Chapter 4 - The Shaft Beneath Black Ridge
Catherine rose.
“How did you get out?”
Caleb stepped into the workshop.
His wrists were tied in front of him.
Nathan appeared behind him holding a knife.
Catherine stared.
“You freed him?”
Nathan shook his head.
“No.”
Caleb smiled.
“One of Vane’s guards did.”
Elias’s hand moved toward his revolver.
Caleb lifted both palms.
“I didn’t come to fight.”
“Then why are you here?” Catherine asked.
“To stop you from opening the mine.”
“Why?”
Caleb’s smile faded.
“Because Rourke said anyone who goes inside doesn’t come back.”
Elias looked at the map.
“That a warning or a threat?”
“Both.”
“Where’s Vane?”
“Gone.”
Catherine frowned.
“He left?”
“With one guard.”
“And the other?”
Caleb looked toward the cabin.
“Took Rourke’s money.”
Nathan cursed.
Caleb nodded.
“Exactly.”
A horse whinnied.
Then came shouting.
Elias blew out the lantern.
Darkness swallowed the workshop.
“Back wall,” he whispered.
Catherine knew the room.
She guided Amos toward a narrow rear door used for hauling lumber.
Nathan followed.
Caleb remained near the front.
“You coming?” Catherine whispered.
He looked toward the voices outside.
“Go.”
She stared at him.
“Caleb.”
“Go!”
Elias took Catherine’s good arm.
They slipped outside.
The snow had become heavier.
Three riders entered the yard.
Then five.
Lanterns moved between the trees.
Rourke’s men.
Catherine crouched behind a woodpile.
“Where do we go?”
Elias pointed uphill.
“The old hunting trail.”
“My shoulder—”
“I’ll get you there.”
“I can walk.”
“I know.”
They moved.
Nathan helped Amos.
Peter Sloan followed carrying the tin box.
Behind them, someone kicked open the workshop door.
“Where is she?”
A shot followed.
Catherine stopped.
“Caleb.”
Elias pulled her forward.
“We can’t go back.”
“He stayed.”
“He chose.”
“He’s my brother.”
“He tried to force your signature an hour ago.”
“That doesn’t mean I want him dead.”
Elias looked at her.
“No. It doesn’t.”
Another shot.
Then Caleb shouted something.
They could not hear the words.
Elias changed direction.
“Where are you going?”
“To keep your brother alive.”
Catherine grabbed his coat.
“No.”
“You just said—”
“I said I don’t want him dead. I didn’t say I want you dead too.”
For the first time, Elias looked surprised.
Then someone approached through the trees.
A figure stumbled toward them.
Caleb.
His plaid shirt was torn at the shoulder.
“You people move slower than old cattle.”
Catherine exhaled.
He had escaped.
Barely.
“Did they see where you went?”
“Probably.”
“Wonderful,” Nathan muttered.
Caleb looked at him.
“Still brave?”
Nathan stepped closer.
“Braver than you think.”
Catherine moved between them.
“Enough.”
Elias unfolded the map beneath his coat.
“There’s a trail leading to an old line cabin.”
“I know it,” Catherine said.
“Can we shelter there?”
“Yes.”
They climbed for nearly an hour.
Catherine’s shoulder became numb.
That scared her more than pain.
Elias noticed.
At the line cabin, he examined it.
“Dislocated.”
She looked away.
“Can you fix it?”
“Yes.”
“Do it.”
“It’ll hurt.”
“Everything already hurts.”
Amos gave her a strip of leather to bite.
Elias reset her shoulder.
Pain exploded through her body.
Then it was over.
Catherine sat shaking beside the tiny stove.
Elias wrapped her shoulder.
“You scream like that again, Rourke won’t need tracks.”
She glared at him.
“Next time I’ll politely whisper.”
His mouth twitched.
Not quite a smile.
Caleb watched them from across the room.
Something unreadable passed over his face.
Jealousy?
Suspicion?
Catherine did not care.
Peter placed the tin box on the table.
They spread out the documents.
Thomas’s letter was longer than expected.
Catherine read aloud.
“To Catherine, if you are reading this, then the thing I feared has happened.”
Her throat tightened.
She continued.
“I did not tell you the full truth because I wanted you to inherit a home, not a burden. That was wrong. A burden kept secret becomes heavier.”
Catherine stopped.
Amos waited.
She forced herself onward.
“My father Samuel and Jacob Boone opened the first shaft in 1872. Silas Rourke joined them with money and equipment. When Jacob discovered Rourke was stealing ore from the claim, the men fought. Samuel later found Jacob dead with a bullet wound before the shaft collapsed.”
Elias’s face became stone.
“Samuel survived?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t he testify?”
Catherine read.
“Samuel believed Rourke would kill our family. He sealed the shaft, hid the claim papers, and told everyone the mine had failed.”
Caleb leaned forward.
“Claim papers.”
Elias looked at him.
“Still thinking about money?”
“I’m thinking if they exist, Catherine owns more than dirt.”
Catherine continued.
“Years later Samuel tried to recover Jacob’s remains. He found the passage blocked from the inside.”
Nathan frowned.
“Again.”
Catherine looked at the map.
“What does that mean?”
Elias answered.
“Someone was alive after the collapse.”
Everyone fell silent.
“Jacob?” Catherine asked.
“Maybe.”
Amos whispered, “Or someone else.”
Catherine returned to the letter.
“If the shaft is ever opened, do not enter without Elias Boone.”
Elias looked up.
Catherine read the next sentence.
“His family deserves the truth before mine deserves the wealth.”
Elias turned away.
Catherine watched him.
“Your father knew,” she said.
“My father knew nothing.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Because he spent his life believing Jacob died in an accident.”
Catherine folded the letter carefully.
“I’m sorry.”
Elias gave a small nod.
The storm strengthened.
Wind pushed snow beneath the door.
Nathan studied the map.
“This mark here.”
He pointed.
“Could be the old ventilation tunnel.”
Caleb leaned over.
“I saw it once.”
Catherine looked at him.
“When?”
“When I was sixteen.”
“Father showed you?”
“No. I followed him.”
“Where does it lead?”
“North side of the ridge.”
Elias studied Caleb.
“You remember?”
“Yes.”
“Exactly?”
“Yes.”
“That convenient?”
Caleb laughed.
“You think I planned this when I was sixteen?”
“I think you plan badly at every age.”
Nathan covered a smile.
Caleb glared.
Amos stood.
“If Rourke is after the old claim papers, he’ll search the main shaft.”
Elias nodded.
“Which gives us one advantage.”
“What?”
“He doesn’t know about the ventilation tunnel.”
Caleb shook his head.
“He does now.”
Catherine stared.
“You told him?”
“Years ago.”
“Why?”
“I was drunk.”
Nathan groaned.
Catherine put both hands over her face.
“Of course you were.”
Caleb leaned forward.
“But I told him the wrong ridge.”
Everyone looked at him.
He smiled.
“Like I said. Drunk.”
Elias looked at the map again.
“We reach the real tunnel before daylight.”
Amos shook his head.
“I’m not climbing farther.”
“You’re not,” Elias said. “You and Peter stay here.”
Catherine immediately said, “I’m going.”
“No.”
She looked at Elias.
“You don’t get to decide everything.”
“Your shoulder was out of its socket twenty minutes ago.”
“And now it isn’t.”
“You can’t use that arm.”
“I can use the other.”
“This isn’t a discussion.”
“It became one when my name appeared on the deed.”
Caleb laughed.
Elias looked at him.
“Something funny?”
“You’ve known her two hours and you’re already losing arguments.”
Catherine pointed toward the door.
“You can wait outside.”
Caleb stopped laughing.
Nathan spoke.
“She should go.”
Elias looked at him.
“Why?”
“Because Father designed the old locks.”
“So?”
“He taught Catherine.”
Catherine nodded.
“Every lock he made had the same double-pin mechanism.”
Elias exhaled.
“Fine.”
Caleb smiled.
“I’m coming too.”
“No,” Catherine said.
“I know the tunnel.”
“So does the map.”
“I know where Rourke thinks it is.”
Elias stared at him.
Then nodded once.
“You walk in front of me.”
“Afraid I’ll run?”
“No.”
“Then why?”
“So if someone shoots from the dark, they hit you first.”
Caleb’s smile disappeared.
Nathan laughed.
For the first time that night, Catherine did too.
It hurt her lip.
But she did not care.
They left before midnight.
Catherine.
Elias.
Caleb.
Nathan.
Four people whose only shared quality was distrust.
The climb became steeper.
Near the ridge, the pine forest thinned.
Caleb found a rock shaped like a broken tooth.
“Here.”
They brushed away snow.
Behind a fallen log was a narrow opening sealed with old timber.
Catherine’s heart pounded.
Elias pulled one board loose.
Air moved from inside.
Warm air.
He stopped.
“Did you feel that?”
Catherine nodded.
Nathan whispered, “The mine’s breathing.”
Elias lit a lantern.
They crawled inside.
The tunnel descended.
Old support beams leaned at dangerous angles.
Catherine’s father’s map showed a chamber fifty yards ahead.
They found it.
A rusted iron door blocked the passage.
Catherine touched the lock.
Thomas’s design.
She used the tip of her knife.
One pin.
Then the second.
Click.
The door opened.
Inside sat a wooden crate.
Caleb rushed forward.
Elias caught him.
Catherine knelt beside the crate.
The lid was nailed shut.
Nathan found a pry bar.
They opened it.
Documents.
Ore samples.
A leather journal.
And a small revolver wrapped in cloth.
Elias lifted the gun.
Rust covered the barrel.
The initials S.R. were carved into the grip.
Silas Rourke.
Catherine picked up the journal.
The first pages belonged to Samuel Miller.
She turned toward the final entry.
Her lantern shook.
“Listen.”
She read.
“Jacob is alive.”
Elias stopped breathing.
Catherine continued.
“He was shot, but he is alive. Silas sealed us in. There is another man with him. I hear them digging from the east wall.”
Elias stepped closer.
“What date?”
“October 14, 1872.”
“That was three days after the collapse.”
Nathan whispered, “Then someone survived.”
Catherine turned the page.
It was torn out.
Every page after it had been removed.
Caleb cursed.
Then they heard something.
A scrape.
Deep inside the mountain.
Catherine froze.
Another scrape.
Metal against stone.
Elias extinguished the lantern.
Darkness.
Footsteps echoed from the tunnel behind them.
A man’s voice carried through the mine.
“Boone.”
Elias raised his revolver.
The voice came again.
Closer.
May you like
“Gideon Rourke wants his grandfather’s gun back.”
And then the iron door slammed shut behind them.
