Deadly Lode (Trace Brandon Book 1) (4 page)

I
managed to
shrug out of my backpack. Kick
ing
as hard as I could
to stay afloat
,
I
shot-putted my pack to solid ground
on the portal side of the adit
. I could stay afloat now
,
but
need
ed
to find a place to crawl out.
T
he water smelled like
dead rats
and
was
cold as ice.

Now
in
full
-
blown
survival mode
with
Mr. Hypothermia
tapping me on the shoulder,
I worked my way into a corner of the winze
,
where I could get some leverage
with my steel
-
toed boots.
Using my rock hammer
like an ice pick
and
jamming my toes into any purchase,
I managed to pull and crawl my way out.

My ascent from the abyss probably
wouldn't have made
the next issue of
Rock Climber
,
but
I
made it
out
.
Cold and smelling
like
w
eek
-
old kitty litter
,
I g
rabb
ed
my pack
and
headed
, a bit more cautiously,
back to the
portal
.

Clearing the portal
, I
went straight to Montana Creek and cleaned up as best I could
.
I
draped
my clothes over
h
uckleberry bushes and
laid out
my gear and myself over several large
,
flat, sun
-
warmed boulders.

I
’
d
nearly drowned in some damned stinking mine
,
and now
,
lying
bare-assed in
the sun
,
my mind start
ed
drifting back to my last date with Tina.
Jesus,
I thought
,
g
uys
really
are hopeless.

After a nap, I put my mostly dry clothes back on and rounded up my gear. I was anxious to see how the samples looked in sunlight.
I opened a couple of sample bags and
e
xamin
ed
several of the larger
rock chips
with my ten
-
power hand lens
.
I confirmed the
presence of
c
halco
pyrite, a copper sulfide, secondary copper minerals, pyrite, and a ton of pitchblend
e
.

Holy moly
. . .
this could be good
, I
thought
as I bagged up the
samples.

C
hapter
2

I
hardly remember the walk back down to the Bronco.
All I could think about was
the rich uranium ore
.
I
p
ull
ed
my cell phone out of the glove box
and
checked the signal
. B
arely two bars.
I dialed Will
’
s cell phone and
managed to
g
e
t through.

“
Will, Trace
,
here
. A
re you where you can talk?
”

“
Affirmative
,
old man, what
’
s up?
”

“
I may have found the mother lode, Will. I am going to give you some township and range information.
Can you get on the Bureau of
Land
Management
'
s
website and check for
current
claims?
”

“
Can do
,
amigo
. F
ire when ready.
”

“
Okay, sections
sixteen
and
twenty
-
one
,
T
ownship
thirty
-
six
north,
R
ange
twenty
e
ast.
Got that?
”

“
Got it.
”

“
Second thing, Will
. C
all the county clerk at the Okanogan County courthouse and have them run a claim search on any claims filed in the last ninety days in the sections I just gave you. Also,
we need to see if there are
any patented claims
in those sections
.
”

“
Can I get in on this, Trace?
”

“
You
’
r
e
already in, p
ard
. Just call me back when you have any claim information.
”

“
On it
, and thanks, Trace
.
”

Back at the
W
, I started formulating a claim
-
staking program. This would have to be kept very, very
,
quiet. There
’
s no shortage of
slime
ball
s and
crooks in the mining game
.

I plotted the bearing of the vein and figured about three claims in width and ten claims in length should cover the
vein
structure. Each lode claim is allowed to be a maximum of fifteen hundred feet
in length
by six hundred feet wide, equaling
a little over
20
acres.
In total, I was looking at staking about
619
acres, just less than a
full
section.

Rather than stake the claims myself,
I wanted a registered surveyor to
do the job. And I knew just the fellow
,
Ken Hodg
es
. Ken
’
s office was in
Chelan
, Washington, only a couple of hours from the Sullivan Mine. We
’
d
worked
together
on a number of claim
-
staking
projects in the past
. H
e ran a first
-
class operation
and
documented everything
, i
ncluding photographing
the front page of a
local
newspaper
alongside
each location monument
. So
,
there
’
d be no doubt as to when th
e monument was staked. Ken also used state of the art GPS equipment and could tie each location monument and claim stake to within about two centimeters.

As
an
independent
third party,
Ke
n would be able to
testify
to the validity of my claims
,
should the need arise.
I knew of
a number of low
-
life scum suckers
who routinely over
-
staked new claims
. They
hop
ed
for an out
-
of
-
court
cash
settlement
,
o
r
,
even better, a court
-
appointed fractional claim interest.

One of the worst bottom dwellers
,
Cyrus
't
he Virus
'
McSweeny
,
i
mmediately c
ame
to min
d
.
The Virus
operated out of Spokane under the name of Columbia Resources, LLC.
It
was rumored
he also owned
interests in offshore holding companies.

Cyrus
’
s
resume
was colorful, to say the least.
H
e wrote the book on
pump
-
and
-
dump
stock scams. And he
’
d been accused, more than once
,
of
naked
short selling
, selling shares he didn
'
t own
,
via his offshore accounts.
His favorite
scam
, however,
remained
over
-
staking
newly staked
mining claims
.

A
lways on
various agenc
ies
radars,
h
is only
pinch
,
so far
,
was
for income
tax evasion
. The judge gave him five years
at
the
federal pen
,
in Sheridan, Oregon
.

The Virus
could smell a
new mineral discovery
.
I figured it was just a matter of time
.

Will called back just before I headed down to the
W
'
s
dining room for a celebratory
st
e
ak and a good
bottle of
Washington State
wine
.

“
Howdy,
Will
. W
hat did you find?
”

“
Good news, Trace.
No current claims
in sections
sixteen
or
twenty
-
one
. Sullivan Mining Company staked most of both sections in the late
eighteen hundreds
, but those claims are all long since closed.
No
p
atented ground
,
either.
You
’
re good to go.
”

“
Great news, Will. I
’
m
going to call Ken Hodg
es
in the morning and get him and his crew up here
ASAP
.
”

“
Good plan, Trace. Listen
,
if you need me to come up, just give me a holler.
”

“
Okay,
Will
,
and thanks.
”

Th
e next morning I called Ken
’
s office
in Chelan
and filled him in on my staking program. I told him I needed the staking done as quickly and quietly as possible
,
with
a
maximum of documentation.

“
Expecting problems, Trace?
”

“
Could be, Ken. I always worry about some jerk over
-
staking me and claiming he was there first.
”

“
Cyrus the Virus?
”

“
He
’
s on the top of the list.
”

“
Don
’
t worry, Trace
. B
y the time my crew is done staking, we
’
ll have the claims documented
to where they
'
ll stand up in any court.
”

“
Perfect.
When can you start?
”

“
Send me the proposed claim locations and give me a few days to get all the location forms and claim tags prepared. Today is Wednesday
. H
ow does this coming Monday sound?
”

“
Sounds good
.
I
’
ll head back to my office
today
and e
-
mail you the
claim data.
It will also give me a chance to send some samples of
f
to the lab for assays.
”

“
Okay, see you on Monday, Trace.

The next morning I was back in my office
, e-
mailing Ken the claim data. I picked up the phone and called Will.

“
Will,
it
’
s
Trace
. C
an you come over for a couple minutes
?
”

“
I can be there in about fifteen minutes
. W
hat
’
s up?
”

“
I want to show you some samples I grabbed at the Sullivan.
”

While I waited for Will, I split
the samples from
each
bag
into two equal parts
. O
ne for the lab to assay
,
and one for safe keeping.

In about fifteen minutes, there was a knock on my door
,
and
Will
stepped into
my office.

“
Take a look at these, Will.
”

“
Holy
crap
, they look like pure sulfides
. . .
and
m
an
,
are they heavy.
”

“
Right on both counts, amigo. According to the old production reports, the Sullivan ran about three
-
quarters of an ounce gold with
about
one and a
half
percent
copper
.
”

“
What
’
s the kind of pitchy
-
looking black mineral?
”

“
That
,
my friend
,
is why the samples are so heavy
. I
t
’
s pitchblende uranium.

“
Damn, are they hot?
”

“
About off scale. Best I
’
ve ever seen.
”