Part 20 (1/2)

I opened my eyes and looked around. The tunnel had wound through the shoulder of the mountain, to come out near the stand of spruce where a lone horseman had sat earlier, watching my progress up the valley. It was that rider who must have waited, knowing I would come, who must have knotted Red's leash and locked me into the mine.

I looked at Jon and saw that his head bandage showed the seeping of fresh blood.

”You've started to bleed again,” I said. ”You should never have come out. But how lucky for me that you did.”

”I'm all right,” he a.s.sured me. ”I sc.r.a.ped myself on the rock in there. When Sam told me you'd ridden out here looking for Red, I came as fast as I could. It's a good thing I kept shouting for you along the way. This old tunnel's been lost for as far back as I can remember. I knew it was supposed to be around here somewhere, but n.o.body recalled any longer where the opening was. This is where old Dominoes gophered his way to silver.”

He was giving me the time I needed by talking.

”The old man started to take out ore before Tremayne and Morgan came along and bought the claim from him. Those old hard-rockers could put in an operation all on their own, or vith a partner or two. Most mining was just hard labor anyway. Drilling, picking their way into the rock, planting explosives, and shoveling out blast waste and ore rock-all that was done by hand.”

I still wanted to postpone what must be talked about, and I knew Jon was humoring me.

”Why did they work that hard for so little?” I asked, to keep him talking.

”Lure of the treasure hunt, I suppose. Over the years brush swallowed the opening and that tree fell across it. Red must have found his way in, perhaps chasing a chipmunk. Then I suppose he couldn't get out.”

”He couldn't get out because someone put him there,” I said.

Jon didn't seem surprised. ”Can you talk about it now?”

”I have to talk about it. Someone phoned the house and told Caleb he'd heard a dog barking out near the mine. So I rode up here to see for myself. When I reached this spot, I thought I heard Red whining, but I wasn't sure, so I went on to the mine. The door was open and-”

”Open?” Jon broke in. ”Smashed open?”

”No. The padlock must have been opened with a key. I went just inside the entrance and started to call for Red. When he answered me, I went in a little farther to locate the direction. I remembered what you said about mines, and I wasn't going to explore. But someone shut the door behind me and closed the padlock.”

”G.o.d!” Jon said, and the word had an angry sound. He reached for me again and put both arms around me as we sat on the ground.

I had to know more. ”Who would have a key to the mine?”

”Your grandmother, of course. And I have one that she had made for me. It's hanging right where I keep it. Her key is at the house.”

”Gail,” I said. ”She must have taken it. She's working with Ingram, and I suppose she could have given the key to him. When I rode out from the ranch, a man on a horse was I.

watching me from right about here. Too far away for me to recognize.”

”Tell me the rest,” Jon said, and I heard the grim note in his voice.

I told him as best I could. About having a flashlight, thanks to Sam. About finding the right tunnel and starting my long crawl through it toward the sound of Red's frantic response. I was trying to sound matter-of-fact and keep the memory of panic out of my voice, but Jon heard.

”Never mind,” he said. ”You don't have to suffer through it again. You found Red and I found you.”

”First I found Noah Armand,” I told him.

He put me at arm's length so he could look into my face, questioning.

”There's always been a mystery about what happened to Noah,” I said. ”I had a feeling that they'd never told me the whole truth. I still don't know what happened. But his bones are back there in the mine. I had to crawl past them.”

As I spoke I could remember that moment all too vividly.

Jon gave me a small shake. ”Hang on, Laurie. Don't jump to conclusions. Old bones in a lost mine could belong to anyone. Nothing points to Noah Armand for sure, does it?”

”I suppose an identification could be made, if it came to that. I suppose there would be bits of clothing or jewelry. All I know is that he is part of whatever happened. Jon, I went into the back parlor today, and I opened that box. I remembered. You know what I did, don't you? You know that I loaded one of those deringers that my grandmother had kept, and I shot and killed my own father.”

He held me rightly. ”I only know rumors. Hints my mother dropped. Take it easy, Laurie.”

I could talk now, with my head against his chest, though words came out starkly.

”I remembered some of it. I remembered firing the gun. And A.

234.

Caleb told me the rest. Persis had told me some of it, tooearlier. That my mother was going to run away with Noah Armand. My father came home in time to find his wife in the back parlor, probably in Noah's arms. I was there behind a sofa, playing with those deringers. So when I thought Noah was going to hurt my father, I must have shot, meaning to stop him. Instead it was my father who died.” My words faded sickly away.

Jon held me, and there was a deep tenderness in him. For a moment I clung to him. Then he sat me up away from him.

”We'd better start back soon.” My face was still wet with tears, and he touched a ringer to my cheek. ”Don't look like that. You didn't kill Richard Morgan. A child did. A child who couldn't possibly know what she was doing. Someone from a long time ago. If you'd grown up with the knowledge, you'd feel easier now. It's come too suddenly, and that can be shattering. Just give yourself time.”

He drew me up and I stood close to him. ”Jon, last night at that awful dinner I told Mark Ingram that I'm going to stay here with my grandmother. So perhaps that's why he had me locked in the mine.”

”Could be. Let's get back to the ranch now, so you can tell your grandmother the whole thing.”

”But that will worry her-and she's helpless.”

”Not so helpless now that you're here. She'll want to know.”

”Even about those bones?”

”Everything. Though she may already know about them. If she hasn't always acted wisely in the past, then she needs everything you can tell her so that she can deal with the present now.”

”Must it be reported?”

”It should be, I suppose, but let's wait until you've told Persis.”

”What are you going to do now?”

I'd never seen him look so grim. ”I mean to have a talk with Ingram as soon as possible. Up you go on Sundance. Give rne your foot.”

I didn't want to take his horse. He had been hurt far more seriously than I. Except for a few cuts and sc.r.a.pes, all my hurts were inner. But I knew there was no use arguing with Jon Maddocks, and when I was in the saddle, holding the reins gingerly, he walked beside me, a hand on the bridle, quieting Sundance, who was feeling mettlesome. I'd undipped Red's leash, but he had no wish to stray from me again, and he came along willingly when I called him.

As we started down the valley, I thought of an old question that still troubled me. We were closer now, Jon and I, and I could ask him.

”What did you mean when you said I had to earn the right to know?”

He looked up at me, and again there was a tenderness in him that I yearned toward. ”You're earning your way just fine, Laurie. I'm sorry it's had to be so rough. When you come out on the other side you'll know for sure what you're made of.”

Would I? Would I ever know for sure? I certainly didn't know right now.

Jon pointed ahead, and I saw that Baby Doe had been tethered near a few cottonwoods by the stream below the trail. She stamped and whinnied her impatience at the sight of us.