In the novel, James and Ashton escape with gold belonging to the Confederacy. They are aided by Ashton's lover, Lamar Powell. The gold is stored in the false bottoms of several wagons. Lamar, James, and several drivers start out west (the drivers don't know about the gold).
Ashton travels separately and waits for them at a cheap boardinghouse in Texas, which doubles as a brothel. The plan is for James to meet with an accident on the trip, so Ashton will be free to marry Powell. What Ashton doesn't realize is that James is well aware of her affair. Before they leave, he posts two letters to his former law partner in Charleston. One letter is to change his will, leaving everything to relatives instead of Ashton. The other is to Ashton, telling her what he has done. It is his way of getting revenge on her for spurning him all those years. The letter is to be sent to her in the event of his death. So it seems likely that he doesn't expect to survive the journey.
On the trip, Powell lures James away from the campsite and shoots him dead. Just as he pushes the body down a gully, he and the rest of the party are attacked by Indians. Powell is killed along with all but one of the drivers, who survives.
Meanwhile, Ashton is growing desperate because her money is running out. She can't imagine what is keeping Powell and the wagons. Then she hears about a group of travelers who were ambushed and killed by Indians, their wagons burned at the bottom of a gully. She is frantic to get to to the gold, reasoning that the Indians wouldn't have found it. James's letter is sent to her and she is enraged. Having no money to pay her board, she is forced into prostitution. The surviving driver comes into the brothel and Ashton seduces him, thinking that she can finally get her hands on the gold. When she wakes up the next morning, he is long gone. He leaves her a letter stating that he found the gold and it is all his.
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