the High Graders (1965) (18 page)

Read the High Graders (1965) Online

Authors: Louis L'amour

BOOK: the High Graders (1965)
9.46Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub

Laine Tennison spoke up sharply.

"Gentlemen, let me tell you this: somebody i s going to get hurt anyway. My attorneys hav e drafted a letter to the governor--I believe h e is Jack Moorman's son-in-law--asking tha t a special officer be appointed to bring law an d order to Rafter. I have requested a complet e investigation."

She paused, looking slowly around the room.

"I have requested an investigation into the stealing o f gold, and also as to the identity of those who have bee n receiving the stolen goods." There was a stir o f apprehension in the room, but she added, "However , I have no wish to bring trouble to anybody else i f I can convict those responsible and recover m y gold."

"That's fair," Townsend said.

"Prosecutin' is one thing," Hayes said , "convictin' is another. Anyway, who is goin'
t o be the one to roust that outfit out of here?"

"If he is told to do it by the townspeople , and if he has support, I think Wilso n Hoyt will do it."

"He'll try," Townsend agreed.

"He's only one man," Hayes said , "only one man against that bunch of fighters Be n Stowe has imported. Why, half of those miner s are no more miners than you or me. They'r e pistol-men from Texas or wherever."

"Gentlemen," Clagg said dryly, "if w e vote to act now, I shall myself walk beside Hoyt."

They looked at him in surprise, all bu t Townsend. "I run a saloon, and the money ha s been good. All the same, I've known it was th e wrong way to run a town. Doc, when you walk ou t there with Hoyt, I'll be right alongside of you."

"Good," Clagg said. "I had an idea that'
s where you'd be, Billy."

"And me too," Fields said. "I haven'
t shot a rifle since the War Between the States, bu t I've got a mighty good shotgun."

Tom Hayes got up quickly. "You're a pack of fools!" he exclaimed angrily.

"I'll have nothing to do with this."

At the back of the room two others ros e quickly and ducked out the door.

Hayes hesitated, as if wanting to sa y something more. "You can't ride the fence, Tom,"

Townsend said quietly. "We called you i n to give you your chance."

"Chance! Why you ain't got no chance at all.

The minute Ben Stowe hears about this you'll all b e riding for a slab on Boot Hill!"

Billy Townsend was smiling a little. "Are yo u going to tell him, Tom?"

Hayes flushed angrily. "No, I ain't!

And don't come blamin' me if he hears of it!"

He went out the door and closed it quickl y after him.

For a moment there was silence, and then Pet e Hillaby stood up. "You can count me in , Doc. I'll stand with you."

In the end, there were nine men left. Docto r Rupert Clagg glanced from one to another. "Al l right, boys. From this moment we go armed, and no on e of us is to be alone. You'll get the word fro m Billy here, and we'll all meet at hi s place. In the meantime I'll have a talk wit h Wilson Hoyt."

When all of them had left, Dr. Clag g turned to Laine. "Well, we've made a start, and I believe we'll carry it off."

"With only nine men?" Laine was frightened.

"Rupert, we've got to get word to Mik e Shevlin before anything happens."

"He's a tough man--we could use him,"

Clagg agreed. He hesitated. "I'l l ride out and get him."

"No," Laine protested. "You stay here.

If you ride out there everyone will know something i s happening. I'll go get him."

And at last he agreed, for there was much to do i n Rafter, and very little time.

Laine Tennison rode her dapple-gra y mare out of town toward Parry's claim, followin g only a few minutes behind Ben Stowe. Sh e rode swiftly, keeping in mind the location o f Parry's claim, for the mining maps of the area that sh e had studied for hours were clearly fixed in he r memory. The trail to the claim was round about , although the actual distance, as the crow flies, was quit e short.

Finally she turned into the narrow canyon. It wa s not hard to recognize the mountain in which the tw o mines were located, and she knew at once the mout h of the discovery tunnel when she saw it. Though th e tunnel had not been used, it was clearl y indicated on her maps.

As she rode up to the claim, the first thing sh e saw was Ben Stowe's horse. Stowe was nowhere i n sight, and neither was Burt Parry or Mik e Shevlin.

Laine stood very still and looked across the canyon.

There was the dump at the discovery claim. And the n she suddenly knew where they were.

She went to her saddlebag and got her pistol.

Chapter
15

When he was well within the tunnel, Mik e Shevlin paused to light his candle, then placed i t in the holder on his cap. Although he had worke d underground, he had never cared much for it; and h e hesitated now, knowing the traps that might lie befor e him.

As he went forward, he counted his steps, and whe n he had gone fifty paces into the tunnel h e paused to listen, but there was no sound. He tilte d his head back, letting the light play on th e rock overhead. It looked solid. The chances wer e that if this place was in use at all, somebody wa s barring down to prevent loose rock from falling.

He walked on a little further, and an ever s o slight bend in the drift cut him off from the spo t of light that was the mouth of the tunnel. Suddenly h e saw the ladder of a manway, and beyond it the end of th e drift. The ladder led upward into the darkness.

Again he listened.

There was no sound but the slow drip of water nea r the end of the drift. He turned and started up th e ladder.

Then he thought he heard the sound of a single-jack, somewhere far off, but the sound cease d almost at once and he was not sure about it. H
e paused again, looking up the ladder, remembering ho w Laine's investigator had been caught in just suc h a place by falling drills. The long stee l shafts must have gone clear through him ... it was a n unpleasant thought.

Suddenly he saw the opening of a drift on hi s left. The ladder continued on upward, but h e stepped off and stood on the platform at the li p of the manway. He listened, but could hear nothing; t hen, squatting on his heels, he studied th e planks of the platform. The dust was thick, an d undisturbed. Obviously this area was unworked , yet the flame of his candle indicated a sligh t movement of air. Somewhere down that tunnel there wa s an opening, either from the drift he was in, or from a connecting one.

He felt nervous and jumpy. This was differen t from facing a man with a gun in the open air. Here i t was dark and still, a place where a man without a ligh t would be helpless. For anyone who had never worke d underground it was always a shock to realize the complet e absence of light, the utter blackness, deep in a mine or a cave. There is no such thing as th e eyes growing accustomed to absolut e darkness ... there one is completely blind.

Anyone he might meet down here would have th e advantage of knowing the mine--he would know ever y manway, every cross-cut, raise, or winze.

He would know where to go and how to get there. Mike, a stranger to the mine, might find himself in an ol d stope or a waste-fill from which there was n o escape.

He turned back to the ladder and bega n climbing, but he paused after only a few steps.

He was perspiring profusely, and he knew it wa s not from heat--it was from fear.

Mike Shevlin had known fear before: only a man who was a fool could say that he had never bee n afraid. On that manway Shevlin would be almos t helpless if someone decided to do to him what they ha d done to the other investigator. And nobody coul d prove it was anything but an accident.

He had climbed only fifty feet when h e heard voices, and far above him he saw a fain t glimmer of light. Someone was coming toward him.

To go back down was impossible in the time h e had, but right above him, on his left, anothe r drift opening showed, black and empty. With quic k steps he was up the ladder and into the dark opening.

He had an instant, no more, in which to see that h e stood on a "station" about twenty feet across; o pposite him the drift disappeared into the depth s of the mountain.

There was no time to hesitate, for already he coul d hear feet on the ladder. He took off his ca p and pinched out the light. And then, in absolut e blackness, he tip-toed across to the tunnel. H
e missed the opening by a few feet, but he found it an d had only just got inside when he saw the glimme r of light nearing the station he had just abandoned.

Feeling his way along the wall of the drift , he worked his way deeper into the mine, hoping for a cross-cut that would enable him to get out of sight.

The men on the ladder might go on down, but if the y stopped he was in trouble.

They stopped.

Flattened against the wall of the drift, h e waited. He could hear the murmur of voices, an d in another moment a man came into sight---
a stocky, powerful-looking man lighting a pipe.

The second man followed. Neither man seeme d to be armed with anything but a pick-handle, though that wa s quite enough in case of a hand-to-hand fight in the mine.

At first Shevlin could hear onl y snatches of their conversation. Obviously, they ha d stopped off on the station to have a smoke ... but wha t would they do when they finished that? Would they come alon g the drift toward him?
h is... jumpy. I tell you, Also, I don'
t like the looks of it. You been down to the Nevad a House since? Or the Blue Horn?"

Shevlin could not distinguish the words of the other man , but the first one spoke again. "Well, I was dow n there, and there wasn't nobody around. That's a ba d sign. I tell you, I can smel l vigilantes. I seen this happen before. You ca n raise all the hell you want, rob a man, o r even kill one, and nobody says much; but yo u bother a woman or do one any harm, and folk s change."

There was another indistinguishable comment, and then: "You may not be worried, but I am. And I a in't the only one. The boss is worried , too. You watched him lately? He's jumpy a s a cat."

Presently they returned to the manway and wen t on down. Shevlin waited for them to be wel l away, then he struck a match and lighted hi s cap-lamp.

He walked on along the drift, passin g several cross-cuts, and once a bank of fou r ore chutes, thick with dust and long unused.

His uneasiness increased with every step. He kne w he was walking into trouble, and the last thing he wante d was trouble underground. In such a place it was alway s risky to use a gun, for the concussion might brin g down some rock, especially in a long-worked area.

It seemed obvious that the two men were guard s following a regular patrol, and they migh t appear again at any time.

He had never seen a working plan of the mine, an d had no idea how extensive the workings were. Ther e was now a continual drip of water, and here and there wer e shallow pools.

Suddenly he came to a cross-cut. A fe w feet in, on one side, was a heavy plan k door, which he found was locked.

This could be a powder room, but he had never see n one built with such care. The heavy planks ha d been set back into the rock on either side an d strengthened by huge twelve-by-twelve posts.

He took hold of the handle of the door, but it was s o solid that it could neither be moved nor shaken. And i t was fitted so snugly that it offered n o place for a bar or wedge. His guess was that th e planks were three-by-twelves--and short of a battering ram or dynamite, such a door could no t be forced. Half an hour's work with a good ax e might do the job--but even so, there might be a guard posted somewhere on the other side of the door.

This then, had to be the opening into the area from which the y were mining the high-grade ore.

The cross-cut beyond the drift on the othe r side was half filled with waste. The main drif t led on into the mountain, and he surmised he was almos t halfway through to the side toward Rafte r Crossing.

Thoughtfully, Shevlin studied the rock in which th e door was framed, but it appeared to be as solid a s the mountain of which it was a part. He stood there a moment, reluctant to give up, and attempte d to visualize his present position in terms of th e two mine shafts. But a man's movemen t underground can be deceptive, and he could not b e sure.

As he hesitated, he felt a growing sens e of uneasiness, a disturbing feeling that he wa s watched. Was there a peekhole, somehow disguised , in the door itself? He shrugged and turned away, hi s cap-lamp throwing a feeble glow around him.

He walked back to the main drift and stoppe d there, wondering if he dared go deeper into the mine.

At the same time, from the corner of his eye, h e glimpsed something that sent a chill through him.

On top of the piled-up waste rock in the othe r side of the cross-cut was a rifle muzzle, an d he had no doubt at all that somebody lay behin d it, ready to shoot if necessary.

An interesting gleam from the wall of the drif t caught his eye, and he stepped over to it, making a pretense of studying the rock. He knocked of f a corner with the prospector's pick he carrie d in his belt and examined it in the light from hi s cap-lamp. As he studied it, he tried to thin k what it was best to do.

Other books

Betrothed by Lori Snow
Rebellious by Gillian Archer
The Christmas Violin by Buffy Andrews
The Feud by Kimberley Chambers
The Heir Apparent by Jane Ridley
Old Lady by Evelyn Glass