After breakfast I eased out the door of the restaurant and looked around. The man on the corner was not to be seen. I moved on over to Hawk and mounted. Since I didn’t have the Greener with me, I pulled my Henry from the scabbard. Just having something in my hand made me feel more comfortable. First stop, the smelter. It was down the road on the edge of town. They were in the process of building a new one, but that looked to be at least a year away.
I rode up to a shack that looked big enough to have an office. Dismounting I just draped the reins over the post, there was no need to tie Hawk. Working in there was a clerk behind a counter.
“Mornin’, name’s Miles Forrest.” I pulled out my Secret Service badge. “I’d like a look at your ledger.”
“Sorry, the ledger is private,” he said a little indignantly.
I slammed the Henry on the counter. “Perhaps you didn’t hear me, or I didn’t make myself clear. I would like a look at the ledger for the ore in and the bullion out.”
“And I said, I’m sorry, those are private accounts.” Now he was getting a little huffy.
“Get your boss!”
He didn’t move one iota. “I said, get your boss!” Still no movement, and that sort of made my forehead wrinkle into a frown. Guess I needed to get his attention so I thunked him alongside the head with the Henry. That surely got his attention. He rose and grabbed for a gun on the counter. I took that as a cue he wasn’t going for the boss so I smashed the Henry down on his wrist, breaking it and making him drop the gun.
“Now,” I pointed the rifle at him. I wasn’t about to shoot, but he needed to learn some manners. “go get your boss.”
He hustled out of there holding his wrist up with the other hand, and went into the other room.
It was only a matter of seconds a man came out. “What’s the meaning of all this? My clerk’s hand is broken and now he will not be able to work!” he blustered. “You’ll have to pay for his replacement!”
“A little courtesy on his part and he wouldn’t be in that condition. Now, I need to look at your ledger.”
He bristled up, and made the same comment. “No one looks at the ledger, it is private.”
I showed him my credentials. He didn’t like it. “I’ve never heard of any Secret Service.”
“Well then, I’ll have the U.S. Marshal up here and until that time I’ll get a court order for the books to be held down in the judge’s office. Who knows how long that will take and you’ll not be able to make any transactions. You make the call.”
“Show him the books, Delmor.”
“I can’t, my arm hurts too much.”
“Then get out of the way, so I can show him.”
I really didn’t know what to look for, but I made a good pretense. I went through some of the pages, running my finger up and down a few columns. “When do you plan on making a shipment?”
“The end of the month. Snow could hit us at any time.”
I nodded. “Any more ore to come in before then?”
“Not from any of the big mines. Some small miners with larger claims might bring some in. Most of them chip it out themselves; it’s not much.”
I put my finger on a number. “So this is the weight that would be shipped if it went out tomorrow?”
He looked. “There may be a little added to it when the work is finished today.”
“Thank you for your time, Mr. ?”
“Moriaty. James B. Moriaty, supervisor.”
I started to walk out, then stopped. “Delmor, I’d get that hand splinted, and learn some manners.” Then I walked on out the door and mounted. I didn’t think there would be any discrepancies. In fact, I would know until the gold and silver was sent on down to Denver. I had written down the amount of each that would be coming from this mill.
When I rode to the fork that would take me to town, I decided to ride up the canyon to the north for a ways. Maybe talk to some miners and see what they thought of Silverton. Most of these small miners didn’t want anything to do with the large companies. However, most of them would give up their small claims and go to work for them. That way, at least they would get steady pay. Some had their hopes of getting rich so engrained in their minds that they would never give up, and would go on breaking rock and freezing in the cold water until the day they died.
I had ridden an hour or so, and figured I’d find a miner who might have the coffee on. Going down by the stream and up the trail on the other side I felt a tug on my shoulder and then heard the shot. It echoed through the canyon, so I didn’t know from where it came. I jumped off Hawk, grabbed the Henry and pulled myself and horse close to the wall of the mountain. Then I looked and the shoulder was seeping blood…