Страница 72 из 74
«Huh. Guess I’m go
Sha
«May I see the bill, please?» she asked, holding out her hand.
«What fer?»
«To check your sums.»
Murphy handed the bill over and watched nervously while Sha
«You are thirty-one dollars and twelve cents over,» she said after a few minutes.
Muttering, Murphy subtracted thirty-one dollars from the total. Sha
«I have Silent John’s gold scales at the cabin,» Sha
Murphy shot Sha
«Whip sure put steel in yer spine,» Murphy said.
Sha
Murphy took the poke, opened it, and poured. A mixture of dust, nuggets, and flakes spilled onto one of the scale’s small dishes.
«Well, I be go to hell,» Murphy said, surprised. «Whip found some new strikes, eh?»
«What do you mean?»
«None of this gold come from Silent John’s old claims.»
Sha
«The color and shape is all wrong,» Murphy said impatiently. «Silent John’s claims don’t give no coppery-colored flakes. No pale gold dust, neither. And as for these …»
Deftly Murphy sorted out some heavy, ragged nuggets of a rich golden hue. He pressed his thumbnail hard against one nugget. When he lifted his thumb again, a crease showed on the surface of the gold.
«These pretty gals be too jagged for river nuggets, but too blessed pure for anything else,» Murphy said reverently, «Ain’t seen their like since a fast-talking city boy tried to sell me a Colorado claim salted with pure Dakota bullion. That was reddish gold. But this here nugget puts me to mind of some I saw once on a poker table down to Las Cruces. The gold come from the Abajos. Spanish gold, pure as a baby’s dreams.»
A chill crawled beneath Sha
No, she told herself quickly. Whip wouldn’t have done that to me! Murphy must be mistaken.
The storekeeper glanced away from the gold and saw the shocked look on Sha
«Don’t s’pose you be wanting to tell me where Whip found this here gold?»
Sha
Murphy laughed. «Don’t blame you none for playin’ close to the vest. If’n I had me any claims rich as these, I sure to God wouldn’t tell no one neither.»
«Whip told me the gold came from Silent John’s claims,» Sha
«Smart man, that Whip. What you don’t know, you can’t spill to strangers. But I seen all kinds of Echo Basin gold, missy, and you can take this direct to God’s ear — not one speck of this here gold come from here.»
Reno’s words echoed in Sha
Way up in the Abajos, in a crumbling old mine… bars of pure gold so heavy Eve could hardly lift more than one at a time.
Sha
In icy silence, Sha
For the first time, Sha
JUST over a day later, riding one mule and leading the other, Sha
«Sha
«It’s me,» Sha
«What a lovely surprise! Come in, I’ll have tea on in a minute.»
«No, thank you. Prettyface, if you snarl again, I’m going to feed you to the crows.»
Prettyface stopped making savage noises and stood quietly by Sha
«Trouble?» he asked.
«Nothing that can’t be cured,» Sha
Caleb gave her a long look. Then he dismounted, went to the mules, and made an admiring sound.
«Nice pair of mules,» he said. «Virginia bred, from the look of them.»
«The Culpeppers favored Virginia mules,» Sha
«Good stamina,» Caleb said.
«They’ll need it,» was Sha
Caleb started to ask a question, then gave a grunt of surprise as he lifted the saddlebags.
«Judas Priest,» he muttered. «What’s in these? Lead?»
«Whip’s gold,» Sha
Willow and Caleb exchanged a swift look.
«It was my understanding,» Caleb said carefully, «that Whip was working for wages rather than for a share ofyourgold.»
«That was my understanding, too,» Sha
She yanked off the saddle with one hand and the blanket with the other. With a few quick motions she saddled the second mule.
«But I was wrong,» Sha
«You want to chase that by me again?» Caleb asked, puzzled.
Sha
«This gold never was dug in Echo Basin,» Sha
«Did he?» Caleb asked warily.
«Once I figured out what had happened, I suspected Whip had paid me too much, but I didn’t know the going rate, so I tracked down Clementine and Betsy and asked.»
Caleb measured the flat rage in Sha
«I was right,» Sha
«Wait!» Willow called as Sha
«Thank you, no,» Sha
«But —» Willow began.
«In any case,» Sha
With that, Sha
For a time neither Willow nor Caleb spoke. Then Willow let out a long, harsh breath.
«I wish I knew where my dear brother was,» she said. «I would like to see him again.»
«So would Sha
IT was an icy dusk when Whip rode up to Willow and Caleb’s home, his collar turned up against the wind. Snow flurries gleamed and swirled around him.
«Hello, stranger,» Caleb said, stepping down off the porch. «We thought you were headed for San Francisco and the high seas. I didn’t expect to see you for a year or two.»
There was a question buried beneath Caleb’s words, but Whip didn’t know how to answer it. He was as puzzled as anyone else to find himself on this side of the sunrise.