Clash of Mountains

by Chloe Garner

  She smiled, privately.

  “Gentlemen,” he said. “If we are prepared to put the events that happened up at the shelter behind us for the moment, I’d like to discuss the future.”

  “Like, the one where we get jobs and get paid and don’t live in cardboard?” Torque asked.

  “I brought you here in good faith,” Jimmy said. “I fed you a good dinner, and I am willing to hear anything you have to say to me. I’d ask that you not throw that away just to make the point that you’re still angry about things that are largely outside of my control.”

  “That’d be the part where your brothers killed a bunch of us?” Torque asked.

  “He’s talking about claim owners putting out a payroll, jackass,” Ezra said. “Sit down.”

  Sarah hadn’t heard Torque’s chair move, and she suspected he were still sittin’, but the kid got the point and hushed up for the moment.

  “There is absenta up in the mountains,” Jimmy said. “There is one claim producing it at a mining level, and several others turning it out in samples that are going to Preston for validation. Those men are going to be desperate for labor in a very short period of time. Reliable, honest labor. I don’t make promises when they are outside of my ability to keep them, but that is a simple fact. I’m bringing in building materials through Granger’s store on advance, so that when men begin to have money in their pockets, they have the ability to build a home, or the ability to pay an enterprise to construct something for them. I’ll be fronting money for financing building, as soon as I get business plans that seem plausible.”

  “It’s a lot you’re asking, for those boys to present you a business plan,” Ezra said. Jimmy nodded.

  “It’s my money.”

  “We’ve seen your lists,” Ed said. “There are men making plans.”

  “I’m seeing the beginnings of the same,” Jimmy said. “I have people who are filtering through the requests for funding, and the ones that get to me, I will give real consideration. I know that businesses can’t make it until the miners start digging absenta and making wages, and I’m just as eager for that as you are. One of the things I wanted to put in front of you is that the men who are up in the mountains right now… they have experience. It’s going to be a competitive market very soon, I believe, to get access to that experience. A lucrative mine, apart from being a very dangerous thing, is also something that is immensely profitable. The costs to what they’re going to have to do are minimal - digging supplies, a foreman, and the miners themselves - and the product is almost incomprehensibly valuable.”

  “Get to the point,” Torque said, with grunts of agreement.

  “He’s setting up the math,” Ezra said. Sarah nodded. She didn’t know where he was going yet, but she knew this style of logic.

  “My point is that miners should be some of the wealthiest brute-force laborers on the face of the planet, within the next year or two. They should command the salaries to do what they choose for the rest of their lives. Their experience will have a real value to the mine operators. And while there are a huge number of young men wandering the streets below us, right now, and, yes, what they are doing is simply digging, and that grunt-effort is easy to replace, in the mind of a man like a claim owner, what they’re going to find is that the mines run most efficiently that have the most experienced men there.”

  He paused.

  Sarah could see that the table hadn’t yet figured where he was goin’ with it. Herself, she only had a phantom of an idea.

  “It is my proposal that you form a union. Tonight. Bring it back to your men in the town, let them know what we’ve discussed, let them put it to a vote or whatever means you use to make decisions as a body. A salary minimum based on weeks, months, and years of experience digging, and an additional one for leadership within the mining operation. Men who are inept, unmotivated, or dangerous shouldn’t be able to hold on to a position, but I believe if you structure yourselves cleverly enough, you should be able to increase the working wages of the men up in the mountains by at least twofold, long term.”

  There was silence.

  Sarah hadn’t reckoned on that at all.

  “Why?” Ezra asked. “Why are you the one suggesting it?”

  “You’re one of them,” Torque said.

  “Not at all,” Jimmy said. “They’re my friends, and I certainly want to see them do well at this, but I care much more about myself and about Lawrence, and my cut is off of gross product, out of the ground. They all assumed that absenta was valuable enough that they didn’t need to include expenses, and they’re going to find that was a mistake. I’ll take another cut of it here and another cut of it there, but at the end, it’s nearly as valuable for absenta money to stay in Lawrence as it is for it to stay in my own pocket. A lot of your men will save up that money and leave. Fine. The others will spend it here, buy clothes, livestock, housing, home goods. Dresses. They’ll spawn whole industries to support them, and those industries, those are the future of Lawrence. I never bet on absenta, gentlemen. So as long as there’s money coming in, I want it to stay here.”

  He folded his hands on the table, and Sarah felt the corner of her mouth come up.

  “Well, damn,” she said. He cast his eyes to the side at her, without turnin’ his head, and she shook her head.

  Jimmy paused, then stood.

  “Are there any other concerns you’d like to discuss before I go get the union contract template I’ve drafted for you to review?”

  Sarah narrowed her eyes at him. He had had some fair time on a train, comin’ up to Intec.

  “That’ll do fine,” Ezra finally said, and Jimmy dipped his head, turnin’ from the table and goin’ to his office. Sarah faced the table, finishin’ her steak.

  “What are you going to do?” someone asked when she finally lifted her head again. Jimmy was comin’ out his office with a deep stack of papers. They were gonna be all night at this.

  “I’m gonna go take a bath and get a good night’s sleep,” she said. “I’ll let everyone know at once, tomorrow, what I’m gonna do.”

  --------

  She didn’t know when Jimmy finally came to bed. Presumably, Little Peter had taken everyone back down to town without her, ‘cause Jimmy didn’t wake her, and when she went down at dawn, they were all gone.

  --------

  She drank gremlin tea at the dining room table, dressed and in her duster, as the rest of the family came down. Thomas and Rhoda were the first, then Little Peter - hung over as hell, but at least soberish. Rich was another fifteen minutes after that, give or take, and Wade and Kayla were another thirty. Jimmy was the last.

  They sat at the table, askin’ for their own breakfasts from the kitchen as they came down. Rich was defiant, refusin’ to so much as look at Sarah, but Kayla was teary and Wade had a hang-dog look to him what told Sarah he was beat.

  “Sarah…” Kayla started, but Sarah shook her head.

  “What’s done is done,” she said, and Kayla clamped her mouth down hard.

  “She isn’t gonna do anything to us,” Rich said. “Jimmy won’t let her.”

  Sarah drew a slow breath, just feelin’ out the day to come, feelin’ the size of it, and she nodded, a startin’ signal.

  “I’m gonna need to tie you both to go down to town,” she said. “I’ll fight you for it if I have to.”

  “You expect me to surrender, when you haven’t so much as told me what’s going to happen?” Rich snorted. “Pass.”

  Sarah stood, shiftin’ the bullwhip on her hip and pickin’ up the lengths of rope from where they was draped on the back of her chair. She put the full length over her shoulder and the thinner, shorter sections over her arm. Restin’ her hand on her gun, she raised an eyebrow at Rich, who ignored her.

  She looked over at Wade.

  “You gonna fight me on this?”

  “After Jeremiah?” he asked. “You really…?”

  Kayla looked away, and he sighed.

  “Let
’s get it over with.”

  Sarah nodded, goin’ to his chair and bindin’ his wrists behind his back. Kayla cried quietly.

  She straightened and looked to Rich again. He glared back, and she raised an eyebrow.

  “Come and get me,” he said, sour. She walked around the table, and he looked over at Jimmy, but Jimmy weren’t comin’ to his rescue. He turned to face Sarah again, standin’ half a beat late and takin’ a swing at her. She caught his wrist and clocked him ‘cross the face. He stumbled over his chair, but the shape of his body were still all fight. He landed in a jumble and Sarah kicked him in the stomach. He kicked at her, tryin’ to get space enough to fight her off, and she kicked him again, kneelin’ and gettin’ hold of his hair as he doubled ‘round his gut. She pulled his head back to look him in the eye as she hit him with her gun, watchin’ as his eyes rolled back.

  The room was quiet, the sound of every breath held as she rolled Rich, lump of unconscious flesh, onto his stomach and tied his wrists. She hauled him up over her shoulder, gettin’ a good grip on him, then turned to Wade.

  “You followin’, or am I comin’ back for you?”

  He looked at Kayla, who had her hands over her mouth, and he stood.

  “Damn you, Sarah Todd,” Wade said. She sniffed and started for the door, adjustin’ her hat with her free hand.

  She heard the table empty quietly, behind them.

  She walked out to the barn, findin’ the stable boy clamberin’ down the ladder, there, with wide eyes.

  “Gremlin,” Sarah said. “And two of the more stable-minded horses.”

  “Not the cart?” the boy asked. Sarah shook her head.

  “Do as I say.”

  He scrambled away, goin’ to find Gremlin out in the yard. Flower whickered at her, friendly enough, but she didn’t pay him any attention. Not this mornin’. Wade stood next to her as the kid picked out two horses and tacked ‘em to her spec. She tossed Rich across the bigger of the two geldings, then threw Wade up onto the other, makin’ sure he had his feet to stirrups ‘fore she put a lead on both geldings and mounted up on Gremlin.

  “The family’ll be down in a moment for the cart,” she told the boy, then gave Gremlin a squeeze, and they were off.

  The mornin’ were still cool, damp, but it were heatin’ quick enough, and the sand was loose enough to know it’d start blowin’ yet today.

  Train would be here.

  Today.

  Needed to get a move on.

  She let Gremlin set a quick walkin’ pace, checkin’ to be sure Wade were certain on his horse and that Rich weren’t slippin’. ‘Bout halfway to Lawrence, Rich woke and cursed Sarah a blue streak, but it didn’t bother her none. He was proper hog-tied to the horse, and it didn’t matter much to her what he thought of her.

  Wade was lookin’ a bit gray.

  They got to town and found most everyone there. She saw the homesteaders lined up in front of Granger’s shop while most of the men stood in the street. Doc and Sid stood with Granger in the doorway to the shop, and she touched her hat to ‘em.

  The men cleared a space for her, and she pulled Rich and Wade up onto the boardwalk, giving Rich a hard look.

  “Don’t make me chase you down,” she said. “You ain’t gonna get loose and you ain’t gonna make good. Just embarrassin’, at this point.”

  “Screw you,” he answered.

  She nodded, then drew a deep breath.

  “Durin’ the time that Lawrence was flooded, three Lawsons was charged with tendin’ to the supplies at the shelter what Jimmy Lawson built up in the foothills, in order to make sure nobody died of hunger or floatin’ away what we could prevent. While they was doin’ it, these two killed nine men. First two, it was a fight over supplies, and they did right, doin’ what they had to, keepin’ the supplies safe. After that, though, as was well pointed out to me last night, they killed seven men. These men was unarmed, they was hidin’, and they died over the span of numerous days. Weren’t the heat of the moment drivin’ neither of ‘em, and while I see true enough they was doin’ it to keep the supplies they was protectin’ safe, they did it when there weren’t an obvious threat, and they did it speculatin’ who was likely to be a problem, not who were actually a threat. Ain’t no justifyin’ that. None. And today, I mean to hang ‘em for it.”

  There was an eruption of reaction to this, cheers and jeers from the crowd, conversation among the Lawrence natives, a lot of yelling just in general.

  “No,” Rich yelled. “Jimmy won’t let it. Jimmy. Jimmy, tell her.”

  Rich barreled into her and Sarah waved in a couple of the homesteaders what had helped her with hangin’s in the past. They shouldered Rich into position and walked a dumbstruck Wade up next to him.

  Weren’t somethin’ you’d’ve noticed, unless you knew what they was for, likely just writ ‘em off as architecture, but there was five gallows hooks up at the top of Granger’s shop, and five trap doors in the boardwalk underneath ‘em.

  “Granger, will you get the stools?” Sarah asked. The two homesteaders held Rich in place as he continued to shout at Jimmy.

  She threw a rope up over the first gallows hook and tied it to the building, then threw another rope up over the second hook, weavin’ each into a fast noose. She dropped the first over Wade’s head easy enough, watchin’ as he stepped up onto the stool Granger put out for him. Rich tried to dodge, but the homesteaders had him off balance with his arms behind him like they were, and they eventually got him up on the stool, one holdin’ each elbow to keep him from boltin’ again.

  On the opposite boardwalk, there in front of Kayla’s shop, she saw the Lawsons, includin’ Lise, stood there and watchin’. Sarah didn’t pay ‘em much mind, as the town churned around her, callin’ for Wade and Rich to drop.

  “You mind?” she asked Granger, noddin’ to the walk, and he gave her a soft frown, disapprovin’ of her decision, then dropped down onto the ground to go under and unlock the trap doors. He’d take a quick look at the mechanisms to make sure they was like to work, and then it would be ready.

  Didn’t take but a minute, but the shoutin’ got louder and the crowd pressed tighter against the walk, red-faced men spittin’ anger up at the Lawsons. Rich screamed back, but Wade just stood, unable to come to grips with what would happen next.

  Granger pushed his way up through the crowd and Sarah gave him a hand up onto the boardwalk again.

  “Everything’s set,” he said, gettin’ out his cloth to rub his head. She didn’t wait for what he obviously wanted to say next, just goin’ back to the hole in the boardwalk where the quick-switch was. Granger sighed and went into the store, comin’ back with the throwpiece for it. Sarah fed it into the lever, workin’ it back and forth a bit to work out the sand.

  “Wade Lawson, Rich Lawson,” she yelled, bringin’ some quiet to the crowd, though Rich kept screamin’ at ‘em, alternatin’ with demands that Jimmy bring a stop to everything. “You are convicted of killin’ unarmed men in cold blood.” She looked over at the homesteaders, motionin’ to a number of ‘em. “Back ‘em off.” The men hopped down from the boardwalk and started pushin’ back the rest of the men in the street, and Sarah turned her attention to Rich and Wade. “It’s what you done that caused this,” she said, just for the two of ‘em, then she pulled the lever.

  The world went quiet but for the sound of the wood scrapin’ out from under ‘em, the stools clatterin’ out from below their feet, and they both dropped through the boardwalk.

  And kept fallin’ as the ropes broke.

  Dead silence as two bodies hit sand.

  Sarah let it hang one more moment, then she hopped down off the boardwalk and went to get Rich. She pulled her knife from her boot and cut the ropes on his wrists, then dragged him out into the sun and started tyin’ him back between a pair of hitchin’ posts. She went back for Wade and did the same, though the fight had gone out of Wade.

  She stood between ‘em, lookin’ from one to the other.

 
“Consider this a Lawrence warnin’,” she said. “Wade, you look back there at your wife and you remember this moment the next time you ever consider doin’ something as stupid as what the two of you done.”

  She went from one to the other and slit their shirts all the way down the back from the inside with her knife, then she went to the edge of the clearin’ and let her bullwhip unspool from around her shoulder.

  “You ain’t gonna wanna be back there,” she said to the most-nearby men, feelin’ out the weight of the whip once more as she warmed her arm, then she lay into Rich. Fifteen strokes, each of ‘em what cracked against bone, and she moved on to Wade, givin’ him the same. She motioned Doc down, not carin’ what she saw on Sid’s face, and Doc checked the both of ‘em.

  “You have a cart?” he asked, and she nodded.

  “I’ll ride back with them to get everything put right again,” Doc said. “It was well done, as always.”

  She gave him a grim smile, then went to stand at the edge of the crowd as Doc summoned Sid down and the two men untied Rich and Wade and walked them down the street away from the crowd.

  “What would you have done if the ropes hadn’t broken?” Jimmy asked quietly, from beside her.

  “Called it intervenin’ fate and let ‘em hang,” Sarah answered. “But I cut ‘em damned thin.”

  Jimmy sighed.

  “I’m not sure Kayla is ever going to speak to you again.”

  Sarah nodded.

  “Can’t say I blame her. Needed her to get through to Wade, though. Don’t know it’ll take, with Rich.”

  “You’ve done something I never managed to,” Jimmy said.

  “Reckon you ought get back to the house with everyone,” Sarah said, lookin’ over at him. He was still squintin’ at the ropes, where they’d split some five feet over each of his brother’s heads. He nodded.

  “Yes.”

  “I’ve got a train to meet and Lise to get on that train,” Sarah said. “It’ll be here today, no doubt.”

  “We’ll see if Sunny turns up,” Jimmy agreed, then turned to follow the rest of the Lawsons.

  She turned to find several of the men from the night before, including Torque, waiting for her.