The men he suspected of killing his father were guilty. Orrin went to New Orleans with the intent of seeking revenge on those involved in his father’s murder. However as circumstances would have it, each of these individuals met with an untimely death leaving the unclaimed gold to be found by Orrin and his brother. Here the absence of symbolism and flashback assure the reader that the tone is positively and presently dangerous.

In the story, Sackett’s enimies meet with untimely deaths so he never actually gets to exact the revenge he desires. We never know if when faced with opportunity to take the life of someone he believed killed his father if he would have been capable of doing so. Many times a person plots their revenge, but he or she never knows if they will be able to carry out the action if put in the situation. Many times we dream of revenge against people. We think of elaborate circumstances where we take great pleasure in making someone else feel bad. We imagine how good we will feel at that moment of victory. We picture the gloating look on out face, imagine how triumphant we will be and, more importantly, how humiliates we will have made that other person feel. In reality, we know those particular circumstances are most likely never going to arise. Our thoughts may be consumed with the revenge we seek. In many cases, the letdown after having successfully gotten revenge is overwhelming. All of our energies have gone into planning the revenge. When it has been successfully won, we need to reflect on what we actually achieved.

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