The Cross Cut

C >> Courtney Ryley Cooper >> The Cross Cut

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The snow crept about his ankles, seeming to freeze them at every touch,
but Fairchild did not desist. His original purpose must be carried out
if Rodaine were not to know,--the appearance that Harry had aroused
himself sufficiently to wrap the blankets about him and wander off by
himself. And this could be accomplished only by the pain and cold and
torture of a barefoot trip.

Some way, by shifting the big frame of his unconscious partner now and
then, Fairchild made the trip to the main road and veered toward the
pumphouse of the Diamond J. mine, running as it often did without
attendance while the engineer made a trip with the electric motor into
the hill. Cautiously he peered through the windows. No one was there.
Beyond lay warmth and comfort--and a telephone. Fairchild went within
and placed Harry on the floor. Then he reached for the 'phone and
called the hospital.

"Hello!" he announced in a husky, disguised voice. "This is Jeb
Gresham of Georgeville. I 've just found a man lying by the side of
the Diamond J. pumphouse, unconscious, with a big cut in his head. I
've brought him inside. You 'll find him there; I 've got to go on.
Looks like he 's liable to die unless you can send the ambulance for
him."

"We 'll make it a rush trip," came the answer, and Fairchild hung up
the 'phone, to rub his half-frozen, aching feet a moment, then to
reclothe them in the socks and shoes, watching the entrance of the
Diamond J. tunnel as he did so. A long minute--then he left the
pumphouse, made a few tracks in the snow around the entrance, and
walked swiftly down the road. Fifteen minutes later, from a hiding
place at the side of the Clear Creek bridge, he saw the lights of the
ambulance as it swerved to the pumphouse. Out came the stretcher. The
attendants went in search of the injured man. When they came forth
again, they bore the form of Harry Harkins, and the heart of Fairchild
began to beat once more with something resembling regularity. His
partner--at least such was his hope and his prayer--was on the way to
aid and to recovery, while Squint Rodaine would know nothing other than
that he had wandered away! Grateful, lighter in heart than he had been
for days. Fairchild plodded along the road in the tracks of the
ambulance, as it headed back for town.

The news already had spread by the time he reached there; news travels
fast in a small mining camp. Fairchild went to the hospital, and to
the side of the cot where Harry had been taken, to find the doctor
there before him, already bandaging the wound on Harry's head and
looking with concern now and then at the pupils of the unconscious
man's eyes.

"Are you going to stay here with him?" the physician asked, after he
had finished the dressing of the laceration.

"Yes," Fairchild said, in spite of aching fatigue and heavy eyes. The
doctor nodded.

"Good. I don't know whether he 's going to pull through or not. Of
course, I can't say--but it looks to me from his breathing and his
heart action that he 's not suffering as much from this wound as he is
from some sort of poisoning.

"We 've given him apomorphine and it should begin to take effect soon.
We 're using the batteries too. You say that you 're going to be here?
That's a help. They 're shy a nurse on this floor to-night, and I 'm
having a pretty busy time of it. I 'm very much afraid that poor old
Judge Richmond 's going to lay down his cross before morning."

"He 's dying?" Fairchild said it with a clutching sensation at his
throat. The physician nodded.

"There 's hardly a chance for him."

"You 're going there?"

"Yes."

"Will you please give--?"

The physician waited. Finally Fairchild shook his head.

"Never mind," he finished. "I thought I would ask you something--but
it would be too much of a favor. Thank you just the same. Is there
anything I can do here?"

"Nothing except to keep watch on his general condition. If he seems to
be getting worse, call the interne. I 've left instructions with him."

"Very good."

The physician went on, and Fairchild took his place beside the bed of
the unconscious Harry, his mind divided between concern for his
faithful partner and the girl who, some time in the night, must say
good-by forever to the father she loved. It had been on Fairchild's
tongue to send her some sort of message by the physician, some word
that would show her he was thinking of her and hoping for her. But he
had reconsidered. Among those in the house of death might be Maurice
Rodaine, and Fairchild did not care again to be the cause of such a
scene as had happened on the night of the Old Times dance.

Judge Richmond was dying. What would that mean? What effect would it
have upon the engagement of Anita and the man Fairchild hoped that she
detested? What--then he turned at the entrance of the interne with the
batteries.

"If you 're going to be here all night," said the white-coated
individual, "it 'll help me out a lot if you 'll use these batteries
for me. Put them on at their full force and apply them to his cheeks,
his hands, his wrists and the soles of his feet alternately. From the
way he acts, there 's some sort of morphinic poisoning. We can't tell
what it is--except that it acts like a narcotic. And about the only
way we can pull him out is with these applications."

The interne turned over the batteries and went on about his work, while
Fairchild, hoping within his heart that he had not placed an impediment
in the way of Harry's recovery by not telling what he knew of Crazy
Laura and her concoctions, began his task. Yet he was relieved by the
knowledge that such information could aid but little. Nothing but a
chemical analysis could show the contents of the strange brews which
the insane woman made from her graveyard herbiage, and long before that
could come, Harry might be dead. And so he pressed the batteries
against the unconscious man's cheeks, holding them there tightly, that
the full shock of the electricity might permeate the skin and arouse
the sluggish blood once more to action. Then to the hands, the wrists,
the feet and back again; it was the beginning of a routine that was to
last for hours.

Midnight came and early morning. With dawn, the figure on the bed
stirred slightly and groaned. Fairchild looked up, to see the doctor
just entering.

"I think he 's regaining consciousness."

"Good." The physician brought forth his hypodermic. "That means a bit
of rest for me. A little shot in the arm, and he ought to be out of
danger in a few hours."

Fairchild watched him as he boiled the needle over the little gas jet
at the head of the cot, then dissolved a white pellet preparatory to
sending a resuscitory fluid into Harry's arm.

"You 've been to Judge Richmond's?" he asked at last.

"Yes." Then the doctor stepped close to the bed. "I 've just closed
his eyes--forever."

Ten minutes later, after another examination of Harry's pupils, he was
gone, a weary, tired figure, stumbling home to his rest--rest that
might be disturbed at any moment--the reward of the physician. As for
Fairchild, he sat a long time in thought, striving to find some way to
send consolation to the girl who was grieving now, struggling to figure
a means of telling her that he cared, that he was sorry, and that his
heart hurt too. But there was none.

Again a moan from the man on the bed, and at last a slight resistance
to the sting of the batteries. An hour passed, two; gradually Harry
came to himself, to stare about him in a wondering, vacant manner and
then to fasten his eyes upon Fairchild. He seemed to be struggling for
speech, for cooerdination of ideas. Finally, after many minutes--

"That's you, Boy?"

"Yes, Harry."

"But where are we?"

Fairchild laughed softly.

"We 're in a hospital, and you 're knocked out. Don't you know where
you 've been?"

"I don't know anything, since I slid down the wall."

"Since you what?"

But Harry had lapsed back into semi-consciousness again, to lie for
hours a mumbling, dazed thing, incapable of thought or action. And it
was not until late in the night after the rescue, following a few hours
of rest forced upon him by the interne, that Fairchild once more could
converse with his stricken partner.

"It's something I 'll 'ave to show you to explain," said Harry. "I
can't tell you about it. You know where that little fissure is in the
'anging wall, away back in the stope?"

"Yes."

"Well, that's it. That's where I got out."

"But what happened before that?"

"What didn't 'appen?" asked Harry, with a painful grin. "Everything in
the world 'appened. I--but what did the assay show?"

Fairchild reached forth and laid a hand on the brawny one of his
partner.

"We 're rich, Harry," he said, "richer than I ever dreamed we could be.
The ore's as good as that of the Silver Queen!"

"The bloody 'ell it is!" Then Harry dropped back on his pillow for a
long time and simply grinned at the ceiling. Somewhat anxious.
Fairchild leaned forward, but his partner's eyes were open and smiling.
"I 'm just letting it sink in!" he announced, and Fairchild was silent,
saving his questions until "it" had sunk. Then:

"You were saying something about that fissure?"

"But there is other things first. After you went to the assayers, I
fooled around there in the chamber, and I thought I 'd just take a
flyer and blow up them 'oles that I 'd drilled in the 'anging wall at
the same time that I shot the other. So I put in the powder and fuses,
tamped 'em down and then I thinks thinks I, that there's somebody
moving around in the drift. But I did n't pay any attention to it--you
know. I was busy and all that, and you often 'ear noises that sound
funny. So I set 'em off--that is, I lit the fuses and I started to
run. Well, I 'ad n't any more 'n started when bloeyy-y-y-y, right in
front of me, the whole world turned upside down, and I felt myself
knocked back into the chamber. And there was them fuses. All of 'em
burning. Well, I managed to pull out the one from the foot wall and
stamp it out, but I didn't 'ave time to get at the others. And the
only place where there was a chance for me was clear at the end of the
chamber. Already I was bleeding like a stuck hog where a whole 'arf
the mountain 'ad 'it me on the 'ead, and I did n't know much what I was
doing. I just wanted to get be'ind something--that's all I could think
of. So I shied for that fissure in the rocks and crawled back in
there, trying to squeeze as far along as I could. And 'ere 's the
funny part of it--I kept on going!"

"You what?"

"Kept on going. I 'd always thought it was just a place where the
'anging wall 'ad slipped, and that it stopped a few feet back. But it
don't--it goes on. I crawled along it as fast as I could--I was about
woozy, anyway--and by and by I 'eard the shots go off be'ind me. But
there was n't any use in going back--the tunnel was caved in. So I
kept on.

"I don't know 'ow long I went or where I went at. It was all dark--and
I was about knocked out. After while, I ran into a stream of water
that came out of the inside of the 'ill somewhere, and I took a drink.
It gave me a bit of strength. And then I kept on some more--until all
of a sudden, I slipped and fell, just when I was beginning to see
dyelight. And that's all I know. 'Ow long 'ave I been gone?"

"Long enough to make me gray-headed," Fairchild answered with a little
laugh. Then his brow furrowed. "You say you slipped and fell just as
you were beginning to see daylight?"

"Yes. It looked like it was reflected from below, somewyes."

Fairchild nodded.

"Is n't there quite a spring right by Crazy Laura's house?"

"Yes; it keeps going all year; there 's a current and it don't freeze
up. It comes out like it was a waterfall--and there 's a roaring noise
be'ind it."

"Then that's the explanation. You followed the fissure until it joined
the natural tunnel that the spring has made through the hills. And
when you reached the waterfall--well, you fell with it."

"But 'ow did I get 'ere?"

Briefly Fairchild told him, while Harry pawed at his still magnificent
mustache. Robert continued:

"But the time 's not ripe yet, Harry, to spring it. We 've got to find
out more about Rodaine first and what other tricks he 's been up to.
And we 've got to get other evidence than merely our own word. For
instance, in this case, you can't remember anything. All the testimony
I could give would be unsupported. They 'd run me out of town if I
even tried to start any such accusation. But one thing 's certain: We
're on the open road at last, we know who we 're fighting and the
weapons he fights with. And if we 're only given enough time, we 'll
whip him. I 'm going home to bed now; I 've got to be up early in the
morning and get hold of Farrell. Your case comes up at court."

"And I 'm up in a 'ospital!"

Which fact the court the next morning recognized, on the testimony of
the interne, the physician and the day nurses of the hospital, to the
extent of a continuance until the January term in the trial of the
case. A thing which the court further recognized was the substitution
of five thousand dollars in cash for the deeds of the Blue Poppy mine
as security for the bailee. And with this done, the deeds to his mine
safe in his pocket, Fairchild went to the bank, placed the papers
behind the great steel gates of the safety deposit vault, and then
crossed the street to the telegraph office. A long message was the
result, and a money order to Denver that ran beyond a hundred dollars.
The instructions that went with it to the biggest florist in town were
for the most elaborate floral design possible to be sent by express for
Judge Richmond's funeral--minus a card denoting the sender. Following
this, Fairchild returned to the hospital, only to find Mother Howard
taking his place beside the bed of Harry. One more place called for
his attention,--the mine.

The feverish work was over now. The day and night shifts no longer
were needed until Harry and Fairchild could actively assume control of
operations and themselves dig out the wealth to put in the improvements
necessary to procure the compressed air and machine drills, and
organize the working of the mine upon the scale which its value
demanded. But there was one thing essential, and Fairchild procured
it,--guards. Then he turned his attention to his giant partner.

Health returned slowly to the big Cornishman. The effects of nearly a
week of slow poisoning left his system grudgingly; it would be a matter
of weeks before he could be the genial, strong giant that he once had
represented. And in those weeks Fairchild was constantly beside him.

Not that there were no other things which were represented in Robert's
desires,--far from it. Stronger than ever was Anita Richmond in
Fairchild's thoughts now, and it was with avidity that he learned every
scrap of news regarding her, as brought to him by Mother Howard.
Hungrily he listened for the details of how she had weathered the shock
of her father's death; anxiously he inquired for her return in the days
following the information--via Mother Howard--that she had gone on a
short trip to Denver to look after matters pertaining to her father's
estate. Dully he heard that she had come back, and that Maurice
Rodaine had told friends that the passing of the Judge had caused only
a slight postponement in their marital plans. And perhaps it was this
which held Fairchild in check, which caused him to wonder at the
vagaries of the girl--a girl who had thwarted the murderous plans of a
future father-in-law--and to cause him to fight down a desire to see
her, an attempt to talk to her and to learn directly from her lips her
position toward him,--and toward the Rodaines.

Finally, back to his normal strength once more, Harry rose from the
armchair by the window of the boarding house and turned to Fairchild.

"We 're going to work to-night," he announced calmly.

"When?" Fairchild did not believe he understood. Harry grinned.
"To-night. I 've taken a notion. Rodaine 'll expect us to work in the
daytime. We 'll fool 'im. We 'll leave the guards on in the daytime
and work at night. And what's more, we 'll keep a guard on at the
mouth of the shaft while we 're inside, not to let nobody down. See?"

Fairchild agreed. He knew Squint Rodaine was not through. And he knew
also that the fight against the man with the blue-white scar had only
begun. The cross-cut had brought wealth and the promise of riches to
Fairchild and Harry for the rest of their lives. But it had not freed
them from the danger of one man,--a man who was willing to kill,
willing to maim, willing to do anything in the world, it seemed, to
achieve his purpose. Harry's suggestion was a good one.

Together, when night came, they bundled their greatcoats about them and
pulled their caps low over their ears. Winter had come in earnest,
winter with a blizzard raging through the town on the breast of a
fifty-mile gale. Out into it the two men went, to fight their way
though the swirling, frigid fleece to Kentucky Gulch and upward. At
last they passed the guard, huddled just within the tunnel, and
clambered down the ladder which had been put in place by the
sight-seers on the day of the strike. Then--

Well, then Harry ran, to do much as Fairchild had done, to chuckle and
laugh and toss the heavy bits of ore about, to stare at them in the
light of his carbide torch, and finally to hurry into the new stope
which had been fashioned by the hired miners in Fairchild's employ and
stare upward at the heavy vein of riches above him.

"Wouldn't it knock your eyes out?" he exclaimed, beaming. "That vein
's certainly five feet wide."

"And two hundred dollars to the ton," added Fairchild, laughing. "No
wonder Rodaine wanted it."

"I 'll sye so!" exclaimed Harry, again to stand and stare, his mouth
open, his mustache spraying about on his upper lip in more directions
than ever. A long time of congratulatory celebration, then Harry led
the way to the far end of the great cavern. "'Ere it is!" he
announced, as he pointed to what had seemed to both of them never to be
anything more than a fissure in the rocks. "It's the thing that saved
my life."

Fairchild stared into the darkness of the hole in the earth, a narrow
crack in the rocks barely large enough to allow a human form to squeeze
within. He laughed.

"You must have made yourself pretty small, Harry."

"What? When I went through there? Sye, I could 'ave gone through the
eye of a needle. There were six charges of dynamite just about to go
off be'ind me!"

Again the men chuckled as they looked at the fissure, a natural, usual
thing in a mine, and often leading, as this one did, by subterranean
breaks and slips to the underground bed of some tumbling spring.
Suddenly, however, Fairchild whirled with a thought.

"Harry! I wonder--couldn't it have been possible for my father to have
escaped from this mine in the same way?"

"'E must 'ave."

"And that there might not have been any killing connected with Larsen
at all? Why couldn't Larsen have been knocked out by a flying
stone--just like you were? And why--?"

"'E might of, Boy." But Harry's voice was negative. "The only thing
about it was the fact that your father 'ad a bullet 'ole in 'is 'ead."
Harry leaned forward and pointed to his own scar. "It 'it right about
'ere, and glanced. It did n't 'urt 'im much, and I bandaged it and
then covered it with 'is 'at, so nobody could see."

"But the gun? We did n't find any."

"'E 'ad it with 'im. It was Sissie Larsen's. No, Boy, there must 'ave
been a fight--but don't think that I mean your father murdered anybody.
If Sissie Larsen attacked 'im with a gun, then 'e 'ad a right to kill.
But as I 've told you before--there would n't 'ave been a chance for
'im to prove 'is story with Squint working against 'im. And that's one
reason why I did n't ask any questions. And neither did Mother 'Oward.
We were willing to take your father's word that 'e 'ad n't done
anything wrong--and we were willing to 'elp 'im to the limit."

"You did it, Harry."

"We tried to--" He ceased and perked his head toward the bottom of the
shaft, listening intently. "Did n't you 'ear something?"

"I thought so. Like a woman's voice."

"Listen--there it is again!"

They were both silent, waiting for a repetition of the sound. Faintly
it came, for the third time:

"Mr. Fairchild!"

They ran to the foot of the shaft, and Fairchild stared upward. But he
could see no one. He cupped his hands and called:

"Who wants me?"

"It's me." The voice was plainer now--a voice that Fairchild
recognized immediately.

"I 'm--I 'm under arrest or something up here," was added with a laugh.
"The guard won't let me come down."

"Wait, and I 'll raise the bucket for you. All right, guard!" Then,
blinking with surprise, he turned to the staring Harry. "It's Anita
Richmond," he whispered. Harry pawed for his mustache.

"On a night like this? And what the bloody 'ell is she doing 'ere,
any'ow?"

"Search me!" The bucket was at the top now.

A signal from above, and Fairchild lowered it, to extend a hand and to
aid the girl to the ground, looking at her with wondering, eager eyes.
In the light of the carbide torch, she was the same boyish appearing
little person he had met on the Denver road, except that snow had taken
the place of dust now upon the whipcord riding habit, and the brown
hair which caressed the corners of her eyes was moist with the breath
of the blizzard. Some way Fairchild found his voice, lost for a moment.

"Are--are you in trouble?"

"No." She smiled at him.

"But out on a night like this--in a blizzard. How did you get up here?"

She shrugged her shoulders.

"I walked. Oh," she added, with a smile, "it did n't hurt me any. The
wind was pretty stiff--but then I 'm fairly strong. I rather enjoyed
it."

"But what's happened--what's gone wrong? Can I help you with
anything--or--"

Then it was that Harry, with a roll of his blue eyes and a funny waggle
of his big shoulders, moved down the drift toward the stope, leaving
them alone together. Anita Richmond watched after him with a smile,
waiting until he was out of hearing distance. Then she turned
seriously.

"Mother Howard told me where you were," came quietly. "It was the only
chance I had to see you. I--I--maybe I was a little lonely or--or
something. But, anyway, I wanted to see you and thank you and--"

"Thank me? For what?"

"For everything. For that day on the Denver road, and for the night
after the Old Times dance when you came to help me. I--I have n't had
an easy time. And I 've been in rather an unusual position. Most of
the people I know are afraid and--some of them are n't to be trusted.
I--I could n't go to them and confide in them. And--you--well, I knew
the Rodaines were your enemies--and I 've rather liked you for it."

"Thank you. But--" and Fairchild's voice became a bit frigid--"I have
n't been able to understand everything. You are engaged to Maurice
Rodaine."

"I was, you mean."

"Then--"

"My engagement ended with my father's death," came slowly--and there
was a catch in her voice. "He wanted it--it was the one thing that
held the Rodaines off him. And he was dying slowly--it was all I could
do to help him, and I promised. But--when he went--I felt that my--my
duty was over. I don't consider myself bound to him any longer."

"You 've told Rodaine so?"

"Not yet. I--I think that maybe that was one reason I wanted to see
some one whom I believed to be a friend. He 's coming after me at
midnight. We 're to go away somewhere."

"Rodaine? Impossible!"

"They 've made all their plans. I--I wondered if you--if you 'd be
somewhere around the house--if you 'd--"

"I 'll be there. I understand." Fairchild had reached out and touched
her arm. "I--want to thank you for the opportunity. I--yes, I 'll be
there," came with a short laugh. "And Harry too. There'll be no
trouble--from the Rodaines!"

She came a little closer to him then and looked up at him with trustful
eyes, all the brighter in the spluttering light of the carbide.

"Thank you--it seems that I 'm always thanking you. I was afraid--I
did n't know where to go--to whom to turn. I thought of you. I knew
you 'd help me--women can guess those things."

"Can they?" Fairchild asked it eagerly. "Then you 've guessed all
along that--"

But she smiled and cut in.

"I want to thank you for those flowers. They were beautiful."

"You knew that too? I didn't send a card."

"They told me at the telegraph office that you had wired for them.
They--meant a great deal to me."

"It meant more to me to be able to send them." Then Fairchild stared
with a sudden idea. "Maurice 's coming for you at midnight. Why is it
necessary that you be there?"

"Why--" the idea had struck her too--"it is n't. I--I just had n't
thought of it. I was too badly scared, I guess. Everything 's been
happening so swiftly since--since you made the strike up here."

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