“And you saw or heard no one?”
“Nothin’,” Dan said, still trying to focus. “I was waiting for you to come back, and then next thing I know, you’re here and my head feels like it is busted.”
“Someone tricked us,” Longarm said, shaking his head back and forth. “The Spanish treasure box and all its gold coins are gone.”
Dan’s eyes popped open and he looked down between his feet at the floorboards. “Gone?”
“That’s right,” Longarm replied. “All gone.”
“Well, who could have-“
“Maybe Victoria,” Longarm said, finding it very hard to believe.
“No!”
“Then who the hell else?! Victoria Hathaway was the only one who knew of our plan of getting out of Wickenburg without being seen. She alone had the knowledge of how to steal the treasure box.”
“I can’t believe she’d betray us.”
“Me neither,” Longarm admitted, shoulders slumping with dejection. “But women can be as cunning as a coyote, and there are plenty of bad ones. Maybe Victoria is one of them and her greed just got the better of her.”
“You’re wrong, Marshal. My guess is that she just made the mistake of telling a friend who told someone who told someone else.”
“We’ll find out what happened later. But right now, we need to go to that mining shack and gather our wits. Maybe I can sort things out and not make another big mistake.”
“It wasn’t your fault.”
“Well,” Longarm said, feeling rotten, “it was more my fault than anyone else’s that I can think of.”
“Do you think it was Hank Bass who pistol-whipped me and took the treasure box?”
“I can’t think of anyone more likely,” Longarm replied. “Can you?”
“No.”
Longarm turned his stolen horse free and, sure enough, the ugly bay went trotting back to Wickenburg. He climbed into the carriage and drove on with Victoria’s map in his hand.
“Wait here while I check this out to make sure that we don’t get any more surprises,” he told his friend when they drew within a few hundred yards of the mining shack.
Longarm stayed low and tried to keep out of sight as he circled around behind the shack and then crept down to it with the big shotgun clenched in his fists. The shack and the nearby mine were empty, and there was no indication that anyone had been in the vicinity in a long time. Satisfied that he was not walking into a trap, Longarm returned to the carriage and drove it up to the shack, then helped Dan inside and made him as comfortable as possible.
“It’s pretty humble,” he told the preacher.
“Ain’t so bad,” Dan commented. “I’ve slept in plenty of worse places. In fact, most places I’ve slept in have been worse than this shack.”
Longarm looked around. There was a tin stove, some pots, pans, and eating utensils as well as a few cans of tinned goods. There was also mice shit and a thick coating of dust over everything. The cabin was quite small, less than two hundred feet square, but the roof was intact and it would offer them protection against the hard summer rain and sun.
“You take the bed,” he told Dan as he went outside. “I’ll get some blankets.”
“Wouldn’t mind having something to eat and some whiskey to wash it down with,” Dan said. “My head feels like it’s been hammered real hard.”
“It has been,” Longarm replied. “And if your skull wasn’t so thick, you’d be dead.”
Longarm got the fire going and boiled some beans and water for coffee. He opened a tin of peaches and fried some salt pork. Then he explored the area, finding nothing of interest. The mine went about thirty feet into solid rock, and someone had worked for a long hard time out in this desolate area. Longarm saw no signs of gold or silver, but he knew that there must have been some ore recovered from this claim or no one would have continued to work it so long or so hard. He found the usual rusty tin cans, a broken wheelbarrow, rotting rope and leather. It always amazed him how tenacious miners could be once they were bitten by the gold bug. Whoever had first established this isolated mining claim must have worked it for years.
As evening approached and the shadows grew long, Longarm tried to put his setback in perspective. Sure, he’d lost the Spanish gold, but he’d track Bass down and recover it soon enough. He determined that he would ride one of the carriage horses back into Wickenburg after dark and start asking questions. That was his plan until Victoria arrived just at sundown.
“Why did you come out here?!” Longarm asked, his voice sharp with disapproval.
“To see if I could help you,” she replied, dismounting. “And also to bring you some fresh supplies.”
“We can get by on what we have for a few days.”
Victoria’s anger flashed. “After this greeting, you may have to.”
“I’m sorry,” Longarm said, realizing he was not being very appreciative. “But Dan and I had a very bad surprise in the alley this morning.”
“What surprise?”
