Silver Dreams (27 page)

"You're impossible!" she snapped.

"And you're all heart. That's the problem...along with some other equally appealing features which I'd better not dwell on at the moment."

She couldn't stop her smile, and he grinned victoriously. Oh well, the truth was, despite the fact that he could curl a girl's hair with his thick-headedness, Max was the only person on this trip she truly did trust. He'd proven over and over that his feet were planted solidly on the ground and he was strong enough for her to lean on.

"I'll think about what you said," she conceded. "Good night, Max."

Chapter Fourteen

With stiff fingers, Elizabeth clumsily stowed the breakfast gear into her backpack. "I've never been so cold," she remarked to the rest of the prospectors who seemed to be having just as much trouble with the jobs they were doing. "My hands are frozen!"

Ross struggled to fold one of the tents as compactly as it had come from the store, but the bulky canvas wasn't cooperating. "It's nearly nine o'clock, and we're still in camp instead of two hours up the mountain." He kicked a tent pole, causing it to rattle against a boulder and roll back to the ground. "Hurry up, everybody. Let's get going! What's taking so long?"

"Actually you're what's taking so long," Elizabeth said. "I thought we were going to have to use a stick of dynamite to get you out of your bedroll this morning."

He glowered at her and gave up trying to fold the tent neatly. Instead he rolled it into a bulky sausage shape and crammed it into a satchel hanging from the back of a burro. Then he cursed at the buckle that was now nearly impossible to close. "That'll just have to do. With any luck we won't need these stupid tents tonight anyway."

A smile played at the corners of Max’s mouth as he said, "Why not? You expecting a warm front to come through?"

"Of course not. I just believe we'll find Dooley's town and sleep in nice warm beds tonight. At least I hope we will. I don't think I can take another night of you kicking me in the ribs."

Max leaned close to Elizabeth and whispered in her ear. "I wonder what he'd say if he knew I wasn't sleeping."

She grinned. "You'd better not let him hear you say that."

"Yeah, he might kick me out of our happy home and I'd be forced to bunk with you.”

In spite of the appeal of such an idea, Elizabeth slapped playfully at his arm. The teasing spark she’d seen in Max's eyes was replaced with a smoldering look that was sufficient to ward off the morning chill.

Memories of two nights ago flooded her mind though she clearly remembered that Max had called a halt to the activities in her bedroom. She turned away from him and busied herself with the rest of her packing.

“Get your gear together and let's be off,” Dooley shouted, “or I swear I'll leave you right here till I come back down the mountain with all the silver in my very own pockets.”

Max tightened the cords on Elizabeth’s bundles and made certain the gear was secured. “The commandant has spoken,” he said. “Bunking plans must be postponed for now.”

The group began another slow winding trek over rocks and crags and spindly pines. Although the terrain changed constantly, its effect remained the same. Each new bend in the mountain wall produced new vistas, but the slow progress of the travelers altered little. When it seemed they had gone a great distance, Elizabeth would look back only to discover they had actually come a mere few hundred yards. Her feet in the clumsy boots ached, and her desire to see Bonanza grew stronger.

She was the first to hear the welcoming sound. It was an indistinct hissing at first, almost like the pine needles rustling in the breeze. Then it became a churning, bubbling noise that could only be rushing water. "Stop," she said, holding her hand in the air. "Do you hear it?"

Everyone listened, but Dooley strained most intently to identify the sound. He leaned in the direction it came and cupped his hand around his ear. "It's Diamond Creek," he announced joyfully. "I remember in '79, Lester Manly thought he'd found a diamond in his panning tin. Went running all over telling everybody to quit wasting time looking for silver. It wasn't no diamond of course. It was just a piece of quartz, but the name stuck anyhow."

Dooley pointed to an area ahead of them. "Look over there. See how the trees get thicker and greener?  It's the water running through them." He practically jumped off the ground with excitement. "I was right. The town's just over that rise and down in a little gully."

Ross headed in the direction of the water. "What are we waiting for?"

Thirty minutes later after crossing Diamond Creek, they all stood in soaked boots looking into Dooley's "little" gully, which actually dropped forty feet to a narrow valley. Elizabeth's heart sank when she didn't see any sign of a town.

Ramona let her parasol drop limply to her side. "Well, where is it?" she asked for all of them.

"That's what I'd like to know," Ross said.

Max adjusted his stance to get a better view through the trees. "I can't see much from up here, but it doesn't appear that there's a welcoming party down there...or a building...or a dog or chicken...or anything."

Dooley shielded his eyes. "My peepers ain't what they used to be, but I'd bet a gold nugget that town was there." He nudged Max. "Keep looking. Follow the creek. It flowed right by Bonanza."

"I'm sorry, Dooley, but I don't see anything..." He stopped suddenly and turned toward the old man. "Wait a minute. Yes, I do." Pulling Dooley in front of him, he pointed down in the gully. "See there?  Just under the tallest pine. Doesn't that look like a rooftop?"

Elizabeth saw it next. "It is!  I see it. And there's part of a chimney."  Laughter bubbled up inside her. "A chimney!  That means fireplace, warmth."

They winded with the creek about a quarter mile through the trees, knowing that each step down meant the same steps up the next day. But no one seemed to mind. The thought of civilization, no matter how primitive, was too inviting to pass up.

The trees became less dense the closer the party came to the town, giving a clearer view of the pitched roofs and rectangular shapes of buildings. When they finally emerged into a clearing, the main street of Bonanza appeared...a rutted dirt path, overgrown with brush and stubborn juniper shrubs that divided two rows of dilapidated buildings. That was all that remained, or perhaps ever was, of Bonanza, Colorado.

Blackened, weather-beaten lumber, rusty nails, and probably a good measure of luck, was all that held the structures together. One two-story building with a false front buttressed from behind identified itself with a swinging sign that proclaimed in dingy letters, "Bonanza Hotel." The wide front window on the first floor had no glass, but miraculously the two second story windows that opened onto a decayed balcony did. The railing of the balcony had long since lost most of the decorative spindles that kept it mounted to the flooring. There was no telling what kept the unsafe overhang from collapsing onto the narrow porch below. What was left of the wooden support columns was worm eaten and pocked with tiny holes, evidence that hungry termites had gorged their fill of the good wood and moved on. And yet, sadly, the decrepit hotel was the best, sturdiest looking building on the main street.

"This is a bit disappointing," Elizabeth said.

Ramona walked toward the hotel. "I've stayed in worse."

"Me too, girlie," Dooley said. "It ain't so bad."

The other three looked at their seasoned companions with morbid curiosity. "You're kidding, right?" Ross asked.

"It doesn't really matter, now does it?" Max offered. "It's nearly dark, and it's too dangerous to go back up the gully now, so, like it or not, we're staying." He pointed to the hillside that rose sharply on the other side of the gully. "From the looks of those abandoned mines, it's safe to say we'll be the only customers at the Bonanza Hotel tonight."

Elizabeth nodded in agreement. The hill was dotted with the crumbling remains of dozens of mines that had been cut into the rocky wall – signs of bad times and poor diggings that had caused the miners to vacate the town. She followed Ramona. "Maybe it will be better inside," she said hopefully.

Amazingly it was. Whoever had abandoned it, left the building intact. Two half round settees, the upholstery ragged from dry rot, flanked a log coffee table which still held a yellowed copy of a menu from the Bonanza cafe.

The best feature of the room was the large cast iron stove which occupied one wall. The stove pipe jutted up through the ceiling to the second floor. Max opened the spring-fastened door and examined the wood box. "Should work fine," he declared. "You girls check the upstairs and see if you can sleep there. You should be warmer than down here."

He'd barely gotten the words out before Ross grabbed Ramona's hand and led her to the stairs. "Did you hear that?" he asked her with a gleam in his eye. "I don't have to sleep with Cassidy tonight!"

Watching the two of them step gleefully up the creaky stairs, Max shook his head. "There are probably at least two rooms, Betsy," he said. "Why don't you take the other one. I'll stay down here with Dooley and watch over things."

Elizabeth helped Max and Dooley carry in their bedrolls and the other supplies they'd need. Ross and Ramona reappeared at supper, ate what Elizabeth had fixed, and returned upstairs.

Once all the work was done, and a pleasant glow from the only lantern Max had lit washed the downstairs room in a soft amber, Elizabeth felt overcome with fatigue. She had to fight to keep her eyes open.

But as tired as she was, she couldn't dispel the notion that she didn't want to be alone in a room in this alien town. She wanted to stay downstairs with Max, and she wished desperately that he'd ask her to, but he'd told her to sleep upstairs, and she didn't know how to suggest a change of the arrangements. Besides, what if he didn't want them changed?

"I guess I'll go on to bed," she finally said.

"Okay. Call me if you need anything."

I do need something, she thought. I need to be here, with you. I don't want to go up there by myself. Ask me to stay. She waited a moment and then nodded. "I will. Goodnight, Max."

"Goodnight."

Despite the closed windows and the heat coming from the grate of a smaller stove, the room was still chilly. Sometime before, she'd decided not to sleep in the old iron bed against the wall. After inspecting it, she knew she couldn't be comfortable on the torn mattress even if she were in her bedroll. Who knew what creatures had taken up residence in the faded cotton ticking?

Elizabeth unpinned her hair and put on her warmest nightgown, a floor length flannel affair with long sleeves and a drawstring that could be tightened around the bodice. Then even though she felt childish, she looked in the bureau drawers and under the bed one more time. She only had the light of the moon to go by, but she wanted to be absolutely certain she wasn't sharing the room with unwanted eight-legged guests.