Stand-off at Copper Town Read online

  ‘We’re not telling a story. Ask any of the miners. They all know about his arrest.’

  Tucker shrugged. ‘Did he do it?’

  ‘Of course he didn’t. He was searching for the gold.’

  ‘Where?’

  ‘We don’t know. He wouldn’t let us go with him. So that means you now know as much as we do about the gold. If you want to find out where he looked, you need to talk to him.’ Nathan smiled. ‘The only way you can do that is to prove his innocence and get him released.’

  Tucker opened his mouth, presumably to continue questioning him, but then closed it and with a resigned air he slouched towards the gully.

  ‘We’ll think about what you said,’ he said. ‘For now, we blow up rocks.’

  ‘I don’t like this,’ Clay said, joining him with his expression set in a scowl. ‘There’s an awful smell around here.’

  ‘There’s an awful smell everywhere,’ Nathan said. ‘You’ll get used to it.’

  Clay continued to shuffle uncomfortably, and when Jeff joined him, he wrinkled his nose, too.

  ‘He’s right,’ he said. He beckoned Nathan to follow him to the gully. He stopped before the rocks and raised his head as he sniffed. ‘Something’s died here.’

  Nathan sniffed and then nodded as the unmistakable reek of an animal long dead wafted by him. They split up to search the area, but after only a minute of peering around the boulders, Jeff cried out.

  They gathered around as he emerged from between two large boulders with his upper lip curled in disgust. Nathan moved to see what he’d found, but Jeff shook his head, saying the sight wouldn’t do him much good, and then hurried off to find help.

  Ten minutes later he returned with Sherman Clarke in tow along with Miles Yates, Sherman’s immediate subordinate.

  Miles was the first to venture an identification of the body that Jeff reckoned had been crammed down between the two boulders for a while.

  ‘It’s Baxter Meredith,’ he said.

  ‘Baxter!’ Sherman said. ‘It can’t be. I paid Baxter his wages four days ago, and that man has been dead for at least a week.’

  Chapter Seven

  ‘What’s going on here?’ Tucker asked.

  ‘I don’t know, but that’s what we’re supposed to find out,’ Nathan said.

  ‘And finding this body is sure to help Marshal Lawton,’ Jeff added.

  Sherman was still exploring the area where they’d found the body, giving them a breather before they had to start work, but the break had only rekindled their new associates’ argumentative nature.

  ‘I don’t care who that dead man was,’ Clay grumbled. ‘I just want the gold and unless I get it someone is going to pay.’

  Clay glared at Jeff and Nathan, but both men shook their heads and then turned to the more reasonable Tucker.

  ‘Everything we’ve told you is the truth, and so what you do now is up to you,’ Nathan said.

  As everything they’d said had been true, except for the details they’d left out, Nathan put on the most honest smile he could manage. Tucker gnawed at his lip as he looked at them and then gave a firm shake of the head.

  ‘We’re staying, but we’re not helping you get the old-timer out of jail,’ he said. ‘We’ll get answers our way.’

  With that statement of intent, he turned to watch Miles and Sherman until they’d completed their discussion.

  Presently two more men arrived to take the body away, but not before Sherman had issued the foursome with orders for them to make up for the lost time.

  ‘What are we going to do, then?’ Jeff asked as they followed Tucker and Clay back to the gully.

  ‘I guess we’re on our own,’ Nathan said.

  Jeff breathed a sigh of relief. ‘At least something has gone right today.’

  * * *

  ‘Do you know Baxter Meredith?’ Nathan asked.

  The man turned from the bar to cast him a brief and surly consideration.

  ‘Nope.’

  The man swung away to lean over his whiskey with a determined gesture that said the discussion was over. Nathan didn’t mind. So far tonight everyone had behaved like this.

  After he’d asked two more men without success, Jeff returned from his end of the bar shaking his head.

  ‘Nobody knows anything about Baxter,’ he said.

  ‘Nobody knows anything about anything!’ Nathan said.

  Jeff sighed. ‘I guess that’s why Lawton was desperate enough to hire us.’

  Before they left Nathan cast his measured gaze around the saloon. There were four such establishments in town and they’d worked their way around three without luck.

  Neither had they found anyone who had been prepared to talk back at the mine nor while they’d queued at the chuck wagon.

  Despite the lack of interest in talking about the dead man, Nathan judged that the miners were in better spirits than Lawton had implied. People were chatting in numerous small groups with the silence and suspicion starting only when they asked questions.

  ‘Maybe we’re going about this the wrong way,’ Nathan said.

  ‘That’s clear, but I can’t think of any other way,’ Jeff said with a laugh.

  Nathan said nothing more until they reached the final saloon on the main drag. This proved to be a quieter place, possibly because it was furthest away from the mine.

  The establishment was beside the station and was constructed solidly, suggesting it might have been one of the first buildings to be erected. It even had chairs and tables around which games of poker were in progress.

  As usual they headed to the bar.

  ‘We’ve found something valuable, but we can’t find its owner,’ Nathan said to the first man he approached.

  ‘I should be able to help,’ the man said, swinging away from the bar with a smile and showing more enthusiasm than anyone else had all night.

  ‘It belongs to Baxter Meredith.’

  The man rubbed his chin and looked aloft, giving the impression of pondering.

  ‘I know Baxter.’ He held out a hand. ‘Let me have it and I’ll pass it on to him.’

  Nathan folded his arms. ‘How well do you know him?’

  ‘Well enough not to steal from him.’

  ‘When did you last see him?’

  ‘It must have been this morning, but I’ll see him again soon.’ He thrust out his hand with the fingers splayed and his jaw set firm as if more questions would offend him.

  ‘Then you’ll have a shock. Baxter’s dead, been dead for a while in fact, but we found something on him and we thought we should give it to a friend of his.’ Nathan leaned forward. ‘So, are you a friend or not?’

  The man gnawed his bottom lip while he appeared to weigh up the risks and benefits, but then with a dismissive wave of the hand he turned back to the bar.

  Despite the failure, Nathan judged that this method had received a more promising response than before. So, meaning to try again, he moved to head down the bar, but then he found that two men had come over to stand beside him.

  ‘You’re asking about Baxter Meredith,’ the nearest man said.

  ‘We are,’ Nathan said, flinching back in surprise at getting this response after so many setbacks.

  He judged that the two men were older than most of the miners, and so perhaps these grizzled veterans weren’t as suspicious as the others were.

  ‘How did he die?’ the second man said, stepping up to join the other and encouraging Jeff to step closer to Nathan in case of trouble.

  ‘I don’t know, but apparently he’s been dead for over a week,’ Jeff said.

  The two men glanced at each other, seeming with a raised eyebrow and a returned shrug to exchange information silently as only people who knew each other well could.

  ‘Then that explains why we haven’t seen him for a while.’

  ‘Do you know anything about Peter Parsons?’ the second man asked. ‘He was with Baxter the last time we saw him.’

  ‘No, but we gathered t
hat Baxter might not have been the only man to go missing.’

  Then, with the two men appearing reasonable, he told them the story of how they’d been allocated the duty in the gully and how they’d found Baxter’s body. The two men nodded frequently and maintained somber expressions.

  ‘A sad tale,’ the first man said when they’d finished. ‘Back in Ash Creek, Baxter and Peter joined up to work here at the same time as we did. We spoke a few times afterwards, but we haven’t seen either of them this last week. It sounds as if Peter might be lying dead in the gully, too.’

  ‘What did you find on him?’ the second man asked.

  Nathan winced. ‘We don’t actually have anything. We were just interested in finding someone who knew him.’

  The two men considered this information and then glanced at each other before the first man spoke up.

  ‘We can’t tell you much. Baxter and Peter worked hard and didn’t come into town. All we know is they didn’t have families and were just roaming from place to place looking for work.’

  ‘They sound like us,’ Jeff said with a sigh. ‘But that makes us even more determined to find out what happened to them.’

  ‘Then I wish you luck.’

  Both men tipped their hats and moved to leave.

  ‘Wait!’ Nathan said, halting them. ‘Who are you? In case we want to talk to you again.’

  ‘If we learn anything, we’ll find you.’

  The men swung away and headed to the door with a determined tread.

  ‘Why wouldn’t they give their names?’ Jeff asked as the men slipped outside.

  ‘Two men have been killed for an unknown reason. I can’t blame them for being cautious, but at least we have a couple of allies now and some extra information.’

  Jeff nodded. Then, with greater hope, they resumed their questioning, but when they’d been around the rest of the customers that spark of enthusiasm had been quashed. Nobody else claimed to know of Baxter Meredith or Peter Parsons.

  ‘Perhaps it’s as those men said,’ Jeff said when they’d left the saloon and were looking around wondering where to try next. ‘Baxter and Peter had only just arrived. They didn’t know anyone and they didn’t talk to many people before they were killed.’

  ‘Or maybe that’s not the way it happened,’ Nathan said. ‘We don’t know for sure that this Peter is dead, so maybe he’s the one who killed Baxter. Then he left.’

  Jeff shrugged and, deep in thought, both men trudged from the saloon and made their slow way past the station to the edge of town. As nobody was around they walked to the railroad tracks where they had a good view of the outcrop, its dark form blocking the stars.

  ‘Do you reckon we’ll ever get to it?’ Jeff asked as they moseyed along beside the tracks.

  ‘The nearer we get to the gold, the further away it seems, but. . . .’ Nathan trailed off and then shot Jeff a warning glance.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ Jeff said using a normal voice, presumably having failed in the dark to pick up on Nathan’s concern.

  ‘I reckon we’re being followed,’ Nathan whispered.

  Jeff cast his slow gaze along the tracks into the darkness.

  ‘Then we’d better stay close to town, or we could end up dead in the gully, too.’ Jeff rolled his shoulders. ‘On the count of the three, we turn and see who’s interested in us.’

  Nathan considered Jeff’s smile, the teeth catching a stray beam of light.

  ‘What are you looking so pleased about?’

  ‘Someone must have overheard us asking questions, and that’s progress.’

  Feeling cheered by Jeff’s positive attitude Nathan whispered a countdown. Then both men swirled round with their fists bunched, but they faced only the darkened tracks leading on to the station.

  ‘I heard someone, and perhaps more than one person,’ Nathan said as they made their cautious way back.

  ‘I believe you,’ Jeff said. ‘They’re here somewhere.’

  They approached the town and the sounds of subdued revelry from the saloon they’d just left grew.

  ‘But perhaps I don’t trust myself. All this questioning has made me edgy. Perhaps I’m hearing things.’

  Nathan expected Jeff to answer, but he said nothing and so Nathan turned, but Jeff wasn’t beside him. He swirled round, but he wasn’t behind him either. He started to snap out an urgent plea when footfalls pounded, moving away from the station.

  He turned back as a man ran into him, knocking him to his knees. He looked up to see his assailant looming over him, his form a dark outline. Dangling from his right hand was a cudgel, which he proceeded to swing up.

  Nathan jerked away, but the cudgel still caught him a glancing blow behind the ear that sent him sprawling. He landed on his chest and then moved to get up, but his limbs refused to obey him and he slumped, his face pressed into the dirt.

  It took a supreme effort to cling on to consciousness, but he must have failed as the next he knew he was being dragged across the ground. Then, seemingly moments later, he was lying propped up against a wall.

  He sensed that someone was standing beside him and he tried to look that way, but his body wouldn’t obey him. Through his swirling vision he saw Jeff lying on his back. Another man was going through his pockets.

  Nathan gritted his teeth and tried to move towards them, but he succeeded only in rolling over on to his back. He looked up at the night sky where the stars winked out as his vision dimmed.

  ‘What are you two doing?’ someone shouted, dragging him back to consciousness.

  ‘Get away,’ another man said. ‘This doesn’t concern you.’

  ‘I reckon it does.’

  Heavy footfalls sounded and then the thud of fist on flesh. Still unable to summon the strength to move, Nathan’s head lolled to the side and with his cheek pressed against the dirt he watched the blurred forms of two men tangling with their two assailants.

  Muttered comments and brief glimpses of their features in the low light tapped at his memory and convinced him that he’d seen two of the men before, but in his befuddled state he couldn’t place where.

  His eyes closed. Even with the altercation raging a few feet away sleep was close and inviting.

  ‘Is he dead?’ someone asked, the words seeming to come from miles away even though he knew the speaker stood nearby.

  Then the words became too hard for him to concentrate on and sleep stole him away.

  Flashes of light and disconcerting movements interrupted a troubling sleep until he realized that the latest movement was someone shaking him. He pushed the hands away, but they wouldn’t leave him alone and with a start he opened his eyes to find bright light shining down on him.

  He blinked and raised an arm before his face to block the light, but quickly his vision focused. He was no longer outside. He was in the lawman’s office.

  ‘Are you all right?’ Marshal Lawton said.

  Nathan fingered his forehead and then around his head until he found the bump behind the ear. He flinched away from it wincing, but then probed again, finding that aside from being damp the wound wasn’t as painful as he’d first feared.

  ‘I guess,’ he said.

  He sat up. The motion made him sway, but once he’d righted himself he found he was sitting on the floor beside the desk where yesterday Lawton had given them an ultimatum.

  To his relief Jeff was propped up against the wall and although he too was fingering his scalp gingerly he summoned a smile.

  ‘You had me worried,’ Jeff said. ‘You’ve been out for an hour.’

  ‘And you had me worried.’ Nathan thought back to the scraps of conversation he’d heard. ‘I thought they’d killed you.’

  ‘The only reason they didn’t is down to our new friends, Mike Ripley and Daniel Smart. They saved us.’

  ‘The men from the saloon?’

  ‘Sure.’

  ‘Then I’m mighty pleased to finally learn the names of our new friends,’ he said, leaning back against the wall and r
elaxing.

  Chapter Eight

  ‘So Peter Parsons is the other dead man,’ Marshal Lawton said.

  ‘We don’t know that for sure, but it’s looking that way,’ Jeff said.

  ‘Either way, you had a lucky escape.’ Lawton headed to the window to look out. ‘I was told two men were being attacked. When I found you, Daniel and Mike had just chased your assailants away. So it’s likely that what happened to Peter and Baxter is what nearly happened to you.’

  While he gathered his thoughts Nathan looked at the cells. They weren’t as occupied as they had been yesterday, so he was able to catch Patrick’s eye and give him an encouraging smile.

  ‘I can’t add anything to that story.’

  ‘What were you doing to get attacked in the first place?’

  ‘We were doing whatever it took to get Patrick released,’ Nathan said, raising his voice so that Patrick could hear. ‘We only learnt the little you now know, but we have a start.’

  Lawton narrowed his eyes. ‘I didn’t mean our investigation. I mean your own private investigation.’

  ‘I don’t know what you mean.’

  Lawton snorted and then walked up to them. He looked both men up and down, taking his time.

  ‘You left town, walking down the tracks towards the outcrop, the one place where you’re not allowed to go. That makes me wonder if you’re really working with Patrick to steal the payroll, after all.’

  Nathan rubbed his head, wincing. ‘If you’re going to be that suspicious, you’d better lock us up because to get the answers you want we’ll be heading to all the places nobody else goes.’

  Lawton considered this excuse while frowning, but then accepted it with a brief nod.

  ‘You’ve raised plenty of questions,’ he said. ‘So now find me some answers.’

  Chapter Nine

  It was pay day.

  The miners had formed an orderly line behind a row of tables set in the center of the tents. Sherman Clarke stood behind the central table eyeing the surrounding area as if he suspected someone would attempt a raid at any moment.

  Standing to the side was Marshal Lawton. He kept far enough back from Sherman and his people to appear as if he were looking out for trouble without intruding on Sherman’s area of responsibility.