HisBootsUnderHerBed (8 page)

“And did you tell him to the contrary?”

“No. I doubt he’d believe your story any more than I do. I knew he’d never hurt me because I’m a woman, but I was afraid of what he might do to
you.
”

Paddy hung his head like a youngster caught with his fingers in the cookie jar. “I’m sorry, darlin’. You’re a good daughter, and I don’t deserve you.”

“That’s right; I’m too good to be a party to theft. So you have to tell Garth the truth and give him back his mine.”

“Now, why would you want me to do such a fool thing, girl? I’ve as much right to the mine as he does. The map would have been lost to him, anyway, so we might as well take our chances with it.”

“Is that how you justify
stealing
it instead of giving it back to him? I’ll never believe another word you say.”

“’Tis the truth, darlin’. I swear on the grave of your sainted mother, may she rest in peace.”

“How do you expect her to, when you act like this?”

“You agreed to try it for a month, and if there’s no gold by then, we’d leave. Are you going back on your word?”

“I’ll not be bound by any promise made to a lie. As soon as you get your strength back, Patrick Michael O’Grady, we’re leaving!”

Rory had a pot of coffee and bacon and potatoes frying in a skillet when Garth reappeared, wearing a clean shirt and leading a horse, with a gray shaggy dog following behind.

“I’m about to eat. Do you care to join me?” she asked.

“I don’t usually break bread with my enemies.” Then he sniffed the freshly brewed coffee. “Guess I could use a cup of coffee, though.”

“I figured you could.” She handed him a steaming cup and went back to the fire.

“So where’s Paddy?” he asked, blowing on the steaming liquid.

“He bedded down.”

“Without eating?”

“He was more exhausted than hungry. When did you adopt the dog?”

“Actually, he adopted me on the way to Tierra de Esperanza. I removed a splinter in his paw, and he’s been with me since.”

“What do you call him?”

“I thought I’d call him Saddle. Boots is my horse and Saddle’s my dog. Apropos for an ex-cavalry man, don’t you think?”

“The reason why escapes me.”

“ ‘Boots and Saddle’ is the bugle call to mount up.”

“Really? Glory be, just think: if any more animals adopt you, you can add a Bugle or Guidon to your menagerie.”

He finally cracked a smile. “Gotta admit, you’ve got a good sense of humor. And a man sure has to hold on to his when he meets up with you, Miss O’Grady.”

“You can call me Rory. It’s acceptable to drop the formality after kissing a woman.”

“Now I see your angle; you put me on the defensive and I back off. Won’t work, Miss O’Grady.”

The hot coffee tasted good, and was a reminder that he hadn’t eaten since dawn. Still he made a token protest when she handed him a fork, a plateful of the bacon and potatoes, and a hunk of hardtack.

“Don’t be stubborn, Fraser. There’s no sense in letting this food go to waste.”

Her appealing smile was as persuasive as the smell of the food. “Okay, but just this once.”

“Do your animals need to be fed?”

“No, I fed and watered them already.”

The food hit the spot and tasted a damn sight better than the cold jerky he had planned on eating.

“Thanks, that was very good,” he said when he finished.

Rory refilled his plate, and his eyes followed her as she filled a plate for herself and sat down to eat. What a shrewd little operator she was. After what she did to him, did she think she could buy his trust with a damn plate of bacon and potatoes?

And worse, even though he was still angry with her, he realized he still desired her physically. At least he was smart enough not to trust her again.

“Looks like you know your way around a campfire pretty well.”

“I do. Pop and I have seen our share of campfires. After Mum died, there were times we had to sleep under the stars.”

“What kind of times?”

“Oh, for instance if we didn’t have money to take a stage, or…” Her voice trailed off.

“Or what, Rory?”

Her eyes flashed in irritation. “Or we had to sneak out of town without paying for our room. Is that what you wanted to hear?”

“Is that the reason you’re up here? You’re a fool, Rory. You’re wasting your life. Get away from your father, before he corrupts you any more than he has already.”

“What I do with my life is none of your business.”

“It became my business when you stole from me. You sure had me fooled, lady. I thought you were decent and honest, when all the time you were setting me up to get your hands on my map.”

She jumped to her feet. “The map fell from your pocket when you were fighting with McGill. If I hadn’t picked it up, somebody else would have, so you’d have lost it regardless. Do you think the sheriff would have given it back to you? Even if he’d put no stock in a damn map to a gold mine, he would have destroyed it out of sheer nastiness. So why don’t you just go ahead and shoot Pop and me, if it will satisfy your need for revenge.”

“If I wanted revenge, I wouldn’t have risked my life when you were under attack. I’d have let them gun down your father and have their way with you before they killed you. They weren’t after your mine. They were after your mules and you, lady! You had to be plain loco to come up here with nothing better than a sick old man to protect you. Father Chavez must have warned you of the danger.”

“Yes, and Pop told me to stay behind. He’s not as irresponsible as you accuse him of being.”

“And you’re not the innocent I once believed you to be. No matter what you want me to believe, you’re just as bad as he is. The lure of gold brought you up here.”

“Believe what you want. I’m not going to try to convince you otherwise. I’m grateful you risked your life to save Pop and me, and regret you were hurt doing it.

“Good night, Captain Fraser. You and your regiment are welcome to share our campfire for the night.”

S
addle was lying at his feet when Garth awoke. He sat up and stretched, and the dog came up and licked his face.

“Good morning, Saddle,” Garth said, scratching him behind the ears. “How long have you been awake?”

Paddy was snoring loudly a short distance away, and Garth glanced around for Rory. Her bedroll was rolled up neatly and tied, but there was no sign of her. Then he heard a scraping sound coming from the nearby trees and got up to investigate. He found her digging a hole.

“Good morning.”

She glanced up from the bottom of the hole. “I expected you’d be gone when I woke up.”

“Obviously you haven’t had your second cup of coffee,” he said.

“How’s your shoulder?”

“Doing fine. I checked it this morning and changed the bandage, so don’t try to change the subject. You don’t intend to pay any attention to what I said yesterday, do you?”

“We already had this argument. I told you what I intend to do.” She tossed up the shovel. “I think this hole’s deep enough.”

He reached out a hand and pulled her up. “Why are you digging this hole?”

“I’m sure not going to stay here with dead bodies lying around.”

“You should be leaving, not digging.”

“I said we would leave as soon as Pop is rested.”

“I thought you meant overnight.”

“That’s your mistake, not mine. I’m not a member of your regiment, Garth, so I don’t have to take your orders.”

“It was meant as advice, Miss O’Grady. The scent could attract wild animals. If you had told me that last night, I would have disposed of them.”

“Yes,
your
way.”

“Do me the favor of going back and getting that second cup of coffee down you, will you? I have no desire to stand here and argue. I’ll finish up here.”

“Four hands are better than two,” she said.

Garth dragged the bodies over to the grave and dumped them into the hole, then shoveled the dirt back in. “There. Does that ease your conscience? Now be sure to pray for their rotten souls.”

He tossed the shovel aside and stormed away.

Rory watched him ride away with Saddle trotting at his side. Why couldn’t he understand she wasn’t defying him? As soon as Pop was well enough to travel, they were leaving.

After several anxious hours, Rory was happy to see Garth’s return. She waved and shouted excitedly, “Garth, I’ve found the mine.”

“Really?” He dismounted. “Are you sure it’s my uncle’s?”

“See for yourself.”

She had cleared away the foliage that had concealed a boarded-up entrance to a mine. Time and nature had washed away most of the paint from the stakes, but the letters
H
and
F
were distinguishable on one stake and an
F
and part of an
S
followed by an
E
on the other one.

Rory grabbed a sack of supplies and carried it into the mine. Garth picked up one of the heavier pouches and put it down beside several others lined against the wall.

“What’s the sense of unpacking all of this, if you’re going to leave when he’s feeling better?”

She sighed deeply. “Garth, he’s too ill right now. So please stop harping about it?”

In a lighter vein, she said, “There’s a crude tunnel that appears to be partially manmade. It’s only about four or five feet high, so it’s too low to stand up in, but in parts, its roof and sides have been shored up with posts.”

“How long is the tunnel?”

“Pop figures at least twenty feet. It must have been a tremendous job for someone to do alone.”

“That doesn’t make sense. Why would Uncle Henry put all this work into a mine he didn’t even file a legal claim on?”

“How well did you know your uncle?”

“I adored him. Whenever he’d come back to Fraser Keep, he’d talk about hitting the big strike or finding a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. I was only six when he left for California in ’forty-five, and that was the last time I saw him. The only reason I came out here was to trace his route and fulfill his dream.”

“Do you still feel there’s a threat of being attacked again?”

“It’s hard to say, but I don’t see evidence of any regular bandit activity around here. I’m prone to think those five who attacked you were not part of a larger gang. All that shooting would have brought the rest of the gang here by now. Just the same, I wouldn’t push your luck too far; get out as soon as you can. I intend to do the same. I have no desire to die alone here on this mountain, and enough sense to know I probably will, if I remain too long myself.”

“From the beginning, I thought it was a mistake to come here,” Rory said. “But what were our options? After the incident in the Grotto, we had to get out of Buckman, and as long as we had the map, Pop was determined to come here.”

“That doesn’t explain why you came with him.”

She looked at him, appalled. “I would think that would be obvious. I was concerned about his health, and since I had no better place to go except another saloon in another town, why wouldn’t I?

“Furthermore, the thought of camping in the mountains for a while didn’t sound too bad. No matter what you think, I’m not consumed with gold fever—though maybe, deep down, I did hope we’d strike gold. It wasn’t until Father Chavez’s warning that I realized I’d made a big mistake.”

“Why didn’t you back out then and sit it out at the mission?”

“Pop’s the only one I have in this world.” Her voice faded in despair. “It’s not easy to run out on someone you love, Garth.” She turned away and went back outside.

For another long moment Garth remained and glanced around at the mine.

What in hell are you even doing here, Fraser? Is this what you’ve been wasting your life dreaming about for the past twenty years?

He turned away in disgust and went over to where Rory had made Paddy a bed under the shade of a tree.

“How are you feeling, Paddy?”

“Curse this cough. I feel as helpless as a newborn babe.” He winked and grinned. “Knocks the legs out from under a man worse than a pint of straight Irish.”

“Well, take it slow, and as soon as you’re on your feet again, I’ll give Rory a hand in getting you back to the mission.”

“Aye, that I will, me boy.”

“Are you returning to town?” Rory asked when he climbed back on Boots.

“You’re not getting rid of me that easily. More than likely I’ll hold off and go back with you.” He tipped his hat. “Take care, Miss O’Grady,” he said, and he rode away.

A half mile farther, Garth reined up at the site of a narrow waterfall spilling from a rocky crag above. Dismounting, he walked over to the water’s edge and cupped a handful. It was refreshing and tasted as pure as spring water. But his uncle had never drawn a waterfall on the map he’d sent. Why not?

Garth moved away to the shade of a tree where he could look at it more from a frontal view. The sun’s rays gleamed with the spectrum of the rainbow through the waterfall’s misty spray. Something about the sight of it began to tweak at his memory.

“What can it be, boy?” he murmured, stroking Saddle’s head. “What’s my brain reaching for? A vision? A forgotten dream?”

His thoughts kept going back to the question of why his uncle hadn’t indicated the waterfall on the map. It would have been an easy landmark to find.

The longer he stared at the waterfall’s spectrum of colors, the harder he thought, going over every detail of the map and his uncle’s letter.

Suddenly Garth bolted to his feet. “I’ve got it!” Saddle leaped to all fours with his ears perked alertly in response.

“In his letter, Uncle Henry called the mine
the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow
! That’s the clue, Saddle! The
waterfall
’s rainbow! He had the sense to figure that the map might fall into the wrong hands, so he left it off deliberately. I bet that’s why he didn’t file a claim, too. The mine is right here, not a half mile away. Uncle Henry, I should have known you were too smart to do the obvious.”

Due to the moisture from the waterfall, the foliage was thicker and higher here. Garth got down on his knees and began to search until he found what he was looking for—two stakes driven into the ground, marking the claim.

Garth grabbed the pick from the pack tied to the saddle and began to dig and toss away the rubble that had concealed a split in the granite wall of the mountain. He had to duck his head to get through it, but once inside, he let out a loud whistle and stood up.

“This is a natural cave, Saddle,” he told the dog, who was already sniffing out the corners of the cavern.

Garth checked out the cave’s interior. There were signs of where his Uncle Henry had started to dig on the rear wall. The cave was dry, and with some effort, he could probably enlarge the opening to stable Boots inside at night.

And then he saw the one thing that absolutely convinced him. Garth’s heart swelled with emotion as he stared at the
H
.
F
. carved on the wall of the cave, then reached out and traced the letters with his fingertips.

“I didn’t give up on you, Uncle Henry. I told you I’d find it.”

The first thing he did was unload his saddlebags and the rainproof pack tied to his saddle. Along with a blanket, hygiene supplies, and a few changes of clothing, he had brought jerky and coffee, some tin dishes, a coffeepot, frying pan, a couple of crucial mining tools, and ammunition for his rifle and pistol.

Since the waterfall was a source of fresh water, there’d be no need to haul that in. But there was always a need for meat and firewood, so he gathered and stacked plenty of wood in the cave, and as he set a couple of snares, he said a special thanks to the Boxer brothers, two backwoodsmen in his regiment who had taught him how to trap birds and small mammals.

Next, he set to the task of enlarging the opening of the cave. He cut away as little of the foliage as possible to prevent it from being seen by a casual observer.

With only a thin wall of dirt and rock, due to the hollowed cave behind it, enlarging the opening was easier than he had anticipated. By dusk, he had made an opening large enough to accommodate his horse.

“We’ll all have a roof over our heads now, Boots.”

Satisfied with the results of his labor, Garth realized he hadn’t eaten all day. He built a fire, washed up, and then answered the growl of his stomach with hot coffee and jerky.

As he took a bite off the stick of jerky, he thought about the fried bacon and potatoes that Rory had fed him last night. It sure had been more appetizing than jerky.

Satisfied he had done as much as he could for that day, Garth spread out his bedroll under the protective roof of the cave and the watchful eyes and alert ears of Saddle, and closed his eyes.

For a long time he lay thinking about the day’s unexpected development. Since he had found his uncle’s mine, whose mine had the O’Gradys found?

Father Chavez had told him there weren’t any other claims filed in this area, and he couldn’t believe his Uncle Henry would have put all that labor into building a tunnel in a fake mine just to throw off the curious—which again raised the question of why his uncle hadn’t filed a claim on the proper mine, to protect himself from claim jumpers.

Then he recalled the priest had indicated that there had been another man who had shown interest in this area. What was the miner’s name? Harold…Hubert? Herbert? Yeah, Herbert. Now think, Fraser, what was it? Herbert…ah, Forsen. Herbert Forsen, that was it!

That would explain the initials
H
.
F
. on the stakes: Forsen and his uncle had identical initials. The letters in the other cave stood for Herbert Forsen, not Henry Fraser.

Which meant the O’Gradys would have wasted their time and money on a mine that Forsen had probably abandoned.
Which would serve them right: what you sow, you reap.

Garth doubted Forsen had ever discovered any gold, word always got out about any strike. So most likely the O’Gradys wouldn’t strick gold either, if they remained.

But
he
would. He’d dodged Yankees for four years during the war, Indians and everything nature could throw at him on the trek west, and he sure as hell could dodge a few outlaws if any showed up here. He believed too much in his Uncle Henry’s judgment to quit now, when he was this close.

As he lay thinking about his good fortune, his thoughts strayed to the O’Gradys again. He sure as hell didn’t owe them any consideration, but with Paddy sick and all, he’d help them get back to Hope. Then he’d come back to the mine, and if he found any gold dust, he’d still split it with Rory.

A promise was a promise, no matter whom you made it with.

The next morning, Garth saddled Boots and rode down to see the O’Gradys. Their mules and burro were tethered to a tree, but there was no sign of either of them. There were supplies lined against the wall inside the cave, and he checked the campfire’s ashes. They were cold, so they hadn’t built a morning campfire.

The cave showed no signs of blood or a struggle. Bandits would have carried off the excess food and supplies, and certainly the mules and burro. And if O’Gradys had given up and left, they would have ridden back to town on the mules.

He was about to go out and check around the area for them, when he heard a faint sound coming from the tunnel.

Stooping down at the entrance, he was relieved to see Rory at the other end scraping the wall with a pick.

“Good morning!” he shouted.

Rory dropped the pick in surprise. “Garth! I didn’t hear you coming. What are you doing here?” She crawled out of the tunnel, dragging the pick behind her.

He hurried over and helped her to her feet. “What in hell are you doing with that pick? I thought you were getting out of here.”

“I was bored, so I might as well try finding gold while Pop regains his strength.”

“Where
is
Paddy?”

“He thought he’d try stretching his legs. He said he’d search for water and some fresh meat.”

“If he’s well enough for that, why not just leave?”