Chapter 6 - THE WOMEN BENEATH SILVER QUEEN
The mine entrance looked like a black wound in the mountain.
Snow had covered the abandoned rail tracks.
A broken ore cart rested on its side.
Silas crouched behind a ridge with Emiline, Pike, and the frightened freight boy, whose name was Thomas Reed.
Pike had insisted on coming.
Silas had called him insane.
Pike had replied that he was a deputy sheriff and therefore insanity was listed under qualifications.
Now he lay behind a rock with one leg splinted.
“How many?” Silas whispered.
Thomas swallowed.
“Six men when I left.”
“Bell?”
“Yes.”
“Crane?”
“Yes.”
“Mercer?”
“Inside.”
“The women?”
“Lower storage room.”
Emiline looked toward the mine.
“We get them first.”
Silas nodded.
“Agreed.”
Pike frowned.
“Sheriff might disagree.”
“He can disagree alive.”
They waited until dark.
Thomas knew a ventilation shaft above the mine.
Too narrow for Silas.
Emiline looked at it.
“No.”
Silas stared.
She raised an eyebrow.
“You were about to say no.”
“Yes.”
“Stop.”
“You were abducted six days ago.”
“And I know exactly what women inside that mine are feeling.”
He could not argue.
He hated that.
Thomas led Emiline to the shaft.
She removed her coat.
Silas caught her wrist.
“If you hear anything wrong, you come back.”
“If I hear anything wrong, I find out who needs help.”
“Emiline.”
Her expression softened.
“I’ll come back.”
Silas released her.
She disappeared into darkness.
The shaft smelled of dust and old timber.
Emiline crawled on elbows until she reached a grate overlooking the lower tunnel.
Voices below.
A man.
Then crying.
She waited.
Footsteps moved away.
She pushed the grate.
It dropped.
Emiline froze.
No shout.
She climbed down.
Three women sat behind a barred storage room.
One stood immediately.
“Who are you?”
“Emiline Hale.”
The woman’s eyes widened.
“You’re the widow from Missouri.”
Emiline went cold.
“How do you know?”
“Crane talked about you.”
The woman stepped closer.
Thin face.
Gray dress.
“I’m Mary Whitcomb.”
Emiline almost stopped breathing.
The ledger.
“You’re alive.”
Mary laughed bitterly.
“Some days.”
Two others moved forward.
Ada Pierce.
Esther Lowe.
All alive.
All thinner than their descriptions.
All furious.
Emiline went to the lock.
“Where’s the key?”
“Guard.”
“Weapon?”
“Knife.”
Mary watched her.
“You got people outside?”
“Yes.”
“How many?”
“Three and one is seventeen.”
Ada stared.
“That’s not many.”
“No.”
Emiline looked toward the tunnel.
“But one of them is Silas Thornton.”
Mary’s face changed.
“Thornton?”
“You know him?”
“Bell hates him.”
“Good.”
A guard appeared around the bend.
Emiline flattened against the wall.
He walked past.
She struck him with a loose iron coupling.
He dropped without ceremony.
Mary blinked.
“You hit him.”
“Yes.”
“Hard.”
“Yes.”
Emiline searched him.
Found the key.
Opened the door.
Esther took the guard’s knife.
Mary took his revolver.
Ada took his boots.
Emiline stared.
Ada shrugged.
“I’m barefoot.”
Fair.
They moved upward.
Meanwhile Silas heard gunfire inside the mine.
His blood went cold.
“That’s it.”
Pike grabbed his arm.
“Could be distraction.”
“Could be Emiline.”
“Same thing to you, apparently.”
Silas entered.
Thomas followed.
Pike cursed and limped after them.
They reached the main chamber.
Sheriff Mercer hung from a support post with his hands tied.
His face was bloody.
August Bell stood in front of him.
Crane was nearby.
Three gunmen surrounded them.
Bell spoke calmly.
“You should have taken the money, Abel.”
Mercer spat blood.
“You should’ve offered more.”
Bell smiled.
“I offered enough.”
“Not for my name.”
Crane raised his revolver.
“Enough talking.”
Silas stepped from the tunnel.
“I agree.”
Every head turned.
Crane’s face twisted.
“You.”
Silas aimed.
Bell looked almost amused.
“Mr. Thornton.”
“Let him go.”
Bell glanced at Mercer.
“Why?”
“Because territorial authorities have your ledger.”
Bell’s expression changed.
A lie.
Maybe.
The message had transmitted.
Maybe enough.
Silas needed Bell to wonder.
“What ledger?”
Silas smiled.
“That reaction.”
Bell looked at Crane.
Crane understood.
“Fremont station.”
Silas saw confirmation.
Bell said quietly, “Kill him.”
Gunfire exploded.
Silas dove behind machinery.
Thomas fired from the tunnel.
Pike shot one gunman from his knees.
Mercer kicked Bell’s leg.
Crane fired toward Silas.
Then a woman’s voice came from behind him.
“Drop it.”
Crane turned.
Mary Whitcomb stood with a revolver aimed at his head.
Beside her were Ada and Esther.
Emiline stood between them.
Crane’s face lost all color.
“You.”
Mary smiled.
“Yes.”
Bell backed away.
“You women have no idea what you’re doing.”
Ada lifted the knife.
“We have discussed it extensively.”
Silas almost admired her.
Crane turned his gun toward Emiline.
Silas fired.
The bullet struck Crane’s hand.
His revolver fell.
Emiline kicked it into the shaft.
Crane lunged at her.
She stepped aside.
Mary struck him across the face with the revolver.
He went down.
Pike cut Mercer loose.
Bell ran.
Thomas shouted.
Silas followed.
Bell reached the outer tunnel.
A horse waited outside.
He mounted.
Silas emerged just as Bell galloped into the snow.
He aimed.
Could have fired.
Bell’s back filled the sights.
For five years Silas had imagined the man responsible for Hannah’s death.
Now he had him.
One squeeze.
No court.
No waiting.
No uncertainty.
Then he remembered Emiline.
Did you mean it only for children?
Silas lowered the rifle.
Mercer reached him.
“Why didn’t you shoot?”
Silas stared after Bell.
“Because he’ll tell himself the rest of his life he escaped me.”
Mercer looked at him.
Silas’s eyes hardened.
“I want him to learn he can’t escape them.”
He nodded toward the women coming from the mine.
Mary stepped into moonlight and lifted her face toward the sky.
She began crying.
Ada dropped to her knees in the snow.
Esther whispered, “I forgot what stars looked like.”
Emiline stood behind them.
Silas looked at her.
She was alive.
The children were alive.
Mercer was alive.
Three missing women were alive.
Crane was bound.
Thomas had chosen the right side before it was too late.
It should have felt like victory.
Then Mercer spoke.
“Bell will go to Cold Water Springs.”
Silas frowned.
“Why?”
“To burn the records.”
Pike swore.
“The land office.”
Mercer nodded.
“And if he destroys the original filings, he’ll claim the ledger is fake.”
Emiline’s expression sharpened.
“My deed.”
“Everything.”
Silas looked toward the valley.
Bell had perhaps two hours.
Cold Water Springs had dozens of wooden buildings packed close together.
If Bell meant to destroy evidence, one fire could take half the town.
Silas turned to Thomas.
“Fastest horse?”
Thomas pointed.
“Crane’s.”
Silas mounted.
Emiline grabbed the saddle.
“I’m coming.”
“Not this time.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“Silas.”
He leaned down.
“You have three women here who haven’t been free in months, a sheriff who can barely see, and a deputy who has been shot twice in a week.”
Pike raised a finger.
“Once shot. Once hit.”
Silas ignored him.
“They need you.”
Emiline stared at him.
Then nodded.
“Bring yourself back.”
The words Sam had used.
Silas felt them.
“I will.”
He rode.
Behind him, Crane laughed through a split lip.
“Thornton!”
Silas turned.
Crane smiled.
“Bell already has men at your ranch.”
Emiline’s face changed.
Silas stopped breathing.
Crane leaned back against the mine wall.
“You thought this was about records?”
Silas wheeled the horse.
The ranch was twelve miles in the opposite direction.
Cold Water Springs was eight.
Bell had split them.
Evidence or children.
Silas looked at Emiline.
Her eyes were terrified.
He made his choice instantly.
May you like
“The records can burn.”
Then he kicked the horse toward home.
