Chapter 5 - THE ROAD ELIAS NEVER GOT TO FINISH
They left before sunrise.
Ruth drove the wagon.
Abigail lay in the back with the twins wrapped tightly beside her.
Daniel rode behind.
Not ahead.
Abigail noticed.
It was a small thing.
He was protecting without deciding the direction alone.
They went to Silverton.
A mining town loud enough to hide them and organized enough that Samuel could not simply drag Abigail away unseen.
Daniel rented two rooms above a widow's boardinghouse.
Ruth immediately became indispensable to every pregnant woman within three streets.
Abigail named the twins that night.
Elias Samuel.
Then changed her mind.
No.
Samuel had done nothing to deserve a child named after him.
The first boy became Elias Daniel.
Daniel nearly dropped his coffee.
“You cannot do that.”
“Why?”
“I am alive.”
“So?”
“People normally wait.”
Abigail smiled.
The second became Thomas Ward, after Elias's older brother who had died as a child.
Four days later, Ruth allowed Abigail to travel carefully to the Mercy Shaft.
Daniel argued for a wagon.
Abigail agreed.
Progress worked both directions.
The abandoned mine stood beneath a ridge of dark rock.
Snow covered the entrance.
Daniel found the marker from Elias's map.
A pine split by lightning.
Then a rusted iron ring embedded in stone.
The brass key opened a small surveyor's box hidden inside a crack.
Documents.
Dozens.
Claim maps.
Deeds.
Receipts.
Signatures.
Daniel read in silence.
“This is enough.”
“To prove what?”
“Your father and Harrow moved claim boundaries.”
“How?”
Daniel showed her.
Families discovered silver.
Filed legal claims.
Harrow altered the official map after submission.
Samuel purchased the “unclaimed” adjoining land cheaply.
Then claimed the silver vein had always crossed into his property.
Some owners sued.
Lost.
Others sold.
A few disappeared.
Abigail stared.
“Elias found all this?”
“Yes.”
At the bottom of the box lay a final document.
A payroll record.
Silver Crown Mine.
The week Elias died.
A payment:
J. McCrae - $300.
Daniel went still.
“Who is McCrae?”
“Blasting foreman.”
Daniel's jaw tightened.
The mine collapse that killed Elias had supposedly been caused by unstable rock.
Three hundred dollars was nearly six months' wages.
Paid by Samuel Pierce.
Two days before the explosion.
Abigail whispered:
“My father killed him.”
Daniel said nothing.
He didn't need to.
Behind them, a boot scraped rock.
Daniel turned.
A rifle aimed directly at his chest.
May you like
Edwin Harrow stood at the mine entrance.
“Put the papers down.”
