Chapter 10

We slowly enlarged the vein up to twelve feet wide with no end in sight. We also had no idea how long it ran and we stopped after twenty feet.

We sat on the floor of the shaft looking up. I could tell Zeke had something on his mind.

“You know it could take years to fully mine this vein. I for one don’t want to put that much of my life into it. We got money now Brad, enough to buy and stock a pretty large spread.”

“Are you saying we should walk away?”

He snorted. “Hell no. I think we should go back to civilization and get hold of one of those syndicates that will mine it for us on a percentage. I think a 60/40 split, with us getting the 60. That way we can walk away and still make good money.”

We’d both heard the stories about gold fever, how once it got in your veins you were hooked for life. That wasn’t us. We really didn’t expect to find much gold when we started. It was supposed to be just an adventure to us. Boy, that sure changed in a hurry. There was no way I was spending years in a hole when I could be riding the range on my own spread. It sounded like a hell of an idea.

We talked it to death over the next few weeks while waiting for the weather to break. We finally decided one of us should go while the other stayed to protect our interests. We still had claim to the valley but if we left whoever moved in could claim abandonment. We didn’t even discuss who was going. Zeke was the best bargainer I’d ever seen and I was a born sucker.

“We’ll have to find a town to get you resupplied. Cherry Creek would be my choice. It’s far enough away to keep curiosity down. We could take some gold and bank it with Wells Fargo, something to show the investors we’re legitimate. Then you can come on back. I don’t expect you to mine too much. You just need to keep an eye on the place.”

The weather broke and the thaw was in full swing when we left. It was going to be about a three week trip if we made good time. We had our pack mules loaded down with as much gold as they could safely carry. We’d took to scouting the rim of our canyon and hadn’t seen any sign of man so we felt pretty safe.

The blue spruce was still in place, so we moved it to get out, then moved it back. No need to make our place any easier to find. We rode as quickly as the animals could handle, and eighteen days later we rode into Cherry Creek. By now it was a pretty good sized town, most of the tents gone and wooden structures dotted the main street. There were two hotels, both pretty nice, and we booked rooms for three days. That was after we rode down to the Wells Fargo office. Zeke showed the man in charge the paperwork from our previous deposit and he looked scared to death we were going to withdraw it. When he understood we were wanting to make another deposit he was all smiles. When he saw how much we had he looked faint.

“This goes no farther than us,” Zeke warned. “There’s a lot more if we’re right about our claim, and if I find out you been talking we’ll take our business elsewhere.”

He seemed offended but then he grinned. “Just so you know, I can keep secrets better than a priest. I can also hold a grudge better than a nun. If it gets out it won’t come from me and I’ll be really upset to find out who talked.”