Rivers of Gold (18 page)

“Oh, bother!” Teddy said as he came to a stop in front of the doctor’s office. “He’s gone to tend someone on a claim. Let’s just go to the hospital and be done with it. We’re bound to find a doctor there.”

Miranda had no argument for him. She wasn’t even sure at this point how much longer she could maintain consciousness. She felt strange and a peculiar heat seemed to penetrate her face and neck. Leaning against Teddy, she tried her best to keep up.

“Teddy,” she whispered. “I don’t feel at all well.”

He stopped and, without giving her a chance to protest, lifted Miranda in his arms. “It’s the loss of blood and the pain. You’re going into shock. Stay awake, Miranda. Talk to me.”

She looked into his eyes and lost herself for a moment. My, but he was handsome. If she died now, in his arms, she would at least know the contentment of being near him.

“Talk to me, Miranda,” he ordered.

“I don’t know what to say.” She smiled weakly.

Teddy crossed the street and continued down the way to the hospital. “Tell me about San Francisco. Does it get this cold there?”

Miranda shook her head. “Oh no. Never.”

“I wouldn’t have thought so. Are the summers hot?”

“No, they’re never hot. They’re so very lovely. The flowers bloom all up and down our street.” She tucked her head down against Teddy’s neck. He smelled wonderful. She wondered what the scent might be. In fact, she hadn’t noticed it when they’d been working.

“You smell good,” she whispered. “Like spices and flowers.”

“You’re becoming delirious,” he said with a laugh.

“I like spices and flowers,” she countered, not at all sure why he would laugh. “I like you, too.” Shadows in her mind beckoned her to rest. She could almost see their dark fingers motioning her to follow deeper into the black recesses of her mind.

“I’m honored and deeply touched,” he replied, then added, “I like you, too, Miranda.”

She smiled. He was such a pleasant man when he wanted to be.

They arrived at the hospital and once inside, Teddy set her down on the bench in the hall. “Stay here. I’ll find the doctor.” He studied her for a moment. “Maybe I shouldn’t leave you alone.”

“Nonsense,” she managed to say, forcing herself to sound alert. “I’ll be fine.”

“If you’re sure. I’ll only be a moment.”

Miranda nodded and leaned back against the wall and closed her eyes. She wanted so much to be a good patient for her worried friend. Opening her eyes, Miranda looked down the hall in the direction Teddy had taken. He had gone through one of the open doorways, but Miranda couldn’t be sure which one.

Then her gaze caught something unexpected. A large, broad-shouldered man appeared at the other end of the corridor. She heard him laugh and recognized the sound. Struggling against her weakness, Miranda jumped to her feet and called out. “Adrik!”

The word barely made a sound in her throat, and then darkness consumed her and Miranda fell to the ground.
Not now
, she thought.
I can’t faint now
. But it was too late. Certain that she’d finally seen another of her traveling companions, Miranda slipped into unconsciousness.

The recorder’s office was surprisingly void of traffic. Adrik figured the cold had kept most folks hunkered down in their tents and cabins, or it might have been that a general malaise had settled on the community. At any rate, no one seemed to be too anxious to buy and sell claims if it meant going outside.

So much had changed. Adrik had heard the sad stories of those men who had figured to be able to get a claim for little or nothing. Stake your claim and rake up the gold—that was the battle cry. But it wasn’t the reality. Claims had been quickly snatched up, and those who were willing to sell usually demanded a high price to transfer ownership. That, coupled with the Canadian rule against the selling of fractional claims, had left a lot of people without a chance to seek their dreams.

“Come with me.” Gump motioned Adrik to follow him into the office. “It’s too cold out here for you, much less that little lady and baby.”

Adrik took the bundled baby from Grace, then helped her from the sled basket. As the trio followed the limping old man into the office, Adrik was anxious to see what business he had to tend to.

Adrik was more surprised than anyone when the old man requested that his claim deed be rewritten to add a partner.

“I vant Adrik Ivankov here to be my partner.” The clerk looked to Adrik and then proceeded with the paperwork.

“Why are you doing this, Gump?”

“I vant to,” the old man said. Then sobering a bit, he frowned. “I von’t be much good to you for a time. Maybe not for a long, long time. You and Jacob will have to do most of the digging by yourselves.”

“But we don’t mind. I never expected you to give up half your claim,” Adrik said. “You could be out a small fortune by doing this.”

“Or you could be out a lot of hard vork for nothin’, I’m thinkin’. I vant to do it this vay. Besides, somethin’ could happen to me. Then the claim vould go back to the government. I’d rather give you the gold.” Gump’s singsong cadence was stronger when his emotions ran high. Adrik saw the determination in the set of the old man’s jaw and decided not to challenge his decision.

Once the matter was settled to Gump’s satisfaction, the foursome returned to the sled and were finally on their way back to the cabin. Adrik couldn’t imagine why the old man had offered up half his claim. Sure, Gump was a bit incapacitated for the time, but there wasn’t a whole lot they would be able to do until the weather warmed up, anyway. Maybe the situation with Gump’s leg was more serious than he was letting on. Maybe the doctor had told Gump he could die. That idea bothered Adrik greatly. He wished fervently that he could make life easier for the old man.

I’d like to send him back to Kansas a rich, comfortable man
, Adrik thought.
I’d like to see him retire from working so hard and just enjoy his old age
. But of course, that wasn’t likely to happen. Gump’s attitude and spirit was much the same as Adrik’s. They’d probably die working.

Thinking of work, Adrik began to plan for the claim. There was gold to be had, but it would come only after a great deal of hard work was given in trade. Panning and sluicing, spending hours in the cold water washing the creek gravel—it was enough to drive a man quite insane and crush his dream of riches. Many folks believed the gold to be buried some fifteen feet below the surface. To dig down that far required hours and hours of backbreaking work—all in the hope that they could break through the frozen barriers of muck and rock and find the mother lode.

After a few feet of muck, there generally was a frozen layer of gravel, and sometimes, if a man had sunk the shaft in the right place, he hit pay dirt just under this. Gump had insisted that they’d strike it rich if only they kept digging, instead of panning. Most miners used a ground fire to thaw the surface, but that was time consuming and not always very effective—the digging went horribly slow. Steam boilers were making the job a lot easier for some miners who could afford the expense. Though Adrik wished they had a steam machine to thaw the ground, he knew they didn’t have the money for anything extra.

He considered how he might rig up his own steam machine. He had a metal washtub they could use to heat water, but that wouldn’t solve the problem of capturing the steam and focusing it into the ground. Adrik had studied the setup from a drawing at the mercantile. The display showed how a steam boiler could be fixed near the site, with pipes coming out one end for the steam and a chimney of sorts to vent the firebox. The pipes went into the ground where they would pump hot steam and thaw the frozen muck. Adrik wasn’t sure that the time spent would produce a steamer that worked, but he decided to discuss it with Gump when they got back to the claim.

Adrik’s attention turned to Grace and the baby, snuggled deep in a pile of blankets and furs, along with Gump. The body heat of the two adults would no doubt keep the baby plenty warm, but Adrik had other worries concerning their safety. He’d heard wolves howling along the trail on their way into Dawson, and he wanted no part of having to fight off a pack to keep his friends alive.

Then there were the two-legged wolves. Men who pretended to be sheep but were really vicious animals who would eat you alive. Trouble had been a natural companion to the gold rush. The Northwest Mounted Police, the pride of the Yukon, had done a wonderful job of controlling things in the area, but there would always be problems so long as there was a profit to be made from stirring up trouble. Adrik could only pray he was doing the right thing. He’d never considered becoming a part of the stampede. In fact, he thought those poor souls who pinned their hopes to gold instead of God to be misguided. The word gold was just one letter more than God, and Adrik had always figured the
L
to stand for
Lies
.

Much of the gold rush had been built on lies told by one man and passed on by another. People lied about what gold they found, and they lied about what they didn’t find. They lied about their pasts and preyed upon others who’d believe their lies for the future. It was a kind of sickness born out of sin.

But as for me and my house
, Adrik thought, remembering the Bible verse,
we will serve the Lord
. But here he was in the center of the rush, making his own scars upon the land, seeking his own methods to find the gold.

But I’m doing this for Gump and for the others
, he told himself as he urged the dogs to pick up the pace. Selfexamination questioned that declaration, however. Was he really doing this for the others? Or was there some small dream of gold in the back of his own mind?

—[CHAPTER SEVENTEEN]—

“BUT YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND,” Miranda moaned. “I saw one of my friends.”

“It’s all right, Miranda,” Teddy encouraged, “you probably just thought you saw him. I say, you lost a lot of blood. There’s no telling how it played with your mind.”

“I’m not crazy,” Miranda said, growing angry. “I’m telling you, I saw him. He was standing down at the end of the corridor.”

“The same corridor where I found you on the floor?”

Miranda turned away. “Never mind. I don’t expect you to understand. You didn’t understand the first time—the time I saw Crispin.”

“Was this Crispin the same man you saw here at the hospital?” Teddy asked, gently.

“No, I …”

“Well, let’s get this over with,” the doctor said coming into the room. He didn’t even bother to introduce himself, and Miranda thought him very rude.

Taking hold of her hand, he unwound the cloth and studied the wound for a moment. “Um, yes. I see,” he murmured.

Miranda felt a wave of nausea as she caught sight of her bloody hand. Leaning back, she found Teddy there to support her. She looked to him, hoping he could somehow give her the courage she lacked.

“It will be fine. You’ll see,” he whispered.

“Will it hurt?” she asked.

“Most likely,” the doctor said without emotion. He began to wash to wound, mindless of the pain.

“Talk to me, Miranda. Tell me about your friends,” Teddy encouraged. “Don’t think about what the doctor is doing.”

“That’s easier said than done,” Miranda declared, wincing at the pain. “Must you be so rough?” she asked the doctor indignantly.

The man looked at her as though stunned by her words. “If I don’t clean it out, miss, you’ll most likely get an infection.”

“I don’t mind the cleaning, it’s the way you attack the job as though you’re gutting and cleaning a rabbit.”

The doctor paused and actually smiled at her rebuke. “I do apologize. It’s been a rather hectic day. I shall attempt to limit the pain I cause you.”

“Thank you,” Miranda replied, turning to Teddy as the doctor took up a needle and thread. “Adrik is the man who let me come on the trip. He and Karen got married in Whitehorse. Karen …” She closed her eyes as the doctor pierced her skin. Tears came unbidden to her eyes.

“Go on, Miranda, tell me about your friends,” Teddy prodded.

She opened her eyes and licked her lips. “Karen was the nanny to my sister-in-law, Grace. You remember, Grace is married to my brother … my brother … Peter.” She felt a strange warmth creeping up her neck, flushing her face and making it difficult to focus.

“I’m here,” Teddy whispered. “Don’t be afraid. I’ll see to it that you’re all right.”

His words were comforting, and Miranda tried hard to keep them in her mind as she faded in and out of consciousness.

“There. All done. You are free to leave,” the doctor said, wrapping a bandage around her hand.

“Thank you,” Miranda murmured, leaning her head against Teddy. She felt so weak.

“Mrs. Colton, you will need to do as little as possible with your hand. I have made several stitches,” the balding, heavyset man continued. “You must keep your hand immobile.” He turned to Teddy. “You must see to it that your wife keeps the hand dry, clean, and covered. We don’t want to risk infection.”

Teddy didn’t bother to correct the doctor regarding their martial status, and Miranda thought it rather odd. Perhaps he was caught up in his concern over her wound. She had no more time to consider it, however, for Teddy was reaching out and helping her to stand.