Devil's Throat (The River Book 6) (9 page)

“You still doing OK, Roy?” Deem asked.

“As OK as can be expected,” Roy said. “How much further?”

“Not too far,” Deem said. “Keep coming.”

They passed another junction, this one turning to the left.
Deem kept going straight.

“These other adits connect with the main one at various
points up ahead,” Deem said.

Deem’s alarm began to beep, and she stopped. She set her
lantern down on the ground, and turned to Roy. “Time for some more,” she said,
unscrewing the cap to the canteen.

They each took another dose and then Deem reset her alarm
before she picked up her lantern and they continued on.

A third junction appeared on the right. This time Deem turned
and took the right turn. Roy was beginning to feel a little more confident in
the light and the protection, so he looked at the walls of the adits. There
were no distinguishing marks of any kind, no way you could tell which passage
was which.

Deem stopped him about fifty feet into the new tunnel.
“Shaft,” she said, motioning down. “Goes down a long ways. We’ll cross on the
plank one at a time. ” Deem slowly crossed the open shaft on a plank that was
no more than a 2x12 board laid across the opening. Roy knew he weighed
considerably more than Deem.

“Are you sure this will hold me?” Roy asked.

“It’s a new plank,” Deem said. “I brought it in a year ago.
Just go slow.”

Roy stepped onto the plank and tested it, slowly sliding out
over the open shaft which was about four feet wide. He thought he could jump it
if it came to it, but not with the lantern in his hand. There was no way he was
going to risk losing his lantern.

Snakes rose from the open shaft as he crossed over, joining
the others that were hovering at the light’s edge. He stepped onto the far side
with Deem, and exhaled.

“See?” Deem said. “Not so bad.”

“Nah,” Roy said. “Piece of cake.”

After another hundred feet, the adit opened into a small area
about eight feet wide. The tunnel continued on beyond the opening. Deem set her
lantern down near the wall of the opening and pulled her backpack from her
back. She removed a small pickaxe and hammer.

“Here it is,” she said. “I’m gonna start chipping. You stand
on the lookout.”

Deem turned to the wall and Roy positioned himself behind
her, facing into the room, the entrance they came in to his right, and the
continuing tunnel to his left. He heard the clink of Deem’s pickaxe as she
hammered it into the rock. Occasionally she would stop, retrieve small pieces
from the ground, and place them into a leather bag in her backpack. During
these moments when she wasn’t chipping, Roy strained his ears to listen for the
sound of Tonnaquin. He didn’t hear anything.

The snakes continued their attempt to get at them. Roy’s
confidence in the barrier created by the light was slowly building, and he
tested the barrier by moving his lantern slowly towards them, and watching them
slither back from it. Unfortunately, he had to pull his lantern back towards
himself afterwards, and the snakes refilled the gap.

Don’t think about them,
Roy thought.
They’re handled. Listen for
Tonnaquin.

“How’s it coming?” Roy asked.

“About a quarter of the way done,” she said. The alarm on her
watch began to beep again.

“Oh, time for another,” she said, setting the pickaxe and
hammer on the ground and retrieving the canteen. She took a swig and passed it
to Roy.

“If we didn’t drink this,” Roy said, “how long do you think
we’d have before the scorpions moved in?”

“Five minutes, tops,” she said. “But let’s not find out, OK?”

“Agreed,” Roy said, taking his swig and handing the canteen
back.

Deem began chipping away again at the topaz deposit. She
hammered for a minute or so, then stopped to pick up the dislodged rocks.

“Do you hear that?” Roy said.

Deem stopped, listening. There was something in the distance.

She resumed placing the rocks in her bag, then paused to
listen again. Far away, deep inside the mine, there was the sound of another pickaxe,
hitting the walls.

“That’s him,” Deem said, resuming her work. “I don’t know how
long it’ll take him to reach us here. I’ve just got to speed up and get as much
as I can. I don’t have enough for a single dose yet.”

Roy began to consider what he’d do if Tonnaquin showed up. He
figured he’d address the ghost and try to distract it in a conversation,
hopefully giving Deem enough time to get what she needed.

The snakes continued to swirl around him. Their activity
seemed to draw more of them, and at times their translucent bodies seemed to
cover all of the space surrounding him, making it difficult to see the other
side of the opening.

Deem completed another cycle of chipping, and stopped to pick
up the rocks.

Tink…tink…tink…

The rhythmic sound of a pickaxe hitting the walls continued
after she had stopped, closer this time. “He’s mimicking your sounds,” Roy
said, “striking the walls with his pickaxe in time with yours.”

The distant pickaxe got louder. Roy noticed that the number
of snakes surrounding them had decreased dramatically. He could see them
slithering down the adit they’d used to come into the opening. The sound was
coming from the other direction, where the adit continued deeper into the mine.

“The snakes are going,” Roy said. “Scorpions too.”

“Then he’s close,” Deem said, resuming her chipping. “Get
ready to deal with him. If I turn and leave, you follow me, OK?
Do not
get lost in here.”

“OK,” Roy said, keeping his eyes on the passageway that led
deeper into the mine. The sound was getting louder, and there were almost no
snakes left in the room.

Then Tonnaquin emerged from the adit. He was a pale figure,
tall, with a long, thin face and dark clothes. As he entered the opening, he
turned to look at Roy and Deem. Roy felt the hair stand up on the back of his
neck.

Tonnaquin started walking towards them. Roy decided to make
his play. He entered the River, and Tonnaquin’s image came into better view.
His clothes were Nineteenth century. His eyes reflected the red light of the
lanterns. He was dragging loose ropes that were tied around his ankles.

Now hold it right there,
Roy thought at Tonnaquin, raising his hand that
wasn’t holding the lantern.
I’m from the assay office, and I need to talk to
you about this claim.

Damn,
Deem thought to herself,
he IS good.

It’s mine,
Tonnaquin thought, eyeing Roy up and down.
Someone sayin’
it isn’t?

Well, that’s what I’m here to settle,
Roy replied. He could hear Deem
chipping away behind him. He saw no snakes in the room at all. He took another
step towards the ghost.
If you answer all my questions truthfully, we’ll
have no problem and you can go on your way. How long have you had this mine?

Tonnaquin seemed to consider the question.
As long as I
can remember,
he answered.
You shouldn’t be in here. You’re trespassing.

Now see here, we have every right to be in here, we’re from
the assay office,
Roy replied.
Have you been mining here? I want to make sure your claim is
still good.

What’s she doing, behind you?
Tonnaquin asked, motioning to Deem
with his pickaxe.

She’s taking a sample,
Roy said.
We take a sample from all the mines we check.
We have to inspect its quality.

That there’s my topaz,
Tonnaquin responded, squinting his eyes.
A mine is no
place for a lady, anyhow.

Roy heard Deem laugh behind him.
Glad she can find
something funny in this
, he thought to himself.
We’ll return the sample
as soon as the assay office checks it out,
Roy said.
Are you sure this
topaz can even be mined properly? Safely?

I oughta know,
Tonnaquin responded angrily.
It’s my mine.

Now, now,
Roy said, trying to think of things to say.
No one’s disputing that.
But we’ve heard there’s been some violence here. People saying they’ve been
attacked with a pickaxe. You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you? The
sheriff asked me to inquire.

This seemed to throw Tonnaquin off.
No, I wouldn’t know
nothin’ about that,
he replied.

And here you are holding a pickaxe, wandering around,
Roy thought.
The sheriff was concerned.
He asked me to keep an eye out while we got these samples.

I ain’t done nothin’,
Tonnaquin thought, a sly smile creeping across his face.

But it’s kind of suspicious, don’t you think?
Roy asked.
I wouldn’t want to
report back to the sheriff that there are any problems here.

There’s no problems here,
Tonnaquin thought, smiling.

I suppose then you’ll promise me that no harm will come to myself
or the lady here in your mine?
Roy asked.
As I said, we’re from the assay office, and
we’re expected back soon, by the sheriff. If we don’t return, he’s likely to
send in a lot of people looking for us.

Alright,
Tonnaquin thought,
I promise I won’t hurt either of ya’. But there’s
somethin’ I want you to see.

Tonnaquin turned and walked back down the adit he’d emerged from.
Roy started to follow him into the tunnel.

“Don’t go,” Deem called after Roy, once she realized he’d
stepped away. “It’s a trick.”

Are you done?
Roy asked her.
How much longer?

“Two minutes,” she said, continuing to chip at the wall.

Roy was standing in the adit; Tonnaquin was six feet ahead of
him.
You come see this,
Tonnaquin thought,
and you can take it back
to the assay office with ya. Show it to all the whores back in town.

What is it?
Roy asked, taking another step into the tunnel.

Easier to show you than explain it,
Tonnaquin replied, walking away from
Roy. Roy followed him another step.

Remember your promise,
Roy said.

I ain’t gonna hit you or the lady with my pickaxe,
Tonnaquin said, turning to face Roy.
Then he was gone.

Roy stood alone in the adit, about five feet from the
entrance to the small room where Deem was working. He heard her chipping behind
him, and he turned to walk back into the opening. Suddenly Tonnaquin appeared
before him at the entrance to the room, swinging his pickaxe wildly. At first
Roy was afraid he intended to strike him with it, but Tonnaquin hit the roof of
the tunnel, then swung again. A piece of the tunnel’s ceiling fell. Tonnaquin
swung a third time, and Roy stepped back as large pieces of the top of the
tunnel fell, filling the adit. They continued to fall as he watched, some
coming close to where he stood. More pieces began to fall above him, and he
took several steps back to avoid them. One rock fell on his right shoulder, and
he dropped the lantern.

He saw Tonnaquin behind the rocks as they filled the tunnel,
smiling. Then he disappeared again.

When the rocks finally stopped falling, Roy could see only a
crack of light from the opening at the top of the rubble. He heard Deem on the
other side, calling to him. He reached for his lantern that had fallen on the
ground and rolled a few feet from him. It was banged up, but still working.

Roy could hear a faint beeping; Deem’s alarm was going off.

“Roy!” Deem called. “Roy, can you hear me?”

Roy tried to position himself as close to the opening at the
top of the rubble pile as he could. “Yes, Deem,” he yelled. “I’m OK.”

“Roy,” Deem said, “we’ve got to take more protection.”

“Can you push the canteen through the opening?” he yelled.

“I don’t think so,” Deem yelled. “There’s only an inch. Maybe
if we could move some of the rocks.”

They pushed and pulled at the rocks for a minute, barely enlarging
the hole.

“It still won’t fit,” Deem said. “Look, we’ve got a couple of
minutes before we’re in trouble. I’m going to come around and get you. The
passageway you’re in connects back up with the main one about two hundred feet
further, but don’t move, let me come get you, or you’ll just get lost and I’ll
have a harder time finding you.”

“Alright,” Roy said. “I won’t move.”

Roy watched as Deem’s light left the opening at the top of
the rubble pile. Within a few moments he was all by himself in the dark, with
just his lantern. He looked at the collapse in the tunnel – the rocks were
huge, it would take machinery to move them. He turned around to look further
down the tunnel he was in. It went as far as the light from his lantern would
go. As he watched down the tunnel, he saw the snakes returning.
Tonnaquin
must have left, thinking he’s trapped me,
Roy thought.