Chapter 6 - Black Ridge

Corvin, Mara, Jonah, and twenty riders reached Black Ridge before the dynamite wagon.

The moon hung low behind thin clouds.

Corvin had ridden this country since he could sit a saddle, yet the ridge felt unfamiliar now.

Every stone might hide evidence.

Every trail might have been created for reasons his family had concealed.

Mara led them toward a narrow cut in the rocks.

"How do you know this?"

"My grandfather showed me."

"When?"

"When I was twelve."

"You've been here before?"

"Many times."

Corvin stared at her.

"This is my ranch."

She looked at him.

"That sentence is part of the problem."

He had no answer.

They dismounted near an abandoned prospect shaft Corvin remembered from childhood.

His father had forbidden him from entering.

Said the timbers were unstable.

Mara removed Helena's map.

One mark aligned with the shaft.

They entered carrying lanterns.

Twenty feet inside, Jonah found iron rings embedded in the wall.

"Mining equipment?"

"No," Mara said.

She pointed toward grooves in the floor.

"Wagon wheels."

The tunnel widened.

At the back stood a collapsed wooden partition.

Corvin kicked loose boards aside.

Behind them was a storage chamber.

Empty crates bore a faded stamp.

VANE & SONS FREIGHT — 1862

Jonah cursed softly.

Their mother had been right.

Vane's family had known about the ridge for decades.

Mara's lantern illuminated scratches on another crate.

Numbers.

Weights.

Ore values.

Corvin found a rotted canvas sack containing green-streaked stone.

Copper.

"This could be worth a fortune," Jonah whispered.

Mara looked at him sharply.

"That is exactly what everyone keeps saying."

Jonah lowered the rock.

Outside, a rifle cracked.

Lanterns went dark.

Corvin drew his revolver.

A voice echoed from the entrance.

"Come out!"

Calder Voss.

Corvin recognized the hard, flat voice from Carrick saloons.

"We have the shaft surrounded."

Mara whispered to one of her riders.

He disappeared deeper into the mine.

Corvin called, "You followed us onto private land, Voss."

Voss laughed.

"Private according to which paper?"

Jonah flinched.

Corvin noticed.

"You tell him anything?"

"No."

"Someone did."

Voss called again.

"Bring out the box."

"It's not here."

"Then bring out the woman."

Mara's face remained expressionless.

Corvin's anger rose.

"You shot her yesterday."

"Wasn't aiming to kill her."

"What were you aiming to do?"

"Make her drop what she carried."

Jonah stepped toward the entrance.

"I terminated your contract."

Voss laughed.

"You terminated your contract. Someone else pays better."

"Vane?"

Silence.

Then:

"Come outside, Counselor."

Mara touched Corvin's arm.

A faint tapping came from deeper in the tunnel.

Three taps.

Pause.

Three again.

She whispered, "Second exit."

Corvin remembered a ventilation opening halfway down the northern slope.

Mara's rider had found it.

They moved quietly through the darkness.

Jonah stayed close.

"There's something I didn't tell you."

Corvin nearly laughed.

"Excellent time."

"Voss didn't only steal maps."

"What else?"

"A list of landowners who refused sale offers."

"And?"

"Two later lost their properties after sudden debt claims."

Corvin stopped.

"Forged debt?"

"I don't know."

"You keep saying that."

"I know."

They reached the narrow ventilation passage.

One rider squeezed through.

Then another.

Mara pushed Jonah ahead.

Gunfire exploded near the main entrance.

Voss's men had entered.

"Move!"

Corvin climbed.

Loose rock tore his palms.

He emerged behind a mesquite-covered slope.

Below, Voss's men concentrated on the shaft entrance while Apache riders moved silently into positions around them.

Corvin could see the dynamite wagon.

Mara crawled beside him.

"What do they want destroyed?"

Corvin looked at the old mine.

"Not copper."

"What?"

"If they wanted the ore, they wouldn't blast the shaft."

Jonah emerged.

Corvin turned.

"They want evidence."

Jonah stared down at the abandoned freight crates.

"Records."

Mara nodded.

The elder had told them Dry Creek lay beyond the ridge.

Perhaps the tunnel connected both places.

A shout rose below.

Voss had discovered the empty chamber.

His men rushed outside.

Then a rider appeared from the north carrying a message.

Not Apache.

One of Vane's clerks.

He handed Voss a folded paper.

Voss read it.

Even from the ridge, Corvin saw him smile.

Then Voss shouted to his men:

"Forget the mine. We have what we need."

They mounted.

The dynamite wagon turned away.

Corvin frowned.

"Where are they going?"

Jonah looked south.

Toward the ranch.

Mara's expression changed.

"The box."

They ran for their horses.

But before Corvin mounted, Jonah grabbed his sleeve.

"Corvin."

He pointed toward the abandoned chamber.

Something had been hidden beneath the broken boards.

A metal dispatch case.

They pulled it free.

The lock had rusted away.

Inside were payroll sheets.

Names.

Dates.

Payments.

At the top of one page:

DRY CREEK CLEARANCE — AUTHORIZED G. TORNE

Below it appeared thirty-two names.

One caught Corvin's attention.

ELIAS TORNE — $600 — REFUSED

His father had refused payment.

But another line had been added beside it.

JONAH TORNE — WITNESS

Corvin turned slowly toward his brother.

Jonah stared at the page.

"I was seventeen."

Corvin's voice was barely audible.

"What did you witness?"

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Jonah looked terrified.

"Something I've spent twenty-four years trying to forget."