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claims that could have been made.  He shored up the walls cheaply and suffered cave-ins or rather, his miners did."
                  "Could he have prevented the cave-ins?"  The man seemed victim of a streak of bad luck as all around him others were finding luck in streaks of silver.
                  "Not completely.  But to a much greater extent.  Latticing of beams holds back the earth when you dig under it.  Filling the lattice with cast-off rock helps support the structure.  Mines need fans for air and in many mines here, there needs to be a drainage system to pump out the water."
                  "And Jason Seth?"
                  "Didn't, for the most part.  He cut corners.  He skimped.  He lost miners and after a while, the only men who would work for him were those no better than he is."
                  Which didn't answer the main question.  "Then why would he shoot Ma– Mr. Longren?"
                  He gave me a look I couldn't interpret and said, "The mines are playing out now.  Ore is becoming harder to find and the market for it is thinning.  We're going deeper into the ground, finding more ways to use machinery and steam power to extract the silver.  Mrs. Eilley Bowers went bankrupt some four years ago, and she was the richest woman in the world."
                  I waited, my fingers laced tightly together in an effort to stop myself reaching out to him.
     
                  He looked awkward, as if unsure how to proceed, which made me wonder if there was yet a reason for Mr. Seth to have shot the younger Mr. Longren, although, in truth, the former sounded unpleasant enough to shoot someone simply to shoot him.
                  My future husband cleared his throat.  "Miss Lucas, it might have been unfair of me to ask you to come out here and to marry me.  Our mine is playing out fast, and there's little enough money left."
                  "My – " He stopped, cleared his throat and took a breath, and I knew where he was going to go.  "Mrs. Longren's health was fragile for a year before she passed.  There were ... expenses.  It has not been easy, and I did not have the right to ask you – "
                  "Please," I said.  I couldn't think of anything to say about his wife.  The subject was upsetting him.  "Perhaps – "
                  He took a breath, not listening to me.  "My wife's health wasn't good.  There were many medical expenses, and then when we thought there'd be a child – "  He didn't finish that sentence. "Jason Seth doesn't understand that all the mines are playing out, and no amount of talk will convince him that Silver Sky is drying up.  He believes we still have ore, and that we stole the claim from him."
                  I knew better.  I'd heard the stories of buying the mine in letters, and of Matthew deciding to join Hutch and their sister, Annie, following them both to Gold Hill from California.  "And Matthew?"
                  "Was seeing Mr. Seth's sister, Bess, until late when an argument between them ended the courtship.  Miss Seth was of the opinion that we should sell her brother, Jason, a stake in our claim.  She believed she would then marry Matthew and join our families."
                  I remembered sitting near the fire on a Boston winter's night as my Mother read a letter from Mr. Longren, in which he described his brother's fights in saloons and the women who came to call, the number he was courting and the ribbons and dresses they wore just for him, the fights they hissed between themselves over which of them he'd choose.  Matthew settling down seemed unlikely.  Matthew settling down with someone like Mr. Seth's sister not only seemed unlikely, but incendiary. 
                  "You're smiling," Mr. Longren said.
                  "Just a little," I