Tom learns that the owner of an Indian trading post, whom he was supposed to collect money from, is now dead. Tom volunteers to conduct an inventory of the post, despite finding an Arapaho "devil doll" in his backpack which is apparently meant as a warning and a curse. The owner of another trading post wants to buy the dead man's post himself, though it was willed to the owner's Indian stepdaughter and she has no plans to sell it.
—rbecker28