Savage 06 by E. Jefferson Clay

Author:E. Jefferson Clay [Clay, E. Jefferson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: action, hero, Colt, .45, Elmore, Leonard, gunslingers, Louis, L'Amour, Piccadilly, publishing, Pulp, fiction, writing, the, wild, west, western, frontier, series
Publisher: Piccadilly
Published: 2023-03-01T00:00:00+00:00

Five – Don’t Go Down the Mine

It was mid-afternoon when Savage sighted the mine. He had ridden in a wide semicircle from the range, traveling through spectacular, useless country to come down behind the ironstone wall that closed off the valley where he’d encountered the vaqueros. The sighting of two armed sentries on a lookout point further west had ensured his continuing caution as he followed hoof and wagon tracks into a tight little hidden valley. At the head of the valley was the mine.

There was a scatter of buildings around the mouth of the shaft, rough adobe and frame constructions. He saw stables and a long, low-roofed shed which he guessed housed the processing works. At one end, a tall chimney billowed smoke. A long, black slag heap stretched away from the building until it petered out among rocks and coarse grass. Now he knew. This was a silver mine.

Standing beside Stud, Savage hooked his thumbs in his shell belt and frowned. There had been no talk of any mining operation on Rancho Cortez since his arrival, but he seemed to recall Yaqui Joe mentioning something about a silver lode having helped Don Carlos to finance his expansion in the early days.

Was this a secret operation? It had the look of it.

His gaze tightened as he saw men emerge from the shaft, pushing a bulky little ore cart along iron tracks. They vanished inside the long building, and all was quiet again.

In New Mexico, just after the war, he’d done a six-week stint in a silver mine. The job had been hard, underpaid and claustrophobic.

Savage glanced at the sky. The sun was well down. At dusk, he figured, a man could get right down there undetected and take a good look around. He grinned at a thought. If Yaqui Joe had been with him, the man’s immediate reaction would surely have been an alarmed, ‘What for?’ Yaqui Joe was just as curious, but less venturesome and reckless than Savage. He didn’t believe in taking risks without a strong reason, except where horse thieving was concerned. For that he believed no risk too great. But Savage got a pure thrill from danger, and apart from that, he just had to know what was going on down there, and who was behind it. Maybe what he found out would provide answers to some of the puzzling questions he’d been asking himself since his arrival.

Hunkering down, he lit a cigar as the big sun slid closer to the rim of the hills.

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