Frontier Earth 2 by Bruce Boxleitner

Author:Bruce Boxleitner [Boxleitner, Bruce]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-04-03T15:41:18+00:00

slowly the way those children had been burning the puppy. And there was not a thing in the world that she could do to stop them.

THE SUN HAD LONG AGO VANISHED BEHIND THE WHET- stone Mountains, sending their shadows stretching far down into the San Pedro Valley. It was still light, how- ever, with a clear blue sky given depth by a few scattered horsetail cirrus clouds high overhead. North from the town of Apache Peak, a ridge of blocky, sandstone hills appeared to have broken off from the main body of the Whetstones, forming a narrow val- ley. Macklin didn't like the idea of getting himself trapped in a dead end, but from what he could see of the cliffsides below East Peak, there might be a way up and over the barrier farther on. He kept moving. Moving slowly and keeping under cover when he could, Macklin eventually reached the rocky ground above the Apache Peak Mine, which appeared to be noth- ing more than a crude tunnel cut into an earthen bank, braced by timbers and surrounded by crates, barrels, dig- ging tools, and a couple of wagons. A hand-lettered sign on a plank nailed to a tree stump warned off trespassers, while two armed sentries patrolled the remuda of some twenty horses tied to a long rope stretched between two trees. Another guard stood outside the mine entrance, and Macklin wondered if there were others, posted among the rocks on the surrounding hillsides. The ones he could see all carried rifles, with pistols holstered at their hips. The number of horses visible gave him a rough idea of the number of men present. Most must be underground right now. The only ones visible at the moment were the guards, and three men picking through a small wagon full of rocks ... apparently separating the silver ore by hand. Most of the mines Macklin had seen in and around Tombstone were either vertical shafts or hillside tunnels like this one, but with railroad tracks carrying ore cars. These diggings looked a lot more primitive and less permanent, as if the miners hadn't cared to put that much cost or effort into the endeavor. Well, that fit with what he'd been told. Norden and Thornton wanted to find the lost Bennett Mine and re- cover their losses there, not start a whole new mine. He studied the layout of the place for a long time, lying flat on his belly atop a sandstone boulder as the shadows grew slowly deeper, darkening toward twilight. One guard he might have been able to handle barehanded, if he man- aged to sneak up behind him. Two ... he wasn't so sure.

Besides, the horses were in clear view of the miners work- ing the ore wagon. He didn't see how he could get down there and at the horses without someone seeing him and giving the alarm. He'd decided that the only way he was going to be able to get close was to wait for it to get fully dark.

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