«Cal, Wolfe, cart that gold up to Jessi,» Rafe said after a minute. «It’s just in the way down here.»
The sound of a steel shovel blade ramming into rocky rubble came back through the tunnel as Rafe began to dig.
«You’ll need someone to haul rubble out of your way,» Caleb said.
«It will have to be Eve. Two men just flat won’t fit in here.»
Wolfe bent, shone the lantern into the coyote hole, and began swearing in a combination of Cheyenne and British English.
«He’s right, Cal. The bloody thing fits Rafe like a stone skin.»
Caleb bent, looked, and began picking up the heavy gold ingots, swearing fit to raise blisters on the rock about the connection between fools, gold, and the kind of hell you didn’t have to die to discover.
The rhythm of the shoveling never varied as Rafe dug through loosely piled stones and crumbling rock, pushing the debris to either side of his body and praying that the rest of the coyote hole would hold.
While Rafe bored through the darkness like a grim, living drill, Caleb and Wolfe came and went until a stack of big ingots grew at the mouth of the mine. Eve barely noticed the absence of the bars except that it made her job easier as she crawled into the hole and dragged debris out, giving Rafe a bit more room to work.
«Send Eve when you need someone to spell you,» Wolfe said as he picked up the last ingot.
Rafe grunted an answer and kept digging.
In time, the first spectral flickers of lantern light gleamed through the rubble piled in front of Rafe.
«I see light!» Rafe called back.
«Is Reno there?» Eve called.
«Can’t tell. The ceiling keeps —»
Rafe’s words were cut off by a shower of stones. He cursed in the kind of searing invective learned in the toughest ports on earth. And as he cursed, he dug, knowing with every stroke of his shovel that he could be digging his own grave.
No matter how hard Rafe dug, he could not keep a hole open that was big enough to crawl through. The grim set of his mouth when he wriggled back out into the tunnel where Eve waited told her more than she wanted to know.
«The more I dig, the farther away I get,» Rafe said bluntly, wiping sweat from his eyes. «I got the biggest rocks out of the way, but the small stuff keeps coming down. It’s like digging through a riverbed. I can barely open up enough space for a cat, much less for a man my size.»
«Any sign of Reno?»
Rafe looked at Eve’s shadowed golden eyes and pinched face. He stroked her tangled hair with surprising gentleness.
«I got the shoved through to air twice,» Rafe said. «More stuff came down each time. I shouted through the opening, but…»
He looked away, unable to confront the anguished hope in Eve’s eyes.
She didn’t ask for any more information. If Reno had called out in return, Rafe would have heard.
«Well, we’re better off than we were,» Rafe said. «At least we know there’s new air going in through the hole, and enough space on the other side to echo when I shout, and there was enough air all along to keep Reno’s lantern burning.»
Eve nodded, but her attention was on the coyote hole.
«If he wasn’t killed outright,» Rafe continued, «he’s probably knocked out or in another part of the mine, looking for a way out.»
«Shall I get Caleb or Wolfe?»
«No,» Rafe said curtly. «You were dead right. That hole is no place for a family man.»
«Rest for a few minutes,» Eve said in a shaking voice. «There’s water in the canteen. It’s yesterday’s, but I don’t suppose you’ll mind.»
Rafe’s teeth were a white flash against his gritand sweat-streaked face.
«I sure won’t,» he agreed.
He set aside the shovel and went to the canteen, which Eve had put back up the tunnel, out of the way.
As soon as Rafe picked up the canteen, Eve grabbed the shovel and scrambled into the coyote hole. By the time he turned around and realized what she had done, she was beyond his reach.
«Come back here!» Rafe yelled. «It’s too dangerous. That ceiling is set to come down at the first excuse!»
Eve’s only answer was, «I can get through any hole a cat can. Ask Reno. He calls megata.»
Rafe slammed his open hand against the rock wall and swore viciously.
But despite his anger, he didn’t crawl into the coyote hole and drag Eve back. If she could get through the opening, she was Reno’s best chance of survival.
And if Reno was dead, Eve could find out that, too, before Caleb or Wolfe got killed trying to dig out a man who was no longer alive.
Eve crawled and clawed her way through the rubble, lured by the haze of lantern light ahead. The last foot was the hardest, for the cave-in all but filled the opening. There was just enough space for her to put one arm and her head through. Using her feet to push, she drove herself through the hole.
Abruptly the ceiling gave way.
For an instant Eve felt a crushing weight. Then a tongue of rubble shot forward, taking her with it. She sprawled across the uneven floor of the tunnel and fought for breath.
The first thing Eve saw was Reno’s lantern. The second was Reno’s head and shoulders sticking out of a pile of rubble left by the series of cave-ins. The third thing she saw was that Rafe had accidentally done what the Spanish had done many times by design; he had dug a new coyote hole connecting to the big tunnel.
Eve didn’t know she was crying Reno’s name until the broken echoes came back at her. Coughing dryly, she pulled her bandanna into place and crawled toward Reno through the swirls of dust stirred by the new cave- in.
«Eve!» Rafe yelled. «Are you all right?»
«I found Reno!»
«Is he alive?»
Eve reached out to Reno, but her hand was shaking so badly, she couldn’t tell if there was a pulse in his neck. Then she saw blood welling slowly from a cut on his forehead.
Distantly Eve became aware of Rafe shouting her name.
«He’s alive!» she yelled back.
«Praise God. Watch out. I’m coming through.»
Moments later another shower of rubble spurted from the unstable wall where coyote holes riddled the old tunnel. Stones as big as Eve’s fist hammered down. One of them struck the lantern, knocking it over and extinguishing it. Another struck Reno, who groaned softly. The remainder of the rocks added another layer to the mound covering him.
«Stop!» Eve yelled. «Rafe, stop! Every time you move, Reno gets buried deeper!»
«All right. I’m stopping. What happened to the light?»
«A stone knocked it over and spilled the fuel.»
Rafe swore.
Eve groped in darkness through her pockets. Finally she found the stub of candle that Reno had insisted she carry in case something happened to her lantern.
Suddenly light from Rafe’s lantern poured through the small opening that was all that remained of the coyote hole.
«Can you see now?» he asked.
«Yes. Wait.»
A match sizzled. Soon a candle flame burned cleanly against the enveloping darkness. Eve crawled deeper into the old tunnel and wedged the base of the candle into a crevice.
«I’ve got light now,» she said.
«How bad is Reno hurt?»
«I don’t know. He’s facedown, buried from his heels to his ribs. He’s got a cut on his forehead.»
