hadn’t arrived yet, the men could start stockpiling raw ore to be put through the pulverization and amalgamation process as soon as the mill was running.
Diana looked at Frank and said, “By the way, Marshal, I find it a little odd that you never mentioned you own a considerable interest in the Crown Royal.”
Frank’s eyes narrowed. He looked at Claiborne, who shrugged his right shoulder. The left one wouldn’t move, strapped down the way it was.
“I’m sorry, Marshal. That fact slipped out earlier when Miss Woodford and I were talking.”
She turned her gaze back to him. “I thought you said you were going to call me Diana.”
“Of course…Diana. My apologies to you too.”
Frank said, “Don’t worry about it where I’m concerned. My connection with the mine isn’t a big secret or anything like that. I just happen to have an interest in the Browning Mining Syndicate.”
“That makes you and my father competitors.”
“Not really. I reckon there’s enough silver in these hills to go around.”
“Not everyone feels that way,” Claiborne said. “Otherwise, we wouldn’t have had all that trouble at the mine. Someone’s trying to put us out of business, Frank.”
“That’s what it looks like,” Frank agreed with a nod, thinking about Hamish Munro and Gunther Hammersmith. “I’ve got an idea who it is, too.”
“What are you going to do about it?”
“Conrad’s sending a passel of men to serve as guards. Once they get here, whoever was responsible for that blast will have a hard time getting up to any more mischief.”
“What about the things they’ve already done?” Claiborne asked. “What about the men who died?”
“There’ll be a day of reckoning,” Frank said. “You can count on that.”
Chapter 20
Claude Langley had propped up the corpses of the four saboteurs in their coffins out in front of the undertaking parlor so that the citizens of Buckskin could come by and take a look at them. That was an accepted, if grisly, practice in frontier towns. Frank had never cared much for the custom, but in this case he put the word out that if anybody recognized the dead men, he wanted to know about it. He still hoped to find something that would tie the men to Hamish Munro, Gunther Hammersmith, or both.
But while a few people recalled seeing the men drinking in some of the saloons, nobody really knew them or had witnessed them talking to Hammersmith or Munro. No one who would admit it anyway.
Frank went up to the hotel to see Munro. He wasn’t sure what he would say to the mining magnate, but he wanted Munro to know that he wouldn’t rest until he got to the bottom of the explosion that had destroyed the stamp mill at the Crown Royal.
Munro’s secretary, Nathan Evers, opened the door of the suite to Frank’s knock. “Hello, Marshal,” he said. “What can I do for you?”
“I want to talk to your boss,” Frank replied. “Is he here?”
“As a matter of fact, he’s not. He and Mrs. Munro have taken a drive out to the Alhambra. Mrs. Munro hadn’t seen the mine yet, and she wanted to.”
Frank nodded. “All right. Say, you haven’t gone by Langley’s undertaking parlor and had a look at the bodies of those four men who blew up the Crown Royal’s stamp mill, have you?”
Evers blanched and said, “Good Lord, no. Why would I want to do a thing like that?”
“I’ve been asking people around town to see if they recognized any of those men.”
“Well, I can tell you the answer to that without looking at them. I never saw them before. I wouldn’t associate with ruffians like that. Why would I have any reason to?”
“I don’t know,” Frank said. “You tell me.”
Understanding dawned on Evers. “You think Mr. Munro had something to do with that explosion!”
“He’s competing with the folks who own the Crown Royal,” Frank said without mentioning that he was one of those folks.
“So is Mr. Woodford,” Evers replied. Rather than pale, his face was now flushed with anger. “I don’t hear you accusing
“That’s because I know Tip Woodford,” Frank pointed out. “I don’t know Munro all that well yet. But he has a reputation as a ruthless man.”
Evers gripped the edge of the door, his fingers tightening on it. “I think this conversation is over, Marshal, unless you have some other official business with me.”
Frank shook his head. “Nope, no official business. I was just talking, that’s all.”
“Yes, of course,” Evers said in a cold tone that showed he didn’t believe Frank at all. He swung the door closed, shutting it with a little more force than was really necessary.
Frank smiled to himself. He didn’t know if Evers would report the details of this conversation to Munro, but it seemed likely that he would. That would be just fine with Frank. He wanted Munro to know he was suspicious. If Munro was behind what had happened and viewed Frank as a threat, he might get rattled enough to do something foolish—like coming after Frank next time.
Frank knew that by goading Munro, he was sort of painting a target on his back, but it wouldn’t be the first time
