Chapter Fifty-Three

"What time did you come in last night?" asked Shiloh, sitting at her dressing table, brushing and pulling back her hair.

"I didn't stay out long. I worked on the Jackson Square drawings for awhile."

"It must have been two or three when you came up to bed."

"I suppose."

"Adam," she said, turning to face him. "You can't keep up that pace. You'll tire yourself out. And you know what happens to people who work when they're tired."

Looking in the mirror while he brushed his hair, he glanced at her reflection. "I've always been able to get by with four or five hours of sleep."

"Try three hours."

He bent and kissed the top of her head. "I'm fine. And I'm hungry." She turned and stood, then smiled and stepped into his side, putting her arm around his back.

When the two arrived at the dining table, Micah was already pouring himself a cup of coffee. "I expected the two of you to be going at it again this morning."

Shiloh smirked. "We weren't going at it last night. Anyway, it's settled. I'm going to try to train Satan, and if I can't Adam or someone else will break him."

"Who's your handler?" asked Adam as he spooned eggs onto his plate.

"I'll have two; one in each of the front corners."

He reached for the bacon. "Who?"

"One of them would have been Hoss if I had done this earlier. He's busy with some extra work Pa wanted done before he has to leave for Philadelphia."

Adam stopped and met her eyes. "Who?"

"You see, I knew it wasn't settled," said Micah.

Adam and Shiloh both glared at him and said in unison, "Butt out."

"I'm using Tom and Johnny. They're both familiar with the normal problems with training and will be better prepared to understand when things aren't right." Adam flared his nostrils and glared at her. She responded calmly again. "I'm not using your men, Adam. You'll tell them to shoot, and they will if Satan so much as snorts at me, which he will most assuredly do. You've seen me at my worst after starting horse. You've seen the bruises and the occasional bite marks. I don't expect it to be any different." His expression didn't change, but hers soften. "Adam, Sweetheart, I can't afford to be badly injured with three performances coming up. I promise you, if he's too rough, I'll stop." Moving her hand to his, she asked, "Please trust me."

Adam let his head drop, letting out a loud breath, but soon nodded. "Alright. But Shiloh, if you don't keep your word, I'm taking the horse no matter how loudly you yell about it." He knew she wasn't completely agreeable when she didn't look at him as she smiled and nodded. "I'm not inclined to trust you not to let it go too far. Prove me wrong, and I'll apologize."

After breakfast, Micah and Adam donned their chaps and went out to finish rounding up the cattle that would be driven to Austin. Before lunch time, both men were sitting on their horses outside the corral fence, watching the men bring in the last few strays. "Micah, you'll need to drive these cattle to the south of Gold Hill and into Six Mile Canyon. From there, you can follow the Carson River until you're just south of Fort Churchill. You'll stay south of Fort Churchill and north of Eastgate. From there I'll draw you a map to water and forage, and you'll have to follow the map closely. There's not much of either beyond Eastgate."

"What about Indians?"

"The Ponderosa is on good terms with the Paiute. Tell them it's a Cartwright herd, and you shouldn't have any trouble. If you have to, give them a few head. You might run into soldiers from Fort Churchill, but since I'm sending you south, you're not likely to have any trouble with them. They're there to guard the wagons heading to California. Hank has been as far as Eastgate, but never to Austin, so just make sure you stick to the map."

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"Tom, Johnny, I don't know exactly what to tell you yet. Mostly, if he charges me, I'll be heading for the fence, so be prepared for one of you to get me over while the other distracts Satan. The best way to do that will be with another rope. Toss it at his head. You'll both have ropes, so the closest one to me will help me over the fence, and the other will throw the rope. If that doesn't work, we'll have to come up with something else. Any questions?"

Both men nodded and took their positions at the corners of the corral. Shiloh let herself in and walked up to Satan with a carrot. Satan had always been gentle around Shiloh, but then she had never tried to assert her dominance over the horse. She led him to the other side of the training pen, and when she began working with the rope, Satan stood his ground, looking straight at her. When she touched the back of his legs with the rope, he turned and faced her, and when she dropped her eyes and moved toward him, he stepped toward her. She stopped. She could tell by his stance that he was on alert. Dropping the rope, she took another step, and he seemed to relax.

Next, she tried using a long lead attached to the horse's halter. She trailed a buggy whip behind him in an effort to get him to move forward. Again, he refused to move and stood facing her. She touched the string of the whip to his hind quarters, and the horse whinnied loudly and reared, then moved toward her, snorting. She didn't back away, but rather met his eyes and didn't back down herself until he reared in front of her. Pulling down on the lead rope just aggravated him more, and when he came down in front of her, she looked him in the eye again before she tied him to a post set in the ground in the corral and turned her back to him. He rushed forward and slammed his nose into her back, sending her flying into the corral fence and knocking the breath out of her. Tommy was there to get her over the fence.

Three times that morning, she found herself running and half-climbing, half jumping over the corral fence, landing hard on the ground each time. The day George Hearst arrived Satan bit the side of her back, drawing blood.

Adam had left for town earlier to meet the stage, and the two gentlemen arrived just past noon after Shiloh had already tended her wound and cleaned up. Still, when the buggy pulled into the yard, she was moving slowly, and having aggravated her injured ankle again, she limped on her way out to greet them. "Mr. Hearst, welcome to our home. I had thought Mrs. Hearst would be with you."

George stepped down out of the buggy and took her hands. "Mrs. Cartwright, as always, it's a pleasure to see you. I must say, I was quite taken with the ride across the ranch. Adam tells me you brought this ranch back to a profitable business after your father passed away."

"Thank you, Mr. Hearst," she said, smiling. "There was some work to be done when I returned from college. I do hope Mrs. Hearst is well."

"Yes, she's well, however, William has turned out to be a fussy lad."

"George, why don't you come inside and get settled?" said Adam. "I'll show you to your room, and you can rest from your trip."

"Lunch will be ready at your convenience, Mr. Hearst," added Shiloh.

"To be honest, I'd like to get out to the property as soon as possible and assess the situation on your ridge."

"Well then, we'll have lunch, and then Adam can take you out," she said, leading the way into the house.

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Hearst and Adam took the road to the top of the ridge and tied their horses at a rock outcropping before they walked to the place where the Flying W shaft was on one side and the shaft on Hearst's property was directly on the other side. Today, there were a dozen men working that shaft, pulling satchel after satchel of rock and dirt out.

"They're not my men," Hearst whispered. "My mines have material on the ready. There would be stacks of timber for shoring, and the Ponderosa would have the contract. They'd also be hauling ore out in a mine car. Not satchels. I think it's time we paid these gentlemen a visit."

Adam put a hand on Hearst's arm. "George, there are three hired guns down there. Wait here while I get some men from our side of the ridge, and we'll go down together."

When he returned with the men, instead of going down from the top of the ridge, Adam led them down the ridge past where they tied their horses, through a pass. They came upon the men on Hearst's property from behind with their guns drawn. "You men," Hearst called out. "Who's in charge here?" Adam recognized the man who stepped forward as one of the gunmen from town. "Who do you work for?"

"Who's asking?" asked the gunman as he slowly lowered his hand toward his gun.

Adam pulled back the hammer of his gun. "Don't try it. You won't make it. Throw your gun out here in front. All the rest of you men do the same." When they hesitated, the Flying W men split, five moving on either side of the mining group who were now in the middle of a semi-circle.

"My name is George Hearst. I own this property, and that's my mine you're working," he said, pointing. "The problem is, gentlemen, that I never authorized a shaft to be started. What's your name?" he asked of the man who identified himself as in charge.

"Smith," he smirked. "…John…Smith."

"Well, Mr. Smith, if you would be so kind as to move aside, I will inspect this shaft of yours." Adam dismounted with him and kept his gun trained on the men as he moved through them with Hearst. Hearst took a lantern off the pole just inside the shaft and disappeared inside. Adam could see the light stop, and knew the shaft was only about twenty feet long, close to the Flying W property line.

"Adam!" called Hearst. "How far in would you put your property line?"

"Between thirty and forty feet," he yelled back.

Adam heard picking and rocks falling, but he could still see a steady light. Hearst spent at least a half hour in the tunnel before he emerged. "There's nothing back there but worthless rock. I wouldn't even call it ore." He walked back out to Smith. "Who hired you?"

"Sam King."

Adam rolled his eyes. "Sam King is dead. Who are you working for now?"

"I don't have to answer to you, Cartwright."

"You'll answer him or you'll answer to the law," threatened Hearst. When Smith still refused to answer, George turned to Adam. "Would you and your men help me get these men to the sheriff in Virginia City? I will be pressing charges."

"For what?" yelled Smith.

"Trespassing and property damage," said Hearst. He turned and strode to his horse.

"It won't stick," muttered Smith.

Adam snorted, and leaned toward him. "His partners are two of the most well-known attorneys on the West coast."

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Shiloh sat behind the desk, looking over the ranch books, furiously scribbling notes on the piece of paper. Adam and Mr. Hearst had come back to the ranch, but only to get Mr. Hearst's bag and the buggy. Mr. Hearst made his apologies. He wouldn't be staying, but rather would be sending Mr. Fair, the Ophir Mine Superintendent to the property to evaluate it.

While she waited for Adam's return, she dug into what had become an endless pile of paperwork. She was beginning to understand why Ben sent his sons out every day without him. She realized that every time she went over to the Ponderosa in the middle of the day, and he was sitting at his desk, he was doing ranch paperwork.

She heard the front door open. "Shiloh!"

"I'm in the study." When Adam entered the study, he walked around the desk, bending down to kiss her. "How'd it go in town?" she asked, smiling up at him.

"Roy held the three gunmen and let the others go. They didn't know anything…just miners looking to make some extra money. The three men he held wouldn't tell Roy who hired them, so he's holding them until the territorial judge comes through."

"And Mr. Hearst?"

"Did you know there's another stage coming through Virginia City? That makes three." She looked at him with raised eyebrows. "He caught the stage coming from Salt Lake City, heading for San Francisco. He's already gone."

"Maybe the ranch wasn't to his liking," said Shiloh, looking distressed.

"Sweetheart, the ranch is fine. He's just a busy man. How was the rest of your day?"

"I've been working on the books. You hired ten more men and you're paying them more than we pay our ranch hands. Who are they?"

"They're the men guarding the silver vein in the north ridge."

She straightened. "I thought you were using our men to do that."

"Well, we started with our men, but when the number of men increased on the other side of the ridge, I thought it would be better to bring in men more suited to the task."

"You hired gunmen."

"I hired guards. There's a difference. These are honest men. We'll use these same men to escort the ore wagons to the mill, and the silver to the bank vault in Virginia City. When we have to start sending the silver to San Francisco, we'll use our own coaches so our men can guard it."

Bending her head, she rubbed her forehead. "I never considered that we'd have to haul silver to San Francisco."

"There's going to be a little gold that comes out of the mine, too. We'll keep some here, and maybe some in the bank in San Francisco, but most will be turned in at the mint and exchanged for cash."

She stood and took his arm, walking with him toward the dining room. "Why are we keeping some?"

"As an investment. United States currency is backed by gold. China trades in silver. So I expect the value of both will go up over time." Adam seated her at the dining table, and then took his seat at the head of the table, and Ming Lin brought out roast beef, sweet potatoes and green beans. "You're limping again. Did you reinjure your ankle?"

"I just came down on it wrong. I think it will be fine."

"How's the training going?"

She glanced at him and turned her attention to her food. "It's going slow," she said quietly.

"Have you made any progress at all?"

She thought for a moment. She didn't want to tell him 'no'. He'd want to know why she was still wasting her time. The truth was, she had made no progress at all, but she wasn't quite ready to give up. "He's easier to work with in the morning, but after an hour or so, he's difficult."

After a few minutes of silence, she said, "It's awfully quiet with Micah away on the cattle drive. How long will he be gone?"

Adam thought out loud. "Well, it'll take three and half to four weeks to get there, then the better part of a week to get back. Four and half to five weeks."

"By the time he gets back, we'll be leaving for Sacramento. He said he wanted to go."

"If he doesn't get back before we leave, he can follow us down. You're first week will be rehearsals," he said, smiling and patting her hand. "I'm sure he'll make the second week for your performance."

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Shiloh was first in the bedroom and had already removed her clothes. She was just slipping on her robe when Adam came into the room. She quickly turned to face him as she was pulling her robe over her shoulders, but she wasn't quite quick enough. He had seen something on her back.

"Are you hiding something from me?"

Turning, she grabbed her brush and began to brush her hair. When he stepped behind her, she stiffened and held her breath. Taking her brush out of her hand, he set it on her dressing table and moved her hair to the front of her shoulder. He reached around to the front and untied her robe, then pulled it down off her shoulders, gasping. There were bruises on her buttocks, the backs of her legs, and the upper part of her back and shoulders. Besides all that, there was a badly scraped area to the left of the small of her back. He spun her around and found more bruises on her arms and legs, and one large bruise right in the middle of her chest that was already starting to fade.

Adam drew his mouth into an angry pucker. "That's it. You're done."