Chapter 5 - What Henry Had Hidden
Silas raised his rifle.
Henry raised the pistol.
Bessie stood between them.
"Put them down."
Neither man moved.
"Both of you."
Silas looked at Henry.
Henry looked at Silas.
Bessie stepped directly into the line between the guns.
Amos swore.
"Bessie."
She ignored him.
"If either of you shoots, you'll hit me."
Silas lowered his rifle first.
Henry followed.
Bessie held out her hand.
"My book."
Henry hesitated.
"Why did you take it?"
"To save you."
"By hitting Tom?"
"I didn't hit him."
Tom groaned from the pantry doorway.
"He's telling the truth."
Everyone turned.
Tom held his head.
"Doctor found me after."
Bessie looked at Henry.
"Then who attacked him?"
Henry placed the kitchen ledger on the table.
"Nolan Pike's brother."
Silas frowned.
"Pike doesn't have a brother."
"Not publicly."
Henry sat heavily.
"His name is Vernon."
Earl entered just in time to hear it.
He stopped.
"Vernon?"
Henry nodded.
Earl's face darkened.
"The masked man."
Amos looked at him.
"You knew?"
"Didn't know his name."
Earl touched the wound on his head.
"But Pike wasn't alone when I got jumped."
Henry opened Bessie's ledger.
"I've known Vernon twenty years."
"How?" Silas asked.
"He worked as an enforcer for the mining syndicate back east."
Bessie stared.
"What does that have to do with Black Ridge?"
"Everything."
Henry explained.
Pike had not simply been stealing silver.
He was buying the mine.
Quietly.
Not legally.
The Black Ridge Mining Company was failing on paper because shipments were being diverted.
Investors believed the vein was drying up.
Shares were losing value.
Once the company collapsed, Pike planned to purchase the property through another firm for almost nothing.
Then he would reveal the true richness of the deposit.
"Millions," Henry said.
Nobody spoke.
Bessie looked at Earl.
"You helped him."
Earl nodded miserably.
"I moved shipments."
"Why?"
"My boy got sick two years ago."
Bessie knew Earl's son had died.
"Treatment cost more than I had."
"Pike offered money."
"And afterward?"
"He owned me."
Earl looked at his boots.
"Every time I tried to quit, he reminded me I could hang for what I'd done."
Amos asked, "Vernon cut the supports?"
Henry nodded.
"Pike couldn't risk you telling the owners."
"How do you know?"
"Because Vernon came to me last night."
Bessie stared.
"Why?"
"He needed laudanum."
Silas stepped forward.
"You gave it to him?"
"No."
"Then how did he get it?"
"He put a pistol against my head."
Henry's voice remained flat.
"He said Pike needed enough to make Amos's death look merciful if the mountain failed to finish him."
Bessie felt fury rise so quickly she became lightheaded.
Henry continued.
"I followed Vernon after he left. That's how I knew he came here."
Tom touched the cut on his head.
"He found me searching the kitchen."
"For what?"
Tom looked embarrassed.
"Earl told me to find Mrs. Mercer's account books before Pike did."
Bessie looked at Earl.
"You trusted Tom?"
"I trust him now."
Tom continued.
"Vernon caught me."
"He took the books?" Silas asked.
"No. Doctor got here before he found them."
Henry nodded.
"I hid them in my coat."
Bessie looked at the ledger.
"So Pike doesn't know you have this."
"No."
"Good."
Amos's eyes narrowed.
"Maybe better than good."
Everyone looked at him.
"We can use it."
Bessie understood immediately.
"As bait."
Amos nodded.
Silas shook his head.
"No."
"It's the only proof Pike thinks still exists."
"We have the company ledger."
"Partial proof. Pike can claim Earl falsified it."
Earl grimaced.
"He'd probably succeed."
Henry tapped Bessie's book.
"But this matches dates nobody outside camp could predict."
Meals served.
Night shifts.
Wagon crews.
Amos looked at Bessie.
"Your records prove the silver moved when Pike said it didn't."
Bessie stared at the ordinary book she had used to count beans and flour.
All those nights of careful numbers.
All those times miners joked that she worried too much about scraps of paper.
Now the book might save them.
Silas said, "How do we bait him?"
Bessie answered.
"We make him believe it's still hidden."
"Where?"
"The cabin."
Amos shook his head.
"No."
She turned.
"What?"
"Pike will expect that."
"Then where would he not expect it?"
Bessie thought.
The answer made her smile.
"The kitchen."
Earl stared.
"That's where Vernon already searched."
"Exactly."
They placed a false ledger in Bessie's pantry.
Old supply records.
Wrapped carefully.
Then spread word that Bessie had recovered her missing book.
Black Ridge was small.
Secrets lasted minutes.
By sunset, everyone knew.
They waited.
Silas hid behind flour barrels.
Earl stayed in the alley.
Henry watched from the infirmary.
Amos insisted on sitting in the kitchen despite his leg.
Bessie allowed it only because she knew he would come anyway.
Hours passed.
No one came.
At ten, Amos whispered, "Maybe he knows."
At eleven, Bessie nearly believed it.
Then the pantry window moved.
A hand appeared.
Bessie held her breath.
Glass lifted.
A man climbed inside.
Not Pike.
Vernon.
He was taller than his brother.
Narrow-faced.
Cold-eyed.
A scar crossed his chin.
He moved silently.
Found the package.
Picked it up.
Silas stepped from behind the barrels.
"Drop it."
Vernon froze.
Earl entered behind him.
"Evening."
Vernon looked from one gun to the other.
Then smiled.
"You boys think Nolan sent me?"
Bessie frowned.
"Didn't he?"
"No."
Amos gripped his chair.
"Then why are you here?"
Vernon looked directly at Bessie.
"For her."
Silas moved closer.
"Bad answer."
Vernon raised both hands.
"I didn't come to kill her."
Bessie stared.
"You attacked Tom."
"He surprised me."
"You tried to kill Amos."
"I was told to."
"By Pike."
Vernon smiled.
"No."
The room became silent.
Amos spoke first.
"Who?"
Vernon looked toward Henry.
The doctor went pale.
"You know," Vernon said.
Henry shook his head.
"No."
"Tell them."
Henry backed away.
Bessie looked at him.
"Henry?"
The doctor sat down.
Twenty years seemed to fall onto his face.
"It wasn't Pike who started this."
Silas stared.
"Then who?"
Henry whispered, "The company."
Bessie frowned.
"What company?"
"The owners."
Amos's expression changed.
Henry continued.
"They discovered the richest silver pocket in Colorado two years ago."
"That's good news," Earl said.
"No."
Henry looked at them.
"The vein crosses federal land."
Silas understood.
"They can't legally claim it."
"If regulators find out, most of the north workings close."
"So Pike was stealing from them?"
"At first."
Henry looked toward Vernon.
"Then he learned the company was already stealing it themselves."
Bessie felt dizzy.
"Then why destroy the mine?"
"To erase evidence."
Vernon nodded.
"Nolan wanted the silver. The company wanted silence."
Amos stared.
"And you?"
Vernon smiled faintly.
"I work for whoever pays."
Earl raised the rifle.
"Comforting."
Suddenly a whistle sounded outside.
One long blast.
Silas's face changed.
"Explosives warning."
Another whistle.
Closer.
Vernon looked toward the north ridge.
His smile disappeared.
"That's too soon."
Bessie grabbed his arm.
"What is?"
He pulled free.
"The company isn't waiting for Pike anymore."
A deep boom rolled beneath their feet.
Plates fell from shelves.
The floor shook.
Amos shouted, "Everyone out!"
They rushed into the street.
High above Black Ridge, a line of fire flashed inside the abandoned south tunnel.
Then another.
Silas stared upward.
"They're blasting the mountain."
Vernon looked toward Bessie.
"If they reach the main powder chamber, this whole valley comes down."
Another explosion thundered.
Then the church bell began ringing.
Not from the wind.
Someone was inside.
Bessie turned.
A small figure stood in the bell tower window.
Caleb.
The injured nineteen-year-old miner.
May you like
He was waving desperately.
And behind him stood Nolan Pike with a gun...
