The Sheriff (Historical Romance)

by Nan Ryan

  Holding the tiny pebble between thumb and forefinger, she said, “Chang Li, put down your pick.”

  “Why? Not tired, just get here.”

  “Put down your pick and come here, please.”

  Puzzled, Chang Li laid his pick against the wall, turned and came over. Kate held up the tiny speck for him to see. He looked at it. He looked at her.

  “Gold!” they said in unison, their voices barely above a whisper.

  “Chang Li make sure.” The Chinaman put the small shiny pebble between his strong eyeteeth and bit down. He took it from his mouth and said, “Gold, missy. Real thing. Where you get?”

  “From Cal’s fur,” she explained. “You know how he likes to investigate.” She pointed and said, “He came out of there, covered in dust and…”

  The sentence was never finished. Kate grabbed her carbide lantern and rose to her feet. Chang Li was right behind her. They went deeper into the mine to the rock wall where they had worked many times before. They stopped abruptly when they spotted the narrow, newly opened fissure.

  “The earthquake,” Kate said, pointing to a crevice in the wall that revealed a natural vault cavern.

  “Yes, tremor shift rock,” stated Chang Li.

  Kate shone her lantern through the opening.

  She immediately spotted a wide vein of something shiny winking at her. With her bottom lip caught between her teeth, she slipped through the newly opened fissure and dropped her lantern in awe.

  “Chang Li! Hurry! Come quickly!”

  The little Chinaman eased through the crevice. His eyes widened in wonder. “Missy Kate, you rich, rich, rich!”

  “We’ve hit the mother lode!” Kate shouted excitedly.

  Smiling, clapping his hands, Chang Li declared, “Missy find treasure to equal the Incas of Peru!”

  Twenty-Nine

  “We’ve struck pay dirt! We’ve struck pay dirt!” Kate shouted gleefully.

  “You millionaire big now, missy!” Chang Li joined in the fun.

  “All thanks to this morning’s earthquake!” Kate shrieked with delight.

  “No tremor, no find treasure,” Chang Li declared, his grin so broad his twinkling eyes disappeared into the laugh lines.

  The happy pair whooped and hollered and danced dizzily around, giving thanks for the early morning earthquake. Both were aware that if not for the quake dislodging the wall of stone, they would never have stumbled across this colossal vein of gold-bearing quartz.

  Clapping her hands, Kate laughed and said, “The quake that shook me out of my bed has jarred the gold right into our hands!”

  After several minutes of celebration, the pair finally calmed a little. They sobered, held the carbide lantern high and began to more closely study the wide vein of glittering yellow gold that streaked from the rocky ceiling above, all the way down to the cavern floor.

  “We must have a sample assayed right away,” Kate said.

  “Yes, I do that this morning.” Chang Li shot to his feet to go back after his pick.

  “Wait.” Kate stopped him. “We can’t use an assayist here in Fortune.”

  Chang Li immediately understood. “I go over the mountain to assay office in Last Chance.”

  “No one knows you there?”

  “Never been there before. Use older brother’s name. They no trace.”

  “Good. How long will it take to get there and back?”

  “Leave today, be back tomorrow.”

  Kate nodded. “I’ll be on pins and needles until you return.”

  The two made a pact that very morning that they would tell no one of their discovery. Both knew that if word got out, they’d be in danger of claim jumpers and murderers swarming into the mine to steal the gold.

  That evening after dark, Chang Li, riding a burro from the Wilson Livery Stable, slipped away from Fortune carrying a generous sample of the ore.

  The next morning Kate, with Cal by her side, went to the mine, wondering if it was too good to be true. Had she dreamed it all?

  She had not. Once inside the Cavalry Blue, she returned to the lower level where they had spotted the color. She raised her lantern and saw again the wide vein of yellow gold gleaming brightly.

  Beaming, she said to the cat, who was seated at her feet, “Do you know what this means, Cal?”

  He pricked his ears and his tail slowly swished back and forth on the stone floor as he looked up at her.

  “You will dine on carefully prepared and cooked boned chicken. How does that sound?”

  Cal meowed and his tail swished a little faster.

  Kate laughed and said, “You deserve the very best, since it was you who discovered the gold.”

  Chang Li returned that afternoon and confirmed to Kate what both had hoped: the assay had proved incredibly favorable. He had been careful not to be followed back.

  Now all they had to do was coax the gold out of the rock.

  And keep their secret for as long as possible.

  Neither dared tell anyone.

  Kate had a dinner engagement with Winn that very evening. Although she was dying to tell him of her good fortune, she wisely refrained. But she couldn’t hide her underlying excitement. Winn quickly picked up on it. He found Kate so extraordinarily happy and buoyant, he was sure that something good had happened. Her blue eyes were sparkling as never before and she couldn’t stop smiling.

  Winn strongly suspected that Kate had finally hit pay dirt in the Cavalry Blue. What else could make her so happy? The prospect made his heart beat faster. If it were so, if she had found the gold, riches would soon be his. Wondering why she was reluctant to share her good news, he gently probed. But she revealed nothing. And he was forced to hide his frustration.

  When Winn told his mistress he believed Kate had found the gold, Melisande urged him to immediately propose to Kate. He agreed.

  A couple of days later, after a sumptuous dinner at the Bonanza Hotel, Winn insisted on taking Kate for a carriage ride down to the river. She tried to beg off, saying it was much too cold, but Winn wouldn’t listen.

  He handed her up into the rented, one-horse gig, spread a warm lap robe over her knees and climbed up beside her. In minutes he’d parked the buggy near the river’s edge, then turned and took her in his arms.

  He kissed her and said, “Kate, you must know how I feel about you and…”

  “Winn, please don’t.”

  “Darling, I love you. I want you to be my wife. I’m asking you to marry me, Kate. I want to take care of you.”

  “I’m very flattered, Winn, but no.”

  “Dearest, you can’t mean that,” he said. “I’ve been patiently courting you all summer, and I was under the impression that you’ve come to care for me just as I care for you.”

  “I’ve enjoyed your company very much,” Kate told him. “But I’m not in love with you, Winn. I have no wish to marry you.”

  Astonished, he said, “Darling, is there someone else?”

  “No, no. It’s not that. I don’t want to marry anyone.”

  “Kate, you don’t know what you’re saying. You told me yourself you have no family. You’re all alone in the world. Let me take care of you, give you children. We’ll be married right away and—”

  “Winn, you’re not listening,” Kate interrupted. “I said no and I meant it. I am not going to marry you.”

  Seething and shocked that she would have the gall to flatly turn him down, Winn could barely hide his anger. He was desperate to make her his wife.

  “Ah, Kate, Kate,” he said softly. “I’ve been so careful not to take advantage of you that perhaps I’ve never really shown you how I feel about you. Let me show you now.”

  He reached for her, but Kate put up her hands and stopped him. “Take me home, Winn.”

  “Ah, darling girl, do you want to break my heart?”

  “Certainly not. I’m fond of you and I consider you a friend. Can’t we keep it that way?”

  Winn knew it would do no good to press her.
He smiled indulgently. “You’ll continue to see me, I hope.”

  Kate replied, “It’s late. Please take me home.”

  Winn was pacing the floor and muttering to himself when his mistress slipped up the hotel’s back stairs well after midnight and into his top floor suite. She took one look at her lover and knew he had failed.

  “She turned you down!” Her hands went to her hips.

  “Yes! That ungrateful little bitch told me she didn’t want to marry me. Can you believe it?”

  “But she has to marry you! There’s no other way,” said an upset Melisande. “Damn you, Winn DeLaney, make her want to marry you. Use your charm, seduce her, sweep her off her feet.”

  Winn ran his hands through his disheveled blond hair. “And just how do you suggest I go about that?”

  Melisande came to him, took the golden dagger from her dark hair and placed the point beneath his chin. She slid the dagger along his jawline, laughed throatily and said, “It’s high time you stopped being a gentleman with Miss VanNam.” She put out the tip of her tongue and licked her bottom lip. “Remember what you did to me last night?”

  Winn finally grinned. “How could I forget?”

  “Do that to her.”

  “God almighty, you can’t be serious, Melly. She’s a genteel young lady. She’d be horrified if I—”

  “Do it,” said Melisande, “and while she’s still shuddering with ecstasy, ask her again to be your wife. She’ll say yes, I guarantee it.”

  Winn slipped his arms around Melisande’s waist. He teased, “I just hope I can remember exactly how I…”

  “You can practice on me until you get it right.”

  Winn chuckled. “You’re a good sport, Melly, you know that.”

  “Bed and wed that silly young woman right away, you hear me? Get that gold for me or you’ll find I’m tired of being a good sport. I’ll leave you and marry a rich old man back in San Francisco.”

  Winn’s smile fled. He grabbed her hair and forced her head back. “Don’t threaten me,” he said through clenched teeth.

  “Or you’ll what?” she taunted, and kissed him.

  Thirty

  A daunting task lay before them.

  That there was an abundance of gold inside the Cavalry Blue was no longer a dream, but a reality. However, bringing the rich deposits out of the mine would call for weeks, months, even years of hard, steady labor.

  The rich vein they had uncovered could be extracted without too much difficulty. But well beyond it lay tons of gold ore in deposits of quartz, a hard crystalline mineral in rich veins stretching deep within the mountainside.

  The gold would have to be separated from the quartz rock.

  Which meant they would first have to hack away at the stubborn rock, haul the heavy ore out of the mine, dump it into a long tom or sluice, and crush it with a sledgehammer to pulverize it. And that was just the beginning. Once the quartz had been mined and crushed, the gold had to be separated from the powdered rock by washing the gold-bearing powder.

  When Chang Li had finished building a long, sturdy sluice, he went with Kate into town to purchase a hand-crank pump. They had no choice. They had to have the pump to draw water up from the lake to the mine to wash the quartz rock.

  On a bitter cold autumn morning, the two of them walked into town, went directly to the Wilson Livery Stable and hired a sturdy-backed burro, which they hooked up to a two-wheeled cart. Then, with Chang Li leading the animal, they headed for Barton’s Emporium.

  Chang Li waited outside with the burro while Kate went into the store.

  “Morning, Mr. Barton,” she said to the owner, who occupied his usual place on a stool behind the counter. He didn’t move. Kate smiled at him and said, “A little chilly, isn’t it?” And waited for his comment. Clifton Barton always remarked about the weather. It was about the only subject that seemed to interest him.

  “Chilly?” He snorted. “Why, it’s colder than a witch’s tit. Begging your pardon, miss. Now, what brings you out on such a frigid morning?”

  As succinctly as possible, Kate told him that she was here to purchase a pump. A hand-crank pump capable of drawing water uphill.

  Clifton T. Barton finally came up off his stool. “A pump, you say?” He scratched his chin. “You wanting to pull water uphill, are you?”

  “Yes. Do you or do you not carry hand-crank pumps?”

  “I carry almost everything a person might ever need or want, Miss VanNam. Follow me.”

  He came out from behind the counter. Kate motioned Chang Li inside. Chang Li tethered the burro to the hitching rail and hurried in. He and Kate followed Barton as he led the way to the back of the cavernous store.

  Ten minutes later Chang Li had picked out a good-size pump capable of siphoning gallons of water out of the lake and uphill. Kate paid for the pump, a substantial sum that took almost all the money she had left. Chang Li loaded the pump onto the cart, and they were ready to head back up to the mine.

  “You think our secret will be out now?” Kate asked as she walked along beside Chang Li, who led the burro.

  “Not really, missy.”

  “No? You don’t think Clifton T. Barton will tell everyone who comes into the store that we bought the pump?”

  “He only interested in weather,” Chang Li said with a smile. “But not to worry, I will guard the mine at night.”

  “Guard the…? You can’t do that. You can’t work all day and stay awake all night.”

  “Not stay awake all night. I nap. But if someone come, I wake up and be there to protect property.”

  Kate thought it over. Finally she said, “I have a revolver.”

  He smiled. “Yes, I know. Remember how missy fire pistol in air and save me from big bullies.”

  Both laughed.

  A week passed.

  Two.

  Winn DeLaney was running out of patience. So was his nagging mistress. For two solid weeks now Kate had politely turned him down each time he had extended a dinner invitation. Since the night he had proposed marriage, she had not spent an evening with him.

  Tired of the delay, doubting she would ever agree to marry him, Winn decided to try a different tack. He went, late one cold night, into the Bloody Bucket Saloon, ordered a whiskey and looked around at the rough, rowdy crowd.

  He spotted, bellied up to the bar, a couple of big, ugly thugs he knew to be town troublemakers. He moved down the bar to where they were and introduced himself.

  “Delaney, gentlemen. Winn DeLaney,” he said, and extended his hand to the bigger of the two, the one-eyed man.

  “Titus Kelton,” said the ruffian, who wore badly soiled clothes, “and this here’s my friend, Jim Spears.”

  The red-bearded Spears looked askance at Winn DeLaney and said, “I ain’t seen you in here ’afore. You that there dandy what’s been squiring that pretty blond girl around town?”

  “The very one,” confirmed Winn. “May I buy you gents a drink?”

  The one-eyed Titus Kelton was already motioning the barkeep over. The two big men downed their shots of whiskey in one swallow and held out their glasses for refills. Winn endured their bad smell, their loud guffaws and their incessant slapping him on the back for the next hour.

  Quickly, he cultivated them, and all it took was half a dozen shots of whiskey each. Winn told the pair that he had a proposition to put to them. He suggested that they step outside for a minute and hear what he had to say.

  Their breaths vaporizing in the cold mountain air, the three of them stood outside the saloon on the empty sidewalk.

  Hunching his shoulders and turning up the lapels of his Chesterfield coat, Winn wasted no time. He explained what he wanted them to do, and told them how much he would pay.

  “Ever hear of the Cavalry Blue Mine?” he began.

  “Sure, it’s that worthless claim up the mountain that—”

  Interrupting, Winn said, “I want to hire you two to slip up to the mine late tomorrow night and get me a sample of the ta
ilings so I can have the assayist give me a reading.”

  “Aw, you’re wasting your time, Mr. DeLaney. There ain’t no gold in that old mine.”

  As if Spears hadn’t spoken, Winn said, “If the diggings are guarded, which is doubtful, it will probably be only by that little Chinaman, Chang Li.” He stopped, smiled, and said, “I understand you boys have had dealings with him before.”

  Titus Kelton made a face. “That whining little coolie son of a bitch. What you want us to do to him?”

  “Nothing much, really. I’m not asking you to harm him. Just to slip up on him—he’ll probably be dozing—and knock him unconscious before he gets the chance to identify you. Once you’ve taken care of him, go inside the mine, light a carbide lantern and fill up a little bag with tailings. Then get out of there fast. Can you do it?”

  “Sure, we can,” said the red-bearded Jim Spears. “We’ll go right now.”

  “No, you will not,” Winn said. “You will go tomorrow night. Further, you will drink nothing stronger than coffee until you have finished the job. Do I make myself clear?”

  “Sure, Mr. DeLaney. Now where’s our money?”

  “Not so fast, Spears. You’ll get paid when you hand over the tailings,” said Winn. “One last thing.”

  “What’s that, Mr. DeLaney?” asked Kelton.

  “Anything goes wrong, I don’t know you, understand?”

  “Where will we meet you? At your hotel?”

  “If either of you sets foot in my hotel, I will kill you,” Winn said, his eyes as cold as the freezing night air. “Be out in back of the Whiskey Hill Saloon at exactly 2:00 a.m. I’ll be waiting there to meet you. Once you’ve handed over the tailings, I’ll pay you. After that, you’re both to forget you’ve ever met me.”

  Without another word he turned away and was gone.

  “No, I insist.” Kate was adamant. “You are going straight to your tent, where you’ll get into bed.”

  “Not that sick, Missy,” said the pale, feverish Chang Li as his teeth began to chatter.

  It was late the next afternoon.

  The two of them had put in a long hard day at the Cavalry Blue. Chang Li had not felt well all afternoon, but he had continued to work, assuring Kate that he was fine. All afternoon she had urged him to leave.