They had made their brags about me. They would take care of me when they found time. I’d as soon they never found it.
Twice I made trips into the mountains and came back down with gold . . . two muleloads the last time.
Esteban Mendoza and Tina came over and built a cabin in town, near the foot of the mountain, and Esteban had two freight wagons working along the Silverton road.
Ange Kerry moved away from our camp and got a little place in town where she lived, and she worked with Joe Rugger in the store, which combined with the post office and Wells Fargo express. She had never been the same toward me since I killed Kitch and his partner.
She was prettier than ever, and mighty popular around town. Nearly everybody sort of protected her. Joe Rugger brought his wife out and they built a home on the back end of the store.
Cap took a long time mending, and he hadn’t much energy when he was able to walk, so it was up to me to do what was done.
Of an evening I read what newspapers I could find, and kept hammering away at Blackstone.
Time to time somebody would drift into camp, stay a while, and drift out again, leaving books behind. I read whatever there was. But mostly I worked.
I built us a three-room log house high on the bench, with my old trail up the mountain right behind it, and the spring close by. I built a strong stable and corral against the coming winter, and I oat(?) a few tons of hay in the meadow.
There was snow on some of the peaks now where I hadn’t seen it before. A time or two, early in the morning, there was frost in the bottom, and once ice slicked over a bucket of left-out water.
The old barricades I let lie, and I kept the brush trimmed off the mesa. Grass was growing high out there, and there was good grazing for our stock.
When I went to town now there were few whom I knew. Joe Rugger was acting mayor, Allison and Briggs were loyal men. Murchison had come back and started a small gambling house. There were about two hundred people in town, and she was running like a top.
The aspen began to turn yellow . . . seemed like I’d been here years, though it was only a few months.
There was little trouble. Two men killed each Other over a poker game in Murchison’s joint, and there was a cutting down on the creek, some private affair over a woman.
One night Cap came in and sat down. “You stay at the books,” he said, “and you’ll ruin your eyes.”
“I’ve got to learn, Cap.”
“You take after those brothers of yours. As soon as they learned to read there was no holding them.”
“They’ve done well.”
“Yes, they have. Married, too.”
I didn’t answer right away, but finally I said, “Well, it takes two.”
“You seen Ange lately?”
“You know I haven’t.”
“That’s a mighty fine girl. She won’t be around always. I hear that Ira Bigelow is paying her mind.”
“Bigelow? Is he in town?”
“Rode in a few days ago while you were in the mountains. Only stayed a few hours, but he managed to meet Ange, and he talked it up to her. He’s a handsome man.”
Didn’t cut much ice, reading about ethics and all. Inside, I could feel myself getting mean. The thought of any of those Bigelows around Ange . . . well, sir, a thing like that could make me mean as an old bear.
Of an evening I would walk outside and look toward the town lights, but I didn’t often go down to the street. And it was time for me to make my last trip of the season into the high peaks. I wanted one more load out of there before snow fell. Not that there hadn’t been snow up that high, but I had a hunch there was time for one trip. With the new route in, and no need to go by way of the chute, I might make it in and back.
“Going up the mine tomorrow,” I told Cap. I stood there a moment. “You know, Ange should come in for a share of that. Her grandpa was hunting it when he died up there … he had him a map, and one of those dead Spanish men must have been a relative of his … or one of the live ones.”
“I was thinking that. Wondered if you’d get around to it.”
Picking up my hat, I said, “I think I’ll go talk to her.”
“You do that,” Cap said. “You surely do it”
Anyway, it was time I bought me an outfit—new clothes, and the like. I had money now.
Turning to leave, I stopped. Esteban Mendoza was in the doorway. “Senor Tell? I must speak with you.”
He came on into the room. “I was working at my freight wagons fixing some harness, and it became very dark while I sat there, and when I am through I put out the lantern and then sit for a while, enjoying the coolness.
“Beyond the wagon are several men, and they are talking. They do not know I am there, and so I keep very still, for one of them speaks of you. He says you have gold that is not placer gold, but from quartz, from a lode. They believe the mine is in the mountains.”
“Who were the men?”
“One is named Tuthill. . . they call him Meester. Another is called Boyd.”
Cap looked over at me. “The banker and that gambler from Las Vegas.”
“How about the others?”
He shrugged. “I do not know. But I think they plan to follow you into the mountains if you go again.”
“Thanks, ‘Steban. Thanks very much.”
After he left I gave it some thought. It was important to make one more trip up there. I not only wanted to get enough gold to start buying my ranch, but I wanted to cover up the work I’d done at the mine in case somebody found the way up to the valley. The trip was a risk I would have to take.
Cap was getting around pretty good now, better than before, and Esteban would look in on him from time to time. He was well enough to care for himself, and he had friends in the town.
“You going down to see Ange?” Cap asked suddenly. “It’s getting late.”
I got into my saddle and started for town. The lights seemed brighter than before, and there was excitement in me.
Ange….
A shadow stirred in the brush and I waited a moment before riding on. It was a man all right, and he was watching our camp.
Esteban had been right.
XII
Late as it was, the store was crowded. Joe waved ‘a hand to me from where he stood waiting on a customer, and I glanced toward the other counter where Ange was. If she had noticed me, she gave no sign of it.
Most of the people in the store seemed like newcomers, although there were a couple of familiar faces.
“Mr. Sackett, I believe.”
Turning around, I faced Tuthill. He was a handsome man, no question of it, tall and well-dressed in storebought clothes.
“How are your I asked. “I wasn’t expecting to see you this far from home. What happened to the bank?
“I left it in good hands.”
Glancing toward Ange, I saw she was no longer busy, so I excused myself and walked over to her. “Ange,” I said, “I want to buy some clothes.”
Her eyes met mine for the merest instant. “All (sectin missing)
So I gave her my order, aware that Tuthill was watching from a short distance away. She brought me some shirts, jeans, socks, and a sheepskin coat.
“… And two boxes of .44’s,” I said.
Her eyes lifted to mine and her face stiffened. Abruptly, she turned and walked to the ammunition shelf and took down two boxes and came back, placing them on the counter before me.
“Ange,” I said, “I’ve got to talk to you.”
“You brought me out of the mountains and I’m very grateful,” she said, “but I don’t think—”
“Ange, part of that gold belongs to you. Your grandpa was hunting it, and it was probably some ancestor of his who found it first. So you should have a share.”
“Whatever you think is right. There’s no need for talk.”
She turned away from me with my money and made change.
“Ange,” I said, “I had to shoot those men.”
“Did you? It was the most brutal, the most callous thing I ever saw! And I thought you were so gentle, so nice—”
She broke off and walked away from me. A moment I stood there. When I turned around, Tuthill was beside me. “I didn’t know you knew Ange Kerry,” he said.