Stand-off at Copper Town

by Scott Connor

  ‘Except for the truth,’ a voice said from behind them.

  Nathan turned to find that Mike and Daniel had arrived.

  ‘The truth?’ Nathan murmured, unsure what these men might reveal.

  Daniel cast him an amused glance and then walked by them to stand before Marshal Lawton.

  ‘I’m guessing you’re not sure whether these men are idiots, or whether they are men who are trying to look like idiots to cover up what they’re really doing. Well, you were right the first time. They’re idiots.’

  Nathan opened his mouth to complain while moving forward, but Jeff grabbed his arm. He drew him back and cast him a warning glance that said he should let Daniel have his say.

  ‘How do you know this?’ Lawton asked.

  ‘We’ve been asking around. It seems they really did come to Copper Town to search for a gold seam. They’re not up to no good. They’re just misguided prospectors. Tucker and Clay spirited Patrick away to get him to tell them where the gold is, except of course there is no gold and so I guess some time soon you’ll find a body.’

  Lawton set his hands on his hips as he considered this tale. Slowly a smile spread across his lips. He faced Nathan and Jeff.

  ‘I reckon I believe that,’ he said. ‘You two being idiots fits the facts a lot better than you two being raiders.’

  ‘It does,’ Nathan said through gritted teeth while forcing himself to remain calm by gripping his hands into tight fists.

  ‘So good luck with finding that gold!’

  Lawton threw back his head and laughed. Then he waved a dismissive hand at them and headed back to his ruined building, except this time he had a spring in his step.

  Only when he’d disappeared from view did Daniel and Mike swing round to face them.

  ‘Obliged, I guess,’ Nathan said with Jeff echoing his comment.

  ‘No problem.’ Daniel gestured to the nearest saloon. ‘Now I reckon we need to talk.’

  Chapter Eleven

  ‘The whole story is a long one, but you have the basics,’ Nathan said when they’d taken their whiskeys to a quiet table in a corner of the saloon where they’d first met Daniel and Mike.

  ‘We thought so, but that still leaves the big question,’ Daniel said. ‘Clearly you believe the story and so do Tucker and Clay, but do we?’

  Nathan spread his hands. ‘That’s for you to decide, but if it helps, we’ve never been sure whether to believe it ourselves.’

  Jeff nodded. ‘Yeah. At first we thought it a tall story, but we weren’t doing anything important and so we came here. Either way, we now have work and we have some dollars in our pockets, so no matter what the truth is, it’s not been a disaster.’

  ‘But you believed the story enough to try to save the old-timer,’ Mike said.

  ‘We did, but we didn’t do it for the gold,’ Nathan said. He glanced at Jeff, who frowned, acknowledging that even though they were avoiding telling the full story, bit by bit it was coming out. ‘Marshal Lawton had us in a difficult position. He said he’d free Patrick and not arrest us if we found out why Baxter Meredith was killed.’

  Daniel and Mike both let out long whistles and leaned back in their chairs. They glanced at each other and their small facial ticks appeared to indicate that this revelation helped to confirm their own theories.

  Both men sipped their whiskeys and mulled things over before Daniel leaned back on the table.

  ‘I’m glad you’ve been honest with us. We couldn’t work out why you were concerned about the fate of two men you’d never met. So now we’ll be honest with you. We’ve worked mines for more years than we care to remember and it’s got us nowhere. We’d like to get our hands on this gold, but even if it’s not here, we’d settle for enjoying the hope.’

  Nathan nodded. ‘We had the same conversation when we joined up with Patrick.’

  Daniel fingered his whiskey glass and took a deep breath before in a low voice, he asked the question Nathan had been expecting.

  ‘So where is this gold seam?’

  Nathan rubbed his jaw. Clearly some of the information these men had heard was incorrect, and although Daniel and Mike were looking at him intently, Nathan turned to Jeff and raised his eyebrows. Jeff nodded and so Nathan spoke up, although he resolved to keep some information back.

  ‘It’s beyond the gully where we’re blasting out rocks. The trouble is, we don’t know exactly where.’

  Daniel narrowed his eyes, conveying that he thought he was holding out on him.

  ‘That’s the truth,’ Jeff added. ‘Patrick explored there on his own, but Sherman thought he was searching for the payroll and had him arrested.’

  Daniel nodded, this answer appearing to appease him.

  ‘With everyone paid there’s no money to guard until the next train arrives,’ he mused. ‘The area should be free now.’

  ‘That’s our hope.’

  ‘Which leaves us with the final big question.’ Daniel merely smiled leaving Nathan to surmise it.

  ‘If you hadn’t stepped in the first time, we’d be dead. If you hadn’t stepped in the second time, we’d be arrested. So I reckon we can strike a deal.’

  While Daniel and Mike both nodded Jeff spoke up.

  ‘Not that we need to worry about the details. We had a deal with Patrick, and we don’t know for sure that there is any gold, so if we find any, that’ll be the time to work out how we split it up.’

  Mike snorted a laugh. ‘That’s the worst time to decide. The sight of gold does strange things to a man. We decide now.’

  ‘Patrick said the same.’ Nathan sighed. ‘But he’s in a tough situation now, so I reckon he can’t expect us to keep to the deal we originally had. I say we split whatever we find equally, including Patrick if he survives.’

  Nathan and Jeff both held out their hands. After a round of shaking they refilled their glasses. Then they passed several minutes in pleasant silence until Daniel moved on to their plan.

  ‘As Sherman might still be watching the outcrop, we shouldn’t act tonight,’ he said. ‘So we start tomorrow and then we move quickly.’

  ‘Why the hurry?’ Jeff asked.

  ‘Because we have to find the gold before Tucker and Clay beat its location out of Patrick,’ Mike said.

  Chapter Twelve

  The new day brought fresh hope that they might be able to get access to the outcrop, after all.

  When they’d left the gully the previous day, it looked as if it’d take several more days to blast away the boulders, but overnight a landslide had cleared the top of the gully letting them see the outcrop and the cauldron before it.

  The tunnels were in clear view and there was no sign of anyone being there. Sherman confirmed this when he joined them to survey the overnight movements.

  ‘You’re free to clear the gully today and then to go into the area beyond,’ he said. ‘It’s no longer restricted.’

  ‘Good,’ Nathan said with a guarded tone as he’d noted the smirk hovering on Sherman’s lips.

  ‘That means you’re free to find the gold and to keep it all for yourselves.’ He mockingly hugged his arms to his chest parodying holding a valuable hoard. ‘There’s not much Lawton and I agree on, but we had a good laugh about that.’

  ‘We’re pleased you found it amusing, but it was Patrick who thought that. We’ve accepted he got it wrong and now we’re just here to work, and we’re doing a good job.’

  ‘You were.’ Sherman turned to look at the main mine workings, drawing their attention to two men who were making their way towards them. ‘Then half of your detail ran away to get rich with your friend. So you need more help.’

  Nathan couldn’t help but raise his eyebrows in surprise when the two men came close enough for him to see that Daniel and Mike had been assigned to their detail.

  ‘We’re obliged for the help,’ he said levelly.

  ‘Don’t be. This way I’ve got all the gold seekers in one place.’

  Nathan and Jeff stayed quiet until the
two men joined them. Then they had to grit their teeth as Sherman enjoyed himself pouring scorn on their dreams.

  When he’d finished laughing at their expense the four men moved to began work. Sherman waited until they’d reached the nearest boulder and then hailed them.

  ‘What now?’ Nathan snapped.

  Sherman waved, signifying the gully and the area beyond.

  ‘That landslide should let you finish up here today.’ He licked his lips, relishing his next comment. ‘So as soon as you’re done, plant dynamite in the tunnels up there and open up the area. The outcrop is the next place we’ll be mining. So you’d better hurry up and find your gold.’

  Sherman roared with laughter, his voice echoing in the gully and providing a long refrain as he turned on his heel and headed back to the mine.

  The four men watched him go. Then, with a series of irritated grunts, they turned back to consider the day’s task.

  ‘I reckon we’d all like to have the last laugh,’ Daniel said.

  His three colleagues murmured that they agreed before they got to work on a task that Nathan thought they wouldn’t be able to complete today, but as it turned out, within a few hours they’d cleared the gully.

  Daniel and Mike were more knowledgeable than Tucker and Clay had been and so the precarious boulders blocking the gully needed only six well-placed sticks of dynamite to bring them tumbling down to the bottom. Thankfully others would cart the rubble away now that they’d cleared a passage and reduced the boulders to manageable rocks.

  They were able to walk relatively easily across the base and enter the cauldron for the first time. Daniel stayed outside to look out for anyone approaching while the others debated what they should do next.

  They gathered at the bottom of the slope to look up at the tunnels and the stark and jagged rocks they would have to scale to reach them.

  ‘This doesn’t look promising,’ Mike said, speaking for them all. ‘We’ll never find and mine a seam of gold in a day and still keep Sherman happy that we’re laying dynamite.’

  Nathan and Jeff were standing back; they shot each other a guilty glance.

  Mike and Daniel had done nothing but help them and yet they’d still kept secret one aspect of this quest, even though telling them what they were actually searching for wouldn’t have compromised them.

  ‘Perhaps we can’t, but what have we got to lose by looking?’ Nathan said.

  This positive thinking made Mike provide a firm nod.

  ‘Agreed.’ He pointed at the tunnels. ‘You know more about the area than we do. So you explore the tunnels while we plant the dynamite.’

  Nathan readily agreed to this plan, having thought that it was more likely that their colleagues would volunteer to use their greater mining knowledge to explore the tunnels while he and Jeff laid the dynamite. Before they could get to work, Daniel returned shaking his head and pointing to the mine.

  ‘Sherman’s coming,’ he said. ‘That man doesn’t miss anything.’

  So they sat down and awaited instructions, but if they’d expected praise for clearing the gully quickly, they’d have been disappointed.

  Sherman yelled at them for sitting around when there was work to be done and then he demanded that they finish the job straight away. When he’d finished Daniel stepped forward.

  ‘You thought it’d take us all day to clear the gully, except we did it in a morning,’ he said. ‘That’s because now that those two good-for-nothing workers have gone, you’ve got people who know what they’re doing.’

  ‘You’re blowing up rocks,’ Sherman snapped with his hands on his hips. ‘That’s not exactly hard.’

  ‘We don’t just stick dynamite in the ground, light the fuse, and then run away while hoping it’ll do some damage. We work it out properly. We find the right cracks and flaws in the rocks.’ Daniel gesticulated, miming placing a stick carefully into a crack. ‘Then we—’

  ‘How long?’

  Daniel glanced at Nathan, his pensive gaze suggesting he was weighing up how much time he could buy them with this delaying tactic.

  ‘I’d hope we could bring the whole rock face down in one by sundown.’

  Sherman turned to appraise the terrain while nodding.

  ‘You have an hour,’ he said. Then he walked off, picking his way through the gully.

  ‘That’s not long, but it’s better than nothing,’ Nathan said, joining Daniel. ‘How long will it really take?’

  ‘Fifteen minutes,’ Daniel said. ‘We’ll get everything in place. Then we all start searching.’

  After collecting the crate of remaining dynamite, they clambered up the slope. With the gully clear, the bulk of the mine rapidly came into view. The rest became visible when they reached the first tunnel where they paused to catch their breath.

  Ahead was the ridge where a few days before they’d waited for Patrick to return. In the daylight Nathan could pick out an obvious trail that Patrick must have found.

  Sherman’s form was visible heading back to the mine with a determined tread that left Nathan in no doubt he would return at the due time. While Mike and Daniel agreed where they’d plant the sticks, Nathan and Jeff set about exploring the tunnels.

  Deliberately Nathan chose the first tunnel in the line below the one Patrick had explored, but they didn’t get far. A landslide had blocked the tunnel ten yards in and after experimentally patting the wall of rock and finding it solid they moved on to the next tunnel.

  This one proved to be even harder to explore as it closed down after only a few feet. The next one continued for around twenty yards, but as the ground had fallen away a few feet in to create a sheer-sided hole, they didn’t venture inside.

  ‘Mike was right,’ Jeff said. ‘This doesn’t look promising.’

  Nathan glanced at Mike and Daniel to check they were out of earshot.

  ‘Yeah. We’d better hope we can explore the proper one or we won’t have enough time to find the nugget.’

  With both men feeling gloomy about the situation, they moved on to the next row, where there were four tunnels. Patrick had explored the endmost one, so in keeping with their seemingly uninformed exploration they started at the opposite end.

  This tunnel proved to be the most extensive so far, being shored up for thirty yards until a rock fall blocked the way. Even then there were gaps that could be explored.

  They emerged and hurried on to explore the other tunnels. Luckily the next two had collapsed and so with a last glance at Daniel and Mike who were fussing over where they would lay the last batch of dynamite, they slipped into the final tunnel.

  The entrance opened up on either side to present a natural cave. The actual mine tunnel started twenty feet away and the light cascading in through the entrance let Nathan see that it went on for some distance.

  There were signs of habitation with scraps of discarded food, blankets and even a chair, confirming that the payroll had been kept and guarded here. They moved off to explore the tunnel, but they’d managed only a few paces when footfalls sounded behind them.

  Nathan turned, expecting that Daniel and Mike had followed them inside, but the men who were approaching were doing so from the shadows.

  The unmistakable sheen of gunmetal flashed a moment before the two men came into the full light.

  ‘Tucker and Clay,’ Nathan said.

  ‘Yeah,’ Tucker said, swinging his gun up to aim at him. ‘Patrick talked, and that means we’re getting to the gold first.’

  Chapter Thirteen

  Following Tucker’s instructions delivered at gunpoint Nathan and Jeff raised their hands and then walked backwards to the wall.

  ‘Lawton doesn’t allow weapons,’ Jeff said, eyeing the gun.

  ‘We’re leaving,’ Tucker said, laughing. ‘So we got our guns.’

  ‘What happened to Patrick?’ Nathan asked.

  Their captors smirked, letting them think the worst before Clay pointed to the shadow-shrouded tunnel.

  ‘He told us the truth
to save his life,’ he said. ‘Now he’s digging for his life.’

  Tucker slipped to the side of the entrance and peered outside.

  ‘Are those two the only ones here?’ he asked.

  ‘They are, although Sherman’s due back soon.’

  With Tucker looking outside and Clay guarding them they stood in silence until Daniel called from outside.

  ‘Find anything interesting?’ Daniel waited for an answer, but Clay clamped his fingers beside his lips telling them to be quiet. Daniel persisted. ‘We’ve planted the dynamite. Do you want us to search in there or try another tunnel?’

  The mention of dynamite made Clay flinch and Tucker turn away from the entrance.

  ‘So that’s what you were doing out there,’ Tucker said, his tone accusing.

  ‘Sherman didn’t give us a choice,’ Nathan said. ‘Now that it’s planted, we’re all free to search for the nugget.’

  ‘That’s in hand. The only thing the rest of you will do is stay out of our way.’ Tucker gestured outside. ‘Get rid of them.’

  Nathan cleared his throat before shouting.

  ‘We’ve not found anything here, but the tunnel at the opposite end is deeper. Try there.’

  Inside the tunnel both the captors and the captives held their breath.

  ‘Then be quick,’ Mike shouted. ‘We’re already using up the hour before Sherman returns.’

  ‘Understood.’

  Tucker placed his back to the wall beside the entrance and the gradual movement of his head marked Daniel’s and Mike’s progress, but then he winced.

  ‘One of them is still coming here,’ he said. ‘Make him go away.’

  Clay grabbed Nathan’s arm and shoved him towards the entrance, but by the time he reached it Daniel was walking up the last few feet.

  ‘It’s the one at the other end,’ Nathan said, forcing a pleasant smile while pointing.

  ‘I know, but we need to compare tactics to make the best use of our time,’ Daniel said.

  Nathan kicked at the dirt as he searched for the right words to dissuade him. Nothing would come and worse, Mike had veered away from the other tunnel to approach him. He took a long pace outside.