“Thank you, sir,” Holbrook said, “but I really ought to be working with the local authorities—”
“No, that’s all right,” Manning said in a choked voice as he visibly struggled to keep his temper reined in. “If you’re here to catch the Deadwood Devils, Lieutenant, then by all means you should talk to Mr. Nicholson and the other mine owners. They can tell you what you need to know. You can operate independently as far as I’m concerned.”
“There’s no need to get your nose out of joint, Sheriff,” Nicholson said.
“I’m just trying to give you what you want,” Manning snapped. To Holbrook, he added, “Go to it, Lieutenant. You’ve got a free hand.”
Holbrook nodded and said, “Thank you, sir.” “Come along to my office, Lieutenant,” Nicholson invited. “I’ll tell you all about it.”
“Of course, sir.” Holbrook turned to his non-com and went on. “Sergeant, locate a suitable place to camp and have the men fall out and set up their tents.”
The sergeant, a stocky, middle-aged man with a drooping, gray-streaked mustache, said, “Beggin’ your pardon, Lieutenant, but tents are gonna be sort of cold in weather like this.”
“What would you have me do, put the company up at the hotel?” Holbrook snapped. “Carry out my orders, Sergeant.”
The non-com nodded and said, “Yes, sir.” “Well, what do you think about that?” Scratch asked as he and Bo and Chloride watched the sergeant lead the troopers past the bank.
“It’s pretty interesting,” Bo said. “Makes me think twice about some of the ideas in my head. I’ll have to ponder on it.”
“You reckon them soldier boys’ll be able to chase down the Devils?” Chloride asked.
Bo had his doubts about that, because he still believed at least some of the members of the gang were right here in Deadwood under their noses, masquerading as respectable citizens. Or at least semi-respectable citizens.
But all he said was, “We’ll see. Right now, we need to make sure that the rest of this gold gets unloaded and locked in the vault, and then I want to let Miss Sutton know that we made it all right.”
Martha Sutton was already aware of that. She looked up from her desk with a smile when the three men came in. “I was just about to head down to the bank as soon as I finished up this paperwork,” she said.
“No need for you to do that,” Bo told her as he handed her the receipt Jerome Davenport had given him.
Martha looked at the paper with shining eyes. “This is wonderful,” she said. “Now I can afford to pay at least some of the back wages I owe . . . including everything that I owe the three of you.”
“We’re in no hurry—” Scratch began.
Martha stood up and shook her head. “No, I’m going to settle up with you. I insist. If it wasn’t for the three of you, I might have been forced to give up by now.”
“What do you mean by give up?” Bo asked.
“Well . . . I suppose I would have sold the mine. Lawrence Nicholson has been offering to buy me out practically ever since my father died. There’s been interest from some of the other companies, too.”
“You might have been able to get enough money to live on for a long time,” Bo pointed out.
“But not what the mine’s worth,” Martha insisted. “And giving up and selling out . . . well, my father never would have done it. I can be at least as stubborn as he would have been, can’t I?”
Bo smiled. “I never met Mike Sutton, but I’d say you come by it honest, miss.” He tugged on the brim of his hat. “We’ll be going now. Tomorrow we’ll take the wagon back up to the mine, and then Chloride plans to stay there until the next shipment is ready to bring down.”
“If that’s all right with you, miss,” the old-timer added.
Martha nodded. “Of course.” She looked at the Texans. “What about the two of you?”
“Reckon we’ll have to play that by ear,” Scratch said. “We’ll be scoutin’ around, though, tryin’ to get a line on those road agents.”
Chloride snorted. “You mean tryin’ not to get in the way of them soldier boys.”
“Soldiers?” Martha repeated. “What soldiers?”
“You haven’t heard?” Bo asked, a little surprised that Martha didn’t know about the cavalry’s arrival. “A troop of cavalry rode in a little while ago. It seems that without anybody knowing about it, Nicholson and some of the other mine owners sent word to Washington asking for help cleaning things up around here. You weren’t part of that?”
Martha smiled and shook her head. “Lawrence Nicholson and the other owners don’t confide in me, Bo. They don’t think a woman should be running a mining company in the first place, so naturally they don’t include me in their plans. But I’m a little surprised the government would send in the army to catch some outlaws, even if it is just a cavalry patrol.”
“The gold that comes out of the Black Hills means a lot to the government,” Bo said. “They need it for all the coins they mint, and to keep another financial panic from brewing.”
“I suppose that’s true. Surely the cavalry will be able to find an outlaw gang.”
“I dunno,” Chloride said. “They didn’t do such a good job of roundin’ up all those Injuns that massacreed Custer and his boys. Fact is, a lot of the chiefs made it across the border into Canada ’fore Gen’ral Crook could catch up to ’em.”
“Maybe Lieutenant Holbrook will have better luck,” Bo said. “Come on.”
The three men left the office. They had already seen to it that the horses and mules were put up for the night
