The Drum_The Twelfth Day

by E. E. Burke

  A distant boom resounded.

  The preacher came to his feet. “What was that?”

  “Sounds like they’re blastin’ again.” Mr. Malone dragged a rag across the bar with a disgusted look on his face.

  Penny’s hopes sank. Charlie had immediately gone to work, which would make sense if he wanted to bring hard evidence of a silver strike to the meeting tomorrow. She curled her hands in her lap and dug her nails into her palms to distract from the pain searing the inside of her chest. This was what she expected, what should happen, so she had no reason to feel crushed. Now she should go. He had made his choice.

  She moved her chair back.

  No!

  Charlie’s command, though only a voice in her head, arrested her in the midst of her spiraling dive into despair. Charlie hadn’t run out on her. She had sent him away. Yet every time she pushed him aside, or managed to evade him, he came back. His stubborn refusal to give up was one of the things she loved most about him. She owed him this chance to find out what he truly wanted. Either way, he would be back to tell her.

  “I’ll wait.”

  The next moments crept by slowly.

  The door swung open, letting in a swirl of cold wind and snowflakes.

  Her heart leapt.

  Charlie?

  A man bundled in a heavy coat and scarf stepped inside. Mr. Montgomery jerked his scarf down and his panicked expression sent a shaft of fear through her chest. “There’s been an accident, a cave-in. Mr. Hardt’s trapped in the mine!”

  Dust clogged in Charlie’s nose and throat. He coughed. He’d gotten back through the tunnels leading to the entrance without a problem, but a wall of rocks blocked the exit. If he had come back here minutes, no seconds, earlier, he would’ve been buried underneath the rubble.

  His skin prickled.

  That strange cold sensation had stopped him.

  He held up the candle and surveyed the damage. What had caused the tunnel to cave in? It had sounded like an explosion, but no one was around to set charges, and they wouldn’t blast near the entrance anyway. He’d checked the supports yesterday and everything looked fine. Well, something went wrong. If there were clues, he’d missed them. Just like the last time.

  Three years ago, in the midst of setting charges inside the old mine, something had gone terribly wrong. Back then, Zeke Kinnison had been his foreman leading the best crew he’d ever had, which included Zeke’s brother. By the time Charlie reached the mine, Zeke had been a wild man, tearing away the rock until it shredded his bare hands, in a frantic effort to get to his brother. They’d retrieved Clem’s broken body hours later.

  Charlie forced the image out of his head. He couldn’t let his mind go there, or he’d lose it, which was a sure way to get killed. He wedged the pointed end of the miner’s candlestick into a crevice in the wall and pulled the scarf up over his nose to keep from breathing dust.

  The candle’s flame cast eerie shadows over the dense wall of rock between him and freedom. He had, at best, two hours before the taper burned out.

  Better get to work.

  He hefted a large rock. The subsequent creak made him freeze. A few loosened pebbles rattled to the floor.

  Sweet Jesse.

  If he wasn’t careful, the roof and walls might give way right on top of him.

  He selected another chunk of stone that appeared safe to dislodge. Working carefully, he treated the obstacle like a puzzle, keeping his attention focused on the task.

  Within minutes, he was sweating profusely. Clearing all this rock would, realistically, take a crew, and they would have to work slowly, shoring up the walls and the roof as they went, so as not to trigger another cave-in.

  Panting, he leaned his hand against the wall. The air was getting thin, he’d made little progress, and there was no way of knowing how bad things were at the entrance.

  By now, Hugh would’ve gone for help. And Penny? Knowing her, she’d be consumed with guilt and would have some harebrained notion that this was her fault. Admittedly, she’d been passed by when the powers that be were handing out good fortune. But if he was destined to die, it would be because of stupidity or past sins.

  He shouldn’t have let her stop the wedding. That had been a mistake. Her retreat signaled fear more than disinterest, and he should’ve guessed that would happen when he got close to victory.

  She thought he wanted his freedom more than he wanted her. Maybe he could’ve fooled himself into believing that, if he weren’t stuck underground, facing his own mortality. How ironic, for the first time in years, he felt fully alive. Being with Penny had reawakened his desires and hopes. She’d given him a reason to look forward to the future.

  He wouldn’t have a future if he didn’t get the hell out of here.

  Another option came to mind. It was a slim chance, but still possible. If he could find that tunnel, he would have a way out. But to reach it, he had to descend to a lower level, using one of the ore buckets.

  If he dropped the candle, he’d be in total darkness. On the other hand, if he stayed here, he could be waiting in darkness for days before they dug him out. Then, when they started clearing the unstable entrance, it might collapse further, burying and killing all of them. Regardless, time was running out. After the candle melted, the choice would be made for him.

  He couldn’t afford to sit and wait.

  Cave-in. Charlie. Dear Lord. Penny trembled from a chill that had nothing to do with the wind whirling into the saloon through the open door. She didn’t feel the cold. She felt nothing except an icy fist squeezing her heart.

  A distant, yet loud clanging started up.

  “There’s the alarm. Good, Woody sounded it. I have to go help the others.” The assayer spun around and went back outside.

  Penny followed Mr. Montgomery, grabbing her cloak on the way out the door. “What happened?”

  The clanging continued. People came running out of shops and stores. Penny had to sprint to keep up with the assayer’s long strides so she could hear his answer.

  “I went up to the cabin to get those other samples. Charlie told me he was going to the mine to collect dynamite for later and said he’d meet me back here in an hour. Then I heard an explosion. When I got there, the entrance was caved in.”

  Two men commandeered donkey carts. The shopkeeper threw shovels and pick axes onto a long sled the blacksmith had brought around.

  Mr. Montgomery swung up into his saddle, then reached down to help the doctor mount behind him. Their horse took off at a gallop, sending dirty snow airborne, splattering Penny’s dress.

  She headed toward the mountain. She had to get to Charlie. Save him. If necessary, dig him out with her bare hands.

  “Penny, wait!” Genevieve captured her elbow. “Come with us. We’ll get there faster.” She guided Penny to a sleigh. “Zeke was a foreman at the mine several years ago. Let him drive us. He’ll know what to do.”

  The women settled into the sleigh, and Zeke guided the horses toward the mine.

  Genevieve put her arm around Penny’s shoulders. “We’ll find him.”

  When they did, would he be alive?

  Penny struggled to breath. “I shouldn’t have stopped the ceremony. No, I should’ve left yesterday and never come back. I sent him up there.”

  “It was an accident, Penny,” Genevieve said firmly. “This isn’t your fault.”

  An eternity passed before they reached their destination. Beams supporting the mine entrance had collapsed like toothpicks and huge, jagged rocks clogged the tunnel.

  Fear sucked the air out of Penny’s lungs. How could anyone live through that?

  Even Mr. Kinnison appeared stunned. When he turned to Genevieve, the resignation in his gaze was more than Penny could bear. “We’ll need help. Food for the men and bandages, just in case.”

  “I’ll go back and rally the women.” Genevieve picked up the reins. Her husband left to help the other men, who were throwing rocks away from the entrance.

  The
y might as well be tossing pebbles.

  Penny climbed out of the sleigh and huddled in her cloak. She wasn’t going anywhere, not until she knew Charlie was safe. After that, she would get as far away from him as possible. “I’ll stay here and do what I can.”

  “Yes, I thought you might say that,” Genevieve replied, her gaze soft with concern. “Ask one of the men for a pair of work gloves. You’ll ruin the ones you have on.”

  Penny started toward a pile of rubble, passing a brawny man who guided a team of burros that strained to dislodge a boulder. Charlie could be anywhere, behind—or God forbid—under that rock or the next.

  Her chest tightened and she gulped air.

  “Mrs. Jackson?”

  Penny halted, belatedly realizing that she’d passed right by the doctor while he’d been hailing her. “I’m sorry, Dr. Deane. Is there something I can do for you?”

  His concerned gaze traveled over her. “Go inside and get warm so I’ll not have another patient to worry about.”

  “I rarely fall ill,” she replied, honestly. It was one of the cruel ironies that her back luck didn’t strike at her health, only the health of others. “And I refuse to see to my needs while everyone else works to free Mr. Hardt. I can move rocks too.”

  The doctor set his bag on the ground and solemnly regarded the monstrous task in front of them. “It appears that’s all any of us can do at the moment.”

  No, that couldn’t be all they could do. There had to be something else. Something they were missing. Charlie wouldn’t have blown himself up, or set off dynamite without having a way out. He knew better than that. If this exit were blocked, he would be looking for another one.

  Something he said the other day when they had stopped to the clear the rockslide…

  “He said they’d blasted through,” she whispered.

  “Mr. Kinnison!” She called out as she ran towards him. “What if Charlie isn’t in there? What if we’re looking in the wrong place?

  Chapter 14

  After Penny told the men about the possibility of a connecting tunnel, they questioned her interpretation of Charlie’s remark. Why would he have connected the two mines, one of which he considered useless? But she felt certain he’d meant exactly that, and she continued to pester them until Woody finally agreed to take her to the old mine, she assumed to keep her distracted more than anything. Zeke surprised her when he hopped into the back of the wagon at the last moment.

  The sun had disappeared behind the tree line and the wind had picked up by the time they reached the pass. Penny used her hood to protect her face, while Woody guided the mule team to the edge of the rockslide.

  She peered up at the old mine. Snow lay in patches across the desolate landscape. A stiff wind sent white whorls into the air. It was eerily quiet. Her heart stumbled. What if he wasn’t here? “I remember Charlie saying they’d blasted through and it might’ve caused the rock slide.”

  “Could be,” Mr. Kinnison replied. He still didn’t appear to believe her. Or maybe he just wasn’t hopeful. He had lost his brother to this mine, after all.

  They’d brought lanterns, a canteen and snowshoes, which would be of no help climbing over those rocks.

  “You ought to wait here, Mrs. Jackson,” Woody suggested.

  “I’m not sitting in the sleigh freezing my bustle off. I can help too.”

  All the others had remained behind to continue clearing the other entrance, expecting to find Charlie buried beneath the rubble.

  Somehow, she would know if he was dead.

  The men lagged behind to help her maneuver the deep drifts along the side of the trail. She glanced at the spot where the road had been torn away. “I slipped and fell there, and Charlie rigged up a rope and came down to save me.”

  “Penny!”

  She jerked her head up, heart pounding, but she didn’t see anyone near the old mine. Was she imagining his voice? “That’s Charlie! Did you hear him?”

  “I sure did,” Woody said in a hushed voice. “I hope it’s not a ghost.”

  Suddenly, a man appeared from around a boulder, not far from the old mine entrance.

  She pointed at the figure. “There!”

  The man scrambled, nimble as a mountain goat, around the rocks. She couldn’t see his face because his hat brim was pulled low, but—oh thank God!—she did recognize that buckskin coat.

  “Charlie!” She set the lantern aside, and climbed the rocks in her eagerness to reach him. “He found a way out!”

  “Mrs. Jackson, take care,” Mr. Kinnison warned, as he came up beside her and grasped her arm. “Don’t climb up there. It’s too dangerous. Wait for him to come down.”

  She was done with waiting. She had to touch him to make sure he was real and not an apparition dreamed up by her desperate mind.

  He braced his hand on a boulder and leapt over it. As he landed, the small rocks beneath his boots went spinning away.

  “That’s no ghost.” Woody confirmed her thoughts, then whooped, slapping his hand on his thigh. “Zeke, she was right!”

  Penny shook off Mr. Kinnison’s hold and kept her eyes on Charlie as she scrambled over the rocks. She would get to him even if she had to crawl on her hands and knees. “Charlie!”

  “Hold on there.” Gravel crunched as he slid down next to her. He slipped his hands beneath her arms, lifting her, and then pulled her into his embrace.

  She flung her arms around his neck. “Oh, Charlie, you’re alive. I knew it—” Her voice cracked under an avalanche of emotions, and she couldn’t hold back a sob.

  Charlie had escaped death.

  This time.

  “Penny, honey, don’t cry.” Charlie held her tight, pressing her head against his shoulder. If she didn’t stop weeping, he’d soon be blubbering right along with her. He cleared his throat, but his voice still came out hoarse. “I told you I’d come back.”

  Still keeping one arm around her, he reached out to shake Woody’s hand. “Thanks for coming after me.”

  Woody’s grin got wider. “Wasn’t me. She’s the one who said you’d be here. She threatened to steal either Zeke’s sleigh or my wagon unless we brought her out.”

  The other man with her was the one that surprised Charlie. The day Zeke’s brother had died, so had a strong friendship and Charlie hadn’t known how to repair the damage. Zeke’s gaze was trained up at the mine. “Mrs. Jackson believed there was a connecting tunnel. I didn’t think it made sense.”

  “It happened a few months ago by accident, when we were searching for a new vein.”

  “Maybe it wasn’t an accident,” Zeke mused.

  Charlie dug into his pocket and his fingers closed around metal. “Yeah, maybe not.”

  He hugged her closer. Forces he didn’t understand had tried to come between them, and powers just as mysterious had saved him. Why, he would never know. “When I was in the mine, right before the cave in, I felt this cold sensation, and then it was like someone walked right through me. Felt so strange, it stopped me from going back. If I’d gotten as far as the entrance, I would’ve been buried under those rocks.”

  Penny’s arms tightened around him, and Woody’s mouth hung open.

  Zeke’s gaze didn’t falter.

  “There’s more. In the old tunnel, I came across this.” Charlie pulled the oil-wick lamp out of his pocket and handed it to Zeke. “Recognize it?”

  “That’s a miner’s lamp; the old kind they clipped onto their hats.”

  “You remember Clem said he lost his?”

  Silently, Zeke examined the rusty lamp. He ran his thumb over the spout and gingerly touched the burned wick.

  “I wouldn’t have seen it if I hadn’t been looking down to keep from tripping. It had enough oil in it I was able to light it with the last of my candle, and that’s how I found my way out.” Charlie took a deep breath. Yeah, it sounded crazy, but standing here whole and uninjured was just as improbable. “I reckon Clem saved my life.”

  Something shifted in Zeke’s cou
ntenance, softening the hardness in his eyes as well as the tension that had been present between them ever since Clem’s death. “I’m sure he was glad to get the opportunity.”

  “You keep that. It belonged to Clem.”

  Zeke handed it back to Charlie. “No, you keep it. Never know when you might need it again.”

  Penny’s arms tightened around his waist. “He’ll never need it again after I’m gone.”

  Charlie rubbed his hand on her back. Just as he’d feared, she was taking this all on herself. At least he didn’t have to worry about whether she wanted him. The way she was clinging to him told him all he needed to know. “You aren’t going anywhere.”

  She drew back with a heartbreaking expression of uncertainty tinged with hope. “But I can’t risk your life again.”

  “Hush.” He put his finger over her lips, which felt like ice. “You’re cold. Let’s get back to town.”

  He put his arm around her and guided her back to the sleigh then tucked the blanket around her. The two other men fell in behind them, lost in their own thoughts.

  Woody took them around by the road back to the other mine, where Zeke hopped out to notify the others. The light had faded and if not for the lanterns they’d brought along, they would’ve been riding in darkness. Charlie draped his arm around Penny’s shoulders and hugged her tightly to him. “Take us to The Golden Nugget. We’ve got some unfinished business.”

  Penny looked away. Her silence troubled him more than her objections.

  As they pulled into town, the sheriff and doctor were standing outside the Doc’s office beside a wagon. Draven hailed them and waved Woody over.

  Colin Deane gave Charlie a hearty pat on the back as he stepped out of the sleigh. “Mr. Mayor, I should’ve known you’d cheat death. You’ve got better luck than an Irishman.”

  Charlie hoped Penny was paying attention.

  “Mayor, good to see you alive.” The sheriff shook his hand, and then motioned to the wagon bed. “We uncovered a body at the mine.”

  Behind him, Penny gasped.

  Charlie’s gut knotted. “One of my crew?”