Chapter Sixteen

Joe wasn’t sure how much time had passed.  He had been moved into different shafts, and his place in the compound changed each night.  He had begun to mark the days in the beginning, but it became all too clear that he would never be able to keep an accurate count being moved around.  He concluded that they were moved so they couldn’t keep track of time…just another way to keep them sedate and hopeless.

There had been several times when the slaves had been mustered into the meal room, and each time, there were screams or cries for help and then nothing.  Joe had never seen any bodies outside the mine, but then he figured they must be dumping the bodies in the desert to rot in the sun.

Mutheel munagh had become more than an acquaintance, but Joe wasn’t sure if he could call him a friend.  They managed a few words when the guards left the room, but the language differences left Joe wondering if Mutheel munagh understood what he had said.  Still, he had tried to give the Indian some hope.  “My family will come for me.  And when they do, all the slaves will be freed.”

Mutheel munagh just smiled and nodded, thinking that if the Aha macave had not be able to rescue them, no one else would.   If the boy needed to believe that to live, he was not going to be the one to take his hope away.

***

The army scout sat across the desk from the sheriff.  “Did you find anything about the boy?”

“I sent a wire up to Placerville asking about missing persons.  There were several, but the one everyone seemed to be all up in arms about was a boy named Cartwright.  Seems his Pa owns the biggest spread in the Nevada Territory, and they’re lookin’ out for him over to California.”

“So the boy comes from money.”

“It appears so.  That young fella that’s been askin’ questions in the saloon; he was lookin’ for a guide into the valley.  He had a brand on his saddlebag…a tree.  I did a little more checkin’, and that brand belongs to the Ponderosa Ranch up near Virginia City.  It’s owned by Cartwrights.”

“He went to see the squaw at the livery.  Maybe you better bring Mike in for questioning.”

“Already sent my deputy.”

In another few minutes, the deputy ran back into the office.  “Sheriff, she’s gone, and there ain’t no sign of the stranger, but his saddle and those black clothes he was wearing are in her cabin, and there’s a horse in the stable, a chestnut, that don’t belong there.”

The scout stood.  “Probably left last night.  I guess I’d better be gettin’ back and tell the sergeant he’s got company comin’.”

***

Joe stood at the back of the tunnel with a hammer and chisel. He had no idea what he was digging for…there was no gold or silver that he could see. He cut rock after rock out of the wall, then had to stop and haul them out to the bucket to be lowered down to the valley floor.

He hadn’t seen the light of day for…how long…had it been one…two weeks? He’d lost count. Each time he left the mine, darkness had already fallen, and he was so exhausted by the time he was lying in the dirt in chains, he fell sound asleep almost immediately. He had no idea how early he started or how late he worked. All he knew was that it was dark either way.

He had joined the other men to eat his meager meal, a stale piece of bread and a piece of dried meat with water having a metallic taste, when one of the soldiers pulled him up by his shirt and pushed him into a dark shaft. The soldier led him into an opening at the back of the shaft that was brightly lit with a desk and chair at the center and stacks of paper, barrels of gun powder, and fuses piled at the back.

“This is the one, Captain,” said the soldier, saluting the man behind the desk.

The officer rose, moving from the desk to walk around Joe, looking him up and down. “Keep him inside from now on. And if anyone shows up asking about him, dump him down the dead shaft. And send that scout back to Aurora. Tell him to find out where this…brother…and the squaw are.”

“Aye, sir,” said the soldier, saluting before shoving Joe back into the dark shaft. “You know what the dead shaft is, boy?” asked the soldier, taunting. “Let’s just say that if you ain’t dead before you drop, you will be by the time you hit bottom…or soon thereafter. Then again, maybe all those bodies down there’ll soften the landing.” The soldier laughed loudly, his cackle echoing off the walls of the tunnel. They went back to the same shaft where Joe left his tools lying on the floor. “Get back to work,” the soldier growled, shoving Joe into the wall.

Joe gritted his teeth and clenched his fingers around the hammer and chisel. It’s gotta be Adam.  Just hold on for a little while longer.