Familiar Stranger in Clear Springs by Kathryn Albright

Author:Kathryn Albright
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2015-01-22T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

Call it a sixth sense, but Tom couldn’t let go of the feeling that something was happening in town that he wasn’t privy to and should be. He’d known the feeling a number of times in the past and he didn’t like it. Anything was better than sitting and waiting for something to happen, so to head off the feeling, early the next morning he rode out to the Palisade Mine south of town to speak with the supervisor and double-check things.

Yesterday’s heavy rain had left remnants of its passing with the muddy roads in all directions from the main street of town. Although the day was now sunny and crisp, every time a slight breeze blew up, the leaves and branches overhead showered down leftover raindrops. Ahead of him he could hear the groan of the five-ton stamp mill as it rose on its chains and then dropped from a high height to pound the quartz into crumbly bits and extract the ore. The ground and air reverberated with the shock every few minutes.

His ride took a quarter of an hour and he figured during it he pictured Elizabeth and that kiss they had shared a total of fifteen times—once for each minute. Imagining her was a lot more interesting than thinking about the four hundred pounds of ore awaiting transport. As he neared the entrance to the mine, he corralled his thoughts and started thinking seriously about how the move would take place.

The load of ore would leave from this particular mine, although it would include ore from three other mines in the area. Nothing like putting your eggs all in one basket. It was obvious to him that the mine owners had been holding back, squeamish about another robbery, until it would be foolish to wait any longer. He hoped it wasn’t obvious to the thieves. That might bring on more men than he counted on or could be ready for. Yet Wells Fargo had a good reputation around these parts. It could be that no one bothered the load and he would have a safe journey all the way down the mountain. If that were the case he’d be real happy. Considering his premonition, that wasn’t going to happen. Likely there would be at least three men. He figured he could handle three if they didn’t get the jump on him—maybe even four, but no more than that.

He ducked into the mine office and introduced himself again to the supervisor.

“You’ll have a new driver,” the mine supervisor informed him. “Ferrill pulled himself out.”

“What happened?”

“Fell off his roof yesterday trying to cover a leak in all that rain. Wrenched his back. Can hardly walk.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” In more ways than one. Ferrill was a large man. They could have used his size and strength to great advantage during the transport. “Any other prospects?”

“Yep. Name’s Chet Farnsworth. He’s sitting out by the mine cars waitin’ to talk to you. If he’s not to your liking let me know and I’ll pull out another worker from the mines.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.