the High Graders (1965) (17 page)

All was quiet at Parry's claim cabi n when Mike Shevlin returned. But Parry wa s nowhere to be seen, nor was there any indication that h e had been around the place for hours. Mike wen t back into the mine tunnel, but no further work ha d been done there.

Suddenly feeling uneasy, he came bac k to the cabin. The canyon was utterly still ...
u nnaturally so.

Seated on a bench outside the cabin door , Mike Shevlin cleaned and oiled his Winchester, an d then his pistols, working steadily, but with one of th e guns always at hand and in operating order.

Carefully, he sorted over in his mind all h e knew of Burt Parry, and it was very little.

Where did Burt Parry go when he left th e claim. Shevlin wondered. The question had been a t the back of his mind, but now for the first time he brough t it out into the open to consider.

He certainly had not gone to town, though he ha d ridden in that direction. Aside from the fact that h e had disclaimed any interest in the difficultie s of the people around Rafter, and had even disclaimed an y interest in the gold or the high-grading, he ha d said very little. However, one thing stuck in Shevlin'
s mind. The first time he had seen Parry in th e caf@e, he had been in conversation with Clag g Merriam.

That in itself need not mean anything at all.

Parry seemed a man of some education, appeare d to be of eastern background, and he might have som e things in common with Merriam.

Shevlin glanced up the canyon now, his eye s resting on the dump at the mouth of the old tunne l -comthe discovery claim, Parry had said.

Coming back to his mind was Hoyt's comment that th e high-grade lay between the two mines, and that at th e first hint of discovery the approach tunnels would b e blasted shut. Those explosives should be found an d removed, but that was not up to him. First, he must fin d the cache of gold bullion.

Feeling restless, he wandered back into Parry'
s tunnel, considering the idea of drilling a round o f holes. He scanned the walls, and realized for th e first time that the rock showed no evidence of minerals , no quartz, nothing at all but ordinary rock.

Returning to the outside, he backed off to th e edge of the bench and studied the slope above the mine.

He saw no promising outcropping, nor an y sign of work; yet Parry's ore was suppose d to have been located by a find somewhere on that slope.

Suppose there was no ore there? Suppose thi s operation, this mining claim of Parry's, was a fake, a blind, just a useful cover for some othe r operation? What, then, would it be? A n investigator of some kind? It was possible. O
r ... suppose Parry was put here to watch something?

Suppose during those mysterious absences he wa s keeping guard over something?

Mike Shevlin sat down on the bench and li t a cigar. Suppose, then ... suppose just for th e sake of argument that Burt Parry was guarding th e gold itself. Was he guarding it for the combine? Or fo r one of them against the others?

Stifling his excitement, Shevlin bega n to consider this new possibility. Actually, it wa s of no importance to him just why Parry was watching th e gold, if that was what he was doing. What wa s important was the obvious fact that if he wa s watching the gold it must be close by. The minin g claim must have been located just where it was for a reason.

Parry always went down the canyon, but did h e continue in that direction? Or did he retur n under cover of the brush in the canyon bottom?

Shevlin had once seen him standing on the dum p at the mouth of the old discovery tunnel.

The old discovery tunnel! He got up , his mouth suddenly dry. Suppose ...?

He turned away sharply, and picked up hi s rifle. No use saddling his horse. Th e tunnel was only a few minutes walk up th e canyon.

He had not reached the spring when he heard a clatter of horse's hoofs on the trail fro m Rafter. He hesitated, swore softly, the n turned around, and retraced his steps.

As he got to the cabin, the rider came into th e open area on the bench. It was Red ... the miner wit h whom he had had trouble the day he arrived i n Rafter.

"Get your horse," Red said abruptly.

"Ben Stowe wants to see you!"

Mike Shevlin looked at him calmly, the n took the stub of the extinguished cigar from his pocke t and put it between his teeth. He struck a match wit h his left hand and lifted it to light the cigar.

"If Ben Stowe wants to see me, he know s where to find me."

Red looked surprised. "You want m e to tell him that?"

"You tell him whatever you've a mind to."

Red stared at him. "I got a damn' goo d notion to take you in," he said.

"All right," Shevlin replied, "go ahead.

You take me!"

Chapter
14

Red hesitated a moment, then backed down.

"The hell with it! If you don't want to come , that's your hard luck. I'll tell Ben."

He wheeled his horse and started away , muttering to himself. From the top of a rise in the narro w trail he glanced back. Mike Shevlin wa s gone. "Now where the devil--his"

Red drew rein and turned in his saddle. Wher e could Shevlin have gone so suddenly? As far as tha t went, where had he been coming from when he rode up?

He had acted surprised, and he had seeme d hurried.

Red pulled his horse over against the roc k wall where they would be less visible, and he watche d the canyon for some time. Then he saw a figur e appear on the dump of the old discovery claim.

It was Mike Shevlin, and he vanished into th e tunnel.

When several minutes passed and he did no t emerge, Red swung his horse and cantered of f toward town.

All was quiet when he rode up the street.

Hoyt was standing in front of his office, and Do c Clagg was walking along with his sister and tha t Tennison girl who was visiting them.

The door of Ben Stowe's office was locked , so Red went across to the Nevada House, where h e found Stowe eating.

"He wouldn't come," Red said. "He said if yo u wanted to see him, you knew where he was."

Surprisingly enough, Ben Stowe did not see m angered at that. "All right," he said mildly.

"I'll ride out that way."

"You won't find him," Red said. "He'
s prowling around up the canyon. I saw him goin g into the old discovery tunnel."

Ben Stowe's features stiffened, and the hand tha t held the fork gripped hard. But when he spoke , his voice was casual.

"How long ago was that?"

"Long as it took me to ride in. I cam e right along."

"Thanks, Red. You hang around town, d'yo u hear? I might need you."

When Red had gone, Ben Stowe put his for k down slowly. His appetite was gone completely.

He had been a fool to allow Shevlin to go to wor k up there, but Clagg Merriam had said there wa s nothing to worry about. Working for Bur t Parry would keep him out of trouble, and nobody eve r saw anything that was right under their nose, anyway.

It had seemed a good idea at the time. Mayb e it was still a good idea.

He had planned to offer Shevlin the plac e Gentry had held; now he was not so sure. It wa s unlikely that Shevlin would find anything; and i f he did, they might still make a deal. But why wa s Shevlin nosing around? What was he looking for? An d where was Burt Parry?

It would not do to move hastily, and above all , Red's suspicions must not be aroused. O
f course, he had told Red he would ride out an d talk to Shevlin, and so he would. There are some thing s a man had better do himself.

He forced himself to eat a little more, and to take hi s time over another cup of coffee.

What he did within the next few hours coul d mean the difference between success and failure, betwee n wealth and poverty, even between life and death.

For the first time in his life he felt haunte d by uncertainties. His life until this minute ha d been relatively simple, but within a matter o f days, hours even, the certainties had vanished.

With Gib Gentry's death, the keystone of hi s plan was gone. He had come to despise Gentry , but the man had been essential to their plan, with th e freighting company carefully set up for th e purpose. His death, through Lon Court'
s mistake, left a gaping hole in the carefull y planned structure.

And that girl at Doc Clagg's--whicho was she?

What was she?

Irritation mounted within him, an irritation that wa s born of panic, a panic he stifled. There wa s no reason to get stirred up. First, he must fin d Mike Shevlin, find out how much he knew, an d whether or not he would go along with Ben Stowe.

Thinking of Shevlin's suggestion that Stowe rid e out of town to see him, he swore bitterly , hating the idea of approaching Shevlin with a proposition. Unfortunately, he knew o f nobody else who might get that gold safel y to its destination, nobody at all.

He had an uneasy feeling that things were gettin g out of hand, yet, despite the unfortunate killin g of Eve Bancroft, nothing really seemed amis s that couldn't be taken care of.

Ray Hollister was out of it ... he wa s finished. Ben Stowe should have been please d about that, but Hollister had been a gathering point fo r his enemies. As long as Hollister was around , Stowe had always known where the cattlemen would be.

He went now to the livery stable, strollin g casually along the street. He wanted his manne r to be remembered: he was a man going for a littl e ride after lunch, something he had done occasionall y over the years. That he was going to win an ally o r kill a man before the day was over was something nobod y must guess.

Brazos was not at the stable. Ben Stowe ha d grown accustomed to service, and he disliked saddlin g his own horse. Irritably, he saddled up , led the horse outside, and stepped into the saddle.

Where was that damned hostler, anyway?

At that very moment Brazos was seated in th e kitchen of Dr. Clagg's home with a shotgu n across his knees, and close at hand, a Wincheste r .44. He had been recruited by Clagg as a guard for Laine Tennison.

In Clagg's office several patients ha d arrived for consultation. Billy Townsend, owne r of the Blue Horn Saloon, James Marti n Field, editor and publisher of the Rafte r Blade, and Tom Hayes, who operated a general store, were all there. There were severa l others, chosen with care.

Clagg was speaking to them.

"We will waste no time arguing about the past.

What remains is to see what possibilitie s are open to us now. If any of you have any doubt s as to the purpose of our meeting, it is just this: t o consider the state of affairs in Rafter as of thi s minute.

"A young woman, a well-known and generall y respected owner of a ranch, has been shot dow n on the streets of Rafter. Gib Gentry, a businessman of this town, has been murdered jus t outside it. A notorious killer, imported fo r what reason we do not know, has been slain in th e hills nearby. These killings have all happened i n the last few days."

Hayes shifted uncomfortably, and swea t began to bead his forehead.

"We have a marshal with an excellen t reputation," Dr. Clagg went on, "but he i s also a marshal who is willing to go along with what th e townspeople accept, and within those limits , to keep the peace. That has been the customar y practice in most western communities.

It remains to be seen whether that is sufficien t here."

The outer door opened and closed, then the doo r to the inner office opened, and Laine Tenniso n stood there. "Rupert," she said abruptly, "I b elieve this meeting concerns me. I wish to joi n it."

"I was expecting you," Clagg said. "I t old Dottie to let you know what was happening.

Will you sit down?"

Tom Hayes started to get up, then sat dow n again. "Now look, Doc," he protested, "I a in't sure I want to get mixed up in this.

Things have been going along pretty good, and--wa s "Hold your horses, Tom," Bill y Townsend said easily. "You just set still and liste n to what the Doc has to say. He looks to me lik e a man with ideas."

Hayes glanced around uneasily, but sa t back in his chair. "What about her?" h e grumbled. "What's that girl doin' in here?"

Laine turned on him coolly. "I am her e because I have a bigger stake in this than any of you.

I own the mines--butoth of them."

All eyes turned toward her and she colore d a little, her chin lifting.

"That's right, gentlemen," Clagg said.

"Miss Tennison has another distinction. Sh e is the niece of Eli Patterson, the man whos e murder started all this."

Hayes started at the word "murder," then h e relaxed.

"We are here to make a decision," Clag g said. "Do we wish to continue to live upon th e proceeds of crime and murder, to rear ou r families in an atmosphere of the acceptance o f crime, getting in deeper and deeper each day; o r are we going to make a break with the past an d demand that this town be cleaned up?"

Billy Townsend crossed one knee over th e other, and said, "If we start cleaning up this town , a lot of people are going to get hurt."