Coolidge SHADOW MOUNTAIN (A Western Mystery)

1. Auflage 2017
ISBN: 978-80-268-7934-3
Verlag: e-artnow
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 211 Seiten

Wiley Homan has a business plan for Virginia, a waitress and the daughter of the same man whom his own father had robbed once. Naturally, Homan's return to the Death Valley sounds alarm bells all over the decrepit mining town and Virginia cannot believe that he is up to any good. To add to the mystery, there is also a slight possibility that Virginia's father did not die as she was led to believe. But what does Homan wants from her? Where is her father? Dane Coolidge was a naturalist, author, photographer and a poet. He is now best remembered for his Westerns and his non-fiction books about the West, many of which were illustrated with his own photographs.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Coolidge, Dane

Leseproben

CHAPTER II.
THE SHOTGUN WIDOW
Table of Contents
The Widow Huff was burdened with a tray and her eye sought wildly for Virginia but when she glimpsed Wiley moving swiftly towards the door she set down his dinner with a bang. The disrespectful epithet which he had applied to her had been lost in the clatter of plates, but the moment the Widow came into the room she sensed the hair-trigger atmosphere. “Here!” she ordered, taking command on the instant. “Come back here, young man, and pay me for this dinner! And Virginia Huff, you go out into the kitchen–how many times do I have to speak to you?” Virginia started and stopped, her resentful eyes on Wiley, a thin smile parting her lips. “He said-” she began, and then Wiley strode back and slapped down a dollar on the table. “Yes, and I meant it, too,” he answered fiercely. “There’s your pay–and you can keep your mine.” “Why, certainly,” responded the Widow without knowing what she was talking about, “and now you eat that dinner!” She pointed a finger to the tray of food and looked Wiley Holman in the eye. He wavered, gazing from her to the smiling Virginia, and then he drew up his chair. “I’ll go you,” he said and showed his teeth in a grin. “You can’t hurt my feelings that way.” He lifted the T-bone steak from the platter and transferred it swiftly to his plate and then, as he fell to eating ravenously, the Widow condescended to smile. “When I go to the trouble of cooking a man a steak,” she announced with the suggestion of a swagger, “I expect him to stay and eat it.” “All right,” mumbled Wiley, and glancing fleeringly at Virginia, he went ahead with his meal. The Widow looked over her shoulder at her daughter and then back at the stranger, but as she was about to inquire into the cause of their quarrel she spied his diamond ring. She approached him closer under pretext of pouring out some water and then she sank down into a chair. “That is a very fine ring,” she stated briefly. “Worth fifteen hundred dollars at the least. Haven’t I seen you somewhere, before?” “Very likely,” returned Wiley, not venturing to look up, “my business takes me everywhere.” “I thought I recognized you,” went on the Widow ingratiatingly; “you’re a mining man, aren’t you, Mister–er-” “Wiley,” he answered, and at this bold piece of effrontery Virginia caught her breath. “Ah, yes, I remember you now,” said the Widow. “You knew my husband, of course–Colonel Huff? He passed away on the twentieth of July; but there was a time, not so many years ago, that I wore a few diamonds myself.” She fixed her restless eyes on his ring and heaved a discontented sigh. “Virginia,” she directed, “run out into the kitchen and clean up that skillet and all. I declare, you do less and less every day–are you a married man, Mr. Wiley?” Without awaiting the answer to this portentous question, Virginia flung out into the kitchen and, left alone, the Widow drew nearer and her manner became suddenly confidential. “I’d like to talk with you,” she began, “about my husband’s mine. Of course you’ve heard of the famous Paymaster–that’s the mill right over east of town–but there are very few men that know what I do about the reasons why that mine was shut down. It was commonly reported that Colonel Huff was trying to get possession of the property, but the truth of the matter is he was deceived by old John Holman and finally left holding the sack. You see, it was this way. My husband and John Holman had always been lifelong friends, but Colonel Huff was naturally generous while Holman thought of nothing but money. Well, my husband discovered the Paymaster–he was led to it by an Indian that he had saved from being killed by the soldiers–but, not having any money, he went to John Holman and they developed the mine together. It turned out very rich and such a rush you never saw–this valley was full of tents for miles–but it was so far from the railroad–seventy-four miles to Vegas–that the work was very expensive. The Company was reorganized and Mr. Blount, the banker, was given a third of the promotion stock. Then the five hundred thousand shares of treasury stock was put on the market in order to build the new mill; and when the railroad came in there was such a crazy speculation that everybody lost track of the transfers. My husband, of course, was generous to a fault and accustomed to living like a gentleman–and he invested very heavily in real estate, too–but this Mr. Blount was always out for his interest and Honest John would skin a dead flea.” “Honest John!” challenged Wiley, looking up from his eating with an ugly glint in his eye, but the Widow was far away. “Yes, Honest John Holman,” she sneered, without noticing his resentment. “They called him Honest John. Did you ever know one of these ‘Honest John’ fellows yet that wasn’t a thorough-paced scoundrel? Well, old John Holman he threw in with Blount to deprive Colonel Huff of his profits and, with these street certificates everywhere and no one recording their transfers, the Colonel was naturally deceived into thinking that the selling was from the outside. But all the time, while they were selling their stock and hammering down the price of Paymaster, they were telling the Colonel that it was only temporary and he ought to support the market. So he bought in what he could, though it wasn’t much, as he was interested in other properties, and then when the crash came he was left without anything and Blount and Holman were rich. The great panic came on and Blount foreclosed on everything, and then Mr. Huff fell out with John Holman and they closed the Paymaster down. That was ten years ago and, with the litigation and all, the stock went down to nothing. The whole camp went dead and all the folks moved away–but have you ever been through the mine? Well, I want you to go–that ground has hardly been scratched!” Wiley Holman glanced up doubtfully from under his heavy eyebrows and the Widow became voluble in her protests. “No, sir,” she exclaimed, “I certainly ought to know, because the Colonel was Superintendent; and when he had been drinking–the town was awful, that way–he would tell me all about the mine. And that was his phrase–he used it always: ‘That ground has hardly been scratched!’ But when he fell out with old John Holman he–well, there was an explosion underground and the glory-hole stope caved in. They cleaned it out afterwards and hunted around, but all the rich ore was gone; but I’m just as certain as I’m sitting here this minute the Colonel knew where there was more! He never would admit it–he was peculiar, that way, he never would discuss his business before a woman. But he wouldn’t deny it, and when he had been drinking–well, I know it’s there, that’s all!” She paused for her effect but Mr. Wiley, the mining man, was singularly unimpressed. He continued eating in moody silence and the Widow tried the question direct. “Well, what do you think about it?” she demanded bluffly. “Would you like to consider the property?” “No, I don’t think so,” he answered impersonally. “I’m on my way up north.” “Well, when you come back, then. Since my husband is gone I’m so sick and tired of it all I’ll consider any offer–for cash.” “Nope,” he responded, “I’m out for something different.” Then to stem the tide of her impending protest, he broke his studious silence. “I’m looking for molybdenum,” he went on quickly, “and some of these other rare metals that are in demand on account of the war. Ever find any vanadium or manganese around here? No, I guess they’re all further north.” He returned to his meal and the Widow surveyed him appraisingly with her bold, inquisitive eyes. She was a big, strapping woman, and handsome in a way; but the corners of her mouth were drawn down sharply in a sulky, lawless pout. “Aw, tell me the truth,” she burst out at last. “What have you got against the property?” A somber glow came into his eyes as he opened his lips to speak, and then he veiled his smouldering hate behind a crafty smile. “The parties that I represent,” he said deliberately, “are looking for a mine. But the man that puts his money into the Paymaster property is simply buying a lawsuit.” “What do you mean?” demanded the Widow, rousing up indignantly in response to this sudden thrust. “I mean, no matter how rich the Paymaster may be–and I hear the whole district is worked out–I wouldn’t even go up the hill to look at it until you showed me the title was good.” The Widow sat and glowered as she meditated a fitting response and then she rose to her feet. “Well, all right, then,” she sulked, “if you don’t want to consider it–but you’re missing the chance of your life.” “Very likely,” he muttered and reached for his hat. “Much obliged for cooking my dinner.” He started for the door, but she flew swiftly after him and snatched him back into the room. “Now here!” she cried, “I want you to listen to me–I’ve got tired of this everlasting waiting. I waited around for ten years on the Colonel, to settle this matter up, and now that he’s gone I’m going to settle it myself and get out of the cussed country. Maybe I don’t own the mine, but I own a good part of it–I’ve got two hundred...