Chapter 20 - Ride to the Canyon
They rode through the night.
Marshal Bell brought four deputies.
Margaret remained in Tucson coordinating copies of evidence.
Nathan Reeves traveled with them because only he knew Vale’s latest drilling layout.
Caleb rode beside Ethan.
Neither spoke much.
At dawn the canyon appeared.
Smoke rose.
Ethan spurred Copper.
The village was empty.
For one terrible moment he feared the worst.
Then Isaac smiled.
“They moved.”
The chief had evacuated everyone before Vale arrived.
Only defenders remained hidden in the ridges.
No children.
No families trapped.
Vale occupied the north shaft.
His wagons formed a barricade.
Dynamite crates had been placed near three drilling points.
Reeves studied them through binoculars.
“He’s opening the mine.”
Marshal Bell frowned.
“Can he legally blast?”
“Not after receiving notice of federal review.”
“Did he receive notice?”
Caleb smiled grimly.
“I handed it to him yesterday.”
Bell looked at him.
“Then we have authority to stop the work.”
“Twenty men may disagree.”
Bell raised a white flag.
He rode forward.
Ethan watched from the ridge.
Vale met him.
Their conversation lasted five minutes.
Bell returned.
“He says the land is his and the review has no legal effect until a judge issues an injunction.”
Margaret had warned them this argument might be made.
“Is he right?” Ethan asked.
“Partly.”
“Partly gets people killed.”
“Yes.”
Vale had chosen the legal gray area deliberately.
Reeves pointed toward the drilling line.
“If he detonates those charges, water pressure may shift.”
“Toward the village?”
“Possibly.”
Ethan hated that word.
Caleb studied Thomas’s map.
“Unless we open the relief channel.”
“What relief channel?”
Caleb pointed south.
“Father built one.”
A narrow shaft designed to redirect underground water if pressure rose.
They could open it manually.
But the entrance lay beneath Vale’s position.
Bell shook his head.
“I cannot authorize an attack.”
The chief spoke.
Isaac translated.
“He does not ask you to.”
The defenders moved through routes known only to them.
Their goal was not to shoot Vale’s men.
It was to reach the relief shaft.
Ethan joined.
Bell cursed but followed with two deputies.
Near noon they crawled through a narrow crevice.
Vale’s men heard movement.
Shots struck rock.
Nobody was hit.
Isaac led them lower.
They reached an iron wheel set into stone.
Thomas’s relief gate.
Rust covered it.
Caleb grabbed the wheel.
It did not move.
Ethan joined.
Nothing.
Reeves shouted above gunfire.
“It’s fused!”
They needed leverage.
Isaac wedged a rifle barrel through the spokes.
Caleb added a crowbar.
The wheel shifted.
An inch.
Then another.
Water roared behind the wall.
Ethan felt vibration beneath his boots.
“Again!”
They pulled.
The gate opened.
A violent stream burst through the lower channel.
Everyone scrambled upward.
Water raced south.
Vale’s men shouted.
The pressure beneath the north shaft dropped.
Reeves laughed.
“He can’t flood the village now.”
Then the dynamite detonated.
The canyon jumped.
Stone rained down.
Ethan covered his head.
A massive section of northern ridge collapsed.
Dust swallowed everything.
When visibility returned, the mine entrance stood open.
Vale had succeeded.
For the first time in fifteen years, Thomas Cole’s sealed mine was exposed.
Vale walked from the dust.
His clothes were torn.
His face bled slightly.
But he smiled.
Behind him waited darkness.
The silver vein.
His obsession.
Caleb stared.
Vale saw him.
“Come look.”
Ethan grabbed his brother.
Caleb did not move.
Vale continued.
“Your father stole your life for what’s inside.”
Caleb’s breathing changed.
“Don’t,” Ethan said.
Caleb looked at him.
“I need to see it.”
“Why?”
“So it stops owning me.”
He walked toward the mine.
Ethan followed.
Isaac followed him.
Vale entered first.
Deep inside, lantern light struck rock.
Silver shimmered through the wall.
Even Ethan stopped breathing.
Vale touched it.
“Beautiful.”
Caleb looked for a long time.
Then said, “No.”
Vale turned.
Caleb continued.
“It’s just rock.”
Vale’s smile disappeared.
That was the insult he could not endure.
He drew his revolver.
And from somewhere deeper in the mine came a cracking sound.
Not gunfire.
Timber.
Reeves shouted from the entrance.
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“Get out!”
The mountain had begun to move.
