Chapter 6 - The Mountain Came Down
Dust filled the tunnel.
Daniel covered Claire with his body as rocks fell.
Elias protected Rose beneath his shirt.
The explosion ended.
Darkness followed.
Claire breathed through another contraction.
“How far apart?” Daniel asked.
“I am not timing them.”
“We should.”
“Daniel.”
“Yes?”
“If you ask me another question, I will personally finish what Pike started.”
Elias laughed.
Actually laughed.
Claire stared at him.
“You too.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Daniel found a lantern.
The main tunnel had collapsed.
Elias inspected the stones.
“No way through.”
“Ventilation shaft?” Daniel asked.
“Possible.”
Claire looked at both men.
“And Pike?”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“Still inside.”
They moved deeper.
Claire refused to remain behind.
Every few minutes she stopped to breathe through contractions.
Rose had quieted against Elias.
They reached the lower chamber.
Pike stood beside stacked dynamite.
He held a match.
Daniel raised his rifle.
“Don’t.”
Pike smiled.
“You think this is about silver?”
“No,” Claire said.
Everyone looked at her.
She stepped forward.
“It stopped being about silver the first time your family killed someone to keep it.”
Pike’s eyes narrowed.
“You know nothing about my family.”
“I know enough.”
“You people came here and took land from men who built this town.”
Daniel answered, “You mean people your father murdered?”
Pike struck the match.
Elias moved.
Pike pointed his revolver at Rose.
“Stop.”
Elias froze.
Claire saw the madness in Pike’s face.
Not desperation.
Entitlement.
He truly believed everything belonged to him.
The town.
The mine.
Their lives.
Claire held up the ledger.
“You want this?”
“Yes.”
She tossed it toward him.
Pike instinctively caught it.
Daniel fired.
The bullet struck Pike’s wrist.
The match fell.
Elias kicked it into water.
Pike screamed.
Then ran toward a side tunnel.
Daniel followed.
Claire grabbed him.
“No.”
“He’ll escape.”
“No, he won’t.”
She pointed.
The side tunnel led toward the old north shaft.
The one Daniel had once told her was unstable.
Pike disappeared inside.
A second explosion sounded.
The north shaft collapsed.
Silence.
Daniel stared into the dust.
“Is he dead?”
Elias shook his head.
“Don’t assume.”
Claire almost laughed at the irony.
They found Pike twenty yards inside.
Alive.
Pinned beneath a beam.
His revolver lay beyond reach.
He looked at Daniel.
“Help me.”
Daniel stood over the man who had tried to kill him.
Claire expected hatred.
Instead Daniel lifted the beam.
Elias helped.
They pulled Pike free.
Pike stared at them in disbelief.
“Why?”
Daniel answered, “Because you’re going to stand trial.”
By the time they found the ventilation exit, dawn had arrived.
So had half of Black Ridge.
Jonah stood with ranchers, miners, Martha, Silas, and six territorial marshals.
At their center was Marshal Nathan Cole.
Daniel exhaled.
“About time.”
Nathan looked at Pike.
“Amos Pike, you are under arrest for murder, conspiracy, fraud, kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment, and enough additional charges to keep a clerk busy all winter.”
The crowd erupted.
Pike looked around.
People who had feared him for years no longer moved away.
Silas Bell stepped forward.
“I’ll testify.”
Martha joined him.
“So will I.”
Jonah lifted Daniel’s records.
“And me.”
Brenner added, “Me too.”
Pike looked at Claire.
She held her stomach as another contraction came.
“And me.”
Then she doubled over.
Daniel panicked.
“She needs a doctor.”
Claire hissed, “For once, that is an excellent observation.”
The nearest doctor was in Black Ridge.
They put Claire in a wagon.
Daniel sat beside her.
Elias rode behind with Rose.
People lined the road.
Not cheering.
Watching.
Understanding.
The shackled monster from the auction platform was no monster.
The respected sheriff was.
By afternoon, Claire was in Doctor Harper’s upstairs room.
Labor became harder.
Daniel refused to leave.
Claire crushed his hand through every contraction.
“You survived being shot.”
“Yes.”
“You survived falling from Raven’s Drop.”
“Yes.”
“You can survive this.”
Daniel looked at his fingers.
“I’m less certain.”
She laughed and then screamed.
Hours passed.
At sunset, their son entered the world furious and healthy.
Daniel wept openly.
Claire held the child against her chest.
“What do we call him?”
Daniel looked toward Elias, who waited outside holding Rose.
“Samuel?”
Claire understood.
For Elias’s brother.
For Rose’s father.
She nodded.
“Samuel Daniel Whitaker.”
Elias heard the name.
He turned away.
His shoulders shook once.
That evening, Claire rested while Daniel sat beside her.
For the first time in months, there was no secret between them.
Or so she thought.
Nathan entered.
He held Daniel’s recovered ledger.
“We have a problem.”
Daniel stood.
“What?”
“Pike is talking.”
Claire looked up.
Nathan’s expression was grim.
“He says he didn’t order Daniel’s murder.”
Daniel frowned.
“He was there.”
“He admits that.”
“Then what is he saying?”
Nathan opened the ledger.
“There was someone above him.”
Silence.
Claire felt cold.
“Who?”
Nathan looked at Daniel.
Then Claire.
“The initials J.W. weren’t Daniel’s.”
Claire remembered the auction ledger.
J.W.
The letters Elias had recognized from Daniel’s map.
Nathan continued.
“They belong to the person who financed Pike.”
Daniel’s face changed.
Claire whispered, “Who?”
Before Nathan could answer, the church bell began ringing outside.
Not once.
Not twice.
An alarm.
Elias burst through the door.
His face was white.
“Rose is gone.”
On the empty cradle downstairs, someone had left a silver calling card.
May you like
Two initials were engraved on it.
J.W.
