Read And the Hills Opened Up for Free Online Page A

few dozen buildings, seemed to be hunched away from the mountains surrounding it, like a nervous wagon train making camp for the night. 
    Red Earth, his brother had called it.  Red Earth, Wyoming.
    And such a beauty of a day.

    Elwood slowed his horse as they rode down the last steep length of mountain road and reached the valley floor.  Felt good to be on flat ground again, to ride without worrying about pitching forward, but Elwood Hayes resisted the urge to let his horse out.  They weren’t going to act the cowboy, whooping and raising hell as they pounded into town.  No, that sort of tomfoolery got a group of men noticed. 
    They passed the copper mine, which was nothing much to see besides a few buildings and a dark hole in the hillside.  Elwood noted the unsettling fact that there seemed to be only one torturous road in and out of camp.  If a group of like-minded men, angry and well-armed, managed to cut them off before they’d started upward…well, that could lead to a bloody encounter for all involved.
    About a half-mile past the mine’s entrance, they came to the first buildings on the outskirts of town.  They stabled their horses at the livery barn and left the stable two at a time, with Roach and Johnny going first, headed straight for the saloon downtown, while Hayes and Clem held back a minute before crossing the street. 
    “That’s sharp, splitting us up like that,” Clem said, scratching his beard.  “Four men stick out more than two.”
    “That’s why I’m in charge, Stubbs.  You let me do the hard figuring.”
    A few old timers were sitting on the porch outside the town’s general store.  Elwood touched the brim of his hat and one nodded back.       
    “You reckon your brother’s working in the mine these days, Elwood?”
    “No, it don’t seem likely.  He’s worried by dark and crowded places.  That’s why he only prospects, and does poorly at that.  He thinks silver and gold can still be found around these hills, popping out of the ground like prairie dogs.”
    They crossed the street and came to a handful of shacks that smelled about the same as the livery stables.  A man sat cross-legged in a doorway, cradling a jug in his lap.  His blond beard was gnarled and unkempt and his hair looked like it might not have seen a barber’s shears in a year or more.  Elwood kicked the man’s leg and he jerked awake, his eyes red and bleary.
    “Hey, hoss.  No call for kicking.”
    Stubbs and Elwood laughed.
    “Lord Almighty,” Elwood said.  “Don’t you look poorly, you little skunk.”
    The drunk shaded his eyes.
    “El, is that you?”
    “Sure is, you drunken fool.”
    “Well, I’ll be.”
    Owen Hayes set aside the jug and stood up, leaning against the boarding house’s doorway for support.  He smiled, showing his tobacco-stained teeth, and staggered forward to embrace his older brother.  Elwood tolerated the contact a moment before pushing his brother away.
    “I can hardly believe it.  You came, Ellie.  You got my letter and you came.”
    “I did.  It wasn’t a pile of nonsense, was it, Owen?  I’ve got three men with me and none of us is going to be too happy with you if you was spinning tales.”  
    “I wasn’t spinning tales,” Owen said, looking at Stubbs.  “I might be a drunk, El, and a poor excuse for a prospector, but I’m no liar.  Payday is tomorrow.  That Dennison man will be sitting on that cashbox tonight like a goose in a fairy tale, waiting for its fat gold egg to hatch.”
    Hayes glanced at Stubbs.
    “We saw the stagecoach on the way in.  Had a sizable escort.”
    “That’s it, all right.  That’s the National Bank coach.  Comes once a month to Mr. Cooke’s house.”
    “What’s Cooke like?” Stubbs asked.  “You met him before?”
    “No, not myself,” Owen said, wiping the sweat off his brow.  “But I seen him plenty around town and heard folks talk.  Thinks he’s smarter than everybody and tougher, too.  About