Read Novel 1968 - Brionne (v5.0) for Free Online Page A

Pat.”
    They crossed the street to avoid the group gathered around the man Brionne had hit, and went back to the livery stable.
    “Sure’n my own Mary will have a place for you, miss,” Pat said. “She’d not have you go elsewhere. She’s a fine Irish lady, she is, and she will welcome you.”
    Brionne studied Miranda. “Miss Loften, permit me to ask, why did you come here in the first place? You do not seem the type of girl likely to come to Promontory.”
    “Oh, it’s all right,” she answered. “I have inherited a mine—a silver mine.”
    Pat glanced at Brionne. “A silver mine?” he questioned. “Near Promontory?”
    “Well, actually it’s south of here. It’s a very rich mine. My uncle told us all about it when he came east the last time, just before my mother died.”
    “I know of no silver mine around here,” Pat said. “What might your uncle’s name have been?”
    “Brennan…they called him Rody, he told us.”
    Pat began to coil a rope, taking his time. Finally he spoke without looking up. “Miss, if you’d take an old man’s advice, you’d get right on the first train east.”
    “But that would be foolish,” she said. “Uncle Rody left me the mine. I don’t know much about such things, but I do know something about business affairs, and I thought I’d look it over and decide whether to operate it or sell.”
    Brionne was watching Pat, and he was quite sure he knew what was coming. At least, he could guess what Pat was thinking. The West was full of mines; some of them were very rich, but most of them paid off in nothing but dreams and hard work. Everyone you talked to had a mine in mining country, and every one of them worth money…lots of money, or so they believed.
    This girl had come west filled with hope, hope it would be cruel to destroy. “Mining is a man’s business,” he said quietly, “and the way business is done out here is not as it is in the East. Sometimes holding a claim is more difficult than finding one.”
    She smiled. “I expected you to say that, but Uncle Rody told me all about the mine—how many men he employed, and how many mules there were.”
    “Did he say where this mine was?” Pat asked.
    She looked from one man to the other, suddenly distrustful—whether of their honesty or their belief was hard to guess. “I know where it is,” she said. “He said it was near Salina.”
    Pat straightened up and put a hand to his back. “Miss,” he said gently, “I doubt if there’s more’n two houses in Salina…never been there m’self. There’s no mine workin’ down thataway that’s more than a one-man hole-in-the-ground. I surely hate to tell you this, but I knew Rody Brennan, and he never had any silver that I know of.”
    Her eyes were a little brighter. For an instant Brionne thought he saw her lip tremble. “Then where could he have gotten the money he gave us when he came east?” she asked reasonably. “When my father died he was in debt, and we had nothing. If it hadn’t been for Uncle Rody, I don’t know what we would have done.”
    “I remember when he went east,” Pat agreed reluctantly, “but I never knew he took any silver with him. Fact is, I never knew Rody Brennan to have more than a mule and a saddle.”
    “Then you don’t really know, do you?” Miranda Loften smoothed her dress. “I shall go to the mine and see for myself.”
    “There’s been trouble down there, miss, Injun trouble. And even without Indians that’s a rough country. Fact is, I think I heard that the folks who settled there at Salina had pulled out.”
    “Nevertheless, I shall go. Thank you, gentlemen. I am sure your advice was well intended.” She looked now at Pat. “And now, if I may go to your house?”
    He pointed. “Right through the door there, miss, and to your left. There’s some roses at the door…ain’t doin’ too well, but the wife likes them.”
    When she was gone, Pat said, “That fool girl will get herself into all kinds of