A Story of Brothers
"I don't know about this, Jase," the bearded young man whined to his companion. "If them Cartwrights find us minin' on their land, they'll take us to the sheriff fer sure."
Jase Swanson raised the lamp to take a better look at the blue-green swirl within the darker rock of the cave, and laughed. "Well then they just can't find out, Myron." He wiped his hand down the face of the hard surface and smacked his lips. "This here vein is silver fer sure…I think…so we'll be rich if we can get it outta here quick-like. We've already spent a couple weeks shorin' up the wing of this cave, and I ain't seen hide-nor-hair of Ben or his boys. All we got to do now is blow out this section, bring in the wagon and grab the ore. So stop cryin' like a baby about bein' caught, and let's get them dynamite sticks planted up top."
The two men squinted in the bright sunlight as they exited the cave. Myron pulled his hat brim lower to shade his eyes as he continued to voice his concern. "We been doing this too long already. Someone's bound to ride through soon; we ain't far from the road they take over to Placerville. And when we blow the dynamite, the noise will travel some distance. I don't want to spend time in jail for a few bucks of silver dust. You and I been there before and I don't intend on goin' back."
"That's yer problem, kid; you think small. That vein probably runs deep, and we won't know that until we get to it. There's no reason we can't do that by tomorrow. Then we'll cover everything up with them bushes jest like we been doin' so even if them Cartwrights do come by, they won't know we been here. If things assay good, we'll come back and blast some more. Besides, you know I done checked yesterday, and the nearest Cartwright beef is grazing some miles away. If they hear anything, they'll likely think it's thunder."
Myron Swanson shook his head miserably while he made his way to the rocky ledge above the cave and kicked the top off the crate of TNT sticks. The Swanson boys had ridden together since their parents had died in a fire five years ago. Myron had only been 13 then; his brother18. The two had made their way from Abilene to Nevada together, working as drovers and farm hands along the way. Their original dream of having a ranch someday had changed when they'd heard about gold in California and decided to seek their fortunes there. But they'd stopped in Virginia City before crossing the Sierras and had found the place bustling with the silver strike. Jase had decided they'd try for a bonanza with a different colored metal as long as they were already there. The older brother had figured that striking silver might give them the funds they'd need to buy a good gold stake in California. They'd taken work at the Ponderosa as a way to save up for tools and a parcel to mine.
What the Swanson boys knew about extracting ore would fit on the tip of a pickaxe, but they'd listened as the other trail hands on the Cartwright ranch had talked about their mining experiences. Many of these men had tried working in the mines, but they'd eagerly given up the dark and dangerous caves and pits to work in the open air again. They'd shared stories of what the silver looked like, and how to get it out of the uncooperative rock. The fact that all "former" miners had agreed that the compensation it brought them hadn't been worth the risk, hadn't dampened Jase and Myron's spirits, but it had solidified Jase's resolve that they wouldn't mine for someone else. They were going to find their own silver and strike it rich.
Things had taken a turn in their favor when they'd been chasing strays over a ridge along a far-south pasture on the Ponderosa. Jase had seen what he thought was a sagebrush-covered cave opening on the hillside, and had gone in to explore. Myron suspected that they hadn't been the first to check it out, and that there was a reason it hadn't been mined already, but his older brother had assured him that the Cartwright's hadn't been able to check out every hollow because the Ponderosa was just too spread out.
The brothers had stood in awe that day as streams of sunshine had snaked their way through natural vents in the cave's ceiling, illuminating the greenish-blue coloration on the upper portion of one of cave's short branches. "It's just like them men described!" Jase had hollered to Myron. "Blue and green swirled in dirt! It has to be silver!"
After their find, they'd worked another couple of months, saving their wages until they could buy a wagon and supplies, and had then told the ranch foreman they had to move on. They had moved on, but not far. They'd made camp in a small canyon behind the mine, far enough off the road they wouldn't be seen. There hadn't been money for good shoring wood, so they'd made do with deadwood and scrub trees Myron had gathered. Jase had decided that they only had to reinforce the branch where they'd found the ore, and with that in place, they'd dug holes in the ground on the outside—above the cave—estimating where the silver-laden ceiling was inside.
Myron was forced to end his current ponderings when Jase walked up to him, giving him a punch in the shoulder and snarling at him to, "Hurry up." He sighed miserably as he grabbed a handful of dynamite sticks and began wedging them into the shallow indentations they'd chipped in the rock. His mind was still working hard to grasp what they were doing. They were trespassing; mining someone else's ore, and the part that scared him most, was that neither he nor his brother had any experience with TNT. He had to trust that Jase was making the right decisions about where to place the explosives, but in Myron's mind, blowing the ceiling from outside seemed a better way to collapse the entire cave rather than the best way to free the silver. His anxiety bubbled over. "Yer sure you doing this right? I thought them men said they put the sticks inside."
Jase let out an angry howl that was swallowed up by wind, and then grabbed his brother by the shoulders and shook him. "Stop worryin'. I puzzled this all out, and if we was blowin' a wall, it would be done inside, but doin' it this way will save time, and we'll get outta here quicker." He shook Myron again. "Ain't that what you been sayin' you want?"
Myron nodded. "I'm sorry. You know I got a nervous problem. And it don't hurt to ask, just to make sure we's doin' things right."
He let go of his brother and gave him a playful punch to the stomach. "I guess it don't at that, but nothing's gonna go wrong. It's gettin' toward sundown already," he said as he took the dynamite sticks from Myron. "I'll finish setting this up; you go get us a rabbit or somethin' for supper. I'm tired a beans.
Hoss and Adam had their saddle bags slung over their shoulders, rifles in hand and their bedrolls stuck under their arms as they stood in front of their father's desk getting last minute orders before heading out to Placerville.
"Did you take a bank draft, Adam?" Ben asked, and then chuckled when his son patted his saddle bag. "I'm sorry." The older man chuckled. "I know you're capable of doing this transaction without me interfering, but I'm anxious to get some of the Double D bloodline into our herd. Daniel Dowd is a hard man to deal with. I've been trying to buy one of his bulls for years, and I don't want this to go wrong."
"We know, Pa." Hoss winked at his older brother after giving his reassurance. "Now sendin' me an Joe might end up not workin' out so well, but you done got the pairing right in sending Adam and me. Adam ain't one to have any fun while we're away—or at least not the kind I'd like, but on the other hand, he don't usually get me into any trouble neither, and I appreciate that."
Ben looked from son to son and laughed. "I suppose that's true enough, except I do remember a race horse and a few other escapades you two took on together that didn't turn out so well."
"Believe me, Pa, we've learned from our mistakes, and this is all business." Adam grinned and nudged his brother "Now can we get going before it's lunch time and Hoss needs to eat again?"
Ignoring the snide comment, Ben asked? "You know how much to offer him. I won't sell the ranch to have his bull, but I'll pay well for it."
"Yes, Pa." Adam's grin widened. "I'll pick out the best of the bunch; pay what he's worth, and we'll get him home safely." He handed Hoss the saddlebag. "Would you go get this secured to Sport, please? I have something personal I'd like to talk to Pa about before we go." The younger brother gave him a sidelong glance, and then bid goodbye to his father with a handshake before heading out to their waiting horses.
Ben's eyebrows rose as he asked, "What's on your mind?"
Adam walked to the window and made sure Hoss was actually moving to their horses rather than eavesdropping. "I know you'd like us back on Friday. That gives us two days to get there and buy the bull, and then three days to get back with it. But I'd like to spend one extra day in Placerville."
The father's eyebrows rose further as he added a smile. "You got something in mind?"
He cleared his throat. "Not me, Pa. I'm thinking of Hoss. Remember last spring when the Dowd's came to see our stock? Hoss and Darlene Dowd spent a lot of time together. She's a nice girl—pretty too, and I think Hoss was sweet on her. I thought if we stayed an extra day, he'd have a chance to get to know her a little better."
"That's mighty thoughtful of you. Your love for your brother is an amazing thing, although I suspect this is more to do with you and a wealthy, beautiful widow you know in Placerville, rather than your concern for Hoss."
Adam's blush testified to the truth in his father's suspicions. He pulled his shoulders back and breathed deeply. "It's a sad day on the Ponderosa when I can't do a selfless act for my brother without my father accusing me of having something up my sleeve." Father and son glared at each other before breaking into laughter.
"All right, I won't ask any more questions. You're entitled to have a few secrets, and I do think Hoss will appreciate an evening with Miss Dowd. But we're already four men short with those Swanson brothers leaving, and the two gone who were injured when their horses slipped on that muddy hill, so get back as soon as you can."
"We'll be back Saturday." Father and son walked outside together, Ben's arm draped around his eldest's shoulder. Adam looked back as he wedged his foot in the stirrup. "Don't worry, Pa."
Ben watched until all that was left was the swirling dust his sons left behind, and then muttered, "Don't worry, he says." He went back inside and dropped into his desk chair as he sighed. "I will worry about them 'til the day I die."