The Sheriff (Historical Romance) (16 page)

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 tailings 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.

Now, at quitting time, as the weak winter sun was beginning to set, Kate took a good long look at the little man and ordered him to go home at once and get into bed.

“You are running a fever, Chang Li,” she said. “I can tell by looking at you.”

“Maybe little,” he said meekly.

She stepped close and laid her hand on his fore-head.
“More than a little. You’re burning up. Want to go see Doc Ledet?”

“No, no, not need doctor,” Chang Li said.

“Very well, but you are not standing guard here tonight,” Kate said emphatically.

“But what if somebody…?”

“I will take your place,” she said calmly. “I’ll guard the mine tonight and you will go home and get well.”

W
inn Delaney’s henchmen went up to the Cavalry Blue Mine at well past midnight. A full harvest moon shone down from a cloudless sky. Jim Spears spotted the lone sentry at the mine’s entrance. The small figure in a dark coat and watch cap could only be the little Chinaman.

Spears motioned to Titus Kelton and pointed. Kelton squinted, nodded. The two men crept as silently as possible up the incline. But the big, lumbering Jim Spears stepped on a loose rock and it skittered down the mountainside.

Alerted, the guard swiftly spun around, yelled “Halt!” and, when they did not, fired a warning shot.

The one-eyed Titus Kelton immediately fired back, hitting the sentry. A loud moan, and the guard staggered. And Kate’s cap fell off. Her long blond
hair spilled down as she grabbed her bleeding shoulder and sank to the ground.

“We shot the woman!” muttered Jim Spears.

“Son of a bitch!” swore the one-eyed Titus Kelton as the calico cat that was keeping Kate company hissed loudly, streaked down the incline, made a flying leap at the big man and viciously scratched his remaining eye, drawing blood.

Holding his bloody eye, Kelton scrambled away, cursing. Spears was right behind him.

Moaning, Kate tried to rise. But she couldn’t quite make it. Cal made soft mewling sounds and gently nudged her, trying to get her up, sensing that she was badly hurt.

“It’s okay, Cal,” Kate murmured weakly, drawing him down beside her. “I’m all right. I’ll just rest a minute and get my strength back.”

The cat lay dutifully still against his wounded mistress’s side. Losing blood and rapidly growing weaker, Kate thought of Chang Li and how he would berate himself for allowing her to take his place on guard duty because he was sick.

She grimaced and pressed her palm against the bullet wound in an attempt to staunch the flow of blood that was rapidly saturating her woolen wrap. She tried her best to remain conscious, but knew she was losing the battle. She looked up at the cold stars twinkling high overhead in the heavens.

And she smiled foolishly when the face of the man in the moon became that of Sheriff Travis McCloud.

He couldn’t sleep.

The feverish Chang Li tossed fitfully, unable to rest. It was more than just his illness. He was worried about Kate up there all by herself in the middle of the night. He should never have left her there.

Finally, Chang Li gave up trying to sleep. He threw back the covers and rose from his narrow cot in the drafty canvas tent he called home. He hurriedly dressed in the darkness and headed to the mine. He knew Kate would laugh and tease him about worrying, but he didn’t care.

His teeth chattering from the cold and the fever, he trudged up the mountainside, his lungs laboring in the thin air. When he spotted her lying on the ground with the calico cat meowing plaintively at her side, Chang Li wailed loudly.

He hurried to the unconscious woman and saw the blood staining the fabric of her warm woolen wrap. He fell to his knees and pressed his ear to her chest to see if her heart was beating.

It was.

But barely.

Cursing himself in Chinese, Chang Li carefully lifted her into his arms. With the calico cat racing on ahead, Chang Li carried her down the mountain, wondering where he should take her. Doc Ledet was presently
not in Fortune. There had been a mining accident over the hill in Goldbug, and the doctor had gone to help. He might not be back for a week or more.

By the time the exhausted, heavily breathing Chang Li reached town, he knew where he was going. He skirted the rear of the buildings until he was directly behind the city jail.

“Marshal, wake up, wake up!” he called frantically at the door of Travis McCloud’s private quarters. “Sheriff, wake up!”

“Hold your horses,” Travis shouted, pulling on a pair of trousers and lighting the lamp by his bed. Frowning, his hair disheveled, he yanked open the door, thundering, “What the hell?”

Then his dark face went ghostly white.

“Sheriff, is Missy Kate!” said Chang Li. “She bad shot, may die.” And the frightened little man began to cry.

Travis was already taking Kate from Chang Li’s arms and carrying her inside to his bed, where he gently laid her down. Not bothering to don a shirt or shoes, he said, without looking at Chang Li, “The bullet must come out now, tonight. Right now! You’ll have to help.”

Chang Li sniffed away his tears. “Do whatever you tell me.”

Travis knelt beside the bed. He swept Kate’s blood-soaked wrap open, took it off and tossed it aside.

And he decisively issued orders. “Light all the
lamps. Clean off the dining table. Get a fresh sheet from the shelves in the closet. Spread the sheet out on the table.”

Chang Li snapped to, rushing about to do as he was told. When the table was draped with a snowy white sheet, Chang Li gathered clean cloths, bandages and a bottle of tincture of iodine. He heated water on the wood stove. He placed everything on the seats of two straight-backed chairs pulled up near the table.

When Travis carried Kate to the table and laid her on it, he said to Chang Li, “You can either stay here while I remove the bullet, or you can wait in the jail.” Travis glanced at the little man and shook his head. “You’re feverish. Go on into the jail and stretch out on a bunk in one of the empty cells.”

“No, I help you—”

“That’s an order, Chang Li.”

The man nodded and left.

As soon as he was gone, Travis returned to the bed, reached under the feather mattress and took out his bowie knife. Removing it from its scabbard, he cleaned it, struck a match and ran the tiny flame up and down the length of the sharp blade to sterilize it as best he could. Then he wiped the blade down with a mixture of iodine and warm water. He placed the knife on a clean white towel Chang Li had laid out.

Travis turned his full attention to the unconscious Kate.

But he didn’t see a beautiful young woman to
whom he was helplessly attracted. He saw a wounded patient in need of immediate medical care. He was no longer the sheriff, but Kate’s physician, entrusted with saving her life. Damn Doc Ledet’s hide!

Travis didn’t hesitate.

Clinically and devoid of emotion, he stripped away Kate’s bloodstained shirt and batiste camisole. When she was naked to the waist, he carefully cleaned and washed the wound.

Then Travis took a deep breath, picked up the knife, asked the Almighty for guidance and went to work.

Kate remained unconscious while Travis, with his surgeon’s skill, excised the bullet from her left shoulder. It took less than five minutes. He dropped the bloody bullet into a pan and laid the knife aside. He carefully cleaned and bandaged the wound.

And only then, when his task was completed and he’d draped a clean sheet over her, did Travis tremble with fear. Her life was in his hands. The magnitude of the responsibility washed over him. He felt dizzy, and short of breath. He quickly crossed to the back door, stepped out onto the stoop and took several slow, long breaths of the frigid night air. Seated on the stoop, meowing sadly, was Kate’s cat.

“Hey, boy, it’s okay,” Travis said as he crouched down and stroked the cat’s head.

When the big calico didn’t hiss or try to scratch him, Travis smiled, scooped him up and took him inside. He carried the cat close to the table where Kate
lay, but kept a firm grip on him lest the calico try to jump up onto the table.

“See, she’s all right,” Travis soothed, and the nervous cat relaxed and purred softly. Travis lowered him to the floor. The cat yawned and went over to the fireplace, where embers burned low in the grate. Cal stretched out, made soft mewing sounds and went to sleep.

Travis glanced at Kate. He washed his hands thoroughly, then stripped the sheets from his bed and put on fresh ones. He returned to the table, smiling foolishly as he flipped her covering up to her waist and removed her tall rubber boots and stockings. And he bit the inside of his cheek when he unbuttoned her trousers down her flat belly, then struggled to get the pants down past her hips and off.

Travis lifted Kate and carried her to his bed. He placed her in the center of the mattress and drew the clean sheet and warm blanket up over her. He exhaled heavily, reached up and swept his hair back from his temples.

He stared at her.

She had lost a lot of blood. Her face was as white as the sheets she lay on. Her lips—those perfect Cupid’s bow lips—were a pale, bloodless pink.

But she would live. He knew she would. She was young and healthy and he would take good care of her. He wouldn’t allow her to move from his bed until she was able, no matter how much she objected.

Travis crossed to the fireplace, threw a couple of logs on the low-burning embers and jabbed at them with a poker. Flames shot up, but they did little to warm the chilled room. Then he drew on a clean shirt, pinned on his badge, put on his boots and went to get Chang Li, expecting to find the sick Chinaman sleeping soundly. Chang Li was sitting on the edge of a bunk, wide awake, worrying. Travis allowed him to check on Kate.

“She’ll be all right, Chang Li. I’ll keep close watch over her. Now go on home and get some rest.”

“You send for me if she need me?”

“Yes, I will,” Travis promised, and saw the little man to the back door. “Any idea who might have done this?”

Chang Li shook his head. “No, Sheriff. Who would do such a terrible thing? Shoot woman? Not understand.”

“I know. Let’s keep the shooting to ourselves for a while. Wait until Kate wakes up. Maybe she’ll know who her assailant was.”